Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) by J.R. Rain Page A

desperate
and wild eyes. I thought about the little missing boy—a missing boy
that was supposed to have been Anthony. My heart broke for him and
his family, and I realized that my secret could be a secret no
more. At least not with Detective Sherbet.
    “Can we talk somewhere more private?”
    “No, Sam. We talk here.”
    “Please, Detective.”
    He didn’t like it. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll
talk in my squad car.”
     
     
     

Chapter Thirty-four
     
     
    His squad car was an unmarked Ford Crown
Victoria, and he was parked in a handicapped spot directly in front
of the hospital. The car was immaculate, as I suspected it would
be. Not even a wadded-up bag of donuts, which I half expected to
find.
    As he slid in, he clicked the doors locked.
“It’s just me and you, kiddo,” he said. “Now talk.”
    “I have an artifact,” I started. “A very
valuable artifact for some people. I suspect that whoever took the
boy wants this artifact. No doubt he thought he was taking my
son.”
    “Ransom,” said Sherbet. He hadn’t taken his
eyes off me.
    “That’s what I’m thinking.”
    “And the man in the bow tie?”
    “I have no idea who he is.”
    “But he was following you?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
    Sherbet absorbed these strange details
silently, his fine investigative mind sorting them out mentally,
labeling them and filing them in his mental file folders. “What’s
the artifact, Samantha?”
    Sherbet was staring at me. I could hear his
heart beating steadily, strongly. Sherbet smelled of aftershave and
potatoes.
    I took a deep breath, held it, and looked my
friend in the eye. Sherbet returned my stare, his eyes wide and
hungry, searching for information.
    “Please, Samantha,” he said. “Talk to
me.”
    I continued staring at him, and finally came
to a decision. I said, “I’m not what you think I am,
Detective.”
    “What the devil does that mean, Sam?”
    “When I was attacked six years ago, I was
changed forever.”
    “No shit, Sam. An attack like that would
change any—”
    “That’s not what I meant, Detective. It
changed me in a physical sense. In an eternal sense, too.”
    “Eternal? What the devil are you
talking—wait. Good God, you’re not telling you’re one of those
were-thingies?”
    I smiled despite the seriousness of the
situation. “No, Detective. I’m a vampire.”
     
     
     

Chapter Thirty-five
     
     
    “A vampire?” he said.
    “Yes.”
    “And you’re serious?”
    “As a corpse.”
    “I don’t know whether to laugh or be
afraid.”
    “You can laugh, if you want. Lord knows I’ve
done it a few times. Of course, my laughter usually turns into
tears. But you certainly don’t need to be afraid, Detective.”
    Yet another police car pulled up to the
hospital. A young officer dashed out and headed for the hospital’s
main doors. Through it all, Sherbet hadn’t taken his eyes off me. I
didn’t blame him.
    “I have a secret, too,” he said finally.
    “Oh no,” I said. “Please don’t tell me you’re
the Werewolf King or something.”
    He chuckled lightly. “No, but I would have
loved to see the look on your face.”
    “What’s your secret, Detective? Seems like a
good night to spill them.”
    “I’ve known you were a vampire for some
time.”
    “Really?”
    “It’s the only thing that made sense. Your
strange disease, the dead gang banger drained of blood, the punch
through the bulletproof glass, the dead prisoner.”
    “Why didn’t you say anything?”
    “Because it was a new theory and I was still
debating whether or not I was going insane.”
    “A question I’ve asked myself a thousand
times.”
    “I have another secret,” he confessed.
    “I don’t think I can handle any more
secrets,” I said.
    “I’ve seen Twilight five times.”
    I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. “You saw
what five times?”
    “Twilight. My boy loves it. He can’t get it
enough of it. We’ve seen the sequels a few times, too. Also, I
watched