Night Kill (Private Investigator Andrew Knight Mystery Series) (9 page)

Jazz placed his finger tips on the triangular game piece. He asked, “Who’s the next to die from the hands of the mysterious Night Blade?” The game piece didn’t move. Jazz tried to force it, but it refused.

“Let me try,” Seth pushed Jazz out of the way. He reached in his pocket producing a tatty piece of cloth. Seth took his pocket knife and cut his finger letting a small drop of blood fall on the cloth. Next were Melissa, Jazz, Gabriel and Amber; but when it came to Chad he didn’t want any part of it.

“Come on,” Seth said. “It’s just a game.”

“No way,” Chad protested further.

“Please Chad,” Amber pleaded, nuzzling his neck with a kiss.

It tickled whenever she did that, but it also made him always give into her whatever it was that she wanted.

“Okay,” Chad said. He took the knife and nicked his index finger. The sting only lasted a second and soon his blood was mixed with the others. Seth placed it on the game piece and immediately it started moving. As everyone watched the triangle floated across the surface of the game board finally coming to rest over the letter “D”.

“D for Death,” Jazz said with a howling noise.

“Knock it off Jazz.” Melissa hit him in the chest.

“Will you two stop it,” Amber said, but then froze. Then they all heard it.

“What is that?” Chad peered into the darkness just beyond the circle of light.

“It sounds like someone tapping on the window,” Seth answered.

“You guys are scaring me,” Gabriel said.

“But we’re on the second floor,” Melissa said.

“I’ll go look, you bunch of wimps.” Jazz jumped to his feet. He left the security of the light and walked across the room over to the window. All eyes were on Jazz’s dark silhouette. There was nothing, and then came the scream. It was a horrible, terrifying scream and Jazz bolted back to them.

“It’s after us,” Jazz said. His face was white and breath labored.

“What’s after us,” Melissa and Gabriel cried.

“The Night Blade,” Jazz screamed.

“I’m going.” Seth stood up. He entered the abyss.

Seth walked over to the window. He peered outside but saw nothing. All Seth heard was the rustling of the branches in the trees; nothing else. He was about to turn and leave when it felt like an icy hand slid across his back finally coming to rest on his shoulder.

“Knock it off,” Seth cursed to himself.

Seth returned to the group.

Jazz burst out in uproarious laughter.

Seth had had enough. He rushed over and tackled Jazz to the floor. Seth started punching him repeatedly. Jazz begged Seth to stopped, but he didn’t. It took the others to finally drag Seth off of Jazz, who crawled away over to the safety of the window.

“You’re crazy,” Jazz spouted off, wiping the blood off his lip.

“You’re a jerk,” Seth cursed back.

“Will you two just stop it?” Amber scolded them.

“I think we should stop.” Melissa suggested.

“I agree,” Gabriel added, looking at Seth. “We should go to our room.”

Everyone else split off to the other dorm rooms, but Amber and Chad remained behind.

Chad sat on the tatty, musty smelling mattress. Amber stood in front of him and slowly unbuttoned her blouse. His eyes were immediately drawn to her lacey black bra.

“I couldn’t find anything to buy for your birthday,” Amber said removing her blouse and bra letting them drop to the floor. “So you get to have me.”

Amber pushed Chad back on the bed and straddled him. They started kissing. Chad’s felt as if his heart was going to burst. Amber stripped the rest of her clothes off and did the same to Chad.

“How does that feel,” Amber murmured as she felt him enter her.

“It feels warm,” Chad answered.

The darkness held on tightly in spite of the sunlight which was poised and ready to take its place. The Sheriff’s department had received a report that a group of teenagers had disappeared during the night while trespassing from the grounds at JFK Prep.

Sheriff Delsmann slowly drove up the gravel road as another squad followed closely behind. To her left was a shabby looking trailer. In front was an historic monument of faded brick and broken windows.

Sheriff Delsmann parked her car and got out. There were two people waiting for her. A woman in her late fifties, whom was quite slender, dressed professionally, and her silver hair had nary a strand out of place. The man, whom appeared to be in his late forties with grayish black hair, was wearing a security guard uniform.

