Playing With Vampires - An Izzy Cooper Novel (12 page)

The longer I stared into the foaming black water, the more paralyzed I became. I knew if I didn’t jump into that water, I would perish with all those who were choosing to stay with the ship, but I couldn’t make myself do it.

The water reminded me of an open grave … a grave that was waiting to swallow up all who dare defy the wrath of the sea.

Edward had tried to warn them. He told them that sailing into a storm would be foolish, but no one would listen. They were too anxious for the journey to end.

The men decided it was time to take control from Beaufort, and in the process, they had led us right to our graves.

If I didn’t jump now, there was almost no chance I would make it to the shore. The force of the ship sinking would pull me under as soon as I entered the water.

“Don’t do it!” Edward called from somewhere in the darkness.

There were too many people on deck, and they were all in the grip of panic. Some were jumping, others clinging to anything they could find.

Finally I spotted him. He was chained to the deck, but not with regular chains. Regular chains would never hold him. They’d chained him with chains of silver.

My heart surged.

He hadn’t been there a few moments before. I was sure that the men had already sent him to the bottom of the sea.

But I’d been wrong.

There was real fear on Edward’s face, which was something I’d never seen.

But was that fear for himself, or for me?

How could I just leave him to go down with the ship?

Sure, he was a monster, but weren’t we all monsters in some form or another? He’d promised me the moon, if I would be his.

I loved him, and wanted to be with him more than anything, but that’s before I found out what he was.

Turning from the water, I ran to help free the one man who might have saved us, if the others had only listened.

But he disappeared right before my eyes. He hadn’t really been there after all.

Turning back, I dashed for the ship’s railing. This time I didn’t let myself think about it. I went over, prepared to plunge into the icy water.

The sea immediately swallowed me, taking me into the dark abyss of death. There were others around me, struggling to swim to the surface, but the suction created by the ship was pulling them under.

That’s when I saw him. He was at the bottom and he couldn’t move. They’d bound his arms and legs in silver.

How was it that I could see him?

It should have been too dark, but I could see him as plain as day.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was still struggling to breathe. It actually felt as if I had water in my lungs.

Coughing and choking, I jumped from my bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. Once I managed to stop choking, I turned on the sink and splashed cold water on my face.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced in the mirror, and froze.

My hair was dripping wet, far more than it should have been just from splashing a little water on my face. There was even some seaweed in it.

Shuddering, I pulled the pieces of seaweed from my hair.

This was crazy ridiculous. Even the most open minded of witches would balk at the idea that one could actually have a physical experience in a dream.

This was one of those kinds of dreams, the kind of dream the dead would send if they were having trouble contacting you while you were conscious.

But this one had been different.

I was in the dead girl’s skin as she was dying. I could feel all her emotions - all her fear. That was something that rarely happened, and never like this.

Stripping down, I got in the shower. As I was adjusting the faucet, a warm hand covered mine.

Startled, I opened the shower curtain to see Julius’s smiling face.

“Hello love. It’s been awhile.”

“Damn you, Julius! Do you have to wait until I get into the shower to show up?”

“It’s fun that way. I enjoy our visits so much more when I can see you naked.” He laughed.

“What do you want?”

“Just thought I’d let you know, there’s danger afoot.”

“No kidding? I wouldn’t have known that if you hadn’t have popped in here. Never mind that we probably have Jack the Ripper as our new neighbor, not to mention an ancient vampire opening a resort on the island, which will probably draw more vampires. Oh yeah, and I received a death threat. By the way, where were you when that happened?” I complained loudly.

“Here and there.” He shrugged. “You do realize Izzy. It isn’t my job to protect you from getting yourself killed?”

“I know … you’re only here to make sure I turn demon completely. That way you can escort me to hell when I do die. Doesn’t that mean that you have to keep me alive long enough to turn me to the dark side?” I asked.

“What can I say? I’m doing my best, but you don’t cooperate.” His smile turned wicked. “But you sure liked kissing that old vampire, didn’t you?”

“Whatever!” I gave him a roll of my eyes and shut the curtain.

“What is this danger you are talking about?” I asked, though I wasn’t’ sure he would hear me over the spray of the water.

“Well it’s like you said … danger everywhere.”

I peeked out the side of the shower curtain. “You’re lying now. I know you better than that. If it were something I already knew about, you wouldn’t be here.”

Sighing, he leaned up against the wall. “To tell the truth … I’m a little perturbed at your vampire friend. Missy hasn’t had time for me in days.”

My laughter bubbled up. “Good. She’s no good anyway.”

“Oh … I get it. You think she is a bad influence on me. That’s why you don’t like her.” He was laughing at me, which I found irritating.

“Really … I think the two of you are so evil, you were meant for each other,” I shot back.

“So what is it you want?” I asked again.

“I just wanted to warn you. Missy is jealous … she doesn’t like me paying attention to you, and she doesn’t like Zane’s interest in you,” he informed me.

“What do I care what she likes?” I asked, as I returned to the task of shampooing my hair.

“Well I think you might have some inkling that Missy can get nasty when something is standing in the way of what she wants. If I were you, I’d check over my car real good before I got behind the wheel.”

Quickly rinsing the soap from my eyes, I popped my head through the shower curtain again to ask him what he knew, but he was gone.

