It wasn't bleeding too badly, so I left it alone. I slowly got to my feet, trying to clear my mind. I took a deep breath and stared at the door. I knew Lilynn was on the other side.
"What are you waiting for?" I asked loudly.
The knob turned and the door swung open. Standing with my hands at my sides and the knife clutched tightly in my right hand, I watched Lilynn raise the Firestar and pull that distorted smile back onto her face. Her face was bloody and her hair had come loose.
"Any last words?" she asked with mirth.
I pretended to look defeated, and said, "Take your best shot."
She let out a laugh and pulled the trigger. She had a moment to look confused with her face frozen in shock and eyes wide, before I collided with her. I sent my right shoulder into her in a tackle and we flew into the bedroom. She hit the corner of the bed and cried out. I knocked the gun out of her hand just for good measure. Grabbing my ponytail, she tried to rip it out of my head. I went for her hands, trying to pin her down.
There was a loud sound that echoed up the staircase. I prayed that it was the police and not Lilynn's guards. There were no bullets left in the Firestar and I didn't have the skills to take on two big, burly men with guns.
I still had the knife in my right hand. I had managed to pin both of her hands down with one of mine. I held the knife to her throat. If it was the guards, maybe I could use her as a hostage.
"Do it," she hissed, eyes flashing. "It would be fitting, wouldn't it?"
Pounding came up the stairs and I heard shouts.
"Simon?" a familiar voice yelled. "Simon?"
My heart warmed. "In here!" I answered, not taking my eyes of Lilynn.
"Do it!" she screamed, writhing against my grip on her wrists. "Do it! Kill me!"
"Don't tempt me," I told her coldly before letting go of the knife and sending my elbow straight into her head.
Her head lolled to the side and the tension in her body dissolved. She looked like she was sleeping.
"Simon!" a breathless voice came.
I turned to see Bell come to a halt when he saw me, rifle in hand. Three other police officers were quick behind him. All four of them were wearing tactical gear. Bell had taken me seriously.
He looked at me with those hard brown eyes, and said, "You okay?"
I nodded. He gestured to the other officers and they pushed into the room. Taking a final glance at Lilynn, I stood up to let them cuff her. They rolled her over, forced her hands together, and clicked the cuffs shut. They picked her up easily and carried her out of the room.
Finally able to take a proper breath, I turned to Bell. He lowered the gun and stepped into the room. He looked older than the last time I had seen him a couple months ago. He was only in his mid-30s but his beard was turning gray on the sides and the lines on his forehead seemed deeper.
"Well, you did a number on her," he commented, looking around the room. "Were you the one to shoot up the house?"
I breathed a laugh and shook my head. "No, she managed to get a hold of my gun," I said. I saw it on the floor by the bathroom. I decided to leave it there because I knew they would need it for the investigation.
Bell touched my arm with his black glove. "She got you," he said, taking a closer look.
I looked down at my arm. The sleeve of my sweatshirt was torn and I saw the raw skin underneath. "Yeah," I said, "but I managed to dodge the other fourteen just fine." I managed a cheeky smile.
He rolled his eyes and released my arm. "You're lucky she just grazed you," he told me.
"I know," I said. I reached into my sweater pocket and took out the recorder. I turned it off and held it out to Bell on the palm of my hand. "Here's your proof."
He took it from me gingerly and tucked it into his Kevlar vest. "Thanks," he said gruffly. "My Lieutenant is definitely going to want to hear this."
I winced. "Is he pissed?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, but what's new?" he said. He looked at me for a long moment before saying, "You sure you're okay?"
I took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."
He gave me his signature tight-lipped smile and jerked his head towards the door. "Come on, there's a medic downstairs."
Before we left the room, I touched his elbow and he stopped, turning around. "Thanks for coming," I said.
"We're even now," he said lightly, taking off his gloves.
"Well, not quite," I said apologetically.
Giving me a heavy look, he asked apprehensively, "What?"
"Ever heard of a Randall?"
