The Blood Files, Case #2: Give Me Shelter Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prolog

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilog

  The Blood Files

  Case #2: Give Me Shelter

  Joelle Ayers

  The Blood Files

  Case #2: Give Me Shelter

  Copyright © 2017, Joelle Ayers

  Cover design by Joelle Ayers

  This work is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including, but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Joelle Ayers.

  This e-book is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Table of Contents

  Prolog

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilog

  Description

  I only fear the dark because I’ve seen what lurks in the shadows.

  A tragic accident has somehow made me a beacon to the other side and I have no clue how to turn it off. I was naïve to think things were beginning to turn around, but the dark figure that emerged from my closet quickly changed my mind.

  The dead still aren’t finished with me.

  This time, the ghost vying for my attention is someone I’ll never forget, someone whose actions changed my life forever—the driver I collided with on the bridge two short months ago.

  Helping him is the only way he’ll leave, but helping him means facing my fears head on.

  …even the ones that go bump in the night.

  [WARNING: THIS SERIES INCLUDES DEPICTIONS OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND THE OCCASIONAL GORY SCENE ONE MIGHT EXPECT WITH A STORY OF THIS NATURE. SENSITIVE READERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.]

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  —

  Prolog —

  Previously, from THE BLOOD FILES…

  I closed my bedroom door behind me and fell out on the bed. It’d been so nice having my dreams to myself now that Liz was resting peacefully. There was no more anxiety about being alone at night, no more late-night runs to the diner—unless it was because Josh and I craved pancakes, of course. There was just… rest.

  The sound of the door I just closed creeping back open made an irritated sigh puff from my lips. “Josh, I said let me sleep on it. The operative word being sleep.”

  I laughed a bit, knowing he only pressed so hard because he cared, but I needed to wrap my head around his suggestion before answering.

  “Go away. Seriously,” I laughed. But, this time, I turned over to point at him like our seventh-grade, Social Studies teacher used to do when she sent us to the office.

  But… there was no one there and… the door was still latched tight like I left it.

  My breaths came harder now as panic set in and, when I exhaled, the air was frosty, leaving my mouth like smoke. Fear left me paralyzed. Liz was supposed to be at peace now. At that exact moment, I realized this was different. This didn’t feel like her.

  As soon as I made that observation, the sound of eerily squeaking hinges filled my room again. Only, this time, I was positive of where it came from.

  The closet.

  I moved to sit upright, forming my mouth to call out to Josh, but there was no time. A dark, shadowy figure rushed toward the bed as a deep, quivering voice filled the room, surrounded me like it came from every direction.

  And it said two words that echoed inside my head:

  “Help me!”

  —

  Chapter One —

  several weeks later…

  It was bad enough living through the car accident once.

  Revisiting it again and again in my nightmares? Unbearable.

  But at least the sun was up instead of the moon when I awoke gasping for air this time. It meant I actually got to sleep through the night. While that was an improvement from the weeks before, a feeling of uneasiness still lingered with me. Mostly, because I was sure these nightmares weren’t being conjured by my own psyche. I had a hunch they were being given to me, which was the case with Liz Hardy a short time ago. Someone either wanted me to notice details I hadn’t before, or just wanted my attention in general.

  And… I was pretty sure it was whoever rushed toward me from the closet several weeks ago. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I stared straight ahead at the half-open door. I’d been keeping the light on inside it ever since. It was hard to fall asleep otherwise, envisioning the dark figure that emerged and passed through my body. I’d never forget how that felt—a lost soul passing through my own. I wouldn’t sit here and think about it, though. Fear wouldn’t change the way things were now. With this being the second paranormal experience in my life, I had a feeling I ought to just get used to it.

  I ambled sleepily into the living room, tightening the drawstring of a pair of oversized sweats. When I got there, my eyes were met by a sight that brought an immediate smile to my face. Sitting on the floor beside Josh, wearing an identical pair of gaming headphones, was Cody—my brother who’d recently been released from prison. He sat in that cell for months, serving time for a crime he didn’t commit.

  More than once, he called me his guardian angel because I actively pursued his case long after it’d been closed. But I was just doing what I knew he would have done if the shoe was on the other foot; if it’d been me locked away with no one on the outside advocating for me. The court had wrongfully put the blood of Liz Hardy on his hands and I fought to find the real culprit so Liz and my brother could find peace. Cody was free and Liz no longer haunted my dreams, pleading with me to bring her real killer to justice.

