Dead-tective Box Set: Vampire Mystery Romance

Chapter 2

2

I obediently followed him out into the hall and downstairs to the lobby where I glanced around looking for some chance to get away. My eyes fell on the public restrooms, and I stopped and pointed at them. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

He turned to me with a deep frown. “Can’t you hold it?”

I shook my head. “No, but this won’t take more than a minute.”

Before he could argue I rushed into the girl’s bathroom, leaned against one of the stalls and clutched at my heart. Something was seriously wrong here, and Timothy’s letter proved he knew I’d be in danger. The big problem I had was what was dangerous and what was safe. Timothy wanted me to go to the warehouse, and the cop wanted me to go to the precinct. As a law-abiding citizen I wanted to go to the station, but the officer lied to me about Timothy’s ring. I pulled out the paper and ring from my pocket. Who was I going to believe me, my dead friend or a cop I’d never met who’d already lied to me?

Yeah, not much of a contest there. If the cop really did just want to question me he could pick me up later. Right now I had a warehouse to get to, so I looked around the bathroom and saw a ventilation window at the end of the stalls. It was only four feet above the floor and I wasn’t that fat, so I stuffed the letter back into my pocket and, for safety’s sake, put the ring on my finger and went over to the window.

I hefted myself up over the sill and pulled myself through the open, angled window. I was nearly out when I heard a knock on the door. “You almost done?” the officer shouted.

“Almost!” I shouted back. Unfortunately, because my head stuck out of the building my voice sounded off, and that alerted the cop. He rushed into the room just as I slipped my legs through.

“Hey, stop!” He dashed over to the window, but I climbed to my feet and sprinted down the alley toward the street.

I dashed around the corner and saw my car parked on the curb. Unfortunately, I skidded to a stop when I noticed the police car and the cop’s partner sitting inside. I did an about-face in the other direction and was halfway down the alley when I heard shouts from the front of the building and glanced over my shoulder. Two cops raced after me, one of them being Officer Sutton. Fortunately I was in better shape than them, and I had fear and adrenaline to get me going.

I lost them a few blocks down, and stopped for a breather in an alley. “I. . .am. . .so. . .dead,” I gasped. I’d just ditched a couple of cops, and they were going to tell all their uniformed friends about me. I pulled out the letter from Timothy and sighed. “I hope you’re right about this, Tim,” I whispered.

I kept in the shadows of the alleys and my heart skipped a few beats whenever I heard the sirens of a police car. The address at the bottom of the letter led me to the river and a row of old, rectangular, abandoned warehouses that had been built on a small island a hundred yards out on the water. The sunlight was nearly gone and a cold wind from the water swept over me. I shuddered and hurried across a narrow paved road that crossed the water and led up to a chain-link gate and fence. The entire island was surrounded by the fence, and the top had coils of barbed wire. Besides the warehouses there were rotten crates and pallets, and an old guardhouse stood behind the gate.

A narrow patch of gravel ran along either side of the fence, and it took me a few minutes to find a hole beneath the fence that had been made by wild dogs and stupid kids. I wiggled my way through the loose gravel to the other side and I followed the peeled numbers on the buildings until I found the right warehouse. They ran lengthwise with the bank, and the one I was looking for was the one closest to the far-off shore. I looked over the broken window panes and the metal, and a sense of dread flooded over me. This place looked haunted, and the dim light didn’t comfort me.

I sighed and tried the knob. It was unlocked, so I stepped inside and looked around. There was just enough light for me to see that the place was full of broken crates stacked well over my head. They created a maze of wood that wound its way to the rear of the building. I moved through them and twenty yards from the door I found a space where the maze walls parted. The crates were arranged like a bench around a single long rectangular box. On the box was a deck of cards, a propane lantern, and a box of matches.

I eagerly lit the lamp and sat down on the makeshift bench in front of the long box. The air inside the warehouse was dank and cool, and I rubbed my arms to comfort and warm me. Outside the sun finished setting and the world was enveloped in darkness. To pass the time I pulled out the letter and reread the contents. I really wished Tim would have put in a few more specifics about what I was supposed to be waiting for.

