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

by Alice Winters

  “I’m sorry,” I mutter.

  He shakes his head. “You don’t need to apologize. She was going to be an asshole to me no matter what I said, so thanks.”

  “If she knew you, she wouldn’t be.”

  He shrugs. “Oh well. Just next time, if you’re going to do that, declare that I’m yours.”

  I snort as we’re led into a room where Barnett is already waiting. He has a smug look on his face when he sees us, like he has a joke only he happens to know. A man like that already knows he’s not planning on making anything easy for us.

  “Mr. Adler,” I say as I take a seat. “Ready to have a word?”

  “I can have many words, Detective. What would you like?” He’s giving me a grin filled with fangs. Then he gets a look at Finn. “Oh! You brought me dinner. How kind of you.”

  Finn sits down, clearly unaffected by the stupidity of the man. Unsatisfied with that, the vampire lunges at Finn. While the man is chained down and can’t get anywhere close, he’s still trying to get Finn to mess up.

  When Finn doesn’t even flinch, Barnett scowls at him.

  “Tell us about Tonya Everest,” Finn says.

  “Look how cute you are. I bet you’d taste as good as you look.”

  I slam my hand down on the table, irritated that this piece of shit thinks he can even talk to Finn. “Listen here,” I growl, anger dripping through as my aura clouds the room. While it won’t force him to talk, it’ll make him fear me. He growls at me as he leans away like he’s trying to get as far from me as he can. “You do not treat me or my partner with disrespect. You’re going to answer some questions.” I glance at Finn who nods.

  “Tell us about Tonya Everest,” he asks again.

  “What the fuck you wanna know about her? She’s dead.”

  “You killed her?”

  Barnett flashes his fangs at us. “I did. What are you going to do about it?”

  “Why’d you kill her?” Finn asks.

  “Because I fucking wanted to. I abducted her pretty little ass and I killed her. I’d do the same for you. Happy?”

  “How did you kill her?” Finn asks.

  “You already know how. Fuck off.”

  Finn’s not deterred. “Why’d you put her on the bridge?”

  “I thought she’d look really pretty up there, you know? I didn’t think she’d take a tumble off.”

  “What about Perez? Did you kill him too?”

  “Fuck off. Isn’t that why I’m in here? Some shit about my DNA under his nails? What are you getting out of asking me shit you already know?”

  We continue to talk to him, but he refuses to give us any insight on why he chose her, why he did it, or where he did it. After a while, he just starts saying, “I already told you I fucking did it, you really need to know more?”

  As Finn and I walk out to the car, I notice he looks very thoughtful. He’s young, but he’s smart, and he knows how to read body language quite well.

  Finn glances up at me. “Well, isn’t he a bundle of lies?”

  “You think?” I ask.

  Finn turns his attention to me. “You don’t?”

  “Oh, I know he’s lying. I’m just not sure how much at this point. We know he killed Detective Perez. He admitted to that and we have his DNA on file, but why did he pick Tonya Everest? Why did he place her there? There are a lot of whys he hasn’t answered, and I have my doubts he will. We’ll figure it out, though.”

  Finn nods. “I agree.” We’re quiet as we pass the lady who wasn’t too fond of Finn’s appearance and head out to the car. “Hey, McBitey, did I ever tell you how sexy it is when you get all huffy about people hating on me?”

  I glance over at him. “They shouldn’t annoy me.”

  “The funniest thing is you were exactly like them and now… now you’re a changed man.”

  I try to pretend he didn’t say anything since I don’t want to admit that I might have, once upon a time, made his life slightly difficult. I mean, he was especially pesky then and I’m sure he deserved it.

  “Marcus?”

  “Yes, my love.”

  A grin takes over Finn’s face. “Don’t ‘my love’ me. You know what I’m talking about and asking.”

  “I have no idea at all what these words are that you speak of,” I say.

  He pinches my side. “Liar! Everyone knows you’re a liar!”

