Note: It's been awhile, yeah. Sorry about my lame consistency, I shouldn't have started writing up on two of my other stories while starting this one.

Chapter 4 – Without a Trace

I grinned and danced jubilantly within the crowd of people. A catchy tune was playing and I felt beautiful in the blue dress that decorated my body. Suddenly a tall mirror appeared in front of me and showed to me the reflection of myself and how gorgeous and happy I looked right in this moment. Vainly I raised a hand to wave and wink at myself, but the reflection didn't follow. Confused, I looked dumbfounded into the glass and watched as the woman's expression in the mirror grew darker, hair turned lighter, and two fangs grew out of the mouth that had opened to hiss at me. My reflection was no longer me, yet it still resembled my image. Gasping, I turned from the mirror and was startled by Felicia's broken body falling over on me. I held out my arms in defense and her body disappeared in a misty vapor at my touch. Luke immediately appeared in her place; he was rather calm-looking compared to my frightened self. With my heart racing, his icy eyes stared intently at me and a huge smile appeared on his face which showed his own fangs. I screamed as he tore the blue material of my sleeve and sank those teeth into my neck.

Drenched in sweat, I awoke denying the nightmare in a scream. The moon was more full tonight and the light from it spilled into my room through an open window. I jumped up from the sheets that seemed to have been laid over my body and felt a shiver run down my spine from the cold outside and quickly closed the window.

It's just a dream, it's only a dream... I repeated over and over to myself; my heart pounded in my chest as I stumbled to the bathroom once again. "Fucking nightmares. Why do humans have to have fears? God, this is pathetic!" I was shouting and slamming my fists on the sink until at last I looked at myself and what I was wearing; the nice blue dress Lucy had lent me, torn at the sleeve. I felt a repetitive feeling wash over my senses as I checked my body for any bite marks or wounds, just as last night. I had none, merely a bruise and a scrape that looked relatively fresh on my shoulder. What the...? Suddenly, what had happened before I had awoken from the nightmare flooded my memories in a whirlwind. The party, the blond vampire with the icy eyes, the dead body, the other vampire Luke addressed as Taylor...

Splashing my face with water, I suddenly felt paranoid when thinking about how I'd gotten back in my home once I'd been knocked out. With apprehension in my eyes, I looked around my tiny apartment before feeling satisfied that I found no vampire. Turning all of the lights on, just because it was a pathetic way to help me feel better, I planted myself on the couch and tore out my journal and map from the mess just as I had the night before. Lucas, new model at agency; address circled on map. Relations with Taylor. My pen was in my hand and all of the information I could put into words was being scribbled on a new page. Felicia, new model at agency, murdered by the killer with Vengeance as signature. A water droplet fell off the tip of my nose and stained the word 'Vengeance' after I'd written it.

I watched as the wet ink spread in vein-like in the small diameter of the droplet. The pen seemed to keep recording my thoughts, even as my eyes focused on that one word. Was I slowly becoming crazed after meeting Luke and seeing Felicia's body?

Taylor, vampire seeking the culprit who's signature is Vengeance. Knows Lucas. The culprit's gender has been revealed as a female... I wrote next. Grabbing for my red pen, I circled Gaddsbury alley and labeled it as Felicia's Body scene.

For several minutes I looked over what I had wrote, what I had written prior to tonight and what I had circled on the map. I had found out so much in such a short time... I almost couldn't believe how deep I was penetrating the world of the undead. "I'll need to keep going if I want to find the identity of the murderer... at least I know she's female, if I believe that vampire..." My mind recalled, very clearly, when the vampire called Taylor mentioned "Yes, I am sure it wasn't from the covens and it was her," This proved that the vampires knew who the killer of my mother was and there certainly were other vampires in the city.

My heart had calmed to a slow beating as exhaustion took over me again. It was nearly dawn but still much too early to be awake, and naturally I had work the next day... I would look at the news for Felicia's murder in the morning and find out all I can from the reporters I had ties with, and I would continue my dangerous investigation, no matter how foolish I was for going as deep as I had already.

As for waking up in my own bed, the last thing I remember was Luke's face over mine... He must have brought me back here without harming me. This thought surprised me; a vampire who wouldn't harm a human? Even I knew I was easy prey, the vampire surely would have realized it too. My thoughts traveled to my birthday party and meeting Luke face to face right in the middle of a public event, everything before my walk home...

Trying to recall something important about Felicia, I failed and fell back to sleep on the couch.

As soon as my alarm went off in the other room later that morning, I kicked myself awake. Quickly I showered and got dressed, I threw my hair into a bun and turned on the Tv while getting breakfast. Bowl of cereal in hand, I sat on the couch and checked out the latest news to see if there was any story on Felicia. "Kira Davis – News Reporter" read the bottom of the screen as the reporter stood in front of a rainy backdrop outside of a crime scene near the park on Ave. 10 and White.

