Page 49 of Vanessa’s Bravery

“Just promise me not to tell anybody what I tell you now.”

The suspense sent his heartbeat into the stratosphere. “I wouldn’t know whom to tell.”

“Let’s walk,” she suggested and hooked her arm into his.

He agreed by walking arm in arm with her.

“The company my entire family works for is a private security company, which you probably already know. The City of San Francisco hired them to deal with crimes by or against vampires, so that the public doesn’t find out that there are vampires living among them. It would only cause a panic, and a lot more bloodshed.”

Cole lifted his hand halfway in confusion. “Did you say crimes against vampires?”

“Yes, there is vampire-on-vampire crime and human-on-vampire crime. So we deal with that too.”

“But why? You should be glad when they kill each other off. And if a human manages to kill one, good for them.”

“There are many good people among the vampires. They live their lives, and don’t bother anybody. They need to be protected—”

“You can’t be serious,” he interrupted. “How can those creatures be good? I mean, the guy who attacked me, he was brutal, violent… it was disgusting…”

“The vampire who attacked you was a rogue.”

What the hell did she mean by that? “A rogue?”

“Yes, a vampire who isn’t playing by the rules. We think he was recently turned by somebody, and then let loose on the population to cause trouble for everybody else.”

Vanessa stopped and motioned for them to step into the covered entrance of a closed shop to continue their conversation.

“The night before you were attacked, one of the prostitutes that I look out for was attacked by a different vampire. He got away, and luckily Ginger survived, but we know now that there are more of those rogues. My colleagues found another victim two nights ago, a tourist. There will be more attacks, that’s why we’ve ramped up patrols.”

“Fuck!” The more he heard, the wilder this whole situation became. “Then who’s turning these rogues as you call them? It’s another vampire, right?”

“Yes, but in order to figure out who is turning them, we have to figure out why he’s turning them. And so far, we only have the identity of the one I killed last night.”

“How?”

“When a vampire turns to dust, certain things on his person don’t turn to dust: coins, cell phones, keys, wallets. That kind of stuff. Our IT guys have identified him, but we have no idea yet what connects him to the other rogues. There must be a pattern.”

“You mean like a profile?”

“Exactly. My sister-in-law, Scarlet, has been working on a profile of the rogues so we can predict who might have already been turned and who is at risk of being turned. That’s why I had to watch the twins last night—Scarlet is a psychologist for Scanguards.”

Cole understood. “Like an analyst in the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI.”

“Yep.”

“What has she got so far?”

“Not much, since we only have one confirmed rogue. If we capture or kill a second one, we might be able to find something that connects them. A common denominator that could lead us to more of them, and eventually to the vampire behind this, so we can eliminate them.”

“So, you’re saying you basically need at least two datapoints to figure out why these guys are chosen and turned by a vampire, right?” Cole asked, an idea forming in his mind.

“Yes, otherwise how would we be able to find out what they have in common?”

“Normally, I’d say you’re right. But there’s another way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you that I have my own company.”