“Why does all your help have to come in the form of riddles?” I yelled, figuring that even if I couldn’t see him, he could probably hear me.

He was laughing again, but this time I could only hear it in my head.

Finished with my shower, I dried my hair and got dressed. After taking care of all my daily necessities, such as brushing my teeth, getting dressed, and of course, putting my hair in some kind of order, I headed for the kitchen and some go juice. I wasn’t even going to tackle the day until I’d had my morning coffee.

If Miss Missy Sleazy had done something to my car, I was so going to enjoy arresting her.

Before getting into Lady Luck, I walked around her, examining anything that someone could fiddle with. At first I didn’t find anything, but when I checked the lug nuts, I found that the nuts on the front driver’s side were very loose. After hitting a few potholes, there was no doubt in my mind that I would have lost the tire.

What a bitch!

What I wouldn’t give to be able to run that bitch in on something, but there was no way I could prove that she’d loosened the lug nuts, or even that it hadn’t happened on its own. Sheriff Bourne probably wouldn’t take the word of a demon, and I couldn’t blame him.

There was only one solution. I would have to install cameras on the house. The next time the murdering bitch tried to kill me, I’d catch her red handed.

Pulling the lug wrench from my trunk, I tightened the nuts the best I could. I’d probably have to stop at a service station and get them checked out. Actually, I was a little surprised that Missy could have loosened the nuts by herself.

This cast some doubt on Julius’s story, but until I knew otherwise, I was blaming Missy. I liked blaming Missy. It was fun.

Getting behind Lady Luck’s wheel, I backed out of the driveway and headed to the office.

It was a crystal clear day. On clear days, you could see the lighthouse from quite some distance away. It stood high on a bluff overlooking Shipwreck Point, which of course was how it got its name.

As I drew closer, I stared out at the waters just off the point. Most of the survivors of the Mystique came ashore near Haven Beach, but the ship actually sank closer to Shipwreck Point. That was where most of the victims were; it is also where Beaufort would have been bound and left to exist for an eternity at the bottom of the sea.

He was never at the Marsh Estate. Unless the survivors had gone in after the vampire, just so they could bury him under that old house, which I doubted. He’d been left to the sea.

No matter what had happened, he sure wasn’t bound in silver chains now. I had no idea how he’d managed to get loose, but he was definitely out and about.

If the townspeople knew that Dupree was actually Beaufort, there would be widespread panic. They’d never get the resort off the ground. I suspected that it would either be Zane to leave, or the townspeople.

They were afraid of retaliation, and rightfully so. Zane Dupree was dangerous. I sensed that much, but after my dream, I no longer believed he was the monster he’d been painted as.

This also meant something else. The old captain everyone assumed was Captain Marsh, couldn’t be Beaufort, as I’d originally thought. Either it really was Captain Marsh that people saw, or it was the ghost of some other captain. It couldn’t be Zane.

When I arrived at the lighthouse, Muriel was waiting for me on the steps outside the office.

“Where have you been?” I asked, offering her a smile and a truce. “I was beginning to think you’d found your way into the light.”

Muriel didn’t usually stay mad at me too long, and it was the same this time. She acted as if nothing had happened at all.

“I’ve been busy watching the captain.”

“You mean Zane Dupree?” I asked.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “The captain.”

“Can’t you actually tell me who this captain is? I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but we are on an island. There are a lot of captains, even dead ones whose ghosts could be hanging around.”

“Captain Marsh.”

So maybe it really was Captain Marsh. Who was I to argue with someone who had actually seen him?

“So I have been listening in on your boss and whatever his name is. They think Jack the Ripper is the one killing the girls?”

“You mean you were eavesdropping,” I corrected.

“Whatever?” She shrugged.

“That’s their theory.”

“Do you think he is also the one who killed me?” she asked.

“I thought you were convinced it was the captain?”

Scowling, she folded her arms across her chest. “I didn’t actually see my killer, remember?”

“I remember,” I sighed.

“So?” she pushed.

“This killer’s MO is way different. He doesn’t hide the bodies. He attacks and leaves them where he kills them, or dumps them where they will be found. Whoever killed you has obviously hidden your body well.”

Muriel bit at her bottom lip, though there was no real lip there for her to bite. “I guess you’re right. So if it isn’t the Ripper, it has to be Marsh.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “So what’s the old Captain been up to?”

“Mostly just watching people.”

Now if I actually believed in the specter known as Captain Marsh, what Muriel said might have scared me, but I wasn’t convinced. I’d seen a lot of ghosts on the island, and had yet to come across the ghoulish Captain Marsh.

I started to ask her if she knew anything about the person who had been tinkering with the wheels on my car, but she disappeared. She seemed to be doing that disappearing thing a lot lately.

Sighing, I continued down the concrete stairs to the basement of the lighthouse, and the office of the Atypical Crimes Management Unit.

My day was spent going through suspects. Narrowing down the list of people to question took a lot longer in real life, than it did for those TV cops.

By lunch I was starving.

“Hey, I’m going to go to the Grill to get some lunch. Do you guys need anything?” I asked Ayden and Tim.

Ayden shook his head. As usual, he had his eyes on his computer screen.

“Maybe some apple pie,” Tim hollered as I was leaving.

“Okay. I’ll be back soon.”