From the Ashes (Witches of The Demon Isle Book 8) (6 page)

“God dang it this sucks.” Mack replaced the sheet over the bloodied body. “If it is William, he’s killed two people. You know I can’t allow that to continue. As to what that means, and what else happens…” she tossed her hands into the air in a hopeless gesture.

“And if it’s not William, it means there’s another vampire on the loose,” said Charlie. “Making himself, or herself, far too comfortable on the Isle. And no one is safe, either way.”

“We haven’t had any vampire deaths on this island since before William came here. You guys know I’ll do my best to cover it up, but if the press gets hold of it…” she eyed them both, but they already knew how bad it would be if that happened. “We don’t need tourists comin’ here thinkin’ vampires are real.”

“And then finding out they really are.” Charlie could only imagine that nightmare come to life.

“And find out they are not like William, or the sparkly kind who don’t drink human blood and get written about in novels,” added Melinda. “Good thing that new D.E.S.I. Reporter, Courtney Jessup, has been laying low.”

“We can’t count on that to last though,” noted Charlie. “And there’s more reporters out there just waiting for a scoop like this.”

“Actually, that gung-ho reporter chick up and quit a few days ago,” informed Mack. “You guys have been busy so you missed the news.”

“She quit?” reeled Charlie. “Huh…”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” asked Melinda.

“I guess. Timing seems kind of strange. She was so eager and had that blog, and was on the air like it was her life mission to out the truth or something.”

“Guess island life just wasn’t for her,” jeered Mack.

“More like she couldn’t keep wearing her favorite shoes,” said Melinda, recalling the woman’s ridiculously spiked heels wobbling across the cobblestones that lined downtown.

Charlie got a laugh out of that. “Probably best for all around if she leaves because she was getting a little too close to the Feyk. Who knows what else she would have uncovered given more time.”

They all agreed.

Melinda took a last glance at the bloodied sheet and let out an empty sigh.

Charlie understood exactly what she meant without her saying a word.

So did Mack. She eyed each of them, no less worried now than a week ago when they were battling the Feyk.

“I sure am sorry to put this vampire bularkey on you guys. William responsible or not, you deserve a nice, long break.”

“Deserving or not, the job goes on,” said Charlie. “You know us, Mack. We’ll get it done. Somehow.”

She got quiet. Her tone hushed when she spoke a tense few seconds later.

“Are you guys all okay? This last thing was… beyond brutal.”

“We’re still kicking,” vowed Charlie. Although it was a constant struggle to stay present and in the moment. Or willing to face the future, or heck, sometimes the upcoming hours or minutes.

Melinda added, “A little broken in places, but alive to fight another day.”

Mack attempted a warm smile, but inside, it was upside down and frigid.

The Howards may have prevented dark magic from consuming the Isle, but another sort of darkness settled over them that didn’t feel as though it would lift, anytime soon.

She showed them out.

“Keep me posted.”

“As always,” said Charlie. “We’ll contact you as soon as we find anything.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. The cleaners finished emptying out the Jordan house. There’s a few things I’ve asked Josh to deliver directly to you guys.”

“Like what?” Charlie wondered stiffly.

“You’ll see when it gets there. Nothing that needs to be dealt with immediately. But potentially eye-opening.”

“Sounds
fun
,” Melinda retorted with a testy groan.

“Let’s leave it at they were a couple of
interesting
people.”

“That’s not the word I’d use,” muttered Charlie.

They left the sheriff’s office and headed toward home.

“Any thoughts on how to track a vampire?” asked Melinda quietly.

“No. We’ve never had to before.”

“Really bad timing for William to disappear. He could be of great help on this one,” she stated, no less determined to prove his innocence.

“We will figure it out,” assured Charlie. “I’m just not sure where to start.”

“If William were here, he’d start with…”

“Research,” finished Charlie.

“Books and stuff. Can you handle it?” she needled her brother, trying not to crack a grin.

Charlie wasn’t known to have opened a book, possibly ever. He rolled his eyes, already bored and irritated at the idea.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Lizzy you read a book. I hate to bring it up, but we could ask Lizzy and Lucas to help,” Melinda suggested.

“Um, no. Let’s not. Yet…”

“You’re going to have to face her, Charlie.”

“But it doesn’t have to be today,” he insisted tersely.

Melinda gave a start and stopped her brother. “Take it from someone who’s used that line more than once, the outcome is never the one you want.”

He glowered and grumbled all the way back to the mansion.

Melinda followed him into William’s study.

So many books. No idea where to begin.

William had always done the text selection. She often read and researched with him, but rarely ever picked out the books herself. Pathetic really, she thought now. She grazed her hand along the spines like a caress. Touching these books was almost like touching William. He’d read every single page in this library. Held each of these volumes in his hands, cool fingers shuffling through the pages. He’d assisted them with their jobs and saved their hides time after time because of his knowledge and countless hours spent researching.

A thankless task.

They never properly even thanked him, did they?

William might not be standing in the study, but his presence covered everything. This space was William Wakefield. His body such a stable, comforting sight in this room. His strength like a powerful aura. Too bad not powerful enough to magically take her to the book she needed.

“What are we even looking for?” Melinda queried her brother.

“Let’s see, books about vampires, I guess. What we really need is a way to track or hunt a vampire. Books written by vampire hunters… is there such a thing?”

How utterly ridiculous. Neither of them had enough knowledge about what their own damn library included. Or how the books were cataloged on the shelves.

