Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
T he chill air in the morgue seemed to suddenly turn much colder, and Demetrius couldn’t suppress a shiver.
“You?” Lucia said. “Why would this vampire be so interested in you?”
Demetrius heard a quiet sound from across the room, and he squinted into the shadows gathered near the roll up delivery door. Had something moved? As he watched, the recently delivered body bag shifted . The little light available glided across the slick surface like moonlight on a lake.
“What…?” he said, then pointed and shouted the only word he could think of. “Vampire!”
Things happened fast after that. Everyone looked at him, then to where he pointed. Lucia and Deputy Walsh drew their guns. Clarabell took a couple of steps forward as she dug into the bag slung around her shoulder. Cody put himself in front of Demetrius and reached back to hold on to Demetrius’s arm, backing them both up a couple of steps.
The body bag slowly zipped open, a long, eerie sound. A man sat up from between the sides of the bag. He was pale and handsome, with long, dark hair tied back into a ponytail, thick, dark eyebrows, and a strong, prominent nose. He ran his gaze over them all, full lips parting in a wide, friendly smile that revealed long, sinister fangs. Demetrius’s previous shiver turned into a full on shudder at the sight.
“Good evening.” His thick European accent made him sound like the Count Dracula character in so many black and white movies Demetrius had watched on TV as a kid.
“Aldrik?” Dr. Graham—Michael’s—voice was edged with fear.
With quick, lithe movements, Aldrik pulled his legs up out of the bag and swung them to the side. He hopped effortlessly off the stretcher and stood tall and strong beside it, the body bag now looking like some kind of evil, deflated balloon. He was nicely dressed in tan chinos and a blue button down shirt with the sleeves cuffed to show strong forearms. A small runner of blood from just above his hairline had dried along the side of his face.
“I simply had to join your little soireé, Michael,” Aldrik said, now with the same English accent as Michael. He looked as if he belonged there in Parson’s Hollow among the tourists, with his modern clothes and hair style. Except for the fangs. As if sensing their confusion, Aldrik turned to their group. He locked eyes with Demetrius a moment, and another shudder rattled through him as Cody’s grip tightened on his arm.
“My apologies for the theatrics,” Aldrik said. “I couldn’t resist the ridiculous accent. Too many old movies, I’m afraid.” He looked back at Michael and gestured to the runner of blood on his own face. “I had to fake my death in order to get to see you, Michael. I’m very hurt you’ve been in town for so long and haven’t once extended me an invitation to visit.”
“How did you know about this meeting?” Michael said. To Demetrius, he sounded quiet and submissive.
“Oh, I’ve been here long enough to have ears everywhere. It wasn’t difficult to learn of your Monster Club meeting tonight.” His smile showed the points of his fangs, and even though the morgue was quite cool, Demetrius felt a ball of sweat run down his side. “I’ve known you followed us here for quite some time now. You’ve been trying to root out my—how have you put it?” Aldrik squinted and looked up into a corner of the room. “Lair? Den?”
“Nest,” Zenona said, stepping toward Aldrik. Her fists were at her sides and her jaw thrust forward. “And it was my word, not Michael’s.”
“Zee, no,” Lucia whispered, holding a hand toward her but not looking away from Aldrik.
“Ah, the love interest.” Aldrik smirked as he looked her up and down, then he gave an exaggerated pout. “He’s had one of you in every town we’ve done this dance, you know.” Cocking his head, he crossed his arms and assessed her. “Dark hair and eyes, strong personality, smart and beautiful. My dear brother does have a type.”
“I’m not your brother.”
Demetrius was glad to see the flash of anger in Michael’s eyes, but fright followed soon after when he noticed something about the… Oh, no.
“Cody,” Demetrius whispered.
“Yeah, I don’t get it either,” Cody whispered back.
“No. Michael. He’s a?—”
“Vampire?” Aldrik said, pinning Demetrius in place with a look. “Yes, Mr. Singleton, he is.”
“All right. Stay the fuck away from us,” Cody said. “Both of you.”
