Not Your Girl
It was one of those mornings where you find yourself hungover and toxic, blinking at the light coming through the blinds in an unknown hotel room.
Freaking Schroder didn’t want me to figure out where his island was, so to pay the price for leaving, I needed to be heavily sedated. And that only covered half of the price tag. To pay the other half, I had to take the bloodsucker with me everywhere I went once we arrived back at civilization.
Thus, I ended up lying on a hotel bed handcuffed to a slumbering vampire watching cable in French because I couldn’t figure out how to change the language with the stupid remote.
This wasn’t a permanent arrangement. He wasn’t sleeping because it was daytime. He was sleeping because he had been awake all the previous night getting us back to the city while I slept like Psyche on valium. Unconscious like the dead, I didn’t even know how we got off the island. Via boat? Via helicopter? No idea.
Now in the hotel room, the phone was yanked out of the socket and on the other side of the room. He’d ordered food and it sat on a tray next to the bed. Get this. I was supposed to wake him up if I had to go to the bathroom.
Even though I was not uncomfortable, I was still groggy from the drugs, so I fell asleep, too.
***
That evening, Schroder and I got up and I convinced him to let me plug in the phone so I could make a couple of calls. My brain had been murky from all the drugs, but now that I was somewhat back to myself, I could figure out where to pick up my investigation.
First, I called my mother.
“I haven’t seen London,” she said, like her patience with me was wearing thin. “All her stuff is still here. Sweeper, it shouldn’t bother you that she met someone before you. She’s two years older than you and someday a nice man will notice how special you are.”
When my mother said this, I had to cover my mouth either to stop myself from laughing or to stop myself from crying. I couldn’t tell which. She was so wrapped up in wishing London well, she hadn’t even noticed I had been missing for over a week.
“Okay,” I said, trying not to let my voice alert her to my distress. “Please give me a call if you hear from her. I’ve got a bunch of her work piling up at our place.” The last bit wasn’t true, but it sounded true, which was good enough.
“Can’t you take care of that for her, Sweeper? If it gets unmanageable, I’ll come up and help you.”
“That’s okay. I’ll manage. Don’t come. Besides,” I said, sort of trying to be funny, “I’ve got a boyfriend too.” I looked at Schroder. “He can help me if I need him to.”
“That’s wonderful, honey. What’s he like?” She didn’t believe me, she was only pretending, but I didn’t care. This was a game I felt like playing.
“He’s…” I let my gaze sweep over the vampire across the room. He was wearing a black bandana on his head to hide the gauze. For some reason, he reminded me of a monk. Even if my mother saw him, there was no way she would recognize him as London’s teenage boyfriend. “He’s the rough on the outside, sweet on the inside type. You’ll love him.”
Schroder gave me a disappointed glance. Then he gave me a wrap-it-up signal with his hand.
“Gotta go, Mom. Don’t forget to tell me if you hear from London.” I hung up.
Next, I needed to call Dudley and Marshall, but I was hesitant to get on the phone with either of them. I didn’t want Schroder and Dudley to run into each other, since Schroder still wanted revenge.
“Is there anyone you can call who might know where London and Garth have slipped off to?” I asked, holding the phone out to him.
Schroder snorted. “My connections are spoiled. I can’t talk to the humans I was working with. They probably think I turned them in because there’s no doubt in my mind that Pierce has brought them in. They’re probably all waiting in jail by now. We could talk to Marshall.”
“Don’t you think we should go to Garth’s?” I suggested, trying to move our investigation away from Dudley.
The vampire shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know where that punk lives. I wasn’t thinking very clearly when I made him the offer. All I knew about him was that he was desperate for vampire blood and he had the kind of face that would draw in London. Since he looked like I used to.”
“You don’t even know where he lives?” I asked incredulously.
“Give me a break. I should have found out, but I didn’t think of it. I had five bullets in my head.”
I rolled my eyes and decided to let it go. “Okay then. I want to talk to Pierce to find out how capturing your coven went. What’s his number?”
“You can’t call him. The police are looking for you. If you called him, the number would be traced and they’d be here before you could hang up the phone.”
“Then I’ll have to go see him in person,” I snarled.
Schroder looked at me disapprovingly. “How am I supposed to go with you to do that? Pierce is on the hunt for me, too.”
“Then I’ll go by myself, and you can follow me.”