“Hey, maybe we should hire one of those?” Melinda was thinking aloud.

“What? A vampire hunter?”

“Yeah. They exist don’t they?”

“Yeah, but, I don’t know. I mean, if it does happen to be William we’re hunting for, we don’t need a crazy one-minded vampire killer on the Isle.”

“Ugh. Yeah. Good point.”

“We’ll keep it mind as a plan Z,” decided Charlie. “If all else fails. Besides, we’re already capable of subduing a vampire once we find one.”

“It’s just the finding part. Why does it always come down to the tracking and the hunting part?”

Charlie sighed. “We do need a better way to do that. More things to add to our list of things to get done,” he jibbed. “So how do we find anything in here?”

Melinda searched through the shelves. “Oh, wait, look. It’s organized by subject, and it’s alphabetical.”

“Not on this shelf it isn’t,” pointed out Charlie, looking at another wall of books. “These look like collected anthologies of varied topics.”

“Well I’ll start here, you start there, and let’s see if we can keep from calling the whole thing off…”

“Wow. Jazz standard pun… have we sunk that low?”

“Apparently. Man, I haven’t listened to that song in…” she sighed. “Since William played that jazz record on Christmas last year.”

It was mid-July but the memory gave her a chill.

So much of William in this space.

They shifted through book after book until they’d piled up a fair few. Some the entire book dedicated to the subject, and some with potentially helpful entries on vampires.

It took hours for them to reach this point.

“How is it we’ve lived with a vampire all our lives,” moaned Charlie, “and know so little on the subject?”

“We’re familiar with William, the man,” replied Melinda. “Like how he’d give us the answers we needed rather than have us spend hours reading because he’d already done the research.”

Charlie found no argument to that statement.

“We don’t so much know William, the vampire,” Melinda stated. There was so much about his history they did not know. So many personal details he kept to himself. “But we do know some stuff. Like how to kill one, or subdue one. We know what vampires are capable of. How fast they move, how good they hear. How strong they are. We’re not going into this totally blind.”

Charlie fired out a sharp sigh, impressed. “You’re right. That is a good start. And like you pointed out earlier, it comes down to how to hunt one. Difficult task because of all those talents you pointed out a few seconds ago.”

“Unless we have a spare damsel in distress he happens to be in love with we can use as bait…” it slipped out before her mind even had time to think about it. “Um, please ignore I just said that.”

Horrified. Melinda was instantly horrified.

Where did that come from?

Far too soon to make light…

“Yeah, let’s not have that scenario happen again.” Charlie had no idea what else to say to that. Such a sad, simplistic explanation of what happened. “Sis?” he called out softly when she said nothing. Her face turned away from him. He refused to let her and gently coaxed her back.

“Sorry,” she whispered. Tears rimmed her eyes, but the determination in her pupils ordered them not to fall.

“It’s okay to get upset about it. I’m not judging you for that. Or think you’re, you know…”

“Going to my dark place,” she sniffled with a tight grin. “Otherwise known as the four walls that make up my bedroom.”

“You’re not moving back there.” His tone was certain. “I put that place up for sale. It sold fast. It’s gone for good. That room upstairs is just a place you sleep now.”

She sucked in. Calming herself.

“The book stack is getting high,” she noted, getting back on task.

“That it is. It really is a shame William isn’t here to give us the answers. Kind of like cheating on a test and all this reading will seriously damage my brain.”

“You have a brain in there?” Melinda knocked on his head. “Nothing…” She surmised. Charlie was just trying to make her laugh, and it worked.

“Okay, all joking set aside, this stack is a bit daunting. Will take all night to read through it.”

Michael’s voice rang out from the study entrance.

“You’re worried there might be another attack before we figure out what to do?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’ve got my help for a while.” He was Emily-less as he lumbered inside to join them.

“How is she?” Charlie hated to bring up another sore subject.

“Kicked me out of the bookstore.” He plunked down on the overstuffed arm of a chair. “Claimed she couldn’t finish her work because I was hovering.”

His siblings didn’t even bother trying to argue, they were sure he was.

“Anyway, rather than pace around arguing with her, and get pissed because letting her stay there alone will drive me mad, I came home. So what’s going on in here?” He pointed at all the books, having a good idea already but wanted the lowdown.

“Research,” responded Charlie and Melinda at once.

“It’s much slower going without William’s super speedy reading,” informed Melinda.

“Or knowledge in general of what’s in this library,” explained Charlie dejectedly.

“I assume we’re researching vampires?” Michael picked up a book and thumbed through the pages.

“Yes. We’re trying to figure out how to hunt one. How to set some kind of trap,” Charlie explained. “You know, the usual. Need to track and catch something, no idea how to do that.”

“Oh. Joy.” Michael sounded about as enthused as his siblings.

The afternoon drudged onward. As it turned out, they had a lot more information about vampires in their library than any of them had ever realized. Some of the books went back hundreds of years, with data collected and recorded by their own family.

It was fascinating, boring, and tedious all at once.

“My brain is permanently injured,” rumbled Charlie after a few more hours.

Michael snickered. Melinda laughed, thinking about knocking him upside the head again to see if it sounded any different. Instead, she jumped out of the chair she’d gotten comfy in and plopped down between them on the sofa.

“I think I’ve got something. It’s kind of so ridiculously simple it’s stupid really.”

She showed them the entry.