Justine Ch. 03

She felt a wet nose on her hand and looked down to see Buddy looking up at her as if to say, "Move it!" Justine picked up her laptop case and her bag and thought of where she wanted to go. "Motel 6 downtown." she thought and within seconds she was there.

"I think that I like this vampire stuff." she said to herself as she went inside of the motel leaving Buddy sitting outside of the door.

"Can I help you?" The clerk on duty asked.

"Yes, I need a room where the windows don't face the sunrise, extra blankets and I don't want to be disturbed by house keeping."

"Yes ma'am." the clerk said as she looked for a room that met Justine's requirements. "Does it matter which floor it's on?" She asked.

"Do you have on the bottom floor?" Justine asked as she looked to see if Buddy was still sitting by the door.

"Yes we do but it's next to the laundry room...."

"I'll take it." Justine said interrupting her.

"For how many nights?"

She hadn't thought about that and wondered how safe it would be for her to stay more than one night. "Three." she said not knowing why that particular number, "and I want to pay now and in cash."

"That's fine, I just need to see some identification." the clerk replied as she started the registration process.

"I forgot my identification; surely we can bypass that this time?" Justine asked in a soft voice

"Oh no, we can't do that!" the woman replied looking up at Justine.

"Yes." Justine said, "We can and we will."

"Of course we can! But I will need a name." The woman replied cheerfully.

"Thank you so much." Justine replied with a smile, "and my name is......Annie Oakley."

"Annie Oakley like the one from the olden days?" The clerk asked.

"Exactly." Justine replied. She loved westerns especially the ones that were about strong, capable women. Their races were immaterial to her; she just liked the fact that they were strong women who weren't afraid to face challenges head on.

Justine paid for the room and then had a thought, "excuse me." she said politely.

"Yes ma'am?"

"If anyone should show up and shows you a picture of me you won't recognize it as being me."

"Of course!" the clerk agreed emphatically, "we do all that we can to protect the privacy of our guests."

Justine thanked the woman and went outside to find Buddy calmly waiting for her which meant that for the moment all was well. She took stock of her surroundings looking for places that she and Buddy could take refuge in if there was a need.

She started walking and realized that there was another issue, keeping their food cold. It hadn't been an issue when they were in the vacant houses but she planned to stay in the hotel room for three days and to do that she had to buy enough food to last that long.

She turned around and went back into the motel where the clerk was busy on the computer reminding Justine that she hadn't asked for the internet code.

"Yes Miss. Oakley?"

"Two more things, one, I need the code so that I can get onto the internet and two I need a refrigerator in my room."

"The first thing I can help you with the second thing I can't unless you move into one of the studio rooms, it would have everything included."

The idea to make the woman give her the studio suite crossed Justine's mind and she discounted it. The one thing that she didn't want to do was to abuse her new found gifts and that was how she was choosing to look at this, she had been given a tremendous gift whether she was meant to receive it or not.

"How much is one of those studios?" she asked.

"89.00 Per night plus tax."

"I'll take one but it has to meet the same requirement as the other." Justine said.

"Not a problem." The clerk replied, "They're all vacant. Would you like one in the corner?"

A few minutes later Justine was on her way to the grocery store which wasn't too far away. This time she didn't speak to anyone as she filled her cart with beef and chicken lovers, steak and hamburger. She was curious as to whether she could begin to eat regular food so she tossed in a can of chicken noodle soup. If she couldn't eat it she had no doubts that Buddy could.

Ninety minutes later she and Buddy were in the motel 6 studio apartment settling in.

*********

Mikhail watched Jeremiah closely. The vampire was more than nervous but not quite afraid either. Never one to pussy foot around, Mikhail went straight to the point.

"What is it about this woman that makes you so nervous?" he asked.

"She doesn't." Jeremiah replied.

"Then why am I here?" Mikhail asked.

"I told you that no one can find her and I want her found."

"Pardon my bluntness." Mikhail said, "But I don't believe you. You don't pay someone two million dollars just to find someone unless that person is special to you somehow... is she?"

"Is she what?" Jeremiah asked not sure of what Mikhail was getting at.

"Is she your one? Is that why you want her back? But then why should that make you nervous?" Mikhail asked.

"No she isn't my one and I told you......"

"I know what you told me." Mikhail interrupted, "but your behavior tells me otherwise. You haven't stopped pacing since I arrived and you are being evasive. Now either you tell me about this woman and I mean everything that you know or I leave taking your money with me for wasting my time."

