Kinda Like Van Helsing (Afterlife Book 4) Read online

  Harper shook her head. "I'm not," she said. "Not really. I'm happy being single. Brittney here just decided that because she's happy in love, that I should be too. Because we're best friends, and she has this idea that being best friends means that if she's doing something, I clearly need to be doing that something too."

  "Not something," Brittney interrupted. "Someone."

  Harper glared at her, but Carrle laughed. He put a hand on Harper's shoulder. "Are you afraid of love, dear?"

  "What? No. I'm not afraid of love. I'm just a busy person, and besides that, I don't need another person to make me happy. I'm happy by myself. I have friends, and that's enough for me."

  Carrle shook his head and let out a low laugh. Harper felt instantly at ease.

  "Everyone needs love," he said. "Give me your hand, dear. Let me feel your soul."

  Harper held out her hand and Carrle took it. He traced over the lines on her palm for a second, then put both of his hands on hers, closing his eyes. He stood there for a while, his face completely serene. When he opened his eyes, he dropped her hand and patted her on the shoulder.

  "You fell in love with someone you shouldn't have," he said.

  "Yes," Harper admitted.

  "He's not the man for you," Carrle said. "I know that might hurt to hear, because I can sense how much you care for him, but listen to me, Harper. There's someone else. Someone that will complete you. Someone that will have a family with you and take care of you. Someone to grow old with. He will protect you and you will protect him. Together, the two of you will make a formidable pair."

  "Do you know who he is?" Brittney asked.

  "If I saw him, I would recognize him," Carrle said. "But without seeing him, I cannot tell you. I know that he has a strong presence and that he has a good sense of humor."

  Brittney elbowed Harper in the side. "He sounds great," she said. "Don't you think, Harper?"

  "I suppose so."

  "Is he handsome?" Brittney asked.

  Carrle smiled. "He can be, but he can also be quite intimidating. That is all I can tell you, dear. I don't see more than that."

  "Thank you," Harper said. Her mind ran through men she knew, but she couldn't pick out one that seemed like he'd fit the description. She shrugged, and decided to let things happen as they would. She still hadn't given up completely on Alec yet, either, which complicated matters. "We have to get going, but I appreciate your time."

  "Of course," Carrle said. "That's what I'm here for, dear. Now, if you don't mind, I have see a couple of souls destined to be together. I must introduce them."

  "Thanks Cupid!" Brittney called out after him.

  They pushed their way through the gaggles of girls all bunched together dancing.

  "Aren't you happy, Harper?" Brittney asked. "You're going to find love, and it sounds like he's going to be someone great. Someone that you can truly share yourself with. Isn't that great?"

  Harper shook her head. "I don't like the idea that I'm destined to be with someone. I want to find someone on my own that fits my own criteria. I don't want to have to resort to using a fairy to tell me about my romantic life."

  "Seriously, you worry too much," Brittney said. "Obviously you're going to pick your own guy, but that guy is going to be everything Cupid described."

  "His name is Carrle," Harper said.

  "Cupid has a much nicer ring to it," Brittney said. "Come on, cheer up. We're about to go on our first real police mission! Aren't you the littlest bit excited for that?"

  Harper shook her head. "Not really," she admitted. "I mean, okay, a little. But we're going to have to be extremely careful. I've never pretended to be an arms dealer before. We could--"

  "--Stop right there," Brittney said. "No, we coulds. We're going to have Alec and Conner guarding our backs. Now, come on. Get in the car."

  The two of them climbed into Brittney's car and took off to their new house, where their clothes were stored in laundry baskets. They'd moved over most of their things to the house, but it wasn't ready to live in with no dishes or furniture. They both dug through the baskets, trying to find something appropriate. Harper eventually settled on a dark tank top and a pair of faded jeans. She slipped on socks, considered her running shoes, and then slid them on as well, remembering what Conner had said. She brushed her long blonde hair and then had Brittney French braid it. They both put on makeup, but kept it to the bare minimum.

