by Judith Post
"We have a truce."
Derek shook his head. “I’d never want you for an enemy.”
“It won’t happen. You're the good guys.”
“And you’re a good guy, too, right?” Derek stared at Enoch hard, trying to decide. Danny was having the same problem. How well did he know his friend?
“Down to my very soul.” Enoch pushed himself to his feet and brought the apple pie and a pot of hot coffee to the island bar.
Danny reached for a mug. “Mind if I have a little whiskey in mine?”
“I’ll join you.” He poured some for Derek too. They didn't talk vampires over dessert, and they didn't bring them up again before they left. Danny thought Derek probably felt like he did. He could barely keep up with what he'd already heard. If there was more—and with Enoch, he was sure there was going to be—he couldn't handle it right now.
Chapter 14
The old, dark memories of Alessandro surprised Enoch. It would take time to push past them.
When he'd shoved his way through Alessandro's attackers, he'd stared in disbelief at what had once been his friend. Sick. He was going to be sick. And then the vampires closed their circle on him. Heat churned in his veins. Anger knotted his stomach. He waited until the pack was almost on him before he called for the Light. It burst from him in a hot flood, skewering each and every inch of the alley. When Enoch left, all that was left of Alessandro and the others were ashes. Except for the one who got away. And he was here in Three Rivers, yearning for blood.
Enoch waited until after midnight before he pulled on another new coat—wool this time—and left the apartment. He had a double mission—to destroy the killer rogue and to find Voronika. Voronika had fed, and fed well, on the two robbers, so she might not be out and about yet, but he wanted to find her as quickly as possible. He was hoping she could lead him to Liza's killer. In Enoch's vision, the new victim was in a lobby of some kind and sheets of typing paper were scattered on the floor at her feet. If Voronika remembered the vision, as he did, maybe she could tell him who the woman was and where she worked, if not when the event happened.
Dark clouds swallowed the moon and stars, and the air had a brooding quality that threatened snow. Forecasters warned that holiday travel plans might get tricky. Enoch pulled his collar up and jammed his hands inside his coat sleeves. After he walked a few blocks, he started to feel more comfortable, but he still wasn’t warm.
He stalked up and down streets and alleys. The rogue would know Enoch was looking for him. If he were smart, he'd hide, but the craving would be almost unbearable. He'd had a taste of blood. He'd want more. Enoch kept an eye out for any homeless. Near an underpass, he spotted a shabby man slumped against the cement supports. He was nursing a bottle in a brown bag. Enoch turned to go to him, to warn him that this was a bad night to be out and about, when a cop car pulled to the curb. The cop rolled down his window and said, "Come on, Willie. I'm taking you to the station tonight."
"What for?" the scruffy man asked.
"You'll freeze out here. You need a warm bed in this weather."
"I still have a few swigs in the bottle," Willie complained.
"Then finish them and let's go."
Enoch was impressed. A kind cop and a cold night probably saved Willie's life. He moved on. When he hit Wells Street, he found the limp body of a stray cat lying on the curb. A fresh kill. He picked it up and studied the fur at its neck—two puncture wounds and such a small trickle of blood that people would assume the cat was hit, trying to cross the street.
The rogue wouldn't settle for strays tonight, which meant that Voronika was hungry again. When he’d first seen her, she looked sickly, fragile. The two men had replenished her strength and vitality, but they weren't enough to sustain her for long. She’d been too malnourished. That meant she was prowling the streets again, and he hadn't missed her by much. He could still picture her in his mind. Was her hair still shiny? Her cheeks still flushed? He lifted his gloved hand and touched his jaw where her cool fingers had skimmed it.
He walked until a small sliver of light spilled over the horizon. Both vampires would be nesting now. He wandered to Katy’s bar, intending to go in for breakfast, but when he saw Danny’s car parked in the lot, he walked on. Danny would have turned their conversations at dinner over and over in his mind, and he’d have plenty of new questions. Enoch wasn’t ready for them. What would he do when Danny pushed him too hard? Would he tell the truth or dodge it for as long as he could?
