I don't know when I fell asleep, but I know Alexandre stayed with me until I did. A fact that I will eternally be grateful for. I know we chatted for a while, and read, and I woke up realizing I had finally slept without waking up for the first time since that crazy woman had killed me.
I was humming happily as I tripped my way down the stairs, and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, so I stumbled in on Alexandre speaking with another man in the main foyer. Alexandre's eyes grew large with fear, and he motioned for me to leave. I looked quickly between the two, busting ass back up the stairs as fast as my vampire skills would allow me to. I heard the tembre in Alexandre's voice as he tried to hypnotize the other man into thinking he hadn't seen me, but to my rising horror, it didn't work. What had I done? The man's voice rose in an argumentative and threatening nature and Alexandre's voice became placating as he tried to calm him down.
"Carys." He finally called to me. "Please come back down here." I could hear the strain in his voice and it terrified me. Could I run? Should I? Alexandre had said he would always try to protect me. Was he trying to send me a message now?
"Carys, this nice policeman would like to talk to you." Alexandre stressed the statement. Damn, damn, damn, damn damn! I bit my lip-too hard. Blood beaded up and I licked it away as I slowly stepped down the stairs.
"I'm sure you can understand why she would be a little shy with what happened..." Alexandre was saying. I felt like a child as I walked directly to Alexandre and stood beside him. I clasped his hand behind his back in a death grip. He squeezed back just as hard.
"Yes, I can see... She is fine, a little pale maybe, but that still doesn't explain why you lied to me before about her whereabouts." The police officer said sharply.
"If I may sir...I asked Alexandre to keep my presence here a secret." I replied, hoping it corroborated anything he had said so far.
"Yes, but why? Why didn't you go to the police?" The cop demanded.
"Because I was afraid." I whispered, and held my breath, hoping again that my answers were lining up. Alexandre squeezed my hand and I hoped that meant I was being helpful. The cop looked at me with pity.
"Didn't you know everyone was looking for you?" He asked.
"What?" I blinked, confused "No...I had no idea!" I looked at Alexandre who shook his head. "May I ask...why?"
"Because of the DNA test, Miss." The officer replied. I had no idea what he was talking about and frowned, bewildered.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand?" I offered helplessly.
"The school DNA testing? The database set up to protect children in case of a kidnapping? Miss, that was a lot of blood a the crime scene and you were registered in the database as a child, so we had your DNA on file..." I groaned. That had been so very long ago, it had never even occurred to me! I think they had started registering us in that database when I was nine? I had forgotten all about that! I never would have dreamed!
"So when we ran your DNA, your profile came up, of course we had to get a more recent picture, and it took some digging, but your picture has been on the news for several weeks and someone saw you in the parking lot at the mall yesterday. That's a very distinctive car your friend has there. You mind telling me why you've been hiding out here and didn't come to see us?" The cop finished. I looked at Alexandre helplessly and he nodded encouragement.
"I can only tell you part of it, sir. My very good friend Alexandre here happened to be passing by to his tailor's when he found me in that abandoned neighborhood. I don't know a lot of the details, but I can tell you I didn't see who did it, but I think they must have drugged me. When I woke up, I was alone. From what I understand, Alexandre rushed me to one of his doctor friends who was able to stabilize me and has been treating me here. I have been afraid to go home because I don't know who did it. Alexandre has been gracious enough to let me stay and has even hired a private investigator to look into the incident to see if he can find out who attacked me. In the meantime I asked everyone involved to keep it quiet that I am here so that I can stay safe. Now that you found me, would it be possible to get that missing thing taken down?" It was close enough to the truth that it sounded convincing to my own ears. I only hoped it did to his too. The cop sighed.
"Will you be willing to sign a statement with what you just said? I've got a case file on my desk labeled 'missing' with your face on it and I'd like to close it." He asked me.
"Yes, of course! When would you like me to do that?" I asked. Alexandre let got of my hand and hugged my shoulder with what felt like relief.
"Right now would be good if you've got the time." The cop stated.
"Absolutely." I looked at Alexandre and he nodded.
"I'll bring her right down." He informed the cop.
