The Vampire's Accidental Wife (Nocturne Falls Book 8)

by Kristen Painter

  “Ma’am, seeing as how you were the intended target of this hunter, I would prefer you remain here at the station.”

  She pursed her lips. “And I would prefer to be out there looking.”

  “I understand that, but I don’t need two missing vampires. You stay.”

  She let out a frustrated growl.

  Birdie grabbed her hand. “C’mon. You can sit at the desk with me and monitor calls.”

  The sheriff continued. “I’ll be patrolling the lake district and Pumpkin Point. There are a couple volunteer firemen going from shop to shop with the hunter’s picture, even though we know, thanks to Miss Valentine, that the subject may look different. All right.” He clapped his hands. “Let’s go find Julian.”

  As everyone else dispersed, Desi’s frustration grew. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing. This woman is in town because of me.”

  Birdie patted her shoulder. “I know how upset you must be.”

  Desi shook her head. “I can’t believe in a town of supernaturals like this that a human could get the upper hand with a vampire.”

  “Well, we don’t know what’s happened yet. If anything. Maybe Julian’s waylaid for some other reason.”

  “Then why wouldn’t he answer his phone?”

  “Dead battery?”

  “For four hours?” She shook her head. She understood Birdie was trying to make her feel better, but her gut knew Julian was in trouble, and her gut had not been mistaken yet. “Something’s wrong.”

  Birdie wrung her hands together.

  Desi racked her brain for anything that might help. “What about Alice Bishop? The witch that works for the Ellinghams?”

  “What about her?” Birdie asked.

  “Could she cast some kind of spell to find Julian? Can’t witches do that?”

  “Speaking of witches, did you know he went to see Pandora right before I told him about the meeting with the hunter?” Birdie’s eyes held sympathy. “He’d asked her about the same kind of spell to find Abigail Helsing. Pandora said she cast a spell to attempt to locate Julian before she got here, but it wasn’t that helpful. See, Julian’s lived here for so long and been all over this town so much, that the spell turned up a thousand different locations for him. Everywhere from the Pinehurst Inn, where he went to meet the hunter, to Pumpkin Point, that new development at the other end of town. And Pandora’s a pretty good witch too. Not Alice-powerful, but more than capable. The only good thing that came out of the spell is she’s positive he’s still in town somewhere.”

  That was something, but not enough to keep Desi out of the stranglehold of desperation. She clenched her jaw and balled her hands into fists. “I cannot do nothing.”

  Birdie nodded. “I completely understand. What do you want to do?”

  Desi rubbed the throbbing spot between her eyes and tried to think beyond the anger. “What about more human methods? Have you tracked his cell phone? They do it in movies all the time.”

  “Tried that. No response.”

  Desi started to pace. “There’s no way to find him? I don’t accept that. What else did you find out about this hunter? Maybe there’s something in her past we could use. Hey, do you have a cell number for her? Maybe we could track that.”

  “No response from her phone either.” Birdie sat down and tapped a few keys on her laptop. “I’ve been trying to crack her password on her email, but so far nothing there, either.” She looked over her shoulder at Desi. “I know you’re worried. We all are. But with Van and Nick up there, looking for Julian’s car, it’s just a matter of time.”

  “I supposed he owns the only Maserati in town?”

  “As far as I know.” Birdie went back to her screen.

  A thought shook Desi. “His car.”

  “What’s that?” Birdie asked.

  “His car. It looks like the cockpit of an airplane inside that thing. It’s all computerized. I’ve seen cars get hacked in movies too. Is that possible or just Hollywood?”

  Birdie tipped her head like Desi was on to something. “I’m not sure.” She held a finger up. “But I do know that car has SatGuard.”

  “That’s a tracking system, right?”

  “Right.” Birdie’s typing picked up tempo.

  “Are you going to hack in and find his car?”

