Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

              David laid the body bag out on the floor as if he was about to pack a suit. Once it was flat out on the floor, he unzipped it. He dragged the headless body to the opening and tucked it in, then tossed he head in by the hair. He zipped up the bag draped it over his shoulder. With his free hand, he offered to help Maggie stand. She ignored his hand and stood without help. From her closet, Maggie pulled out mounds of clothes and tossed them on the bed. David turned away as she pulled off her night clothes and dressed in a blouse and slacks. She tossed the rest of the clothes, along with a few other items a few other items, into a duffel bag. She grabbed a jacket off a hook at the front door and slipped into it.

She motioned for David to lead the way.

Antony stood at the car waiting. After David flopped the corpse into the trunk, Antony took the driver’s seat.  Maggie sat down in the back. They rode back to Antony’s house in silence. Although it was not a particularly cold night, the woman in the back pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and shivered. David observed her as she stared out at the dingy and empty streets.

When they reached the house, David led her inside and guided her to the sofa. Antony fixed her a cup of hot tea. He handed her the drink and she accepted it without gratitude. She didn’t drink it right away. She sniffed it first, and held its warmth close to her body. After recovering from a bout of silent crying, Maggie took a sip of the tea. Perhaps she thought being poisoned was better than sitting in the awkward silence; or perhaps she was finally starting to trust that the two strangers were not out to harm her.

Antony broke the silence.               “I am a vampire.”

Maggie stared at him through the steam rising off her cup.

He continued. “I hunt killers and we believed you to be the killer of your child so you were chosen for extermination.” He spoke with such cold efficiency.

“Ex…extermination?” Maggie shivered again, despite the hot tea.

              “I don’t think we should be telling her all this,” David said.

              Antony lifted a hand, quieting him. “We must.”

              “She won’t believe it, or she will run screaming from here even if she does. She will have the police at our door before we can say ‘twenty-five to life.’”

              Ignoring him, Antony continued. “I trust you understand how close to death you came tonight; I am hoping you will believe what I am saying. We have brought you here in the hopes that we can convince you not to involve the authorities.”

              “I already knew who you were.”

David glared at her.

“I mean I knew you were coming. I didn’t know what you were, not until you got there.”

              David had been pacing and he stopped to look down at her “What?”

Maggie sighed and tried again. “I didn’t have all the details, but I knew someone was coming for me. I also knew that Grover was coming. I had the vision of him showing up when you did. When I realized you were there to kill me, I figured I had to stall until Grover arrived.”

David chuffed.

              She ignored his incredulousness. “I have visions. I see things in dreams and sometimes even when I’m awake. They aren’t always totally accurate, but they always serve their purpose. I can also teleport.”

“Teleport?” David chuffed again.

Maggie stood, no longer wishing to have David looking down at her. “You believe in vampires, but not in witches?” She growled at his narrowmindedness. Then, softening, she continued. “Okay, it’s not exactly teleportation. I think it’s technically called astral projection. I send my consciousness to another place. I can be seen in this other location, but I can’t move or interact with the surroundings. I am like a ghost, or a hologram. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

              David said, “Regardless of what you may, or may not, have seen in your visions, what you’ve seen in your apartment tonight is us killing your boyfriend. That is what concerns me.”

“Grover killed Molly.” She spoke with the voice of a woman who knows how to demand attention. “I would have decapitated him myself if I could. He killed her on one of his drunken rampages. I might have been able to prevent her death if I had just gone to the cops and turned him in, but I was afraid of him. One thing I didn’t see coming was her death. Nor, subsequently, did I see myself being accused of her death. My visions don’t work like that.” Her eyes filled with tears as she thought of Molly. She sobbed and turned away from them.

              “Explain your visions to me, please?” Antony asked when she had control of herself again.

              “I can see events from the past, and I can see what will happen in the future. I can also see events happening at the moment, even far from me. I just have to relax and concentrate and I can see what I need to see. I can also see the auras.”

Antony stopped her. “What is an Aura?”

“Auras are a glow that surrounds a person. They tell me if people are in danger, or if they are a danger to me. You have an unusual aura. I’m thinking that’s on account of what you are.”

“What is unusual about my aura?”

“It’s…black. Normal auras are white, for innocent people anyway. The more a person commits evil acts, the more it turns red. Red auras are bad. That’s how I can help you, even without my visions.”

Antony contemplated this silently.

“If your aura is black because of the fact that you are a vampire, it would explain why David’s aura is white, since he’s not. David’s is so glowing white that I would have thought he was very young. The only auras I’ve seen
that
white are on babies.”

“I’m no baby.” Though he sounded like one at the moment. “Auras? This sounds like nonsense.”

“I can also dream of events to come, although what I see isn’t always what actually occurs. I must admit there is some interpretation involved in my visions.”

“So, you’re a witch.” David said this with obvious distain.

“I’m expected to believe he’s a vampire, but you can’t believe I have visions?” Maggie was ready for a fight.

“He can prove his claim,” David said. “Go ahead, prove it to her.”

“David, please. You are not helping,” Antony said.

“Listen.” Maggie walked around and examined her surroundings. “I haven’t felt this alive in years. I’m totally open to what you are telling me; and I am happy to stay and assist you in any way I can. I’m sure my visions will be of great service to your cause.” Maggie turned to Antony, not wanting to deal with the human any longer.

