Nightmare City

“Okay, it says here that Katrina was storing cryogenic-ally frozen eggs at ‘Better Care’ since the sixties.” I put the paper down and looked at the screen on my cell phone. “Which according to their website, is around the time the clinic first opened.”

Gabriel kept his eyes on the road, but I could see his brows furrow. “Eggs?” he asked.

I ignored the obvious question in his voice, enjoying how lost he was. Perhaps it was more than a little petty, but I liked him being the confused one for once. “Well, I’m guessing they were her own. If I’m doing my math right, she would have been getting close to menopause.”

“What is menopause?” His voice was patient, he must have calmed down some since we were actually out doing something rather than sitting at home idly.

With a sigh I said, “It’s when a woman can’t have children anymore. Her body runs out of eggs.” I mused for a moment. “Perhaps she didn’t want to let go of the possibility of one day having a child.”

Gabriel snorted. “That woman as a mother?”

“Oh look at you, father of the year, doesn’t even know where his own son has run off to.” I put down the phone and stared out the window. We were in the city now and the buildings whizzed by, but my eyes were on the dark sky. “It’s sad that she never felt ready to become a mom. She started up a school with Ms. Brun, she saved Kieran’s life when he was little. Even when she was younger, she protected her little sister with everything she had. She probably wanted kids of her own for a long time, but her life just wouldn’t let her.”

I turned my eyes over to Gabriel and narrowed them. “What?” he asked defensively.

“You and Nora crashed her wedding and burned down the church.” I said. “You couldn’t just let her try to have a normal life, could you?”

“I did read about that in the diary,” he said. “But I don’t remember it. I don’t know why Nora and I were there that night.”

“Don’t think you can weasel out of the blame just because you have amnesia. Is that another vampire thing? Convenient Amnesia?”

“I guess lying in a box for fifty years changes you.” His voice was becoming heated.

I looked away. “Yeah, well I guess you both hurt each other, over the decades.” This was the reason I usually didn’t begrudge Gabriel his past crimes. He had orchestrated the murder of Katrina’s family, in fact her whole village, and had set her on the path to being a hunter. He had probably done worse things when he was married to Nora, as well. But... he had lost his oldest son, and had been locked in Katrina’s attic for fifty years until I unwittingly let him out last year. Right after he regained his freedom, he had been forced to kill his own wife, whose sanity had frayed considerably in the decades he had been missing.

It wasn’t my place to say the scales were balanced, but I was able to start with almost a clean slate with him. The past kept coming back to haunt him, but I judged him mostly on his personality now. As long as he subsisted on pig’s blood and tried not to cause any trouble, I would continue to be Caretaker of the house.

“You don’t act like you miss having human blood.” I commented aloud.

“Where is this coming from?”

“I dunno, I was just thinking out loud.” I lifted up the papers from the fertility clinic again, focusing my eyes on the printed words. “Don’t mind me.”

After a long moment Gabriel spoke. “Truth be told, it’s not really something to miss.”

I continued to look at the paper. “It’s fine, you don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

“It’s the truth.”

“I know it is, I just don’t want to pry. I’m not even that interested, really.”

He gripped the steering wheel more tightly. We were stuck in a spot of traffic and the light was taking forever to change. “When I was young I hunted humans all the time, but after a while... well, there really isn’t that much difference between human and pig’s blood. I started challenging myself, choosing more dangerous prey.”

Other vampires. I had seen Gabriel kill and drink from vampires before. Right after he killed Montblanc in Paris, he had gained the ability to move things just by looking at them. Well, it was probably a bit more complicated than that, but that was how it appeared to me. He didn’t do it often, probably because he didn’t have much control over it yet.

“Except when you’re starving, then you’ll just go for whatever’s convenient.” I will admit I was still sore about when Gabriel almost killed me during his fight with Nora. It’s not the kind of thing one gets over easily.

“As long as the refrigerator is stocked, you’re safe.” Gabriel’s son, David, has hooked us up with an anonymous supplier of Pig’s blood. We received a disposable cooler of bottles about once a month.

I looked at him over the papers, one eyebrow twitching. “Was that a joke?”

“Only half of it was.” His phone was sitting on the dash, and as we came to a corner it beeped. He glanced at it, then turned right. “It should be at the end of this block.”

I sat up straighter, looking out the window. “There it is. There’s a cop car still parked out front.”

“There’s nowhere to park.” he complained.

“We’re in the city, what do you expect? Let’s find a parking garage and walk back.”

We drove past the clinic and wandered a little till we found a garage a few blocks away. The prices were exorbitant, but Gabriel paid for the whole night. I left the papers and the check in the glove compartment, exchanging them for my silver glove. I thought about taking the silver gun as well, but decided against it. I didn’t want to be discovered by a cop with an unregistered firearm in my pocket.

