The Vampire Shrink

CHAPTER 14

‘Dr Knight? I’m Detective Robles and this is my partner, Detective Nyland – we met at the station earlier. We have a few more questions for you, and the forensics team is sending someone by to pick up the clothes you were wearing last night. Do you have them bagged and ready?’

‘Almost. I’ll get them.’ I pointed. ‘Why don’t you go into the living room and have a seat. Just give me few minutes.’

I returned to my bedroom, peeled off my comfortable pink robe, put on fresh underwear, and stood in front of the closet, trying to decide what would be appropriate dress for a police interview. I rifled through my professional clothes and debated whether a skirt or trousers would be better. Then I stopped and shook my head. Who was I trying to impress? The cops had seen me covered in blood and gore and smelling like an outhouse. I pulled one of my new sweat-suits off the hanger and slipped it on.

It occurred to me to run a brush through my hair, but it had already dried in long curls and sometimes it was better to leave well enough alone, otherwise all the curl would turn into frizz.

I listened for a few seconds and couldn’t hear the shower running in the bathroom so I approached the door and knocked lightly. ‘Alan?’

‘Yeah. Come on in.’

He sat naked on the edge of the bathtub, in the pose of that famous statue The Thinker.

Something about the incongruity of the situation made me laugh out loud.

He snorted. ‘I’m glad someone thinks anything about this day is funny.’

I walked over, knelt down in front of him, and took his face in my hands. ‘I’m sorry we got interrupted before. It was wonderful. You were wonderful. I’m upset you had to finish without me.’

He grinned. ‘You might not have been in the bathroom with me, but – trust me – you were there.’

I shifted forwards and kissed his warm lips. ‘Can I have a rain check?’

‘You have a standing invitation.’ He pulled me in for another kiss. ‘I hate to change such a titillating subject but I assume the locals have come to collect your clothes. Before I got back into the shower I went through the pockets, retrieved everything and tucked your filthy duds into that yellow bag there.’ He pointed and shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, I should’ve been more careful when I was enthusiastically tearing off my clothes to join you in the tub, because my brand new Fruit of the Looms wound up getting tossed on top of a really nasty chunk of something on your jeans and they’re trashed. There’s probably nothing on my clothes that the lab won’t get from yours, and I’d really prefer to keep the locals out of our personal business – it would only raise questions neither of us wants to answer. When the officers leave I’ll use your washing machine, if you don’t mind. Otherwise I won’t have any clothes to put on.’

A tantalising visual formed in my brain. ‘Wow. That raises all sorts of interesting possibilities. A stranded naked man in my house, at my mercy. Who said dreams don’t come true?’ I laughed. ‘My appliances are at your disposal. It’s the least I can do.’ I waggled my eyebrows at him.

‘It might be the least you can do, but it isn’t all you can do . . .’

I grinned at him. ‘We’ll have to talk about that later. I’d better get back downstairs.’ I kissed him again, retrieved the sack and closed the door.

The detectives stood when I entered the room and I handed over the yellow bag. It resembled one of those biohazard containers from a disaster movie – an eye-searing slap of colour. All it needed was a skull and crossbones.

‘Why don’t I make us some coffee? Come on into the kitchen while I grind the beans.’

They accepted my offer and followed me into the kitchen. A few minutes later, a woman from the forensics team joined us and we all drank while the detectives asked me the same questions they’d asked earlier. I had little to add to my original statement and in less than a half-hour I was showing them out.

I walked them to the door and paused with my hand on the knob. ‘Thank you for being so kind to me today and for coming over here to pick up the clothing.’

‘Just doing our job. Your Mr Devereux can be very persuasive.’

Huh?

‘My Mr Devereux?’

The detectives stole a quick glance at each other. ‘Yes. It was at his request that the chief bent the rules for you. They seem to have an . . . unusual relationship. Mr Devereux is a very influential man. By the way, you’ve got quite a bit of company out there. You might want to—’

I opened the door and was immediately overwhelmed by voices screaming questions, bright lights shining in my eyes and cameras thrust in my face. Even knowing I’d be the focus of attention, however briefly, hadn’t prepared me for the reality of finding my front lawn filled with aggressive strangers who were competing to record my moment of infamy.

