The Midnight Murder Series: Pieces

Rufus downed ten shots in quick succession. He lifted one of the empty shot glasses and tapped the side to advise the barkeeper to give him more.

The bartender raised a brow at him. “I think you’re drunk enough, mister,” she commented while wiping the counter at the bar. “You had over thirty shots.”

Rufus shook his head, unfazed while tapping the glass constantly. “Nein, nein, nein, nein,” he hiccuped. “A German never gets drunk before a hundred drinks. Keep them coming.” She rolled her eyes before walking away to give another customer their drinks. “Please, miss?”

“Trollop isn’t giving you a drink?” Rufus turned his head to see a blurry, brown-haired woman sitting next to him with a grin. “No worry about drinks. I’ll buy you some.”

“Thanks, miss,” Rufus became disenchanted by the stranger’s generosity. He wasn’t in the mood for anyone or anything. “But I have money for drinks.”

She chuckled seductively before moving closer to the German. “Why don’t you and I get out of-”

“Look, lady, I’m already dating someone!” He bellowed. “Unless you can change yourself into a Latino male, you can stay. If not, then go take your whoreness somewhere else.”

She pulled an annoyed face and slapped him on the back of the head with her hand before stomping away. “Douchebag.”

“Slut,” he mumbled and waited for his drink.

“You do know alcohol can kill you, Rufus,” he glanced over his shoulder to see Beyond behind him. “By the way, Mark is letting us stay in his second house. Why are you here? It’s only one o’clock.”

He overlooked her and thanked the bartender with a nod when she gave him ten more shot glasses. He downed them as well as the female knight sat by him.

“Miss, are you eighteen years or older?” The bartender asked Beyond.

The bartender’s odd question nonplused Beyond. “What do you mean?”

“You look like you’re around fourteen,” she replied.

The knight slanted forward and slid her identification card to her. “I’m twenty-one. I would like some red wine.”

The bartender examined the card and shook her head. “Nice try, miss. This card is a fake. The first nine in your birth year is a six and the three should be a five. You weren’t born on April 8th, 1693.”

“But I was. The mermaid at the license bureau was wearing her glasses that day.” Beyond’s eyes glowed green again as something delightful filled the air and hit her nostrils, just like in Oliver’s bedroom and the police station.

The employee’s eyes widened in fear as she took a step back from the female. “I-I-I’ll get you your drink,” her voice trembled in fear while giving the card back to the woman and rushing off.

“What a nice human,” Beyond sat down straight while smiling at the werewolf. Her smile faded when her colleague ignored her again, then sighed. “Rufus, you can’t ignore him forever. You’re his father, and he needs you.”

“I’m not his father,” he swigged his drink and slammed the glass on the counter, shattering it. He stared at the shards of glass in his palm before pulling them out. The wounds began healing as he gazed at her with dolor eyes. “I’m just the sperm donor. Why me? Why was I cursed with this curse?” He buried his face in his hands. “Why did I go into the barn when it was a full moon? Why did I want my father to read me a story that night? Fick mich!”

She patted his shoulder gently. “You were a child, Rufus. You didn’t know.”

“Speaking of child, Adán’s daughter is haunting him,” he peeked at her from the side of his hands. “I saw her at the restaurant next to him, she was at the station, and everywhere else. He keeps on blaming himself for her death. He didn’t know about the disease – No one had. It was new, and children were the first ones to get it. He cries himself to sleep since that day. Every year on her birth month, he visits her grave with flowers and toys in the hope of her coming back alive. Every year is the same. He can’t let her go, Beyond. He will never let her go.”

“How do you know what his daughter looks like?” She wondered.

“Because I was her godfather,” he whispered. “My nickname was Unclie Puppy to her because I would make howling noises at the sky for fun. I became a surrogate father when Adán was at work, and when that bitch of a mother left when she was just a baby. That bitch only wanted Adán’s money, not Rosary or Adán.”

“Money? How much?”

“Adán is a billionaire,” he uncovered his face and snatched Beyond’s glass of wine to drink it. “While living in Steger, he helped build a church that’s behind a bank now. He would pay people’s hospital bills if they couldn’t afford it and funeral. He’s too kindhearted for this world. To be honest, I think he was the only Hispanic male living there. Oh, if only Rosie-cheeks knew I was stemming the rose with her father when she was sleeping. I can’t help wonder why he let his daughter have that bitch’s surname. Rosario X sounds way better than whatever bitch’s surname is.”

