Angel: Private Eye Book One (2 page)

Nothing.

Before I knew it, 9 o'clock rolled
around.

Sarah had already left for work, leaving me
a massive, cheery scrawled message on the blackboard in our
kitchen. It mentioned the names of several otherworld bars I should
look at.

I faffed around for a good half an hour
until I gathered the gumption to go. Shrugging into a pair of
nylons, a fitted skirt, some low heels, and a flouncy blouse that
was kind of Edwardian and would, hopefully, gather the attention of
any vampire managers, I reluctantly hauled my ass out the door.

I was not a nighttime girl. Especially these
days. Especially around the otherworld section of town. But it was
precisely where I had to go to find these bars.

To get to the otherworld side of town, I
wisely chose to go on the bus. It was that or the subway. And there
was no way in heaven or hell I would cross the subway line that led
to the other half of town. The terrifying stories I'd heard could
fill up a horror book. Even before the existence of magic had been
revealed, that section of the subway had been terrifying. From
murders to assaults, to plain old disappearances, the subway was
about as friendly and safe as a wolf baring its teeth a centimeter
from your jugular.

Still, I could hardly say the bus system was
much better. As soon as we reached the rough demarcation line
separating the normals from the otherworlders in Hope City, every
single human got off the bus. Which just left me and some seriously
shady blokes in hoods.

Heck, the bus drivers even switched.

I had to grip my hands into fists and grind
my teeth into my bottom lip just to gather the courage not to jump
off the bus screaming.

Before I knew it, the new bus driver gunned
the engine, and we crossed the line. Immediately my hackles were
raised, my blood pressure shot through the roof, and my heart
started to beat a veritable military tattoo in my chest.

“This is such a bad idea. Oh god, oh god,
this is such a bad idea,” I hissed to myself over and over again.
But at the same time, I appreciated there was no going back.

I knew full well that the Draconian
regulations that had stopped me from working at the library
wouldn't get better. They’d get worse. This was only the beginning
of separating the human population from the magical population.
Sarah could look after me for now. But I very much doubted I’d be
able to live with her forever. If I didn't fall on my feet, in a
few weeks, I be thrown to the ground.

So I forced myself to stay on the bus until
we reached the club district. The shady blokes in hoods got out,
grins pressing over their white bloodless lips as they headed
straight for a bar sunk down a long, winding set of steps that
looked as if it led straight into the heart of a crypt. There were
even eerie cold wisps of smoke filtering up from the bottom of the
stairs.

Atmospheric – and creepy as all hell.

I watched them disappear, the smoke curling
around their hoods like hands. A freaking powerful shudder charged
down my shoulders, and I shrugged further into the collar of my
blouse.

It was nothing, however, compared to the
heart-shuddering shock that pulsed through me as a door opened
beside me and three vampires pressed out.

I hadn't seen them coming, and they moved
with such cold precise speed, I immediately jolted backwards.

I lost my balance and tumbled into a sign
behind me.

A sharp edge caught the side of my leg,
snagging my nylons and slicing the flesh beneath.

A droplet of my blood splashed right beside
one of the vampires.

He was tall, he was gaunt, and he was
dressed in Gucci. He was also, however, categorically the most
terrifying person I'd ever seen. His gaze was so hard and direct,
it was like a hammer between the center of your eyes.

And that gaze – that godawful, penetrating
gaze – only grew harder and more terrifying as he looked down to
see the blood trickling over my knee.

His friends had already moved on, and they
were halfway across the street.

I froze. Every muscle and joint and bone
locked in place as if someone was going to make a plaster cast of
my body.

He leaned down. Slowly. So goddamn slowly
that I was treated to a precise view of his tight pronounced
muscles pushing hard against his shirt.

Slicing his gaze from my cut knee to the
drop of blood that had landed by his foot, he pressed out two
fingers to touch it.

Immediately, I jerked a foot forward and
covered the blood with my heel. It did, however, bring my bleeding
knee right in front of the guy’s face.

