by Judith Post
Enoch stared. He couldn’t imagine this sweet, cheerful woman jabbing anyone in the face with keys, but he was glad she had.
“While he dealt with that, I got the pepper spray out of my purse and got his eyes. I was moving into position to kick him behind his knee and take him down when he ran.”
“He ran away from you?”
“I don’t think he expected a woman to be able to defend herself. It caught him by surprise.”
“It saved your life.”
She shook her head, disagreeing. “You’d have gotten to me in time. I heard the front door crash in.”
“It would have been close. We got lucky. You saved yourself.”
“I was ready, alert, because of you and Danny, but you’d have saved me if I needed it.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “We need to call Danny, get some techs here. Maybe he got sloppy and left a fingerprint this time. They might find something that will help.”
“He had on black leather gloves.”
“It’s still worth a try.” Enoch flicked open his cell and told Danny what had happened. When he finished, he told Maggie, “He’s on his way. Get ready. He’s more shook up than I am.”
She smiled. “He’s a wonderful man.”
“Yes, he is.”
Danny got there in about ten minutes. Enoch motioned him to the back of the house. When he saw the smashed-in front door, he said, “Holy shit.”
“That was me,” Enoch told him. “I've jammed it back in place, but I'll call and send someone to fix it tomorrow.”
Danny looked at it closely. “You ripped the hinges off the frame, but the wood’s intact. I think I can fix it myself.”
“You’re a handyman?” Maggie asked.
“I grew up on a farm. Everything we owned was jerry rigged.” That seemed to please her, but Danny had more important things on his mind. “Start at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened.”
Enoch started for the back door. “While you two talk, I’m going to look outside. I don’t think I’ll have much luck, I’ve waited too long, but I’d like to follow the guy’s trail as far as I can.” Danny nodded, and Enoch set off across the neighbors’ backyards.
He followed the footsteps to the point where Maggie stopped chasing her attacker and turned back toward her house. Then Enoch followed the killer’s tracks until he ducked between two houses and took to the street. Too many cars had gone up and down it, turning the snow to slush. Enoch walked for a while longer, looking for tracks that led off in either direction, but with no luck. He tried sniffing the cold, brittle air, but the killer's scent had been blown away a long time ago. He cussed under his breath. If Voronika were here, she’d have had him, but it wasn’t safe for her to leave the apartment.
On his way walk to Maggie’s house, he saw a slight movement where the reach of the street lights dimmed to shadows. The killer? He got a quick glance of a dark shape darting away from him, then springing skyward and disappearing. A vampire—alone and stealthy. He kept walking with his head down, but turned slightly. He didn't want the rogue to know that he'd seen him. The vamp landed a half block away.
Enoch ducked between houses, pretending to follow the killer’s tracks, but before he reached Maggie’s Cape Cod, he doubled back and slipped between two bungalows, close together. He waited there for a car to pass, its headlights glaring on the dark cement and hopefully distracting the vamp. If a rogue was already stalking Maggie, he was going to regret the day he was turned. Enoch crossed the street, came up behind the vampire, and crushed him in an embrace. Lush curves greeted him.
“Does this mean you’re happy to see me?” a seductive voice gasped. “Because you’ve certainly taken my breath away.”
"Claudia?" Enoch released his hold and took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“Bartoli's on rogue duty for Three Rivers. Where he goes, I go." Bart had been a Roman general when Caleb took him. Claudia was a Vestal Virgin before she was converted. Once they met, they were inseparable.
Enoch smiled. “It’s nice to see you again.” She hadn’t changed over the centuries. Dark hair spilled over her shoulders, and her hour glass figure was poured into tight, black pants. Her black, leather jacket strained at the bosom, its tie cinched around a narrow waist.
“I’m your friend Danny’s guardian angel. If anything happens to him, Caleb swears heads will roll—literally.”
“Thanks. Danny couldn’t have a better champion.”
