Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

Chapter 15

Chapter 15There were times when I felt Westhamwas too small for me. Too small for my bike. Too small for my life. Iwanted to live in a place that was bigger, that I could get lost in,with so many faces that no one would know me anymore.

And then there were days like today,when it felt like it took forever to navigate the streets of thesmall town. I opened my bike full throttle where I could, but it feltlike I was moving in slow motion. I could hear my own pulsethundering in my ears, felt it in my fingers where they curled aroundthe throttle.

I could still hear the cackling laughof Celia the werecat dancing around me in Joel’s pit. I tried tobreathe, forced myself to take a deep breath, and another, andanother. But my chest was tight, and my body did nothing with theoxygen.

I skidded to a halt outside mychildhood home and took a long look. The oak tree at the side of thedriveway had grown since I’d last seen it. Leaves were scattered onthe grass, even though it had been cut recently. The low roof overthe porch looked like it was leaning on the house, forcing it tosquat down on itself.

I wondered if it was because of mypanic that this place looked like it was suffocating, or if it hadalways been like that and as a child I just hadn’t noticed.

Claude’s car was in the driveway tothe side of the house. It was unlocked. I opened the door expectingthe worst, but there was nothing. No blood, no sign of struggle. NoAspen. I ran my hand under the steering wheel and in the foot well. Ichecked under the passenger seat. There was nothing there, no trackerI could find, and I didn’t have the time to keep looking. It didn’tmatter. Wherever the tracker was, it said the vamps had to be here.

I ran up to the front door and triedthe handle. The door was locked. I rattled it, yelling for Aspen.Great approach when you’re expecting master vampires. When therewas no response, I ran around to the back and hopped the low gate.

The concrete in the backyard wascracked, with weeds growing out of it, and the grass was wheat beigeeven though it shouldn’t have been. I pressed my face against awindow, cupping it with my hands so I could see into the kitchen.

Everything inside was undisturbed. Thetable in the corner looked ready for someone’s next meal, but athin veil of dust lay over everything like a blanket. No one had beeninside.

“Aspen!” I called out. I shivered,feeling cold despite my leathers.

I ran to my bike, but halfway there Islowed down as an idea came to me. I had bitten her. Her blood was inmy system.

I stepped to the side and sat down onthe grass under the oak tree. The leaves crackled under my weight. Itook a deep breath, closed my eyes, and turned my focus inside.

I’d never done this before; I’donly heard about it from my parents. I focused on my heart, slowingit down. I evened out my breathing, inhaling slowly, taking twice aslong on the exhale.

There had only been a few drops ofblood on my lips. Barely anything at all. But I could feel her. Shewas alive.

I focused on the faint pulse that camefrom her. I felt her emotions, dim and distant, like I was lookingthrough fog, but they were there. She was panicked and scared, andsore from being manhandled. But she was alive, and she wasn’t badlyhurt.

I tried to find her. Her blood shouldhave called out to me and told me where she was. But something wasblocking me, and I lost the dim trail I’d picked up. Someone washiding her.

My heart started its wild race all overagain. I ran to my bike, back in full-on panic mode.

I made it to Aspen’s house in underfive minutes, sure I’d broken every traffic rule in the book. Ikicked out the bike stand and nearly dropped the bike to the groundbefore I balanced it and ran up the steps. The front door was ajar. Ipushed it open carefully and stepped inside the house.

End tables were on their sides, and apotted plant lay on the floor with dirt strewn across the carpet.Broken pieces of glass that used to be coffee cups lay scatteredtoward the kitchen. When I stepped onto the tiles, the smell hit mebefore I saw anything.

Death had a smell. Rotten, a littlesour, even though the body hadn’t begun decomposing yet. And fearoften hung in the air around it. It took a while before thatdisappeared. It laced the air now, and I felt sick before I saw her.

Zelda lay face down on the kitchentiles, vacantly staring at the pool of dark blood that had swelledaround her head. The hair that had escaped from her neat bun wasstained with it. Her right arm was stretched up, like she’d beenreaching for something. The blinds on one window were open, whichthey normally never were during the day, making everything sharp andvivid.

From the looks of it, Zelda had run toopen the blinds and had only made it to one window. If that had beenthe case, it meant the masters had been here. In the daylight. Iknelt next to her and examined her without touching her. The bloodcame from a hole in her neck where her throat should have been. Itwas a mangled, bloody mess now. She’d been bitten and her throatripped out to stop her. From the looks of things, they hadn’t takenher blood, or at least not a lot of it.

