Andy hit replay on the video for what seemed like the hundredth time and watched the final confrontation between Nathan Holt and Emily Laine.  He’d felt a sickening drop in his stomach when he’d seen her flash on the screen earlier, little more than a ghostlike blur on the edge if the frame.  He fully expected her to get killed, and felt a pang of what may have been regret.  He should have known she’d run off to play hero.

He’d been understandably surprised when she not only held her own, but completely overpowered the vampire.  She was even carrying herself differently, which only served to make him want her all that much more.

As he’d been watching initially, fully a half an hour ago now, he’d hardly taken notice of her companion.  The tall teen had hardly moved at all, even when Emily had been thrown backwards.  When he’d killed Nathan, it had caught Andy so off guard that he actually jumped.  Of course, seconds later he’d destroyed the camera, surprising him even further.

Now he found himself wondering if she'd managed to survive Nathan Holt only to be killed by her friend.  Considering the information he’d been able to gather on Jacob Towans, it was very possible, but deep down he highly doubted it.  Whether or not he himself had seen it coming, the boy had clearly not been aiming at the girl.  He could see that in the final seconds of video as he locked his eyes on the camera, giving Andy the crawling sensation that he was looking directly at him.

Andy knew he’d just found a very valuable new resource, and it pained him to know that he’d been right under his nose the whole time.  His focus shifted away from the video and to the few thin files on his desk in front of him and the scant amount of information available on the kid.  He lived alone in near-poverty with his elderly great aunt who suffered from dementia, moving in with her after his parents died in an automobile accident in the Cascade Mountains a few years earlier.   They’d been highly intelligent government workers who left their only child a small fortune, but he wouldn’t be seeing a penny of it until his twenty-first birthday.  There were one or two passing references to him receiving psychiatric treatments, a few mentions of hospitalization, and one arrest record (no charges filed).  The details on these were sketchy at best, and for the most part completely nonexistent.

The video ended once again with a violent shaking that gave way to complete blackness.  This time instead of watching it again, Andy switched off the monitor absently.  He’d seen everything he needed to see for tonight, not least of which had been Markus Green’s entry into the underground world of the undead.  For now, he was content with the way things had gone and was ready for a good night’s sleep.

He had to pay a visit to one Ms Lois Towans, and wanted to be well-rested when he did.