Under Wraps

Chapter Twenty

I had managed to get my breathing under control as Lucy and I crossed the bridge, heading toward Mr. Sampson’s ritzy, hilltop house in Marin. I’d spent many a UDA Christmas party running dishes under the kitchen faucet, imagining a brood of half-werewolf kids with shocking green eyes running under foot as I stared over the twinkling lights of the city. It wasn’t exactly that I was obsessed with my boss; it’s just that I’d never lived anywhere with a view.

I pulled my car to a jerking stop in Mr. Sampson’s super-sloped driveway. I saw Lucy’s eyes widen as she took in the house. “Is this where your boss lives?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m just going to go inside and get him. Do you want to wait here? I’ll lock the doors for you.”

Lucy wagged her head. “No, I can help you inside. Besides, I’m way too creeped out to stay here. Vlad said he would get me.” She shuddered, and I stroked her arm.

“It’s going to be okay, Lucy. I’m really sorry you had to get involved with that. Come on.”

Lucy followed me out of the car and looked on while I fished around for the outdoor key that I knew Mr. Sampson left for his housekeeper, Fortuna. After turning over a slew of damp, mossy stones and sinking three inches into the front lawn, I found the spare key on the porch, under the Wipe Your Paws! welcome mat.

“Provincial werewolf,” I muttered, plugging it into the lock.

I inched the door open, poking my head in first. “Mr. Sampson?” I whispered. And then, louder, “Mr. Sampson, it’s me, Sophie. I’m here to rescue you!” I bit my lip. “From your house.”

When nothing but silence answered me, I stepped in, ushering Lucy behind me, and kicked the door shut behind us both. I walked a snaking trail of grass and mud across Fortuna’s sparkling handiwork on the marble entry floor before kicking off my shoes, even though walking barefoot in someone else’s home didn’t seem very detective-like.

I gestured toward the hallway. “Lucy, why don’t you go on down the hall. The bathroom is the first door on the left.” I pulled a half roll of paper towels from the kitchen counter and handed them to her. “You can clean up your neck, and then we’ll see if we need to take you to the hospital.”

“Thanks, Sophie,” Lucy said, taking the paper towels from me. “You’re really sweet.”

Once I heard the water running in the bathroom, I crept back into the kitchen, hoping that Mr. Sampson had pinned an I am at … note to the refrigerator. No such luck. I opened the fridge, impressed by his stash of highbrow groceries. It wasn’t that I expected Alpo and Milk-Bones; it was more that I didn’t expect thin-sliced prosciutto, a selection of fine cheeses, and a filet mignon nearing its expiration date. Mr. Sampson certainly did not plan on vacating the house for any period of time. I poked at the steak, grimacing as a blob of purple-red blood rushed around the raw meat.

“Okay,” I said, slamming the fridge door shut, “Mr. Sampson is definitely not in the fridge.” I went into the home office and started opening drawers and file folders, finding a detailed and organized collection of check stubs, timely payments, and platinum plus cards just waiting to be activated, but no giant map with a flag on it, directing an amateur sleuth where to find Mr. Sampson should he ever go missing.

“Crap!” I muttered, fists on hips.

I padded down the hall and popped my head into the last room on the right: Mr. Sampson’s bedroom. Before I realized it I was in the room, my toes disappearing into the lush, mocha-colored carpet. I tiptoed to the bedside, palming the soft fabric of the bedspread: Calvin Klein Home Collection. Egyptian combed cotton. One thousand thread count—if I had to guess. I was very accurate because by that time I was lying on my back, making snow angels in Mr. Sampson’s silky sheets. Sinking my head in his luscious, down-filled pillows. All the tension was seeping out of me and I felt the heaviness in my limbs, the dull ache of my bruised skin and healing muscles. It was while I was reveling, rolling around in my Goldilocks moment that I looked up, seeing Lucy standing in the doorway.

