It was the only place in the house where they had an analog clock; the others—on the microwave, on the stove, on the cable box, and in Dallas’s room—were digital.
Kenzie set her workbook on the coffee table and got up stiffly. Her movements were always a little stiff, another telltale sign of autism, Dallas had been told. “Yes.”
“So you’ll know when Aedan is coming?” Dallas asked. “That’s why you want to know?”
Kenzie led the way to the kitchen.
Dallas set the laundry basket down inside the kitchen doorway and walked over to the wall where she’d hung a simple black-and-white clock she’d picked up years ago at a rummage sale. She’d always liked the simplicity of it. “See the six?”
Kenzie stood solemnly in front of her mother and nodded. Today she was wearing a Disney Cars T-shirt.
“It will be six o’clock when the little hand is on the six and the big hand is on the twelve.”
Kenzie stared up at the clock for so long that Dallas reached over her head and took it off the wall, bringing it closer to her daughter. Kenzie silently put her finger on the six and then the twelve. She knew her numbers; it was the concept of time she had difficulty with. Dallas could feel her heart beating in her chest. Kenzie’s movement was a simple gesture, but somehow, it felt like a breakthrough.
Dallas held her breath as Kenzie touched the glass over the little hand and pretended to move it until it was precisely over the six. Then she did the same with the longer hand, making a wider sweeping motion.
“That’s it!” Dallas said. “You’ve got it.”
“Can we wait for him?” Kenzie deadpanned.
“For Aedan? Sure.” Dallas chuckled as she hung the clock back on the wall. “He’s making dinner for us. French fries and cauliflower, remember? We won’t get our dinner if we don’t wait for him.”
“No.” Kenzie shook her head. “Can we watch?” She pointed to the clock. “Wait.”
“You want to stand here and watch the clock until Aedan comes?” Dallas glanced over her shoulder at the laundry basket.
Kenzie nodded. “I want to wait for Aedan. Aedan has to get the bad man.”
Dallas caught her daughter’s hand and crouched beside her, looking into her face, even though Kenzie wouldn’t look into hers. That was a lot of words strung together at one time for her.
“Kenzie, you have to tell me about this bad man. You’re starting to scare Mommy.”
“Aedan knows.” Kenzie stared at the clock. “Six.”
Fortunately for Dallas, Aedan was right on time. She buzzed him in through the rear, downstairs door that would let him into the kitchen, then opened the door into the apartment for him at the top of the stairs. She carried the laundry basket on her hip.
“Hey,” Aedan said, leaning down to kiss her on the cheek. He was carrying cloth sacks of groceries in both hands.
“Hey,” she echoed. “Kenzie’s in the kitchen waiting for you.” She motioned with a tilt of her head. “She’s watching the clock. She wanted me to show her how to tell time so she would know when you would be here. She can’t tell time, Aedan.”
He closed the door behind him. “That’s great news, then. Right?”
“Yeah, it is. Her teachers will be pleased.” Dallas remained standing in the hall instead of leading him to the kitchen . . . or heading for panty cleanup duty. “Aedan . . .” She lowered her voice. “Kenzie has mentioned to me a couple of times now that there’s a bad man.”
He didn’t say anything, which worried her a little.
“Do you know who she’s talking about? A bad man, who she’s afraid of?”
“Dallas,” he said quietly. “There are a lot of bad men in this world.”
“I know. But she seems to think you know who she’s talking about.”
He was quiet, and Dallas went on. “It doesn’t make sense. I don’t allow her to have contact with strangers. There are just her teachers. She’s better than me at controlling—” She stopped and then went on, glancing up at him. “You don’t think she could be talking about one of her teachers, do you? Could there be a bad man at school, maybe? But that doesn’t make any sense either,” she went on, thinking aloud. “Because all of her teachers are women.”
“What did she say about this bad man?” he asked quietly.
“She won’t give me any details. I don’t know that she knows any.” She chewed on her lower lip. “That case you’re working on . . . the guy who attacked those two women?”
“Yeah?”
“You don’t know who he is, do you? I mean, I know that sometimes cops know somebody’s a criminal but they don’t have enough evidence to arrest him. Is it someone . . . living near here?”
“We don’t know who the attacker is.”
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” she asked.
“About something like this?” He met her gaze earnestly. “No, Dallas. We don’t know who attacked those women, but there are several men and women on the case, both on the state police force and privately.”
“Like you. A private investigator?” she asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Of course you’re not.” She frowned. “Exactly how does a vampire find himself in the private investigation business?”
“Long story. And I’ve got vanilla ice cream melting.” He held up one of the bags.
“Right.” She took a step back. “Well, I’m just giving you a heads-up, in case she starts talking crazy about a bad man. It could just be something in her head. Just before we moved to Delaware, she became adamant that there was a bad dog. I ended up going door-to-door, looking for this pit bull she was afraid of. Turned out, she’d been talking about a picture of a dog she saw at school that scared her.” Dallas turned and went down the hallway. “She’s in the kitchen. You better go find her. She’s probably getting tired of standing in front of that clock.” She passed the kitchen door. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll be in.”
