Vampire Dating Agency II (8 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

Kendra Armistice had reached her
mind’s end. Her shoes were taken off, and soft socks drifted across the cold
and bitter concrete ground. Arianne’s body was lying in the centre of a circle
of candles with purple flames. The Count stood outside of it in the shadows of
the room.

Kendra
stepped over the candles.

“Take all the
time you need,” the Count said quietly.

Kendra looked
over the body.

Arianne’s
eyes were open. Dead. Empty. Lifeless.

Regardless of
her transformation, she should still have appeared to be a young woman, but her
hair was unnaturally white. Her bones were visible around her shoulders. Her
jawline.

Even her
eye-sockets.

A diet of
blood had thinned her out.

“So much for
eternity then,” Kendra remarked.

“She deserved
longer,” the Count replied.

Kendra looked
up towards him. “I suppose you blame me.”

“I do.”

“Then it is
reciprocated.”

“What?”

“This
happened under your watch, not mine.”

“My watch…?”

“She chose to
follow you, did she not?”

The Count
paused. “If Arianne was here I’m sure she’d relay the events differently.”

“How so?”

“I believe
the story revolves around her mother. The mother who walked out on her.”

“She could
have found a place in my family. Either she, or Annabel. Something could have
been worked out. But she chose you. They both did.”

The Count
stepped forward. He stood just outside the circle.

“When you
look at me,” the Count asked, “who do you see?”

Kendra’s eyes
closed a little. His presence merged with the purple light.

“I don’t see
anything,” Kendra whispered.

“What
happened, that you would hate me so much?”

“I don’t hate
you. I don’t ‘anything’ you. You’re not even on my radar.”

“You lie.”

His hand
reached for hers over the flames.

“Can’t you
feel me? Can’t you recognize I’m here with you?”

“What do you
propose?”

Their fingers
interlocked.

“Maybe we
could get through this,” the Count said. “The truce between us. Maybe we could
set our differences aside and work together.”

“As a team?”

“As a
family.”

Kendra’s
fingers slipped away. She crouched on the floor beside Arianne.

“I have a
family,” Kendra said.

“But you
don’t love them, do you?”

Kendra stared
into the eyes of her dead child. “No. I don’t.”

“Your place
is beside me, Kendra,” the Count said. “I have sent for Annabel. She will join
us soon. It will be like it was before. Better even. You know in your heart
this is your destiny.”

Kendra put
her soft hand to Arianne’s cold forehead.

Images
flashed in her mind.

She was
falling.

Falling away…

The Count
stepped over the candles.

“I need you,
Kendra. If I am to continue here. If I am to get through this. You’ll make me
sane again. You’ll take the venom underneath my lips, and neutralize all.”

Kendra’s hand
moved down from the forehead.

“Who do you
think the killer is?”

“Killer?
Which one?”

“The one who threw
that girl over the balcony tonight. Who murdered fifteen others. Who somehow
found their way to Haley Watkins’s house, and slaughtered her mother and
brother?”

“I don’t
know,” the Count said. “Why are you asking me?”

Kendra ripped
the stake out from Arianne’s heart. “Because I think it was you.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

The Vampiress was whispering to the
guard at the door. Haley leaned back in her chair anxiously trying to hear what
was being said. Once the exchange was completed, the Vampiress shut the door
and moved back to the front of the room.

“I don’t
think we’ve been properly introduced,” the Vampiress said. “I’m Lady Thessalia.
My blood is of the old.” She leaned against the desk, facing Haley. “You must
be quite lethal then, mustn’t you? Taking on Madame Nightshade will not have
been a small task.”

“You don’t
seem that wary of her,” Nadine spoke up beside Haley.

Thessalia
glanced at her. “Wary? No. I don’t wish her any harm. She has no reason to
attack me.”

“But she
could if she wanted to,” Nadine insisted.

“I’m sure she
could…”

Haley looked
at both of them. “Madame Nightshade attacked me first. I was only defending
myself.”

Thessalia
shrugged. “Murder is murder. And an excuse is just an excuse.”

“Might I ask
you a couple of questions, Lady Thessalia?” Nadine said coldly.

“You may.”

“As I’m sure
you’re aware, we’re searching for a killer vampire. It’s what’s brought us
here.”

“Well, I
doubt you’ll be disappointed,” Thessalia laughed.

“We’re after
one in particular,” Nadine continued. “And we’ve narrowed the field to two
major suspects.”

“Go on.”

“The caper
tonight was to send our new recruit, Haley Watkins, in disguised as the typical
woman-seeking-vampire. Dressed up to match likenesses with the victims.”

“I see. And
you’d already figured out by then that the killer was present here tonight.”

“It was a
strong possibility. Two vampires tried to court Haley, thus taking the bait. As
Haley has herself explained to me, she has struck a friendship with one of
them, going by the name Brock Ferns.”

Thessalia
nodded.

“Which leaves
the second vampire, Cyrus Rance, as our lead suspect.”

“Hmm.”

“Have you met
with Mr. Rance before?”

“He and his
cousin Edmond – they’re fairly well known.”

“And what is
their reputation?”

“They’re
rich. Sophisticated. Deadly … perhaps.”

“You don’t
know if they’re still here do you?”

