Page 8 of The Mermaid’s Bubble Lounge (Sam Quinn #8)
EIGHT
Geez, You Again
The hunter leans over the side of the roof, watching a merman, reeking of the ocean and dressed as a human, exit the back door of the nightclub.
He carries two large garbage bags to the dumpster.
He tosses them, letting them thump against the open lid before they slide in.
He checks his phone and then returns to the club, slamming the door.
Cats come slinking out of the night to hop on the edge of the dumpster and sniff. The hunter scans the area for lone humans. He sees one moving silently around the corner of the building. The wind changes direction, and he gets a whiff of vampire. Interesting.
The hunter tips his head, studying the bloodsucker, especially his facial hair. The vampire moves slowly. When he circles back toward the front of the nightclub, the hunter follows along, tracking him from his perch on high. It’s odd how rarely people look up.
The vampire pauses right where that terrified woman met her fate last night. A second one joins him. He looks up but he doesn’t notice his observer. And then a third. This one has light hair that reflects the moonlight. He crouches over the spot where the hunter discarded the woman’s body.
The front door opens and the vampires disappear.
The mermaid stench has the hunter rearing back.
A tall woman ushers out her employees and locks the door.
They walk to the far end of the parking lot and pile into three cars.
Once they leave, the vampires return. The hunter loves this stage of the game.
The poor things have no clue who the hunter is.
The hunter smiles. He should at least make it sporting, he decides, kicking a pebble. All three look up at the same time. The light-haired one goes around the back, while the other two stare up at the roof.
Where did the other one go? The hunter moves beside a large piece of machinery and looks over the side of the building for the light-haired one.
A shadow blocks the moon for a moment, and the third vampire walks across the roof.
He gets to the edge, glances toward the machine, and then drops to the ground where the other two wait.
After a quick conversation, they all head in different directions.
The hunter wonders if he should follow, to see what they’re up to, but then he hears it.
Someone is rummaging in the dumpster. That’s his dinner bell.
He races to the back of the building and leaps, landing silently beside a man balancing on the dumpster’s edge while he rips open a plastic bag and pulls out half-eaten food.
The hunter decides it would be rude to interrupt, so he moves to the deepest shadows by the back door and waits until the man has eaten his fill—before the hunter eats his.