The maid pursed her lips and invited me inside while she went to ask if the master of the house was available.
After she left, I took a look at the place. The decorations and furnishings were classic and had been kept immaculately. I stood there and priced out the furniture. In the entryway alone and I couldn’t even calculate the cost—it was staggering.
After a minute, the maid returned and asked me to follow her. She led me through a doorway, down a dimly lit hallway, and then through another door into a sitting room. It turned out to be a library chock-full of the most beautifully bound books I had ever seen. I didn’t even know people had book collections like his. I thought books only looked like that in period films.
Inside, Roan was sitting behind a huge oak desk and to my surprise, Pierce Wagner was lounging on one of the brown leather armchairs.
“Hello again,” Pierce said, rising to greet me before Roan could say anything. The Chief of Police seemed strangely pleased to see me. I smiled and extended my hand, which he shook warmly—even though his hand wasn’t exactly warm. “I didn’t expect us to meet again so soon,” he continued.
“Oh?”
“As a matter of fact, he is visiting me today only to ask if I know you,” Roan said blankly from behind the desk. “Except when he appeared, I was at a complete loss. It’s good to get visits from old friends, but I had no idea how I should know you. Now that you’ve introduced yourself it makes perfect sense. Detective Marshall’s assistant?”
“Yes,” I said, moving away from Pierce and standing in front of the desk. Standing closer to Roan, I was surprised by his looks. He looked almost identical to Schroder, but his skin wasn’t smooth. It looked almost crumpled. Well, most identical twins looked slightly different.
“If you have something to say, I wish you had called and arranged for a meeting. As you can see I have company now and it’s quite late. Could we meet tomorrow morning?”
I gathered up my courage and started talking. “I’m afraid not. This matter is rather urgent.”
“This isn’t how I do business,” he said, picking up a telephone receiver and preparing to dial a number.
“You see,” I said before he could call anyone. “While I was at work I happened to see a file regarding a search request from you about my sister—London Robertson.”
At this statement, Roan looked distinctly uncomfortable. His eyes flicked toward Pierce, back to me, and then he dropped the phone.
“She disappeared yesterday and I was wondering if you’d managed to get in touch with her?” Just then, I saw a flicker of movement outside one of the windows. Dudley was watching.
Roan’s expression was disgustingly relaxed. “I haven’t seen her.”
“I find that hard to believe. Did you hear from her at all? A phone call? An email?”
“No.”
I couldn’t help glaring at him. Actually, I had to clear my mouth of saliva before I could speak to stop myself from spitting on his desk. “All right. Then I was wondering if you possibly had the address or phone number of a guy named Garth. I understood you were in contact with him.”
Roan leaned back on his chair and put his left ankle on his right knee. “Sorry, I’ve never heard that name before.”
At this point, I was fuming and I didn’t know how to continue. I wasn’t sure if his lies were for my benefit, or Pierce’s, or both of us, but I didn’t want to leave without getting something from him.
Suddenly, a slightly different tactic popped into my head. “You know, I knew your brother Schroder,” I said boldly.
For a second his eyes lost their façade and he looked at me like he could kill me just to get me to shut up. Then the mask was back up and he looked at me casually. “Of course you did. Since you’re London’s sister.”
“Look,” I continued, audaciously leaning my knuckles on his desk. “I don’t know what kind of protection you have from the police, but I’m just going to come right out and say what’s on my mind. You’re after London because you think she murdered your brother who turned her into a vampire.”
Roan didn’t look at all shocked. He had obviously gotten a grip on himself in the past ten seconds.
Pierce came up beside me and said calmly, “That is a very serious accusation.”
My head flicked toward him. “And what’s your position in all this? Do you just let vampires and humans do whatever they want?” “It’s complicated,” he drawled.
“Explain it to me.”
He licked his lips and said, “Roan here is one of the most powerful vampires in our city. I’ve known him for several years now and I can give a fairly accurate description of his history and dealings. He was made honestly, no matter how dishonest his brother made it afterward. If you think he loves his brother, you’re wrong. His brother was unbelievably dishonest and cruel—even from a vampire’s perspective. If you make an attempt on Roan’s life—no matter how justified you think you are—the ramifications will be so dire you won’t be able to bear the consequences.”
I tilted my head. “Oh?”
