Who Framed the Vegan Vampire (The Immortality Curse Book 3)

by Peter Glenn

  “I understand, Piper. Just start small. What happened first?”

  Piper nodded. “Okay. It was two days ago. After the meeting was over, I hung around for a bit. Mostly, I was just enjoying the refreshments and talking a bit with Oliver. I think he has a thing for me, but I’m not really into him that way.”

  “Got it.” I nodded. “So what happened next?”

  “Well…” she chewed slightly on her bottom lip, and I felt like I was losing her, then she began again. “I didn’t hear much of it because they were in the other room, but Tom and Donald got into some sort of argument. Like I said, I’m not really sure what it was about, but they were yelling loud enough that we could hear their voices.

  “Anyway, I started to get scared and made my way to the exit. But before I could get out of there, Donald stormed out of the room with Tom at his heels. Tom yelled something about how he’d make sure Donald never saw another sunrise.”

  Piper choked back a few fresh tears. “I’m sure it was nothing. Like I said, they were arguing really loudly, but Tom would never hurt a fly. He gets his fits of temper, but then he calms right down afterward. Most of the time, he’s a really chill guy.”

  Uh huh. Chill guy. Good guy. The crazy killers were always described like that. I never did know why, but it was a thing. I suddenly had a very bad feeling about this Tom guy.

  “What’s Tom’s last name, Piper? How could I find him?” I pushed, leaning forward a little in my chair. In hindsight, I probably looked a little too eager.

  Piper froze. “Y-you’re not going to…?”

  Damn. I thought fast. “No, no.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Nothing like that. I just want to talk to him. Get his side of the story and all that. I wouldn’t do a thing to harm him. I won’t even bring the police into it.”

  Unless he was as guilty as I thought he was, but I left that part off.

  Piper let out a sigh and looked up into my eyes. There was a pleading look in them. “To be honest, I’m not sure where he is right now. He’s been kind of absent the last day or so. He didn’t even show up to the protest tonight, so something must be up with him.”

  I pulled on my face. “Okay, let’s just get the last name, then. I’ll go look for him.” I crossed my fingers over my chest. “I won’t lay a hand on him, I swear.” I’ll let Grax’thor lay into him instead.

  “O-okay,” Piper said after a moment’s hesitation. “His full name is Tom Hardy.” She got a wild look in her eyes again. “But promise me you won’t hurt him! Like I said, he’s a really great guy. I’m sure it was nothing!”

  “Understood.” I nodded and patted her on the shoulder. “I promise, if Tom is as innocent as you claim, I won’t do a thing to him. Just talk to him like I talked to you. That’s it. That’s not so bad, is it?”

  Piper sniffed again and nodded. “Thank you. Can I… can I go now?”

  “Of course! You’re not being charged, so you can leave if you want.”

  “I’m out of here, then.” Piper wiped her nose one last time and got up to leave. “Oh, and one more thing. You might want to leave your… friend at home when you talk to him. He hates vampires even more than I do.”

  A slight chuckle escaped my throat. “Fair enough. Thank you, Miss Piper. For everything.”

  “Heh. Don’t mention it. And don’t come talking to me again.”

  With that, she shut the door and walked out of the precinct.

  13

  “So, was she any help?” Charmaine asked as I exited the interrogation room.

  “I think so.” I patted my phone, where I’d written down Tom’s name and a list of potential addresses from a person search. There were three Tom Hardys in the vicinity. “Gave me a potential lead on a guy. I guess we’ll find out how good it is soon.”

  “Well, at least she opened up to one of us,” Charmaine quipped. “Gave me a big, nasty glare on her way out.”

  I shrugged. “Some people will never change their minds, you know? It’s sad, but true.”

  Charmaine’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, where are we headed next?”

  Squinting, I peered at the tiny words on my phone. “Somewhere in the middle of SeaTac, looks like.”

  “SeaTac?” There was a hint of distaste in Charmaine’s voice.

