The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 48

Nodding, she watched as Ursula and Carmelo looked over a map of the local area, adding little points to where each attack had occurred to see if there was any pattern. There wasn't, of course. It wasn't easy when there were just two separate incidents. The attack in the forest was miles from Mrs Murray's house, and Mrs Murray's house was miles from Frank Jensen's home - which, it had been discovered, was where he had become a vampire in the first place.

They had no clues to go on. Usually, new-born vamps left a scent or a trail, but there was nothing. They were beginning to think that Mrs Murray's attacker was the rogue vamp himself. But why had he transformed Frank? Was he planning to make even more vampires?

"I vill head into town and see if zere is anyone I recognise," suggested Ursula. Carmelo nodded in agreement, "Yes, but take Lilly and Tabitha with you. They know the town, and the locals, better than you do," he smiled.

She nodded one short nod and turned abruptly to the two cousins. Tabitha had since joined her and Sammy in the corner.

"Shall ve?"

Noticing her impatience, the two girls jumped up and went and grabbed their coats and bags. They knew not to keep a woman like Ursula waiting.

Tabitha drove them into town in her battered old Mustang, and they parked right outside Starbucks before beginning a slow walk, keeping a close eye on anybody they didn't recognise or anyone acting suspiciously.

"I can't believe that so many people are out and about. It's almost as if there hasn't been an alert. These people should be in hiding, not out doing their shopping or drinking coffee," said Tabitha as she shook her head.

"People never do vat zey are told to do. Zey zink zings vill happen to ozer people," answered Ursula in her strong German accent as the two girls struggled to understand but nodded anyway.

After an hour, all seemed like it usually did in the town. There didn't appear to be anybody unusual around and certainly nobody doing anything out of the ordinary.

"Shall we grab a coffee before we head back home? Is that okay with you, Ursula?" asked Tabitha, unsure whether the vampire ever drank anything.

The tall German woman nodded, "I vill vait here by ze car. Take your time. Enjoy your... your... coffee."

The girls gave her the car key so she could sit down if she so wished and headed into Starbucks. After they'd ordered a Peppermint Latte and a Caramel Macchiato, they took their hot drinks and sat down in one of the booths by the window, maintaining a lookout for unusual behaviour.

"Hey... it's that cute guy again," said Tabitha, nudging Lilly's leg with her foot. "Look, he's over there."

Lilly turned and sure enough, hiding behind his laptop and glasses, sat the young man who had bumped into her the last time she'd been there for coffee. As she looked, she soon noticed that he was looking straight at her. She turned abruptly, embarrassed at being caught.

She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head, and her cheeks blushed to a crimson red. The feeling was unsettling, and so she suggested they finished their coffees outside with Ursula.

Tabitha agreed. The problem was that to get outside, they had to walk right past him. Still blushing, Lilly stood tall and followed behind Tabitha who walked quickly through the queue that had developed since they'd sat down. Lilly wasn't as quick and managed to get held up behind a couple of people blocking the way.

As she slowed down, she looked across the room and saw the young man had disappeared. Relief flooded through her, and she let out a slow breath. But as she turned back, she noticed someone standing a little too close for comfort. It was him.

With her sensitive sense of smell, she could smell something strange on him. It was unpleasant. It turned her stomach. It was that same metallic odour she'd picked up outside of Rose's cottage. He smelled of blood. As soon as she realised what it was, she couldn't help but look at his face, for a second, his eyes turned black, and he smiled at her, revealing a set of fangs. A split second later, he looked completely normal again. He was toying with her.

Lilly shifted as quickly as she could, and the people in front of her moved, allowing her finally, to exit the cafe.

"It's him... Tabitha... Ursula. It's the guy," she yelled the moment she reached the car. "He's the vampire!" she mouthed.

"Vhere?" yelled Ursula as she turned and ran towards the entrance.

"He was right behind me!"

Ursula opened the door and quickly walked inside, but it was too late. He'd gone. The scent lost yet again.

"Damn it!" she yelled as a passer-by looked her up and down and quickly rushed by in fear. Ursula certainly didn't look like someone you'd mess with.

"Ve must head straight back home, and you vill describe him to us. Get in... drive, Tabiza. And fast."

#

"He was tall, about six-foot-two, shoulder-length brown curly hair. His eyes were hazel-green until he flashed that scary vamp face at me, and then they were black. He was wearing glasses, but I guess that was just him trying to blend in. That, and the laptop. We saw him the last time we went into Starbucks," described Lilly as best she could.

"And both times he kept staring at Lilly," added Tabitha.

"Oh and the other thing, up close to him I could... I could... well, he smelled of blood."

"No!" said Ursula, banging her fists on the dining table as the map hopped up into the air with force.

Everybody in the room jumped as Carmelo and Jo both shook their heads at the same time.

"That can mean only one thing. If you can smell blood on him, it means he has recently fed. He must have attacked again."

The room went quiet as everyone thought about who the unfortunate victim could be this time.

