Vampire Dating Agency III (13 page)

CHAPTER
FORTY-SEVEN

“Who was that?” a quiet voice piped
up as he ended the call. “Is there something we should be worried about?”

The Count
turned from his place in the corner of the room.

Haley was
standing just left of the centre. She was dressed up perfectly for their
evening out – her curly dark hair fixed symmetrically, her purple dress
shimmering with rare and magical stones. He walked across the floor and took
her hand.

“Darling
wife,” he said. “There’s nothing you should ever be worried about.”

Haley smiled
nervously.

“Except
keeping me happy.”

He let go of
his hand and snapped his fingers.

A trio of
servants hurried into the room.

“What shade
of black is this?” the Count demanded, taking a lock of Haley’s hair.

“What shade
is it…?” one of the servants stammered. “I’m not – it’s black –”

“I know it’s
black,” the Count thundered. “I’m not blind. But I’m not sure you used the right
shade
of black.”

“I
understand, Master,” the servant said apologetically. “We’ll get to work on it
right away.”

“Which shade
would you prefer?” a second servant asked. “Should it be lighter or darker?”

“Darker, of
course,” the Count spouted. “I want it as dark as it can be. Need I remind you
of our affairs tonight?”

“Of course,”
the servants mumbled leading Haley away.

The Count
watched her go a moment, before signaling for them to wait.

He walked
back over to Haley.

He sensed her
anxiety. Her fear.

Her disgust.

“Kiss me,”
the Count commanded.

Haley
immediately obliged, setting her hands gently at his waist, and standing on her
toes to reach him.

Someone once
strong. Someone once unbreakable.

Stood here
broken.

The Count
leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “He’s not coming back for you. He’s
gone. He’s dead.”

A tear rolled
down Haley’s cheek.

And the Count
seized her up and kissed her passionately.

CHAPTER
FORTY-EIGHT

Jason didn’t park in the driveway. He
let the car sit in the road for a minute just outside his house, as though he
was about to turn. Instead he pulled up to the curb.

Nadine leaned
forward and glanced out the window beside him. “That’s your place right?”

“Yeah,” Jason
said. He shut off the engine.

They sat
there for a moment.

“So what’s
the plan?” Nadine asked. “Are we going in?”

“I think I
had better go in first,” Jason said. “Make sure Amelia is in a good mood.”

“You think
she’ll have a problem with me? With what we’re doing?”

“I don’t
know,” he mumbled. “Probably.”

He pushed
open his door and got out of the car.

“Can I listen
to the radio or something?” Nadine asked.

“Yeah. Sure.”

He put his
hand through the open window and adjusted the controls.

“She’s all
yours.”

“Thanks,”
Nadine said. She watched him for a moment walking up the driveway to the house.

She could see
the blinds were still open. Bright lights within.

A dark figure
passed by the front windows.

Nadine turned
her gaze downward to the radio, not making anything of it. She needed her
eighties pop-rock again. The sound and atmosphere to bring back her former
self.

So it was
easy.

To just
believe.

She scrolled
through the stations till she found an appropriate song, and then pushed her
seat back. There, she drifted. Her eyes were almost closed when the headlights
of a car behind her pushed through the back window.

Almost.

Her eyelids
parted slowly.

The light was
on her. Not moving.

Standing
still.

Nadine
glanced over her shoulder. She saw the outline of the car sitting there.

Someone was
watching her.

Nadine
anxiously pushed open her door and stepped out to the road, just as the car
booted up again and drove quickly passed her.

Nadine
watched it to see where it was going. It hadn’t left the street yet…

“NOOOOOO!!!”

Jason’s
scream ripped through Nadine’s eardrums. It shook her to the core of her being,
and the suddenness of it, made her weak in the head.

As though she
was going to fall over.

“Shit,”
Nadine breathed, balancing her hands on the car.

When she
looked up again to Jason’s house she could see him running through the windows.
She walked quickly around the front of the car just as a tall figure emerged
from the side of Jason’s house, wearing a hood over their head, and keeping
their hands in their pockets.

Nadine
stopped dead where she was, perplexed.

The front
door burst open.

Jason stood
there with the light behind him, his face colored red, his body hunched over,
shivering.

Saliva
drooled from his mouth as he made inaudible sounds.

The figure on
the lawn stopped dead.

He glanced
back at Jason.

“Hey!” Nadine
shouted. “Stop! You there!”

Jason looked
up, suddenly seeing the figure in yard.

He launched
forward, slamming his cane into the ground. It broke in two.

The pieces
fell to either side of him, but it was as if he did not notice.

That he did not
need the cane.

That the
strength inside had never left.

Trying to
appear casual, the figure backed away onto the footpath and walked bristly away
from them.

