Playing With Vampires - An Izzy Cooper Novel (11 page)

Monday morning was more like Sunday for me. I’d made arrangements to go in late so that I could catch up on some yard work. By mid morning, the air was starting to warm up. Setting the rake down, I tilted my face to the sun and took a minute to relish the feeling of it on my skin.

It had been so long since I’d taken time just to enjoy life. I was pulled out of my moment of relaxation by the sound of a car door shutting. Stepping around to the front of the house, I saw a black car parked on the street. I recognized the guy walking toward me as one of Jasper’s employees. Rod was basically Jasper’s left hand man, and had his head inserted so far up his behind, I was surprised the guy could see well enough to put one foot in front of the other.

Like usual, he was wearing sunglasses so dark, it was difficult to see what his shifty eyes were doing.

He gave me a curt nod. “Miss Cooper.”

“That’s me.”

Mister Redding wanted me to extend an invitation to you for dinner tonight. At his estate on the mainland.”

“Is that so?” I gave him a cold smile. “Well you can tell Mister Redding that eating glass at the local garbage dumb is preferable.”

Nodding, Rod strode away. Getting back in his big black car, he hit the gas hard and was gone.

What nerve!

Did he really think he could just send his goon over here and basically command me to have dinner with him?

My mood was completely ruined. Sighing, I decided to call it quits for the day. Before heading into the office. I decided to make me a bologna and cheese sandwich. About two bites into my sandwich, my phone rang. It was Annabelle.

“Hey little sister,” I answered.

“Izzy, are you working today?” she asked.

“Well kind of. I’m not at work yet, but getting ready to go that way.”

“Do you think you could give me a hand tonight? I need to start getting the Sandcastle in order. Right now I’m doing basic clean up and decorating. Nick has to tend the Sandbar so he can’t help me,” she explained.

For a brief instant, I felt this strange kind of foreboding settle over me, but I brushed it off, along with Elias’s warning. “I think I can swing that. I’ll probably be at work for a few hours, but after that I’m free.”

“Great. I’m headed over there now. Just show up when you’re ready.”

Sliding my phone in the back pocket of my jeans, I finished my sandwich and contemplated seeing Dupree again, now that I knew who he really was.

* * *

“Generous of you to grace us with your presence,” Ayden grumbled when I walked through the door.

“Oh no way boss man,” I came back on him. “Most of the time I’m on duty seven days a week. I need some personal time to clean up around the house.”

I must have made my point pretty good because he didn’t seem to want to push it.

“We have a profile now,” Tim informed me.

“It’s about time. What’s been going on with you guys? You usually have one long before now.”

Tim switched on the large TV screen hanging on the wall. “There was something I couldn’t quite pinpoint with this guy, but I think we have it down now.”

Tim pointed at a list on the screen. “This is what we have so far. Victims are blitz attacked, and we are seeing a high degree of psychopathology exhibited at the crime scenes. There has been no evidence of sexual assault, which of course doesn’t rule out these killings being sexually motivated. There are also fang marks noted on a couple of the victims. Little if any blood at the scenes. We are seeing postmortem mutilation and organ removal, but no torture. We believe the victims are selected on the basis of accessibility. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Sounds about right so far,” I said, setting my on the go coffee mug on my desk.

“Okay, here is where it gets strange,” Tim said, changing the screen to another profile. “Here is the FBI profile for Jack the Ripper. It is almost exactly the same. They profiled the subject to be in his mid twenties to mid thirties, white male with average intelligence. He has probably never been married, and tends to roam the streets at night, obviously. Our subject blends into the area, so he lives or works on Anchor, or close by.”

“We already figured most of this out, and it doesn’t surprise me that there are some similarities, considering they are both serial killers,” I added.

“True, but the victims are almost the same too. Each victim has the first name of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, and their last name starts with the same letter as the corresponding victim.”

Now it was Ayden’s turn to step in. “There are some differences with these victims, but I spent a couple days studying the autopsy reports and original photos of the victims, and there are a lot of similarities. I sent the autopsy reports to DC and according to their report … the wounds are almost identical. They could have been made by the same person.”

So at this point I was lost. My coworkers were obviously trying to pin these murders on Jack the Ripper, but that was impossible.

Looking from Ayden to Tim, I asked, “So am I getting this right? You actually think that our perp is Jack the Ripper himself, though he’s long dead?”

“Unless the Ripper is a vampire,” Ayden put in.