I rolled over onto my stomach and grinned sheepishly. “I was just looking for clues.”

Lucy crossed her arms in front of her chest, her expression unreadable. “So, where’s the wolf?”

I sat up. “What?”

“Your boss. The wolf. Where is he?”

“Uh … how did you know about Mr. Sampson?”

Lucy crossed the room, and we were eye to eye, hers set and hard. “Get up,” she said.

I swallowed, my eyes dropping to her neck. Clean. Scrubbed pink. No puncture. No cuts.

“I thought you said Vlad—”

“Shut up!” Lucy shouted.

“Lucy—” I went to reach out to her, but suddenly my teeth were rattling in my head, my whole body receiving a ridiculous surge of electricity. I felt my blood boil, every hair on my body standing up on edge.

When my teeth stopped chattering, I looked up at Lucy, incredulous. “You Tased me?”

She smiled, giggled girlishly, and pressed one hand against her mouth. “That was neat.”

“I don’t understand.”

Lucy’s hand dropped to her side. She was still smiling at me, and for the first time, I noticed her two pointed incisors. They were longer and thinner than the fangs every other vampire I knew sported, and a weird, pale yellow.

“Caps,” she said, her tongue darting out of her mouth and licking the pointed edge of her left fang. “For now.”

“Vlad wouldn’t change you, would he?”

Lucy’s smile dropped. “No. But I don’t need him to now. And once I’m changed—” Lucy used her thumb to kick on the Taser again, a crackle of blue light zipping across the metal tines. I automatically shrunk back. “Vlad is going to be the first vampire I tell.”

“Who’s going to change you?” I wanted to know. “There isn’t a vamp in this town who’s going to cross that line.” There isn’t a vamp in this town who’d want to spend eternity with this whiny little twit either, I thought.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Lucy asked me.

“Yeah,” I said, “I would. That’s why I asked.”

Lucy stamped her black-booted foot. “Shut up!”

“Or what?” I challenged.

Lucy flipped the button on the Taser and my stomach dropped. “Or I’ll Tase you again.”

Well, she had me there.

“What do you want, Lucy? What do you want from me?”

Lucy grinned, the Taser gun held steady in her outstretched hand. “I don’t want anything from you,” she said. “It’s what I’m going to get for you.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“There’s a bit of a price on your head, Lawson.”

I gulped. Lucy was working with Parker? “Are you an angel, too?” I said slowly.

Lucy furrowed her brow when I heard the lock tumble on the front door. “Sophie?” I heard a familiar man’s voice sing. “Miss Lawson?” Then the unmistakable sound of footsteps clattering across the foyer’s marble entryway.

As Lucy cocked her head to listen, I saw my chance. I sprung on her, going chest to chest, my arms tightening around her waist, pinning them to her sides. I heard the Taser clatter to the floor; heard the “ooaf!” of air that came out of Lucy’s purple-lipsticked mouth when my body collided against hers. We clattered to the floor, me on top of her, her thrashing wildly, angrily, her black boots pushing against Mr. Sampson’s expensive comforter.

“Let me go!” Lucy groaned.

“Hello?” I called. “Who’s there? Help! Please, I need help!”

Lucy struggled against me and then lurched up, her lips locking against my neck, her fake fangs pressed hard against my skin. I stared down incredulously. “Are you trying to bite me?”

Lucy bit harder, and I struggled against her, the irony of living with a vampire and being bit by a human just an inch away. I let one arm go and used the heel of my hand to push against Lucy’s forehead, working to peel her and her fake teeth off of me. “Stop biting me!” I yelled at her.

“It’s okay, Sophie,” I heard. “It’s the police.”

I gave Lucy a hard smack on the side of the head, and she unhitched herself from me. I scrambled from on top of her toward the bedroom door. “I’m here! I’m in here!” The words were barely out of my mouth before Lucy was on top of me again, sitting on my back and grabbing fistfuls of my hair.

“Yeoooowww!”

