Chapter 33

I could tell that Frank was thrilled to pieces to see me. I could tell in the way he slid the deadbolt and pulled down the shades.

“Frank, I need a favor!” I said, banging on the door.

“No one is home!” he shouted back.

“That’s a lie and you know it, Frank. Open up! The sooner you unlock this door and let me in, the sooner I’m gone.”

There was silence.

“You know I’m not going anywhere, Frank. I will stand out here until you lock up for the day and then I will follow you home and pound on your bedroom window all night.”

I heard his feet shuffling on the other side and the locks get thrown. He flung open the door without even looking at me.

“Thanks, Frank.”

“Get what you need and get out.”

“I need to see your files on recent vampire attacks, Frank.”

He pointed over at a messy filing cabinet, papers so stuffed into the overwhelmed drawers that it didn’t even close. He turned his back to me and pretended like there was something really important he needed to type.

I started pulling everything I could find for vampire misbehavior in the past couple months. By the time I was done, my arms were full with a two-foot stack.

“Frank, you’re an angel. I’ll bring these back.”

That made him pay attention to me, “Those files are official government property! You are not removing them from---”

“You’re absolutely correct, Frank. I’m not removing them. I’m taking them offsite for reproduction. You can thank me for freeing up some storage space for you. You’re welcome.”

“I’m not joking!”

“You’re a barrel of laughs, Frank!” I said as I backed out the door before he could stop me.

Killian had kept the car running. On our way over, I made an executive decision to practice a bit more caution with the guy and I wasn’t going to let him do anything dumb, like steal files from Frank, until he was back in fighting form.

He put the car into reverse and we made our getaway as I flipped through the manila folders. Gotta say this about Frank, he was a disgusting mess, but he was a filing genius. Everything I could have hoped for was right there.

“See anything interesting?” asked Killian.

“After sundown, I’d like to spend some time mapping out the locations of these attacks.”

“That is the easiest slip-up in the book. Surely a master vampire would be smart enough to avoid patterns.”

“He might be, but his army of hungry blood suckers are probably going to go for a meal wherever it’s available. If we see some sort of a circle form, we can pretty safely guess his headquarters is smack dab in the middle of it.”

“Sounds like we have an entertaining evening to look forward to.”

“I gave you CPR. You owe me.”

He raised his eyebrows amorously, “We could recreate the moment.”

I knew he had to be feeling better.

“Too bad, bucko. You shouldn’t have slept through it.”

“Promise not to sleep through it if you try again.”

“Killian, what would your mother say?”

“That she’s so proud her little boy has grown up to be such a virile young man.”

“How about we go and find out what my mother has to say?”

“Now you are just being cruel.”