Vampire Dating Agency II (7 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Knock, knock, knock.

The door
opened just as Brock finished blotching his lower lip with a tissue.

“My word, he
wasn’t lying when you said you were sisters,” Brock remarked, eyeing his new
acquaintance.

Annabel Echo
clutched the edge of the doorframe. “Who wasn’t lying?”

“Your
father.”

She made a
face. “Blegh. Fuck off.” She went to close the door.

Brock put a
hand in stopping her. “I’m afraid I have some rather serious news.”

“From Julian?
He can drop dead.”

“It’s about
Madame Nightshade.”

She
hesitated. “What about her?”

“It’s best I
come inside. So I can properly explain.”

Annabel
looked him up and down. “It’s just you, isn’t it?”

Brock showed
her his open hands.

“Come in
then.”

Brock stepped
into the suite. At first there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
He could smell some odd cooking odors, and there was a pot on the stove puffing
out purple steam, but otherwise it the suite could be described as simple
living.

Brock stood
in the centre of the living area, a couch to his right, television computers to
his left.

Annabel had
paused by the stove, taking time to stir the contents of the pot.

“Madame
Nightshade is dead,” he blurted out.

“Dead?”
Annabel replied without looking up. “How?”

“She was
killed by someone working for the paranormal police. The Count sent me over
here to tell you … and to possibly enlist your help for retribution.”

“My twin
sister was the last thing holding anything between my relationship with him. If
she’s passed on as you say, then all ties are severed.”

She turned
towards him, holding out a metal spoon containing a sample from the pot.

As Brock went
to shake his head in disgust, a large feathered entity appeared beside him,
lumbering forward to take the offered morsel.

Brock fell
back into the table by the wall, watching the giant bird with shock.

“What the
fuck is that?” he mumbled.

“His name is
Simon.”

“No, but I
mean – what
is
it?”

“An emu,
dummy.”

The bird
looked at him, its tongue outstretched, slurping up the discolored liquid.

Brock glanced
behind him, trying to figure out where the emu had concealed him.

“Listen, I…”

“Go on,”
Annabel whispered in the emu’s ear. “Go to bed.”

The bird
turned and staggered out into the hall.

“So,” she
said. “You’ve delivered your message.”

“You seem
rather unaffected.”

Anabel
shrugged. “I’m not really. I’m just not expressing my emotions.”

“Oh.”

“So what does
he think then? That I’ll come and join his group. Or wage war on whoever…
Arianne had her way of dealing with the disease. I have mine. I’m not caught up
in that world.”

“Well,” Brock
smiled. “I don’t have any orders to push you into it. So I should probably get
out of here and deliver the bad news back to him.”

“You know
where the door is.”

Brock bowed
his head and exited back towards the hall. His eyes peered round the unlit
corners, wondering what secrets they too held.

He opened the
front door and walked back out into the corridor.

He made it a
few paces before Annabel’s shadow spread out across the carpet in front of him.

Brock turned.

“Tell me
again who killed her,” Annabel said with tears in her eyes.

“I – ugh – ”

“I want to
know everything. Where she was when it happened. The person who did it and why.
I want to know where they are. Right now…”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

Eyes sparkled. Glasses clinked.
Heartbeats hummed.

A tall figure
in dark clothing emerged through the dancefloor, passing couples engaged in
various stages of intimacy. His legs remained straight, the soles of his feet
never touching the ground. At the back of the room he paused over a young woman
lying unconscious across the seating. He picked up her hand and twisted her
wrist to open the cut further. Fresh blood spilled out into his glass.

“Julian? Is
that you? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

As he turned,
the Count’s feet fell back to the floor.

“Lady
Thessalia,” the Count said mildly. “It’s been some time.”

“You poor
thing,” she said taking his arm. “I just heard about Arianne. You must be
overcome with grief.”

“Her passing
was most untimely.”

“This whole
business makes me quite outraged,” Lady Thessalia continued. “If they can get
to the likes of Madame Nightshade, any one of us could be next.”

“Yes. But
that sort of extreme rationale isn’t conductive to solving our dilemma.”

“I only meant
to say –”

The Count
allowed her to twist from his grasp.

She stepped
back, bewildered.

“Your
condolences are noted,” the Count said. He lifted the glass to his lips and
drank from it.

“But I want
to offer
more
than my condolences,” Lady Thessalia said advancing again.
“Who is to take on Madame Nightshade’s duties? How will you formulate –”

“I’ve sent
for someone else to fulfill her role. Someone rather … close to home…”

Thessalia
thought a moment. “You don’t mean –?”

“Yes. The
white sheep of my family.”

“Well I hope
it works out.”

The Count
looked beyond her, distracted.

“If there’s
anything I can do, you will let me know, won’t you?” Thessalia said touching
his arm.

The Count
gazed down towards her. “Of course.”

“Master?
Master – Sir –”

One of his
guards was calling to him through the crowd.

The Count
waved his hand in the air. The guard approached.

“What is it?”
the Count demanded.