“It’s not like you think,” Michael said, holding out his hands. “I’m here to help.”
“He is,” Zenona said, turning to look at them. “He’s come here to stop him.”
There was a blur of movement too fast for Demetrius to follow, and the sounds of a quiet struggle. A moment later, he was startled to discover Aldrik was now on the opposite side of the room near one of the autopsy tables. He had an arm around Zenona’s waist, holding her tight against him, and his other hand on the side of her head, tipping it slightly. His face was just visible over her shoulder, mouth open to allow his fangs to graze the skin of her exposed throat as he fixed Michael with a wicked leer.
“No!” Michael said, holding out both hands. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Oh, but she smells so good. “All that rich, Mediterranean heritage pumping through her body.”
“Let her go,” Lucia ordered, gun aimed at him and Zenona.
“Or what, Deputy Durant? You’ll shoot me?” Aldrik looked back at Michael. “I do hope you train this group better than you did the last few. While there’s nothing I love more than a free meal, it does get tiresome when there’s no challenge if I’m being forced to play with my food.” He looked at the group of them and a malevolent smile curled his lips. “You have no idea how many I have turned since I was invited to your idyllic small town. And now that Father’s come to visit, you can expect your streets to run red with blood. Father’s appetite is a thing of legend, and he isn’t patient enough to drink slowly and turn people. He never did like having too full of a house at the holidays.” Aldrik nipped gently at Zenona’s neck, making her flinch and cry out. “Happy Halloween.”
Another blur of movement, which ended with the flapping of the stainless steel doors behind them. Demetrius heard a quick scream from Zenona echo back to them down the tiled hallway, and then everything was silent.
“No!” Michael zipped past them and out the doors as well.
“What the fuck?” Cody said.
“Zenona!” Lucia ran out into the hallway, followed closely by Deputy Walsh.
“What the fuck just happened?” Demetrius said, pressing himself against Cody’s back and taking comfort from his tall, strong frame.
The doors flapped open again and Michael stood there with a stricken expression and wide eyes.
“I lost them,” he said in a flat tone.
“Care to explain what that was all about?” Clarabell said, aiming her phone at him.
“Where did he take her?” Demetrius said, moving in front of Cody and taking a step toward Michael.
Cody grabbed his upper arm. “Careful, Demmy. He’s one, too.”
Demetrius stopped and glared at Michael. “Where’s he taken Zenona?”
“I don’t know,” Michael said, shaking his head. He looked distraught, but Demetrius knew it could very easily be an act. Though he’d never detected a malicious vibe from him, Demetrius couldn’t help remembering how friendly alpha werewolf Nicolae had been while helping him and Amelia plan the flowers for his and Cody’s wedding. Monsters lived to deceive.
“Come on, you expect us to believe that?” Cody said.
The doors banged open, startling all of them, even Michael. Lucia and Deputy Walsh entered, and they both looked angry. With her fierce gaze locked on Michael, Lucia strode right up to him and poked a finger in his chest.
“Where did he take her?”
“I don’t know. I swear to you, I don’t know.” Michael’s stricken expression looked genuine, but Demetrius tried to temper any empathy.
“Okay, okay,” Deputy Walsh said in a low, calm voice as she took Lucia by the arm and eased her away from Michael. “Let’s maybe not get right up in the face of the vampire medical examiner. Okay?”
“How about you tell us what you do know,” Clarabell said, still holding up her phone and apparently making a video of everything. “From the beginning. How do you and this Aldrik know each other?”
“That’s beside the point,” Lucia said. “Right now we need to find Zenona.”
“He could have taken her anywhere,” Michael said, sagging against a stainless steel table. He put a hand over his eyes and bowed his head. “I knew he’d moved into town here, but I’ve yet to uncover his dwelling.”
“His dwelling?” Demetrius said.
Michael looked up, his pale complexion—the reason for that was now clear—making his expression appear even more troubled than usual. “His lair, as he put it. Or nest as Zenona has been calling it.” A pained look crossed his face when he said her name. “We all need a place to rest during daylight hours. With dirt from our home country.”
