Burn Falls Page 8

  The girls laughed, and the blonde asked, “So, is it you?”

  I chuckled. “You know me. I go from working a ten-hour shift to saving the city.”

  “Well, I think it’s amazing that someone stepped in to help save a cop’s life. He should get a medal or something,” the red-head stated.

  I should probably have learned their names at some point, but they weren’t on my team, and the fewer people I associated with the better. It was bad enough that I craved their blood, but I could also smell their arousal, so I could never mix business and pleasure even if I could compel them to forget they’d fucked a vampire. It was easier for me to have a one-night stand so I wouldn’t have to see her again or even someone from a different department because the chances of seeing them were slim.

  After grabbing my bag, I left the girls to chat about me. I needed to locate Officer Ellwood before daybreak. I just wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find him. It was raining, but I decided to run to the nearest precinct from the hospital in hopes he worked there. It was my best shot. Once inside, I walked up to the desk sergeant.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Yes, I’m looking for Officer Ellwood.”

  “Are you a reporter?”

  I furrowed my brows. “No, I just need to know if this is his precinct and if he’s on duty.”

  “Because?”

  I leaned forward, causing her to stare into my eyes. I watched as her pupils dilated. “Because I need to speak with him. Is he here?”

  “He’s off today given what happened last night.”

  “Give me his home address,” I whispered so the other police officers in the room couldn’t hear me.

  She turned to her computer, pressed some keys and then grabbed a piece of paper. After she wrote on it, she handed me the paper.

  “Thank you.” I took the small slip of paper, and our eyes met again. “You will not remember or tell anyone I was here. You will not remember that someone was asking for Officer Ellwood or his address. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  The address was for an apartment in Squire Park. Instead of running there, I decided to take a taxi so I didn’t get too wet. The cab pulled up to the apartment complex, and after paying, I walked around the four unit buildings until I found the apartment number.

  The apartment was a corner unit in a two-story building, and after knocking four times, the door opened. “Hey,” Officer Ellwood greeted, a gun at his side. His ash-brown hair looked like I’d woken him up.

  I eyed the Glock and then looked back to Ellwood. “I’m Draven. Invite me in.” I had to tell him my real name for him to invite me in. If I used my alias, it wouldn’t have worked.

  He smirked. “I’ve heard about this.”

  “Heard about what?”

  “You need to be invited into homes.”

  I rolled my eyes. “There’s really no time for games. Invite me in.”

  “Draven, please come in.” He stepped aside, and I entered.

  “Who did you tell about me?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and watching him close the door.

  “No one.”

  I heard the breathing of someone else in another room and the sound of two heartbeats, one fainter than the other. “Is your wife here?”

  “Of course, but she’s sleeping.”

  “Does she know about me?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “But she cried so much when she found out. We really can’t thank you enough.”

  “Why is the news saying Seattle has a vigilante if you didn’t tell them about me?”

  “Because I didn’t know how to explain that five men had their necks broken and my partner was shot.”

  I closed my eyes briefly and kicked myself mentally for helping him. “Step closer to me.”

  He took a step back. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to wipe your memory and give you a cover story.”

  “No.”

  I moved to him in an instant. “Don’t test me. I was helping you last night, and now my cover can be blown,” I hissed low so that his wife wouldn’t hear.

  “I’ll never tell.” He shrugged.

  “Really? You found out vampires are real and you’ll never tell?”

  “Can I tell you why I became a cop before you decide to wipe my memory like you’re Jay?”

  I furrowed my brows. “Jay?”

  Ellwood smirked, and I realized the entire time he spoke to me, he refused to look into my eyes like I’d asked him to. He was begging to remember, not begging to forget out of fear.

  “You know, Jay from Men in Black.”

  I stared at him, speechless.

  “See, man, I’m cool with this whole vampire shit. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

  “Men in Black is a movie.”

  “But you’re a human—I mean, a vampire neutralizer. Or … wait. Is that right? They use those neutralizers to make people forget …” He trailed off staring at the ceiling as though he was thinking.

  “Ellwood. Shut up.”

  “Martin.”

  “Martin.” I grinned. I had to admit that this guy had some balls. I hadn’t had a human friend since 1928 because I didn’t want to have to experience the loss, but the way I heard his heart beating steadily in his chest, I knew he was telling the truth and wanted me to help him.

  “How do you want my help exactly?”

  He sat at the small dining room table, placing his gun in front of him on the wood top. “I haven’t thought this out completely, so I’m not sure.”

  “You do know I can’t go in the daylight, right?” I asked, moving to sit across from him.

  “Right.”

  “And I live on blood?”

  “Right.”

  “And I’m moving in ten years?”

  “What? Why?”

  “How old do I look?”

  He stared at me for a few moments. “Early twenties.”

  “See the problem?”

  “You won’t ever age,” Martin stated.

  I nodded.

