1949

I awoke to commotion and chatter around me. The sky was still dark, but there was a red glow nearby. My head ached. I placed a hand to where I remembered the vampire plunging his fangs into my neck but felt no marks on my skin; my hand didn’t even come away with blood.

I groggily sat up and took in my surroundings. Once again, I was in the backseat of the convertible where I had met the two teenagers. There was something cold and metallic in my other hand; I glanced down and saw I was holding a bloody tire iron, the one the kid had used to change the flat tire earlier that evening. But it surely hadn’t been bloody before. I let the tool fall to the carpeted floor.

“Looks like our boy’s come to,” a gruff voice said.

I looked up to see several police cars and an ambulance. Two paramedics were carrying a body out from the brush—it was Johnny’s body, already hidden inside a body bag.

Two officers approached.

“Thank God you’re here,” I said. “Did you catch him—the one who did this? He was still out there. I thought I was dead. I barely survived.”

“Oh, we caught him all right,” the closest officer said. He was a big man, with a uniform that barely fitted, thinning hair, and a gray beard. “Caught him red-handed.”

I let out a long breath, a protracted sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Sir, I’m going to need you to step out of the vehicle, nice and slow. Hands where I can see them.”

Then I noticed the other officer had his gun out and was pointing it at me.

I threw my hands in the air. “No; it’s not what you think! I didn’t do this. Did you see what was done to her? I couldn’t have done this!”

“We saw what was done to that poor girl, all right—and the boy you left out in the dirt. I always try to believe human beings aren’t capable of such savagery, and then I get reminders like this... Step out of the vehicle this instant.”

I reached over the front seat to find the door handle, and in doing so, looked down at the girl sprawled across the front seat. She wasn’t like I’d remembered. Her neck wasn’t simply covered in bite marks, rather her entire head and neck were caved in as if bludgeoned by some powerful blunt object. And then I remembered the tire iron that had been in my hand. I now knew what Johnny’s body must have looked like when they’d found him too.

“You don’t understand…” I cried. There was simply nothing left to do. I should’ve died on ParallEarth, Sector 7, with the rest of my crew. “I didn’t do this! I know what it looks like, but you’ve got to believe me. I was attacked as well… attacked by a monster. He’s still out there!”

“It seems to me we have our monster right here,” the gray-bearded officer said.

“I’m not a monster,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not a monster. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time… in the wrong time.”

“You have two seconds to get out of that car before I put a bullet in you for resisting arrest. Don’t you doubt me, boy.”

I pushed the door open, shoved the driver’s seatback forward, and clumsily spilled out.

“Keep your hands where I can see them!” the officer demanded, his gun aimed at me.

I raised my hands to the sky. The officer doing most of the talking cautiously approached me with a pair of handcuffs. I followed his instructions, lowered my hands, put them behind my back, and was quickly secured.

“So, what did your monster look like?” The gray-bearded officer’s mouth was almost right at my ear, and his breath smelled strongly of tobacco. “Describe him for us?”

“He was a few inches taller and broader than me, short dark hair, a pale complexion. He was dressed in all black. No visible scars, tattoos or noticeable marks that I could see. He said his name was Frederick something or other.” I wracked my brain to try and remember my attacker’s last name, but I couldn’t. “And those eyes—like blue ice. They practically glowed.”

“Is that all?”

“He looked about mid-20s. No facial hair.” I paused, then continued. “And his teeth were sharp, not like the teeth of an ordinary man.”

“Sarg,” the officer pointing the gun said. “Sounds like our boy here is describing a vampire.”

“Was he afraid of garlic and crucifixes too?” The officer who had cuffed me asked while he turned around and took another peek at the dead girl. He leaned in and retrieved something from inside the car. When he turned back to his partner and me, he held a golden chain of a necklace with a bluish-purple gem. The chain was discolored from the girl’s blood.

“I know I sound crazy,” I said. “But you—”

“I don’t want to hear any more nonsense about monsters, vampires, and bogeymen,” the officer said, placing the girl’s necklace in a handkerchief, and stuffing it in his front pocket. Then he pushed me forward, guiding me toward the police cruiser. “All talking’s going to do at this point is just get you in more trouble. I suggest we have a quiet and peaceful ride back to the station.”

I was haunted by the screams the girl had made before she died and what her body had looked like when I awoke covered in blood. I continued to plead my innocence from my holding cell and all the way through my trial. With all my proclamations of vampires and outer space, the psychological evaluation kept me out of the electric chair and landed me in the Sisters of Mercy psychiatric facility. But I soon learned it wasn’t just due to my crazy ramblings, but because someone else had helped ensure I ended up there.

Present Day

I thought of the events leading up to my stint in Sisters of Mercy as I left the facility after another talk with Jack. We’d chatted more about my visit to Martin’s apartment. It had been a few days and he still hadn’t shown up, so we were now extremely confident the ashes were his.

I also wanted to hear how Fiona and Mallory were doing, though Jack had advised it was best for me not to see them, especially while their incarceration was still so fresh. I’d reluctantly agreed.

As I trudged back to my Land Rover, I noticed a gray cat curled up on its hood. Then I saw the darker stripes and thought it looked much like the one that had hissed at me outside of Martin’s apartment. I slowed my approach, studying the cat carefully.

While I was still ten feet away, the cat sprang to its feet, arched its back, and let out a hiss. As it leapt off the hood of my SUV, its very form began to alter, shape-shifting before my eyes, one moment just a blur of cat and heavy fur, then a flash of disappearing stripes and a glimpse of sandy-hued, bare human flesh; the feline was transforming, right there, into a muscular man with long gray hair, streaked with black. He landed squarely on the balls of his bare feet, producing an imposing barrier between me and my ride.

“I saw you at the apartment,” I said, stopping before the large man. “Why?”

“I am here to ask you the same question, Matthew Mercer.” The man’s deep baritone voice adequately matched his physique. “What was it you were doing at Martin’s apartment?”

“Looking for who potentially killed him,” I said.

“As was I. So, you’re saying it wasn’t you?” the man said, confirming what Jack and I had thought all along.

“I wish it were, but sadly, no. I’m not the one who killed him. Who was he? Why did he attack my friend?”

The man smiled, revealing glistening fangs. “And I thought you were better informed. Well, consider this your official warning. Stay out of Order business.”

“Order business?” It was obvious he was talking about the Vampire Order, the governing council of elite vampires. No wonder this guy knew who I was. The Order knew it via Sisters of Mercy, but not through my affiliation with the True North Society. If it had been the latter, they probably would have come for me long ago.

“Yes, young vampire.” The man stepped forward. “Martin’s death is an Order matter. Which means you stay out of it, or you will be removed. Is that understood?”

Before I had a chance to respond, he punched me in the chest, sending me flying across the parking lot and crashing into the back window of a sedan. Glass shattered all around me, the metal from the surrounding frame crumpling under the force of the impact. I regained my faculties in seconds, pulling myself out of the wreckage, but he was already there. A powerful grip grabbed my neck and slammed me to the ground. He pinned me down with one hand on my chest—somehow impossibly strong and agile in the sun.

“I could rip your heart out right now,” he growled, spitting in my face as he spoke. “Remember what I told you.” Then his hands were on either side of my head. With a powerful twist and sickening crack, everything went black.