Page 80 of Midnight Coven

“Did any of them survive?” Morley asked.

“No,” Jordan said at once.

That disturbed note returned to his voice.

“No, it’s just like the other place. Everyone dead. Everyone in the family, at least. They think one gardener, a tree surgeon, might have gotten venomed and sent home. He was supposed to prune the palm trees in the back of the house, but left something like twenty minutes into the job for no apparent reason. He left alive, though. His truck got picked up by surveillance at the main gate. I guess the Long Island A.I. is still looking into it, but it sounds like the same pattern as before. He only kills Tanakas. Anyone else who gets in his way, he just pumps them full of venom and sends them home.”

Nick and Morley exchanged looks.

Then Morley’s voice hardened. “What are you doing right now? Why don’t you come down here, Damon?”

“I’m in the room where they found the bodies of the kids,” Jordan said.

Morley grimaced, looking at Nick, who grimaced back.

“Look,” Jordan said. His voice held even more of that disturbed note. “I think you both better come up here. There’s something I need to show you. Some kind of message.” He hesitated, then added, “It might be for Nick. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s for Nick.”

Morley’s grimace worsened. He glanced at Nick again, lifting an eyebrow.

Nick scowled.

Not so much about what Jordan said… it was something else.

Something was fucking wrong.

He found himself smelling the air.

He could smell blood, but not enough of it. No where near enough for what had supposedly gone down in this house. He could also smell what Jordan just told him. The bodies were gone. The smell of blood mixed with bleach and other chemicals filled his nose.

Nick fought to pull out more subtle textures.

Had it really taken them that long to get out here?

How could they have come and gotten the bodies so quickly?

Vampire. He could definitely smell a vampire.

Relatively young, but definitely not a newborn.

“Are you alone up there?” Nick asked.

“Yes.” Jordan hesitated. “Like I said, I really think you both should come up here. We should talk in here. I really want to show you something.”

Nick found himself thinking he understood. “Did the squints leave any surveillance upstairs? Inside the room you’re in right now?”

“No. Nothing.”

Nick nodded, mostly to himself.

He glanced at Morley and saw the same understanding in his boss’s eyes.

“Where are you?” Nick asked. “Which room?”

That time, Jordan answered at once.

“Third floor. Right-side corridor. Two doors down on the right.”

Nick already knew that. He’d asked more for the older detective’s sake, and to make sure Jordan wasn’t under some kind of duress and leading them the wrong way. Some of that was habit, too. Nick was used to pretending he was more human than he was.

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