Vampire Dating Agency III (11 page)

CHAPTER
FORTY

Before Jason could get to his feet
and offer a response, Nadine had already taken the role of offence for him.
“Well, I’d understand if you didn’t recognize me, Riley,” she said approaching
them, “but that isn’t the sort of welcoming I think Jason was expecting.”

Riley said
something in her boyfriend’s ear and then turned her back on them to re-enter
the house.

“I don’t know
what to tell you,” Riley’s boyfriend explained. “But I think it’s in everyone’s
best interest if you would please fuck off.”

He went to
follow Riley inside but Nadine grabbed hold of his arm.

“Did you not
hear me?” the boyfriend shouted. “Let go!”

He pushed
Nadine away from him.

When she
advanced again he grabbed hold of her throat, and forced her against the
railing.

Jason
stumbled over. “We’ll go! We’ll go!” he s pleaded. “Just leave her alone!”

“I’m trying
to!” the boyfriend said between clenched teeth.

Nadine had
her own hand around his throat.

“You let go
too, Nadine!” Jason scolded.

But Nadine
wasn’t letting go. She seemed determined to channel her strength.

“Ah-ha!” she
cried mightily, as the boyfriend faltered.

He put his
hands to hers, trying to pry them away from him.

It wasn’t
easy.

Jason’s eyes
searched around for something to distract them. In the end there was little he
could do but grab hold of Nadine.

Gently.

“Please,” he
said. “Leave him.”

Nadine
reluctantly let go.

The man
dropped to his knees, catching his breath.

“Let’s get
out of here,” Jason urged her. “She’s not going to help us.”

Nadine didn’t
seem all that convinced.

She moved
away from the railing towards Jason, just as Riley’s boyfriend grabbed hold of
her leg. He pulled her back to the ground and attacked her from surprise.

Jason
attempted to intercept again, but he was pushed away.

“You think
you’re strong?” the man demanded, shaking her by the head. “You think you can
fight me?”

Jason looked
back in the direction of the house.

Still no sign
of Riley.

“Get off her,
man,” Jason said. “Before you do some damage.”

“Not until
she understands her place,” the man asserted. “Well? Do you understand it?”

Nadine’s face
was buried into the floor.

Jason
couldn’t see whether she’d heard him.

“Nadine,” he
asked. “Are you okay?”

Her attacker
gave her another violent shake and then got up. He stormed back into the house.

“Get the fuck
off my porch,” he said as he passed Jason.

Jason hurried
over to Nadine.

“Nadine, get
up,” Jason said turning her over.

She was
shivering.

Shivering,
but okay.

“I couldn’t
fight him,” she whispered. “He was too strong.”

“I know,”
Jason said.

“No, you
don’t understand. He’s just a man. I should be able to fight him. He should be
nothing to me.”

“You’re not as
strong as you were. Remember?”

Nadine
nodded. “Can I borrow that cane of yours?”

Jason reached
round for it. “Here.”

Nadine used
it to help herself up, then handed it back to Jason.

He joined her
side.

“Can you
believe that bitch, Riley?” Nadine muttered. “Where does she get off ignoring
us?”

“I should
have seen it coming,” Jason said.

“What do you
mean?”

“I knew she
was going this way. Turning her heart away from it. I thought maybe … there
might be something still there. But…”

“She’s just a
stranger now,” Nadine finished.

“Yeah,” Jason
whispered.

“Well, that’s
two strikes to us then,” Nadine said pulled out the sheet of paper. “Dino and
Riley both don’t want anything to do with us. That leaves one address left.
Which I’m going to assume is Luna’s. Maybe we’ll get lucky third try round.”

“Yeah,” Jason
said. “Really lucky.”

CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE

There was nothing out here. Nothing
for miles.

Field after
field after field. Road after road.

The same
road.

Ongoing.

It didn’t
seem that they had been out here for that long, but time was an elusive thing.
It was 6.25pm and approaching the hour of dark. The sky was rippled with grey
clouds and orange glare. On the far horizon they could make out the beginnings
of a series of structures and buildings. Of fences and signs and activity. It
was all happening to the right of them. Jason eyed the GPS.

“What is that
we’re approaching?” he asked Nadine.

“I have no
idea. Some sort of town…?”

Jason
continued to stare ahead. “What town?”

The car moved
on.

To the right
of them, a sign with an arrow.

SRM Barracks,
6 miles.

“That’s where
she must be,” Jason said. “Wonder if they’ll be problems getting in.”

“We can only
try.”

A few minutes
later a dirt road veered off to the right towards the barracks, accompanied
with more prominent signage. They followed it.

Soon they
reached a barricade.

An officer in
uniform stepped out of his cubicle and approached the car.

Jason wound
down the window.

“State your
business.”

“Hi,” Jason
said. “We’re trying to find this address here.” He handed the officer the
paper.

The officer
looked it over. “Have you some kind of an appointment?”

“That’s
right,” Nadine said leaning over. “Luna said we could just drive through.”

The officer
looked at her. “Excuse me, one moment.”

He went back
to his station.

“Maybe we
should tell him who we are,” Jason said. “It could make a difference.”

“Let’s just
see what happens.”

They waited.

