by Peter Glenn
“You bet I do.” A dopey grin crossed my lips. “All right, it’s a date!”
LaLuna practically shoved me toward her door. “Now go, before your client cries her eyes out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I gave her a fake salute, and she returned the gesture, then I was out the door and on my way to the car. Along the way, I managed to re-button my jeans and promptly remembered that I’d forgotten my half of the pho inside the house.
Part of me wanted to go back and grab it, but I decided against. If I saw LaLuna again right now, my resolve would crack, and I’d be delayed for hours. Well, at least I hoped it’d be hours.
Besides, I could easily grab more later if I wanted to. I lived near the restaurant. It would be harder for her, with the baby and all. Plus, she’d earned it with that make-out session.
I slid into the driver’s seat and turned on the car, then input Charmaine’s address. I had a pretty good head for things like directions and place names, but I’d only been there twice, so it wasn’t quite solidified yet.
“One hour, ten minutes to your destination,” Srini blurted out.
I groaned a little. That meant there’d be heavy traffic. But there wasn’t much I could do about it now. I put the car into reverse and pulled onto the street, leaving LaLuna and Grace behind where they’d be safe.
Precisely one hour and ten minutes later, I arrived outside Charmaine’s apartment building. It still boggled my mind that technology could be that precise. It was downright creepy, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Charmaine was waiting outside, which was nice, because the doorman from last night was back, and the less I had to deal with him, the better.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Damian,” Charmaine said as she climbed into the passenger’s seat.
“Don’t mention it. Anything for a client.” I gave her my best professional fake smile. The one that always worked.
“You were busy, weren’t you?” Charmaine said. “When I called you, I mean.”
Well, damn. She saw straight through it.
I shrugged, thinking about LaLuna practically on top of me and how badly I wanted to go back to finish things, but I pushed those thoughts down. There was a time and a place, and this was neither.
“A little, but it’s all right. You needed me, and I do kind of have your car right now, so it’s not like I could say no.”
Charmaine put one of her cold, clammy hands on my shirt sleeve. “Thank you, Damian. I knew you’d understand.”
“Yeah, well. Just tell me about this new murder. What do we know about it? What have you heard?”
Charmaine sniffled again and her voice cracked. “Not much, I’m afraid. Just where it occurred, and that it’s every bit as bloody as the first… err, second now… one.”
Ugh. I didn’t want to say anything, but that was a really bad sign for her husband. One grisly murder of an upstanding gentleman was bad enough, but now that there was a second similar one, they’d stop looking at Daequan as a simple murderer and start looking at him as a serial killer.
And that wouldn’t be good for anyone.
“Well, that’s a start, at least,” I said, trying to remain positive.
“Yeah.”
Charmaine blew her nose into a handkerchief while I wondered whether or not vampires had snot like a normal person. I mean, they can’t get sick, but their bodies were still largely human, so I suppose so? Maybe I’d ask her that when she wasn’t torn up about her husband being in jail.
“Hey,” I said, looking at her. I reached out a hand and patted her shoulder. “We’ll find the guy who did this, and we’ll clear your husband’s name. I promise.”
Charmaine nodded. “Thank you.”
I made a left turn when Srini told me to, and we made our way over to the warehouse district near the docks in record time. Traffic was still not great, but it thinned out quite a bit once we got closer to the murder scene.
“Your destination is on the right in five hundred feet,” Srini notified us.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Ma’am seemed right for an all-knowing digital assistant somehow.
Pulling the car over, I stopped it next to an old parking meter and got out of the car. Charmaine paid the meter, and we both crossed the street, headed for the warehouse where the murder had taken place.
As we came to the entrance, I saw someone was already there. They were dressed in dark clothing and wearing a policeman’s hat, so I gave them ample space. Still, something about it seemed off. He sure was playing with the door handle a lot for a real policeman. Wouldn’t they have a key?
“Excuse me, good sir,” I said, grunting loudly. “Can I help you with anything?”
The person froze, then turned around very slowly with their hands in the air. “This is all a big misunderstanding, officer,” they said.
Now it was my turn to be shocked. I recognized that voice from the night prior. I glanced into his too-blue eyes, and my face paled. It was the vampire that had bitten me last night. I was sure of it. The killer was here, come to check up on his other victim.
And I’d just tipped him off.
“Look,” I said, my hand reaching downward toward the hilt of Grax’thor at my side as slowly and unassumingly as I could. If Blue Eyes was going to pounce, I wanted to be ready. “Why don’t you just come with us nicely, and we can talk to the police together about all this?”
The vampire’s lips curled into a wicked grin. “Sure thing,” he said, his hands still held over his head.
All at once, several things happened. I found the hilt of Grax’thor and pulled her loose, Charmaine let out a high-pitched scream, and Blue Eyes turned and ran for it, speeding down the street.
“Wait! Stop!” I cried, running after him.
But he was far too fast for me, and he disappeared out of sight before I’d even made it around the next corner. I looked everywhere for some hint of his fleeing form, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. Blue Eyes had escaped.
