Note - Excuse this chapter, it's not very good.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I stumped on the bed face down.
I had just come from Jess's funeral feeling so damn tired. She didn't want much. Only a few people were there, Iain, her and Daniel's manager, Mattie and her family and friends.
Daniel wouldn't have one in accordance to his will. Instead he'll have a place where all the other vampires who died go. They have their portrait at Rose so no one forgets.
I hadn't spoken to Mattie since that day in the basement. It's pretty pathetic. I just felt if I did, I'd get even more wound up and a possible need to sleep for a month.
Iain had came. He arranged Daniel's… ashes? Dust? Sounds better with ashes… Daniel's ashes and Jess's body to be back at Rose. And while he was there came to comfort me who was really defensive about moving Jess and a Mattie who didn't look like he had moved since he had stood up.
I groaned. First Caim and now Jess. Two of the people I loved.
"Alice?" I heard his voice muffled through the door and the pillows. "Can I come in?"
I didn't say anything but heard the door open anyway. Then felt the sinking of the bed as he sat next to me.
I should really apologise for what I said. Even though technically I didn't really say anything wrong.
"Listen. I know it's hard. I've grieved for many feeders who were mine and not mine." Caim… "what I'm trying to say is… that… the pain will go away just like the pain you felt with Caim's death."
He's trying to comfort me. In a weird way. I think.
"I still miss Caim. I miss Jess." I said. "I don't really want the pain to go away." It feels like I'll forget them.
He sighed. "If there's anything you need or want to tell me, I'm right here, Alice. I won't disappear."
Disappear… At that word my head snapped up. Stared at him. Hugged him.
"Mattie, I'm sorry for what I said." I never realised that could happen. That Mattie wouldn't be able to fully protect me. Seeing Jess's body… seeing what she sustained. I won't let Mattie see me that way.
I felt a pat on my back. "I know." I had to pull back to look at him again. His tone told me someone else said it before.
"I mean it. Mattie, I'll try my best so that you won't see me like Jess." I don't know what came over me but I feel really inspired.
His face softened and I saw a smile prick the corners of his mouth. "And I'll be there to support you."
"But," I whispered, "I'm scared." After seeing how a vampire died from Beta and Jess on the floor… I wasn't sure if I even had enough in me to continue. I was trying to concentrate what little mentality I had not to bog myself down with everything an advanced feeder will have to do.
He sensed my hesitation. "Do you want to step down from being advanced?"
"No!" I didn't even think I wanted to leave. "It's just... I don't think I'll be good enough. Physicality and mentally."
"All feeders go through that, Alice. You're not the only one to have said 'am I good enough?' But you have to remember - and I'm not sure who you are comparing yourself to, but say it was Caim, Caim had a lot of experience when he died. Well over ten years with me. He had his moments just like you. And I know that you will be as good or even better than him when that ten year mark comes around."
Will I even be next to Mattie in ten years?
"Even if you're not, don't feel you have to be advanced all your life with me. You still have the option of becoming a regular feeder or you can just hang around Rose. All you need to do is tell me or Iain." He paused, "we do care about you, Alice. Your wellbeing, your mental state and physical state. They're both important as each other. I know you don't talk as much, but just know we are both here if you just want something or you want something off your chest."
I nodded. They are both observant. Very observant. "Thank you." I knew it but I guess maybe I just needed a verbal agreement.
Mattie's phone rang. By the sound of the ring tone, it was Iain. He answered it on the second ring.
"Iain?... Yes… Sure, we'll be right there." Looks like we'll be going to Rose again.
Iain was up to his shoulders in paperwork. Stacks of folders, dividers and just separate sheets were lined on his desk. It looked like he was pretty stressed out. Heck, he didn't even look up when we knocked, entered and turned Ted on in the process. Mattie had to clear his throat.
"Shit! I got carried away." Iain stood as he moved some of the stacks to one side.
"I don't really have much time to give a proper brief." He started going through another stack on his desk, flipping through the pages. He swore before going through the stack next to it. "Where did I… Oh!" Iain pulled out a yellow folder, opening it to grab a huge piece of paper before setting it on the desk as flat as possible.
"This is a map of the city."
I nodded. I recognised the parks and from them I could distinguish the roads. Several areas were marked with a red cross. They dotted around randomly.
