Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (16 page)

“There,” he said stopping the digital playback. He backed it up a step revealing three light shadows crossing the camera’s view line. It was pointed mostly at the doors, since securing a sidewalk mattered less than the glass paned doors and windows of the front lobby.

Still, Nick could make out the shapes of the ones he believed were the hunters. “Three, like we’re looking for.”

Fred peered closer at the monitor and asked, “What are those lines coming off of their backs? Is it from lighting?”

Shaking his head, the voran replied, “Tails. Apparently in full transformation, they have tails.” He noted the time in his notebook, 11:14 PM. They now had the starting timetable for the rest of the cameras along the way. Nothing would
precede that time and each successive camera would eliminate what they needed to look at as well.

They parted from the room after exiting from the section of video moving to the next building on his list.

“You know the final building where the car was will be your best bet to track them down,” Fred declared as they walked looking at ten more sites before they would be likely to see the car the trio had used.

“That gives me the destination. I am trying to find out what we’re facing here. Also I am worried what might be recorded from one of these cameras.”

Fred shook his head and retorted less worried than the voran, “No one watches those videos unless there’s a break in, Nick. We’ll be the only ones to watch these ever.”

“If you can actually guarantee that, so we won’t see them plastered all over television by some bored security guard looking for a pay day; then I’ll relax,” Nick replied looking at the cameras he could see as they walked making sure that he hadn’t missed one.

Five videos later, Nick found the most accurate footage they had seen. Just the glimpses of shadows from the first five cameras, led to a camera mounted across the street. The woman in charge of the building was an older woman with an eastern European accent, most likely Polish based on the heavy population in the area. She was also the least cooperative making Fred take out his badge and dialing the precinct to check the validity. Once satisfied that he was a police officer, she grilled Nick, the civilian expert and assistant as they tried to explain the voran’s part in the search.

It was worth the effort as they discovered a camera that was targeted at the street. With an angle that covered to the far side and the sidewalk there, Nick could see the three figures in their ninja garb. They either wore the most realistic masks he had ever seen or they had heads of felines. One appeared like a black panther while the second big one looked more like a tiger. Another had grey stripes like a leopard cat from Asia or perhaps a striped house cat. It was hard to tell in the paused video, but the striped one might be a female, he thought.

Using a thumb drive, Nick downloaded the important part of the video before thanking the woman and moving onward down the street.

“So now we have cat people roaming the streets as if the werewolves and vampires weren’t enough,” the detective complained with a sigh. “My world was a lot less complicated before I met you, Steel,” he said using the voran’s last name, not his original, but the current one.

“It would have been a lot shorter if I had let that vampire kill you too,” replied the voran with a bit of smile. Most of his police contacts were people like Fred who quite literally owed him their lives. When weapons fired in panic failed to kill the already dead vampires, most police would be dead. It was only his interference and that of Marek’s coven that prevented those deaths. Few humans would get lucky and kill a vampire. The predators were too fast and strong while being nearly invincible to projectiles like those used in a policeman’s revolver or pistol depending on the time period. When an officer knew of the creatures of the night, few could afford to find and create silver bullets like in the movies.

Rubbing his neck self consciously, the dark skinned detective had to nod. “I wish I could warn the other police, but you’ve been pretty strict on that.”

“Not every officer can stop from spreading the news and leaking it out to the world. Let the rumors spread and there will be those who refuse to acknowledge it, then there are the others who suddenly see every neighbor they dislike as a vampire. Look at the ancient witch hunts. Once the news gets out, killing won’t just be from vampires.”

It took more shadow videos to reveal that the hunters had changed shape, though not how. While frustrating, the last building before the one where they had parked revealed the profiles to a greater degree. Again he copied the file to his drive.

“Kind of a strange group,” the detective mentioned as they waited for the file to load. “You have, I think, someone of Indian ethnicity with an Asian, maybe Japanese, and... Arabic?”

“Well, Pakistan borders India and China, but I think you may be right that she could be Japanese,” Nick mused before taking the drive out of the USB slot. “Of course, creatures of the night can be any race. Vampires and werewolves transmit the disease to humans in general. If they’re in a different country when a full moon comes, it’s even more likely that a werewolf might leave a victim.”

“It isn’t hard to look up the next full moon,” Fred stated thinking of ways a sane person would approach being a werewolf.

“Not every werewolf knows that they have been infected. With air travel so easy, a survivor could fly anywhere. They heal quickly even before their first full moon, but then there are those who want to spread their kind. Not every werewolf or vampire finds their condition a bad thing.”

Shaking his head, the detective replied, “How can they not? They lose control and become wild animals. Why would anyone want to pass that on to someone else?”

“Companionship, some are pack animals like the wolves; then there are just those who want to share the misery, among other things,” Nick shrugged as he switched the video to an arbitrary time to avoid the building security from reviewing what they had seen.

The last camera had the vehicle, a gray Honda CR-V, but the angle made it impossible to catch the license plate. Nick looked at the detective and asked, “You think this will be enough to see if a traffic camera might have caught the plate?”

“I can try. There aren’t quite as many traffic cameras in the city, but I can take a look for you,” the man assured him as they left the final building shaking hands to part. The shadows of the buildings around them already engulfed the streets and reminded them of how much time they had spent looking through video footage. They had accomplished all that they could with the available cameras. Once into traffic, no other building would be likely to catch the plate from the side.

“Thanks, Fred,” Nick added to the man he had known for about ten years. “Stay safe.”

“Stay young,” the detective quipped noting that the voran hadn’t changed a bit since he had saved him so long ago.