"Flattery will get you anything." She grinned, then grew serious. “Danny’s a good mortal. I’ve been following him for two days. I can see why you favor him. He’s a keeper of the order, like Bart and me.” A car passed and she stepped into the shadows.
"Take care, angel. Maybe we’ll run into each other again before Bart and I leave this city.”
The techs were finishing up when Enoch let himself in Maggie's back door. Cleo and Felix both came to thread their supple bodies around his ankles. Good, they'd forgiven him. Maggie gaped. “The cats have never taken to two men like this before.”
Enoch bent to pet them, and Danny beamed. “Can you believe my girl? Is she something or what?”
Enoch nodded. “She’s definitely something.” But they'd had another close call. The killer had almost gotten her while Enoch sat in his Land Rover watching her house. He clenched his hands into fists. If he couldn't stop a human killer, how was he going to protect Voronika from vampires?
They stayed long enough to screw the hinges of her wooden door back in place and lock up properly. Then Danny said, “For tonight, I’ve convinced Maggie to stay with her brother. I’ll feel safer that way. I don’t expect our killer to come back. I think he’s too beat-up for that, but I’d still like to warn the next girl as soon as possible.”
Maggie sobered. “Next girl? There’s another one after me?”
“He has a list,” Danny said. “We found it. He’s been checking them off in order.”
Maggie grimaced. “How does he choose us?”
Both Danny and Enoch shook their heads. “Don’t know.” Danny handed her coat to her. “You ready?”
She reached down to stroke each cat. “I’ll be back in the morning and we'll spend all day together," she told them.
Danny glanced across the street at Enoch’s Land Rover. “Why don’t you go home and I’ll meet you there? I’ll find out where Paige Gates lives and works, and we can go from there.”
A good plan. But they were repeating the same pattern. And so far, it hadn't worked. They've saved three women, but the killer had escaped. When Enoch climbed into his car, he slammed the heel of his palm against the steering wheel. How could they stop this guy? This was the third time he'd gotten away from them. He must know they were closing in on him and that they somehow knew which girl he was after. That would make him more dangerous, more shrewd, but it wouldn't make him stop.
Enoch watched Danny pull out of the driveway with Maggie. He sat a minute, letting his car idle, and saw Claudia swoop into the air to follow him. That was one less worry. Any vampire who went against Claudia would be a fool. And if he got past her, he’d have Bart to deal with. Not even Vlad would pick a fight with him.
He turned music on for his drive home. He wanted to be calmer before he saw Voronika. When he entered the apartment, he found her staring out the French doors that led to the balcony. She looked coiled, ready to claw out of her own skin. “I'm not used to this, hemmed in by four walls. They're closing in on me. I don't know if I can stand staying inside night after night.” There was a touch of hysteria in her voice.
"You have to." Something was wrong, but Enoch couldn't decide what. "That's the only way I can keep you safe."
She looked around at the locked doors and windows and twisted and untwisted her fingers. “I feel like I'm in prison. Vlad used to lock me in a coffin when he went away. I don't like feeling trapped anymore.”
A jolt of fury raced through Enoch’s veins. He hadn’t thought he could hate Vla
d more, but he was wrong. “I'm not locking you in. I'm locking rogues out, but I can quit and let Danny take over the watches. Then we can walk every night."
"No." It was one word, but emphatic.
"You can't go out there alone. Can you do this? Stay inside?"
She nodded. "Once you catch the killer, you can stay with me. It has to happen soon. You'll get him, then we can go out together when it’s dark. No vampire can hurt me if you’re there.”
Enoch went to her and gently wrapped his arms around her. "It won't be light for a long time. We have all night. Want to go out now?"
She went to the hooks in the foyer to get her leather jacket. She was silent on their ride in the elevator, but once they reached the lobby and walked outside, she took a deep breath.
"Better?"
She shook her head.
While they walked, he told her about seeing Claudia, and she looked relieved. “With her on guard, Danny will be safe. Hopefully, the only bait in town will be me.”