Schroder looked at me. Then he looked away. He had to think about it. He tried to get up, pulled on my handcuffs, and brought me up with him as he began pacing the room, dragging me in tow.
“Stop it,” I shouted after I had been taken on two full circuits of the room and bashed into him three times.
“Fine. I guess it’s got to be like that since I can’t think of any other leads. Do you need to go to the bathroom?”
“No.”
“Good. Then,” he said, taking out a second set of handcuffs and taking my other wrist in his hand.
“Then what?” I squawked.
“Then you have to wait for me here while I go get ready.”
I gave him my wrist reluctantly and he handcuffed me to the headboard. “Go get ready?” I asked skeptically.
“I need a disguise if I’m going to see Pierce.”
He fetched a key out of the bottom drawer of the nightstand on his side of the bed and unlocked the set of handcuffs that kept the two of us bound together. I never would have guessed the key had been somewhere so simple. Idiot! I didn’t even try looking for a key and it was there all along. I smacked myself on the forehead with my free hand.
“You won’t find the key for that set,” he said darkly, flicking my bound wrist. “Come on. Don’t lose your spirit now. I’m giving you what you want.”
I winced.
He nodded at me before he put his coat and shoes on. He shook his keys in his pocket and went out, locking the door behind him.
Instead of watching crappy cable, I slept some more. And you know what? I slept so much better with Schroder out of the room. I didn’t realize how miserable his shabby form made me feel until he was gone. Being with him was like hanging out with the Phantom of the Opera without his mask all the time. It felt particularly awful because I had been the one who beheaded and burned him. At least I hadn’t been the one to make him crazy.
***
When I woke up, there was a note in front of my face and a key. “Dudley?” I whispered drowsily. That was right. I had fallen asleep on his couch. “You already gave me this key.”
“What?” a deep male voice questioned tensely.
“You already gave me a key to your apartment. I promised you I wouldn’t go home and I’d come to your place instead. Remember? I’ve missed you.” Then I stretched and moved to rub my shoulder when clank. I came to the end of the tether the handcuff gave me. What was going on?
Then it all came back to me like an anesthetic knocks you out—except backward.
What had I been saying?
Bang! The door to the hotel room closed with a slam. That was Schroder and he hadn’t liked what I mumbled in my sleep.
Stick it to me to have such piss poor luck.
I got up on my knees in the bed and picked up the piece of paper Schroder had left lying beside me.
I read it and practically heard Schroder’s voice grating in my ear reading along. “Go wherever you want and I’ll follow you. When you’re ready to meet up with me again, come back here.”
So, I wasn’t allowed to know what his disguise was. I picked up the key and unlocked the handcuff.
Getting up, I made my way to the bathroom. It would be afternoon before I looked presentable enough to go out.
I shouldn’t have been mumbling in my sleep. However, the feelings I had felt when I thought I was back in Dudley’s apartment, made me stop to think. There was an ache uncoiling in my stomach. Dudley was probably somewhere in the city. He was probably somewhere cracking down on a lead, wearing his tacky necktie and sporting a freshly shaven chin. Maybe he was even looking for me. When I thought about that, my stomach sort of lurched. Well, I just had to push all that away. I couldn’t see him. As long as I had Schroder on my back, seeing Dudley was out of the question. And if I should see him by accident I had to pretend I didn’t care.
Thinking like that, I got ready to go out. The clothes I had with me were a mess, but as I searched the room for something of Schroder’s to make do with, I found he had bought me a fresh set of clothes.
At first, I didn’t know what to make of his wardrobe choice, since the clothes looked like something straight out of a romance novel. I was supposed to go traipsing around in these? Under normal circumstances, there was no way. Under these dire circumstances—okay.
To start with, he supplied me with a pair of capris made of faded blue faded denim. That wasn’t the annoying part. Then there was a white peasant shirt—still not terribly irritating. It was the shoes he brought that made me writhe. They were white wedge heels with scads of tiny straps on them. How was I supposed to get any serious walking done in these? Was he trying to handicap me? I would have worn my shoes, but they didn’t match those capris.
I was being ridiculous. I finished getting ready without forcing myself to further lengths of absurdity, which meant that I let my hair curl up as much as it would go with only a hotel blow-dryer and went out without a speck of makeup on.