Aedan stepped into the kitchen. Sure enough, Kenzie was standing ramrod straight in front of a wall that sported a big, black-and-white, old school clock. “Hey, Kenzie,” he said aloud.
Aedan, she telepathed.
Let’s use words so your mom doesn’t get worried, he suggested as he put the groceries down on the counter.
But what if I want to tell you something I don’t want her to hear?
Aedan noted that the little girl spoke much better telepathically than she did aloud. About what? The bad man?
The bad man, she echoed in his head. She still stood facing the clock, her back to Aedan.
Honey, your mom’s a little worried. Where is this bad man? Can you tell me so I can go talk to him?
I don’t know where he is. He’s outside. He watches. He watches you? Us? Aedan telepathed. He set some items on the counter, others in the fridge or freezer.
He watches ladies.
Aedan walked over to Kenzie, remembering not to touch her; Dallas said that made her uncomfortable. He crouched beside her so they were eye level, even though the little girl wouldn’t turn to look at him. “What makes you say that, Kenzie?” he said quietly. “How do you know about this bad man?”
I don’t know, she responded telepathically, then out loud, “French fries.” She walked away.
Aedan knew when he was being dismissed. He set the temperature for the oven, glancing over his shoulder at Kenzie as she left the kitchen.
Did the little girl somehow have some connection with Jay? Was that who she was talking about? But that was impossible, wasn’t it? How could she? Maybe Dallas was right. Maybe the “bad man” was similar to the “bad dog” at school. It was just a coincidence, and Aedan was reading too much into things. He felt too much guilt over too many issues. Peigi said it was a Catholic thing. Aedan thought it was more a vampire thing. He looked for evil in every shadow, but the truth was that sometimes there was nothing there but the shadow.
“Heard you were looking for me.” Kaleigh perched besi
de Aedan on the bumper of his car.
He was parked in a gravel lot on the edge of the federal game reserve that bordered Clare Point. Kahill vampires didn’t need to feed often. Once or twice a month. Because the blood of humans had been prohibited since shortly after their arrival in the New World, they’d had to get creative. They were permitted to drink from other vampires, but due to the sexual nature of those encounters, they’d needed a more practical, less personal way. They’d begun feeding on deer, and the system had evolved over the years. With their surreptitious connections in Washington, D.C., they’d managed to have the Clare Point forest declared a national wildlife refuge, protecting the area from sale and development. The Kahills cared for the wildlife on the reserve and fed on them to keep themselves nourished. They could feed on the deer without killing them.
“Going for a run?” Kaleigh asked when Aedan, lost in his thoughts, didn’t answer. Going for a run was a euphemism for feeding. The tricky thing about drinking blood from deer was that you had to catch them first.
“Thinking about it.”
She studied him in the fading light. “When was the last time you fed? You’re looking a little peaked.”
He half smiled.
“You know,” she said, “if you wanted to talk to me, you could have called me on my cell or texted me. Hell, we’re telepathic. You could have shot me a message.” She drew her finger from her temple outward as if shooting lightning bolts from her brain. “You didn’t need to keep asking people where I was. Asking my mom, who then tracked me down at Katy’s.”
“I ran into her at the mini-mart,” he defended himself. “How was I supposed to know you were skipping school again? You’re supposed to be in school,” he admonished her.
She shrugged. “Senioritis. Cut me a break. I’m third in my class.”
“Not valedictorian?” he asked.
“Nah. You know how it is. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself. No one likes it when a vampire beats out humans in a race for the top.”
Aedan stared straight ahead, into the tree line. It was an ancient forest, once occupied by the Lenni Lenape Indians, thousands of years ago. Intersected by game paths, it was made up of both deciduous and coniferous trees: pin oak and poplar, longleaf and loblolly pine. Along the edge, here, scraggly holly bushes and ragweeds grew. He could hear a rabbit or something creeping around in the brush.
“I know you’re pretty familiar with our library,” he started. “I heard that the text you found to save Lia’s soul last summer was pretty obscure.”
“I had this feeling that there was a precedent. It was just a matter of finding it in all those old books.” She plucked ChapStick from her jeans pocket and rubbed it over her lips. “It makes me freakin’ crazy that I have to relearn this crap every single life cycle. I mean, I’m the wisewoman, right? Shouldn’t I get—”
“Favors?” he suggested.
“Exactly.” She punched him none too gently. “Favors from God. That’s exactly what I deserve.” She tucked the grape-smelling ChapStick back into her pocket. “So what do you need from the library?”
“I was wondering if you could dig around for some information for me.” With the arrival of darkness came the evening insect song. A bullfrog croaked somewhere in the distance. Over the centuries, Aedan felt as if he had become a city boy. It was where most serial criminals lurked; it was where he spent most of his time, tracking them. But it always felt good to come home and experience the earthiness of the forest, the seashore, and the wetlands that dotted the area.
“Okaaay.” She drew out the word, encouraging him to go on.
He pressed both hands to the tops of his thighs. He was getting antsy. Things were going great with Dallas. Despite hesitation on both their parts, they were seeing a lot of each other. Aedan was enjoying getting to know her and her daughter.
