Vampire Dating Agency III (4 page)

CHAPTER
TWELVE

The phone slipped back into Maurice’s
pocket. He glanced behind him to where Nadine was, sitting patiently.
“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Fine, fine,”
he murmured.

“Who was it?”

“Riley. Just
seeing … everything was okay with us.”

Nadine
nodded.

Maurice
turned back to face the front doors.

Despite her
warning, they were already here. It was too late to go back. Too late to stand
up and say, ‘Sorry, no need to bother the Count. We’ll be going now.’

Maurice had
suspected this was a trap to begin with. But Nadine was so convinced it wasn’t
– that the Count could be trusted – that he was after the same outcome they
were –

That Maurice
had listened.

And somehow
believed.

He was not so
sure now. Almost on cue, the front doors opened and two guards entered, only to
close the doors and stand in front of them. Blocking their path. Blocking any
means of escape.

“Where is
he?” Maurice said quietly. “Why is it taking so long?”

“Nothing’s
going to happen to you, Maurice,” Nadine said calmly. “I’m here, remember.”

“You actually
think you could take him on?”

“Uh-huh.”

Maurice shook
his head. “Something doesn’t feel right. That’s all.”

Nadine rose
from her seat and stood beside him.

She surveyed
their surroundings.

“I don’t
know,” Nadine said. “Things feel fine to me.”

A figure then
appeared on top the stairs.

Maurice
nudged Nadine and they both looked up as a young woman with white hair
descended the stairwell.

“I thought
Madame Nightshade was dead,” Maurice muttered.

“That’s her
twin sister, Annabel,” Nadine replied.

“Oh.”

Annabel
stepped off the last step and made her way towards them.

“Greetings,”
Annabel said pleasantly. “Julian will be so pleased to hear you made it.
Although, I’m sure he was expecting more of you.”

“Maurice and
I are all that’s needed to solve this case.”

“I see. Will
you please follow me then?”

Annabel turned
and made her way back up the stairs.

Nadine and
Maurice followed her.

They were led
into the Count’s study.

“He’s not
here,” Nadine remarked as they stepped inside the room.

“I’m afraid
not,” Annabel replied. “He’s been called away on other matters. But he said
you’re permitted access to our database, via the laptop on the desk. You’ll
also find a key card there in case you need to explore the agency.”

“Do you know
when he’ll be back?” Maurice asked.

“Soon, I
hope. He said he has other important matters to table between us. But I
shouldn’t speak for him. Just do your best with what you can. I’ll … leave the
door open for you…”

Annabel
flashed a fake smile and departed.

Nadine walked
round the side of the table.

“Maurice,
come over here, please.”

He walked
over.

“Do your
‘computer’ thing then…”

Maurice
groaned. He pulled up the Count’s chair and sat in front of the laptop. He
pulled back the screen and pushed the On button.

“Any idea
where we should start?” Maurice asked.

Nadine
nodded, dragging a chair across the carpet to sit beside him.

“You remember
the names of our victims, don’t you?”

“I have that
information on me, yes.”

“So. Let’s
see if we can find out whether any of them dated the same vampire.”

Maurice
agreed. “Okay.”

He paused
briefly, checking his phone to see Riley had tried to contact him again.

She hadn’t.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Haley was drifting. In and out of
thoughts. Images appearing in her head, and then going away again. Her hands,
they slipped just a little. Inch by inch. Millimeter by millimeter. Her eyes
began to close…

“Haley, wake
up!” Brock shouted.

Haley’s feet
bore down on the brake and the car skidded off the side of the road into the
dirt.

She and Brock
jumped forward in their seats.

“Jesus,” he
said. He sat up properly and leaned over her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Haley
said. “I … I think I was drifting off.”

“I’ll say.”

“Why don’t
you take a step outside? Clear your head.”

Haley looked
around drowsily. “Okay.”

She pushed
open the car door and stepped out.

Brock was
quick to join her.

“I – I think
you should drive,” she muttered.

Brock nodded.
“Never mind about that. You – you’re exhausted.”

