Each of them knew their objective.
“Everything alright, Haley?” Jason asked in her ear.
Ms. Armistice folded her arms as though she had heard him.
“We’re fine,” Haley said. “We’re just waiting for the guard to come back.”
“Dino and his guys have just arrived on scene,” Jason said. “You give the word and I’ll send them in after you. I won’t wait for Kendra or Nadine’s approval.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Haley closed her eyes a moment, and immediately regretted it. The faces kept pouring in on her. All the things she should have said but didn’t. These past years had all been about her, and her training for this shady enterprise. That had been the focus. That’s where the heart had floated.
But it was only about that from one point of view. Now the glass had shifted, Haley could see those years for what they truly were.
The last with her family.
“Right this way, ladies,” the guard said upon his return. “The Count has agreed to meet with you.”
“After you,” Ms. Armistice said to Nadine.
Nadine looked at her coldly, before removing a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and placing them over her eyes.
Then she led the charge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The seats were once again facing away from the door. Haley, Nadine and Ms. Armistice sat in a semicircle around the Count’s desk, waiting for his approach. Ms. Armistice had taken the middle chair and Haley was to her right. Nadine was on the left, next to the wall.
As shadows loomed in the entrance both Ms. Armistice and Haley stood up. The Count was accompanied by a high vampiress with bluish-grey skin and shoulder length golden hair. She went to the right side of the room while the Count walked round them to stand at his desk.
“I must say I am very surprised to see you,” the Count said. “So surprised in fact that I’m going to hold off from killing you all to find out why you’re here. You can sit down.”
Haley sat down quickly while Ms. Armistice remained standing.
“We’re here to call a truce.”
“What truce?”
“I understand you may be upset with us,” Ms. Armistice explained. “But I’m sure you can appreciate the delicate nature of our investigation.”
The Count grimaced.
“We never wanted to go after your agency. We had no plans to involve you at all. We just wanted to get our man and be done with it.”
“Which is why you sent in one of your undercovers to take photos in here? Which is why we’ve been under surveillance ever since we opened?”
“Alright,” Ms. Armistice said bitterly. “We wanted you brought down. Getting rid of vampires is in the best interest of humans. At least from our organizations point of view.”
“There. You said it.”
“But that’s not what tonight’s been about. All we wanted – all we still want is for the murderer to be caught and then brought to justice.”
“As I said to your agents earlier,” the Count responded, “I would have been more than happy to help with your investigation had you approached me directly. But this is of course … too little, too late.”
“What is there to be gained by you for continuing to be at war with us?” Ms. Armistice argued. “The truce I propose has been cleared with the top people in our organization. We will cease all future investigations and surveillance of your agency. We will back off completely once we have the killer in custody. To continue to be at war with us is madness. You’ll just make yourself a bigger target the longer it goes on.”
“Would you like to see her, Kendra?”
Ms. Armistice’s body shuddered. “What – who do you mean? See who?”
“You always were cold. Unfeeling. You were less alive than she was. Perhaps even less alive than she is now.”
Ms. Armistice turned. She looked back to the doorway. “I don’t need to see her.”
“You don’t want to? Are you afraid?”
She turned back. “Would you prefer we talked in private then? Is that how we can sort this mess out?”
“I think … you should see her.”
The Count stepped around the side of the desk.
He turned to the vampiress. “Keep an eye on these two.”
“Shall do,” she murmured.
The Count stepped out towards the doorway, waiting for Ms. Armistice.
She reluctantly joined him.
They left.
“Be careful,” Jason said in Haley’s ear as the vampiress slunk around the sides of the room. “Don’t take your eyes off her.”
“Don’t worry,” Haley replied. “I won’t.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Kendra Armistice had reached her mind’s end. Her shoes were taken off, and soft socks drifted across the cold and bitter concrete ground. Arianne’s body was lying in the centre of a circle of candles with purple flames. The Count stood outside of it in the shadows of the room.
Kendra stepped over the candles.
“Take all the time you need,” the Count said quietly.
Kendra looked over the body.
Arianne’s eyes were open. Dead. Empty. Lifeless.
Regardless of her transformation, she should still have appeared to be a young woman, but her hair was unnaturally white. Her bones were visible around her shoulders. Her jawline.
Even her eye-sockets.
A diet of blood had thinned her out.
“So much for eternity then,” Kendra remarked.
“She deserved longer,” the Count replied.
Kendra looked up towards him. “I suppose you blame me.”
“I do.”
“Then it is reciprocated.”
“What?”
“This happened under your watch, not mine.”
“My watch…?”
“She chose to follow you, did she not?”
The Count paused. “If Arianne was here I’m sure she’d relay the events differently.”
“How so?”
“I believe the story revolves around her mother. The mother who walked out on her.”
