No Shift, Sherlock: A Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy Mystery (The Legend of Nyx Book 3)

by Theophilus Monroe

  I smiled. "That's true. I suppose I have a pretty open mind about trying new things."

  "But she did great, I think! And our duet was killer!"

  I snorted. "Right. Killer."

  "Could you let us know if you hear from her?" Devin asked.

  "Sure. I could do that. Is something wrong?"

  I sighed. "There might be..."

  "They think there might be a virus of some kind," Devin interjected with a lie. He bit his lip. "And we think she was exposed."

  "Right," I said. "So we wanted to be sure you were feeling okay. And that you weren't around her recently."

  "Thanks for the warming. Oh my God! Must be something serious if it kills people so quickly!"

  "It is," Devin said. "Just let us know if she reaches out. Find out where she's at. You know, so we can send professionals to check her out."

  "But don't tell her too much," I said. "Don't want to freak her out."

  "Is she going to die? If she has the virus?"

  I bit my lip. "We don't know. But since she hasn't so far, well, it seems like this thing strikes pretty quickly. So she might have a resistance to it. But you should still stay clear of her."

  "Do you know where she lives?" Devin asked.

  Katie shook her head as she fiddled with the pleat on the edge of her shirt. "She's kind of weird about that. I think she's ashamed. Of where she lives, I mean. Not like I have the nicest place in town either. She mentioned a shelter. In the basement of some church somewhere. But I got the impression she used to be there. If I imagined she lived there now, wow, I would have let her stay with me."

  I nodded. "Probably best you didn't. You know, just in case."

  "I sent you a message with my phone number," Devin said. "Let us know if you hear from her at all, will you?"

  "I can do that. Thank you for stopping by and checking on me! Nicky, do you think I can open up again? You know, once the club is back open?"

  I shrugged. "Gina will be opening, more than likely. But I'm sure we can find a place for you."

  "Thanks, Nicky!"

  Devin and I made our way back to his car. Malinda was still waiting in the back seat. "That was a little odd," Devin said.

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Well, she didn't invite us in, first of all."

  I shrugged. "We did show up unannounced. Maybe her place wasn't in order. Or, you know, maybe she lives with someone else."

  "Like Rose?" Devin asked.

  I cocked my head. "Do you think Katie is hiding her?"

  Devin shrugged. "Just a hunch. She seemed nervous. But don't have any real reason to think so."

  "He might be right," Malinda said. "Someone peeked between the curtains when you two were talking to Katie."

  "So someone else is there," I said. " Doesn't mean it's Rose."

  "Doesn't mean it isn't Rose, either."

  I nodded. "Katie did seem to hold their friendship in higher regard than Rose did."

  "That's something Rose could take advantage of," Devin said.

  "We have to keep an eye on her place," I said. "At least for a while. If someone else does live there, it's probably a matter of time before they come out of the house. Most people don't stay inside all day."

  Devin shrugged. "It is a Sunday. So, whoever lives with Katie, be it Rose or anyone else, might not have to go to work or anything. We might be waiting a while."

  "Isn't it weird a girl like Katie lives in an old house like this? In this part of town? She strikes me as the sort of girl who grew up spoiled. Like she has a rich daddy or something."

  I scratched the back of my head. "She does sort of give off that vibe. Well, go ahead and pull away. It'll look strange if we're sitting here too long."

  "I'll circle the block," Devin said. "I wonder if the recorder of deeds or property tax office has a database we could search. I'm curious how long Katie has lived here."

  Malinda chuckled. "I was catatonic for what, have a decade? Funny how sometimes the Internet complicates things."

  "What do you mean?" Devin asked. "Before, you'd have to go to the assessor's office, or maybe the local library to dig up old property records."

  "Yeah," Malinda said. "Why don't you ask the neighbors?"

  I chuckled. "That would probably be simpler."

  Devin shook his head as he pulled around the block and pulled along the side of the street a couple houses down from Katie's.

  "What exactly would we say. Strangers asking questions about the neighbors is odd, to say the least." "Find what you can," I said. "Maybe it will give us some information we can use if we ask the neighbors."

