Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

Chapter 3

Chapter 3A hammering on my door pulled me out ofmy sleep cycle before my alarm could wake me up. I stared at the hazynumbers on the digital clock next to my bed. I’d only slept aboutthree hours. Whoever was out there had better have a bloody goodreason for waking me up.

I grabbed the Glock from under mypillow and walked to the front door. I pushed my eye against thepeephole. A woman with a short red bob, wearing a power-dressingsuit, was standing on the other side of my door. She must have beenlost.

I tucked the gun into the back of myshorts’ waistband and pulled open the door.

The woman looked me up and down andblinked. Her eyes were emerald green, and her cheeks were dusted withfreckles. The black and red dress suit made her look businesslike andmuch too classy to be in this neighborhood.

“I’m sorry. I think I have thewrong apartment,” she said, looking down at a piece of paper andthen up above my door where the metal number was screwed on.

“Who are you looking for?” Thereweren’t a lot of characters in my apartment building she could wantto see—I could tell her that much.

“Mr. Griffin?”

I c****d an eyebrow. There was no Mr.Griffin in my life.

“I’m Adele Griffin,” I said. “NoMister here. Who sent you?”

The woman looked unsure. “Ruben Crosssent me over here. He said he had an employee who could help me out.”

“I work for Ruben,” I said, andstepped aside, making space for her to come in. If Ruben had sent herto me it was business, and it was serious.

She hesitated before she stepped intothe apartment. I gestured toward the kitchen.

“Can I get you anything?” I askedwhen we got there. I opened the fridge and scanned the contents. Ihad to run to the store.

“Just water, thank you,” she said,and sat down in the booth against the wall.

I shrugged and poured us each a glass.The sun was low enough for the light to fall into my kitchen window.I wasn’t usually up at this time of the morning, and it made mecrabby.

“You’re a woman,” she said.

Thank you, Ms. Obvious.

“What do you need done?”

“I’m sorry. Ruben just didn’tmention you were a woman. I expected a man.”

“I can do a job as well as any mancan,” I said smoothly. If she was going to sit here and make this asexist thing, I wasn’t going to take the job, no matter who shewanted me to get rid of.

She took a sip of water. “I didn’tmean that as an insult,” she said. “Now that I think about it,maybe it’s better that you are a woman. We look at thingsdifferently, don’t we?”

“We certainly do,” I said, sarcasmbleeding through my words. I wasn’t going to be categorized. But ifshe picked up on it, she didn’t react. “Who is it you want me totake care of?”

She fiddled with the glass, turning itaround and around on the plastic tabletop with an irritating rhythm.I placed my hand on the glass and gripped it firmly so she couldn’tturn it. She looked up at me, and I couldn’t interpret theexpression on her face.

I forced politeness. “Look, thisisn’t a good time for me. I’m off-duty, and these kinds ofmeetings usually happen at the office. If you want me to hit someone,tell me the details so I can get back to bed.”

“Hit someone?” she asked, lookingconfused.

The ignorance of some people irritatedme. You didn’t knock on the door of a vampire slayer and wonderwhat they meant when they talked about taking care of someone.

“You’re here for me to go aftersomeone,” I said, my voice snappy.

She nodded. “My fiancé.”

I frowned and studied her for a second.She was very human. Her skin was light, but too tanned for any kindof vampire, purebred or half. Vampires and humans didn’t mix as arule. The few who did kept it secret, and human-vampire couples choseto stay hidden so they wouldn’t be the subject of public ridicule.

Miss Priss didn’t look like thevampire type.

“I don’t kill humans,” I saidflatly.

Her eyes widened. “Kill? I don’twant you to kill anyone. I went to Ruben Cross because a colleague ofmine mentioned that he deals with supernatural creatures. Connor…”Her eyes shimmered, and I prayed she wouldn’t cry. “Connor waskidnapped, and I have reason to believe vampires did it.”

I raised an eyebrow. Either Ruben had atwisted sense of humor, sending a rescue mission my way, or he hadmisunderstood this woman’s idea of what his company did. I bankedon the former.

“Listen, Ms.…”

“Jennifer. Jennifer Lawson.”

The name sounded familiar. “Jennifer.I don’t do search-and-rescues. If you have a problem with avampire, I can hook you up. But I don’t go after their victimsuntil they’ve turned.”

“Turned? Is… is that somethingthey’ll do to him?”

