How to Elude a Vampire (VRC: Vampire Related Crimes Book 2)

by Alice Winters

  “Would it even get anything from that high up?” I ask.

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “I’ll contact them and see what I can find,” I say. “It’s worth a shot.”

  “Alright, I’ll head out with some of the others; keep me up to date if you hear anything,” Marcus says.

  “Got it.”

  While he does that, I hunt down the parks department’s number and call around until I find someone who has information on it. They agree to meet us here and show us the location of the cameras.

  When the vehicle pulls up, a woman gets out and smiles at me. “Are you Detective Hayes?”

  “I am, and you must be Jackie?”

  “Yes. So I’ll show you the location, but I fear the camera will be too high to catch anything,” she says. “Before we go, I can show you the shot it gets.”

  She pulls out a laptop and sets it on the hood of her SUV before a video begins to play. “Do you have an idea of when it could have happened?” she asks.

  “We’re looking at Sunday evening, probably between five p.m. and Monday morning at three a.m. I can’t imagine it happened any later, but if there’s a good angle, we’d love to watch whatever you have.”

  Jackie shows me one pointed at a nest of baby eagles sleeping. The angle of the camera shows nothing but the nest and tree.

  “Ah… I see the issue.”

  “Yeah. I wish it was more help.” She seems to think for a moment. “Can you tell me how far away it could have been? We have a few other cameras set up.”

  “We’re thinking maybe somewhere between here and the university.”

  She hesitates for a moment before clicking around. “We have some butterfly houses that were being vandalized by kids, so we set up a camera. It’s off the path but could give you something.”

  “Let’s see that,” I say.

  She goes to the feed of that and while it doesn’t show the path very well, it does at least show the ground.

  “Well, that’s a better angle. Can you look at past footage on there?”

  “Yes, it keeps up to a week at a time. Let’s see what we can find,” Jackie says as she starts hunting through it. It takes her a while, but I stand next to her as she figures it out and starts the recording. I have her fast-forward it, but we have to stop at every person who comes into sight of the camera. The people on the path can be seen, but they’re small, so we have to scrutinize each one. Most seem to be on bicycles, jogging with dogs, or walking with their family.

  That is until something flashes by so quickly, I almost miss it.

  “Stop it!”

  She does and goes back and plays it again. It’s very clearly a vampire by the way it moves, but it’s on and off the screen so quickly there’s nothing to be seen. Whether or not it’s our vampire and he or she has our victim at that point is impossible to tell. I look over to where Karsyn is documenting something on a notepad.

  “Karsyn, you’re tech-savvy, come here a minute.”

  He comes over and we play it again for him.

  “Huh… send it over and see if they can get anything out of it. It’s hard to tell. With everything so dark and how quickly they’re moving, it’s probably going to be hard to pull anything from it, but there’s always a possibility.”

  “Awesome, we’ll do that,” I say. “After we get the video over to them, can you show me where that camera is set up?”

  “Of course. It’s closer to the university, so we can drive over and park on that side, if you’d like?”

  “That’d be fine,” I say.

  Once we send that over, I hop in Jackie’s car since I don’t have mine, and we go to the other side. From there, she takes us over to the camera location as Marcus joins us.

  “Jackie, this is Detective Church,” I say.

  “Nice to meet you,” she says with a smile before waving to an open area with a lot of tall weeds. “Now… this is a conservation area. While I understand that you have to move through it, please try to be respectful of the plants. Especially these ones here.” She points to a flowering one that a butterfly is currently perched on.

  “We understand,” Marcus says. She leads us over to the camera and I pull out my work phone that I’d taken a video of the video on. I watch it carefully before walking over to where it looked like they’d been when they zipped on by.

  “About here, then,” I say. “Let’s see if we can find a footprint or anything on this path.”

  Marcus scrutinizes the video and looks at me, then back to the video. “If I use you as a comparison, they were at least four inches taller than you.”