  “Nah, everyone believes me over the tiny half-a-human.”

  “You’re making fun of my height again? What’s the other half?”

  “Chihuahua.”

  Finn cocks his head. “I’ll remember that the next time you want something sexy from me. No more sexy. The half-a-human’s sexiness has sailed. Never to be returned.”

  “I’m not worried. It’ll return.”

  “No, I just said it’ll never return.”

  “It’s already returning.”

  He starts laughing as he gets in the car. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Ten

  FINN

  As I turn the key in the ignition, I curse my sister. Last night, she’d run out to the car to grab a book of hers that I’d left in it and she must have forgotten to turn the light off. Now that it’s Saturday evening, twenty-four hours have passed with that light shining bright.

  I make a mental note to chew her ass out because this now means that I have to take public transportation.

  I shudder at the thought.

  Before doing anything, I call Marcus.

  “Hey,” Marcus says.

  “My sister left the light on in my car and my battery’s dead. I’m headed over to Orin’s, so I’m going to take the bus.”

  “Just wait for me to get home.”

  “It’ll be like two more hours!” I say.

  DeGray somehow talked Marcus into going to a sporting event with him. If I thought Marcus grumbled when I waltzed in with my humanness, it was nothing compared to when DeGray asked him to go to a sporting event, which should be fun. Marcus immediately told him no, and then it wasn’t until I told Marcus that he would never make friends by being a grumpy frumpy vampire that he went back and agreed. It might have just been so he could get away from me calling him names.

  From the texts I’ve been receiving every five minutes, it’s not going well. You’d think he was off being tortured from the: “How do people enjoy this?” to “I hate all sports and wish they’d burn in hell.”

  It’s rather funny that he’s at least trying to be friendly even if it’s going horribly.

  “Can you pick me up from Orin’s then?”

  “Of course. Do you need me to pick you up now?” he asks, almost pleadingly.

  “No! I haven’t even left yet!” I say as I start walking.

  “Well, I’d better stay on the phone with you until you’re there.”

  I sigh. “You’re not staying on the phone with me that long. I’m a big boy.”

  He grumbles again as I head across the street toward town. There’s a bus stop about ten minutes from our house where I’ll hop on a bus. “I really, truly hope you come back nicer. May I put in a request?”

  “For what?” he growls.

  “For niceness. Just come in and be all ‘Oh, my one true love, I had the most amazing time today with all my buddy pals.’”

  “Buddy pals?” he asks, like it physically pains him to refer to DeGray as anything besides his coworker. The poor man is determined to be friendless for life. Good thing everyone still tries their hardest to befriend him.

  My favorite part of it all is that he’s truly only sweet when dealing with me. “How many times have you threatened DeGray?” I ask as I reach the bus stop.

  “I would never.”

  “Please tell me the truth. How many?”

  “Once.”

  “Don’t lie.” He’s lying so hard right now. I’m not sure he can even keep a straight face with all the lies he’s spouting.

  “I would never lie,” he growls. The poor man thinks I’m a fool.


  “Tell me. If you tell me, I’ll let you snuggle with Hela.”

  He sighs like that wasn’t a good suggestion.

  “Fine, snuggle with me?”

  “So… I might have grumbled at him for how cheerful he was.”

  “Ah, good reason. Definitely. What’d he do?”

  “Laughed harder.”

  The thing is that I know Marcus so well that I can envision all of this and I can clearly see how DeGray will just laugh it off because he thinks it’s hilarious.

  “And then?” I say as the bus turns the corner.

  “He tried making me do this… cheer thing.”

  “How heinous! How dare he make you do something so… horrifying. I’m so sorry you went through that! Are you okay?”

  “Not really. I just sat there with my arms folded as they waved their arms around shouting stupidities.”

  “To me, it sounds like you’re the life of the party.”

  “I feel disgusted that I left you for this. I ruined hours of my life for this.”

  “Oh no! Hours in your three-hundred-year life span,” I say as I get onto the bus.