As we approached the clinic on foot I decided to outline our game plan. “I’m guessing you’re going to influence the cops somehow? Maybe make us invisible to them?”

“Invisibility would be really easy to break. One loud noise from you and it would fall apart.” He was staring intently at the police cruiser as we walked closer.

“Then, what do you plan to do?” I asked, ignoring his glaring insult.

“There’s only one, and he’s asleep.” He walked right past the car and up a small set of steps leading to the clinic.

I peered into the car and saw that, indeed, the officer behind the steering wheel was snoozing soundly. I turned back to Gabriel and followed him. “Hey, did you do that?”

“He was already tired to begin with.” Gabriel steered away from the door, instead heading to a large window that was covered with cardboard and duct tape. Yellow caution tape surrounded the pavement for ten feet around the window.

The ground under the window was covered in gravel, with some shrubbery. It was still littered with broken glass and bits of metal. “What happened here?” I wondered aloud.

“That much is obvious.” He pointed to the next window, which was covered with a metal security grate. “They ripped that useless thing off, then smashed the window.”

“Those things aren’t useless. They keep out human thieves just fine.” My eyes widened. “Wait, you think a vampire broke in here, don’t you?”

“Naturally. Who else would be after something that belonged to Katrina Riley?”

I thought it over, twisting my mouth as I did. “Maybe another hunter?”

He pushed the cardboard barrier into the room and climbed through the broken window. Jagged bits of glass still clung to the edges, which looked likely to tear my skin into ribbons. Gabriel on the other hand, didn’t even notice them.

His feet landed silently on the floor on the other side, then he turned and looked at me expectantly. I stared at the glass doubtfully. “You’re kidding, right?”

He sighed in exasperation, then held his hand out the window to me. I grabbed his lower arm and braced my foot against the wall. I doubted highly that even my sneakers would survive the sharp glass, but before I could share that thought he grasped my arm and hauled me up.

He placed his other hand on my ribcage, preventing me from just landing on the shards outright. The next second I was on my feet on the inside of the building. I let go of his arm and stepped away from him quickly. “You know, you could have just unlocked the door for me, right?”

His expression darkened, declaring that he hadn’t thought of that. “Let’s just get this over with.” he turned and looked around the room.

The room reminded me of the lab at my old High School, instead of something, say, one would see on a TV crime show. Black counters lined with lab equipment, large glass-fronted refrigerators along one wall. Only, my old science lab didn’t look like a bulldozer had run through it.

“This wall is being held up with duct tape and prayers.” I commented, observing the wall between the two windows.

Gabriel stood in the center of the room, right between two rows of counter top, his expression unreadable. “What is it?” I asked him.

“It’s too clean in here.” he replied cryptically.

I could feel my eyebrows shoot up at that. “Clean, really? This place is a mess. Half of the equipment is completely destroyed.”

“But there are no traces, fibers, stray hairs, no evidence.”

“Ah, someone’s been brushing up on their noir. Well, anything that was here would have been taken to the police lab. They don’t leave that stuff just lying around, or have you not watched any CSI?”

“So then, how do we get to it?”

I shrugged. “It’s over at the police station by now. I was hoping we’d find something the cops missed.” I started looking around again.

Gabriel headed back over to the window and nimbly let himself out. I sighed in exasperation. “There’s a door here!” I called to him.

I walked to the other side of the lab, opened the door and went out into the hall, then I unlocked and exited the front door. By the time I got to the street, Gabriel was at the cop car, talking to the officer behind the wheel, who was now awake and alert.

As I walked up, Gabriel said goodbye and headed towards me. “I’ve got the address.” he said, then walked past me up the block.

I hurried after him. “Wait, where are we going?”

“The precinct, the officer said it was only a few blocks from here.”

Things were happening to quickly for me to catch up. “Wait, he told you where the evidence was being kept?”

“Of course. He thought I was his superior.”

I sighed. “Of course.” Under my breath I mumbled, “god damn vampires.”

We got to the station in minutes. As we made our way up the steps I asked, “So, you plan on voodooing everyone in here till you get your way?” I asked.

“I told you, it’s influence, not voodoo, not magic.” he said irritably. “And hopefully I’ll only have to influence one person.”

As a person who had never been inside of a Police Station before, I was instantly fascinated by it’s lack of glamour and ordinary appearance. It was plain and efficient, with light walls and a linoleum floor, and nothing like the stations I saw on television.

The woman behind the front desk was elderly, but dressed in full uniform, so I knew not to take her lightly. She gave Gabriel a tired, frank look as he walked right up to her and spoke, his voice edged with influence. “I’d like to see the evidence file for the ‘Better Care’ fertility clinic case.”

Her expression didn’t change. “Badge.” she said, her voice as dry as parchment.

