A Walk on the Dark Side Read online

  A Walk On The Dark Side

  Dark Side Mysteries

  Kendra Ashe

  Copyright © Kendra Ashe 2020

  All rights reserved

  Night Raven Press All Rights Reserved 2020

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely a coincidence.

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  Author’s Note

  The Dark Side Mysteries are loosely based on the Immortal Destiny stories written under the name Lorraine Kennedy. Although the Dark Side mysteries are based on the Immortal Destiny stories, these are new stories.

  Chapter One

  My walk on the dark side really started with my vampire boss disrupting a robbery in progress, though he wasn’t my boss at the time. Wren’s timely intervention very likely saved my life that night, but from then on, nothing has been the same.

  It sounds complicated because it is.

  Not only did Wren save my life, but he introduced me to the underbelly of New Orleans. The city where I was born and grew up had a dark side that was far more dangerous than anything I’d ever imagined.

  And sometimes that dark side gets a little too close to home.

  My name is Claire Benolt. This is the story of my awakening to the dark side of reality and all the quirky people I’ve met along the way.

  Unfortunately, it is also a story of death.

  My boss might be a vampire but he is still pretty awesome. That was my first lesson. Not all vampires are evil bloodsuckers. It’s true. Turning does tend to bring out the worst in someone, but for the most part, vampires are the same people they were in their previous life.

  Mason was the exception.

  In his previous life, Mason had been a knight in King Edward III’s army. As a vampire, he is the stuff of nightmares.

  Maybe I’m not being fair. Mason isn’t all bad and truthfully, I’d probably trust him before a certain bloodsucking cop who made fools of us all.

  In any case, Mason is a sore spot with me. He is everything my mother was always warning me to stay away from. Although I was doing my best not to think of Mason, he was still on my mind, even on that beautiful spring day that shifted my life from semi-crazy to totally loony.

  It was a beautiful spring morning when the darkness of New Orleans once again cast a shadow on my life. I was on my way to work when I passed the Alley Den. There were so many police cars parked on the street that half the department had to be there.

  Did something happen to Emma?

  The elderly owner of the Alley Den was one of my favorite French Quarter people. Emma could make me smile, even on a really bad day.

  Parking in front of the Dark Side’s office, I rushed to the Alley Den to find out what had happened.

  I found Emma standing with some people that had gathered outside the cafe. She was using a napkin to dab the tears from her eyes.

  “What happened?” I asked, giving the older woman a hug.

  Emma shook her head. “ It’s terrible! I left early last night. Vicky was supposed to close for me,” she said, her deep Creole accent more pronounced than usual. “When I came in this morning, there was blood everywhere.”

  “Oh no!” I gasped. “What happened?”

  The frown lines around Emma’s mouth deepened. “It was like Jack the Ripper. There was so much blood.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “I just don’t understand. Nothing was taken,” she said. “What could they have wanted?”

  Leaning closer, I whispered, “With so much blood, it probably wasn’t a vampire, right?”

  I really didn’t want it to be a vampire. Like Ax, I kind of hoped there was a way to save the vampires, but the more death I saw, the more I was beginning to think like Mason. Maybe there really was no way back from the darkness.

  Shrugging, Emma wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks. “There’s no telling. All of us that work here drink vervain tea to keep them from making meals of us.”

  Well, that was helpful for them, but not so much from an investigative standpoint. This meant the vampires couldn’t be eliminated as suspects.

  Grabbing my arm, Emma pulled me into the narrow alley that ran between her building and the bar next door.

  “There’s something you should know,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Before she died, Vicky left a clue.”

  Pulling her mobile phone from the pocket of her apron, Emma flipped through pictures until she came to what she was looking for. “Take a look. I snapped this before the CSI team kicked me out. You were the first person I thought of when I saw it.”

  Squinting, I studied the photo. The words, RUN CLAIRE were written across the wall in what appeared to be blood.

  “You’re the only Claire I know. I’m sure she must have been referring to you,” Emma said. “Is there any reason someone would be after you or looking for you at the Den?”

  I had no idea why someone would be after me, aside from my association with Dark Side Investigations. Still, my mystery-solving brain went into overdrive.

  I might not know why someone was after me, but I did have an inkling why someone might have been looking for me at the Den.

  The Den was one of my favorite hangouts. This wasn’t a big secret. I’d also planned to meet an informant there last night, but I’d received a message informing me that his plans had changed.

  When the informant had first contacted Wren, he’d claimed to have some info on Kieran. The informant said it was a matter of life or death.

  I was the one who normally met with the informants. Last night was no different. This also wasn’t a big secret. Anyone could have found out I’d had plans to meet with someone at the Den.