The street in front of my townhouse was lined with police cars as well as television news vans. Neighbours I hadn’t had the chance to meet yet filled the perimeter.

And I really can’t believe I left my door unlocked and forgot the media would be arriving. Something is definitely wrong with my brain.

The detectives took charge of the situation and strode down the path, reminding all the reporters that they were trespassing on private property.

I closed the door and pressed my weight against it. I’d learned my lesson. This time I made sure all the locks were securely engaged and the alarm was on. I didn’t want any more private experiences thwarted by unexpected company.

After giving the detectives a couple of minutes to disperse the crowd, I peeked through the slightly raised slat of a blind and saw several uniformed police officers herding the reporters back towards the street. I hoped the media would lose interest in me before Monday because I had a full client schedule and I wasn’t willing for my life to get any more out of control. Besides, what was I supposed to tell them? I had no idea what happened to me and I couldn’t break confidentiality.

I cringed as I thought about Nancy’s reaction to my situation. If she thought my writing a book about vampires was bad, I could only imagine how she was dealing with this insanity. I’d call her as soon as possible.

And what was that about Devereux? A relationship with the police chief? The thought of him reminded me of the violent scene I’d witnessed in the basement of The Crypt. It also reminded me of my overwhelming desire to crawl into his lap. Both those memories felt like they’d happened in another life. I didn’t know whether to be disgusted with myself for letting my raging hormones get me into so much trouble, or be grateful that my long dry spell with men might be over.

But he’s a vampire.

I decided all that was too much to deal with and I’d think about it later. Yeah. Me and Scarlett O’Hara. I might get tossed out of the Psychologists’ Club for saying this, but a little denial never hurt anyone.

When in shock, keep busy.

‘Hey,’ I stood at the bottom of the stairs, ‘they’re gone. You can come down now. There’s coffee.’

I returned to the kitchen to forage for snacks to serve with the coffee and then picked up the phone to check messages. I had no personal messages on my home phone, but when I dialled my business voicemail, a synthetic voice from the phone company notified me that my message queue was full and I’d need to delete some before I could receive any more.

The first few messages played and I saved them if they were from clients or potential clients. I deleted the ones from media outlets, and then heard the sweetly sensual voice of Vaughan the chiropractor saying something about our dinner date tonight.

‘Kismet? This is Vaughan. About our date tonight. I heard your story on the news this morning – I hope you’re okay. It sounded like a miserable experience. What a terrible thing. Anyway, I’m sure you want time to yourself, so we can postpone our dinner. Would you mind giving me a call later when you can, just so I can be sure you’re safe and well? I’ll talk to you soon.’

Shit!

I’d totally forgotten about Vaughan. It felt like weeks since I’d made the date – back when there were no men on the horizon, before Devereux did whatever he’d done to me – and now I couldn’t even imagine keeping it. I didn’t feel remotely like the same person any more. I wrote a note on the whiteboard on my kitchen wall to remind myself to call him.

I heard the sound of bare feet padding into the kitchen and turned, expecting to find a luscious naked man, and instead burst out laughing. Alan had rooted around in my closet and found an old pair of torn pink sweatsuit bottoms that rode up to his mid-calf and fit him like a second skin, and a very small, tight T-shirt that said ‘Woman Power!’ Even though he should’ve looked ludicrous, it was all I could do to keep myself from leaping on him and finishing what we’d started earlier.

He apparently enjoyed my reaction and strutted around in a circle so I could see all sides of the spectacular presentation.

‘I didn’t want to put on anything that I might stretch out and ruin, and I figured you probably weren’t too attached to these. Besides,’ he said, laughing, ‘I look great in pink, and it takes a real man to be able to say that.’

‘I think you probably look great in anything.’ Not to mention in nothing.

‘Thank you.’ He gave a slow blink and sauntered over, his face serious. ‘I believe you mean that.’