"What can only be described as a hideous attack done to these innocent people; a young mother, Tina Roberts and her 10-year-old son Christopher. Their bodies were discovered early this morning right outside the main road. Investigators have no suspects but the evidence of several wounds caused by canine teeth were found on both bodies. Animal specialists say that the marks came from the rare gray wolf, but authorities have no claim to any wolves escaping from the zoo and this species of wild animals are banned from city limits and not native to..."

I groaned and changed the channel to another news station, looking for something found on the body of Felicia. There were a couple stories reported right around Gaddsbury alley, anyone there should have found her body if it was still there! Maybe you missed the story. My mind thought simply. I nodded, speaking to myself. "Right, right... It's 25 till, the news was already halfway over when you turned it on."

I finished my bowl of cereal then sprang up to finish getting ready for work. There would be plenty of information there. Felicia was a model at the agency and her managers would notice if she were missing or know about her tragedy.

I jogged to work, eager to get the scoop on the human side of the Latinos' murder. Finding no one who seemed to know about her on the way to my desk, I set my things down and took a moment to look around the agency.

The first person to catch my gaze was Daniel, who strolled right up to my desk with a huge smirk on his lips. He looked rather cheerful. "Ask me how it went after you left last night."

I gulped when thinking about how it'd gone for me, but held my interested expression and asked him. "Lucy and you, something happen?"

"Naturally I caught her in the ladies restroom and we snogged for a long while. Nothing too fancy." he told me. I hit my own forehead while listening to his attitude toward the event. He could turn any situation into a light-hearted news report. "After that I drove her home with all of your gifts. It's her day off today, so I told her to bring them over after you get off work."

I was happy for him. Pleased for him and knowing I'm be hearing Lucy's side soon; but at my apartment? That would be a problem. "Please don't tease her. Knowing Lucy, she'll be in shock around you for a few days. Confused on emotions, thinking negatively and asking me for advice."

Daniel grinned, giving me a wink with hazel eyes. "Put in a good word for me and I will be eternally grateful."

I laughed light heartedly at his enthusiasm, but the lack of depression in his mood and obvious presence in mine worried me. Had he not heard about the murder of Felicia? "On a darker note... have you heard anything...odd or disturbing about anyone lately?"

His smile faded as he looked at me curiously. "That's a rather suspicious way to phrase a question, Ally." I shrugged and set my chin on my hands, anticipating an answer. "Well, yes actually, although I don't think it's disturbing, it's just sort of odd. Might be nothing at all." he continued. "I just overheard before I came in here to talk to you. One of the models, Felicia Gonzales didn't show up for an important shoot this morning. I heard her managers saying how they don't know where she is and she's not picking up her phone. Everyone in the crew is getting apprehensive and angry and starting to make up stories about where she is. Probably just late to work from a hang over at your party last night."

I slammed my hands down on my desk, my eyes wide as I heard Daniel describing the situation from outside eyes to me. Nobody knows. I thought with disbelief.

"Ally, what's wrong; did I say something?"

Totally ignoring him, I stood from my seat and stormed out of the building. I might have been labeled as crazed on the walk home today; I was yanking newspapers from every stand along the way, I was asking people is they'd heard about a murder of a young model. When I got back to my apartment and still found nothing, I was calling my sources with news crews and reporters, asking if they'd done a story about Felicia. There had been nothing about Felicia's death. Nothing. Not one tiny article in the newspapers, not one whisper of it in the street.

Feeling desperate, I retraced my steps back to Gaddsbury alley and was shocked to find it completely empty. Not one trace of a canister, street rat, or so much as a piece of trash was left to tell a tale. Awestruck, I started walking back to my apartment and had forgotten about the rest of the world, my work, and my co-workers in that moment.

I knew I had not dreamed the entire sequence of finding Felicia since there was a small scrape on my shoulder to prove I'd fallen in the alleyway. Walking through the streets, my eyes lit ablaze as I thought over how no human could know. So that vampire called Taylor, who ordered the clean-up crew, got rid of all evidence and the body before the media could even get a whisper? This made my mind start wondering; how many more people could this have happened to, how many human beings had just been cleaned off the face of the earth by their vampire murderers and been striped of their entire existence? I was beyond anger. Just like they did with my mother, they were going to get away with covering up murder. There had to be something I could do.

