He yawned as he splayed his hands into his shaggy hair. Working nights made it hard to take care of mundane things like haircuts. And he still wasn't sleeping well during the day. The monitor blurred before his weary eyes. He needed coffee. He wandered to the break room.
"Good evening, Austin." Emma sat at the small round table, eating low-fat yogurt and looking bright-eyed and perky.
There should be a law against blatant cheerfulness in the workplace. Her neatly pressed yellow shirt reminded him that he looked like he'd slept in his wrinkled clothes. Except he hadn't slept much at all. He mumbled something and filled a coffee cup.
"You poor fellow, you look like shit," Emma continued with her crisp British accent.
He grunted, too tired to engage in verbal sparring. Besides, she always won. "Why are you here so early?"
She licked the last of her yogurt off her plastic spoon. "I wanted to get an early start on last night's police reports. I think I'm on to something."
"What?"
"In the last few months, there have been several calls to the police from Central Park. The caller reports seeing someone being attacked, but when the police arrive, they can't find anyone who knows anything."
Austin frowned. "That's not much. Could be pranksters."
"Or it could be real." Emma pointed her spoon at him to make her point. "And the people who called don't remember anything, because their memories were erased by vampires."
"I... suppose." Mind control was a vampire specialty. That was exactly why the Stake-Out team was so small. Everyone on the team needed a certain amount of psychic power in order to resist vampire control. There was no way to fight a creature if he could simply take over your mind. As far as Austin knew, he and Sean possessed the most power on the team.
"Think about it." Emma tossed her empty yogurt cup into the trash. Perfect aim, of course. She'd been working for MI6 when Sean had arranged for her transfer a week ago. "If you were a hungry vampire, wouldn't you troll for victims in a place like Central Park?"
"I suppose." Austin sipped his coffee.
"So I went there last night to look around."
He gulped. "You went by yourself?"
"Yes. You go on your stake-outs alone. Why shouldn't I?"
"Because hunting for vampires in Central Park is not a stake-out. You could have come across one of them."
She rolled her eyes. "That was the idea. Don't worry. I had a few stakes with me."
Austin snorted. "Haven't you been reading the reports? These vampires are super fast and strong."
She sauntered toward the fridge and removed a bottle of water. "I can take care of myself."
"I know." The one time he'd taken her on in a practice session, he'd found himself flat on his back with stars swirling around his head. "But I don't think you should go alone."
"Why not?" She unscrewed the bottle top. "They're probably looking for lone females."
"Wait a minute. You're setting yourself up as bait?"
She shrugged one shoulder and took a sip of water. "If I can draw one in, I'll kill him. That is our mission, isn't it?"
"What if several of them gang up on you? It's way too dangerous."
She sighed. "I shouldn't have told you." She cast him an injured look. "I thought you would understand."
Dammit. He should tell her she was irresponsible and crazy, but he hated being that blunt to a woman. Besides, her vampire hunting sounded like something he would do.
"Are you going to tell Sean?" she asked.
With their boss already livid over his daughter's upcoming marriage, Austin wasn't that big a glutton for punishment. "I'll have to think about it. Did you see any vampires last night?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"Good. There are only five of us, Emma. We can't afford to lose you, so think before you play the hero." He trudged back to his desk. Crazy woman, hunting vampires all alone.
He sipped his coffee while he studied the pictures on the screen. Speaking of vampires, who was the demon guy who had driven the gorgeous blonde to DVN? Austin scanned the photos until he located the black Lexus. He ran the license plate through the system. The vehicle was registered to Gregori Holstein, address on the Upper West Side. Date of birth was 1964, which made him a very young vampire. Of course, vampires were probably adept at falsifying documents.
Austin wrote down Gregori's address, then did a credit search. The guy worked at Romatech Industries, not a big surprise. A lot of vampires worked there at night. The place manufactured artificial blood, which meant Gregori might not be a biter. That was good news. She wouldn't have to worry about him nibbling on her sweet little neck. If she was human.
The click of heels on linoleum warned him that Emma was approaching. She stopped in front of the photo printer and began looking at his pictures.
Maybe he'd been too hard on her. "Look, I know you have something personal against the vampires."
She shrugged one shoulder. "Where did you take these?"
"Parking lot at DVN. Last night."
"Lots of license plates." She set a stack of photos to the side. "I suppose all these cars belong to vampires."
"Most of them. Want to help me run the plates?"
"Love to." She picked up another bunch of photos.
"Emma, I won't tell Sean about Central Park, if you'll let me know whenever you go hunting again. I'll give you backup."
"That's super. Thank you." She gave him a brief smile, then resumed her study of his pictures. "These are very interesting."
"You recognize any of the cars?"
"No. But I recognize a woman's bum when I see one."
"What?"
"You must have twenty pictures of her legs and even more of her derriere. Who is she?"
Austin's nerves tensed, but he kept his face blank. He reached out his hand. "Those are personal. Give them to me."
"Doing personal business on company time? Shame on you." She set the pictures down and retrieved some more from the printer. "Oh, look. Boob shots. And the back of her head. Lovely hair."
"I said give them to me." Austin gritted his teeth and stared at the stack of pictures Emma had set down. They zipped across the table and stopped next to his keyboard.
Emma gasped. The photos in her hand tumbled to the table. She stepped back. "Oh, my God."
He wheeled his chair over to the printer and collected the photos she'd dropped.
"You're telekinetic," she whispered.
"Yeah. Big deal." He gathered the rest of the pictures from the printer, then pushed himself back to his computer.
"But it's brilliant! I didn't know you had such wicked powers. Oh no! Austin's powers." She chortled with laughter.
He groaned. "Very funny." He separated the pictures into two stacks - license plates and the girl in blue. "It's not like I earned the ability. I was born this way." Even his dad hadn't been able to squelch his abilities, though you had to give the guy credit for trying.
"How exciting." Emma grinned. "An international man of mystery, using his special powers to fight evil."
"Yeah, right." What could possibly be evil about her? After one last, lingering look at her stack of pictures, he stashed them in his desk drawer.
Emma crossed her arms and propped a hip against the worktable. "You're quite smitten with her, aren't you?"
"No." Was he? "I don't know who she is."
"The international man of mystery has a mystery woman? Super! Let's figure it out. Where did you take her pictures?"
"Outside DVN."
"Good heavens, Austin. She probably works there. That means she's a vampire."
"I don't think so. Romatech has lots of human employees. And DVN has some, too."
"Did you try the 35-millimeter on her?"
"No, I... didn't get a chance."
"Because you were too busy taking a hundred photos of her."
"I didn't take a hundred. Only about... sixty." Sheesh. He was smitten.
Emma lifted a dark brow and refrained from saying the obvious. "Was she alone?"
"No. She arrived with a male I have identified as Gregori Holstein, and an unknown female. They're both undead."
"So, she's traveling with two vampires to a vampire-owned television station? Austin, this is what we in the business refer to as a clue. The woman is a vampire."