Jeanne Stein - Blood Drive

I’m watching all this from the couch, fighting the compulsive desire to launch myself again at Bradley. Only the knowledge that my limbs will not respond, that my legs will not support my weight, keeps me rooted to this spot. I’m panting, shaking all over, unable to stop the wild fluttering in the center of my chest. The fluttering echoes in my head. I look at Frey and his eyes are on me. Whatever is happening to me, he is doing it.

“Stop it.” It comes out like a croak.

Frey responds by tilting his head a little to the side. “They’re here.”

And as soon as the door opens and Donovan walks in, I’m released. The shaking stops, my heartbeat slows. I can sit up.

Donovan goes to Darryl first. He bends over the body and checks for a pulse. He turns Darryl’s head gently. “Bruising from perforated blood vessels in the neck, soft structure crushed. His neck is broken.” He stands up and faces his partner. “Looks like he was attacked by a big dog.”

Bradley points to me. “Ask her what happened. She was here. Jesus, look what she did to me?” He drops his hand from his neck and shows the wound. “She must be on some crazy shit.”

“You saying she killed him?”

“Who else? I got here and found him like that. She was the only one here.”

“Why?” Donovan asks softly.

“Why what?”

“Why were you here?”

Bradley sucks in a breath. “I followed her.”

“In what? Your car is at the police station.”

Donovan is moving away from Darryl and toward his partner. “The two guys outside. Who are they?”

“I don’t know. They got here the same time I did.”

“That’s not what they said. You brought them here. To see Darryl.” He glances at the body. “I recognize him, Tom. He’s the kid of that guy we busted in Boston. The one you said had nothing to do with his dad’s business. The one you let off.”

He looks around, awareness and disappointment creeping into his expression. He picks up one of the tapes from the pile on the coffee table and holds it up. “You went into business with him. Christ. You went into business with him.”

Bradley spreads his hands. “How can you think that? I came here for the same reason you did, to shut the scumbag down. I don’t know what those two kids told you, but whose word are you going to accept? They raped and murdered a fourteen-year-old girl. Probably killed Carolyn Delaney, too. There isn’t anything to connect me to-”

“The laptop.” I’m not sure I’ve spoken the words aloud.

Both men turn to me.

“What?” Donovan says.

“The laptop. He took it from me in the café this morning. His prints will be on it. He brought me here while you were at that meeting with Williams and the mayor.”

Bradley waves my words away with the brush of a hand. “That’s ridiculous.”

Donovan pulls latex gloves from the pocket of his jacket. “Where is it?” he asks me.

I point to the pile of videos on the table. “Under there.”

He pulls it out and holds it carefully at the edges.

Bradley takes a step back. “If my fingerprints are on it, it doesn’t mean a thing. I could have touched it when I got here and found her with the body.”

“Then shoved it under this pile of crap?” Donovan shakes his head. “I don’t fucking believe this, Tom.”

“It’s going to take more than fingerprints-”

But before he can finish, the front door opens. Williams and two cops in uniform walk in. “I just had an interesting conversation with your buddies outside, Bradley. I think it’s time we head downtown.” He motions to the cops, who step to Bradley’s side. “I’m sure you won’t mind if these gentlemen take your weapon.”

Frey has been standing quietly beside the couch. Now he speaks up. “I have his gun,” he says. “He dropped it.”

He holds it out butt first. Williams nods and takes it. For the first time, he looks at me. “The Medical Examiner is on the way. Maybe you and Frey should go.”

Bradley stiffens. “You’re letting her go? She attacked me. She probably killed Darryl. You’re arresting me, and you’re letting her go?”

Williams waves a hand. “About now, I’d be worrying about saving my own ass, Special Agent Bradley. As we speak, the DA is contacting the Feds. They’ll be examining your financial records. And Darryl’s. I bet the two of you weren’t as clever as you think.”

One of the cops produces a pair of cuffs. Bradley pulls away, but the other cop closes in on him and he sees he has no choice. When he’s secured, they prod Bradley toward the door. Donovan follows, holding the laptop.

Neither says good-bye.

Williams waits until they’re gone to turn his attention to me. “Are you all right? You look a little pale.”

I start to say of course I’m all right. It’s a reflex action. But Frey’s eyes stop me. In an instant, I’m watching what happened with Darryl, and then with Bradley. He’s projecting it into my head exactly the way he showed me Trish in the park. And I’m overcome with the same rage and desire to kill that renders everything else inconsequential. I would have killed both of them. I wanted to.

I wanted to.

Williams touches my arm. He is sitting beside me on the couch. I realize then that I was seeing through Williams, not Frey.

You saw it?

Frey showed me, I showed you.

The broken psychic connection. I pass a hand over my face. What is happening to me?

Nothing that you can’t learn to control. But you have to start now. What you did to Bradley will take some explaining. I’ll take care of it, but it can’t happen again.

I exposed myself as a vampire.

He nods. You have great powers, Anna. You can use those powers for good. But it takes training to learn to control the hunger. You have fought so hard to retain your humanity. You must fight to control the other side of your nature, too, or it will turn you into what you fear most.

I thought I could control it.

Frey saw. He stopped you from killing. Twice.

Then he killed. Darryl.

In his animal form. He feared he could not stop you with Darryl. The fire was in your blood. He did it so that you would not.

And what if I had killed him?

Then you would have been lost.

I don’t understand.

Williams stands and takes a step away. When he turns to look at me, his eyes are flat, cold. Settle things with Trish. And your parents. It’s time your training began. Don’t wait too long, Anna.

He looks at Frey. Frey takes my arm. “The medical examiner is here. We’ll leave through the back.”

I push myself off the couch. When I glance back at Williams, he’s already heading for the front door.

“Wait.”

He turns.

“What about Trish and the videos on those computers? What will happen to them?”

“They’re evidence, Anna. I can’t promise they won’t be used in court.”

He must read the distress on my face because he adds, “If we can get Bradley and those two outside to deal, it’s possible there’ll be no trial. I’ll speak to the DA. It’s all I can do.”

Frey and I slip over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. The presence of police cars assures us that even if the neighbor is at home, he isn’t likely to come outside to see what’s going on. We wait until we see the crime scene techs and medical examiner disappear into Darryl’s house, and then we quietly make our way to the car. He takes the keys from me and opens the passenger side door.

“I’ll drive. You look beat.”

I don’t argue. I feel as if I’m at the end of an endurance race, too tired to care if I make it to the finish line. I just want it to be over. I know that in spite of everything, I may not be able to protect Trish if the videos are used in court. And Williams’s words about me have left me shaken and confused. They remind me what Casper told me. Twice. I’m losing the human Anna to the vampire.