The silence in the car was deafening. I think at one point I tried to lean over in my seat so I could hear the conversation. Usually, I have no problem picking up cell phone conversations with my ears, another benefit of being a vampire, but I couldn't hear anything from Sanders' phone. I glanced over at it and it looked like no other cell phone I'd ever seen before. It was shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners like most smart phones with touch screens, but it seemed a little smaller. The back of the thing looked like hexagonally molded plastic tiles had been fused together, giving the impression of snakeskin. I made a mental note to ask him about it later. I loved toys.
When Sanders finally pulled into the parking lot at the local Bureau, he had just hung up with Marcel. He pulled into a spot and turned to me. "It would appear that Marcel is very upset with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Apparently, you are an excellent FBI Agent, but your vampire skills 'leave something to be desired'. Effective immediately, your new home office will be Chicago. Get this mess taken care of and head back there. I'll inform Reese."
"How long am I going to be there, sir?"
"Indefinitely," he supplied.
I fought hard not to smile and ended up just nodding at my superior.
Thank you, gods
. Once Thompson heard the news, I'm sure he would call his wife, Sharon, and give her the good news. She'd stayed in Chicago with the children, waiting until school finished for the year before moving to Washington. None of them had been looking forward to the move. "Thank you, sir. I've been screwing up a lot around the vampires and all their rules. Marcel will be invaluable."
"Next time you have a problem, call me, please. I'd rather know immediately than find out from somebody else. You're very young, Ashlyn. I understand that. I also asked your friend what he thought about the article in the paper. He's trying to come up with some explanation we can feed the press."
"Thank gods," I said with honest relief. Thinking about shit like that hurt my head.
"Gods, Ashlyn? I pegged you for a good catholic girl. You might be a lot of things, but you're obviously Irish."
"So Irish my aunt and mother were of the pagan variety."
He nodded and held out his hand for me to shake. For the first time in my career, I had an appreciation for the Deputy Director. I reached out, took his hand, and pumped it vigorously. He gave me a little nod and I stepped out into the Sacramento night.
"Ashlyn," Sanders called before I could shut the door. "One more thing, next time I ask people to keep you somewhere so I can get to you, try not to throw them across the room," he said and gave me a little wink.
"I'm sorry, sir. I had a rough night and I seem to have a knack for inducing people to be rude to me."
"I had a feeling. Here's my cell number." He reached into his suit jacket, pulled out a gold embossed business card, and handed it to me. "You are the best thing that's happened to the Bureau in a very long time. If anyone else in this agency isn't courteous to you, please let me know.
"Thank you again, sir. I'll do that." I softly shut the door. I needed to get my SUV and my clothes and head back to the Marriot we had been staying at originally before Marcel moved us to the more luxurious hotel that had blown up. I crossed the parking lot and made my way inside.
Entering the building and heading to the office in scrubs wasn't the easiest of things to do. Luckily, I had my badge. The leather case I had it in got a little singed in the fire, but the hospital staff managed to save it. I needed another gun though. I'd left that in the hotel room, and I doubted it survived the fire. I just hoped my cell phone was still in the Suburban I was using.
I walked into Connors' office and saw him on the phone. I didn't want to be rude so I hovered around the door until he finished. "You look like hell, agent. Have a seat," he said when he hung up the receiver.
"Thank you, sir. It's been a rough night."
"I heard. That was probably the bravest thing I've ever seen. Just happened to flip on the news last night and saw the whole damn thing, including your spectacular exit." I opened up my mouth to start to explain, but he held up and gave me a quick "Don't. I saw what I saw and I'll be honest, I don't give a shit. You ran into a burning building to save your partner. The rest doesn't matter."
I smiled and gave him a heartfelt, "Thank you."
"Anytime, good luck with everything. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call." He handed me a business card from the nifty black holder on his desk. I was going to need one of those business card wallet thingies if this kept up. "Your SUV is out in the lot, and the keys are here." He tossed them to me from the top drawer of the desk. "I have two agents outside Thompson's hospital room, just as a precaution. If I ask you if you want a couple for you, are you going to say no?"
