Chapter 11

 

Liberty walked silently beside Eli. They'd been in town for hours, and hadn't seen a hint of the vampire they were looking for. Eli had discreetly mesmerized some of the customers at a few bars, hoping to find out if they'd seen anything useful the night the first victim was taken, but his efforts hadn't paid off.

All through the evening, Liberty had been waiting for the right time to ask Eli about the ice cream shop. Or, more accurately, to work up the nerve to ask. She knew he wouldn't be forthcoming, so she'd held off. She wasn't sure she was ready to beg, or ready for the disappointment when he refused to tell her.

"You know," she said. "Maybe we're going about this all wrong. We should be a little more discreet, crafty. Maybe we should bait this guy."

"Bait him how?" Eli shoved his hands in his pockets and flicked a glance at her.

"We know he goes for young girls, partying usually. And that they are either alone or with one other person."

"You're talking about using some young, innocent girls to entice him?" He grinned. "I like that idea."

She frowned. "No, not exactly. I'm not as willing to risk the innocent as you are. I was thinking I could lure him in. The problem is, this guy most likely knows who I am. Maybe I could wear a disguise—"

A scream tore through the night, cutting her off. Twenty feet ahead, two figures struggled on the sidewalk. Liberty took off at a run. Eli zipped past her and was pulling a man off of a young woman when she arrived. Blood poured from the woman's neck.

"Oh my God." Liberty drew in a labored breath, winded from her sprint. She rushed to the girl and checked the wound on her neck. The blood made Liberty's stomach clench, but she pushed back the nausea. "Are you okay?" The bite hadn't bled all that much and didn't look deep. They'd gotten to her in time.

"I—I can't believe..." The girl was plump, with brown hair and pretty features. Her eyes were as round as dinner plates. "He... he just attacked me."

Liberty turned to see that Eli had the vampire in a headlock. The vampire narrowed his eyes at Liberty and grinned with his blood-smeared mouth.

"You need to do this," Eli said to her. "I could, but it's your job. Take him out so his line will ultimately die off."

"I don't... don't know if..."

"Do it," Eli demanded. "Draw your weapon and end him."

She hesitated. It was one thing to fire at a vampire attacking someone. Another entirely to shoot one while he was pinned down, helpless.

With a shaking hand, she pulled the gun from her waistband and held it on the vampire. She bit her lip and shook her head. "I—I can't."

"Don't hurt him," the woman cried out weakly.

Liberty frowned in puzzlement. Why would the vampire's victim not want him harmed? Had he mesmerized her?

"You have to," Eli ground out.

Liberty drew in a breath. "But he's—you have him captured. We can just take him in. I can't kill someone who can't fight back."

Eli's mouth turned up at the corner. "No? Maybe this will help."

He shoved the vampire toward her. A furious snarl tore from the vampire's throat, and he rushed her. Liberty gasped, firing off three shots in succession. She must have improved her aim, because the vampire dropped in a heap at her feet.

Behind Liberty, the woman let out an agonized sob. Liberty barely noticed. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, rage set in. She whirled on Eli. "You—you let him go! He could have killed me."

Eli shrugged. "Yeah but he didn't."

"Huh! You're unbelievable." She shook her head, blinking back tears of fury.

Her eyes went back down to the body. She blinked rapidly, her mind trying to compute what she was seeing—rather, what she was not seeing. She lifted her gaze to Eli. He stared at her, his eyes squinted.

"He's not smoldering into ashes," she whispered.

Eli grimaced. "He is not."

"Oh my God. I murdered a human."

"He was trying to hurt the girl."

The woman staggered to where the man lay and dropped to her knees beside him. She sobbed brokenly. "No, he wouldn't have," she screamed. "He wouldn't hurt me. He loves me." Another sob tore from her throat. "We were going to be married. Tomorrow."

"But—your-your neck," Liberty stammered. "He attacked you. Bit your neck. He was going to..." What? Why would a human feed on another human? How was he able to tear into her flesh like that without fangs? He must have been determined—insane?

The woman shook her head, holding onto her fiancé's hand and weeping. "I don't know. I don't know what came over him. We were out. Having a good time. Talking to some people. We left this bar, and suddenly, he started acting strangely, he had this weird look in his eyes. He turned on me, bit my neck. Yes, he was hurting me, but I could have gotten through to him. Could have stopped him." She rose to her feet and spun on Liberty. "But you killed him!" She formed her hands into claws and lunged.

Eli moved in a flash and gripped the woman's neck in his hand.

"Eli, no!" Liberty shouted.

He didn't stop. Didn't flinch. The woman's face was turning red, she scrabbled at his hold.

"Eli!" Liberty rushed to him, tugged on his arm. "Let her go. You'll kill her."

His hand relaxed slightly. The woman gasped for air. He didn't let go.

"Look at me," he commanded.

She lifted her eyes to his.

"I want you to focus and listen to me."

She nodded.

"Who was your fiancé talking to earlier tonight?"

She shook her head. The tears had stopped flowing. "People... a few people."

"There was someone, probably a man, most likely the last person he spoke with before he started acting... strange."

She nodded again. "But I don't know his name."

"What did he look like?"

She seemed to concentrate for a few moments. "He was nice-looking. Dark hair. Sort of tall. Blue eyes."

"Was there anything unique about him? Scars? Tattoos? The clothes he wore?"

"I remember... he had a-a pink handkerchief in his suit pocket."

Liberty drew in a sharp breath, and Eli turned to her. "That means something to you?"

"Yes. A man at the cemetery. When I went to visit my father's grave."