Chapter 29
* * *
It took two hours to secure the house. The cops had found the body of Marie Williams in the basement, the elderly woman who lived in the house before Lilynn killed her and took over. Even if my recording of her confession didn't hold up in court, I was sure Marie Williams' body would.
The medic had cleaned and bandaged my arm, grinning as he told me about a prank he was planning against his roommate. I had only half-listened, watching the police go in and out of the front door from where I sat on the edge of a van. Lilynn, the two guards, and the merc in charge of following me were all put in separate squad cars and driven away.
The Lieutenant had showed up once he heard that Callum Knightley was involved. Moustache twitching, he had listened to the recording when Lilynn had admitted to planting the bombs at Callum's birthday party location. He had been curious to find out where I fit into all this, and almost nervously, I told him the relative truth: Callum had hired me for extra protection.
His face had twitched and he had looked at me with a disconcerting look. He had flicked his thumb in the direction of the house and asked with a smoker's rasp, "You take out those four by yourself?"
I had met his eyes, silently daring him to say something about me being a female, and replied, "Yes."
After a pause, he had given me a curt nod and walked off.
Bell had run a trace on Brian Randall in his squad car. I had watched as a mugshot popped up on the small computer screen with a list of previous offenses. He seemed to be a sniper-for-hire and wanted in five states. Bell sent out an All Points Bulletin to all California and Nevada police in order to catch him.
I was now sitting at an empty desk in the San Francisco Police Department, spinning around in the chair with a disgusting cup of coffee in hand. Bell was at the desk beside me, typing furiously on his keyboard. We were waiting for news on Randall. Every time the phone rang, Bell picked it up immediately and I stood up to listen, eyes wide. There had been no updates for the past hour and the dread in the pit of my stomach was painful. Ayden Montgomery had called to make sure I was set to go to "Mr. Knightley's function". I told him I was, feeling guilty that it wasn't a real job, that the "function" was a birthday party, and that Mr. Knightley was not the client, but my sort-of boyfriend. Or at least had been last night.
"Stop spinning around," Bell barked at me. He was tense, too. An impending sniper attack was hard on him, as well.
I stopped. "Sorry," I said, setting the coffee down on the desk and playing with the Styrofoam cup. Lilynn had said that Randall had been running late, which meant he wasn't in San Francisco yet. Or so we hoped. The cops were checking out hotels, motels, and well-known organized crime bars and hideouts.
We believed that Randall was hired to take out people at Callum's party. Of course, the police had been trying to contact Callum, but he was nowhere to be found. I knew it was because it was daylight, but they seemed worried something had happened to him. Callum's daytime staff had reassured the police that Callum was fine, just out of town. I think the cops only half-believed them.
I was told Lilynn wasn't cooperating. The three other men who were arrested didn't know anything about the plan. So, here we were, just waiting.
Bell looked sideways at me. "You never told me you were stabbed," he said, typing another sentence of his report.
"Yeah, well," I said sheepishly. "What was I supposed to do? Call you up and say,
'Hi, Bell, just wanted to let you know I was stabbed today'?"
He shook his head. "No, I guess not," he answered. He was quiet as he clicked around on the computer. "Seems you've been through a bit these past few weeks."
I took a sip of the coffee that had gone cold a long time ago. "Yeah, you could say that," I said lightly. He had no idea. "It'll be nice to get back to normal. I mean, if this all works out with Randall."
"We'll get him," Bell assured me.
A phone rang. Bell and I jumped and automatically looked at his phone, but realized it was actually my cellphone that was ringing. Fumbling in my sweater pocket, I told it out and looked at the screen. It was Liam.
I frowned. Had the sun set already? We were set so far back in the building that I couldn't see anything but florescent light. The clock on my cell phone told me that it was half past five.
"Liam," I answered.
"Sunshine," came Liam's familiar voice. He sounded uncharacteristically worried. "Where are you?"
"Uh—"
"The useless bodyguard told me you were still in your apartment," he started.