  Devin and Malinda both searched their phones. I had a phone, too, of course. I wasn't great with it. I kept mine tucked into my bra. No need to duplicate their efforts at a much slower pace. Besides, someone needed to stay on the lookout watching Katie's house.

  "This county website sucks," Devin said. "Trying to search by address but can't find it."

  Malinda giggled. "Well, according to Zillow, the house changed ownership a few months ago."

  I cocked my head. "If Katie recently bought the place, you'd think it would reflect her style. She had doilies. No one in their twenties decorates with doilies.

  "I have an idea," Malinda said, opening the door and stepping outside. "Follow my lead."

  Devin and I exchanged glances. We shrugged simultaneously and got out of the car.

  "You said the style inside looked dated, right?" Malinda asked.

  I nodded. "From what I could tell, yes."

  "But it did have a style, right? Like someone had at one time tried to make it a home?"

  "I'd say so."

  Malinda grinned. "I've got this."

  We followed Malinda as she approached the front door of the neighbor next to Katie's house. She rang the doorbell.

  An older woman opened the door. She eyed all three of us briefly before fixing her gaze on Malinda, who stood front and center. "Can I help you?"

  "Yes, ma'am," Malinda said. "I know this is a little weird to ask. I've been away for a while at school and was trying to find a friend of mine. Do you know what happened to the lady who used to live next door?"

  The woman signed. "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, sweetie. But Miss Morgan died a few months ago. Her granddaughter lives there now. I'm sure she'd love to meet an old friend of her grandmother's if you'd like to introduce yourself."

  I bit my lip. "We saw a younger girl living there. Didn't expect they were related."

  "Thank you," Malinda said. "We appreciate the help. I'm so sorry to hear that. She was such a nice lady."

  "Were you a member of her church?" the lady asked.

  "I wasn't," Malinda asked. "Why do you ask?"

  "Oddest thing. Another lady from her church came by asking the same thing a few days ago."

  "Mina?" I asked.

  "Well, yes. I think that's what her name was. She said they were great friends. Hadn't seen her at church for a while. Strange, I thought, she'd die and her church wouldn't know about it."

  I nodded. "Not as strange as you'd think. Thank you, ma'am, for your help."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  It made a lot of sense. Rose was Katie's grandmother. Katie was probably covering for her. How else could she explain her grandmother coming back to life? And as a young person, no less? Perhaps Rose was using Katie to get into my club, to get an audition. Again, I wasn't totally sure why Rose wanted to get close to me. If her agenda was merely to harvest souls to survive, it would make more sense to act randomly. And if Rose was somehow connected to the Order but hadn't given the grimoire to Mina, she must've had another agenda. Perhaps Devin's dad had something planned, something he told her before he died. Maybe even under Wolfgang's compulsion. That would explain why Rose was reluctant to turn over the scroll to the Order.

  It also made some sense why Rose, or Heather, may have targeted the victims she did. Eliminating Geraldo's mother meant Gina would take a leave of absence and g
ive Katie a chance to perform. Amelia took the spotlight first. She was so good Rose might have figured she was a threat to Katie's aspirations. After all, Katie was a longtime fan of mine. Connor, in turn, had flirted with the two girls inappropriately shortly before he died. Killing him was probably less a matter of trying to fulfill Katie's dreams as a performer and more about smiting a man who'd behaved lewdly toward her granddaughter. The more I thought about it, being a vampire hunter or a former elemental probably had nothing to do with why Rose and Katie came to Nicky's. Katie wanted the gig. She thought my club might give her some notoriety. Rose was doing what she could to remove any barriers to her granddaughter's aspirations.

  Did Katie realize what was happening? She had to. That meant, at least complicity, she was as guilty as her grandmother.

  Mina must've also figured this stuff out. How much longer would it be before Mina put two-and-two together. She knew Katie was Heather Morgan's granddaughter. As of the night before, Mina knew Heather and the grimoire were no longer in the grave. She'd suspect what we did. If we didn't get the grimoire from them soon, Mina and her nightwalkers would probably show up come nightfall to search Katie's place themselves.