"Yes."
"Yes as in you're going to say no, or yes as in you want the agents?" He grinned as he said it.
"Yes to the former and no to the latter," I replied, thankful for his attempt at humor. "I really appreciate it, but I can take care of myself, sir."
"I can see that, agent. You be careful."
"I will, sir."
Chapter 18
Thankfully, my cell phone was in the cup holder of the Suburban. I knew Victoria must be a frantic mess, but I didn't have a way to get a hold of her. I needed to get her a cell phone. She'd probably gone back to the hotel, saw it in flames, and had a meltdown. I don't even know if she knew we'd been hospitalized.
The first place I checked was the cordoned off hotel. There weren't any lights on inside, and the only illumination outside were several police cars with their lights on in the parking lot. On a whim, I pulled up to the first police car. I waited patiently for him to roll down his window and when he did, I leaned out mine.
"You need to move along, miss. This is a crime scene," he said before I could even spout out a question.
"I know officer, I'm with the FBI," I said and pulled out my badge. "I'm looking for a girl vampire who was a guest at the hotel with me. Have you seen her?"
"No ma'am. I haven't seen anyone. I just came on shift about an hour ago. If I see her, I'll let you know."
"Thanks," I said and gave him my cell number. I pulled out of the lot and headed for the Marriot. Vic didn't know we had rooms there and I took my frustrations out on the steering wheel. She wouldn't go back to Santiago's since it lay in ruins. The only other place I could think of to look for her was the nosferatu club we'd gone to. Maybe she'd be waiting there for me. I tried to remember the rule about getting lost, but all I could come up with was start at the beginning.
The closer I got to the club, the
righter
it felt. If I closed my eyes, I could almost sense her sitting at the table in the club, worried about me. I stepped on the gas and the Suburban sped forward. Before I concentrated on Vic, I vaguely recalled where the club sat nestled in the run down area of Sacramento. Now I knew exactly where I was heading. I guided the SUV like I had a built in GPS unit. Finally, after the longest drive of my life, I saw the neon lights of the club in the distance.
I pulled up on the curb and flew out the door and into the club. Without pausing for the bouncer I jumped the velvet rope and into the crowd. I spotted her before she spotted me and I stopped. She sat there looking like somebody had run over her puppy. Sadness radiated from her. It washed over me where I stood. Tears started flowing down my cheeks. Without even thinking about it I gave a little pulse of power. Vic looked up and started looking around the club as if she smelled somebody baking brownies. I gave a little laugh and I swear she heard me. Her eyes focused and her head snapped in my direction. When she finally saw me her eyes lit up .
Her stool hit the ground as she launched herself toward me. I braced myself for the impact and it was a good thing I did. The impact hit me with the force of a speeding freight train and sent me skidding back a few feet. I'd expected a, "Hello," but she locked her lips on mine. I could feel everybody's eyes in the club focus on to the two of us as Victoria kissed me with an intensity I'd not known in my life. My very short life, but still.
The sound of somebody clearing their throat behind us stopped Victoria's welcome. I actually felt a little more relieved than disappointed. Victoria had the honor of being the greatest enigma in my life. Even after such a short time, I would die without her. She'd become more than a friend, but I didn't know if I loved her. I needed to figure that out, quickly.
"I told your young friend if anything had happened to you, she would have been the first to know. Yet, when she couldn't find you, she fell into despair," Viktor said softly with the tiniest of smiles, and something else. It almost looked like jealousy.
"Tomorrow I'm taking her to buy a cell phone. I woke up in the hospital and had no way to get a hold of her. I'm sorry, Vic," I said and turned toward her. I couldn't do anything but laugh. Gone was the dead puppy look on her face. Instead, she radiated joy and happiness. She held my hand and I gave it a little squeeze.
"When I went back to the hotel last night, it felt like a nightmare. I tried to ask the police about you, but they started questioning me about the fire. I don't think they like vampires."