  But now someone else was taking up space in my head… and I was pretty sure I knew who.

  “You guys up early or was saving a fictitious, alien race from bad robots more important than sleep?” I gestured toward the TV screen just as Josh dismembered one such robot.

  “Sleep’s for suckers,” was his rebuttal.

  I’d seen him go days without resting. Discovering his true identity made his seemingly non-existent need for sleep, and so many other things, make perfect sense. As a dhampir with half human characteristics and half vampire, my best friend, Josh, was afforded the luxury of falling
somewhere in between. He had all the useful traits of a vampire, minus the pesky little inconveniences that would make it obvious to the outside world that he was something other than human. So, while he didn’t need rest, the big yawn Cody breathed proved he wasn’t superhuman. Just a regular guy crashing on me and Josh’s couch until he figured things out.

  I moved on to the kitchen to whip up our fave—pancakes. With Cody home, I’d gone into total domestic-mode, wanting to make up for all the hone-cooked meals he’d missed, all the nights of feeling safe and comfortable. While, no the couch wasn’t ideal for that, he refused to take my bed when I offered. Still, he was so grateful to be out.

  And I was grateful to have him.

  At the sound of footsteps entering from behind as I mixed the batter, I glanced over my shoulder to find Cody attempting to sneak in. He had a thing for scaring me ever since we were kids. According to him, it was because I had the ugliest, most irrational scream known to man, and it brought him pure comic relief to hear it.

  “Nice try, idiot.”

  He smiled and I missed the sight of it; had convinced myself I might not see it again until recently.

  “Need some help?” He propped himself against the counter beside me when he asked.

  “Not a chance. All I want you to do is rest.”

  “I’m an ex-con; I’m not helpless.”

  That term made me cringe. “Don’t say that. You’re not an ex-con, because you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  He sighed. “Maybe, but… the rest of the world won’t see it that way. Even with Liz’s real killer locked up, this face,” he said, gesturing toward himself, “will always be the face of a convicted killer.”

  I said nothing, just continued to stir. On some level, I knew he was at least partially right, but I held out hope that time would change that.

  “Well, listen. We’re not gonna talk about any of that right now. Pancakes make everything better and I’m choosing to believe that,” I said with a smile.

  A gentle nudge hit my arm when Cody elbowed me. “Whatever you say.”

  The pan was hot so I moved toward the stove to get started. At first sizzle, Josh walked in and grabbed three plates from the cabinet. Cody and I both laughed at his tendency to be overzealous toward food, and I caught myself just before making an off-color joke, asking whether he wanted a side of squirrel with his food. We had yet to let Cody in on the new secrets we kept and we both thought it be best to leave well enough alone for now.

  “Man, you two have no clue how good it is to be home.”

  I set the spatula aside and couldn’t help but to hug him. I’d done that a lot lately.

  “You never did say how you figured it all out, Vi.”

  Josh and I shared a glance, not knowing how to explain it.

  “I mean, you accomplished something even the cops couldn’t figure out. You should strongly consider a future in law enforcement. Your talents will be wasted in journalism,” he joked.

  I should have laughed or smiled to play along, but I didn’t. So now he had more questions.

  “Am I… missing something?”

  Josh shrugged when our eyes locked and I knew I was on my own with this one. “I just…” I shuffled through an array of lies I could tell, but it didn’t feel right leading Cody astray. He’d always been a distant leg of me and Josh’s team, but only because he had a couple years on us. So, since he’d always been on the inside, I decided now was not the time to leave him out.

  “It all started with the car accident.”

  Cody frowned, not understanding where my explanation was headed. I’d filled him in on that part of my life, but hadn’t said much else about it. Hadn’t told him how it changed things. I’d keep Josh’s secret because it wasn’t mine to tell, but I was okay telling him my side of it.

  “I have these … dreams,” I shared. “I kind of … see things.”

  The frown turned into a smile. “Ha-ha. Very funny. If you just lucked up on the evidence, that’s not a big deal. I’m just glad it was enough to set me free.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Josh chimed in. Cody’s eyes went to him and then were back on me.

  I lowered the heat on my pan so I could talk without accidentally burning breakfast.

  “It was Liz. She started coming to me when I was asleep and, each time, she gave me new pieces of the puzzle, things the police had missed, things no one but her would have known.”

  Cody’s face slowly went slack.

  “I know it all sounds super crazy and you probably don’t believe me, but… every clue she led me toward, led me closer to proving your innocence.”

