The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) (20 page)

Chapter 24

Cassie awoke with a start. Someone was in the room besides her. She could hear the heavy footsteps coming closer, closer. For a moment she forgot where she was until a bat swooped past and resettled in the rafters. She cursed herself for passing out once again. This was beginning to annoy her.

She was still in the attic, and by the looks of the lightening sky out the window, she'd been there all night. She rubbed the lump on her head and tried to ignore the throbbing. The footsteps stopped, and she could see a shadowy form standing at the top of the stairs.

At first she mistook the man for Basil, but when he looked her way, she knew immediately who it was.

"Jay! What are you doing here?" She’d never liked the man, but right now she was happy to see him instead of Antonio. Maybe he would help her. He jumped when she spoke, obviously startled and not knowing she was there.

"Cassie. You aren't supposed to be here. You're going to ruin everything."

"What's that supposed to mean?” Jay was making no sense. The early morning sky bathed him in a bluish glow, and she noticed he was oddly holding something behind his back as if he didn’t want her to see it. “What have you got hidden behind your back?"

She got to her knees and wondered why Jay was acting so strangely, or why the hell he was up in the attic at the Bat House at all. There was a sullen look in his eyes. They were dark, uncaring, almost possessed, and this scared her.

She stayed where she was, wishing she was anywhere right now but with Jay, alone in an attic filled with bats. The bats were mostly gathered on the ground around an empty pan, which once held blood. They seemed to be eagerly licking at it, trying to find a last drop. It made her think of Basil and the others. She wondered if Basil's spasms had passed. She wondered where everyone else was too.

Jay pulled a wooden stake out from behind his back and held it up proudly for her to see. She didn't understand any of this.

"Jay, why the stake?"

"For slaying vampires."

She took a breath of relief and started towards him. So he was only trying to protect her after all. So noble of him to come to her rescue. So brave to wait until dawn when most vampires hid away till the sun went down. He'd have no proof now. She'd convince him this whole vampire thing was a myth and send him on his way.

"There are no vampires, Jay. I was mistaken. There are only these vampire bats that Basil raises up here. That must be how the rumors got started. You'll have to tell Gregg he won't get his vampire story for the magazine after all."

Jay took a step closer to the bats. They were sluggish, sickly and barely moving. He looked down at them and then back up at her.

"You're wrong, Cassie. Gregg and the magazine will both have the best goddamned vampire story anyone's ever read. The best part about it is that this will be the first story they've had yet that is true."

Cassie didn’t like this at all. It wasn't going to be so easy to convince him that Basil and the others weren't vampires. She was to blame, and now regretted mentioning anything when he came to the door the other day. What was she thinking, looking to someone like Jay for help?

"Jay, you don't know what you're saying."

"On the contrary, I know more than you think."

"What does that mean?"

"I've been trying to get a vampire story for months now."

Cassie watched as his eyes narrowed and the beads of sweat clung to his face.

"I almost had my story when I killed Dee."

Her heart almost stopped. "You killed Didi?" she asked softly, barely being able to believe what she was hearing. Her body stiffened and her head dizzied. A newfound fear coursed through her body, but so did a feeling of relief that it wasn’t Basil that had done it after all. Still, the whole idea of Jay being a murderer and she being in the attic alone with him was horrifying. She didn’t know what to do. He took a step toward her, the stake still clutched in his white knuckles. She backed away toward the window, fearing for her own life and knowing no one was around to help her escape this time.

"I didn't know Dee was your sister, Cassie. Not at first. She was infatuated with me and I knew she was a loner. The plan was brilliant. I drained her blood the way a vampire would with punctures to the neck, after I suffocated her. Then I left her in the cemetery, knowing someone would find her and it would look like a vampire killed her. I'd planned to cover the story personally. The ratings of the magazine would have soared. It was all so perfect I could barely stand it."

"You're a sick, sick, man Jay.” She hated him so much for killing her sister, and the way he delighted in the gory details only made her angry. “You need help,” she said, trying to sound as if she really cared. If she kept him talking, it would stall for time before he tried to kill her too. With a few extra moments, she might be able to plan an escape. “Please, Jay. Let me go find someone to help you."

She tried to make a dash for the stairs, but he cut her off. He grabbed her hard by the wrist and stared her in the eye.

"It would have worked if the authorities would have found her, but they never did. You see, someone covered up the murder. Someone who didn't want anyone to think there may be actual vampires living here. No one but a true vampire would do such a horrific thing."

Cassie felt repulsion. She wanted to scream, hit him and spit in his eye all at the same time, but she knew she could never out muscle Jay. She also knew now that he'd confessed to her, he wasn't going to let her live.

"What you did was horrific, Jay, not them. Killing my sister! You killed an innocent young woman who was in love with you. You were her boyfriend, weren’t you?”

“I made her think so,” admitted Jay. “It was all so easy, it was almost boring. Then she met Basil and wanted nothing to do with me. By things she’d told me, I’d figured out easily just what was going on at the Bat House. I knew they were vampires, but I just couldn’t prove it. That’s why I killed her. So the truth would come out.”

“You killed my sister, just for a story?” Anger and disgust stirred in Cassie’s veins. She’d never hated anyone as much as she hated him right now. To think she’d worked with him in the office, all the while not being aware he was responsible for taking Didi away from her forever. She struggled in his grip, but he was very strong. “You deserve to die for what you did. You deserve to be locked away and tortured."

