by Deborah Noel
When we all arrived inside, we put all of our belongings in our individual offices and Brae took everyone down the corridor that led to our “home away from home.” Shane and Brae had worked their magic and created a home for them and even made one for Sam. Sam was touched. We spent the rest of the morning unpacking and getting all of our things in order. We met in the conference room at noon.
In the corner was a small cage made of wire that contained a piglet. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to deliver lunch to our guest.” I said.
“Surely, if you want,” Sam answered.
“Care for company?” Declan asked.
“Actually, I’d like to talk to him on my own. You can tune in if you want,” I winked at my husband.
I grabbed the pig and headed down to the holding cells.
“About time,” Remmie greeted me.
“Not so fast, sir. We need to talk first.”
“I told you all you wanted to know.”
“Well, I have a few more questions.”
The piglet squealed as I set the cage down by the silver bars. Remmie walked over to the bars, bent down and inhaled deeply. He stood and looked at me. “You smell sweet.”
I met his eyes.
“I haven’t smelled anything so sweet since my wife. And you smell more appetizing to me than this here small hog.”
I remembered Brae’s story of a person’s scent after lovemaking. I picked the pig up and walked away.
“Hey wait, where are you going?”
I spun around and looked at him. “When you are ready to be serious, I’ll be back.”
“I’m not a three-year-old here,” he hollered at me.
“Then stop acting like it.”
He was quiet for a moment. I turned back around and took a few steps toward the exit.
“All right! All right. I apologize. No more wise cracks.”
I went right up to the silver bars and narrowed my eyes. “I can make your stay with us long or short, easy or hard. Your choice. Remember that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I studied his face. There was something more to him. He looked at me for a bit, the familiar orange glow passed across his eyes, then quickly he looked away from me.
“Who was she?” I asked.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you are talking about,” he answered without meeting my eyes.
I opened the cage and released the piglet. I held the rope attached to its neck tight. The pig squealed and ran between the bars into Remmie’s cell. Remmie looked up at me. Before I could even blink, he scooped it up and bit down in its neck above the rope. The high-pitched wail of the animal was almost intolerable. I yanked hard on the rope and pulled the animal back through the bars. A trail of blood ran across the floor from both the cuts in its body from Remmie’s razor sharp grip, as well as the puncture wounds left by his fangs. The animal had become silent.
“What are you doing?” the vampire hissed at me. “You are wasting good blood.”
“I asked a question.”
He looked at me, then his meal. “Fine, but let me finish eating.”
“How can I trust you?”
His eyes began to glow darker, his fists clenched tighter. “Because I gave you my word.”
I tossed the pig back through the bars and walked into the lab. I didn’t want to watch.
Something landed with a thud against my ankle. It was the pig’s drained body. Remmie had done what I had hoped. He ate, and returned the carcass to me with his slash marks and fang prints. I pulled out the digital camera I had Sam put in the lab and took pictures. I used a ruler to show the widths and lengths of the marks. They didn’t match the fang marks on Brae’s arm.
“It was my sister first, then my wife and daughters,” the vampire hollered to me. He stayed true to his word.
I left the pig on the table and put the camera in my jacket pocket. I grabbed a chair on the way out of the lab and placed it in front of Remmie’s cell.
“I’m sorry for your loss. Thank you for keeping your word. I appreciate that.”
His eyes glazed over, and a red tear escaped. “Well, Ms. C., if nothing else, I have always been a man of my word. Thank you for respecting me enough to keep from making me tell any details I’m not quite ready to share.”
“I certainly understand. I have my own stories I prefer to keep to myself,” I answered him honestly.
He smiled at me. It was so genuine that it was hard to believe he was a murdering, bloodsucking vampire.
“So,” he paused for a second. “What are you fishing for?”
Surprised by his candor, I answered, “Information.”
He coyly grinned.
“How many people have you…” I hesitated, searching for the right word.
“Assassinated?”
I tightened my lips and nodded, “That’s as good of a word as any, I suppose.”
“More than I care to remember, or count.”
“Why?”
“Aside from the fact of needing to stay alive, the rest was for the money.”
“None for the sheer pleasure of it?”
He tilted his head, “Not yet.”
“No one for vengeance?
“You mean in retaliation for my wife and daughters?”
I nodded.
“No.”
I considered that for a moment.
“What did you do before?”
“Before I was turned?”
“Yes.”
“I was a sharpshooter in the military.”
“Makes sense, then, that you are now an assassin.”
“I’m more than an assassin. I’m also a tracker and a cleaner.”
“Cleaner?”
“I am often hired to go in and clean up the mess made by an untidy vampire. What do you really want to know, C?”
I took a deep breath and thought carefully about my answer.
“Honestly?”
He arched his eyebrows at me. “I cannot offer my help if I don’t know what it is you need help with.”
“I need to find a vampire who has killed a few people.”
“So that is why you are collecting fang bite samples. You are trying to match the imprints,” he clapped his hands together. “Brilliant idea!”
I was impressed.