“Damn it!” I swore. “Damn it all to hell!”
I put my sword back into its sheath and turned to look at Charmaine, who was pacing in front of the warehouse, mumbling something unintelligible. She looked even more shaken than she had previously.
“Hey,” I called out, making my way back over to her. “I’m sorry, I tried to run after him, but he was too fast, and–”
“It’s all right, Damian. Vampires are quick on their feet. You tried.” She sounded a little defeated for my liking, but I could empathize with that.
Panting a little, I stopped next to her. “Well, at least we can check out the crime scene in peace, now.”
“Y-yeah,” Charmaine said, her teeth chattering. “Let’s do that.”
I turned my attention back to the warehouse door, but I never got there. Before I’d gone three steps, I heard the distinctive rumble of a car engine near the top of the street. I looked around and saw headlights blaring at us from a sleek, black sedan that was tearing down the street on a collision course for the two of us.
And there behind the steering wheel was Blue Eyes, a deranged look in his eyes.
“Get out of the way!” I shouted, making shooing motions with my hands.
Charmaine got the message. I pushed a little on her, and we both half-ran, half-fell out of the way of the car just in time, tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
“Are you okay?” I asked her. She didn’t look to be breathing, but for all I knew, that was common for vampires.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, pushing me off her. “We have to go after him!”
“Right.”
I scrambled to my feet and offered a hand to Charmaine, but she vaulted to her own feet faster than I would have thought possible, and we headed over to the car, practically flinging the doors open and piling inside.
Shaking a little from the near miss, I started the car and peeled off as fast as I could, even before I’d had a chance to finish buckling my seat belt in pl
ace.
The car beeped at me a few times and the seatbelt light flashed, but I growled at it and kept going.
“Not now, car!”
My eyes scanned the street, looking for that sleek black sedan.
“There!” Charmaine said, pointing at a dot in the distance.
It took a second before I could make it out, but I saw it too. It was the black sedan. And it was peeling away, getting smaller and smaller.
“Got it!”
I jammed my foot onto the gas pedal, and I felt the car lurch as it sped forward, closing the gap between us and the sedan ever so slightly.
Blue Eyes seemed to notice, I could see his car speeding up as well, but at least I could still make out where it was, so I sped on, thanking whatever fates there were that traffic was light in this district, and I wasn’t getting stuck at a thousand traffic lights.
I sped through a stop sign in my haste and almost ran into another car that was trying to eke its way through the intersection. That car slammed on its brakes and came to a stop right as I went flying past, missing my bumper by mere inches.
The chase was on, and once again, I was gaining on the vampire.
Blue Eyes’ car turned left up ahead, peeling around the corner faster than he had any right to, leaving a large tire mark on the asphalt.
“Hang on!” I told Charmaine.
She grabbed the handle on her side of the door, and I spun the wheel, taking the turn almost as fast as Blue Eyes had, determined not to let my lead diminish, if I could avoid it.
I felt like I was going to fall out of the driver’s seat and into Charmaine’s lap for a moment, which made me wonder what LaLuna would think if she found us like that, but I made it around the turn with my position intact. The seatbelt helped a little, groaning and straining against my chest so hard I swore it would leave a mark.
The street ahead was more populated, but I could see the black sedan not far ahead, so I sped up until I was almost bumper to bumper with him.
“That’s right, Blue Eyes,” I said. “Just a little closer. Come to Papa.”
My car was so close, I could almost ram his and force it to pull over. Just a little more, and this chase would be over. Just another few feet. There were still no other cars in the way yet, so I just needed a little more time.
I was so close that I could see Blue Eyes look into his rearview mirror at us, so I flashed him a wry grin.
“That’s it, Blue Eyes. Be afraid. Hold onto that fear and let it slow you down just a touch.”
Of course, he did no such thing. I heard his engine rev, and he pulled a little bit ahead of me. I was still close on his heels, but the distance was steadily increasing once again.
A loud honking noise jarred me from my thoughts, and I realized we were tearing through an intersection, with angry cars on both sides. The light up above was red, so we were cutting them off.
Several other cars honked, but thankfully, none of them ran into us. Neither of us hit anyone, but the damage was still done. I’d been distracted for a second, and Blue Eyes had pulled ahead significantly.
I groaned and slammed my foot onto the gas, and the car lurched forward once more into the open street, tearing up the distance between our two cars as we sped through intersection after intersection at breakneck speeds.
Slowly but surely, I was gaining on Blue Eyes once more, determined not to lose him this time, when my phone started ringing loudly and buzzing on me. I never should have turned on the damn ringer.
“What is it?” Charmaine asked. She was practically plastered into her seat and holding onto her handle like it was a life-saving device.
“It’s my phone,” I told her. I wiggled a little in the seat to make the buzzing less intense. “Do you think you can reach it? It’s kind of distracting me.”
“Sure, I’ll try.”
Charmaine’s hand dug into my pocket and fished around for a bit. It tickled, and I let out a slight giggle as I almost smacked headlong into a hot dog cart, pulling away at the last second.
“Sorry!” I shouted at the vendor, giving him a thumbs up.
