Chapter 11
I didn’t face Mr. Marvelous. Instead, I chewed industriously on my lip and turned pointedly away, as if I was suddenly distracted by a cockroach climbing the wall.
Mr. Marvelous had obviously been dealing with scumbag criminals long enough to know that I was trying to hide something.
He cleared his throat. It was one of those really slow, grating, gravelly, unmistakable sounds that couldn’t exactly be mistaken for anything other than suspicion. “What happened?” His voice dropped a full register.
I let out the smallest, lightest, silliest laugh on record. A laugh that suddenly quite violently turned into a groan.
“Tell me,” he snapped.
Realizing he would just drag the truth out of me like Benson had, I spilled.
When I was done, he crumpled his brow so low it was as if he was trying to snack on it. “So let me get this straight. This morning you were kidnapped by Theodore Van Edgerton and his cronies. And a little under three hours later, you signed a soul contract promising to kill him. Is there anything else you’d like to tell me, Lizzie?”
His tone was neutral. Unreadable. His expression, however, wasn’t. He looked ready to string me alive.
“I ran into Benson again today… twice.”
I actually had to count on my fingers just to ensure I hadn’t missed any run-ins with my mortal nemesis.
Mr. Marvelous groaned as he brought up a hand and fell against it. “You’re meant to be my coup d’état. My Hail Mary, my ace in the hole,” he rambled as he mixed metaphors like an alcoholic mixing cocktails. “But here you go, practically your first day on the job, and you’re already signing deadies.”
There was something obviously cavalier about the way Mr. Marvelous was referring to the contract. He had a cutesy pet name for them like they were no more onerous and unusual than filling out a quiz.
I sucked in my bolting fear for half a second and frowned at him.
I frowned, because slowly the edge was coming off his anger, until he actually shrugged, brought out his arms, and sighed. “I ain’t saying I’m pleased by this, but I guess it offers us a kind of opportunity.” He brought up a hand and started to scratch at his neck, counting down on one finger as if he was assessing exactly what those opportunities were.
I gasped, breath catching in my throat. “Sorry? This offers us an opportunity? I stupidly, foolishly, hopefully illegally, signed a contract to kill a man.”
Mr. Marvelous brought up a hand and shrugged easily. “Keep your socks on, Lizzie. I’ve seen worse. Plus, maybe this will work to our advantage. You’re going to have a hell of a reputation when it gets out you’ve been contracted to kill Theodore. It might drive more scared witnesses out of the woodwork.” Mr. Marvelous clutched a hand on his chin and started to tap it as he muttered to himself under his breath.
Me, I stood there completely flabbergasted. Eventually, I managed to suck in the breath to make a squeaking sound. “I can’t kill the guy,” I stuttered, reminding him of that incredibly important fact.
Marvelous continued muttering to himself, even going to the extent of thrusting forward, grabbing up one of his scribble pads, and drawing a few frankly unpleasant diagrams.
I thrust forward, locking two hands on the edge of his desk. “I can’t kill Theodore. Not only is he a bloody vampire lord, and I have about as much chance of killing him as I do of being elected as president, I’m not a murderer.”
Marvelous tilted his head to the side. He brought up a hand and held up two fingers.
I didn’t need to ask what those two fingers meant. Two fingers for two body counts. The vampire from the laneway and the glass demon.
I clutched a hand on my stomach as a wave of nausea goaded through my gut.
I shook my head so fast it was a surprise it didn’t take off like a helicopter. “That… that… isn’t fair, I didn’t kill them,” I said as I kept an arm locked around my middle and a hand flattened against my curdling gut. “It was self-defense. And… plus, I don’t even know how it happened.”
Marvelous’ expression softened, and he tucked his hand behind his back. He also shrugged. “You’re right, you didn’t kill those guys on purpose. You just saved yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with that, Lizzie. Just as there is nothing wrong with moving against a bastard like Theodore Van Edgerton. I’m sure I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but that bastard is dark. He’s always remained just beyond the reach of the law. But that toe rag belongs 6 feet under for the crimes he’s committed. Murder, assault, you name it. He’s been on the prowl for centuries, Lizzie, centuries,” Mr. Marvelous’ voice shook with emphasis. “You know what kind of a body count that leaves a vampire like him?” He began to mouth.
I shook my head.
“Thousands,” he mouthed.
I shuddered back, suddenly as cold as the heart of a glacier.
“Theodore Van Edgerton is going to stay ahead of the law. There is nobody in Hope City with the balls to touch him.”
Though I should have just kept my big mouth shut, it opened of its own accord. And his name split from my lips. “Benson?”
Marvelous snorted. “William? You think William can do a thing against Van Edgerton? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Lizzie, but there’s not exactly any love lost between them. If Benson had the resources and gall to move against Van Edgerton, he would have done it already.”
I winced as I realized Marvelous was right.
He locked a hand on his desk and leaned forward, his potbelly brushing several papers along the smooth wood. “It’s going to take somebody powerful, somebody courageous, and somebody with a goddamn fine trench coat to take down that asshole.”
I blinked and shook my head. “Ah, what?”
Marvelous pointed at me with a stiff, podgy finger. “You, Lizzie. It’s going to take somebody like you with your special powers to take down Theodore Van Edgerton for good.”
I spluttered. There was so much wrong with that statement that I didn’t know where to begin.
Firstly, as I kept telling everybody, I wasn’t a murderer. Secondly, hello, I didn’t have special powers. Or at least nothing I could control. Whatever I’d done to the glass demon this morning had been a fluke. And everyone was right about one thing – Van Edgerton was a seriously powerful vampire. The kind of seriously powerful vampire who would never be brought down by a fluke.
I was a dead woman.
That thought kind of slammed into my mind and knocked me off my feet. Before I knew it, I staggered sideways and fell into the chair beside Marvelous’ desk.
He looked at me with a keen, unflinching gaze. “This is two birds with one stone, Lizzie. Not only do you get a scumbag like Theodore Van Edgerton off the streets, but you will also solve Susan Smith’s case.”
I brought up a hand and covered my eyes as I shrunk further into the seat.
A few times I experimentally opened my eyes and stared between my fingers, as if I were testing reality, hoping this was all some kind of twisted, terrifying nightmare.
It wasn’t.
This was real. And apparently, I had seven days to kill a vampire.