The rest of the people that wanted cops like her dead weren’t into specifics. They just didn’t like cops. Had she busted down the wrong door on the wrong day at the wrong time, she or any of her fellow officers could take a bullet to the chest, but that bullet was simply meant for any cop coming through that door.
This was different. Someone didn’t just want a cop dead. Someone wanted her dead. And not just her. Someone wanted everyone associated with Xander dead. At least that is what it appeared to be.
And now, Allison and Xander were facing a ticking clock. Based on cursory descriptions of assaults that had taken place over the last few hours, someone was hunting down the people that Xander had marked. This, of course, included her.
As Allison thought about this, Allison realized these deaths served no purpose to anyone, be them human or vampire. A human being who was marked was no different than any other human being, save for the fact that their blood was only good for one vampire. Possibly, Xander had marked these people to save them from other vampires. Allison also knew he could be using them to feed on occasionally, and that made sense considering the relatively small amount of her own blood she let him drink during their love-making was hardly enough to keep him sustained at full power.
But if someone was killing the people Xander marked, and doing so with such violence and prejudice, there was only a few reasons. Each one was equally terrifying.
The one killing Xander’s marked humans could be trying to starve Xander out of existence. This was unlikely, however, since nothing would potentially stop him from feeding on others. There were literally millions of people to choose from in the metropolitan area.
The other more likely possibility was particularly chilling. Whoever was killing these people – or directing newborn vampires to do so – might have been simply removing tainted blood from the food supply. Since vampires cannot feed on the blood of those marked by another vampire, whoever was doing this might be culling the herd so there would be no mistake that anyone else used for food would be clean and pure, free of another vampire’s unique taste.
If this were the case, it was not just the humans now – marked by Xander or not – who were in danger. Other vampires near and in the city might also be on the hit list.
Someone was making a power grab, and when Allison considered human blood to be the most valuable natural resource to the vampires in the shadows, it made perfect sense that someone would start a war over it. Forget “No blood for oil.” There will be plenty of blood for blood in the near future if she and Xander didn’t do something about it.
Allison also knew that Xander had a lot of explaining to do, mostly about his life and activities when he wasn’t with her. She knew he was keeping a lot of things from her, helping her through the transition period to accept him as a vampire. However, the time had come to be completely honest. No more half-truths. No more deception. No more hiding information about his lifestyle from her, regardless of how unsavory it was
But that was for another time. First, she and Xander had to get to the bottom of this new string of murders.
So there Allison was, clinging to the back of her vampire lover, bobbing through the air with careful jerks, flying above the buildings of old Cleveland, following up on one of the murders.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the scene of the latest crime, in the Euclid Beach apartments. Xander landed softly on the sandy beach along Lake Erie next to the apartment building. What used to be a premiere amusement park destination in the 1940s and 1950s, the Euclid Beach property still had its marquee sign but had been converted into apartment housing. The amusement rides were a thing of the past and a footnote in Cleveland history. Years ago, it became just another collection of people in rental units.
Now, Euclid Beach was the site of something far more serious.
Where they landed, in the cover of trees, Allison could see a group of people gathered around an area cordoned off with yellow crime tape. Several people huddled against the tape, hugging each other. Even this far away, Allison could hear them sobbing.
As they walked closer, she saw the mess on the beach. There was no body; the authorities had already been there to clean up the remains. However, the grisly crimson stain on the white sand was unmistakable. Knowing what had likely done this, based on her own experience in the parking garage earlier in the evening, Allison knew the end game was death, not feeding. The newborn vampire sent here would not have been able to feed on the victim’s blood. It may have tried, but the result was likely the same violent retching as Allison saw when her attacker had tried to lick the blood off of her face.
As a result, the blood was spilled on the beach, and the victim would have been dead in seconds.
Xander walked up to a group of three young women huddled together. Allison kept her distance but followed. This was Xander’s turn to question, and that made sense because when the women turned to see him coming, they immediately recognized him. Without hesitation, they fell into his arms, and he held all three, comforting them.
“I’m so sorry, Amy,” Xander said.
“It’s not your fault,” one of the women replied, hugging him close.
“What did you tell the police?” he asked.
Amy sighed and wiped tears from her eyes. “What could I tell them? Not the truth, that’s for damn sure.”
“I understand,” Xander said.
“I told them as much as they needed to know,” Amy said, releasing him from the hug. She took a quick sideways glance at Allison, who nodded at her. Amy gave the very slightest of nods, then looked back at Xander.
“John was coming home from work. He had just parked when that thing attacked,” Amy said.
“Did you get a good look at it?” Xander asked.
“Too good of a look. It was horrifying.”
Allison felt a cold chill on her spine. She knew exactly what Amy was talking about, having just dispatched one of the newborns herself. Even knowing more about vampires than most people in the world, Allison still found it hard to believe that a monster like the one that had attacked her – and had obviously attacked Amy’s husband – existed in the world today. Maybe in an old gothic horror novel or a world of fantasy from a thousand years ago. But in a modern American city? It seemed almost too fantastic to believe.