  Once they were done, they went out to grab some food from a local pizzeria. They sat comfortably at the booth, talking about what they would need to do that night.

  "I'm assuming we don't give them our real names," Brittney said.

  "I can't imagine we would," Harper said. "It'd be too dangerous. If they found us out, and they knew our real names, they could go after our families."

  "So we're going to need fake identities," Brittney said. "Cool."

  "You have the weirdest definitions of what's cool," Harper teased. Brittney stuck her tongue out, then grabbed another slice of pizza, wolfing it down in mere seconds. "You know, if you keep eating like that, Sarah's going to make you go to the gym with her."

  Brittney laughed, and wiped her mouth with a napkin. She took a long swing from her soda and shrugged. "I wouldn't mind. Though, Chloe and I made plans to go running every morning together. That should count as exercise. Plus she promised she'd teach me martial arts, even though she's not that much into fighting."

  "Right," Harper said. "When did you guys make these plans?"

  "A few days ago," Brittney said. "I told her I needed time to get moved before we started."

  "Well, can I come?" Harper asked.

  Brittney blinked. She shot Harper a meaningful look. "Well..."

  "Right," Harper said again. "Forget I asked."

  "Thanks," Brittney said.

  Once they'd finished eating, they headed back to their house. Harper drug her laptop out of the bag she'd brought and logged in. She browsed around for a little while, then decided to look up information about Trinity. She knew that Detective Moore would probably give them all the information they'd need, but she wanted an unbiased opinion of them.

  What she found out wasn't comforting. They were one of the largest gangs in Vegas, and they were tied to many deaths, including quite a few police officers.

  "Come here," she called out to Brittney, who was laying on the floor playing with her phone.

  Brittney got up, came over to Harper, and flopped back down. "Oh, Trinity," she said. "Okay, what have you found?"

  Harper scrolled through several news stories about them. "Just that their bad news. They're not afraid to kill someone, because they know they can get away with it. Worst case is, one of the underlings does prison time for it. The leader isn't known. He keeps to himself, and he's very cautious."

  Brittney made a face. "Of course he is. Time for us to hunt this jerk down. You know, it's going to be nice dealing with something that has nothing to do with demons."

  "Oh, don't worry," Harper said. "We'll get plenty of that too. Soon as we're done with the trade, it's back to work for us. Alec wants us hunting those goblins for the stolen paintings."

  "I know," Brittney said. "We're going to have to go in the sewers. Can you believe that? We just got manicures! It's definitely going to mess with our nails. And if Sarah can't go, we're going to risk getting lost down there. Can you imagine starving to death in a sewer, Harper? It would be the most undignified way to go. I mean, I always imagined that when I died, it would be from a heart attack when I'm eighty because I was having sex with a new and upcoming pop star."

  Harper laughed.

  "Seriously," Brittney said. "I'm going to be a hot old woman, and I'm definitely going to be a cougar. Can you imagine me as anything else? I mean, you've seen old men. Not touching that."

  "We'll be cougars together," Harper said.

  "See, this is why you're my best friend," Brittney said cheerfully. "Now, let's get to work. It's almost midnight."

  Both of th
em got up, hopped in Brittney's car, and drove over to the precinct. There they met Detective Moore right inside the door. Ryan led them back to his desk once again, and gave them information about the Trinity gang. He didn't tell Harper anything she didn't already know from reading up on them online, and she felt her attention wandering.

  The fairy had told her she didn't belong with Alec, that there was another out there for her. Was it true? She didn't like the idea of giving up on Alec, even though there was no way to make their romance work. If she truly wanted to get over him, she'd have to move on at some point. Maybe she should start looking at other men.

  She couldn't help but wonder if that was the exact same thing that Ileana had come to believe; that the only way to get over Alec was to move on. She had a husband, and children. So she must have decided to see others at some point. How much of her youth did she waste pining over Alec, though? How long did she try and wait for him? Had she asked about becoming a vampire? Had she even tried to make it work?

  Harper didn't know the answers and it wasn't like she could ask Ileana. She supposed she could ask Alec, but it was a subject she'd rather not broach. That was one of the problems with their relationship; Ileana was always in the middle of it.

