When I came to, I was being checked over by a stiff-lipped nurse in the police station.
At first, my mind couldn’t catch up to what had happened. At first, all I was aware of was this godawful ringing in my mind that felt like a choir screeching between my ears.
Then the metallic taste of leftover fear filled my mouth. So did the memory of what had happened.
I’d been attacked… and I’d killed a guy. Or something had killed him.
As soon as I was awake, the stiff-lipped, severe-looking nurse grabbed the phone from her pocket, made a call and then settled back to watching me with that hard gaze. “She’s awake.”
I didn’t need any clarification to realize the nurse was talking about me.
A few minutes later, the detective from the alleyway appeared. He was back in his jacket; he’d obviously taken it off me. That wasn’t the only thing he’d taken from me. His compassion was gone. Now his gaze was as hard as steel wrapped in diamond. “Miss Luck, you are going to be charged with first-degree murder,” he said with no introduction.
If my mind had spun before, it was absolutely nothing compared to what it did now. I felt like it imploded. Like my sense of self shattered and hit the floor with a bang.
“What? What?” I stuttered.
“Miss Elizabeth Luck, you killed a vampire tonight. He may be an otherworlder, like yourself, but that’s still murder,” the detective said with a tone about as dangerous as a knife held to your back. His gaze was about as deadly, too.
I started to shake my head, over and over and over again. “Murder? Murder? I didn’t kill anyone. That guy… he just, he attacked me. Tried to feed on me. But he had some kind of reaction to my blood. Like, like an allergy, or something. I didn’t kill him.” My world began to fall down around me. I’d started the day terrified that I wouldn’t be able to find a job. Now I was going to be charged with first-degree murder.
Neither the detective nor the nurse softened their hard gazes as they stared at me like the scum that collects in storm drains after a deluge.
“What are you?” the detective asked as he locked his arms around his middle. “Witch? A sorcerer? It isn’t on your citizen file, but that doesn’t mean much to people like you, does it?” He bared his teeth at me. “Get your kicks by luring unsuspecting vampires into alleyways and hexing them, do you? Well, I’ve got news for you, missy, William Benson III is on his way. If you think you can mess with the vampire clan of Hope City and get away with it, you are dead wrong,” the guy’s voice shook violently hard on the word dead.
Benson… William Benson III. He was meant to be one of the most powerful vampires in the city, let alone the country. He was also the richest, too. Heck, his wealth rivaled most small governments.
Oh, but that wasn’t to mention the most important fact. William Benson III was the spokesperson for the vampire clans of Hope City.
And, apparently, soon to be my executioner.
Before I knew what was happening, my head began to spin again. And this time there was no stopping it as it snatched me down into the relatively peaceful arms of unconsciousness. Peaceful arms that wouldn’t be able to keep me safe for long.
My reckoning was coming – a reckoning that would come at the strong, perfect hands of William Benson.