  “Yeah, I know.” I shivered involuntarily. “Not my favorite area, either, but that’s where the first Tom Hardy lives.”

  “Tom Hardy, huh?” I nodded. “Pfft. Sounds like a jerk.”

  For some reason, that brought a smile to my lips. I had been thinking the same thing. “Heh. Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough, right?”

  “Right.”

  We started walking out of the precinct. No one stopped us on the way. I looked about for Dharmik to thank him for his earlier assistance, but I didn’t see him anywhere, so we left without another word to anyone.

  The cold night air bit into my skin as we exited the building, taking with it whatever slim warmth I’d had.

  “Don’t suppose you know where we c-can get another car, d-do you?” My teeth were chattering as I talked. “And m-maybe a jacket?”

  Charmaine chuckled. “I think that can be arranged.”

  Charmaine’s car service wasn’t as nice as Viktor’s—hell, what was? He was a billionaire, after all. But it was serviceable. We made a quick stop at my place so I could grab a jacket, then headed out to start ticking off the addresses.

  The first two Tom Hardys were an absolute bust. Neither of them had ever heard of Piper Williams. The second one even managed to hit on Charmaine, so he definitely wasn’t our culprit.

  I could still kind of feel his sleazy eyes on the both of us as he’d tried one cheesy come-on after another. It made me shudder in all the wrong ways.

  We were at the last apartment now, and it was starting to get a bit late in the evening. Almost midnight, in fact. So I had little hope for this Tom being home or, if he was home, awake. But I had to try anyway. Daequan needed a break, and I had a sneaking suspicion that we were running out of time.

  Charmaine and I sauntered up to the door. I’d ignored Piper’s advice about leaving her behind. I was kind of hoping Charmaine’s presence would intimidate Tom into talking, really. Make him face down his fears. Classic intimidation move.

  I double-checked the apartment number.

  “Three B,” I said out loud. “This should be it. The landlord said this was his place.”

  I’d posed as a delivery driver that had been given a building address but not an apartment number. It was an easy gag to pull off—much easier than posing as a police officer—and it worked the vast majority of the time. No one wanted to keep track of whether or not someone in their building had a food delivery, regardless of the hour. They were far too common.

  Anyway, the landlord had happily given out Tom’s apartment number, and now we were here. That’s a win in my book.

  I gave the door three sharp knocks and waited, but as I expected, there was no answer. Just to be safe, I knocked on the door again anyway.

  “Not home, huh?” Charmaine said. She was leaning up against the wall in a slump, her eyes barely even open.

  Did vampires get tired? That was another question I’d have to add to my list. There was just so much I didn’t know about them.

  “Tch. It’s not looking good,” I admitted.

  Charmaine shook her head slightly. “Well, what do you want to do? Should we try again tomorrow?”

  “Maybe.” I clicked my tongue. “But I’d really rather try tonight. This has to be our guy. There were only three of them.”

  Charmaine let out a long sigh and stared at the floor. “Well, what then? What do you want to do, ask the landlord for the key?”

  “Something like that,” I said with a bit of a laugh. I pulled out my lockpicking kit from my fanny pack and grinned at Charmaine. “This ought to do the trick.”

  Charmaine got a wild expression on her face, and she glared at me. “Damian, what are yo
u doing?” she demanded. “You can’t just break into someone’s apartment!”

  I chuckled again. “Can’t I? I mean, that’s kind of what lockpicks are for.”

  She put her hand on mine to stop me. “Come on, Damian. We’re not criminals. Going into the murder scenes was one thing, but… what if this guy is innocent? What then?”

  “Then we’ll leave him be and apologize greatly. Maybe give him twenty bucks for his trouble.”

  “I don’t know, Damian.” Her eyes were darting about, no doubt looking to see if someone else was coming. “This feels wrong.”

  “Wrong or not, I’m done.” I gave the doorknob a light turn, and the door creaked open. I lowered my tone down to a whisper. “Now, do you want to help your husband beat this murder charge or not?”