  Brittney shot an elbow into her ribs, distracting her from this line of thought.

  "I'm sorry," Harper said. "What was that last bit?"

  "You're going by the names Megan Bane and Tricia Jones. If they ask where the man is that was supposed to be coming, you're going to tell them he got picked up by the police for dealing to kids. If they look into it, they'll find that James Thompson -- the name he was going by -- was, in fact, arrested and charged with distributing narcotics to middle schoolers. That should buy you some points with them. It wouldn't hurt for you to use your womanly charms, either."

  Harper rolled her eyes but Brittney gave a serious nod. "We can do that."

  "I'm putting a lot of trust into you two," Ryan said. "If you mess this up, we're not going to get a second chance for a while. Now, I don't know you two very well, but Special Agent Eklund had some great things to say. So please, just don't screw this up."

  "We won't," Harper said. She put a hand on Ryan's arm. "Trust me, this is nothing compared to what we've been up against in the past."

  She thought of the masked woman from a few weeks before; the spirit of the woman was terrorizing men who stopped to talk to her on the side of the road. The woman had been seeking vengeance for her untimely death. Her husband had beat until he killed her. He'd told her she wasn't beautiful, and that's why she kept the mask up: to hide her hideously bruised and puffy face. Then there was the demon who'd kidnapped Conner's son, and used both of them as pawns to get to Alec. There were also the scores of vampires, succubi, and other demons that they'd encountered over the last few months.

  When she thought about it like that, Trinity didn't seem all that frightening at all. In fact, for the first time since hearing about the plan, she was completely confident in their abilities to bring the gang down from within.

  "Alright," Ryan said, once they'd been briefed on their mission. "You'll be taking a truck from our impound lot so they can't trace your plates. Be careful. Don't do anything risky, and if it looks like you're in danger, get out of there, alright?"

  Harper and Brittney both nodded.

  Ryan shook both of their hands. "Good luck," he said.

  Harper smiled. "Thanks, but I don't think we're going to need luck tonight."

  SEVEN

  Chloe and Sarah sat on Alec's couch, looking discontent.

  "I don't like this," Chloe finally said. "We shouldn't be taking jobs that have to do with gangs instead of demons. It's not who we are."

  "It's getting us a free ride to be able to do whatever we need to with the police in the future," Sarah reminded her.

  Chloe knew this was true, but she still wanted to argue. She had a bad feeling about how the night was going to go down, and she didn't know how to put it in words. Not that any of them would listen to her anyway. When they were set on something, the entire crew could be stubborn.

  She decided it wasn't going to help to sit there stewing about being left behind, or worrying about everyone. So she turned to Sarah, took a deep breath, and said, "There's something I need to tell you. I should have done it a long time ago. You're my best friend, Sarah. You have been since the day we met. You know that, right?"

  "Of course," Sarah said. She reached over and put an arm around Chloe. "You and me against the world, girl."

  Chloe laughed, and then her expression became serious again. "Don't get upset, alright?"

  "Alright."

  "I have feelings for someone -- someone who's not a fairy. Real, true feelings. You know how rare that is for a fairy. We don't fall in love with someone other than another fairy. If my parents had lived, they would have set me up with someone by now; maybe one of the love fairies, or a wood nymph, or something... and I would have grown to love him, because that's what we do. But I developed feelings all on my own."

  Sarah blinked. She looked momentarily surprised and then smiled. "That's great, Chloe. Who is he? Is it Conner?"

  "God, no," Chloe said, and they both shared a laugh.

  Chloe did love Conner, that was true, but she loved him the same way she loved Alec, and she loved Sarah, and Harper. They were her family. The only family she had left.

  "It's not a he," she finally whispered. "It's Brittney."

  For a moment, Sarah's face was so blank that Chloe thought she was angry. Then Sarah gave her a large, bright smile. "That's great!"

  "It is?"

  "Sure," Sarah said. "The two of you have so much in common that it would be surprising if you didn't have feelings for her. Does she have feelings for you?"

