Cruxes and Crime Read online

  "What are you doing?" I demanded, steadying myself with a hand against his chest when he put me back down on the ground.

  "Baby, you almost stepped on a copperhead," Vlad said, his Romanian accent stronger than normal because of the tension in his voice.

  My heart pounded and I looked down at the spot I'd been about to step into, only to see a small copper snake curled up there, now peering at us.

  "Oh shit," I said, taking a moment to try and push the nausea away. My hands shook and I stuffed them in my pockets, taking another step back and away from the dangerous little reptile. Because Vlad still stood behind me, there was nowhere further back to go and so I just stepped further into him, my back pressed against his chest. He would be able to hear just how hard my heart was hammering in my chest.

  "It's all right, baby," he said, wrapping his arms around me and brushing his lips over my hair but not giving me a proper kiss. "Come on, let's just keep walking." He set me out of his arms, next to him.

  I took a few steps away, sticking close to Vlad's side, but I was just staring at the ground now and not even looking at the trees we were heading to. Vlad could obviously sense my distraction and pulled me to a stop, waving at the others to go on ahead. "Let's just take a break for a few minutes, baby," he said.

  "Yeah," I said, and hated that my voice was shaky. "I feel like a pixie could fly right up to my head and I'd be too busy looking at the ground in case there's a snake to look up and see it right now."

  "It's all right." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and it did help. The safety he instilled in me blossomed in my chest and my pulse began to slow down again.

  "That really shouldn't have shaken me up so much, considering everything that's happened in the last year." I pushed my hair out of my face and felt like a bit of an idiot for overreacting, but I couldn't stop the fear of what would have happened if the reptile had managed to sink its little teeth into my ankle. We were dozens of miles away from anything right now.

  Vlad pressed a warm kiss to my forehead. "You're not being silly," he said. "You could have been seriously injured. You could have died, baby. I'm as shaken up as you are."

  He didn't look it. He looked as calm and collected as he always did, but I could hear the strain in his voice.

  "Well, at least you were looking where you were going," I said, and then realized I hadn't even thanked him. "Thank you. You saved my life."

  "You've saved my life plenty of times." He pressed another kiss to my forehead, and the arm around my shoulders seemed to turn tighter and more possessive for a moment before he released it and opened his jacket to reveal an inside pocket. From it, he brought a small hip flask. "Here. This will help calm your nerves."

  I shook my head and laughed. Of course Vlad had managed to sneak a hip flask on a school trip. "I'm okay, babe," I declined. "But thank you."

  He took a small swig and then returned it to his inside pocket.

  I was already feeling much better again, but for now I was enjoying just standing with Vlad, in such close proximity to his warmth. I was actually choosing to want to stand here with Vlad instead of going as quickly as possible to find the pixies that were probably nearby.

  I'd found someone that I cared about more than cryptozoology. In fact, I'd found four people. That definitely wasn't something I'd ever expected when I'd gotten my acceptance letter for Sleepy Hollow University.

  "What is Daniel doing today?" I asked, I knew, being a vampire, he wouldn’t be able to be out in the sun for so long, so of course he hadn’t come along. Even with the sunblock, this would have been too much for him. Lately though, Vlad and Daniel were inseparable, especially after the scare that had been Vlad's illness.

  Vlad's face darkened, and I wondered what nerve I'd stepped on. I really hoped that they weren't fighting. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle the two such close friends falling out with each other. "He's got an appointment with a military recruiter."

  My face fell at that news too. Sergeant Waxton was a permanent fixture on the college campus, and one that we'd all been trying to ignore as much as we could. He was there trying to recruit supernaturals into the army and he was aggressive about it. I'd managed to stay mostly out of his way apart from a handful of conversations that I'd always escaped relatively early.

  I'd heard plenty of dodgy stories about how supernaturals were treated in the Army and it wasn't something that I wanted to do with my life. There weren't exactly many cryptozoology careers in the Army anyway.

  The thought of Daniel sitting in there and listening to the Sergeant's spiel made me feel bad for him.

  "Why did he even bother going?" I asked. The meetings with the Sergeant weren't mandatory, which was why we'd all avoided ending up actually in his office and listening to him try and convince us to sign up for what would feel like a lifetime.

  "I don't know," Vlad said, retrieving his hip flask again and taking another swig. "I told him not to, but he said he just wanted to see what the guy had to say."

  "Hopefully he'll be able to see that the guy is bad news when he's in there, then," I said. I wasn't even sure exactly what it was about Sergeant Waxton that made me so uncomfortable, but he definitely gave me bad vibes. There was something hard in his face that made me shudder even to think about.

  "I hope so. I can't believe he's actually gone, but you know how Daniel is. He wants to prove himself. He's desperate to overcome the prejudices against vampires. He's always wanted to do it by joining the NYPD, but I suppose he might see the Army as being just as good. It holds a level of respect, just the same way that the police do."