He leaned closer to the bars and whispered, “I was in the military.”
I smiled, though I said nothing.
“And what do I get in exchange for my help?”
“I will help you find the party responsible for the untimely death of your wife and daughters.”
He sat back in his seat, stunned. “That was MANY years ago. And what makes you think I need help with that?”
“You would have done so already if you knew exactly who it was who did it.” I leaned in closer to the bars. “I am a detective.”
We sat quietly staring at each other.
“And my accommodations?”
“We can come to a more suitable arrangement, I’m sure.”
“Well, I can assure you that you can eliminate me as a suspect.”
I laughed despite myself.
“I haven’t killed a human here in the States.”
“But you were sent here to kill someone.”
“No, I was hired as a tracker to find someone and return with her.”
“What about your thirst?”
“I had a feast before I came here. And I’ve filled the void with animals since I arrived. I don’t have to kill anyone when I have a full menu of willing donors back at home. Besides, I’m a professional; I don’t leave a mess when I’m finished.”
“Where you ever sent here as a cleaner?”
“’Here’ as in this area?”
“Let’s say this state.”
He sat there searching his old mind. “Yes. I can remember a few times over the years. I remember a few jobs I couldn’t complete.”
“How come?”
“Authorities were too quick to get there
. I had been sent to clean up after one particular vampire for a while, then he disappeared until recently.”
I chuckled, “Let me guess, the new vampire?”
His face changed to utter surprise. “How’d you know?”
I froze. I was kidding in saying that, but to be right? My heart nearly stopped in my chest.
Remmie was standing at the bars. “What do you know about Rage?”
With wide eyes, I shook my head from left to right. “Now his name, but not much else. I was being a smartass.”
“How do you know of him then?”
I remembered what little Jondra had told me about him, “Only that he is mean, cunning, careless and horrid.”
“And where did you learn this?”
“Let’s leave it at a friend told me. Can you tell me more?”
“Not much. As messy as he is, only few have seen him, and they didn’t live long enough to tell anyone any more than how frightening he looked and how vicious he is.”
A chill ran through me. And then it hit me. I jumped up from my seat. “Please excuse me; I’ll be back in a little while.”
Without waiting for a reply, I ran upstairs to my office.
I pulled out the pictures and looked at them again. I examined the MacMartin girl’s autopsy photos. She had no fang marks. On her neck where the fang marks would have been there was a big chunk of flesh missing. It had been ripped out, destroying evidence of a vampire bite and making it look like a wolf just ripped her throat apart. Genius, for a murderer. I grabbed the photo and went back downstairs to Remmie.
I shoved the photo between the bars. “Was this one of your cleaning jobs?”
He studied the picture. “Yes,” he answered after a minute.
“Was this done at the hands of this Rage?”
“One can only assume.”
“How did you know about this? Who told you to clean it up and how did they know? How did you get there so quickly?”
“I was already in the area when I got the call. I don’t know how the caller knows. I work on anonymity. I don’t even know who places the order to clean or how they know. I get a text with a location, I go, clean and cash gets deposited into an account.”
“This girl was found a good distance from where I saw her being killed by a vampire and she was found with a wolf guarding her body.”
“That was staged, as she was a young girl.”
“And the wolf?”
“A rabid wolf I found in the woods.”
“Interesting.”
Remmie remained silent. “Wait a minute, you saw her with the vampire?”
I said nothing.
“It was you.”
I stepped backwards. “What?”
“It was your fear I smelled at the scene.”
Involuntarily my eyebrows arched in surprise. I took a few more steps away from the bars.
“Was that you?”
He snorted. “That you saw? No, ma’am. I was there to clean up the mess. The deed was done by someone else. I knew another had been there, I could smell the fear. I didn’t know what had been seen nor by who, so I staged the wolf.”
“Why so far away?” I asked before I knew I was speaking.
“I found the girl’s wallet and her school ID. I thought it would be easier on her parents.”
Quiet grew like a mold between us.
Chapter Forty-one
Remmie stood close to the bars, “What does he look like?”
“He’s the most horrifying, hideous embodiment of evil I have ever seen.” I struggled to breathe, seeing the memories of the vampire’s image play out in my mind. “Please excuse me.” I turned and left the basement.
“Tell me what he looks like,” Remmie hollered after me.
I returned upstairs. Bullet was sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for me. I could hear soft music generated by piano keys drifting softly from down the corridor. Sam was sitting at his desk with his feet propped up on its edge and a police scanner was rumbling quietly in the corner letting him know what was going on in the nearby towns. He looked up at me and poked his chin up in the air acknowledging my presence. I returned the gesture and went into my office. I still had the picture of the MacMartin girl clutched in my fist.
I tossed the photo on top of the papers in the open manila folder I used for her particular case. On the inside of the folder I wrote “Killer = Rage,” flipped it closed and pinned the entire thing on the cork board on the wall to my left. I took an empty folder and wrote “couple” on it, opened it up wrote “Killer = Rage,” and pinned that one on top of MacMartin file. The only documentation on the murdered couple was the pictures that Shane drew from seeing my recitation of what had happened. I would have to get them, copy them and put them in the folder when I saw him next.