“If the motivation’s right,” Isaid. “How long has he been missing?”

“About five days,” she said. “Noone has seen or heard from him, and it’s unlike him to disappearwithout letting me know. They didn’t leave a ransom note oranything, but he has a lot he can offer, and a lot of people knowabout it.”

“Vampires don’t generally go aftermoney,” I said. “They recruit for power, mostly. Or secrets.You’ll be surprised how much more secrets are worth.”

“Secrets…” Jennifer said.

I had a feeling she was talking toherself more than to me. I waited in silence for her to speak again.

“Please, can you just see if you canfind him? Even if he ends up being…” She swallowed hard. “Dead.”

“Listen, vampires don’t kill unlessthey have a really good reason. That’s why they’re allowed intosociety now. And if they did to him what they usually do, he’llprobably wish he was dead instead anyway. It’s not legal for themto turn someone against their will. There are laws about thesethings, although I can’t say they’re set in stone yet. There area lot of loopholes when it comes to vampires. I’m very sorry foryour loss, but these things happen, and unfortunately there’s not alot I can do about it. Not until he pops up on my radar as a vampireand I have an order to take him out.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks, and Igroaned inwardly. She clipped open her black handbag and rummagedaround in it until she pulled out a tissue. She ran it underneath hereyes so her makeup wouldn’t smudge.

“I’ll pay you whatever you like,”she said. “I just need to get him back. Or at least know whathappened to him if I don’t.”

“And if it turns out he’s avampire? Because it’s more than likely that’s what’s happenedto him.”

She shuddered.

There were cases where humans marriedvampires and had families with them. I was living proof of that. Butit didn’t look to me like Jennifer was the type who would get it onwith a vampire – it took a bit more of an open mind than she seemedto have– but people often surprised me.

“I don’t suppose there are ways tosave them?” she asked.

“Save?”

If she thought that being a vampire wassome sort of curse you could save someone from, she had another thinkcoming. But it wasn’t my style to defend vampires, considering thatI hunted them, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a lotwe can do about it,” I said instead. “Once he’s a vampire,there’s no going back.”

“It’s his soul, isn’t it?” shesaid in a whisper. “It’s lost now.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Theidea that vampires were the undead and had no soul was a commonmisconception. I blamed literature. There were so many storiesclaiming things about vampires that weren’t really true. Butbecause the stories got a few things right, like sunlight and fangs,people tended to accept the rest of it as fact too.

“Vampires aren’t undead, Jennifer,”I said, trying to explain. “They’re living, just like you andme.”

“Then, what happens when they’returned?” she asked.

“It’s more like a mutation. A virusthat alters them. Permanently. They need different things to survive,like darkness and blood, and their bodies change because of that.Think more along the lines of a different set of hormones kicking in.Blood loss is what turns them.”

The fact that it messed with theirmoral structures too was something no one had been able to explain,at least not yet. In my book, that was what set them apart fromhumans. Something happened to them, their humanity got taken away,and an unfeeling monster remained — willing to kill, willing tosacrifice.

Maybe that was the bit that made humansthink of them as “undead.” The bit where they were heartless wastranslated into their literally not having a heart. But the fact was,vampires were alive, unless I got my hands on them.

Jennifer started sniveling again, and Ifelt the onset of a black mood. Give me lack of sleep and a cryingwoman, and I’m ready for my next kill.

“Will you help me?” she asked.“You’re the last person I can turn to. No one in my world reallybelieves in the underworld. The whole thing is a bit bizarre for mostpeople.”

I kept quiet. In my experience, thelonger I didn’t say anything, the more the other person filled upthe empty space with their own words.

“Do you follow the news, Ms.Griffin?” she asked.

I shook my head. She nodded hers.

“There’s been some trouble with hiscompany lately. A lot of ugly things came out that were painted thewrong way. I think it’s all an inside job to pin it on Connor.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?”

“He stands for vampires and theirrights. A lot of people are angry about it.”

“But you’re saying vampires did it.That doesn’t make sense.”

She shrugged, and it looked like shewas searching for words. She kept her gaze on her hands, fiddlingwith the tissue she’d used for her tears.

“He just employed the wrong people,”she finally said. “He didn’t do anything to deserve this. Oh,god, what if they do end up just killing him?”

