Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1)

by McNally, James

  “Auras are a glow that surrounds a person. They tell me if people are in danger, or if they are a danger to me. You have an unusual aura. I’m thinking that’s on account of what you are.”

  “What is unusual about my aura?”

  “It’s…black. Normal auras are white, for innocent people anyway. The more a person commits evil acts, the more it turns red. Red auras are bad. That’s how I can help you, even without my visions.”

  Antony contemplated this silently.

  “If your aura is black because of the fact that you are a vampire, it would explain why David’s aura is white, since he’s not. David’s is so glowing white that I would have thought he was very young. The only auras I’ve seen that white are on babies.”

  “I’m no baby.” Though he sounded like one at the moment. “Auras? This sounds like nonsense.”

  “I can also dream of events to come, although what I see isn’t always what actually occurs. I must admit there is some interpretation involved in my visions.”

  “So, you’re a witch.” David said this with obvious distain.

  “I’m expected to believe he’s a vampire, but you can’t believe I have visions?” Maggie was ready for a fight.

  “He can prove his claim,” David said. “Go ahead, prove it to her.”

  “David, please. You are not helping,” Antony said.

  “Listen.” Maggie walked around and examined her surroundings. “I haven’t felt this alive in years. I’m totally open to what you are telling me; and I am happy to stay and assist you in any way I can. I’m sure my visions will be of great service to your cause.” Maggie turned to Antony, not wanting to deal with the human any longer.

  “Our cause? We’re not a cult, or a non-profit organization. We don’t take in members.” David snorted. “I’d say tell people she’s crazy, but people probably already know she’s wacky.”

  Ignoring David, Maggie suddenly thought of something. She stopped looking over the objects in the room and turned around. “Where is Grover…or his body?”

  “Burning in the incinerator downstairs,” Antony said.

  “Tone!” David shouted. “We can’t tell her…”

  “We have no choice now but to take her in.”

  “We can’t ‘take her in.’” He mocked Antony’s words. “And we shouldn’t be telling her our trade secrets.” David glared at her as he spoke.

  “Jealous much?” she said.

  David jumped out of the recliner where had been sitting, but once he was up, he had nowhere else to take the threat, so he sat back down.

  “David! Enough.” Antony growled. David rolled his eyes and turned away. To Maggie, Antony said, “You are telling us that you are psychic. That could come in handy for us. How can you assist? And can you demonstrate this gift for us?”

  “Is this like a job interview or something? I’m not doing parlor tricks here. I don’t have visions on demand. I can see what people are going to do and what they have done. I’ll be a much more efficient handler than your current one. With me you will never have to ever worry about a sloppy night again.” She glared at David as she said this.

  “I do just fine,” David stated flatly.

  Maggie dropped the six-inch pewter statue she had been examining back onto the mantle. She turned on him. “Not tonight, you didn’t. And I almost died because of it.”

  “I’ve been doing this for seven years. This was the first time I ever…” Ah, what did it matter? He thought. He stood and stormed out of the room.

  Antony said, “We will just have to see how things play out. I am keeping you here until I can get a sense of how well I can trust you. Betray me and you will be back on the menu.”

  Maggie shivered again.

  “The boy wants to be what you are,” she said. “You don’t have to be psychic to get that. You can give him what he wants. I will gladly repay your generosity for ridding the world of that killer by taking over David’s job. My abilities are much more efficient than his sleuthing technique, anyway.”

  “An intriguing boast, and it remains to be seen. But you should know I will never give him what he wants. I will not ever make that mistake again, not with him or with anyone. You will be free to do as you wish once I know you will not be of any trouble to us. I cannot ask you to stay and be our prisoner, either.”

  “It wouldn’t be like that. I would be happy to stay. I don’t think you understand. I’ve been just going through the motions since Molly’s death.” Tears formed in Maggie’s eyes at saying her daughter’s name, but she didn’t let them fall. She gritted her teeth and continued. “I need this in my life.”

  “We will see.” It was the end of that discussion.

  Maggie fell silent. Then another thought occurred to her. “How were you able to enter my room without my permission? I thought vampires had to be invited in.”

  Antony smiled and laughed noiselessly. Then he explained.

  “Years ago we had a member of our kind who was obsessive compulsive and could not enter a home without first asking permission. I believe he was the start of that myth.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He was eventually killed by sunlight, or so I heard.”

  “So sunlight does kill you?”

  “Yes, but little else, so do not get any ideas.”

  Now Maggie laughed.

  “He loves you, you know,” she said, changing the subject. When Antony’s right eyebrow rose inquisitively she explained. “David—he loves you deeply. He wants to live forever, so you’ll never have to be alone.”

  “I love him too. That is why I will never turn him.”

  The room grew quiet.

  David returned to the living room, remembering something else wanted to say. He held out the newspaper article. “I meant to discuss this with you until…”

  He glanced at Maggie.

  “You are still free to discuss anything you wish,” Antony said.

  David averted his eyes from Maggie. “It’ll keep for another time.” He walked away.

