Page 35 of High Stakes and Soulmates
After Julian and Casimir update everyone, Julian asks if there’s anything I’d like to add but I don’t even recall what he’s talked about, so I shake my head.
Julian tells the group, “We would hate to believe it is anyone of our own doing this, but we can’t overlook anything.”
“What if it’s being staged to look like a vampire is doing it?” Olive, Maeve’s daughter, asks.
“Ezio or Cyrus can explain it better,” Julian says.
“It’s a possibility, but the force that is being used goes beyond what a human could do without some kind of machine,” Ezio explains. “The stakes are thick and they are driven deep. I’m confident that even a strong human with tools would struggle to hold a body suspended in the air and drive a stake into asupporting beam. The one down in the cellar was driven through cement blocks. There wasn’t enough room to swing a mallet. Let’s just say it leans heavily toward the killer being a vampire.”
“But why?” Genevieve asks. “A vampire murderer can literally go anywhere, so they’re going to set up shop in an area with one of the strongest vampires I know and a council that’s dedicated to keeping peace?”
Terrance frowns. “It has to be targeted.”
“It very well might be, but at this point, we’re not sure how or why,” Ezio says.
“The nights you listed that the deceased were killed, a good percentage of us were at the casino,” Steve offers. “You can watch the camera footage and see.”
“Y-Yeah,” Jake says. He’s a vampire who has harassed Julian enough that I think he’s on Casimir’s shit list. But he, at least, seems to be pretty harmless. “There was also a group of us who went out of the city to Donovan’s club. He has humans there that we can feed off. He can verify that we were there the whole night. We were there the night before and stayed until last night.”
“Thank you,” Julian says. “The alibis are extremely helpful. At this point, I’m afraid it’s someone who isn’t part of our community, but hopefully we can identify them soon. I’ve gone through every crime scene, but so far, I haven’t been able to pick up a specific scent. They’re undoubtedly doing what they can to hide it. And then the smell of blood has been quite prevalent. Please remain vigilant. We don’t know what’s happening here and who might be at risk. If you see or hear anything, please contact us immediately.”
The meeting adjourns and most head for the door, but I notice the young man with Yorick hangs behind.
Julian walks over to greet him, so I feel like I really shouldn’t just leave when he is definitely someone we should interview.
I walk up as Yorick takes note.
“Oh, do I smell too much for you to sit by me? I shed a tear. A tear, I say!” Yorick tosses in some hand movements like that will help convey just how heartbroken he is after… you know… the grave sin of me sitting on the other side of the room.
“Oh, sorry, I just saw some open seats.”
“Not the open ones I saved specifically for you?” Yorick asks. “Not the very seats that I had to fend off othersforyou. They tried to take them, and I had to sayto their faces,‘You shall not sit. These are for my bestestfriends.’ And now… I don’t even know what we are.”
“You might not know what ‘we’ are but I know ‘you’ are dramatic. We didn’t instantly become enemies because I sat somewhere else,” I say.
Ezio isn’t saying much, and Yorick seems to take note that something is going on because he stops his playful harassment.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, sorry. Been some late nights. Anyway,” I say as I turn to the son. “I’m Detective Torres.”
“Phil. My… my parents were the ones you found yesterday.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I apologize that you have to go through something like this. It’s…” I think back on my own parents. “It’s something that’s really hard to handle.”
“I feel like I destroyed them, you know? I know some people tell their family when they become a were or a vampire… but I didn’t think my parents could handle it, so I hid from them for years. But was it my own insecurities? My own fears… my own ideas that led me to just… walk away from them? And now I’ll never get to make it right.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, wondering if there was more between them that made him avoid them for what? Fifty years? He was turned at such a young age, so when did he just stop seeing them?
I would do anything to get to see my family again. To have my mother hug me…
Fuck.
“I was hoping to stay here for a bit to see if I can be of some help tracking the killer down,” Phil says.
“You’ll need to be registered if you wish to stay,” Ezio states.
His eyes widen. “Even if I’m not living here? We don’t require registration where I’m from.”
