“No!” I screamed, not that I could heal a staked vampire.
Elron stepped back and summoned his sword.
“What are you doing?” I skidded to a stop.
“Ensuring he causes no additional problems prior to transport.” Elron took up position in line with the vampire’s neck.
“The earth was doing that just fine.”
“He was escaping.” Elron met my gaze with calm eyes.
I took a moment and actually looked at the vampire. The earth around his waist was cracked. Chunks had broken free and long cracks radiated out. His fingers had sunk deep into the earth, and even now, they tightened. The wooden sword, which I’d thought had gone through the vampire’s heart, had hit too low and in the wrong spot. Judging from the angle, Elron had pushed the sword between two ribs and pinned the vampire to the earth.
The sword would hold. It would have to be removed before the vampire could heal the wound, and by then, the authorities would be here.
“May I behead him now?”
I didn’t feel qualified to answer that question.
The vampire reached for Elron’s leg. Elron slipped from his grasp, and the vampire screamed.
“He will not recover.” The vampire in medieval dress joined us, a distasteful expression on her face. “His mind is broken. Nothing will fix him.”
Vampire health hadn’t been a topic I studied in school. “How do you know?”
She pointed at the enormous jack-o’-lanterns. “He tried to kill in front of a ward tonight.”
“The pumpkins?” It was common knowledge that they warded off evil, but I’d never heard of them being particularly effective.
“Pumpkins are new world.” She snorted. “The ancient ward? That has to be the turnip.”
I blinked. Sure, the turnip was traditional, but they weren’t common here. It never would’ve occurred to me they were the better ward. “He doesn’t have magic to shield himself, and the wards are intact, so his mind must be broken.”
“Precisely,” She said. “Individuals of sound mind are turned away. They don’t leave bodies before the ward.”
Some magical expert I’d been. I had no idea pumpkins and turnips made different levels of wards.
“This is so cool.” Tricks bounced over, still recording. “Are you going to behead him?”
“No,” I said.
Elron raised a brow.
I caught his gaze and then pointedly looked at the students and teachers gathered round. “We aren’t executioners.”
The medieval vampire sighed unnecessarily. “At least properly restrain him.”
“Orzu.”
His hands sank into the earth.
“Fehu.” I solidified the earth and started a spell to hold him.
Once I finished this spell, I wouldn’t be good for more than lighting a candle. At best. This spell took enough magic and focus, I hadn’t even tried it since recovering my power. But it would hold. It could hold a demon, and the vampire wasn’t that tough. “Obala o sowil en kannu, alkaz a esaz.”
The shield snapped into place around the vampire, going through the earth to completely surround him.
My arms felt heavy, and I swayed. I was down to the dregs.
“You can’t fall.” Tricks heaved my arm over her shoulders and steadied me. “This won’t look impressive if you fall.”
“Noted.” I dismissed my wand and got my phone. While I called Jerry, the various faculty, including Elron and the medieval vampire, moved the students away from the crazy vampire. Once Jerry was on the way, I gave Rodriguez a call. If I’d understood the spirits, the vampire here was the murderer we’d been hunting.
When I finished with my calls, Tricks helped me sit with my back to a stalk of corn. “Thanks.”
She grinned. “Can’t have you falling over before my birthday party.”
“What about at it?” Which was feeling like all too real of a possibility.
“Nope. After.” Her smile faded. “I made things worse, didn’t I?”
A glance reassured me the vampire was still inside the shield and inside the earth. I leaned my head back. “It’s more complicated than that. Most people have no idea what they’ll do in one of these situations until they happen. Do I wish you’d run and stayed away? Yes. But if your nature is to run toward danger, you need to have the skill to improve the situation once you’re there. Elron will have ideas about that.”
She sat next to me. “Sometimes it feels like all I do is mess up.”
“Are you constantly repeating the same mistakes?”
“No?”
“Then you’re growing up, and that includes making the wrong choice so you know what not to do next time.” I sighed. “That’s true as an adult too.”
“Ick.”
“Yup.” I gave her a one-armed hug. “You’re doing fine. Growing up isn’t easy.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
“That reminds me.” I held out my hand. “Phone. That video is evidence.”
Tricks groaned. “Really?”
“Really.”
She dropped it in my hand. “So much for that.”
“They’ll pull the video, and you’ll get it back. Besides, I thought your parents were getting you a phone.”
Tricks paled. “Parents. Where are they? Oh, they aren’t going to be happy with me.” She jumped to her feet and raced over to Elron.
