Vampire’s Descent: Willow Harbor - Book Two Page 7

  I glanced around the bakery, taking in the familiar sights and scents. A tray of burned cookies to my right caught my attention. That must have been where the smoke from earlier had come from. The sight of them surprised me. Ida rarely burned anything. She was meticulous about her cooking. Then again, she was getting up there in age.

  “They should be done,” Ida said as she pulled on a pair of oven mitts.

  I leaned against the cold metal island and continued soaking in my familiar surroundings. It had been way too long since I’d sat in this kitchen. Containers of breads and pastries stacked on top of one another caught my eye.

  “Looks like you’ve been busy,” I said, eyeing them.

  “Not me. I don’t bake as often as I used to. My arthritis doesn’t let me do as much nowadays.”

  “Then who made all those?” I pointed to the containers.

  “Oh, Gwen did,” Ida said before she bent at the waist and pulled out a tray of my favorite muffins. I noticed right away they were extra-large. “She comes in at night and bakes her little heart out. She’s got a true knack for crafting unique recipes, but some of the stuff she makes is off the wall crazy. There ain’t no way to market a beetroot and ginger muffin. Ain’t nobody in their right mind gonna eat one either.”

  My nose crinkled at the thought. Ginger I could handle, but not beets.

  “Sometimes I swear she stays here baking until three or four in the morning.” Ida waved to the stack of containers. “She made those the other night.”

  “All of those?” I asked.

  “She sure did.”

  “The night that Danny…”

  Ida’s face softened. “Yes, child. I believe so.”

  “Do you think she heard anything?”

  “Oh, honey…” Ida pulled her oven mitts off her hands while keeping her eyes on mine. “She didn’t mention anything. I’m sure if she had heard something, she would’ve let the chief know.”

  My heart deflated. “You’re probably right.”

  This didn’t make sense. How was it that my brother had supposedly shot himself without making a sound? How had whatever animal attacked him not made noise either? Danny had to have screamed. In my nightmare he had.

  “Here, have a muffin.” Ida placed a steaming muffin on a napkin and set it in front of me.

  “Thank you,” I said as I pinched off a piece of muffin and popped it into my mouth. Heaven burst across my tongue. “I think I’m going to go, though.”

  “Don’t be a stranger while you’re in town, okay? My door is always open to you.”

  “I won’t be, promise.”

  I gathered the muffin and headed next door to the bookshop for my coffee in the fridge. I was debating whether I should log into the business accounts while I was there and answer some sale invoices when I passed the door for the apartments. It opened, nearly slamming into me. The girl who lived in apartment four, Lena, walked through.

  “Oh, sorry! I didn’t see you,” she said.

  “It’s okay.”

  I raked my eyes over her. Something about her seemed off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. She had always seemed a little strange, but then again, weren’t most who lived in Willow Harbor?

  “I’m sorry about your brother. I’m sure this is a rough time for you and your father.” Her words seemed more like an afterthought. It was clear she wanted to say something else, but thought better of it.

  “Thanks, it is.” I maneuvered around her and inserted my key into the door of the bookstore. It wouldn’t go in. I jiggled it, but it didn’t seem to fit. Didn’t I have the right key?

  “He…” Lena started. I glanced at her. She snapped her lips together, opting to not finish her sentence.

  It was probably for the best. I already knew what she would say anyway—he was a good guy. It was the same thing everyone else had said.

  The key slipped into the lock and Lena walked away. She was strange in a creepy way. Something about her eyes and the way she held herself made me think she could see things others couldn’t.

  I made my way to Danny’s office. Once there, I grabbed my coffee from the mini fridge and popped it in the microwave. When it was warmed, I went to my brother’s desk and booted his computer up. I needed to do something that would occupy my mind. Checking for sales and answering any emails seemed like the perfect way to kill time before meeting Mason and watching the surveillance video.

  Seven

  Mason

  Claire was already at the bookstore when I arrived. I gazed through the front window, looking to see if she seemed as lost or heartbroken as she had the night before, but she wasn’t in sight. She must be in Danny’s office.

  I tried the door, but it didn’t budge. She’d locked it. Did she remember I was meeting her here tonight? I rapped my knuckles across the glass of the door. Claire appeared from the back. I crammed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans as I watched her walk toward me. She looked different. Good, but different.

  “Hey,” she said as she swung the door open.

  “Hi, you look great,” I said without thinking. Her cheeks tinted pink at my random compliment. “I mean, it looks like you managed to get some sleep.”

  “I did.”

  “Were you able to meet with the chief of police this morning? Did he give you the tape?” I asked as I squeezed past her.

  “Yeah, I got it, but haven’t watched it yet. I figured I’d wait on you.” She let the door swing closed and started toward the office.

  Her words surprised me. I figured she’d have watched it dozens of times by now. Maybe she was afraid of what she’d see. Or maybe she was afraid of what she’d hear. Now that I thought about it, there was a small part of me that didn’t want to watch the video. Who knew what was on it.

  “You coming?” Claire asked from the entrance to Danny’s office.