The "useless bodyguard" must have been Mike. I suddenly felt sorry for him being on the receiving end of Liam's vicious comments. "Well, I—"
"But let me tell you, sunshine," he said, voice hard, "I am standing in your apartment and you're not here."
"What?" I sat up in the chair. Liam had a special gift for being able to enter people's houses without invitation. I didn't like that he could just stroll into my apartment whenever he wanted. "Liam, get out of my apartment."
"Where are you?" he asked me, this time louder and angrier.
"At the police station," I answered.
"Wha—"
"Liam, I need you to listen to me," I interrupted, leaning forward to put my elbows on the desk. "Callum's party – I need you to make sure people do not enter that house. The police are there now but –"
"What's going on?" he cut me off. "Our humans told us something happened but they –"
"Lilynn hired a sniper," I said. "We're pretty sure it's to pick people off at the party. I'm sure he's prepared to take out both you and the guests." I tried to make the distinction between the two so he knew vampires were in danger, too.
"I understand." He fell silent on the other end for a moment. "Blaise," he hissed. "I am going to rip her throat out."
I glanced at Bell, glad he couldn't hear Liam. "About her," I said. "She's been dealt with. I—"
"What do you mean?"
"She's been arrested."
"Good," he said, and then added, "But arrested isn't dead."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Look, Liam, I took care of it. She's going to prison for a long time."
"You took care of it?" he repeated incredulously.
"Yeah, I – I had to finish it," I said, putting my head in my hands.
"You had to finish it?" he echoed disbelievingly. I could just see his dark eyes flashing. "What did you do?"
"I can't explain it all now. We'll talk later," I said. "I'll call you if—when we find the sniper, okay?"
Now angry at me, he snapped, "I'm supposed to pick you up."
"Well, I'm staying here until we catch this guy," I said with as much patience as I could muster. "Go home."
"I'm not –"
"Liam, I'm not going to be home for hours," I said. "And I don't want you to be in my apartment in the meantime."
"You—"
"Get out of my apartment," I sang into the receiver before hanging up.
Bell raised his eyebrows at me. "Who is Liam?" he asked.
I leaned back in the chair, causing it to creak loudly. "One of Callum Knightley's bodyguards," I replied.
"And he broke into your apartment?"
I laughed and waved a dismissing hand. "Yeah, don't ask."
"Okay," he replied doubtfully. "And what is going on with you and Mr. Knightley? You're on a first-name basis?"
I shrugged but stopped because it hurt to move my left arm so much. "He hired me to do some protection."
"Which requires a first-name basis?"
I started feeling a bit awkward. "What's with all the questions?"
He widened his eyes innocently. "No reason, just curious."
"We've become friends," I said, narrowing my eyes slightly. "That's all."
"Of course—"
A phone rang again and this time it was Bell's. Our eyes connected and he picked it up as my heart started to beat faster.
"Bell," he barked. Someone started talking on the other side but I couldn't make out what they were saying. "Yeah. Uh-huh. For how long? Okay, thanks. Yeah, man, talk to you later."
He hung up and I looked at him expectantly.
"It's not what we were hoping for," he said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Lilynn Blaise has been transferred to the psychiatric ward."
I blinked. "Why?"
"She was apparently spouting some shit about vampires and supernatural 'powers' and got violent with the guards at the jail. They transferred her an hour ago."
I nodded slowly, biting my tongue. "Huh," was my answer.
"Weird shit, right?" he commented.
"Yeah," I agreed vehemently. "Weird shit."
* * *
At seven, I went to find food. I came back to Bell's desk with an armful of Pop-Tarts, packaged cookies, and every kind of chip that was in the vending machine. Bell looked up at me from his computer.
"I call the Doritos," he said before returning to work.
I was on my third cookie when the phone rang. Stopping mid-bite to watch Bell pick it up, I waited with bated breath to find out what the call was about.
All I heard was: "Yeah. Where? With what? Shit, okay. Later."
He hung up and turned to me.
"What?" I asked impatiently.
"SFPD got him," he said.
I gave a small whoop and stood up. "Where?"