  “So you move every ten years?”

  “That’s the plan. It’s hard for me to stay in one place for a long time because people start noticing they’re getting wrinkles and I’m not.”

  “Okay.” He nodded. “So help me for ten years.”

  “If you don’t think you can handle being a cop, then maybe you shouldn’t be one.”

  “That’s not an option.”

  “Why?”

  He took a deep breath. “When I was six, two men broke into my home while my mom was reading me a bedtime story. Cops said it was probably supposed to be just a robbery, but when my mother tried to protect us, she was killed in front of my eyes while I hid in the closet. The men ran before they looked for anyone else in the house. To this day they’ve never made an arrest or had any leads. I’ve vowed to not let that ever happen again—to anyone.”

  “How do you think I can help you then?”

  Martin thought for a moment. “Don’t you have super smelling and shit?”

  I threw my head back and laughed. “You want to use me as a sniffer dog?”

  He grinned. “Something like that.”

  2006 – Still in Seattle

  For the past three years, I’d been helping Martin move up in the ranks. He worked as a patrol cop for only a year before he was promoted to a detective. It was fast, but when you had a trick up your sleeve, people assumed you were this amazing cop, and he was, but he was better because of me.

  Martin and his wife, Marcy, had a baby girl a few months after we met. In 2005, Marcy was reading a popular book about vampires, and told me she pictured me as the main vampire. I didn’t know if that was good or not, but I heard he sparkled in the sunlight. I assured her that I
didn’t, and when she’d ask me to prove it, I couldn’t. Finally, one night, I told her the truth. She said it was cool, and that she was glad vampires really didn’t sparkle in the sun like diamonds because that would be weird—like it wasn’t weird I was a vampire in the first place.

  Martin and I came to an agreement that I would act as an informant for him. If he and his partner were working a case, I’d help him by reading files and reviewing surveillance tapes on my nights off. And because I wasn’t scared of shit, I’d sometimes wear a wire and compel people to tell the truth and admit their crime.

  The Seattle Vigilante never made a reappearance or came forward, and soon enough, people forgot all about me.

  2013 – Still in Seattle

  In the ten years that Martin was a cop, he’d made it all the way to Lieutenant. His case solving record was impeccable—given my help.

  But now my ten years in Seattle were up.

  “Work on one more case before you leave,” he begged.

  We were sitting in chairs on his deck in his backyard, drinking two fingers of a whiskey we’d just discovered, O’Bannion Burn, while his wife and two daughters slept. The oldest was almost ten, and the youngest was five. I was still working at Hope Haven but had given my thirty-day notice three weeks ago. It was time to make my move, so I’d rented a temporary apartment in Anchorage until I was able to find a job and then move into a more permanent place.

  “You think I can solve a case in a week?” In the years we’d been working together it had happened, but it wasn’t the norm.

  “I’m not sure, but I need you to do this for me.”

  I smirked and took a sip of the amber liquid. “You’ve asked a lot of me in the last ten years.”

  Martin chuckled low. “Your dad would be proud though.” I had told him my story about turning and how I’d had to kill my family. Martin was right, my father would be proud that I’d become a doctor and that my best friend was the best cop in the city.

  We were silent for a moment. “Your mom would be proud of you too,” I finally said.

  He nodded. “That’s what I want your help with.”

  I tilted my head slightly toward him. “Excuse me?”

  “The last case I want you to look into is my mother’s death.”

  “Mart—”

  “I know what you’re going to say, that the case is twenty-five years old, but I need this, D. I’d hate myself if you left without at least looking at the file.”

  “I don’t want to let you down.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  We were silent again, both sipping our whiskey until I finally agreed. “Fine. Bring me the file tomorrow night, but if I can’t solve this for you, I don’t want to see you cry.”

  Martin chuckled. “I’m going to cry regardless. My best friend is leaving.”

  “I can turn you, and then you can go on the run with me,” I joked.

  “No thanks. I plan to be Chief one day.”

  True to his word, Martin brought his mother’s cold case to my apartment after my shift the next night. After I showered, I decided to dig into the box to review everything there was about the case.

  I took each item out, piece by piece, reading and examining each thing. First was an evidence bag that contained a cigarette butt. Martin had told me that he’d sent it to the lab after he became a detective to test the saliva, but there was no hit.

  Next was another evidence bag that contained a small black piece of leather. I pulled it out of the clear bag, noticing a drop of blood on one side. Again, Martin had sent it to the lab with no hits. Before placing the leather back in the bag, I sniffed the blood. Every human had their own scent just like fingerprints. It went deeper than the oils of one’s skin, so much so that everyone’s blood had a different aroma. To the human nose, all blood smelled like copper or iron, a metallic odor, but a vampire could tell you if it was sweet, salty, fruity, whatever. And when I smelled the blood on the piece of leather, I smelled copper with a hint of nicotine and blue cheese—a strange combination.

