Sweep - Stakes

by Sara Bourgeois

  “Hey, big sister, you’ve protected me. I’m just paying you back the favor.”

  “Brody, can I talk to you for a moment?” Annika sounded upset.

  “Can it wait, sweetie?” Brody asked. “I’ve got some pressing work I need to do. Maybe we can go out later? I’ll call you.”

  He gave her a quick kiss on the top of the head and then split before anyone could say anything. Annika seemed a little shocked, but she also appeared relieved when he was gone. I thought that perhaps things between them had been even worse than she’d let on.

  I felt some relief too over not having to look at those pictures again, so I decided to let it go. Perhaps we were being too morbid. I supposed that being involved in so many murders could do that to you.

  Besides, we still had every intention of going back to the crime scene that night. Even if there was nothing in the photos, we might still find something there.

  Later that evening, we did go back to the statues in the square. I could feel the power of the ley line pulsing beneath our feet. It hadn’t been as obvious earlier when everyone was still around, but it became more pronounced when it was quiet and still.

  I let myself tap into the power and hoped it would help my perception. Perhaps a little bit of psychic ability would kick in and help me find a clue. What I really needed, though, was some energy.

  It was barely perceptible, but I could tell the vampire blood was beginning to wear off. It wasn’t anything major at that point, but I’d started to get a little dull around the edges. My thinking was a bit fuzzy, I was feeling fatigued, and that hunger had begun to gnaw at the pit of my stomach. It was faint, but I knew how bad it would get. I wasn’t looking forward to feeling that way again.

  “Let’s look around and see if there are any clues,” I said.

  “I don’t think so,” a deep voice from behind me made me start.

  I’d been standing with my back to the statue, and I hadn’t noticed that there was a man standing on the other side of it. He stepped out, and for just a split second, I thought it was Thorn.

  But it was just the uniform that gave that impression. He actually looked nothing like Thorn. The new sheriff was probably about ten years older than my ex. He was mid-forties with dark hair that curled slightly around the collar of his uniform shirt. The only thing darker than his hair was his deep brown eyes. They were almost black, and he wasn’t a witch, so it wasn’t magic. He sported a beard that was trimmed neatly but still managed to make him look sort of like a mountain man. The new sheriff’s entire countenance screamed rugged.

  Remy and Annika were at my side in a split second. We stood our ground as the new sheriff looked all three of us over. Whereas once I had been the outsider, now it was him. I was standing shoulder to shoulder with my family.

  “Is this still an active crime scene?” I asked, knowing that it wasn’t.

  Part of me wished I’d never gotten involved with Thorn. At least if we’d only ever been friends, his ex-wife might not have made him leave town. Perhaps when they reconciled, his family could have stayed in Coventry. Then we wouldn’t have been dealing with this new sheriff. A man who I could tell right away was on a power trip, or at least that’s what I thought at the time.

  “It’s not,” he said. “But I’ve been warned about you. You’re Brighton Longfield?”

  “Yep. The one and only,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”

  “Sheriff Gunner Black.”

  “Welcome to Coventry,” I said with my best smile.

  He did not return the pleasantries.

  “People around here might have turned a blind eye to you and your friends involving yourselves in what should have been police work, but I won’t. I plan to run a tight ship. Coventry needs some law and order.”

  I could almost feel Remy’s and Annika’s hackles rise. This human had no idea what he was dealing with when it came to Coventry, but he hadn’t waited to find out before he’d begun spouting his mouth off.

  “We’ll go home, then,” I said.

  “Brighton?” Annika and Remy asked at the same time.

  “Come on, guys. Let’s not step on the new sheriff’s toes on his first day on the job.”

  We walked back to the car, and Annika and Remy both kept throwing me glances. Once we were in the car and out of the new sheriff’s earshot, I told Remy to drive around the block.

  “We’re not really leaving, are we?” Annika asked with a smile.

  “Not a chance.”