"Naw, I'll take her down in my car, you can come ahead to bring her back so I don't have to make this trek twice" The cop replied, scratching his head. Alexandre glanced at me with worry, but I smiled at him brightly. "Besides, you'll probably need to make a statement too." The cop observed our reactions carefully. Alexandre squeezed my shoulder and ran his hand down my arm as I walked forwards, holding on to my fingertips until I was out of reach. If I had to guess, I would say Alexandre was more anxious about this situation than I was, though I wasn't sure how that could be possible.
As soon as I got in the car with the cop, he started to grill me.
"Is he abusing you?" He demanded.
"What? No!" I replied, appalled.
"Is he forcing you to stay? Coercing you? Does he have something on you? Paying you for sexual favors? Or in exchange for protection?" He continued
"Oh my God! No!" I was shocked. "Alexandre is a hermit, he flinches almost every time I touch him!" I laughed.
"He looked pretty chummy back there! Has he hurt you in any way? Threatened you? Do you feel unsafe? Can you leave if you want to? Do you need help escaping?" The cop fired the questions at me almost faster than I could process them. Of course I couldn't tell him the truth, that Alexandre was a vampire and had saved me by turning me into a vampire, and that made me trust him implicitly and also fear him in a way I found strangely confusing, and that I had no reason to return to my old life, so I settled for a watered down version of the truth.
"Look, seriously... Alexandre....literally saved my life... I'm grateful to him. I have nothing to go home to. If you've done much digging into my past, you realize the truth in that. Alexandre has treated me well, he's taken care of me, he's offered me a better life than I could ever have dreamed of, and not to seem like a gold digger-but LOOK at that place! He's allowing me to stay in a freaking mansion, covering my expenses while we search for my ki...whoever hurt me...what kind of a fool would I have to be to turn that offer down?" I replied.
"It still seems suspicious to me. What does he want in return?" The cop eyed me.
"He said it's a big house and it gets lonely. He says he just wants to be able to share the wealth with someone again since it's been a while, and after he looked into my past, he felt I was a pretty good candidate. Call it a Pygmalion story I guess." I offered.
"Pig what?" The cop said confused.
"Pygmalion? My Fair Lady? Rags to Riches? Pretty Woman, only that one got twisted with the prostitute bit?" I asked, the cop finally caught on with the last one.
"Uh huh." He eyed me like he felt like the prostitute bit was exactly what he was worried about. I sighed heavily. "Well if that arrangement ever becomes...unsatisfactory, give me a call." He handed me a card that, with some car gymnastics, I tucked in a pocket of my jeans without looking at. Eh, that was the best explanation I could give him under the circumstances, maybe Alexandre could do better. The rest of the ride was silent with me imagining trying to explain vampirism and my death by serial killer in ever ridiculous scenarios to him.
"Your sister says she misses you." The cop told me as we pulled into the station's parking lot. I flinched. I had always regretted leaving her behind, but I knew my parents would make sure I could never leave with her.
"How's she doing?" I asked quietly.
"She seems good. I'll give you her number, maybe you can give her a call, yeah? Let her know you're ok?" He replied. I nodded.
"Yeah, maybe." I whispered.
"Just uh, follow me." The cop told me as he got out of the car. I hesitated for a moment as I stepped out, waiting until I spotted Alexandre's car turning in to leave the parking lot. Once I saw him, I relaxed and followed the cop inside. He led me through a maze of desks and people to a back room where he asked me to sit at a table and then returned with a paper and pen and said to write down what I had told him earlier and sign it. I read the paper and noticed there was a statement about jail time or fines if there were false statements discovered within the document, and not wanting Alexandre's and my story to clash, I hesitated for a second.
"Uh...I just wanted to remind you, my memory of what happened to me is not so good. I think Alexandre can get his doctor to send you a statement if you need, but I don't want to get in trouble or get him in trouble if I write this down wrong." I say to the cop.
"Huh? Oh that! Naw, don't worry about it, just write that down there and have the doctor send in a thing like you said, should be fine. I really just needed to prove you weren't missing. Now the guys handling the crime scene are gonna come talk to you about opening an investigation to look for whoever attacked you. I know you said your friend is helping you, but you really outta do that." The officer smiled, and took the paper from me as I finished writing. He called Alexandre into the room next, and opened the door for me saying "Just have a seat out there miss."
We were there for hours, rotating around and around cops, signing statements, talking to officials, and then we realized what was going on: we were being delayed.
A man walked in and introduced himself as part of a special federal investigative team looking for the serial killer being known in the media as 'The Nurse'. I looked at Alexandre nervously.