United Service (13 page)

Sterling snarled at Ben. “Can we not do this?”

“There’s a cure for the blues you’re feeling, my man. And we brought it with us.”

Sterling gritted his teeth and hoped Kate would not pick up on the comment.

Sterling, Ben and Kate drove up the deserted road towards the house. The building lay between Nowheresville and the outer boondocks. The existing homes in the area were few and far between, with plenty of lawn space and privacy fences. As they drove their car up the quiet street, they realized the only other living creature they had seen was a stray dog, and even he appeared lost.

They drove past the home and canvassed the area. No cars were parked in front of the house, but the closed garage door made it hard to tell if anyone was home. The place seemed empty though. The grass needed to be mowed, the stone retaining wall had fallen away, and the flower beds appeared a bit jungle–esque. Even the sun blistered, green paint on the home’s siding lacked a certain care. Yet, as vacant as the home looked, what tipped Sterling off that someone had recently been here was the lack of restaurant delivery notices that some of the homes had attached to their front doors.

Sterling flinched as a shiver ran down his back. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “That’s the house,” he said as he looked over to Ben. “Some bad vibes are coming off it.”

“The house number is correct,” Kate said. “It does look eerie.”

Parking the car several houses down from the home, Ben popped the trunk while Sterling pulled out a gun from his overnight bag. Sterling then got out of the car and checked that his dagger was secure in his boot. While Ben loaded up on weapons from the trunk, Kate got out of the car and stared at the two.

“What about me?” Kate asked, holding out her hands for a weapon.

Sterling closed the trunk carefully to make as little noise as possible. “You stay in the car.” He walked over, opened the car door, and motioned with his hand for her to get in. He wasn’t surprised when she slammed the car door and protested. The fact the door made a loud racket, even though they were a safe distance away from the house, upset Sterling. They may as well announce their arrival by blowing the horn.

He took a good look at her. She was a liability, like he had predicted. Her heart may be in the right place, but dustbins were filled with vamps with good intentions. He bit his lip and said in an even hushed tone, “You’re not trained, you’re not quiet, and you’re definitely not coming with us.”

“Oh, puh–lease,” she said just above a whisper, obviously realizing the mistake she had made with the car door. “There are no other vamps around.” She then looked at Sterling questioningly. “Can half–breeds not detect if a vampire is nearby?”

Sterling’s jaw clenched at the remark. Half–breeds could always tell when vampires were around. The only difference was that vampires gave off predator–like readings, half–breeds didn’t. It sometimes seemed like the only benefit of being a half–breed in Sterling’s mind, and he didn’t appreciate the insult. “You can’t defend yourself.”

She took a step towards him, closing the gap between them. She then touched his healed nose with her gloved finger and said, “I did okay against you.” Glancing down at his jeans she allowed her finger to travel down from his face and southward, stopping at his belt. “I got you well if I remember correctly.”

In his opinion, the move was the sexiest thing a vamp woman had ever done. His entire chest tingled. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down at her hand. “It’s a big target Kate. Hard to miss.”

Correction, her smile and blush now became the sexiest thing, especially since her finger remained touching his belt buckle.

Ben stepped in. “Kate, children might be around and your inexperience could put them in danger. We’ll come back for you if the coast is clear.” He tapped Sterling on the shoulder, “I’ll take the front, and you circle to the back.”

“I’ll take the car,” Kate said mockingly. She got in and allowed Sterling to close the door for her.

The two male vamps listened for heartbeats and breathing as they approached the house, but heard nothing. Ben tested the front door and found it locked. Sterling walked around the house to check the back door. It too was locked, but not for long. Sterling ripped off the handle and made the door useless. He heard Ben do the same on the front one.

They entered the house. No noise came from any of the rooms. They went from room to room in the small one story house. Clearing the home didn’t take long.

The kitchen trash overflowed with fast–food wrappers and empty soda bottles. Little to no food was stored in the refrigerator. “Powdered milk and other shit with a long shelf life,” Sterling said as he checked the pantry. “The food is meant to last a while.” He looked around and saw Ben letting Kate in through the front door which barely hung on its hinges.

Sterling closed the pantry door and glanced over at Kate. He watched as she stepped over the trash and nearly fell making her way to the kitchen. Her physical problems were a puzzle to him, but at least she was doing her best not to disturb anything in the room. She was a caregiver, not a detective or crime scene investigator. He needed to remember that and cut her some slack when he could. He wasn’t one to smile just for the heck of smiling, but he did his best to smile at her as she entered the kitchen.

“Food in the kitchen is designed for longevity,” Sterling said again, now that Ben was paying attention. Sterling walked into one of the two small bedrooms while Ben and Kate searched the living room for clues.

The rooms were directly across from each other, only separated by a narrow hallway. Sterling checked each of the rooms. Sleeping bags lined the floor in both of them. No furniture existed in either of the rooms, only sleeping bags. Sterling walked into one of the rooms and opened the closet. He found nothing inside but a few small dresses. He suspected the closet in the other bedroom had boys’ clothes. He checked out the toys that were scattered across the floors. One set meant for girls with dolls and such, the other set of toys were cars and trains.

Walking across the hallway to the boys’ room, Sterling bent down, ungloved his hands, and touched the sleeping bag on the floor. There may have been six sleeping bags, but they held signatures and tears of many children. Sterling couldn’t get a good account of how many children, but several had been here at one point or another.

Each room had posters on the wall. Kittens in the girls’ room and dragons in the boys’ rooms. “Separate, but equal,” Sterling said as Kate and Ben joined him in the room. “They separated the children by gender.” Sterling continued to touch the bedding. “Several kids, too.”

