The modest house at 300 Bear Claw Lane looked like every other cube in this narrow slice of suburbia, only this one was cookie-cutter gray with a black roof. The lawn was scruffy and brown, the front porch littered with an assortment of rickety chairs. A rusty bike rack stood on the edge of the lawn near the gravel driveway.
I followed the sheriff and Mayes up the creaky stairs. A teen answered the sheriff’s knock. Said he was Jonas Canyon. He wore dark-framed glasses over his nearly black eyes, a wrinkled, untucked Oxford cloth shirt, and khakis that had been hacked into shorts by an unsteady hand.
Though I kept my senses fully guarded, my palms itched at the sight of the unhappy young man. He gazed at the badges and waved us inside.
The living room was messy and smelled like garbage. Flies buzzed over the dirty dishes left on every solid surface. A few plates littered the floor. There were no lamps, no decorative items, no pictures on the wall.
This was the oddest group home I’d ever seen, and it certainly would fail every minimum public health criterion.
“We weren’t expecting anyone today,” Jonas said, grabbing up a few of the plates and dropping them in the sink. “We usually have at least twenty-four-hour’s notice before inspections.”
Sheriff Blair blocked his exit from the kitchen. “Who’s in charge here?”
Jonas’ smooth façade slipped for a minute, and I saw something that made me wary as he lifted his glasses to rub his eyes. Then he met the sheriff’s level gaze. “My mom, but she’s resting. We had a difficult night, to tell the truth. Everyone is still in bed.”
It was going on eleven o’clock. How odd. The vibe here was weird. I had the sensation of standing in front of a powerful vacuum, and I fought the invisible tug to pitch forward.
“What’s your mother’s name?” Twilla Sue asked.
“Lizella Tice.”
“Tice. And your last name is Canyon.”
“She remarried a few years back.”
“I need to speak to Lizella and to see Randolph Haynesworth’s room,” the sheriff said.
Jonas twitched and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He took off his glasses. “Not a good idea. My mom will be angry with me. No one’s allowed upstairs.”
“All right,” the sheriff said in a quiet voice. “We can come back later.”
“No, we can’t,” Mayes said loudly from over my shoulder. “We have a warrant. We’re working a case. Time is of the essence.”
Jonas flicked his gaze to Mayes. “No need to rush off. Sit down. Let me fix you something to drink. Coffee. Would you like a cup of coffee?”
“I like coffee,” Mayes said agreeably.
Whoa. Something seriously creepy was happening. I didn’t do this often, but I drew deep and extended my psychic barriers to include Mayes and Twilla Sue. I linked my arms in theirs. “We’re going upstairs to look into the unexplained death of a young man,” I said. “We aren’t sitting down, and we aren’t drinking or eating anything in this house.”
The sheriff blinked in confusion. “Of course not. We’re here to investigate Haney’s death.”
Mayes muttered something under his breath that sounded like “ptomaine palace,” so I knew he was back to his senses. Good.
Keeping the shielding barrier intact, I faced Jonas Canyon. He shot his best gaze at me, and I reflected it back at him. “Don’t mess with me. I’ve got your number. Anything you send at us will be reflected back three-fold on you.”
His face contorted and darkened. “What are you?”
“Doesn’t matter, but I know what you are. An energy vampire. You steal people’s energy. Stop it right now, you hear me? Quit draining them.”
He shook his head. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“It’s wrong to steal energy from people. Is that what’s happening in this place? Is that how you killed Haney?”
Jonas raised his hands and stepped back. “Haney’s dead? Dude, that’s messed up.”
He turned away from us, as if he were trying to control his emotions, and the spiritual assault lessened. I hadn’t felt any draining power when we first encountered Jonas. Inspiration struck. “Put your glasses back on.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
After I put Jonas’ glasses on, I turned to Sheriff Blair. “We need someone to watch him while we check this place out. I’ll stay with him if you like. The people upstairs might need medical attention if he’s siphoned off too much of their energy. I suggest calling for backup before anyone goes upstairs.”
