Page 21 of The Psychic and the Vampire: A Bad Case of Vampire Curiosity

I could get used to being Ant’s invisible shadow , Viktor thought, as he followed Ant, unseen, into the police building.

After a brief discussion over breakfast, Ant called and made an appointment to see Captain Bains.

The first thing the captain asked was would Viktor be attending, but Ant lied and said he believed Viktor was busy all day, at which point the captain let him know he’d be available at ten o’clock that morning.

“Bridget’s right,” Viktor had said when Ant disconnected the call. “I must be a bad influence on you. That’s two different people you’ve lied to now.”

“It wasn’t a lie.” Ant met his eyes steadily over his coffee mug.

“I am sure you’ll be busy all day. We have a lot to do, don’t we?

” He picked up his phone. “Now to call Hammond and see if he wants to see me at all. If I confront him in his office, it will be more difficult for him to lie and tell me he can’t find Carol’s case file. ”

Viktor had driven them to a parking lot two blocks down from the police station, still visible while he was driving for obvious reasons.

But once he had exited the car, they quickly ducked down an alley where Viktor shimmered until he could no longer be seen.

Able was confused for a moment, especially when he sniffed the ground where he believed Viktor was and couldn’t pick up a scent.

When he couldn’t sense Viktor at all, he pressed up against Ant’s leg, his tail still wagging as they left the alley.

That lovable mutt stays loyal, even when he doesn’t have a clue what we’re doing, Viktor thought fondly as he flanked Ant’s other side. He didn’t want Able to get confused if he stroked him. Able was in work mode.

Viktor’s vampire side was keen to assist Ant in every way possible as well.

His idea was to shift and become invisible that way.

But Viktor pushed him back. It was going to be difficult enough walking the streets and not bumping into anyone, although being with Ant and Able helped.

People tended to give the highly recognizable figure a wide berth.

Once they arrived at the captain’s office, the receptionist looked slightly alarmed. “Oh, you’re here, Doctor Channon,” she said. “I… Uh… I… Uh, I see you have an appointment. But the captain is busy on the phone right now and can’t be disturbed.”

“That’s very irregular. I have an appointment,” Ant said. “I called, and Captain Bains gave me this time slot specifically, I assume, so there would be no delays.”

“If you wouldn’t mind waiting.” The receptionist was young and clearly nervous, given she started shuffling papers on her desk. “I can’t tell you how long he will be, but I can assure you if he knows you’re coming, it’s not likely to be long. If you could just take a seat?”

Ant glanced at his phone. “I’m afraid I have numerous other appointments today,” he said quietly and politely. “It is not possible for me to wait longer than five minutes.” He held up his phone, showing the receptionist he had actually set a timer.

“Once this timer goes off, I will be leaving. So, if there is a way for you to convey that message to the captain, I would appreciate it. I understand he’s a very busy man and that things come up, but my time is valuable, too.

Thank you,” he added almost as an afterthought, which for Ant it probably was.

The seats were those hard plastic chairs that most waiting rooms around the world seemed to have.

For some reason, whoever had designed them never factored in the seated person’s comfort.

They were usually on rickety frames that were only held together at all because the seat part was fully molded as one sheet of plastic.

Viktor absolutely hated them and saw them as a blight on decor and society in general.

He chose not to sit down. He didn’t want to cause an issue if someone believed the seat next to Ant was free.

He had a quiet chuckle imagining a persons’ reaction if they sat down on him and ended up feeling more bumps on their butt than the plastic chair suggested.

While Viktor was confident nobody could see, sense, smell, or hear him – Able had confirmed that - he already knew from his fun times with Ant that if anyone touched him in his invisible form, he could be felt.

What we were thinking this morning seems to be true .

Ant’s voice wafted through Viktor’s mind, even as, to an outside glance, he appeared to be a young man checking his messages on his phone.

I can sense, even from here, that the captain is upset about something.

It appears we arrived at the right time.