“The stable vampire community won’t just let you do whatever you want. I’m telling you this for your protection. Now, if your sister is missing, it doesn’t matter if she is a vampire. You should contact the police and we will look for her. I’ll even supervise the investigation myself if that will make you more comfortable.”
I didn’t believe he would find her and now I really did feel like spitting, but Dudley told me this was all I could expect from the police.
“Right,” I said bitterly, before turning to leave.
“Wait,” Roan said, getting up from his chair and coming around to face me. “If London didn’t kill my brother, do you know who did?”
I stood there and looked at him. I didn’t know how to answer him and I was sweating bullets. If I said Dudley did it, then Roan would go after him, but since London already pointed the finger at him, Roan was probably planning on going after him anyway. If I said London did it—the torture would be double and she’d probably be dead before I could find her anyway. If I said I did it—I would be forfeiting my life and he probably still wouldn’t let London go. Not to mention my death wouldn’t be painless.
I had to do some creative lying—lots of truth mixed with a couple of carefully selected falsehoods.
I winced.
It was a part of the act.
“I was there that night, but I was fifteen years old and kind of traumatized by what I saw. I’ve never remembered that well. All I do remember was London screaming when he bit her, but she didn’t want Schroder dead. Plus, I’ve lived with her for eight years since then. She has only just stopped mourning.”
“Is that so?” Roan asked disbelievingly.
“Yeah.”
“You really don’t remember anything?”
When I looked up to read his expression, he was much closer to me. I could see his face and neck with more clarity. Suddenly, I was so scared I could hardly move. Roan was supposed to be Schroder’s twin. He wasn’t.
I grabbed the collar of his shirt and ripped it open until the buttons popped. His chest looked exactly how I thought it would. Exactly where I stabbed him were scars. His collar hid most of it, but his throat had the mark all the way around where Dudley beheaded him.
“I thought I killed you,” I breathed as I stepped away from him.
“It took me five years to recover from what you and that brat did to me, but I didn’t want revenge against you,” he said, stroking the scar on his neck with his thumb. “Even though I suffered that much, I didn’t feel like you did anything wrong.” “Why?” I gasped.
“Why do you think?”
I thought madly, but nothing made sense. The ends didn’t join up. “Because your brother,” I stuttered, but the truth was staring me in the face. “You never had a brother did you?”
“No. I had a twin brother and a bloodsucking b***h drank on him until he died. I went after her. I could have just ended her legacy right then and there, but wouldn’t that have been a waste?”
Pierce spoke up. “So, you did the same thing to her that she did to Roan? That’s brilliant,” he said sardonically. “How did you do it? How did you make everyone believe Roan was still alive?”
“It wasn’t easy. It started when I had to keep Roan’s death a secret from my parents. I’m sure Sweeper knows all about keeping secrets from parents. It was noble enough at first. I had to play both myself and my brother to stop their hearts from breaking. I’m sure you can understand the lengths a loving sibling would go to.”
“Are you sure you know which one you are? Roan or Schroder?” Pierce asked. “Things like this get confused so easily.”
The vampire shrugged his shoulders elegantly. “Ah, I can’t remember. These days I go by
Roan. His reputation is cleaner than Schroder’s.” I heard Pierce suck in his breath.
But Roan didn’t seem to care who he was talking to—whether it was me or Pierce. He was half lost in memory as he continued, “Sweeper, how could I blame you for trying to stop the same thing from happening in your family? I would have saved my brother if I could have.”
“Then why did you go after London in the first place, if you knew the damage it would cause?”
“I fell in love.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. Vampires were so stupid about love.
He waved his hand in dismissal. “Not with her. With you, but how could I stand to murder you? I would certainly let you kill me if I let you drink one drop of my blood and I knew my passion would eventually drive me to that if I didn’t take steps to stop it—so I drank London’s blood and thought about you.” He touched my cheek and whispered in my ear. “I pretended she was you every time I touched her, every time I tasted her blood. She wasn’t herself. For me, she was you.”
I slapped his face.
“I had to keep my love for you pure—to keep both of us alive.”
My head was spinning and my brain was breaking. I couldn’t stand this. “Liar. Do you think telling me such a ridiculous tale will win you any points now? You hardly even saw me back then. How dare you say you loved me?”