Kate stood watching him, and he did notice the surprised expression on her face. Before she could ask, he answered her question. “I can gather information from inanimate objects. I can tell who they belong to, who used them, how long ago they were touched, and a shit–load of other stuff.”

Her mouth fell open slightly, and her eyes had grown wide. “That’s like super hero cool.”

Super hero. It sounded nice. Of course, Sterling didn’t want to fill her in on all the ridiculous side effects he endured because of his ability. Feeling too much on display, he was relieved when the three of them branched out and searched the rest of the house. He heard Ben continuing the search in the living room and Kate down the hall in the bathroom.

After a few minutes, Ben and Kate rejoined Sterling. “I found a laptop and a planner filled with grocery lists and such.” Ben handed the ledger over to Sterling. “Whoever stayed in this house left the computer here. The battery is dead. I’ll have to charge it up and look at it later.”

“The bathroom is filthy, but empty,” Kate added.

Sterling stroked the ledger with his hands and concentrated. He closed his eyes and felt his fingertips tingle. “This book is an inventory of what they need and what was used when the house last had occupants.” Sterling thumbed through the book. A campsite name was listed in the front of the book. “Camp First Foundation.” Sterling felt the pages. “They were here two days ago. … Two new children, a boy and a girl. The camp is near a body of water.”

Sterling opened his eyes and noticed Kate looked sad.

“Tiffany can’t swim,” Kate said clearing her throat. “I was supposed to schedule her for swimming lessons in the summer.”

“You’ll still be able to.” Sterling scanned the room and his eyes fixed on the sleeping bags. Three were crumpled on the floor – one in the girls’ room and two in the boys’ room. The numbers didn’t add up.

“Maybe the kidnapper stayed in here with the boy?” Ben suggested.

Sterling concentrated on the room. “No. Another boy slept in here. An older boy.” Sterling studied the poster on the wall. Its bottom edges were detached from the wall. He lifted it up and discovered a list of children’s names and dates.

Sterling carefully held back the poster and took a picture of the names written on the wall behind the paper. The handwriting wasn’t even or straight. Instead, the letters were sloppy and inconsistent. Sterling touched the poster and placed his hand on the wall. “These names were written by one person.” Sterling carefully traced the names with his finger. “It’s an older boy, also a prisoner. His head had been foggy while writing these earlier names, but he was aware of what he was doing when he wrote them.”

Kate recognized the second to last name on the list. “That’s Tiffany! She was here.” The date by her name was from two days ago.

Sterling glanced at the last name. “Stephen Miller was kidnapped and his mother murdered as she slept. Both Tiffany and Stephen were here with this older boy.”

“Why are they taking kids?” Kate asked.

“Religious zealots. Crazy people who think they are saving these kids in the name of Jesus,” Ben told her.

“Oh,” Kate said softly, touching the gold cross necklace she wore.

Sterling grimaced as he looked at the two. “Crazy religious people freak me out.” He reached under his skin covering and pulled up his medallion. “It’s a beautiful cross, Kate. I wear Saint Genevieve,” he said, showing her his necklace.

“I’m not very religious,” she said.

Putting the medallion back, Sterling said, “There’s a difference between being religious, especially for the sake of just having religion, and being a person of faith.”

She stopped touching her cross. “I mostly wear this cross because my mother gave the necklace to me. She thinks that if anyone suspects I am a vampire, they may dismiss the idea because a religious symbol is touching me.”

“Is that all the cross is for you?” Sterling asked, now focusing once again on the names behind the poster.

“Mostly, I guess. I never thought too much about it.”

Sterling looked at the first few names on the list. They didn’t have dates, so he inspected the first dated one. “I recognize the name Kekoa Aui. I’m betting that is the name of the boy writing all of this. The date by his name is the oldest and it is from five years ago, which matches the research my father had done. There are some names above his, but they have no dates.”

“The names are written in blood, Sterling,” Ben noted.

Sterling nodded in agreement. He could smell the dried blood the second he had walked into the room. He suspected the others had done so as well. “This Kekoa kid probably didn’t have a pen, and used his blood to record everyone he knew of. See how the blood looks purple for the last two names. This kid has probably transitioned by now.”

“Perhaps he’s on the kids’ side. Let’s hope that is still true now that he’s a vamp. He could be feeding off those kids.” Ben took the ledger from Sterling and looked through it.

They walked into the last of the bedrooms and found where the kidnapper slept. This room was sparsely furnished with only a small cot and desk. Sterling searched the drawers of the desk and found a handful of pens and a pad of paper. There was nothing overtly personal in the items, and yet his hands tingled. Brushing his fingers along the top sheet of the notepad, he closed his eyes and tried to get a reading. Unfortunately, the information was out of his grasp, so he took a pencil from the drawer and gently sketched over the top sheet with a thin layer of graphite. The indent from the missing top sheet appeared and he could read the note. It was a girl’s name. Brooke Smith.

The information wasn’t much to go on, but Sterling seemed certain the name wasn’t that of one of the kidnappers. The name also wasn’t one of the ones on the wall either. Sterling touched every inch of the desk, every pen … everything, but got no new information about the girl. He handed the note to Ben. “I can’t be sure,” Sterling began, “but I think this name is linked to their next victim.”

Ben read the name, “Brooke Smith. It’s a lead.”

“It’s also not that uncommon of a name,” Kate added.

“Give me another minute.” Sterling grimaced as his eyes darted to the cot. He didn’t want to touch the bedding, but took a deep breath, knelt on the ground and placed his hand on the covers. His reading told him that an excessively religious person slept in the bed. He thought he was doing right by kidnapping these children. Sterling knew no god would want children ripped from their homes and their parents murdered.

Sterling’s feet now itched. He also had the sensation of lice crawling over his scalp. Touching the cot made him itchy everywhere. “I don’t think I’ll get any more out of this house.”