"Yeah, I've had that happen to me a couple of times over the past few days, too," I said with an ironic little smile. "Thompson got caught in the fire; he's in the hospital still. I ran inside the building and pulled him out. I have to say, I think the fire was a little more than I could handle. After I got him out, I collapsed and woke up this evening in the hospital with a visit from my boss. I came as soon as I could."
"As long as you're okay, master," she said and hugged me again.
"Excuse me, can I have your autograph?"
"I'm sorry, what?" I pulled away from Vic. She looked almost as confused as I did.
"Can I have your autograph?" I turned to see a young guy who looked like he'd barely reached drinking age standing in front of a triangle of people. They all had the same eager expression on their faces.
"Why?" To say I was confused would be the understatement of the century.
"You're d-demon girl aren't you, the Verminator? The guys back at the dorms won't believe I saw you here." Realization hit me. They'd seen the news.
"I don't really…" I trailed off. I'd never been as embarrassed as I felt at that moment. I really didn't want to do it, but I didn't want to be rude. I couldn't think of a way to let him down easy either. Then inspiration hit me, "I don't have anything to sign."
"Oh, my god, wait here, I'll be right back!"
He took off and miraculously the horde behind him followed him out of the club. I stood there dumbfounded. I couldn't believe it had been that simple. Now I just needed to get Vic out of there in case they came back. I so wasn't signing autographs.
"Come on, Vic, you ready to go?" She stood there with the most curious look I'd ever seen. Viktor's matched hers perfectly. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later."
"They saw you?" She had seen me transform into my worst, so she knew exactly what the guy had been talking about.
"It's worse than that, the news filmed me. Please, Vic, let's get out of here. I really don't want to be here when they get back."
"It's too late for that, here they come," Viktor piped in.
I groaned as my autograph hounds rushed back in through the club entrance. There must have been a newspaper machine somewhere outside the club. Most of them held a brand new newspaper in their hand. Thankfully, the machine must have been only partially full. I winced as they bobbed and weaved through the club, making their way back to where we stood.
I felt ridiculous as the ones with papers lined up in front of me. I wasn't a celebrity, nor did I have any desire to be a one. The gods of irony were probably sitting around wherever the gods of such things do, and having a good chortle at my expense. I debated running, but I just couldn't. I said I would do it, so I would. I reached out my hand to my original stalker and took the newspaper from him. I thought he had been clever and come up with the demon girl name all on his own. He hadn't. It sat right on the front page in bold type right above the picture of me carrying my partner on my back. Because it was newsprint, the picture looked a little fuzzy, but you could still see the horns.
Fuck
.
I fought back the tears burning in my eyes and took the pen nerdy guy held out like a carrot in front of me. At least one of us was a little excited about it. I tried not to look at the headline as I brought the tip of the pen down on the paper. "Who should I make this out to?" I asked it without emotion and without looking at my admirer.
"Jack, please."
To Jack, I give my first autograph, Ashlyn.
The words flowed from my pen without conscious thought. Chills crept up my spine at the prospect of what I was doing, but I got through the first one. The second came a little easier. The third I hardly thought about at all, and by the time I finished the little Ashlyn autopilot in my head had taken over. Everyone who asked for an autograph got one. Everybody had been more than polite, though I don't know if they were just being nice, or were afraid I would go all demon on their asses.
I turned around and Vic stared at me like I'd gone a little nuts. Viktor looked outright worried. I tried to shoot for unconcerned, but figured I probably looked a little more like nauseous. I shook my head to clear it a little and sat down at the nearest empty seat. I didn't think my legs would support me anymore. Running into the fiery hotel had been less exhausting, at least on an emotional level.
"Come on, Vic. Let's go home."
"Yes, master."
* * *
The hotel was quiet as Vic and I showered (separately) and made our way to bed. She looked hesitant about joining me, but I gave her a small nod that seemed to set her at ease. I really needed somebody to hold on to. Snuggle therapy seemed a little more ideal than watching cartoons. I dressed in an over-sized T-shirt and slid under the thick comforter. I really needed warmth. A chill radiated from my bones and spread through my body to the tips of my toes and my nose. I watched Vic as she walked around the other side of the bed.