“Jason –
what’s going on?” Nadine began as Jason rushed by, not hearing her words. She
hurried behind him, watching in dismay as Jason leapt several feet into the air
and pounced on the fleeing individual.

“You
bastard!” Jason screamed. “You monster!”

Nadine ran up
from behind. She still couldn’t see who he was tackling they were moving so
fast.

“I’m gonna
kill you!” Jason roared.

“Wait,
Jason,” Nadine said, trying to stop him. “Just – wait –”

“NOOO!!!”

He lashed
back at Nadine, sending her to the ground.

She watched as
the figure on the ground danced about in a flurry, waving their arms around.
Something metallic glinted in the moonlight.

It swung
through the air.

“Jason –
watch out –” Nadine cried.

The bar
slammed into Jason’s head. He sloped down to the pavement.

The figure
stood up.

“So it’s you
then,” Nadine said now the intruder’s face was clear. “I should have known.”

He stared
back at her coldly before turning back around and running to the car waiting
for him at the edge of the street.

Nadine knelt
down over Jason.

“Why didn’t
you stop him?” Jason seethed. “Why didn’t you –?”

He started
crying.

Nadine put
her arms around him.

“Do you know
what he did?” Jason demanded. “Do you have any idea?”

“You don’t
have to say it,” Nadine said softly. “I already know.”

CHAPTER
FORTY-NINE

Haley was on the castle’s roof. High
heels pointed and still. Hair as dark as the shade would allow.

A circle of
ravens were making their way around her. Their beaks bopping forward and back.
Little legs wobbling along.

She could
feel their feathers brushing past her shoes.

She could
feel their feathers against her skin.

She bent
forward, wondering for a moment if the time had come. If the true raven had
chosen to visit, and things for her would ultimately change.

One of them
flew a little into the air, and landed perched on her outstretched arm.

Its beady
eyes stared into hers.

As if it were
thinking a million thoughts.

Trying to
tell her a million things.

Haley
couldn’t help herself. It was all too easy to fall into the dream.

“I’m glad to
see you’re making friends,” a cold voice boomed behind her.

She
straightened back up and the birds flew away.

The Count
walked across the roof towards her.

His arms were
folded. His coat concealing.

“Are we ready
to leave then?” she asked.

“You’re going
to go on ahead without me,” the Count informed her.

“I am?”

“Yes …
there’s some pressing business I need to attend to.”

“Won’t our
hosts be upset?”

“The feast
doesn’t begin until midnight,” the Count murmured. “I shall make sure I am
present at that time.”

“What about
me? Shouldn’t I just stay with you until you’re ready?”

“Strange
things are taking place tonight. I have some faint concerns that some people
from our past may want to reach out to us. It is best to keep you away from
them, if I can.”

Haley’s heart
skipped a beat. “Who is it?”

“Pardon me?”

“Who is
looking for me?”

“I didn’t
say…” the Count trailed off.

He decided to
approach her further.

“You were
thinking about him, weren’t you?” he said touching the side of her face. “The
birds could sense it. You were drawing them to you.”

“I can’t help
what’s in my heart,” Haley sighed.

“But you know
your place is beside me,” the Count reasoned. “You know he was the one who
killed your family. The one we destroyed together.”

Haley nodded.

“Do you have
regrets?” he asked.

“I can’t
regret … what other people did…”

“Come here,”
he beckoned. “Let me hold you.”

She walked
into his embrace.

“Close your
eyes,” he said stoking her hair with his gloved hand. “Think not of the past.
Think only what is going to be.”

But Haley
couldn’t do it.

She saw
herself trapped. Held prisoner by a monster who all but confessed to the crimes
against her and others. The monster who wanted nothing more than to watch her
die.

And then
there was him.

Her hero on
the other side of the bars.

He had said
he would rescue her. Dearest, dearest Brock. He had said they would run away
together. The monster would be slain, and peace would be restored.

“Now look at
me,” the Count said.

She opened
her eyes and looked up at him.

“Tonight is
our great test,” he said. “If we can survive this, then we can survive
anything.”

Haley nodded.

“On you go
then. I won’t be far behind.”

He kissed her
cheek and then let go of her.

Haley stepped
away from him, her eyes not directly on the helicopter ahead. She was watching
the ground. How she could still the ravens’s reflections in the shallow
puddles.

And how
everything was blue.

The only
color that had survived.

