Solving the Vampire Murders

thirty-four

"'Cuse me, Miss? Is there something I can help you with?"

Mandy froze.

She was in a low crouch beside a nondescript basement window outside the Biomedical Research Building, working up the courage to break into Faris' lab.

After leaving Jones's house, she had stopped by Medea's Sin to do a little reconnaissance. Faris was inside his room, sipping his glass of wine and reading an old leather-bound book like a total vampire, while Clint and Shari were still banging like rabbits in his room. So, Mandy thought this would be the perfect time to visit Faris' lab and find out what she could.

Only...thinking about breaking into his lab and actually doing it were two totally different things. Because when he was done with his book and wine, and he came back to the lab, Faris would know she had been here.

The man now standing behind her, cleared his throat. "Hun, it's okay. I'm a police officer. Just stand up and tell me what you're up to."

Fat chance.

Mandy began silently calculating what it would take to bring the officer down. Disable--not kill. A hundred possibilities danced through her mind, but none of them were pretty.

Even if she only knocked him out, there would be the problem of his unconscious body. Leaving a cop stuffed beside a dumpster would draw attention.

If the cop started bleeding at such a close distance, would she be able to resist the pull of his blood? Mandy had no idea.

Or worse, what if she accidentally hit the cop too hard and killed him? She was stronger now, stronger than she had ever been before, and humans were so breakable. Could she live with herself if she killed a man who was simply doing his job?

In her silent deliberation, Mandy heard the man's heart rate tick up. He was probably unnerved by her stillness. By her lack of response. Mandy knew he had shifted his weight forward into a more offensive posture even with her back turned. Which was almost laughable considering what she could do to him.

It wouldn't even be a fight.

"It's time to stand up now. I just need to see some identification."

Mandy let her finger slide down the glass. Faris' lab was right here. She could smell his scent everywhere. Like she was walking past a cologne sales counter and every fragrance was bottled with him. Cloves and rich red grapes. Intoxicating and alluring.

All she would need to do was smash the glass, jump down, and grab what she needed. She'd be out before the cop could call for back up.

Easy.

Mandy balled her hand into a fist, ready to start a chain reaction when she caught Faris' scent again. Stronger this time. Then she heard footsteps, ghostly footsteps that weren't accompanied by a musical heart.

"Ah, there you are, darling!" came a smooth voice, clipped with an Oxford lilt. "I thought we agreed to meet out front."

Mandy spun, and Faris was next to her in two easy strides, wearing a bemused smile and Ray-Ban sunglasses. He was acting so smooth and relaxed that it put her immediately on guard. Faris wrapped one hand lazily around her shoulders, the other slyly fitting a ring on her finger.

On her ring finger. A finger that had remained ringless for as long as she could remember. That finger had been like a holy place, sacrosanct. Saved for that future, unforgettable moment when the man of her dreams would get down on one knee and commit to loving her forever. The weight of the ring was almost foreign on her hand.