"Daniel and Jess was working on this whilst on the... Bruno case." Iain said tentatively as if their names would trigger the waterworks.
"Over the past couple years there have been several murders, all of which were human, all drained of blood from the neck in a violent manner." He paused again.
Oh. He's being considerate with the information. "Iain, it's fine." I gestured for him to continue.
There was a weird expression on his face. Kind of in the middle of concern and a frown. But he continued anyway.
"You can probably tell from the red markings that those are the places where the bodies were found." In the same folder he pulled out a bunch of photos tied together with a rubber band and gave them to Mattie so we can share.
My breath caught.
The photos were of men, women and children in the back of alleyways crumpled on the floor like paper. Blood covered their clothes from the all too obvious wound any their neck.
I looked away and controlled swallowing down the bile that formed in my throat. Tears pricked my eyes so I had to use my sleeve to keep them clean.
I will not throw up. Not here at least.
"Shit." Mattie said, tossing the photos on the desk face down. "The fucker doesn't differentiate between people."
Ugh. Now I know why Iain was hesitating.
"Hey, after this I'll arrange some security work for a few weeks, okay?" Iain said holding his hands up. "It's just that management is on my neck saying they want the rogue vampire to stop."
"Hold on. You said it was happening for two years?" Mattie said. "I don't remember hearing anything about this."
"Rogue vampire?" I said.
"Ah yeah… from what I read it was off and on. The deaths…" Iain passed the folder to me. "... there seems to be several batches of deaths between five to twenty at a time. Each happened with a gap of a few months." Iain turned to me, "do you remember your studies?" He continued seeing me nod. I didn't trust opening my mouth. I need a drink. "Rogue vampires happen rarely. We call them rogues when they're mindlessly attacking a large amount of people like this guy." Iain waved his arm over the map. "They tend to be vampires who have lost their feeder after breaking either rule eight or nine. In very rare cases they are people who were newly turned into a vampire."
Rule eight… do not touch your vampire in a romantic way. Rule nine... do not fall in love with your vampire.
I couldn't help it. I looked at Mattie. He was staring at the overturned photos.
I could be one of them. Those people in the pictures. I swallowed. But I survived what happened in the Bruno incident. Bruno?
"Hey, Iain? What happened to Bruno? I didn't see him after…" After what happened to Jess and Daniel.
"Ah… Another team got him. To be honest I'm not too sure who got him." What does that mean? They killed him? I guess another assassination team got him…
The question mark must have been on my face because Iain shrugged.
"Mattie, you okay?" I asked.
He hadn't said much. "Ah, yeah." Looking at Iain as he stood up he said, "I guess we should leave you to your work." I couldn't really read his face. It froze like it was set on stone. But it also moved. For just a second his eyes narrowed. Or his mouth tightened.
What's up with him?
Mattie didn't talk much as we headed back to The Manor. I didn't know whether I should say something especially when he was like this.
"Alice." He whispered. I almost missed it due to being in my own little bubble. "Are you scared still?"
I know he was referring to a few hours ago. I saw Jess's death. I got around Caim's death. I saw those people in the photos and thought I needed the bathroom but didn't (but I did get that drink afterwards). There was a lot of death. But I still…
"No." I shook my head as if those bad thoughts would fall out of my ears. "Well I am a bit but I know I'll be fine."
He patted my shoulder.
I know I can back out.
I sat in the kitchen with the map spread out. A cup of coffee held one corner down and a bowl of fruit in another. Mattie held one down with his awful smelling microwaved blood drink in another whilst the last corner was free to curl up.
Kind of reminds me that he hasn't drank in a while…
"What do you think?" I asked.
He hummed. "They're all random."
I had the files on each of the murders. All had been drained from the neck. All had been killed in a town I grew up in. More had died around the primary school I went to causing their closure until further notice.
My… primary school?
I looked over at another school that wasn't too far from it. It was relatively 'safe'. No murders within a few blocks in either direction. It was the same with another.
"What is it?" Mattie said leaning on the map as if he could see what I did.
My breathing grew shallow as I looked at my college. Murders around that. The same amount of people died as those who died around the primary school.
All other murders were dotted along my childhood memories. A couple were in the neighbouring park, in dark alleys I didn't recognise and around hospitals.
