Unveiled

Chapter one

I jolted awake as the familiar, yet ridiculously unwelcome sound of my ringtone pierced the otherwise silent night around me. With a groan, I rolled over and reached for the dull glow that was now vibrating its way off the bedside table in the dark. Lime green numbers on the digital clock by my bed swallowed the darkness and informed me that it was far too early to be taking calls. The number that flashed up on the screen of my phone wasn't one that I recognised, but that wasn’t unusual in my line of work. I groaned again and sat up to answer the call, pulling the sheets around me to fend off the chill that had settled on the bedroom since I’d fallen asleep.
‘Reed,’ I said, probably a little too abruptly, but it had been rather a rude awakening.
‘Detective Inspector Reed, I’m sorry to call at such an inhuman hour, but I have found myself in need of your help,’ a smooth voice said on the other end of the call.
I blinked and tried to concentrate, checking the time again to be sure I'd read it right the first time. Yep, still early. I replayed the request in my head; it sounded so reasonable, but the fact that it was the middle of the night tainted the politeness of the request. Focussing on the voice and trying not to fall back to sleep in the darkness, I tried to place him. I shook my head. I didn’t know who it was, I was sure that it was one that I would remember.
‘Can I ask who’s speaking,’ I replied, trying to remain professional despite my desire to tell them to call back later.
‘My name is Emerick Winslow, and I reside at Blackstone Manor, out on the boundaries of your city,’ the voice said carefully, almost as if unsure of what he was saying, yet totally confident at the same time.
Suddenly, I was awake. I sat up straight in bed and looked around as if needing to have a witness to my conversation. Obviously, I was met with the empty darkness of my bedroom, and I almost felt let down. I shook my head with a silent laugh.
The old Blackstone Manor was the setting for so many of the ghost stories that we listened to as children, and then the stories that we went on to tell our friends, and eventually our own children. However, no one alive today had actually seen the inside of that house. For generations it had been the subject of so many farfetched stories, but not once had anyone made it beyond the gates; not even a repair man. Rumour these days, in the times of movies and popular teen fiction, believed that it belonged to a vampire, that was why no one had died and had to sell it on. It sounded ridiculous, but to the people here in our small and sleepy town, the line between truth and legend had become somewhat blurred over time. Back in college, I’d studied the world of these mythical creatures that had supposedly lived undetected in the shadows of our own world for so long, and the curiosity had followed me into adulthood, but I'd never had any real confirmation that they existed. As I'd grown up and matured and worked my way up the force, I'd realised that they were just what the stories claimed; they were myths and legends meant to entertain us.
Remembering the request on the phone, I cleared my throat to show that I was still on the line, figuring I needed to actually respond.
‘What exactly can I do for you, Mr Winslow?’ I said, trying to keep the tendrils of excitement that still lingered out of my voice.
‘There has been an incident at my home,’ he answered, then seemed to pause, ‘A friend of mine appears to have been abducted during a social gathering here yesterday evening, and I need you to track her down and return her to me safely.’
He finished as if this was normal, speaking about a person as if they were property to be found and handed over, and then fell silent, awaiting my reply.
‘Have you called the police, Mr Winslow?’ I asked, unsure as to why he was contacting me directly, or where he had gotten my personal number from.
‘That is exactly what I am doing, Detective Inspector, but I have no intentions of phoning the station in town. I would like you to handle this, and I ask that you might do it discreetly.’
I frowned into the darkness, imagining my partner’s face had he been here to witness this strange conversation.
‘That’s not really how I work, Mr Winslow, my team and I work cases together,’ I replied calmly, ‘I’m not sure how much I could do alone, even if I did agree to help you.’
‘I’m asking that you consider it this time, Detective. We need your help, and I don’t intend on involving human police officers in our business. However, your skill set, and specific interests would be beneficial to us, and I need a source on the outside who would be able to retrieve information that I cannot.’
I shook my head, trying to make sense of the things he was saying and felt my frown deepen. His use of the word ‘human’ had seemed to roll off his tongue as if normal to him yet had sounded incredibly odd to my ears. Had he just admitted to being the vampire that everyone believed him to be? I stifled a laugh and shook my head again. Now I was just acting crazy. I didn’t even know if this guy owned the house or not. He’d called it his home, but that didn’t mean anything. My home wasn’t mine.
I was overthinking things now. I needed more sleep.
‘Would you at least consider coming out to Blackstone Manor and hearing what I have to say?’ he asked when I didn’t reply, the tremor in his voice betraying his attempt at composure.