“Which is where?” Clarabell asked.
“England,” Michael said. “A very small town in the north.”
“Explains the accent,” Cody said.
“From four hundred years ago,” Michael added.
“Fuck off,” Lucia snapped. “You’re not four hundred years old.”
Michael looked at her, then opened his mouth to reveal fangs. They all took a step back, and Demetrius saw Lucia drop her hand to her weapon. As if that would do them any good.
“How come I never noticed those before?” Cody said. “Your fangs?”
“We’ve learned to hide them over the years.” Michael smiled, and Demetrius could no longer see the fangs. “We’ve been forced to learn to blend in with humans as the world’s population has expanded.”
“Wolves in sheep’s clothing,” Deputy Walsh said. “Living next door and having us as a meal once the sun goes down.”
Michael winced and shook his head. “Not all of us. Not me, I assure you. Not any longer. But, yes, the majority of us do act that way.”
“Like Aldrik,” Clarabell said. “Your brother?”
“Brother by association only. We were both turned around the same time period by… “ He swallowed hard. “Another.”
Clarabell took a step closer to him, and Demetrius raised his hand instinctively, wanting to hold her back.
“Is he this father that Aldrik referred to?” Clarabell asked.
“This is not helping us find Zenona,” Lucia said, glaring at Clarabell before turning her attention to Michael. Even though Michael claimed to be a four hundred-year-old vampire, Demetrius was glad to see Lucia’s angry expression still managed to make him flinch. “That Aldrik moved fast. How far can he have gone?”
“As far as he wants,” Michael said. “The sun has just gone down, so he has the whole night ahead of him to act.” He looked away and added quietly, “He’s always been faster than me.”
“Son of a…” Lucia turned in a circle, hands on her hips.
“Why did he come here?” Clarabell asked. “To Parson’s Hollow?”
“That, I don’t know. Not really.”
“What’s that mean?” Cody asked, and when Demetrius looked at him, he shrugged and said quietly, “Couldn’t help myself.”
“Someone has called him here. Or, rather, us. Our kind.”
“What do you mean ‘called you’?” Deputy Walsh said. “Who the hell would call vampires into town?”
Lucia looked over her shoulder and right at Demetrius, and he could almost read her mind: Another alpha werewolf?
“God, I hope not,” Cody said, obviously picking up on the vibe in the room.
“What?” Michael and Deputy Walsh asked together.
“How well do vampires get along with werewolves?” Lucia asked him.
“Oh, that.” Michael shook his head. “No. That’s not an issue.”
“That?” Deputy Walsh looked at Lucia, who shook her head.
“Later,” Lucia said.
“‘That’ really should be mentioned in the sheriff’s department interview process,” Cody said, and received a deadly look from Lucia that Demetrius knew would only serve to rev him up more.
“This is someone different,” Michael said. “Something different. I haven’t figured that out yet, either.”
“You’ve been here a long time, Doc, and seem to have very little to show for it,” Lucia said. “Have you spent too much time romancing the pretty young Dr. Baldwin and distracting yourself from the most important reason for you to be here?”
“Yes, I know.” For his part, Michael did look beaten down and guilty. “And I need to make things right.”
“Yeah, you do. For starters, help us find Zenona. Then help us stop your brother and this Father you two have mentioned.” Lucia looked at him a long moment in silence. “And, if needed, help us stop you, too.”
Michael looked slightly startled. “I… Of course I’ll help find Zenona. And my purpose for being here in Parson’s Hollow has always been to find and stop Aldrik. I’ve never held any nefarious intentions. And I’ve never taken…” He stopped and pulled himself up right. “I’ve always honored the law and the residents of your town.”
“So, wait a minute,” Clarabell said, cocking her head slightly. “If you’re a vampire... ”
“I am a vampire.”
“Right. Okay. So you’re a vampire. But to survive, you need to drink blood.” Clarabell looked around the room then back at him. “Is that why you work in the morgue?”
“What?” Deputy Walsh and Lucia exclaimed together, and Demetrius felt a queasy knot of cold fear twist inside him.
