Pray for Dawn

TWENTY-FOUR

Stifling a yawn, I rubbed my left eye with the heel of my palm as I slowly trudged up the stairs to the police station. The sun had been up for only a few hours and I was running on less than five hours of sleep. It had taken me the better part of an hour to drag myself through the streets the previous night and into bed in Mira’s town house. My body was healed, but still somewhat tender.

But a slim shred of hope lingered as I slowly mounted the concrete stairs to the police station. Daniel Crowley had woken me from a dead, healing sleep to inform me that he had a potential witness; someone who actually saw the murderer leave Abigail Bradford’s apartment building. So far, all the detective had been willing to tell me was that I had to hurry if I wanted the chance to talk to her.

Still bleary-eyed, I was shuffled through the building until I landed before Daniel’s desk. The detective looked exhausted, having already worked past the end of his shift. The sleeves of his wrinkled white shirt had been rolled up past his elbows and his tie dangled like a worn noose around his neck. Papers, files, and used paper coffee cups cluttered his desk in a growing pile, until it appeared the mountain would soon spill off the edge.

“I guess it’s a good thing you’re around, or Mira would have missed this opportunity,” Daniel said by way of a greeting. “I’ve got to take her over to Family Services before I clock out for the night.”

“Family Services?” I repeated dumbly, my brain still trying to function without that first cup of coffee.

“Yeah. She can’t be more than thirteen, though you can hardly get a straight answer out of her.” Daniel paused and ran one hand over his face as if to clear his thoughts. “She lives on the streets—runaway. We’ve picked her up a couple times before. She won’t stay in any of the homes that she’s placed with.”

“How did you get her?”

“She came to us. Scared out of her mind. Don’t think she’s slept in days,” Daniel said with a heavy sigh as he pushed himself out of his chair.

“Did you get a description of the killer?” I asked, following him down the hall past a series of interrogation rooms.

“She spent most of the morning with a sketch artist,” he confirmed, and then paused, his hand on the doorknob. “I was just going to send a copy of the picture over to Mira, until she said that the guy’s eyes glowed red. It could have been a trick of the light, but I thought it best if one of you people talk to her first.”

I flinched at the “one of you people” comment and gave a soft affirmative grunt. I wasn’t a vampire or lycanthrope, and Daniel knew that. However, I doubted that he was aware that I wasn’t fully human. He simply lumped me with them because I associated with Mira.

“We had one other strange development,” Daniel admitted as he took his hand off the interrogation-room doorknob. “We had a floater turn up this morning.”

“A floater?” I inquired, my brain struggling to keep up.

“Dead body in the river, down by the shipyards,” Daniel replied.

“And you think it’s linked?” I was surprised that there was no mention of the man who had been cremated on Factors Walk. Of course, the body might not have been found yet or it wasn’t being listed as a strange death similar to what Daniel was accustomed to seeing with Mira’s crowd.

“Possibly. Archie already called. Says the teeth aren’t human, but animal fangs. The jawbone has been completely shattered. And from a rough description, it appears this guy matches the kid’s description,” Daniel explained.

“So the killer has been found,” I said. I should have felt overwhelming relief, but instead all I felt was growing fear. “What did the man die of?”

“According to Archie, all of his internal organs were reduced to black goo. His body completely shut down,” Daniel said. “What could do that to someone?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted, but I was beginning to wonder if the dead man had simply been a carrier for something darker. “Let me talk to the girl,” I said, nodding toward the door. My hopes weren’t high that she might know something useful, but at this point, I would take whatever information I could get.

Following Daniel into the interrogation room, I found the young girl from Factors Walk seated at the table, cleaning the dirt out from underneath her fingernails. She looked up at Daniel and frowned, then her eyes traveled over to me. In a flash, the girl launched herself out of her chair and jumped to the other side of the room.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded, pressing herself into the far corner.

Daniel looked at me strangely, while a frown pulled at the corners of my mouth. I’d hoped to find the young girl that James and I had spoken to, but I wasn’t expecting to find her this way. I also hadn’t been expecting this kind of welcome, but after our run-in with the bori, I guess I should have.

“We’ve met before. Can you give me a moment alone with her?” I asked Daniel, while my eyes remained on the young girl.

“No! Don’t!” the girl cried, holding up her hand to ward me off.

