“You waited up for me?” asked Jess, unsure why Mandy would have done that.
“Yes. Ever since Mike died, you’ve been so fucked up. Walking around like a zombie. When you said you were going dancing, I was going to try meet up with you but we got slammed at the bar. I texted you, but you never answered. I figured maybe you were going to bring a guy home or something, but I stayed up to make sure you were okay. I worry about you.”
Ever since Mike died. The words no longer stung the way they once had. When her fiancé, Mike, had been killed in a car accident, she’d been devastated. Mike had been her world. Mandy was right, she had been walking around like a zombie lately.
“I was going to bring someone home last night. Hell, I was probably going to fuck two guys in an alley, if they hadn’t decided to rape me instead. How fucked up is that? I didn’t care who they were, I just wanted to feel something,” said Jess. Tears started to run down her face as she faced the memories of the previous night’s encounter.
Mandy put down her coffee and hugged Jess tightly. “I understand. You feel alone, and sometimes pain or sex, or even both, is better than feeling that emptiness where your heart used to be. But you can’t self-destruct. People love and care about you. I can’t have you getting yourself so fucked up that you get raped in an alley.” Mandy let Jess go so she could look her in the eyes, “Next time you want random sex, I’ll bring some toys over and help you out. Maybe even call a guy friend or two. But you have to get your shit together.”
Jess didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both, while Mandy held her. She was such a good friend, and Jess suspected the offer was less of a joke than Mandy made it sound. More than once Jess had caught Mandy checking her out. Not that she cared, Mandy was a sexy woman, and Jess wasn’t offended in the least.
Jess gave Mandy a brief kiss on the lips, and looked her in the eyes, “Thank you for being such a good friend. Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer sometime, but right now, I need more coffee.”
Mandy blushed a little. “Sorry, I don’t want it to seem like I am hitting on you, at a time like this—”
“No, it’s okay, Mandy, I get it. You were exactly right. I was going to use sex to try and feel something. Next time, I’ll dial a friend. That seems much safer,” she said with a wink, attempting to sound light-hearted.
“Either that or track down those twins from last night. They were seriously fuckable!” Mandy broke away from the embrace. “Come on and let me feed you some breakfast.”
Feed. The word triggered Jess’s memory and she shivered as a chill went down her spine. Had her dark, mysterious rescuer really said that, or had her drug-addled brain mixed things up? It really had looked like the man who jumped down from the roof had bitten Brad’s neck. My memory must be warped, Jess decided.
6
ERICA AND BRAD
“HELLO, BRAD JAMES SPEAKING.”
“Hello, Brad, it is Erica Duvane. Sorry to bother you so early on a weekend, but Tomas always said you were someone I could call if I ever needed anything,” said Erica.
“Erica, I’ve been waiting to talk to you. Is everything okay? Are you safe right now?” said Brad.
Are you safe right now, the words and the concerned, ominous tone of his voice told Erica a lot. It was disconcerting. It seemed Brad wasn’t surprised to get her call. If anything, he sounded surprised it took her so long to make the call.
“I’m safe, I think. I had a strange incident at a nightclub last night and some weird things have been happening around the apartment lately. I think maybe I have just been over thinking things.”
“Erica, I am getting in my car right now. I will be at your place in twenty minutes. Don’t let anyone in your place before I get there,” said Brad before hanging up on the call.
Erica was taken aback by the abrupt end of the call. She shivered. Her fears were not being dismissed. As curt as the phone call had been, the fact that Brad was on his way over was reassuring. Maybe the eccentric Brad would have some answers for her. Erica glanced at the deadbolt on her door. It would stay on until she saw him through the peephole.
…
“Thank you for coming, Brad, I didn’t think you would just drop everything and show up.”
Brad nodded. “Some conversations aren’t good to have on phones. There are too many people listening. I needed to come see you and make sure you’re safe. Now, tell me about your strange incident. Don’t leave out any details, however trivial they might seem, and anything strange that’s happened since Tomas died. I need to know about those as well.”
Erica, unsure how to proceed, decided to start at the beginning. She told him about how the police had bothered her, the strange questions, the details about Tomas’s blood being drained, all of the times she felt like she was being watched, the times she was sure someone had broken into her apartment, and all about the previous night when she was grabbed. When she was done talking, she looked carefully at Brad, almost expecting him to tell her she was just going crazy. Instead, he asked more questions.
“Describe the man from last night, every detail,” said Brad.
“He was average height and build, but incredibly strong and fast. I thought my arms were going to break off the way he grabbed them. It happened so fast. I couldn't scream. Even though the bouncer was huge he knocked him down like he was nothing. The creep had blond hair, pale skin, and dark eyes. He gave me the most intense and angry stare I have ever felt and disappeared into the crowd.”
“And you have never seen him before?”
Erica thought back to the man. There was something familiar about him and his evil eyes. “I might have seen him a few months ago, right before Tomas was murdered. I’m not sure if it is same guy or not, but the eyes, I remember those eyes,” said Erica. “Now, can you tell me what is going on? Am I going crazy?”
“I can tell you. Whether you believe or not will be an entirely different story. Erica, the man who attacked you last night was most likely a shifter,” said Brad.
