For his wealthier clients, he did the same thing, but he also kept some of it. He may not require much to survive, but he had bills to pay too.
“Do you believe Julie is on drugs?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. The crowd she fell in with after my husband died was so… so… so weird.”
“In what way?”
“You have to understand how lost we were after my husband’s death.”
“I understand what it’s like to lose someone unexpectedly,” he said. “My sister disappeared when I was nineteen. Her loss tore my family apart; things were never the same afterward.”
“I’m sorry. Did you ever find her?”
“Not yet, but I refuse to give up. I will have the answers one day.”
He had to believe that; otherwise, the decision he made ten years ago was for nothing. One day, he would learn what became of his sister, Maya, and he would bring Julie Abbott home; those convictions were what drove him out of bed in the morning.
For years, he’d felt like he was going through the motions of life without really living. If it wasn’t for his relentless pursuit of Maya, and the other missing children he found, he wouldn’t have any reason to live.
“I’m sure you will too,” Mrs. Abbott said, and when she looked at him again, sympathy and understanding shone in her eyes.
Only those who didn’t have the answers about a missing loved one could truly understand each other. They knew what it was like to have to bail water out of the hole-filled boat they all paddled. Understood that if, for one measly second, they stopped scooping water out, they would drown in the memories, possibilities, and what-ifs haunting every second of their days.
“Julie’s new friends were into… I don’t know if it was a cult, a religion, or… or… just fantasy.”
Her voice trailed off as she twiddled her thumbs in her lap. Dante didn’t push her to continue; he’d established a small bond with the woman when he revealed Maya’s disappearance to her. She would tell him more when she was ready.
“Toward the end of her diary, Julie started talking about eternal life and never dying and…” She lifted her head to look at him again. “And vampires.”
Chapter Two
Dante set his pad and pen down as an uneasy feeling churned in his stomach. This could prove to be a whole lot more dangerous and complicated than locating a girl who was shacking up with her boyfriend or trying to feed her drug addiction. At least then, he only had to deal with humans. Now, he might have to deal with his kind, and he often avoided them.
“I know it sounds insane,” Mrs. Abbott said. “But I think she truly believes they’re real. I guess it kind of makes sense that after her dad’s death, she would search for a way to avoid death, but Julie was never one for fantasy and make-believe. She didn’t ask for unicorns or fairies on her wall.
“She asked for flowers instead. Julie loves flowers, especially roses and lilies. So the two of us spent a day painting roses and lilies on her wall. She was so cute all covered in paint and her tiny coveralls and….” She broke off as she shook her head. “Why am I telling you this? You don’t need these silly details.”
Dante smiled at her. “They’re not silly details to us.”
He could still recall Maya’s obsession with unicorns when they were kids. She was the exact opposite of Julie; give her all the fake things. Her room overflowed with unicorn pillows, stuffed animals, and so much pink, he cringed every time he walked past it. At six, he was foolishly convinced that putting one toe inside that pink explosion would somehow make him less of a man, so he refused to go into her room.
“No, they’re not,” Mrs. Abbott muttered. “Did you start pursuing your profession because of your sister?”
“Yes.”
“You came highly recommended.”
“I’m glad to hear it, and I will do everything I can to find Julie.”
“I’ll get Julie’s diary for you,” Mrs. Abbott said and rose from her chair.
Dante stayed where he was while he listened to her climb the steps to the second and then the third floor. He’d come highly recommended to her because he’d gained a reputation, and a well-deserved one, of bringing home missing people that others couldn’t find.
That was partly because his vampire senses had honed his instincts and enabled him to see and learn more while hunting for a lost loved one than a human would see. But it was mainly because of how determined he was to give people the answers and peace denied his family.
In the few cases he had where he didn’t bring someone home, he at least discovered what became of them. He hated those cases the most. He despised having family members staring expectantly at him and being the one who destroyed their hope.
He brought more home then he lost, but the ones he lost haunted him the most.
After he became a vampire, he quit the police force and went underground. He rented his apartment under a fake name, didn’t have any credit cards, and his bank accounts were all under his fake name too. Even his clients knew him as Dan Vares instead of Dante Alvarez. The real him ceased existing to the outside world shortly after he stopped existing as a human.
Under normal circumstances, he probably would have left the city to avoid running into anyone he knew, but he couldn’t leave without knowing what became of Maya. So, instead, he avoided all the old locations where he used to hang out.
Over the years, he’d run into a couple of his old buddies, but it had only been ten years since he was changed, so it
