Page 87 of Midnight Coven

Why would he bother to clean himself up so thoroughly that even anothervampirewouldn’t detect so much as a whiff of latent blood scent?

What vampire would go to that much trouble, then leave all the bodies behind?

Especially if he was trying to send some kind of message?

Nick remembered the unicorn.

Without thought, he pulled it out of his pocket and examined it quickly with his vampire eyes as he walked down the narrow corridor.

Nothing. Not on the outside.

Just that small smear of blood.

He hadn’t been wrong, though. Itexactlyresembled the tinfoil and paper unicorn he remembered from his favorite movie all those years ago.

Nick could smell more on it, he realized.

He could smell more blood.

There was more blood on the piece of tin and paper than what he could see on the outside, in that one, careful smear. It struck Nick again that the smear couldn’t be a coincidence, either. The killer had given them a fingerprint on purpose. Clearly, he expected Nick to run it, as part of the little game he was playing.

Nick hesitated another bare breath.

Then he unfolded the unicorn quickly.

He glanced briefly ahead to make sure Morley wasn’t watching him.

He’d been right. There was more blood.

The fucker had written him a message.

Nick frowned at the words drawn carefully in brownish-red human blood. He could clearly smell whose blood it had belonged to. The youngest girl at the other Tanaka house had been used to pen this little message.

Motherfucker.

Nick could almost see him doing it.

He didn’t want to see it, but the images rose to his mind anyway.

The other vamp stopped feeding long enough to dip some implement into the holes he’d torn in the girl’s neck, a pen or a needle, possibly something he found on the floor in the children’s room, or on one of the shelves. He’d used that implement to carefully draw letters and words on the little piece of tinfoil and paper.

Nick read it swiftly as he walked the last few steps of corridor before the door. Jordan already told him there’d be surveillance inside the murderer’s kill room. If Nick wanted to read this before he went inside, he had to do it now.

He walked slowly on purpose.

He walked slowly even compared to Morley now.

The blocky, all-capital letters were disturbingly familiar.

I AM IN THE WRONG PLACE,the vampire’s note read.YOU KNOW THIS. YOU KNOW IT IS TRUE. I AM IN THE WRONG PLACE.

Nick turned over the piece of paper.

He found another message there in the same, precise hand.

Those letters were smaller, and there were a lot more of them.

YOU HAVE MY MATE. I WANT HER BACK. GIVE HER BACK TO ME AND THIS STOPS. SHE IS WRONG HERE. I AM WRONG HERE. IT IS WRONG. IT MUST ALL BE CORRECTED. IT MUST ALL BE CORRECTED OR MORE WILL DIE. YOU WILL HELP ME. YOU WILL HELP ME FIX THIS, OR I WILL KILL HER TOO. I WILL KILL ALL OF THEM. I WILL KILL THEM IF I CANNOT TAKE THEM WITH ME.

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