Did I think that going up there on my own, in the middle of the night, was a good idea when I should be at home getting some rest after more than forty-eight hours with no sleep? Probably not. Should I have even been considering taking a case that hadn't come through the official channels? Definitely not. Was I thinking about taking him up on his offer? Of course I was, even if it was just an excuse to see inside the mystery that was Blackstone Manor.
‘Mr Winslow,’ I began, but he cut me off before I could continue.
‘Detective Inspector Reed, I understand that you feel obligated to say no, but I’m asking politely for your help in finding a teenage girl who I believe to have been abducted from a place that she saw as a sanctuary. Please think hard about where she might be by now, and how scared she is before you say no.’
‘Mr Winslow,’ I started again, taking breath before continuing; what was it about kids that pulled on the heartstrings?
Like any missing person wasn’t bad enough.
‘I’ll be there first thing in the morning. That’s the best I can do.’
‘Morning isn't good for me, Detective, if you could get here sooner, I would be very grateful.’ I let out a deep sigh and stared at the ceiling for a moment or two, then kissed goodbye to the sleep I'd been hoping for.
‘Give me an hour.’
‘Thank you, Detective; I’ll have someone waiting at the gates for you.’

The car had barely cooled down from my return home when I turned the key in the ignition and pulled the lapels of my coat tighter around my neck to fend off the early morning chill that crept inside. As I pulled out of the driveway, I hit the call button on the hands free to make a call that I felt was necessary.
He answered on the first ring.
‘Lara, you okay? I thought you were heading home to bed?’
Ben Haynes; my second in command and long-time friend.
‘Ben, I need a favour,’ I said very matter-of-factly, ‘And I need you to do it with no questions asked.’
‘Oh-kay,’ he replied suspiciously.
‘I need you to ring me in two hours’ time, and if I don’t answer, I need you to put out a trace on my phone and then come and get me.’
‘Lara, what are you doing?’ Ben questioned, as I’d expected he would.
‘I can't say yet, and I hope that this conversation will be pointless, but I need you to cover my back. Just call me in two hours and do as I’ve asked, please.’
‘You got it, Lara,’ he said eventually, and I nodded to myself.
‘Thanks, Ben. I owe you one.’
‘Be careful, Lara,’ he said in response and I hung up the call.

Blackstone Manor stood on the outskirts of town, high up on the side of the mountain that overlooked our city. Only one road led out there, one I never dreamed I might actually get to travel.
I’d spent years as a youngster, researching the truths behind the legends that I’d heard about as a child. My grandmother had been big on storytelling and truly believed in the stories that she had told. She claimed that the only reason people said that they were just stories, was because they didn’t want to believe them. Didn’t want to believe that there were other kinds of people out there that they didn’t know about. People were afraid of what they didn’t understand. That was all.
After getting my badge, I'd worked my way up the force to where I was now. Detective Inspector Lara Reed. I loved my job, and I’d always had an underlying interest in these people that lived in the shadows of our world, the people that many still believed lived amongst us. I found the possibilities fascinating; the idea that they had survived all this time in hiding, and that their world merged with ours in so many ways, yet most people were blind to their existence. Because of this, any case that seemed to have odd evidence, or suspicious suspects, were passed onto me due to the tiniest possibility that they weren’t human; basically no one had any real evidence, so they threw it my way claiming that it was supernatural. The entire town was still, after all these years with no proof, a little sceptical, and more than a touch superstitious. Up until now, there had never been anything real come of any of those possibilities, I was just good at my job. I was still in shock at the now very real possibility that the man who lived at Blackstone Manor, was a vampire. The species’ that I’d supposedly had contact with, but never proven, were minor ones; mediums, spooks and a suspected shape-shifter last year. Ridiculous notions, really.
Now, despite the very big part of me that was crying out that this whole thing was ridiculous, there was another part of me that was genuinely excited about the possibility of meeting a real vampire.

As I pulled between the two stone pillars just over an hour later, I glanced up to take in the hybrid eagles that were acting as guards. A shiny black sign on the pillar closest to the driver’s side of my car simply read ‘Blackstone Manor’ in beautiful, gold calligraphy. The grand black gates opened as I drove up to them, just as Mr Winslow had said, though I assumed that on any other day they were kept closed for the privacy that the place was known for and getting in wasn't this easy. Pulling slowly onto the gravel courtyard in front of the mansion that stood before me, bigger than I could ever have imagined, I took in the grandeur and had to lean forward over the steering wheel to get a full view of the four-stories through my windscreen. No amount of research or photographs could have prepared me for this.
