Page 63 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

As I mimed zipping my lips, the scent of smoke drifted in on the air. ‘Um, Connor? There’s something else I should bring up. Your truck is on fire. I forgot to mention it in the middle of everything else.’

‘What?’

‘I think Jayden torched it. It was burning in the car park when I arrived.’

Connor narrowed his eyes at the unconscious man before sighing. ‘Guess it’s time for a new truck.’

‘Well, that one is certainly done for. I’ll have to give you a ride home for once.’

He laughed. ‘Yeah.’

We could hear sirens in the distance. ‘Lee, prop open that door so they can find us,’ Connor ordered.

His second leapt up, grabbed a board and wedged open the main warehouse door. The fire from Connor’s truck was enough to send eerie flickering shadows inside. The paramedics arrived shortly after that with a stretcher and soon had the unconscious witch on the way to the hospital with strict instructions to cuff him to his bed.

Now that things were calm, I sent a message to Gunnar to let him know what had happened. Connor and Lee locked down the site; Lee was staying until a fire engine came to put out the truck fire. It was not a good idea to leave it unattended in the woods.

I packed Connor into the Nomo SUV. ‘Where to?’ I asked.

‘I’ll direct you.’

We drove mostly in silence, bar Connor’s occasional direction. I’d assumed that he’d want to go home, but it quickly transpired that we were going back to the Nomo’s office. ‘Smart arse,’ I muttered when I figured it out.

He reached out and laced his fingers through mine, resting them on the gear stick. ‘I don’t want to leave you now,’ he admitted softly. I didn’t ask if that was for him or for me; maybe it was for both of us.

I parked up and we went inside. Gunnar was pacing up and down the reception area. ‘Bunny!’ He pulled me into his arms before pushing me back so he could inspect me for damage.

‘I’m okay,’ I reassured him.

‘You should have called me!’ he barked.

I swallowed hard. ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

That took the wind right out of his sails. ‘Okay, well, don’t let it happen again,’ he said gruffly before pulling me in for an extra hug, squeezing me with his not-insignificant strength. ‘Gunnar,’ I wheezed. ‘I need to breathe!’

He laughed. ‘No, you don’t. You’re a vampire!’

Uh-huh. One day soon I would have to come clean about my oddities, but not today. I was emotionally drained and, to be honest, I was worried that if Gunnar knew that I might not be quite as undead as we’d thought, he might not be so willing to let me barrel head first into danger.

‘Let’s get you a hot drink.’ He bustled in the backroom to make a cup of tea for me and coffee for him and Connor.

Finally we settled into the chairs in Gunnar’s office. ‘Talk me through it,’ he ordered softly, so I did. I said that I’d set Donaldson on fire but omitted the ‘how’ because I hadn’t yet found the right time to confess to Connor about my internal flames.

At one point, Connor reached for my hand again; it was comforting but my tummy squirmed with guilt that I was still hiding something from him. I’d had the perfect opportunity to confess but I hadn’t – and I knew why. Connor seemed to really like me but I was scared that if he knew what I could do he’d think I was a freak. I’d put up with being thought of as a freak my whole life; Portlock was the first place where I was normal – but even here I had to go and be different.

Gunnar rubbed his beard. ‘Do you think Jayden Donaldson is our guy? Did he kill Aoife?’ I shook my head. ‘He did try to kill the three of you,’ he pointed out.

‘Yeah.’ Connor’s jaw was working. ‘I want him prosecuted for that.’

‘He is guilty of assault, attempted kidnapping and the attempted murder of a police officer,’ I agreed. ‘But I don’t think he’s got anything to do with the barrier gems, and I’m pretty sure he’s clean of his daughter’s murder. He was totally shocked when I told him Aoife was dead. That doesn’t mean that he didn’t put her up to the fire-gem theft, but I can’t see any motive for killing her. He was angry with her and he said she’d stolen something from him. He also said she wasn’t his daughter, which will be easy to corroborate with DNA. He left plenty of it behind, and we have Aoife’s already.’

‘It should be easy enough to check for the gems where Donaldson is living. We need to find out the address and we can clear that one quick,’ Gunnar said.

‘I have it. He was working under the table for us, but he still had to give us an address,’ Connor said. ‘I’ll get someone to co-sign the warrant with me and you can search it.’

Gunnar looked satisfied. ‘Sounds good to me, councillor.’

Connor scrolled through his phone and texted someone. It rang a few seconds later and I followed him over to my desk. When I let Shadow out of his crate he yelled at me with tiny kitty squeaks, but he quickly forgave me, pressing against my legs and purring when I picked him up.

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