  But poor Vicky hadn’t known anything about the informant or his information.

  Even I didn’t have any idea what Jack had been about to tell me, but I had a feeling it was big - big enough to get an innocent bystander killed.

  It was all my fault. I should have tried harder to convince Jack to stick with our appointment.

  “What does this mean?” Emma asked, drawing me back.

  Sighing, I shook my head. “I have no idea.”

  A police officer motioned for Emma to come over. The detectives probably had some questions for her.

  I had some questions of my own. Hopefully, Wren had some answers.

  * * *

  Zoning out, I stared at the brick wall that separated our office from the bookstore next door. Wren had recently replaced a five-foot area with new bricks after taking out the wall to look for Marie’s body.

  That one had been a real cold case, seeing how Marie was murdered over a hundred years ago. Although her killer would only be brought to justice on the other side, we felt it only right to give the woman a proper burial.

  The old fashioned grandfather clock that sat in the corner, ticked away the minutes, but time passed agonizingly slow.

  Finally, the sun was down. This meant that Wren could stroll t
hrough the door at any moment.

  Sure enough. Exactly thirty minutes after sundown, Wren walked in, dropping his laptop and a briefcase on his desk.

  “Anything new today?” he asked.

  “You could say that.” I nodded. “One of Emma’s employees was murdered last night.”

  The color in Wren’s face drained, at least what little there had been in the first place. “That’s a little too close to home. Maybe you should only come into work during daylight hours.”

  “It’s worse than that,” I sighed. “The employee wrote my name on the wall, in her own blood. She wrote, “Run Claire.”

  “Really?” Wren was genuinely surprised.”Do you know why someone would be after you?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Up until recently, my life has been totally boring. There’s no reason anyone would be after me. I was supposed to meet Jack at the Den last night. The killer must have thought I would be there.”

  “If that’s the case, then whatever he had to tell you was important enough to kill for.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “or they were after me all along and the killer just thought that last night would be a good time for an ambush.”

  “Did it look like a vampire killing?” Wren asked.

  “I didn’t actually get a look at the crime scene, but Emma said there was blood everywhere. I can’t imagine a vampire would waste that much blood.”

  Wren silently contemplated my words before nodding. “You’re probably right, but just to be sure, we need some inside information. We will need to meet with Mason again.

  The thought of seeing Mason again put butterflies in my stomach. It had been weeks since he’d helped me rescue Wren from that crazy cop. Since then, I had purposely stayed away from anywhere Mason might be. Now there would be no avoiding him, at least not if we wanted to find out what was going around the vampire rumor mill.

  Chapter Two

  As soon as Mason stepped through the entrance, the entire atmosphere changed. The air of danger that followed Mason around like some kind of shadow seemed to add a sinister undercurrent to the room.

  From across the cafe, his icy blue eyes found mine. Nodding, he headed toward my table.

  “Good evening, Claire.” He smiled.

  “And to you.”

  “What are you having?” he asked.

  “Just coffee,” I motioned to the waitress who was already bringing over his cup and a carafe. “I took the liberty of ordering a coffee for you.”

  “Thank you,” he said, offering another smile. “It’s been a while. How have you been, Claire?”

  The enchanting way my name rolled off his tongue had my heart fluttering.

  Concentrate, Claire!

  As soon as the waitress served his coffee and was gone, I let him in on why Wren had requested a meeting with him.

  Mason listened without interrupting, but he couldn’t disguise the hint of worry I saw in his eyes.

  When I was done telling him about the murder at the Den, I pulled out my phone and showed him the picture Emma had sent me.

  “The owner of the cafe is pretty sure I’m the Claire the killer was looking for. Since I was supposed to meet someone there that night, she could be right.”

  “And Wren is wondering if this is vampire related?” Mason asked.

  “He is.” I nodded. “Wren thinks the killer may be a vampire. I’m not so sure. There was a lot of blood for this to be a vampire.”

  “Since when did you become an expert on vampires?” he chuckled.

  “Well, I have been doing a lot of research. I decided that since I’m going to be dealing with vampires to a certain extent, I should brush up on vampire traits. Vampires tend to drain their victims, right?”

  “Unless the vampire doesn’t want to make his kill obvious,” Mason informed me.

  That kind of made sense.

  “Do you know if there is a vampire out there looking for me?” I asked, getting right to the point.

  “As a matter of fact, I do know something about that,” he admitted.

  When he didn’t elaborate, I folded my arms and glared at him. “Well?”

  “Kieran mentioned that he’d like to have a word with you.”

  “Sending a killer after me is a funny way to have a word with someone,” I said, my disbelief evident.