Gabriel took out his wallet and showed her his forged driver’s license. “The file, please.”

She turned to her computer and began typing at the keyboard. “Do you know your case number?” she asked.

“Not offhand.”

“One moment please.”

I was quickly getting bored of standing around and being a shadow, so I continued looking around. I didn’t know how many opportunities I would have in the future to check out an actual Police Station. Though if I continued associating with Gabriel, it would probably occur more often than I liked.

One wall near the front desk was lined with chairs. A few people were sitting, waiting for who knew what, but I thought I recognized one of the people, so I walked over. “Excuse me.” I said to the tallest, darkest woman I had ever seen. She was dressed in a style I could only call elegant punk. She wore ripped jeans and her hair was bright pink and wild, but she also wore a black corset and black lace gloves. “Are you Lacie Green?”

She turned her dark eyes to me, looking confused. “Yeah, who are you?”

I held my hand out to her. “I’m Angie Statton, we’re Facebook friends. I used to go to school with your sister, Madison.”

She recognized me then, and her eyes widened. “Angie, hi.” She took my hand and shook it. “What a place to meet. Small world, huh?”

“I know, right?” I took a step back and appraised her. “And here I was thinking your photos were all ‘shopped’.”

She stood up to her full height, gesturing to herself. “Nope, this is all me. Were you and Maddie in High School together?”

“Nah, Junior High. I had braces back then, if it helps.”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Maddie has so many friends. So... what kind of trouble are you in today?”

“Nothing like that. I’m here with a... friend.” I gestured to Gabriel, who was still at the counter. “What about you? Your last update said you were breaking into the music biz. Are you singing or did you mean literally?”

Lacie laughed, but it was a short laugh. “I’m doing back up vocals for Desyre. It’s my turn to post bail.”

The name was familiar, but it took a moment to think of where. I didn’t listen to her, but Cassie’s mp3 player was full of her songs. “She likes to get into trouble?” I asked.

“Just a bit.” She pointed behind me. “There she is now, cozying up to your ‘friend’.”

I turned as saw Gabriel standing with a beautiful dark-skinned woman. The clothes she wore were more ‘elegant goth’ than Lacie’s, though there were a few hints of punk. Especially the boots, which were a rugged, black leather pair that went up her calves. “What the hell is that?” I asked, the words slipping out before I could catch them.

“Looks to me like she’s getting under his skin.” Lacie commented slyly.

Desyre was indeed getting a little too comfortable with Gabriel, leaning close to him and putting a hand on his arm, but what inspired my outburst was the look on his face. I had seen Gabriel confront death on the rooftop of a thirty story building, and yet I had never seen him look as terrified as he did right now.

I didn’t think it was possible for his face to get any paler, but he was literally white as a sheet. His skin glistened under the fluorescent light, like he was sweating, which was another thing I’d never seen him do. Desyre leaned her face up, closer to his and he actually leaned away. His eyes darted to the exit, but he didn’t move towards it, probably because he would have to push Desyre aside in order to do so.

“Okay, I’m going to go find out what’s going on.” I decided aloud.

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Lacie said, following after me. She pulled out her cellphone. “She’s out of the drunk tank for a second and she’s already getting into trouble. I am so tweeting this.”

I stood behind Desyre, facing Gabriel. “Anything wrong, Detective?” I asked.

He looked genuinely relieved to see me. “Angie, there you are.” he said weakly. “I was looking for you.”

Warning signals sounded off in my brain. Gabriel NEVER called me by nickname, preferring Evangeline. He had once explained to me that a vampire could better utilize their influence over a person if they used their full name.

“Now I know what it feels like to be in the Twilight Zone.” I looked around, making sure I hadn’t been teleported somewhere, like an alternate dimension.

Desyre turned away from Gabriel, to his intense relief, and faced me. I was struck dumb for a moment by just how beautiful she was. Her face was full in her cheeks, but her chin was delicately pointed. Her skin was the color of cocoa and completely flawless. She wore makeup by her eyes, heavy black eyeliner and hot pink eye shadow. Her eyes were what stunned me the most though, they were a clear bright red, and they seemed to glimmer like jewels.

After a moment, I managed to collect myself enough to speak. “Nice contacts.”

Her face twitched ever so slightly, as in quickly burying surprise. “I don’t wear contacts.” she replied, and then I felt it: the heavy power of influence in her voice.

Being around Gabriel, I was always on guard against his influence, a vampire’s ability to hypnotize and control their prey. Vampires used it for all sorts of things: changing a person’s mood, making them see things that aren’t there, and even masking a vampire’s very nature, the physical things like fangs and claws, so that they looked human. Desyre was using her influence to hide the color of her eyes from me.

