Chapter 4

"I can't believe you talked me into this," Grace muttered as we pulled into the driveway of the Wal-Mart in Shenandoah, Iowa. "We're using the last hundred bucks I have to do a hunt I said we weren't gonna do." She turned towards her sister and sighed heavily, "Chasing a reflection, that if it's a vampire, shouldn't be there in the first place."

"I'm telling you, Grace," Serra argued, staring out the window, "there is something up with this missing person case. It's just weird."

Grace rolled her eyes as she put her bright red hatchback into neutral and turned in her seat to stare at her sister. "We only have enough money for food and gas, so we'd better make this quick. I'm not a fan of sleeping in the car." She set the parking brake and pulled the keys from the ignition. "And if I get a sub call, we're turning around immediately, no fight."

"You've been through all of this already," Serra sighed. "I got it."

Pulling a twenty-dollar bill from her wallet, she nodded towards the Wal-Mart. "Alright, Mighty Hunter, you're lead on this one. If you think it's a vamp, we're gonna need to move. They have short attention spans and it's already been almost a week since those girls went missing. We'll go in here, get some food, and then head out to take a peek at the cemetery." She shrugged as they exited the vehicle. "I don't know what you think we're gonna do from there."

They began the trek to the front doors and sighed in relief when they entered the air-conditioned store. "Twenty bucks," Grace repeated. "Not one cent more."

"God, you're bossy," Serra plucked the bill from Grace's fingers as she strode away from her sister. Turning to face the advertisements, Grace allowed her feet to lead her towards the bulletin board behind her, spurred by her instincts and intuition alone. She examined the posters of adoptable pets, missing cats, and pull-off phone numbers for a local academic tutor. Slowly, she came to an image of the missing girls, smiling happily in the same photo that the newspaper had printed.

In bold print, it read, "Please help bring our daughters home."

Licking her lips, Grace took a deep breath and turned away from their blank stares. She evaluated the people milling about in the store instead. The cash registers beeped continuously and customers did what humans normally did: they kept their polite smiles to a minimum and stared at their hands, waiting for the cashiers to finish their work. Grace was never surprised by human behavior, but she did long for more interaction between them. In a world where she was still an outcast, Grace had always been more comfortable moving silently in the shadows, away from most of the other people. When she was forced to interact with the general populous, she did so with a forced smile on her face, making as much doe-eyed contact as the everyman would allow. Eye contact tended to make people uncomfortable and as a general rule, forced others to give her some space.

Out of her peripheral, she saw a young woman approach her from her left side, trying to be polite by not startling her, but Grace acted the part as she came up to her side.

"Oh, gosh," she faked, jumping to the side slightly, her hand finding her chest. "You scared me."

The employee made an apologetic face and smiled lightly, "I'm so sorry, but do you need help with something?"

Grace shook her head slowly, recovering. "Oh, no," she smiled gently. "Just waiting for my sister."

Nodding politely, the employee glanced at the bulletin board behind her and sighed heavily. "I am too," she whispered, leaning on the wall behind her.

Noticing the sadness that seemed to seep out of her pores, Grace turned to the smaller woman and glanced at her nametag. "Kelli," she began, "are you okay?"

Kelli glanced up at Grace, tears finding her eyes unexpectedly. "What? Oh, I'm fine, thank you," she replied quietly, brushing the tears from her cheeks. "I'm okay."

Staring at her silently, Grace weighed her options. She could either let it go and allow Kelli to continue her shift at Wal-Mart, or she could make physical contact with the younger and find out what emotional connection she had to the poster on the wall behind her. Grace hesitated only long enough to square her feet, preparing for the three seconds that she would not be in charge of her body or her movements.

"Kelli," she began, reaching for her arm, "if there's something you need, I can help you."

Reaching out to close the gap between her fingertips and Kelli's arm, Grace was shoved into the employee's thoughts and memories as if they were her own.

Three men approached her while closing up the Wal-Mart late one night as two younger versions of herself waited impatiently at the register across the store. "Hi," Kelli greeted, turning politely towards the taller of the men. "We're about to close up, guys. Is there something I can help you find?"

The tallest one shrugged. "Not particularly," he replied, nodding at the younger two girls. "Looks like we've got everything we need right here."

"What?" Kelli asked, suddenly worried. She eyed her sisters from where she stood, fear seeping into her voice. "Chloe, go get Uncle Len."

The smallest one turned to follow orders, but was blocked by another man, licking his lips greedily. "These two will do," he muttered, turning towards the tallest man. "Let's just grab them and go."

Grace took a slow breath, regaining control of her body as she came out of Kelli's memories. As much as she hated to admit it, it appeared that Serendipity was right about the abductors being vampires, noting that as she was pulled from the memories, the tallest man's fangs had begun to descend. It didn't explain the reflection in the window, though.

Also, just as usual, Grace's intuition had led them directly to the main party involved with the case. Sometimes, it seemed too easy. She took a deep breath, squashing the memories of her father using her for this exact purpose when they were in full-hunt mode, not so many years ago.

Kelli seemed confused by the interaction she was getting from a woman she had never met before. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked, shaking her head and backing away from Grace. "Are you sure there's nothing I can help you with?"

Grace smiled slowly as Serra entered the cashier line behind them. "Actually," she said gently. "I think we're here to help you."

…

"You're what?" Kelli asked, taking a step away from Grace and Serra.

Grace smiled gently, tilting her head. "I'm a profiler for the Iowa State Missing Children Department. This is my sister, Kristen."

"And what does that mean?" Kelli asked, glancing at Serra as she nodded in response. "I have never even heard of that department."

"We're here helping the police department track down your sisters," Grace explained. "We have a couple leads, but we don't want to get your hopes up. We just came to see if there was anything strange that you noticed, leading up to their disappearance."

Kelli shook her head slowly, still not quite believing the words Grace was saying. "No, I mean, not really. Everything I saw, I already told the police."

"Are you sure?" Grace pressed. "It said in the report that a couple of men came to the store late that night. Can you elaborate?"

Serra glanced at Grace, having not been caught up, but knowing enough about Grace and her ability to manipulate a story to just keep her mouth closed and let her sister take the lead. Serra also knew that Grace didn't need to read any police report to get details of the case if this girl Kelli was another sister and watched the abduction happen. She knew that her sister had simply made physical contact and gotten the information that she needed in order to proceed.