“Whatcha thinking there, kid?” Sam asked me from the archway into my office.
“Well, Remmie is a cleaner, and while he was here looking for his subject, he was hired to clean up the two murders I witnessed.” I looked up at Sam, “He identified her when I showed him a picture.”
“And?”
“And he said he smelled my fear when he arrived on the scene.”
“And?”
I rolled my eyes. “And he was hired to clean up the other murders, but we got to the scenes before him.”
“So do you think the same vamp is responsible for them all?”
“No.”
“Care to share?”
Sam walked over to my desk. I showed him the piles of pictures and explained why I had separated them.
“Hmm,” he uttered. “But you think Remmie has more details then he’s admitting to?”
“Well, I didn’t ask him about it yet.”
Declan joined us.
“I want to take a ride tomorrow,” I said to them both.
Declan looked up, “Oh?”
“The letter with the address of where Mattie is, is at my parents’ house. We need to go get it so we can bring her home. But Jondra told me that it wasn’t safe there, that someone was waiting to ambush us. She said it would be safe in a day or so. I promised her I would wait, although it’s killing me to do so. Tomorrow should be okay.”
Declan walked over and put his arm around my shoulder. “Okay. We’ll go at daybreak.”
Sam agreed, “You would less likely encounter anyone then.”
My doubt showed on my face, “Not really, remember the power of a virgin’s blood?”
Suddenly the room went fuzzy on me and I found myself facing Remmie, bound by silver handcuffs. I was showing him pictures of the murder scenes and he was speaking about them, though I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I was looking at my computer screen at a file similar to FBI files on convicts, but what I was looking at was different vampires, along with their pictures, and vital statistics about them. Slowly things around me grew dark and I was back with Declan and Sam, both were calling out my name.
Declan rotated my chair and knelt down in front of me. “Darling, are you okay?”
I blinked my eyes then shook my head. I jumped out of my seat, nearly knocking Declan backward.
“I’m fine. Had another premonition.”
“Mattie?”
“No, Remmie.”
Both Declan and Sam looked quizzically at me.
I ran my fingers through my hair, “We were working together on cases.”
“Really?” the two of them said at the same time.
I nodded my head. “Brae said that he could help. And from listening to him earlier, his experiences as a cleaner, I know he can.”
Declan looked at me seriously, “What makes you think he will help us?”
“I have information he wants.”
That comment stunned my husband and uncle.
“He wants to know what the new vampire known as Rage looks like.”
“What makes him think you would know that?” my uncle asked before Declan could.
I walked over to the corkboard and pulled
off the two folders I had tacked there earlier, tossing them on my desk.
“Rage is responsible for these?” Declan asked.
“Remmie seems to think so.”
“How does he know you were there?”
“We were talking about his career choices, particularly him being known as a cleaner. I showed him the picture of Natalie and asked if she was one of his jobs. He admitted she was,” I stopped talking for a few seconds.
“And?”
I looked at Declan, “And he asked if it was me who had been there. He said he smelled my fear.”
Sam sat on the corner of the desk. “Is he sure that Rage is the responsible party?”
“He believes it is his work. I didn’t press the issue.”
“So what now?”
“Now we bring him up here and show him the other murder scene pictures. Ask him questions. I’ll tell him if he cooperates, I’ll show him a photo of Rage.”
Declan furrowed his eyebrows. “We don’t have any pictures of him.”
I patted his hand. “We have the closest thing.”
“And that being?”
“Shane’s drawings.”
“Nice thinking,” Sam said.
While Sam and Declan went downstairs to bring Remmie up, I jotted a bunch of questions to ask in my notebook. I planned on making a template on the laptop while Declan drove us to my parents’ house. I wanted to make sure I got information like who was the creator, the year when the vampire was changed, what they did in their human form, any family members, where they were from, and circumstances leading up to the change. I wanted to know stuff like physical description and standard height, weight, hair color, and so on. I also wanted to list typical tendencies when they killed or changed others and whys to help identify any unsolved cases in the future. Of course, I would also list previous known crimes, particularly murders.
I would talk to Sam and see if we could come up with a way to get fang imprints into the computer like fingerprints.
I went down the corridor to Shane and Brae’s new home. I knocked on the door. The wooden door slowly opened and revealed a sweet warm aroma. I stepped inside. The space was stunningly beautiful and bright. A touch of Brae’s magic, no doubt. The living room was simple, containing just a plush sofa and small oval coffee table, with two blue and two white candles burning, in the center of the room. Strings of beads hung down in two archways leading to what I assumed were the bedroom area and the kitchen area. Huge tapestries were dangling from the wall between the archways. A rather large painting of Merlin was the center of attention on the wall to my right, surrounded by framed photos of Brae and Shane themselves. Four slender tables of different heights holding crystal balls stood under the pictures. I was so taken by the splendor of the room, I hadn’t notice Brae had come to greet me.