Brittle Midnight Read online

  ‘Mmm,’ Julie murmured. ‘You can’t open those doors from the other side.’ She looked at me meaningfully. ‘If the murderer isn’t from inside the hotel, your corpse must have invited her killer in.’

  I sighed. It did make sense, otherwise Timmons’ magic alarm would have gone off earlier. Unfortunately all that information did was widen our pool of suspects from several dozen to several thousand.

  I steeled myself and walked into Valerie’s room, while Julie and Cath hesitated at the door. Cath let out a gasp. Julie remained more stoical but even her skin looked paler than normal.

  We wouldn’t do Valerie any good by wringing our hands and retching. I swallowed and strode over to her body. ‘Don’t touch anything until Anna gives us the say so.’

  ‘Sure,’ Cath murmured. ‘We wouldn’t want to disturb the scene before the fingerprint technicians get here.’

  I tutted at her. ‘We might not have the resources but that doesn’t mean we need to be stupid.’ I pointed at Valerie. ‘There are the puncture wounds. Julie, come here and tell me what you think.’

  The vampire actress edged in with considerable reluctance. She moved round to my right side and peered at Valerie’s body. Cath came over and did the same.

  ‘Maybe,’ the teen said, sounding nervous for the first time, ‘I should check to make sure she’s really dead.’

  ‘She’s really dead,’ Julie snapped. ‘How many alive people do you know who look like that?’

  I placed a warning hand on her shoulder. Cath was only trying to be useful in the face of a terrifying sight.

  Julie shrugged me off but she did at least subside. ‘Yeah,’ she said finally. ‘Those puncture marks look vampire-like to me.’

  ‘You told me once,’ I said, ‘that you could never drink all the blood in a human’s body in one go. That there’s just too much. Was that the truth?’

  ‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘It’s a lot of liquid to chug down.’

  I winced slightly at her choice of words but I didn’t interrupt.

  ‘Whoever did this,’ Julie continued, ‘must have spent quite some time with her.’ She shuffled round the other side of the bed and squatted down beside Valerie’s trailing hand. ‘You see the way her fingernails are cracked? She put up a fight. Our perpetrator is probably covered in scratches.’

  ‘How quickly do vampires heal?’ I asked.

  Julie’s mouth flattened into a thin line. ‘These days? With all the magic floating in the air? Hours, at best. If you’re using attack wounds to find her killer, you’ll have to move quickly. Unless your Valerie here managed to score a life-threatening hit, whoever did this will have healed their scratches and cuts by noon.’ She paused. ‘And it’s light outside. Most vampires will be sleeping away the day by now.’

  I absorbed this information with a sinking sensation. This was not going to be easy. ‘Do you know how many vampires there are in Manchester, Julie?’

  She shook her head. ‘No.’ She looked away from me and towards Cath. ‘What are you staring at?’

  Cath didn’t appear in the slightest bit intimidated. ‘I was checking you over,’ she said. ‘For scratches.’

  Julie bared her teeth at the teen but without any real malice. She grabbed her blouse and started to unbutton it. ‘Would you like to check all over?’ she enquired. ‘I didn’t do this,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t do this. Frankly I don’t know of any vampire who could.’ She glanced at me. ‘If there were more puncture wounds, I’d have said there must have been more than one attacker.’

  ‘Unless,’ Cath said thoughtfully, ‘they were really hungry.’

  ‘Darling,’ Julie replied, ‘no one is that hungry.’

  I twisted my fingers together and sighed. Pointless as it seemed, I’d have to go to the north as quickly as possible to see if I could find any vampires with tell-tale wounds who were wandering about in the morning sun without a care in the world.

  ‘Are there any other signs I should look out for?’ I asked. ‘With the vampire –or even vampires – who did this?’

  Julie considered. ‘We do tend to become lethargic after a big, um, meal,’ she said. ‘And happy.’

  So I was looking for a bloated, sleepy vamp with a cheesy grin and bloody scratches. And I only had about three hours to find them before their wounds healed. Great. I’d seen better odds on Pamela Anderson becoming the next James Bond.

