Dead-tective (Book 1): Vampire Dead-tective (2 page)

I sighed and tried the knob. It was unlocked, so I stepped inside and looked around. There was just enough light for me to see the place was full of broken crates stacked well over my head and that created a maze. I moved through them and twenty yards from the door I found a strange setup. The crates were arranged like a square bench around a single, long rectangular box. On the box was a deck of cards, a propane lantern, and a box of matches.

I eagerly lit the lamp and sat down on the makeshift bench in front of the long box. The air inside the warehouse was dank and cool, and I rubbed my arms to comfort and warm me. Outside the sun finished its setting and the world was enveloped in darkness. To pass the time I pulled out the letter and reread the contents. I really wished Tim would have put in a few more specifics about what I was supposed to be waiting for.

I didn't have long to wait. As I sat reading the letter the light from the lamp shuddered. I lowered the letter and glared at the lantern. The flame was strong and unwavering, but then it jiggled again. That's when I realized it wasn't the light flickering but the entire lantern. My eyes widened when the lid of the long box moved. I grabbed the lantern and jumped back just as the lid flew off. A dark figure arose from the box, and I held out the lantern light toward them.

It was Vincent, and he didn't look happy to see me. "What are you doing here?" he demanded to know.

What the hell had he been doing in there? "I-I-" I stuttered.

Vincent swooped toward me with such speed that before I knew it the lantern and letter were swiped from my hands. I shrieked when his pale face appeared an inch from my own, and in the lantern light his teeth looked unnaturally long. "What are you doing here?" he growled.

I stumbled backward and my back hit a tower of crates. "T-Tim told me to come here. Something happened to him," I replied.

Vincent straightened and raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"H-he was murdered."

Vincent's eyes widened and he hurriedly placed his hand over his chest. Whatever he felt it made his thin mouth turn up in a twisted grin. "So he's dead at last? How wonderful."

"Wonderful?" I gasped. My hands balled into fists and I marched up to him. "Tim's dead, you idiot! Don't you know what that means?"

"Yes, but you don't." Vincent dropped the lantern and it clattered to the floor, but remained intact. He lunged for me and slammed me back against the crates with such force that their heavy frames rattled.

"What the hell are you doing?" I exclaimed.

Vincent shoved his face into mine and his eyes glowed with an unnatural light. He brushed his nose against my cheek, and I shuddered at the contact of his cold skin against mine. His nostrils flared. "The human beauty is so fragile. A single bullet and your light is extinguished." I flinched when one of his hands slid up my thigh and came to rest on my waist. He pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the crates. "You have such beauty, but I won't save it for eternity."

"W-what are you talking about?" I breathed. "Tim just told me to come here and-"

I jumped when Vincent grabbed my arms and pushed me roughly against the crates. "Then Tim was an idiot, and I should thank your friend for so many years of slavery by draining you of every last drop of blood," he whispered. My heart skipped a beat and I wiggled in his grasp, but he was strong, unbelievably strong. His eyes traveled down to my neck, and then back up to my wide, scared eyes. "Wouldn't that be fitting revenge?" he mused. He was toying with me like a cat with a mouse. His amusement vanished when he glanced at my left hand. His eyes widened in fury and fear, and he pulled his face away from mine. "What are you doing with that?" he growled. I didn't know what he was talking about until I remembered the ring on my finger. "Take it off!" he demanded as he lunged for my hand.

A bright, white light erupted from the ring. The heat was so intense I could feel the width of the narrow band etch into my finger. Vincent screamed in agony and I was released from his iron grasp. I dropped to the ground and watched Vincent stumble back. He clutched at his left hand where another intense light emanated where I noticed he wore the same ring as me. A few yards from me he collapsed to his knees and the light swallowed him. My only thought was to get the ring off, so I grasped the ring in my hand and pulled. The ring slowly slid across my finger, and in the background of my struggle Vincent cried out in horrible pain. The moment the ring slipped off my finger the light vanished, but I was left with a searing pain in my finger. I glanced down and was in time to see engraved letters on my skin fade into my body.

