“So you’ve developed the serum?” Marks quizzed.
“Yes, I have.” Becker hesitated, took a deep breath, then said, “Detective? They are here in this country. Not the same ones that attacked and killed my friends, but others. And your murder cases are not unique. There have been similar cases over the past decade in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. All unsolved. I tried to offer my opinion to police in all cases, but was quickly dismissed each time as nothing short of a lunatic. Also in all cases traces of the Porphyric Hemophilia disease were present.”
“How much of this serum have you managed to develop?”
“Only some samples at the moment.”
“Well, put a rush on preparing some more. Just in case.”
“So, does that mean you believe me, Detective?”
“Let’s just say I’m trying to keep an open mind. This case is unusual and I’m open to all avenues of enquiry. Thank you for your time, Doctor Becker. I’ll be in touch.”
“You’re welcome,” said Becker. “And thank you for hearing me out.”
Marks hung up the phone and immediately got in touch with police in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Thirty Five
Ryan sat at McDonald’s eating a gourmet meal of burger and fries and washed it all down with some healthy Coke. He gazed across The Esplanade and down toward the beach. The sun had just been consumed by the mountains in the west, leaving the beach bathed in gloom. Twilight had set in.
He was a little worried about Chelsea. She hadn’t been home since she left last night to meet up with her new boyfriend, Travis. As rebellious and errant as she was in many ways, she usually always came home each night. Who was this Travis guy? Ryan really wanted to meet him. The protective big brother thing was coming out in him. He couldn’t imagine Chelsea bringing Travis over voluntarily just to meet her brother. She couldn’t give a rats what his opinion of anything was anyway, let alone his appraisal of her boyfriend.
He pondered his earlier conversation with the lovely Angela Cartwright. Vampire diseases, anti-vampire serums. What was that all about? Why was this Doctor Becker researching and developing stuff like that? And more pertinent to Ryan, why was Selena Thorne interested in this doctor’s bizarre research? But then again, maybe it was other research Becker was working on that she was interested in. No. His gut instinct told him it was all about the vampire stuff.
So who was Selena really? What did Ryan know about her? Not much, in all honesty. Why did she always wear gloves? Was he correct earlier in the day when he’d had the thought that she wore them so people didn’t notice her cold hands when she touched them? Possibly.
But vampires weren’t real, he reminded himself. They’re a myth. Selena was probably as much of a tripper as this Becker obviously was. She did seem a little eccentric in some ways. While she appeared normal enough on the surface, she was probably just some sort of delusional weirdo.
Ryan didn’t really feel like asking her out on a date anymore. After finding out about the vampire stuff, he really felt like he’d been turned off her in that regard. Vampires didn’t really turn him on. It was a buzz kill.
His iPhone rang and he pulled it from his pocket to answer it.
“Speak of the devil,” he said when he saw who it was that was calling him. He answered the call. “Hi, Selena.”
“Good evening, Ryan,” Selena crooned. “Are you free to talk a moment?”
“Certainly. How did we go? Did you get what you wanted?”
“I did, as a matter of fact. That’s why I’m calling. I have your money for you, ready to collect tonight.”
“Cool.” He glanced across the mall, where the stairs rose up to Bliss. “I’ll come in as soon as the club opens.”
“I won’t be in the club tonight,” she told him. “If you would like to come to my home, you can pick up your money here.”
“Sure,” Ryan agreed, though he felt anything but sure. “What’s your address?”
“I’ll text it to you as soon as I get off the phone.”
“Excellent. I’ll see you within the hour.”
After he’d ended the call he felt a little nervous. Something was gnawing at him, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Did he really believe Selena was a vampire? Not really, but he did sense she was up to something.
Her text came through with an address all the way out in Guanaba. Before he drove out there, Ryan went up to his apartment to get his gun.
* * *
“You’re a fool, Travis,” Selena said to her little brother.
“I love her.”
“Love her! You barely know the girl. How long have you known her? Seriously?”
Travis shrugged. “I don’t know. About a week.”
Selena snorted and shook her head. “A week.” She fixed her brother with her penetrating gaze. “You don’t even know what love is. Besides, you’re a vampire and she’s human. How can it possibly work?”
Travis looked away from her face and stared at the floor. “It can work.”
It dawned on Selena then. “You didn’t?” she said and he slowly nodded. “You’ve turned her?”
He shrugged again. “Well, she hasn’t turned yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Selena sighed heavily, exasperated. “She’s your responsibility then, Travis. It’s up to you to keep her under control. I don’t want her out there running rampant like your brother and his two new pets are. We’re attracting far too much attention to ourselves. You got it?” She fixed him with a hard stare again, locking Travis’ eyes on hers. “You keep her on a very tight leash.”
“I will,” he promised.
Selena softened then. She could tell her little brother really did love this girl. He’d always been a bit of a romantic at heart. That was his weakness in her eyes.
“So what’s her name?” she asked.
“Chelsea.”
Selena nodded. “And does she have a last name? Do you know that much about her at least?”
He nodded. “Fox. Chelsea Fox.”