  Birdie laughed. “Honey, we’re the law. All I have to do is put in my password.” She hopped off her seat, flung her lime green purse over her shoulder, then hoisted her still open laptop into her arms. “Well, once we’re in the car. Ready for a little road trip?”

  “You can’t find him on your laptop?”

  “I’ve already activated the silent radio signal, but in order to pick it up we need to be within three to five miles of the car. And clearly, that’s not where we are now because nothing is coming in.”

  The front door of the station opened and two older people came in.

  Birdie greeted them immediately. “Stanhill and Corette, your timing is perfect!”

  The older man didn’t look convinced. “Corette had a flat or we would have been here sooner.”

  “No,” Birdie said. “You’re right on time. I need someone to man the front desk.”

  Corette’s eyes widened. “Where are you going? Did you find Julian?”

  “Not yet, but we’re working a lead. You’re in charge!” She headed for the door even as she was nodding at Desi. “Let’s go.”

  Desi didn’t need to be told twice. In minutes, they were in Birdie’s sleek navy blue Mercedes, tooling through town. Birdie explained who the couple was who’d come into the station. Stanhill worked for Hugh Ellingham, and Corette was his fiancée and Pandora’s mother. Then Birdie mapped out the route she and Desi were going to drive. They’d decided to start at the center and make slowly widening circles. Birdie showed Desi what to look for on the screen.

  She watched it with great focus, but sadly, it remained blank.

  Desi’s frustration was increasing faster than their current miles per hour. “What if he’s so far out of town that he’s beyond range?”

  “Pandora was certain that based on the results of her location spell, he was still within the town limits.”

  “But you said the Pinehurst Inn was outside of town limits.”

  “It is, but he’s not there, so the consensus is the hunter is holding him somewhere closer.” Birdie glanced over. “I know you’re worried, but there are a lot of people looking for him.”

  Desi was beyond worried. “I still think we need to go faster. Cover more ground.”

  “Maybe I should try more of a grid pattern.” Birdie shrugged apologetically. “I don’t get to do a lot of field work.”

  Desi thought about everything she knew about the hunter at this point. “The hunter said she planned to make this prominent vampire’s death go viral.” A chill swept her. “If she’s holding Julian somewhere and hasn’t sent a note trying to get me to meet up with her, she might have changed her mind about which prominent vampire she’s planning on killing.”

  Birdie paled. “That’s not good.”

  “No, it’s not. Where would you go in this town to hole up and not be disturbed? For as long as it took to make this stupid video and…you know?” She couldn’t bring herself to say words that meant Julian was going to die. She refused to put that out into the universe.

  Birdie was breathing harder. “Somewhere…empty. Remote. Where being disturbed is unlikely. Let me think. We had a situation in the old funeral home a while back, but that’s not vacant anymore.” She strummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Out by the lake? If she’s planning on letting the sun…anyway, then that would be a good spot to do it in. You might run into a few fishermen, but it’s generally pretty quiet out there when there’s not a fair or event happening on the grounds.”

  “Head that way. Now.”

  The itch burning up the back of Julian’s neck and the cotton filling his head told him all he needed to know. Laudanum. That’s what she’d tranquilized h
im with. Since the opiate had existed, it had been used against vampires, but the drug had faded from fashion with the Victorians.

  He hadn’t realized it was still available. He did now.

  Refusing to respond to the itch, he stayed still and opened one eye just a slit. He had no idea how long he’d been out, or if he was still in the Pumpkin Point house. His vampire senses, muddled as they were, told him the sun was down. But how long had it been that way? How late was it? He had no way of telling.

  He blinked and tried to focus on what he could see. Lines. Parallel lines. He opened his one eye a little more. Floor joists. That’s what he was looking at. He took a shallow inhale through his nose. The dusty smell of masonry and new lumber was heavy in the air.

  His fingertips felt rough wood, and whatever was supporting him was hard, but not cold like the concrete floor would be. He was closer to the ceiling than he would be if he was on the floor, too.

