Blood Price 1
As a blonde attractive women and I slowly walked down the Toronto streets I noticed her start to dial her cell phone. "Vicki" I asked her.
"Just calling mom Liz" she answered speaking clearly enough so that I could read her lips. I nodded as I turned away giving her privacy. We continued walking down the street me trying to stop Vicki from getting run over from multiple people. I glanced at her to see her put the phone away and than suddenly grab my arm stopping me. She than pointed to a small alley way where a tall cloaked man was towering over a struggling man on the floor. We quickly darted across the street almost getting hit by a car. By the time we finally pushed our way through the street the attacker was already gone leaving behind a dead body.
"What do we do" I asked.
"Stay here" Vicki told me. With this I noticed she started following the killer, she turned a corner than pulled back looking confused.
"Where'd he go" I called.
"I don't know" she said using sign language.
Within the hour cops were surrounding us asking us questions. Vicki had been taken away so that she could be questioned by both of our tall former partner/ex-lover while I was being talked to by a fairly rude cop. "I told you Vicki turned that corner and said he was gone" I told him.
"Yah sure you did" the cop said. He than lowered his head and said "she probably said something else but this death, stupid chick couldn't hear it".
"I can read lips just fine thank you" I snarled.
"I didn't say anything" the cop said looking up at me surprised. I rolled my eyes and walked over to where Vicki was.
"Can we go now Mick" I asked him drawing his attention to me.
"Yah sure" he answered. "Later" he finished. With this we turned and started to walk away. As we walked I noticed Vicki had her questioning yet agitated look on her face.
"What is it" I asked.
"I don't know much because Mike wouldn't tell me but I know this was the second murder like this at least" she told me looking in my direction.
The next morning Vicki was on the phone and I was on the computer when suddenly Vicki looked over and tapped me lightly. I looked over to see a pale, darkly dressed lady with black hair standing there. "Can we help you" Vicki asked.
"The papers say you were there last night you say Ethan's murder" the lady said. Vicki said something that I couldn't see but the other girl responded. "My name is Coreen Fennel, Ethan was my boyfriend. I was on the phone with him when it happened" she explained.
'"I'm sorry what can we do for you" I asked getting up so I could see both there mouths.
"He saw something" Coreen said.
"He saw who killed him" Vicki asked. "You should be telling this to the police".
"I did they won't believe me" she answered "I need somebody who will".
"What exactly do you need people to believe" Vicki asked.
"Ethan was killed by a walker of the night" Coreen said.
"Pardon" I asked.
"A vampire" she responded.
"Coreen I understand" Vicki tried to say.
"Don't patronize me" Coreen cut in "they're real, out there walking the night" she told us. "Looking to sleight their unquenchable thirst feeding on us the way we feed on cows or chickens" she told us.
"Chickens" I noticed Vicki said. With this I had to fight back a laugh.
"Ethan told me what he saw, he said it was a guy wearing a black cap, the police tried to hide it from me, it was in the paper this morning" she said. Vicki tried to say something but Coreen cut in. "What ever killed him took all of his blood" she said.
"You know what I'm sure when they find who did this there will be a reasonable explanation" Vicki said.
"They won't find him because they're not looking for what really killed him" Coreen argued. "It was a vampire, I know it" she finished taking a seat across from Vicki. "I can pay you" she fished. "I got a job at the university pub it wasn't human that killed him Miss Nelson you guys were there you must have known that" she said. As she said this, memories of the way that guy through the guy around floated back in my head. I looked at Vicki to see she was actually considering it.
"Vicki" I questioned.
"No all I know is that whoever did it was big and they wore black" Vicki answered.
"If it's not a vampire than fine I just need somebody to investigate it" Coreen said. "Please" she finally asked.
"I don't want to waste your time or your money so I look into it for a few days that's it" Vicki decided.
"Okay it's $500 per day, it's expensive" I brought in. "Just don't put to much hope into this okay it may turn out to not be what you think" I comforted her.
Later that evening we went to take another look at the murder scene. We investigated the area seeing a small pentagram on the wall. Just as we were about to leave I noticed a tall, handsome man with dark wavy hair come down the alleyway. He looked at the pentagram to causing me to question him. "Hey, hey excuse me can I asked you a couple of questions: I called drawing Vicki from her spot. Just than a car drove by me blocking my view. When the car drove by the place where the man was he disappeared.
"What is it" Vicki asked.
"Nothing" I answered confused.
After this we went to see the coroner who was a friend of mine. "You understand I usually wouldn't normally share this kind of information outside of the police force" she scolded us.
"For old time's sack" I asked.
"But there are times where we must rise above literacy of conventionalities" she responded unclearly. With this she turned around and put on some gloves.
"Solving this young fellows murder is all that's important now" I told her.
"Amen to that" Vicki agreed. "What ever did this did not care about the extra marks for leads" she said looking down at his stringed neck.
"Please not in front of the client" she said.
"I don't think he'll mind" Vicki said.
"Just because he's dead doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings" she answered. With this Vicki looked over at me questioningly.
"She sometimes gets a little too into her work" I hand signaled. Vicki gave me the look of "a little".
"The corpse is sensitive" the coroner said but turned around so fell on death ears.
"What do you think caused the marks on his neck" Vicki asked.
"Faintly I haven't the clue" she responded.
"Celluci said there was another victim killed the same way" Vicki noted.
"Yes" she responded "With both the wounds are gagged and uneven".
"Like from teeth" Vicki said.