The way to beat influence was to know about it. A mind that expects it can break it easily, hence why I was always on my guard around Gabriel, to the point of it being subconscious. Desyre’s influence was different than Gabriel’s, where his was forceful and direct, hers crept around from the edges of awareness softly. I found that I could see both what was real, and what she wanted me to see. Chocolate brown eyes, shifting to glittering red and back again.

“My mistake.” I said flatly, keeping my gaze straight. “Must have been a trick of the light.”

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Must have.”

“I didn’t realize you and Gabriel were alike, my bad.”

“Gabriel?” Her eyes widened a little. “Is that the name my Angel goes by now?”

Now it was my eyes that widened, a lot. Behind Desyre, Gabriel looked like he wished for all the world that the floor would just open up and swallow him whole. “Oh, so you two know each other.” I tried to keep my voice flat, but it was becoming harder to achieve.

“My Angel and I go way back, but I’m afraid that I am at a disadvantage, because I do not know you.”

I held out my hand to the vampiress, bringing my gaze back to her face. “I’m Angie, as Gabriel mentioned.”

“I meant your full name.” She took my hand in hers and leaned a few inches closer to me, as if inspecting something interesting under a microscope.

“Angie is fine.” I pulled the corners of my mouth up, trying for a smile. I was pretty sure it was more of a grimace, though.

Desyre half turned back to Gabriel. “She’s adorable, Angel, I see why you keep her.”

Strong emotion bubbled up inside of me then, unexpected, it ripped through my throat and out my mouth as a spluttered laugh. “Him? Keeping me?” I pointed at Gabriel, the other hand on my side, where a stitch was threatening to form. I laughed again, harder. Finally I struggled to pull myself together, wiping a tear from my eye. “That’s great, the freeloader is keeping ME.”

“Hey, that is MY house!” Gabriel snapped.

“Not according to the deed.” I shot back. “Besides, I tried to move out, remember? You just carried me back.”

“Worst mistake of my life.” He grumped.

“Oh yeah, and what was marrying Nora? A slight oversight?” I jeered.

He looked ready to push Desyre out of the way and start towards me, but she held up one hand, like a referee. “This is no place for catching up.” She gestured to the door. “Perhaps I could invite you two for a ride around the city in my town car?”

“Let’s go.” Gabriel said, stepping forward first. He grabbed my hand as he passed me, but didn’t look at me, and pulled me along with him.

We exited the station, Desyre and Lacie heading in one direction, but Gabriel went in the other. “Gabriel, where are we-” my words were cut off as he suddenly pulled me down an alley. “What the hell are-” I started again, angrily, but I was cut off again. He grabbed me around my waist and jumped upwards.

The world jolted sickeningly and we were standing on the roof of the building next to the station. I pushed his chest hard, separating myself from him. “Are you insane?” I exclaimed. “You can’t just do something like that in a city full of people!”

“I know that, that’s why I went into the alley.” He ducked down, peering over the ledge.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked.

In response he grabbed my hand and pulled me down next to him. “Get down you idiot, she’ll see you.”

I looked over at him, he stared down at Desyre and Lacie as a limo pulled up in front of the station. “Dude, you know she’s a vampire, right? How can she not know we’re up here?”

As if she heard me, Desyre looked right up at us. She kissed two fingers and waved at us before stepping into the limo. When it sped away, Gabriel bowed his head in relief, his shoulders slumping.

I was really feeling alarmed now. “Gabriel, what’s wrong? Who was that? She’s dangerous, isn’t she? Is it ‘regular dangerous’, or are we looking at Nora levels here?”

“I knew her, a very, very long time ago. Before I met Nora.” he answered, but didn’t lift his head.

“Oh...” I said, understanding dawning. “Old girlfriend?”

“No!” His head whipped up and he gave me a horrified look.

“Okay, now I’m all confused again.” I stood up and placed my hands on my lower back, stretching. “Don’t grab me like that ever again, you almost threw my back out.” I pulled my arms up over my head.

Gabriel stood up as well and turned away from the ledge. “I wasn’t going to leave you in her clutches.”

My arms dropped to my sides. “You were worried?” I asked in surprise. Most of the time, Gabriel begrudged my existence, but there were a few occasions he went out of his way to rescue me from danger. Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten into those situations if he wasn’t around, but that was beside the point.

“Of course!” his tone was indignant and his hands clenched into fists. Heat flared up in my cheeks. “Who knows what you would have told her.” He gave me a stern look. “I do NOT want her finding out where I live!”

The small kindling fire that had started inside of me was quickly dowsed. “...oh.” I said blandly. “Where’s the fire escape? I’m going back to the car.”

“I’ll take you back, it’ll be faster.” He walked over to me and lifted me up again, slinging me roughly over his shoulder.

“Hey! Personal space!” I yelled, kicking uselessly. I quickly gave up and just hung limply while he sprinted across the rooftop, then jumped the gap to the next one. “I hate you, so much.”