End of Days by Max Turner Page A

. . .” I stopped to think. He’d gone to look for Ophelia. I wasn’t sure if I should mention her name.
    â€œFor whom?” I waited just long enough that he answered for me. “For Ophelia?”
    â€œYeah.”
    He nodded and stared. His eyes ran over my face. He wanted to know if I was lying. Or if I knew something else. I looked down at the table and the file spread across its surface. A picture of me waspaper-clipped to one side. I tried to see what was written there, but the words were upside down in messy writing. Not the best for a speed read.
    â€œWhy would your fingerprints be on his gun?” he asked.
    My hand and arm twitched when he said this, as though they remembered the terrible discomfort I’d felt when I’d held the inspector’s pistol.
    â€œDid someone shoot him?” I asked.
    Detective Baddon shifted in his chair. I’m amazed it didn’t collapse from the weight of him.
    â€œNo. He fired several shots before the gun was taken from him. Everett said you were the fastest vampire he’d ever seen. Who else but you could have moved so quickly? My bet is, you snatched it away from him, which is why your prints are on the gun. Unless you have another explanation.”
    I did. But after living under Ophelia’s watchful eye, I’d learned the value of keeping my mouth shut. Only a select few were supposed to know about us. I doubted Detective Baddon was one of them. Not if he threw the word
vampire
around. We weren’t ever supposed to refer to ourselves that way. Ophelia and the inspector insisted upon that. Part of our secret. I wasn’t going to tell him anything.
    He waited for me to answer the question. When I didn’t, he asked, “What were you doing at the zoo?”
    We stared at one another. I wasn’t sure if I should trust him. If I told him the truth, he might just use it to fabricate a story that would make me look guilty.
    He looked down at the file, then up at me. “It says here you tried to run from the house. Is that true?”
    There didn’t seem to be any harm in denying this, but I was worried that if I started talking, I might not stop and would say something I wasn’t supposed to.
    â€œAnd your friend. He assaulted several officers and ran. Why would he do that?”
    I’m guessing it was because he didn’t want to wind up chained to a chair at the police station. I should have followed Charlie’s lead. But the mention of his name got me thinking about what he would do in this situation.
    â€œI want to make a phone call,” I said.
    The detective shook his head. “I can’t do that. And you know why?”
    I didn’t know why, so he explained.
    â€œYou aren’t a typical prisoner, Zachary. I’m not taking any chances with you. We’re going to be moving you to a special detainment center until we get to the bottom of this. Given your special condition, you’ve been labeled a terrorist—a threat to national security. You won’t be afforded the same rights as other prisoners.”
    A threat to national security.
That was nonsense. Chained to this chair, I was about as dangerous as a wet paper towel.
    He sat back and looked at me. “Everett trusted you. He was a good friend of mine, and now he’s in pieces. I want to know why. I want to know why your fingerprints were on the gun. I want to know why you were at the zoo, and I want to know why Charlie ran. You answer some questions and I’ll think about letting you make a phone call. In the meantime, you’re going to stay chained up behind bars.” He stood up, closed the folder, tucked it under one arm, then picked up his coffee and walked to the door. “I understand as a child vampire, you’re an endangered species. Don’t make things difficult for us, Zachary, or I’ll do the worst thing imaginable. I’ll let you go. Given what I know of the Coven, you