  Marcus’s phone rings. “This is Church… no… no… let me ask Hayes.” He looks up at me. “Finn, have you seen Perez?”

  “Perez? No, he went with you guys.”

  “Yeah, he and Miller broke off. Miller said he wanted to look at something and they separated. I guess after a few minutes, he called Miller and said he had something to show him and that’s when the line went dead.”

  “Why would they separate?” I ask in concern. “This is why I tell you guys that you need to listen to regulations. You guys think because you’re vampires, you don’t have to follow any rules. See if he’ll answer your call. Maybe it’s a bad connection on Miller’s end.”

  Marcus nods and makes the call.

  As he does that, I call Karsyn.

  “Yeah?” he asks.

  “Have you seen Perez?”

  “Not since he left with Church. Why?”

  “His partner lost contact with him in the middle of a phone conversation and doesn’t know where he is.”

  “That’s… concerning.”

  “Sounds like he found something before the call ended. We need to find him quickly, in case something’s going on.”

  “I’ll have Briar handle my stuff and I’ll be there to help. Where are you?”

  “I’m waiting on the path now, about a mile from the university, but I’m not sure where Perez and Miller were last seen. I’ll have someone ping his location.”

  “I already did,” Marcus says. “We’ll have to see if anyone gets a read on it.” He turns to Jackie. “One of us will walk you back to your vehicle.”

  “I know these trees better than most, so I can help if you’d like. If you direct me to the right area, I can show you where things might be a bit dicey. Maybe he slipped or fell?”

  “He’s a vampire,” Marcus says.

  “Oh… maybe he broke his phone,” she says.

  “True. Let’s hope for that,” I say as we head toward the pathway.

  “Good to jog? I don’t want to leave you behind,” Marcus says.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Are you good?” I ask Jackie.

  She nods, so we follow Marcus at a jog to where we find Miller waiting impatiently. He’s pacing as he waves into the trees to our right. “The last I saw him was in this area. The woods aren’t that thick. I should be able to find him, right? Do you think something happened?” he asks anxiously.

  “How long has he been gone for?” Marcus asks.

  Miller glances down at his phone. “The call was exactly eight minutes ago, and his phone hasn’t been working since. It’s going straight to voicemail.”

  Karsyn and DeGray show up to help and Marcus partners us up and sends us out. Jackie and DeGray go with Miller who shows her the last area they were at while Karsyn hangs within sight.

  I look over at Marcus who is slowly scanning something I can’t see. “How did he just disappear? The woods aren’t that thick. We’ll just run into the river here before long.”

  “It concerns me that he found something and then the line just went dead. Something happened and it was bad enough to put a vampire down. Are we being watched—” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “I smell blood.”

  He makes a call to the others before veering off the path to the right. I follow him as he starts moving through the trees slowly, tracking the smell, but careful to not disrupt or miss anything. That�
��s when I see a glint of something off to the right.

  I jog off toward it, my gun firmly in my hand in case something goes wrong.

  “Hey, don’t leave me,” Marcus says.

  “I’m not, I see something.” I slow when I realize that it’s a cell phone. I don’t want to disrupt the area around it, so I don’t get too close. I honestly don’t have to in order to see that it’s one of the work-issued phones. “His phone’s here.”

  “Shit,” Marcus says as he gets close and looks down at the phone that’s clearly been crushed. “The smell of blood is definitely thickest over here.” He moves away from the phone that we leave undisturbed. I make sure I ingrain the area in my mind before following him.

  I don’t need vampire-like senses to notice the blood splashed upon the ground as we reach a small incline. It doesn’t take much to know that a person, vampire or not, should never have lost this much blood. And as we round the top of the incline, I glance down at the bottom where I see Perez, lying facedown in the brush. Marcus reaches him first, but he doesn’t have to even touch him before telling me what I already know.

  “He’s dead.”