I went downstairs. From the cheap hotel room to the slightly less cheap-looking lobby, to the bright city street where I hailed a shady cab. Then I was on my way to the police station. Luckily, I still had my own money—though there wasn’t going to be much of it left after the cab fare.
When I got to the police station, I went straight through the glossy doors and right up to the desk.
“How can I help you?” the clerk asked.
“I’d like to see Pierce Wagner. My name is Sweeper. Is he in his office?”
“One moment. I don’t think he’s available.”
“Can you check, please?”
“Let me put a call through to his secretary.”
I nodded. It didn’t matter what his schedule was like. Pierce would want to talk to me.
After her call, the receptionist turned back to me and said, “Chief Wagner is in the training hall at the remand center. He’d like you escorted there. Officer Kelly is free and he’ll take you.”
“Officer Kelly?” I repeated as she came around the desk. Was she talking about The Scissor Man?
The clerk introduced me to an extraordinarily scarred man known as Officer Kelly. Now I knew why he didn’t want to be called The Scissor Man. He was a police officer. Aside from the tiny long scars I had seen on his face at Pierce’s, there were a couple of new ones that had almost finished healing. He put his hat on and led me outside.
“It’s nice to see you again,” I said quietly. “I was worried about you.”
His expression was grim. “Thanks for the concern. It’s unprecedented. Most people wish I was dead.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer, but instead, put out his hand to lead me down the sidewalk. “This way,” he said.
Together he and I walked down the length of the block, crossed the street, and entered a plain yellow bricked building. It was the remand center. Officer Kelly led me past reception, down to the rooms for reprogramming and basic training. I didn’t understand why I needed an escort. I could have found it just fine. Then he took me to a door that required key card authorization. He swiped his identity card and the door opened. Down one more hallway, we found Pierce Wagner waiting—looking frustrated and tense. When he turned and saw me, all the intensity drained from his shoulders. He came over with a smile. Officer Kelly closed the door on us without saying a word.
“Glad to see you, Sweeper,” Pierce said, as he came within one foot of me. Without warning, he suddenly snapped his hand out and yanked my hair.
“What are you doing?” I screamed as he wrenched my head back and forth.
“Looking for bite marks,” he said, scanning my neck and arms. Then he put a finger down my neckline and pulled it forward as if to look down my shirt. I smacked him. “Schroder didn’t bite me, okay?”
“That’s what you would say whether he bit you or not. You should be examined.”
“Maybe, but not by you and not in this hallway,” I said, as I fixed my shirt.
“Are you insane? Would you really want anyone besides me to find out? If Schroder had used his own blood to turn you, there would be no one in the world who would help you, but me.”
I scratched the back of my head. I didn’t believe that. There was still Dudley out there. “Look, he didn’t bite me. He said he wanted to try a love affair where he didn’t draw blood just like you.”
Pierce shook his head wearily and let go of me. “It’s too late for him to say he practices noble vampirism. The coven he created to drain London was too large. I’m going to have to end his legacy the next time I see him. What happened?”
“Nothing. I’m fine. Look, I want to continue my investigation. Did you manage to round up the whole coven?”
“They’re in there,” Pierce said pointing.
I didn’t realize it before, but we were standing in front of a one-way mirror, and on the other side was what looked like a schoolroom with about thirty people sitting at desks while a teacher wrote on a whiteboard.
“What’s this?”
“These are the people we’ve stopped from becoming vampires this month and a few extras I enlisted in the class. It’s a series of lessons we’ve put together to try to convince people not to become vampires. Twelve of the people from Schroder’s coven are in there.”
I couldn’t believe how many people there were and they were all so young. My stomach turned over. “Can we hear what they’re saying?”
“Sure,” Pierce said. He turned a dial that controlled the volume of the intercom.
The teacher’s voice droned and grated over the speakers, “The average lifespan for a male human is seventy-nine years. The average lifespan for a male vampire is fifteen years from the time they were turned.” The teacher pointed to one of the guys sitting on the third row with his marker. “You there, how old are you?”
“Twenty-three,” the guy said.
He was the same age I was.
“Then you’d live to be thirty-eight. You’d be cheated of over half of your lifespan as a human.”
“But I’d be gorgeous!” the guy exclaimed rebelliously.