“But is there any indication of that with the original murders?” I asked, still not buying it.

“They probably weren’t looking for anything related to vampires,” Tim said, as the picture on the screen changed to Ripper victim, Elizabeth Stride. “Although their throats were cut, there was very little blood at the scene. That seems a little fishy to me.”

“Well if this is true, it might actually explain the ghost I saw on the ferry. Do you have pictures of the other victims?”

As Tim pushed the button on the remote, photos of dead women flipped across the screen.

“Stop!” I jumped up from my chair. “I think that’s her. That’s the ghost I saw.”

“That would be Annie Chapman.”

“Okay … suppose you’re right, and we do have Jack the Ripper stalking the streets of Storm Cove. The victimology isn’t the same at all, his victims were prostitutes, where as the recent victims are random. They are different ages, and we have one witch, and another who was a wolf, and even just a regular woman on the mainland.”

Ayden started pacing the floor. “That’s one thing that kind of had me stumped too, but there is always the possibility that in both cases, the victims are just at the wrong place. His first victims may have been prostitutes simply because they were easy targets at the time.”

Ayden’s theory made sense. In Victorian England, most respectable women weren’t roaming the streets in the middle of the night.

“Okay, so suppose our vampire is Jack the Ripper? How do we catch him?”

“Sheriff Bourne is already putting on extra patrols. We are investigating any newcomers to the area. Other than that, there isn’t much we can do,” Ayden explained.

We were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“The door is open,” Tim called.

A boy in a Posy Floral Shop uniform stepped through the door, carrying a dozen roses. “I have a delivery for an Izzy Cooper.”

“That would be me,” I said, lifting my hand.

The boy handed me the flowers and left.

Tim smiled. “So Izzy has an admirer.”

“Well roses are better than body parts,” I said, pulling out the card.

I must have been frowning because Ayden caught on pretty quick that something was wrong.

“You okay?”

I nodded. “They are from my ex. I just can’t get him to understand that I am not interested.”

“Well you could always get a restraining order against him,” Tim said.

I nodded. “I could, but I don’t know how much good it will do. He’s never actually been that much of a law-abiding citizen to begin with.”

Ayden dropped a folder on my desk. “This is your list of people to check out. Find out all you can about them, especially how long they’ve been in the area. Red flag anyone who seems to have just popped in out of nowhere and has no background to speak of.”

By the time I managed to break away from work, the sun was sinking into the Pacific and the fog was already starting to gather around the island.

The Mystique Island Public Works had done a good job smoothing access through the cemetery and Luna Road. At least now it was drivable. No doubt Dupree was going to insist on having it paved, and maybe even clearing another entrance from the east side, one that didn’t require a trip through the cemetery. Hopefully when they did, they would also put in a few more streetlights.

With only one light at the cemetery entrance, the road was way too dark for my liking. At the back of the cemetery, I found that the gate to Luna Road was closed, blocking access.

Well that was great. Now how was I supposed to get to the resort?

Putting Lady Luck in park, I sat there staring at the gate for a few minutes. It dawned on me that the gate was closed, but the padlock was gone.

So all I would have to do is get out and open it.

Leaving the safety of my car wasn’t something I was thrilled about. I hated cemeteries in full daylight, let alone on a dark - foggy night. Biting at my bottom lip, I was half tempted to call Annabelle and cancel on her, but I couldn’t do that. My sister was so independent, and she rarely asked for anything. It would suck to not show when she did ask for help.

Sighing, I got out of the car and started toward the gate, making sure to stay within the beam of the headlights. As I pushed the gate open, it squeaked in protest. The sound made me cringe a little. Not so much because it was harsh on the ears, but because I imagined the sound was loud enough to wake the dead.

For someone who could see and talk to dead people, I was definitely a wuss when it came to dark cemeteries.

Suddenly Lady Luck’s engine was no longer idling. Before that fact could fully sink in, I got another surprise.

“You are so beautiful in this setting.” A voice came from somewhere behind me.

The intrusion was so unexpected that I actually screamed. That was something I hadn’t done in a long time, with the exception of running into that spook on the ferry.

Turning back to my car, I saw Zane Dupree half leaning - half sitting on the hood, with his arms folded across his chest.

“What are you doing sneaking up on people like that?” I asked, a shrill tone to my voice.

Backlit by the headlights, his blond - wavy hair almost appeared to be a halo.

What a strange thought.