He headed for home and took the elevator to his penthouse. When he went to stand on the balcony, frost coated the railing. He frowned at the city’s skyline, not seeing it. His thoughts focused on the vision he'd had with Voronika. If she was in a lobby, that meant the building was still open after dark. A lot of the area businesses closed at five. That ruled them out. But the days were getting shorter, leading up to winter solstice. He tried to remember when he’d looked out his patio doors last night and there was no light. Danny had arrived for dinner at six thirty, and it was pitch black. He’d guess that with the heavy clouds they'd had lately, it was dark enough for Voronika to ramble the streets by five thirty or six.
Satisfied with the progress he'd made, he went inside and started to fix himself breakfast. Just like the vampire girl, since he’d acquired a mortal body, he had to feed it. And he’d discovered that cooking and eating were two pleasures he’d never experienced before and definitely enjoyed. When the hot coffee warmed his veins and cleared his mind, he decided that he needed to start his evening maneuvers much earlier than usual. He’d hit the pavement at five thirty and see which shops still greeted customers. If he was lucky, he might even see the woman from his vision inside one of them.
He rinsed his dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Then he went to the computer and started to write. This time, with a game plan in mind, he could concentrate. His rough draft was finished, and he was working on the re-write when someone buzzed from the lobby. He went to the button and pushed it. “Yes?”
“I’m on my way back to the station, thought I’d stop by,” Danny said. “Are you busy?”
“Come on up.” He’d been expecting a visit. He was hoping it would be later rather than sooner, but that wasn't Danny's style.
Danny bustled into the apartment and headed straight for the kitchen. “Got any coffee? It’s raw out there.”
Enoch trailed behind him and slid onto one of the bar stools at the high kitchen counter. He watched Danny fidget with the coffee pot, look at the leftover pie. “Help yourself.”
Danny scooped out a piece, but stayed on his side of the counter, facing Enoch. “I’ve been thinking.”
“I thought you would.”
“And this whole business has made me go in directions that never would have crossed my mind before.”
“And?”
“How did you kill the vampires?” Just like Danny to ask the tough question.
Enoch thought of his options. Did he have any after the rogue attacked Derek? “I could lie to you, say that I tracked them back to their lair, then came back during the day to stake them, but one lie leads to another, and I don’t like that.”
Danny leaned toward him. “Will we still be friends if you tell me the truth?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“How freaked out you get, and how comfortable I feel. It’s been a long time since I’ve trusted a mortal. Most of the time, I get it right and pick the right ones. Then we all benefit. The last time, I didn’t.”
Danny sat back. “A mortal?”
“Like you.”
“Yeah, I know what ‘mortal’ means. It's just that most people don't refer to each other that way. What happened?”
Enoch shrugged. “He blabbed to anyone and everyone. I moved far enough away to start over, and he had to fight the vampires and his own demons by himself.” Even though Enoch secretly went back later to finish off the vampires he'd gone there to hunt.
Danny pinched
the bridge of his nose in thought. “So you’re telling me that we can be a team, that you’ll work with a mortal. But what am I working with?”
A partial truth would suffice. One step at a time. “I told you. I’m a vampire hunter. I’ve hunted them century after century.”
“Century after century? Come on. Get real.”
Enoch flicked the butcher knife off the counter and stabbed himself through his left hand. Danny jerked back, spilling his coffee, then gaped when the knife came out and the wound seamlessly healed.
“How did you do that?”
Enoch got a towel to wipe up the spill. “I told you. I hunt vampires lifetime after lifetime. I can’t die. I can’t even be hurt--physically.”
Danny gripped the counter with both hands. “How old are you?”
“Timeless.”
"Like them?"
"No, they can be destroyed. I can't."
“And you can still like some of them, after everything you must have seen?”
“Do you still like your fellow human beings?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I?"
“Even after everything you’ve seen?”
Danny’s face registered that he’d gotten the point.
“Some humans are monsters too, but humans have a choice. Most vampires don’t have that luxury.”
“So you only hunt bad vampires.”
