Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
“Juan …” sighs Cade, annoyed.
“Problems don’t magically go away because no one wants to talk about them. A man named Patrick still sitting in my jail twiddling his thumbs is proof of that, and he sure isn’t happy or carefree. I cannot sit on this man’s paperwork forever. Actions need to be taken. I’ll be questioned.” He comes up to the front of the desk, standing over Kyle’s chair. “Time to talk.”
The chief’s impatience is prickly and hot, but Kyle can feel an undercurrent of genuine worry wriggling beneath like some kind of tortured earthworm.
Cade still isn’t having it. “Can’t we all enjoy a slice of pizza at least before we do all this? Leland put in a delivery for ten larges from that place you like … five supreme, five pepperoni, should be here any minute. Even got one with Canadian bacon all over it just for you, Juan.”
The chief doesn’t even hear it. “Tell me what happened in Las Vegas, Kyle.”
Kyle faces the chief. “I went on a mission to find Elias—”
“At the Scarlet Sands in Las Vegas, I know, with your old loudmouth friend who saw you in the viral video and came running to find you. I do not need a play-by-play, Kyle, don’t test my patience. Get to the point. What’d you find instead?”
Kyle takes a breath. “For your own safety, I think it’s best I don’t tell you what I found, and instead, tell you what the result of my trip was.” He puts on a pleasant smile. “We will be left alone. All of us.”
“Left alone by whom? Them?”
“Yes. They forgave the video. All traces of it were removed from the internet somehow—don’t ask, don’t know—and I was allowed to come back here with Elias. We won’t be touched or harmed. We’re safe and sound, left to live in peace and quiet.”
“Peace and quiet?” The chief sneers. “That’s it? All happy ever after? Peace and fucking quiet?”
Like bugs crawling up his neck, Kyle feels Juan’s distrust. “Yes,” he states with confidence anyway, driving in the half-truth as best as he can.
“Bullshit,” barks the chief.
And rightfully so.
“Sir …” starts Kyle.
“So you found a ton of other bloodsuckers in Vegas? Is that what I’m to understand? Bloodsuckers in power? Who did you speak to? Their king? You spoke to fucking Dracula?”
If only he knew how close to the truth that joke lands. “His name isn’t important, and yes, he … is in a position of power,” Kyle decides to say, “but isn’t that even better? Others listen to him. He wants us to be left alone. Forgotten. We’re okay.”
“Think I was born yesterday, Kyle? A deal like that from goddamned Dracula doesn’t come without conditions.”
Cade sighs. “Juan, please …”
“What are the conditions, Kyle? What did you agree to, on behalf of all of us here, without our fucking consent? What deal did you strike with the goddamned Devil?”
Despite Kyle’s confidence crumbling within, he keeps his face as light and reassuring as he can. So many years’ experience hiding partial truths make him an expert at smiling in the face of doom. “I think he only expects us to keep to ourselves, which is exactly what Elias and I plan to do. No more disturbances, no more viral videos. Everything’s fine.”
“You’re telling me Dracula was powerful enough to get rid of all traces of the video?” the chief presses.
Kyle wonders if Markadian would find it amusing or totally insulting to be referred to as Dracula. “Yep.”
“The video of your crazy ass almost draining the blood out of that man I’m keeping in a jail cell? The one Cade’s daughter recorded on her phone camera, putting herself in danger, too?”
The chief has seen it. He’s only grilling Kyle to make him feel more guilty than he already does. “Yep, showing the man robbing the pawn shop and holding your son at gunpoint before I came and saved the day, yes, that video, all gone.”
The chief takes a step forward, towering over Kyle. “You don’t think he wiped that video out of existence for a reason? It exposed you. It exposed your kind. It threatens him.”
If only Kyle had the ability to stop clever, detective-wired minds from working so efficiently. “It’s gone now, so he—”
“He doesn’t want anyone to know about you. But he isn’t a moron. He knows everyone in this town is aware of exactly who you are. What you are.”
“Well, yes, but he—”
“And that’s the condition,” concludes the chief with a harsh snap of his fingers. “You’ll be left alone only if no one opens their mouth again. It’s not just you who’s sworn to secrecy. It’s every last fucking one of us here. We’re all in danger.”
“Sir, wait …”
“That’s fifty-odd people who heard your confession at the bar that night,” he fumes on. “Add to that the mayor, all the children who stayed home, anyone on the planet that might have been told, distant family members … for fuck’s sake, that’s a promise you just made that’s impossible to keep.”