Vampire Dating Agency II (3 page)

CHAPTER NINE

“You’re lucky we found you when we
did,” one of the guard’s said once they were in the car. “Kept going the way
you were, and that would have led you right out into one of the farms here.
Word has it, farmers in these parts don’t take too kindly to trespassers on
their property. I believe the saying is, shoot first – ask questions later. If
you catch my drift.”

The guard
looked back to see that they were secure in the backseat.

“Isn’t that
what you’re going to do to us anyway?” Haley fired back.

“Not us,” the
guard said. “No, the Count wants you alive. For some reason.”

He turned
back to the driver and muttered something under his breath.

Haley looked
across to Jason.

He looked
back, concerned.

It seemed
neither of them had a plan to get out of this.

The car came
to the end of the road, and the driver hit the indicators to show they were
turning left.

“Back to the
Agency then?” Jason asked.

“That’s what
the Count wants,” the guard in the passenger seat said. “Personally I think
we’d rather –”

He was cut
off midsentence as another vehicle crashed into the side of the car, ramming
them off the road.

Haley was
flung across onto top of Jason, while one of his hands smashed through the
window beside him.

“Jesus
Christ,” the guard choked. “Dave – Dave are you alright?”

Haley
clutched her chest leaning forward, feeling as though she was about to faint.

“Oh Jesus,
he’s fucking dead.”

The guard
started getting out of the car before a shot was fired outside of the car,
striking him in the head.

Haley
screamed.

“Okay, okay,”
Jason murmured. “Just calm down…”

“What the
fuck,” Haley gasped. “What the fuck – what the fuck – what the –”

The door
behind Jason opened and a bulky arm reached in to grab him.

“Oh God!”
Haley bawled. “Get off him! Leave him alone!”

Once Jason
was out, the burly man went inside for her.

“No!” Haley
shouted, kicking him. “Stop it!”

He was too
strong to resist.

He pulled her
out and dumped her on the side of the road next to Jason, who was just finding
his feet.

“It’s okay,
Haley,” Jason said. “It’s Dino.”

“Dino?”

The big man
looked down at her. “Maurice said you needed help.”

“Thank fuck,”
Jason mumbled.

Another van
pulled up alongside the road, and a figure quickly got out.

“Jason?
Haley? Are you guys, okay?”

Jason helped
Haley up. “That’s us.”

“Wait,” Haley
said, her feet staggering. “What just happened?”

“We just
saved you,” Riley said. “What about you, Dino? Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Dino
said. “You should all clear off.”

“No arguing
there,” Jason said opening the back of the van. “Come on, Haley.”

Riley joined
them inside.

Once the
doors were all closed, Maurice put his foot down and soon the road, the car
crash, and the entire Dating Agency were all just a memory behind them.

If only,
that’s what it all was.

If only…

It really was
over.

CHAPTER TEN

Haley wasn’t exactly sure where they
were going. Riley had said something about ‘debriefing’ and ‘safe location’ but
neither term really spelled it out for her in black and white. Whereas part of
her wanted it to all be over – for them to send her on her merry way home –
Haley was aware of the dangers. She hoped wherever they were going there would
be answers for her there. Assurances. Of course, if Haley dropped out of her
placement with the paranormal police, it seemed doubtful they would care what
happened with her…

The journey
took around half an hour. Getting out of the van she asked Riley what time it
was and learned that just after ten pm. Haley was a little surprised as she’d
imagined it would have been later.

The concrete
ground in the car park was wet, but at least the wind had died off and it had
stopped raining. Haley moved around the side of the van and discovered they
were parked outside a bowling alley for some reason. There were plenty of
lights and movement about the entrance suggesting it was still open.

“Feel like
throwing a few balls?” Jason remarked standing next to her.

Haley glanced
up at him. “You’re kidding right?”

He shrugged.

Maurice
exited the driver’s seat and stepped out to meet the three of them.

“Best none of
us gets into conversation with anyone here,” he said. “So let’s just keep it to
ourselves going in.”

“Like we need
you to tell us not to launch into conversation with strangers,” Riley said with
sarcasm.

“Where
trouble can be avoided, we should avoid it,” Maurice replied. He turned to
Haley. “Are you alright?”

“Not really,”
Haley replied.

He nodded,
his eyes wandering tiredly around the car park. “Alright. Let’s head in.”