“Stemming the rose? I’m guessing that’s drunk talk similar what you are,” she jumped off the stool, and friendly patted him on the shoulder. “C’mon, agent.” She headed towards the door.

He pulled some money out of his pocket and laid a fifty dollar bill next to one of the empty glasses before following her.

“Thank you for speaking with us, Miss Jackson,” said Alvin as his brothers and Adán followed Miss Jackson to a colorful, Victorian-like living room. “The officers told us that you witnessed the kidnapping.”

She nodded as the brothers sat down on a gold and white sofa and Adán in a walnut armchair. “Yes, Ronald is my neighbor’s great-grandson,” she began as she sat down on a footrest. “Only great-grandson. His parents and grandparents died in a car accident when he was a toddler. His great-grandparents live at 717 Union Avenue if you’re wondering. The rowhouse is next to that fugly apartment building. By the way, are you British? I always wanted to go to the UK. Is it like what the TV shows pictures it?”

“Yes, madam. My partners and I are British,” smiled Oliver. “Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. You have a lovely home, by the way.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” Adán asked.

Miss Jackson exhaled profoundly and began. “I saw at least three or five men in hoods taking Ronald and driving off in a grayish van, but I did see the driver. He was African-American with gray hair at the ends. I believe there was a scar on his cheek. I’m not sure if it was a scar or not.”

Arvel pulled out his phone, strolled through it, and showed the woman a picture on the screen. “Is this the man in the driver’s seat?”

She leaned forward to study the screen and nodded. “Yes, agent. That’s him.”

He exchanged looks at his siblings and the vampire. “Thank you so much for your time, Miss Jackson. You helped us a lot,” he quickly stood up and headed towards the door. “Agents.”

The others said their goodbyes to the woman before following Arvel out.

“What happened?” Alvin asked his twin while rushing down the stairs. “Was the sitting room too vintage for you?”

Arvel held out his phone with the same picture on the screen to show his twin. “The man that she saw was Samuel. Unless incubuses can drive vans, then we’re not dealing with that. I think we’re dealing with a shapeshifter.”

“Hmm. Let’s go talk to the great-grandparents,” suggested Adán. “Let’s hope they don’t speak German.”

The hunters nodded, and the four traveled up the hill. Sirens pierced the air when the men almost reached the top. They were in shock when they saw an ambulance on Union Avenue in front of the house. They approached the house to see two black body bags on stretchers coming out of the house.

“What happened?” Oliver questioned a police officer watching the stretchers go into the ambulance.

“Heart attacks,” he replied. “The two were up in their nineties. I guess the news about their great-grandson’s disappearance was too much for them.”

“THIS IS RIDICULOUS!” exclaimed Alvin while driving. “This doesn’t make any sense at all. Why would shapeshifters kidnap people?”

“I hate to break this, but we’re not dealing with a shifter,” Oliver announced while staring at his laptop. “I found some footage from a neighbor’s camera and it is Samuel driving, but his eyes aren’t glowing. Maybe Rufus is right. Perhaps Samuel decided to kidnap people for kicks.”

Arvel shook his head while reading some case files. “Samuel isn’t like that. Mark and I still think it’s something supernatural. What human can drag a full-grown, a hundred and four-kilogram man under a car? No one can, but the supernatural.”

Oliver squinted his eyes at the screen. “What the –”

“What’s wrong, Ollie?” Alvin glanced at his baby brother in the rearview mirror. “Watching your girlfriend undress?”

“No, but the number plate registered to a dead guy with no living relatives,” he addressed.

“Hey, Arvel! Our baby brother is Sherlock,” Alvin snickered. “But good work on the stolen van. Can you hack into more cameras to see where the van was heading?”

“I’ll try, but this isn’t like high school where I could change your grades so dad won’t ground you two,” Oliver sighed and began typing. After a few minutes, he smiled in success. “A FedEx Freight camera caught them on Joe Orr Road. That’s or with two R’s, and nothing else.”

“Well, we have something. Time to deliver the news to Mark,” Arvel dialed a number on his phone.

Ronald was not only terrified but crying as he struggled to break his wrists free from the thick rope. He watched, from a kitchen chair, a female in a red dress chopping some fingers on a countertop. His stomach muscles tensed while listening to the bones breaking under the knife. Ronald closed his eyes and tried to imagine he was anywhere but here.

“Is dinner done?” Ronald opened his eyes to see a male wearing a plague doctor mask entering the kitchen. “We’re hungry. Why can’t we eat it raw?” His voice sounded foreign as he turned to Ronald.

