Page 46 of The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid

‘Which is great because Gunnar said if I disappear a third time they’ll get suspicious.’ I kissed his cheek. ‘This is awesome, thank you.’ I fingered the charm through my shirt. ‘Do you trust Liv with something like this?’

He grimaced. ‘We didn’t have much of a choice. Her magic is far more consistent with a vampire’s since she’s used to dealing with the undead. Besides, she owed me a favour.’ His mouth tightened. ‘I think she already knows or at least suspects your nature. We didn’t lose anything by getting the charm from her.’

‘True. I wonder what she killed to make it.’ My stomach felt a bit queasy at the idea.

‘She’s a necromancer but she isn’t cruel to her offerings.’

‘I know – I’m just getting over the ick factor.’

He grinned. ‘For a vampire, you have a huge bleeding heart.’

I scoffed, ‘I’m not a true vampire, so… ’

‘Well, now you look and sound like one, so no drinking blood in front of these guys with your nose plugged.’ He wagged a finger jokingly at me, making me smile.

‘Got it.’

He was leaning in to kiss me again when his phone rang. He mumbled ‘for fuck’s sake’ then he swiped it open. ‘MacKenzie.’

I heard a gruff voice on the other end say, ‘Found something. Will send you co-ordinates.’

‘Fine.’ Connor hung up and grimaced. ‘You’d better come too. That was Dominic Reams, the captain of my father’s guard.’

His phone vibrated with the coordinates and he forwarded them to me. ‘I’ll meet you there. Give me a five-minute start – we don’t want to arrive together.’ He paused. ‘Just be careful, okay? Reams is nearly as bad as my father.’ Given that Connor despised his father, that was not encouraging.

Feeling morose, I watched him leave. I didn’t like the idea of hiding our relationship, but it made sense. No doubt they knew we were together but they might not know how close we were, and it would be best to keep it that way.

While I was giving Connor his five minutes, I rang Gunnar to update him and sent him the location I was going to in case everything went sideways.

I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about the idea of taking Shadow and Fluffy with me to meet the vamps, but neither did I want to delay arriving. The men hadn’t rung the Nomo’s office; they were being careful not to disrespect Connor, but the same attitude didn’t apply to us. If I wasn’t quick, they’d rampage through the scene and destroy the evidence I’d need.

With impatience skittering through me, I started my engine and followed Connor. Maybe we were about to get a lead that would finally crack the whole case wide open.

Chapter 28

I didn’t recognise the GPS coordinates Connor had texted to me so I turned on the navigation app. Before we were even halfway there, Shadow was curled up on the seat asleep. No point in wasting good nap time, I guessed.

We arrived in fifteen minutes and I parked next to Connor’s Kamluck truck and two large SUVs that also had the company logo. He must have supplied his dad’s men with transport, which made sense since car rentals in Portlock were rare. And I’d bet he had a tracker on them too, because he was wily like that. Everyone was tracking everyone – the absurdity of it all made me shake my head.

‘Stay here,’ I said to my four-legged friends. ‘Please,’ I added to Shadow. Even so, I rolled down the window enough that he could get out; if he really wanted out no amount of glass would stop him but he would wreck the Nomo’s SUVagain.I just had to hope my order to stay there meant something. I snorted at the thought. Yeah, right.

I grabbed the black duffel bag from the boot and joined the cluster of men, giving them a professional nod in greeting. The leader, a tall bulky man with dark hair, dark eyes and – I suspected –an even darker soul, looked at me with too much interest. ‘Elizabeth Octavia Barrington, I assume? You’re a difficult woman to find.’

‘Bunny,’ I corrected. ‘Only my mum calls me Elizabeth.’

One of the other men snickered. ‘Bunny? What kind of a name is that?’

I shrugged. ‘“Psychotic Little Murdering Goblin” doesn’t roll off the tongue in the same way.’

They all blinked, not sure if I was joking. Good, let them wonder if I was a bit crazy.

I studied the men. They were noticeably uniform in size, dressed in black fatigues and carrying sidearms. Vampires were usually lean, thanks to our high-burning metabolism, but these were unusually solid and muscular. I wondered if they'd been taking steroids to bulk themselves up.

‘Barrington,’ Connor said gruffly to me, ‘these are three members of the Vampire King of America’s personal fighting force.’ He gestured to the leader. ‘This is Captain Reams.’ He pointed to the others. ‘Sergeant Malpas, and Corporal Clements.’

I nodded to them. Connor’s terse introduction made me feel like I probably shouldn’t call him Connor, but calling him Mr MacKenzie felt weird. I figured I’d try not to call him anything then I couldn’t balls this up.

Reams held out a hand and I took it before quickly releasing his cold flesh. I repeated the gesture with the other two. Looked like we were being friendly. I’d play nice for as long as they did.

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