“I know,”
Haley whispered.

“You’ve been
through fucking hell.”

“I know that
too! Please stop fighting me on this.”

Brock sighed.
He leaned against the car with her.

“I feel
guilty in a way,” Brock said. “Somehow my trying to protect you is totally
selfish.”

“I didn’t say
that.”

“It’s just
what I feel,” Brock said. “I can see it now. See how it would be if it were me.
I mean, my family – I guess I’m nothing to them now. But even if someone did
hurt them, I don’t know what I’d do. Even after all this time … it would rip me
to pieces…”

“That’s what
it feels like.”

“I think
there’s very few moments a person’s life is defined by what they’re presently
doing. Everything is so small in retrospect. You think about all those people
sleeping out there now. Probably a lot of them will have to get up soon. Go to
work. Spend hours upon hours inside some building. Caged in. Locked away. Then
I guess they get to go home. And that’s what its all about. That’s where they
find their meaning. But … for you … for us … it’s right here. In what we do
now. We want to be able to look back and say we did the right thing.”

“So you do
understand then.”

Brock smiled.
He bent down and kissed her forehead. “Not really, no.”

Haley looked
up at him, a little confused.

His eyes were
focused below them.

She glanced
down just in time to see him slipping a needle into her wrist.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Luna got to her feet and pulled up
her pants, latching in the buttons and clips. She tossed her hair to one side
and smoothed out all the crinkles on her top. She picked her jacket up from the
chair and slipped back into it.

Director
Cresh was over by the window putting his shirt back on.

He wasn’t
facing her.

“Well, that
wasn’t very professional of us, was it?” Luna forced.

“Affirmative.”

He curled the
tie around his collar.

“Rather
selfish when you think about it. Given the nature of things.”

“Well. We’re
only human.”

“We are.”

He turned
around.

He walked
back down over to her and put his hands to her shoulders. “Whatever this is –”

“Don’t worry.
I won’t say anything.”

“I wasn’t – I
–”

“Let’s not
talk about it. Not now.”

Cresh
hesitated. Then resigned. “Alright.”

He walked
over to the door exiting the board room and held it open for her. Luna walked
through.

“I suppose
you’re heading home now then. Shall I call a car for you?”

Luna glanced
back at him. “Did you forget?”

“Forget
what?”

“There’s
still work to be done.”

“Oh. Don’t
worry –”

“You want to
find this traitor, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So let’s do
it together.”

Cresh bowed
his head. “Very well.”

They walked
across the hardened corridor and took the elevator down to the administration
level. Luna used her card to gain access to Kendra Armistice’s office where the
two of them each pulled up a chair behind her desk.

Luna put her
hand to the mouse and the screen lit up.

“So where do
we start?” she asked Cresh. “You know the database better than I do.”

“I highly
doubt that,” Cresh replied. He thought a moment. “I guess we’ll have to start
with going through the profiles one by one. Look for anything that stands out.”

“Do you
really think it will be that simple? These files will have been looked through
dozens of times.”

“I know that.
I just … I just wonder if there will be something. Just one little fact or
photograph or snippet of information that can point us in the right direction.”

“Alright. So
who do you want to start with?”

“Maurice,”
Cresh said.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

The call had come in fifteen minutes
ago. The voice, no longer disguised. Jason’s face had visibly twisted at the
realizations he took from the words. He was on the brink of hysteria. Like
there was a drill, calmly making its way through his skull.

“I’m not
seeing it,” Riley said, her face pressed against the van’s window. “We might
have passed it.”

“I don’t
think so,” Jason muttered. “It’s somewhere around here.”

“Are you sure
– this isn’t a trap?”

“What?”

“I mean he’s
not going to just hand her over to us, is he?”

Jason’s
fingers tightened on the wheel. Riley, he knew, was probably right.

But he
couldn’t think about that now.

He couldn’t
give up hope.

“There!”
Riley said suddenly. “I see it!”

The diner’s
lights stood out on the highway’s horizon.

Jason sped
up.

