The Cactus Killer (The Inglewood Chronicles) (18 page)

She started laughing at me
and it went on for a few minutes. I didn’t know if this was a good
thing or a bad thing. Finally, she caught her breathe. “You are
terrible at talking to women. But your sincerity is
breathtaking.”

“
I guess that is all I
need, huh?”

She rolled her eyes at me,
which happens quite a bit. “I have no idea what I am going to do
with you, besides keep you around for a long time.”

“
I can live with that. I
hope the pay is better than what Argent’s paying me.”

“
The pay is good and the
perks are not too bad either.”

Good pay and perks? What
were those things? “Argent is so cheap with his employees that when
he walks by, your can here the pennies he’s pinching
scream.”

“
Do not worry about that.
The vampire council owns the high rise our offices are in so you
even have an apartment waiting for you. It is not nearly as nice as
your house, but you will not have rent to worry about.”

“
Will I get to come back
and visit whenever I want?”

“
Of course, especially if
you do not mind me coming too. I enjoy this little town. Plus, we
will only be a little over four hours away, if I am the one
driving.”

If we made it in one piece.
“I’m sure mom and dad would love to see you too. You melt the old
man’s heart for some reason.”

“
He just knows what is best
for his son, that is all. And your mother is wonderful. I could
talk to her all day long as she just tells the best stories about
you.”

I didn’t even want to know
what mom had told her. Later I would have to set some ground rules
with these women. I looked at the clock on the stove and it was
almost midnight. “I guess we should get this cleaned up and call it
a night.”

“
Go on to bed, I will
handle this. I am still fine on my rest.”

“
I have a quick question
for you. Is all this day work really good for you?”

She seemed to contemplate
the question before answering. You could see the gears turning in
her head. “The sun does not ignite us into flame obviously, but for
the younger vampires, the ultraviolet light it produces makes us
very lethargic. As we get older and we build up our strength and
resistance, we start to fight that off. Reno, for example, can
normally tolerate dusk and dawn before falling victim.”

“
Ahh I see. So the older
you are, the better you can control your own body?”

“
Precisely. For Cristof and
I, we now have full control over ourselves and can move about
normally. I do not prefer to spend this much time in the daylight,
but for this case, I will do anything.”

“
I sleep more than most of
my pack because I don’t transform and go on the runs. They say the
transformation provides an incredible boost of energy, but
unfortunately, I have to do it the old fashioned way.”

“
Do you feel like you have
missed out on life?”

“
I never felt bad for
myself, but I always felt like I was a failure for my dad. As pack
Alpha, I could only imagine the embarrassment he felt when I didn’t
transform on my changing night.”

She looked at me with some
pity in her eyes. I hated that. “Your parents seem to love you very
much, I doubt they were disappointed.”

“
My grandpa basically took
one for the team. He didn’t have long left in his life, but as the
retired Alpha his word had tremendous pull. He told the pack that
his last wish before moving on was for them to accept me for who I
was. Even after he passed away, they honored his wish, even if some
resented me.”

“
Like you said to me
earlier, the past makes us who we are. It takes someone very
special to prosper like you have. It has given you the proper mix
of toughness and compassion.”

It was my turn to blush a
little bit. She gave me one of her know-it-all smiles and finished
her drink. Not knowing what else to say, I offered to at least take
the dishes into the kitchen. I also tried to help wash them, but
she shooed me out and told me I had done enough for one day. Before
I went upstairs, she had one more question.

“
What time are we supposed
to go to the mayor’s office to meet with the contingent of
Alphas?”

No one had said anything
about that to me. I fired off a quick text to dad and copied Liz on
it. “I guess we will see what dad says. Chances are I will fall
asleep before he responds, so it will be up to you, boss lady, to
follow up.”

I heard her yell ‘I am not
your secretary’ as I bounded up the stairs. Once in the safety of
my room, I fell onto my bed and took a few moments to reflect on
what had been a pretty trying day. The thought of Tucker being out
there corrupting his own son to the point we saw tonight broke my
heart. Thanks to Pastor Browne, we had a lead on him now and we
needed to take advantage of that.

I must’ve dozed off in the
middle of my line of thought because I opened my eyes and saw the
clock said three forty-five in the morning. I also saw those bright
blue eyes look at me and whisper that I should go back to sleep.
That suggestion was all I needed. 

For the first time in a
long time, I slept well passed noon. It was closing in on one
o’clock when Liz came in and woke me up.

“
Vic, it is time to wake up
now. We have the meeting in two hours.”

It took me a few minutes to
shake the daze off. Once I was coherent, I was shocked to see how
late it was. “Why did you let me sleep so long?”

“
Your body needed it. Now
do not question my judgment, just get yourself ready and please
text your father back. He keeps asking to talk to you.”

She glared at me until I
grabbed my phone. I had eight messages from him, ranging from the
meeting time today to why I was ignoring him. I shot him a quick
text back explaining I had been asleep and would see him there.
Once satisfied that I had done my obligations to my dad, Liz left
and I was able to get myself showered and ready for the
day.

Downstairs, I made my way
to the coffee pot and put a fresh brew on. I also popped open the
fridge and got out a huge roll of summer sausage and bacon. Liz
just sat there at the table with her nose in the paper. I think she
was trying to ignore the amount of slaughtered animal I was getting
ready to eat.

