Craig's Heart (26 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Craig followed Damek to another part of the city. They traveled with preternatural speed, racing along the sidewalk faster than they would if they took a vehicle. Damek slowed and came to a stop in front of a very impressive house—a large Victorian that had been totally restored.

“This Vladimir Drake’s home?”

“Yes. And there is someone we must help.” Damek strode to the front door and knocked.

The door opened and a dark-haired man stood there, his blue eyes bloodshot, his body trembling. “You’re back. I wasn’t sure if I imagined you or not.”

The unassuming man appeared to be in his mid-thirties, but with his receding hairline he could be older or younger. Craig couldn’t be sure. What he could be sure of was the man was afraid. Craig could smell his fear.

“You don’t know what I’ve done, what I’ve seen,” the man began. He seemed broken. This had to be one of Vladimir’s minions. Craig felt sorry for him.

“Your master is dead.” Damek’s tone was almost gentle. He reached out and placed his hand on the man’s forehead. “You will forget everything from the past few weeks. All else will be nothing more than a dream, which will fade over time.”

“A dream,” the man repeated. His eyes went vacant.

Fascinated, Craig opened his mind and tried to
feel
what Damek was doing. Damek put up no blocks, allowing him inside his mind. The process was as delicate as any brain surgery. It was like writing code for a computer program. Damek was literally reprogramming the man’s memories.

It was over in a matter of seconds. The man slumped slightly, but Damek caught him. “Go home,” Damek ordered him. “Forget me. Forget all that has happened. Go back to your home.”

He nodded and left the house, front door wide open and trudged down the sidewalk.

“Will he be okay?” Craig wondered if they shouldn’t follow him home.

“He’ll have to be. There’s no time to waste.” Damek closed the door to the house, making sure it was secured. “We’ll come back here tomorrow night and deal with Vladimir’s belongings. Anything that hints of him being a vampire must be destroyed.”

Craig hadn’t thought about that. “Being a vampire isn’t easy, is it?”

Damek shrugged. “It has compensations, but you must always be careful. Only a trusted few can know your secrets. I spent hundreds of years with no one knowing what I was at all. It was safer that way.”

His friend faced him. “You must learn to use your powers, test them, strengthen them. I didn’t allow you to do that with this man because he is an innocent and deserved no further harm to come to him.”

He digested what his friend said and nodded. It made sense. “Wouldn’t Vladimir have had more than one minion?”

Damek nodded. “He had a half-dozen. Only this man was innocent. All the others were hardened criminals to begin with. Murderers. They won’t be returning to their homes.”

Craig swallowed hard, realizing that Damek had already killed them.

“I know what you’re thinking, my friend. Yes, I destroyed a couple of them, but the vampire hunters had already done most of my work for me. I found them here when I arrived earlier this evening.”

“What about other connections? The vampire who made Vladimir?” Craig had so many questions.

“No, his maker is dead. I caught that much from Vladimir’s memories when I held him in my command. He murdered him because he wanted to be the oldest.” Damek shook his head in disgust. “Such arrogance.”

“Are you the oldest vampire?” Craig asked. He’d often wondered but there’d never seemed to be the right opportunity to ask.

Damek shrugged. “I don’t know and don’t care. I have no idea what became of the one who made me a thousand years ago. Dead or alive, it matters not. I have carved out my own life and that is enough to concern me.”

Damek glanced at the lightening sky. “We must hurry. Follow me.”

In a blur of motion, Damek zipped down the street, moving easily around obstacles, never slowing. Craig followed. It wasn’t easy to keep up, but he managed. He’d get better over time, or at least he hoped so.

Damek stopped outside a motel just this side of seedy and waited until Craig pulled up alongside him. Craig studied the motel. It wasn’t quite rundown, but it certainly wasn’t going to get more than a two-star review, and that was only a good day. They walked down the side of the building and stopped in front of one of the rooms that had an outside entrance.

“There are two hunters staying here.” Damek pointed to room eight. “I want you to find out what they know. Then you will decide what is to be done with them.”

Craig knew this would be one of the most difficult things he’d have to do since becoming a vampire. It was one thing to kill an enemy in the heat of battle, a vile creature who wanted to kill his loved ones. But this was different. This was cold-blooded.

“It is who you are now,” Damek reminded him. “Who you must become if you are going to survive. Your brother understands this. As does your brother-in-law. All paranormal creatures must face this moment. It is a matter of survival.”

Survival. Craig thought about the men waiting inside the cheap motel room. They were in the city for one purpose—to hunt vampires. They would kill whatever vampires they could find, not stopping to question whether it was right or wrong. It’s what they did. They didn’t differentiate between vampires like Damek and Vladimir. All vampires were evil to the hunters.

Something inside him hardened and he strode to the door. He glanced at Damek, but his friend stood to one side watching. He knew then that Damek would interfere only if absolutely necessary. This was Craig’s show now.

He concentrated on the locks and felt them turn easily. They were no challenge at all. He opened the door and stepped into the darkened room. There were two double beds crammed into the small space. A man slept fully clothed on each one.

Craig waited until Damek entered and then shut the door. He didn’t need light to see, not with his new and improved night vision. Damek motioned to the man closest to them. “That’s Evan. The other one is Leroy.” Then his friend withdrew into the shadows by the door until Craig couldn’t see him at all. Quite a feat, that. He’d have to ask Damek to show him how that was done.

Knowing he was procrastinating and the clock was ticking, Craig went toward the first bed and sat on the edge. The man—Evan was his name—woke, his eyes widening. Craig slapped his hand over the man’s mouth before he yelled or made enough noise to wake his friend.