“I won’t harm you,” I said, taking a single step forward. “I just came to talk to you about what you saw outside the apartment building.”

“Why are you here? You’re the reason I’m being hunted!” she demanded again.

“Hunted?” Daniel asked, and then he quickly held up his hands to stop us from answering his question. “I think it’s best I leave before I hear anything else. I know more than I want to already.” Before the girl could argue, Daniel stepped behind me and jerked open the door, making a hasty retreat.

“How am I the reason you’re being hunted?” I asked, remaining where I was near the door.

“I don’t know. That thing knows I know you and it wants you, doesn’t it? Or maybe it just wants me because of what I know? I don’t know anymore,” she cried, slamming her fist into the wall to her right.

“What you know? What is it that you know that no one else does?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, staring down at the ground. Her hands remained balled into fists and her lips were pressed into a hard line as if she were fighting to hold her secret deep within her.

“What do you see that makes me different?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled, crossing her arms over her middle.

Frowning, I pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat down, remaining near the door so that she had nowhere to go. “We both know that’s a lie. You apparently know a lot more than anyone is willing to give you credit for. You know that vampires are real. What else is real?”

She gave a soft snort, glancing up at me for only a second. “The fucking tooth fairy.”

“Watch your language,” I grumbled. “You know about the vampires and the werewolves. You can tell one just by sight, can’t you? I’ve seen you squinting at both me and my friend James. You squinted just before you spotted that creature that killed Abigail Bradford. You can see something no one else can.”

The girl continued to stare at me, but some of the tension seemed to have left her skinny frame. She cocked her head at me as she looked at me, but for some reason it didn’t seem as if she was looking directly at me but at something just past my left shoulder.

“You see something when you look at me, too,” I said, leaning forward a little to rest both my arms on the top of the table. “What is it? Do you think I look like a vampire? I can show you now that I’m missing the necessary fangs.” I flashed her a broad smile, revealing a set of normal-looking teeth.

“No, it’s your look, really. You…your aura is similar to a vampire,” she finally admitted in a low voice.

“Really? You can see auras. That’s interesting. I’ve never met anyone who could read auras. At least, not with any accuracy,” I said, folding my hands together.

“You believe me?” she said, surprising filling her voice. She leaned back into the corner, her shoulders resting against the two walls. She slipped her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, striking a pose that reminded me far too much of Mira.

“Of course. I’ve met creatures far stranger than you in my time. Why shouldn’t I believe you?”

“I’m not some creature! I’m a human being!” she suddenly shouted, pushing away from the wall.

“So am I.”

“No, you’re not,” she snapped. “There’s a black shadow that streaks across part of your aura. It’s exactly the same kind of shadow that I’ve seen on those vampires. You may not be one of them, but you’re definitely not human.”

“My name is Danaus. And you’re right. I’m not completely human. I’m nearly two thousand years old and I have many of the same abilities as a vampire, but I don’t drink blood and I don’t burn up in the sunlight.”

“Whoa!” she said, stepping back to lean against the wall again.

“What’s your name?” I asked, trying not to think about what had her so impressed. I didn’t like it being pointed out that I was a freak of nature. I liked it even less that my aura had such a similar marking as a vampire. It was just another similarity to the race that I could do without.

“Runt,” she said, putting her hands behind her back.

“Your real name?”

“No one ever uses it,” she hedged.

“I would like to. I’m not going to call you Runt.”

The young girl huffed softly, her dark brown hair falling in front of her eyes. “Lily.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Lily. Would you like to sit down? You look exhausted.”

“I’m not tired,” she snapped, forcing herself to stand up straight.

“That’s a lie. I can feel your fatigue from here. Your knees are about to give out. You’ve got nothing to gain by forcing yourself to stand when you can sit at the table with me,” I said, motioning toward the chair she had been sitting in when we came in at the opposite end of the table. “I just want to ask you about the person you saw at the apartment building.”

“He wasn’t a person,” she said.

“I didn’t think so,” I replied. “It wasn’t human, was it?” Lily remained leaning against the wall, staring down at her dirty and worn sneakers. “Something about it scared you; enough to convince you to come to the police. They told me that you live on the streets. I imagine you already know how to take care of yourself pretty well, but this thing scared you enough to want some protection.”

