by Mandy Rosko
The problem was that Patty's Potions N' More wasn't located on a busy road, or even surrounded by many other businesses. There was the animal clinic across the street and City Cycles and Skates was close, but they were closed for the night, and because they were near the highway the other buildings on the same street were spread out.
"Did you say there were some ferals still outside?"
Jackie didn't need Evey to answer, a bald head appeared just alongside of the broken window and gazed inside, then another, followed by their bodies that moved in a flowing motion, hissing and spitting as they surveyed the damage.
Jackie couldn't move. She knew they could see her behind the door, but they didn't enter to get her. She clutched her garlic spray tighter in case they tried to run in for her.
But then the one feral ran away and the other couldn't run fast enough as he was tackled to the floor by a third feral.
They rolled in the snow in a ball of claws, blood and teeth, fighting for dominance until the face of the one came into better view under a street light.
It was no feral. "That's Kyle!"
She looked to Evey, but she lay crooked against the wall, her eyes shut in unconsciousness. Jackie turned back to the fight just in time to watch Kyle turn and snap the neck of the feral as easily as though he'd twisted the cap off a beer bottle.
Jackie cringed at the sound of bones breaking that reached her in her hiding place. She looked back through the hole as Kyle walked into the shop. He used the glass door that was still intact instead of the broken window, the bell chiming as he came in.
Jackie opened the door and rushed out to meet him. She didn't care that he might be mad at her for calling the police on him, or about the black, smoking bodies around her feet, she just cared that there was someone to help her and Evey.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it, trying not to pay attention to the fangs or bloody claws. "We need to get Evey to a hospital."
"Who?"
She showed him to the backroom where Evey lay pale and still out of it against the wall.
He looked at her, his jaw clenched and his eyes hard, and she knew that he was thinking about it. Thinking of letting her deal with all this on her own. After all, she did pretty much betray his trust. Why should he help her?
"Please." She begged.
Kyle sighed and looked back at Evey before walking in and lifting her into his arms, it was only when the sweater slipped from Evey's body did he see her charred arm.
His eyes flashed briefly but aside from that he didn’t give any other indication of disgust or fear. "How did that happen?" He shook Evey a little in his arms. She didn’t move. “Is she even alive?”
"She's a vampire, she's going to need blood."
"And you're going to need a jacket." His eyes traveled down to her chest. It was dark, but if he was a vamp again then he wouldn’t need the light to see the heat flooding up her neck and into her face. She grabbed her long jean jacket, ran to the fridge and pulled out another six pack of blood for Evey before leaving the building with Kyle.
***
Kyle didn't know where the urge to run back to that store came from, even after he swore to himself never to go back there after Jackie made it plain she didn’t want him around. Not to mention this was the second time he’d run into those wild vampires outside this place. There had to be some bad luck here.
Kyle didn’t blame her so much now that his arrest was over, certainly not enough to leave her to fend for herself. He should have seen it coming, really. If she didn’t feel safe around him and didn’t want him near then, whether she could cure him or not, he had to respect that.
But the darkness that flooded him called him to her, made him fearful for her, filled his body and drowned him from the inside out. It was as if something horrible would happen if he didn’t go to her. He couldn’t stop himself.
Low and behold there were more of those things, cluttering around like spiders and waiting to attack their prey.
Jackie was shook up and frightened, so much that she didn't notice when she stood in front of him with her sexy chest exposed, or think twice about sitting next to him in the waiting room of the hospital. She still had no shirt to cover that lovely little lavender bra of hers so he offered her his own leather jacket. It pleased him when she put it on and clutched it tightly around herself while they waited.
Despite the situation and setting Kyle couldn't stop thinking about how interesting it would be to drag her away and have a look at what that bra hid from him.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours of waiting, a doctor came down to assure them the vampire called Evey was going to be just fine. Though how anyone could be fine after having their arm practically burned off was a mystery to Kyle. Jackie did say that it was because she was a vampire, did that mean that he could also sustain heavy injuries and still live?
He didn’t want to test the theory.
The doctor explained that Evey was put on a bed and wheeled into a light tight room, and with a few days of rest and a few pints of blood in her she would be good to go home.
Jackie sagged in her seat as the doctor left them. "Thank God."
He couldn't help himself. He reached his hand out and pulled her towards him, trying to offer any comfort that he could.
She sank against him and sighed under his arm, accepting his offer.
A fizzle of something jolted his insides and made him feel like he had twitching leg syndrome, only all over his body. This was going to be difficult.
Now wasn't the time to ask for a kiss so he could turn back into a man and leave so she could have some privacy with her personal problems. Though, if he really thought about it, getting his temporary cure wasn’t his only motive. If he started kissing her, now, while she was frightened and vulnerable, he'd have a Helluva hard time stopping.
Just that image in his head brought on another little fantasy of her writhing beneath him while he sucked her neck like Dracula.