What the hell is a shifter? Erica’s mind raced. Is shifter the name of a gang? Shifter, where have I heard that term before? Erica thought back to the last movie she had watched. They had called the werewolves, shifters. But that was a ludicrous thought. Surely, something more logical was the answer.
Erica looked at Brad closely and realized he was not joking. She waited for him to crack a smile, laugh, anything to indicate he was just messing around. Brad sat there stoic, waiting for her to reply. She wondered if the eccentric Brad was really an unbalanced Brad. She would probe, hoping not to sound like an idiot, if her idea came across as crazy to him.
“A shifter? Like werewolf, lion shifter, vampire? Those are just rumors and children’s stories,” said Erica, knowing she was right. She hoped the man in front of her had not escaped from an institution of some sort. He did not laugh at her question. She stared at him in disbelief. It occurred to her she might be in danger. She took a step back and tried to hide her surge of panic.
“Yes, shifter, as in he was a vampire. One can argue if a vampire is a shifter or something else, but that is a different conversation. No, the stories are not all rumors. You would be surprised, but many children’s stories are sometimes based in reality. Sometimes the truth is stranger than the myths.” Brad paused for a second, “Tell me, Erica, what did Tomas tell you about our business together?”
Erica wanted to laugh, but she could not. She looked at her guest in earnest. She was in total disbelief, and getting ready to bolt. But as she thought you gotta be fucking kidding, the memory of the two puncture wounds on Tomas’s neck hit her like a punch to the stomach. She blinked and tried to wake up from a bad dream. It did not work. The farfetched explanation of shifters and vampires rocked what she knew about her world. It just did not compute and yet, Tomas had been drained of blood.
Erica was confused. If shifters were real, what did shifters have to do with her husband? Erica found her voice as her mind whirled. “He said that yo
u two did research and data analysis on cultural integration of different races and cultures. I would try to get him to explain how he used computer models to map behaviors and cultural trends, I thought it sounded interesting, but he never got into real details. He always insisted that he left work at work and only wanted his time with me to be about us.”
“That’s basically what we did; the minor details he left out are that the majority of our clients are shifters.”
“I don’t understand, why would shifters hire researchers?” Erica decided to play along with the bizarre conversation.
“They don’t. They hire cultural adaptation consultants. Tomas and I specialized in helping shifters blend in, find places where they can lead productive lives, feel like part of a community instead of an outsider. Shifters have different needs than humans, but in some ways they are exactly the same. They struggle with their uniqueness, can feel isolated and alone, and want to fit in with society. Tomas helped develop a program for matching shifters with cultures that best suited their individual profile.”
“Like a dating website for shifters?” said Erica.
“Yes, but instead of finding a mate, we focused on communities. A werewolf shifter tends to do much better in rural communities, while vampire shifters are more likely to find success in a city. That is a generalization and each case would be broken down into much more detail, but that’s the basics of what we did, and what I still do.”
Why was Tomas murdered? An angry client?” said Erica. Perhaps Brad knew something about why Tomas was murdered. Perhaps he had something to do with it. She gulped as her mind raced.
“No, much worse than that I am afraid. Not all shifters want to integrate into human society. They believe humans are an inferior species and should be subjugated and treated like cattle. They consider shifters who mix with humans traitors, and humans who help them the enemy. There is a core among the shifter population who would openly go to war with the human population. They have started targeting shifters who don’t agree with them, and the humans who have helped them. Your late husband Tomas was a huge part of that program. I believe his death is just the start of a shifter war.”
“But why would they attack me? I had nothing to do with my husband’s work.”
“Classic vampire tactics, I’m afraid. In Europe, back in the 1700’s, vampires were the most prevalent of the shifter breeds. They often lived among humans, but would still prey upon them. When a human would kill a vampire, other vampires would retaliate, killing that person and then his entire family. The more brutal and vicious vampires would leave the vampire slayer alive, for a while, but kill everyone the man loved first, before killing him,” said Brad
Vampires, thought Erica, the idea seemed so farfetched and yet plausible. Tomas had died from puncture wounds to the neck, and had his blood drained from his body. If that didn’t scream vampire, nothing did. And now these vampires wanted to kill her?
“What do I do? How can I protect myself from vampires? Buy garlic and silver? Should I start putting crosses up everywhere in my apartment?”
Brad shook his head, “No, I’m afraid the movies, while surprisingly accurate in some details of shifter lore, have gotten other details incredibly wrong. Silver does have a powerful effect on vampires, but garlic and the power of the church have been grossly overstated. There was a time when the church was useful. Holy water is documented as being harmful to some shifters. But God, or at least the men who speak on God’s behalf, have long ago declared shifters a myth. As you saw in the nightclub, vampires are extraordinary creatures, stronger and faster than us and they are incredibly resistant to wounds.”
“So I’m doomed.” Erica’s shoulders slumped, her gray eyes looked incredibly sad and defeated. If these vampires wanted her dead, it didn’t seem like there was much she could do to stop them.
