by Deborah Noel
I couldn’t remember any discernible clothing, nor the girth of the vampire as my point of view was eye to eye. Head on, so to speak. His arms were toned and shapely, as far as muscles went, not overly brawny. His hands were tangled in the hair of the young girl, holding the limp head to the side to expose a clear shot to her veins. They were dripping in blood. Long extended nails that could have passed as razors left open gashes bleeding down the side of the girl’s face.
“And the girl? Again, describe shapes of what you saw.”
The girl…
I drew in fresh oxygen. I had been investigating murder scenes for years. But seeing one in progress was a completely different perspective to the end of a life. Especially for someone in my field of work. A hum-dinger of an encounter at that.
The girl…
What a horrible thing to witness.
She had long dark hair. The ends were knotted with her blood and tangled in the razor fingers of her killer. Her eyes were huge circles void of life. Their hue had been a gorgeous chocolate brown. Grave fear was the last thing that shown in her eyes. Her delicate features, that gave away her young age, were tattered and torn open, disfiguring her high cheeks. There were puncture marks along her neckline, giving the vampire easy access. The warm liquid of life was splattered all over her limp body. Torn fabric exposed her chest which had also been ripped apart. Defensive wounds showed her struggle. Blood, mud, and grass smeared across her palms and fingers.
The memory of the scene reiterated made me squirm. With my background as a crime scene investigator I took notice of everything, probably more so than most people. I repositioned myself. Shane stopped abruptly and looked at me. He had been so entranced in my description. My moving seemed to break his concentration.
“Are you okay?” He asked me.
I nodded.
He leaned forward and covered my hand with his. After a few moments, he broke his hold and added the finishing touches to his drawings.
While I was busy with Shane, Mr. and Mrs. Mac Martin stopped by on their way to Mrs. Mac Martin sister’s in New Jersey. As promised, she delivered a photograph of Natalie for Declan. Marcy and her parents spent some time outside, with Sam nearby, talking about the turn of events taking her parents out of town. As expected, Marcy was disheartened over the disappearance of her cousin. Sam joined the conversation and promised to watch over Marcy and to keep her safe.
It was decided that Shane, the Mac Martins’ house guest, was going to bunk in the guest room and Sam claimed rights to the lounge chair in the family room. After Marcy’s parents left, my wonderful, thoughtful husband drew me a bath.
Declan set Marcy up in Mattie’s room. He explained what was going on in the most basic way to our young daughter. She had a few questions, which was expected, and handled the whole subject very maturely for a 4 year old.
Upon my return downstairs after a quick check on the girls, Shane was still in the office working on the recreations of my memory. Declan and Sam were outside on the patio. Sam was chain smoking. They were hovering over the table examining papers. I joined them.
“What are you guys looking at?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around Declan.
He handed me one of the papers. It was Shane’s drawing of what I had told him. I froze. It was spot on. Perfect. Even the colors were true to my memory. It was as if he had been able to see the images firsthand. His drawing of the vampire holding the girl just bringing his head up from her neck actually was so true to what I saw that it frightened me.
“Holy crap!”
“So he didn’t exaggerate in the drawings?” Sam asked me.
I didn’t answer. I grabbed the next drawing. It was just the vampire’s face. The third was just the girl’s face. I shook my head in disbelief. How did he get the details so perfect?
Then Declan held up the photo of Natalie that Mrs. Mac Martin had given him. My eyes went from the film picture to the drawing and back about fifty times in three seconds.
Shane joined us, “Did I get the images right, Cianna?”
I turned and looked at him.
“It’s as if you took a snapshot of what I saw.”
“I guess you describe things well.”
Chapter Eleven
I sank under the weight of this new conundrum. I couldn’t wrap my head around all of the new developments now dangling in front of me. I needed time to think about it all.
The heaviness of the situation quickly caught up to everyone else.
Silence fell over us. Not even a cricket dared to make a peep.
