"What the...?" Kenzie started to ask, but Isaiah was already gone. So she jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see what was going on. She did see some movement but it was hard to tell exactly what was happening. Against her better judgment, she found herself throwing on shoes and a jacket, grabbing her cell phone, and running downstairs.
By the time she rode down the elevator and exited out the main hotel doors, Isaiah had two people, one in each hand, pinned to the ground. A woman was fleeing in the distance, and there was a man on the ground.
Upon seeing Kenzie Isaiah said, "Quick, get a tourniquet for that man's wound!"
Kenzie took her jacket off and ran to the man on the ground. She saw that he wasn't dead, but bleeding profusely from the neck. Two puncture marks were letting the blood escape.
Kenzie propped the man's head up and wrapped the sleeves of her jacket around the man's neck. She then held the jacket in place. All the while she was thinking it was a good thing she was planning to replace that jacket soon.
"What is going on?" she asked Isaiah.
"Call the ambulance and Carson, and I'll explain after."
Kenzie obliged, thankful she'd brought her cell phone with her. She dialed the ambulance and told her where she was. The paramedics would be on their way. Then Kenzie called the police station. The chief had already gone home for the evening, but there were officers on call that would come to the scene. The man who answered the phone promised to call Carson right away.
Kenzie hung up and relayed the news to Isaiah, who was still holding both people on the ground. They were struggling to escape, and Kenzie was surprised to see that they were almost succeeding. Isaiah should have been strong enough to handle both of these people with no problems. Then she saw their eyes.
"Isaiah, are these people vampires?"
"Yes they are. These two bit this poor man and were planning on drinking his blood."
"No, you don't understand!" the girl was saying. "This man is a criminal!"
"We're only helping clean up the city!" the young man was saying.
Kenzie looked at the man on the ground. He did fit the profile of a criminal by appearance alone. His attire reminded her of the criminal they'd found earlier that day.
She turned to the vampires and asked, "Are you the ones that buried a man's body in the cemetery?"
"Yes," the young man said, "we didn't want the body to be found. We just wanted to help clean up the streets."
"By killing all the criminals in it?"
"Well, yeah."
"So why drink their blood?"
"We're vampires, duh."
"But it's illegal to drink a human's blood."
"There's nothing mentioned about a dead human's blood," the girl said.
"Maybe not, but this man is very much alive."
"Well, I don't drink the blood when the person is alive. We share."
"You share blood?"
"Yeah, Dimitri drinks enough blood to kill the person, and I drink the rest."
"That's still conspiracy."
"We're not monsters," the young man, Dimitri, said. "We only kill criminals and drink their blood."
That explained the break of pattern. These two were guilty of killing the man found in the cemetery, but not of the other victims. But there was one other thing that still puzzled her.
"Why is it that the body in the cemetery only had one set of bite marks if you both feed off criminals?" she asked them.
"We don't make extra holes in the body to drink the blood," Dimitri said. "That would allow more blood to escape."
"So you bite the victim, and your friend here," Kenzie gestured to the girl, "sinks her teeth into the same holes you just created, and drinks the person's blood after they're dead?"
"Yes."
Just then, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics didn't even seem to notice one vampire restraining two others on the ground. They loaded the man into the back, Kenzie's jacket and all, and took off for the hospital. A few moments later, a police cruiser pulled up. Two uniformed officers got out.
"What is this?" one asked, pointing to Isaiah. "What's going on here?"
Isaiah quickly explained the situation. The two vampires he was securing actually admitted to their crimes.
But they also argued their point.
"You should be thanking us," the girl said. "We're cleaning up the streets. This man was robbing the woman that ran away screaming. He had her purse and everything. You guys can't catch all the criminals, so we're just helping."
One of the officers snorted. He began pulling out his handcuffs when a second car pulled up. Carson stepped out, in jeans and a pajama top with slippers on his feet. He had undoubtedly just rolled out of bed and thrown some clothes on.
"All right, what's happening?" he asked.
Isaiah again explained the situation, adding what the female vampire had just said.
Carson looked down at the two vampires and asked, "Are there any more of you?"
Both vampires shook their heads. Carson then said, "Your hearts are in the right place, but what you're doing is still illegal."
"That's why I'm here," a voice suddenly said.
Everyone turned and a figure stepped out of the shadows. Her eyes were glowing green and her raven hair was flowing past her shoulders. She wore a black dress and an angry expression.
Carson said, "Who are you?"
"My name is irrelevant," the woman said in a deep, feminine voice. "I am merely here to deal with these two." She gestured to the two vampires Isaiah was still restraining.
"You're the vampire authority?" Carson asked. The woman simply nodded.
Kenzie thought she saw Isaiah stiffen a little, but perhaps it was just her imagination. He didn't say a word as he dragged both struggling vampires to the woman. She took them from him, and without a word, disappeared back into the shadows. There was dead silence, and no one saw anything. Kenzie could only assume that the vampire woman had used her super speed and took the criminals with her.
"I guess we can wrap that part of the case up," Carson finally said. "Now we know why the victim we found in the cemetery was hidden and didn't follow the original pattern."
"That means the real killers are still out there," Isaiah said. "Those two just focused on criminals and tried to hide the proof. Whoever is killing these other people wants the bodies to be found. They're trying to send a message."