  Antony turned back to give Maggie his attention. “As I said, you are free to go. But if you wish to stay, I will show you to a room.”

  Maggie’s mind was made up. “I want to stay.”

  Antony stood. “Before we go to your room, I will show you the basement. The incinerator and the panic room is down there. I will show you how they work.”

  “Great, lead the way.”

  The following morning, around 5 a.m., David looked in on Maggie and made sure she was asleep; and, convinced that she was, he left the house. He moved quietly through the house, as was his skill, and headed down the hill to the garage where all Antony’s vehicles were kept. He looked over his notes and picked out three potential targets. He took inventory of his supplies in back of the Rav4, and seeing that he was still well stocked, David headed out to hunt.

  Maggie had not been asleep. When she heard David leave, she climbed out of bed fully dressed. She found a dresser full of clothes and dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and black sweat pants. She had been ready to go for an hour. He had been slow to leave, and she wondered how he could manage to get anything done. She could have been finished by now if she didn’t have to wait for that slow poke to leave before she put her own plan into action.

  She would show him how a real hunter worked.

  She followed David to the industrial sized garage and waited for him to leave. She picked out the vehicle she wanted and plucked the keys from the pegboard in a small room that served as an office. The vehicle she chose was a white van with no windows in the back. She referred to these windowless vehicles as rape vans. Now that name was going to take on a whole new meaning.

  Last night, she had had a vision. She knew where the rapists would be, and could stop the vile act before it happened. She didn’t have to worry about getting the wrong person because the offender’s aura would be red.

  How many times had these men used just this type of van to abduct their victims? She
thought. Now they were going to get a taste of what it’s like to be thrown into the back of one.

  She drove to the alley where she knew the first of her three targets would be loitering. She parked the van midway between the alley entrances, and then waited until she spotted him coming from the south. His aura was the right amount of red to tell her she had the right guy. She always imagined that their auras were filling up with their victims’ blood.

  She slipped out of the driver’s seat and hid until her target walked by. He shuffled through the alley on the other side of the van. Her heart raced as she realized she would have to act, or lose the opportunity do what she planned. She took a deep breath and stepped away from the van. He didn’t notice her at first, so she scuffed her feet to attract his attention. When he turned, he locked eyes with her. She acted scared but, in truth, it wasn’t an act. She started to have second thoughts about her plan. But it was too late to turn back now. She could sense him approaching her from behind just as she reached the back door of the van. When he attempted to grab her, Maggie swiveled on her heel and hit him with the stun gun she had purchased off the internet, initially to use on Grover. As the 1200 volts hit this man, he toppled. She quickly tied his wrists together with a length of nylon rope using a square knot. First she wrapped the rope around, and then between the wrists. The more her victim would struggle the tighter the knot would bind. She used nylon because it was soft but strong. As long as he didn’t struggle too much he would be fine. She tied his legs the same way. She bound his mouth with duct tape to avoid anyone from hearing him scream. She lifted him into the van. In his stunned state he could do little to resist. She returned him to the house using the back door that opened directly into the cellar. She walked him to the panic room, and at the sight of the stun gun he gladly obeyed. She locked him in using the key pad on the wall.

  Her second target was taken down the same way. She returned him to the panic room as well, and saw she was still doing fine. David still had not returned.

  Her third target was not alone, which complicated things. She made sure he caught sight of her, and then smiled inwardly when he dismissed himself from his group to seek her out. She led him back to the van. She needed privacy, so she would have to lure him into the van before she made her move. She was nervous being so close to such a dangerous predator in the confines of the van’s interior but she had no choice.

  “Hey there, Doll,” he said as he climbed into the van.

  What a dumbass, she thought. She pulled the stun gun and hit him in the chest. The man instinctively protected himself, and knocked it out of her hand before it could incapacitate him. He recovered quickly and struggled to get out of the van. She scrambled for the stun gun and went at him again.

  “What the hell, stupid bitch.” Spittle flew from his mouth. He knocked the gun from her grasp again. He drooled because enough of the volts had hit him to make his mouth go numb, as well as his hands, which caused him to have trouble opening the sliding door. She didn’t have time to retrieve the stunner again so instead she picked up the tire iron that had been lying on a grease-stained blanket and hit him as hard as she could in the back of the head, low and near the neck. She didn’t want to kill him, merely prevent him from moving for a few seconds. Her plan was effective. He dropped to the floor of the van just as he had managed to get the door open. As he fell away from the door, she peered out to see if anyone had heard the struggle. No one was approaching so she closed the door and positioned him where she could tie him up comfortably. She allowed herself a moment to catch her breath and stop shaking before returning him to the panic room with the others. David had still not returned by the time she had finished with her task.

  He’s going to be so surprised, she thought with a devilish giggle, and then waited for David to see what she had done.

  4.