  Chapter Five

  We waited a couple of blocks away until Sheriff Black was gone. Then, we waited another half hour to make sure he didn’t return. When he didn’t, Remy threw a mild cloaking spell over us, and the three of us walked back up to where the body had been.

  The only people who could tell we were there were other witches, and none of them bothered us. Even the ones who weren’t actively working on the zombie cleanup at that moment would just pass by quickly.

  After a half hour of searching, we still hadn’t come up with any clues in the immediate area. That was when I saw some papers strewn on the sidewalk down the block from the town square.

  “I’m going to just grab those. Maybe she dropped them,” I said.

  “I’ll grab them. You wait here with Annika. We can take one more quick look around after that, and then perhaps go inside and investigate her office?”

  “Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Well, I have the key, so we can go in and search while the building is empty,” Remy said. “We don’t even have to break in. At least to the main building anyway.”

  Annika and I watched as Remy walked down the street to where the papers had blown and then gotten stuck against the wall of a nearby building.

  He started to look them over, but then abruptly turned and began walking back toward us. His face was stoic, but I could still tell something had spooked him.

  My eyes went to the space behind him, and it looked as though the shadows were shifting and roiling. My stomach clenched at first thinking that it was another zombie horde. Maybe we had just thought it was over.

  But the mass of shadows was more nebulous than that. “Are those ghosts?” I asked Annika.

  “I don’t know,” she said and squinted her eyes. “I don’t think so… Remy, hurry up please.” The edge of hysteria in her voice made my skin break out in goosebumps. Not much scared Annika, but she was terrified.

  He didn’t, though. Remy didn’t speed up. He just kept taking the same measured steps toward us. We started to walk to him, but he held up a hand to stop us.

  It wasn't until he stepped into the illumination of the streetlights surrounding the town square that we could see what was behind him. There were at least a half-dozen individuals dressed in long black cloaks. Every single one of them had long hair that went nearly to their middle backs.

  While I couldn't tell who any of them were, I knew almost instantly what they were.

  Vampires.

  I could only guess that they were the council, but I wasn't going to rest on my assumptions. "Who are your new friends?" I asked as casually as I could.

  Remy gave me a sight headshake "no" before the vampires stepped around him. They parted like a river flowing around a rock. It was one of the most graceful and coordinated displays I'd ever seen as if they were dancing instead of just walking around someone. The group stopped abruptly, and Remy halted himself just in time to avoid running into their backs.

  One of them took another half-step forward. "I am Kirendal,” he said and extended a hand to me. "Brighton Longfield, I presume?"

  "I am."

  His hand was icy cold and as smooth as silk. He looked young, but the aura around him was ancient. It wasn't something I could see, but more like something I felt. The sensation reminded me of standing inside an old building or a long-abandoned graveyard. I imagined that some found it disturbing, but to me it was homey. He felt like an old friend, but I had to remind myself he c
ould be manipulating me intentionally. Drawing me in for the kill. Despite myself, I was impressed that he’d read me so quickly and easily. Somehow he’d seen my love of my old house and the cemetery across the street and I’d only spoken two words to him. Vampires had to be the most accomplished predators on earth. But, duh.

  "What brings you to Coventry, Kirendal?"

  "My brother,” he said. "I've come here to request your help with freeing my brother."

  "Your brother?"

  "I've received word that my brother Kyle has been taken to jail in your town. He's been accused of killing a human woman?"

  "Kyle is your brother?" Annika asked. "I've never met you before, and I've known him since he was a child."

  "Different mothers from different ages," Kirendal said. "It's a long story, but I will tell you something. I've heard a great deal about you."

  "You've heard about me?" Annika asked.

  "Yes, my brother has mentioned you a time or two,” he said and then turned back to me. "But that's not why I'm here. We can discuss such things at another time. Brighton, I need your help, and in return, we can help you."