“She could have found a place in my family. Either she, or Annabel. Something could have been worked out. But she chose you. They both did.”
The Count stepped forward. He stood just outside the circle.
“When you look at me,” the Count asked, “who do you see?”
Kendra’s eyes closed a little. His presence merged with the purple light.
“I don’t see anything,” Kendra whispered.
“What happened, that you would hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you. I don’t ‘anything’ you. You’re not even on my radar.”
“You lie.”
His hand reached for hers over the flames.
“Can’t you feel me? Can’t you recognize I’m here with you?”
“What do you propose?”
Their fingers interlocked.
“Maybe we could get through this,” the Count said. “The truce between us. Maybe we could set our differences aside and work together.”
“As a team?”
“As a family.”
Kendra’s fingers slipped away. She crouched on the floor beside Arianne.
“I have a family,” Kendra said.
“But you don’t love them, do you?”
Kendra stared into the eyes of her dead child. “No. I don’t.”
“Your place is beside me, Kendra,” the Count said. “I have sent for Annabel. She will join us soon. It will be like it was before. Better even. You know in your heart this is your destiny.”
Kendra put her soft hand to Arianne’s cold forehead.
Images flashed in her mind.
She was falling.
Falling away…
The Count stepped over the candles.
“I need you, Kendra. If I am to continue here. If I am to get through this. You’ll make
me sane again. You’ll take the venom underneath my lips, and neutralize all.”
Kendra’s hand moved down from the forehead.
“Who do you think the killer is?”
“Killer? Which one?”
“The one who threw that girl over the balcony tonight. Who murdered fifteen others. Who somehow found their way to Haley Watkins’s house, and slaughtered her mother and brother?”
“I don’t know,” the Count said. “Why are you asking me?”
Kendra ripped the stake out from Arianne’s heart. “Because I think it was you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Vampiress was whispering to the guard at the door. Haley leaned back in her chair anxiously trying to hear what was being said. Once the exchange was completed, the Vampiress shut the door and moved back to the front of the room.
“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” the Vampiress said. “I’m Lady Thessalia. My blood is of the old.” She leaned against the desk, facing Haley. “You must be quite lethal then, mustn’t you? Taking on Madame Nightshade will not have been a small task.”
“You don’t seem that wary of her,” Nadine spoke up beside Haley.
Thessalia glanced at her. “Wary? No. I don’t wish her any harm. She has no reason to attack me.”
“But she could if she wanted to,” Nadine insisted.
“I’m sure she could…”
Haley looked at both of them. “Madame Nightshade attacked me first. I was only defending myself.”
Thessalia shrugged. “Murder is murder. And an excuse is just an excuse.”
“Might I ask you a couple of questions, Lady Thessalia?” Nadine said coldly.
“You may.”
“As I’m sure you’re aware, we’re searching for a killer vampire. It’s what’s brought us here.”
“Well, I doubt you’ll be disappointed,” Thessalia laughed.
“We’re after one in particular,” Nadine continued. “And we’ve narrowed the field to two major suspects.”
“Go on.”
“The caper tonight was to send our new recruit, Haley Watkins, in disguised as the typical woman-seeking-vampire. Dressed up to match likenesses with the victims.”
“I see. And you’d already figured out by then that the killer was present here tonight.”
“It was a strong possibility. Two vampires tried to court Haley, thus taking the bait. As Haley has herself explained to me, she has struck a friendship with one of them, going by the name Brock Ferns.”
Thessalia nodded.
“Which leaves the second vampire, Cyrus Rance, as our lead suspect.”
“Hmm.”
“Have you met with Mr. Rance before?”
“He and his cousin Edmond – they’re fairly well known.”
“And what is their reputation?”
“They’re rich. Sophisticated. Deadly … perhaps.”
“You don’t know if they’re still here do you?”
“I saw Cyrus earlier. But that may have been a couple of hours ago.”
“There was a phone,” Haley said.
“What?” Nadine replied.
“He gave me a green phone. It had his number or something on it. I was supposed to call him when I was ready to join his party.”
“What happened to the phone?”
“I lost it. It must have been … before I was on the roof with Jason…”
The door suddenly burst open.
It was Kendra. Her chest was covered in blood.
“What the fuck happened?” Thessalia demanded, jumping from the desk. “Where’s the Count?”
“Haley, I’m sorry,” Kendra gasped, red seeping from her lips.
She fell to her knees and Haley went to her.
She grabbed Haley’s arms. “There will be no truce…”
Her eyes closed and she slumped over.
“No!” Thessalia shouted, pushing her back down. “What have you done?”
Haley stood up, adrenalin rushing down her spine.
The Vampiress on the floor looked up at her, an evil grin crossing her lips. Her pupils rolled over and the whites turned red.
“Raarrrgh!” Thessalia hissed, lashing out up from the ground.