“Dinner will be ready in an hour,” the female spoke while setting the knife down and scooping the finger pieces into a pot on the stove. “It’s the cold season. I don’t want anyone to catch a cold while hunting.” She picked up a pair of pliers and turned towards the teen. Ronald’s eyes widened as the female with a rabbit mask on began heading towards him. He shouted around the gag, but all came out was faint mumbles. The woman halted in front of the teen and tilted her head at him. “Now, now, mister. We don’t want to wake up the neighbors, do we now?”

“No, please,” Ronald cried in the gag while struggling as the female bent down and grabbed his hand. “Please, I want to go home!”

“Be still, darling,” she began pulling out his nails with the boy screaming in agony. She sighed in annoyance and looked back at the man who was stirring the pot. “Can you make him shut up? At least, I got to slit last night’s dinner’s throat before cooking.”

The man huffed and stopped stirring. The lady stood up and stepped aside as he moved towards them. He stopped in front of the frightened teen and grabbed his face. “Don’t cry. Your body isn’t going to waste,” he swiftly snapped his neck.

“I think I have a hangover,” groaned Rufus as he lay down on the chaise with a hot water bottle on his forehead. Beyond and the twins were in the kitchen playing Chinese checkers.

“That’s what you get for drinking at noon,” Adán quipped while sitting on the werewolf’s legs and reading a book. “Why were you drinking at noon?”

Rufus answered him with a groan. “What time is it?”

“Seven o’clock,” Oliver emerged from the hallway and into the living room with a couple of books in arms. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you guys in the morning.” He went downstairs with a yawn.

“Night,” everyone spoke in simultaneously.

The sound of Oliver’s snoring filled the air as the light began flickering in the bedroom. In the corner was Beyond gazing at the sleeping hunter. Her eyes glowed green again as she sniffed the air while Oliver rolled over on his right side. She wandered towards him and knelt down slowly on the edge of the bed.

Oliver woke up from the bed squeaking from underneath him and automatically reached under his pillow for his gun. Once his fingers wrapped around his weapon, he whipped it out and rolled over to aim it at whoever was on his bed. Oliver squinted to adjust his eyes to the darkness and lowered his gun when he saw it was just Beyond. He sat up. “Beyond, what are you doing? Is something the matter?” He placed his gun on the nightstand before turning back to her.

The knight placed a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed Oliver back into the bedsheets. She climbed into his lap, once more. “Hold me,” she purred, and on cue, he placed his hands on her hips. “Kiss me.”

“Now?” Her words surprised him. She leaned forward and began kissing him. His lips automatic kissed her back. It felt like paradise for the Brit. Sure, he kissed some women in the past, but this kiss was different. This kiss had no words to describe its feeling. “Be,” he moaned into the kiss as his hands slid under her shirt.

“Shh,” she spoke between kisses. “You’ll ruin it.”

Oliver’s eyes widened when he felt her tongue in his mouth, but closed his eyes as he tongue wrestled with hers. Cupid is real. He thought as his lover strongly took a breath in. He felt a fat lump rise slowly in his throat. He tried swallowing the lump down and continued with the kiss, but Oliver raised a brow as Beyond took in another breath. His eyes opened as he began to gasp when the lump forced its way up his throat again. His eyes also widened in horror as Beyond pulled away from his lips with a trail of blue light and smoke entering her mouth as it exiting his. He struggled and choked as Beyond sucked more of the light and smoke in her mouth. Oliver tried pushing her off him, but her grasp on him was too powerful. His gun – The only way. His hand frantically searched for his weapon on the nightstand while his frightened eyes stared at the ones above him. Oh my God, is this real? He thought as his hand finally found his gun. Oliver yanked it off the nightstand but knock a lamp off instead. It shattered when it hit the floor, startling Beyond to stop the sucking. The light and smoke reentered Oliver’s mouth and body, causing him to gasp for air.

“What was that?” The heavy footsteps raced down the stairs and barging into the room. The twins shined their phone lights on their brother, who was coughing hard.

“Oliver, what happened?” Arvel and Alvin rushed over to him, jumped on the bed, and slowly sat him up.

Oliver scanned the room and saw Beyond was nowhere. “Bad dream,” he wheezed out the untruth. “I had a bad dream.” He closed his eyes and rested his head against Alvin’s shoulder.

Alvin rocked Oliver while giving his twin a worried look and Arvel back to him.