“The fuck?” Cody whispered from just over Demetrius’s shoulder.
“No, no!” Michael held his hands up as if they’d all drawn weapons. “I promise you, I’ve never taken blood from a body here in the morgue. I swear it. Not only is against my principles, but…” He made a face. “It spoils once the heart no longer beats.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cody said quietly.
“Then how have you been surviving?” Clarabell asked.
Michael blew out a breath. “I’ve mainly been hunting in the woods around town.”
“People?” Cody said.
“No!” Michael looked exasperated. “No. I do not hunt people. Anything that may have happened in the recent past of that nature has been because of Aldrik and those he’s turned. I’ve been hunting wildlife.”
A sudden click of understanding went off inside Demetrius’s brain as he put things together. “The roadkill.”
Cody frowned, then his expression smoothed out. “You’re the one who’s been taking down deer.”
“Yes. For the most part.”
“And leaving them for us to clean up from the side of the road,” Cody said. Then with a bit of stink eye, added, “Thanks for that.”
“I am sorry for that,” Michael said. “I tried to keep them from the road, but sometimes it just didn’t work out that way.”
“Not important right now,” Lucia said, shooting Cody a look.
“He’s probably super strong,” Cody said in a low voice that still carried through the morgue. “Could have tossed them off into the woods, not leave them for us to clean up.”
Lucia gave him a hard look, and Cody went silent.
“Now what?” Deputy Walsh asked. “How do we find Zenona?”
“Like sheriff’s deputies,” Lucia said. She approached Michael, but still left some space between them. “If everything you’ve told us is true, you’re our best hope to get her back.”
“I will do everything in my power to find her,” Michael said. “I promise you.”
“And if you come up with any leads on where he took her, you let us know,” Lucia continued. “Is that clear? No more lone hero cowboy bullshit.”
“Yes, Deputy, I understand.”
“Good.” She headed for the exit. “I’m going to tell the hospital Zenona wasn’t feeling well and went home.”
“What should we do?” Demetrius asked as she crossed before him.
Lucia paused with one hand flat on one of the swinging doors. “Keep your eyes and ears open. And research the hell out of vampires.” She looked at Clarabell. “Both of you.” She turned her attention to Deputy Walsh and tipped her head. “Let’s get to work.”
Walsh followed Lucia out into the hallway. The doors swung shut behind them, and Demetrius suddenly felt very nervous standing there in a morgue, of all places, with a vampire.
“So,” Clarabell said. “Care to tell us more about who created you?”
Michael cleared his throat. “Not right now. I think the important thing to focus on is getting Zenona out of Aldrik’s hands.”
“Do you think he’ll hurt her?” Cody asked. “Or was that more of a power move against you?”
“I really don’t know. I want to believe she’s not in any immediate danger, but Aldrik has always been unpredictable.” A phone across the room let out an electronic booping ring, and Demetrius jumped. Michael gestured. “I need to answer that.”
“Yeah, we should go anyway,” Cody said.
“Yeah. Okay. You coming, Clarabell?”
She shook her head. “I want to find out a few things, first.”
“Do you want us to stay?” Demetrius asked, throwing a look at Michael where he stood across the room, talking quietly on the phone.
“No, I’ll be okay.” She pulled a cross on a silver chain from inside her oversized polo shirt and smiled as she held it up. “You guys go on. I’ll be in touch.”
“Text me later, okay?” Demetrius said.
“Yeah, let us know you’re home safe.”
Clarabell smiled. “I knew you liked me, Stretch.”
“And now my heart is stone again.” Cody gave Demetrius’s hand a gentle tug. “Let’s go.”
Demetrius nodded, but lingered, looking at Clarabell. “You’re sure?”
“I’m fine. Go on home. Nothing we can do right now. You guys keep your eyes open as you’re driving around town in the city trucks.”
“Okay. We will. Be safe.”
Demetrius followed Cody out into the hallway. The grip of Cody’s hand felt warm and familiar, but Demetrius couldn’t help feeling like they should have stayed at least a little longer.