Her body heated under his arm, and maybe it was a vampire thing, but he could feel her pulse becoming quicker as well. The blush on her face while he had these thoughts was very curious indeed. Probably because my arm is around her shoulder, he told himself.
Grinning, he then proceeded to not remove his arm.
The police showed up, and Kyle snatched his hand away and clenched his jaw when Detectives Cowboy Hat and Baldy cast their hard eyes on him.
As if this was somehow his fault.
Detective Carter was the first to speak. "When we released you we figured it was the last we'd see of you."
Kyle smiled, showing a hint of his fangs and delighted when Carter stepped back. "Thought wrong didn't you?"
“Jesus Christ,” Miller said, “Those definitely weren’t there last night.”
"Mike, he chased off the last ferals and saved Evey and me." Jackie put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed when she defended him. A rush of satisfaction filled him.
Carter seemed to accept that and fisted his hands in his pockets. "So, Mr. McKane, you just happened to be in the right place at the right time?"
"Well, yeah, I just really thought I needed to be there." Kyle stopped himself before he could say anything else. He didn't want to tell two cops and Jackie that he believed she was in danger based on nothing more than a feeling in his gut.
A feeling that gripped his heart, lungs, and body was more like it.
"Lucky, huh?" He asked.
He could feel Jackie's eyes on him while Carter decided whether or not he believed him. "And, did you find your Sarah yet? Because she's not in any of our records."
The rush of satisfaction he felt was nothing compared to the overwhelming glee when Jackie's fingers tightened on his shoulder.
Ah, jealousy.
"No, not yet. Though aside from the phone book and asking my neighbors I have yet to do any real searching in this town."
“And you think she’s here because when your brother looked for her he couldn
’t find a thing anywhere else on her.” Carter said.
Kyle snapped his fingers at the repeat of what he’d told them last night during questioning. “Bingo.”
Jackie removed her hand. "Who's Sarah?"
Kyle stood. "She's the woman who cursed me."
Carter held his hand out and stopped him from moving any farther. "Wait, wait. Now I know we already did this dance last night but you both are goin’ to answer some questions before anyone can go anywhere."
Kyle worked to keep his impatience in check. "Am I under arrest again?"
"No, but it would be better if you and Detective Miller could both go somewhere private and talk while I speak with Jackie."
Kyle looked at Jackie, at her mouth as she darted her tongue out to wet her lips, and he chewed his bottom lip to hold back a groan.
Getting a kiss out of her would have to wait for later. But he would be seeing her again.
He allowed Detective Miller to take him someplace private so they could begin the questioning all over again.
***
Jackie clutched her jacket—or rather, Kyle’s jacket—tighter about her and hid her face under her hand.
What was wrong with her? Evey was in a hospital bed and she couldn't stop thinking about Kyle beneath her sheets.
Mike sat next to her but she barely noticed him. Everything in her head involved the fantasies that kept coming on and off so vividly in her mind. And what Kyle had said unnerved her.
He just thought he needed to be there? She was sure she'd heard something about vampires having a faint psychic sense, but she's always assumed it was just a rumor.
Now she knew better.
Jackie rubbed her face. Not only was she a terrible excuse for a witch, but she knew nothing about the other living creatures she shared her world with.
"I called your mother, she'll be here any minute."
Jackie listened to the careful tone in Mike’s voice. In all probability he thought she was hiding her face like she was because she worried for Evey.
If only he knew.
Then she realized what he said and sighed. "She'll bring Carly." Her eyes widened when she realized what else would happen. "She'll see what happened to the store!"
"My people have already been there to take away the bodies, but if you need any help cleaning up ..."
Jackie smiled at him and desperately wished she could take him up on the offer, but she knew what he was really asking for.
He only wanted the chance to spend the time with her. It was probably why he was the one questioning her now instead of Jason. When was he going to take the hint? She didn't want to hurt him but he refused to stop pushing ...
"It's only a broken window and a door, the rest is just stuff that got knocked over. You don't have to worry."
Mike raised an eyebrow at her, skepticism all over his expression. "You looked pretty upset about it one minute ago."
"Yeah, well, I guess after everything that happened I'm still a little uptight."
Mike leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "You're sure he wasn't the one behind the attack?"
"I looked out the door, and he was the one who chased off one feral and then killed the other one." She stared him in the eyes, so that he could see her sincerity, and also to have a better look inside her head.
Mike’s eyes went all focused. He was in. Jackie focused her thoughts on what she remembered happened, praying it would keep him from glimpsing her naughty little dreams.
Blinking, Mike pulled out. "Hmm," he said, that sound a person made when they didn't want to agree or disagree with anything. "Alright.”
Jackie sighed.
“I'm going to show you somethin’, and I'll assume it was on the neck of the feral vamp your rescuer chased off too because so far it’s been on the necks of all the dead ones."
Jackie sat straighter, her curiosity peaked. "What is it?"
