Karson showed as much emotion at the images as stone. He handed the folders to Monique and Michael.
“That’s a vampire’s work alright,” Michael agreed.
“Rather brutal and very messy work,” Monique said, like she was discussing a kitchen after cooking. She passed the folders back to Lester.
“If you didn’t turn her, then who the fuck did?” Lester snapped.
“I can assure you I will find out, and I will dispose of both the cause and the vampire. How do you know who the vampire is?” Karson asked.
Lester sighed and his shoulders slumped. “She has two young kids. They were found in a neighbor’s yard. They were soterrified they’ve hardly spoken since. But the boy drew this.” He pulled out an image and handed it to Karson. It was of a woman, her eyes colored in black, blood running down her chin, with fangs the size of small spears.
“The little girl kept murmuringMommy. We thought she was calling for her at first, but when we showed her the picture her brother drew, she said, ‘Mommy.’ The neighbor’s throat was ripped out, and her dog’s skull was crushed. The kids’ mother is Leah Parker, a twenty-four-year-old drug addict. Both her mother and stepfather were found last night with their heads torn off and placed on the porch of a man who served time a few years back for pedophilia. It doesn’t take much to work out she was probably abused and got revenge.”
The news horrified me. “Did she hurt the children?”
There was a heaviness in his eyes and his face seemed to age before me. “She dug her claws into the little boy’s arm, he needed stiches, and he broke a toe, but they were lucky. Other neighbors came out and scared her off.”
“Give us the address. We will go and pick up her scent. We will find and dispatch her,” Karson stated.
I cringed and turned to him. “Does she have to die?”
“What else would you have us do with her?”
I knew the hardship of growing up without a mother, knew the sense of loneliness, knew the cost of not having someone who loved you to protect you or be there to celebrate your wins.
“She’s the children’s mother,” I said quietly. “Don’t you think they need their mother?”
“She’s a new vampire, Amy,” Michael said with a grim look. “New vampires can take quite a bit of time before they can control the urge to feed. The children will not be safe. Even if she loves them, one moment of weakness and they will be dead.”
Lester handed another picture to Karson. “This is the last picture we have of her taken about six months ago when shewas done for prostitution. She sells herself to pay for her drugs. Stayed out of jail because of her children, and she’s been in and out of rehab, but every time she gets clean, she falls back off the wagon.”
Monique’s lips pursed in disgust. “Not exactly an ideal candidate for a vampire.” As if that was more intolerable to her than what she had done.
“You have issues,” I said.
Her lips pulled into a tight line. “As do you.”
“If you left, it would solve one of them.”
“Alright, you two, we need to work together right now,” Michael said, his eyes burning between us.
I moved over to look at Leah’s picture. She looked every part the drug addict—thin, straggly, badly dyed yellow hair with an inch thick of dark regrowth. Shallow skin, acne on her face, eyes that stared into the camera with a hostile look, but down in the depths her eyes looked haunted.
“They’ve got a lot of manpower on this,” Lester said. “There are talks of a serial killer, but they’re keeping it under wraps for the moment. The press only know about a bit of it. They think it’s the result of a drug war. But if they smell something else and it gets leaked to the public that some maniac is ripping people’s throats out and draining their bodies of blood, there will be panic and a full-scale investigation.”
“As I said, I will sort it and whoever is responsible for turning her,” Karson answered. “Have I ever let you down before?”
Lester flicked his eyes to a painting on the wall, of a naked woman seductively draped across the floor. There was another woman in the back corner cradled by a man, her head tilted up and his lips at her neck. “I can’t keep covering up your kind’s shit. Technology is so much better these days and surveillance is everywhere. Jesus, Karson. If push comes to shove, I can’t protect you anymore.”
A shadow cemented on Karson’s features and his voice came out low. “Perhaps you forget, Lester, what I have done for you and what I am capable of?”
If Lester was uncomfortable with the threat, he didn’t show it. “The address is in here.” He handed one file back. “Let me know when it’s done. It was nice to meet you, Amy. Keep yourself safe.” He threw a pointed warning look to Karson then thumped out of the door.
“You too, Lester,” I called out behind him.
The atmosphere was decidedly heavy as we contemplated it all. I waited until Lester drove off before I spoke. “Sarah, is she here?”
“Doubtful,” Monique responded. “But I will call Ethan for an update.” She grabbed her phone and stepped out of earshot.