“Georgina Rowlands,” she said. She pointed to the first man, “This is Tommy Johnson. He is the on-sight security guard.”

“Sheriff Delsmann, “Talia replied.

“A pleasure,” Georgina answered.

Andrew quietly and carefully negotiated the woods of the JFK Prep campus. After the incident at the Higgins’s home, Andrew set up a meeting with Nedra. When they had met, Nedra recalled that Wyatt had told her that JFK Prep was one of the popular hangouts with the younger members of the coven. She told him that sometimes they either came to hook up or perform blood rituals. Andrew had also contacted Peter at the Bayport Police department about information on Night Blade. According to the files, in the past six years there had been numerous reports of teenagers and adults vanishing on the JFK Prep grounds and the surrounding area. All of them were vampires. The only description of Night Blade was that he or she was average height and build. There wasn’t very much to go on. The only way to find out who Night Blade was would be by capturing them before someone else were killed. Nedra had called him last night very upset and crying. After Andrew had managed to calm Nedra down, she told him that her other son Chad had disappeared with his girlfriend Amber and some other teenagers. Nedra knew that they were going out to celebrate Chad’s birthday last night and that they were probably going to JFK Prep. So not only was Andrew at JFK Prep to find Wyatt, but also the missing teenagers.

He approached the main gravel road that led up to the dormitory building. Andrew quickly ducked down when he saw two squad cars make their way up towards the dormitory. Andrew waited a few minutes and using the trees as cover again, he made his way to where two people were waiting. There were some low, thick bushes not too far, for Andrew to hide. He slipped beneath them unnoticed. Andrew settled in and listened in on their conversation. “Please follow us.” Andrew heard Georgina say.

They all walked in the direction of the side entrance.

“We’ve gone through several contractors, because of,” Georgina interrupted. “Oh, how shall I put this? It was because of certain incidents happening on the property.”

“What incidents?” Talia asked.

“Well,” Tommy jumped into the conversation. “A lot of vandalism being done by kids breaking into the place. There are also strange things happening on the grounds.”

“What things?” Talia asked.

“Never mind,” Georgina replied.

Talia stopped and turned around. She had a feeling that someone was following them, but she saw nothing.

Andrew used the surrounding cover to trail behind as the five of them walked to the side of the dormitory. He listened with great interest as Georgina and Tommy explained what had been happening on the JFK Prep grounds. Andrew swiftly drew himself up tightly against the wall, blending into the shadows. He did so when Sheriff Delsmann turned back and looked in his direction.

Once they reached the side of the dormitory, a heavy wooden door greeted them which looked ominous and foreboding. Georgina used her key to open the door. Once inside, the painting of a nude woman immediately caught Talia’s attention along with her deputies. She walked up to it.

“Who painted it,” Talia looked at Georgina.

“I am not sure,” Georgina answered. “But we tried to cover it up and it just reappears.”

“What do you mean it reappears,” Talia asked.

“We’ve painted over it.” Tommy was exasperated. “We even tried paint remover.”

“Paint remover?” Talia exclaimed. She ran her fingers gently across it, feeling the brush strokes and imperfections of the wall that made up the beautiful painting. “It looks untouched.”

“I have to be going.” Georgina glanced at her watch. She looked at Talia. “I have a meeting this morning with another contractor.” Georgina handed Talia the keys. “Just lock up when you leave and give the keys to Tommy. If you remember, his trailer is by the main entrance.” Georgina was ready to leave the building, when Tommy took Talia aside to speak to her privately about something.

“Just watch out,” Tommy warned. “There are some strange things going on here.” He glanced at the painting of the woman. “They say the ghost of one of the founders, Father Oswald, roams the building and surrounding ground. They say he punishes those who desecrate this place. I’ve seen him myself; a man wearing a tatty hooded robe.” Tommy laughed.

The two of them left Talia and her deputies alone.

Once they were gone, Talia gave her instructions.

“I’ll search the dormitory. You two search the surrounding grounds. We’ll meet up in an hour at the cars.”

