Chapter 18 #2
Lester sighed and his shoulders slumped.
“She has two young kids. They were found in a neighbor’s yard.
They were so terrified they’ve hardly spoken since.
But the boy drew this.” He pulled out an image and handed it to Karson.
It was of a woman, her eyes colored in black, blood running down her chin, with fangs the size of small spears.
“The little girl kept murmuring Mommy. We thought she was calling for her at first, but when we showed her the picture her brother drew, she said, ‘Mommy.’ The neighbor’s throat was ripped out, and her dog’s skull was crushed.
The kids’ mother is Leah Parker, a twenty-four-year-old drug addict.
Both her mother and stepfather were found last night with their heads torn off and placed on the porch of a man who served time a few years back for pedophilia.
It doesn’t take much to work out she was probably abused and got revenge. ”
The news horrified me. “Did she hurt the children?”
There was a heaviness in his eyes and his face seemed to age before me. “She dug her claws into the little boy’s arm, he needed stiches, and he broke a toe, but they were lucky. Other neighbors came out and scared her off.”
“Give us the address. We will go and pick up her scent. We will find and dispatch her,” Karson stated.
I cringed and turned to him. “Does she have to die?”
“What else would you have us do with her?”
I knew the hardship of growing up without a mother, knew the sense of loneliness, knew the cost of not having someone who loved you to protect you or be there to celebrate your wins.
“She’s the children’s mother,” I said quietly. “Don’t you think they need their mother?”
“She’s a new vampire, Amy,” Michael said with a grim look. “New vampires can take quite a bit of time before they can control the urge to feed. The children will not be safe. Even if she loves them, one moment of weakness and they will be dead.”
Lester handed another picture to Karson.
“This is the last picture we have of her taken about six months ago when she was done for prostitution. She sells herself to pay for her drugs. Stayed out of jail because of her children, and she’s been in and out of rehab, but every time she gets clean, she falls back off the wagon. ”
Monique’s lips pursed in disgust. “Not exactly an ideal candidate for a vampire.” As if that was more intolerable to her than what she had done.
“You have issues,” I said.
Her lips pulled into a tight line. “As do you.”
“If you left, it would solve one of them.”
“Alright, you two, we need to work together right now,” Michael said, his eyes burning between us.
I moved over to look at Leah’s picture. She looked every part the drug addict—thin, straggly, badly dyed yellow hair with an inch thick of dark regrowth. Shallow skin, acne on her face, eyes that stared into the camera with a hostile look, but down in the depths her eyes looked haunted.
“They’ve got a lot of manpower on this,” Lester said.
“There are talks of a serial killer, but they’re keeping it under wraps for the moment.
The press only know about a bit of it. They think it’s the result of a drug war.
But if they smell something else and it gets leaked to the public that some maniac is ripping people’s throats out and draining their bodies of blood, there will be panic and a full-scale investigation. ”
“As I said, I will sort it and whoever is responsible for turning her,” Karson answered. “Have I ever let you down before?”
Lester flicked his eyes to a painting on the wall, of a naked woman seductively draped across the floor.
There was another woman in the back corner cradled by a man, her head tilted up and his lips at her neck.
“I can’t keep covering up your kind’s shit.
Technology is so much better these days and surveillance is everywhere.
Jesus, Karson. If push comes to shove, I can’t protect you anymore. ”
A shadow cemented on Karson’s features and his voice came out low. “Perhaps you forget, Lester, what I have done for you and what I am capable of?”
If Lester was uncomfortable with the threat, he didn’t show it. “The address is in here.” He handed one file back. “Let me know when it’s done. It was nice to meet you, Amy. Keep yourself safe.” He threw a pointed warning look to Karson then thumped out of the door.
“You too, Lester,” I called out behind him.
The atmosphere was decidedly heavy as we contemplated it all. I waited until Lester drove off before I spoke. “Sarah, is she here?”
“Doubtful,” Monique responded. “But I will call Ethan for an update.” She grabbed her phone and stepped out of earshot.
I turned my attention to Karson. “I’m coming with you.”
“You are not.”
“I am. We can track her.”
“You offer me services for which you are unequipped to deal with.”
He was right, I had no clue how to track. I thought of BJ, but he wasn’t here, and without having something Leah owned, he couldn’t track her either. “I can call Dahlia. She’s bound to know someone who can help.”
Monique returned. “Sarah was seen again last night in Cannes. I doubt it’s her.”
Michael frowned. “Which begs the question of who turned her.”
Monique pinched her nose with her fingers, perplexed. “It could be a simple accident. Someone may have fed off her and left her for dead, and she’s somehow managed to turn.”
“Possible,” Michael agreed, “though highly unusual.”
“Do not call Dahlia,” Karson said. “The last thing we want is for the witches to know a crazed vampire is on the loose. They will use that as an excuse to hunt. And please, go upstairs and wash your finger.”
I flicked my eyes to the cut. Like all tiny nicks, it bled like I had chopped half a finger off, seeping through the end of the plaster. That explained Monique pinching her nose and the hanky Michael handed me.
I slipped the hanky into my pocket and held my finger up. “What, this little thing?” I stepped toward him and waved it near his nose. “Surely, such a big, powerful vampire could not be tempted by such a tiny finger.”
Michael smiled. “I will make a few calls,” and he was gone. Monique muttered something under her breath and followed after him.
Karson grabbed my hand, pulled it down away from his nose, and threw me his best death stare, but his eyes sparkled.
I stood on tiptoes and kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I’ll get changed and then we’ll go together. I can just go to the house, and you can bring me home before you go looking for her. You won’t go hunting until the night falls anyway, right?”
He said nothing, but I could see him weighing it up in his head. I took his non-response for a yes. “I need to get out of here sometimes.”
“You seemed to have no trouble with that last night.”
It was best not to let him dwell on that particular escape maneuver, or he would say no.
I kissed his lips again, allowing them to linger, and I pressed my chest against him.
He placed his hands around my waist and pulled me in closer.
The light danced to the forefront of his eyes and captivated me.
“You would use your sexual prowess to bribe your way to your desires?”
I grinned. “It’s not like it’s an unpleasant experience for me.”
“You will be disenchanted to know, then, that such reckless indiscretions have little effect on me.”
“Really?” I said, moving my lips to his neck and brushing kisses up his throat and along his jaw line as I pressed my hips against him. His hard groin swelled against my stomach and my blood heated, my whole body crying out for more.
“Certain areas of your anatomy,” I whispered into his ear, “tell of a very different story.”
“Unlike your human male counterparts, however,” he crooned, his breath cascading over my neck, sending my skin into a pole dance, “my actions are guided by my head and not my anatomy.”
It took every effort to step back when all I wanted to do was step in. I placed my hands on my hips. “Fine, but I’m still coming with you.”
He ran his eyes over me, looking as though he was restraining laughter. It struck me in the same way a stunning sunset did—how utterly captivating he was. “I dream of coming with you every night.”
I laughed. “You know you’re the only one who can make your dreams a reality.”
In less than a heartbeat, his body was against mine again, his arm cradling my back, his lips on my neck.
Stars exploded under my skin and traveled down to my groin, dampening my core.
He murmured, “I want to carry you to the bedroom, kick down the door, lay you on the bed and bury my cock inside you until you are screaming my name. But …” he breathed.
“Later. First, we have a vampire to find.”
Fucking vampires. They were both the bane of my existence and the reason my heart finally felt joy again.