The group
entered the bowling alley without incident. Maurice led them out to a back room
at the end which he opened with a key he had on him. Inside the room the air
was dank and musty. Ms. Armistice was sitting at the end of a long table,
calmly awaiting them. She stood up.

“Jason,” she
greeted. “Haley. I suppose I should congratulate the both of you for not
getting yourselves killed.”

Jason looked
at her, obviously annoyed. He pulled a chair out for Haley and they sat next to
one another. Maurice went up to where Kendra was while Riley sat on the
opposite side of the room.

“So it has
come to my attention,” Ms. Armistice continued, “that not only did you fail to
achieve the prime objective of our operation, but also you failed at the
secondary objective –”

“Kendra,
please –” Jason interrupted.

“Let me
finish. You’ll have your turn. Yes, so you failed both objectives, and managed
to not only put your lives in danger, but also gave up your identities within
the paranormal police, rendering you both forever useless.”

“Well, we’re
not going to get anywhere if you make exaggerations like that,” Jason
countered. “I get your angry the missions weren’t completed, but really there
wasn’t enough opportunity for either of us to achieve anything – and as far as
putting our lives in danger, I’d say your whole mission outline did enough of
that for us already –”

“Alright,
alright,” Ms. Armistice said waving her hand at him. “I guess there’s no point
arguing. What about you, Maurice? Anything to add?”

“I would say
we’ve achieved some progress in regards to the suspected killer.”

“How so?”

“Two of the
vampires approached Haley directly. It’s reasonable to assume one of them is
the killer. Of course, there are no certainties –”

“I dispute
that,” Haley volunteered.

“What?” Ms.
Armistice questioned.

“We don’t
have any clue who the killer is,” she said. “He may not have even been there
tonight.”

“So who
pushed that woman off the balcony?” Riley asked.

“What?” Haley
mumbled.

“Yes, what
woman?” Ms. Armistice asked.

“Haley found
a woman who’d been pushed off one of the balconies,” Riley explained. “She was
dying. She tried to warn Haley about someone. Should we pull up the footage?”

“Let’s not
focus on any one detail,” Ms. Armistice said dismissively. She turned to Jason.
“What’s your excuse?”

“Excuse?”

“How did you
get yourself caught?”

“It was the
Count,” Jason said. “He saw through my disguise. Knew I wasn’t a vampire.”

“You just ran
into him then?”

“No – he must
have cameras in the basement area.”

“How far did
you get?”

“In the
basement? Not far at all. Only through the first area. I didn’t see anyone
being held against their will.”

“I wonder…”
Ms. Armistice muttered. “I wonder if she’s down there…”

“Anyone we’d know?”
Riley asked.

Ms. Armistice
ignored her. “We’ll have to leave it for another time. We should get back to
focusing on the current objective.”

“Which is?”
Jason asked.

“Finding our
killer.”

“To the hell
with that,” he said getting up. “I’m going home.”

“You most
certainly will not be going home,” Ms. Armistice thundered.

“Watch me.”

He walked out
of the room.

“I’ll go talk
to him,” Maurice said standing up.

“Please,”
Riley said, also standing. “Allow me.”

Maurice
nodded and sat back down.

Riley exited.

Ms. Armistice
peered across the table at Haley. “I hope you’re not having second thoughts.”

“I’m sorry?”
Haley murmured.

“You’re still
in this with us, aren’t you?”

Haley stroked
her chin. “About that…”

“We haven’t
finished with you,” Ms. Armistice explained. “Your cover may be blown in the
agency but that doesn’t mean you can’t still investigate our two main
suspects.”

“You mean –
tonight –?”

“No good?”

“I’m
exhausted.”

“Yes, well, I
don’t think our killer cares too much that you’re feeling a bit tired. Before
we go any further I’d like your summations of these two individuals. And of
course anyone else you noticed as acting suspicious.”

Haley looked
down at the table.

Her vision
was clouding. She felt dizzy.

“Please, take
your time.”

“I don’t feel
well,” Haley whispered.

Ms. Armistice
stood up and walked across the room towards her. She sat in Jason’s chair
beside her. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“The whole
night has been so stressful,” Haley said. “But after we got hit in the car… I
haven’t felt the same. And … Dino shot that guy for no reason –”

Ms. Armistice
slapped her.

Haley sat up.