I slumped over onto my side and my breath came out in haggard gasps. Far off I heard Vincent groan, and I glanced over to where he lay. He was huddled in a tight, quivering ball, but he soon pulled himself from his cocoon and rolled over to face me. His eyes were full of a confusing mix of hate, anger, and fear. He struggled to his feet and I pushed through my own pain but only managed to sit up.

I expected him to attack me again, but instead his arms dropped to his sides and a sick smirk slid onto his lips. "So that's what he planned," he hoarsely whispered. "Smart boy."

"Tim?" I croaked.

Vincent's reply was to shuffle toward me, and I scooted back against the nearest crate. When he reached me he knelt down on one knee and looked me over. I cringed and prepared for death, but he did nothing. He only stared at me with those unblinking, intense eyes.

His inaction made me mad. I was tired of being the mouse. "If you're going to kill me then do it," I demanded.

"I wish I could," he quipped.

I blinked in bewilderment. "But you-"

"The circumstances have changed, and so have both of us," he interrupted. "What did Timothy tell you about our relationship?"

The change in subject was so sudden that I habitually shrugged. "Nothing except you guys were a team."

Vincent chuckled. "Is that what he told you? That we were some sort of a team? All for one and one for all?" I cringed, but nodded. He scoffed and his face twisted into disgust. "We were nothing of the sort." That was all I needed to hear from this psychopath. I slowly scooted along the floor, but Vincent slammed a hand against the crate that stood behind me. "You're to go nowhere," he told me.

I frowned. "If you're not going to kill me then what are you going to do to me?" I asked him.

"I'm going to protect you." I raised an eyebrow, and he impatiently sighed. "You're a slow one, aren't you? Have you even figured out what I am?"

"A psychopath?" I guessed.

He smirked. "True, but that doesn't describe my species."

"I just want to-ah!" A spasm of pain shot through my sore hand. I doubled over and clutched at my shivering fingers. Vincent grabbed my shoulders and held me still. I grit my teeth and raised my head to look at him. "What's going on?" I asked him.

"The union isn't finished yet. Where is the ring?" he asked me. My eyes traveled to the fallen lantern. The ring had rolled up beside the metal casing around the flame. Vincent followed my gaze, and he left me to snatch the ring and return. "Put this back on," he instructed me as he held out the ring. I squished against the crate and shook my head. I wasn't going through that pain again. He sneered at me and shoved the ring into my palm. "Put it-"

His insistence was interrupted by the sound of guns outside the warehouse. Bullets penetrated the thin walls of the old warehouse and shot over our heads. I swung my arms over my head and ducked down. Vincent threw himself over me and pressed me to the floor. He stuck his head close to mine and his long teeth looked impossibly sharp. "Put on the ring or we're both dead!" he snapped.

I was too panicked to argue, and hurriedly slipped the ring onto my finger. I clutched my hand as pain shot out from the band of metal and into my body. Vincent clenched his teeth together and I heard his stifled cries as his pain mirrored mine. The gunfire outside and was replaced by a more hideous sound of a large wolf howling. I heard the front door ripped off its hinges and tossed aside. Clawed feet clinked along the hard floor, and through the pain of the ring I imagined a far worse death than the one promised by Vincent. I feared I would be torn apart by some bloodthirsty hound. How wrong I was.

The clinking claws came closer and rounded the corner of a nearby crate stack. I tilted my head back and my eyes widened when, by the light of the dim lantern, I beheld not a large dog, but a wolf creature larger than a man. It spotted us and raised itself onto its hind legs. The wolf thing tipped its head back and howled. The awful noise echoed through the metallic building and sent a shudder through my body. It dropped back down on all four legs and raced toward us.

Vincent flew off me, and jumped between the monster and me. When the beast's was a foot from him he kicked out a leg in a circular motion and knocked the monster's front legs out from under it. The wolf crashed head-first into the hard floor and slid into the crate of boxes behind me. The wooden boxes toppled over him. I crawled away, but the pain wracked my body so I couldn't find the strength to stand.

Vincent grabbed one of the crates and tore a long, jagged spike from the wood. The wolf beast burst from the crates and howled in rage. Its golden eyes fell on me, and I screamed when it lunged at me. Vincent tackled the beast from the side and the pair of them rolled away from me. I backed up and my hand knocked into something hard but light. It was the lantern. I grabbed the lantern and swung it to watch the tussle.