Sam lit a cigarette and began pacing. Declan stood at the end of the patio, arms folded, debating in his mind. Shane returned his focus on the drawings. I slumped into the lawn chair.
Think about this, I told myself. I interrupted the murder of a 17-year-old girl, who was the niece of the mother of the girl I trust to care for my 4-year-old daughter.
I saw the monster that took her life.
And it was a vampire.
Gravity tugged harder on that thought.
A vampire.
And I was face to face with him. His eyes haunted my memory again.
I just happened to see the end of Natalie’s life.
How in the Heavens was I going to tell another mother that I watched her daughter take her last breath, while a vampire sucked the life out of her?
I saw her battered and bloodied body.
And then tell her the vampire accidentally dripped some of Natalie’s blood down my neck as he hissed in my ear.
Then they disappeared in a blink.
Literally.
I lost them.
I sat there. I folded my arms across my chest and slumped further down into the chair.
How?
I looked to my husband, trying to see if I could find my answer from somewhere on his face. No such luck.
I glanced toward Sam, his back was still to us all and his exhaled smoke circled above his head. He tossed a butt in the butt-bucket and flicked his Bic again.
Faint voices danced in my head. The words were quick, making no sense to me. I tried to focus on the mumblings in my mind. As I listened harder, I realized that I was listening to an inaudible conversation between Declan and Sam. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was completely surprised by this new ability, I would have felt guilty for eavesdropping.
They were calculating schemes. Planning routes to explore in the woods were the murder took place. Sam was making excuses as to why the investigation of a missing girl from New Jersey was focused in woods over 200 miles away. Declan was bouncing around ideas with Sam on how to keep Shane occupied while keeping the girls and me safe.
“Vampires are crafty creatures, Declan. It scented Cianna,” Sam said to my husband. “Scenting is a big advantage.”
Before I could stop myself, I jumped into their conversation and asked, “So what does that mean?”
Both Sam and Declan spun around stared at me.
“What? Sorry, I just want to know. If he scented me, he’ll be able to find me, right?” I asked in earnest.
“How did you get into our conversation?” Declan asked, though I saw a glint of a glitter in his eyes, more curious of my new ability then much else.
I shrugged my shoulders, “Dunno.”
I glanced at Shane who was now working on a fresh piece of paper with his pencils, completely oblivious to what was going on.
“By the way, how long have you and Sam been able to talk secretively?” I asked sarcastically. “And how come Sam can do it?”
“Well I am an uncle, ain’t I?” Sam responded in kind.
I smiled, rolled my eyes and nodded my head at them both. Declan narrowed his eyes at me.
I knew what he wanted. Sighing and giving in, “I was staring at you trying to find an answer to a question I asked myself. Then I looked at Sam and back to you. All the sudden I heard you two talking.”
“Hmmm,” was his reply.
Suddenly everything went quiet. It took me a
minute until I realized Declan had put up a wall to keep me out.
I glared at him. He smiled back.
Declan walked over and whispered in my ear, “Sucks, doesn’t it?” Then he walked into the house.
I snarled my nose, curling my lip at him, well, at his back anyway.
I, of course, followed him into the house. “Seriously, Declan, tell me more. How worried I should be about this scenting thing?”
He turned and calmly walked over to me and scooped me up. He leaned in to steal a few kisses. Then he went for the more serious kiss. The kind that always made me weak in the knees. It was a good thing that he had picked me up. I almost forgot about everything, including my own name. The kiss was that passionate.
He pulled away, and told me in my head, “Let me do all the worrying; it’s my job. It leads up to my most important job.”
He swiped another kiss, “Protecting you and my family.”
… family … The word snapped me back to reality.
I jumped from his arms and took my stand, “I’m serious, Declan. I need to be prepared. It isn’t fair nor is it right for you to leave me hanging. I need to know what advantages this thing may have, what powers, and how I can outwit him if I have to.”