“I saw Cyrus
earlier. But that may have been a couple of hours ago.”

“There was a
phone,” Haley said.

“What?”
Nadine replied.

“He gave me a
green phone. It had his number or something on it. I was supposed to call him
when I was ready to join his party.”

“What
happened to the phone?”

“I lost it.
It must have been … before I was on the roof with Jason…”

The door
suddenly burst open.

It was
Kendra. Her chest was covered in blood.

“What the
fuck happened?” Thessalia demanded, jumping from the desk. “Where’s the Count?”

“Haley, I’m
sorry,” Kendra gasped, red seeping from her lips.

She fell to
her knees and Haley went to her.

She grabbed
Haley’s arms. “There will be no truce…”

Her eyes
closed and she slumped over.

“No!”
Thessalia shouted, pushing her back down. “What have you done?”

Haley stood
up, adrenalin rushing down her spine.

The Vampiress
on the floor looked up at her, an evil grin crossing her lips. Her pupils
rolled over and the whites turned red.

“Raarrrgh!”
Thessalia hissed, lashing out up from the ground.

But before
she’d come anywhere near Haley, Nadine had taken her by the throat and pushed
her up against the wall.

“Get out of
here,” Nadine shouted at Haley.

“Wait just a
minute,” Haley pleaded. “What are you –?”

The menace in
Thessalia’s eyes had shriveled up and gone.

She pitifully
lunged at Nadine, trying to defend herself.

Nadine
grabbed a clump of Thessalia’s hair with her free hand, and ripped her head
clean off.

“Oh – yuck!”
Haley bawled.

She staggered
away towards the open door.

“Not that
way, you idiot,” Nadine hissed at her.

“Huh?”

Haley turned
back just as Nadine was launching Thessalia’s head through the window.

“This way!”

CHAPTER
THIRTY

The head only did half the work.
Nadine shoved her fist into the middle of the glass frame and punched out all
the remaining jagged edges.

Haley watched
her, cringing. It was as if the woman felt no pain.

“Are you
coming?” Nadine demanding grabbing hold of her.

“What about
Ms. Armistice?”

“Are you
blind? She’s fucking dead. We got to get out of here before the Count comes
back.”

Haley nodded.
She moved to the edge of the window and peered down. There was some roofing a
few feet down.

“Do you want
to go first?” Nadine asked. “Or shall I?”

“What about
the phone?” Haley said suddenly.

“What phone?”

“The one
Cyrus gave me. I think I know where it is.”

Gunfire.

Outside the
window before them.

Dino’s men
were storming the agency.

“Where is
it?” Nadine asked.

“It’s on this
floor. I can show us the way.”

Nadine
thought a moment.

Then she
tilted her shades forward.

“Duck!”
Nadine shouted pushing Haley down.

She collapsed
just in time as bullets rained into the window adjacent. Haley covered her head
as the glass came down, shattering over her.

“Thanks,”
Haley breathed.

She looked up
to find Nadine no longer there.

As Haley got
back to her knees she discovered Nadine on the floor by the doorway, tackling a
guard near Kendra’s body.

The gun spilled
away within Haley’s reach.

“Shoot him!”
Nadine yelled, holding the man down. “Shoot him in the face!”

Haley scooped
up the firearm and pointed it towards the guy’s head. He wasn’t struggling
anymore. He seemed afraid.

Another man
carrying a shotgun then appeared behind Nadine.

The man
looked at Haley bewildered.

Then they
both pointed their weapons at each other at the same time.

Haley fired
first.

The gun fell
from his hands as he toppled backwards, and within moments Nadine had secured
it as her own.

“Wait,” Haley
pleaded with her. “Don’t –”

She blew the
guy’s face off.

“Come on,”
she cried grabbing Haley’s arm.

Haley allowed
herself to be pulled outside the study, soon face to face with the corridor
leading to the room she hooked up with Brock in.

A couple more
guards rushed to the top of the stairs – Nadine having no trouble icing both
with her new friend the shotgun.

“Where to?”
she asked Haley cynically.

“Okay,” Haley
nodded. “Down here.”

She backed
away down the corridor half clutching her pistol, while Nadine covered them.

Haley made
her way to the blue colored door at the back, reaching for the handle. “It’s
locked,” she said after her attempt failed. She banged loudly on the door.
“Brock? Are you in there?”

Nadine aimed
her shotgun at the door’s lock and blew it off. She kicked in what was left of
the door.

“Okay…” Haley
murmured.

Nadine didn’t
wait for her.

Haley
followed in behind, searching around for any sign of Brock. They moved round to
the bedroom, where Haley’s handbag and its belongings were still spilled out
across the bed.

Nadine picked
up the green phone. “This it?”

“Yep.”

Nadine tossed
it to her. “You better hold onto it then.”

Haley
clumsily caught the phone. “Thanks.”

She tucked it
away into her pocket.

“Where does
that balcony lead?” Nadine said nodding to the glass door on the opposite side
of the bed. “Have you been out there?”

“I don’t
think –” Haley began.

Haley stopped
herself as Nadine physically shuddered, whilst peering over Haley’s shoulder.

Behind her,
she felt something cold radiating.

As though an
ice-chest had been pried open just above her neck.

A clawed hand
took hold of her shoulder.

She turned
and saw it was the Count.