That can't be it… I frowned. Either those murders were there to lead us away or I know these places without their name.
"Alice!" Mattie pulled me out of my thoughts. "What are you thinking?"
"Were Daniel and Jess local to the area?"
He stared at me. He was reading mmt face but sighed when he couldn't make any sense of it. Shaking his head, Mattie said, "No, Daniel was from Manchester. I think Jess was from Cornwall."
At least that explains why. But why give a case to people who don't know the area?
"Is there a connection they found for all these murders?" I asked.
"From what I read, there was only the stuff we know now. It's a rogue vampire and that all humans died from blood loss in the same manner. All were type A blood so at least it's not type O... " It made sense. Type O was the most common blood type. It would have made trying to find connections and links mord impossible.
"I think I might have a connection but it's very circumstantial." I explained my theory. Once I did, Mattie stood up leaving his mug on the corner of the map, to stand behind me. He's looking in my perspective.
"I'm kind of skeptical about that. There are many people who are local to the area who have the same history."
"But look," I pointed at my primary school, Roseworth's Primary School. "The most obvious route for parents to put their children is to pick Southcentre." I brushed my finger across the map to the secondary school which was a five minute walk. "But for me and Caim this was not the case." I pointed to our secondary school. "As you know, we went to Thyme's Secondary School for Science." This school was near the school catchment area, a twenty minute drive from Roseworth's.
"There are no murders around Southcentre but there are around Thyme. Most of the people who have died were parents." Did I have to mention the children?
"There are also murders between the two as well as the college we went to. Now, how many people know the area? Go to these schools and college? We don't know how far back this should be to find out who this rogue is though..."
I breathed out. It was a mouthful to get all that out. I knew I was guessing that the vampire was a local and a student of the two schools.
"Nothing was left at the crime except a piece of evidence." Frankly I was a bit surprised that Daniel and Jess didn't get it analysed first.
"On the… fourth murder there was a bit of DNA that was found. Rose tried to analyse it but there was no results. At least, the results were not in this folder."
Mattie sat back down and took a sip of his drink. "Rose doesn't have the technology to do that. It's pretty limited because Paper is supposed to be spearheading research and development."
"But even so, we could ask for the evidence, right? Ask someone else to analyse it."
What am I doing? I'm explaining it all wrong.
"Shit, let me start again. We should get that piece of evidence analysed, wherever it is. Since we know all the murders are done by one person?" I raised an eyebrow. He nodded. "It'll help pinpoint who it is." I sighed, "Sorry I shouldn't have said anything on the geography."
"Ah, it's fine. You're still new to this and it's expected. But here's a tip for the future: Empty your mind of preconceived thoughts and remain as neutral as you can. They will cloud your judgement."
I nodded. "So, where's that DNA kept?"
"I'd assume in our evidence garage. We might have to ask Iain for confirmation." Picking up his phone, Mattie speed dialled a number. It seemed like the guy answered on the first tone because it wasn't long before Mattie asked about the DNA. After a few minutes, he put the phone down. "Alice, this is on speakerphone now."
"Hello Alice!" Iain's voice rang clear.
"Hey!"
"So Mattie was telling me about that piece of DNA that was at one of the crime scenes? Hm… there was one, I thought I put it back after taking a look…. Oh, here!" There was some rustling as he moved some paperwork. I assumed it was paperwork anyway.
"DNA was analysed by Paper by a Dr. Chris Richardson. By my recollection he was the head guy over there, overseeing a bunch of projects. I think he's still there but since we don't know where Paper is set up… Anyway the blood matched to one of our own. It is weird that it matched us…"
"Any names?" Mattie asked.
"No, only their identity number. I'll get their name for you." There was the sound of typing heard in the background.
"Identity number?" I felt stupid or I was missing out on something each time something I didn't know popped up.
"All feeders and vampires at Rose have an identity number. It covers our names in case Rose falls and someone finds the rubble." Mattie said, reaching over to get my coffee cup to pour some in his own mug. He grinned when he saw the face I pulled.
"It's not necessary to know it." Iain added. "If you want to know yours, you can… Oh shit."
"What is it, Iain?" Mattie asked.
Iain was silent. I couldn't hear the background noise. And after an inscruitating length of silent time, he finally spoke, "Caim Darling. The DNA matches to Caim."