Demonspawn (32 page)

I hung up. Obviously she didn't want to talk.
My sister and her guy problems. Me and my feelings for Cindy. Oh,
and me being a half demon of some kind. Life had its share of
problems.

*****

It didn't take long to drive to the city. I
parked about a block away from the police station, the same one I
forced Tony to turn himself in to, after he and his partner
attacked Cindy. That felt like forever ago.

I felt foolish as I stepped inside and walked
up to the sliding-glass window separating the front lobby area from
the rest of station. I felt like I shouldn't have been there, and I
had doubts as to why I was. How exactly was I gonna help
Victoria?

“Can I help you?” the lady behind the glass
said. She looked bored, and irritated.

“Uh, yeah. I'm looking for William Sloane. He
should know I'm coming.”

“Name?”

“Alex Teague.”

She picked up the phone. “Bill, a guy named
Alex here to see you?” She was quiet a second, then hung up. “He'll
be right up.”

I flashed a small smile and waited. Bill
greeted me a minute later. Without the distraction of an insane
crime scene, I got a much better look at him.

He didn't look any better than last night.
Just looked tired, defeated. It looked like he wore the same
clothes from the crime scene, minus the coat. He looked strong,
though, tough. He did manage a smirk and nod before shaking my
hand.

“Hey, Alex. Put this on.”

He gave me a visitor's badge and led me
through the maze of cubicle desks and chairs. A lot of noise, a lot
of commotion. People were everywhere doing things you'd expect in a
police station. Phones were ringing. Desk cops were taking
statements from witnesses. Bill didn't say a word, which I liked.
All business. He stopped at a desk that I guessed was his and
started organizing some folders and punching away at his computer
keyboard. He paused long enough to grab a cell phone from his desk
drawer and toss it at me.

“This is for you.”

“Why do I need a cell phone?”

“Victoria wanted me to give it to you. Said
you didn't have one. How the hell can you get by without a cell
phone?”

I shrugged. “Just not popular, I guess.”

He smirked. “Anyway, her number's in there. I
guess you really do work for her now.”

“How long have you two known each other?”

He laughed. The laugh seemed to go against
his serious look.

“Long enough to wish I hadn't met her
sometimes. Vampires, werewolves. I wish I didn't know they were
real.”

He didn't know the half of it. Demons,
ghosts, the list just keeps getting better.

“So, you got a report for her?” I asked.

Before he could answer, a cop led a drunk man
in handcuffs by us.

“I'm fuckin' telling you! He flew through the
sky! He was like a goddamn giant fucking bat! Or a monster or
something!”

Bill shook his head as they walked by. I
shifted in my chair, a little uncomfortable.

“What shit are these assholes on now,” he
muttered, then looked at me. His mind was far away. “What was
that?”

“A report? I'm supposed to get a report for
Victoria?”

He smiled. “Not yet, but we will in about
twenty minutes.”

“What?”

“We still have to examine the body.”

“W
e
?”

“Victoria didn't tell you? She wants you to
get a look at it. I'm not thrilled about it myself, a civvie like
you. No offense. But I trust Victoria.”

I shook my head, a little angry. I knew it
couldn't be as simple as playing mailman for a report.

“Well, what the hell does she think I'm gonna
see that you guys aren't?”

“Beats me. She just says you're special, and
let you have a look.”

I felt a little sick to my stomach. Seeing a
dead body in the street is one thing, but
examining
one?

“You ready?”

“I guess.”

He got up and led me to the back and down a
tight flight of steps. We passed a few sets of doors until we came
to a set that required an electronic badge of some kind. He swiped
a card and opened the door, but grabbed me by the shoulder before I
could walk in.

“You're not gonna faint or puke, are you? I
don't feel like mopping shit up on a Saturday.”

A quick flash of some of the things I'd seen
in my life flashed through my head. A possessed ghost killing his
wife over and over again. Visions of demons torturing souls, in my
birthplace of all places.

“I'll be fine.”