  “Yeah.” I started toward her. The computer was booted up when I stepped into the office, and there were files tossed haphazardly across the desk. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

  “I’ve been doing a little work. At least what I can,” Claire insisted. She situated herself in the desk chair, which I noticed had a soft blanket draped over it now. “The bulk of our sales are online, and I know my father hasn’t been able to log in and check the account so I figured I’d do it for him. I needed to kill time and think about something else for a change anyway.”

  “That’s good. Sometimes taking a mental break can give you fresh eyes when you come back to something.” It was what I did whenever I was frustrated with a client’s cover. Nine times out of ten it helped.

  Claire nodded before taking a sip from a Styrofoam cup with Urban Grind’s logo printed on it. Seeing it reminded me I had a coffee in the mini fridge from last night. I went to retrieve it.

  “I hope you’re not going after your coffee because this is the last one. Sorry.”

  “Oh, no problem.” I froze. “I guess that’s why you look so awake.” I grinned.

  “Yeah, four coffees will do that to you.” She took another sip before swiveling around to face the computer. “Are you ready to look at the tape?”

  “If you are.” I didn’t want to seem pushy.

  “I’m ready.” Her gaze locked on mine. A sense of warmth shifted through her stormy blue eyes that caught me off guard. “Now that you’re here.”

  Her words were unexpected. They touched me in a way nothing had since becoming a vampire. They made me feel good, like I was needed. For the first time since being turned, I felt almost human. The monster inside me retreated into the darkness, allowing me to be me and nothing more for a moment.

  “I’ve already got the tape loaded.” Claire scooted her chair over, creating space beside her. “If you want to come closer so you can see better, you can.”

  I took her up on her offer and crouched down beside her. Her coconut scent floated to my nose. God, she smelled good. The sound of her heart rate increasing filtered to my ears next. I couldn’t be sure if it w
as due to my sudden close proximity or the fear of what she might see on the tape. Either way, I was grateful my blood supply had finally arrived today and that I’d been able to down an entire bag before meeting her tonight. Her scent was mouthwatering, and the sound of her heart beating was like music to my ears.

  Claire fumbled with the mouse to the computer until she pulled up a screen that showed the front of the store. I’d never paid attention to where the camera was positioned, but from the footage on the screen, it seemed as though it was somewhere near the front door. It gave a good view of the front. The only thing that wasn’t visible was the hall and beyond.

  From the viewpoint, it should be easy to spot someone coming through the front door. We would be out of luck if they entered through the back, though.

  Claire’s brother stepped onto the screen, and I noticed her body stiffen. I wanted to reach out and grip her hand but thought better of it. My touch wouldn’t bring her any comfort. While it was warmer than usual, I still didn’t think it would do much to counteract what she was feeling at the moment.

  “Okay, so this has to be when Danny closed up for the night.” Her tone was tense.

  “It doesn’t look like he left afterward. Was it typical for him to stay after hours?” Guilt pummeled me because I lived next door to the guy. His schedule seemed like something I should know at least a little about. The only schedule I knew besides my own was when the church bells rang in the afternoon.

  “Sometimes, if there was a book that came in he found interesting or if lots of orders came through at once.”

  My eyes remained glued to the screen. I only wanted to watch this once. Claire didn’t need us to watch it more than that. “He didn’t take anything back with him, so if he was looking at the book the night you got that text, maybe we should fast-forward to that timestamp to see if he ever left. If he didn’t, it might mean the book is in this room.”

  “Good idea.”

  Claire moved the video forward a few hours. When she thought she’d reached the timeframe from the text, she played the video again. Nothing had changed except it had grown darker outside. As the timestamp on the video grew closer to three in the morning, I began to think there might not be anything for us to gain from watching.

  Until a dark shadow flickered across the screen.

  “Stop. What was that?” I reached for the mouse. “Did you not see that?”

  “See what?”

  “I think there was a dark shadow moving in the front of the store near the door. It looked like it must’ve come directly through the glass.”

  “Like a ghost?” Claire leaned forward in her seat, trying to see what I had as I rewound the footage.

  I attempted to slow down the video so I could catch whatever it was moving across the screen. “Maybe.”

  “There!” Claire shouted. Her finger hovered over a dark shadow in the shape of a massive dog. I’d never seen a dog so large, though.

  “What the hell is that?” I tried to zoom in, but couldn’t figure out how.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a dog that big before. God, you can almost see through it, too. Looks like it’s made of smoke.”

  While I’d never heard of a ghost shifter, I couldn’t discredit one might exist.

  “Is there a way to slow this video down?” I asked.

  “Hold on.” She reached for the mouse. Our fingers brushed one another’s for the briefest of moments, and I swore I felt an electric jolt at the contact. The warmth of her touch lingered across my cold skin, causing tension to release from my muscles.

  I leaned back on my heels and watched as she messed with the computer. Had she felt what I had? She didn’t seem as though she did.

  “Okay, I think we should be able to watch it in slow-motion now.” Claire leaned back in her chair, giving me a full view of the computer screen again.

  We watched as the creature, whatever it was, prowled toward the office door. It appeared to be following a scent like it was hunting. As soon as it entered the office, Danny’s screams of agony and a demonic sounding growl tore through the speakers.