“But I did,” he said softly. “You were like the opposite of a vampire. Most people want to be vampires, but not you. Can you imagine the horror of taking a flask of blood to your lips every night and drinking, say, a hundred and eighty milliliters, for two months? A person seeking to gain a vampire life does it. They know where the blood comes from and they don’t flinch. The price is too high—much too high for you. You didn’t love things or even seek selfish pleasure. You loved perfectly.”
“What?”
He took a deep breath and what he was saying sounded like something he had been aching to say. “If I came into your life slowly and took even a few days to make friends with you—you would have liked me. I would have done anything to make you like me. After our relationship was established, you would have done everything to defend me. That’s how you treated London and everyone else.”
“How could you know how I treated others? I repeat; you hardly saw me.”
“I didn’t need to. It wasn’t hard to see and I fell in love with you instantly. Everyone loves you, though you didn’t know it. You don’t see the way their eyes turn as you brush past, Sweeper.” His voice slowed as he finished his thought, “You wouldn’t want anything to do with me if I killed your sister. I did it to protect myself.”
“And you didn’t worry that I’d come after you and kill you?” “I’d forgive you,” he said quietly.
This was infuriating. “You don’t make any sense. If you didn’t care that I would kill you, then why not try to have a relationship with me?”
“I didn’t feel that way at first.”
“I’m going to kill you now if you don’t start making some sense! What about what you’ve done to London now? Do you think I’ll forgive you for chaining her up in the basement of your garage and letting seven humans drink off her last night?” I accused, pulling the gun out of the back of my pants and pointing it at the ceiling. I wanted to hear what he had to say in response to my accusation. I wanted to force him to answer.
At first, he just stared.
Beside me, Pierce was preparing to play referee.
“It’s not me who’s doing that.”
“Is that so?” I said acidly. I couldn’t talk to him and I couldn’t stand his attitude of feigned innocence. I c****d my gun and pointed it at his head. “Well, if it’s not you then call Garth now and tell him to let London go before he drinks enough blood to change himself into a vampire.
Do it now!”
“Why?” he whispered. “Aren’t you tired of having to babysit London? Don’t you feel like she is ruining your life? Don’t you want to have a relationship with a man? Get in deep with someone special in your bedroom without worrying about her down the hall? Live your life like it matters?”
“And you want to give all that to me?”
“Yes. I know it’s too late for you and me to be together, but I want you to have your life like you bit a piece out of it instead of what you’ve been doing, admiring your own life in a shop window… like it’s something you can’t have.”
“Stop making this about me. You could save her. She loves you. You could take her back.” “Why would I do that?”
“Fine. Don’t take her back, but why are you torturing her and selling her blood to monsters?”
“He can’t help it!” Pierce interjects. “Once you’ve made someone a vampire, you can’t escape the suspicion they’ll come after you until after they’re dead.”
My eyes were hot as I pushed my sweaty bangs off my forehead. “Call Garth now or I really will shoot.”
“You won’t kill me with that little gun, and I want to do this for you. It’s a gift.” “Call Garth!” I screamed, tears running down my cheeks.
“Pull the trigger,” Pierce ordered.
I tightened my finger around the trigger, but I couldn’t pull it. I couldn’t do it. I was afraid if I did, I’d shut his mouth forever and I’d never be able to save London. I dropped my gun and fell to my knees on the floor. “Please, save London. Stop them from hurting her. I beg you. Please, tell me where she is.”
He bent down so his eyes were level with mine. “You have to understand. I have to be strong now for you.”
He was completely crazy. I was never going to get anything from him. I picked up my gun, put it to his temple, and SMASH! BANG!
Roan was lying on the floor with blood splattered all around.
Except I wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger.
I looked to my left and Dudley was standing outside the broken window. He did it.
He took the barrel of his gun and broke away the extra glass around the window. Then he came in through the frame.
“It’s okay, Sweeper,” he said, getting down next to me and putting his arms around me.
“Why is it okay?” I wailed, pushing him away from me. “Now we’ll never find London.”
Dudley pushed my gun away and held my head to his chest. At first, I struggled against him, but then I released the handle and clung to him. Unhappiness assailed me, but his strong heartbeat soothed me. I wiped my tears away and tried my best to slow myself down.
Then I noticed what Pierce was doing. He was kneeling beside Roan, inspecting his body. My panic completely ebbed as I watched Pierce pull off Roan’s hair. He was wearing a wig?