“That’s enough, that’s enough!” I heard the words and felt Lucy being pulled off of me; I flopped flat onto my stomach, gasping.

“Are you okay, Sophie?”

I lifted my head barely an inch and stared down at the spit-shined shoes of Police Chief Oliver.

“Chief Oliver!” My cheeks hurt from the size of my grin.

The chief crouched down next to me. “It’s okay, Sophie. Everything is going to be okay. Are you hurt?”

I wagged my head and struggled to get up on hands and knees. “No, I’m not hurt. But Sampson—” I started.

“It’s all right. Mr. Sampson is just fine. I’m going to take you to him so that you can see for yourself. He’s doing just fine.”

“And Lucy?” I asked slowly. I looked over my shoulder to where Lucy was standing in the corner, just off the chief’s shoulder. Her arms were crossed, her lips pressed into a colorless, fierce line, and she was glowering at me, eyes fixed. I pried my eyes from her and looked up at the chief, relaxing as he slid his meat hook of a hand underneath my arm and helped me up. It took me a few seconds to steady myself on my jellied, quivering legs.

And then I was looking down the greasy-black barrel of a gun.

“Shouldn’t you be pointing that at her?” I whispered, my eyes going to Lucy, whose lips were now curved up in a satisfied snarl.

“Oh. Wait. It’s okay,” I said, looking back at the chief, my voice suddenly even. “You know about Parker. Don’t worry; I’m not with him. Parker’s not here.” I angled my head around the barrel of the gun, shielded my mouth with my hand. “I think Lucy might be working with him. We have to find him. We have to find him and get to Sampson. You know where he is. You know where Mr. Sampson is, right?”

Chief Oliver grinned broadly at me and cocked the hammer.

The breath left my body.

“Chief Oliver?”

“Don’t worry, Sophie. I know exactly where Sampson is. I can take you right to him. Would you like that?”

My eyes widened, held by the black gun barrel. “Lucy?” I whispered, my dry lips trembling, my eyes starting to water. I chanced a look over at her, and her eyes were fixated on the gun, her expression a freaky mix of terror and pleasure. At this point, I would really rather take my chances with the impish fake-vamp than with the chief and his exceptionally real gun.

“Don’t you worry about Lucy,” the chief told me. “Lucy is doing exactly what she was supposed to do.”

I gulped. “And that would be?” My voice was little more than a hoarse whisper.

“That would be to bring you here, bring you to the chief. Didn’t I do well?” Lucy asked.

I just nodded dumbly, falling against Chief Oliver as his fingers dug into my shoulder.

“And you, Sophie, did everything you were supposed to do, too. You led Sampson right to me.”

I felt my eyebrows rise, and I shook my head. “No.”

The chief grinned. “Yes. That night by your car? I was just out looking for some half-breed blood. Didn’t even count on getting the dog, but lo and behold—you hurt the owner and the dog comes running.”

I felt my lower lip start to quiver, felt the ache in my head. “Mr. Sampson rescued me … from you?” I whispered.

“Oh, yes. Beautiful moment, really. Would have been nicer, too, if I hadn’t had to Tase the son of a bitch. He did put up quite a fight.” He clucked his tongue, shaking his head. “Tough to see a dog whimper like that.”

I heard Lucy simper in the corner, her hands pressed up against her mouth, her small shoulders trembling under the weight of her laughter.

“She’s with you?” I murmured, fitting the whole scene together.

“Anyway,” the chief continued, ignoring me, “I guess I should thank you. Really, I couldn’t have done it without your help. Sampson was going to be a tough one.”

My stomach lurched, and I swallowed a miserable wail.

“Oh, but enough revelry. Come on now.” Chief Oliver pushed me in front of him. “Lucy?” he said, and I stiffened, feeling the gun angled between my shoulder blades. He tapped it harshly against me. “Step lively, demon girl, I don’t have all night.”

