Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
D emetrius checked his phone and was careful not to sigh when he discovered, again, that Cody had not texted him. He’d been sighing a lot all day, and Oliver had started giving him a stern look each time he did it. Now that Clarabell had joined them, he definitely didn’t want to attract any more attention to himself.
“About six hours until sundown,” Clarabell said, her scratchy voice amplified within the concrete walls of the library’s back room.
“Is this an hourly countdown?” Oliver asked from another row of shelves.
“You got it, cupcake,” Clarabell said.
“Cupcake?” Oliver whispered, but the sound carried easily to where Demetrius sat at the table.
“Vampires are especially violent and fierce immediately after sundown.”
“Why’s that?” Demetrius said, flipping a page of the book he was mostly staring at and not reading. He was still too worked up about his exchange with Cody earlier. And he wasn’t very pleased with how he had reacted himself. He’d felt a flood of differing emotions, all of them highly charged, and, in the moment, hadn’t felt he had the space to sort through them. So, he had fled like some kind of overly emotional teenager, even going so far as slamming the truck door behind him. Not his best reaction, to be sure. And now that he looked back on it, the whole incident made him feel even more sad, because if he didn’t feel safe doing that kind of soul searching with his husband, who also happened to be his best friend, who could he turn to instead?
“Wait, how many other vampires have you come into contact with?”
Oliver appeared at the end of the bookshelves he had been looking through. The white gloves he wore to protect the ancient texts from the oils on his skin made him look like a mime doing research. Demetrius smiled and immediately missed Cody, because Cody would have definitely said something like that aloud.
Clarabell stuck her head around the end of her own aisle. “None. But I’ve researched the hell out of them. Vampires are starved until sunset, so when they first wake up, they have to feed pretty much immediately.”
“It’s like humans are with breakfast,” Demetrius said, then shuddered. “Only at night, and more violent and bloody.”
Oliver went pale. “Jesus. And this badass vampire has Zenona?”
“Yep. But the way he talked, he’s not the boss level badass vampire,” Demetrius said.
“Demetrius is right,” Clarabell said. “This Aldrik is on the same level as Dr. Graham.”
“Called him his brother,” Demetrius added as he turned a page.
“ Vampire M.E. ” Oliver shook his head. “Sounds like one of those under the radar streaming shows no one knows about.”
“I’d watch the hell out of that show,” Clarabell said before disappearing down her row of books again.
“Yeah, me, too,” Oliver said, before turning back to his own shelves.
“I think we’re all living that show,” Demetrius said.
Quiet chuckles from within the shelves, and Demetrius checked his phone again. Nope, he hadn’t missed a text while he’d been sitting right there next to it. He put the phone down and went back to the book, but his mind was too busy reliving the pain of Cody’s words.
And Demetrius felt guilty and more than a little ashamed, because deep down, he knew what Cody had said was true. He did have a bit of a savior complex, though he liked to think of it as being a good and caring person. And he did find the paranormal situations interesting. Okay, maybe interesting was too small of a word. They were exciting to him.
It was like they were living through their very own black and white monster movie, the kind he had always enjoyed watching when he was a kid. He’d known the heroes would win out in the end, and he liked to think of himself, Cody, and their group of friends as the heroes. The only difference was the real monsters bit back. Hard.
He and Cody had argued about this topic many, many times over the years. And even with all they’d been through, all the injuries and personal losses, Demetrius hoped they could continue to argue about it for many, many more years to come. He didn’t want to lose Cody because of monster cases. But he also couldn’t turn a blind eye to something threatening the people and town he cared about. He just needed to keep things in perspective. Demetrius was aware he had a tendency to try and manipulate Cody into getting involved in their more unusual cases, and, savior complex or not—that phrase really hurt for some reason—that kind of behavior wasn’t right either. Because every time they’d gotten involved in an unusual case, there had been some kind of cost.
He absently rubbed a hand across the scar at the base of his neck, a reminder of Nicolae turning him into a werewolf that terrible night so long ago. Realizing he still wore one of the protective gloves and had now touched his skin, Demetrius sighed and stood up.
“You’ve been sighing a lot today.” Oliver had, of course, chosen that moment to carry a number of books to the table.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too.” Clarabell returned as well and dropped several books onto the table with a heavy thump. “What gives?”
“I don’t know,” Demetrius said, hearing the snappish quality to his tone as he pulled off the gloves and dropped them into a bin by the door. “Maybe one of our good friends has been kidnapped by a vampire, and we only have six hours until the sun goes down and who knows how many of them are unleashed on the streets of town.” He picked up another pair of gloves from the basket on a small table by the door. “Oh, and our town is full of tourists who are here to celebrate our weird and tragic history of paranormal happenings.” Demetrius pulled on the fresh pair of white cotton gloves, then held up his hands. “And now I look like I’ve been hired to do magic at a kid’s birthday party.”
Oliver and Clarabell both laughed. Then Oliver gave him a long look.