He cocked his head and smiled. “This is when you are the sexiest to me.”
I crossed my arms and stomped my foot.
“Oh, you mean business…”
I began to glare.
He conceded.
He explained what Sam had told him about what the vampire had done by breathing close against my neck and hissing was what was known as scenting. He stored my scent so he could identify me again anytime he wanted. It was a vampire’s way of getting intimate with someone. I was told that he pretty much could track my scent on the air to find me, if he was so inclined.
“So now I am in danger and so is anyone around me, right?”
“Well, we don’t know.”
“How do we find out? I want to be prepared.”
“We are working on that, Ci.”
He wrapped his arms around me. I placed my head on his chest. I felt a sense of security, I knew it was a false sense, but this was one of my favorite places in the world and it made me feel better.
Sam came into the kitchen. Simultaneously the alert on his direct connection phone chimed. He had the speaker off, so he raised the phone to his ear and chirped the caller back. He listened quietly to the voice on the other end. He kept his eyes low and away. A few times his faced twisted and he nodded in agreement. He finally looked at Declan.
I tried to get into their heads, but both had me blocked and my new ability wasn’t perfected just yet. I pulled back from Declan’s chest and looked into his eyes.
“We will work on your skills later. Right now it’s best to let us handle this,” he explained. “Why don’t you go upstairs and check on the girls?
I knew this was a blow-off gesture, and it worked. I was exhausted. I was tense. I was worried. Declan kissed the top of my head, sending me on my way upstairs.
The girls were sound asleep. I left Bullet lounging on his side in front of their door. The bedroom was lit only by candles. I sat on our overstuffed king-sized bed. Once I did, my body sighed.
The feeling of relaxation didn’t last long.
Declan gently rapped on the door, pushing it the rest of the way open. He took in a few steps and took a seat on the bed beside me.
As Sam explained it to Declan, so he explained it to me. According to one of Sam’s friends on the squad in the area, Homicide Detective Runjer, Natalie’s body was found battered and torn on the shoreline of the Delaware River by a small little park called Maple Beach not far from where some of her clothing was found. A wolf was found guarding the body as if it was its own treasured kill. Unfortunately, the wolf’s life was terminated as it tried viciously to protect its meal. Animal Control took the wolf’s body away for testing, as it was highly unusually for a wolf to be lurking around.
A young man walking along a path with a friend stumbled on the scene. The friend called the police immediately. The young man and his friend cooperated with the investigation. The presence of the wolf made it seem like a slam-dunk case, so the two were let go.
I was suspicious of the whole story, because I saw what really happened, and said so to Declan. He understood my mind-set. He put his hand on mine. I knew there was more to come.
“The young man was Crevan Duskvick, your friend in the green jeep.”
My eyebrows jumped up in surprise, “Really?”
“Gets better. Guess who the friend was.”
“How would I possible know?”
“Does the name Lucas Dethstare mean anything to you?”
“What?”
Chapter Twelve
I jumped out of bed. Declan had beaten me downstairs and was in the office with Sam. Shane was still out on the patio engrossed with more drawings.
“Okay. What does this all mean?” I demanded. “Suddenly there are strangers among us and a vampire in the twist?”
Sam put his hand on my shoulder, “Calm down, Annie…Cianna.”
Declan joined Sam’s quest, “Ciunaigh, chailin mo chroi.”
“Both of you stop telling me to calm down!”
Shane pushed the door open as he knocked. Declan and I locked gazes. I drew in a deep breath to settle my increasing blood pressure. Shane eyed us all and stopped in his tracks. “What? Should I leave?”
“No,” Sam spoke up before Declan. “You’re part of this now.”
Sam went into details explaining the newest developments to Shane. He took it all in, spent a few moments contemplating angles in his mind and tossed his pictures onto the desk. Bringing his hand to his face he traced his nose, his fingers then following the outline of his mouth, finally coming to rest under his chin. Watching him, I would have sworn I had seen his eyes glaze over. I shook my head to shake myself out of my paranoid mind-set. Snapping out of his own thoughts, Shane began, “Okay, what do we know about these new strangers?”
