in
the centre, Jason hit the brakes. He adjusted the rearview mirror.
“Where is
he?”
Riley looked
out her window. “I can’t see anything.”
“Wait here.”
“Jason –
don’t –”
Jason forced
open his door and jumped out onto the road. He staggered out first in the
direction of the diner, scanning the interior. There was a waitress in there,
but he couldn’t see anyone else.
He looked
back out to the car park’s corner.
Then he saw
it.
He saw the
glowing blue eyes watching him in the dark.
“ You ,”
Jason seethed. “It is you.”
Brock opened
the driver’s door of the car next to him and climbed inside.
Jason started
racing over. “Hey!”
Brock looked
at him a moment, then the high beams came on.
Riley jumped
out of the van behind Jason just as Brock’s car accelerated and roared past
them.
“Fucking
hey!” Jason screamed. “Where’s my girlfriend? Where’s Roxanne?”
“Jason,”
Riley said urgently. “Over there.”
They both
hurried over to the darkened area where the car had been parked. There appeared
to be someone lying on the ground.
“Roxanne?” Jason
called hopefully. “Oh please, please don’t be –”
They both
dropped to the ground and rolled the figure over. It wasn’t Roxanne.
It was Haley.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Cresh leaned against the desk. As
Luna clicked through page after page of tedious dictation, he found himself
thinking about what had just happened between them. The truth was that it
should have been ugly, in all the worst possible ways. Whether she realized it
or not, Luna now had the power to possibly get him fired, and certainly
divorced… It may not even arise for the next few months – or even years down
the road. But what if it did then? When he’d practically forgotten about it.
His whole life could be turned upside down by what just happened.
It should
have been ugly.
Inside him.
Inside her.
But he
couldn’t stop looking at her with love.
“Well, that’s
Jason cleared I think,” Luna said still clicking around with the mouse.
“Nothing out of the ordinary there.”
“So where
does that leave us?”
“Maurice,
Kendra, Riley, Jason – who’s left?”
Suddenly
their attention was directed elsewhere. A cloud of purple smog was hissing into
the room.
“Get away
from it,” Cresh said. “It’s coming from the window.”
“Oh shit,”
Luna exclaimed jumping up from the chair.
They both
back away near the exit as the purple smog flooded further and further.
“How’s it
getting in?” Luna asked. “The window is –”
The window
then instantly shattered, and a dark-winged animal zoomed by them and out of
the room.
Cresh and
Luna quickly followed it out into the corridor, closing and locking the door
behind them.
“What was
that?” Luna cried. “A bat of some kind? You don’t think –”
“Take the
stairs. Get the fuck out of here. I’ll figure it out.”
“Are you
sure? Maybe you should get out too. Send someone else to –”
“It’s okay,”
Cresh said. “I’ve got this. Go home.”
“Alright,”
Luna said bowing her head.
Cresh watched
her exit through the fire escape before turning his attention back to the
corridor ahead. He could see traces of the purple smog still hovering in the
air.
Cresh
followed the trail slowly, pausing to open a set of doors at the corridor’s
end. The corridor then forked beyond this, the trail floating onto the left.
“Where are
you going?” Cresh whispered.
He followed
it again slowly. His mind was going back. Through all the vampire suspects.
Through all
his team of possible traitors.
It couldn’t
be that someone didn’t want them to continue their investigation further. After
all, they were alone in that room. No one knew what they were doing.
Unless…
The trail had
stopped.
Cresh looked
up at the door and saw that it was his own office that he used on this floor.
Someone knew exactly where to meet with him…
Cresh opened
the door.
In the