  Using a GPS and the target’s Facebook status, David located the first man on his list. This man had killed his girlfriend and gotten off due to no physical evidence. The man, 27-year-old Hugh Winters, actually bragged to friends how he had gotten away with murder. If the code had allowed, David would have also snatched the friends who had high-fived him for his success, but Antony would not accept that. Only the offender could be taken; it mattered little to Antony what the others may or may not have done to encourage or entice the offender. So instead David followed the mark, staying well out of sight until the killer was alone. The mark stumbled with his keys, trying to open the door to his apartment. The man was drunk at noon—what a loser, David thought and took aim with his tranq-gun. The tranquilizer was strong enough to take down a small bear. With Antony’s endless bank accounts and the internet there was no end to the number of toys David could buy for a successful hunt.

  The dart hit exactly where David wanted, and after a three second delay, the mark dropped. David collected his prize, throwing the man’s arm over his shoulder and dragging him back to the car as though he was the sober buddy taking care of an unconscious drunk friend. Anyone who knew this scumbag would no doubt believe this ruse. When no one was looking, David tossed the lump into the back seat.

  David’s second victim had a pedophile conviction. These were David’s favorite marks, and they always brought him back to his time as a 16-year-old runaway. Although this target had been released on good behavior, and most pedophiles never killed anyone, the damage done to a child’s psyche placed them on Antony’s kill list. Antony agreed that these vile creatures could not be redeemed. Taking them off the street was a necessity. David bagged the pedophile without incident.

  The third member of David’s daily roundup was a suspected rapist the police had been trying to track down without success. The police were looking for Andrew Gregory for questioning in connection to the rapes, but had no way of knowing where to find him. They knew he was the son of a wealthy business man, and no one was willing to give Andy up. But David knew something the police apparently didn’t: according to Facebook, Andy frequented the White Dog Café. Andy was crafty. The police were looking for him in the posh part of town, but Ole Andy wasn’t there. He was slumming; hiding in plain sight, on the shadier side of town. And this was where David found him.

  But Andy was not an easy takedown. The first tranq did not put him out right away, and like the pig that he was, Andy squealed. Worried that Andy would draw attention, David used a second dart. If the second dart killed him, David would need a fourth mark, someone Antony could track down himself. This was not a big deal; it happened all the time.

  With Hugh and the pedophile back seat, Andy got to ride shotgun as David drove home. He pulled up to the back, opened the outer door leading to the basement and started unloading bodies. Using zip ties, David bound his quarry’s arms and legs. As he was working, Maggie strolled into the basement through the inner entrance stairway.

  “Need any help?” she asked smiling.

  David was suspicious. “No.”

  He dragged his first victim to the panic room, and stopped when he came face to face with three gagged and bound men who were already in there. He stared at them with the same shocked and confused expression he could see mirrored on their faces. David looked at Maggie. “You?” He mouthed this with a nearly inaudible whisper. She nodded vigorously, still smiling. “How?” he asked, louder this time. She relished the surprise on his face.

  “I told you. I have mad skills.” She helped him pull the other two into the panic room and locked them in.

  “You tell me your tricks, and I’ll tell you mine.”

  “I’m a psychic; I already know your tricks.”

  “You’re lying.”

  She smiled ruefully then relented. She told him, only leaving out the part where her last target had almost escaped. “Sounds dangerous and Antony will kill me if anything happened to you. But the stun gun is sheer genius. I want one.”

  “I lived with a man who beat me on a regular basis. Trust me when I say I can handle myself.”

  David grinned. “I think I finally
understand.” He bowed to her. But then a thought occurred to him. “If you knew Antony was coming for you, why didn’t you use that thing on him? I’m sure it would have worked.”

  “I didn’t use it in my vision,” she said as if this explained it all. He supposed it did.

  Later, when Antony rose, they discovered that poor Andy did not revive. Antony looked into the panic room at the five scared and sweating faces. Poor Andy still breathed and his heart still pumped, but he was slumped over in an irreversible coma. And thanks to Maggie, there was no need to hunt again for another night.

  Andy, who had an uncertain shelf life, was first. Maggie’s three had to watch this, knowing the same fate awaited them. Antony studied these three men carefully. Their eyes confirmed that they were exactly what Maggie suspected them to be: rapists. She waited at the doorway to the panic room for his approval.

  “Well done,” Antony told her.

  “Yes!” Maggie cheered. Then to the three men she said, “How does it feel to be the victim for a change?”

  She watched as Antony drained the first of her three.

  “Don’t worry,” she said mocking sorrow. “You only have to wait one more night and this will be your fate as well.”

  Maggie’s smile faded, however; when her eyes met that of her first victim’s and the pain and fear she saw there took away her desire to celebrate. They were being taken off the street, and that was good, but lavishing in their agony caused her to cringe. She had no right, she decided; to be so happy. It was for the families of his victims to make that decision. She left the basement and let Antony do his thing privately.

  Later on that night David, Antony and Maggie converged in the living room, and Antony remembered something from the previous night. “Last night you were talking about something you thought could be important, but did not say due to Maggie’s presence. Please, now, speak freely and explain what you meant to say.”

  David thought a moment and remembered.

  “Yes, I came across this one article. A possible future victim, but the M.O. was so close to home it was eerie. The FBI is investigating a serial killer that invades homes...three family homes. All three victims are drained of blood and decapitated. I…”