"Like from teeth but whatever did the cutting was razor sharp it cut skin muscle and cartilage in one fail swoop" she told us.
"No animal can do that" I remembered.
"What about the blood" Vicki asked.
"Exactly, what about the blood both victims were drained nearly dry" she responded. "That's unnatural".
"What do you think this is I found in a crack on the wall near where I lost sight of the killer. I know what I think it is but I need confirmation" Vicki asked taking out a zip lock bag and handing it over.
"Blood most certainly blood" she responded. With this she took a cue tip of it and dropped it in a liquid that instantly tuned pink.
"Yes" Vicki replied.
"Well whether it's from our young friend I can't say until I do more testing." She said. "Maybe I should ask him" she joked. Vicki didn't notice and looked at her questioningly. "I'm kidding" she comforted.
"Just let us know" I told her exiting the room.
The next evening Vicki and I went to check out the club Ethan worked at. It was dark and filled with dark people. Many people bounced to what I believe to be music. We walked down the stairs but I was quickly stopped a tall, white, handsome man that looked very familiar. He said something into my ear but I pushed him away so I could see his lips. "You're new here" he repeated.
"Only to that line" I sighed as I went to leave. He stopped me by grabbing into my arm.
"What are you doing here" he asked. I read his lips confused by his clear perfect talking. I got intrigued by his dark eyes but looked down at his hand questioningly.
"You might want to take that hand off my arm before I snapped it off at the wrist" I snarled yanking my arm away. As I walked away I noticed Vicki a few feet away looking at us questioningly.
"Can't even enter a club for a whole five minutes before you get into trouble" she teased.
"He was a creep" I told her. She smiled as we went to the front bar.
"Hey can we talk to you for a minute" Vicki asked the bar tender.
"Excuse me" I called. He finished pouring the drink before turning to us. She looked at me teasingly. "We want to know about Ethan" I asked.
"He worked a normal shift, picked up his check than headed home" the bartender told us.
"Is that the best you can give me" Vicki asked. He looked away nervously.
"Come one we just want to help" I told him leaning suggestively over the table.
"There were some guys he had a problem with" the guy remembered. "Hey those free seed around tonight" he asked a waiter that was passing by.
"They went outside with that guy" he answered.
"What guy" Vicki asked.
"Pale black suit" he tried.
"That sure narrows it down" I said looking around.
"Pretty boy, long brown hair" he tried.
"Sure is popular" I mumbled.
"Where's outside" Vicki asked the bartender. He lanced over to a barred up door. We immediately started waling towards the door. The second we got to the door two guys stopped us.
"You don't want to go out there" the one near Vicki told us.
"Yah, actually I'm pretty sure we do" Vicki said.
"Come on you should dance and stay" the one near me said running his hand along my face. I glanced at Vicki motioning with my eyes. In response we automatically hit them and kneed them causing them to fall over.
"You picked the wrong dance partner" I told him as we pushed the door open and head out. The second we opened the door a large man fell down as Vicki took out her beating stick.
"Who did this to you" Vicki asked.
"I don't know" the man answered.
"Where did you go" the coroner asked when we returned the next morning.
"Wild guess but I don't think they go anywhere" Vicki said.
"You'd be surprised" she said as she sighed in relief. "Now where were we" she asked walking away from the mine of dead bodies.
"Blood we were talking about blood" Vicki reminded.
"Yes, yes blood" she remembered.
Well it was blood and it was Ethan Riddick's blood" she told us "however I have to say there really is no reasonable explanation" she said.
"Your going to think I'm crazy for even imagining this but the women that hired me believes it was a vampire" Vicki said.
"Well that would explain certain finding" she responded surprising both of us. 'There was a substance on Ethan's throat and that of the other victims which was something like saliva" she noted.
"Like saliva" I asked.
"I'd be more precise if I could but it doesn't match any animal or human species" she worried. "And there's something else" she remembered waling to a microscope. "I found this under the nails of the women that was killed in the parking garage last night" she said. "It's very similar in structure to a bat's wing" she answered.
"But it doesn't match any human or animal species" Vicki said.
"Exactly" she said "intriguing isn't it".
"So what are we talking about than" I asked. "We've got Count Dracula out there on a banner" I asked.
"We must keep an open mind" she offered. 'There are more things than heaven and earth in the officer's training manual" she finished.
"I'm starting to believe that" Vicki said.
We were back at the office when the phone rang. "Vicki Nelson" Vicki answered. I looked away sadly wondering what the phone conversation was about. Once she hung up I looked over at her.
"What is it" I asked. She didn't say anything but pointed to a map of Toronto. On it were three points of what looked like a pentagram. I automatically matched the dots showing a fourth location. In response Vicki picked up the phone and called Mike. After leaving him a message we darted out the door to the suspected murder scene.
We were around a small park when Vicki looked up. Suddenly she darted forwards as I followed quickly behind her. We stopped a few meters away from two dark figures fighting. Suddenly the man disappeared in a cloud of dust or bats. The remaining man went over and leaned over the unconscious girl. "Hey stop right there" Vicki yelled. The man looked over at us and pulled up his lip revealing unnaturally pointed canines.
"Take another move and you're going to loose all that fancy dental work" I screamed. At my words the man stood up and took a step towards us. Vick and I swung at the same time. The man hit Vicki in the head knocking her out. "Oh no you didn't" I snarled as I lunged. Before I could even react though I felt a sharp pain in my head and blackness.