"And who's going to do that to me, Cassie? Your precious Basil? Or perhaps one of the other vampires? I don’t think so. After hearing their conversation on your tape recorder I filled in the missing information I needed. I’ve been watching this place for the last week and have found out everything I need to know."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

Jay squeezed her hand harder and pulled her toward the bats. "I'm a reporter, Cassie. I snoop. I discover. I unearth. I do what it takes to get the answers I need. I saw Basil carry you down the trellis outside this window and move faster than the human eye could focus. I followed you on your little picnic that night in the cabin, and I also heard Basil's confession that these little furry animals here are tied to each and every one of the vampires of Showman's Hill."

Cassie's heart beat wildly. She didn't like the way this conversation was going. She knew Basil was in danger as well as the others, and she had to help them. Jay was about to do something horrible and she couldn’t allow that to happen. It was too late for her to save her sister, but she would do anything it took to save Basil and his family. Even if it meant losing her own life in the process.

Jay kept a hold on her with one hand, and with the other he raised the stake and shoved it down into the middle of one of the vampire bats.

Cassie screamed in horror to see the bat dead at their feet. The other bats scurried around, but were too weak anymore to fly. Suddenly, she understood perfectly what Jay was doing. It was a coward’s way to murder vampires.

"Put down the stake, Jay. Don't do this."

She looked down to the ground and the bat in a puddle of its own blood. For a moment she felt as if she were going to retch. The other bats flocked weakly over to lick up the blood for strength.

"I'll kill every bat and therefore kill every vampire as well,” Jay announced. “All but one, that is. Then I'll kill you. Whichever vampire is left will be hunted down and blamed for the deaths of all the others. Then we'll lynch him. We'll bring him in the sun and make a special edition of how the creature burned up before our very eyes. The whole town will thank us for saving them from these wretched creatures. The magazine will be famous and I, of course, will be rich."

Before Cassie could stop him, he raised the stake and brought it down into two more of the bats, killing them on contact.

Cassie screamed and pulled herself free. She ran to the bats and fell to her knees. She didn't know which bat was connected to whom. For all she knew, Jay could have just killed off Basil.

"Get out of here!" Anger coursed through her now, stronger than her sense of fear. She ran to him and tried to grab the stake. They struggled and he held it out of her reach. All the while he was laughing.

"You're such a foolish girl. I knew that the moment I saw you. That's why I refused the vampire story, knowing Gregg would give it to you, and you would lead me to what I needed to know."

"You'll pay for this!" Cassie was sobbing hysterically now, her heart going out to whomever it was that Jay had just killed, her love for Basil hoping it wasn't him.

"Who'll make me pay, Cassie? Your vampires are all sleeping, and I've seen to it some vandalism is keeping the sheriff and La Roux busy in town. No one can save you now Cassie. You'll watch me kill every bat but one, and then I'll kill you as well. You're dead," he laughed. "Just like Dee. Alone and with no one to come to your aid."

"That's where you're wrong," came a deep voice from the top of the stairs.

Cassie spun around to see Basil standing there, one hand on his stomach, his other hand supporting him against the railing.

"Basil.” Relief coursed through her. “You're alive!"

"Not for long," sneered Jay. "If I don't kill off his bat first, the sunlight will take care of him."

Cassie realized the sunlight was now streaming in the attic window. Basil must have come to her aid, risking the fact he may be burned by the sun on the way over. But it was still early morning, and he’d gone out in weak sunrays before and survived. She prayed a sunrise wasn’t more potent than the sunsets he was used to.

Cassie tried to go for the shutters to close them, but Jay grabbed her and held her in front of himself as Basil took a wobbly step forward. He held the wooden stake dripping with blood up to her heart.

"I'm going to kill her," he warned Basil, "and you're going to watch."

In lightning speed Basil was in front of them, releasing Cassie from Jay's grip and pushing her out of the way.

"Get out of here, Cassie." Basil’s voice was weak, and she knew his body was even weaker.

She heard a hissing, and when she looked up at him she realized his fangs had emerged. His eyes glowed a deep red, and for the first time since she'd met him she actually felt fear. Not fear for her, but fear for what Basil was about to do to Jay.

Jay deserved to die, but not by Basil. She couldn't let Basil have a death on his conscience because of her. She knew now that though he was a vampire, Basil was not a murderer. She wouldn’t let him murder anyone, even if it was to save her own life.

"Basil, no! Let him go."

He glanced toward her, and that's when Jay dove not for him, but for the bats. She saw him stabbing wildly and could have sworn she heard the bats screaming.

It was then she realized Basil was wounded, and wondered if he had been all along. Blood dripped between his fingers as he held his side. Just then, the spasms hit him again and he fell to his knees. His body writhed on the floor just like one of the wounded bats nearby.

Cassie's heart went out to Basil. He didn't deserve to die like this. She loved him and wouldn't stand by and watch someone kill him off, especially the same murderer who took her sister's life. This had to end, and she was the one who had to end it.

Jay looked up and noticed the wounded bat on the floor by his feet. He knew as well as Cassie that that was the bat connected to Basil. Basil was on the floor, his body shaking with spasms, his fangs longer than she'd ever seen them before. Things started to crash and move around the attic, and Cassie knew Basil was still trying to help her though he was dying.

A deep rumble emerged as a laugh from Jay's throat as he raised the stake above the wounded bat and brought his arm down. Cassie dove to the floor, covering the bat with her own body to try to save Basil's life.

It was then that she felt the worst pain she'd ever known in her life. The burning hot stake plunged into her arm, making contact with the bone.

She heard Jay gasp, and the room started to spin. A pounding, a drumming of some sort echoed in her head as she felt her world crashing down around her. Damn, not again. She knew she was about to pass out from the pain.

She looked over to Basil, but he was curled up in a ball, his body no longer moving. She looked to the wounded bat beneath her. It stared up at her with hollow eyes, a gaping wound in its side. It no longer moved either.