  Other than those two evidence bags, there was nothing else. No prints or hairs left behind except his mother’s, and Martin couldn’t pick anyone out of a lineup when he was six.

  Next, I took out the report by the detective that was assigned to the case. After reading it, I listened to Martin’s taped interview. “Hey, buddy. I’m Detective Buckley, and this is Detective Roberts. We want to ask you a few questions about what happened tonight.”

  “Okay.” I smiled as I heard six-year-old little Marty speak.

  “Do you know who was in your house tonight besides you and your mom?”

  There was a brief pause.

  “You need to speak out loud. Okay, Martin?” another voice asked.

  “‘K.”

  The first detective repeated his question. “Do you know the men who were in your house tonight?”

  Martin replied, “No.”

  “How many were there?”

  “Two.”

  “And you’ve never seen them before?”

  “No.”

  “What did they do when they came in? Did they knock before?”

  “No. Mommy was reading to me, and then we heard a loud crash.”

  “Do you know what the noise was?”

  “No.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “Mommy told me to hide in the closet.”

  “And did you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember what happened next?”

  There was another pause, and then Martin spoke, “I heard my mommy scream, and then she ran back into my room.”

  “How do you know she ran back into the room if you were in the closet?”

  “I was looking through the cracks in the door and saw her.”

  “Okay. And then what happened?”

  “She was trying to close the door, but it wouldn’t close, and then she wrestled with a man and then I saw blood.”

  I stopped the tape, not needing to listen to it further. Martin’s mother’s throat was slashed, and the police report noted they couldn’t tell if anything was stolen. There was no sexual evidence either. The cops believed that it was supposed to be a home invasion, but before they could steal anything, a neighbor knocked on the front door because he heard my mother screaming. The report stated that the suspects fled through a back door, and that no one except Martin had seen their faces.

  The report also indicated that they believe she was killed because they weren’t wearing masks and more than likely didn’t want to leave anyone around that could pick them out of a lineup. There was a sketch done of what Martin had told the police, but after two years of no leads, the case went cold.

  There wasn’t much to go on in the file, but I didn’t want to let my friend down, so I figured I’d give it a try. The next few mornings after my shift, I went to known areas of town where gangs, drug dealers, and hookers roamed the streets. None of them were of age to have done the crimes, but it didn’t stop me from asking and compelling people before I left. The case was colder than my undead body, and I wasn’t looking forward to having to tell Martin I’d failed him.

  My last night at Hope Haven, the staff had a cake for me and a going away party. I ate the cake, appeasing everyone, and then once my shift was over, I went home. I had no belongings other than my clothing. I always rented a furnished apartment knowing I couldn’t take anything with me when I left. Most of the clothes I’d acquired during my time in Seattle, I packed up and made a note for Martin to donate to a charity. I was only taking one suitcase with me.

  My last night in Seattle, Martin and I met for drinks right after nightfall. Two drinks later, I finally broke the news to him that I couldn’t solve his mom’s murder.

  “I think it’s good I’m leaving,” I stated.

&nb
sp; “What? Why?”

  I took a sip of my O’Bannion Burn whiskey. “I got nothing on your mom’s case.”

  Martin sighed and nodded. “Kinda hard when there’s barely any evidence, and I was only six.”

  “I’m sorry.” I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “If I had more time then maybe.”

  “You don’t have to leave.”

  “I do.”

  “If Renzo hasn’t found you by now, why do you think he ever would?”

  “I don’t think he’s looking for me, but it’s better I don’t settle in one place. Plus, we already talked about my aging.”

  “Right.” Martin nodded. “Would you be willing to come back and help me for the next ten years? I’ll probably retire before you move again.”

  “Come back?”

  “Just for a weekend every month or something. You can stay in my basement. Marcy and the girls are going to miss you too, so you know you need to come visit.”

  I smirked. “And you’ll miss me.”

  “And me, you jackass.” He leaned forward and stared into my eyes. “Now agree you’ll come back once a month to help me.”

  I grinned slowly. “Were you pretending to compel me?”

  Martin laughed. “Yeah. Did it work?”

  I took another sip of my whiskey and thought for a moment. “Yeah, it worked.”

  For the next few hours, Martin got shitfaced. I didn’t blame him. His job was hard, and he was letting off steam. Before we left the bar, I called his wife and told her that I was taking him to my place for the night and it was probably best he didn’t take a taxi home and be drunk in front of his girls. Marcy agreed and wished me farewell, and I assured her I’d come back monthly to see them.

  “Time to go,” I said, sliding off the stool. Martin followed, but stumbled and I reached for him, using my strength to steady him. “Do I need to carry you?”

  “Would you?” he slurred.

  I groaned and lifted him slightly off the ground as we exited the bar.

  “You’re really strong.”

  I shook my head in amusement. “You know this.”