We stepped into the morgue. It was like you'd
think it would be. Very cold, very blue. The wall was lined up with
small doors, which held tables of who knows how many bodies.

Bill looked at a file folder he had, matching
up to which body cabinet he was looking for.

“Our victim, Larry Watling,” he started. He
wrapped a hand around the body-cabinet handle. “Just a guy in the
wrong place at the wrong time. We figure-”

He never finished.

As soon as he opened the body-cabinet door,
something lunged out. Caught us both completely off guard. Before I
could even blink, Bill was on the ground screaming in pain. The
vampire had its weight pressed on Bill's chest, its fangs deep in
his shoulder.

I reached down to try to pull it off. It
shrugged me off easily, throwing me back a few feet. But it was
enough to get its attention.

It lunged at me, but luckily I was a split
second faster. I vanished, and it passed through me and crashed
into the wall.

I backed up next to Bill, who was starting to
climb to his feet. Blood was dripping down his shirt to the floor.
We both stared at what used to be Larry Watling.

He half crouched against the wall. He looked
to be sizing the both of us up. It looked at us and snarled. Bright
red eyes that weren't natural, impossibly pale skin, unkempt hair.
It was my first look at a wild vampire in good light, and I'd never
forget it.

“This isn't right,” Bill said. “This one's
acting like an animal.”

“Yeah. We found two more like this one.”

He lunged again. This time it went for me. My
first instinct was to vanish, but I knew if I did, it would smack
right into Bill. I took the charge and fell back into the wall. My
head smacked off the concrete, knocking me senseless. As I crumpled
to the ground, I felt his weight on me. He tried to push my head
back and go for my neck. I managed to slip an arm between us, but
he was stronger than me. I was a second away from vanishing when he
screamed in pain. His hold on me started to slip a little, and he
fell next to me, almost in a fetal position. I saw a few inches of
a long metal rod sticking through the front of his chest, with the
rest sticking out the back. Bill had stabbed him through the heart
with some kind of tool used for autopsies.

“You alright?” Bill said, yanking me to my
feet.

I nodded, and immediately felt like an idiot.
That
was what was itching in the back of my head last night
at the crime scene. As Victoria and I looked over the scene in the
street, it just never occurred to me.

Larry Watling wasn't dead. I should have
known when I first saw him lying covered in the middle of the
street.

I never sensed a ghost at all. I know if it
were me, I'd be trying to solve my own murder.

Now here Larry was, lying in a vampire coma
on the floor of a morgue,
undead
, of all things.

In all the commotion, Bill didn't see me
vanish. That was a good thing, less questions. But he was bleeding
bad from the shoulder, and only a single thought hit my mind. He
looked at me, and answered before I could ask the question.

“Don't worry. I won't turn into one of them.
I've been bit a million times. Even let Victoria suck some blood
when she was low.”

I sighed. That was a relief.

In fifteen seconds, Bill was calm enough to
think. I wish I could say that.

“Fuck. I gotta deal with this,” he said,
pointing to Larry. “And you gotta get out of here. We'll all talk
later.”

“What are you gonna do with him?”

“You don't want to know,” he said, and
gestured to the door.

I nodded, and left the morgue, leaving Bill
to do whatever it was he had to do. I didn't give it any more
thought. I just wanted to get out. I dropped my guest badge at the
front desk and stepped into the afternoon sun.

I sat down at the steps leading to the police
station to calm my nerves. The daylight felt good, like it was
cleansing me of what the hell just happened. It was good to see
people walking the streets, cars stuck in traffic.
Normal
things. Not the strange world I was suddenly thrust in to.

That vampire could have easily snapped my
neck, had I let it. It was pure luck and Bill's quickness that
saved me. Whatever the hell I was, half demon, human with demon
blood, I was starting to feel like I was in way over my head.

And the day was only starting.

After unwinding for a few minutes I got up
and circled the block to get to my truck. I didn't have any report
to give Victoria, so I was just gonna get something to eat and go
over to her place.

I never made it.