The officer
soon returned with the paper. He handed it to Jason.

“You can
drive through,” the officer said. “Once you pass through the gates ahead, turn
left and follow the arrows to the car space. You’re to wait there for an
escort. Don’t do anything stupid unless you’re looking to get shot.”

“Thank you,”
Jason mumbled.

The guard
went back to his station and the barrier moved up.

They drove
through.

CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO

“I hope this proves fruitful,” Jason
said once they were out of the car. “Otherwise we’ve just wasted all this time
chasing dead ends. Not that our reunion with Riley wasn’t eventful…”

“Did
something happen between the two of you?” Nadine asked. “After everything went
down?”

“I told you
already. Some people just don’t want to deal with the past. And I don’t know
why our hopes are even up for it here. Probably just going to get yelled at and
–”

Jason stopped
midsentence as two soldiers appeared from the road and moved towards them.

“Step
forward,” one of them instructed. “Arms to your sides.”

Nadine
immediately complied.

Jason rested
his cane on the front of the car.

“What’s
this?” one of the soldiers asked, taking hold of it.

“I have a
limp,” Jason said. “I was shot.”

“Oh.” A
pause. “Arms out.”

They were
patted down.

Once
satisfied the soldiers then marched them properly out of the area and down the
road towards one of the buildings.

A plaque out
the front read:
Centre of Paranormal Affairs.

They passed
through some metal detectors and entered the building.

They were
then instructed to sit in the foyer.

“Ms. Evans
has been notified of your arrival,” the soldier said. “She’ll come get you when
she’s ready.”

“Thank you,”
Jason said. He looked over at Nadine after the soldiers had left. “I wonder if
she’s been expecting us too.”

“It wouldn’t
surprise me,” Nadine said.

CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE

Luna had not been expecting them.
Snapshots of the car had been taken via surveillance and she’d put the plates
forward just to make sure there was no mistaking. These were two of her old
workers from Cresh’s division, one of whom was supposed to be in prison. As video
feed of them sitting in the foyer stood frozen on the screen beside her, Luna
made calls to everyone she could think of who might provide her with some kind
of forthright explanation for how Nadine had gotten out and what the fuck they
were doing here. Eventually, she could stand it no longer. She picked up the
phone and had them sent up to her office.

She was on
her feet when they entered. In the previous minute she’d swallowed the
remainder of an energy drink and downed a handful of sweets, before spraying
her mouth a few times with a freshener. There were two chairs standing side by
side against the side wall where she motioned for them to sit, her eyes rigidly
watching their every movement. The receptionist mouthed asking whether she
should close the door, to which Luna nodded.

And then it
was closed.

“I’m most
surprised to see the two of you,” Luna began. “How long has it been exactly?
Four – five years?”

“Almost,”
Jason answered.

“How hard did
you have to work at tracking me down?”

They looked
at each other.

“We’ll get to
that,” Nadine said. “It’s sort of a long story.”

“I see.” Luna
paused. “Where shall we start then?”

“You’re still
working with Paranormal Police?” Jason asked. “Is this the new headquarters or
something?”

“Not
exactly,” Luna replied. “The police were disbanded as a result of our
misfortunes. You should be aware of that. What this is, is something else
entirely. We don’t exactly so much as investigate paranormal situations, as we
do neutralize them.”

“And what’s
your role here?”

Luna shrugged.
“I’m just a supervisor,” she said sitting down. “I don’t have much authority. I
have a caseload just like everyone else.”

“Sounds like
hard work,” Nadine said.

Luna drew her
gaze to focus. “Why are you out? Your sentence was fifteen years.”

“Yeah,” Nadine
smiled. “Thanks a lot for that.”

“Let’s not
turn this into another argument,” Jason said quickly. “Just stick to the facts
everyone. Save the sarcasm for –”

“Shut up,
Jason,” Nadine said. “You didn’t have to do the time. I need answers.”

“For what?”
Luna challenged.

“I was not
the traitor,” Nadine declared. “I was innocent.”

“Yet the
court found otherwise.”

“They were
just looking for a scapegoat. Someone to pin the failures of the department on.
They didn’t want to deal with the real situation. They didn’t want to find the
real killer.”

“What planet
are you living on?” Luna scoffed. “They did everything they could.”

“Bullshit.”

Luna turned
to Jason. “Seriously, I don’t know what she’s doing here, or what line of crap
she’s sold you, but I hope you’re not taking it in. This woman betrayed us. We
had tonnes of evidence to support it, not just my own, truthful, testimony.
She’s the reason people are dead.”

A vicious
growl exhaled from Nadine’s lungs.

She pounced
from her chair and landed on top of Luna, swinging at her.

“No!” Jason
cried, standing up. “Please don’t!”

He jumped on
Nadine and tackled her to the floor.

Luna shifted
away from them and put her fingers to a button underneath her desk.

“Don’t push
it!” Jason shouted. “We can resolve this!”

Luna
hesitated.

Nadine
shrugged Jason off her.

She got her
knees and crawled across to where Luna was. She took her hand into her own.

“I was
innocent,” Nadine said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You were wrong.”

“But it
wasn’t me,” Luna said. “It was Cresh. He said it was you who betrayed us. It
was the last thing he ever said…”