Chapter 10- Shared Rooms

Lena stood in the elevator with Geni as it rose towards Nick’s apartment. She had become curious enough to ask to join her friend again as a reason to go to Nick’s after Geni had told her that Nicola was now staying with him. He had always made sure to hide Nicola’s day time sleeping habits from the girl. As one of the few humans the voran saw on a regular basis, it seemed to be getting harder to hide the unusual creatures he had in his life.

“Charlotte was wearing Nick’s shirt and shorts when I first came in the other day. I would have worried that he was cheating on Nicola, but she was there too. The girl can sleep through just about anything though. I’ve never seen anyone sleep through the day so easily,” Geni mused aloud as they rode the elevator.

Worry over what her friend was thinking of the strange situation led the dark haired girl to join her once more. Nick had told her that she could come anytime, but classes were coming close to ending for the semester and Lena had a lot to do almost every day just to try and have a chance at good grades. The first part of the semester had put her behind, but being kidnapped bought her some leeway with the professors. Eventually, the strange circumstances which had kept her from regular studies would only go so far. She had to finish everything at the same time as any other student for this semester to count and it had been a full load before the craziness had started.

Her worry over her own situation nearly made her miss a chance to smooth over at least one of the blonde cleaning girl’s observations. “Nicola owns and works in a nightclub, right? Her hours must be completely flipped from a normal job. No wonder she crashes during the day.”

Green eyes flicked to the dark haired girl before Geni shrugged and tossed her head to the side as she looked to the ceiling. “I forgot about that and she looks as young as us, but she must be older than she looks. You start getting older and all nighters make you pay more, I guess.”

“Let’s hope we can be a lot older before that happens or I’ll never have enough time to catch up on school before the end of the semester,” Lena said hoping to draw her friend away from the supernatural creatures and their abnormal behaviors.

“You know Logan is sleeping with a girl, so much for my chance at that god of a man. I can’t believe Nick is letting them both stay there. I thought they were staying with him originally to help find you. It’s been almost two months and they’re still here.”

“You’re just tired of having to clean up after them. Just cleaning up after Nick was probably a lot easier,” Lena chuckled trying to deflect again.

“Actually I don’t have to dust in the guest room anymore. Logan is supposed to be cleaning up after himself in there,” Geni stated looking a bit confused. “With Charlotte and now Nicola using his bed, I wonder where Nick sleeps?”

“There’s always the couch,” Lena said with a shrug and noted the final light for his floor before a ping sounded. “He seems like a guy that doesn’t care where he sleeps.”

“Or who he sleeps with?” Geni asked looking a bit devilish. She had been spouting the theory that he was sleeping with both Nicola and Charlotte. After Sunday and the werewolf’s strange behavior, Lena worried over what was making her friend act so odd. If Nick was in love with her, it hadn’t seemed like it before then.

Shrugging, Lena played off her friend’s question saying, “This isn’t a soap opera. Nick doesn’t seem like one of those guys.”

“He is kind of old fashioned, but he’s kind of sweet too,” Geni replied pulling her keys from her pocket and looking a little wistful thinking about Nick. The girl seemed to crush on almost every guy Lena knew.

“Morning,” Geni greeted Nick who sat with Nicola on the couch. Charlotte was dressed in a man’s shirt and shorts like Geni had mentioned she wore the other day; standing in the kitchen apparently making coffee. The normally well put together brunette looked a bit tired and worn. Lena thought she might be sick.

Nicola on the other hand, despite the morning sun casting light upon the entry wall, looked wide awake and even energetic. It was a state Lena had never seen for the vampire during the day and wondered why she was able to resist the sun’s usual hold on her. She was wearing tight spandex boxer brief shorts that were nearly underwear size small and a workout bra. Working out wasn’t something the vampire needed to do as far the new voran, Lena, knew.

The vampire waved with a big smile from where she sat looking at Nick’s computer. “Good morning, you two,” she said energetically.

The greeting kind of surprised Geni as well, but she tried not to show it. “The usual, Nick?”

Nicola looked ready to joke at the ill advised wording of her half question. For his part, Nick answered quickly as if to avoid any awkward answers from the vampire, “Sure, Geni, if you could work on my bedroom and bath first it would be appreciated. Nicola will probably start to crash sooner or later after working last night.”

“I don’t know. I feel pretty great this morning,” Nicola replied looking as good as she said. “There must be something to spending special time with Nicky that is making me feel more awake today.”

Exchanging eyes between the two college girls, Geni assured Nick that it was alright with her and moved to the bedroom trying to figure out what was going on in the apartment today. As soon as the blonde haired cleaner was out of earshot, Lena said quietly, “She’s starting to ask questions about you and the people staying here, Nick.”

“What kinds of questions?” he asked sounding very casual despite being one of those advocating keeping humans from the knowledge of vampires and werewolves.

“Why Nicola sleeps during the day and how sound she sleeps? How come Charlotte and Logan are still here, if they were just supposed to help you find me? Are you sleeping with both Nicola and Charlotte?”

“Half of that,” Nicola answered for the last with a grin. “Though if Charlotte isn’t better after the full moon, Nick might have to man up and make a woman out of our dear Charlotte too.”

Wincing at her words and trying to ignore the second half especially, Nick managed to reply, “Just tell her Nicola works all night, so she sleeps during the day and Charlotte and Logan need a place to stay because they lost their lease while helping me with you and haven’t found a new place yet.”

Lena moved to join Charlotte looking into her friend’s eyes with concern as she acknowledged her mentor’s words. Worried about the werewolf who had stood up to defend her along with her brother when the pack was ready to rid themselves of a human who wouldn’t turn into a wolf or vampire, the girl asked, “Are you alright, Charlotte? And what does Nicola mean Nick might have to sleep with you if you don’t get better?”