The late autumn wind whipped around me as I emerged from the warmth of my little car and stood staring up at the most beautiful example of gothic structural design that I had ever witnessed. The 14th century mansion stood proudly in place with its mismatched upper and lower floors giving off an unbalanced look that the surrounding mountain seemed aware of in a way that I couldn’t explain; the crumbling rock faces seemed to support it just by being there. The mountain seemed so frightening from the city below, yet appeared to hug this house protectively, casting shadows on the ancient architecture that were eerie with the pre-dawn glow that hovered on the horizon. If I'd been fascinated by the idea of this house, then the reality did not disappoint. It was a masterpiece; I dreaded to think how much it was worth, and I couldn’t wait to see the inside.
Before letting my personal interests in the house run away with me, I took note of the other vehicles in the driveway; most of them more expensive than I would ever be able to afford, even with an entire year’s earnings. The one that caught my eye was the shiny red Mercedes that blocked several of the others in. Beautiful car. I wondered whether it belonged to the vampire that owned the house before shaking my head at my delusions and making my way up the drive towards the front porch. I passed several other classic cars on my way, the kind that you see children playing with on carpet road maps and I wondered exactly how many people were here. Mr Winslow had mentioned a gathering; how many people did that comprise of?
‘Detective Inspector Reed,’ a man greeted me as I climbed the front steps to the door.
The deceptively elderly looking gentleman, as on closer inspection, his grey hair and pale skin did not match an expected age, and he was much younger than I would have guessed from first glance, was dressed in dark grey trousers and a black tail coat and I almost laughed at the image. A butler. Blackstone Manor had a butler. How very old-fashioned of them.
I nodded as he gestured for me to step inside and tried hard not to stare.
‘Mr and Mrs Winslow are in the library waiting for you. If you’d follow me, please.’
I nodded again, unsure what to say, and not wanting to drop myself in it by saying anything that might offend him in any way. I'd only ever seen butlers on TV, surely, they were stereotyped, just like anything else you see in the media. Following him across the black and white tiles of the grand entrance hall, I didn’t even try to keep my fascination at bay. The inside of the house was just as stunning as the outside and it took my breath away to see the décor and the spectacular paintings on the walls. A large staircase wrapped around the wall on my left and a balcony stretched across in front of me to form the first-floor landing. The staircase continued up to the level above on the other side of the building looking like it had been pulled straight out of a fairy tale.
At the end of a short corridor down the centre of the house, the butler stopped and gestured to a set of ornate wooden doors decorated with inlaid gold filigree and fancy gold handles. He leant down and pushed, opening both doors inwards to reveal a small, warm room, lit by the roaring fire across from where we stood.
‘Can I get you anything, Detective Inspector?’ he asked, bowing gently.
‘Maybe a glass of water?’ I replied, suddenly unsure of my decision to come up here.
He nodded and backed away, leaving me standing in the doorway. I took a deep breath and stepped forwards, crossing the boundary into the room and immediately saw the two occupants. Mr Winslow was sat in a high-backed arm chair just off to one side of the fire, and the lady, who I assumed was Mrs Winslow, bearing in mind what the butler had just said, stood with her hand on the back of the chair, watching me closely. As I drew closer, I saw matching wedding bands on their hands which solidified my assumptions.
‘Mr Winslow,’ I nodded in his direction, ‘Mrs Winslow.’
‘Detective Inspector, please come inside,’ he said at once, standing up and making his way over to me and holding out his hand.
I placed my hand in his, shaking it firmly while noting the cool temperature of his skin. I immediately dismissed the information, silently balking at my inner child that was desperate to believe that this man was a vampire. When he released me, he moved behind me and pulled the library doors closed, turning back to his wife and gesturing to an empty seat by the fire.
‘Detective Inspector, this is my wife, Violet,’ he said, gesturing politely, ‘Violet, this is Detective Inspector Reed.’
‘Please, call me Lara,’ I instigated, not wanting to give them any reason to think that I was here professionally.
‘It’s nice to meet you, Lara, thank you for coming to see us, I understand that it is an unreasonable time to have expected you to come all the way out here,’ Violet said warmly, her voice soothing and motherly, though there was a tremble audible in her voice, the same as I'd heard in her husband’s on the phone.
‘Well, I'm not sure that I was left with much choice,’ I said, as harshly as I could without sounding pissed off.