“Did it try to talk to him?” Xander asked.
Amy shook her head. “No. It just attacked him. Violently, like an animal. I wasn’t even upstairs. I was in the lobby, waiting for John to come in. The thing dragged him from the parking lot to the beach in only a few seconds. That’s where it...” Amy started to continue, but couldn’t. She started to cry again.
Xander touched her face and hugged her again. “Shhhh...” he said.
“I don’t even know why it happened,” she sobbed.
“It didn’t say anything?”
Amy shook her head. “It was all over so fast. That thing wasn’t human.”
“No,” Xander said, holding Amy close. “No, it wasn’t.”
Allison knew they had heard enough. This was not a negotiation. This was not a kidnapping gone bad. This was an extermination, plain and simple. And she was on the list. It was only a matter of time before another would come hunting her.
† † †
Allison had kept her distance while Xander had comforted Amy. There was no jealousy here. Amy was in mourning, and it was remarkable that she did not blame Xander for her lover’s death. However, as Xander explained to her when they took flight again, John had come to him for help. Xander had known him from when he was alive and still a human. He had saved John from going down a very dark path in terms of drugs and crime. Once Xander had become a vampire, he marked John as a symbolic gesture, to show him there were greater forces than just himself.
It was that symbolic gesture that kept John straight for most of the last year, and Amy knew she owed Xander for keeping him alive and sober for this long. She knew that Xander had no control over the fact that so
meone was punishing his own friends for his sins.
After Xander had escorted Amy back to her apartment, he came back down to the beach. Even then, Allison kept her distance. The last thing he needed right now was an overbearing girlfriend asking him questions.
She watched as Xander stepped under the police tape and walked around the blood-stained sand. He kept a wide breadth of the blood stain, probably because it was so heavy with John’s scent that he couldn’t zero in on the newborn.
Xander circled, crawling on all fours like a hunting dog on a scent. His face was closer to the ground, though not shoved in the sand. It appeared more like he was closely looking at the crime scene rather than smelling, but Allison knew better. Like all his other senses, Xander’s sense of smell had magnified exponentially since his change, and over the past few months, he had honed it to perfection.
In a few moments, Xander squatted in the cold, white sand, silhouetted by the moonlight. He stabbed his hands into the sand and raised them, lifting a large pile from the ground. Thick jets of sand fell through his fingers, making a soft hissssssss that was almost indistinguishable from the soft rush of water rolling onto the beach.
Xander leaned his face down towards the sand and took a deep breath. He did it again. And a third time.
Then, he let the remaining sand fall to his feet, and he stood. Xander turned to Allison and walked towards her. This time, he hopped over the police tape, ascending a little more than a human would. He was ready to take off.
“Come on,” he said holding out an arm to Allison. “Let’s find this sonofabitch.”
Allison took his hand, and he swept her up to his back. She gripped his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. Continuing a smooth motion, Xander took three long strides, and Allison felt them being lifted by an unseen force, growing stronger with each stride. A moment later, they were jutting into the air, heading west.
† † †
Xander flew differently now that he was following a scent. Instead of taking things easy with a side-to-side motion, he drove forward with determination. For the first time since she took their initial flight, Allison had to hang on. She kept her legs wrapped around his lean, muscular waist, hooking her ankles on each other.
With the speed and directness of flight, the journey was short, and it didn’t take long before Allison knew exactly where they were going. As they moved from the surrounding suburbs on the east side, the buildings started to get taller and denser. But she knew their destination was beyond them. Soon, they passed the city proper and ended up along the river. The Flats.
Allison saw a familiar building in the distance.
“There?” she whispered in Xander’s ear.
He nodded. He did not speak, as any words would be lost in the wind. Instead, Allison felt his thoughts come across her mind. Yes, she knew. This is where the thing had gone.
It was the warehouse where she had first met The Sieve.
Xander did not land there. Instead, he circled the block from high above. He might be getting a look at the surrounding area, but Allison knew he was also trying to sense if this was just a stop along the creature’s journey or its final destination. However, after circling the block twice, she felt a sense of confidence come from Xander.
This was the place. The trail ends here.
However, instead of landing or approaching the warehouse, Xander turned back east. This made sense to Allison. It was too late to land in the Flats, especially with no idea of what they would find inside that warehouse. The sun would be rising in about ninety minutes, and the last thing he wanted to do was to be caught in the sunrise with the only shelter being a building that would easily be fostering a nest of the enemy.
As Xander soared up the coast of Lake Erie, Allison knew exactly where they were going. Their destination lay a little south and half-way to Amy’s apartment in Euclid Beach. He was headed to Cleveland Heights.
