Vampire Dating Agency II (4 page)

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Dermott Cresh, a man in his
mid-forties and Director of the Paranormal Police, was currently sitting at the
head of a meeting between various associates. Topics that were being discussed
included 1: territory restrictions being imposed on several shifter gangs and
factions; 2: changes to legislation regarding the practice of spellcasting in
public places; and 3: updates on known paranormal fugitives and criminals
suspected to be in their city. Throughout the meeting Cresh was mostly quiet,
only answering questions when directly asked and otherwise not getting
involved. His face was expressionless, tired perhaps. His mind almost appeared
to be somewhere else entirely, but when brought back into conversation he always
seemed to know exactly what had been said.

“Which brings
us to Section 3, Article G,” one of the executives announced at the turning of
pages. “We have a recently identified vampire / serial killer, possibly
affiliated with Vampire Dating Agency, or VDA. Director, please give us your
status update.”

Cresh didn’t
move.

Both his
hands were outstretched, frozen on the table.

His eyes
stared straight ahead.

“Director
Cresh? Do we have an update?”

“I
transferred the case this morning over to one of my instructors,” Cresh said.
“No doubt she’ll have a team working on it by now. But I’ve yet to receive any
progress reports from her.”

Pens clicked.

Notepads
folded.

Cresh felt
his phone vibrating in his pocket. He took it out and saw that it was the very
same instructor he’d just been referring too.

“Looks like
we’re about to have one now,” Cresh said standing up. “Please continue. I’ll
just be a moment.”

He walked
round the side of the room and exited out into the hall.

He answered
the phone. “Hello?”

“Hi Cresh,
it’s Kendra here. Do you have a moment to talk?”

“I’ve made
one for you,” Cresh answered. “How can I be of help?”

“Well, it’s
about the VDA related case you sent me.”

“I assumed as
much,” Cresh said. “I trust you’re making progress?”

“We’ve had a
bit of a setback.”

“Setback?”

“Several
members of my team have thrown a fit at me. And walked out.”

“So who’s to
blame?”

“Pardon?”

“Who’s to
blame? You or them?”

There was a
pause. “I’m not sure that’s important. It’s a complicated situation.”

“What
happened?”

“We tried to
… send an undercover into the VDA. It didn’t go as planned.”

“Casualties?”

“No, we all
managed to make it out in reasonable shape. But there were some close calls,
and … our investigation has been compromised.”

“What does
that mean?”

“The Count.
Julian. He found us out.”

Cresh
scratched his eyebrow. “Well, what I can say? This is disappointing news. Your
team has always been reliable too. Who was the assigned prime undercover?”

“I … I put a
new girl in.”

“What new
girl?”

“Her names
Haley Watkins. It was her first day.”

Cresh’s face
scrunched up. “First day? This is a joke, isn’t it?”

“No…”

“Why would
you do that?”

“I thought it
would be a great opportunity to give her experience … and assess her ability to
manage future tasks.”

“What is
this? You … You set her up for bait didn’t you?”

No reply.

“Kendra?”

“I’m not
going to admit to that.”

“Really, this
is poor form from you. I gave this case to you because I knew of your
connections with Julian. I thought perhaps you might be able to work something out
with him. Instead … you’re sending in a first-timer who doesn’t know what the
hell she’s doing –”

“It was a
mistake, I know. Can we just move past this?”

Cresh
hesitated. “Where are you now?”

“I’m at the
bowling alley, with Maurice Kent. Apart from Dino and his men, I don’t have
anyone else with me on this.”

“You want me
to send you a new team?”

“I don’t
know. We have a couple of suspects that we want to bring in. But it could take
a lot of time and we’re not sure where they –”

“Alright. I
hear you. I’ll tell you what. I’ll check in with one of my agents, see if she’s
available tonight. I think she’ll be able to give you … a clean approach to
this.”

“One agent?
Are you sure that’s enough?”