Blair ordered Jonas to sit in a chair while she called for reinforcements and sent Mayes upstairs. After the call was placed, she pulled me aside and nailed me with two questions. “How did Jonas get me to change my mind before? And how come I feel so tired right now?”
I hoped Mayes would be safe upstairs because I couldn’t shield him from here. As long as I stayed close to Sheriff Blair, she was safe from attack. “This guy is an energy vampire. He steals energy from others.”
The sheriff’s head bobbed as if I’d struck her. “Vampire? The garlic-and-wooden-stakes kind of vampire?”
“There’s no bloodletting involved, but energy vampires can be malicious. You need to be strong and to shield yourself, like I’m doing for you.”
“I don’t believe what I’m hearing, but seeing is believing. That kid hypnotized me a moment ago.”
I nodded. “He mesmerized you all right. If I hadn’t been here, you and Mayes would’ve been his next victims. Don’t look into his eyes. He didn’t try to hack your energy until his glasses were off earlier. I don’t know this for certain, but perhaps his glasses shield him in some way.”
“If he can bend people to his will, how will I keep him in custody? Won’t he compromise anyone who is nearby?”
“I don’t know a lot about energy vampires, but my dad and his friend back home might have answers. You have a handy resource in your Native American deputy. He might know how to cancel out the effect Jonas has on people.”
Mayes came back downstairs. “Four bedrooms upstairs, all double-occupied. None of the people stirred when I entered each room. I found a forty-something female and seven males in their early twenties. Given what Jonas nearly did to us, I didn’t check for pulses, but I watched long enough to make sure everyone was breathing.”
“Unbelievable.” Sheriff Blair called for ambulances. She also tapped two additional deputies to come to our location. Then she turned to me. “You’re the only one he can’t fool. Put my cuffs on him, then secure the glasses to his head. We need more mobility than having us all moving in lockstep. I need you upstairs ASAP so we know what we’re dealing with here.”
I took her cuffs and leaned down to put them on his hands.
“Not that way,” the sheriff said. “Put his arms behind him. He could knock the glasses off if his hands are in front.”
“Stand up, Jonas,” I said.
He lumbered to his feet. “You people don’t get it. Energy is a valuable resource, and I require a lot of it. You’re making a big mistake. This is the natural order of things.”
I snapped the cuffs on and tightened them. Good thing I’d been training in police techniques during my down time between cases. “Save it for someone who cares.”
Mayes found some twine in a kitchen drawer. I tied the temples of the eyeglass frames without raising the lenses from his eyes. “Done.”
The sheriff pointed to the man’s feet with her gun. “Secure his feet to the chair with the twine while you’re at it.”
When I finished, Sheriff Blair nodded her approval. “Head upstairs with Mayes and do your thing. If this guy so much as twitches, I’ll pepper his sorry hide with bullets.”
“No need for that, ma’am,” Jonas said with a contrite smile. “I am your humble servant.”
“Don’t trust him,” I said. “We’ll be right back.” Mayes and I tromped up the stairs, my pulse thrumming in my ears. I’d only encountered two energy vampires in my lifetime, but none had been as focused or as scary as Jonas.
“I thought I’d seen it all,” Mayes said. “That leech latched onto me, and I turned to goo in his hands. I feel like I’ve pulled an all-nighter. Hard to believe. Thanks for saving my hide back there.”
“We nearly had ourselves a situation, but we’re a good team. I’m glad I could help.”
The woman, Lizella Tice, and the young men upstairs were thin—too thin. Mayes was right. None of them responded to our presence. Reluctantly, I touched them all. They were caught in a deep, dreamless sleep. No telling how long they’d been in this condition.
“Are they victims or the bad guys?” Mayes asked as I finished with the last young man.
“I don’t know. They seem to be in comas, and their dreams aren’t troubled. I have no idea what that means.”
“We’ll get them to the hospital. Let the professionals evaluate them.”
A car cranked outside. Mayes and I hurried to the window in time to see the sheriff driving away. As if he knew we were watching, Jonas Canyon made a crude hand gesture out the passenger window.
“Damn!” Mayes turned and raced down the steps. “He’s got Twilla Sue.”