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haven’t been around long enough, or the vampire that made me wasn’t strong enough, or something like that. I don’t really know. So since I can’t fly, I took the bus. And by that I mean I jumped on top of one and hitched a ride to the hospital.

    Cut me some slack, I was out of cash. When I got there, Tommy had some company that I certainly wasn’t interested in seeing – the police. I did a quick one-eighty in the hallway once I saw the guard outside his room and headed back downstairs to swipe a disguise. If possible, it’s a good idea to avoid masquerading as someone with medical training, because someone always wants you to do something with that training, and that can turn out poorly for you and the patient. So I usually put on my best janitor clothes and grab a bucket. There’s never been a hospital that didn’t have something that needed to be mopped, and the cleaning staff is usually pretty invisible.

    I found an unattended supply closet on Tommy’s floor and commandeered a bucket and mop. I wheeled my way down the hall to the room next to Tommy’s, and headed in to mop and eavesdrop. Fortunately for me, the guy in the room was comatose, so he didn’t care that I was doing a crappy cleaning job, and I was able to hear a grumpy-sounding female detective grilling Tommy through the wall.

    “Mr. Matthews, how exactly did you break your arm?” She asked.

    “Fell off my skateboard.” Tommy had the sullen teenager thing down pat, probably because he was a teenager with a crap attitude toward authority figures and a system full of painkillers.

    “That’s bull!” I heard her slam something to the floor, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who was playing the bad cop. If she was playing. “The doctor told us your injuries were consistent with your arm being broken by a very strong person. Now who did it?”

    “I told you, I fell off my skateboard.” Tommy even managed a little whine at the end. I was impressed; I wasn’t anywhere near that good at being a putz when I was a kid.

    “And I told you, I know you’re lying.” I could almost see her leaning in to him, her voice dropped and got real confidential. “We can’t protect you if you don’t tell us the truth, Tommy. And you want us to protect you, don’t you? I’d hate to have to leave here and take that guard with me. Wouldn’t you?” I certainly wouldn’t hate that, but I didn’t think she was asking me.

    I heard nothing for a minute, then heard Tommy take a deep breath and say, “Okay, I’ll tell you what happened.” My heart, if it still beat, would have stopped for a second, and Tommy’s next words did nothing to make me feel any better. Before I could reach through the wall and strangle him, he said “I hired a couple of vampire detectives to protect me from a demonic curse and when we went to confront the witch that cursed me, she broke my arm like a twig.” The silence from the other room was thick, and I leaned my head against the wall berating myself for not eating the kid when I had the chance.

    After a long minute I heard the woman’s voice again, and it was pretty obvious that she was not happy with Tommy’s answer. She spit out the words like they were bullets. “You little bastard. I have somebody in this town kidnapping little kids, and this girl is just the latest. Now you were seen harassing her at school and the neighbors say a kid matching your description was at her house before she went missing last night. You know something, and if anything happens to that little girl and it turns out you had anything to do with it, I will personally make sure that you do your undergraduate work in the federal penitentiary in Raleigh.” With that, I heard her heading for the door. Seconds later I felt the wall shake as she slammed the door to Tommy’s room open.

    “Come on, leave the chump here. Anything that’s after him, can have him,” she said to the guard. They passed by the open door of