Vampyre Blue (18 page)

'Roger that.'

Blue and Pierre simply squeezed each other's hands and sat back watching the scenery zoom past.

Cleo was busy up front in the cockpit, she talked back over the system,

'Are you guys Okay back there?'

Blue and Pierre replied,

'Roger that! Yeah!' Laughing at the same time.

It took a couple of hours to get to the helicopter pad then they had another couple of hours to trek to the monastery. The wind was ice cold and fresh, the sunshine was beautiful and warmed their faces. Cleo led them up to the monastery. There was an old path up the mountain, it looked slightly used, it suggested small trips to get supplies were few and far between and that the snow storms were few and far between at the moment too.

The Tibetan monks were very welcoming once they had gotten up to the monastery.

'Cleo!' Bellowed the gentleman that met us at the door, 'How wonderful to see you again.' He held Cleo in a tight bear hug, very strange for a Buddhist monk but this particular monk had many stories involving Cleo and his order would forgive him his only weakness on the whole planet. Usually his smile was warm and his demeanour tranquil and still.

Once he had regained his centre he led them to their guest quarters.

Cleo had spent time here before, in training, Blue couldn't imagine her with a shaved head in orange robes, or being quiet for days at a time.

'It's not changed a bit in over ten years.' Cleo said as she rubbed her hand over the bedding and the stone work on the mantle.

'It's beautiful here.' Blue murmured.

Pierre was over in a dark corner taking off his excess clothing and the head gear he wore to protect him from the sun.

'Phew, thank god that's all off.' Pierre groaned, 'It felt like wearing a bomb suit!'

Cleo and Blue looked over and smiled,

'Right then,' Cleo said, 'Let's go have something to eat and talk about what's happening from here, the plan of attack, as it were.'

*

'Eliza, please come here.' Isis asked, her voice floating ethereally through the temple to the room that Brett and Eliza were sleeping in.

Eliza grumbled and climbed out of bed, she'd borrowed a nightgown from Isis that was to die for. Despite the unusual rude awakening Eliza looked and felt amazing, she wandered up through to the main temple room where Isis was looking through books, large books open on specific pages and strewn all around where she was working. She'd started assembling potions and pots, mixing this and that.

'Goddess Isis what are you doing? Do you need help?'

Isis looked up, 'Oh, there you are.' She smiled at Eliza, 'I need your help with these potions and spells I'm doing.'

'Spells?' Eliza looked puzzled.

'And Rituals, you know the very act of putting your own very essence into what you are making, your own energy mixed with that of the spell. That's what you've all forgotten to do over the years. That's why things don't work any more.'

She looked over to Eliza her emerald green eyes staring straight into Eliza's soul.

'That's why the magic of the world has disappeared.'

Eliza's hairs on her arms stood up the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her head tightened. Her eyes went wide.

'See - you feel it.' Isis purred.

Chapter Sixteen.

Colin stirred, he slowly woke up with the biggest headache he’d ever had the misfortune of developing.

'Shit.' He rubbed his face, 'What the hell happened to me?' He tried to remember, it was a real struggle. Then he saw the rohypnol packets left over on the table in the lounge.

'Oh god Jayne.' He stood up, went dizzy and sat down again.

'JAYNE!' He shouted, 'JAYNE!' He shouted again, he had a sinking feeling in his gut like he knew he was about to witness something terrible, quite imminently.

Colin struggled through his drug induced clumsy hangover got up and started wandering through each room, he held onto the walls and furniture as he went shouting and calling Jayne’s name over and over. There wasn’t any response. He finally ended up in her room. It was totally OCD tidy. He had a look around but there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. There was music in her bedroom, classical chilled out music, it must have been on repeat. He walked over to her en-suite bathroom, the door was slightly ajar, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw.

Jayne had now swollen in the thick oozing bloodied water. An empty bottle of wine lay on the floor with an empty pill container next to it, there was another empty wine bottle and a razor blade covered with thick black congealing blood, on the side of the bath. Colin’s weak stomach emptied into the nearby toilet. There wasn’t any point trying to revive her, she had that grey pallor of someone well into the stages of rigour mortise, well beyond this world. After the initial shock of seeing her there he just sat back, leaning against the wall, staring at the wall behind her. He couldn't move. Tears welled up in his eyes and sadness enveloped him, he'd known these girls all their lives, their lives had been inextricably weaved into his through his forces days, he once protected them to serve his country and now he was supposed to protect them and look after the house and he'd failed in his duties, but more than that. So much more than that, he looked upon the girls as family and here naked and tragically Jayne had gone. He was powerless. He sat there and cried, he had never cried since he was a child, he cried because this should have never happened.

He took his mobile from his pocket, dialled the emergency services. He apologised for ringing the emergency line but he was in shock, he asked for a coroner and he said they had better ask the police to come too. It was an open and shut case, Colin was interviewed by a police detective called Frankie Westfall, he'd met her before briefly, she was his idea of perfection. A beautiful black woman straight from the London Met, her partner had some family emergency, so she was dealing with this on her own, Colin was so relieved that it was someone that he recognised, rather than just some complete stranger. Colin thought she was magnificent. He showed her where everything had taken place, she had taken pictures, the forensics took everything she deemed appropriate, the glasses and the curry Jayne had made. Frankie took pictures of the house, where Jayne had drugged Colin, then the bathroom where she had killed herself. Jayne had left a note as well and Frankie took that, she did ask if that would be okay, Colin said that would be fine and Frankie then went on to explain that she would return it to them personally. Colin was happy with thinking he would see her again.

