Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (6 page)

They finally turned off the four lane highways and onto narrow country roads.
Chance weaved around tight corners and up hills with a boyish glee. It was like some crazy rollercoaster. They barely missed tractors and pickups around almost every bend which played hell on her nerves. Lilith white-knuckled the door-handle and forced herself to focus on the tall trees that lined the road with the exception of a few live oaks and weeping willows that actually hung over it. The view opened up to huge pastures surrounded by split-rail or barb wire fences with black and white cows watching them pass by. If it hadn’t been for the GPS barking electronic directions they never would have found the place.

Five miles in they finally rolled to a stop outside a tan house with a double garage. The property sloped down steeply from the
front of the house which made it appear as if it’d fall off the face of the earth at any moment. The front yard was pretty bare, with only a couple young trees planted near the split-rail fence. A new shed, with siding matching the house, stood a little closer to the road, complete with one of the quilt pattern signs on it that she’d seen on dozens of houses and barns on the way here.

Chance stared out the window in
complete disbelief. “It looks so…normal. I was expecting some kind of plantation style mansion or something. We sure this is the right place?”

Lilith double checked the address
with the numbers on the cow mailbox. “This is definitely the place. Guess he didn’t want to stand out here anymore than he already would. There’s a reason we usually stick to big cities. People in small towns get too nosey. It’s bad enough for humans who don’t go to church in a place like this. It’d be a million times harder for Duncan to stay under the radar.”

“Well, what’s the plan? Since Spencer is apparently MIA and we don’t have a key. I somehow doubt that Spencer
or Miriah left the place unlocked.”

Lilith glanced a
round. There was a neighboring, single story, white house across the street, only partially hidden by a line of trees. On the left of Duncan’s place was another house less than a quarter mile down the road. A thick line of trees ran behind the houses, but she could see one or two more neighbors at the crest of the hill beyond the trees that would still have a view of the back of the house. 

“I think you should go knock on the door.”

Chance turned toward her and frowned. “What? We know there isn’t anyone here. What good would that do?”

Lilith pointed out the neighboring houses discreetly. “You can bet at least one of them is watching. We’ve been parked here a couple minutes now.
If we just drive off, they’re gonna think we are casing the joint or something. They’d probably even call the cops. Go knock on the door. Wait a few minutes, and then walk back to the car like you’re telling me no one’s home. We’ll go get a hotel, get in a nap or something and come back here tonight, when we’re less likely to have an audience.”

Chance j
ust stared at her for a minute, not even bothering to hide his surprise.

Lilith quirked an eyebrow at him and frowned.
“Yes, I’m aware that I actually have a brain and am pretty damn good at my job. Just go.”

“Does your job actually require you to be a criminal-minded sneak?” The words sounded critical, but there was a warm excitement in his voice that was unmistakable.

Lilith raised her eyebrows and just looked at him. “Seriously?” When he still looked confused she continued. “You do know what I do for a living, right?” That didn’t seem to sink in either for some reason.

“You work with the cops on crime scenes.” It started as a statement but ended up sounding more like a question.

“More specifically, I show up at very particular crime scenes ahead of the police. I determine which investigations need to be handled in-house and which get kicked to normal homicide. Very few cops know what I do, Chance. I have to access crime scenes without any trace that might contaminate the evidence. That means being a really gifted sneak.”

A grin crossed his lips. “Well, well. I never knew you were so diabolical. I always just assumed that you were a squeaky-clean, by the book type since you work with cops.”

“If I do my job right I don’t have to work with any cops, besides Alvarez. Now if we’re done playing career day, could you just go knock on the door before we get to play with Tennessee’s finest?”

He pulled himself out of the car with a great deal of effort and took a moment to stretch. He groaned in relief and walked casually to the front door. After a few minutes he jogged back around the double garage, shrugging. “Guess he’s not home yet.” His voice projected loudly enough for any neighbors with windows open to hear him.
Subtle. When he swung the car door open, he death-glared at the tiny seat and squeezed himself into the car.

“Okay, mission accomplished. We are officially disappointed visitors. So, oh mighty navigator, you want to find us a hotel with that thing.” He nodded over at the GPS on the dashboard.

“Well there’s a Town and Country out on the main road, Highway 411. Only other option is a Motor Lodge.”

“Town and Country it is! Punch it in, Navigator.”
His enthusiasm was almost contagious.

“Are you always this chipper? Cause if this is normal Chance mode I think I need more coffee.”

“Hey. So far this is the first vacation I’ve ever had.” This time his smile really was contagious, tiny dimples and all. She couldn’t help but grin as the GPS began barking electronic directions. In the back of her mind, Lilith hoped he could still consider it a vacation once they figured out just what was going on. So far, it didn’t seem likely.

A few minutes later they arrived at a run down, tiny motel. It was single story in an L shape, white painted cement block with a faded blue tin roof.
A dumpster sat next to a telephone pole near the road and of course there was a vending machine, probably broken, next to the office. They both sat in the car contemplating their options as they stared over the cracked paint on each of the 10 red doors around the building.

Chance shifted in his seat as much as the cramped car would allow
, which wasn’t much, and looked at her. “Okay, we’ve been cramped into an airplane and then squeezed into this tiny ass car. We have to go back to Duncan’s tonight, so I don’t see the point of driving any farther. I say we take a room here tonight, go back out to check Duncan’s place and if we haven’t heard from Spencer or Miriah by then, we drive back to Knoxville and find someplace where we are less likely to be chopped up for stew meat.”

