Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (22 page)

“Fiona has a federal training grant, Damien.
She assists the
police to solve
criminal cases
.
She also has helped us tremendously in the past and might be the one to clear your name
in this case,
so I suggest you give her just as much respect as you do to me,”
he
reprimanded as he pointed his index and middle finger
towards
Damien
.

He scowled
at
the detective
as he hesitated, narrowing his
black
eyes into slits
, shifting the long side of his hair to cover one eye
.

“
Yeah,
whatever
.
”

“
Now, can you please tell us what the tenet meaning is behind the rituals for increasing
power?
Does this mean you are to kill someone for a sacrifice?”

At the sound of the detective’s question, his
lips curled up at t
he corners
.

“Somewhat.
We don’t do that, though
.
I mean, we killed the deer out of mercy
.
T
he Northern Vampire Alliance
performs human sacrifices, not us
.
F
rom what I know, they only sacrifice the willing.”

The detective
frantically wrote down some notes before he continued.
I was mortified at
his
words there were vampires that admittedly killed people who
wanted
to be killed.
I wasn’t sure what was more disturbing
—
the vampires being murderers or people wanting to be killed by them.

“Why would people go to these people to be killed
?
Who would be willing and why
?
”

“If you die by the hand of a
Nosfu V
ampire, you go on a VIP list to the underworld
.
You leave this world, but go on to something
far
better.
”

“Damien, are
you
a Nosfu Vampire
?
”

His
face lit up with
a
wicked grin as he cocked his head to the side
, chuckling.

“No, not me.
I’d be the leader of the
O
rder if I were.
We don’t perform those rituals
.
We didn’t kill this lady
.
I
never saw
her before
.
But I know you will judge my appearance like everybody else
and
send me to my death
.
You might as well, D
etective.
My life sucks
.
”

Damien
displayed
his knuckle tattoo
s
towards
us.

“We
don’t support
wrongful accusations and injustice
.
If you didn’t do this crime, we
will
clear
you and get you out of here.
If you did do it, we
are going to
know
you did
in due time.
It’s that
easy
.
Remember, you need to tell the complete truth if you expect us to help you.
We know
you were in the cave that night
.
T
here is no other way your bloody fingerprint would be on the sword, Damien.
Your fingerprint, the victim’s blood, on the murder weapon.
You need to give us your
story
.
”

Damien glowered at the detective with malevolent eyes. Feeling a
wkward,
my eyes wandered about the four white walls of the room, stopping on the only dash of color
—
a large brown spider clinging onto her web
that dangled
from the ceiling.
After a
period
of silence,
the detective
spoke
clearly and
concisely
.

“
Thanks for talking to me today.
I’ll be in touch.”

He
folded his notepad and signaled for me to move
towards the
door.

“How’s that curs
e working out for ya, Detective?
”
Damien mumbled
.

“What are you talking about?”

He
paused as he rose from his chair
, his face full of concern
.

“I’m just asking if you feel
alright
.”

“
I feel fine, Damien
.”

He held open the door for me
,
and as I exited, a gust of wind from the hallway cooled my feverish skin.
I had to get another dose of medicine quickly
,
or I’d
start to backslide.

“What was that about
?
”
I
said
quietly
as we exited into the hallway.

“Obviously, he spoke to Dimitri LeMorte, who is about to be
released
for time served on the parking ticket warrant.
Maybe we should speak to him as well?
I’ll tell the guard.”

We
had
waited for a few minutes in the
sparkling
foyer of the jailhouse before a different guard escort
ed
us into another interrogation room.
We entered the
empty room and took our seats
in the black plastic chairs around the bright white table.

“Brace yourself, Fiona.
I already told you what this man looks like
,
so do not be surprised when he walks through the door.
People like that will feed on fear.
”

I mentally prepared myself for the worst
,
trying to envision the man based upon his description. I winced when the
doorknob twist
ed
,
turning
my head slightly to the side
so I could use my
peripheral vision before
launching
a full view.

A demon,
or so I thought
.
I slowly turned my head
towards
him
, stifling
a scream in the back of my
tender
throat.
A
wkwardly tanned
in the few places his actual skin could be seen
, he had many
G
othic tattoos on his face and neck
—and
bright red, spiked hair
.
A
solid black rectangle
was
tattooed
between his eyes,
and horns jetted
out from his forehead
—just as the detective had described
.
His teeth yellow, jagged, his canine teeth
were
golden fangs
, his lips tattooed with black stripes
.
The surfaces of his eyes were
covered with a black ring,
probably contacts.

“Hello
,
Mr. LeMorte.
Or should I say—
Mr. Bing.”

“I prefer LeMorte,” he snapped
, dropping
into his seat across the table from us
.

His accent was hard to place
.
It sounded
like
he was trying to speak with a false foreign accent
,
but it came off as a villainous cartoon character.

He glared at Detective Chase
like a
primitive animal,
a predator,
hunting from the other side of the table with blackened eyes.
He
made Damien Lee look like a Boy Scout.
I felt horrible, but
it was difficult not to blame the way I
felt
on
his
menacing appearance.

“I would like to speak to you about a couple of things
. Let’s
start with Gerald Smith
.
I understand you
’re
his first cousin, is that correct?”

Dimitri lowered his chin
towards his
chest, focusing his eyes on Detective Chase as he paused,
sneering
.

“Yes, Gerald Smith
was
my cousin
in the natural sense
.”

The detective
had jotted
a few
notes
before he
continued
,
“
Do you know his
whereabouts
at the moment?”

“No, I do not.
I heard he broke out of Huntville
,
but I have no idea where he would go.
I guess you can say we’ve fallen out of touch since his incarceration many years
ago,
”
Dimitri jeered as he formed a malevolent grin
.

“I would ask if anything changes with that, please notify the police immediately.
You wouldn’t want to be charged with harboring a fugitive.”

Dimitri cocked his head to the side, pausing.

“Is that a threat, Detective
?
”

As if
pulled up by puppet strings
, he
rose fluidly in his seat, narrowing his eyes into
an
ominous grimace.

“I want to
inform you
of what will happen, is all.
On another note, I would like to ask you about the tenets you wrote for the Order of the Black Moon
.
I understand these are five guidelines for all vampires to follow within your group.”

“Yes, Detective
.
I wrote them
,
and they were accepted by the entire Sout
hern Vampire Alliance
—such
an honor,
”
Dimitri boasted coldly
, sounding Russian
.

“I would like to know the details and meanings behind the ritualistic tenet.”

“What would you like to know about it?”

“Does it imply that human sacrifice will give you power?”

Dimitri
slunk
into his seat, looking downward at the table.

“No, it doesn’t promote human sacrifice if that is what you are asking.
That’s what the northerners do
.
We prefer
not to
spend our time in jail
;
human sacrifice would be illegal among the naturals.”

“What are the
naturals
?”

Dimitri puckered his striped lips,
tiltin
g his head to the side like an anxious bird about to snatch a worm.

“
You’re a natural
.
N
on-vampires.
Your society laws
would
put us in jail if we were to
murder
someone, even if they ask for it.
I choose not to encourage that behavior.
We only engage in con
sensual feeding when we need to
.”

Dimitri
lowered his
head
, pointing h
is horn implants toward
s us.
He remained in this position for a time befo
re straightening up in his black plastic seat and dropping his elbows onto the bright white table.
The guard in the corner of the
room took a step
towards Dimitri
to be
cautious.

“Did you know that little Victoria is the one who broke into the blood bank and stole some blood a while back?
”
h
e said sarcastically.