“Don’t tell me this bloodsucker isn’t Schroder or Roan now!” I whined in complete confusion.
“No. It’s the right guy,” Dudley said.
Pierce looked grim. “It’s just that when he was burnt, I’m assuming by you, all his hair was burnt off. The eyebrows and eyelashes are false, too. He said a single bullet to the head wouldn’t kill him. It made me wonder if he’s taken one or two before. See? There’s a mark—here and there.” Pierce lifted his head and examined his whole skull. “He’s been shot in the head on four other occasions. He needs surgery to have them removed.” “Is that possible?” I gaped.
“Sweeper, you slashed him through the chest, I severed his head and we burned his corpse and he lived.” Dudley sighed. “This is only going to stun him and when he wakes up, he’ll be more demented than before.”
“Great,” I groaned, “but how? How did he live? Only ashes were left the morning after we burned him.”
Dudley frowned. “I must not have put his head far enough away from his body. He must have gotten up and left while you and I were sleeping. That’s why there was no skeleton. There should have been bones at least.”
“But how could he move at all if his head was severed?”
Dudley looked sheepish, like he didn’t know the answer. He finally responded by saying limply, “He’s undead.”
“All right, so how do you kill a vampire, if doing all that doesn’t kill him?”
“There’s only one way—you have to bleed them dry. Well, I suppose there are gorier methods, but bleeding them is the most effective. When we burned him, we cauterized the cuts. If we’d left him to bleed out on your living room floor, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”
Pierce looked troubled. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to take him out of here if I’m going to have time to help him before he wakes up. Can one of you please call for the maid? I need to talk to her.”
Dudley got up and went to get the maid.
I sat on the floor with my legs in a W-shape feeling tousled and looking at my blood-sprayed shirt while Dudley went to get the maid.
Pierce took off his coat and wrapped it around Schroder’s head. “Don’t be so disturbed. After the surgery, he’ll be a completely different person. Right now, he’s brain-damaged. After the operation, I’ll make sure he can’t harm you anymore,” he said with a friendly gleam in his eye.
“And we’ll get your sister back.”
“How can you be so sure? We don’t know anything about Garth. Dudley said they might not even be planning to come back here.”
“Tate Dudley? In the flesh? Is that who your friend is? If it’s him then it’ll be okay. I’ve heard tales about him. He’s the resourceful type. He should be able to find her.”
I put my hand to my forehead in fatigue. I couldn’t look on the bright side at a moment like this.
Dudley came back with the maid. She wasn’t remotely surprised or disturbed by the sight before her, but looked to Pierce for an explanation, which he seemed happy to supply. “We had a little accident. Do you mind if I take him to my place for a while just to get him sorted?”
“Are you taking him to see The Scissor Man?” she asked, placing an impatient hand on her hip.
“Yes.”
“My salary has been prepaid for the next six months, so if he doesn’t come back—I’ll be coming to see you.”
Pierce returned her gaze calmly and said, “You don’t need to threaten me, Jan. I know how these things work and you know where to find me.”
“Then I’ll get something to clean the blood,” she said before slipping out of the room.
“Don’t spend all your money bribing her,” Dudley said, going to Schroder’s feet and helping Pierce lift him off the floor. “I have some news,” he said, looking at me. “While you were coming in here without my permission, I ran into a couple of humans prowling around the back. They were discussing how they were going to keep something a secret from Schroder/Roan… whatever this guy’s name is.”
“What?” I said, pulling myself together and getting up.
Dudley and Pierce grasped Schroder’s body and carried him to the door and down the hall while Dudley talked. “I think it’s good news. Apparently, Garth ran off with London when he took her out of the shed last night.”
“Why did he do that?” I asked, hurrying after them.
“Why?” Dudley clicked his tongue on the roof of this mouth. “Probably because he fell in love with her and he was just pretending to be comfortable with it when they were draining her last night.”
“But won’t he just kill her himself after he transforms into a vampire?”
At that, Dudley frowned. “I thought you’d be relieved, but I guess you wanted a happy ending for this story. It’s just that,” Dudley said as they eased Schroder through the front door and down the steps to the car, “it’s a miracle she’s survived this long.” He paused as Pierce opened the back door to his sedan and together they crammed Schroder’s unconscious frame into the backseat.