Jeremiah hesitated, he almost told Mikhail to take the money and go but then that wouldn't find Justine and Mikhail was the best there was at what he did. The problem was telling Mikhail what he needed to know without revealing that he was turning human women into vampires and then selling them to the vampire that ordered her.

If he knew that he'd be out of the door with the 2 mil. No one knew much about Mikhail except that he came from Mother Russia and no one knew exactly where, he was the absolute best at what he did and was well worth the money and he abhorred the mistreatment of women no matter the species. Jeremiah could count on one hand the times that Mikhail had to kill a woman... one time and she had been someone very close to him.

Jeremiah told Mikhail everything except about the side business.

"Let me see if I understand you correctly." Mikhail said in his accented English, "This woman, Justine Graves is one of your junior partners, she and her friend have both disappeared but it is only this Justine that you are showing concern for. What of the other woman?"

"We believe her to be dead." Jeremiah lied, "she had no one to show her how to survive."

"According to you, neither did this Justine but yet you are so convinced that she lives that you paid me a substantial amount of money to find her. So my question is this and I will only as it once, what aren't you telling me?"

Mikhail listened as Jeremiah told him once again about how Justine had gone completely off of the radar and reiterated how she hadn't been found.

"So why do you think that she still lives? You said yourself that she has no help."

"Didn't you hear me?" Jeremiah asked, "She shouldn't be able to do these things and there's one more thing..."

Mikhail found himself becoming fascinated with this woman as Jeremiah told him about the grocery store incident.

"She fucking vanished!!! You tell me how a newborn can do that! I don't know about you but it took me weeks before I could do that and even then I couldn't leave a room!"

Mikhail didn't really understand Jeremiah's nervousness and said so.

"Alright so she is a gifted newborn but that doesn't explain the level of anxiety that I feel coming from you."

Jeremiah thought fast, "I am only concerned for her safety as well as the safety of any humans that she will come across. I would like to bring her here so that I can help her adjust to her new life."

"I could be mistaken but it seems as though she is adjusting quite well on her own." Mikhail replied not believing Jeremiah's claims. But he would find her on Jeremiah's dime .and when he did he would decide whether he would bring her to Jeremiah or not.

*******

Quinn went home with his mind on the woman. He knew that she was about to tell him to get lost when she suddenly took off. He wondered what it was that had scared her off and he actually thought that he was going to catch up with her until she took off at a speed that he didn't think her capable of given her physical appearance. Height wise she barely reached his chest and while she wasn't what he would call really overweight there was no way that she should have been able to outrun him like that.

He took comfort in knowing that he had at least told her his name. If she ever got curious enough to look him up, there weren't too many Quinn O'Dell's listed in the phone book. He threw a TV dinner in the oven wishing that he had picked up something from one of the fast foods places on the way home. He thought about going out again and changed his mind, the TV dinner would do.

As the frozen dinner heated, Quinn changed his clothes and turned on his laptop to work on the project. Leila came to mind and Quinn realized that at some point, he was going to have to be blunt with her. Preferably after the project was completed. If he did it now she would do everything in her power to sabotage him and get him fired from the project.

He tried to concentrate on the images on the laptop screen but all he saw was the face of the beautiful black woman with the most beautiful pair of eyes that he had ever seen, even more so than Amanda's and a mouth that.....

"Quinn O'Dell stop it! You don't even know her name!" he admonished himself standing to go check on the TV dinner. "Just great!" he moaned when he looked down to see that he was fully erect.

*******

After feeding Buddy and then herself, Justine stripped and took a long hot shower using the samples from the hotel to wash her hair and body with. Although she was accepting her life as it was, the shower gave her a feeling of normalcy. As she showered, Justine realized that she was going to need that feeling from time to time and that Buddy contributed to that feeling.

She got out of the shower, put on her pajamas and turned on her laptop. While she waited for it to go through its log on procedure she thought about the man that she had seen not once but twice. She wondered why she was so certain that he would die if he were seen with her. The more she thought about him, the more curious she became so when she could finally log on, she typed in his name.

"Quinn O'Dell." she murmured as she scrolled down the page until she found a man with that name that might fit with what she saw. "Landscaper and photographer... thirty-five... business number and address..." she murmured as she read what little was posted about him.

She liked the fact that there wasn't a lot posted about him, it told her that he was a private person and she liked that. She went from that page and typed in the word 'vampires'. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed when what looked to be thousands of hits came up. She sat back, wondered where to even begin and decided that at the beginning was the best place, "How was I made?" she asked herself.