  My eyes are instantly drawn to a vampire sitting in the very back. His eyes catch mine and I question what made me notice him out of the rest. There are other vampires on the bus, but none of them stand out to me like he does. Maybe it’s the vibrant pink suit jacket he’s wearing. He does look vaguely familiar, though… but I can’t figure out why.

  “What’s wrong?” Marcus asks as I slide into the first empty row I can find.

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t ‘nothing’ me. Do I need to come home? Did something happen? Finn… I’m coming home!”

  “Honest to god, it’s nothing, I was just getting on the bus and didn’t want to be blabbing away as I got on.”

  “Hmmm… Do I need to save you?”

  I start laughing as I question if that’s what this is. “No! You don’t need to leave the party because I got on a bus.”

  “I don’t like you doing stuff like this alone. You should be with someone else.”

  My grip tightens on the phone. It’s not that I’m annoyed at Marcus for thinking or saying this, it’s that I’m annoyed that I have to think about him. I’m annoyed that I can’t safely do whatever I please because, even though I try to live in the moment, I’m always looking behind my back to make sure he isn’t there waiting for me. And if he is… is there anything I can do? Is there anything Marcus could do?

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up,” Marcus says, mistaking my silence for me being upset with him.

  “No, it’s fine,” I say. “It’s not that. I’m fine, Orin’s stop is only a few away.”

  “Alright… dammit, DeGray is calling me.”

  “Did you run away?”

  “I might have!”

  “Then answer to see what he needs! I’m fine.”

  He grumbles something before sighing. “Fine. I’ll call you immediately back to make sure you’re fine. You promise you’re fine?”

  “I’m more than fine, and you should know that.”

  “DeGray’s persistent.”

  “Then maybe you should answer him.”

  “If he says something stupid, I’m walking home.”

  “Or you could turn into a bat and flutter home,” I tease.

  He snorts, acting like he doesn’t think I’m hilarious. “Bye. Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  I hang up and switch my phone to selfie mode. I pretend like I’m fixing my hair, but instead, I’m looking at the vampire behind me and find him staring my way. The moment he notices what I’m doing, he gives me a huge smile, fangs and all, before looking away. I really don’t think I’ve ever met him, so what is it about him that made me look his way?

  Maybe I should have told Marcus. But if I had, he would have broken his neck to rush here just to find me chatting with Orin. Maybe the man is just… interested in something about me.

  I keep my phone out but lean against the window in a way that allows me to keep an eye on the back in case he moves toward me. My other hand stays near my gun, ready to draw it the moment I need to.

  Hopefully, that moment doesn’t come.

  The bus continues without incident and the man never moves, but I don’t let my guard down. I text Orin to meet me at the bus stop and he agrees and asks if I need to get off earlier. I assure him that it’ll be fine.

  And that’s the moment that I realize that I spoke too soon.

  Something slams into the side of the bus, throwing my head hard against the window and making me drop the phone. At first, I think we’ve been hit by a car, since no one on the bus had moved, until I hear the window break and the driver shout something. The bus isn’t moving as I stand up and glance at the vampire in the back. He seems just as confused, which is good, especially when a vampire tears the bus doors right off the hinges. Another rips open the back emergency door as I slide out of my seat.

  “Police!” I shout, since it’s easier than shouting out my actual title and generally gets people to respond.

  The vampire who’d opened the emergency door responds by grabbing a woman who’d been in the back and chucking her out the door. The issue is my attention is split between the front and the back where vampires with black masks are moving inside. There are currently two, but when the bus rocks, I realize there’s another.

  “Fucking VRC prick,” the one at the back yells, and I immediately realize that it’s me they’re after.

  Something hits the bus hard enough that the side I’m on lifts into the air as it rocks on two tires. People scream as they fall and slam into the bus wall. I’m thrown into the aisle as I yank my gun up and aim it at the vampire coming in the back, but having been unprepared for the hit against the bus, my body smashes into the seat across the aisle before the bus crashes back down on all four tires.