  A solemn look came over my brother’s face and I was positive he now knew I was being serious. “Then … I guess I owe you two and Liz a huge thank you.”

  I smiled a bit. She certainly had played a huge part in giving my brother back to me.

  “So, these dreams, have they stopped?”

  I had my spatula in hand again when Cody asked. “Uh… not exactly. But I don’t see Liz anymore.”

  He was intrigued. “Who is it now?”

  I didn’t respond right away, mostly because I didn’t have the answer. “I’m not really sure who it is, but I have a hunch.”

  Without looking, I knew I had Josh’s attention, too.

  Cody stared at me long and hard, in that way he always did when he wanted information. It still made me feel strangely obligated to answer to him now just like when we were kids.

  “Are you gonna make us guess?” he asked.

  I flipped the two pancakes that were nearly done and, with a sigh, shared my theory with them both.

  “I don’t know for sure yet, but I believe it’s Matthew Duggan,” I sighed. “The other driver from the accident.”

  —

  Chapter Two —

  “Vi, you don’t have to keep calling to check up on him. He’s okay. Trust me. I haven’t left his side all day until just now when you called.”

  I knew I was being neurotic, even without Josh saying so. I couldn’t help it, though.

  “You’re right. I’m being a spaz.”

  “No, you’re exhausted because you’re only getting a good night’s sleep about twice a week and it has you on edge. Which is why I’m gonna suggest again that we reach out to Tribe.”

  My brow lifted. “Tribe?”

  Josh sighed into the phone and I guess he’d explained this to me at least once already. “The Paranormal Research Tribe. We’ve talked about this,” he confirmed.

  Taking a deep breath, I scratched my head. He simply wouldn’t let that idea go. I wasn’t particularly interested in being some paranormal nerd gang’s lab rat, but he seemed to be so sure they could help me understand my newly-developed issue.

  “I’ll think about it,” I replied, hearing him mock the words as they left my mouth.

  “You keep saying that, but, it’s kinda funny that we only discuss it when I bring it up.”

  “Because I don’t see how these people can help.

  “And you won’t unless you give them a chance,” he reasoned.

  I knew the easiest solution was to let Josh have his way so, at the risk of regretting it later, I finally agreed. “Fine, but prepare to feel my wrath if I end up hating this entire experience.”

  “I’ll dig my bulletproof vest out of the closet as soon as we end the call.”

  “You owe me.”

  “Ice cream sundaes tonight after dinner,” he promised.

  Stupid food… why must you be my weakness.

  Our call ended and I went back to closing out the various windows on my laptop. It’d been a long day even without having classes to attend, mostly because I’d been known for putting more into this newspaper than my studies. The Chronicle was the gateway to my future and I learned a long time ago not to fight my passion for investigative reporting. Hence the reason I’d spent ten hours of my Saturday here while most of the cubicles sat empty.

  A set of footsteps approaching
from my right stole my attention as I hovered over the final ‘x’ to click. It was Tori Davis, our Editor in Chief, and I knew right away she was going to ask for a favor. There was always a certain smile she wore when she knew she planned to butter someone up.

  “Good! You’re still here,” she beamed. “I was hoping to catch you because I had an awesome idea for a feature story, so I wanted to run it past you.”

  Faking a smile, I asked, “What about?”

  Now she looked nervous. “…You. I thought now would be a great time—with your brother’s miraculous return home—to do a piece about you and what this experience has been like. From dealing with the initial shock of him being taken away, to working to solve a case the rest of the world believed had been settled, to having him back out in the free world,” she explained. “People will want to hear your story, Violet. And who better to tell it than you.”

  There was a glimmer of hope in her eyes as I stared into them. It was purely out of obligation when I breathed my answer through clenched teeth. “Sure.”

  Clasping her hands together, she smiled big. “Awesome! You’re a real trooper, Violet. And, who knows, you might even find writing this piece therapeutic,” were her parting words.

  Frustrated, I stared at the back of her head until she disappeared in her cubicle on the other side of the large room. When she took her seat and was again out of site, I stopped smiling. This article was the last thing I wanted to be writing. Everything with Cody was still so fresh, I wasn’t quite ready to dredge up those feelings. I simply wanted to enjoy having my brother home in peace.

  Looked like Tori had other plans, though.

  Now I was in even more of a hurry to get out of there. Closing the last window I left open when Tori walked up, I gripped the top of my laptop screen, but didn’t close it like I intended. Instead, my attention was called to the blinking notification at the bottom, right corner of the screen.