The close proximity of his body and the sudden shift in intensity surprised me and I felt myself melting into a puddle on the floor. I leaned against the counter and cleared my throat. ‘Of course I do.’

We stared at each other for a moment, then I forced my gaze away. As delicious as it would have been to return to my bedroom and spend the rest of the evening exploring each other’s erogenous zones, the shock and confusion of the morning had worn off and fatigue was setting in. It was time to face all the realities I didn’t want to think about.

My stomach growled. ‘Are you as hungry as I am?’

He grinned.

‘For food, I mean?’

‘Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Shall we have something delivered? What’ll it be? Pizza? Chinese? Mexican? Lady’s choice.’

‘How will the delivery person get through that horde of reporters out there?’

‘I’ll call in and request a police escort to the front door,’ he said.

We negotiated the food and I went into the living room to collapse on the couch while Alan performed the phone duties.

‘I’m going to put my filthy clothes in the washing machine, then we need to talk,’ he said. ‘Something traumatic happened to you last night. Obviously you didn’t disappear of your own volition and I want to hear every detail you can remember, no matter how inconsequential.’ He hesitated for a few seconds. ‘And I have something to tell you.’

The tone of his voice indicated I wasn’t going to like his news, so, being my usual impatient self, I abandoned the couch and followed him into the laundry room.

‘What do you have to tell me?’

‘Hold on a minute.’

I drummed my fingers on the counter while he loaded the washer. ‘Hurry up.’

He shook his head and grinned. ‘Such a control freak. Come on, let’s go back into the living room.’ He grabbed my hand, pulled me to the couch and we sat.

I didn’t say out loud that I thought we had control-freak characteristics in common. Instead, I sighed impatiently. ‘So? You’re starting to make me nervous. Did something bad happen? I mean, something in addition to what happened to me?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Something bad happened. Do you remember the call I got last night at the club? The one about another body being found?’

‘I remember.’

‘The body they found was Emerald Addison’s.’

All the air leaked out of me like a punctured balloon and I sagged back into the couch cushions, speechless.

‘I’m sorry.’ He patted my hand. ‘This must be hard to hear. She was your client.’

I still didn’t correct him. ‘What happened to her?’

‘She was found in the alley behind an apartment building in Capitol Hill. The report said she had a friend living there named Eric Weiss. Her body was drained of blood, same as the others. It was a vampire attack, although the locals aren’t seriously considering that angle.’

I stared at the wall in silence. Poor little Emerald. I wished she really had been my client so I’d have more memories of her than just our brief trip to the hospital. I wondered if Midnight and Ronald had been notified and how they were coping. If they’d heard about my situation, they were probably worried about me, too.

I jumped up and hurried to my desk, intending to search for my briefcase and my current client files.

Alan stood, looking alarmed. ‘What’s happening? What’re you doing?’

‘I’ve got to call a couple of my clients, friends of Emerald’s – you saw them with me at the hospital. They must be feeling terrible.’

I sat at my desk, located their phone numbers, called and got their answering machines. I left messages giving them my cell phone number and asking them to return the call, no matter what time they got my message. I had to do something to help and I hoped someone would give me a clue as to what that might be.

Alan walked around behind my chair and rubbed my shoulders. ‘Do you want to talk more about Emerald, or are you ready to tell me what happened to you last night?’

‘Both, I think.’

He swivelled my chair around until I faced him, took my hands and guided me up from the chair and back over to the couch.

I studied him, searching for answers in his eyes. ‘You said Emerald was killed by vampires. Do you really believe that? Are you telling me the truth? There really are vampires?’ Devereux is really a vampire? I made one more feeble attempt at denial. I didn’t want to believe, but that boat had sailed. I knew what I’d seen in the basement of The Crypt.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I’m telling you the truth. Nothing in my background, education, or training prepared me to believe vampires really exist, but that’s what I discovered. Beyond any reasonable doubt. For some reason I don’t understand yet, more of the mindless, demented vampires are showing up in Denver.’