“Did that get
your attention?”

Haley touched
her flaring cheek. “Don’t do that.”

“You need to
stop acting like a little girl, and start womaning up. This isn’t a game. You
don’t get to turn off the TV because you feel like going to bed. Wake up.
You’re in this now. You’re one of us. There’s no going back.”

“But I mean,
you can’t force me…”

Ms. Armistice
grabbed Haley by the throat and started choking her.

After a few
moments, Maurice stood up and walked over.

“Kendra,” he
mumbled.

Haley really
was feeling dizzy now.

“Kendra
stop!”

He pulled her
off Haley.

Haley fell
out of her chair, the room spinning.

Her
consciousness fading…

“I’m sorry,”
Ms. Armistice gasped. She moved to help Haley up. “I’m really sorry.”

Haley pushed
her away. “Please. Leave me alone.”

The door
opened and Jason and Riley reentered.

“What the
bleeding hell –?” Jason blurted out. “What have you done?”

“I’m sorry!”
Ms. Armistice said shrilly backing away.

“Jesus, have
you seen her fight?” Jason shouted. “You’re lucky she didn’t break your neck.”

He helped
Haley to her feet.

“Come on,” he
said. “I’ll take you home.”

“Jason, you
can’t,” Maurice argued.

“Back off,”
Riley said blocking the path between them.

“So you’re
with them, are you?” Ms. Armistice called after her.

Jason, Haley
and Riley made their way out into the main area of the bowling alley, ignoring
the curses and insults that followed them.

Once in back
in the van, Haley sat across from Riley, gaining some of her strength back.

“Did we do
the right thing?” Haley asked.

Riley chewed
her lip. “Right or wrong, it’s done.”

Haley looked
away. “I’d rather be right.”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

“Shit,” Kendra growled turning away
from the door. “Fucking shit.” She latched onto the nearest chair in front of
her and smashed it into the ground. She then picked it up and went to throw it.
Maurice grabbed hold of the chair to stop her.

“Control
yourself,” he said firmly.

Their eyes
met and the chair was slowly lowered back to the ground.

Kendra
stepped away from it and walked to the back of the room.

“So what
now?” Maurice asked.

“I don’t
know,” Kendra said without facing him. “I haven’t a Goddamn clue.”

“Having Haley
steal the Count’s keycard was our undoing. We should never have deviated from
the primary objective.”

“You mean it
was
my
undoing.”

“I just want
to you to understand why this didn’t go the way it should have. In respect to
Jason, Riley and Haley, everyone did their jobs as best they could. We can’t
really blame them for walking out on us.”

“You’re still
here. Why are you here, Maurice?”

“Because I’m
a professional. Because there’s a job that needs to be done.”

“Exactly.
It’s not as if this is immoral work. We’re after a bleeding serial killer. This
monster has to be stopped.”

“Right. So
how should we proceed?”

Kendra turned
around. “Proceed? With what?”

“Let’s start
with what we have, rather than what we don’t have.”

“And what’s
that?”

“We have …
well ‘suspect’ is too strong a word. But we can say we have various ‘persons of
interest’. Two vampires made advances towards Haley, namely Brock Ferns and
Cyrus Rance. We should bring them both in for questioning. Do deep background
checks on each of them, check their alibis for the dates and times we believe
each of the fifteen murders were committed.”

“Wow,” Kendra
said putting her hands on the table. “You’ve thought this through.”

“I would also
bring in the Count. I’m not sure if we could figure him as a suspect, but it
wouldn’t hurt to check his alibis anyway. The main thing is these deaths have
been happening under his watch. He must have some idea who is behind them.”

“Bringing in
Ferns and Rance is one thing … the Count is another. Vampires aren’t so easily
threatened. We’ll need more than Dino and his team for this.”

“Perhaps it’s
time we brought Cresh into the loop.”

Kendra
inhaled deeply, her eyes becoming rigid. “Cresh…”

“We could use
his help.”

“I didn’t …
want to have to ask for it…”

“He won’t
hold it against you if you own up to it,” Maurice said. “But if we’re still no
closer to finding the killer by lunch tomorrow, our phone’s gonna ring and it
will be him. Wanting to know our progress. How pleased do you think he’ll be
when he learns we didn’t ask for help when we needed it?”

“Alright,”
Kendra sighed. “I’ll make the call.”