As soon as her deputies departed, Talia ascended the stairs leading to the second floor of the abandoned dormitory. She walked down the hallway and stopped at one of the dorm rooms. Talia turned the doorknob and entered the room.

The dorm room was plain looking. The walls were faded and the paint was chipping. There were several cracks in the ceiling. Only a single partially boarded up window provided very little light in the room. The remnants of melted candles were on the floor. Talia thought it was very strange for six teenagers to simply disappear. In the corner was an old mattress; it was of no importance. There was no evidence that the youths walked off or were forcibly removed. Talia noted some of the buildings were interconnected as she drove up the main road of JFK Prep. The only one connected to the dormitory was the St. Ambrose Chapel. She headed back down to the first floor. It was still dark inside the dormitory, so Talia flipped her flashlight on.

Andrew was about to move, but froze as the two deputies exited the dormitory. As soon as their flashlights came on, the deputies began their search of the surrounding grounds.

Andrew left his hiding place when they disappeared out of sight. He immediately headed to the side entrance. The heavy wooden door creaked when Andrew opened it. He stepped inside and turned on his flashlight. Andrew shone it on the painting of the woman. She seemed to stare right through him. Andrew shuddered. He was about to head up to the second floor, when the glow of an approaching light appeared at the top of the stairs. Andrew ducked back outside and slowly closed the door.

Talia heard a low creaking noise as she stopped at the top of the stairs. She shone her light at the door, but no one was there. Talia blew it off as nothing and descended the stairs. Talia continued her search of the first floor of the dormitory. She was looking for any kind of footprints, or signs of someone being dragged. Talia saw none. Just ahead at the end of the hallway was St. Ambrose chapel.

Andrew felt the coast must be clear by now, so he went back inside. He immediately headed up stairs and walked down the hallway. Andrew stopped at one of the doors. He turned the knob, opened the door and stepped inside.

The dorm room was plain looking. The walls were faded and the paint was chipping. There were several cracks in the ceiling that spread across it like spider webs. Only a single, partially boarded up window provided very little light in the room. The remnants of melted candles on the floor reminded Andrew of a bizarre-looking birthday cake. In one of the corners was a tatty mattress. It must have been left over from the time when the dorm rooms were used by students that attended the school.

Andrew walked over and knelt next to the mattress. He examined it closely. It was stained with bodily fluids. Andrew removed a small magnifying panel from his coat pocket. He leaned down closer to the mattress, but found nothing else. Andrew put the magnifying panel away and was about to stand up, when he noticed it. The ‘it’ was the fact that the dust outline around the mattress had been disturbed ever so slightly. One wouldn’t have noticed it unless they were where he was right now. More importantly, it meant that someone had flipped the mattress. Andrew carefully lifted up the mattress and shone his light on the back side. It was stained with blood, not weeks, months or years old, but fresh blood. Whoever was on the mattress was bleeding.

Andrew set the mattress back down and stood up. He searched the rest of the room for more blood spatters. The weird part was that there were none. How could that be? If the people on the mattress had been bleeding, how could they have been carried from the room without leaving some kind of blood evidence behind? Where did they hide the bodies? There were a dozen or more questions running around in Andrew’s head. He decided to continue searching the rest of the grounds for Chad and the others.

As Talia neared the chapel, her flashlight caught a hooded figure dressed in black standing ready to enter the chapel.

“Hey you there!” Talia shouted. She broke into a full run, but the person quickly slipped inside slamming the doors shut behind them. Talia hit the doors to open them but was stopped instantly! She stumbled backwards landing on her butt. Talia cursed and immediately rose to her feet again. She tried the door. As Talia suspected, it was locked. She had to find another way inside. So she backtracked outside and ran down the pathway to chapel. Talia found a side door. She grabbed the door knob and gave it a twist. It opened! Talia withdrew her gun and stepped inside. She had just taken a few steps toward the center of the room, when the door slammed shut. Talia spun around and shone her light at the door. No one was there. Talia turned her attention back to the search.