The other man nudges Travis and without even waiting, they take off. Apparently, they were on the lookout and know that we’re searching for them, which tells me they know what happened to the vampire. I take off running after them. But there are two problems with me and running. One is that I’m short. There’s no getting around it—I wasn’t blessed with height. The second is that while my prosthesis works amazingly well, it slows me down a little. Quick movements are harder for it and it takes more skill.
“Stop! Police! Stop resisting!” I shout after him.
He doesn’t seem concerned about slowing down; instead, he anxiously looks back at me and then runs a little faster as he dashes into the parking lot. He must be heading toward a car, so I’ll have to make sure I stop him before he reaches it.
That’s when Mr. Sexy Vampire Pants flies right on by me and grabs both men, dragging them to the ground and pinning them there before I take my next step. He even has them handcuffed by the time I reach them.
He turns to look at me. “Where were you?”
“Me?” I ask as I jab a finger at myself. “I was chasing them! You fluttered right on by me!”
“They almost got away,” he says. “You should have called me.”
“I don’t have your contact information, remember?”
“I’m a vampire, remember? Superior hearing.”
Ah, yes. The dick has returned.
He shoves one at me with enough force he nearly sends me toppling. “At least take one of them. Or would you like me to take both?”
I grumble under my breath as I take the man’s handcuffs. I help him to his feet and follow Church back to the car. “Are you driving them in?”
“No, I was just going to leave them here,” he says sarcastically.
I’m going to strangle this man. “I meant in your car.”
“What, you think a tiny handcuffed human could disrupt me while driving?” he asks.
“I forgot that you’re godlike and such a superior being. I apologize.”
He gives me a warm smile as he yanks open the back door and crams the man inside. “That’s okay.”
He’s evil. That’s all there is to this.
I gently help my guy in and get into the passenger’s seat while wondering if we’re doing things by the book because, so far, I don’t even think he’s even mentioned their rights. But I don’t want to anger him further, so I sit down and shut up as he drives.
That is, until something dawns on me. If he could supposedly hear me shouting to him about seeing the guys, wouldn’t he have smelled or heard them?
“You already knew they were around the corner, that’s why you sent me that way. Did you see them with your hawk sight or something?”
Church looks over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, you’re actually pretty good at this detective stuff!”
“Why?”
He turns his attention back to the road. “What’s that?”
I shake my head. “You did it just to zoom your ass right on by me, didn’t you? To prove vampires are superior.”
His eyes get dramatically wide. “Oh, no! I would never do that to my sweet little human partner!”
“You’re such a liar. Do you feel good about making me run around?”
“Actually… I do. Some days I worry I’m pretty slow, but then I met you.”
I lean toward him as he stops at a red light. He turns and holds my eyes with his golden ones slightly narrowed. “Hey, let me tell you a secret. I’m stubborn as hell. You are not going to get rid of me,” I threaten.
He gives me a huge grin that makes him even more handsome. “We’re going to see about that, now, aren’t we, kid?”
“Sure, Grandpa. Let’s see how that goes.”
“Humans are just so weak. It’s sad, really.”
“I’d rather be weak than an asshole.”
He doesn’t have much of a comeback to that, so I decide that means I won that round.
When we get back to the station, he yanks the poor man out and drags him inside like he weighs nothing. I calmly take my guy in and follow Marcus to a holding area. We put them in there as Marcus prepares to interrogate Travis, which I can’t imagine going well.
But he’s a professional, right? Like this is his job, so I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. He’s good enough at it that he’s the head of this unit.
This will be fine.
This will not be fine.
Travis is in a chair, eyes as wide as saucers, shaking like a leaf. He immediately told us he knew nothing, and everything went to hell from there.
“What do you mean you know nothing?” Marcus asks. No… not asks. Growls.
See, vampires have this thing they can do that allows them to intimidate humans and other vampires. Honestly, it depends on how old they are. And if the suppressing aura in the room is anything to go by, Detective Marcus Church is much more of a great-great-great-great-grandpa than a grandpa.
Thankfully, I know that he won’t eat me even if my brain is telling me to be worried about this guy. My instincts are kicking in, assuring me that there is a wild predator in this room that would enjoy devouring me, but I’m keeping a perfectly confident look on my face.
“You knew enough to run from us,” Marcus says as he hits the table. The man lets out a whimper and jerks back, and I realize what this is.
He’s trying to scare me. He wants me to get terrified of him and run away. Then I’m sure he’d file some complaint about me running off while on the job. Sorry for him, but that’s not going to happen. He can try all his tricks; I’m not going anywhere.
Even if my body is telling me that the door is right behind me and only two feet away and I should run, run, run.
“I-I-I…” Travis stutters.
The man seems to be incapable of speech at this point as I turn my eyes to Marcus who is staring at me instead of the perp. He’s waiting for me to break but instead, I give him a huge smile and a thumbs up.
“You’re doing a good job being evil,” I assure him.
His eyes narrow and the room becomes even more suppressing. I feel like if I even tried walking in this, my limbs would be weighed down.
“I-I-I…” The man seems stuck in an endless loop of I’s, but Marcus doesn’t seem to care he’s made him forget what comes after “I.”
“You are so good at this interrogating stuff, I’d love to take notes,” I say as I pull out my notepad and write at the top: A How-To Guide to Being Evil.
He scowls at it and that’s when the aura in the room begins to let up some.
“I… peed myself a little,” the man says, finally getting out what he was wanting to say.
I bite my lip as I look over at Marcus, hoping he’s proud of himself. He looks slightly disappointed in himself instead.
“Can you continue?” Marcus asks.
“Y-Yes. It was just a little.”
“Great.”
I smile at the man who instantly latches on to me now that the evil vampire has calmed himself. “Hey, Travis. So your roommate Robin Peterson was found dead in her home yesterday. She appears to have been dead for about twelve hours when she was found by the mailperson. How did you find out about her death?”