Page 27 of Countdown to Murder
We’d both set our phones to wake us at eighteen hundred, the evening before Halloween. Mira would be up all night, then all day for Halloween, until midnight. Thirty hours. She assured me she’d be fine and could function at high alert, and I believed her.
I would nap some during daylight hours Halloween Day, and would stay awake all night after Halloween. Ember and Sloan would also be pulling longer hours for the next two days — or until we caught the motherfucking vampire.
Our people had tried to find a cabin, hotel, or resort with someone registered who’s attached to the vampire in question. Not only had we not found him or his people, but there were no longer any vampire-safe rooms for rent in the vicinity.
We’d had a few of our bird shifters fly to nearby cabins and look around, but nothing popped as suspicious. So, we had to wait for the motherfucker to come to us.
And he’d promised Miss MacKenna was going to die on Halloween.
If he intended to kill her and bring her back as a vampire on Halloween, he’d have needed to bite her on consecutive days leading up to the day. This meant he likely just meant to kill her and be done with her — or it could mean he intended to abscond with her, turn her at his leisure, and keep her a prisoner for a century or two, until the world had forgotten her. Personally, I thought he meant to kill her spirit. Her willpower. With her Aos Sí heritage, my bet was that he intended to fuck with her mind until she thought she loved him. No matter his plans though, clearly, tonight was the night he intended to make his move.
Mainly, I wanted to put this job behind us so I could take Mira somewhere private and we could explore whatever was between us. Apollonius could go fuck himself with his warnings. I’d tested Mira a variety of ways, and I saw no reason to believe she’d try to kill me in the middle of sex.
I reached to the table, shut both phones up when they alarmed, and then relaxed back into the bed, snugging Mira in close while making sure my dick stayed soft.
“This feels good,” I told her. “I know we have to get moving, but let’s stay here while I debrief you.”
“Works for me.”
Her voice sounded all soft and sexy. I wanted to kiss the top of her head, but I didn’t. That would have to wait until after this job was finished.
“Nothing eventful today. Still no information on where the flower bouquets are coming from, and we have our people looking at that as well as the FBI’s people. I have a favorite geek who works out of Chattanooga, and I asked her to look into our two biggest mysteries — looking for a private plane or a commercial airline ticket, and figuring out where the flowers are coming from. She found a private plane that landed about three hours away, in the right time frame for him to have followed our client up and been here in time for the first incident. The chartered flight was paid for with a stolen credit card. Satellite images show the passengers of that plane going to a large mall, but not getting back into the same car. It was stolen and only used to carry them from airport to mall. We haven’t been able to figure out which car they left the mall in.”
“So, more dead ends.”
“Yes.”
“The credit card would have needed to be stolen from someone who purchases such things, right? A high credit limit, and a history that wouldn’t make the credit card company contact the cardholder to ask questions.”
I suppressed a sigh. “Correct.”
“Bastard is good. Most of theold-onesare.” She turned in my arms and looked up at me. “There are things I know about vampires that I’m not at liberty to share. I think I know how he’s getting past us and the tech toys, but telling you would put both of us in hot water, assuming I could tell you, which I doubt.”
I considered this a few seconds and kissed her nose. I couldn’t help myself. “I have things I wish I could tell you as well. Human NDAs are a joke compared to the supernatural version. Let’s go at this from a different angle. Without telling me something you shouldn’t, are there any recommendations you can make towards keeping him out or trapping him?”
“Yes, but if I make recommendations, you mustn’t try to guess what I’m trying to guard against. Not out loud, anyway.”
“I can agree to that.”
“Okay then. We shouldn’t rely on the titanium mesh, and we need...” She sighed. “I can’t say it.Fuck.”
There had always been rumors that some vampires could turn into smoke or mist or whatever, but everyone assumed they were mere myths. I’d long ago learned most myths have at least a tiny bit of the truth in them. If she was saying not to trust the titanium mesh, which had holes small enough to keep a bat or a small bird out, then that means he was breaking down into something smaller. Logic told me either smoke or mist, and I was betting onmist. There’s a lot of moisture in a human body. Not as much in a vampire body, but still enough. If he was breaking himself down and putting himself back together, the moisture would still be there.
“Just for the hell of it, I think I’ll put some moisture sensors at a few entrances and exits. Call it a hunch, but I think a change in humidity might help us figure out where he’s coming and going.”
“We have those here?”
“I assume we do. I’ll stop off in the media room and talk to the geeks.”
Her eyes warmed from honey-gold to a deep brandy. “I’d like to mark up a blueprint, give input on where they might best be used.”
“HVAC intakes, doors, windows. Am I missing something?”
She smiled. “This isn’t a terribly old mansion, so it’s possible there are no foundation cracks. In old houses, we look for that kind of thing.”
“And when you’re looking for that, what steps do you take to defend yourself?”
She was silent a few moments before she finally said, “As far as I know, there are no cloaks of invisibility. Still, if you’re prepared for someone to take one off behind you and then try to kill you or bite you as soon as it’s off, you’ll probably be okay.”