“What are you
doing? I thought we were going to take him by surprise?”

“It’s too
late for that.”

Within half a
minute the van was tearing into the recesses of the diner’s car park. Once in
the centre, Jason hit the brakes. He adjusted the rearview mirror.

“Where is
he?”

Riley looked
out her window. “I can’t see anything.”

“Wait here.”

“Jason –
don’t –”

Jason forced
open his door and jumped out onto the road. He staggered out first in the
direction of the diner, scanning the interior. There was a waitress in there,
but he couldn’t see anyone else.

He looked
back out to the car park’s corner.

Then he saw
it.

He saw the
glowing blue eyes watching him in the dark.

“
You
,”
Jason seethed. “It
is
you.”

Brock opened
the driver’s door of the car next to him and climbed inside.

Jason started
racing over. “Hey!”

Brock looked
at him a moment, then the high beams came on.

Riley jumped
out of the van behind Jason just as Brock’s car accelerated and roared past
them.

“Fucking
hey!” Jason screamed. “Where’s my girlfriend? Where’s Roxanne?”

“Jason,”
Riley said urgently. “Over there.”

They both
hurried over to the darkened area where the car had been parked. There appeared
to be someone lying on the ground.

“Roxanne?” Jason
called hopefully. “Oh please, please don’t be –”

They both
dropped to the ground and rolled the figure over. It wasn’t Roxanne.

It was Haley.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

Cresh leaned against the desk. As
Luna clicked through page after page of tedious dictation, he found himself
thinking about what had just happened between them. The truth was that it
should have been ugly, in all the worst possible ways. Whether she realized it
or not, Luna now had the power to possibly get him fired, and certainly
divorced… It may not even arise for the next few months – or even years down
the road. But what if it did then? When he’d practically forgotten about it.
His whole life could be turned upside down by what just happened.

It should
have been ugly.

Inside him.

Inside her.

But he
couldn’t stop looking at her with love.

“Well, that’s
Jason cleared I think,” Luna said still clicking around with the mouse.
“Nothing out of the ordinary there.”

“So where
does that leave us?”

“Maurice,
Kendra, Riley, Jason – who’s left?”

Suddenly
their attention was directed elsewhere. A cloud of purple smog was hissing into
the room.

“Get away
from it,” Cresh said. “It’s coming from the window.”

“Oh shit,”
Luna exclaimed jumping up from the chair.

They both
back away near the exit as the purple smog flooded further and further.

“How’s it
getting in?” Luna asked. “The window is –”

The window
then instantly shattered, and a dark-winged animal zoomed by them and out of
the room.

Cresh and
Luna quickly followed it out into the corridor, closing and locking the door
behind them.

“What was
that?” Luna cried. “A bat of some kind? You don’t think –”

“Take the
stairs. Get the fuck out of here. I’ll figure it out.”

“Are you
sure? Maybe you should get out too. Send someone else to –”

“It’s okay,”
Cresh said. “I’ve got this. Go home.”

“Alright,”
Luna said bowing her head.

Cresh watched
her exit through the fire escape before turning his attention back to the
corridor ahead. He could see traces of the purple smog still hovering in the
air.

Cresh
followed the trail slowly, pausing to open a set of doors at the corridor’s
end. The corridor then forked beyond this, the trail floating onto the left.

“Where are
you going?” Cresh whispered.

He followed
it again slowly. His mind was going back. Through all the vampire suspects.

Through all
his team of possible traitors.

It couldn’t
be that someone didn’t want them to continue their investigation further. After
all, they were alone in that room. No one knew what they were doing.

Unless…

The trail had
stopped.

Cresh looked
up at the door and saw that it was his own office that he used on this floor.
Someone knew exactly where to meet with him…

Cresh opened
the door.

In the dark
of the room, he could see a tall figure standing at the end of the room. Their
back was too him.

“Who are
you?” Cresh demanded. “What are you doing here?”

The figure
turned.

He saw the
Count’s red eyes gleam with delight.

“Sit down,
Dermott.”