Welcome to Castle Cove

Stay inside as told

Stay inside as told

“Don’t do it,” I tell myself. The people who get themselves killed are the unqualified fools who think they can rush in and save people when they really can’t.

And besides, I don’t know what is happening down there. She could be getting mauled by a bear or she’s being held by a gang at gunpoint. I can’t do a thing about either situation. I have some mace, but what in the world is that going to do in the face of guns?

But I can’t help pacing my apartment. Stressed and worried and wishing for news.

The night remains disturbingly silent until I see the blue and red lights bouncing off the opposite brownstones.

I pull open the sliding glass door and step out onto the balcony. Sushi squeezes himself between my ankles as I lean over the rail to get a good look at the street below.

Two police cars and an ambulance clog the street.

At first, I don’t hear anyone. Then I see the paramedics carrying a stretcher. The cotton sheets yellowed in the lamplight. On the stretcher lies a body. I know it is a body, not a person because it’s been covered with a white sheet and the blood is soaking through.

I cover my mouth with my hand, moaning into it.

Oh god.

Oh god, she’s dead.

Movement catches my eye and I see one of the officer’s step away and approach. “Are you the one that called in?” he calls up from the street.

I manage a nod. I’m not sure if I say yes.

“Can I come up and ask you a few questions?”

Another nod. I take one more look at the stretcher disappearing into the back of the ambulance before stepping away from the balcony and locking the doors behind me.

When I open the front door, the officer is already there. He must’ve been very quiet on the stairs or I am in shock.

He removes his hat, revealing cropped, coarse hair and amber eyes that look beautiful in his dark face. “May I come in?” he asks politely.

“Yes, please,” I say. I’m shaking.

“I’m Officer Jericho Cush,” he says with a warm smile.

Forget names. What the hell just happened? “Is she dead?” I blurt.

“Yes,” he says firmly.

I cover my face with my hands. “Oh god, I should’ve called sooner. I should’ve gone down there or—”

“You wouldn’t have been able to help her. You would’ve only gotten yourself killed.”

“Did you catch the people who did this?” I ask, blinking back tears.

“Not yet,” he says. “But we will.”

I breathe deeply into my cupped hands.

“Do you mind if I ask a few questions?” he asks softly.

I shake my head no.

“Should we sit down?”

I pull the hands away from my face and see him gesturing toward the sofa.

I plop onto it without saying a word. I would be content to just sit there for the rest of the night, my face in my hands, but Sushi hisses.

I look up in time to see his ears lay flat against his head, his eyes fully dilated. His little canines are pearly white in the low light.

“Cats don’t really like me,” Officer Cush says.

“No shit.” I didn’t mean to blurt that out. “Sorry.”

He gives me a warm smile. “It’s okay. Can you tell me what happened tonight? Just start from the beginning.”

I proceed to give him a timeline from the moment I woke on the couch to when I called 911. But it feels like someone else is answering the questions and I’m floating in the air above us.

“You’ve really been through something,” Officer Cush says at last, after I’ve repeated my story about four times. His smile bright and sympathetic.

“Nothing compared to what she must’ve gone through,” I say, kicking myself for the thousandth time for not stepping in, not doing what I could.

“You need to relax,” he says. Officer Cush inches toward me on the sofa, those amber eyes seemingly brighter.

My eyes fall on the shiny gun at his hip. The smell of his leather jacket and belt. I think, do cops wear leather jackets on duty?

But he’s still speaking. “When you wake up, you’ll feel a lot better about all this.”

“What are you—” I begin, those golden eyes drawing too close.

“Relax,” he whispers, and I feel the hot breath on my face. “This will help.”

I wake to a soft paw batting my nose.

“Meow.”

A tinge of claws.

“Meow.”

I pry my eyes open against the sunlight streaming in. This is all the encouragement that the cat needs. He climbs onto my chest and proceeds to rub his head and ears against my face until I’m gasping. I swat him away.

I sit up and check the time. Almost 10:30. I’m surprised he let me sleep this long.

“Okay, okay,” I say and throw back the covers. And pause.

I’m fully dressed.

I try to remember what happened the night before…the first thought that surfaces is the ambulance. I remember talking to an officer briefly but that’s it. Did I really have that much wine?

Beside the clock icon on my phone I see the voicemail flag. A red alert that will drive me nuts until I check it.

I play the message while dragging myself into the kitchen to feed the cat.

Of course, only a small circle of the bowl is exposed but I give him his morning scoop anyway.

I know the voice on the voicemail. It’s Katie. But her voice is hushed and frightened. I have to restart the message twice to make sure I understand what she is saying. On the third play-through I’m absolutely certain.

“Baltimore. Oh s**t, Baltimore. Help me. I shouldn’t have left Alpha’s with them, but how the hell was I supposed to know they were vampires?! Honest-to-god freaking monsters. I don’t know where they’re taking me. They’ve got me in a trunk and—”

“What the f**k,” a man cuts in. “I thought you took her phone.”

A scream cuts off the message. Katie’s scream.

The hair on the back of my neck is standing straight up. I listen to it two more times, feeling sick over my pounding heart.

I’m also having a bit of déjà vu, though I’m certain I’ve never heard a woman scream like that before in my life.

I exit the voicemail and call Katie. Fingers crossed she was drunk, in a bad situation but is home safe now with a hellacious hangover.

Vampires? Real vampires? She can’t be serious…

But the call goes straight to her voicemail. Damn. I leave a message anyway, completely aware that I sound like a hand-wringing mother. I could drive to Alpha’s and see if they saw her. Or I can go by her place and knock on the door.

Choice 11

Go by Katie’s apartment

Go by Alpha’s