She chuckled despite herself. “
First off, weren’t you the one that said this car would be fine?” Chance just flipped her off as she continued. “Secondly, I think you meant room
S
” She amended.

All the humor fell from his face and he shook his head.
“Oh, hell no. This is one step from the Bates Motel, there’s no room for prim and proper. I’m not letting you out of my sight in a place like this. We’ll get a room with twin beds or something, but only one room.”

Lilith opened her mouth to protest, but the thought of staying in a room by herself in this place sent chills up her spine.
Just having another person, any person, in the room would make her feel better. She could take one night. They would only be staying long enough to nap anyway. Finally she nodded and dug her wallet out of her coat and handed him a fifty dollar bill. “Shouldn’t be any more than that. We’ll share a room, this once.” Lilith emphasized the last bit which only made Chance smile and wink at her.

“You say that now.”
He grabbed the fifty, slowly pulled himself out of the car and jogged up to the office. While he was busy getting their room, she stared across the gloomy parking lot and rubbed goose bumps from her arms. She spent most of her time around dead bodies and crime scenes, but lately she just felt like her nerves were raw and frayed. It was like some nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was definitely horribly wrong. Now Spencer was missing too it seemed. What the hell was going on here in Eastern Tennessee?

Lilith decided to take advantage of the time she had to herself and called Gregor’s cell. He should be asleep so she could leave a voicemail without worrying about an interrogation. His voicemail message was the standard robot reciting the phone number, completely impersonal. “Spencer didn’t show at the airport so we swung by the Madisonville house. We’ll take a closer look tonight but we’re just going to get a hotel room and relax until then. I’ll call with more
later.” She didn’t want to leave anything too specific. All cell phones could be monitored by simple scanners. Besides, if Gregor was willing to be precautious to the extreme in New York just to talk to her, then she figured she could be understandably vague with her voicemail.

As soon as she hung up, Chance emerged from the office. He stopped just outside and turned back to lean in the door, as if answering a question. After a moment he was
tapping on her window. She didn’t have the key to the car and of course it had power windows, so she just cracked the door open.

Chance rested an arm across the hood and leaned down so he could talk quietly, but his vigilant eyes never left the parking lot. If she was expecting something important, she was disappointed. “I swear to God, I don’t know what the hell that man just said to me. I think it was something about guns and raccoons.” Lilith choked back a laugh.

“Are you sure he said raccoon?” Lilith didn’t consider herself a racist person and she didn’t like to make assumptions, but this was the south and well off the beaten path.

“It’s entirely possible he said he makes a mean Chicken Florentine for all I know.” Lilith coughed on a laugh, completely forgetting about the dreary parking lot.

“You’re from the south, can’t you interpret.”

Chance’s eyes caught hers for a second, all full of warmth and then they continued to scan the area.
“I’m from Cajun country,
cher
, not whatever the hell country this is.” After Lilith stopped chuckling, his voice dropped down to business mode. “We have the first room.” He nodded behind him. “I want to give it a once over real quick. Stay in the car, fiddle with your phone and then I’ll come out and grab the bags.”

“Who’s the sneaky mastermind
now?” Lilith grinned and pulled the door closed while Chance pushed away from the car and cautiously stalked over to the door. He made it look casual as he unlocked the door, but she knew he was absorbing all of his surroundings.  Tension pulled at every muscle in his body. Once he disappeared into the room, she held up her phone pretending to push buttons, and just stared intensely at the door.

Minutes passed
torturously slow. She had her hand on the door handle when Chance finally came out. She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. He calmly strolled toward the back of the car, with the slightest nod to her as he passed. Lilith visibly put her phone in her pocket, opened up the door and stepped out of the car. She looked down at her rumpled dress pants, wrinkled blouse and high heels and suddenly couldn’t wait to change. She’d need something more… casual for tonight anyway.

She grabbed her aluminum kit
and the biohazard cooler while Chance started hauling the luggage and the last bag of equipment. A few minutes later the car was completely unloaded and Lilith was staring at the queen size bed. “I thought you were getting two twins?”

Chance stepped out of the bathroom. “I tried, all the rooms are single
queens.” He shrugged and stepped back out of sight.

Lilith let out a frustrated sigh and suddenly felt exhausted. She looked around the tiny room with increasing despair. The yellowing
wall paper was mostly still intact. A sixties style dresser with plastic “wood” molding took up the entire wall on the right. There was a tiny round table stuffed into the corner by the window, sadly not leaving enough room for any chairs. An ancient TV with actual push buttons on the front stood on the far edge of the dresser. If nothing else it’d make a hefty self-defense weapon.

The Queen-
size bed was covered in a horrendous comforter with swirl designs in salmon pink and melon green. Her skin itched just looking at it. Right above the bed was a painting of a beach scene with the same colors as the bed. Yay for color co-ordination.

Lilith dropped her aluminum case on the dresser and cracked it open.
In the bottom of her case, she found what she was looking for. When Chance walked out of the bathroom, all the lights were off and Lilith was leaning over the bed with a purple light, meticulously running it over the pulled back sheets, while sporting some stylish orange glasses.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Lilith glanced over the rim of the glasses with a frown. “It’s a UV light. I’m just checking the bed.”

Chance strolled up to her with a curious look. “Checking it for what?”

“You can see all kinds of stains that you wouldn’t see with the naked eye, Blood, Urine, all kinds of body fluids.” She continued to move the light over the sheets.

“Why would you
even check for that?” He sounded disgusted almost to the point of being offended.

Lilith huffed and looked up at him. “Maybe you don’t care, but I don’t want to sleep in a redneck sperm bank
, okay?”