The face that looked up at her was not David’s. It was the vampire she ran into downstairs. She remembered looking into his eyes. Damn, first rule of dealing with vampires, never, ever, look in their eyes.
Not every vampire could capture your mind, but it wasn’t worth taking the chance. She rushed out of the bedroom and down the hall. She needed to get back downstairs to the rest of the fight.
Ghoul bodies littered the floor there was greenish blood splattered all over the floor and walls. She thought she saw spots of it on the ceiling.
Four vampire bodies lay headless before her. She scanned the rooms quickly trying to find Emery, Aiden, and Lieutenant Meyers. She found two of the policeman dead. Their wounds had been severe. One of their necks had been savaged. It looked like his throat had been gnawed on before being ripped out.
Walking into the dining room she found all three of the men she was most worried about. They were all injured but looked like they would heal. The Lieutenant was on the phone calling in cleanup crews and paramedics.
Emery was the first to spot her. He was quickly by her side. “You’re hurt. Come and sit down. Let me look at you.”
She held his hand and followed him. “I’ll be alright.”
He looked her over and was surprised to find some of the wounds looked like they were healing. The ones she got on her side earlier were already nearly closed. The red welts from the ghoul blood were all but gone.
Some witches had a terrible reaction to ghoul blood, while others were not bothered at all. This was the first time she had been exposed to the blood and made a mental note to avoid the pools of it scattered all over the house.
“How did our vampires fair? I haven’t seen any of them.”
“They all survived, but it will take them a while to heal. They have gone to the safe house. Wanted to make sure they weren’t around in case any media showed up.
“This is, after all, the third attack on a residential house by these vampires.”
At least it would be their last. They still had to try and tie the vampires back to Perovsky, but she had no idea if they had the evidence to do that.
Until they caught him, the family would have to be under guard or relocated. They would have to be in a witness protection type of program where they hid and changed their names.
It was another two hours before they were free to leave. Emery decided to go with Lieutenant Meyers. He had some questions he wanted to ask the Lieutenant.
The crime lab team, along with everyone else was gone. She and Aiden were the only ones left in the house and it was eerily quiet.
Harley wondered through the rooms one last time. Tonight had gone as well as could be expected, yet she sensed something wasn’t right.
She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Something was off. Had the night been too easy? Not really. There were people dead, good cops.
She had been rolled by a vampire. He’d captured her mind and nearly killed her. If her instincts hadn’t kicked in she would have been dead on the master bedroom floor.
She’d felt him pull the memories from her mind. The ones of her dead husband. He’d used that and tried to make her kill a police officer.
Harley would have to learn to guard against vampire gazes. She made a mental note to talk to Luc about possibly learning how to block the control.
The greenish goo of the ghoul’s blood was stinking up the downstairs. Harley wanted to get out of there as fast as she could, yet she was drawn to look around.
The garage, she hadn’t seen the inside of the garage yet. Hurrying down the stairs she passed Aiden in a hurry. She would have to explain later.
Heading out the back door she quickly crossed the space to the door on the side of the garage. She turned the handle. The door was locked.
Where was Hermione Granger when you needed her? Harley sent magic energy into the lock until it filled the spaces and the tumblers started turning. It was the witches’ version of a lock picking set.
It took a few minutes. She wasn’t an expert thief after all. She felt along the wall next to the door finding the light and flipping the switch.
She squinted while her eyes adjusted to the light. An SUV and a sedan sat in the garage. They had left the family’s car there to keep up appearances. The garage was neat and tidy with plenty of room for storage. Boxes lined the walls on shelves.
Each box facing forward was labeled. Someone had a touch of OCD. Two boxes at the end of one shelf were unlabeled. Harley knew she was crossing a line by looking at them. She decided to do it anyway.
She lifted the first box down and sat it on a work table. Looks like the dad or the sons enjoyed working on cars. There were a lot of tools on the bench.
The box was sealed. Harley took out a dagger and slit through the tape. Inside the box were files. She pulled out the files and started looking through the information.
It was on the other families. Stacks and stacks of papers on the three families that had been killed. Except in the college student case. Only the student belonging to the family that made the pact had a file. The rest of the students that were killed did not have a file.
He’d found the relic and decided to keep it. He wanted to show it off to