  I squared my shoulders and reminded myself that sometimes long shots paid off. I cast a last look at Valerie. ‘I’ve got this,’ I promised her quietly. ‘I’ll find the bastard who did this.’

  Chapter Seven

  I hadn’t visited the northern part of the city since Monroe and his supernatural cronies had settled in. It wasn’t out of a lack of desire to go there, it had simply been a matter of logistics and time. Even so, I’d heard enough about what was going on to have a good idea about the situation. I had an odd idea that it would look like a scene out of Blade Runner. It didn’t: it just looked like Manchester.

  The streets in the newly developed enclave were surprisingly clean. As I entered the first boundary, receiving a grave nod from the two guys who were positioned at the entrance and who obviously knew who I was, I spotted several others sweeping away bits of debris. The windows were sparkling and there was little sign of any damage. For some reason I couldn’t identify, I felt a sour tug at the realisation that Monroe’s community was managing the challenges of the apocalypse better than mine was.

  Much like in the south, there was a row of neat little shops that had been commandeered by enterprising folk. Most of them offered similar items – household goods and the like. One or two had artfully-penned signs indicating that they sold weapons, from crossbows to guns. This was more like the sort of vigilantism I’d expected – until I noted the other sign stating that ‘all purchases were to be logged and identification produced’. It appeared they weren’t taking any chances that anyone would go off gung-ho or battle royale style.

  I crossed a quiet square, noting what appeared to be the headquarters at its eastern side – a grand old building with large stone columns and weathered carved gargoyles on its front. I couldn’t remember what it was used for originally but now there was a group of what were presumably werewolves gathered outside. A man stood at the head of them, passing out sheets of paper.

  ‘You need to check on the Canal Monster, Derek. Make sure it’s staying to its territory and check on its current attitude.’ There was a pause as another sheet was passed out. ‘Rick and Jo, the ration shops need stocking up with these goods. Check the outlying supermarkets first for any items. The updated map is attached to your orders. Make sure you mark where you’ve been and what the state of play is in terms of supplies.’

  The words ‘well-oiled machine’ sprang to my mind. Yes, I did something similar in the south but I had fewer eager volunteers and more complaints to put up with.

  Monroe had once told me that serious punishments were never needed for werewolves because they always followed pack orders. At the time I’d scoffed at the idea that they always fell into line and did as they were told, but now I was starting to think that he was right. I made a mental note to talk to him about sending a group of my less community-spirited individuals over here for a fact-finding mission. They could certainly learn a few things about pulling together as a team.

  Tempting as it was to hang around and see what else was going on, I didn’t have time. I picked up my pace, aware that eyes were following my progress across the square. I thought I could get past without being stopped but, right before I turned into the first street on the left, a voice hailed me. ‘Enchantress!’

  I grimaced and turned, unwilling to waste more time than was necessary. Julian strode over to me. He was smiling, but I had the distinct impression he’d have preferred me not to be there.

  ‘I go by Charley,’ I said drily.

  ‘I wasn’t sure of the correct protocol,’ he said. ‘I apologise that I wasn’t here to greet you earlier. I was
unaware that you were visiting us. The border guards got the news to me quickly enough, but next time you should let us know in advance and we can make proper preparations.’

  He was making it sound as if I were a visiting dignitary – who also needed my passport checked at the same time. ‘This is only a brief visit,’ I told him. ‘I’m … looking for someone.’

  An intelligent light gleamed in his eyes. ‘Monroe is back that way.’ He pointed behind him.

  I shook my head. ‘It’s not Monroe I’m looking for.’ I heaved in a breath and wondered how much I should say, then I remembered that neither Julian nor anyone else here was actually my enemy. We were all in this together, whether we lived separately or not. ‘There’s been a murder,’ I told him. ‘At the Travotel. All signs indicate it was a vampire.’

  Julian stiffened. He turned his head and snapped his fingers. ‘I need a patrol here now!’

  At once six figures trotted over. None of them were holding weapons but each one had an air of danger; to a person, they were primed and ready for any kind of trouble.