It was Jay who was worrying him. It had been two weeks since his attack on Maria Tolliver. Something was up, and with every passing day, Aedan became more worried. He hadn’t been able to get anything else out of Kenzie about the bad man. Dallas had inquired at her daughter’s school, and the guidance counselor had confirmed that Kenzie didn’t really have any contact with any males in her small circle of teachers and assistants.
Jay had another month before he’d go dormant again, if he followed his previous pattern. So where the hell was he? Why hadn’t he attacked again?
“Where’s who?” Kaleigh asked.
Aedan frowned. “I forget that I can’t just put up any old wall with you. It’s gotta be brick and mortar.” He glanced at her. “Didn’t your mother teach you it was rude to listen in, uninvited, on other people’s thoughts?”
“She did. What she didn’t tell me was that people would come to me all the time asking for my help, but I’d have to drag the details out of them.”
He chuckled. “It’s this case I’m on. Jay. He’s attacked two women in the Rehoboth Beach area. I’m sure it’s him. He’s left his signature. Literally.”
“This is the creep you’ve chased before. The one who signs his name in women’s flesh.”
“An initial. J.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“So, if it’s the same guy, which I’m assuming it is, in a month he’ll disappear, and he won’t prey on humans again for another fifty years.”
“And you’ll be a teen again or toothless, so it will be a hundred years before you have a chance to catch him again, and you might be using a cane by then.”
Aedan didn’t care for the cane remark, but she got the point. “I was wondering if there’s some record of crazy, weird creatures we don’t encounter often. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill vampire, werewolf, or zombie. It’s got some kind of serious hibernation clause in its contract. Could be a shifter of some sort, but I don’t know about that.”
“He appears as human, not as an animal or a creature?” Kaleigh questioned, thinking.
“Every woman describes him as a man, but the descriptions are vague; they rarely get a good look at him. I don’t know what this son of a bitch is, but I need to catch him, Kaleigh, this time around.”
She was quiet for a minute, and he left her to her thoughts, in the hope she might be digging up something from the dregs of her mind.
“You sure you’re not too close to this?” she asked, finally.
He glanced over to meet her gaze. She was a pretty girl who was no longer really a girl, but a young woman. She was one of those women whose beauty truly shone from within. “I don’t know what you mean. Of course not.”
“You do know what I mean. I haven’t forgotten about Madeleine, and I know you haven’t either.”
He was quiet for a minute. “He did kill Madeleine, but not because of me. It was a coincidence. A bad one. I was in her town following up on another case. Jay happened to see her and . . .” He stopped and started again. “It was after he killed Madeleine that he appeared on our radar.”
“I think you’re pushing your luck here a little, buddy, but okay.”
“So you’ll see what you can find out?” He stood. “There’s probably nothing there, but just in case.” He slipped out of his leather jacket and tossed it into the car through the open window. He’d be too hot in it in the woods.
“So you are going for a run?” she asked.
“I think so. You want to go with?” he asked, sort of hoping she wouldn’t want to. It was only polite to invite another vampire along, when you crossed his or her path in the forest. The hunting went faster. Cleaner. But he really felt like he wanted to be alone.
“Nah, I already ate this week.” She jumped up off the bumper. “I’ll let you know if I find anything. Be safe.”
“Always,” he called over his shoulder as he took off into the forest, his fangs bared.
Chapter 17
“Fancy meeting you here.” Dallas stood behind the bar in her usual uniform of the evening: jeans, black T, and little white apron around her hips, with the string tied in the fro
nt in a bow.
“It’s only been a couple of days. I had stuff to do. Family stuff.” Like keeping my aunt from killing her teenage husband . . . or herself. “If you gave me your cell number like a normal woman, I could call you and tell you when I’m coming. I could even ask you out. Like on a date. You could even have my phone number.”
“A normal woman?” She arched a brow. “Is that what you’re looking for?” Her tone was sarcastic, but she was glad to see him.
“What’s a man have to do to get a Guinness around here?”
She grabbed a clean pilsner glass and pulled back the lever on the tap. She studied the rubber mat on the bar rather than looking him in the eye. He realized then that something was up. This wasn’t their usual evening, pre-sex banter.
“Kenzie’s been asking for you. She brought a picture she drew in school home today.”
“Did she?” he asked, genuinely interested. He knew he couldn’t . . . shouldn’t get attached to Dallas. The same went for the little girl, but he couldn’t help it. Her disability didn’t bother him; he liked Kenzie. As for her quirks, he just thought they made her different. A more interesting soul.
“A picture of her standing between me and a guy wearing a black leather jacket and a crucifix around his neck,” she intoned. “Stick figures, but a lot of detail: our blond hair, the boardwalk with the ocean behind it. Her Transformers T-shirt.”
“Really?”
“It’s the first time she’s ever drawn a self-portrait. Her teacher called to tell me it was a breakthrough.”
“That’s wonderful news.”
“It is,” Dallas agreed, setting the glass in front of him.
Aedan took a sip of cool beer; it went down well. “So why don’t you look happier?”
“When the teacher asked Kenzie who the man was, she actually answered. She told her you were her daddy.”
Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5) Page 18