“What?” Demetrius said, returning to his chair. “What’s that look for?”
“You and Cody had a fight,” Oliver said.
“What? No.”
“They did?” Clarabell squinted as she peered at him across the table. “How can you tell?”
“He’s twitchy and agitated.” Oliver pulled out the chair beside Demetrius. “More than usual.”
“Ouch.”
“That means something has happened between him and Cody. Or something has happened to Cody. But if that were the case, he would have told us about it already, and we’d all be outside looking for Cody instead of in here doing research to try and understand vampires better.”
“Is that true?” Clarabell threaded her gloved fingers together and rested her hands on top of a book. “Did you and Cody have a fight?”
“A little bit,” Demetrius said. He sat back and groaned, pressing his gloved fingers to his eyes. “Yes.”
“Which is why you’re here with us right now instead of at work,” Oliver said.
Demetrius straightened up and gave him a tight smile. “What are you, an investigative reporter?”
Oliver grinned back. “That’s your husband talking.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Want to talk about it?” Clarabell asked.
“Not right now, thanks. I’d rather focus on learning something to help us find Zenona.”
“Okay,” Oliver said. “Let us know if you change your mind.” He looked across the table at Clarabell. “You mentioned staying behind to talk with Dr. Graham last night, but you haven’t really told us what you learned.”
“Oh, I didn’t? Guess I was too excited about getting back into this room.” She shoved the books aside, pulled off her gloves, and pressed her palms flat against the table. “Dr. Graham and Aldrik were turned in Northern England within a couple of months of each other, about four hundred years ago.”
“Four hundred?” Oliver said.
“Years, yes,” Clarabell said. “They were turned by a much older vampire who goes by the name Xavier.”
“How much older?” Oliver said.
“He’s thousands of years old.”
“Jesus,” Demetrius whispered.
“Yeah, probably hung out with him. So, they all lived together in their dwelling, doing their vampire thing.”
“Dwelling?” Oliver said.
“Their lair or nest,” Demetrius said.
“But Xavier didn’t want too many vampires taking people, because that would attract too much attention from the living. So, they made sure not to turn anyone they bit.”
“How do they turn someone?” Oliver asked, lowering his voice and leaning forward. “Is it like in the books and movies?”
“I asked Michael that last night,” Clarabell said. “To turn someone, a vampire will drain a person’s blood, almost to the point of death. That usually takes at least three bites to accomplish. Once the intended reaches that point?—”
“Intended?” Oliver said, glancing at Demetrius with a sneer. “That sounds a bit romantic, don’t you think?”
Clarabell shrugged. “It was his word, not mine. Anyway, once the victim…” She gave Oliver a raised eyebrows look. “Has been bitten, an exchange of fluids happens, either vampire saliva or blood enters the bloodstream of the bitten. When the victim is drained of blood after the third bite, they become a vampire at sunset the following day.”
“Gross,” Oliver said. “So three bites and you’re pretty much done.”
“Right. So, for many, many years, Xavier didn’t allow them to turn anyone else. A little while after he’d been turned, Michael decided he didn’t like killing people and he started hunting animals. He and Xavier and Aldrik had many arguments about his change of heart, and eventually they kicked him out. Michael wandered on his own for a time, but he made up his mind to work toward stopping Aldrik and Xavier once and for all. He knew they’d come to this country years before, and so he moved here as well and has been going from town to town, trying to stop them.”
“This is crazy,” Oliver said.
“From what Dr. Graham told me, Aldrik will move into a town and find a human to help him,” Clarabell continued.
“His very own Renfield,” Demetrius said.
“Right.”
“But who here in Parson’s Hollow would he have convinced to help him drain people of blood?” Demetrius sat back. “It would have to be someone evil, right?”
“Could be someone desperate for money or the promise of eternal life,” Oliver said. “I mean, if these vampires have been around that long, they’ve probably got a bunch of money stashed away.”
“Absolutely,” Clarabell said. “And they’ve learned all the tricks about hiding it from the government.”
“So, someone living beyond their means or eager to live forever.” Demetrius tipped his head back and ran his hands up and down his face. He realized he was wearing the fresh pair of gloves and swore quietly before getting to his feet and moving toward the door, pulling them off. “Can they hypnotize people, too?”
“Oh, yeah. They can do that. Don’t look them in the eye,” Clarabell said.
Before Demetrius reached the door, the lock buzzed as someone keyed in the passcode on the other side, and Tracey Mumm entered the room. She started slightly at the sight of him standing so close.
“Why are you lurking inside the door?” Tracey said with a scowl. “I nearly had a heart attack.”
“Sorry. I need new gloves.” Demetrius dropped them in the bin and grabbed a fresh pair, but didn’t pull them on as he returned to his seat.
“What are you losers researching today?”
“Losers?” Oliver said.
“Vampires,” Clarabell replied, turning a page of her book. “Got any insight for us?”
