Page 19 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

We walked down the dirt trail in single file toward the Hot Springs. Antonio shifted into wolf form and lead the way. I followed him. With my senses on high alert I was able to hear tons of sounds. The rustling of every little beetle in the forest seemed to be a cacophony in my ears. It was almost too much. The wind rustling in the leaves and then the incessant pulsing of the magical creature I was focused on.

I didn’t care. I felt like a bloodhound going after him. It didn’t matter if I was dead. I was a sworn officer of the law and this man had instigated the death of two citizens of this region, whether they were supernatural or not.

The path opened as we approached the edge of the creek spreading out to the pools where the hot springs were. I’d visited the space one time since I moved to Cougar Creek, as a cursory overview of the region and to make sure I understood their number one tourist attraction. I hadn’t gone in because it was gross. Who wanted to sit in a bunch of water a bunch of other people sat in? Even though it flowed, the bears upstream were probably peeing in it already.

We stood in the shadows of the trees for a moment, scanning the hot springs. The pulse was coming from upriver. He was clearly in the water, because Antonio couldn’t catch his scent anymore, but the pulse didn’t stop. It was constantly hitting me in the face. I turned and guided him carefully toward where I knew our prey would be. I took a deep breath, wondering for a moment how I was going to address this. Normally I would draw my gun and say “Halt I’m an officer of the law. You are under arrest” but in this case he wasn’t going to care. In fact, he would probably laugh. A better option was to draw him out.

He was a demon. He’d clearly been interested in sex as one of his corporeal pleasures. I was surprised the girl didn’t have burn marks on her. She must have gotten to him before he began disintegrating back into the demon world.

“I’m here to make a deal with you,” I said loudly.

A laugh echoed up the creek. Antonio‘s head whipped around to get a sense of exactly where Rar’goth was. It didn’t matter to me. I already had a sense. The sonar was starting to calm down as if satisfied the criminal was within reach. As a cop, I had always been a hunter, always wanted to go out and find my perp and now as a vampire it felt no different. The demon was in corporeal form at the moment, and I was hungry.

I moved quickly and in mere seconds I was standing right in front of the demon. He had the body of a human, but his skin was burning off in light little veins. He was sitting low in the hot spring, staring up at me.

“What do you want from me, vampire?” He grinned up at me. “I am dying.”

“Well, I can make it a lot faster for you,” I said, immediately diving into the water and getting a grip on his neck, I held him down with as much force as I could manage. He sprang away from me in seconds, slamming an elbow up against my chin. If I was human, it would’ve drawn blood, but now it only split the skin to the bone.

Rar’goth turned to me. “You’re going to have a hard time getting me down, young one. Even with me dying. I’m not interested in any deal that lets me die sooner. I’m only interested in a deal that keeps me here on earth in a living corporeal body.”

“I can get you time in a body,” I said, not knowing if I could or not. Antonio‘s face gave away his surprise at my claim, but what the hell? I was in a coven of witches. We had a werewolf and a psychic who was actually a Fae. We had a lot of power. Surely there had to be something we could do for the demon?

“Why the hell would you want to help me, vamp?” Rar’goth asked.

“I know what kind of punishment you’re going to face,” I said bitterly. “I’ve been punished before by my commanding officer. I know what it’s like.”

At this Antonio did swivel his head to look at me.

Rar’goth let out a big sigh of relief as if he was understood finally for the first time. He took a step toward me. “What do you want from me?” He asked, his voice quiet. Resigned.

“We wanna know who offered you something for attacking the cemetery?”

“There’s no way in hell I can tell you,” Rar’goth said, his eyes opening wide in real fear. “I’d sooner die.”

“Well, you are dying,” I said. “Either you tell us who it was, and we save your ass, or you go back to Hell. Which sounds more appealing to you?”

“How do I know you’re not bullshitting me?” Rar’goth asked. “You human types are the same. Vampire or not, you lie through your teeth.”

“Come up to the estate tomorrow at midnight,” I said. “We’ll arrange it then. I’ll have the whole Coven there to help you.”

With those words I turned and walked away, not wanting him to see the doubt and uncertainty in my face. I had no idea what we were going to do, but I knew we needed another meeting with the demon, and we needed it on more equal terms. We needed to find a way to connect with him, because right now, he was our only lead to the real person who was fighting to destroy the cemetery.

Chapter 13

“What the hell did you just promise him? “Antonio asked the second we stepped through the entrance gates of the hot springs. He’d transformed back into a man. I was always startled by his bright blue eyes and his white hair. As a wolf he looked the majestic, but as a man… He looked delectable.

“There’s something he wants in corporeal form he can’t get in any other way. I don’t think it’s escaping from Thrain, and I don’t think it’s to experience being a human. There’s a reason why he’s willing to die, and we need to find out what that reason is,” I said.

“Do you understand you can’t actually deliver what you just promised him?” Antonio’s voice resonated with irritation and anger. “How could you even do that. Do you realize you’re inviting a demon onto the estate property with a lie?”

“You don’t know it’s a lie. I don’t know it’s a lie. Hell, I’ve been a vampire for twenty-four hours and you don’t even know the witches, so how do you know it’s a lie? How do you know they can’t give the demon a body? Heck, there’s lots of bodies in the cemetery. Maybe he can have a body from there.”

My voice had gotten a bit short because I was irritated with Antonio. We got in the car and drove back to the police station. In silence.

“Aren’t you getting out?” he asked when we pulled up.

“No, I’ve got stuff I’ve got to do at home,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, which was that I needed to try to figure all of this out in my head. It was so complicated becoming a supernatural and trying to solve a murder case while trying to fit into a group of people who were now my Coven. I’d been alone for my entire life. I mean, I didn’t even fit into the police station I was stationed at in Indianapolis.

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