Page 6 of Kissed the Mark
And like that, she was gone, and I couldbreathe again.
Chapter Four
Orchard Ave
I WOKE UP IN A cold sweat multiple times that daythinking over Leandra’s odd behavior. Specifically, I overanalyzedher omission of my visit to the mall. If she did know about it,what did she get from pretending not to? If she really didn’t know,did that mean Mateo Rivera was hiding something from the vampirequeen by consorting with a werewolf in regards to the Chicagovamps? What the vampire queen knew, Leandra knew, too. In the end,the thing that got me to drag my ass to Orchard Avenue the secondthe sun began to set was that I’d likely find answers for both thewerewolf and Leandra there.
The difference between the abandoned malland the Orchard Avenue den became apparent just by the smell—whilethe mall was where the classy vamps close to the vampire queenwent, the Orchard Avenue den was for the outcasts, located in asmall warehouse. It had a rotten garbage scent that made mynostrils flare. Those who couldn’t make the cut, or who hadoffended someone important, or were too new to fit in with thesilks and aesthetics of the old European vampires, lived here. Thedoor wasn’t locked, or even guarded. I stepped over a prone vamp,snoozing with a bottle of homemade hooch, to get fully into theplace. It was covered in cobwebs, some of them likely untouched foryears. Three vampires played some kind of card game with real bonesin the corner, and in the dim lighting, I saw the thrashing ofbodies in the throes of passion or withdrawal.
If vampires didn’t have blood or a bloodsubstitute, they’d lose their minds. And some of those people werehere. I’d heard rumors that they devoured their own when thishappened; I had a hit for a rogue vampire once and it was themessiest kill I’d ever done. Allegedly, eating lost vampires stavedoff the hunger for the others.
A thin vampire in a dirty knee-length coatapproached me before I could find someone who looked like they hadenough of reality on their side to answer a few questions. Hereached out a hand with dirt-rimmed, overgrown fingernails. “Smellslike fairy. Unusual,” he said. “You’re a bounty hunter?”
Unlike most of the people in the town whoknew me by name, these guys were totally isolated, known only toother vampires, and even then sometimes not. “Yeah, I’m OlympiaCarter.”
If I expected the name to mean something, itfell flat on his ears. He scraped at his scalp, freeing somedandruff onto his shoulders. “Nobody’s messed up here in almost ayear,” he said, I guess referring to last year’s oopsie of a humansacrifice by a vampire who fancied himself a slumlord. “You’re hereabout the werewolf.”
“Actually, are there any new vampiresaround? Anybody from St. Louis? A woman?”
He laughed, his atrocious breath coating myface. “Haven’t had fresh meat here in almost a year, either.”
“Tell me about the werewolf, then.”
The vampire shook his outstretched hand atme. I slid a twenty out of my wallet and gently placed it betweentwo of his fingers before he could take the initiative to touch mefirst. “Batty saw him in the woods early this morning. By MaplePark. He got a deer. Batty drank the rest.” He laughed again,revealing teeth with a chipped fang on one side.
“What are the odds that he’s still there,you think?” I asked.
“Sounds like he left a pretty obvious trail.He’ll be looking human by now, I s’pose. Can walk right off intothe city and pretend he was never here.”
The moon was certainly beginning to wane atnight now. Sometimes, werewolves were prone to involuntary partialtransformations on nights when the moon was pretty full but notcompletely. “Thanks,” I said.
?
You can probably put point A and point Btogether—not long after going to Maple Park, I ended up in apeaceful little nook in the forest over a dead body.
The body belonged undoubtedly to thewerewolf, Bill Dyer. Werewolves had this feral musk that was hardto describe when they’d recently transformed. He looked completelyhuman otherwise, albeit paler than death and covered in bite marksand scratches. I had my phone to my ear, explaining the discoveryto the Guild, but even as I called their investigators to come outand take a look, I knew a vampire had done it. The body was devoidof blood. The people who came to collect the body came to the sameobvious conclusion I had. They muttered to themselves as theypacked the mess away and rumpled the forest grass back intoplace.
I sat on a damp rock for a long time afterfinding the body and telling the inspectors what I knew—whichwasn’t much, just that I’d been following a mark and stumbled uponMr. Dyer like this. That he’d been fraternizing with vampires. Thesun had long ago finished setting, leaving me in the dark with thebirds and the crickets and my thoughts. I couldn’t help but wonderif the werewolf had been silenced by someone. He had the answer toat least a few mysteries lurking around town, and now we’d neverget justice or understanding of the newly turned victim.
The shadow slunk out from between the treesa moment before I heard her voice. My hand went to my silverdagger. “You should be careful. People get killed in these woods,you know.”
“That’s a bit crass, even for you,” Ispat.
Leandra’s eyes shone in the moonlight,looking a bit too delighted given the situation. “I heard. Howdreadful.”
“Seems to me like you would’ve had enoughtime to clean up after the mess you made.”
“Darling Olympia, I haven’t killed anyone inover eighty years!”
I tried very hard not to roll my eyes.“Well, you’d be more of an expert on your kind than I am. Who didthis?”
Leandra placed a hand over mine. She had ona number of gold rings that were shockingly cold against my skin.“It has to be that new vampire.”
“The Orchard Avenue vampires knew nothingabout her. How do I know she exists?” I asked, exasperated. “I’mthinking maybe you should go to the next bounty hunter down theline, then the next after that. There’s a reason we’ve madeourselves unavailable to you or said no.”
“But the money’s so good.” She waved herfingers in a sweeping gesture. “And I don’t want to get my handsdirty.”
“You’ll have to help me find her.”
