“I’d like to see that.”
He looked both ways, then went through the crosswalk, against the light. “So Mark spoke to him, and Mark thinks he has a Scottish accent.”
“He thinks?”
“He said it was pretty subtle, but—”
“An Irishman can always pick out a Scot.”
“Something like that.” Aedan approached the pizza place, which was famous in the area. He spotted Mark at a table in an outside seating area. “You’ll let me know if you find anything?”
“Sure. It might take me a few days. I can’t promise there’s anything there.”
“I know. We’re just trying every angle.”
“Later,” Kaleigh said.
“Later.” Aedan walked past the hostess station to Mark and took a chair beside him.
“I ordered four-cheese. Iced tea.” Mark pointed at one of the two paper cups on the table.
“I’d rather have a beer.”
“I’m on duty.” Mark took a sip from his straw and nodded at the counter in the front of the restaurant that served takeout to passersby. “The call was traced to a line typically used for takeout orders.”
“The calls taken there?”
“Depends on the time of day and how busy they are. There are four other phones available that can use that line.”
“The phone call could have been made from any one of those phones.” Aedan took a sip of his tea.
“It could have, but any of the phones inside would be hard to get to unless you were a employee.”
“Jay’s not an employee.”
“Not likely,” Mark agreed. “There are only a couple of new hires at this location. I’m going to have them all checked out, but there was street noise in the background when Jay called.”
Aedan glanced at the carryout counter, then at the street, then back at the counter. There was a young man in a uniform T-shirt on the cordless phone. When he hung up, he set it on the end of the counter and walked to the other end to serve a customer.
“I could pick that phone up and make a phone call,” Aedan observed.
Mark sucked on his straw. “You think?”
“Oh, yeah.” Aedan got out of his seat.
“Where you going?” Mark asked.
Aedan pushed in his chair. “Men’s room. Wanna come?”
Mark made an obscene gesture, involving a particular finger.
Aedan grinned and walked away, weaving a path between tables outside the restaurant, then inside. He walked into the men’s room, into a stall. A few seconds later, he walked out of the stall. He glanced at the mirror over the sink as he went out the door.
He was a thirty-year-old, clean-shaven, Caucasian male, average height, average weight, with brown hair. He wore khakis, an oxford shirt, and Docksider shoes. Jay apparently was an average-looking, nondescript guy with nothing about his looks or behavior that stood out to his victims.
Aedan walked out of the bathroom and through the restaurant and out onto the sidewalk. He walked half a block and then turned around and went back to the pizza place. As he approached the carryout counter, he slowed his pace. Two teenage girls in jeans and tank tops got in line; it was still a little cool for tank tops this time of day, but the kid behind the counter seemed to be appreciating their choice in after-school attire.
“Ladies,” the guy behind the counter said with a big grin. “What can I get for you?”
Aedan walked to the end of the counter, putting out his hand. He swept the cordless phone up and kept walking. He stopped behind a sign advertising their specials and punched a number. From his spot between the sign and a support pole for the restaurant awning, he saw Mark take his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Restaurant name come up on your caller ID?” Aedan asked, using his own voice rather than his morph’s.
Mark looked up, then around. “No,” he said, sounding completely confused. “Just the number.”
“Look to your right.” Aedan stepped into view and waved the phone at him.
“Point made,” Mark muttered.
Aedan carried the phone back to the counter. The kid was still talking to the teenage girls. Aedan set the phone where he’d found it and strolled over to Mark.
“Anyone could have done that.”
“Just about,” Aedan agreed.
A waitress approached the table, carrying a large cheese pizza. “Anything else I can get you guys?” she asked, setting the pizza on the metal frame on the table.
“A to-go box?” Aedan asked pleasantly. “I have to run.”
“No problem.” The girl walked away.
“You’re not going to sit here with me and eat the pizza I’m paying for?”
“Nope.” Aedan remained standing. He grabbed his cup and sipped his tea, imagining Jay strolling up to the counter and picking up the phone and calling Mark. Brilliant. Amazingly easy.
“But you are going to eat my pizza?” Mark asked, incredulously.
“Actually I’m taking it to someone. A little girl who likes white things, including cheese pizza.”
Mark shook his head, biting into a slice of gooey pizza. “You’re a piece of work, Aedan, you know that?”
“Here you go.” The waitress reappeared with a takeout box. “And your check. For whenever you’re ready,” she said cheerfully.
As she walked away, Aedan slid another piece of pizza onto Mark’s plate and put the rest in the box. He closed up the box and pushed the check across the table toward Mark. “I owe you one,” he said as he walked away, carrying the drink and the pizza box.
“Keep your money,” Mark called after him. “Just find this guy.”
Brian glanced at the den doorway. One game of “Modern Warfare 3” had ended, but they hadn’t started the next. “Exactly what did she say?” he asked, quietly.
Victor hesitated.
Brian didn’t know why he was curious. What did he care what Peigi said or did, so long as she didn’t ride his ass? “Come on, man, you’re the one who brought it up.”
“Where is she?” Victor looked at the doorway.