“Oh, Chief Oliver, I’m not a demon.” I wagged my head, feeling a hysterical giggle escaping my lips. “Is that what you thought? No, I’m human. All human. I’m just an administrative assistant at the Underground. I file papers. I can prove it.” I took a chance, craning my neck to look over my shoulder and smiling hopefully into the chief’s stiff grimace. “Do you have any papers you’d like me to file? Alphabetically, chronologically? I’m really very good.”

He nudged me with the gun again, and I stumbled into the hallway.

“Just keep moving. I know exactly what you are, Miss Lawson. I know who you are, and I knew who your grandmother was.”

I paused and then winced as the chief drove the gun hard into my spine. “Keep walking,” he growled, the stubble from his chin grazing my ear. “You don’t want to make this difficult for yourself, do you?”

I wagged my head and gulped, feeling the lump growing in my throat. “Is Parker a part of this, too?”

Chief Oliver snorted. “Parker Hayes. A detective from Podunk, New York.”

“Buffalo,” I whispered through dry lips.

“What was that?”

I cleared my throat. “Parker Hayes is from Buffalo.”

“Whatever. He’s nothing to worry about.” The chief snorted. “He thinks he’s been chasing a mythical killer? That idiot’s been chasing his tail all this time.” The chief shook me hard, and I squealed. “Parker Hayes is nothing to worry about,” he repeated.

A fresh round of tears burned at my eyes. He’s nothing to worry about because he’s got a fork shoved in his thigh. I sniffled, and as we walked into the foyer, Chief Oliver wound his free hand in my hair and yanked. I bent down backward, wincing as my spine protested.

I heard another unmistakable, gleeful giggle escape Lucy’s lips, and from the corner of my eye, I could see her helicoptering around the chief and me, angling for the best vantage point.

“Now, you’re not going to do anything stupid like run away or scream, are you?”

“No,” I said, feeling strands of my hair snapping in Chief Oliver’s palm.

“You know, I’d like to believe you.” He shoved me so hard against the wall that I lost my breath and immediately tasted the hot blood that rushed from a fresh cut on my lip. “But I’ve learned that you never can trust a demon.” Chief Oliver leaned in, his breath moist and hot on my ear. “Even just a half-breed,” he muttered.

I heard the tinkle of his belt and then felt the searing pain in my shoulders as the chief twisted my arms hard and locked cold metal cuffs around my wrists. He spun me around and frowned, his bushy caterpillar eyebrows coming together.

“You’re bleeding,” he said, and for a brief moment I thought that the chief might actually feel bad for me. But then he rubbed his hand roughly over my lips and sucked the excess blood from his thumb and grinned. His smile was hungry, ferocious, and my blood had tinted his teeth a freaky, glowing pink. He smacked his lips. “Yeah, that’ll do quite nicely.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and shook it out, tenderly dabbing at my nose and lips. “We don’t want to waste it,” he said.

“Why are you doing this?” I moaned as Chief Oliver shoved me toward the front door. “Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?”

The chief snorted. “Good guy? Huh. In this city, it takes more than good guys to keep everything in line. Forty-seven square miles of demon-infested city?” Chief Oliver shook his head, his distaste obvious. “And you demons act like you own this town. Looking up to that damn Pete Sampson like he’s some kind of god …”

“But—”

The chief spun to face me, and I could see the spitting hatred in his eyes.

“You know, I’m getting awfully tired of listening to you.”

“I’ll be quiet,” I said, my voice small.

He smiled that twisted, grotesque smile and used one hand to pin me to the wall, the other to beckon for Lucy.

“Lucy, sweetie, do me a favor and watch over our little friend for a second here, will you?”

Lucy skipped—skipped—over to me, her dark hair bobbing around her shoulders, her wide lips spread in a pleased grin. I looked her over as the chief disappeared out the front, considered whether—cuffed or not—I could take her. My query was cut short when she pulled out that Taser again, flicking the on switch so the electricity between the two wires shivered and made my teeth ache with memory.