              “Our cause? We’re not a cult, or a non-profit organization. We don’t take in members.” David snorted. “I’d say tell people she’s crazy, but people probably already know she’s wacky.”

              Ignoring David, Maggie suddenly thought of something. She stopped looking over the objects in the room and turned around. “Where is Grover…or his body?”

              “Burning in the incinerator downstairs,” Antony said.

              “Tone!” David shouted. “We can’t tell her…”

              “We have no choice now but to take her in.”

              “We can’t ‘take her in.’” He mocked Antony’s words. “And we shouldn’t be telling her our trade secrets.” David glared at her as he spoke.

              “Jealous much?” she said.

              David jumped out of the recliner where had been sitting, but once he was up, he had nowhere else to take the threat, so he sat back down.

              “David! Enough.” Antony growled. David rolled his eyes and turned away. To Maggie, Antony said, “You are telling us that you are psychic. That could come in handy for us. How can you assist? And can you demonstrate this gift for us?”

              “Is this like a job interview or something? I’m not doing parlor tricks here. I don’t have visions on demand. I can see what people are going to do and what they have done. I’ll be a much more efficient handler than your current one. With me you will never have to ever worry about a sloppy night again.” She glared at David as she said this.

              “I do just fine,” David stated flatly.

Maggie dropped the six-inch pewter statue she had been examining back onto the mantle. She turned on him.               “Not tonight, you didn’t. And I almost died because of it.”

              “I’ve been doing this for seven years. This was the first time I ever…”
Ah, what did it matter?
He thought. He stood and stormed out of the room.

              Antony said, “We will just have to see how things play out. I am keeping you here until I can get a sense of how well I can trust you. Betray me and you will be back on the menu.”

              Maggie shivered again.

              “The boy wants to be what you are,” she said. “You don’t have to be psychic to get that. You can give him what he wants. I will gladly repay your generosity for ridding the world of that killer by taking over David’s job. My abilities are much more efficient than his sleuthing technique, anyway.”

              “An intriguing boast, and it remains to be seen. But you should know I will never give him what he wants. I will not ever make that mistake again, not with him or with anyone. You will be free to do as you wish once I know you will not be of any trouble to us. I cannot ask you to stay and be our prisoner, either.”

              “It wouldn’t be like that. I would be happy to stay. I don’t think you understand. I’ve been just going through the motions since Molly’s death.” Tears formed in Maggie’s eyes at saying her daughter’s name, but she didn’t let them fall. She gritted her teeth and continued. “I need this in my life.”

              “We will see.” It was the end of that discussion.

              Maggie fell silent. Then another thought occurred to her. “How were you able to enter my room without my permission? I thought vampires had to be invited in.”

              Antony smiled and laughed noiselessly. Then he explained.

“Years ago we had a member of our kind who was obsessive compulsive and could not enter a home without first asking permission. I believe he was the start of that myth.”

“Where is he now?”

“He was eventually killed by sunlight, or so I heard.”

              “So sunlight does kill you?”

              “Yes, but little else, so do not get any ideas.”

              Now Maggie laughed.

              “He loves you, you know,” she said, changing the subject. When Antony’s right eyebrow rose inquisitively she explained. “David—he loves you deeply. He wants to live forever, so you’ll never have to be alone.”

              “I love him too. That is why I will never turn him.”

The room grew quiet.

David returned to the living room, remembering something else wanted to say. He held out the newspaper article. “I meant to discuss this with you until…”

He glanced at Maggie.

              “You are still free to discuss anything you wish,” Antony said.

              David averted his eyes from Maggie. “It’ll keep for another time.” He walked away.

Antony turned back to give Maggie his attention.               “As I said, you are free to go. But if you wish to stay, I will show you to a room.”

Maggie’s mind was made up.               “I want to stay.”

Antony stood. “Before we go to your room, I will show you the basement. The incinerator and the panic room is down there. I will show you how they work.”

“Great, lead the way.”

              The following morning, around 5 a.m., David looked in on Maggie and made sure she was asleep; and, convinced that she was, he left the house. He moved quietly through the house, as was his skill, and headed down the hill to the garage where all Antony’s vehicles were kept. He looked over his notes and picked out three potential targets. He took inventory of his supplies in back of the Rav4, and seeing that he was still well stocked, David headed out to hunt.

Maggie had not been asleep. When she heard David leave, she climbed out of bed fully dressed. She found a dresser full of clothes and dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and black sweat pants. She had been ready to go for an hour. He had been slow to leave, and she wondered how he could manage to get anything done. She could have been finished by now if she didn’t have to wait for that slow poke to leave before she put her own plan into action.

She would show him how a real hunter worked.

She followed David to the industrial sized garage and waited for him to leave. She picked out the vehicle she wanted and plucked the keys from the pegboard in a small room that served as an office. The vehicle she chose was a white van with no windows in the back. She referred to these windowless vehicles as rape vans. Now that name was going to take on a whole new meaning.

Last night, she had had a vision. She knew where the rapists would be, and could stop the vile act before it happened. She didn’t have to worry about getting the wrong person because the offender’s aura would be red.