“I don’t know. Somewhere.” Brian shrugged.
“In the kitchen maybe. She’s been doing a lot of stuff for the Council. More than usual.”
“You can’t tell where she is?” Victor set his controller on the couch and reached for his can of Coke. “It’s weird, but I know when Mary’s nearby. Like I was walking down the street the other day, Katy and I were going for a bagel, and I just like felt Mary. She walked right out of the bagel shop. She was getting Old Bay bagels. She knows I like them.” His smile was goofy.
Brian rolled his eyes. “You know, you’re not really married to her. Not according to the sept. You guys aren’t like mated for life like wolves or something.”
Victor looked away, taking another drink of soda. “I know.”
“So what did Mary say? You heard her on the phone with Peigi, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And she said Peigi should talk about something with me? What?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t say. I can’t read her mind yet. I can’t read anyone’s mind.” Victor frowned. “Can you?”
“Not really,” Brian said, feeling a little uncomfortable with the subject. Actually, he was kind of starting to get feelings from Peigi. No words, just . . . emotions. And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like getting sucked in to her problems. All that angst. It made him feel weird. Like sad for her . . . and for himself.
“But Mary sounded, like, whatever it was,” Victor went on, “it was a big deal.”
“She say anything else?”
“Not really. When I walked up to her, she started talking about sept stuff. There’s some guy in Washington, D.C., who’s like a senator or something.”
“Yeah, he’s my cousin,” Brian said. “He’s a big deal, apparently. Maybe he’ll run for president someday.”
“A vampire? An American president?” Victor laughed.
“Why not?” Bri
an was annoyed that Victor didn’t see the Kahills’ full potential. “Peigi says we have more choices than we used to. Like . . . I could go to law school, or be a doctor, someday, if I wanted.”
“A lawyer would be cool. Then you could prosecute some of those murderers who keep getting away,” Victor pointed out.
“Or we could be soldiers, I guess.” Brian pointed at the TV screen. “I would think the sept would need soldiers. You know, to do like Special Forces stuff.”
“That would be cool, too.” Victor picked up his game controller. “You ready to play again, man?”
Brian reluctantly reached for his controller. This thing about Mary’s telling Peigi she needed to talk to him was bugging him. “Yeah. I guess so.” He glanced at Victor. “Do you think she’d tell you what she was talking to Peigi about on the phone? Mary . . . if you asked her?”
Victor screwed up his face. “I don’t know. Probably not. Mary’s kind of a private person. And she doesn’t gossip much. Not like some of the other women.” He laughed. “Some of the guys.”
Brian sat back on the couch and scratched at a spot on his jeans—queso dip, maybe. “I’d kind of like to know. You know? What they were talking about.”
“I thought you didn’t care about Peigi.”
Brian felt a sudden rise of emotion in his chest. It was so strong that a lump formed in his throat, and he couldn’t speak. What the hell was wrong with him? He hit the button on the controller to take them to the next screen. “I don’t care,” he said, but he wasn’t convinced that was true anymore.
“You mustn’t worry yourself,” said the young, blond woman from where she sat in the open window, naked, her long hair falling over her breasts.
“I’m not worried,” Aedan heard himself say.
He knew he was dreaming, but all he could do was watch the scene unfold.
He was lying on his side in a narrow bed, a book in his hands. The words were in French. He could see the woman just out of the corner of his eye.
“You’ll find him. You’ll catch him.”
“Catch who?” He was torn between the book and what the woman was saying.
“There will be a price to pay, of course.”
“Isn’t there always?” He turned his head to get a better look at her.
In the second it took him to move, the pretty young woman fell forward, out of the window seat, and hit the floor. Aedan tried to reach her, but he wasn’t quick enough.
Under her was a pool of blood that was more blood than any human body contained. The blood pooled outward until it covered the floor and he was standing in the middle of it.
Aedan woke with a start and sat up in the narrow bed in the bedroom in his aunt’s house. Still breathing hard, he reached over and turned on the light.
A vampire afraid of the dark? Now things were getting ridiculous.
Chapter 20
“What’s the date today?” Aedan asked, dipping the mop into the bucket and pulling the handle to squeeze out the dirty water. “You know what the date is?”
Dallas was wiping down the last table. They’d sort of found a routine after closing. She’d send all her employees home, and he’d help her clean up before they went upstairs and sent Amanda or Ashley home. Aedan always left before dawn; the whole daddy thing with Kenzie spooked him a little. But the three of them ate dinner together pretty often, before Dallas would go down to the bar to work and Aedan would take his nightly walks, disguised as young women.
It was weird, but Dallas never asked him where he went at night. And he never told her he was looking for Jay. He never said anything at all about Jay, which had occurred to him tonight, as he was walking down Rehoboth Avenue, as strange. Dallas knew he was working the case with the young women being attacked, but she knew nothing about Jay. About their personal history: Aedan’s and Jay’s.
Sometimes Aedan had to remind himself that Dallas was not Madeleine. Sure, they looked similar, but the similarities ended there. Madeleine had been younger than Dallas, and far more innocent in the ways of the world. And she had had no paranormal abilities.