“A small
party has made it to the house’s main gates, requesting to see you.”

“Party? What
party?”

“There’s
three of them. They’ve been inspected thoroughly for weapons and devices. I
think at least one of them was here earlier.”

A chill cross
the Count’s eyes.

Thessalia
shrank from him in fear.

“Bring them
up to my study,” the Count ordered.

“As you wish,
Master.”

The guard
hurried away.

“What is it?”
his companion asked. “Who are they?”

“The ones who
killed Arianne,” the Count whispered. “I guess it’s time we got even.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX

“I know this was your idea, but it’s
probably best you left it up to me to do the talking,” Ms. Armistice said to
Nadine inside the Vampire Dating Agency’s front entrance.

Nadine wasn’t
even looking at her. “There’s a reason you’re not here by yourself.”

“Yeah, in
case shit goes wrong.”

“Exactly.”

Ms.
Armistice’s eyes went up and into their corners as she turned towards Haley.

Haley gave no
show of support.

In the end,
it wouldn’t be about choosing sides. The plan had already been laid out. Each
of them knew their role and what they were doing.

Each of them
knew their objective.

“Everything
alright, Haley?”
Jason
asked in her ear.

Ms. Armistice
folded her arms as though she had heard him.

“We’re fine,”
Haley said. “We’re just waiting for the guard to come back.”

“Dino and his
guys have just arrived on scene,”
Jason said.
“You give the word and
I’ll send them in after you. I won’t wait for Kendra or Nadine’s approval.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t
mention it.”

Haley closed
her eyes a moment, and immediately regretted it. The faces kept pouring in on
her. All the things she should have said but didn’t. These past years had all
been about her, and her training for this shady enterprise. That had been the
focus. That’s where the heart had floated.

But it was
only about that from one point of view. Now the glass had shifted, Haley could
see those years for what they truly were.

The last with
her family.

“Right this
way, ladies,” the guard said upon his return. “The Count has agreed to meet
with you.”

“After you,”
Ms. Armistice said to Nadine.

Nadine looked
at her coldly, before removing a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and placing
them over her eyes.

Then she led
the charge.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

The seats were once again facing away
from the door. Haley, Nadine and Ms. Armistice sat in a semicircle around the
Count’s desk, waiting for his approach. Ms. Armistice had taken the middle
chair and Haley was to her right. Nadine was on the left, next to the wall.

As shadows
loomed in the entrance both Ms. Armistice and Haley stood up. The Count was
accompanied by a high vampiress with bluish-grey skin and shoulder length golden
hair. She went to the right side of the room while the Count walked round them
to stand at his desk.

“I must say I
am very surprised to see you,” the Count said. “So surprised in fact that I’m
going to hold off from killing you all to find out why you’re here. You can sit
down.”

Haley sat
down quickly while Ms. Armistice remained standing.

“We’re here
to call a truce.”

“What truce?”

“I understand
you may be upset with us,” Ms. Armistice explained. “But I’m sure you can
appreciate the delicate nature of our investigation.”

The Count
grimaced.

“We never
wanted to go after your agency. We had no plans to involve you at all. We just
wanted to get our man and be done with it.”

“Which is why
you sent in one of your undercovers to take photos in here? Which is why we’ve
been under surveillance ever since we opened?”

“Alright,”
Ms. Armistice said bitterly. “We wanted you brought down. Getting rid of
vampires is in the best interest of humans. At least from our organizations
point of view.”

“There. You
said it.”

“But that’s
not what tonight’s been about. All we wanted – all we still want is for the
murderer to be caught and then brought to justice.”

“As I said to
your agents earlier,” the Count responded, “I would have been more than happy
to help with your investigation had you approached me directly. But this is of
course … too little, too late.”

“What is there
to be gained by you for continuing to be at war with us?” Ms. Armistice argued.
“The truce I propose has been cleared with the top people in our organization.
We will cease all future investigations and surveillance of your agency. We
will back off completely once we have the killer in custody. To continue to be
at war with us is madness. You’ll just make yourself a bigger target the longer
it goes on.”

“Would you
like to see her, Kendra?”

Ms.
Armistice’s body shuddered. “What – who do you mean? See who?”

“You always
were cold. Unfeeling. You were less alive than she was. Perhaps even less alive
than she is now.”

Ms. Armistice
turned. She looked back to the doorway. “I don’t need to see her.”

“You don’t
want to? Are you afraid?”

She turned
back. “Would you prefer we talked in private then? Is that how we can sort this
mess out?”

“I think …
you should see her.”

The Count
stepped around the side of the desk.

He turned to
the vampiress. “Keep an eye on these two.”

“Shall do,”
she murmured.

The Count
stepped out towards the doorway, waiting for Ms. Armistice.

She
reluctantly joined him.

They left.

“Be careful,”
Jason
said in Haley’s ear as the vampiress slunk around the sides of the room.
“Don’t
take your eyes off her.”

“Don’t
worry,” Haley replied. “I won’t.”