“Don’t
forget, Haley,” Brock’s voice echoed behind her. “Don’t forget how much I love
you…”

CHAPTER
FIFTY

Blood. I’m so addicted it enters my
dreams. To paint you the definitive picture, I’m quite often lying in an ocean
of it, my back supported by a raft. My body just drifts along with the current,
my toes touching its endless oblivion. A dark shadow soon rises over me and I
realize I’m about the pass underneath a bridge. I can see the faces of humans,
indistinguishable from race, gender or age. Their wrists are open for me. Their
blood is falling in a downward spiral. Each carrying, its own magnificent
waterfall. Passing underneath, I close my eyes and open my mouth, the
substances flowing across my tongue and down my throat – filling my lungs with
spectacular satisfaction.
This is here,
I think to myself.
This is
what’s in my heart.

My dream
ocean – My eternal paradise –

It’s the bare
minimum I require for a gentle disposition.

In other
words, that place is about as real as my heroics.

The real
world hasn’t even met me halfway.

“Avril,” I
spoke into the mouthpiece. “Come in, Avril.”

“Yessss,”
Avril purred through the speaker. “How … may I be of service…?”

“Give me a
status update.”

“I’m in the
house.”

“Whereabouts?”

“The rest
room, dummy. Don’t want to get caught talking to you, do I?”

“Have you
secured all the rooms? Made sure he’s not home?”

“Almost. I
highly doubt the wife is lying. She seems so friendly. Had no trouble letting
me inside or anything.”

“Where is
she? What’s she doing?”

“Making us
some tea, I think. Do you want her killed once the house is secure? Or should I
continue to stall?”

I waited for
a moment.

Sat in
silence.

“Are you
still there?” Avril piped up.

“I’m here,” I
answered. “Don’t do anything yet. Unless you have to.”

“Okay. I’ll
let you know of any developments.”

“Thank you,
Avril.”

I unplugged
the audio from my ear and left it on the seat of the car. I then pushed open
the door beside me and stepped out into the street.

Rainbows and
sunshine.

A still and
breathing, cloudless sky.

I flexed my
fingers, and then pulled my gloves on tightly.

I glanced
back at Jason’s house.

Sideways.

“Fuck it.”

I stormed
quickly up the driveway and pushed open the front door of the house. I walked
down the hall a few meters before I could see Avril sitting at the kitchen
counter, her back to me. Jason’s wife was on the other side of the counter, and
she still hadn’t seen me.

Now it’s
time.

Don’t think.
Don’t explain.

Don’t say a
word.

Cover your
ears and close your eyes.

“Hey – Hey,
hey, who are –”

And then my
hand was around her throat. Smashing her head into the counter.

She dropped
to the floor, crying in agony.

Begging for
her life.

Avril put her
elbows on top the counter, peering across with an inquisitive smile.

I put my foot
to the woman’s neck as she turned over on her back.

“Why?” she
choked. “I don’t know you. I did nothing to you.”

I bent over
her, my head craned forward.

Not human.

Not animal.

My lips were
but the sharp beak of a bird burrowing into her neck, spilling their contents,
ripping her apart, sucking her dry.

She fought a
little.

Then she was
dead.

When I came
up for air, my body launched itself over the kitchen sink, feathers and black
goo accompanied by purple smog falling out amongst the vomit. I heard Avril
leave the room soon after.

A few minutes
passed and then I was back to my regular self.

I went into
the lounge and stood beside her, enjoying her unease.

“Is there
something wrong with you or –?” she stammered.

“Or what?” I
replied flatly.

“Nothing,”
she shook her head.

I licked my
lips. “Do you have the sheet I printed out for you?”

“With – with
the addresses –?”

She fumbled
about her handbag sitting on the sofa.

“Well?” I
fired again.

“Here,” she
said turning with the paper.

I snatched it
off her and went into the hallway.

Gazing along
the wall I saw various pictures of Jason and his family.

I took down
one from his wedding and let it smash on the floor.

I mounted the
paper.

“Are we
sending a message then?” Avril asked, slinking round the corner.

I took a
marker out of my pocket and colored Jason’s address out with a black marker.

“Where are
going next?” Avril wanted to know.

“You’re not
going anywhere,” I stated. “You’re staying right here.”

“I thought we
weren’t supposed to be killing the paranormal crew, just their families.”

“What did I
say?” I snapped at her. “Do not kill Jason. Under no circumstances. If he turns
up here later you’re to get out of the house before he sees you.”

“Then why the
hell am I hanging around?”

I screwed on
the lid of the marker and put it back in my pocket.

I took a few
steps towards the front door.

“Jason’s
daughter will be coming home from school at some point. When he finds her, I
want you to make sure he knows she suffered.”

I walked on
towards the front door.

“May I say
something? Before you go?” Avril called in a most apologetic fashion.

I turned with
a glint of violence in my eyes.

“Are you sure
you want to do this? They’re going to be out for our blood.”

I chuckled
under my breath and left the house without giving her an answer.

I was
laughing all the way to the car.