“If Bart and Claudia are here, there are other vampires. Caleb sent crowd control.”
She looked troubled. “How long do you think we’ll have to worry?”
“With Vlad? A long time. We won’t be able to wait him out. You’ll either have to stay with me every time you go out, or we’ll have to make a run for it. He’ll be hoping for that.”
She nodded. “One thing at a time." The farther they walked, the calmer she sounded. "First, you need to help Danny find this killer. Then we need to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s."
"Christmas?” Enoch hadn't thought about the holidays.
"You know, the day Santa comes and the baby was born." She nodded toward the twinkling lights in the leafless tree branches, the sparkling wreath on the side of one of the downtown bank buildings.
"I don't pay much attention." It was too painful. Grace celebrated each and every holiday with ferocious joy—the same way she lived life. Enoch treasured every moment with her until she grew old and died peacefully in her sleep. Grace would hate it that her passing caused him to avoid holiday celebrations whenever possible, but he couldn’t help it. He hadn’t worked past that yet. “Danny’s going to Maggie's place tomorrow when his shift's over, and they’re going to decorate her house.”
“Are they putting up a tree?”
“She wants a live pine, so they’re going to a tree farm to cut one, but Maggie wants to wait so that it won't dry out.”
“We didn't put ours up until Christmas Eve so that it was safe to burn candles on the branches.”
“Candles? In branches?” Enoch smiled. “You’re way out of date, a few hundred years behind on traditions.”
"You’ll have to bring home magazines, so that I can read about what people do these days.”
“I’ll pick some up tomorrow." He glanced at his watch. "Danny's going to call me later tonight. He's looking up the address and work place of the next woman on the killer's list. We were going to go visit her together, but Danny doesn’t really need me for that."
She stiffened. "Next woman? What about Maggie?"
He'd been waiting to tell her the bad news. She'd been too agitated when he got home. When he finished, she said, "Let's get back. You have to go. You might make a difference. I'm all right now. The craziness has left me."
He put an arm around her, hugging her close. "We can walk every night that I'm home, all night if you want to. You only have to stay inside when I’m on watch. Either that, or come with me."
She shook her head. "Not smart."
"I can't stand seeing you so upset. We have to think of something that works."
She tilted her head to the side. "I need something to do, maybe a hobby."
He raised his eyes to the heavens. This should be interesting. But if Voronika found something to keep her occupied, they'd have a fighting chance. Whatever she decided on was fine by him.
Chapter 38
Danny felt as if someone had wound him way too tight. He was a Molotov cocktail of nerves, relief, and happiness, all competing against each other. He couldn't stop himself from listing the ways that Maggie was wonderful on their drive to the pizza parlor where Paige Gates worked. He knew he was jabbering, but couldn't seem to shut up. Words streamed out of his mouth. “The parlor's on the corner of State Street,” he told Enoch. “She’s waitressing tonight.” Then he took a deep breath, and a shudder jerked through his body. “I could've lost Maggie. That damned crazy could've gotten her. If you hadn't been there—it should've been me. I should've been breaking down her door, protecting her."
"Neither one of us are winning any prizes at nabbing this guy. He's figured out that we know his routine, that we know who he picks before he gets to them, and he's changing his game."
Danny thought about that. "He was there ahead of you, waiting for her. He knew you'd be outside, watching. What did he think he'd do? Walk away when he was done?"
"He went in the back, he'd leave through the back. And my guess is, he'd have turned on a few lights in the house after he strangled her, so that I'd think she was safe."
"Damn, that's cold." This guy must have nerves of steel. He'd be in the garage, shaving and decorating Maggie, while Enoch stood watch outside the house. "I can't believe she got a decent description of the guy while she was fighting him off.”
“Anything that will help?”
“Not really. He wore a nylon over his head again, but she could tell that he had blond hair. He was wearing a black car coat, jeans, and black gloves. Black Converse this time, so we can't look at shoes. She guessed him at five-ten and a hundred eighty pounds—nurses gauge things like that.”