But before she’d come anywhere near Haley, Nadine had taken her by the throat and pushed her up against the wall.
“Get out of here,” Nadine shouted at Haley.
“Wait just a minute,” Haley pleaded. “What are you –?”
The menace in Thessalia’s eyes had shriveled up and gone.
She pitifully lunged at Nadine, trying to defend herself.
Nadine grabbed a clump of Thessalia’s hair with her free hand, and ripped her head clean off.
“Oh – yuck!” Haley bawled.
She staggered away towards the open door.
“Not that way, you idiot,” Nadine hissed at her.
“Huh?”
Haley turned back just as Nadine was launching Thessalia’s head through the window.
“This way!”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The head only did half the work. Nadine shoved her fist into the middle of the glass frame and punched out all the remaining jagged edges.
Haley watched her, cringing. It was as if the woman felt no pain.
“Are you coming?” Nadine demanding grabbing hold of her.
“What about Ms. Armistice?”
“Are you blind? She’s fucking dead. We got to get out of here before the Count comes back.”
Haley nodded. She moved to the edge of the window and peered down. There was some roofing a few feet down.
“Do you want to go first?” Nadine asked. “Or shall I?”
“What about the phone?” Haley said suddenly.
“What phone?”
“The one Cyrus gave me. I think I know where it is.”
Gunfire.
Outside the window before them.
Dino’s men were storming the agency.
“Where is it?” Nadine asked.
“It’s on this floor. I can show us the way.”
Nadine thought a moment.
Then she tilted her shades forward.
“Duck!” Nadine shouted pushing Haley down.
She collapsed just in time as bullets rained into the window adjacent. Haley covered her head as the glass came down, shattering over her.
“Thanks,” Haley breathed.
She looked up to find Nadine no longer there.
As Haley got back to her knees she discovered Nadine on the floor by the doorway, tackling a guard near Kendra’s body.
The gun spilled away within Haley’s reach.
“Shoot him!” Nadine yelled, holding the man down. “Shoot him in the face!”
Haley scooped up the firearm and pointed it towards the guy’s head. He wasn’t struggling anymore. He seemed afraid.
Another man carrying a shotgun then appeared behind Nadine.
The man looked at Haley bewildered.
Then they both pointed their weapons at each other at the same time.
Haley fired first.
The gun fell from his hands as he toppled backwards, and within moments Nadine had secured it as her own.
“Wait,” Haley pleaded with her. “Don’t –”
She blew the guy’s face off.
“Come on,” she cried grabbing Haley’s arm.
Haley allowed herself to be pulled outside the study, soon face to face with the corridor leading to the room she hooked up with Brock in.
A couple more guards rushed to the top of the stairs – Nadine having no trouble icing both with her new friend the shotgun.
“Where to?” she asked Haley cynically.
“Okay,” Haley nodded. “Down here.”
She backed away down the corridor half clutching her pistol, while Nadine covered them.
Haley made her way to the blue colored door at the back, reaching for the handle. “It’s locked,” she said after her attempt failed. She banged l
oudly on the door. “Brock? Are you in there?”
Nadine aimed her shotgun at the door’s lock and blew it off. She kicked in what was left of the door.
“Okay…” Haley murmured.
Nadine didn’t wait for her.
Haley followed in behind, searching around for any sign of Brock. They moved round to the bedroom, where Haley’s handbag and its belongings were still spilled out across the bed.
Nadine picked up the green phone. “This it?”
“Yep.”
Nadine tossed it to her. “You better hold onto it then.”
Haley clumsily caught the phone. “Thanks.”
She tucked it away into her pocket.
“Where does that balcony lead?” Nadine said nodding to the glass door on the opposite side of the bed. “Have you been out there?”
“I don’t think –” Haley began.
Haley stopped herself as Nadine physically shuddered, whilst peering over Haley’s shoulder.
Behind her, she felt something cold radiating.
As though an ice-chest had been pried open just above her neck.
A clawed hand took hold of her shoulder.
She turned and saw it was the Count.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Haley’s knees buckled. The Count’s cold grasp forced her to the floor as his nostrils flared with delight.
Nadine pumped her shotgun and aimed it at the Count from the other side of the bed.
He glanced at her, a thick rasp exhaling through his teeth. “Please.”
Nadine blinked. “Okay.” She tossed the shotgun aside. “Don’t hurt her. Let’s talk. Let’s make a deal.”
“There are no deals,” the Count stated. “There is no truce. Kendra is dead.”
“You can deal with me,” Nadine said. “I’m higher up than she was anyway.”
“Ssshh…” the Count murmured. “You hear that? Listen.”
Haley’s ears drifted outside the room.
People were screaming.
“The innocent and guilty die tonight,” the Count said. “Vampires and Humans. Victims and Killers.”
“Anything,” Nadine insisted. “Anything you want, Julian.”
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