  Charmaine let out a long sigh. “I guess I…” she whispered back. She chewed on her bottom lip and eyed the hallway again. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just come back tomorrow?”

  I waved a dismissive hand at her. “Look, we’ll just take a quick peek. If he’s in there sleeping, we’ll leave and come back. No harm done. If he’s not there, then we’ll just look for anything out of the ordinary and get out, easy peasy. It’ll take like two minutes, tops. Promise.”

  Charmaine grimaced. “O-okay, Damian. But only if it’ll help Daequan.”

  “It will.” I flashed her a grin and pushed the door open just enough to let us squeeze through, then beckoned for her to enter. “Shall we?”

  Charmaine took one last, long look down the hallway, her body shaking a little from fear, and headed inside. I followed closely on her heels, then let the door shut quietly behind us. No sense in letting anyone know we were there.

  The inside of the apartment was dark. There was a little light leaking in from a series of windows on the far wall, but not much. The night was still overcast, so only the glow of a few distant street lamps lit the interior.

  I gave my eyes a moment to adjust before doing anything else. Glancing over at Charmaine, I saw her standing there, shivering slightly. She really didn’t take to breaking and entering that well. Something to remember, should we have need to do it in the future.

  As my eyes adjusted, I could start to make out more about Tom’s place. We were standing in what I could only assume was half living room, half kitchen. A fairly standard arrangement for lower Seattle. There was a dingy couch next to the windows, and a wooden entertainment center that had a small TV perched on top of it. A video game console sat next to it along with a pile of games.

  The top game case was Alien Invasion IV. Huh. We had a similar taste in shoot ‘em ups, then. I’d played that title extensively. I still couldn’t beat level thirteen, but at least I wasn’t alone in that. The internet gaming chat rooms were all up in arms about level thirteen. Some people even thought it might be bugged intentionally.

  I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the fact that we played the same games, given that the guy was probably a murderer. Something to talk about in my next therapy session, I supposed.

  On the other side of the room was the kitchenette. There was a tall counter with a single stool tucked underneath it, a stove, a sink that was half full with dishes, and a refrigerator. A few boxes of what I assumed were cereal stood on the counter next to the fridge.

  All in all, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I was starting to re-think this whole “Tom is a raving killer” thing. He seemed like an average guy, just like Piper had said.

  “Uh, Damian?” Charmaine’s voice broke through the stillness of the dark room.

  “Yeah?” I whispered back. “What is it?”

  “I think you should probably come in here.”

  It took me a moment to realize that she was no longer in the same room as me. Apparently, she’d gone exploring. I remembered Viktor moving about in the warehouse with dim light. Maybe she was similarly unencumbered by the darkness.

  “Coming,” I said.

  Her voice was coming from behind one of the two interior doors. I assumed she was in Tom’s bedroom, and the other door led to the bathroom. It would have been really odd if she’d gone to the bathroom, after all. Which meant Tom probably wasn’t home, otherwise, she would have been too creeped out to stay in there.

  “What is it?” I whispered as I made my way over to the bedroom door, almost tripping on a small heap of clothing on the way.

  “Just… come see for yourself.” Something about the way she said it made me shiver again. But it wasn’t cold in the apartment. Far from it.

  “Ugh. Fine.” Spoilsport. Why couldn’t she give me a little hint?

  I made my way into the bedroom and blinked a few times. There were posters and papers hung all along the walls, and a small pile of leather-bound books next to the unkempt bed on the nightstand, but I didn’t see anything that looked all that out of the ordinary.

  “So, what’s up?” I asked Charmaine. I looked over at her to see that she was trembling again, her whole body shaking as she was pointing to one of the posters on the far wall.

  I couldn’t make out what it said, so I fumbled around for a light switch and flicked it on. Tom wasn’t home, so I could use his lights. If he managed to come home while we were in here, we’d be in trouble anyway, so no point in hiding it.

  The lights came on and blinded me for a half second, so I shielded my eyes and let them re-adjust. When I could finally make out the far wall, I let out a gasp of surprise.