“Age?”
“He had decent muscle tone, so she’s guessing under forty.”
“Bet she’s right on the mark.”
Danny nodded. “I can pick up Maggie from her brother's place tomorrow and drive her to work."
"I thought she had the day off."
"She switched hours this week with a friend. Something about the holidays, but she only works an eight hour shift, so I'll drive her home and stay with her." Danny hesitated, embarrassed. "I'll sleep over the next night too, so you don’t need to worry about her until later this week.”
Enoch frowned. “I can’t watch Maggie and cover Paige too. Voronika can’t help. We've talked about it. If she comes with me, we'll have to worry about vamps.”
“But what about Maggie? What if he tries again?”
“He never has. He hasn’t gone back for Katy or Marie. Why would he change his pattern now?”
"He already has. You said it. He knows we're on to him."
Enoch hesitated. "Maybe I could call in a favor."
"Oh God, what does that mean?" With Enoch, Danny was never sure.
"I told you that I've worked with Bart and his generals. They're in Three Rivers. One of them, Claudia, has been following you for the last couple days to keep you safe."
"I have a vampire bodyguard?"
"You saw Voronika. What better protection can you get?"
Danny thought about that. Voronika had left both Enoch and him in her dust. "So what's the favor?"
"I could ask someone to keep track of Maggie too."
Danny wasn't sure he liked the idea. He wasn't sure he wanted Maggie involved with the vamps. But if Enoch was right, she already was. If bad vamps were after them, why not let good vamps protect them? Oh God, what was he saying? He'd gone from thinking vampires were only in movies, to being scared witless by one, to asking good vamps for favors. "Can't they only stand guard during the night?" Danny asked.
"The killer's only struck at night," Enoch reminded him.
That was true. It felt like an important part of his pattern, but could they rely on that? Danny decided to talk to Tony. Maybe he could start staying nights at Maggie's place, follow her to work, and be there when she got off duty. On the days she didn’t work, she could have a friend hang out with her or she could ride along with him until they caught their creep. But night
s could be a problem. He nodded. "Okay, see if a vamp likes you enough to babysit a mortal."
"If I ask for their help, they'll do it."
"You're that tight with vamps?" Danny wasn't sure that was a good thing.
"It's what I do." Enoch didn't sound thrilled. "But it would be better if Maggie didn't know. It would have been better if you never found out either."
Danny couldn't argue with that, but when a rogue jumps on your partner and tries to drain him, it's almost impossible to ignore. They reached State Street, and Danny motioned to a brick building on the corner. It had a round stained glass window that spilled light into the gloom. “This is it.” He pulled into a parking spot by the entrance and shut off the car. There were only a few other customers at this time on Sunday night.
Enoch led the way into the building. On the right side of the foyer, he climbed stairs to an eating area that featured hanging porch swings on one side of each table and booths on the other. Enoch took a booth and let Danny have the swing. A telephone sat on the table to call in your order.
“We get a waitress, don’t we?” Danny asked.
“I’m guessing someone has to bring us the pizza and drinks.” Enoch flipped through the menu. “Your usual?”
“Super supreme and beer.”
Enoch picked up the phone and ordered.
A few minutes later, a woman in her late thirties came with two tall glasses of Michelob.
Danny waited for her to serve them before he asked, “Do you know Paige Gates? We came to see her.”
“I’m Paige.” The woman was plain, bordering on homely.
Danny looked at his friend. "Have we got the right girl?" Looks weren't all that important to him, but he'd begun to think that the killer only chose attractive women and that Gail Lahmeyer was murdered by someone else.
Enoch raised a dark eyebrow. "She's the one." His tone said How rude!
Danny flipped open his wallet to show Paige his badge. "We need to talk to you. Is this a good time?"
"Give me a minute. I have two tables to finish up."