"What man?"

"He wasn't really a..." She shot a look at the woman. "...a man, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Who was he?"

"Paul Blackwell. He said he was a friend of my father's."

Eli's eyes narrowed. "I know him. He can't be the one. He doesn't have it in him."

"Maybe you don't know him as well as you thought you did."

Eli let out a heavy sigh. "Maybe I don't. I'll check him out, but I'm sure it's a dead end." He turned back to the woman and captured her gaze. "You'll forget everything that happened here. Your fiancé was shot by an unknown assailant. You didn't see anything."

She nodded. "I didn't see anything."

He released her and she backed away, a hand on her throat. Blood had started leaking again. He pulled his cell out and dialed. "Operator? We need an ambulance at the Tropicana. A man is dead, and a woman's been badly injured."

"Help is on its way," he told the woman when he hung up. He took Liberty's arm. "Let's get out of here."

She walked with him, her body shaking. "I—can't believe I..." She sniffed back tears and shuddered.

Eli pulled her against his side, wrapped his arm tightly around her and rubbed his hand up and down her arm. Although his flesh was cold, each time he touched her she experienced an odd warmth. She couldn't make sense of it. But right now, she couldn't make sense of anything. She'd just taken a human life. The life of an innocent—well basically innocent—man.

"What was that all about?" Liberty shook her head, still not believing what had just happened. "Why would a human attack his fiancée like that?"

Eli released a sigh. "I have a feeling our guy might have mesmerized him. She said he was talking to someone. Maybe it was the killer."

"This guy is sick. Beyond sick." She pulled away. "You shouldn't have mesmerized her. She might have answers for us. More than just the ones she gave."

"Even if she did, we wouldn't know if they were accurate. The bastard could have mesmerized her to say anything to get us off his trail."

"So she could have been wrong about Paul. Now that I think about it, Paul's eyes are brownish-gold, not blue." She scraped a hand through her hair. "God, who could be doing this?" She looked up at him. "I should tell the police what happened. It's the right thing to do. You can't just mesmerize all my problems away."

"No, if I could do that, I would mesmerize you to forget this place and go back to Oklahoma like a good little girl."

"You still want me off the island."

He stared into her eyes, his holding a glint of moonlight. He brushed her hair back from her face. "What I want is for you to be safe."

She compressed her lips. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't act like you care one minute, then be an asshole the next."

He gave a humorless laugh. "Stick with the asshole routine, then?"

"It suits you better."

He flinched almost imperceptibly and stepped away from her. "I suppose it does at that. I'll pick you up tomorrow night. Maybe we can work on finding the murdering vampire instead of slaying humans."

She sucked in a sharp breath and fought back tears. She'd asked for it. He was being an asshole just like she'd requested. She had no one to blame but herself. And, the truly awful part was, he was right.

* * *

Liberty lay in bed, the comforter pulled over her head. She'd been there all day. Had called into work. Since last night, she hadn't been able to think of anything other than the fact that she'd taken a human life. How could she have done something so terrible? It didn't matter that she'd thought he was a vampire, that he was hurting the woman. Her instincts should have warned her that he was just a man. What kind of self-respecting hunter couldn't recognize a vampire when she saw one?

She sniffed back tears and rolled over on her side.

Her door opened, but she didn't remove the covers. "Go away, Antoine." He'd been to her room half a dozen times trying to coax her out of bed, trying to feed her. She knew he meant well but she just wanted to be left alone.

"It's not Antoine."

Before she could react to hearing Eli's voice, the covers were yanked away. She sat up and tried to snatch them back, but Eli held them from her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "Get out."

He shook his head, grinning smugly. "Nope. Not gonna happen. You're going to have to get over it. Like, now."

She infused her voice with sarcasm. "I'm afraid I can't take killing in stride like you can."

He lifted his brows. "Don't apologize. It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Oh God you're annoying," she groaned and brought her knees up and dropped her face into her hands. "Would you please just go?"

"Get dressed. We have work to do. The captain called, and it wasn't to congratulate us on the fine job we're doing. They want results."

She lifted her chin and glowered at him. "You do know we don't work for the captain, right?"

"You do know we need to stop this guy, right? I looked for Blackwell, but couldn't find him. We're no closer than we were in the beginning. Not even a millimeter closer." He rummaged through her closet and yanked a shirt and a skirt off hangers. He flung them at her. "Get dressed."

She held one garment in each hand. "These don't even match."

"Then find something to put on, or I'll dress you myself." He strode to the door. "You have five minutes."

"Asshole," she muttered after he'd gone.

She took a quick shower and pulled on jeans and a Rock Louie t-shirt. She went downstairs where Eli waited in the foyer with Antoine.

"I see Eli was more successful than I." Antoine smiled in satisfaction.

"Yes, but he used caveman tactics." She shot Eli a look that was meant to be quelling.

He wasn't fazed. "Ready?" he asked.

"I suppose." She stomped past him and headed outside. "Where to?" she bit out when he joined her on the porch.

"Boardwalk. That's where the tourists hang. Maybe we'll get lucky tonight."

She blew a breath up and ruffled her bangs. "I still think we should run a check on the vampires who have been turned recently."

"And how do you propose we do that? I told you, they're not exactly entered into a database."

"We could question vampires, from both sides. They could introduce us to their recent..."

"Apprentices."

"Yeah, apprentices."

He crooked a grin. "Interview with a Vampire, huh?"

She smiled in spite of her foul mood. "Something like that."

"Might not be a bad idea. In the meantime, let's go hang at the boardwalk. I'll drive."