The sirens got closer. Jerry would be here any minute, and I’d have to explain everything that had happened. It would be a little longer before Rodriguez got here, and I’d get to explain everything again. Lucky me.
I pushed myself to my feet, every part of my body protesting the movement, and shuffled over to Elron and Tricks.
“But I have to find them.” Tricks went up on her toes. “You know what they’re like.”
Elron nodded. “And if I can tell you they are in the parking lot, they know where you are. You need to stay here.”
“It wouldn’t hurt anything if I checked in with them.” Tricks shifted her weight, ready to make a quick escape.
“No.” I held up the phone. “You’re a witness. You stay here.”
She opened her mouth to protest.
“Michelle!” Jerry, flanked by ten officers, jogged into the festival entrance. “Where’s the vampire?”
I stepped in front of Elron and Tricks. “Here.”
Jerry kept to a steady jog. Four officers separated themselves from the group and darted over. They took up positions around the vampire inside the shield. The rest of the group caught up and fanned out. One officer broke away and got on the radio.
Enor and Erwin rushed after them, but the other police kept them away. Tricks started giggling and hid behind Elron and me so her parents couldn’t see her.
Jerry did a slow lap around the staked vampire. “Well. What happened?”
“The usual. Holiday party, killer, spirits of the dead,” I said.
He snorted. “I’m going to need more details.”
“Thought you might.” I went through the first part and then showed him the video of the rest.
We’d finished the video when Rodriguez showed up. While Jerry talked to his captain, I went through it all again with Rodriguez. By the time I finished telling him everything, more officers had shown up. They were interviewing everyone, including Elron, Tricks, and the medieval vampire. The phone went into evidence.
I ended up standing between Jerry and Rodriguez, looking down at the poor vampire. “Is it worth transporting him?”
“No,” Rodriguez said.
Jerry shrugged. “Until I get an execution order, it’s all we can do.”
“I’m not letting him out of that containment shield unless he’s in a secure facility.” He’d killed and terrorized enough people. I wouldn’t give him a chance to escape.
“Then we move him,” Jerry said.
“I’m tapped out. I can’t levitate him.” Upright for the rest of the evening. That was my goal for the night.
Henry, a vampire and local officer, glided over. “Is the shield solid?”
I nodded. “Not even a demon could get through.”
Henry nodded and glided back over to the group. The four of them lifted the shield out of the ground, a chunk of earth and the crazy vampire inside.
That was one way to move him.
Jerry motioned for me to follow. “We’ll transport him like this.”
“And when he’s secure, I’ll take off the shield. Great.” I followed them up to a van.
As we left, Elron and Tricks were reuniting with their parents. Escorting the crazy vampire was less dangerous than talking to them.
The four vampires had to work to fit themselves and the shield in the van. Jerry, Rodriguez, and I ended up in Jerry’s car. We stayed right behind the van the entire drive. The guys passed the time talking about the evidence they needed. Fingerprints and an ID for the vampire were high on the list.
They could have their fingerprints. I was going over the spirits’ statements. Now that I understood the turnips were the ward against evil, that part made sense. So did the hell cat, though in the stories they were more effective. What didn’t fit was the second spirit’s comments.
Her bite you desired?
Staked through her heart?
None knew of you?
Had he asked to be turned? But then who staked the vampire who turned him, and why? And why didn’t anyone know of him? Vampires tried to be organized about such things. They didn’t turn many people, but those they did were turned at a nest. Movies occasionally made nests sound exotic and thrilling. They were more like a witch’s clan house. Guaranteed shelter, safety, a warm meal, and such. Turning new vampires at the nest ensured someone would be there when they awakened and could guide them into their new life.
If a vampire awoke alone, well, that was tricky. Some were fine. Others were more monstrous.
“Almost there,” Jerry said. “Do you need anything to remove the spell?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I didn’t ask if you could do it alone.” Jerry’s voice sharpened. “I asked if you needed help.”
I huffed out a breath. “Help would be nice.”
Rodriguez twisted around in his seat to look at me. “The three of us can link, give you the power to undo the spell.”
“Thank you.”
We paused at the gate for the guard to check the car and then entered the jail. This jail wasn’t like most. It was specifically designed to hold high-risk people, usually just long enough to get an execution order. The squat, concrete building lacked any charm, unless a fifteen-foot-high fence with guards counted as charming.
Jerry guided the car down a ramp. A gate closed behind us, sealing us in the building. Gray concrete walls interspersed with yellow sconces did nothing for the atmosphere.
We parked near the loading bay and went in through a side door. Two armed guards, one dark elf and one vampire, stood watch over the back of the van. It opened, and the four officers picked up the globe holding the vampire and carried him into the hall.