Or had she? He thought about the dream last night, the previous dreams. Was it possible Madeleine was trying to communicate to him from the grave?
“It’s June 4th. Why do you keep asking me the date?” She flipped a chair up onto a clean table. “No calendars in vampire world?”
Aedan did the math. Teesha’s attack had taken place April 24th. Three days after the full moon. The next full moon would fall on June 23rd, and Aedan suspected that Jay would be gone again by the 22nd, just in time to make it to his hidey-hole before the full moon. A lot of God’s creatures were affected by the moon phases. Two phases seemed to be Jay’s limit.
That was three weeks away. They were running out of time, but of course there was no way Mark could come out and say that to the state police. He and his team had been doing everything they could think of, but other than adding some patrols in the area, and warning the public to take extra precautions, unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do without more to go on. It was one of the frustrating realities of police work and Aedan’s work. A week had passed since the last attack, since the phone call. Aedan knew another was about to take place. He could feel it.
So if he could feel the impending attack, why couldn’t he find Jay on the street? Aedan knew Jay was out there, stalking someone.
Aedan had talked to Kaleigh twice in the last week; so far she’d come up with nothing about a creature that hibernated for fifty years, but she was preparing for her high school graduation on Friday night and said she had “feelers out,” whatever that meant.
“You okay?”
Aedan felt Dallas touch his arm. Startled, he dropped the mop to the floor.
She raised both hands. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.” He picked up the mop again.
“It’s me, not you.”
“Let’s have a beer. Better yet, I’ll take a gin and tonic.” She took the mop from his hands and placed it in the bucket. “You grab the drinks. I’ll go up and let Ashley know she can go.”
He hesitated. “I don’t know. I was . . . thinking about going home.”
Dallas looked at him. For a second she appeared hurt, but it passed. “Going home?”
“To my aunt’s.”
She rolled the bucket toward the kitchen. “Is this the beginning of the end?” she asked, suddenly sounding tired. “Of us?”
“No. No, of course not.” Actually, he wasn’t thinking about going back to Peigi’s. He was thinking about hitting the street again. He just kept hoping he’d get lucky, posing as a young woman, and meet up with Jay.
“Aedan,” Dallas said softly.
He had a feeling she was repeating herself.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
He walked past her and around behind the bar. “It’s this case.”
“You think he’ll kill again? Is that what you’re afraid of?” She leaned on the mop handle, protruding from the bucket. “The paper said it was the same guy. I’ve read that serial killers do that. They have to work up to killing.”
“He’s not a serial killer,” he said quietly as he took down a glass to make her a gin and tonic.
She listened.
“He doesn’t mean to kill them.” Aedan dropped a couple of ice cubes into the glass, one at a time. They made a sharp clink when they hit the glass. “He just got in a rush.”
She walked over to the bar and leaned on it, watching him. “You know him,” she whispered.
He grabbed the gin. Old Raj. She liked good gin.
“How do you know him?” she asked.
He turned his back to her to pour. He didn’t need a jigger to measure the gin. Keeping his gaze averted, he turned back toward her and added a spray of tonic water from the soda fountain under the bar.
“You looked for him before,” she said, still in her aha moment. “Before this. Before here. Haven’t you?”
“Dallas—”
“Remember, I’ve seen you,” she warned. “I’ve seen some of the things you’ve seen, through your eyes.”
“Just twice,” he said hopefully.
“There’ve been other times,” she murmured, holding his gaze. She slid her hand across the bar, palm up, beckoning.
She wanted him to let her in.
He moved his hand out of her reach. He wondered how many times he’d been lax when they made love, or even when he sat down for dinner with Kenzie. They casually touched all the time, like any couple.
How many times had he forgotten to put up a mental wall, or strengthen it?
“Dallas, we agreed I’m not going to give you details of my life or what I do. We agreed.”
“Was that what you were doing in France? Trying to find this bastard? And he came here? Did you follow him?” Her eyes narrowed. “Or did he follow you?”
He was pretty sure the phone call to Mark the previous week answered that question. Jay was following him now. Taunting him. How Jay knew he was in Delaware, he didn’t know, might not ever know. He didn’t care, as long as he caught Jay before he went into hiding again. Aedan slid her drink across the bar. “You mind if I go?”
She accepted the glass. “I don’t want you to be anywhere you don’t want to be. Even if it’s with me.” She took a sip of the gin and tonic, still watching him.
“It’s not like that.”
“No?”
Her lips were wet from the drink, and he wanted to taste them. “No,” he said.
She surprised him by smiling. “So, go home, or go wherever the hell it is vampires go after last call.” She turned away.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. I can barely stay in control of my own life. I’m not going to try to control yours.” She spun the glass back and forth between her fingers. The ice cubes clinked together again. “Can you walk Ashley to her car, though?”
“Will do.”
Aedan waited at the bottom of the stairs for the babysitter, then walked her to her car. They talked about how the Phillies were doing. He waited until she pulled away from the curb in her VW bug and then headed in the opposite direction.
Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5) Page 21