Dudley slammed the door and leaned against it with ease. “This means she can take the natural course all vampires must take with Garth instead of being tortured to death.” “Are you saying you’re going to give up on her?” I accused.
“No. Not at all. I only mean the desperation of the situation has eased considerably. I got a couple more license plate numbers, so we’ll be able to round up the rest of the humans who were in league with Schroder and question them about Garth. From there, we might be able to find a clue as to where Garth has taken her.”
I shook my head. “And that means?”
He put his arm around my shoulder. “It means I’ll take you to my place tonight and then tomorrow you can go back to work like everything is fine. Tomorrow night, you and I will question the owners of the vehicles and find out what we can—like Garth’s address. But seriously, Sweeper, if it turns out that she’s lost forever, that’s the path London chose and there’s nothing to regret. This is the path all vampires eventually take. It’s just a matter of whether or not she has the strength to kill Garth in the end.”
I knew she didn’t have the strength, but who was I to criticize? I didn’t have the strength to argue with Dudley now. I was angry with him, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was rest and get my head on straight.
Pierce gave me a grim smile and gently smacked Dudley on the shoulder to stop him from leaning against his shiny car.
“I’m going to go back inside and talk to Jan about how to handle any ‘visitors’ that happen to pop by tonight. Collecting their license plate numbers is all well and good, but unlike Dudley, I have the authority to take care of those humans tonight, so I’ll stay until dawn and round everyone up. But first, I want you to show me where they were draining London.”
“All right,” Dudley said, looking slightly perturbed. He clearly didn’t like being outmaneuvered like that. However, he quickly teamed up with the vampire policeman and started walking toward the back of the house.
I stopped them. “Are you guys just going to leave Schroder in the car?”
“What?”
“Well, if any of those humans come through the front door instead of the back and they see
Schroder all mangled in the backseat of your car, won’t they get spooked and take off?” “He’s got a jacket wrapped around his head,” Dudley pointed out.
“Maybe so, but I think she’s got a point,” Pierce said, ruefully stroking his chin. “Besides, he needs to be taken to a secure location. I really jammed myself in a tight place tonight. I want to stay and round up those humans, but I also need to take Schroder away before he wakes up. Hey, Sweeper, why don’t you drive him to my place? It’s better to take him there rather than the police station. One of my servants will know what to do with him and when you’re done dropping him off, you can drive back here.”
I glanced at Schroder in the back of the car and wasn’t sure I felt all that comfortable, but when I thought of the chance we could be missing to catch those humans who had been planning to drain London—I gave way.
“Sure, I can do it,” I said easily.
Pierce pulled out his car keys and got into the front seat. From there, he punched up a map on his GPS and showed me the way to his house. “You can follow this, right?”
“I’m not a moron,” I replied.
He smiled and got out of the driver’s seat.
Just then, I heard the click of the back door opening. Dudley was standing over Schroder with his gun to his head.
Pierce jumped on his gun hand before he could pull the trigger. “What are you doing?”
“I just want to make sure he doesn’t wake up while Sweeper is driving him,” Dudley protested.
“Don’t shoot off a firearm in the middle of the street! I don’t care if it’s one in the morning, it’ll draw unwanted attention. As if we aren’t gathering enough of that just standing here. We can best help Sweeper by sending her off as quickly as possible. He won’t wake up. Trust me. We just need to get her moving.”
Dudley’s expression was doubtful, but I was resolute. “You guys are the ones who need to get moving,” I fumed. “If you let even one of those bastards go because of this pathetic quarrel, I’ll see you both in hell.”
“At my house, ask for Kilmeny. He’ll know what to do,” Pierce advised.
With that, I got in the car and slammed the door shut. Getting to Pierce’s house would be easy. Except that the expression on Dudley’s face in the side-view mirror as I pulled away looked distinctly uneasy. Whatever. I could do this.
I started driving. Pierce’s house was nowhere near Schroder’s. It was in a suburb on the other side of the city. I took a highway route. It was faster because there were no lights and no pedestrians.
I had been driving for about twenty-five minutes when I started to hear moaning from the backseat. My heart almost stopped as I craned my ear to listen. There were no words, just odd mumbling. I looked over my shoulder at his head, but I couldn’t see anything in the dark. I got control of myself and put my foot on the accelerator. I would be there in ten minutes. Less if I sped.