‘And for that I apologise, but I hope that by the time you leave, you will understand why I have handled this the way that I have, and not phoned the police like you advised,’ Mr Winslow cut back in.
I nodded, gesturing for him to go on. I was here now, against my better judgement; but I might as well hear him out.
‘Yesterday evening there was a gathering held here at my home, a business meeting let’s say, where some very important people from different backgrounds met to discuss certain plans and situations,’ Mr Winslow began, as if telling a story in riddles.
‘Hold it right there,’ I said, ‘You’ve already lost me.’
‘Emerick, please, if you’re going to involve her, you need to at least be straight with her,’ Violet scalded, clearly anxious, ‘You told us that you trusted her.’
He looked at his wife, as if unsure whether or not she was right, but then turned back to me and apologised before starting his story again.
‘Alright, a council meeting between the heads of every major race was held here yesterday evening, and during that meeting, one of our youngsters went missing,’ he stated very bluntly, ‘After a preliminary investigation, we believe that she was abducted from the grounds outside the building, and I need your help to find her.’
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He made less sense now than he had before.
‘Come again?’
‘Detective, Lara,’ Violet said, correcting herself, but getting cut off by the butler entering the room.
Silently, he brought a glass of iced water to the little table by my chair and placed it on a marble coaster, then backed away with a slight bow and disappeared. When he was gone again, the door closed behind him, Violet continued.
‘A teenage girl, fae in origin, was abducted from a place that we all believed to be a safe-haven for our kind. As you can imagine, this has left everyone involved feeling incredibly unsettled, and Emerick seems convinced that you can help us.’
‘Can you tell me again why you haven't rung the police if a teenager is missing?’ I asked, trying to get my head around the facts they were displaying and failing.
I picked up the glass of water and took a deep drink from it, letting the ice shock me into reality as Mr Winslow looked at his wife. She replied, clearly realising that she was better at communicating than he was right now.
‘We try not to involve human police in our lives, it tends to confuse boundaries a little, but we have also never had anyone be abducted from such a secure place before and all agree that we could use some help.’
‘The council agreed to your involvement in this, and that we could provide you with any information we saw fit. I am trusting that when you understand this situation, you will be discreet about the things that you will learn here,’ Mr Winslow continued.
‘I’m still not sure that I understand what it is I’m learning,’ I admitted.
I couldn’t understand how anyone this worried about a missing teenager, wouldn’t phone the police and have them deploy their every resource to find her.
‘Lara, Emerick chose you because we had already heard of you and are familiar with your work. We know that you have a personal interest in our world,’ Violet said gently.
‘Your world?’ I questioned, still stunned by this odd turn of events.
‘Yes, the hidden world that you spent so many of your younger years researching. The stories that your grandmother told you as a child,’ she said, seeming to be grasping at straws now.
‘Those stories were just the ramblings of an old woman who didn’t have all of her marbles left,’ I said firmly, getting a little annoyed at being made into a laughing joke.
‘Lara, those stories are very much real, and our lives are not something I joke about. We work very hard to stay under the radar, and have accomplished many things because of that, but I rang you because we thought that you believed in us. Believed that there was more to this world than you see day to day.’
Mr Winslow seemed to be getting rather agitated by my lack of understanding and belief in his rantings, but the longer I misunderstood, the harder Violet’s resolve seemed to get.
‘This world that you researched for so many years, the people that you longed to meet and get to know are asking for your help, Lara. The people in this house are the spokespersons of their races. Everyone that you ever dreamed of meeting is right here, under the same roof as you, and willing to speak to you in order to get back one of our own,’ she said, edging closer to me as she spoke, her hands in front of her in wild gestures to back up her words.
‘You’re asking me to believe in the unbelievable,’ I stated bluntly, looking from her to Mr Winslow and back again.
‘Maybe I was wrong to ask you here, Detective,’ he said, sounding defeated, ‘Violet, enough.’
I fidgeted in my seat as Mr Winslow stood from his chair and went to stand by the fire, his back to me and his wife and his hands held tightly, tucked into his lower back. Violet looked at me hopelessly but didn’t say another word. Was this where I made my excuses and left? The problem now, was that I wasn't sure I could. Despite whether or not I believed that they were creatures from fairy tales, there was a missing girl at stake here, and I wasn’t sure I could walk away from that and still be able to sleep at night.
‘If I agree to stay, what exactly is it that you want me to do, if I can't treat this like a normal investigation? What is it that I'm supposed achieve?’
