The Death Thief

Dinner Guest

Once the heavy exterior doors closed with a satisfying click, a buzzer sounded and Scarlett reached out for one of the silver handles.

Inside, more of the blood red shades dotted the ceiling, offering only dim illumination for the booths surrounding the outer walls of the lounge. In the center was a dance floor with a space for a DJ to the side. One wall, however, wasn't lined with the high back leather booths. Instead a lengthy bar stretched the expanse with an impressive library of liquors behind it.

"This way," said Scarlett gesturing to a wall on the far side of the door. "Lord Antonov has a VIP booth."

Two of these special booths sat along one of the shorter walls and between them was a thin hallway guarded by a metal studded door and what appeared to be a hefty lock. These booths sat a bit higher than the others and were far wider. They also had a heavy black velvet curtain which could be drawn over the booth, closing it off completely. The booth opposing Antonov's was utilizing them at that very moment.

"Scarlett," I said, my voice shakier than I expected. I swallowed and tried to take a breath before I continued. "Is there a restroom anywhere?"

"The VIPs have their own restrooms," she replied, pulling a card out of her clutch. "Just swipe this through the card reader at the door there and you'll find the bathrooms just down the hall."

She pointed to the door between the booths and with a grateful nod of my head, I took the card and slipped away.

Down the hall there was nothing more than two doors facing each other. I took the female designated room and found a single stall unit with a chandelier glittering above me and enough burning candles to cast that tiny space in more light than the entirety of the lounge.

I took a seat on a small chaise in the corner while I steadied my breathing. It was hard to control my lungs when my brain was too busy filing away everything around me. I spent my breakfast with a werewolf where we discussed my innocence in a murder case; went shopping for a whole new wardrobe because I was being held prisoner in a hotel run by a ghost; and I was about to have dinner with a vampire whose children tried to kill me the night before. I would have wept had I not grown so numb to the situation.

"I needed you."

The low whisper popped me up from my seat, my head snapping around, ready to find a ghost drifting through the walls. However, I couldn't place their source. The words were faint, the voice low and rattled with tears.

"I needed you and you weren't there."

Anger boosted the volume and made their origins more apparent. I looked to the ceiling.

"I wanted to see you...yesterday. You know that. You know...I wanted to see you...yesterday. Yes, I wanted to see you the second...when I heard about what happened...but I couldn't get away. She...Her...Someone wouldn't let me. I think...there was suspicion..."

This voice was different. Outside of the person's stilted, jerky, meandering way of speaking, the voice was also clearly masculine, while the first felt distinctly feminine. And though his words were often garbled, there was a booming deepness to them, which helped me locate the source of their voices. They were coming through a vent.

I thought for a moment, mapping out my position in my head. The bathrooms were lined up against the back of the VIP booths. I had turned towards the opposing booth when I came into the restroom. Apparently someone was hiding behind those drawn curtains.

"I'm not talking about yesterday Matias and you know it."

The words were angrier now and the growl rumbling within her tone had become familiar to me over the course of the previous days. Calista.

"Why weren't you there that night?" she asked, her tears soaking into her words. "You've never skipped out on me before. You'll have me believe that on such an important night you'd just leave me there, alone and scared. You should have been there Matias. You could have stopped my killer. There's only one reason why you weren't there to stop it."

"Cali..."

"She ordered you to stay away from me. She may have even commanded you to kill me." She paused and in that silence I heard her contemplating her own words. "Maybe she had you kill me Matias! What cruel beast would do that?!"

"Take a deep breath and lower your voice," said the man with a crisp clarity that almost made me doubt it was the same speaker as before. "These curtains only do so much."

"You think I care?" snarled Calista. "What am I to care about anymore? I'm a monster."

"Not like...I am...so am I Calista. Just a different one."

"You're a vampire. A beautiful creature of the night. I'm...I'm rotting flesh."

"You're beautiful no matter what you are."

"How can you say that when I'm practically bald?" Her words crumbled beneath a wave of sobs. For a moment they were quiet, but Matias soon replied in a warm voice.

"Not only are you beautiful, but you are smart too. How clever you were to braid your hair that way. I can't even tell you are missing anything."

"You are too good to me," she replied, her voice calm and affectionate. "I'll always love you, you know that? That bitch may think she could tear us apart by commanding you to kill me, but it only makes me love you more."

"Cali, I...didn't...there was...I couldn't have killed you. I was at...her...I wanted to go to...the bar...I was at the bar that night."

"When you should have been out by the riverbed with me. No Matias, she's messed with you, but don't worry, I don't fault you. It's just unfortunate that your memory is too jumbled up by that stupid blood link to be of any use to pinning this on her. Perhaps if I figured out how she learned about us."

"It was...I know...it's a small town," he said with a rumble of frustration in his labored voice.

"It is," she replied with her words trailing into thought. "Which means somebody must know something. I just have to figure out who." Again she paused and again the silence spoke of considerations. "I will take her down, Matias. She will burn for this."

"I can't allow that Calista," he replied in a voice that felt firmer and gruffer than anything he had said prior.

"Right, right," she answered with a surprisingly calm tone considering the recent wrath in his timbre. "I was just joking. I would never bring harm to her. Now if you don't mind, I think we should split before a crowd starts to arrive. I'll leave first."

With that the conversation ended and the bathroom vent went silent. I finished up and walked back out to the lounge, only to see a man emerge from behind the thick curtain around the other VIP booth. He wasn't tall, but also wasn't short. He had a square chin, thick shoulders, and muscular arms.

He watched the door with pinched lips and a tight set to his jaw. With a flare of his nostrils and a clench of his fist, he headed for the door and I felt certain that Calista's flimsy denial of her intentions were not enough to calm her companion, Matias. With a cold grip upon my lungs, I feared that Calista may need more than her hair regrown by the end of the night.