at his abductor who must nod because he turns his attention back to the camera. “My name is Trent Wilder and they want you to know they’re coming for you. That you’ll be next. You know who you are and what you’ve done. The only way to survive is to give yourself up to the police. If you don’t, you’ll be d-dead within one month.” The vampire shifts, turning toward his attacker. “P-Please. Please, I’ll spill everything to the police. Let me go, I’ll tell them everything!”
The feed cuts and we’re all left standing in silence.
“If he killed him, he probably would’ve killed him on camera, right? Do we know the location yet?” Briar asks.
“The video’s settings show our local area, but that doesn’t mean he’s local,” Alexei explains. “You can state you’re from anywhere or put tags to direct a specific audience toward it, but we’re left to assume that yes, it’s our area. We could get a location on the captive and tell better by his place of residence. We’ll need someone to run sounds and see if they can pick up anything from the audio.”
“He was using specialized bullets too. You could see his leg wasn’t healing,” I say. But how the fuck did they get ahold of a bullet like that?
“Trent Wilder… Trent Wilder,” Finn says over and over as he rushes for his computer. Marcus and I crowd around him since he seems to have an idea. “The name sounds extremely familiar, right? Anyone else think it does?”
Marcus nods. “Wilder… the last name rings a bell. I think they’re an elite family of vampires. Old money. I don’t recognize the man who was on screen, though, but he could possibly be a relative.”
Within minutes, Finn finds out exactly who the man is, and like Marcus said, he’s a middle-aged vampire with a lot of old money coming from his father who is also a vampire.
I slide into my seat and pull up my own search on him and see that the man’s name has exploded along with the video and speculation of where he might be. People are already calling it a setup or a government conspiracy, and I know that within twenty-four hours, the internet will be abuzz with misinformation unless we do something to stop it. I watch the video again from the beginning to catch anything I could have missed but not much happened in the two minutes before I showed up.
The attacker never gives away anything, and you can’t even see an inch of his skin anywhere. He never comes on screen to allow us to guess his height or body type. His black clothes are baggy and give nothing away.
Marcus sets his phone down and leans into us. “They’re trying to track the IP address but they’re thinking he used an anonymizer or something like that to make it impossible to track. I don’t know, I know very little about computers. The video wasn’t live long before it got pulled from the streaming service.”
Brooks steps out of his office and gives us a wave the moment he spots us. “Church, bring your team in here.”
“Of course,” Marcus says as he waves at those of us sitting at the cubicle facing each other. There are three desks on each side, and while it was supposed to promote teamwork, instead, it just made for a lack of privacy when you didn’t want to stare someone in the face. Finn at least made it fun compared to how it was before he arrived. He’s already changed the dynamic of the group and he’s only been with us for one big case. It’s clear he plans on sticking around for more.
The five of us head toward Brooks’s office where he turns his computer screen around so we can see the message.
“I just received an email with an address on it.”
I peer over Finn’s shoulder to get a look since he’s about half a foot shorter than me.
If he speaks, he lives. If he lies, he dies. He knows the consequences. 3832 East Dale Street, Room 24
“Is it a setup?” Finn asks.
“Only one way to find out,” Marcus says. But Marcus is always eager for a fight because he has this ludicrous idea that he’s invincible. “Brooks, do we have permission to head out?”
Brooks stares at the screen for a moment longer before nodding. “Permission granted, but please be cautious. You don’t know if this is a setup. We were set up not that long