  Thinking took a lot of effort, but the picture became a little clearer even while his head remained thick. He was on his back in an unfinished basement. Based on the layout he could see, most likely the Pumpkin Point house. And probably on a sheet of plywood, maybe supported on some saw horses. Plywood was about eight feet long and he couldn’t feel that any part of his body was hanging off. He closed his eye and tried to think past the wobbly effects of the laudanum.

  All of the houses in the Pumpkin Point development had daylight basements. Including 1900 Nutmeg Lane. Most of the houses in Nocturne Falls had them. People needed storage, and they liked natural light, even in the room below ground level.

  Unless they were vampires. Like his brother Hugh. Hugh’s basement had no windows and he’d converted the space into a laboratory where he’d been trying for years to perfect a serum that would make vampires immune to the sun, amulet or not.

  But he was losing focus. What was he doing? Something about light. Then thinking about light made him open his eye again. Yes, that was it. He was sussing out his situation. Figuring out where he was being held. And how he could escape.

  What light was in the room was artificial. Like the light from a flashlight. Except much dimmer. The light from a cell phone. As his senses cleared a little more, he realized that wasn’t the only clue that he had company.

  The hunter’s pulse thudded dully in his ears like a ticking clock. He inhaled again, allowing himself a deeper intake of air.

  Human. Her scent drifted in with the cement and saw dust. It was a mix of laundry detergent, floral shampoo, and the underlying aroma of all humans. Blood.

  The scent shot through him, causing his fangs to ache. Not a normal reaction. He had too much discipline for that, but the drug created a weakness in his system. It eroded his control.

  Whether or not the hunter understood this side effect of the laudanum, he didn’t know, but he was going to have to be extra careful with his natural instincts. He would not allow the hunter to be the reason he took a human’s life. Nor would she be that life. No matter how appealing the idea was.

  If not for the new awareness that had brought his basest instincts to life, he could have closed his eyes and drifted off again. The drug had worn off some, but a great deal of it still lingered in his system, weighing him down like a lead blanket.

  Unfortunately for the hunter, Julian Ellingham was not a quitter. In fact, he responded best to challenges.

  Desi was proof of that.

  Shifting his gaze to the right, he tried to get his bearings as best he could without alerting his captor that he was awake. Over the bridge of his nose he could just make out the windows near the ceiling. On the opposite side of him were the stairs. He was about in the middle of the room. He quickly counted the joists above him. No, he was closer to the windows than the stairs by about a yard.

  And as best he could tell, from the direction of the flickering light, the great hunter was somewhere past his feet on the right side. Maybe in that corner of the basement.

  That meant he should be able to move his left hand without notice. He eased his fingers back and forth, feeling what was underneath him. By the texture under his fingertips, it was definitely plywood. Then he bent his wrist a little to test his restraints. He immediately felt a sharp pinch on the back of his hand. He flicked his gaze over his shoulder and saw an IV bag dangling from a wire coat hanger. The hanger was hooked on some of the wires running along the joists. Liquid dripped down through a clear tube that disappeared from his sight. That explained the pain in the back of his hand.

  Anger ramped through his system, but not enough to flush the drug. Especially since she had him on a constant supply of it. No wonder he felt as weak as a child.

  He tugged carefully on his left wrist, but whatever restraints she was using were too strong for him in this state.

  The urge to curse and rage and explode with anger gnawed on him like a feral animal. He considered the action and the consequences and decided against it. If he failed to free himself, she’d know he was awake and too weak to escape.

  Better to keep her in the dark about that until he had a more solid plan. The muddled mess of his brain wasn’t coming up with anything else immediately, however, which only added to his frustration.

  He wanted to laugh. Then he wanted to cry. It was the drug. His emotions didn’t swing that wildly. But one clear thought finally came to him. If the hunter had trapped him and planned to make him into her big triumph, that meant Desi was safe.