Frankie told Colin she wouldn’t need anyone else’s statement and that she’d be back in touch if they required more information. The likelihood she said would be pretty slim and that the body would be released to the funeral home as soon as they’d tied up all the paperwork. Frankie assured him again that the note would be returned, because she knew how important something so insignificant to a police officer could be to a friend or member of family. Colin shook her hand, waved the rest of her team goodbye and went back inside to ring Blue and Cleo.

*

Cleo answered her cell phone, the caller identification said it was Star’s mansion so she naturally presumed it would be Jayne.

'Hi Jayne.' She said brightly.

'Sorry no, it’s Colin.' Colin thought he couldn’t bring himself to tell her, but he knew he had to. Cleo knew almost instantaneously that it must be bad news, Colin would never ring unless it was bad.

'Colin whatever it is, it can wait until we get back.'

'I know but its news. Bad news and nothing you can do will change it. I thought you would want to know is all.'

Cleo was with Blue and Pierre, she excused herself lied about the nature of the call and told them Colin wanted to talk to her about Valentino ringing her. She went into the adjoining room.

'Right. I’m on my own. What’s happened?' She whispered.

'Okay I’m just going to come out and say it.' Colin took a deep breath, he didn't know if he could just say it all without breaking down again like he did when he found her, poor little Jayne. She only wanted love. He breathed again, steeling himself, 'Jayne killed herself two days ago.'

'TWO DAYS AGO!' She shrieked, '
And only now you tell me!'
She whispered again realising she'd just shouted at Colin.

'She drugged me with Rohypnol, so it took me 18 hours to wake up and a couple more to come around. I searched the house bumping into everything and I found her dead. I rang the police and the coroner and they’ve just left and now I’m speaking to you. Okay?'

'Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Fuck. Are you Okay Colin?' She asked.

'Not really Cleo, I cried when I found her, it took me an hour to be able to speak to call the police. And then I thought I've got to call you straight away before I start thinking about it all again. I’ve not had chance to really think about it, having just had loads of people over here looking at the mess in her bathroom. And where she drugged me in the lounge. I haven’t had a minute to sit down and think about it all yet. But I'm on my own now, so it's going to get really real really fast.' Colin let out a huge sigh as he sat down.

'Seems like it’s just about to hit you.' Cleo said, 'I’m not going to tell Blue or Pierre and I think you need some help.'

'Aren’t you upset?' Colin asked.

'Of course I’m upset, but there isn’t a great deal I can do about it over here, even there. Jayne was unhappy. It’s probably better that I answered the phone, Blue would be upset and Eliza would be even worse. Tell you what, it’s going to be a little while before they do the autopsy, so once they have, have the morgue hold the body on ice. That’s one thing I’ll do for Jayne, give her a good send off. Colin, don’t worry about anything. I’ll call Valentino, he can come look out for you. I know it’s a bit risky, but friends will be friends and I’m sure he’s got a few favours out there to call in. I’ll ring him now.' Cleo breathed out, maybe all her training wasn't wasted after all.

'Cleo.' Said Colin.

'Yes.' She replied.

'Thank you.' He said and hung up.

Cleo walked around her room in the Monastery, internally questioning her thinking.

'There really is no one else I can trust.'

She dialled Valentino.

*

'What was that all about?' Asked Blue.

'A whole lot about not a lot.' Replied Cleo, she knew she couldn't leave it at that. Blue would be suspicious. 'Colin wanted me to ring Valentino back, he'd rang a couple of days ago and he'd forgotten. So Jayne said he'd better ring me.'

'So did you ring Valentino?'

'Yeah, I gave him a call. He's going to be at Star's for when we get back there.'

'That's sweet.' Blue smiled, 'So, the plan for today?'

'Get the helicopter prepared and ready for action. There's apparently a runway near where we want to be. Not very well known. We can hike up the mountain from there. Straight up to the Palace, apparently it's hard to miss.'

'Palace?'

'Yes and apparently as breathtaking as Petra. Not to mention haunted.' Said Cleo.

'Haunted?' Asked Blue with a frown.

'Haunted and crawling with monsters if I know Daen!' Joked Pierre as he picked up some of his gear, putting the protection equipment back on, 'Shall we make a move then?'

Blue, Cleo and Pierre hauled everything they needed back to the helicopter, Cleo busy taking an internal inventory as they were walking back down the mountain. Thankfully Blue and Pierre were immune from the cold, so they got to clear the chopper whilst Cleo did the internal start up procedure. Once everything was clear they took off for Star's last known location.

*

'The bastard!' Isis exclaimed as she gazed into her looking pool.

'What?' Eliza asked.

'Daen has turned your friend Star into a Vampire. A fucking night-walker!'

'The bastard!' Eliza responded, shocked at Isis swearing.

'I didn't think he would go so low as to do that to Blue, this girl he's supposed to be in love with. He really is a bastard. Pierre was right, he has changed. Or more likely I was blind to his selfish ways.'

'You know Pierre?' Eliza was curious.

'He came here after Daen had bitten Blue, he was totally devastated. He left his home with Daen, searching for answers and a way to kill Daen. He found me.'

'So where is he now?' Eliza was even more intrigued.

'I told him to go back to Blue and tell her the truth about Daen.'

'Bloody hell.'

'Yes. But I think there are many things about Daen that neither Pierre or Blue are aware of.' Isis looked over to Brett walking into the room.

'Is there anything I can help with?' He asked.

'Isis?'' Asked Eliza.

'There are many things you can do Brett. We are going to be very busy over the next few days.'