  “Kieran is an old vampire. He tends to get carried away,” Mason admitted. “He’s asked me to bring you in to have a talk with him. Make no mistake, Kieran is a killer, but his word is solid. He promised not to harm you if I brought you in.”

  “Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical.”

  “I can understand.” Mason shrugged. “But I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word on that.”

  I wasn’t so sure how good Mason’s word was either, but there had been a time he was a knight. True, he probably hadn’t been the knight in shining armor type, but he had been a knight. The offer was tempting but my mom hadn’t raised a fool. Common sense won out.

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. Maybe you could just find out what he wants,” I told him.

  A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “If I play the go-between, what do I get out of it?”

  “My undying gratitude,” I said, returning his smile. I knew full well what he was asking for, but I wasn’t about to go there. As sexy as he was, I didn’t want to get involved with him. Not now and maybe not ever. Falling for a vampire would totally suck, and I’d never been good at the friends with benefits game.

  His smile disappeared. “Until I can find out what Kieran is up to, we should get you out of the city. He obviously has people looking for you and they aren’t too concerned if you’re brought in dead or alive.”

  “We don’t know that for sure. The thug that killed Vicky might have been trying to force information out of her. There’s no way to know if things would have turned so deadly if I’d been at the Den like I’d planned.”

  The guilt of playing some part in Vicky’s death was weighing heavy on me. I couldn’t help but think if my meeting at the Den hadn’t been canceled, things would have turned out a lot differently. True, I might have been dead now instead of having coffee with Mason, but at least Vicky would have been alive.

  “I know that if Kieran can’t find out whatever it is he wants to know about you, he won’t hesitate to have you killed. It’s better to get you someplace safe.”

  “Okay, what do you suggest?” I asked before taking a sip of my coffee.

  “I know a place where you’ll be safe, but to keep it that way, I can’t tell you where it’s at. Kieran’s vamps are pretty good at compelling information,” he informed me, though it was hardly necessary.

  I had a pretty good idea of how convincing a vampire could be. It was a good thing I had a shield against the vampire’s power of persuasion. Vervain tea had become my new favorite drink.

  “Let Wren know what we’re planning. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night. Until then, stay home. Keep in mind, a vampire cannot enter your home unless they’re invited.”

  So that old vampire myth was real. It was difficult to know which far-fetched myth was real and which was total bull. I’d already decided to take all vampire myths seriously, just in case.

  “Okay,” I said with a nod. “I’ll see you tomorrow night then. But, what if this old vampire won’t tell you what he wants? Am I supposed to stay in hiding forever?”

  “I’ll find out what’s up,” he promised.

  Chapter Three

  Waiting until dark reminded me a little of having an abscessed tooth and waiting for the dentist to torture me with even more pain when he pulled it out. You know it will be best in the long run, but getting to that point really sucks wind.

  That was one limitation of the vampire that I wanted nothing to do with. To live only at night had to be a real pain.

  Only Heaven knew what that crazy old vampire wanted with me. If I’d been more familiar with the vampire culture, I could have taken care of the s
ituation on my own, but I didn’t have a clue where to start.

  The minutes ticked by and all I could do was pace the floor. It was almost dark, but not quite. Still, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to do something.

  There was always the option of going to the police and reporting Kieran as a stalker, but they’d pull out the straight jacket for sure. Getting myself hospitalized probably wouldn’t help much.

  What I could do was talk to Ax. I was convinced the vampire would at least have some idea what Kieran wanted.

  Mason had asked me to wait at home until I heard from him, but that wasn’t going to happen. Waiting around made me feel too useless.

  Making up my mind, I grabbed my phone and keys.

  When I opened the door, Mason was standing there. It was so unexpected that I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “Oh damn! You scared the hell out of me,” I cried, throwing my hand over my heart. “I was just on my way out.”

  “That isn’t a good idea,” he said with a dark smile.

  “Okay then. I guess it doesn’t matter since you’re here,” I told him as I followed him down the stairs.

  Mason stopped when we reached the sidewalk. “I intend to find out what’s going on with Kieran, but you and I have to talk first.”

  The grim expression on Mason’s face wasn’t sitting well with me. Something was wrong.

  When I didn’t respond, he took my hand in his and led me to the little alley across from my apartment building.

  Again, I felt that rush that came with being close to him. Just his nearness sent a surge of adrenaline through me. I wanted to ignore it, but it was difficult when my heart was thumping like a stampeding buffalo.

  It didn’t matter. What did matter was finding out what an ancient vampire had against a girl he’d never met, namely me. My insane attraction for Mason was too much of a distraction. I really had to start thinking about all the things I didn’t like about him.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.