Vampire Dating Agency III (12 page)

CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR

Luna wasn’t lying. She was in court
the day Nadine was convicted. They had emails from her computer to the VDA advising
them where to meet for an exchange of information. They had surveillance
footage of Nadine at her computer when the emails were sent. If it wasn’t
enough, Luna could travel back into her own mind to where she found Cresh in
his destroyed office, underneath the rubble…

“I know, I
know who betrayed us,” he wheezed.

His hand was
on her cheek. His blood was there too.

“Don’t talk,”
Luna said. “You’re hurting yourself. I’m going to call for help.”

“No,” he
growled, not letting her leave. “You need to listen to me. I’m trying to tell
you…”

Their eyes
locked together.

“It’s
Nadine,” he said clearly.

“Nadine?”
Luna said with some belief. “What did she do?”

“She’s the
one. The one who –”

His sentence
was never finished. He stared at her for some time until she knew it was just
his lifeless eyes she was looking at. It didn’t matter anyway. She could finish
the sentence for him.

Nadine had
betrayed them.

Nadine had
attacked him.

Nadine was
behind everything.

Looking at
Nadine now, with those tears in her eyes, expressing the horror of the
injustice dealt against her, Luna could almost be fooled into believing it.
That’s how good she was. That’s how cunning. Nadine’s guilt was never in
question. The only play was that Luna didn’t know how she’d gotten out, and what
she was doing here for all places. Surely her affiliation with the vampires,
could not have withstood all these years.

“You believe
me?” Nadine pleaded. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“Alright,”
Luna lied. “I’ll believe you. For now.”

They both got
to their feet.

Jason stood
up also. “If we could have a civil discussion now, that would be great.”

“No problem,”
Nadine said sitting back down. “She believes me.”

“And you
believe me too, don’t you?” Luna questioned. “You believe me that Cresh did
finger you as the traitor before he died?”

“I guess,”
Nadine shrugged. “But if it happened, then he was wrong.”

“We think
Kendra was the traitor,” Jason explained. “Nadine says she saw her alive and
working with the Count when she last visited the house.”

“I know,” Luna
said. “It was part of her defense.”

“They never
did find Kendra, did they?” Nadine asked.

Luna shook
her head. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here now? What the hell you
want from me? Or are you just here to accuse me of setting you up?”

“It’s not
like that,” Jason said.

They were
both seated now.

Luna shifted
back into her own chair.

“We’re trying
to find out what really happened that night. With Haley. The killer. And who
actually betrayed us.”

“Someone
wanted me out of prison,” Nadine said. “I have no idea who it was, but they
left a message for me with everyone’s address on it. We’ve just been to see
both Dino and Riley looking for help. Our last stop is you.”

“They’re both
out of the game, aren’t they?” Luna replied. “I mean Dino still works security
but it’s not in an official capacity –”

“Obviously
we’re conducting our own investigation,” Nadine stated. “We don’t have weapons.
We don’t have resources. We want to track down the Count and go undercover into
the VDA again. Wherever it might be. But … we were also hoping maybe someone
would shine a better light on what we’re looking for. Make sense of what
happened…”

“There is no
VDA,” Luna said. “It’s been taken over. It’s done.”

“No, that’s
not true,” Nadine said shaking her head. “I’ve seen there’s still a website.
You can still sign up –”

“I’m sure
there’s lots of those things now,” Luna interrupted. “They might be tied with
real vampires, but they have nothing to do with the Count. And certainly
nothing to do with any active serial killings.”

“So you’re
saying they stopped?” Jason asked. “Can you confirm that?”

“As far as I
know,” Luna shrugged. “But people disappear all the time. Maybe he’s just being
more careful now.”

“Look, let me
just ask you,” Jason continued, “does any of this sit right with you? That we
never figured out the full story. That Haley vanished into thin air.”

“Guys,” Luna
murmured. “What do you want? It’s not hard to figure out. Nadine herself was
the last one to see Haley alive. Surrounded by a horde of vampires, didn’t you
say?”

“Something
like that.”

“So they
probably killed her that night, or at the very least kept her as some kind of
slave. We never found the Count so she could still be with him. But there’s no
reason to believe the Count is still in the country with the manhunt focused on
him. If he were truly innocent, shouldn’t he have remained where he was, and
welcomed the police presence? No. Instead he ran away because he was guilty for
those murders. And someone else was obviously helping him. Whether you want to
believe that was Kendra risen from the dead, or our friend here – there’s no
mystery left to solve. With a thousand and one agents looking for him for the
past five years and coming up short, I highly doubt whatever scheme the two of
you come up with is going to deliver the goods.”

Nadine stood
up. “That’s all we’ve been hearing. That it’s impossible. That we can’t do it.
Well, fuck off. We’re not asking for your pessimism. We’re asking you for help.
Don’t you want to find out what happened? Not some made up story you tell
yourself, but what’s real. Don’t you want that bastard behind bars?”

Luna sighed.
“I can’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“Because
you’re not being honest with me.”

“What do you
mean?”

“You don’t
want the truth. All you want is chaos.”

Nadine went to
lunge at her but Jason reached out and held her back.

“No more
fighting,” he said. “If she doesn’t want to help us, then we can’t force her.”

“You bitch,”
Nadine said and spat in Luna’s face.

Luna wiped
the saliva away with disgust. “Get the fuck out of here before I call
security.”

