Bad Vampire by Lauren Dawes (read aloud books txt) 📕

was excited the cavalry was here. She stood up and revealed the matching skirt to her jacket.

“Ha!”

Sawyer glared at me, and I shrugged.

“If you could follow me please?” the receptionist said, bustling through a door to our right. I trailed behind Sawyer, peering through every open doorway as I went. We eventually came to a closed door at the end of the hallways, the words ‘Principal Watts’ written on the front. The woman knocked, then popped her head inside briefly before ushering us in.

I stepped into the room behind my partner and looked around. The walls were covered in framed artwork…kids’ artwork. There must’ve been hundreds of them, covering every single square inch of the walls. Either Principal Watts had a few dozen kids and grandkids of his own, or he was lucky enough to be given artwork from the students.

“Good morning. Thank you for coming today. Although, we were expecting you half an hour ago?”

Sawyer glared at me his shoulder. “I apologize, Principal Watts,” he said so smoothly, even I felt sorry for driving as slowly as I had. “All I can do is blame car troubles this morning.”

“No problem. Shall we get down to it? Please, have a seat.”

Sawyer sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, and I took the other. The sword, which I’d put on my hip, got snagged, and I had to shuffle around to make sure it slid in between the arm and seat. If I kept getting caught on stuff, I was going to leave it in the truck next time. Why couldn’t it have shrunk as well as gone invisible?

Sawyer glanced at me before he tapped open the recording app on his phone and placed it on the table. “Can you tell me what happened last night, Principal Watts?”

“Yes. We had our Thanksgiving concert last night. We had our kindergarten and first graders backstage waiting to go on, when a young girl, who doesn’t attend this school, was seen approaching a couple of students. Apparently, the young girl had candy and was trying to lure the children away from the rest of the group, but one of our teachers appeared and chased the girl away.”

“Who was the teacher?” Sawyer asked.

“Her name is Jasmine Wolfe. She teaches kindergarten here.”

Wolfe? “Can we speak to her?” I asked.

“I assumed you’d want to speak to her first,” Watts said to Sawyer, and he nodded. Wait, had he just ignored me? Sawyer tapped my arm and tilted his head to the side. He wanted me to listen.

“What else can you tell me about what happened?” he asked.

“The children finished the play and were sent home.”

Sawyer asked, “Did anyone see the girl again?”

“No.” Watts sighed. “Apparently, the young girl wasn’t human. She was a vampire.”

“And who verified that?”

“Ms. Wolfe. She’s a werewolf.”

I sat back in my chair and muttered, “I thought this was a human only school.”

Without looking away my way, Sawyer said to Watts, “Can we speak to Ms. Wolfe this morning?”

“Of course you can. After you’ve chatted with her, I’ll bring the two children who had direct contact with the vampire to my office so we can talk in private. I’ve already secured verbal permission from their parents.”

“That would be helpful. Thank you.”

Principal Watts rose from his chair and showed us out of the room. We entered the school from a different door, and I tried not to cringe at the amount of noise coming from each of the classrooms. I wasn’t saying I didn’t like kids. I was just saying I didn’t want to hear them, see them, or be near them.

Eventually, we stopped at a classroom that had cut out painted hands all over it and the name of the class on the glass panel. Watts knocked, then entered without waiting, greeting all the children warmly. He told them he would be teaching them for a little while as Ms. Wolfe had to speak to the nice detective outside. Clearly, he was referring to me.

I said as much to Sawyer, and he shrugged. “He kind of doesn’t even know you’re here.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that so much.” I hovered my palm over my chest. “Right here.”

A woman stepped from the classroom Watts had disappeared into. She had a sweet face, blonde hair, and blue eyes. She was rocking the sexy teacher look in a black pencil skirt and pale blue blouse. “Hello,” she said, her blue eyes warm. “Mr. Watts said you were here to ask me some questions?”

Sawyer bobbed his head. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”

Jasmine took us into an empty classroom that was littered with art supplies. Dried clay was stuck to the tables and smeared on the backs of chairs. She perched on the edge of one of those tables and folded her arms.

“What do you need to know?”

“Can you tell me what happened last night?” Sawyer asked, recording the conversation once more.

Her throat worked before she said, “Last night, I was backstage with the children so I could usher them on stage when it was their turn.”

I walked around the perimeter of the room, looking at the pictures hanging on the yellow walls. “What time was that?”

She folded her arms, pushing up her cleavage that peeked out between the V in her blouse. “Around six-twenty, if I remember correctly. The concert started at six o’clock, and we were about a third of the way through the program.”

“How many children were backstage with you?”

“Just kindergarten and first grade. That’s why I paused when I saw the second grade kids there. They should’ve still been out in the audience. When I approached the pair to find out why they were backstage, that’s when I smelled the vampire.”

“What do vampires smell like?” I asked.

She wrinkled her nose. “Usually like dried skin and earth. And old blood.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“So, two second graders where there. Where was the vamp?”

“Standing a few feet away, hiding in the shadows.”

“What did she say to