Selena’s eyes narrowed. “Did you say Fox?”
“Yep. Chelsea Fox. Why? Do you know her?”
“Does she have an older brother?”
“Yeah, she’s mentioned him a few times. I don’t think they get on very well.”
“Have you met him?”
“No.”
“Do you know his name? Is it Ryan?”
Travis smiled then. “Yeah, that’s it. Apparently he’s a private investigator. So you know him then?”
Selena nodded, her mind suddenly racing. “He’s the one I had go fetch Doctor Becker’s research files.”
“Small world,” Travis noted.
Selena was deep in thought and she mumbled, “Interesting.”
Ryan Fox may not be at the top of his game at the moment, but he was no idiot. She was sure he would have made copies of Becker’s files and had them examined by someone in the know, even if just to satisfy his own detective curiosity. Which would mean by now he would at the very least be suspect on her, who or what she was, and what she was up to. Even if he didn’t believe in vampires, he would now be very cautious.
She changed the subject. “Do you think you can do it, Travis? Do you think you can develop a vaccine that will allow us to go out in daylight?”
He slowly nodded. “I think I can, combining Doctor Becker’s knowledge with my own, but it will likely only be temporary. At least at first.” Travis shook his head then. “But why bother, Selena? Becker’s serum can make us human again, and we can go out in daylight whenever we want.”
“But what happens to humans at the end of their lifespan?” she pointed out. “They die, and I don’t want to die. I like being immortal. I like this lifestyle...to a point. The only thing that’s missing is being able to go out in the sun. How I long for that again instead of this eternal darkness.”
“Well, I’d like to be human again. I miss the pleasures of the flesh, like eating nice food, lazing on the beach, feeling
the warmth of another person and being able to return it.”
“I really think you need to give that statement some serious thought, little brother, and think about all the negatives attached to being true flesh and blood. Besides, you’ve just turned your little girlfriend into one of us. We don’t even know if Becker’s potion does what he claims, anyway. It’s obviously never been tested on an actual vampire, so how would he even know it works?”
“Doctor Becker’s a very, very smart man,” Travis said.
“Look, I know you revere him and respect him, but it could be dangerous injecting yourself with his vaccine. It might very well just kill you. Permanently.”
“Yeah, I guess. I need to get my hands on some of his vaccine anyway, so I can develop what you want.”
Selena thought this over long and hard, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll arrange it. But you promise me that you won’t inject yourself with it.” She gave her brother the hard stare again.
“Okay. I promise,” he said.
* * *
Detective Marks had spent the rest of the day and early evening talking back and forth with detectives and forensic investigators in three other states, developing a profile and much bigger picture of who he might actually be looking for.
On his desk in front of him he had faxes and email printouts of material he’d had police in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia send to him. Currently he was searching for patterns, anything that would offer clues leading to the identity of a suspect or suspects. He needed a solid and tangible lead to follow, a real suspect to target, and he needed it yesterday. Curiously, the same strange DNA pattern was present in one of the case files from Victorian police. The perpetrator who had killed Amanda Simms was definitely the same one that Victorian police had been seeking years ago.
Becker had been dead right when it came to the police. Any time Marks mentioned the doctor’s name it was met with derision. They all thought he was crazy with his constant vampire theories and they literally paid him no heed. Maybe that was the sole reason why all these cases - covering four Australian states now - remained unsolved?
Marks was determined to change those statistics and get all of these cases, current and cold, solved once and for all time.
Thirty Six
Ryan drove his old Ford up the winding, sloping driveway. It was lined with a mixture of gum trees, pines and palms and looked a little unkept. A three-car lockup garage appeared before him. The door was down so he pulled to a stop on the bitumen outside and killed the engine. Before he got out he double-checked the pistol in its holster beneath his left armpit. The bite of the cold steel felt comforting. He had a sports jacket on to conceal the weapon.
Feeling a little apprehensive, Ryan climbed a short flight of stairs and stepped onto a small verandah. The brown timber entrance door stood before him and he could see lights burning inside the house. He lifted his hand, hesitated for just a second, then knocked loudly on the door.
He only had to wait a few seconds before he heard footsteps approaching on the other side. A lock clicked, the door opened and swung silently inwards, revealing a very beautiful Selena Thorne standing there, smiling and dressed all in black. He noted she had the gloves on again.
“Thank you for coming all the way out here, Ryan,” she said sweetly. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I was never going into the club tonight.”
“No problem,” he said, trying not to show the apprehension that had built up inside him. “Is Bliss not open tonight?”
“Oh, it’s open,” she assured him. “I just needed a break.”
Ryan glanced casually about, taking in the living area, dining room and adjoining kitchen. He saw the door leading into the garage and the staircase heading up to the first floor. His eyes paid particular attention to the unusual setup of the blinds.
“Nice place,” he commented lightly.
“Please.” Selena extended a hand to an armchair. “Have a seat.” Ryan sat and Selena seated herself adjacent to him on a matching lounge. She studied him a moment and then said, “I know I promised you your money tonight, but I’ve just found out that I don’t quite have everything I need.”