  "Let me guess," I said. "If we find a way to free your brother and clear his name, you'll give me the blood I need to cure myself of the zombie curse. I do want to help you and Kyle, but I'm afraid that's going to be hard for me to do. I'm not in the best of health, and I'm not going to have all of my mental faculties intact pretty soon."

  "I can give you enough blood to keep you going until you've freed Kyle, but that's all that I will sanction,” he said. "I've also heard word that there is a rogue vampire living in your town?"

  "I'm not sure that I'd call him rogue, but yes, there is a vampire living in Coventry."

  "Do you think it's possible that he could have committed the murder?" Kirendal asks. "Normally, I wouldn't ask someone outside of our kind for such information, but if you know anything, the council would appreciate the favor."

  "Well, he wasn’t the friendliest person I've ever met, but I don't know if that makes him a killer. He was angry that we found him and disturbed him."

  "If you find any evidence that he committed this crime, I beg you to turn him over to us immediately. Unless, for the safety of your town, we can remove him tonight."

  "I don't speak for the town,” I said. "I'm not even the head of the largest coven here."

  "As far as I am concerned, Brighton, you do speak for Coventry. There is a great deal you do not know about yourself. Things that were written in books so old they have crumbled to dust by now, but it is not my place to tell you about them. Just know that as far as this business goes, you are who we choose."

  "Thanks?" I said. "No, I don't think you need to remove Julian." I hoped I wasn't making a huge mistake, but I had a bad feeling that if they tried to drag Julian out of his house, it would result in a huge fight. "I will let you know if we find any evidence he did this. How will I contact you?"

  "My brother Marius will be staying at the inn in your fair town until this matter is resolved,” he said and pointed to a vampire with long black hair and an equally long face. "You can contact him for anything that you need, and he will keep an eye on our affairs here."

  They were leaving a member of the council behind. Something told me this whole thing was a far bigger deal than any of us anticipated. I hoped that Kirendal would be frank with me.

  "What aren't you telling me?" I asked. "This is more than you're letting on."

  "I'm always amazed at witches and their intuition,” he said with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "You are correct. I wanted to keep things light between us, but this is a grave matter, Brighton."

  "Well?"

  "The fact of the matter is, if you don't find a way to free my brother peacefully, then we will come back here and free him ourselves. It won't be pretty. While some vampires don't hunt humans, you'll find that the council doesn't have strong laws about such things. We say do what you want as long as it doesn't expose us to the humans."

  "Don't you think coming into Coventry and using violence to free your brother from our jail is going to expose you to the humans that live here?"

  "Not if we don't leave any of them left alive."

  "What?" Remy's voice was almost a snarl.

  "We don't regard them the same way you do," Kirendal said. "You seem to treat them like beloved pets, but they’re nothing but food to us."

  "Kyle isn't like that,” Annika said. "Surely he wouldn't want you hurting anyone on his behalf."

  "What my little brother wants doesn't matter, sweet Annika," Kirendal said.

  I didn't like the way he was looking at her. There was something predatory in his eyes. He liked her too, but in a far more feral way than his brother.

  "We'll handle it,” I said.

  I could almost feel the steam coming off Remy. If he and Annika told his family about this, Coventry was going to have serious problems on their hands. Amelda would never back down. Nerves were already raw because of the zombie thing, and the witches of Coventry were stretched too thin.

  "We'll handle it,” I said again when no one spoke. "We'll figure out the real killer and we'll turn them over to you. Your brother will be released. I'm sure we can do it."

  "That's what I like to hear."

  They reversed their formation and walked back around Remy. All except the one. Marius was still standing there once the rest of the vampire council had disappeared into the shadows. He looked at us all as if he expected us to say something. After a long, awkward silence, Marius finally spoke.

  "If that will be all, I'll retire to the inn for the evening," Marius said. “But before I go, I’d just like to state that Kirendal is a bit… theatrical. Not all on the council agree with his views on humans. In fact, most of us don’t. To be frank, I don’t view you as food, and I mean you no harm.”