Mike lifted the side of his leather jacket and pulled out a sealed bag from an inside pocket. When she reached out to take it he pulled his hand back.
"Look, don't touch. Wasn’t even supposed to take it out of the station," he said when she gave him a questioning stare. So she looked at it.
Inside was a black dog collar with a yellow metal, square clasp, only the clasp had small buttons and a single broken light that was tinier than a Christmas tree bulb. She cocked her head at it for a better look. "Could you," she motioned with her hands. "Turn it a bit."
He did, and on the underside of the yellow metal was a sharp spike, as thin as a thumb tack but twice as long.
"What is it?" She asked when nothing came to mind. It gave her a chill.
Mike carefully deposited the bag back in his inside pocket. "We didn't know at first. These were on the dead vamps in the alley you ran away from, and again they were collared to the four dead vamps we found at your shop, but because of the way they burned all that was left were the clasps. One of our new guys, a desk worker, saw it and told us what it was."
"And what is it?"
"Have you ever heard of Dr. Charles Clayton?"
Jackie shook her head no.
He gave her a hard look. "Are you sure? Never met him, spoke to him, exchanged disagreeable words? Or maybe your mother did? He was the kind that a lot of people had bad words about."
Jackie couldn't hold back her frustration. "I just said no, Mike. Now I don't know about my mom, but what is this about? Who is he?"
"He's a professor at Griffon University, and he showed some of his students a design that essentially looked like the collars we have now. They're designed to fit against the back of the neck so the little spike you saw could puncture the spine."
At Jackie's blank look he kept on going. "He invented this to control problem creatures."
"Problem creatures?"
"Just what it means. Essentially anyone he thought was a problem. The spike, when inserted correctly sends messages from the yellow transmitter, from what we think is a host computer, to the brain."
Jackie suddenly knew what he was talking about, and she wanted to be sick. "Charles Clayton, is sending feral vampires out into the city?"
Mike took her hand. "We don't know that for sure yet so do me a favor and keep it to yourself. I don't want the press finding out about this unless we can give them something ourselves."
"Well, when you question my mom you might want to do it away from my sister. She'd run to the press just to get the attention." Jackie warned. Even in a city where paranormal news stopped at the town boarder, Carly would still want everyone to know that she had been in the store that was attacked only minutes earlier.
Mike nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
Jackie twisted in her seat to fully face him, a hopeful thought occurring to her. "So, if you know who this guy is, you must know where he is, you must have him by now, right?"
Mike leaned closer to whisper. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I want you to be safe and aware of what's happening. Don't walk alone at night anymore, get a cell phone, and keep your garlic spray on you."
His words didn't have the reassuring effect he was going for, and Jackie just about jumped out of her seat with pent up fear. "What's going on?"
Mike took a breath. "The woman who was killed last night, Margaret Clayton, is Charles Clayton's daughter. And we can't find him anywhere."
SEVEN
Jackie's mouth fell open. "His daughter? He killed his own daughter?"
Mike stroked her hand. "The only reason why I'm telling you any of this is so that you don't get confused about the questions I'm asking, and right now, there's no way of knowing for sure if it's him or not."
"But you think it is?" Jackie prompted.
"Right now, he's a suspect, yes. It is his collar on the dead ferals and because he can't be found …" Mike trailed off. "We also got people from the University where he worked saying that he and Margaret disagreed over his invention entirely."
"What? Why? Those could actually be useful and keep
more people safe."
Mike gave her a look.
“Useful and safe in the hands of the right person.” She amended. Jackie couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want a collar like that on the necks of feral vampires.
Carter shook his head. “No, it actually couldn’t. Think about how difficult it already is to catch a feral vampire when one or two do pop up. Even if people were to risk their lives to get this collar on their necks the feral in question would still have to be terminated.”
Embarrassment rushed up her neck. “Oh.”
"And to answer your question, Margaret argued with her father because Dr. Clayton didn't want the collar on just feral vampires. He was talking about sticking it on werewolves, vampires who posed no risk of turning feral, as well as people convicted of certain criminal offenses in prison.
“His daughter didn't agree with that. Her boyfriend of three years was a werewolf, and she was reported to have had loud arguments with him over the uses he’d planned for it."
Jackie sat back in her seat. "That poor man, to hear that your girlfriend was murdered ..."
When she looked at Mike he knew what she was asking for without speaking. "We spoke to him, and his alibi checks out. Guys Night or something. He was at home watching the game with about ten other people, all mixed company of vamps, weres and warlocks, when she was killed outside the park. I was there when he was questioned."
Mike shook his head. "I know I have trouble looking into the minds of weres and such, but I don't think he was faking his grief. It's hard on a werewolf to lose a mate."
Jackie stood up. She couldn't be around such gloomy news anymore and needed to speak with a friend before her mother arrived. "I'm going to see Evey now."
Mike nodded and let her go, and she was grateful for his understanding.