  I could see exactly what Vlad meant, and I just really hoped that Daniel didn't decide to take that path. He'd always been so set on joining the NYPD, because he was from a long line of cops, that I didn't think there was really anything to worry about. Daniel was just finding out what his options were, and I resolved not to think too much about it.

  “Well, there’s not much we can do about it right now, we might as well not worry until there is something to worry about,” I said, with a smile.

  “Yeah, you’re right, baby,” Vlad leaned down and kissed my lips.

  “Come on, let’s go see if we can find some pixies,” I said and held my hand out for Vlad.

  He brightened and took it. “Good idea.”

  3

  Daniel

  I sat in Sergeant Waxton's office with a straight back and an impassive expression on my face.

  The recruitment office was exactly what I'd expected. There were military propaganda posters on the walls with details of the different branches in the military and the different roles that came within those branches. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. I'd been in recruitment offices in New York City before too, and this was one and the same.

  Just as with the recruitment offices I'd been in before, there were also a collection of certificates and medals on the back wall that belonged to Sergeant Waxton. I wondered how many of them were real. There were a lot of them. Waxton wasn't that old and he'd had his permanent office on the Sleepy Hollow University campus for a good couple of years now, I was sure. When had he found the time to collect so many accolades?

  But unlike with other recruiters I'd met in the past, I could tell from Waxton's demeanor that he was a soldier. There was a certain level of control and respect that demanded that the recruiters I'd spoken to in the city had always seemed to be lacking. I'd gotten the impression that a lot of them had been put in those offices because the Army didn't have anything better to do with them but no way of getting rid of them either.

  Waxton, on the other hand, was clearly a perfectionist. He wore his military uniform to a pristine standard every day. There was never a single thing out of place. There wasn't on his head, either. His hair was cut in the military style, and I felt like he must cut it once a week to keep it looking so identical.

  He sat straight in his chair now, too, which was why I was keeping good posture, not slouching like normal.

  And all those things were part of the reason that I was here in the first place.

  Waxton had approached me and asked me if I'd come to see him just so that he could explain what my options would be if I did join the Army, and I'd not seen the harm in it. I'd been dead set on the police my entire life, but there was no reason that I couldn't join the NYPD after the Army if what Waxton said made sense, and the Army had just as many problems as the NYPD did when it came to not respecting vampires.

  But really, I was just curious about what it would be like. I still had my heart set on the NYPD, and I doubted that there would be anything Waxton could say to make me change my mind on that.

  "I'm glad you could come in to see me, Daniel," Waxton said, sitting with his hands on the desk in front of him. "I know that you'd make a fine addition to our armed forces if I can convince you to join us today."

  "I'm just here to find out some more information." I definitely wasn't going to be signing any paperwork today.

  "Well I've definitely got all the information I'll need to convince you that joining the Army is the best possible thing you can do for your career." This was where I'd expected the paperwork to come out, for him to start showing my leaflets and to read stories about other people's experiences that were probably all fake, but Waxton didn't bring out any literature.

  He just continued to talk to me, never stumbling over his words or looking like he needed a hint as to what he was going to say next. There was no computer on his desk that he could be reading from. This was all in his head.

  "As you know, one of the best things about being in the Army is the clear career progression that you'd have. Of course, because you're a smart lad and someone with incredible strength, you wouldn't be starting at the bottom anyway. You'd be entering in an elevated position and I know for a fact that you'd climb easily through the ranks. What kind of career would you be interested in having within the military?"

  It took me a moment to answer. The words Waxton was saying sounded almost like they should have been said with an amiable edge to his tone, like he should be emanating the kind of camaraderie that he was advocating that the Army had. He was smiling and nodding along with what he was saying, but it definitely didn't reach his eyes. His tone was enthusiastic, and he obviously had charisma, but I got the distinct feeling that his friendliness was forced. It didn't seem genuine, and it put me a little on edge.

  Maybe I'd made a mistake committing to spending half an hour of my time stuck on the other side of a desk to this man.

  "I'd like to join the military police," I said. "If I join the military at all I mean. I'm quite set on joining the NYPD really. I'm just looking into other possible options."

  "See, the police are much slower to move up the ranks in," Waxton immediately said. "And there can be quite a lot of resentment from people who spent years as beat cops if you come in immediately at a higher rank because you've been to college. And, of course, the fact that you're a vampire..." He trailed off and shook his head and I thought I saw a glint of something in his eye though I couldn't place it. "The police can be a very insular bunch, especially the NYPD, and I know that they wouldn't be as inclusive as the Army is. I can tell you that I've personally signed up vampires to the armed forces and have had excellent reports back about how inclusive the Army has been toward them."

  "I know that the NYPD wouldn't be inclusive," I said dismissively, and I wasn't sure that I believed the Army would be much better. "I'd be the first vampire in the NYPD, but that's why I want to do it. Someone needs to start breaking the stereotypes and showing people that vampires deserve as much respect as anyone else." I puffed my chest out a little as a I spoke, feeling the rightness of my words as I said them. This was what I'd always wanted and saying it out loud always felt good. Reassuring.