He swiveled his gaze and locked it on mine.
Then he smiled. His lips pulled back from around his teeth until he
revealed his canines in all their glistening ferocious glory.

He tipped his head to the side and ran his
gaze languidly up and down my leg. “Need a hand?”

I spluttered. I also shot up, grinding my
heel over the drop of blood as if I were trying to stamp a
cigarette out.

With his eyes still on my legs, he brought a
tongue up and ran it pointedly over his pointed teeth.

He smiled, twisted his lips to the side, and
practically purred. “Where are you heading tonight?”

I didn't goddamn answer him. Instead,
locking a hand on the top of my blouse and ensuring it was tightly
closed, I shoved past, charging along the pavement until I was on
the opposite side of the street.

I didn't bother turning to check if he'd
followed until a gaggle of witches walked out from a bar by my side
and surrounded me as they walked down the street.

Oh God – thank God – he hadn’t followed.

He was, however, watching me.

And as I jerked my head back to check on
him, he clearly tilted his head my way and parted his lips open.
“I'll be watching you,” he mouthed. Then, with a chuckle, he
disappeared.

My gut locked with such tension I was sure
it was going to be torn in half. This – this was why I hadn't
bothered to come look for work in the otherworld bars before.

It was too dangerous.

Feeling completely and thoroughly sick, I
pretty much threw myself towards the nearest bus stop.

A part of me appreciated how pathetic I was.
While I'd gathered the gumption to make it this far, I hadn't even
been able to head into a single bar.

Oh God, I was a goner. When they changed the
laws and Sarah wouldn’t be able to look after me anymore, I'd be
dead within a week.

A heady mix of guilt, shame, and crippling
fear swarming over me like locusts, I made it to the bus stop. Or
at least, I thought I made it to the bus stop.

The bus stop that would lead back into the
normal human section of town was theoretically on the corner of the
street. The only problem was, as I threw myself up to it, I
realized it was closed. A torn piece of paper was stuck over the
bus timetable by scraps of clear tape.

Bus line closed. There will be no more late
night buses back to the hums.

The hums, I was vaguely aware, was what the
otherworlders referred to as humans.

That, though, that was irrelevant. What was
really goddamn, terrifyingly relevant, was that I was stuck
here.

The subway didn't run this late at night,
and it would take me a good two hours to walk back to Sarah's.

My stomach started to knot with nerves.
Tighter. Tighter. Until it felt as if somebody was tying a noose
around my intestines.

“Oh shit, oh shit,” I muttered as I crammed
a nail into my mouth and began chewing furiously.

I darted my terrified gaze from left to
right as I wondered what the hell I should do now.

The bus stop backed onto a winding alley
that cut around several buildings and rapidly became as dark as a
cave. The air was fetid, and the vibe coming off the place was
about as friendly as a gun pressed against your temple.

I moved to walk back towards the bars, in
the slim hope I may be able to find some other bus stop.

Before I’d taken two steps, a taxi rammed up
the pavement and came to a stop several feet beside me.

I screamed, jolting back, my heart exploding
in my chest.

The taxi driver wound down his window,
pressed a long, hook-like arm against the windowsill, and leaned
out, gaze leering. “Want a lift back into town, sugar?” He put the
kind of emphasis on sugar a junky puts on the word hit.

I cowered back, jerking my hands in front of
my face.

“Come on, sweetie, you look lost.” The guy
leered as he opened his door and got out.

I freaked out.

I lost all goddamn reason, turned on my
heel, and began to run in the opposite direction, down the
alleyway.

The guy followed, protesting a little,
shouting at me that he only wanted to take me for a ride.

The alleyway snaked around several
buildings, becoming narrower and somehow darker. Despite the fact
the otherworld section of town was lit up like a Christmas tree,
none of those neon flashing lights made it into this laneway.

It was so oppressively dark, that after a
few more steps, I stopped, lest I fall over and crack my head on
the pavement.