“And this time, a bad human. I try to restore order. Sort of like you.”
“Only I get to retire.” Danny studied Enoch. “You don’t look old. How do you do it? Can anyone become a vampire hunter like you?”
“No, I’m it, the only one. When the job was on offer, I was the only taker.”
“That, I can understand.” Danny let out a long breath. “Can you quit, walk away if you want to?”
“No, the job’s never done, and I can’t go Home until it is. There are always more of them.” And there was always Caleb, his once friend and eternal problem.
“Sorry, pal. Sounds like you got a bum rap to me.”
“It’s my fate, why I’m here.” But he'd never imagined he'd have to stay so long.
Danny took a minute to think things through. “This is good, though. Not for you maybe, but for me. With you along, we have to win. You'll catch the rogue, and together, we’ll find this killer and stop him.”
“I can’t do magic tricks,” Enoch said. “All I can do is what I’ve done, touched the dead girl and pointed to the next victim. That’s it. I can’t guarantee that he won’t kill someone else before we find him.”
“And we can nab the vampire girl.”
“I won’t help you with that. What she did was self-defense. Besides, I’m hoping she’ll work with us.”
“Us?” That took Danny back.
“Or me. She might be able to tell me where the woman was when she saved her.”
Danny blinked. “Would she remember what happened in your vision?”
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try.”
Danny was quiet a minute. He didn't like the idea of working with Voronika, Enoch could tell, but he could see that Voronika might be able to help them. “Okay, we’ll do it your way. I’ll forget that you ever told me about her. No one would believe me anyway. And if you find her, maybe she can point us in the right direction.”
“About that,” Enoch said. “I’d swear that she’s a good vamp, but if we’re going to work together, and we meet the rogue, you won’t have a prayer by yourself.”
“Humans kill vampires in movies."
“Two ways. You can stab them through the heart with a wooden stake. Or you can go for their heads—shoot them there, snap their necks, chop their heads off… whatever. But if there’s a pack of them—and they like to hunt in packs—it's damned tricky.”
“Go for the head,” Danny repeated.
“But your best bet is to stay far, far away or to stay close to me.”
“Why? What do you do?”
“Shield your eyes with your hand and turn your head,” Enoch said.
“Why?”
“Because seeing is believing.” When Danny covered his eyes, Enoch called on the Light. It burst from his body into every nook and cranny of the apartment. When it faded, Danny put down his hand and stared.
“Holy shit.”
“It’s holy all right,” Enoch said, “part of my arsenal. And for vampires, it’s deadly.”
“That’s how you killed the pack that killed your friend.”
Enoch nodded.
"So why not blast everything, the whole earth, and be done with it? No more vamps."
"It's not that easy. It's just like sunlight. It can't go through solids. Windows, maybe, but if anyone was facing in my direction, the Light would blind them. It might harm children too, it's so strong--burn them. More than that, I can't kill indiscriminately. It's against my rules. There are good vamps out there, struggling. They don't deserve to be eliminated."
Danny rubbed his eyes, dazed. “I can't believe I'm having this conversation. None of this feels real. It’s going to take a while.”
“You can’t tell anyone.”
“Why would I burden someone with something like this? Who'd listen to me anyway?”
"People listened to Samuel."
"The friend who blabbed? What happened?"
"Not what I expected. People brought their sick to me and wanted me to heal them. They wanted to touch me. They wanted miracles. I don't have any, not even for you. The Light won’t stop the stalker.”
“Then we will, and if your vampire can help us, I’ll circle the day on my calendar and name it ‘Be nice to vamp girl’ day.” Danny put his empty coffee mug next to the sink and went for his coat. “Gotta get back to work.”
“When you have the next question—and you will—just ask.”
Danny shook his head. “You’ve given me enough to think about for now.” And he was out the door. He'd be back, though, Enoch knew it, and he would think of more questions. And Enoch would give him more answers—one step at a time.
