Jack Kursed (14 page)

"Hilarious."

She laughed and refocused her
attention on Tiffany.

"Jack and I were talking
while you were in the bathroom. You're gonna stay here for a few
days."

"In the shed?"

"Nope. Not the shed."

"The closet? Miss Simmons would
sometimes make me stay in the closet if I was bad."

"Are you sure I shouldn't kill her?"
Jack asked.

Victoria gave him a scowl.

"You can sleep on the
couch. Jack will take good care of you."

"I know. I like him. He beat up a
bunch of people last night."

"That would not surprise me. I have to
go, but you're all nice and dry now. You be good for
Jack."

"I will."

"You have to go?" he asked. "Now?
Seriously?"

"I've got other reasons I'm here
besides seeing an old friend."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

"I'll be in town for a
while, though. Let's trade numbers." She smiled as she watched Jack
operate his iPhone. "I had the original iPhone when it first came
out. It got ruined when I got dropped in a river. I'll have to tell
you that story sometime."

Jack was quiet, and she could see the
tiniest bit of apprehension in his movements.

"Hey, you'll be okay," she
said. "I've got some things I need to do, but we'll talk tomorrow.
Okay?"

He nodded. His mind was organizing the
many things he needed to do as well.

He walked Victoria to the door and
opened it for her. She stepped onto the porch and turned to face
him.

"I don’t think she bites
or anything."

"Listen, I’m glad we’re
talking again."

She smiled. "I just had to
let you cool down for a century. I always knew we’d talk
again."

Jack waited until she
vanished down the street in her Porsche before closing the door. He
turned to see Tiffany standing in the living room, still in her
towel, staring at him.

"Don’t you have clothes to
put on?"

She nodded.

"Well, go do it. Are you
hungry?"

Another nod. The girl sure was quiet
at times.

"Go get dressed. I’ll make
something to eat."

He worked in the kitchen
as Tiffany dressed upstairs. He was still worried, but knew the
worst thing she could do was annoy him. Between her time at school,
playing with whatever friends she had, and being in her room, he
would never see her.

It was almost midnight when Tiffany
walked into the kitchen wearing a simple shirt and sweatpants. She
climbed on a stool at the breakfast bar and took a bite of a
sandwich he'd set out for her. He closed his laptop and looked at
her.

"No pajamas?"

She shook her head.

"Well, that will have to
do. I’ll be one hundred percent honest with you. You’ll be staying
here for a while. I don’t know how long. I’ll try my best to find
you a family, get you adopted."

"Miss Simmons said no one
will ever adopt me."

"Miss Simmons is a bitch.
I saw that about two seconds after she stepped in the diner. You
can pretty much ignore anything she’s ever said to you."

The girl laughed.

"Okay, now, you’ll
probably miss a few days of school-"

"I’ve never been to
school. Miss Simmons taught us at home."

"Ah, wonderful. Okay,
we’ll have to enroll you in school. I’ll get you a bed, some
clothes, all that fun crap. But for tonight you can sleep on the
couch."

She wrinkled her face.
"Why?"

"I don’t sleep, so I don’t
have a bed. A couch is all I got."

"No, I mean, why are you being so nice
to me?"

Jack leaned back to reflect on that
question.

"I have no idea. I’m still
trying to figure that out myself. I’m not a nice person, and I hate
kids."

"You’re the nicest person
I’ve ever met."

He gave Tiffany a
half-smile. "Then you haven’t met many people."

"No. You’re the
nicest."

"I’ll take your word for
it," he said with a laugh. "Okay, I’m not the best judge of time,
but I think midnight is very late for a...how old are
you?"

"I’m eight."

"For an eight-year-old to
be up running around. I have a lot of work to do. I’ll be on the
back deck getting to it. Sorry, no blanket or pillows."

"It’s okay."

"Alright. Have fun
sleeping."

"Thank you, Mister
Jack."

"Whoa, no mister. Just
Jack."

She laughed before moving to the
couch. He followed her and reached out to turn off the
light.

"Good night," she said as she curled
up on the couch.

"Yeah, yeah."

He grabbed his laptop and
phone and walked through the kitchen to the back deck. He wasn’t
convinced killing Simmons wasn’t the easiest route, but he did have
another idea in mind. Subtlety, as Victoria called it. It would
still require some work, and a lot of phone calls and emails. He
laughed to himself as he sat at the outdoor table on the deck
overlooking his garden.

"It's a good thing I'm not
tired."

CHAPTER 7

Victoria stretched her
arms over her head as she stepped into her hotel room. Spending the
day with Jack was the most fun she had in a while. No hunting
werewolves, battling vampires, or helping new friends adjust to the
supernatural world. She loved her new friends dearly, but it was
nice to not have to explain the way the world worked.

Jack already knew.

Her thoughts drifted to
her oldest friend. Like she expected, he hadn't aged a day. Same
brown hair, same blue eyes, same handsome looks, same personality.
Jack could be an amazingly caring person to those he was close to.
The problem was he wasn't close to anyone. He was a destructive
force of nature to anyone on his bad side.

Yet he had taken in an
abused child. She didn't want to tell him to his face, but she was
proud of him.

Stripping off her shorts and shirt,
she walked around the room in her bikini. It was foolish, she knew,
but the skimpy outfit reminded her she was the most unique vampire
in the world. The sun could no longer harm her.

She had Kevin Mishnar to
thank for that.

At the thought of her new friends, she
reached for her iPhone. She missed several calls throughout the
day, and could guess at some of the messages.