The creature righted itself and dove at Vincent, but he was too fast and dodged the thing's claws. Vincent slipped behind the wolf and raised the stake to plunge the weapon into the creature's back. The beast turned the tables by using Vincent's trick of kicking back a leg to knock him off his feet. Vincent fell hard on his back, and the beast turned to tear Vincent to pieces. I thought fast and threw the lantern at the beast's back. The flame hit the thing's furry back and caught the hair on fire.

The creature screamed and tried to reach back to extinguish the flames. Vincent took his chance, grabbed the stake that he'd dropped, and jabbed it into the creature's chest. The wolf released a long, terrible howl before it fell over dead. The fur continued to burn, and by its light I watched the thing transform from a furry demon to a barely-clothed man. Once the transformation was complete the fire was extinguished from the no-longer existing hair on his back, and I was completely blind and still wracked with pain.

Chapter 3

I shrieked when I felt myself lifted into a strong pair of arms. "Quiet," Vincent's voice ordered me. He held me against him as he dashed away from the light of the front door and through the maze of crates. We quickly reached the rear, and he turned and slammed his back into a heavy metal door. The exit led outside, and I was grateful to be able to see where we were going.

That is, until Vincent raced along the rear of the other warehouses. His speed was impossibly fast for a human. The ground sped by in a flurry of rocks and broken pieces of glass, and in a few seconds we covered a distance that would have taken me at least a minute to cross. I tried to free myself and get off this horrible ride, but he only pressed me harder to his chest. "Don't move," he growled.

I stiffened and obeyed his command, especially when I saw how many cars and people were lay in front of the warehouses. There were at least half a dozen cars and twice that number of men dressed in black suits. They had dark sunglasses over their eyes, and all of them were armed. Half of them were still at the entrance to the end warehouse, but the other half was spread out between the gate and where we stood behind the center warehouse. Vincent crept us up to the front of the warehouse, but any further and we'd be seen.

We heard shouts from our former warehouse. The body of the wolf man had been discovered. The men who stood in front of the gate glanced in that direction, and Vincent took advantage of their distraction. He shot out of our hiding spot behind a few crates and raced to the gate. The chain-link gate was shut, but that didn't slow him down. The men in sunglasses noticed our escape and turned their guns on us. Shots rang out and bullets whizzed by our heads. Their aim must have been as bad as a Storm Trooper's because they didn't hit Vincent. At least, he didn't slow down, but my body felt pricked by dozens of pins. Then something hot dug into my shoulder as one of the men hit their mark, me. The bullet flew clear through and my blood soaked my shirt.

We were ten yards from the gate when Vincent leapt up into the air. The momentum of his prodigious speed flew us over the top of the barbed wire and onto the other side. The closed gate slowed down our pursuers and gave us a head-start down the river road. We entered the asphalt jungle before their cars left the warehouse island, and Vincent didn't have any trouble losing them in the maze of dark alleys and narrow, dingy streets.

Regardless of the danger I was glad when he stopped us in a splendid mix of a dingy, dark, and narrow alley. My wounded hadn't closed and the pain was nearly as bad as what the ring had caused. I cried out when he set me down a little too hard against a brick wall. "Quiet," he commanded.

I glared at him. "Quiet? There's a god damn bullet hole in my shoulder!" I snapped back at him.

Vincent ignored my whining and ripped open my bloodied shirt sleeve. The blood had traveled down my arm and chest, and covered half my body. I expected him to wrap it with the torn sleeve, but Vincent only stared unblinkingly at the wound. "Vincent?" I asked him. He didn't reply and I nervously shifted beneath his unwavering gaze. His hand shot out and held me still. My eyes caught sight of his outfit and for the first time I noticed it was riddled with bullets. Those guys in suits hadn't missed, they'd shot him full. He shouldn't have been alive, much less holding me down. My heart raced as I remembered how he'd earlier threatened to kill me. Vincent's sharp teeth gleaned in the weak light of the night, but his pallor stood out in the dark shadows of the alley. He looked like a creature of the night, like a- "Vampire!" I gasped.