CHAPTER 24
Even before they landed on the sidewalk of Berkeley Road in front of Anton Leigh’s house, Allison knew there was something wrong. She sensed it from Xander, who could probably smell something wrong when they were still high in the air.
The house was dark, sure, but that was to be expected for almost any house in the hours before dawn. But this house was different. Those who lived here were most active at night. It might seem normal for a regular person, but a vampire house should have some form of activity going on. There should at least be a couple of lights burning in the windows.
But this wasn’t the case. The house seemed dead.
Allison stretched her legs as she climbed off of Xander’s back. They had gone stiff a bit from clamping around his waist for the flight to the Flats and then back here. She also stretched her back and heard several pops come from her spine.
“Sorry,” Xander said, turning to face her. “I should have given you a break.”
Allison shook her head. “It’s no problem. We are on a time crunch. If the worst thing that happens to me during this ordeal is I get some stiff joints and a visit to the chiropractor, we’ve come out ahead.”
The corner of Xander’s mouth curled up a bit, the closest he’d come to a smile all night. “You’re beautiful,” he said, then touched her cheek gently and kissed her lightly on the lips.
Allison wanted more, and his heightened emotional state made Xander even more desirable. But there was plenty of time for that later. They would have to go into hiding for the daylight hours, which were quickly approaching. Business would have to come first.
Xander winked at her, and then turned towards Anton’s house. The wrought-iron gate was unlatched and leaning open slightly. It could have happened at any time for any reason, but Allison had the sense that even a decorative gate wouldn’t be left open by Anton and his Feeders. Xander pushed it open completely with his boot and strode confidently to the front door.
The door was closed, but they heard no noises come from inside. It was possible that Anton and his Feeders were bedding down for the night, but Allison thought they should be able to hear a little more than total silence.
Xander grabbed the door handle and twisted the knob slightly. The lock clicked, and the door swung open effortlessly.
“Anton!” Xander called into the open doorway. Only silence came back. He waited for a moment, then called again: “Jennifer!”
Again, no response.
Instinctively, Allison pulled her weapon. She knew it would be useless against a vampire, but she didn’t care. It gave her a certain degree of security.
Xander leaned into the opened door and sniffed the air. He grimaced and shook his head.
“I don’t think you’re going to need that,” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. Allison didn’t respond, but she also didn’t holster her gun.
Xander then pushed the door open and stepped inside.
That’s when the smell hit Allison. It wasn’t overpowering, though it would be in a couple hours. Still, Allison had spent enough time on the police force to know the smell of a dead body when she came across one.
She followed Xander, trying to breathe only through her mouth.
As she feared, Allison saw Jennifer’s body posed demurely on the side of the sofa, knees crossed with hands atop them. Next to the sofa was a chair, upon which Jennifer’s head sloughed to one side. The girl’s flesh had already started to turn color, and the bright red blood had clotted black on her neck, dribbling down into the cleavage between her breasts. The head still had the look of surprise mixed with the slack-jawed annoyance that Jennifer had in life. A small tear of blood had dried on its way down her cheek.
Allison looked up at Xander, a look of concern spreading across his face.
“She was his favorite,” he said softly.
“Is that why she was killed?”
“Probably not,” Xander replied. “But it’s probably why she was displayed like this. Whoever is doing this wants to do more than just get rid of people. Whoever is doing this w
ants to hurt the people around them.”
Xander then turned and walked the short distance from the living room into the dining room. Allison could tell he was looking at something there with his hypersensitive vampire gaze, but the room was just too dark for her to make it out. As she followed him, Allison turned on the light over the dining room table.
And there was Anton.
At least there was most of Anton.
The insane looking hippie vampire she had only just met earlier that night was now in pieces, displayed on the dining room table. His arms and legs were placed at the settings, and his head was presented in the middle under the light, greeting Allison and Xander as they entered the room.
Allison shuddered, more out of fear than sympathy. While she could muster the sadness and sympathy for Jennifer – who had been killed for no other reason than for a greater emotional impact – she couldn’t elicit any sympathy for Anton. He was clearly mad and devoid of normal human morals, and he would have killed her without a second thought if given a chance or a desire. She supposed that desire could have come had he not found her and her story so interesting.
Still, this was bigger than Anton, and far bigger than his favorite Feeder. This wasn’t about revenge or food. This was about control of the area. Whoever was behind this new colony was wiping out any and all competition and opposing forces. And the end game was still unknown. It could end with a small colony in a city in northeast Ohio. It could also end with a virtual take-over of the human world, one in which humanity would be relegated to livestock.
As this dawned on Allison, she stepped back out of the dining room. A nagging thought in the back of her mind asked why this kind of takeover she was imagining had never been tried before. She made a mental note to ask Xander this later, when they were no longer the hunted.
But until then, they needed safety.
“We should go,” Allison said.
“Yes,” Xander said softly, pointing to the wall, which caused the light switch to turn off without actually touching it. “We should go now.”
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