Lily pushed off from the wall and slowly walked over to the table. Without looking up at me, she slid into the chair and put her hands on the table. She picked at her fingernails for nearly a minute before she finally spoke again. “I don’t know what it was. I’ve never seen anything like it. Its aura wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. It was like a black, endless shadow, one that could hold the whole world within it.”

“Besides the black aura, what did the creature look like?” I asked.

She shook her head and sat up as she finally came to look me in the eye. “Its aura wasn’t black. It was a shadow like the one across your aura. I can see color and depth beneath your shadow, the rest of your aura. This thing’s aura was a bottomless pit.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. Besides its shadow aura, what did it look like?”

“A regular man,” she said with a shrug. “Thin, about six feet tall, with blond hair. The only thing strange about him was that his eyes glowed when he looked up.”

“And he saw you, didn’t he?” I asked softly, though by the way her hands trembled when she spoke of the creature I had no doubt that he did.

“Yeah.”

“The shadow creature possessed the blond man the same way it possessed that other man that morning when we were all on Factors Walk,” I said, and she nodded, dropping her head into both of her hands as she rested her elbows on the table. “Has it come after you since that morning?”

“Not exactly, but I’ve seen it from a distance like it’s stalking me,” she said in a low, shaky voice. I’ve tried hiding in churches and in crowds in broad daylight, but it doesn’t go away. It keeps finding me. I didn’t have any choice. I had to come here. I keep saying no, but it’s not listening to me. It doesn’t care. I think it wants to take me over like it did those men.”

“It’s only natural that you came to the police for protection. It’s their job,” I said, trying to ease her fears and her obvious dislike for what she saw as weakness for turning to someone else for help. She had lasted out on the streets a few nights, but her fears finally got the better of her, or worse, she had actually been cornered in a lonely alley by the creature. She wouldn’t last but a couple seconds in a fight with Gaizka.

“So much for protection,” she scoffed. “They’re planning to send me off to Family Services again. No one is going to be able to protect me if that thing comes looking for me.”

“I can help you,” I offered before I could stop myself. She was a young child, lost in this world, and surrounded by monsters at all times. It was only a matter of time before one of them finally swallowed her up.

“How?” she asked skeptically.

“Like I’ve said, I’ve been around for a long time. You don’t live that long without learning a few things. I also have some friends that could be of help as well,” I replied.

“And you’ll help me stay alive?” she asked, still sounding doubtful. And I honestly couldn’t blame her. A total stranger who wasn’t quite human, offering to help protect her against something dark and evil. Why would she believe me?

“I’ll do everything within my power, but that also means trusting a few vampires,” I said. I knew that I would have to introduce her to Mira, which would most likely include Tristan and possibly Knox as well. Hell, if she could point us in the direction of Abigail’s murderer, I was willing to call together all the nightwalkers of Savannah in order to protect this young girl.

“Not all vampires are bad,” she quickly said, surprising me.

“Yeah, they’re just misunderstood,” I retorted, earning a soft giggle from my young companion.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, a small grin starting to show on her pale, dirt-smudged face.

“Are you willing to come with me? Let me protect you?”

“You won’t dump me with Family Services?” she demanded, her smile instantly fading.

“As long as you agree to help me as well. I need as much information as you can give me. This creature has killed a few people, and my friend and I have to stop it before it hurts anyone else. It could be dangerous, but I will do everything I can to keep you safe,” I promised.

She looked at me again, squinting slightly. I was willing to guess that she was reading my aura again, gauging my sincerity. I remained sitting quietly while she stared at me. Lily was trapped between a rock and a very hard place. She could either take her chances with me, which would potentially put her in danger, or she could take her chances with Family Services, which offered little to no protection whatsoever.

“Can we stop and get something to eat first? I’m starving,” she said at last, earning a surprised chuckle from me. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had spent this much time with a child, and Lily was undoubtedly different from anything I might have expected. Much like Mira, I was sure that she was going to keep me on my toes until this creature was taken care of at last. The only plus was that I finally felt as if we had taken a step forward in this investigation. Lily had seen the mark of the creature’s aura. While it might be forced to switch bodies, with the girl’s help we might be able to find the creature. We might still be searching for a needle in a haystack, but at least we had acquired a metal detector to help with the process. I just hoped we could finally catch this thing without putting Lily in any more unnecessary danger.