Viktor wasn’t so sure, although he didn’t say so. He had agreed with Ant’s suggestion over breakfast that Captain Bain’s actions were likely being monitored. That was why Ant had suggested that if he had an appointment, ostensibly without Viktor, that maybe Captain Bains would be more forthcoming.

It was a long shot, in Viktor’s opinion, but he didn’t see the harm.

If the room was bugged, then he couldn’t see why Captain Bains would spill any secrets, even if Viktor wasn’t there.

But, he did trust that his mate had senses he didn’t have, so maybe it would be useful for Ant to see the man personally.

Captain Bains was one of Ant’s unresolved issues.

Viktor also understood that Ant was annoyed with Carmine’s apparent dismissal of Ant’s efforts to find Carol’s killer.

In Viktor’s eyes, that meant Carmine was guilty – end of story.

But to Ant, coming up with an idea where a séance would presumably provide so much information from Carmine or even Carol directly…

Ant had hidden it as best he could, but Carmine’s behavior clearly confused him.

Not Viktor – Carmine was guilty period. He clearly didn’t want Ant finding out about it.

Stupid idiot should never have dangled that Carol carrot in front of Ant in the first place.

Viktor focused on the timer. It was exactly four minutes and fifty-two seconds later when the door to Captain Bains’s office opened, and the man poked his head out.

“Doctor Channon, I am so glad you’re here.

I apologize for keeping you waiting. Please come in.

Your service animal as well, of course.”

Viktor scowled, unseen, of course. Being made to wait had been a power play. It was something Viktor had seen numerous times. Tony used to do it, making people wait half an hour, an hour, or even longer sometimes, before graciously granting them an audience.

Captain Bains wasn’t being gracious, but he had been trying to exert control over the conversation before it had even started. He thought it was really smart of his mate to use a timer to take back control – again even before the meeting started. Viktor approved. Point one to Ant.

Viktor had to move quickly to get through the door, into the office.

The captain kept hold of the door. He let Ant and Able through, but then almost immediately started to close it.

Fortunately, Viktor could move quickly when he had to.

He felt a mental chuckle through his head, coming from Ant, as his mate made his way across the room and sat in the chair in front of the desk.

Captain Bains sat with a thud on his chair, immediately pulling a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiping his face.

“It’s definitely warm in here today,” he said as he tucked the cloth away again.

It wasn’t warm. Ant still had his jacket on, likely because the air conditioning was blasting cold air from a vent on the wall behind the captain’s desk.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” Ant said, ignoring the obvious opening to a chat about the weather. “You’ve left numerous messages on my phone, which is why I believed a face-to-face meeting was a good idea, so that we can resolve this matter once and for all.

“I believed that you’d made your position perfectly clear when you said you were not comfortable with me continuing my work as a consultant for the police if my mate attended scene readings with me.

That request to exclude Viktor was an insult to me, my mate, and my mating.

My position on that hasn’t changed. Even suggesting I do that is illegal under the Paranormal Mating Laws Act.

“Rather than kick up a fuss, threaten to sue your department, or take up any of the other options I had open to me at that time, I offered my resignation instead.

In light of your concerns, it was important to me that any of my historical cases still being processed through the court system would not be jeopardized in any way, simply because I now have a mate.

There would be no legal basis for such appeals, but I did not want to cause any issues for a department I have worked so hard to assist in my own limited capacity.

“I don’t see how the situation has changed, or at least haven’t heard anything from you that the situation has changed.

So, please tell me, has it?” Ant crossed one leg over the other, resting his hands on his knee.

Able was sitting by his side, as always, although his head was on Ant’s thigh, indicating that Ant’s emotional state was a lot more volatile than the captain would be aware of.

Captain Bains looked down at his desk, where his hands were clasped.

“Most people share pleasantries first, but fine. I appreciate you’re a busy man.

I agree. I do think that emotions were running a little high at our last meeting, and if it helps, I could offer an apology for any insults you might have perceived as given, despite that not being my intention. ”

He can’t even look Ant in the eye.