“How much time do you have?”
They all looked at her, then each other.
“We have about five and a half hours until sundown,” Clarabell said. “Will it take that long?”
“I’ll talk fast.” Tracey pulled out the chair beside Clarabell and sat down.
“I’m going to record this,” Clarabell said, rummaging in her bag before pulling out a digital recorder.
“You made a video last night, right?” Demetrius asked.
“A video?” Tracey looked at Clarabell with interest. “Of a vampire?”
“Two vampires,” Clarabell said with a proud smile. “One’s on our side, and the other isn’t.”
“And don’t forget the final boss we haven’t seen yet,” Oliver said.
A terrible chill went through Demetrius as he had a sudden realization. “Oh my God. I might have seen it.”
“What?” All three of the others said at once.
“Who is it?” Clarabell asked.
“Not who, but what. I think Xavier is the thing that tried to take Deputy Walsh. It was kind of human but also part bat. Big wings and a terrible bat face. Deputy Walsh said she got it to drop her in a farm pond by stabbing it with a silver knife.”
“Silver works against vampires as well as werewolves,” Tracey said. “And garlic, holy water, and crucifixes.”
“All the staples of any decent horror movie,” Oliver said, but Demetrius saw him typing notes into an app on his phone.
“Aldrik said their father was coming,” Demetrius said. “I guess he’s already here.”
“Didn’t you tell me he was able to summon a flock of bats?” Clarabell said.
“Yeah, he did,” Demetrius said. “Well, it looked like he did. And Cody was swarmed by a group of bats as well out at the nursing home.”
“Colony,” Tracey said.
“What?” Demetrius and Oliver said together.
“It’s a colony of bats.”
“Okay.”
“Wait, I’m confused,” Oliver said. “This Aldrik is Dr. Graham’s brother, right?”
“Not actually related, just to be clear,” Clarabell said. “But vampiric brothers.”
“Right. So, Aldrik and Dr. Graham were turned by Xavier, who didn’t want them turning other humans way back in the day four hundred years ago to avoid being found out and hunted down.”
“That makes sense,” Tracey said.
“And Dr. Graham doesn’t drink human blood,” Demetrius said. “He survives by hunting animals in the woods around town.”
“Does that make him a vegetarian?” Oliver asked.
The rest of them ignored him.
“So, Dr. Graham and his brother…” Tracey looked at Clarabell.
“Aldrik.”
“Aldrik,” Tracey continued. “Are on opposite sides. But Aldrik moves into a small town and establishes a nest, and, from what you’ve said, the original vampire comes later.”
“That’s how we think it’s been working,” Demetrius said. “Which means a lot of small towns may already have a vampire population.”
“Sounds like Daddy Warfangs has changed his mind about them turning people,” Oliver said.
“There have been a lot of deaths lately out at Parson’s Pines,” Demetrius said, then bumped the side of a fist against his forehead. “My Aunt Amelia had a car accident recently because she swerved to miss a woman standing in the road. Someone she said had died the week before.”
“It’s all starting to make sense,” Oliver said, then looked at Tracey. “Where do we start?”
“At the beginning,” Tracey said. “Who was the first victim?”
They all looked at Demetrius.
“How should I know?”
“You always know,” Oliver said.
Demetrius was surprised to realize a number of things at the same time. First, that Oliver was right, he and Cody were usually involved in these kinds of things from the start. Right on the heels of that thought, he felt guilty for not knowing that kind of detail this time around.
“You’ve been keeping away from strange things for a while,” Clarabell said. “How about we finish up here, get an early dinner at Margie’s, then go back to my apartment? I’ve got my video equipment set up so we can watch the video I made of Aldrik’s arrival and my conversation with Dr. Graham afterward.”
“Sounds good to me,” Oliver said, then looked at Tracey. “Do you want to join us?”
Tracey looked slightly surprised. “I’m working until close. But I could come to Margie’s with you, if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” Clarabell said. “It’s settled then.”
She and Oliver began looking through the books they had selected. Tracey was smiling when she got up and moved to the small card catalog. Demetrius looked down at the book before him, trying to figure out why the whole situation felt strange and awkward. It was like every other research session they’d done in the past, nothing unusual about that.
Until he realized no one had asked him if he wanted to invite Cody to dinner. They’d already asked him why he’d been acting so strange. And now all Demetrius wanted to do was be able to connect with Cody and have him meet them at Margie’s and have there be no awkwardness between them.
But then he remembered the tone of Cody’s voice and the anger in his expression as he’d said Demetrius had a savior complex, and the hurt bubbled up inside him once again. He wasn’t quite ready to see Cody and have things feel normal again. They needed some time on their own first so they could talk outside of the group. And Demetrius had no idea how that conversation was going to go. No, for now, they each needed some space.
He managed to resist another sigh before putting on his gloves and opening his book once again. For the sake of Zenona, he was going to put all other thoughts out of his head and try to learn as much as he could about vampires.