Dan went down to what looked like a small room under the floor and found a dark and damp place. The dim light that came from outside allowed him to barely glimpse that the walls were also made of wood. He looked around a bit and in one of the walls he saw a kind of gap or hole. He came closer to examine it and barely a slight breeze reached him with a mixture of the essence of flowers and mold, surely from the ground, since he realized that the hole communicated with a kind of tunnel.
“Are these damned also moles?” He wondered in a low voice.
He sharpened his eyes to see better inside and to his surprise he did. He saw everything clearly, despite the darkness, and he thought it must be because of his new hybrid condition. He decided to check out that tunnel and see where it led to, because he was sure that perhaps it had an exit somewhere else due to the brief breeze that came from inside.
At times he could see absolutely nothing and kept groping his
Mark, Doris, and Captain Mulligan reached the clearing in the woods where Norma and Dan were waiting for them. They were accompanied by the emergency services and at least three other police patrol cars. She was sitting on the ground against a tree with her legs bent, her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. Dan was standing next to her; he had long since stopped comforting her when she broke into tears.The three of them approached where Roy's body was and saw him lying on his back, with a reddish-black stain on his chest. The gun next him. The captain put his hands on his waist like a mug and lowered his head, while Doris put a hand to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. Mark walked over to Norma and crouched down next to her.“What happened?” He asked her softly.She lifted her head and just looked at him, tears streaming down her face.“They followed me to the abandoned cabin, where I found an underground cave that wa
“Have you lost your mind or what?” Christopher asked upon hearing Dan's request.“Please, uncle. I need to find Brooke.”The two of them were sitting on the furniture in the living room, and upon hearing that, Christopher got up annoyed and walked to one of the windows next to the door, looking outside through the half-open curtains. He thought about how desperate his nephew could be that he was not thinking things through.“You're definitely not thinking clearly, Dan,” he told him without turning to look at him. “Somehow your judgment has been clouded.”“I am on the verge of despair, Uncle Christopher! I need to find her!”Christopher closed his eyes and heaved a short sigh of disappointment before turning and facing him.“You know, the other night when you and your father went to see Zander, I had this strange feeling that it would all end right there. I thought: my nephew w
To try to get along, Dan asked Norma to go with him to revisit the cave and caverns found under the abandoned cabin. He knew that they would not find the vampires there because the leader had told him that they would leave the place, however he told her that he wanted to go check to see if they found any clues or traces that would lead them to Brooke.Deep down, he just wanted to earn her trust and dispel her suspicions about him, because he knew it would be difficult for them to find anything there.She accepted because she hadn't had time to check out the area due to Roy's death. Even though she knew that Captain Mulligan had swept the place from top to bottom with a special commission, she wanted to go do her own inspection of the place, not caring that this guy was meddling.The drive from the city to the cabin area was uncomfortable; neither of them wanted to talk the whole way. Only when they reached the cabin and entered the tunnel did Dan speak to her to
Mark and Doris met Norma that night at a discreet bar near Fifth Avenue. She had called them to discuss the case of the vampires and the disappearance of Brooke Daniels. She was waiting for them sitting at a table near a corner. She had a bottle of vodka in front of her, which was already half full.“We only came as a professional courtesy, Norma,” Mark told her. “You know we can't share any information about the case with you. Mulligan would kill us if he found out.”“Come on, guys! I owe it to Roy. I've also found out a few things for myself.” Despite everything she had taken, Norma was still not completely under the influence of alcohol.“Yes? What things?” Doris asked.Norma was silent; she had nothing until that moment and thought she could fool her companions. Maybe the alcohol was already taking effect.“I knew it,” Doris said at her silence.“Yes, it's okay, I accept i
Unlike Christopher, who had his lab at home, Dansk made the wise decision to have his lab elsewhere. That's how vampires differed from wolves, in the marked distrust they have of everyone. Dansk had his laboratory in the basement of another house just outside the city to have the greatest possible discretion. In addition, knowing how restless his clanmates were, he did not want to risk being seen when they went there for any reason or when he himself took them for some activity of scientific interest, such as the one in which he developed the compound on the skin to protect them from the sun and they were going from group to group to put it on each one.Leaving his home in the city was not a problem or concern for him. He had three more houses besides the one where he had his lab, and only the address of the one he left was on his driver's license, so he wasn't worried about the police looking for others he owned.He knew the police would find nothing in that house, si
The following days went blank for Norma, who in addition to being away from the case by orders of the captain, was unable to make progress with Daniel Ranlone. The boy had apparently left his quest to find her girlfriend trusting the police to do it, and in light of that he hadn't communicated with her anymore. Despite the fact that she kept following him and keeping a close eye on him to see if he revealed anything useful, she also did nothing to contact him so that he wouldn't walk with her and get in her way.She decided to talk to the captain about letting her go back to work since it had been at least eight days and she was starting to get over her grief over Roy. They were also far from solving the case.“Please, captain, I already feel ready!” Norma insisted. “I have to go back to work because if I don't I'm going to go crazy at home. Besides, I owe it to Roy.”Mulligan looked at her for a while in silence, deciding.“
The moonlight cast eerie shadows from the trees across the forest floor in the clearings that occasionally appeared in front of Dan as he walked. He had been about to reach that vampire three times, but two or three more appeared out of nowhere and made him distract himself from his goal without being able to catch them. He was now in the woods and had lost sight of them, but he still felt them. When they took him there, he thought that due to the number of his attackers, perhaps it could be a trap and he decided to be more cautious. He felt his presence everywhere and realized that he was practically surrounded.Zander commanded the actions from an SUV hidden among the trees a few meters from the ambush site. He ordered another member of the clan to draw his attention and take him there, where they would proceed to capture him. That's what he did, appearing in front of Dan and telling him that he knew where his girlfriend was but that he wouldn't tell him. But Dan was alread
The SUV quickly headed towards the nearest dirt road that connected further ahead with the road that led to the highway. Dan was approaching it quickly, but did not notice that it had emerged from a group of tall bushes and trees to the right. Next to that bush, with the vehicle's engine and lights off, Zander waited for the decoy SUV to move far enough away with Dan following it closer and closer to give the order to retreat again, but in the opposite direction.A few yards later and despite the SUV's effort to gain distance, Dan caught up with it. He thought that he should stop it in such a way that it would not involve a spectacular accident because Brooke was inside and with a big jump he was in front of it. When the SUV dodged him, it skidded twice and was about to overturn. When it stopped, Dan immediately slashed the driver's side tires with violent claws, grabbed the rear door and tore it off, then threw it away.He leaned into the back seat and saw no one. Startled, he tore o