Chapter 15
Marie Lemmon arranged her china dishes and best silver on the dining room table. They glistened on the white, linen cloth. A flower centerpiece and two candles added the deep oranges and golds of Fall. Not that the weather felt like autumn this year. An early winter had descended on the Midwest.
She heard the crunch of tires in the driveway and looked out the side window to see her son's car pull to the back of the house. She went to the kitchen door and held it open. The room was so warm that the cold air felt almost refreshing. Jim reached for two bottles of wine he'd brought and stopped to inhale the aromas that greeted them—turkey roasting in the oven, the spicy scent of cloves that Marie used to stud the ham, the sweet smell of brown sugar. He threw an arm around his mother's shoulders. "Mom, I'm in heaven already."
Jim's wife, Kathleen, came around the car to join them. "Hey, mom, happy Thanksgiving."
And then the kids tumbled from the backseat—Nathan with his nervous energy and crooked grin, Tyler with his sly smile and easy-going gait. They both came to hug their grandma. "How's it goin', Grams?"
Marie took a moment to stare. "I can't believe how much you've grown." A lame comment for them, she knew, but Tyler, at fifteen, was taller than she was and Nate reached her shoulder now. Where had the little boys gone that she'd seen last year?
Kathleen laughed. "They shot up this summer, didn't they?"
"They sure did, but what am I doing, keeping you outside in this cold? Come in. Come in. Martin's in the living room, waiting for you."
"Glued to the TV," Jim said. The boy knew his father, Marie had to admit. If there was a sports program on anywhere, the man would watch it.
While they were bundling into the house, Marie's younger son, Andy, pulled behind his brother's car with his family in tow. Marie turned to greet them. They lived in town, and Marie saw them often, but she was still pleasantly surprised when her granddaughter, Alicia, ran to her—all long legs and arms li
ke a colt. She was dressed in a skirt and blouse for the holiday instead of her usual jeans. Alicia's little brother rushed Marie next. He was built like his father—solid and stout. As Marie led them into the house, she couldn't help but think how lucky she was. She and Martin had such wonderful boys with beautiful families of their own. They had a comfortable house and led lives rich with fulfillment. She wondered what the young woman from the center was doing today, if she'd cooked any of the Thanksgiving food they'd donated to her. Marie doubted it. The girl didn't look like she ate, let alone cooked. They'd talked about giving her money instead, but a few of the others worried that she took drugs and she'd use the money for that. They'd considered giving her a gift card to a restaurant too, but they weren't sure if she'd go, she seemed so flighty.
Martin called to her and Marie pushed thoughts of the silver-haired girl from her mind. They'd done the best they could. She hoped the girl was having a tolerable Thanksgiving somewhere. She wished everyone could have the happiness she and her family did.
Chapter 16
Enoch spent Thanksgiving night the way he'd spent every night before that, walking the entire downtown area of Three Rivers. How much time did they have before the rogue struck again? Or Danny's killer? His pace quickened with a sense of urgency. Where was the woman he'd seen in his vision? And how in the world was he supposed to find her with no name and no specific location to work with? He'd hoped that if he couldn't find her, he'd at least recognize the shop he'd pictured her in. But a feeling of desperation was burning inside him. A ticking clock pulsed in his veins. The killers were out there, and they were running out of time.
He and Danny were both spending the holiday working. Enoch had a pre-made chicken Kiev waiting in the freezer for his "big" meal. He'd probably eat it in front of the TV. He hated to eat alone. Stupid, really. He should have perfected it by now.
He started his quest each night when the sun went down at five thirty, peering in shop windows as he passed them, but he never once saw anyone who even vaguely reminded him of the woman in his vision. And he hadn’t seen one dead animal or one live vampire girl. Tonight, everything was closed for the holiday. He'd hoped that would make the rogue feel braver, freer, but no such luck. There were no people either, no one to feed on. He returned home just after two thirty in the morning, cold and frustrated. Coffee didn’t sound appealing, so he poured himself a shot of whiskey. Then he went to stand on the balcony. If he couldn’t find Voronika, maybe he could call her to him. Even then, he wasn't sure that she could help him. Would she remember the vision the same way he did?