I didn't even hear them coming up from behind
me. Someone hit me on the back of the head with something hard. The
pain burst through my skull as I fell to one knee. Then a van
screeched to a halt next to me. Two guys jumped out, grabbed me by
the arms, and dragged me inside. I didn't have a chance to vanish
at all. Abducted right in broad daylight.

By the time the pain in my head started to
die a little, I realized I was in the van. I tried to move, but
something held my wrist. I was handcuffed to a railing running
along the side, my arm over my head.

“Just relax,” someone said.

I looked at two guys standing in front of me.
My vision was still a little blurry, but they slowly came into
focus. I bounced a little as the moving van drove around the city
blocks.

“Hi,” the man on the left said. “My name's
John Bachner. The fellow next to me is Andrew Heins.”

The infamous Bachner and Heins. My first look
at either one of them.

Bachner was in his forties with light blond
hair. Looked normal enough. Medium build. Probably a little taller
than me, if we were standing completely straight. He didn't exactly
stand out in a crowd, probably a good trait for a vampire killer to
have. He looked at me, sizing me up. He had an intelligent look to
him, like he studied everything.

Heins, on the other hand, looked to be the
complete opposite. No hair at all, an old scar on the side of his
face. He looked like he spent all his time in the gym. He had a
mean, almost angry expression on his face. When we locked eyes, he
spit on the floor of the van in front of me, narrowly missing my
shoe.

I pulled my wrist against the handcuffs. I
was so close to vanishing from their sight and leaving the van. But
something kept me in place. I wasn't worried at all because I knew
I wasn't in any real danger, and I have to admit, I acted a little
recklessly.

“How you doing? Nice to meet you.”

Heins almost snarled.

“You're not a vampire,” Bachner said, cutting
out any chance of small talk. “Obviously, cause you can get a
suntan, like the rest of us. But my men tell me you're not human. I
laughed at first, then I see pictures of you flying all over the
place. What are you? Some kind of government experiment or
something?”

I didn't say anything.

So Heins gave me a nice right fist to the
cheek.

My head rocked back. If it wasn't for the
handcuffs, I would have fallen.

In my head I saw me doing a quick vanish,
then lunging for Heins' throat. Very bad thoughts started to creep
in. I hoped it was anger, and not the demon in me. But I kept in
control. I kept telling myself I actually had the advantage. They
knew nothing about me, and there was no reason to show them what I
was capable of.

At least not yet.

“Heins, calm down,” Bachner said. He almost
looked irritated. He looked at me. “What's your name?”

I almost didn't say anything. But I had a
feeling deep down they already knew who I was. They could have also
grabbed my wallet if they really wanted to.

“Alex Teague.”

“Ah. Okay Alex. I don't know who or what you
are. And to be honest, I don't care. You're not a vampire. So I
don't want to kill you. I only kill vampires. That's it. But you
have made friends with one.”

“Are you fuckin' kidding?” Heins roared.
“This little punk beat the shit out of our guys. They said they
flamed him down and it didn't do shit. Let me put a bullet in his
head now.”

“Inside the van, Heins? Are you out of your
mind?”

They both looked at each other, and I noticed
something. Tension. Partners or not, something was definitely going
on with them.

“Why do you want to kill her?” I asked,
careful not to drop her name. “Just because she's a vampire,
doesn't make her evil. She's a good person.”

“Tell that to my grandfather,” Bachner
snapped.

He saw the surprise on my face.

“She didn't tell you, did she? Victoria
killed my grandfather, when I was a little kid. And now it's her
turn. I've tracked her down so many times, and she's always just
gotten away. Well, not this time. I'm only trying to warn you, to
save your life. You think she's your friend. Vampires don't have
friends. She'll rip your heart out when you don't see it
coming.”

Heins leaned in close. “So if you don't back
the fuck off, and mind your own business, your sister, that hot
little black bitch you hang out with, your mommy, they all die.
Understand?”

Bachner grabbed his partner's shoulder.
“Heins, would you shut the fuck up?”

I didn't look at Bachner at all. My gaze was
settled right on Heins. He gave me a hard slap before leaning
away.