  "I think that will be all,” I said. I was relieved by his admission, but I wasn’t sure how to respond. Or if I should even believe him. "We know where to find you if we need you."

  Before he walked away, Marius handed me a vial of red liquid. The blood I’d been promised. I just hoped it was enough to keep me levelheaded until I could solve the murder.

  When he was gone, the three of us made our way to the back entrance of the courthouse. I didn’t know if the new sheriff was going to get a search warrant for Landers’s office, and I wasn’t waiting to find out.

  The building was dark and completely silent. If someone had dropped a pin in the hallway on the opposite side of the building, you would have heard it. I thought that if not for the cool air coming from the building's air conditioning, the silence would have felt almost deafening.

  No one spoke on the elevator ride up. We'd all decided what we were going to do before Remy even unlocked the door. While we were nearly certain that a vampire had killed Landers, we had to check to make sure there wasn't any evidence of someone wanting her dead. Perhaps someone had somehow found out about the vampire blood thing and was using it as an opportunity to kill an enemy. It seemed farfetched, but we had to check.

  As the elevator ascended, I got a bad feeling in my gut. It wasn't like the hunger from before, but it hurt just as much. Something above us was unhappy. I didn't want to talk about it, though. It was as if speaking about it would make it manifest. The woman with the black eyes and mouth.

  "Maybe we should have had them take Julian,” I said. "I'm worried it was him that killed Landers. What if we get someone else killed by not acting on their offer?"

  "And what if it wasn't him?" Remy asked. "And the less levelheaded witches in this town go after an innocent vampire."

  "You mean the way the humans went after Kyle?" Annika asked.

  "They don't know he's a vampire,” I said. “They weren’t targeting him because he was different. There has to be a better explanation.”

  My attempt to distract myself wasn't working. I could hear Remy and Annika continuing the conversation, but I couldn't make out what they were
saying. All of the blood rushed to my ears, and the sound of my heart pounding was deafening. Suddenly, the elevator felt like a coffin. I knew the walls weren't closing in on me, but it sure felt like they were. I could have sworn that Annika and Remy were suddenly right on top of me breathing down my neck.

  But it wasn't either of them. It was something else entirely. I tried to take a deep breath to calm my nerves, but the air had become impossibly thin. It was as if we'd taken an elevator to a mountaintop instead of the top floor of a relatively short building. Short in the scheme of mountains and cloud tops anyway.

  Or perhaps someone had cut each molecule of oxygen and nitrogen, and whatever else was in air, in half. It wasn’t enough to fill my lungs, but I didn’t want to start gasping for air. I could see myself there in that elevator with my mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water desperate for relief.

  Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, and I might scream, the doors opened. The elevator doors parted, and a rush of icy cold air hit us. It sent a shiver down my spine and made my skin prickle. The kind of cold that cut so deep you could smell it.

  "Whoa,” Remy said.

  "Yeah," Annika answered.

  "I don't think she's too happy with us being up here,” I said.

  "The creepy as heck ghost with black holes for eyes and a mouth?" Annika asked. "That ghost?"

  "Come on, guys, I can handle this,” Meri said as he popped out of my shoulder bag and jumped to the floor.

  He sauntered out of the elevator like he owned the place, and that made me feel a little better. I felt even more confident when we all stepped off the elevator and there was no one there. Perhaps she'd just leave us alone was my first thought. My first thought was wrong.

  You could have mistaken the noise for just about anything when it started. The groan of the elevator or a truck rolling by outside. It was so faint that it would have been almost impossible to pin it down.

  Then it began to get louder, closer. It was coming from the opposite end of the hall near the window where I'd glimpsed her looking down on me so many times. Those times I would just look away, but I couldn't anymore. We needed to go through to Landers's office, and I didn't want to tell Remy and Annika that we had to scramble back onto the elevator and run from a ghost.