"I'll go and hang around outside the police station, maybe I can pick up on something over there," said Wyatt, who had come over to the house to see his daughter, Jo.

"Not alone, Wyatt. You mustn't go alone."

"I shall go viz you," said Ursula as she headed for the door without a backwards glance.

"I'll call if I hear anything."

"Be careful, Dad," said Jo, as she rushed over to him and gave him a gentle hug. As soft a hug a vampire can give. Jo's strength had multiplied a hundred-fold since she had been turned, and she often forgot how strong she really was.

"Lilly, Tabitha, I want you to go to Emilie and Margot. They're in the silver RV. Give them a description of this vampire. They can create an artist's sketch. It might help us."

Stepping outside to the silver RV, Lilly gingerly knocked on the door.

"Come on in, Lilly, Tabitha," said a soft voice from within.

She pushed open the door and stepped up and inside the vehicle, surprised to find a room full of computers and other technological gadgetry.

"Wow," muttered Tabitha with a low whistle, "this is sooo not what I was expecting."

Margot greeted them with a deep dry laugh. Lilly thought she sounded like a 1940s film star. "What exactly were you expecting, cauldrons, toil and trouble and all that kind of thing?"

Tabitha shook her head and smiled, "Honestly? I've no idea, just not... this."

"You could say that Margot and I are a new breed of witch. We like to keep up with all the latest technological advances. It's all very useful. Combine that with our other skills, and we rarely go wrong," said Emilie sweetly from behind a desk in the corner.

"Come on in, make yourselves at home. Just give us a moment."

Lilly and Tabitha walked further in and took a seat quietly as the two women continued to work on the computers for a couple of minutes.

All that could be heard was the tapping of fingernails on the keyboards and the occasional beeping of what looked like some kind of satellite receiving device. Before they'd entered the RV, Lilly had spotted a couple of satellite dishes on top of it.

"Right," said Emilie as she pushed the keyboard drawer beneath the monitor with her long spindly fingers and turned to face the two girls.

Grabbing a handful of her long blond hair, she twisted it up into a loose chignon and fastened it with an elastic band that had been around her wrist and a clip that had been attached to her blouse, before picking up a pad of paper.

Margot turned away from her own computer and opened a drawer beneath her desk, taking out a pencil and an electric sharpener. The whizzing of the device broke the silence before she handed the pencil to Emilie and stood up.

"So, please begin..." continued Emilie.

Tabitha and Lilly looked at each other with uncertainty.

"She means begin describing this man," said Margot with a warm smile, as she brushed her forehead with the back of her hand. "It's a bit warm in here. Let me open a window," and she turned and began opening the four windows around the cabin of the vehicle. As the breeze blew in, her thin brown silk blouse began to flap a little, cooling her down immediately.

"He was about six-foot-two, he had brown curly shoulder-length hair, hazel green eyes - black at times - erm..." said Tabitha, repeating what Lilly had already described in the house.

"Okay, we're going to need a bit more than this. Perhaps we can help a little... did he have small beady eyes, thin eyes, almond-shaped eyes? You just need to be a little more specific," added Margot.

"Definitely large almond-shaped eyes, quite far apart too," replied Lilly.

Emilie smiled, "That's more like it, now continue," she said as brought the pencil down on the paper and began to draw.

"He had a nice nose," added Tabitha who then blushed a little, "sorry, so not helpful. It was kind of like those Greek noses. You know the ones on the statues? Sort of straight from base to tip, if you know what I mean?"

Emilie nodded as Margot stood behind her, arms crossed as she nodded absentmindedly.

"Yes, we understand the kind you mean. Yes, that's good. What about his mouth? Any facial hair? And his brow, low, long, wide? You get the picture... just tell us everything," she said as she puckered her ruby red lips.

"His lips were kind of lush. A bit pouty, very pink. A little girly if that makes sense. A bit like that Spanish model and actress...." said Lilly shyly.

"Esther Canadas... yes, you're right actually," replied Tabitha as she turned to nod.

"Sorry, never heard of her. Margot, can you google her? It might help," Emilie said as Margot turned and walked back to the computer and typed in the name.

As the results appeared, she turned the screen to face the girls, and they nodded, "yup, his lips were exactly like that."

"He was very fresh-faced, with no facial hair. His hairline had a bit of a point in the middle... but not a sharp point, slightly rounded. His forehead was a little high and wide. High cheekbones. Couldn't see his ears as those curls were covering them. He was handsome, actually," said Tabitha, almost dreamily.

"We're talking about a cold-blooded killer here, Tabitha!" scolded her second cousin, who blushed a little in response.

"Right I'm done... tell me, is this him? Is this the vampire you saw in town?" said Emilie as she turned the pad of paper around to show them, revealing the sketched image of a very handsome young man.

Both girls gasped as he stared back at them. She had captured him accurately. It was as if they were looking at a photograph. Both nodded quietly, shocked at how Emilie had managed to re-create such an incredible likeness from their relatively brief description of him.

She placed the image onto a scanner and proceeded to make a computer copy of it before removing the piece of paper and handing it over to Lilly.