The Crying Game

Chapter Ten

Aiden had walked Janice back to her car when she had decided she wanted to leave. She had wanted to protest, she had actually opened her mouth to do so, but Aiden had cut her off by leaning uncomfortably close to her and whispering, "If I let you go off by yourself, I don't know what will happen to you, Janice. In case you haven't noticed, you walking straight up to me has attracted a lot of attention," and his eyes trailed behind her, prompting her to look behind her. Sure enough, everyone in the club had their eyes trained on her. The Vampires—at least that's what she assumed they were—stared at her with open curiosity and something...darker; something about the way they gazed at her made those warning bells that had saved her life so many times go off so loud to the point where they were defeaning. And the humans—at least she assumed they were humans since many of them were hanging all over the Vampires the way a toddler grasps at its mother—stared at her with open envy and a hint of respect. She could almost hear them thinking, You're so lucky. How did you do it?

In the end, Janice couldn't find it in her to argue and she let him escort her to her car. The two people at the door—the first Vampires she'd unknowingly come into contact with—watched in wide-eyed surprise as Aiden exited the club with Janice. Even the people standing in line all stared; most of them were gaping at Aiden though, men and women alike.

The woman in the leather catsuit just stared at Janice. The way she stared at Janice made it clear that she wasn't being rude and the stare didn't carry any loathing like she wanted to punch Janice in the face. The stare held some kind of morbid curiosity that matched the look the Vampires in the club had given her. The more Janice looked at her—with her perfect eyebrows, enviable figure and her shiny dark hair—the more enviable she became. As Janice watched her icy blue eyes grew brighter until they glowed and she flashed Janice a smile, sliding her tongue across her fangs.

Janice looked away after that.

Once they had gotten to her car, Aiden had opened his mouth like he wanted to say something but no words came out. Away from the club, he seemed like he was no longer sure the choice he had made was the right one.

"Tomorrow," Janice said.

Aiden looked up at her, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion.

"Tomorrow, let's meet at Happy Java. You know the one?"

He nodded.

"Good," Janice said, the words coming out as a sigh. "We'll talk tomorrow and you'll need to explain everything about...vampires," she faltered when she said the word.

Aiden promised her he would and Janice didn't doubt that he would keep his word. They agreed to meet at ten the next morning since it was the only time when Aiden could make himself available.

Now that she was back in her apartment, sitting in front of the board she used to keep track of everything she'd learned about the case, none of it seemed real anymore and she could almost convince herself that she'd imagine the whole thing. She had imagined the fangs, she had imagined Aiden being there. Hell, given enough time, she'd probably be able to convince herself she'd imagined Euphoria existed at all.

But the only problem was, she knew she hadn't imagined a thing. It had all been real. Knowing that made her wonder a lot of things but the most important thing she wondered was, Did a Vampire kill my mother?

She laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, willing it to cough up some answers. It never did.

Janice was relieved to not get a call from Commissioner Alistair the next morning. That meant that the killer had not claimed another victim. Or at least that no one had been found. That thought immediately turned the relief into worry. Part of her hoped that the killer just disappeared so that no more innocent girls had to be hurt but the other part of her wanted to catch this son of a bitch with her own hands.