  “Fuck,” I whisper as I walk over to him and kneel.

  I didn’t know Perez very well and have only worked with him on this case, but the loss of life, of any life, is such a horrible thing to have to deal with. I’m not sure this job will ever get any easier, but there is slight satisfaction when we’re given the opportunity to find these people who think it’s all right to hurt others and make sure they can never hurt anyone ever again.

  “No… no…”

  I turn to the source of the devastated voice and see Miller looking down at his partner. He rushes down, but Marcus grabs him first.

  “He’s gone. I’m sorry. But you need to be careful. Someone out here did this. It’s not safe yet and we can’t let our guards down.”

  Miller lets out a sob, but he nods. DeGray steps forward to comfort him as I send a call out to Briar, knowing the top priority is to keep everyone safe when we clearly have someone who is targeting us. Marcus’s entire body is tense, and I want to go over to him and squeeze his hand or say something to comfort him, but I know we need to remain professional. So instead, I have to stand by his side as he sends people out to search for who did this.

  “Hey, Marcus, Karsyn and I have this. More will be here shortly if you’d like to help search the area,” I say.

  Marcus shakes his head. “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “I can’t keep up with you, Marcus. If there’s a chance you can catch the guy responsible for this, you’re better off without me. This,” I wave at the scene, “is what I’m good at. This is what I do and have spent many years doing. I can protect myself and Karsyn is like a little guard dog.”

  Marcus hesitates, but I know he’s aware that I’m right, so he gives me a nod. “Okay. Call me if you need anything.”

  “Of course.”

  And he’s off. I head over to Karsyn who is photographing the scene.

  “This person has to have some balls to do this,” I say. “Broad fucking daylight surrounded by the VRC.”

  “He must have been watching. Or maybe he messed up something and came back for it.”

  “That would make the most sense,” I tell Karsyn. “Perez did say he found something. The killer was probably watching and when he noticed Perez find something that could lead to his arrest, he decided to silence him.”

  Karsyn nods. “It looks like Perez was in that general area, then dragged back over here where he was killed. You can see the scattering of the leaves,” he says as he points.

  I kneel and look at the body. It’s gruesome, but killing a vampire that is older generally only works in one of two ways. Right through the heart or the removal of the head. This one went for the heart, but clearly, there was a fight or he wouldn’t have splattered blood out this far before dropping him where he eventually died.

  I don’t want to disrupt anything before we have a chance to get the rest of the analysts here, but I notice there’s blood under his nails even though the rest of his hand is free of blood.

  “Hey, it looks like he might have scratched the guy. We could have some DNA.”

  “You’re kidding,” Karsyn says as he kneels. “It’s so careless. How was this death so careless compared to the last one?”

  “Maybe just because he was in a panic? Or maybe because she was a human it didn’t take as much. Maybe he’s never killed a vampire before.”

  “All vampire DNA is in the database… if his skin or blood is on Perez’s nails, we’ve got him.” Karsyn snaps a picture. “Won’t it be nice if we’re that damn lucky, moj zanuda?”

  “The issue is that I’m not sure if I’m the luckiest person alive or the unluckiest, so maybe don’t depend on me,” I say as I hold my arm prosthesis out.

  Karsyn glances down at it. “I’d say you’re pretty lucky. I’m the unlucky one that has to deal with you.”

  “You love me, and you know it.”

  He snorts, which is as good as a confirmation.

  Chapter Seven

  FINN

  It’s clear Marcus is upset. I know he’s pretending it’s just because of the loss of Perez, but I also know that he’s blaming himself for it. He was in charge and sent them out, but he had no way of knowing what could be out there. And I’m sure Perez was being lax. I’ve seen it again and again with these vampires. They seem to think they’re unstoppable just because they’re bulletproof, so they go off alone, assuming they’ll be able to handle anything that comes their way. Even the heads of the department let them get away with it because they’re also vampires and think they’re invincible.