  “I’ve got this prick,” the vampire who’d been staring at me says as he shoves the attacking vampire out the door he’d come in through as I fight to regain composure now that my feet are steady under me.

  I turn as a vampire from the front rushes toward me. The issue is that the other passengers are in complete chaos, struggling to get off the bus or right themselves after the bus was hit the second time. While the gun I have at my side is currently loaded with tranqs, it could really hurt a human if they’re struck by one.

  Someone slams into me as I try to lock in on the vampire who is clearly after me. But every time I get a look at them, the chaos of the people around me makes me lose focus. I’m not sure how to get them to understand that life would be much better for them if they just crouched down.

  “Get under the seats!” I yell, hoping they’ll respond. Some do, but others are completely unreasonable. One of the vampires grabs a child who’d been trying to reach her mother who’d fallen across the bus. I rush forward, slamming my body into the vampire hard enough that it startles him. I press the gun right against his chest so when the tranq hits, there’s a guarantee it won’t hit anyone else. And that’s when I notice another vampire rushing in through the back. He grabs me by the back of my coat and drags me from the bus as I kick and twist my body. When that does nothing to free me, I drive my elbow back into his face. While it won’t affect a vampire the way it would a human, it still startles him enough that I manage to shoot him with a tranq just before I slam onto my back. The impact knocks the breath out of me as I roll over in time to see a vampire moving toward me. I try to get to my feet, but before I can, the vampire from the back of the bus grabs him and tears him to the ground. Blood splatters me as I push onto my feet just in time to see the ones who’d been harassing people inside the bus crawl out the back door.

  The moment their eyes settle on me, they rush toward me as I shoot both of them in the chest, only to have another grab onto me. Pain flares up into my arm, but as I swing the gun to him, the vampire from the back of the bus pulls him off.

  Panting, we stand there,
surrounded by tranquilized or half-dead vampires. The vampire in the pink jacket looks over at me as I watch him closely. Clearly, he helped me, but in this job, it’s hard to trust anyone when you don’t fully know them.

  “Are you alright?” he asks.

  “Yeah… I’m fine. What about you?”

  He looks down at his cut suit jacket sleeve, blood coloring it, but wound nearly healed. “Yeah. Fucker tried cutting my arm off, but I’ll live. Looks like you got hurt,” he says as he walks over to me and brushes some dirt out of my hair. It aggravates what must be a scrape from my trip out of the bus.

  “I’m fine. I need to call it in and get them apprehended while they’re still down,” I say.

  “What’s in that gun to put them down like that?” he asks curiously.

  I ignore him since it’s not exactly public knowledge because it’s police issued. Instead, I pull out my phone and call the department, asking them to send some people out. By the time I’m done with the call, the pink-jacketed vampire has all the vampires in a neat little pile. Not like, all around each other, no, literally piled on top of each other like he’s planning on playing Jenga later.

  Vampires are so strange.

  Then he gives me a huge smile that lights up his entire face before walking up to me. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt. They were really going after you.” He reaches out and runs a thumb over my cheek. “Got a little dirt on your face.” He says it like I don’t have dirt and road debris coating my entire body. Then he cocks his head, smile falling as he leans in and sniffs me.

  My god, vampires are strange.

  “Oh… Oh!” If his grin was big before, it’s ginormous now. It seems to take over all of his handsome face. “Well, isn’t this interesting.”

  “You just going to have a good ol’ discussion with yourself?” I ask.

  “Maybe,” he teases.

  “Why were you staring at me when I got on the bus? Are you a part of this?” I ask as I wave at the vampire pile.

  He dramatically grabs his chest. “Me? Oh, dear boy. Why would I help you if I was a part of this?”

  “Why are you refusing to tell me why you were staring at me? And why would you help me? Maybe it was a setup so you could help and make yourself look good to get me to trust you.”