"Gas station outside of the city," he replied. "He had driven all the way from Vegas and stopped for gas. There was a squad car parked at the station."
"Oh, thank God," I said, putting a hand to my chest.
"He had military-grade weapons on him," Bell said. "Like armour-piercing rounds. He even had a high-powered assault rifle with –get this—silver-tipped bullets."
I closed my eyes. Yes, those would have been for Callum and his vampires. Relief made my skin warm. "Jesus."
"I have no idea what that was about, but they got him," Bell said, giving me a smile. "He had seven arrest warrants out on him."
I took out my phone and dialed Liam. He picked up on the first ring.
"What?" he snapped.
"They caught the sniper," I said, the relief apparent in my voice.
Liam had obviously been prepared to say something snippy, and said, "You – they did?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Good."
I sighed. "It's over."
"Ah, well, it's never really over, sunshine," he said. "But this is good news."
"I'll see you at the party, then," I told him. "Wait. Are you still in my apartment?"
He gave a dark laugh. "No, I'm not. Mr. Knightley needed extra protection."
My heart skipped a beat thinking about Callum. "Is he around? Can I talk to him?" I asked.
"He's indisposed at the moment," Liam replied. "Talking to some police officers who insisted on barging their way into the house."
"Oh, okay," I said, disappointed.
"So, I'll send a car over at eight."
"It's okay," I said. "I'm not going to be ready at eight. I'll drive myself. Send me a text with the address?"
"You're going to drive my car?" he asked unpleasantly, adding, "Which you stole, by the way."
"Borrowed," I corrected.
He grunted. "Fine, just don't scratch it up." He added worriedly, "You haven't scratched it up, did you?"
"Well, I've been meaning to talk to you…" I teased, feeling lighthearted for first
time in a while.
He didn't get that I was joking and started saying some nasty things about me. I took the opportunity to hang up the phone.
Bell was rearranging papers on his desk. Turning to face me, he said, "Need a ride?"
He drove me home, obeying every speed limit despite my light urging to speed it up just a tiny bit. He came up to my apartment with me in order to bag the photos of my friends and family as evidence against Lilynn. Giving me a pat on the back, he told me he would see me later and if I did manage to get stabbed again, to at least give him a call this time.
It was eight o'clock by the time he left. I felt rushed because Callum's party had already started. I couldn't wait to see him. I just wanted to see that one dimple, that scar above his eyebrow, and those green, green eyes. Well, at least I hoped that would be green. I didn't know how angry he was going to be at me.
Ignoring that thought, I hopped in the shower and took longer than I had time for. Shards of glass fell out of my hair and the steaming water stung the bullet wound on my left arm. I had a lot more scars and injuries than before all this started. I was healing nicely, though, but the scar tissue was still raised and white. Since I was going to wear a dress, I forced myself to shave my legs, which was quite an ordeal when I realized how sore I was.
I actually blow-dried my hair. It took a few tries, but I loosely braided it to the side so it fell over my shoulder with a few wisps around my face. After I wrapped my arm in a white bandage, I went to my closet and took out the dress I had bought. It was fire-engine red cut in an almost Grecian style with small beads around the neckline, which was rather plunging. It was so long that it brushed the floor, so I wore a pair of black heels. I was a bit worried about my stability, but I couldn't show up to this party in flats.
It had been awhile since I had really looked at myself in the mirror. There was a big blue bruise on my cheekbone from Lilynn's bodyguard. It was tender as I tried to put concealer on it. My eyes looked sunken as well, so I dotted concealer there too. There were a few small cuts, too, but I didn't bother putting makeup on them.
As I was applying some gold eye shadow, I realized how ironic it was that the person who had caused me the most trouble these past few weeks was a human. Even in the midst of all the supernatural happenings, a human had been my biggest pain in the ass. And it wasn't even because of me being the Flora, but because of jealousy. As much as I hated her, I was glad she had been arrested; everything didn't need to end in death. She was probably in a padded room right now, right where she belonged.
Death of Night Page 46