None of that made any sense to me. ‘Why is this happening all of a sudden? Has Denver had other murders in the past where the victims were drained of blood?’

‘According to my research, there have been sporadic deaths attributed to massive blood loss, but they were few and far between. It makes sense, because there’ve always been vampires, and some of them would have been the type who needed to kill. The death toll only became significant over the last few months.’ He picked up our coffee mugs, refilled them in the kitchen, and brought them back. The pink sweatsuit bottoms were almost glued to his skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. The view, coming and going, was distracting, but then I remembered what we were talking about.

‘Why Emerald?’

‘That I don’t know. But I promise you, I’ll find out. Now, tell me – what happened to you last night?’

He stretched out his long pink-encased legs and crossed his ankles on the coffee table. I curled up, my legs tucked underneath me, at the end of the couch.

‘Well, after I saw you in the club and we split up to find Tom . . . Hey!’ I sat up straight. ‘That reminds me – you lied to me. You said you were going to help me search for him and then I saw you charge through the doorway to the basement. How am I supposed to trust you if you lie to me? And how do I know you’re not lying about other stuff?’

He studied the carpet and shook his head. ‘Spank me, I’ve been bad.’ He shifted his eyes to gaze up at me from under his unfairly long eyelashes and grinned. ‘I’m sorry I lied to you. But you need to know this about me: I’m dedicated to my work and it wasn’t even in the realm of possibility that I’d go off searching for Tom instead of finding out what was happening with the vampires downstairs. It’s part of the job description of being the kind of obsessive-compulsive I am.’

I frowned at him and relaxed back into the cushions, but had to admit to myself that I did understand what he meant. Having a curious mind had landed me into more sticky situations than I could count.

‘What was going on with the vampires downstairs? Why were they fighting? From what I saw, it was about to turn into a bloodbath. Talk about Night of the Living Dead.’

He scooted excitedly to the edge of the cushion, eager to share.

‘By the time I got there, the chaos had started to wind down and the interlopers were gone. From what I could gather, some vampires are challenging Devereux’s rule of the coven. Bryce, the one we talked about before, is determined to take Devereux down. It seems very personal to him – the two of them definitely have unfinished business. He and his followers threatened the club manager, knowing it would piss Devereux off, and the fun began. The room was one unholy mess after the combat ended.’

‘Yeah.’ I grimaced. ‘I saw some of the body fluids oozing out from the doorway.’

He motioned with his cup. ‘Vampire bodies heal very quickly, so even the worst injuries repaired themselves within minutes. If it hadn’t been for the blood everywhere, you wouldn’t have known a vampire war was being waged.’

‘What did you do? Just run in and start swinging? Do you have a death wish?’

‘No.’ He laughed. ‘I’m adventurous. I’m courageous. I’m relentless. But I’m not stupid. Besides, I’d found out from my vampire source Ian – Deep Fang, I call him, you know, like the Watergate informer – that when a vamp loses blood, the first thing he does is seek a donor. I didn’t want to be anyone’s dinner, so I kept my distance until Devereux was alone in the room.’

A little energy rush charged through my body. ‘You talked to Devereux?’

As Alan started to answer, the doorbell rang. I walked over and peered through the peephole to make sure the visitor was welcome company. It was more than welcome. It was food – police-escorted food. I cracked the door, and was slammed by a wall of noise as hordes of reporters shouted questions from the road. I quickly handed over enough money to cover the bill plus a generous tip and reached out to grab the bag. I offered my thanks, then closed and relocked the door. I carried the large sack of Chinese food to the kitchen table.

‘Do you want to wait on the rest of the story until you’ve eaten, or can you continue?’ Alan asked.

The smell of the food was driving me mad and I moved around the kitchen in a blur, gathering plates, glasses and utensils. ‘I’ll bet I can eat and talk at the same time. Wow. You ordered lots.’

‘Oh, did you want something, too?’ He laughed.

‘Very funny.’