Declan explained my encounters with the guy in the Jeep that followed me, Crevan, and what the background check turned up.
“As far as Bolton’s son, Lucas Dethstare, well, he is here with his family. His parents are morticians with parlors here in the States and in Germany. We are supposed to have dinner with them in a few days when his mother gets in from a trip to Germany.”
“They are squeaky clean,” Sam added.
“So what’s the problem? You have a business owner and his sons who befriended you, Cianna, at the beach. You have a fellow Jeep driver who happened to be going the same direction of you and when you followed him into a convenience store, he commented on your vehicle. And the kids happen to be friends.”
Shane lifted his one hand, then dropped it to his side and lifted the other. “And on the other hand, you have a vampire who you happened upon in the middle of its kill of a girl who just happens to be related to me and your babysitter. What does one hand have to do with the other?”
“Well, for one, the kids found Natalie over two hundred miles from here,” I offered.
“So?”
“So, it’s just weird that we meet them here, the vampire kills here then the body and the boys show up in the same area so far away.”
Shane turned to Declan, “Where is the Dethstare’s parlor?”
After a pause, Declan answered with a chuckle, “Down near where the boys were, in a little town called Fallsington.”
Shane turned to me, “And this Crevan guy owns a Jeep, so I would assume he knows this area for the four-wheeling that goes on up here. Maybe the boys were friends, came up here for four wheeling, found the beach and brought Lucas his family up to check it out?”
“Maybe…” I retorted. “And finding Natalie’s body down there?”
“She lives down there.”
“She was killed up here,” I challenged.
“Right.”
Declan and Sam stayed out of thi
s rift. I stood in front of Shane waiting for something more than ’Right.’ I turned my palms up to him.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“How did Natalie, who lives over 250 miles away, end up getting killed by a vampire up here and then her body turns up back down there?”
Shane grinned, “Dunno"? Suppose we should ask the vampire.”
Declan and Sam both snickered and chuckled under their breaths.
“C’mon, Cianna,” Shane began to reason with me. “The boys didn’t kill Natalie; you saw that with your own eyes. They just found her…”
Declan chimed into my head, “Ta, Ci. It’s not the kids we are looking for, it’s the vampire. Trom, ciunaigh.”
I turned to Declan and snapped at him inaudibly, “Seriously? Calm down? Declan, I watched a vampire kill a young girl, who happened to be related to our babysitter. He scented me, which, best as I can tell means he just needs to smell the wind to find me. Bolton and his family appear out of thin air in a secluded beach. And let’s not forget Crevan was tailing me. And I’m supposed to remain calm?”
A gentle touch on my shoulder spun me around. Shane’s eyes were as tender as his hand on my shoulder, “I know how it all seems to you. You have every right to be worried. I would be too. As a matter of fact, I am worried for you and your safety, but being paranoid will only make matters worse. Take a step aside, remove yourself from the center of the turmoil and look at things from a logical view.”
“Thoil, Ci?” Declan pleaded, “Shane is right. Let’s not make a mountain out of a mole hill. Let’s put our heads together and come up with a solid game plan with first things first.”
Sam threw in his two cents worth, “Priority is to find the vampire before it kills again.”
Find the vampire…
I dwelled on these words for a few minutes.
Somehow, a calming peace replaced my unsettled feelings. Declan had lit a eucalyptus candle on the desk .The office was roomy, but cramped with all of us standing on top of each other in there. I plopped my butt down on the small sofa in front of the window. Declan took the space next to me. Sam sat on the big plush chair behind the desk. He found it comfortable to rest his feet up on the oak desk itself. Shane took refuge in the chair on the opposite side of the desk. We sat in silence; each of us churning ideas trying to figure the best way to find an elusive vampire.