“Hey, normally I drink blood. This is like water in comparison,” he said and smiled at her.
She rolled her eyes at him. After both of them took some more of her dispel potion and took two baseball caps to shield themselves from the sun, they were both out the door. Marie took her backpack with her, which had more dispel and the extra garlic if they needed it.
Chapter Eleven
Getting their hands on a Viking battle axe was as easy as Marie had hoped it would be. They arrived at the guy’s apartment and bought the axe under false pretenses, and he handed it over without question.
Marie kept the battle axe wraps until they got back to their hotel. While she snacked on some food, William checked the blade for sharpness and approved.
“It’s pretty good for a replica,” he admitted.
Marie nodded. “It should do the trick.”
“Think we can get close enough?”
“Only one way to find out. We should leave in about twenty minutes.”
It was still daylight when their car came, and would be for a few more hours. Marie asked their driver to pull up to the address on the card Drake had given them. When they arrived, it looked like an abandoned office building. Marie asked the driver to drop them off a block away. “It doesn’t look like anyone was there,” she said to William when the driver pulled away from the building.
“I’ve been here before,” the driver said to them as he made a U-turn.
“Oh yeah?” William asked.
“Yeah, I dropped a bunch of people here once. I had a bad feeling about the group. Like they were cool looking and fancy and all that, but something about them gave me like a bad vibe. You guys sure you’re at the right place?”
“We’re supposed to meet some people here. And honestly, you were right to get that vibe from whomever you brought here. My advice to you, stay away from this place. These people are up to no good, and we’re here undercover to put an end to it. Can you tell us where you picked up the group from?” Marie asked.
The driver turned around to face them. “You kidding me right now?” he asked.
Marie shook her head. “Look, we don’t have any credentials, but as I’ve said before, we’re undercover and here to put an end to it. We’re trying to remain a step ahead from them. Anything you could do to help us out.”
William nodded. “We’re not fucking with you. These people are not good people. Anything you could remember would be appreciated.”
The driver pulled over and nervously took out his phone. “No, but if I look back into my GPS history, it might jog my memory.”
They gave him a few moments to look. It didn’t take long. “Here it is! I remember now. It was from this shitty apartment complex just off the strip.”
“Can you take us there?”
“Just as long as you keep my name out of this. Look, I don’t want any trouble.”
“No trouble. In fact, just give us the address and we can get another driver to take us there.”
The driver nodded. “Yeah, fine, whatever.” He gave them the address, and they got out of the car. “Good luck,” the driver said before driving off.
“Interesting luck we had there,” William said.
Marie shook her head. “It’s not luck. The universe has given us a sign. We’re on the right path. This is exactly how we’re going to defeat him.”
“Oh, you don’t really believe all that mumbo jumbo, do you? The universe, signs, fate?”
“William, I’m a witch. That so-called mumbo jumbo is what I do for a living. I listen to the universe.”
William held up two hands, giving up. “Okay, fine. I just think it’s lucky.”
“Well, whatever gets you to point B is fine by me,” she said, her face showing signs of irritation.
William smiled, putting two hands on either side of Marie’s waist. “You’re hot when you’re angry, you know that?”
“I’m not angry. You’re just annoying.” She tried to push him away, but she was helpless against his flirtatious nature, and she returned his smile despite her best efforts. Their moment, however, was short-lived. Their second driver, a young teenager, arrived, and they gave him the new address, instructing him to also park a block away. Their young driver asked no questions. Their drive was silent save for the sound of loud hip-hop coming from the speakers.
When they finally arrived to their destination, the driver did as he was told and parked a block away. They could sense vampires near. Before William could open his back passenger-side door to get out, the driver’s side passenger door opened and a figure got in. The car drove off with lightning speed, and the driver locked the doors. Both Marie and William were locked in.
Drake, who had gotten in the passenger seat, turned around to face William and Marie. “I had a feeling you’d make me get up before six this evening.” He shook his head. “You know, I really hate daytime vampires. Think of what this will do to my face,” he said and turned back around.
“Thanks for the tip,” Drake said to the driver. “Diego here is one of us. Well, not yet. We’re waiting until he’s twenty-five or twenty-six to turn him into a vampire, just like his pretty mom. But until then, he’s busy doing our daytime errands. One of which included waiting for you right outside the address we gave you. Now I had hoped you’d be much later than you were, but now that we’re all here, well, we have some plans to discuss.”
William grabbed a hold of Marie’s hand in the back seat as he thought of a plan.
Drake turned around to face them again. He saw the handle end of the axe sticking out the back of Marie’s backpack. “Hand that over, won’t you?” he asked her.
Marie knew she had no choice. She handed her backpack, with the axe wrapped up inside to Drake. He laughed when he took the axe out. He unfolded the T-shirt it was wrapped in and checked the blade for sharpness.
“Very nice. Very nice, indeed. I presume you were going to use this against me?” He asked, looking at the two of them. Neither Marie nor William replied. “Well, I’ll save this for later. We’ll see how well in works when we use it on William, here,” Drake said and wrapped the axe back up.
Next, he pulled out the bottle of potent garlic potion Marie kept with her. With some difficulty, Drake pulled out the red cork and sniffed the liquid inside, making a face when the strong odor of garlic came out. “Is this what you’ve been using to hide yourselves from me? Garlic? Is it really that easy?”
“Garlic amongst other things.” Marie said, knowing full well which bottle he held open. It was the one that had enough garlic to separate his soul from his body.
“I might keep some of this for later,” he said and put the cork back in before throwing it back into her bag.
Marie looked around, realizing they were heading back to the address they were originally given, back to the abandoned office building.
William cleared his throat and spoke up. “There’s nothing you can gain from this. How willing do you think Marie is going to be when you kill the father of her only child?”
Drake turned around, the smug smile on his face gone. “What are you blabbing on about?”
“She’s having my kid. And I don’t think you’re prepared to have an infant running around with this coven of yours. I bet you weren’t planning on that at all. An infant could slow you down. Think about this.”