When everything was
prepared, I sat down and was finally greeted with conversation. “I
am not sure if you saw your father’s message, but there will be
sixteen Alphas from various packs with New Mexico, Western Texas,
and Eastern Arizona at the meeting. The California packs declined
to show up. I will have a conversation with their Alphas at a later
date for this.”

“
Will Josh Greenfoot be
there?”

“
Yes, he called me this
morning when he arrived in town. He is excited to see you
again.”

That made me happy, I had
really enjoyed meeting him and I had promised him a beer next time
we met up. I was a man of my word and would invite him over after
all of this for a cold one. “Do you know most of the Alphas that
will be here today?”

“
Yes, I know all of them,
at least by name. I have personally dealt with eight of them,
especially the five that are coming from Arizona.”

“
Is our packs in New Mexico
really that backwoods?”

She chuckled before
answering, “You are not exactly a progressive group. However, the
stories I heard from Gregory, the council member of the northwest,
suggest that the Montana packs are just as reclusive.”

Her attempts to cheer me up
always leaved something to be desired. Being compared to the state
of Montana seemed like a terrible thing. Hopefully the good coming
from all of this will be our packs here becoming more
social.

After my fill of breakfast
meat and coffee, I was ready for the day. I wanted to swing by the
old office first and drop the Bibles off back into the evidence
room and check in with Billy. We hopped into the Mustang and were
off.

Dad wasn’t there when we
arrived, but Bernard and Billy were both in the office. Also,
Pastor Browne was in my old office praying. Not wanting to disturb
him, we went into Billy’s.

“
Afternoon Billy, I came to
return the evidence dad let me borrow.” I sat the Bibles on his
desk.

“
Hey Vic, thanks! Callum
didn’t fill out the proper paperwork so I was handling it anyway. I
will get these checked back in.” Dad had a reputation of not being
a paperwork kind of guy.

“
How did the rest of the
evening go? Did you have any trouble with the local
police?”

He shook his head. “No, one
of the first officers on the scene remembered you two coming up
before and looking around. Pastor Browne filled them in on
everything as best he could without spilling the beans. They put
out an APB on Tucker, but we all know that won’t do a
thing.”

We both knew that, but they
had to do something to show the people they were investigating.
“Great job last night by the way. Thanks to your heads-up work we
now know where to go. Hiring you was the smartest thing I ever
did.”

“
Thanks, but we both know
the smartest thing you ever did was got involved with Miss Swansea
here.” He smiled over in her direction.

“
William, you are very
sweet. If you ever decide you too are in the mood for a career
change, I am sure I can arrange something.”

“
I appreciate the offer,
but this life is good enough for me.”

A few more minutes of small
talk gave way to us having to leave. Billy was staying behind to
man the phones and finish up the report from last night’s events.
By the time we got over to Argents’ office building, most of the
others were already there. Cristof was outside on his phone, under
the watch of my brother, Felix apparently. When he saw us, he
quickly finished his phone conversation and waved us
over.

“
You two certainly caused
quite a commotion last night! I am actually rather sad I missed it.
One of the downfalls of my job I guess.”

He certainly did have the
look of a man longing to get into one good last scrap. I didn’t
want to say it to him, but right now I would be careful what you
wished for.

“
Cristof, grow up. You have
the worries of an entire nation on your hands and you want to go
play with fire.” Liz was once again all business.

“
This coming from you, the
head of the southwest, who is out playing cowboy!” I couldn’t tell
if he was actually upset or just ragging on her.

“
I also tend to get results
with my hands on style. The last time you were out in the field,
you caused the Laguna Fires!” Her eyes were piercing him
now.

“
Wait, what? I thought the
Laguna Fires were just wildfires out by San Diego in the early
1970’s?”

“
No Vic, our esteemed
leader here got a bit out of control chasing a group of rogues and
let’s just say, we had to use extreme measures to finish the
job.”

“
Elizabeth, I have
apologized numerous times for that. I just got a bit carried away.”
Poor Cristof, he had lost this round and knew it. Time for damage
control.

“
Hmpf, it took me years to
clean that mess up. So yes, from now on when you are in my
territory, you handle the politics and meetings and I will handle
the field work.”

“
Guys I hate to interrupt,
but the meeting is about to start.” Felix was running towards us
from the front of the building.

“
Just in the nick of time
too, eh Cristof?”

“
You have no idea,
Victor.”

Liz was ignoring us and
asked Felix to escort her to Argent’s office. Cristof and I fell
into place right behind them. He might have been the head of the
U.S. vampires, but it was quite clear who the boss was.

When we entered Argent’s
office, the meeting was just about to start. Felix said his
farewells to us and we took our seats in the back. I wish I could
say the meeting of Alphas was a productive event, but much like I
imagine how things are in Washington D.C., this meeting ended up
being pretty pointless. At one point, I looked over and Cristof was
playing a game on his phone.

“
Liz, are vampire meetings
this convoluted?” I tried to be as quiet as I could, but I think a
few of the Alphas sitting near us heard me. One of them, a Silver I
think, even smirked.

“
Oh yes, this is quite the
same. Everyone wanting information but no one wanting to give up
more than they have to. You eventually get used to it.”

I don’t think I could ever
get used to this. After about two hours of Argent and others going
over details, with the occasional question for one of us, the
meeting adjourned. The consensus at the conclusion was that me and
the vampires have gotten this far, so we should be allowed to close
it. I gave them all my assurances that I would do my best to get
Tucker before anymore murders occurred.

Out in the plaza in front
of the mayor’s office, I saw Josh Greenfoot talking to a few of the
others.