“No, but your life as you know it has to change. You need to quit your job, leave this apartment and move somewhere new, somewhere where we can protect you. I’ll be honest, some of the times you felt like you were being watched, it was my people keeping an eye on you. We weren’t sure if they would try to attack you or not. I’ve had people watching at a distance since Tomas’s death, but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary. If you had filed a police report after any of your break-ins, we would have had this conversation earlier.”
Erica’s brow furrowed, she pointed at Brad, raising her voice in frustration. “You? You had people following me? Why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?”
“If you hadn’t seen a shifter with your own eyes, felt its power, and been told from the police that your husband died of puncture wounds to the neck, his body drained of blood, would you have believed a word I said.”
As much as part of Erica wanted not to believe Brad, she kept hearing Tomas’s voice in her head, “Trust Brad, no matter how strange the situation, you can always trust Brad.” Tomas must have known something like this could happen.
Erica blew out a big breath of air. Brad was right. She would not have believed it. Hell, it was still hard to believe. “So where can I move that will be safe, and when do I leave?” She looked stunned, as if someone had just pulled the rug out from under her feet.
“Pack a bag, then call into work, saying you can’t make it in next week. You’ve been stressed enough lately that they won’t have a hard time with it. I have movers on their way here to get the rest of your stuff today.”
Pack a bag and leave, just like that? But what choice did she have. If vampires were trying to kill her, then extreme measures might be her only chance at survival. She would have to trust Brad.
Erica grabbed a bag and stuffed a couple changes of clothes into it. She also grabbed some toys, things she would rather not have other people see, and stuffed them into the bag. Erica took one last look around the apartment. She had shared so many good memories with Tomas here. It was difficult not knowing if she would ever see the apartment again, but at the same time it was a relief to have an excuse to leave it and the recent bad memories it contained. She was tired of putting on a brave face. It was time to accept help. She felt like she had just agreed to a witness protection program.
7
SERENA
Serena entered the boardroom and stood in a corner, waiting for Vladimir to finish with the meeting he was conducting. He had summoned her back to London from America, where she had been working behind the political scenes to get key legislations changed. She had no idea why the government affairs of America affected the vampire council, but she did know well enough not to question orders. Vladimir was not the type of leader that suffered fools or those who asked questions. Serena did as she was told and she did it well.
There were six vampires sitting at the boardroom table, plus Vladimir. They were all senior members of the council and all very old, the youngest being just shy of six hundred years. They were going over some final planning regarding the elimination of nuclear weapons, the biggest threat in humankind’s arsenal to the council’s plans. Serena waited until the last of the six vampires left before approaching the table.
“Have a seat, Serena.” Vladimir gestured to a chair without looking up from the report he was reading.
She sat down and waited long minutes before Vladimir put the report down and fixed his cold gray eyes on her. “Serena, do you know why I called you back?”
She shook her head, disconcerted by the sudden directness of his gaze. Serena had an idea but kept it to herself. “No, but it must have been important to call me back to London. I wasn’t done securing the necessary votes.”
“I have other agents in Washington, the vote will pass. We have more pressing needs here. I have decided it is time to implement V-day protocols.”
Serena was careful to keep her face neutral. She had reservations about the plan, but she knew what happened to dissidents and she was keen to keep her head exactly where it was, attached to her neck. “Very well, sir. What do you need me to do?”
“You�
�ll coordinate our scouts, and kill-teams in North and South America.” Vladimir slid the report over in front of Serena. “The list of targets is in the report. Humans are our first priority. I want all who know vampires exist dead within the month. Then move on to the shifters and vampires who are sympathetic to humans. Many of the shifters on the list may start disappearing into the shadows on their own. They will realize the significance of the human deaths and will separate themselves from their previous opinions. Let them go into hiding. Focus on those who openly hold us in opposition.”
Flipping through the report, Serena caught her breath; the list of human, shifters, and vampires was extensive. “So many vampires,” she commented.
Vladimir slammed his hand down on the desk, causing Serena to flinch. “So many human-loving vampires, you mean. They treat humans like equals instead of like cattle. It’s fine to raise a human like a pet and kill it when it is fully ready to be eaten, but to walk among them like they are your equals is blasphemy,” said Vladimir with venom. “The rule of humans is coming to an end, Serena. V-day protocol will put the world into a post-apocalypse state. We’ll rule this earth the way we were meant to.”
Serena bowed her head. Vladimir was a fanatic. He had spent hundreds of years organizing his plan, placing vampire spies in every world government, organizing shell corporations and manipulating markets to build the capital necessary to fulfill his plans. For centuries he had waited and organized, and now he was ready. The thought scared Serena. She was not a natural born vampire, she had been turned, and though that was nearly one hundred years ago, she still harbored human feelings for her old family and friends, despite them being dead for years now. She hunted and killed humans so she could feed, but she had serious reservations about the mass murders the council was proposing. What Vladimir wanted to accomplish would kill millions, perhaps billions, in order to reestablish society with vampires at the top of the food chain. The world would be forever changed and she was part of the plan whether she liked it or not. And despite the fact she personally knew many of the vampires on the list, she would do as she was told.
The Shadows Awaken (Guardians of the Night Book 1) Page 3