“I’m so sorry,” I said softly.Zelda had been hard and strict, but I’d known her for a long timeand she’d been good to Aspen.

I took a deep breath and tried to calmmy nerves. I had to keep my head about me. The way I was panickingwas already dangerous.

I doubted they’d killed Aspen. Theystill needed me to take out Connor. If they’d already gotten tohim, Aspen would have been here too, dead next to Zelda. And Claude’scar wouldn’t have been at the safe house. No, I believed Aspen wasstill alive. I needed to believe it. They were using her formotivation, because they knew that if she died, I would give up. Ihad to find her.

I stood up and systematically combedthrough the rest of the house, but nothing was out of place. Thestruggle had happened between the front door and the kitchen, and ithad happened quickly, without wasting a lot of time.

When I stepped out into the sunlightagain it felt foreign, like the whole world was suddenly a place Ididn’t know. The sun was high in the sky. It was rolling on towardsnoon, and I still hadn’t eaten. I felt empty and hollow, but foodcouldn’t fill this kind of hole in my soul.

My phone rang in my pocket, and Ipulled it out and pushed ‘talk’.

“You’d better get to the office,”Carl’s voice came loud and clear through the speaker.

“Just because I turned to you forhelp doesn’t mean we’re friends, Carl,” I sneered. I didn’tfeel like playing his games. I already felt like I owed him one, andI didn’t like owing people.

“Thanks for the sentiment, but don’tflatter yourself,” he said. “This is actually important. I’mguessing you can make more out of this than I can, seeing that Rubenactually tells you things once in a while.”

I frowned but agreed. “I’ll bethere in ten. I have nothing better to do with my time.” I’dmeant that last bit sarcastically, but I realized as I hung up thatit was true. I had nothing. No lead on Joel, a dead-end lead onAspen, a dead caregiver and a missing driver.

Nope, I could still fit more on myplate.

The office was quiet, which wasstrange. Ruben ran a normal accounting firm during the day, whichmeant there should be cars outside. There weren’t. All the lightsin the lobby were off, and everything had an eerie feel to it despitethe sunlight filtering in through the windows. The day receptionist’sdesk was unoccupied.

“Carl?” I called.

He appeared at the top of the stairs.He looked like he’d aged since I’d last seen him. His face wassagging, there were dark rings under his eyes and his blue iriseswere darker, like the ocean instead of like ice.

“What’s going on?” I asked,climbing the stairs to him. “Where is everybody?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, andfor once he didn’t sound belittling or mocking or sarcastic. Thatin itself was more alarming than anything else. “Sonya paged me andI came here—”

“You still use a pager?” I askedhim.

He rolled his eyes. “Focus, Adele,”he snapped. “Sonya paged me, which isn’t that weird – she worksfunny hours for a vampire – but when I got here the whole place wasquiet, like this. I wasn’t able to come in right away, so I didn’tknow if this had happened before or after… So I phoned you, becauseyou know more about this place than I do.”

“Aren’t you in Ruben’s backpocket?” I asked. I’d always had the idea that Carl was thefavorite.

But he shook his head. “Honestly? Ithink he was just doing me a favor by taking me on. I have skills,sure. But what can I do? I’m just a human.”

“Very humbling words, Carl,” Isaid. “I always thought you were a bit of an ass—”

We’d stopped at the doors that led toSonya’s office, and what I saw cut me short. The place was a mess.The desk was upside down, a file cabinet lay face down and paperswere scattered all over the place. There was blood on the carpet.When I looked up, I saw that the light bulbs in all the lamps thathung from the ceiling were broken.

“What the hell happened here?” Iasked.

“That’s what I was hoping you’dtell me,” Carl said, not sounding in the least offended that I’dbeen about to call him an asshole. In fact, he sounded worn. Helooked like he was dead on his feet.

I walked through the office, lookingaround. Someone had been looking for something, from what I couldgather, but everything was such a mess it would take days, and Sonya,to know what had gone missing. I pushed against the door to Ruben’soffice.

“Don’t go in there,” Carl said.

I looked over my shoulder at him, andhe was as white as a ghost. I frowned but pushed into the officeanyway.

Something was leaning against the door,and I had to shove to get the door open wide enough for me to go inthere. After I managed to slip through, the door closed again, and Iwas trapped in the office.

There was blood everywhere: on thewalls, the carpet, the papers on Ruben’s desk. And the office wasthe same mess the other one had been. The furniture was alloverturned, and the file cabinet drawers were all pulled out. When Iturned to see what had stopped the door from opening, I gagged.

It was Ruben. And he was very dead.

