Free Vamps And The City by Kerrelyn Sparks

“That’s a catchy phrase.”
    “It’s lame, but I have to say it whenever I answer the phone. So, what do you want?”
    “My name is… Damien, and I have a message here to call, let me see… shit, I can’t make out this handwriting. Darcy something. She’s the new director of that reality show.”
    “Oh, you mean Darcy Newhart?”
    Bingo. “Yeah, that’s it. Is she in?”
    “Not at the moment.” The receptionist paused. “She’ll be here tomorrow night for sure. Are you going to audition?”
    “Yeah, I thought I would.”
    “Well, open call is tomorrow night and Friday night, starting at ten o’clock. You’d better get here early. We’re expecting a huge turnout.”
    “I’ll do that. Thanks.” Austin pocketed his phone. Darcy Newhart. He was making progress. He climbed into his car and drove to the office. Emma was there, going over police reports while DVN played on her computer screen.
    He went straight to his desk and did a search on Darcy Newhart. A list of newspaper reports came up. He stared at the headlines, stunned. “Local Reporter Missing,”
    “Where’s Darcy?”
    “Reporter feared Murdered.”
    Austin’s fingers felt numb as he clicked on the first report. Date: October 31, 2001. Four years ago on Halloween. He’d been stationed in Prague during that time. Place: Fangs of Fortune Vampire Club in Greenwich Village. A joint where kids pretended they were vampires. Some of the kids remembered seeing Darcy and her cameraman leave through the back exit. Darcy was never seen again.
    This was bad. Austin clicked on the next report. Three days later, and Darcy was still missing. The cameraman had shown up, hiding at Battery Park and suffering from exposure. He’d been admitted to Shady Harbor Mental Hospital, babbling that Darcy had been abducted by vampires.
    This was really bad. Austin’s grip on the mouse tightened as he clicked on the last report. A picture of Darcy appeared on the screen. She looked the same as she did now, but then, as young as she was, four years might not make much of a difference. Two weeks had passed since she’d disappeared. Her body had never been found, but a bloody knife had been discovered outside the club, along with a pool of her blood. Authorities had decided she was most likely dead.
    Dead? But that would mean she was now a vampire.
    Chapter 5
    Austin completed his research on Darcy Newhart.
    She was born in San Diego, the oldest of three daughters. At the time of her disappearance, she was twenty-eight years old. Had she continued to age, or was she stuck at twenty-eight for all eternity?
    He switched his investigation to her two companions. The name Vanda Barkowski came up with zilch, but he located a birth certificate for a Margaret Mary O’Brian in 1865. Her parents had emigrated from Ireland during the potato famine. Maggie was the eighth child of twelve, though only seven of them had lived past the age of ten. Poor girl had had a tough life. Hopefully, it was better for her now.
    Holy zombies, what was he thinking? She was a vampire. Synthetic blood had only been around for eighteen years. She’d existed for a long time by attacking humans. He shouldn’t be feeling any compassion for these monsters.
    Sunshine shot through the window blinds, creating streaks of light across his desk. He wandered to the window to look out. The sidewalks were bustling with early morning commuters; the streets filled with delivery trucks and vans. And Darcy—was she watching the sunrise or was she hidden away, dead to the world?
    He gathered up his notes and photos, then drove to the television station in Queens where Darcy had worked. After flashing his badge, he listened to the manager talk for an hour about Darcy. Everyone there had loved her. Some still clung to the hope that she was alive. Austin promised to do his best to solve the mystery of her disappearance and left with a box of copied videotapes of Darcy’s old newscasts. He stashed the box in the trunk