  Chloe nodded. "I think so. We haven't talked much about it, honestly. We just... well, we kissed. And, do you want to know something silly?"

  "What's that?"

  "I'm twenty-nine years old," Chloe said. "And that was my first real kiss."

  Sarah blinked. "Are you serious?"

  Chloe nodded. "I haven't been around other fairies since my parents died, so I never thought about dating or getting close to someone. I always figured that sooner or later, I'd meet another fairy who sparked my interest. But I never did, and I didn't care. I had a purpose to my life, and that was to kill as many vampires as I could. That was before I met Alec, of course..."

  She shook her head, lost in memories. "I lied, you know. You know hard it is for fey to keep a lie. It goes against everything we stand for."

  "What'd you lie about?"

  "About how my parents died."

  "I thought they died in an accident," Sarah said. "A car crash, right?"

  "That's what I always told everyone," Chloe said. "But the truth is, they were murdered. They interfered with a vampire who was hunting a little girl and his vampire and his buddies came after them. They killed them. It was brutal, what they did. They didn't just shoot them, or break their necks... they kept them alive while they tortured them. Then, when they were done with that, they drained all their blood. They didn't even leave them to turn. Once they had taken their lives, they staked them through the hearts. They would have killed me too, but I hid in the closet, and they never knew I was there. I can still remember coming out of that closet and seeing their bodies laying there, drained of blood, perfectly white, perfectly still..."

  Sarah gave her a sad look. "Chloe, I never knew."

  Chloe nodded. "I wanted it that way. Not you specifically thinking I was a liar, but ever since I was a teenager, on my own, I thought it best to keep a good cover story. I couldn't go around telling people my parents were murdered by vengeful vampires. They would have locked me up or something. So I started saying they were in a car crash, and it got to be such a huge lie that I never knew how to back out of it."

  "Is that why you went after Alec?"

  Chloe nodded. "I thought if I could kill just one more vampire, just one more, t
hat it would make up for their deaths. And every time I did, it made no difference. They were still dead, and I still missed them, and I was still so angry. So I'd go after another, and then another, and then another. Then I met Alec. You know he saved my life when we first met. He made me realize that not everyone is the same. That there's more to the world than black and white."

  Sarah squeezed her hand. "They're all going to be alright, you know."

  "I hope so," Chloe said.

  "Me too," Sarah said. "You know, before I met you guys, I was on my own too. Oh, I still had my sister, but I was alone. I was studying for pre-med, and I was helping abuse victims, but then I found out that I could shape-shift. And nobody I knew could do that. I couldn't help but to think of myself as a freak. Then I met you guys, and that all changed. You guys made me see that being a shape-shifter wasn't something to be ashamed of. You gave me purpose and direction."

  "Same," Chloe said. "If I hadn't met you guys, I'd still be out there hunting with no end in sight."

  The two of them hugged. Both of them put a lot of emotion into it, and a lot of unsaid words. Chloe had never felt more grateful to have Sarah in her life, even if she was a bit of an exercise nut, enjoyed eating healthy, and staying in shape.

  "I'm happy for you," Sarah said. "If you can find something with Brittney, then take it. You deserve happiness."

  "So do you," Chloe said. "Is there anyone that's caught your eye?"

  Sarah shook her head. "No, and I'm fine with that. I'm not looking for romance. I have enough on my plate as it is."

  Chloe's eyes sparkled as she said, "Of course, you don't mind taking someone home with you now and again, isn't that right?"

  Sarah laughed, and gave an embarrassed shrug.

  "Hey, don't feel bad about that," Chloe said. "Everyone needs companionship once in a while. You're human. It's to be expected."

  Sarah started to say something, but Chloe held up a hand. "Did you hear that?"

  "Yeah," Sarah said. "It sounded like breaking glass."

  "From where?"

  Sarah hesitated and then changed into her wolf form. She loped ahead of Chloe, heading towards Alec's bedroom. She opened the door, then slammed it shut again, her human self once more. "It's a fire!"