Fuck.
If any entire fucking town is going on about a damn vampire draining a priest I’m going to have the Varcolacus coming to town. They might overlook me being at a hospital that got raided by a greedy thief but this?
Not gonna happen.
Twice is more than enough for them to know who and exactly what I am. All my careful living, all the work to stay under the radar and unconnected to Rosanna, is going to go down the tubes when they come to Vesper Point. It’s not like they don’t know I’m a vampire. Of course they do but to them, I’m just a normal, random vampire. Not one connected to the vampire they’ve currently got on trial. Even though I didn’t help Rosanna, it won’t matter. To them, I’m guilty and guilty is a fast track to the Final Death.
I’m not dying now that I found Maris.
Speak of the devil, the second I think her name I see her. Her dark hair is a beacon in the wash of barely there humans. No one else compares to her. She’s in full color and the rest of them are background props. I see no one but her.
Maris is off to the side with one of her reporters. She has a notepad and recorder in her hands, and whatever she’s telling the reporter is serious to her. I say serious to her because the reporter doesn’t look like they’re going to fall in line. Maris rolls her eyes and goes back to what she’s doing, which from the look of her is eavesdropping. A second later, I see Maris jerk in surprise. Whatever she’s heard has her on high alert. What is she listening for? I start to make my way through the crowd towards her and the room falls into a hush when the Sheriff emerges to address the public. I’m only half paying attention to what he’s saying but I’m tuned in enough to stop moving and bow my head with the rest of the room but the second I hear ‘Amen’ I’m back to making my way to Maris.
“Now, first and foremost I want to let you all know that we are working diligently and without ceasing to find the culprit in Father Paretti’s murder.”
Those are the words I hear before there’s a scream. It’s high, blood-curling, full of rage. I turn with everyone else to see a woman screaming and pointing.
“You did it!I know you did it!”
What the ever loving fuck is this woman screaming about? Who is she screaming at? The woman is older, in her fifties with ashy blonde hair and watery blue eyes. Her eyes are rimmed red, face splotchy and I swear to god when she lurches forward with a sob I can smell her from here.
Anyone can tell she’s been drinking and crying for hours.
“You killed him. You’re wrong, fucking cursed you death bitch! Everything fucking dies because of you. You took him!” She lurches forward, finger still pointing as she keeps screaming. “I s-saw you!”
Everyone is just as confused as I am and the Sheriff does his best to bring order back to his press conference. “Mrs. Sheep, Aria, now, I think you’re just tired. Can someone get her some water and take her somewhere to rest?”
“More like a coffee and a detox tank,” a man near me mutters. He shakes his head and watches as Mrs. Sheep continues forward in her drunken march.
“Takemeout of here? She’s the murderer. You know she did it. She killed my Mike and she killed him!”
Wait a fucking second. Mike…Sheep. Mrs. Fucking Sheep?
Realization clicks in me when I understand who she is. Godfuckingdamnit. What did this bitch see? I look back towards Maris, the whole fucking room does in one coordinated movement and I watch as the woman I’m fated to lifts her chin and stares everyone down.
That’s my fucking woman.
“She’s a murderer you know. She killed poor Mike Sheep and everyone knows it.”
So Mrs. Sheep is a drunk. Not surprising. Grief does a number on people, but for all I know this screaming bitch was a drunk before her husband was murdered. She was married to the kind of man that would break into a defenseless woman’s home.
“And Mike blamed your father?”
“He blamed my family. That’s why he came to our house that night even though he knew he wouldn’t find anyone but me. How could he? Everyone else is dead, right? There was never going to be anyone there to stop him but me. He came for me.”
The Sheriff puts his hand over the mic in front of him but I still hear him. “Someone get her out of here.”
“I know you did it, you bitch!”
Who the fuck is this woman talking about? Father Paretti or her worthless son? I can’t tell yet and neither can anyone else, mostly because they don’t know about her son rotting in the ground with his head beat in but…details.
I stop trying to be gentle about getting to Maris and begin to move people out of my way with my strength. All it takes is a few people stumbling before they start to get out of my way. Smart humans.
“She’s a murderer!” The woman screams.
“And you’re a drunk,” Maris says.
Everyone in the room practically turns to stone when Maris speaks.