I didn’t have long to wait. As I sat reading the letter the light from the lamp shuddered. I lowered the letter and glared at the lantern. The flame was strong and unwavering, but then it jiggled again. That’s when I realized it wasn’t the light flickering but the entire lantern. My eyes widened when the lid of the long box moved. I grabbed the lantern and jumped back just as the lid flew off. A dark figure arose from the box, and I held out the lantern toward it.

My eyes widened when they fell on Vincent, and he didn’t look happy to see me. “What are you doing here?” he demanded to know.

What the hell had he been doing in there? What the hell had he been doing in the box? “I-I-” I stuttered.

Vincent swooped toward me with such speed that before I knew it the lantern and letter were slapped from my hands. The paper fluttered to the ground and the lantern clattered to the hard floor, but remained lit. I shrieked when he shoved his pale face into mine, and in the lantern light his teeth looked unnaturally long.

“What are you doing here?” he growled.

I stumbled backward and my back hit a tower of crates. “T-Tim told me to come here. Something happened to him,” I replied.

Vincent straightened and raised an eyebrow. “What happened?”

“H-he was murdered,” I told him.

Vincent’s eyes widened and he hurriedly placed his hand over his chest. Whatever he felt it made his thin mouth turn up in a twisted grin. “So he’s dead at last? How wonderful.”

“Wonderful?” I gasped. After fleeing from cops and sneaking around half the city to find this place this psycho from the box was the one I’d been waiting to meet? I cursed Tim for his stupidity in leading me here, but I wouldn’t let anybody celebrate his death. My hands balled into fists and I marched up to Vincent. “Tim’s dead, you i***t! Don’t you know what that means?”

“Yes, but you don’t.” Vincent lunged for me and his hands grasped my shoulders. He slammed me back against the crates with such force that their heavy frames rattled and the air was knocked from my lungs.

I saw stars, but through those stars I noticed Vincent’s eyes burned with an unnatural light. “What the hell are you doing?” I exclaimed.

Vincent grinned and leaned forward to brush his nose against my cheek. I shuddered at the contact of his cold skin against mine. His nostrils flared. “The human beauty is so fragile. A single bullet and your light is extinguished.” I flinched when one of his hands slid up my thigh and came to rest on my waist. He pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the crates. “You have such beauty, but I won’t save it for eternity.”

“W-what are you talking about?” I breathed. “Tim just told me to come here and-”

I jumped when Vincent tightened his grasp on my shoulders. My bones creaked under the strain. “Tim was an i***t, and I will thank him for these many years of slavery by draining you of every last drop of blood,” he whispered. My heart skipped a beat and I wiggled in his grasp, but he was strong, unbelievably strong. His eyes traveled down to my neck, and then back up to my wide, scared eyes. “Wouldn’t that be fitting revenge?” he mused. He was toying with me like a cat with a mouse. His amusement vanished when he glanced at my left hand. His eyes widened in fury and fear, and he pulled his face away from mine. “What are you doing with that?” he growled. I didn’t know what he was talking about until I remembered the ring on my finger. “Take it off!” he demanded as one of his hands swept down to grab the ring.

A bright, white light erupted from the ring. The heat was so intense I could feel the width of the narrow band etch into my finger. Vincent screamed in agony and I was released from his iron grasp. I dropped to the ground and raised myself up on my side in time to watch Vincent stumble backward. He clutched at his left hand where another intense light emanated. I realized he wore the same ring as mine. A few yards from me he collapsed to his knees and the light swallowed him. My only thought was to get the ring off before the same happened to me, so I grasped the ring in my hand and pulled. The ring slowly slid across my finger, and in the background of my struggle Vincent cried out in horrible pain. The moment the ring slipped off my finger the light vanished, but I was left with a searing pain in my finger. The ring dropped onto the ground and rolled away. I glanced down at my quivering hand and saw a few engraved letters on my skin fade into my body.

I slumped against the crate wall and my breaths came out in haggard gasps. I heard Vincent groan, and I glanced over to where he lay. He was huddled in a tight, quivering ball, but he soon pulled himself from his cocoon and turned to face me. His eyes were full of a confusing mix of hate, anger, and fear. He struggled to his feet, but I was as weak as a lamb. I could do nothing but sit there as he towered over me.

I expected him to attack me again, but instead his arms dropped to his sides and a sick smirk slid onto his lips. “So that’s what he planned,” he hoarsely whispered. “Smart boy.”