She put a hand to her head
at the sound of Alex Teague's voice. Alex was a unique creature, a
half-demon with a history crazy enough to drive a normal person
insane. His own parents conceived him simply to sacrifice him to
demons, hoping to gain their power. Things didn't go as planned,
and Alex ended up with demonic power and a set of wings. Despite
all of that, unlike Jack, Alex Teague was one of the nicest people
she'd ever met.

She dialed his number.

"Victoria?" he
answered. "Cindy is
really
pissed at you."

Cindy was Alex's fiancée.
Victoria was certain she was a large part in the stability in his
life.

"I know, I know," she said, clenching
her eyes shut. "Tell her I'm really sorry. Something important came
up, and I had to leave Baltimore fast. Did the dress fitting go
okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. She
really wanted you there, though. Alicia's a little upset,
too."

Alicia was Alex's sister. Victoria's
friendship with Alex was great, and a side benefit was befriending
Cindy and Alicia.

"I’m just pissing
everybody off," she said. "Believe me, there’s a good
reason."

"You working on something? Need some
help? Do you need the services of a guy who can talk to ghosts and
walk through walls?"

"I appreciate it, but no,
I don’t think so. I’ve got other help available if I need it. And
believe me, he can do far worse things."

"Okay, but don’t say I
didn’t offer. How’s the beach treating you?"

She smiled and gracefully turned in
front of the dresser mirror once again.

"Alex, you wouldn’t
believe it. It’s incredible, being in the sun. I wish Jake was with
me. I’d show him a good time right on the sand."

Jake Bachner, her boyfriend. He was
away, as always, chasing evil vampires.

"Too much info there. I’m
gonna head out before you tell me what you do in the
bedroom."

"You had your chance. But
you went with your soul-mate you met when you were
five."

Alex laughed. Victoria
knew she never had a chance with him. He only ever had eyes for
Cindy. Still, she wouldn’t have minded a night of passion with a
man with wings.

They said their goodbyes.
She hung up the phone and nursed on a blood bag. She wasn’t thirsty
due to her earlier drink at the restaurant, but a quick snack
always kept her on her toes.

The room phone rang as she licked her
lips and fangs.

"Miss Smith, Dr. Collins
just checked in to his room. He's in room 250."

"Thank you, Mike. You'll be
compensated even more for your trouble."

"That means money, right?"

"Yes. Lots and lots of
money."

Victoria hung up and took
a deep breath. Something dangerous was brewing in or around
Parkville. That's all Bradley could tell her. Bradley was an old
vampire friend of hers. She'd known him even longer than Jack. When
he contacted her and said he only trusted her with this job, she
knew it was serious. He had a name, Dr. Stan Collins, and a hotel.
That was all.

The last few cases she
worked on were all relatively simple. One involved a vampire trying
to organize an army of newborn vamps into an army. Another time a
cult tried to open a door to the spirit world. Her most interesting
case was the hunt of a werewolf, where she met her newest friend,
Kevin Mishnar.

Hopefully this case would be a simple
one. She could use more time at the beach.

She wished Jack was with
her. One of the many reasons she sought him out was to enlist his
help, if he forgave her. But now Jack had his own problems, mainly
an eight-year-old girl.

There were advantages to working
alone, like the stunt she was getting ready to pull off.

Victoria was in room 450,
two floors directly above Dr. Collins. She opened the balcony door
and stepped into the night air. The street still crawled with
activity. Parkville was somewhat of a tourist town, with the beach
nearby. The pool was below, with a few twenty-somethings swimming
and having a good time.

She nimbly jumped onto the
railing and turned to face her room. Taking one step back, gravity
took hold of her as she fell toward the ground below. She reached
out with one hand and easily grabbed the bottom railing outside
room 350. Holding on, the momentum spun her directly under the
balcony. She dug the claws of her left hand into the concrete above
as she stared into room 250 upside down.

Dr. Collins stepped into
his room. Victoria didn't have Jack's amazing knack for picking out
obscure details about a person, but she was no slouch. Collins was
somewhere in his late thirties. Average weight, a little on the
short side, a thick pair of glasses. He wore a collared shirt and
jeans, and rolled a suitcase behind him.

She let go of the balcony
above and twisted as she dropped outside room 250. Crouching like a
cat, she continued to watch Collins. The man unpacked some clothes,
a laptop, and bathroom accessories. He was definitely human,
nothing supernatural about him. She'd have to watch him until he
showed his hand.

He moved across the room
to answer a knock at the door. Victoria held in a laugh as a woman
stepped inside, wearing a miniskirt nearly to her hips. It didn’t
take the wisdom of a vampire to see what her profession was. They
talked price for a moment before the woman pushed Collins down into
bed.

Victoria rolled her eyes.
She almost wanted to simply burst in, take the direct approach, and
threaten Collins with harm if he didn’t tell her what he was up to.
The smarter side of her knew patience was key, and watching him
would take little effort.

She closed her eyes at the
sight of him making a fool of himself with his girlfriend for the
night. He asked her if she wanted to go to dinner.

Perhaps watching him would take more
effort than she thought.

*****

It took emails,
phone calls, and four hours of his time. There were bribes
involved, favors being turned in, favors being asked for. His
iPhone died at one point, and Jack had to charge it for a half hour
before continuing. Close to one hundred thousand dollars changed
hands, and there were even some threats and blackmail tossed
around. But when Jack made that last call, and received that final
email, he was now the legal foster-parent of Tiffany March. The
package even came complete with an emailed certificate and
paperwork proving that Andrea Simmons was a foster-mother in error.
He even had forged signatures. He had the digital paperwork, and
the hard copies would be in his hand by day
’s end.