  Marcus is sitting on the couch with the TV on, but it’s clear he isn’t watching it.

  I walk over to him and sit on his lap, which draws him out of his mindless staring. “It’s not your fault,” I say as I cup his face in my hands.

  He sighs and wraps his arms around me before tucking his head against my shoulder. “I sent them out, Finn.”

  “To examine a crime scene that’s been cold for three days. Why would you even fathom the killer would be out there waiting? That’s just… that’s not even something I would have assumed would happen, and you know I’m more careful than you guys. You also didn’t know they’d split up. If they’d have stayed together, it’s much more unlikely they would have been attacked and if they had, there’d have been two of them to stop the attacker.”

  He squeezes me tighter. “Thank you for trying to make me feel better.”

  “I don’t want to ‘try,’ I want to make you feel better,” I say. “What about a laugh? Would a laugh make you feel better?”

  “Depends whether you’re actually funny. From experience, I’m going to say you’re probably not going to make me feel any better.”

  I grab his head in my hands and pull it back so he gets the full effect of my glare. “Excuse me?”

  “What’d you do?”

  “I’m not funny?”

  “I mean… ha ha ha! You’re so funny, my sweetie boo pie!” Those particular words sound completely sarcastic and ridiculous coming out of his mouth.

  I narrow my eyes. “You take your sassy vampire ass and shove it, pretty boy.”

  “You’re so violent.”

  “I can be extremely violent,” I say as I reach for Artie, who’s sitting next to Marcus. The dog automatically gives me his paw just because he’s insistent on attention, so I take the paw and smoosh it into Marcus’s face. “Puppy punch, right to your annoying handsome face.”

  “You want to play this game?” he asks.

  “Oh, I win every game I play.”

  As Marcus shoves me onto the ground and pins me there, I realize that I really shouldn’t have said that. He uses his knees to hold my arms down, then he picks up Hela and aims her right at my face. Her tongue starts working before she even hits, licking my cheeks and even my eyelid as I squirm.

  “Do you tap ou
t?” he asks.

  “Never!” I cry, but there’s nowhere for me to go and that’s when Hela nips my ear playfully.

  “Just tell me I’m the best and this will end.”

  Defiantly, I shake my head. “But I don’t want to lie to you!” I cry. “I don’t want our relationship built on lies!”

  He holds Hela at bay as he stares down at me. “Hela, I think we didn’t get through to him yet.” And he shoves her in my face again. I toss my head back and forth as she gets more excited. Her licks are now turning into air bites as she play growls at me. I pull my leg up, since it’s the only thing free, and hook Marcus’s leg, trying to drag him back. He leans back and I slip my arm free and turn around before trying to crawl away with Marcus riding on my back.

  “I… must… prevail!” I cry. “Artie, help me!”

  And that’s the moment Artie leaps onto Marcus, knocking him off me. Hela takes to attacking Artie and the two race off into the kitchen as I look down at Marcus who I’m finally free from. I leap up onto my feet and take off running. I make it to the bedroom and slam the door shut before he can reach me.

  “Look who’s won!” I cackle and that’s when I hear the window open and see Marcus crawling through it. “Damn you and your superspeed.”

  “Ah shit, my shirt is stuck,” he says as he twists from where he’s halfway through the window.

  I walk over and realize the poor soul thinks I’m here to help. Instead, I slowly lower the window on his body, then drop the blinds on his head.

  “Dammit, Finn!” he cries, but I’m laughing too hard to respond now that I can’t see him. I twist the blinds so I can see through them and catch his golden eyes glaring at me. “And people think I’m evil.”

  I part the blinds a little. “What’s that, babe? I’m so blinded by your beauty I forgot to listen. Get it? Blinded?”

  He scowls. “I got it. This is my favorite shirt. Come help me so I don’t rip it.”

  I pull up the blinds a bit, extremely satisfied when they hit his forehead on the way up. “Outside?”