I stared behind me with wide desperate eyes,
waiting for the taxi driver to lurch around the corner.

…
He didn't.

But something else did.

A door opened from behind me, leading into
some building that was pumping with music.

As I tugged my head around, I realized
someone was now standing behind me.

My eyes were beginning to adjust to the
gloom, so I could see enough to recognize who it was.

My heart tumbled out of my chest and shot
through the pavement beneath my feet.

It was him. The vampire from before.

He looked me up and down, one hand casually
pressed into the pocket of his Gucci pants.

He tilted his head to the side, and slowly,
deliberately, his lips curled into a calculating smile. “Miss me
already?”

I jolted backwards, bringing two hands up
defensively. “Leave me alone,” I begged in a shaking voice.

With his hand still pressed into his pocket,
he took a languid step forward, gaze constantly darting up and down
my form, lingering on the cut on my knee.

“Come on, don't be like that. You're the one
who offered me a taste.”

“What?”

“You practically threw your blood at me.” He
smiled, now only locking his gaze on the gash in my knee.

I felt so sick my stomach could have fallen
out and withered at my feet. My hands still pressed up, I kept
backing away from him until my shoulders jammed against the
wall.

“Got any family?” he questioned around a
snarl.

“What?”

“No? Then there’s no one to miss you.”

In a snap, he was upon me. He grabbed my
wrist, twisted it against my stomach, and made my shoulder arch up,
revealing the long line of my neck.

I heaved against him, bucked, tried to use
my spare hand to scratch at his face.

Nothing.

Nothing worked.

He shoved me harder into the wall, wrapping
an arm around my back as his head descended against my
shoulder.

Then he bit me.

I shrieked as a wave of pain stabbed down my
neck.

I’d read about what happens when a vampire
bleeds you dry. The good ones can soothe you with their mind
tricks, making you feel giddy and happy as you drift away on the
wings of death.

The bad ones want your fear. It made your
blood taste purer.

I screamed, shrieking as loudly as my
cracked throat could manage. My cry split the air, echoing down the
alleyway and bouncing off the brick walls around us.

He shoved me harder against the wall and
stars started to explode through my vision.

This was it. I was going to die.

Just as my head began to thump, and a
ringing split between my ears, he began to shake.

I… felt something. Surge through my stomach,
dive into my heart, and explode up my neck.

Suddenly, just when I was sure I would black
out, the vampire was thrown off.

I watched his eyes bulge in his head, those
black, pin-prick pupils suddenly shuddering like a shaking
hand.

He gasped and started to claw at his
throat.

…
I couldn’t catch
up.

Seconds before I’d been on the verge of
death, unable to throw the vampire off – now he was kicking and
screaming in the dust as if I’d somehow poisoned him.

I watched in heart-pounding terror as he hit
the ground, his legs lurching out from underneath him. He began to
shriek and wail like a strangled ghost.

Then, all of a sudden, nothing.

He stopped moving.

I was still pressed up against the wall,
body locked with terror, face slicked with sweat, hair tangled down
my shoulders.

Cracks started to appear in the vampire’s
skin. Cracks that bled a brilliant white light.

I jerked a hand up to my head and covered my
eyes just in time.

The vampire exploded, a brilliant burst of
illumination bathing the entire alleyway in so much light, it
looked as if 100 flood lamps had been attached to the roofs.

I groaned into my hand, but a second later,
the illumination ebbed.

Blinking past the afterglow burned into my
retinas, I dropped my hand and stared.

…
The vampire was
gone.

Nothing remained but his clothes and…
dust.

Particles of white dust that shimmered like
fragments of diamond.

…
I couldn’t move. Not a
muscle. Not a twitch. My whole frame was riveted to that damp wall
as my shoulders convulsed under my torn cotton jacket.

It wasn’t long until I heard voices from
along the main road.

Just as terror surged through my heart at
the prospect it could be the vampire's friends, I saw a light. A
familiar blinking light. I heard the sirens, too.