********

"Take me to her apartment." Mikhail said as he stood up.

"She isn't there and she hasn't been back." Jeremiah said nervously.

"You are certain of this?" Mikhail asked patiently.

"I have the apartment under guard...."

"I would still like to see it." Mikhail interrupted with a smile.

Seconds later they were in the kitchen which was still a disaster area. Mikhail walked around the small kitchen and then moved toward the living room. His nostrils flared as he caught the faintest scent of Justine but it should have been much, much stronger than it was. Not saying anything he went to her bedroom and stopped, she had been here and not very long ago.

He turned to Jeremiah, "I thought that you had this apartment watched."

"I do! No one had seen her."

"Well," Mikhail said with a small tight smile, "Either someone has been sleeping on the job or they helped her."

"What are you saying?" Jeremiah asked.

"I'm saying that she has been here and very recently."

"What?"

"We've missed her by no more than a hour." he replied.

"How do you know?" Jeremiah asked.

"Compared to the scent in the living room the scent in here is fresh but it is fading rapidly. In a few moments it will be almost undetectable. Jeremiah, who and what is this woman?" Mikhail asked in wonderment. Jeremiah was right; this woman was too far advanced for a newborn. He was also beginning to suspect that she wouldn't be found unless she wanted to be. The next question was what would make her want to be found?

******

Pam lay on the bed spread eagled and unresisting. Instead of pleasing Malcolm as it should have, it unsettled him even more.

"No questions or trying to bargain with me?" he asked.

Pam shrugged her pale white shoulders, "would it make a difference?" she asked.

"No, it wouldn't but I'm curious as to why the sudden acceptance of your future." Malcolm replied.

"Why fight if I know that I'm not going to win?"

Malcolm's instinct was now telling him that to kill her would be a mistake but if they let her go he and Jeremiah would come out of this...... what..... Alive. It was then that he fully understood that if he didn't do something, he was going to die.

He looked down at Pam and then walked out of the bedroom; he needed to try to get Jeremiah to see the danger in keeping Pam.

He found Jeremiah in his study sipping a glass of blood laced with wine.

"We have to talk...."

"If it's about Justine Graves, I'm well aware of the threat." Jeremiah said cutting him off.

"You believe me?" Malcolm asked in relief.

"I believe that she is a threat to us." Jeremiah conceded.

"But?"

"I'm wondering if we can use her somehow."

"What are you talking about? That woman is dangerous!" Malcolm exclaimed, "I came to warn you about Pam too, she's changing and if we let her go then the problem with Justine goes away."

Jeremiah looked at his nephew as if he had gone daft, "Let her go? Are you out of your mind? She's been bought and paid for!"

"I know but just listen to me...."

"She goes and not only that, I think that I might have a buyer for Justine."

"Are you serious? She's dangerous and as long as she's alive we're in danger too!"

Jeremiah gave Malcolm a patronizing smile.

"If we get asking price for her then we can go back to just practicing law or just close up shop."

"We don't need any more money!!! We already have enough to last us hundreds of eternities." Malcolm said. But Jeremiah was seeing dollar signs. The truth of the matter was that if he wasn't so afraid of Justine he'd keep her himself. A female such as her would give him strong sons and daughters, that's if she didn't kill him first but still....

******

Justine's eyes had started to cross fro so much reading. The more she read the more it became clear that she needed someone to help her. There was just too much information to sort through; the stumbling upon her gifts she could handle but it was the basic everyday practical questions that she needed help with. Frustrated, she logged off and stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes.

She heard her cell phone ring but it was on the other side of the room. "Damn!" she swore as she started to get up. Then she wondered if she could call the phone to her in the same way that she could call animals. She stretched her hand out toward the phone and said very softly, "come."

She gasped in delight and surprise when the phone flew across the room and into her waiting hand. She looked at the caller ID which said "unknown" so she let it ring until it stopped and then she checked her voice mail, no message. She closed the phone and laid it on the bedside table.

A few minutes later it rang again. Justine ignored the calls until the fourth one. She snatched the phone from the table, snapped it open and hissed, "Who the fuck is this?"

"Justine Graves? A voice asked.

"Who is this?" she asked again, her tone belying her anger and impatience.

"I know that you have many questions," the voice replied, "I can help you."

"Who is this?" Justine yelled now sitting up in the bed.

"A friend, I will call again.... Goodnight Justine."