Even if he wasn’t our killer, Dupree was probably as far as you could get from an angel.

He stood up and started walking in my direction. Trying to keep some distance between us, I took a few steps back.

“I was out for a walk and saw your headlights,” he explained, his lips spreading into a devious smile.

“Well thanks for the personal greeting, but I’m kind of in a hurry. I was on my way to help my sister.” I tried to step around him, but he moved to block me.

“I thought that you and I might talk,” he said in a low - seductive voice.

My eyes locked with his and suddenly I felt myself being pulled into those swirling pools of blue-gray fire. He smelled so good, like aftershave and spice.

He’s getting to you already. My head was suddenly filled with Julius’s laughter.

Although annoying, it did help to break the spell Zane had been in the process of weaving.

“Another time maybe. Like I said, I’m in a hurry.” Again I tried to step around him, but he still managed to get in front of me.

Zane shook his head. “You are a stubborn one Izzy Cooper, but still you have to know … you won’t leave here unless I allow it. Besides, I have your keys,” he informed me, holding up my keys so I could see them.

Now I was mad. Putting my hands on my hips, I glared at him. “Do you realize that I am an FBI agent? I could arrest you for this.”

He shrugged. “You could try.”

He had a point. Even if I had my pistol with me, it wouldn’t have done me a smidgen of good. Zane Dupree was bullet proof, so to speak.

With all the vampire problems we’d had lately, it was time I started carrying some kind of weapon that would actually work against the undead.

“What do you want?” I asked, since it was obvious he wasn’t going to let me go without a fight.

“Just to talk … maybe get to know each other better.” He leaned so close to me that I imagined I could actually feel waves of sexual energy emanating from him.

“The only reason I would have to talk to you, would be if I were questioning you in relation to a crime, and then I would probably take you into town to the sheriff’s office.” I hoped I sounded tough enough to put him off.

No such luck. He actually seemed amused. “You are an intriguing woman, Izzy. I think I would like to play a game with you.”

“Really?” I rolled my eyes. “Do you think I have nothing better to do?”

Ignoring me, he went on. “Let’s play hide and seek. I’ll hide and you seek. Each time you find me, I’ll give you a letter in the name of your killer, but if you go an entire minute without finding me, I get something from you.”

“You can’t kill me you know … I don’t think,” I added.

“Of course not,” he said, reaching up to brush a piece of stray hair from my forehead. “Why would I want to kill such a beautiful creature?”

I had no idea what his motives were, but it sure would be nice if he’d just give me the name of the killer. That would peeve Ayden good. All I had to do was find a vampire in a graveyard to identify the killer, while they were doing all their cloak and dagger mumbo jumbo.

“Whatever,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Let’s do this, but I don’t have much time.”

He grabbed my hands, and when his skin made contact with mine, a tingling sensation ran through my body.

“Now close your eyes. As soon as I let go of your hands, you can open them and start searching for me.”

I closed my eyes and barely had time to take a breath and he was gone.

The fog was so thick, he could have been hiding in plain sight and I would walk right by him. I was going to have to go on my gut feeling.

Weaving my way through the headstones, I tried not to pay too much attention to how the fog seemed to reach up from the ground to wrap wispy fingers around the stones of the dead.

While passing one particularly old stone, I noticed a little girl sitting on it. Actually, seeing ghosts in a cemetery is unusual. Every so often, you might come across a lost soul who was still attached to their earthly body, but most of the time ghosts tended to congregate around their loved ones, or in places they are familiar with. Sometimes they even hung around the place they were killed, but rarely the cemetery.

She was sitting on the stone, her head bowed, as if in the grip of some immense sorrow. Since she was wearing a bright pink dress with matching hair ribbons, I assumed it was the outfit she was buried in.

Even from where I stood, I could feel her grief. I wanted to help her, but I also wanted to find Zane. If he could actually name a suspect, we could catch the Anchor Avenue killer and save some people that were still alive.

Sighing, I turned away and started searching for Zane.
Less than a minute later
, I found him sitting behind a particularly tall headstone.

“I found you!”

He chuckled. “So you did.”

Jumping to his feet, he grabbed my hands, and again I felt the same amazing exhilaration.

“So you have earned the first letter, and that is C,” he said, squeezing my hands gently.

“Now close your eyes again.”

I closed my eyes expecting to feel him release my hands, but the next thing I knew, he was pulling me into his arms. His mouth came down on mine, and though I knew I should resist, I couldn’t.