He’d felt how Damek had eased into the mind of the minion at Vladimir’s home and did the same with the man in front of him. He reached out with his mind and connected easily to Evan’s. He traveled along the delicate neural pathways until he came to the man’s memories. What he found there was disturbing. This particular hunter had a sincere wish to protect mankind from the monsters he knew existed. His sister had been killed by such a monster. The other man, Leroy, had come to him after his sister’s death, telling Evan about the monsters. At first, Evan hadn’t believed Leroy. But then he’d been shown undeniable proof.

But Evan wasn’t comfortable with all the killing. He didn’t mind slaying the monsters. They deserved to die. But the minions were another thing all together. Weren’t they victims too?

Craig backed out of Evan’s mind, releasing his hold on his memories. He was careful not to damage or disturb any of them. It was such an intimate thing to dig around another person’s mind. Much like searching someone’s home when they weren’t there. None of his secrets were off limits, there was nothing he could hide that Craig couldn’t find, given enough time.

This kind of power was both seductive and frightening. It reminded Craig of hacking into a computer. It would be very easy to do lasting damage.

There was so much anger, sadness and fear whirling around inside this man. Craig swiveled his head so he could see Damek. “He’s not a bad man.”

“I know.” Damek said nothing more. Craig knew if he didn’t deal with the situation, Damek would, and Craig wasn’t exactly sure how his friend would handle things. In many ways, Damek was primitive at heart. He’d been born into a more violent and basic time in the history of the world, and civilization was a thin veneer he wore when it suited him.

Craig looked back at Evan. The man was sweating profusely, but he hadn’t moved. Damek must have him under a compulsion. Craig straightened, lifting his hand from Evan’s mouth so he could speak.

Evan swallowed hard. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

“I’m a vampire, yes,” he answered honestly. “But I’m not a killer. Not a bad person.”

“You drink people’s blood,” Evan accused.

“And you eat cows,” Craig shot back. “At least I don’t have to kill people to get sustenance. There is plenty of blood to be had from blood banks. And there are those who know about vampires, some of whom are more than willing to give their blood when needed.” He thought back to earlier tonight at Haven. His friends had come through for him in ways he’d never imagined they would.

“You don’t kill them?” He could hear Evan’s confusion.

Craig sighed. “I’m so sorry about your sister. That was a tragedy, but not all vampires are like the one you were chasing. You don’t need to worry about him any longer. We took care of him.”

“We?” The man reeked of fear, his clothes damp with sweat. Damek stepped out of the shadows and the bed began to shake with the man’s trembling.

“Be calm, human,” Damek commanded. “If I wanted you dead, I’d have done it earlier.” He pointedly stared at Craig. “Time is running out. Even I cannot hold back the dawn.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” Craig countered, drawing a small smile from his friend who simply shrugged.

“Okay, Evan, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to erase some of your memories and give you some new ones. And I hope to hell we never cross paths again. Don’t waste your life on anger and vengeance. I don’t think your sister would have wanted that.”

Damek nodded and Craig felt the older vampire inside his mind, watching what Craig was about to do. He knew Damek would keep him from making a mistake and that gave him confidence.

It was just like hacking a computer. It required skill, a light hand—or in this case mind—and the ability to adapt and adjust to fluctuating situations when the need arose.

Craig struck without warning, sliding much more quickly into Evan’s mind. He picked through Evan’s memories, slowly at first, but then with speed and growing confidence.

He felt Damek monitoring him and adjusted what he was doing whenever Damek gave him a suggestion. It felt strange, yet somehow normal, to hear Damek in his head while he was smack dab in the memories of a human.

Good thing he was used to multitasking.

Craig removed some but not all of Evan’s memories. He left enough so the man wouldn’t think he was losing his mind. That would be an injustice to Evan and he wanted to avoid making that kind of mistake. The mind was such a delicate thing, so easily damaged.

Craig also implanted some new thoughts, especially ones about distrusting vampire hunters, who in many ways were as bad as or worse than the creatures they hunted. He planted questions about vampires and the thought that not all of them were bad. Only some of them. Much like humans.

When he was done, he carefully withdrew from Evan’s mind, praying he hadn’t made any mistakes. He glanced at Damek, who simply nodded at him. That set Craig’s mind at ease. If he’d left something undone, Damek would have alerted him. Confident now, he looked back at Evan. “Now you will collect your things, go to your car and go home.”

Damek stirred. “Have you had contact with other hunters or just Leroy?”

“Just Leroy,” Evan answered, his voice shaking. “Who are you?” he asked.

“No one you need to worry about,” Craig answered. He waited until Evan had all his gear and was by the door. Then he seamlessly slid into Evan’s consciousness one final time. This time he wasn’t trying to manipulate a memory but plant a suggestion. It was a different process and it took him a minute to adjust and find the proper area of the brain. It was shocking to him how easily he was able to do this.

“You will not remember tonight once you drive away from here,” Craig told Evan. “All you’ll know is that you want to get home.”

“Home.” Evan echoed the word and left the dingy motel room. Craig watched from the doorway as Evan tossed his belongings into is truck, started the vehicle and drove off.

Craig hoped Evan made it home all right and put his sister’s death behind him. He’d done what he could to ensure Evan would stay away from the vampire hunters, but only time would tell.

Damek pointed to the other bed. “Now we deal with Leroy.”

Dread built in the pit of Craig’s stomach. He knew this man was very different from Evan. He could sense it without even entering the man’s mind and viewing his memories. There was a darkness surrounding Leroy, a sickness that seemed to cling to him.

Craig didn’t want to be in Leroy’s memories any more than he had to. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be a pleasant place to be. It would probably be more like being stuck in a horror movie, one that he had a very upfront and close view of.

Dawn was nearing and there was no time to waste. Craig tried to push into Leroy’s mind but something stopped him.