  "No one gains more respect than a military man," Waxton continued, unfazed. "Of course you wouldn't have to sign up to the military for the rest of your life. Having a short stint, five years, in the military would be enough to earn you the respect that you'd need to make your NYPD career a lot easier. You wouldn't have to spend years in uniform on the streets, but you'd have the caliber of having been in the Army for five years, and that would get you a lot of respect among your fellow officers. It would help with the public, too. A police officer who was previously in the Army. Those things would matter more to people than the fact you were a vampire."

  I found myself nodding. That did make sense. I could see his logic, even though I hadn't expected to. "Okay," I said, conceding the point. "But it would still mean putting my dream off for five years."

  "You'd be out of the Army before you were thirty. It would be a minimal delay. Having a few more years under your belt would stop you seeming so green in the police force. It's a very good strategy for reaching your dream. It's not delaying it, it's working toward it in a different way."

  I hummed. "It's definitely something that I'll think about," I found myself saying. Waxton had given me a lot to think about. Maybe readjusting the plan of how I'd get to the NYPD was something that would benefit me.

  Waxton produced some papers from his desk. "These are the papers that you'd need to sign to join up today." He pushed them toward me and looked me deep in the eyes. "I think you should really sign today and start on your path to become the cop that you want to be, to making the changes you want to see."

  I opened my mouth to protest. If I was going to sign up, I wanted to do it after I'd finished my degree, to move onto the army, not to drop out, but Waxton seemed to be implying that I'd be leaving straight away.

  "I want to finish my degree," I said.

  "Actually having a degree will mean nothing in either the Army or the NYPD," he said easily, pushing the papers further toward me without breaking eye contact. "What matters is that you came here, and you performed well while you were here, but you realized that the Army and the police were more important than anything and so you decided to leave early to pursue that. That shows focus and drive. That would earn you a hell of a lot of respect from your colleagues."

  I was nodding again, pulling the papers toward me and looking at them. It would be so simple, there was barely any information to actually put onto the form. I could take the first step toward the dream I'd had since I was old enough to understand what a career was.

  Waxton handed me a pen and I took it.

  But to leave straight away?

  Marina's face swam in my vision. I couldn't just leave Marina. We'd become so close and the thought of showing up at her dorm and explaining that I'd joined the Army and that I'd be leaving soon made my stomach roil with nausea.

  I definitely couldn't make a decision without having spoken to her first.

  And my friends...

  There were so many people at Sleepy Hollow University that I needed to speak to before I could make such an important decision. A decision that would take me away from them. I needed to speak to Vlad.

  And most importantly I had to tell Marina what I was thinking.

  I needed to know that I'd still be able to see her, that she'd still want to be with me even if we weren't still on college campus together.

  "I'm going to need to take these home to think about it," I said, picking up the papers and putting down the pen. "Though I will think hard about it. What you've said has made a lot of sense to me."

  Waxton's lip twitched in irritation for a moment. "Don't let other people dictate to you what you should or shouldn't do. You've come here and you've made your decision, I could see it in your eyes just then. You want to sign. If you go and speak to people, they won't understand. They've never been vampires. They don't know what it's like to not have respect when you've never done anything wrong. They wouldn't be able to see why this makes so much sense to you. They'd be selfish and want you to stay."

  I shook my head. "No. I want to think more about this."

  The Sergeant's irritation became even more obvious, though he was clearly trying to hide it. "You're being weak, Daniel. Letting other people affect your life when you've made a decision about what's best for you. That certainly isn't the way to earn respect among anyone."

  I stood up. I knew what he was saying, but I wouldn't allow myself to risk alienating Marina by doing this right then and there. It wasn't fear of other people convincing me otherwise, it was about having the respect of my friends and my girlfriend when I'd made that decision.

  I couldn't do anything without speaking to them first.

  Taking the paperwork with me, I left Waxton's office and could feel his gaze on my back. I understood that he was there to give me the hard sell, but I thought that deep down he must be able to respect that I wanted to speak to friends and family first.

  Either way, he'd done a good job.

  I was seriously considering joining the Army, and I could see exactly how a career in the military police would set me up to be the force I wanted to be in the NYPD.

  4

  Marina

  I grinned when I saw Daniel entering the dining hall and looking around for us. I lifted my hand and gestured for him to come over.

  Colin had gone straight home after the field trip. He'd been inspired by the pixies we'd ended up seeing in the Catskills for an art project, which had made my heart soar. Colin might not be interested in cryptids in the same way that I was, but to know that he'd enjoyed the field trip so much he was immediately inspired like that was another kind of passion in the subject that she found attractive.

  That had left me, Laurie and Vlad to come and grab dinner when the bus had pulled back into Sleepy Hollow campus. We'd headed to the dining hall and I'd completely gotten over my incident with the small snake that could have turned the whole day into a disaster.

  Vlad visibly brightened at the sight of Daniel, too. I knew he'd been a bit subdued all day with worry that his friend was going to be taken in by the recruiter and seeing him here and happy to see them was enough to put that worry to one side.