I opened a new bottle of wine and poured some into each of our glasses, then we sat at the table and dived into the feast. Neither of us gained any points for table manners during the meal. The food was glorious and we ate with silent enthusiasm for a few minutes. There’s nothing like stress and hunger to cause us to revisit our primitive roots.

For some reason I suddenly thought about the fact that vampires didn’t eat food. I wouldn’t ever be sitting at the table sharing a meal with Devereux. At least not any meal I could force myself to contemplate. Unless, of course, we’d all gone mad or there were hallucinogens in the water supply, and none of this had really happened.

I paused in the food-shovelling process and sipped my wine. ‘You spoke to Devereux? What did you talk about?’

Alan had already cleaned up his first helping and was reaching for reinforcements.

‘It was strange, actually. He was in the middle of telling me about his long-standing rivalry with Bryce and all of a sudden he stopped talking and closed his eyes. Then he said, “She is gone – he has taken her.” I started to ask who was gone, and who “he” was, but before I could get the words out, Devereux vanished.’

‘You mean he left the room?’ I claimed seconds on the egg rolls.

‘No. He literally vanished. Vampires aren’t bound by the same limitations of time and space as we humans are. They can move through both with just a thought.’

‘I don’t understand what you mean. Physical matter has certain unarguable limitations – flesh-and-blood bodies can’t just disappear from one place and rearrange their molecules in another. We haven’t caught up with Star Trek yet.’ Although I had seen Devereux and Bryce levitating. That was definitely strange.

Alan polished off his second helping and went for the championship round, adding an impressive third layer to the sustenance already on its way down to his deceptively flat stomach.

‘Devereux would say there are limitations if you believe there are. But I’ve seen him vanish and reappear so many times that I don’t have any problem accepting that vampires can travel by thought, not only in this dimension but in all the others.’

I pushed my plate away, finally satiated.

‘Other dimensions? You know, every time we talk your stories get weirder and weirder. Are you going to tell me next that the vampires are really aliens, preparing to take over the Earth? Or maybe they’re controlling us with their minds, and we’ll be herded into holding pens – walking blood receptacles – to wait for an impending undead feeding frenzy?’

‘No.’ He chuckled. ‘I’m not going to tell you any of that, but you have to admit they’d be interesting hypotheses to pursue. I’ll make a note of them. Shall I continue telling you about Devereux, or would you rather make fun of my proclivities?’

‘Oh, by all means, please continue.’ I raised my wineglass in his direction.

‘Anyway, after he vanished I went back upstairs and then outside, looking for you. Of course, you weren’t there, but I found Devereux leaning against the building about a half-block down from the entrance to the club. He was just standing there with his eyes closed and when I approached he said, “The one who has her is not only evil, but he is also insane. His mind is splintered and he is more animal than vampire.”’ Alan had altered his voice, imitating Devereux’s accent and unique speech patterns. ‘At that point I still didn’t even know who he was talking about. He said, “I am linked with her mind so I should be able to sense her, but he has done something to mask her energy signature. He has overwhelmed her mind with his and is keeping us from communicating with each other. I have met few others powerful enough to do that. She is in great danger. She must be found.”’

I appreciated his clever Devereux impersonation and shook my head. ‘You actually remember what he said, word for word? That’s quite the memory you have there, Special Agent Stevens.’

‘Yes, it does come in handy. I have the auditory equivalent of a photographic memory. Remember that in case you tell me something and then say you didn’t.’

‘Okay.’ I reached out and patted his arm. ‘I’ll remember that. Then what happened?’

We returned to the living room and reestablished ourselves on the couch.

He cleared his throat. ‘A whole lot of nothing. Devereux vanished again and I went back into the club to search for you. I still thought you were in there somewhere. Just so you know, I kept an eye out for Tom too, but I never saw him. I ran into Devereux’s personal assistant, a snarly vamp named Luna, and I asked if she’d seen you. She said she couldn’t believe so many people were interested in one ordinary human and that Devereux was so beside himself that you’d been taken. That was the first time I realised they were talking about you.’

‘I’m surprised Luna even deigned to acknowledge my existence.’

