Mystery Noir

Sins and Lies Part 6

As I searched for some way to fight the vampire choking me, my eyes turned away from him and focused on the streetlight which had begun flickering above us. Moments before, it had been burned out, but now it began dancing with the darkness in time with the frantic racing of my heart.

My vision narrowed as my blood rushed in my ears and distantly I heard someone yelling something. The sensation Jack's grip on my throat and wrist disappeared as the thudding of my heart took over. The flickering light brightened to a beacon, blinding me before guttering out and casting me in darkness.

There was a millisecond where I wondered if I had died and then I gasped in a painful breath and rolled to the side, falling off the car hood and turning to see Penny facing off against the two other vampires with her knives and the mummified remains of Jack face down in a puddle. There was what appeared to be a sword sticking out of his back.

I scrambled on the ground and grabbed my own knife with my free hand, feeling my body protest as I stood and stumbled toward the three of them. I opened my mouth to speak, only to issue a croak-like hoarse noise and cause myself a fair bit of pain.

The noise was enough to draw the three of them to look at me in surprise, though Penny issued me a relieved look. "Sorry I took so long."

I nodded and cleared my throat, wincing at the deep, throbbing pain that I caused myself as I managed a half-understandable sentence. "See. Not dead. You're fine."

Penny backed up toward me, keeping her eyes on the two vampires who relaxed, returning to their more human appearances, though their fury was replaced by shock and confusion. They glanced around and then stared at Jack's corpse, which looked like it had been dead for a couple years.

Him not turning to dust meant I had been right, he was a relatively young vampire. The male nodded and started tearing up, though the female moved to kick the vampire force in fury, causing it to squelch and roll away in two separate directions. "Fuck you, you asshole."

"Nina, you shouldn't talk, you're already bruising up on your throat." Penny offered, lowering her knives. She kept them in her hands and she had not relaxed, but she wasn't looking ready to jump into battle instantly.

"Can you help us?" The male glanced to the sky and blinked away the tears in his eyes, before looking back down to us. "You said there's a safe way of doing things, and places to go for help. But Jack said the city is swarming with Hunters..."

"Most hunters wouldn't know you as a Vampire if you just walked down the street normally." Penny offered cautiously, her eyes turning to mine. "Even if you knew anyone from Jack, I can't imagine that they were super nice, huh?"

"He hung around with a small group, they were all as bad as him." The woman sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets. "I'm Felicity. That's Paul."

Every injured part of me was begging to clamour for the prize of biggest pain in my ass, and I sheathed my knife to cradle my broken wrist as I contemplated the two fledglings.

I spoke again, my voice sounding inhuman and broken. "Do you have family? A place to go?"

I watched their faces fall as they shook their heads, fighting back waves of grief they probably had not been able to address till now. Whatever had brought them to this point, it had not been good.

I weighed the danger of things, before nodding to them and turning back toward the street, my movements slow and stiff. Penny walked behind the two of them, who followed me asking no further questions as I pulled out my phone and made another booking at the hotel. "You don't hurt people unless it's in self defence or to stop them from hurting someone else. If you're hungry, I'll see if I can scrounge something up for you. Don't be assholes. Be good people."

I knew there were more concise and detailed rules I should give them, but it was torture to speak and the pain I was going through was enough that I was fighting back tears. The few blocks left till our hotel were painful and made worse by the stairs of the walkways and people that walked around us, brushing past and stumbling into me drunkenly.

I was thankful that Penny continued my thought process. "It might be hard for us to find stuff right away for you, as you can imagine, as humans aren't trusted in this world."

Paul murmured softly. "I just want to sleep. I'm hungry but we've been hounded and... and... it's been non-stop. I just need.. I'll sleep in the bathroom or something. You can tie me up if you're worried..."

He started crying again. Small, almost silent sobs that broke my heart. Luckily, we turned up the sidewalk that look us through the front doors of the hotel. The one concierge that turned to regard us went wide eyed, mouth dropping open in surprise.

"Do you need us to call an ambulance?" The woman asked as she rushed over as we walked toward the elevators.

"I just fell down the stairs." I muttered and shook my head, hoping that my injuries didn't look too out of place for that story. "Sprained my wrist. I just need some ice."

"I'll get some tea sent up to your room as well." She nodded, her expression unsure, though she didn't push it as we stepped into the elevator and I hit the floor button.

The doors closed, leaving the four of us in a rapidly ascending metal box. I had never knowingly been in an elevator with a vampire before. And I briefly felt a thrill of fear until I focused on the reflection in the metal of the doors. Felicity was staring at a distant point on the ground, her expression looking lost and extremely pained.

Paul was still fighting the urge to cry, staring at his hands, which were shaking.

Their complexions and the colours of their eyes were slightly more pale than normal, telling me that it had been a long while since they had fed properly. Part of Paul's exhaustion was probably him fighting his body's natural inclination to hibernate without food. They may be far stronger and faster than us, but neither one of them looked ready or desirous of being a predator any time soon.

The elevator dinged, and we stepped out onto the main floor, and I led the way toward our rooms. Luckily, the room a few feet down the hallway from us had been open, and I scanned my phone to open the door for them. At the very least, it had two beds in it, meaning that we didn't have to ask questions about if they had even known one another before everything happened. Paul and Felicity needed to process whatever they had gone through before facing our questions.

Before I could speak, Penny murmured. "Sorry it's only one room. We'll try to get you what you need for food and things. We're just down the hall, you can call our room phones."

Paul nodded dumbly and trudged into the room to sit on the end of one bed, Felicity paused and offered us a ghost of a smile. "Thank you. We'll...... I... well, I appreciate even just this. We are best friends, one room is fine."

I stepped back and let the door close, turning to look at my partner who gave me a firm look. She nodded toward our doors and I turned to follow her directions as she murmured. "You should see a doctor, but I know you're not going to. So I'll help clean you up. Do you..."

I shook my head and held up my phone. "I could find something. But maybe Enzo or Ver..."

"I'll take care of it, boss." Penny offered me a pained, worried smile as I opened my door and we stepped into the room.