Chapter 10
1231 Words
10
“Remind me why I have to stand here again?” Sam asked, slapping a low-hanging branch away. Something was poking her side, but she didn’t know what.
Lilith sighed. “I told you. If Tomas sees me, he’ll know something is up.”
“Okay, but still… Why do I have to sit in the shrubberies while you get to stay on the pavement?”
“Because I’m wearing heels and a dress worth your entire monthly wage. You, on the other hand, are wearing flat shoes and your cheap green shirt blends in well with the foliage.”
“Hey!” Sam countered as she looked down at her shirt. “This is one of my favourite shirts.”
“And it’s garbage,” the other woman replied, pulling up her nose as she looked at Sam. “Now, be quiet. We don’t want to miss Tomas.”
“It’s been hours already. Harry’s Shining Shack is closing soon.”
Sam adjusted her position, finally identifying the branch that had been jabbing her in the back. With a grunt, she snapped it off and considered throwing it at Lilith. If she was going to be attacked by trees, the other woman deserved the same fate.
That would probably result in a fight or disagreement and she didn’t want to risk… whatever Lilith would do to her. She didn’t seem above kidnapping, from what Sam remembered from their first meeting, and she wasn’t sure how idle all of her threats were either. It was best to stay on Lilith’s good side.
“I’m hungry,” Sam complained. “And I still haven’t had my coffee.”
“I’ll buy you coffee after this, alright? Now be silent and keep your eyes on the Shack.”
“Fine.” She checked her watch for the seventh or eighth time, sighing loudly. “Harry said Tomas was eager to pick up his shoes. Why is he leaving it until the last minute?”
Lilith checked the cobbler’s store from behind the car she was hiding. “I don’t know.”
“Something just doesn’t add up…” Sam tapped her chin, sorting all the events and information in her head. “Okay, I’m just thinking out loud here… If Ian and Tomas took off to hide with the… vampires, you said?”
“Vampires, yes. Gravitas.”
“Bless you?”
“No, that’s their clan name. Gravitas.” Lilith brushed her dark hair to the side. “You should be careful with them. Their powers are not to be underestimated.”
Sam tweaked an eyebrow. “Right… And what kind of powers are that exactly?”
The other woman shook her head, the worry dancing in her eyes. “It’s not a joke.”
“I wasn’t joking,” Sam said, but Lilith was no longer paying attention to her.
She rose up from the pavement and waved Sam closer. “Shhh, come here.”
“What?”
“I said, come here.”
With a groan, Sam pushed through the bush and overhanging tree branches, eager to get out of the shrubberies. There was dirt creeping into places dirt never should be in and the desire to run away screaming was starting to overwhelm her.
She rubbed her hands clean on her shirt and stumbled across the ditch to get to Lilith. “What?”
“Why did Harry turn off his lights?” the other woman asked, gesturing to the Shining Shack.
Sam scratched the side of her face as she checked her watch again. “It’s still an hour away from closing time.”
“Ugh!” Lilith exclaimed as she kicked the car. “That bastard lied to us!”
Without waiting for Sam, she stormed across the street, her high heels clacking on the cement, her hair dancing in the wind.
“Wait!” Samantha raced after her, only catching her at the locked front door. “Why… Are you… So fast!”
“I work out.” She pressed her face against the glass and rattled the door. “Locked. f**k. He’s done a runner.”
“Why?”
“Why? Give me your scarf.” Without waiting for Sam’s response, Lilith pulled the silk piece down.
“Hey, that was a gift,” Sam protested, but it was no use.
In no time, her green scarf was wrapped around Lilith’s wrist and shattered through the glass window. “f**k! That hurt.”
“Why did you do that?” She yanked her scarf back, which was riddled with glass shards. “Ah, you ruined it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you a new one.” Lilith reached in for the lock and pushed into the Shining Shack. “It’s all dark. Check the back.”
Sam growled. “This is illegal.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Uh, uh, I’m pretty sure breaking and entering are illegal.”
“We don’t abide by human laws, now stop protesting and check the back,” Lilith ordered, her voice sharp and leaving little room for more protest.
“Bossy.” She walked past the Nox woman and the counter, down to the workshop. She clicked the light and it illuminated a deserted scene. A can of varnish left open, brushes strewn across the floor, a drawer emptied half-hazardly.
She wished she brought some plastic gloves to examine the scene, but it didn’t seem like Lilith was a stickler for protocol. She certainly didn’t care when she broke the glass door.
Samantha rummaged through the dresser, or what was left of it. Packets of playing cards, poker chips, plastic bags with a suspicious powder. None of that belonged in the back of a shoe repair shop.
“Lilith?” she called, holding up a necklace with a tooth set in the middle. She hoped it wasn’t a human tooth, but it certainly looked like it. “Lilith!”
“What?”
“You got to see this!”
“Give me a second!” the woman called back.
“Get down here!” She called, putting the necklace on the workbench. Just as she thought it was as bad as it could get, the crackle of static electricity drew Sam’s attention and she followed the sound to a modern fridge hidden behind a bookshelf. With the sleek metal and the fancy handles, it didn’t belong between the stained workbench and old furniture.
In fact, why was there a fridge down here anyway, Sam wondered.
She pulled on the handle, introducing the dim glow of light into the workbench. The fridge light crackled, but Sam still got a good view of what was inside.
Five, six bags of a dark liquid in standard blood bags, which surely looked like one thing, but Sam wasn’t the type to jump to conclusions. There were many alternate possibilities. Cherry juice, red wine, bordeaux paint. Many things that weren’t…
“Blood,” Lilith said as she appeared behind her. “I knew it.”
“Blood?” Samantha echoed, dread settling in her stomach. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. f*****g bastard. Did you see anything that might make you think there was gambling going on?”
Sam gestured to the dresser. “I found playing cards and poker chips. And this creepy necklace.”
“Can I see that? f*****g Hell.” The other woman slammed the fridge shut, growling as she leaned against the workbench. “Harry ran an illegal gambling operation in the back of his cobbler shop. That bastard. He’s the one with vampire ties.”
“How do you know?” Sam gulped. “Is it the, you know, the blood?”
“Yes, it’s the blood.”
“And the tooth necklace?”
“No, that’s probably something he got from a Pixie. I can’t believe he betrayed us like that.”
“Pixies? That sounds friendly enough.”
“Oh, don’t be fooled. They pretend to be friendly and helpful, but there’s always a price. I’d rather deal with Vampires than Pixies, and I hate Vampires so that should tell you enough.”
“Right… So… So the myths are true? Vampires exist and they drink blood to survive?”
Lilith scoffed. “To survive? No. It gets them drunk, that’s why they like that stuff. Trust me, none of your precious myths are correct.”
That sounded sinister. Sam averted her gaze and returned it to the scene around her. The shop was abandoned and Harry had fled, that much was clear. But what did that mean for their investigation?
- Writer