His tongue slipped passed my lips to explore my mouth. My treacherous body took on a will of its own and responded.

As the fog swirled around us, I lost myself in the pure sensation of his kiss.

“Now Izzy, don’t you think you’re being a push over? “

Julius’s laughter vibrated through my skull.

My guardian demon’s teasing provided just enough annoyance to cut through Zane’s seductive spell.

Pushing him away, I broke the kiss and glared at him with my most furious, how dare you, look.

“What do you think you were doing? You had no right to kiss me. We hadn’t even started the game yet.”

Zane shrugged. “I couldn’t wait, but you should be grateful that I let you find me the first time.”

His confession to the fact that he’d let me find him wasn’t great for my ego, but it at least helped me to understand what a waste of time his game was. I’d only find him if he decided to let me. I could be here all night, and all I would get out of it was an extremely hot make out session with him, which might not be so bad, though it would be risky.

“I have to go,” I said, turning away.

“Don’t you need these?” he asked, jingling my keys.

Damn! I’d completely forgotten that he had my keys.

Sighing, I turned back. “Give them to me.”

Stepping a little closer, he draped an arm around my shoulders. “First we talk.”

This guy was really starting to annoy me. “So talk.”

“I’ve always wanted you, Izzy. You’re such a tantalizing piece of female work … like a masterpiece still looking to be placed in just the right light to really shine.”

I rolled my eyes. “You must be thinking of Annabelle, and besides, we’ve only met once before … or maybe twice,” I admitted.

“Oh I’ve known you a lot longer than you might believe. For example, I know about your absurd obsession for that dog,” he informed me, his voice ringing with laughter.

This guy just didn’t play fair. It sure did seem he knew a lot more about me than I knew about him. Logic would dictate that he must have been talking with Annabelle about me, but it was doubtful my sister would spill her guts to anyone, let alone a total stranger.

“Whatever. I have to be going,” I told him, putting my hand out to get the keys he was withholding.

His arm slid from my shoulders. Cupping my chin, he forced me to look into his eyes. “I am not in the habit of taking no for an answer. Rest assured Izzy Cooper, one day you will come to me and beg me to take you to that place only I can take you. Deep down, you know what I say is true.”

“The keys,” I repeated, deciding it was best not to acknowledge his absurd statement.

Smiling, he dropped the keys into my hand. “As you wish my sweet creature. By the way, your sister has already left for the night. I think she was a little upset with you.”

That was just great. The least she could have done was call and let me know she wasn’t going to be at the resort, though I probably deserved it a little. I should have let her know I was going to be late.

“Thanks,” I said, before turning to walk away.

When I was almost to my car, I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Zane was gone.

Backing out of the cemetery wouldn’t be easy, so I pulled onto Luna road and did a U turn.

It wasn’t until I was on the highway that I felt comfortable enough to pull over and dial Annabelle’s number.

She picked up on the third ring. “Hello. Do I know you? I mean … I know you are using my sister’s phone and all, but you can’t be my sister. She doesn’t feel it necessary to call me and let me know anything.”

“Sorry Annabelle,” I apologized. “I was actually on my way to the resort and ran into Dupree. He said you were already gone. I tried to get away earlier, but Ayden kept me busy,” I explained.

“It’s okay,” she said with a loud sigh. “I did get a lot done, but the real reason I wanted you to come out and help is that I think I have a ghost hanging around the Sandcastle. Whoever it is, they want to cause a lot of mischief. They are taking things, moving objects around. If it is a ghost, I can’t see them.”

Annabelle could sometimes pick up on spirits of the deceased, but she’d never been particularly talented at it.

“Well, I’ll see if I can stop by there soon. Things should slow down once we get this killer off the streets.”

“Just call me when you get a chance, and I’ll meet you there,” she said.

While driving home, I mentally ran through a list of all the people whose names started with a C, but there were just too many of them to narrow it down. If Zane was being truthful, then at least I knew it wasn’t Marty.

Although formulating a suspect list from one letter might not get me too far, it did help take my mind off Zane’s deliciously erotic kiss.

Maybe there really was something to the claim of how great vampire sex was.

Pushing the thought from my mind, I forced myself to view the situation as a professional would.

I was going to have to let Ayden know to bring Zane Dupree in for questioning. Even if he wasn’t responsible for the killings, which I still couldn’t be sure of, there was no doubt that he was withholding information.