  Claire flinched and I reached out for her hand. I couldn’t stand this for her. It had to be one of the most difficult things she’d ever endured.

  When another strange growl ripped through the speakers and Claire shivered, I asked, “Was that the noise you heard in your nightmare?”

  “Yeah. It was exactly like that.”

  Her face grew pale as her grip on my hand tightened. The noises of her brother’s gruesome death heightened. I wanted to stop the video, or at the very least kill the sound, but I knew there could be a clue waiting for us we wouldn’t want to miss.

  “Hi, I’m sorry to interrupt,” a soft voice said from behind us. “I knocked at the door, but no one answered so I let myself in.”

  Lena stood behind us.

  “We’re not open,” Claire said as she wiped a tear from beneath her eyes while pausing the video.

  Lena took another step into the office. “I know. I didn’t come here for books.”

  “Then why are you here?” Claire asked.

  “Actually, I’m here because…” Lena flipped her inky black hair over her shoulder and lifted her gaze to the ceiling. She exhaled a long breath as pink tinted her cheeks. “This is going to sound strange, but Claire, your brother Danny won’t leave me alone. He keeps showing me things, and I know he won’t stop until I speak with you about it.”

  I narrowed my eyes on her. Was she serious? Could she communicate with the dead?

  “What’s he saying to you?” Claire shifted to sit upright in her chair, taking an interest in what Lena had to say.

  “He’s not saying anything to me; it doesn’t work that way. I don’t talk to the deceased, but they can show me flashes of things. And lately, I’ve been seeing a lot involving your brother. Not of him physically, but of something he wants you to find.”

  “Like what?” I asked, even though I had a feeling what the answer might be.

  “He keeps showing me a book,” Lena said. My skin tingled. This chick was the real deal. “It’s a black book with an embossed cover. The entire front isn’t embossed, but there’s like a border around the edge. It doesn’t seem to have a title or even an author printed on the front, so it might be someone’s journal. All I know is there’s a very old and dangerous vibe about it.”

  “Does Danny show you where it’s at in these flashes?” Claire asked. She knew as well as I did the book Lena was talking about was the exact one we were searching for.

  “I get the vague sensation it’s hidden, but I’m not exactly sure where.” She rubbed her thumb against her fingertips. Was she trying to gain a better feel of the image passing through her mind? “Something about Grimm fairytales. Did he have an old copy of Grimm fairytales?”

  I remembered seeing one on the top shelf of the bookcase I looked through last night.

  “There’s a first edition somewhere,” Claire said, shifting her gaze to the bookshelves.

  “I remember seeing it.” I stood to retrieve it from the top shelf.

  It was heavier than I thought it should be for its size. When I opened the front cover, everything seemed as it should be inside the book…until I flipped to the middle section. A section had been cut out and tucked inside was a black book with an embossed cover exactly like the one Lena had described.

  A tentative smile built across my face. “It was here all along.”

  I passed the fairy tale book over to Claire with the embossed book still resting inside.

  “Okay, cool,” Lena muttered. “Now your brother can stop showing me pictures of the damn thing and leave me alone.”

  “Thanks for passing the word on.” Claire’s fingertips trailed over the pattern on the front of the book.

  “You’re welcome,” Lena said as she turned to leave. I noticed her pause in the threshold. “Oh, and one more thing, don’t open the book. It’ll only bring the hellhound back.”

  Claire an
d I stared after her as she left the room. Seconds later, the front door of the shop opened and closed behind her.

  Hellhound? I didn’t know much about them, but I was willing to bet the extra-large dog made of black smoke on the video was one.

  The question was: How was it connected to the book and why?

  “We found it,” Claire said. The whimsical tone of wonder embedded in her words had me thinking she wasn’t too interested in what Lena had said about the hellhound.

  “Yeah, but now what do we do with it?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “How did a book like that get into your brother’s possession to begin with?” If it had a hellhound attached to it, what was Danny doing with it?

  Claire set the book on the desk and reached for the mouse again. She exited out of the surveillance video and pulled up a spreadsheet.

  “I remember there was a delivery brought in early last week Danny logged into the system. It was a bunch of old books from one of our dad’s collector friends. He passed away recently and donated his collection to the store. It could have been part of that.”

  “Was the guy killed in a similar way as your brother?” I had to ask. It was the first thing that came to mind when she said he’d died recently too.

  Claire shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think he died of old age. He was in his seventies, and I know he had heart problems,” she said as she continued to scroll through the list of books. “Here it is! It did come through with his collection.”

  Claire highlighted the book on the spreadsheet. I leaned in for a closer look. Danny had called it a journal, but he’d also added a question mark beside it like he wasn’t sure.

  “It looks as though your brother didn’t know what it was either.”

  “Generally, for books like that, he’d do research to find the author and everything. I bet that’s why he stayed late the night he died. He was probably looking for more info on the book.”

  I picked it up and flipped it over. My intention had been to check if there was any writing on the back or the spine, but at the sense of warmth coursing through my fingertips, I grew sidetracked. Temptation called to me, and all I could think about was how good the book felt to hold and how badly I wanted to crack it open and read the first page.