I could see him swearing at me in the rearview, but I paid him little heed and turned my attention back to the road ahead, and Blue Eyes. He was passing a white SUV, and I had to duck around the car myself to keep him in my sights.
Finally, Charmaine got my phone free and held it in her hands.
“It’s someone named Katherine,” she told me.
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. Just what I needed. “Answer it.”
“Who’s Katherine?”
“Just answer it,” I demanded. “She’ll keep calling if you don’t. Trust me, it’s better this way.”
Charmaine answered the call and put it on speaker as I sped past a blue truck that was going way too slow for my liking. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about chasing after Blue Eyes, I’d now need to deal with this new distraction, too.
“Damian? Is that you?” Katherine’s voice blared from the speaker.
“Yeah. It’s me,” I said with a sigh. “Don’t mind the background noise.”
As if to accentuate the point, a car screeched off to the side as its driver slammed on the breaks to keep from careening into us.
“I’m calling because you’ve missed three therapy appointments in a row,” Katherine informed me. “I know it can be hard coming in and talking about your feelings, but it’s important to make time for it at the same time.”
“She’s your therapist?” Charmaine whispered.
I shushed her the best I could. “It was my mom’s idea.” I mouthed.
Up ahead, Blue Eyes peeled around another corner, and I raced after him, speeding around the right turn as fast as I could. I felt like my face was going to melt into the glass of the window, and several more cars honked at me, but I made it out okay.
“Are you doing something dangerous again, Damian?” Katherine said. Her tone was incredibly disapproving.
“Who, me?” I flashed the phone a grin even though she couldn’t see me, but I hoped she’d hear it in my tone.
“Now, Damian, you know you’re not supposed to be doing anything stressful. It’s bad for your heart. And now that you’re over three hundred, you really need to start thinking about slowing down.”
Heh. If only she knew the truth of what I was doing right now. It would give her the heart trouble.
“Look, this isn’t a good time,” I told her.
I swerved just then, barely missing the bumper of a sporty little red Mazda with a spoiler in the back. I could see the guy flip me off, but it was really his fault. In a car like that, he should be the one outpacing me.
“You always say that, Damian, but you know when you come in and sit on the couch for a bit that you feel better about things.”
Not really, but I told her as much, at least. It seemed like the decent thing to do. Plus, I did so hate to disappoint my mother, and she was paying for it.
Okay, so maybe it helped a little. Occasionally. But just a little.
Another car honked its horn as I sped around it, cutting it off with mere inches to spare as I kept my eyes on that black sedan. I was getting closer again, I could feel it.
“I know,” I said into the phone. “It’s just… Right now is really not a good time, you know? I’m kind of in the middle of a case.”
“Fine.” The way Katherine said that word, I could tell she was upset. “I’ll let you go, Damian, but I don’t want to see you missing next week. No more silly excuses. You need your therapy.”
“I know, I know. I’ll make it, I promise.”
“Good. Now promise me you’re not going to do anything stupid in the meantime.”
Charmaine chuckled, and I about died of laughter.
“Oh, come on. I can’t promise that!” I fired back.
“Fine, Damian. Just so long as you’re not going to try to kill yourself again, okay? Can you promise me that?” Katherine’s tone had switched from disapproving to concerned. She re
ally did care about me, even if I mostly didn’t. It was sweet.
“I… I promise,” I told her.
Off to my side, Charmaine just stared at me and shook her head slightly, like the whole conversation was so foreign to her that she didn’t even know how to unpack it.
I had to admit, I had a lot of baggage.
“Thank you, Damian,” Katherine said at last. “I’ll see you next week.”
“Okay!”
I took my hand off the wheel for a half second to hang up the phone and almost careened into the car ahead of me, swerving just in time.
“Thank goodness that’s over with,” I muttered.
“Your therapist calls to check on you?” Charmaine asked through clenched teeth.
I took a particularly sharp turn and felt my face try to melt into the window again. “Yeah, well, I’m not exactly a great patient, but at least she cares.” I shot Charmaine a quick smile.
She bobbed her head. “Fair enough.”
Up ahead, I could see Blue Eye’s sedan slowing down as the red brake lights flared. Finally! I’d done it. Good things were about to happen. I started to slow down, too, as I relaxed my white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel ever so slightly, mentally preparing to take the guy on foot once we had pulled over.
“Damian?” Charmaine said, her voice hesitant.
I spared her another glance. “Yeah?”
One of her bony fingers pointed out the windshield at something. “Aren’t we going to hit him?”
“Hit what?” I asked, following the trail of her finger.
I peeked out the windshield again at Blue Eyes’ sedan. It had slowed down to a full stop, its hood mere inches from a giant oak tree that was bursting out of a hole in the sidewalk.
Charmaine was right. I’d been too distracted to notice, but she was right. We were simply going too fast. There was no way I’d be able to stop in time.
“Well, shi–”
9
The scent of acrid smoke roused me more than anything else. My head hurt so badly, I thought it was going to explode, and I felt something wet and slick dripping down my right cheek.