  ‘You will escort the enchantress to the vampires. Rouse them all.’ Julian glanced at me. ‘Do you have some idea who you are looking for, or is this a fishing expedition?’ There was no judgment in his tone: Julian certainly didn’t betray his thoughts or his emotions. As someone who prided herself on reading expressions and tells, I could only be impressed. He’d make an excellent poker player.

  ‘Scratch marks. Superficial wounds.’ I shrugged. ‘That kind of thing.’ I was starting to feel that, instead of this being a hunt for a needle in a haystack, I’d find Valerie’s killer before lunch with ease. I met Julian’s eyes. ‘Thank you.’

  He didn’t smile. ‘Security and safety are our priority. We will find the vampire responsible and bring him to justice.’

  I wondered briefly what it would be like to live your life with such unerring certainty that things would go the way you wanted them to. I also wondered why Julian wasn’t the one in charge around here. Then again, there was still no sign of Monroe. Maybe Julian was the boss and Monroe had neglected to mention it.

  The nearest woman to me nodded her head. ‘This way, ma’am. We will show you where the vampires bed down and help you catch the culprit.’

  I licked my lips. ‘Uh, sure.’ I hesitated. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Felicity, make sure the vampires do what you need. Tell them that if they don’t cooperate, there will be serious consequences.’ There was something worryingly ominous about the way Julian said that. The werewolf nodded grimly.

  ‘I don’t want to cause trouble with the vampires,’ I said hastily. ‘One bad apple doesn’t mean the barrel is rotten.’

  ‘Oh, it’s rotten enough,’ I heard another werewolf mutter.

  Julian’s eyes narrowed and the snarky wolf subsided. ‘Caution is advised,’ he said, although I wasn’t sure whether that statement was directed at me or at his wolves. He inclined his head and strode away. I watched him for a moment; he certainly acted more like the part of absolute leader than Monroe did.

  I turned away. It wasn’t my problem.

  It was something of a struggle to keep up with my new buddies because they marched at a tremendous pace. It was just as well that we only had to travel a few streets or I’d have started to feel seriously embarrassed by my short legs and comparatively slow movements. I was out of breath by the time we arrived at what appeared to be another barricade made out of water barrels and steel panels. The werewolves looked like they were merely out for a Sunday stroll.

  ‘Who do these idiots think they’re kidding?’ muttered the female werewolf who’d led the way. ‘This shit wouldn’t stop a toddler.’ She kicked at the nearest steel panel, causing a loud clang to reverberate around the now nearly empty street.

  A moment later a hooded figure appeared and peered over the makeshift barrier. The hood wasn’t merely a trendy sweatshirt of the sort favoured by teenagers, it was a proper cloak fashioned out of what looked like dark velvet. It all but covered the figure’s face. This, then, would be a vampire, hiding from the sun’s rays and looking for all the world like he was about to attend a Halloween party. I squinted at him. When I concentrated, I could see the blue aura surrounding his body that set him apart as a magical creature. It gave me a headache to do it too often, though, suggesting that looking directly at magic was bad for my eyesight.

  ‘We’ve been through this,’ the vampire said, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. ‘Do not bother us until dusk.’ He disappeared behind the barricade as if that were the end of the matter.

  The werewolf rolled her eyes and kicked the barrier again. Then, without waiting for an answer, she leapt over it. The others behind her followed suit. I stood there for a moment, not sure what I should do. A moment later there was the sound of a brief scuffle and a large section of the barrier tumbled forward.

  ‘Enchantress,’ said one of my new werewolf buddies. ‘Please, come on through.’

  ‘Charley,’ I told him. ‘Please.’

  He grinned suddenly. ‘I’m Billy.’

  I declined Billy’s offer of a hand and gingerly stepped through the gap in the barricade. At one side, two of the other werewolves were holding the hooded vampire in place.

  ‘That’s Kate and Sal,’ Billy said. They nodded in unison. ‘Then Steven, Guy and Felicity.’

  Each werewolf waved at me in turn. I did my best to memorise their names but it was difficult to focus, given the angry vampire they’d grabbed hold of. ‘You can’t do this,’ he spat. ‘The terms of our agreement state that you can’t! Get your grubby paws off of me!’