Hurrying up the several flights of stairs, I rushed back into my apartment and reminded myself to call the agency and request a day off. (I had plenty of vacation time.) I had a missed call from Daniel when looking at my cell phone, I began to listen to the message he left. "Ally! I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you this morning. If you feel responsible for Felicia's lateness, don't worry! I'm sure she's peachy. Although, I went back over to the shoot and her managers were bugging out about her not being in her hotel room either... but besides that! Lucy said she was dropping by later today with the birthday gifts. Please call me back." Listening to his thick English voice tell me that Felicia was still not found, and she was just peachy otherwise, worried me even more. Not even her managers knew what had happened, much less where she was! If the vampires did a good job in cleaning up, there would soon be a missing person's report filed soon.

This thought sent a little red flag up in my head. I wanted to help, did I not? I suddenly thought of something I could do to threaten the vampire's influence on human lives and expose vampire secrets in subliminal messages through Felicia's murder.

I trashed my home even more while I looked for Felicia's portfolio, the one full of pictures I did for the shoot with her just days before. Finding it and all of the gorgeous pictures of the Latino model inside, I returned Daniel's call.

"Hello? Daniel; no, I don't hate you. Yes; I'm fine! I just, I thought I should blame myself if anything were to happen to Felicia, it was my party after all. ... No! Don't blame yourself. Like you said, she could just be late to work or at a friend's place after leaving the party." It was better if I didn't tell anyone about what really happened, for their own safety right now.

"Right! She did leave with a lass when I saw her. The lass I thought was you..."

"Yeah! See? It's probably nothin-" I cut my sentence short.

My dream; where saw a darker image of someone who resembled me in the mirror. Felicia leaving with a woman who looked like me but wasn't. Both of these were separate suspicious things that could be pieced together into the next step of my investigation. No, my dream was only a dream and the chances that my mother's murderer left a club with a model were very slim.

"'Ello, Ally? You there?"

I shook myself from my thoughts to answer him. "Yeah. Look, I'm not coming back to work. I don't feel so well."

"Oh. You want me to tell Lucy not to come by?"

I paused a moment, looking over the pictures of Felicia in the folder. "Yes. It's better for her not to come today. I'll get them when I have time, don't worry about me."

The call ended after that and I immediately began choosing the perfect picture for the idea I was going to make a reality. There was one elegant photo I required that I like very much; Felicia was looking straight into the camera with a passion behind her eyes. Her head tilted upward slightly and thin body arched to show the power she commanded in that frame.

There was an entirely different world to be viewed through a camera lens, I thought as I set the image aside and began to think about what I would want to say to expose the influence vampires held in society.

After several hours of designing, let's just say on my brighter days, dark creations can spring up.

I looked at the finished product and grinned, very satisfied with my work. I called Daniel again for an update on Felicia's situation.

"She hasn't showed up all day and no one knows where she is. Her managers filed a missing persons report after waiting 12 hours; either this is really bloody serious or these blokes are overreacting." he told me.

Just what I wanted to hear. "Keep me updated, I want to make sure she's safe." I felt more horrible each time I had to lie to the poor boy.

After I printed out the original page and took my idea somewhere to be enlarged and pasted on every wall in the city, every vampire would know that the secret was out. The secret of corruption vampires had in the human justice system, the secret of covered murders and erasing humans from existence. I knew, in the back of my mind, how dangerous and risky this was. If any vampires figured out I knew so much and was threatening to expose them, I was as good as dead.

Somehow that fact didn't bother me as nightfall had taken over the city and the creation I made was pasted to several walls in the city. Hadn't taken too long to print the copies and hire people to hang them up for me... I stood in the crowded area of main street with my hands buried in the pockets of a coat with the hood drawn up over my face and stared directly at a large poster hanging on the wall next to a busy walk way.

The poster was 2 feet by 3 feet, was titled 'HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN?' at the top in bold letters, then the stunning picture of Felicia below it. In red letters of a different font below the womans picture, tilted such a way the words looked as if they were written on after the poster was made, was 'HER BODY LIES IN ASHES SPRINKLED OVER THE BLOOD OF THE DARK CHILDREN.' At the bottom, read in smaller text, 'DO NOT LET HER BE FORGOTTEN.'

I smiled rather pridefully as my work clung to the city walls near main street and in several alleyways along the way. Vampires everywhere in the city would get the message, I knew. I watched a small crowd passing by point at the sign and discuss it among themselves.

I was sure only the ones who needed to understand, would understand.

The city lights on my back, I checked a local news stand one more time to look for a hint of the publics' knowledge of the murder. The only murder in the papers at all, again, was the wolf attack I heard about on the news in the morning. Sighing, I looked at the magazines next to the newspaper at the stand and noticed a pair of icy blue eyes staring back. Of course, this time it was from the cover of a male magazine rather than in reality. Giving the seller the money, I took both the paper and the magazine, curious to see how the vampire model was doing in the human world of business.

Reading over his article and how 'successful' the business thought Luke would become, I hailed a cab and made my way back to my apartment, knowing well the consequences for my actions today wouldn't be positive.