‘She is a charmer.’ He reached over and stroked my leg. ‘I didn’t want to believe you were missing – I’m stubborn that way – so I kept looking in the club and giving people your description and asking if they’d seen you. Finally, I drove back to the cop shop to see if there’d been any reports. I knew they wouldn’t put out a missing-person report that soon, but I was rattling cages as much as I could. Turns out I didn’t need to. A couple of hours later, the chief showed up in person and ordered that you be made top priority. All available units went out on the street, searching for you, then they alerted the media. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I still don’t know what happened to get the chief riled up.’

‘I was told Devereux called the chief.’

‘Devereux? What would Devereux have to do with the police chief—?’ He paused. ‘Of course – I should’ve remembered. So much for my famous tape-recorder memory, eh? During one of our discussions, Devereux told me he’d used his ability to control minds to create relationships with several powerful people in town, people who could “smooth away any difficulties”, as he put it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It makes perfect sense now. He simply called the chief, suggested he rally the troops and that’s all it took. No one would question it, and the chief would always think it was his own idea. Ingenious, really.’

‘Are you saying Devereux used mind control on the police chief?’

‘Yep. The chief and a few other highly placed cops.’

‘Doesn’t it bother you that Devereux manipulated the police? What if he uses mind control on you?’

He grinned. ‘I have a healthy respect for his abilities – he’s the most powerful vampire I’ve ever run across. It might be worth it to let him take over my mind for a little while, just to see how that feels. You have to admit, it got the job done. The cops found you.’

‘Actually, I found the cops. But I’ll have to thank Devereux the next time I see him.’

And why does thinking about seeing him feel good and bad at the same time?

‘Okay, stop stalling. Tell me what happened to you last night.’

I rearranged myself on the cushions. ‘I’m not stalling.’ Yes, I am. ‘There really isn’t much to tell. I went outside to wait for Tom – or you – and walked down the block and rested against the building. I suddenly had an overwhelming bad feeling, instant terror, and heard a grotesque voice calling me. I couldn’t tell if the voice was coming from outside of me or inside my mind. It was like fingernails on the blackboard from hell times a thousand. The voice kept telling me to come to it. I remember thinking I just needed to stay where I was and everything would be fine. That I could just ignore it. That’s the last thing I recall until I woke up this morning in the cemetery.’

I told him everything about the mausoleum, the coffin I’d awakened in, the dead bodies, and my encounter with the police. He sat silently while I spoke, shaking his head.

‘I’ve had some horrible experiences since I joined the FBI, but none of them comes close to being worse than what you just told me. Now I’m really sorry I was such an asshole when you came home.’

‘Apology accepted. We were both stressed out. I’m glad it’s over. Well, except for the media fallout. I guess I can’t avoid it any longer. Go ahead and tell me – how bad is it? What did they say about me on TV?’

‘Pretty much what you’d expect.’ He grinned. ‘They played up all the occult aspects and continually referred to you as the Vampire Psychologist, with accompanying snickers. I think you’ll have to make a statement when you feel up to it – they’re not going away until you talk to them. I imagine this isn’t the direction you envisioned your career moving?’

‘No,’ I said, frowning. ‘I guess I’m a laughingstock now.’

He stared at me for a few seconds. ‘I’m going to borrow your therapist hat for a moment and mention something you’re working hard to ignore. You’ve been through a lot of bad shit in a short period of time and you’re probably still in shock. It’s okay for you to admit you’re not doing very well, if that’s true. What would you tell a client who was trying to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of so much insanity?’

I heaved a heavy sigh and my shoulders sagged. ‘I’d say it was only delaying the inevitable.’ I sat silently, studying his concerned expression. My vision swam as tears gathered in my eyes. ‘It was horrible. I was so afraid when I woke up in that terrible place this morning. I’m still afraid. Not remembering what happened makes me doubt myself. Everything has been out of control for days. I don’t know who I am any more. I don’t know what’s real—’

Alan reached for me. Suddenly there was a popping sound accompanied by a slight breeze, and Devereux materialised in the middle of my living room.