City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

‘That sounds like the Valerie I knew,’ I admitted. ‘She was always on the lookout for the next best thing.’ I picked at a hangnail. ‘We don’t know who these new people were?’

‘Not a clue,’ Anna said, shaking her head. ‘But we did find this.’ She held up a leather-bound book. ‘It’s a diary. If what she’s written here is true, Valerie was quite, uh, generous with her attentions.’

I motioned towards it. ‘Can I have a look?’

She passed it over. I flipped open the first pages and scanned through. There were a lot of random sketches and scribbles, many of which were rather lewd. Despite her advanced years, Valerie had clearly enjoyed an active sex life. As far as I could tell, the drawings were her way of capturing her own experiences. There were little comments etched by the side, such as Worth a second go or Doesn’t wash often enough. Unfortunately, none of the drawings or notes gave identities. It was also impossible to tell whether any of Valerie’s lovers were vampires: fangs were not mentioned.

‘Is this real?’ Monroe asked. ‘It could be her imagination getting the better of her.’

‘The Valerie I knew pre-apocalypse,’ I said, ‘flitted from one young man to another. She enjoyed the chase and she wanted men she could control. She was always wealthy and she seduced them with promises of a better life.’ I shrugged. ‘When she got bored with them, she dumped them back where she’d found them.’

Anna looked interested. ‘So there could be plenty of men who held a grudge against her,’ she said. ‘That helps.’

Monroe nodded. ‘This Philip guy we’re looking for is a loner. She could have targeted him as a lover and then tried to get rid of him when it suited her. Except it didn’t suit him and he got his revenge by bleeding her dry. After he’d had a tantrum and destroyed his own house, of course.’

It was certainly possible but I couldn’t help feeling we were missing something crucial, and Monroe’s conjecture didn’t help with the most pressing issue. ‘Having a motive doesn’t help us locate him,’ I pointed out.

‘Honestly, Charley,’ Anna told me, ‘I’m not sure we can locate him. He could be anywhere. This is a big city with a lot of empty buildings. He could be hiding in any of them.’

I bit my lip and nodded. Hiding out – but bloated and maybe ill from such a big meal. I turned to Julie, who was still draped languidly over her chair. ‘Do you get indigestion?’ I asked.

‘Me personally, darling?’

‘Vampires. Do vampires get indigestion?’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Yes.’

‘Can I assume that your bodies work the same as ours?’

An expression of faint disgust crossed her face. ‘If you’re about to ask me about my defecation habits then—’

‘No,’ I interrupted. ‘I’m asking you if indigestion tablets affect your kind in the same way that they affect human kind.’

Julie shrugged. ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

My eyes met Monroe’s. ‘All the shops around here were cleared of their contents weeks ago. I doubt there’s anything useful in the pharmacies nearby but Philip might not know that. If he stumbled out of here after his … meal … in the middle of the night and didn’t feel well, he might have tried to get some sort of medicine.’

Monroe ran a hand through his hair. ‘In the absence of any other leads, we might as well check out the pharmacies. If there’s any kind of trail, I might be able to pick something up.’

I nodded. It wasn’t much of a plan but it beat standing around and wringing our hands. ‘We need to tell everyone to be on the alert in case Philip shows up. Timmons can put the hotel on shutdown. Cath and Anna, you go home and make sure everyone knows to keep a look out and to keep away from anyone strange. And ask around to see if anyone attended Valerie’s poker nights. Julie,’ I paused and looked at her hopefully. ‘You spend time with Monroe’s lot. Can you go to the north and warn them?’

‘Julian,’ Monroe interjected. ‘Speak to Julian.’

She didn’t look very enthusiastic but she nodded. ‘Very well, darling. But this Philip person won’t be able to do anything but sleep, quite possibly for days.’

‘All the more reason not to let the grass grow under our feet,’ I said firmly. I let my fingers brush against Monroe’s hand again. ‘The two of us will go vampire hunting.’ Maybe, just maybe, we’d find Philip before any more tragedies occurred.

Monroe smiled at me and bowed. ‘As you wish, sunshine.’ He leaned towards me. ‘I know you only want my company for a little longer. But I do offer excellent protection as well.’

‘Durex?’ Julie enquired.

Anna began to choke with laughter.

‘No!’ I protested. I shot Monroe an irritated look while he blew me a kiss and winked. I knew what he was trying to do: he didn’t want the others to think he wasn’t still the arrogant alpha werewolf he’d first presented himself to be. It didn’t mean he had to draw me into his shenanigans too. ‘It’s not like that!’

Julie sniffed. ‘It should be.’

Monroe and I moved quickly and quietly through the streets surrounding the Travotel. The first pharmacy we came across already had its windows smashed in. It seemed empty but even so I stepped carefully inside to check. This might be like looking for a needle in a haystack but I wasn’t going to quit. I’d made a promise to Valerie that I was determined to keep.

The pharmacy was a mess. Cheap, non-prescription reading glasses were scattered across the floor from a fallen stand and there were empty boxes everywhere. Glass crunched under my feet as I went to check out the store room behind the main desk.

Monroe raised his head and sniffed the air. ‘I can’t scent anything,’ he called out to me. ‘This place hasn’t had a