He started dressing as the news covered local weather and traffic, then stopped and stared at the screen as the ‘Breaking News’ banner scrolled across the screen. The TV reporter was repeating a story they ran earlier. ‘As we reported, our own political analyst, Jessica Broch, has been reported missing. Miss Broch attended the Presidential candidate’s rally yesterday for Alec Canton and can be seen in this footage at the rally.”
The image on the screen switched to show Alec as he was exiting the crowd, and Jessica stepping in to talk with him. Braden remembered the moment, but he was too far away to hear the conversation between them, and he hadn’t paid any attention to it. Reporters approached Alec all the time.
The image switched back to the reporter, with a smiling head shot of the attractive blonde behind him. ‘Eyewitnesses saw her leave the rally, but Miss Broch never returned to the station, and has not reported in. Her roommate said she didn’t return home last night, and all attempts to reach her by cell phone have failed. The police are handling this case as a missing person at this point in time, and we encourage anyone who has seen Miss Broch to please call the police hotline number on the screen.’
Braden got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he quickly finished dressing. He grabbed the extra key card he kept for Alec’s suite, and rushed from his room, trying to walk quickly down the hall to Alec’s suite without drawing undue attention. The sun was just coming up as he slid the card into the lock and opened the door.
Stepping into the living room of the suite, he saw the two glasses on the table and Alec’s shirt on the floor. He could taste the bile in the back of his throat as his stomach churned, and he rushed to the door of the bedroom. Swinging the door open, he saw Alec, still asleep, her blood still on his face as he was draped casually over her. The girl was deathly white, and Braden rushed to her side of the bed. He could see she was still breathing, but only faintly, her breaths very shallow. He sighed in relief.
He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and ordered Kelsey to gather up a few of the male staffers and get to Alec’s suite immediately. Braden started to untie the girl, releasing her arms and legs, and rubbing her chafed flesh, restoring her circulation. She moaned softly but remained largely unresponsive.
“Alec, wake the fuck up!”
Alec slowly lifted his head from the pillow, his head full of cobwebs. He’d not fed that deeply, or slept that soundly, in months. He looked, with some confusion, at Braden, who was bent over his bed, then turned his head to see the girl. “Fuck.”
Braden jerked back the covers and shouted at him. “Fuck? That’s all you can say for yourself? Get up, get dressed! This girl has been reported missing.”
Alec was pulling on his pants when Kelsey and two burly male staffers stormed into the room. Kelsey took one look at the girl on the bed and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, god! Is she alive, Braden?”
He nodded. “Yes, but just barely. I think we can fix this if we move quickly.” He grabbed one of the males by the arm and dragged him over to the bed. “Score your wrist, and get some blood into her, quick! As much as you can spare.”
Turning to the other male, he told him to standby, and step in as soon as the first male was done. Alec was buttoning his shirt and watching nonchalantly as they struggled to save the girl.
“She’s just a mortal. Why do you care? They’re all disposable.”
Braden screamed at him, “Are you fucking kidding me? She’s all over the news! She’s a fucking reporter, for Christ’s sake! The police are involved. Right now, it’s a missing person. Now get the fuck over here and erase her memory of last night.”
Alec knelt on the bed and placed his hand on her forehead. Her color was already returning, as she weakly drank the blood from the wrist of the staffer. He wiped her memory clean. He knew between erasing her memory, and her blood loss, she’d remember almost nothing of last night.
Standing, he headed for the shower, and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, her blood still smeared around his mouth and chin. “Let me know when you get this cleaned up.”
Without another word, he stepped into the shower, letting the hot water soothe him, as he held his face upward, letting the water wash the blood down the drain.
Braden was steaming mad. He’d kill him right now if he could. “Kelsey, look around the room, start in the living room. Gather up anything that belongs to this girl. Don’t miss anything. Then wipe the place down. We don’t know what she might have touched, so wipe down everything. Find a way to get a vacuum out of housekeeping, and vacuum the carpet, and that sofa.”
Kelsey nodded and swung into action. “What about her?”
Sighing heavily, Braden shrugged. “If we can get some blood back into her, get her color back and let our blood heal the chafing marks on her wrists and ankles, I’ll place her in her car. It’s probably in the parking garage, somewhere. We should be able to find it with her keys, be sure to check her purse.”
Kelsey found the purse on the floor by the sofa and dug out the keys for the girl’s Toyota Camry. Kelsey held the keys up in the air. “Got it!” She tucked them in her jeans pocket as she started to clean in a frenzy.
Braden turned his attention back to the girl, as the second staffer stepped in place, scoring his wrist and placing it over the blonde girl’s lips. As she fed, her color returned, and the dark, black circles under her eyes disappeared. She was gripping the staffers arm now as she fed from him. That was a good sign. Braden checked her ankles, and notices the red, raw skin was slowly healing.
Looking about on the floor, he saw the girl’s clothes had been ripped. He wouldn’t be able to salvage any of those. Sending the first male staffer on an errand, he told him to head back to Kelsey’s room, and bring back some underwear and a pair of jeans and a shirt. The staffer hurried from the room as Braden sat down next to the girl on the bed. He pushed the other staffer away.
“Enough. Let’s get her cleaned up now.”
The staffer looked at him doubtfully. “But, master is still in the bathroom.”
Braden looked up with disgust, then headed to the bathroom and opened the door. Alec was stepping from his leisurely shower and grabbed a towel. Alec looked up at the intrusion. “You still here?”
“Fuck you, Alec!”
Braden grabbed some washcloths, and wet them under the faucet, and grabbed a towel on his way out. Together, he and the staffer washed the girl off, removing the dried blood from her neck, mouth, and shoulders.
The other staffer returned with the clothes, and the three of them dressed her. Kelsey kept cleaning but tossed the car keys to one of the staffers who headed to the parking garage, in search of the girl’s car. In the meantime, Braden pulled a few wine bottles from the bar, uncorked them, and emptied their contents down the sink. He grabbed up the one bottle that was already opened on the coffee table, wiped it clean, and poured out the remaining contents.
Kelsey had finished the clean-up and gathered up the girl’s torn clothes. The staffer lifted the girl in his arms, as Braden pulled all the sheets and blanket from the bed. Shoving them in Kelsey’s hands, he instructed her. “Burn these, and her clothes.”
“Yes, boss.” She hurried out, teleporting down to the basement of the large hotel complex into the massive laundry room and maintenance facilities. Finding the incinerator, she stuffed the damning evidence into the flames and closed the door, teleporting back to the suite. She arrived in time to see Braden telling her to wait here.