  Three police cars pulled up next to Katie's house as we sat in Devin's car thinking about it.

  "Shit," I said. "They must suspect something, too."

  "Maybe," Devin said. "Or, they're here to ask some questions."

  "With three squad cars as backup?" I asked. "That doesn't sound like routine investigation."

  We watched as the police officers approached the door to Katie's house. They showed her a piece of paper. A search warrant? Since six separate officers went inside, I had to assume that was the case. What were they looking for? A kind of poison, perhaps? I imagined the officers had seen what I'd seen—that Katie and Rose were at the club both nights. That they had interactions with the deceased shortly before they died. If the bottles behind the bar were untainted, they probably hit a dead-end with Joey. And since Rose Madina didn't technically exist, they were probably acting on the only solid lead they had.

  Devin's phone rang as we watched the house from afar. Devin picked it up. The call connected to the Bluetooth system in Devin's car.

  "Nicholas?" Devin asked. "What's up?"

  "Something strange is happening with the Order. I can't go anywhere. You know, since it's daytime. But I thought you should know."

  "What is it, Nicholas?" Devin asked.

  Nicholas sighed. "People are dying. Order members. They're falling over dead with no explanation."

  "Just Order members," Devin said. "No nightwalkers?"

  "Right," Nicholas said. "Do you think it has to do with the grimoire?"

  "It definitely does," I said. "Where is this happening?"

  "All over the place. But now Mina and the rest are holed up at the old church."

  "At the God Hates... you know..."

  "Not that church," Nicholas said. "The one where the inner circle conducts their rituals."

  "Where my father died?" Devin asked.

  "And where he's buried."

  "Where's Mina now?" I asked.

  "She's all over the place. Practically pulling her hair out trying to find the killer. She believes it's the woman from the graveyard. The one whose coffin was empty."

  "Thanks, Nicholas," Devin said. "I have to say, I wasn't sure we'd hear from you again."

  Nicholas took a deep breath. His exhale was audible through the car speakers. "I don't know what's right anymore. But I think I'm coming to terms with the fact the path of the nightwalker is not going to lead me to the redemption they promised."

  "For what it's worth," I said. "Your help, now, goes a long way."

  "I hope you can destroy that grimoire. Whatever Mina wants it for, I'm sure it isn't good. And if that grimoire really is the abomination you said it was, no one should be using it."

  "We'll be in touch," Devin said. "If I text 'hey,' that's me. I don't want to send anything obvious. In case someone else intercepts our messages. But if you get the message, call me back."

  "Will do," Nicholas said.

  The police were still busy searching Katie's house. I shuddered to think what would happen if they found Rose—but now that bodies were turning up at the Order's cathedral, I suspected she wasn't at Katie's at all.

  "Are you sure someone was looking at us through the curtains?" I asked.

  Malinda shrugged. "I saw the curtains move. I can't say for sure."

  "Could have been a cat," Devin suggested. "But I think Rose, well, Heather Morgan has turned her sights on the Order now. If we want to catch her and find the grimoire, I think we need to follow the trail of bodies."

  I sighed. "Are you sure we can trust Nicholas? He could be leading us into a trap. Trying to pull us away from Katie's house."

  "I don't know," Devin said. "But I've known Nicholas my whole life. He's never been a good liar. When it dawned on him, no pun intended, the Order of the Morning Dawn was using him as a pawn, that the redemption they promised him was a lie, the look on his face told the truth. He was hurt. Betrayed. He was angry. I think he's shooting straight with us."

  "I hope you're right," I said. "Because if you aren't, we may be leaving Rose and the grimoire here for the taking."

  "Mina won't come here with her nightwalkers until nightfall, anyway," Devin said. "Since the police are ransacking the place now, it might be as good a time as ever to leave."

  "Not to mention," Malinda added, "the last thing we want is for the police to catch us here. That would raise a lot of questions."