I crossed my arms over my chest andleaned back in my seat, feeling the Glock bite into my back. I didn’tdo pity cases, but this guy was a human. Well, he had been before hewas taken. If he still was human, it was my duty at least to try toprotect him. But I had other things on my plate. I had to deal withso much already, and handling a kidnapping wasn’t really in my jobdescription.

“Do you mind if I ask what yourmotivation is?” I said. I didn’t like taking on jobs that didn’tfit into my division.

“Didn’t I just explain mymotivation?” she asked. She looked confused, like I’d saidsomething foreign. “How much of a reason do you need to get yourloved one back? Connor and I are engaged. He’s so much a part of mylife, I can’t imagine my life without him. Haven’t you ever lovedsomeone so much that it felt like you were bleeding to death whensomething happened to them? Like half of you doesn’t work rightanymore?”

I thought of Aspen. Maybe. But shedidn’t talk about that kind of love.

“I’m not going to go on a wildgoose chase if I don’t know what I’m doing this for. Is he introuble himself, or is it his company?”

She opened her mouth and moved itwithout words coming out, then closed it again and shook her head.

“It’s all on the company,” shesaid. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

She began to study her perfectlymanicured nails. I wondered where people got time for things likethat. Between surviving and training to survive, I didn’t have timeto bother with my looks.

She opened her mouth, but hesitatedbefore she spoke.

“I love him,” she said quietly.“Shouldn’t that be enough?”

I supposed it was. I loved Aspen, andshe was the drive for all of this, for everything I was doing. But Ididn’t understand how men and women could love each other enoughfor something like that. All I knew about love was the fact that itcould kill you. Literally.

Had Ruben sent Jennifer to me becausehe knew the moral side of her situation would get to me? Was it aboutthe money? Or did he really think she had a job for me? She’s beenpretty straightforward about what she wanted. I doubted Ruben hadmisunderstood. He was obtuse, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Look, let me think about this,” Isaid. “I’ll give you an answer by tomorrow.”

I wanted to turn it down. I wanted tostay away from this mess. Love stories didn’t do it for me, and Ididn’t want to have to deal with sniveling women who’d lost theirboyfriends. Life was tough all over. If I sat here mourning abouteverything I’d lost, I wouldn’t ever get out of the house.

But something was drawing me to thislike a magnet. The pull fascinated me as much as it bugged me.

Jennifer nodded. She lookeddisappointed, but she didn’t say so.

The truth was that I just didn’tknow. My loyalty lay with humans, but I didn’t generally getinvolved with people unless it involved killing. And I didn’t getinvolved with vampires unless there was a Wanted sign on theirbacks. If I could choose, they’d all have one, but again it wasn’tmy thing to kill anyone who hadn’t done something to deserve it.

Jennifer opened her handbag again andpulled out a business card, which she slid across the table.

“This is where you can reach me,”she said.

I turned the card and looked it over.She was a marketing consultant at the big shot firm whoseheadquarters was the glass building in the heart of the CBD. ThePalace, they called it. Chances were, Jennifer’s boyfriend was abig shot too.

“What did you say his name was?”

“Connor O’Neill,” she said.

Definitely a big shot. I’d heard ofhim; his name was in the news every now and then, but for what, Ididn’t know. I only listened to the news to hear whether there wereany bulletins on vampire killing that would cue me to lay low.

Jennifer stood up. I let her walk tothe door first. I made a point of never having someone at my back,even if they were small and harmless, like Jennifer. Sometimes it wasthe small, harmless-looking ones who did the most damage.

Besides, I didn’t want to give her alook at the gun I had on me. She wouldn’t have been able to missthat lump of black matte metal underneath my white tank.

“Thank you,” she said as shestepped through the door.

“I’ll call you,” I promised. “Areyou going to be all right getting out of here? It’s not the bestneighborhood.”

“I have a car waiting on the street,”she said, and turned away.

A car. Waiting. Imagine that.

I closed the door, walked back to mybedroom, and got back into bed. I returned my Glock to its placeunder my pillow and pulled the sheets over me.

I closed my eyes, but my mind was awakenow, and whirring. The vampire in the alley came back to me, itsaccusing eyes staring at me.

I felt like a lowlife, betraying them.But then again, which species was at fault when I lost my mother andnearly Aspen, too? My circumstances had created me, and a killingvampire had made me a vampire killer. I wasn’t going to apologizefor taking care of Aspen.

I buried my face in the pillow andforced my mind to be blank until I finally fell asleep again.