Violet seemed to brighten at my words and almost smiled, quickly jumping back in to continue talking, seeing my intrigue as more important than her husband’s lack of enthusiasm.
‘We’re not saying that you can't treat it like an investigation, just that we don’t want a whole team of human police investigators turning up at our home. We keep ourselves to ourselves for a reason, the world isn't ready to accept our existence again yet.’
I nodded along, taking in everything she was saying and trying not to react to the parts that seemed so ridiculous. It was still a struggle to make any sense of the things she was saying, despite my inner child screaming out for me to believe them and to accept the things that I'd longed to have confirmed.
‘Mrs Winslow,’ I began.
‘Violet, please,’ she replied, just as I had with her.
‘Violet, to solve a crime like an abduction, I need resources, back up, people to support me and back me up when I follow leads. Looking for your missing girl isn't something I can do alone. No matter how much I might want to help.’
‘Can you at least try?’ she pleaded, and I saw the need for me to accept in the desperate look in her eyes,
‘There are people here who can help you, much like your team would in a normal situation. I’m not going to undermine you and say that they are qualified or anywhere near the standard that your detectives are, but they have experience in their own ways.’
I stayed quiet for several minutes, listening to the crackle of the fire, and trying to formulate a plan of action in my head.
‘Okay,’ I said eventually, and Mr Winslow turned slowly to meet my gaze.
He nodded, not having to say anything. His wife however, suddenly burst into tears, coming to kneel in front of where I was sitting and grabbed my hands in hers, also cool to the touch like her husband’s had been.
‘Thank you so much; you have no idea how much this will mean to everyone.’ I nodded, just waiting for her to calm down again as I began to feel more and more uncomfortable.
Just as I was considering a way to escape the situation, my phone rang, and I remembered my request of Ben.
‘I have to take this,’ I said as I stood up and pulled out my phone.
They both nodded and I headed for the doors, stepping out into the corridor and pulling the door closed again behind me.
‘I retract my earlier favour,’ I said in greeting as I answered the call.
‘Lara, what the hell are you playing at?’ Ben replied in a harsh whisper, ‘What are you doing up there?’
I blanched. Had he traced me before ringing?
‘Ben,’ I started, but he cut me off.
‘Have you any idea how reckless and irresponsible of you it was to go out there by yourself. You take a call in the middle of the night, from someone you’ve never met, and go to meet him somewhere no one has ever been before. Have you learned nothing from being a cop? You could have been walking right into a trap tonight, Lara.’
I let him rant, hearing what he was saying and being unable to argue. What I'd done had been reckless and could have backfired on me. Why did he think I'd put him in place as a retrieval?
‘Have you finished, Dad?’ I said mockingly.
‘Lara,’ he breathed, and I stifled a laugh.
‘Ben, I know what I did was risky, but I'm okay. I’ll explain later, for now, just check in again in another hour please, and then I’ll see you back at the station.’
He tried to argue again, but I stopped him, repeated my orders to check in later, and then hung up the call.
As I was about to head back into the room, I saw a figure move in my peripheral vision and turned to see someone wave in my direction.
‘Detective.’ It was said in greeting, and I tried for a smile in return, but the figure was gone.
Did everyone in the house know who I was and why I was here?
I pushed back into the library to find Mr and Mrs Winslow holding a quiet, but heated conversation. They both looked up when I entered, and Violet looked worried.
‘Your colleague knows where you are?’ Mr Winslow said sternly.
‘He does, he traced my phone. I did warn you that I worked as part of a team Mr Winslow, they don’t take it well when I just disappear on them in the middle of the night.’
‘We don’t want a whole police team involved in our world, Lara,’ Violet said.
‘And I have agreed not to involve a team, for now,’ I reminded them, ‘But that doesn’t mean that people won't know where I am, or what I'm looking into. All I can promise for now, is to keep your,’ I faltered, what was it she’d called themselves?
‘Our races,’ Mr Winslow interjected, clearly seeing me flailing.
‘Thank you, I’ll keep your secrets. I work as a team, and without that team, each of us is nothing. I have other cases, ones which I cannot just ignore because you call me in the middle of the night. I will have to explain my time to my boss, that’s just how my world works,’ I said, trying not to get annoyed at his assumption that I would just drop everything to do exactly as he’d requested, ‘If you can understand that, then I will do everything I can to find your missing teenager. If not, then I'm afraid I will have to walk away.’
He nodded, and it appeared that we had reached some sort or understanding, all be it a shaky one.