Nadine
stormed out of the room while Jason made his way out slower, taking hold of his
cane.

At the door
he paused, and turned back to face her.

“When it
turns out we were right, I hope you have the decency to apologize,” he said.

“To who?”
Luna fired back. “To that crazy person who just attacked me?”

“No,” Jason
said, his eyes on the floor. “To Haley.”

CHAPTER
FORTY-FIVE

It was ten to seven. Night had begun
to settle in. Jason and Nadine were able to leave the barracks without incident
and were soon on the road again. Where to exactly … it hadn’t been determined.

There was
silence between them. Jason knew Nadine was upset things hadn’t gone according
to plan. Since leaving prison he sensed she’d been swept up in a whirlwind of
adrenalin and determination. But as the sun set and the sky darkened, the
thoughts in her mind hadn’t been realized into anything of actual substance.
They were aimless, ignorant, without cause or direction.

The turning
of the world, was not on their side.

And already
he could feel it coming back to him. The shackles of responsibility. The truth
of the world he had made for himself. He thought about going home again and
closing the front door, the TV on and everyone talking. Noise and demeanor. How
wonderfully it could erase.

“Maybe we
didn’t think this through,” Jason said finally.

“Of course we
haven’t,” Nadine replied. “That’s the next step for us.”

“I mean,
whether we should embark on this thing at all.”

Nadine turned
slightly. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying …
Luna made some points. Dino made some too. Hell, even fucking Riley made a case
against it.”

“So what?
You’re out? It’s just me. All by myself?”

“I didn’t say
that,” Jason said. He then reconsidered. “Well, maybe that is what I’m saying.”

“No,” Nadine
whispered. “No, no, no…”

“Why is it so
important to you? I mean. For real. Which part of this is driving you? Is it …
Haley … or…”

“You saw what
happened back at the barracks, right?”

“Which … what
–”

“Luna. She
still thinks I’m guilty.”

“Oh. Well,
yeah.”

“This is how
smart this guy is. This is how far he’s thought ahead. Choosing to frame me.
Doctoring evidence. Even … somehow manipulating Cresh before he died. It’s …
it’s so clear to me. I can feel the fucker grinning at me. He’s just … there.
Doing me over. It’s breaking me. Breaking me to bits. I need to know. I need to
know who he is…”

“But…” Jason
trailed off.

“What?”

“What if it’s
all in your head? What if you’re just a victim of circumstance?”

“Are you
kidding me?” Nadine ground her teeth together. “Circumstance didn’t get me out
of prison. Circumstance didn’t make Haley disappear for five years. This isn’t
fucking circumstance. This is … a monster…”

Jason was
confused.

He only half
believed the words.

Seeing the
truth on one side of the mirror.

And a whole
world of something else on the other.

“What is it
going to take, Jason?” Nadine demanded. “To get you on
my
side?”

“Them,” Jason
blurted out. “Dino. Riley. Luna. We needed them. Maybe not all of them, but at
least … at least somebody else…”

Nadine
pounded her fist into the dashboard. “I’m begging you. Please. Please don’t
abandon me. Please tell me I can count on you tonight.”

Jason took a
deep breath.

Poor Nadine.
She’d been through hell. And she meant every word of what she said.

He felt
horrible. He didn’t want to say no to her.

But the faces
kept coming back to him.

Dino.

Riley.

Luna.

All three,
were perfectly sane and rational.

All three,
connected with reality.

Could he
really let go of his own reality – his own responsibilities – his own love – To
dive into this dark dream with Nadine?

Could he do
it?

“Please,”
Nadine said again.

Jason’s mind
collapsed.

He suddenly
realized the window was open beside him, and the cold atmosphere was rushing
into his skin at a hundred miles per hour.

He reached
out and took Nadine’s hand.

“Alright,” he
heard himself say.

CHAPTER
FORTY-SIX

Noise. Smiles. Conversation.

The Traitor
stood in amongst it all, acting perfectly normal. Of course, the others would
ask – Who were they? What did they want?

The lies
would roll right off the tongue.

And the
Traitor was good at it. They were an intelligent, manipulating force to be
reckoned with. Their greatest gift was persuasion, and there was almost no one
they could not deceive.

Once enough
time had passed and the opportunity for privacy was granted, the Traitor seized
the moment and took out their phone to dial a particular number.

The call was
answered after a couple of rings, but the Traitor could not hear its recipient.

Except
perhaps, for some heavy breathing.

“Hello?” the
Traitor murmured. “Is that you?”

“What do you
want?” the Count rasped.

“There’s
something you should know,” the Traitor said, pacing. “Nadine Blue is out of
prison. I just had her and Jason Freelaw turn up where I am, which was
troubling to say the least.”

“Do they know
it was you?” the Count asked.

“What do you
mean?”

Silence.

“Hello…?” The
Traitor gripped the phone anxiously.

“Has your
cover been compromised?”

“I don’t
think so.”

“Then you
should deal with this. Shouldn’t you?”

“How … How
exactly do you want me to do that?”

Silence.

“You don’t
mean – ?”

“Tonight is a
very special occasion for myself, and my kind. I don’t want any kind of
interference. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I’ll –
I’ll keep an eye on them. Make sure they never find you.”

“And if they
do?”

The Traitor
hesitated. “Then I’ll kill them.”