His face was a bloody mess, like he’dbeen hit a couple of times. Big gashes across his body were oozingblood, and his clothes were a red-stained mess. His eyes were open,staring at his office. His throat was gone, worse than Zelda’s.

I closed my eyes and turned my headaway. The blinds all around the office were closed. The light bulbsin here were broken too.

I pulled the door open, shoving againstthe dead body I didn’t want to touch so I could get out again. WhenI reached Sonya’s office I shivered. Carl was sitting on the edgeof a tipped cabinet, looking small despite his bulk of muscle.

“Told you,” he said, but the jokingtone in his voice was missing, and he looked about as haunted as Ifelt.

“Well,” was all I could say.

“Do you know what’s going on here?”he asked me after a moment of silence.

I walked over to the cabinet and satdown next to him. It was strange sharing personal space with someone.I was aware of the warmth that came from him and the smell of hiscologne filtering through the sour smell of death and fear.

“He took on the wrong clients,” Isaid. “They’re vampires, after someone for a big deal. They cameto him, and he took the job for the money. But it ended up costing alot more than that.”

“I’m assuming you got the job?”

I nodded. I wished I’d never takenit. “You think it’s just another kill, and before you know iteveryone around you is dying.” I stopped talking because a lump hadsuddenly risen in my throat. I didn’t want to cry in front of Carl.

“You know, I took this job because Iwanted to prove myself to my father. He said I didn’t have it inme, that I was too soft, that I’d never be a real man.”

Underneath his charming, I-don’t-carefaçade and bulky muscles, he was just a boy. He looked vulnerablenow, with the events of the morning peeling away his macho veneer.

“This doesn’t make me a man,though. You know? It just makes me a murderer.”

“They’re vampires, Carl,” I said,trying to sound like they didn’t matter. But somewhere along theline, I’d started to feel like they did matter. Connor mattered.And Mom mattered. I sighed. “I hate it too.”

“Why are you still doing it?” Carlasked.

I shrugged. “I guess when you give somuch of yourself away to do it in the first place, you can’t stop.There won’t be anything left. This has started to define me, Ithink. Why do you still do it?”

Carl shrugged too. “I think it’ssafe to see this as an opportunity to change jobs. The switchshouldn’t be too hard now. No two weeks’ notice, you know?”

His attempt at a joke fell to the floorin front of us. Neither of us thought it was funny.

“So, these vampires who killed him –are they after you too?” he asked.

“Yes, but not to kill me. They wantme to take out the mark. They’re willing to kill to make sure thathappens.”

“Why don’t they do it themselves?”

“Because he’s slippery, and theylost control of their own mess. Now they’re just making a mess foreveryone else.”

Carl nodded slowly. “Hey, at leastyour life isn’t in danger,” he said.

“My sister’s is. And my IT guy. Ifthey’re still alive, I have to finish the job to save them. Ifthey’re already dead, well, then, the vamps have successfullykilled me too.”

“I can help you find him,” Carloffered. “I’m sure when we put our heads together, we can do morethan either of us alone could manage.”

I shook my head. “It’s not thateasy. The mark – Connor – he’s not really the kind of vampire Iwant to kill. He’s…”

I took a deep breath, not finishing mysentence. Carl narrowed his eyes at me.

“I’m guessing there’s a lot moreto this story. Let me see what I have so far. You don’t want tokill the mark because – and I’m just guessing – you havefeelings for him.”

“I do not,” I said meekly, whichwas an answer in itself.

“Right. Sure. Your sister and the ITguy are being held hostage—”

“Maybe.”

“And you need to put an end to all ofthis. What am I missing?”

I sighed. What did I have to lose atthis point, telling him? “My sister’s caregiver has been killed,my driver is missing, they have a pet cat-woman who’s out totorture me within an inch of my life, and I don’t know where tofind Connor even if I don’t want to kill him, because I shot him.”

Carl raised his eyebrows.

“I missed,” I said.

“You?”

I snorted. “Hard to believe. I know.”

“These vampires… they’re the oneswho killed Ruben?” He swallowed hard, like the words in his mouthmade him sick.

I nodded.

“And they’re the ones who hiredyou.”

“To kill the mark, yeah. Hisgirlfriend hired me to find him for her. At least, that’s what Ithought. Now I don’t really know what to think. It’scomplicated.”

“I can see that.”

I sighed, and Carl lapsed into silencenext to me.

A banging suddenly started, and thecabinet underneath us rattled and shook. Carl and I both jumped upand backed away. The banging continued, and the muffled sounds of awoman’s voice traveled through the metal.