“Come on, Lucy. You don’t have to do this.”

“I know,” she smiled broadly, and I could see that one of her fake vampire fangs had broken off. “But it’s just so much fun.”

“Chief Oliver is a murderer,” I said, dropping my voice to a stage whisper. “Do you know that? Do you know that he’s already killed at least three innocent people? Lucy, you’ve got to get yourself out of this.”

Lucy’s grin didn’t falter. “Oh, Sophie, it’s all for the greater good. And they weren’t people, they were demons. And all those demons had something we needed.”

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

The smile abruptly dropped from Lucy’s lips, but she still held the Taser just an inch from my exposed skin. “Look, you demons have your restoration league.”

“VERM? That’s for vampires.”

“Haven’t you read the literature? It has tiers for all of you demons. So you have your thing for empowerment and restoration and so do we. The UDA has controlled things for too long and is losing its foothold. It’s time for something bigger.”

“And where do you come in with that?”

Lucy smiled, the pointed pink tip of her tongue curling over her remaining yellowed fang. “I get my own powers. What I get makes vampiracy look like child’s play. The chief promised me.”

“The chief is lying to you.”

Lucy’s small palm snapped against my cheek, and she leaned in, the Taser a millimeter from my neck. “Don’t you say that about Chief Oliver. All he’s concerned about is protecting the people—the human people—of this city. You have no idea what you’re talking about so just shut your mouth!”

The chief wandered back in, his red-rimmed eyes taking in Lucy and me. “You two getting along in here? Not that I care …”

Lucy stepped away from me, but her fierce eyes were still on mine. She held the Taser so tightly that I could see her knuckles had gone white.

“Chief Oliver, I—”

The chief put his hands on his hips and stared at me. “You know, Sophie, I’m really getting tired of listening to you.” He angled his gun at me again, and I cringed, pinching my eyes closed tightly. When a full second passed without gunfire, I chanced to open an eye. I saw the chief, gun still steadied and trained on me in one hand, the other rummaging through a duffel bag left open on the hallway table. Chief Oliver produced a silver roll of duct tape and tossed it to Lucy, who caught it and peeled off a piece, tearing it with her teeth.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re a demon or not, all you broads talk too much,” the chief said.

I was about to protest, to plead my non-talking-broad case, but Lucy smacked a piece of tape over my mouth, smoothing it with her delicate hand.

The chief came up behind her, grinned, and patted her on the shoulder. “Good work, kid.”

Lucy beamed like a proud kindergartner.

“Now take her car and get out of here.”

The smile abruptly dropped from Lucy’s lips. “But I wanted to see the ceremony!” she whined. “You said I could be there when the portal opened and I’d get my powers.” Lucy was stamping her foot again, her black hair bobbing. “I got the stuff you wanted!”

I blinked.

I remembered Kishi’s voice that day at the Crystal Ball in San Jose. I remember her saying that the woman who bought the Sword of Bethesda was rather nondescript, but had long black hair.

“Lucy,” I murmured.

“Huh?” she called over her shoulder, annoyed.

I tried again, then realized with the tape stuck over my mouth I was probably letting out nothing more than an incomprehensible moan. The chief blew out an annoyed sigh, aimed his gun at my nose, and whipped the duct tape from my mouth.

“Ow!” I moaned. “Geez.”

Lucy raised a perturbed eyebrow. “That’s what you wanted to say?”

“I wanted to say that it was you, Lucy, who bought the Sword of Bethesda.”

Lucy smiled, looked lovingly at the chief. “Uh-huh. Good on you for figuring it out way too late.” She tossed a hard glance over her shoulder. “I’m staying. No one’s going to come looking for her car, and even if they do, so what? The ritual will be completed and no one will be any match for us.”

“They won’t, will they?” the chief looked amused and patronizing at the same time while Lucy nodded.