Cresh smiled.
“With this agent, I believe so…”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Heavy metal music blasted outside the
realms of a nightclub known as
The Strangled Roar
. Two heavyset bouncers
stood out the front watching neighbors from across the road pulling down their
blinds, and the occasional pedestrian walking quickly past. A young lady
wearing high heels and a shimmering dress soon appeared out the front where
they were, gorgeously attractive and looking magnificent. Both of the bouncers
became weak at the knees as she drew closer, their hearts pounding, drool
forming at the base of their lips.

“It’s a
private party, mam,” one of the bouncers said. “Invitation only.”

“But I want
to come in,” she said in a soothing, hypnotic tone of voice. “Will you please
let me in?”

The bouncer
closest to her tilted his head forward in submission.

“Sorry,” the
second bouncer said. “We need to see your invite.”

The lady
stepped past the first bouncer and stood in front of the second. She reached
into his pants and grabbed hold of his penis.

She squeezed
it gently.

“Thank you,”
she whispered, withdrawing her hand.

She walked
past the bouncers and through the darkened doorway.

There was a
narrow path to follow which ended at a curtain. The lady stepped through it and
the room opened up revealing the live stage band playing their music,
surrounded by a crowd of drunk men in biker jackets, and women in low cut
dresses.

The lady
walked to the bar on the right, where she waited for a bit before being served.

A large man
more than twice her size staggered in next to her, watching as her drink was
poured.

“It’s on me,”
he said shoving a crumpled up ten dollar bill over the side of the bar.

The lady
turned, and grinned at him. “Thank you.”

She drank the
glass of vodka down in one hit.

The man
giggled, liking what he saw.

“Two more!”
he shouted at the barmaid.

He then
squeezed in closer to her.

“I’m Shaun!”
he announced.

“Nadine,” the
lady replied.

“Nadine, I
like it.”

Two more
drinks came.

Shaun drank
his fast but Nadine drunk hers faster.

“Nadine,”
Shaun said wiping his mouth.

“Yes?”

“I want to
feel your tits.”

Nadine
smashed her empty glass across his face, causing him to howl in surprise and
tumble over. Once on the ground Nadine stabbed his neck with the heel of her
shoe. He lunged at her a moment, blood spilling from his mouth.

Then he was
dead.

A few people
nearby backed away in terror, but the crowd was too infatuated with the music
to see what had happened.

Nadine began
walking into them, pushing her way closer and closer towards the stage. Within
a couple of minutes, she’d made it to the front.

She stood
there for a moment, the purple and green lights reflecting off her face.

She reached
down into her dress’s pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses which she
placed over her eyes.

The guitars
rang, the drums smashed, the vocals soared.

Nadine waited
until the end of the song, and then she climbed up on the stage.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

A nearby security guard reached out
to grab her leg to pull her down. She sidestepped his swipe for her, and then
jammed her heel into his arm.

The guard
screamed.

By now she
had the room’s attention. The band hadn’t started their next song yet, eyeing
her with disbelief. Nadine approached the lead singer and put her hands to the
guitar he was holding.

“What are
you…” he said with a smile. “What are you…”

Nadine retrieved
the guitar from his grasp.

Then she
climbed off the stage into the crowd.

“What the
fuck…” the singer mumbled into the microphone.

A couple of
his bandmates were saying something to him.

Nadine kept
on pushing through.

“Hold the
bitch,” the singer finally said. “Get hold of her. Get me my fucking guitar.”

A pistol
suddenly hit Nadine’s side, a gruff voice blaring down her ears.

“You heard
the man. Give him back his guitar.”

Nadine
turned.

As the
gun-bearer reached for the guitar, she reached for his pistol. She took it and
shot him point blank in the forehead.

People
started screaming and the ground opened up around her.

A bunch of
shotguns were being loaded up people pushing their way to get aim at her.

“It’s not
your guitar,” Nadine declared.

“What?” the
singer replied.

“I said it’s
not yours,” Nadine insisted. “You stole it last week from a shopkeeper
downtown.”

Then Nadine
heard a quick step forward.

A metallic
click.

She dived to
the ground and the shotgun blast erupted into a bunch of people in front of
her.

“Shit!
Fucking hell! What did you do?”

Nadine
pointed her gun at the shooter and shot him.