  I nodded. "You're right." I never thought we'd be going to that damned cathedral again. At least I prayed we wouldn't. But if the soul-collector is harvesting members of the Order, now, we need to figure out what she's up to. She's the only one who knows where that grimoire is. If we are going to find it, we need to follow her."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  As Devin pulled onto the gravel road that led to the cathedral, my chest tightened with nerves. It wasn't just that this was a hidden outpost from the Order of the Morning Dawn. It wasn't even that they had catacombs hidden beneath the cathedral where they used to collect staked vampires. It was a combination of what I'd gone through there the last time I was there and the fact there was only one bumpy road out of there if we had to escape. I could bat-shift and get away easy enough. But Devin and Malinda didn't have that luxury. Push came to shove, though, they could get nasty. Devin with his fire magic and Malinda with her bloodwitchery. Then again, Malinda was still hobbled. Her strength was coming back quicker than any of us anticipated. But she couldn't run, either. I wanted to take her home. She insisted she come along. She wanted to help. It went against every instinct I had, but I knew, at the end of the day, she was probably safer with us given all that was going on—especially if we weren't back before the sunset—than she might be at home. And since the police had a warrant for Katie's place, I half-suspected they might have one for my apartment, too. That meant, quite possibly, they might find my weapons.

  I summoned Brucie as we drove. He agreed to keep an eye out on my apartment. This time, in exchange for a hundred bucks in Amazon gift cards. You know, so he could buy even more sultry romance novels. After I basically gave him nearly a thousand dollars worth of liquor, you'd think he'd be satisfied. But Brucie knew how to drive a hard bargain. If the police showed, he agreed to hide my stuff. At least that was covered.

  We pulled up next to the cathedral. We weren't the only ones there. Confronting Mina right now could be disastrous. But from what Nicholas said, she was beside herself. At the moment, we had a common goal. We had to stop Heather Morgan. I could only hope Mina would see it that way.

  We swung open the heavy, oak, double doors that opened to the nave of the cathedral.

  Mina and three others turned, their eyes wide, as we stepped through the doors.

  "What are you doing here?" Mina asked. "Did you come to die?"

  "No," I said. "And we come una
rmed. We've come to help."

  "To help?" Mina asked. "You seriously expect me to believe you want to help us?"

  "We both seek the grimoire," I said. "And right now, the scroll has unleashed a horror that's affecting both of us."

  Mina narrowed her eyes. She wasn't wearing her cloak. She was vulnerable. Devin could have blasted her to hell if he wanted to. But he didn't. I had to admit, it was a tempting opportunity. "How do you know what's happening here?"

  I smiled. "How many times are you going to underestimate me, Mina? I've taken out more vampires in the last few years than all your hunters combined. I'm nothing if not resourceful."

  Mina grunted. "What do you know?"

  "You first," Devin said. "What do you know about Heather Morgan. Or, should I say, Mary Mattina?"

  Mina shook her head. "So you've figured that part out. I shouldn't be surprised she'd turn on us. That your father set her on this path before he died."

  "Why is that?" Devin asked.

  "Mary Mattina... perhaps we should call her Heather Morgan. She was once the Order's chief elder. Back before you were even born, Mister Miller, she was one of our most accomplished hunters. She despised vampires with everything that she was. But she turned on us."

  "What do you mean she turned on you?" Devin asked.

  "One of her last acts as the chief elder was to disband the nightwalkers. After Alice's last mission to New Orleans, when she attempted and failed to eliminate Mercy Brown, Heather convinced the elder council to change their policy. Even Alice, then, became a target."

  "So that's when Alice and Wolfgang turned against the Order?" I asked.

  Mina nodded. "After centuries of service, they were understandably furious. What Heather unleashed on the Order was an utter nightmare. As her successor, it took everything I had to hold the Order together."

  "And my father was opposed to disbanding the nightwalkers?" Devin asked.

  Mina shook her head. "Not at first. But then Wolfgang infiltrated our ranks. Under his compulsion, the Order did a lot of things we'd never do."

  "When did my father come into possession of the Grimoire of the Nazarene?" Devin asked.