  “Wow,” I uttered. It took a moment for me to gather my thoughts. “That’s some dedication, all right.”

  Charmaine still seemed to be speechless, but she let her hand drop to the side.

  The poster she’d been pointing to was more anti-vampire rhetoric, but dialed up to a thousand. “Death to All Vampires,” it read at the top, followed by a list of reasons why they should all be staked and killed, each more ridiculous than the last.

  Several other posters in the room were in the same vein. The ones that weren’t were even worse. One of them spoke of demon worship, and yet another said something about how we were all doomed to hell anyway, so you might as well yield to the devil.

  To say I was creeped out would have been an understatement. This Tom guy was clearly the man we were looking for. And he looked to be in way over his head.

  I glanced over at Charmaine. “Listen, you can wait outside if you want, but I want to check out that stack of books before we leave.”

  “No, it’s okay,” she said. “I’ll stay and… stand guard in case he comes back.”

  There was a strange glint in her eyes. Was that some sort of grim determination? Had she finally gotten past her fears? Or had something in the posters and markings finally made her snap?

  It was about damn time, if so. This was her and her husband’s life on the line.

  Nodding at her, I wordlessly went over to the book pile. The book on top was another copy of Ancient Rituals and Their Meanings. The same book I’d seen at Donald’s apartment. It looked to be rather well read. I could hardly believe there’d be two people in the world stupid enough to study how to summon demons, but apparently there were.

  I set the book aside and looked at the next one. Vampires and Their Crimes. Abridged Version. I rifled through the book. For an abridged version, it was weighty enough. There were a few stories in there about Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, along with some more recent vampire stories, but nothing really illuminating.

  The next volume was a little more telling. Summoning Demons and Their Uses. Some of the pages were marked in this book, and there was a dog-eared page about halfway through that made me stop and think. It was a detailed summoning ritual for a horde of demons, and it went over the entire process in vivid detail.

  “Oh, wow,” I mused as I read some of the instructions. “To summon a demon army, one must first write their names in blood. Fresh is preferred, but any blood will do.”

  I shook my head to clear it. “What the hell is this guy into, exactly?”

  Just then, my ph
one buzzed. I set the book down to look at it. I wasn’t sure who would be calling me at almost midnight, but I assumed it wasn’t someone looking to talk to me about my nonexistent car’s extended warranty.

  I glanced at the phone screen. It was Rick.

  “What do you want at this hour, Rick?” I asked the air. Whatever it was, I knew it would be important. He wasn’t that fond of talking to me to begin with, let alone at midnight.

  “Hey, buddy, what’s up?” I asked him as I answered the phone and pressed it to my ear, balancing between my cheek and shoulder blade so I could keep studying the book I was holding.

  “Damian?” Rick asked. “Where are you? Are you up?”

  Well, that was a silly question. “Yeah, I’m up. Don’t worry, you didn’t wake me or anything.”

  “Phew. Good. I was a little worried, but I didn’t want to wait any longer than I had to about this.”

  “Sure, sure. What’s up, buddy? What you got for me?”

  Rick paused for a moment and I thought I’d lost him, but nope. He was still there. “Those markings you sent me earlier, I think I may have translated them. Well, enough of them at least.”

  That piqued my curiosity. “Yeah?”

  “Uh huh. Thank that friend of yours, by the way for sending over pics of the other body. They were really helpful in cracking the whole thing wide open.”

  I suppressed a snort. “I’ll be sure to do that.”

  File that under things that wouldn’t happen. For one, I doubted I’d remember, and for two, I wasn’t in the habit of thanking guys like him unless I really needed to for some reason.

  And this wasn’t one of those reasons.

  But Rick didn’t need to know any of that.

  Rick kept talking. “I’m not sure how to say this exactly and can barely believe it myself, but I think you might be dealing with someone trying to summon a demon.”

  “Oh, I believe it.” I glanced back down at the book I had in my hands that had obviously seen a lot of love. I definitely believed it.