"What kind of message?"
"I don't know yet."
"How do you know they're even trying to send a message?" Kenzie asked.
"I just have this feeling."
After a while, Carson said, "Well, we can't do anything else tonight. I think we'd best all get back to bed. We can take care of the rest of this in the morning."
Kenzie nodded and began heading back inside. Isaiah followed her. She looked at him and said, "Still staying?"
"I gave you my word I'd stay the night. And after this, I think it's an even better idea."
"Your call."
They both rode the elevator up to Kenzie's room. She'd left the room unlocked, but nothing seemed to be missing or out of place. So Kenzie crawled back into bed and went back to sleep instantly.
*****
"Good morning," Isaiah said. And he brought a tray over to Kenzie's bed and set it on her lap.
"What's this?" she asked.
"I thought you'd like breakfast in bed. It's been quite some time since I've eaten human food, but I believe eggs and bacon are a favorite?"
"That's great, thank you. You didn't have to do that."
"I just felt it's the least I could do after having you awake so early this morning."
"Well, you weren't the one that woke me up."
"True, but I do feel somewhat responsible. I asked you to take care of the victim and call the ambulance and Carson, even though you'd just gotten out of bed."
"Don't worry, I'm glad you told me to. You couldn't exactly have done it anyway, holding those two vampires down. I hope the guy made it, even if he is a criminal."
"Being bitten by a vampire isn't a good way to die."
"I wouldn't imagine so."
Kenzie sipped her glass of milk and took a bite of her scrambled eggs. They tasted delicious.
"Where did you get these eggs? I could have sworn they didn't have them yesterday."
"I must confess that I had to leave you for a little bit after sunrise while I went to the bistro. Having lived for so long, if you can call this living, I have developed quite a natural ability to cook."
"You made this? And you went out and bought the stuff to do it?"
"I did. Is it not satisfactory?"
"No, it's delicious. But you really didn't have to do that. I would have been perfectly content with cereal or something."
"You deserve more than that."
"Well, thanks. I'll enjoy this then."
"I'm glad."
So Kenzie began devouring her eggs and bacon. Everything was cooked so well, it was almost like a professional chef had prepared it. When she finished, Isaiah took the tray and set it on one of the tables near the door.
Kenzie then excused herself so that she could go get dressed. The day looked like rain was coming, so she grabbed a pair of jeans and a sweater to wear over her button-down shirt. She went into the bathroom, changed, and then brushed her hair and put on her makeup. When she emerged from the bathroom, Isaiah had made the bed for her.
"Oh good grief," she said upon seeing this, "you don't have to act like my slave. I appreciate you staying with me last night to make sure I'm safe, but that's really all you had to do. You didn't even technically have to do that."
"I just thought I'd try to make things a little easier for you."
"Well, thanks, I appreciate it. But I won't be able to enjoy that made bed for long, because we should get going."
"I'll take care of this tray and meet you in your car in a few minutes."
"Okay, see you then."
Isaiah exited the room with Kenzie behind him. He headed toward the elevator as she locked her door. She then boarded the waiting elevator and rode downstairs with Isaiah. They then separated as Isaiah headed toward the cafe and Kenzie for her car.
But instead of getting in her car, Kenzie saw something out of the corner of her eye. She noticed that it was a teenage girl with blonde hair, sitting down with her knees hugged to her chest, rocking back and forth on the curb.
As she approached, the girl said, "Stay away, please!"
Kenzie stopped and said, "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not. But you can't help me. I don't want to hurt you."
The girl looked up and Kenzie saw her bright blue eyes. This girl was a vampire.
"Why would you hurt me?"
"I don't know if I can control myself."
Isaiah then came outside, looked around, and saw Kenzie and the girl. He approached them and asked, "What's going on?"
"This girl is afraid she'll hurt me, and she's telling me to stay away from her," Kenzie explained.
Isaiah looked at the girl. "How old are you?" he asked her.
"Fifteen," the girl replied.
"You're underage. You shouldn't be a vampire."
The girl burst into tears and said, "I know, but I didn't want this!"
Isaiah sat down next to the girl. "What do you mean? You didn't ask to be changed?"
"No, someone just jumped at me three days ago and bit me. I started feeling funny and last night I turned into this."
"Three days ago?" Kenzie asked.
Isaiah explained, "It takes three days once a person is bitten for them to fully evolve into a vampire."
"And you told me before the process can't be reversed, right?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"Yes, it can," the girl said. "There's a cure."
"What?" Isaiah and Kenzie asked together.
"Yeah, my dad works at the science lab. There's a cure for vampirism. It's a secret though, so no one's supposed to know about it. But it's super expensive. I'd have to steal it to get it. And I'm too scared to go there, or home, because I may hurt somebody. I'm already so thirsty I can't stand it."
Isaiah asked the girl, "What did the person look like who bit you?"
"They moved too fast, but I did see red eyes. And I'm not alone. I've ran into about four other people of all different ages who got bitten by the same vampire. They didn't want this either."
"So there are not only vampires killing people and drinking their blood," Kenzie said aloud, "there's a vampire turning people into vampires when they don't want it. Including underage people."
Isaiah stood up and said, "You better come with us."
"Where?" the girl asked.
"To the police station. We're going to get that cure."
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