“Lucy, I—” I was barely able to get out the second syllable when the chief slapped the tape over my mouth again. He patted both my cheeks and smiled, and in one quick motion, yanked a pillowcase out of his duffel and dropped it over my head.

I blinked in the immediate darkness.

Suddenly we were moving again, the chief’s hands clamped over my arms, tight, cutting off my circulation as I stumbled in front of him. I heard Lucy scampering behind us, complaining about how to dispose of my car, about how she wanted to stay and be a part of “the ceremony.” The chief remained mostly quiet, grunting occasionally, until I heard him open a car door. Almost immediately I felt myself being launched inside, sliding on my belly across a foul-smelling leather bench seat and cracking my skull on what I can only assume was the other car door.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” I heard him mutter before I felt the door slamming against the soles of my bare feet. I groaned, them immediately strained to hear the last few seconds of the chief and Lucy arguing outside.

“But it’s what you promised!” I heard Lucy whine.

“Stop it. I don’t have time for this.”

“But—”

“I’m warning you…. Just get in the car and drive away like we talked about. I’ll come and get you when everything is through.”

“Chief!” Lucy’s whine was high-pitched and piteous. I heard a few more muffled words, a quieted howl, a scuffle. Then a gunshot rang out through the night. I blinked in the darkness of my pillowcase, felt the cool heat as all the hairs on the back of my neck pricked. I felt my heart thumping wildly in my chest and made a mental note that if I were to ever get out of this situation alive, I’d keep a cardiologist on speed dial. And also surgically attach my cell phone to my hand.

I worked to sit up, then scooted myself across the bench seat, leaning my pillowcased head against the cool glass of the window. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t see anything except for a splotch of yellowish street light and a single dark figure standing in the night.

My heart continued to thump, and my mouth fell open as the figure slowly lumbered toward the car. I pressed the soles of my feet against the car door and launched myself across the seat, cowering against the other locked door. I was breathing hard and sucked in a mouthful of cotton pillowcase while the tears spilled from my eyes. Was Lucy dead? Was I next? The chief had murdered before—horrendously murdered—three innocent people, and now Lucy’s foot stomping and demands had gone deathly silent.

I pinched my eyes shut and waited for my life to flash before them. I waited for the split-second feeling of calm that was supposed to come when you accepted fate.

Neither came.

So I went with the next best thing: spastic movements. I had learned in a self-defense class (or by watching Oprah) that a moving target was hard to hit, so, when escaping an attacker with a gun, you should run zigzag. I wasn’t going to let the fact that I was trapped in the coffin-sized backseat of a police car hamper my best defense so I threw myself spastically around the backseat the second I heard the click of the car door open.

“What the hell are you doing back there?”

I kicked. I thrashed. I bobbed. I weaved. I panted a little and wished I’d spent more time at the gym working up my cardio. I heard the groan of the leather seat and I cringed, imagining Chief Oliver as he leveled the gun and shot me dead, too. With a second burst of adrenaline I dove for the floor mats, and then heard the jangle of the key as it slipped into the ignition, the groan of the engine as it turned over.

“You’re fucking nuts,” I heard the chief mutter. “You’re all fucking nuts.”

I lay still on the floor of the car, the industrial carpet scratching my bare arms as the chief kicked the car into gear and headed down the drive. I wanted to ask him about Lucy. I wanted to ask him if I’d be next. Instead, I lay with my cheek pressed against the car seat while the tears rolled down my cheeks.

I’m going to get out of here, I told myself, I have to.

I stiffened and scooted forward, pressing one ear against the car door. As we rode, I struggled to listen to every sound, to count every jerking movement of the car—turns, stoplights, anything that could be used to identify where he might be taking me. But there was a sickening, sweet scent inside the pillowcase that I hadn’t noticed before and it was making me tired, making my eyes so heavy.

I wonder if this is how it happens on CSI, I thought, before falling off into darkness.