Ryan was at first bemused, then felt tendrils of distrust crawl through him like roots. “What do you mean exactly? You told me only an hour ago that I’d gotten you what you wanted.”
“I know, and I apologize, but I’ve only just found this out since our earlier phone conversation.”
Ryan sighed. “So what is it you need now, Selena?” He offered her the hard stare that she usually gave others.
“The good doctor has developed a certain vaccine that I need to acquire. It’s called APHV.” She studied him again and Ryan could feel the thoughts in his mind being sucked out as if an invisible vacuum cleaner had somehow been attached to his brain. “I know you’ve heard of it, Ryan. You’ve seen Doctor Becker’s files and you’ve had an expert explain them to you. There’s no point denying it. I can read your mind.”
She was smiling curiously at him, and something about the smug look on her face made him feel like drawing his gun and shooting her in the head.
“That won’t do you any good,” she said. “I can’t be killed by a bullet. You know what I am, so just admit it and accept it.”
“I suspect something,” he said slowly, “but you might just be totally delusional.”
“You want proof?” she challenged, her voice now taking on the same hard edge it had that night at the cafe in Broadbeach.
“Sure,” Ryan was skeptical. “Why not?”
As he watched his eyes widened in fascination. In an almost imperceptible way Selena’s facial features altered. Her eyes seemed to vibrate, then roll back in their sockets. Her eyelids closed, and when she opened them again she was staring right at him, the black irises now having taken on a slightly golden sheen. They were a cocktail of both life and venom. Her lips parted as if to smile and she exposed two long, razor-sharp fangs. Selena opened her mouth wide and hissed at him. Ryan sank back into the chair in an involuntary action. His head spun and his nerves tingled with adrenalin. Now he did reach for his gun, unsnapped the clip and withdrew it from the holster.
“What the fuck are you?” he said, holding the gun in both hands and aiming it in her direction.
“You know what I am,” she said calmly. “And I already told you. That gun will do you no good at all against me.”
“Doesn’t mean I won’t try my luck and shoot you anyway.”
Ryan was trying desperately hard to stop his hands from shaking and hold the pistol steady. Most of all he didn’t want Selena Thorne the vampire to know he was deathly afraid.
“I don’t want to kill you, Ryan,” Selena assured him. “Right now I need you.”
“What’s to stop me just saying I’ll do what you want, then walk out of here and you never see me again?”
“You could do that.” Selena’s fangs slipped back into her jaw and her eyes returned to their usual ebony state. “But I can always find you at any time.” She stood up. “Follow me and I’ll show you a much better reason for compliance with my wishes.”
He tailed her upstairs and down a short hallway, where she paused in front of a closed door. Selena knocked lightly and the door opened.
“This is my brother, Travis,” she said and Ryan took in the appearance of the tall and gangly youth. “And lying asleep on the bed there is his girlfriend, Chelsea.”
Ryan looked and his heart leaped into his mouth. He couldn’t believe this. His sister was asleep in a house full of vampires.
“What’s wrong with her?” he demanded. He still held the gun and once more he had the urge to shoot either Selena or her brother in the head.
“Nothing. She’s just sleeping.” Selena nodded at Travis and he closed the door again. Ryan followed her back down to the living room “You want her to stay okay, I presume, being your sister and all.”
“So now you’re threatening me to get what you want,” Ryan spat. �
�Wouldn’t it have been easier all round just to pay me to do it like we’d already agreed?”
“Come, Ryan. I know you’re not that stupid, and I definitely know I’m not. You know all about us now, whether you’d shown up here tonight or not. I can’t just pay you some money and hope you’ll go away quietly. I’m not a fool.”
“Then why involve me in the first place?” he wanted to know.
“Unfortunately we vampires are restricted to night time. The legend is true that we can’t go out in daylight or it will kill us.” She sat down on the lounge. Ryan remained standing. She looked up at him and smiled. “Kind of makes it hard to get certain tasks done when you can only move around at night. I’m sure you understand.”
“So you always planned to hold me to ransom with my sister,” he said flatly.
“Not at all. Chelsea was an added, last minute bargaining chip. Until yesterday I had no idea my little brother was even dating anyone, and I only found out tonight that she was your sister. How fortuitous for me.”
“Either way, my sister or myself was going to end up dead so you could achieve your goals. What do you want with this serum anyway?”
Selena told him and Ryan gave her the same argument that Travis had.
“That’s enough with the questions,” Selena dismissed him. “You have until midnight tomorrow night to bring the vaccine to me or...” She paused dramatically. “I’ll let you guess the rest.”
Thirty Seven
The car swerved hard to the left as Ryan took a bend way too fast. He was majorly pissed off right now. He knew this was all too good to be true. The amount of money offered should have been the first clue to that.
His mind was racing, both with anger and confusion. Tonight he’d discovered that vampires were no longer a figment of the imagination of fiction writers and movie producers. They weren’t a myth, nor an urban legend. They were real and his sister was caught up in the midst of them. All he could think about was saving Chelsea.
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