  ‘This issue is time sensitive,’ Kate said. Or maybe it was Felicity. ‘Every vampire needs to get out here now.’

  ‘We are sleeping! When you will you stupid animals get it through your thick skull that we are nocturnal? It’s not fucking rocket science. Sun bad. Night good. Jeez.’

  Uneasiness slid through me. It was clear that, despite the orderly scenes I’d witnessed, things were not all rosy in Monroe’s north. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. This was my doing; maybe I could smooth things over and still get the answers I needed. ‘Don’t blame them,’ I said. ‘Coming here was my call.’

  The shadowed face of the vampire turned towards me. ‘Yeah?’ he sneered. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Idiot,’ hissed the nearest werewolf. ‘She’s the enchantress.’

  ‘She doesn’t look like the enchantress.’

  ‘She’s got blue hair, hasn’t she?’

  The vampire shrugged. ‘It’s so cold out here that I’ve got blue balls. It doesn’t make me an all-powerful magical being.’

  I gritted my teeth. This wasn’t helping. I cleared my throat. I most definitely did not have time to deal with vamp-versus-wolf fisticuffs. ‘A human has been murdered at the Travotel.’

  ‘The one run by the faery?’

  There was only one hotel open in the whole of Manchester. Yes, it was the one run by the damned faery. I smiled. ‘Yes.’

  The vampire tutted. He jerked his arms against the werewolves’ grasp. ‘Let me go,’ he said. ‘Your restraint is completely unnecessary.’

  ‘We’re not…’

  ‘Let him go,’ I said.

  The werewolves released him. Nice. At least some people did what I said.

  The vampire inclined his head and stepped back into the shaded part of the street before finally drawing back his hood.

  Despite his squeaky voice, he looked younger than I expected. I still couldn’t always separate a vampire’s appearance from their actual age. Julie, for instance, looked like she was in her forties when she was more like two or three hundred years old. That meant this guy was probably … seventy or eighty? His hair was slicked back, as if he’d just come out of the shower, and he had a pencil-thin dark moustache that added to the effect of a young teenager trying to look older than his years. I gave up judging him by his looks and met his eyes.

  ‘It was a vampire who killed her,
’ I said. ‘By all accounts.’

  ‘How did she die?’ His question was casually worded but there was no denying the serious intent in his gaze.

  ‘Her death is still fresh,’ I told him. ‘And we’ve only done a cursory examination of her body. She put up a fight. Her fingernails are broken. I didn’t notice any bruising but there could well be some. Her body is all sunken and,’ I swallowed, ‘there are puncture wounds on her neck. There’s no other indication of trauma.’

  He blinked at me slowly then he threw back his head and laughed. ‘So of course you thought it was a vampire who did it? Puncture wounds? How terribly trite! Even a young vampire wouldn’t kill a human simply by drinking from them.’ He continued to chuckle to himself while I stared at him.

  Felicity growled. ‘Maybe she had a heart attack when one of your bastards sank his fangs in.’

  If only. ‘Maybe she did but the way her body was … shrivelled into itself suggests all her blood was drained.’ I sharpened my voice and addressed the vampire again. ‘My source indicates that it looks like a vampire was responsible.’

  He wiped the tears from his eyes. ‘Your source? You mean the actress?’

  I responded stiffly. ‘Yes.’

  ‘She knows nothing. She’s a troublemaker who lies for a living. Nothing she says can be trusted.’ As he spoke, his nostrils flared slightly. Ah ha. That was his tell, then. Whether Julie was a liar or not, so was he.

  I stilled and kept talking, hoping to draw him out further. Suddenly I felt on surer ground. ‘All the same,’ I said, ‘if we could see all the vampires here for ourselves and check them out for scratch marks, we can eliminate them from our enquiries.’

  He bared his white teeth in a supposed smile. ‘They’re sleeping right now. You’re welcome to come back when the sun falls.’

  Several of the werewolves hissed in annoyance. I kept my cool. ‘By which time, any such superficial injuries will have healed.’