  His precious Desi. His wife. His heart. He knew the laudanum was making him maudlin, but he couldn’t help himself. The thought that he might never see Desdemona’s beautiful face again or hear her intoxicating laugh or taste her sweet mouth nearly undid him, but at least he’d be able to protect her.

  A tear trickled down his temple and into his hair. Then the rage returned. He was not going out like this. As the example of some hell-bent human who fancied herself a great hunter. He closed his eyes and dug deeper into his addled mind for some idea. Some way to extricate himself from this awful mess. Some path that would lead him back to Desi.

  But the laudanum took every new thought and turned it into mist, or sent it down a rabbit hole of old memories, or darkened it into a nightmare.

  The truth was, he was trapped, not by the woman who believed she was a descendant of the fictional Abraham Van Helsing, mythological vampire hunter, but in his own head.

  Unable to stand the nonsense swirling through his brain another second, he grunted in frustration, realizing too late that he’d unwittingly let the noise slip from his throat.

  He cursed the laudanum. If he got out of this basement alive, he would find out who’d made the wretched drug and sue them into oblivion.

  Boots scraped the floor. The footsteps grew closer, then the wiry blonde who’d shot him appeared in his field of vision. She peered down at him with great interest, the satisfied gleam in her eyes making him want to snap. “Enjoy your nap, bloodsucker?”

  “How long have I been out?” It was an effort to speak. His tongue was as thick as his head.

  She dangled a small black box over him. It had a white barcoded label on it and a few wires hanging loose. “Long enough for me to disable the SatGuard on your car.”

  The lake proved a dead end. At least so far. They were halfway around it and had yet to see another car of any variety.

  Desi’s throat constricted. “Nothing. There’s nothing here.”

  “We still have a ways to go.” Birdie scanned her side of the road.

  “Are there any cabins out here? Any old buildings? Barns? Any place large enough to hide a car in?” Desi’s head hurt from thinking so hard. Even with her exceptional senses, the trees had begun to blur. She saw human forms where there were none, a trick of the stress eating away at her. She was doing her best to stay focused but, the truth was, she was panicked and scared and had the most desperate, awful feeling that Julian’s chances were slipping away.

  “No buildings that I’m aware of, but this isn’t my usual stomping grou
nds. Come the full moon, we head into the forest north of here for our runs. Up by the falls and into the hills. There are lots of cabins up there, but all that’s being searched already.”

  “But if those people had found anything, wouldn’t they have radioed in?”

  “Probably.”

  She sucked in a ragged, gasping breath as her stomach knotted. “I can’t lose him.”

  Birdie pulled over and parked on the shoulder.

  “What are you doing?”

  “If I was hiding out here, holding a hostage, I’d be off the beaten path. Let’s get out and walk a little. Between us, we should be able to pick up some scents or sounds and tell if there’s a vampire and a human out here somewhere.”

  “Okay.” Doing something was better than doing nothing, which was what riding around in the car, staring at the SatGuard monitoring screen felt like.

  “We’ll each take a direction and walk for five minutes, then come back and drive a little farther and repeat. Keep your phone on you. We can text each other if we find something. Here, let’s exchange numbers.”

  They did that, then got out, closing the car doors quietly. Birdie pointed to the right, then pointed at Desi to go left.

  Desi nodded, and they each took off. If she’d been out here for any other reason, it would have been a beautiful night. It was clear and the stars seemed infinite. The soft sounds of small waves lapped the shore, a very different sound than the relentless ocean. A few other noises mingled in. Crickets or frogs or some other nocturnal creatures she wasn’t familiar with.

  But the sound Desi most wanted to hear was the rhythmic pulse of a human heart. She picked up Birdie’s in the distance, but she’d heard it enough now that she could rule it out. Desi stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans and trudged on.

  Helplessness was a feeling she was far too familiar with. She hated it. Being trapped on that wretched island had been horrifying. But in some ways, this was worse. On the island, she’d had nothing but time. Something Julian was quickly running out of. She knew he was here in this town somewhere. She just had to find him before it was too late.