I trailed along behind.
The atmosphere hadn’t improved, though there was more light. All that meant was I could see exactly how much concrete surrounded me. Not a place I’d like to have as my last memory. The quicker I could leave, the better. This was as far out of my area of expertise as it got.
We turned right into an identical-looking hallway and ended up in a two-part room. The inner room had been outfitted to hold vampires. Silver ran through the walls, ceiling, and under a thin sheet of cloth stretched across the floor. The outer chamber had the same amount of silver, but nothing shielding the floor.
In theory, the silver wouldn’t bother the vampires unless they touched it with bare skin. In practice, I doubted the cloth was truly a sufficient barrier.
The four vampires set the shield down in the center of the cell and stood in the doorway between the inner and outer chamber. “We are ready.”
“Give me a minute.” I summoned my wand.
Jerry and Rodriguez took up position behind me, each resting a hand on my shoulder. They directed power into me.
It was more than enough to clear my mind and make removing the shield effortless. I even had enough to release the poor vampire from the earth. Then I tried to push the power back to them. They closed their shields, leaving me with more magic than I’d had before.
I blinked the room into focus. Four vampires held the crazy vampire mostly still. He twisted and thrashed, trying to pull an arm free or get close enough to bite one of them. Henry held his hand steady and quickly pressed his fingers to a screen. The devise beeped, and Henry moved to the other hand. It beeped again.
The vampires released the crazy vampire and were out of the room with the door locked before he could react. Not even a second after they secured the door, he rushed it. Moving too fast for my eye to follow, he lapped the cell.
Henry held the fingerprint scanner out to Jerry and Rodriguez. “He’s a missing person.”
Rodriguez swore. “I’ll get Montoya on the phone.” He walked into the hall, dialing a number.
“Thanks.” Jerry took the scanner.
I peered over his shoulder, reading the screen.
“Kaden Scott, 19, human,” Jerry said.
“Not anymore,” I said. At this moment, vampire Kaden was still running laps around his cell.
Jerry kept reading. “Last seen on the 25th. Presumed to be with Courtney Barnes.” Jerry clicked on the case file number attached to Courtney’s name. “True death estimated at two in the morning on the 26th. Manner of death is accidental. Cause is impaled by lumber.”
“Narzel,” I swore.
Jerry cocked his head to the side. “What?”
“I looked at Courtney’s car. Not officially, my name isn’t in the report, but Montoya wanted to make sure magic wasn’t a factor. It wasn’t.” I hadn’t been paying attention to what else Montoya said. I’d been too worried about the murders and trying to get Montoya to stop flinching every time we were in the same room.
Rodriguez came back. “Montoya is picking up Kaden’s parents so they can see their son. He worked both cases, and I got some more information. Only a few of Kaden’s friends knew he was dating Courtney. No one knew they were together that night, but their phones last pinged off the same cell tower. Kaden never came home that night, and Courtney died. Courtney’s phone was never recovered.”
“Did she have permission to turn him?” I asked.
“Montoya said the nest didn’t even know she was seeing anyone, only that she’d been secretive. She’d only been a vampire three years and couldn’t have gotten permission to turn anyone, never mind her young boyfriend.” Rodriguez gave the cell a pointed look.
Kaden had finally stopped running and now stared through the re-enforced glass with soulless eyes.
I only had to meet the gaze of any of the vampires in this room to see a vibrant person. Right now all of them were serious, focused on the work, but I’d joked with Henry over flying chihuahuas. I’d seen him help tipsy coworkers home after a New Year’s party. He was a person, not a mindless killing machine.
“He rose without aid.” Henry shook his head. “It is no wonder what he has become. Confused, unbearably thirsty, answering only to instinct. Then to face a hell cat and an ancient ward? He’d not yet regained his mind before it shattered.”
Henry wasn’t wrong. The problem was we couldn’t fix him. The damage was done. He was too dangerous to keep alive. By morning, they’d have an execution order, and he’d be staked for his crimes.
“Courtney killed five, but she’s already dead,” I said.
“Every time,” a vampire muttered.
Jerry and Rodriguez looked as confused as I felt.
“This happens, once a decade or so.” Henry sighed. “We must impress upon the young that the rules about who, how, when, and where to turn a person are there for a reason.”
“And the rest of us get to hear and repeat the lecture.” The vampire swore again. “Every few years for thousands.”
I had a flash into my future with Elron, a thousand years from now, annoyed by something for the literal thousandth time. Near immortality had its downsides.