Another gun
barrel dropped behind her and she kicked it to the floor as she stood up. Then
she jumped six feet into the air and began to pounce around up and over the
backs of the crowd towards the entrance.

As she landed
there with both feet, the singer had transformed into his tiger, and had caught
up with her tearing her to the ground. Her roared viciously as he tried to claw
and bite at her, but she’d managed to take hold of the tiger’s neck.

A few moments
passed as she increased her hold, strangling the tiger. By the end he wasn’t
trying to attack her, but just trying to get away. Nadine didn’t let him.

When she
stood back up, there was nothing left to see.

People were
all around her, but no one was after her.

No one was
going to try and see her dead.

They were too
afraid.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Haley stared out to the horizon
beyond the pitch black waters. Her elbows were resting on a thin wooden barrier
– the only thing separating her from a 200 meter drop into the sea below. From
here she could see the lights from many neighborhoods, though she wasn’t
exactly sure which ones. The distance between them and her own house, or them
and the Vampire Dating Agency, she had no real way of knowing. She thought
about Brock being out there somewhere, up to who knows what. She wondered if he
was thinking about her.

“Haley,”
Jason said. “Come here a minute.”

She walked
back over to Jason and Riley who were standing by a bench just outside the van.
She sat down and folded her arms, trying to radiate some warmth.

“Here,” Jason
said offering her a cigarette.

“No, that’s
okay I don’t…”

Haley
realized that it was a joint.

Riley took it
from Jason and took a drag.

“What are you
guys like, getting high?” Haley stammered.

“We used to
come out here, all the way back in our first years,” Jason said.

Riley rolled
her eyes.

“Well, maybe
not all of us,” he corrected. “Maybe not right away.”

“Take it,”
Riley said, pushing the joint on Haley.

“I don’t want
to,” she declined.

“Just do it,”
Riley insisted. “You’ve had a shitty night. You owe it to yourself.”

“But I’m not
into drugs.”

Jason laughed
and took the joint so he could smoke it.

“It’s not
drugs,” Riley stated. “No more than tobacco is a drug.”

“Well, I
don’t smoke either.”

“It’s
alright, we won’t force it on you,” Jason said.

“Where did
that shit come from anyway?” Haley asked scratching her head. “Is that why it
took so long to feed your cat?”

“We should
have stayed at mine,” Jason said. “It’s not like your Mom’s going to be
expecting you anyhow.”

“She’s
probably tearing her hair out with worry,” Haley said. “Look I’ve been thinking
about everything, and I’m even more certain now we did the right thing walking
away. The way that place is run is completely unsafe and exploitative. I don’t
know how you guys put up taking orders from her.”

“It was your
first time,” Riley said. “You might feel that way now, maybe even tomorrow but
maybe next month you feel a bit different.”

“I don’t see
how.”

She leaned
forward. “We’re heroes. We’ve saved lives. The stuff we’ve been through – what
it does to your mind – you can’t blame Kendra for making a mistake. Did you
know she has a family? A husband and three children who hardly see her? She
gives so much to this job, and the reason for that is because no one else can
do what we do. You mightn’t see it, but you’re gifted, Haley. You were made for
this.”

Haley’s mouth
dropped. “Wow. “ She looked over to Jason. “I’ll take one puff.”

He handed it
over to her. “Go slow. Really, really slow…”

Haley put the
joint to her lips and sucked in.

She waited
for the coughing, for the pain in her throat.

But it didn’t
come.

“I’ll finish
it,” Riley said and pinch what was left from her.

Haley stood up
and looked back out to the horizon. It had changed somehow. Each of those
lights stood out more. They seemed more defined. More … real.

“Are you
okay?” Jason asked.

“I don’t
know,” Haley muttered.

“Are you sure
you want to go home?”

Haley
swallowed.

The night was
so vast. There were so many secrets out there. So many things she needed to
know but didn’t.

There was
something final about it.

As though she
was just barely holding on.

“I’m not
sure,” Haley said. “But it’s probably the best thing.”

And then they
were walking away.

Those last
moments, ticking down.

Haley would
one day look back.

And wished
she could stay there forever.