The teacher rolled his eyes and seeing that he’d done as well with his point as he could, he went on. “The average female human’s lifespan is eighty-five years. After transformation—what is their average lifespan?”
“What is it?” someone in the class shouted out.
“Seven years.”
“Only seven?” someone whispered in apparent shock.
The teacher continued, “The likelihood she’ll beat her man out during the mating process is about one in four. Usually, the men kill the women. Hear that, girls? You can become a vampire the dirty way if you like, but when it comes time for you to mate—and the drive will come—your lover will probably kill you.”
There was silence in the classroom.
“What else do you teach them?” I asked Pierce.
“Most of the other lessons are an attempt to teach them how to live normally. We feed them amazing food and take them for light treatments. You’ll probably notice that the light in there is brighter than out here.”
He was right. The hallway was considerably dimmer.
“The success rate for this project is usually around forty percent. Forty percent abandon the idea and the other sixty go for it and the blood that flows can’t be corked.”
“What happened to the others?”
“Do you mean the other two members of the coven besides Garth?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Dudley is looking for them. I put some police officers on the case as well, but so far I haven’t heard much. Have you been in touch with Dudley since you shook Schroder?”
This was one of those things. I couldn’t tell him I hadn’t lost Schroder. Even now, I expected to see his cold blue eyes peering at me from between the bricks in the wall.
“No, I haven’t talked to Dudley. If you see him, will you tell him I’m working on the case, too? I’m looking for Garth and London. I take it you don’t have any leads on them?”
“He covered his tracks well. I have no idea where they have gone. Sweeper, have you ever thought of not looking for London?”
My eyes were sharp. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this is the way vampires are made. This is the way they die. Vampires are despicable creatures as they are, but aside from the human covens, aside from the marketing of vampire blood, besides the drug trades vampires foster to continue their decadence, besides all that and more—this is how they live and die and it’s the only honest thing about them.”
“What?” I snapped.
He took a deep breath. “I’m saying it’s about choice. Sometimes a human can control a vampire and keep them at bay. It’s possible London didn’t have to mate with Schroder just because he tagged her. She chose to fall for him. She chose to let him live and thereby let him kill her. You intervened. Your interference is probably not looked on fondly by her. This time, why not let her try to finish it properly with Garth? If she dies, that’s her choice. If she kills him, that’s her choice too. A vampire that dies is one that didn’t give up on love. Let her—”
“I will not!” I said proudly, straightening my back. “I don’t see it that way. I’ll find them and I’ll kill him. You saw the light come on when I came into the police station. I have a license. If she really transformed him, I’ll kill him and deliver his slobbering corpse to your very doorstep if you’d like.”
Pierce looked away in disgust and clicked his tongue. “That would be a fine way to thank the man that saved her from being drained by no less than fifteen people. I like his conviction. I’ll tell you what. If you do manage to find them, if Garth is not a vampire, you can bring him here and we’ll swap the vampire blood for human blood. We’re getting quite good at reversing the effects. I’m sure he knows it’s an option.”
“Do you think that’s really a possibility?”
“No, but I think it would be a shame if you pulled the plug on a human you thought was a vampire. You would go to prison for a long time doing a thing like that. You’d better make sure he’s a vamp before you slit his throat.”
I nodded severely. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
Feeling our conversation was coming to a close, I put out my hand for Pierce to shake, but he held onto my fingers like he still had one more thing to say. “You should really listen to me. She’s not yours to protect. She can decide the ending herself. If you want to help Dudley with his search for the last two members of the coven, that’s one thing—an admirable thing—but it’s time for you to let London go.”
I nodded again, but I only did it only so he would let go of my hand.
“You’ll think about what I’ve said?” he asked, still not letting go.
“Sure,” I said.
He frowned as he freed my hand. “You’d better.”
I smiled politely. I sort of liked Pierce when I first met him, but not when he spouted that garbage and expected me to listen. By my third meeting with him, he had become nosy and bothersome and for whatever reason, he was interfering with what I had based my life on for the past eight years. What did he know, anyway?
When I left the building, I had a look around the street and started walking back toward the police station. After talking to Pierce, it felt like the next logical step in my investigation was to find Dudley and get what information I could from him. But I didn’t want to call him when I had Schroder following me.
I stopped at a crosswalk and took in the scene in front of me. Where was Schroder anyway? I couldn’t see anyone except Dudley.