“Someone’s in there,” I said.

“I know,” Carl said, but neither ofus made a move.

“We have to get her out,” I said.

Carl nodded, and finally we movedtoward the cabinet. We tipped it onto its side with some effort, andthe voice inside groaned. I fiddled with the door, trying to get itopen, but a voice called from inside.

“No! Don’t open it! I’ll fry.It’s Sonya.”

“The sunlight,” I said. “She’llburn to a crisp if we open it.”

“What are we going to do?”

I thought for a moment. “Thejanitor’s closet,” I said. “It has no windows.”

“That’s downstairs,” Carl said,and I nodded. He sighed and braced himself at the one end of thecabinet.

I was at the other end, and we heavedand lifted it up with Sonya inside. She made small whimpering soundsas we moved her. Twice Carl slipped and dropped his end, and shescreamed and cursed from inside.

“Sorry,” Carl muttered.

Finally, after a lot of sweating andheaving and swearing, we finally had the cabinet in the closetbetween the buckets and mops and ladders. I clicked on the singlelight bulb that hung from the ceiling, and Carl wrestled with thenow-dented door to get it open.

When he yanked it free, Sonya tumbledout. Her brown hair was disheveled, and she had bruises on her face.Her hands were raw, with dried blood caked around her nails, and sheglared at us.

“You couldn’t be a little morecareful?” she asked.

“It was either that or fried Sonya,”I answered flatly. “What happened?”

Sonya took a shuddering breath. “Theyscheduled a meeting in the middle of the night. Ruben assumed it wasto talk about everything. He asked me to unlock the office, said he’dbe here literally last minute. But they didn’t want to talk. Themoment they arrived, they started trashing the place. They knocked medown.”

“How many were there?” I asked.

“Just the same two as last time,”she said, and I nodded. Carl looked at me questioningly, but I wouldanswer him later.

“Why didn’t you get out of here?”I asked.

“Ruben arrived and saw them bullyingme. He got them away from me into the office. One of them followed –the master – but the other one stuffed me in this cabinet so Icouldn’t go anywhere.”

“It’s metal,” I confirmed. Shehadn’t been able to dematerialize.

“I don’t know what happened. Icouldn’t hear too well through the metal, but I know Ruben closedthe door. The next thing I knew, there was a lot of banging around meand then the cabinet fell over.”

I sat down on an upturned bucket. Thecloset was extremely small for the three of us and the cabinet, and Ifelt a wave of claustrophobia.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Sonyaasked in a thin voice.

I nodded. There was no use denying it.

Sonya covered her face with her handsand cried. Her shoulders shook, and her body shrank in on itself,crushed by the weight of her misery. Carl put a hand on her shoulder.She flinched, but she didn’t pull away from him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I didn’tjust mean for the fact that Ruben was dead. I was sorry foreverything, for this happening at all, for her being involved in it,for the mess it had become.

“We have to go,” Carl said.

He wanted to talk; I could see it. Ifhe was smart, he would run and never look back. He had too much tolose – he didn’t want to be involved in this. But I knew thatCarl wasn’t particularly smart when it came to risking his ownlife. He wouldn’t run. He would stay to fight. That should havemade me feel better, that there was someone who’d have my back. Butit just made me feel sick to my stomach. If he died – and thechances were pretty good that he would – his blood would be on myhands too. It would be another body to add to my growing list oflosses.

“We can’t open the door,” I said,turning to Sonya. She’d stopped sobbing, but her cheeks were wetand her eyes were bright. “You’ll have to get back inside thatthing so we can leave. You’ll be able to get out again once we’regone. And then you’ll have to wait it out in here until the sungoes down and you can go home.”

She didn’t look happy with me, butshe didn’t argue, either. There wasn’t anything else to do aboutit.

She stood up and stepped back into thecabinet. Carl made sure she could push the door open from the insidebefore we left, so she wouldn’t be stuck in there again, and onceshe was inside her little metal coffin he opened the door and westepped out of the closet.

“I don’t know what to do with thisone,” Carl admitted. “We’re going to have to call the policebecause of Ruben’s death, and they’re going to go through all thepaperwork. We have to get in there and get rid of our stuff beforethey can get at it.”

I suddenly felt like my body was madeof lead. I felt heavy and sore, like I was the one who’d beenbeaten up. It felt like everything that normally kept me going hadbeen drained out of me, and I was just a shell.

“Just call them, Carl. I’m going togo home.”

“But we can’t just leave—”

“It’s over, Carl,” I said. “Letthem come. I can’t do this anymore.”

Then I left.