The Red Haze (The Webber and Ko Series Book 1)

by D. M. Wicks

  The woman shot the lieutenant a glare, which Faye returned with equal parts irritation. The two women held each other’s gaze before the woman smiled and tipped her head. "Cato Dimitri; you?"

  Faye smirked. "Lieutenant Dominique Faye; a pleasure."

  "Really, the pleasure is all mine, lieutenant, but we must be on our way. You have no charges against my man, correct?"

  Faye fidgeted, but conceded, "Not at this time."

  "Then we will be leaving now."

  "Um… Cato, I'm not really dressed to leave right now."

  Cato turned to him and gave him a once over. "There are clothes in the van. You will do." Then she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him down the hallway until they climbed onto the elevator. The lieutenant and Declan watched and, once the elevator doors closed, Declan gave a low whistle.

  Faye turned to him. "What?"

  "That's a whole lot of woman for one guy."

  "What are you saying now?"

  Declan turned to her. "You’re a whole lot as well."

  "Well, this whole lot of woman is about to stick a whole lot of her foot up your ass unless you tell me what the fuck just happened. We almost had him!"

  Declan folded his arms across his chest and began walking to the elevator. "I guess Cato just swooped in and stole our lead. Now I assume we will be on their hit list. I guess we should have gone about that a little differently. Though I wasn't expecting the leader of one of the crews to be in the apartment. Bad luck on our part I guess."

  "Dammit, Declan, this is all your fault!" Faye yelled. Then she slapped him in the arm and stormed off down the hall.

  He sighed and rubbed the now sore spot. "A whole lot of woman indeed."

  When she let the doors close, he decided it would be better to take the stairs anyway. He didn't like to be rushed, especially by his enemies. Instead, he would make her wait at the car. When he was a floor away from the lobby he had a sudden thought. What if she drives off without me? She wouldn't do that, would she? Nah, no way. He quickened his steps just in case.

  Chapter Ten

  Oda

  I didn't realize it immediately when Declan and Faye entered the office. My attention was drawn to Declan as he came up next to me.

  "Hey Oda, did you find anything?"

  "Not much."

  "What does 'not much' mean exactly?" he said as he leaned up against my desk.

  "I mean that there are no connections between any of the victims in the Red Haze case. It seems perfectly random. The way it strikes matches the information that Jeramy's girlfriend, Kally, told us; the fact that it infects red eyes in a mysterious way and disappears from them without a trace. There's only one thing that all the victims and murderers share."

  He turned fully to me. "What is that then?"

  "They all either received or donated blood at the Samuel Blake Donation Center, but that's not much to go on. I'm at a dead end."

  "By the way, Declan, what did the roommate say about William?" Faye asked.

  "Alan's girlfriend is full of shit. She was most likely planted by the Crew on short notice. The roommate checked out okay though. He was legit. To add to your find, Oda, both Alan and William went to the Samuel Blake Donation Center. If we go on what the roommate said about William I would say that the blue eyes went to Alan Dublouse's apartment to work on a project they were partnered for. I figure that Alan was infected by the Red Haze and killed William, and then called the Crew to clean it up in a panic. The rest you know, lieutenant."

  "Good work. I'll get Liam to bring Alan in and question him. That's enough to make him a prime suspect." She turned to me. "The place of employment said something about losing information?"

  I nodded. "Yeah, it seems their systems went down the other night. When one of your uniforms went to collect the information on when Alan clocked in and out, it wasn't there. The blackout messed it all up."

  "That could work to my benefit. Yeah, that's definitely enough to bring him in and give him the good old one-two. It will be a good way to break Liam into his new role as a detective."

  "I think you are forgetting one very important fact, lieutenant," Declan said.

  Faye scowled. "And what might that be?"

  "You aren't supposed to be working on this case, remember. How will you bring him in?"

  Her scowl deepened. "I guess I could just get Liam to do it himself. The commander only officially took me off of it. I could bend the rules a little and try to get Liam to do it under the radar."

  "Risky," Declan sang, grinning.

  "Nothing ventured and all that…" she said, trailing off at the end when her phone buzzed.

  "Anyway, we basically have reached a dead end. What other clues do we have?" I asked.

  Declan was nodding and I couldn't tell if he was listening anymore as he was once again studying Faye. He huffed and his Irish lilt was more prominent when he said, "Lieutenant, what the bloody hell are you doing on your phone?"

  "Huh?" She looked up then back to her phone.

  "Your phone, are you talking to someone?"

  She answered without looking up, "This guy has been texting me for the past few days."

  Declan laughed. "Pesky boyfriend? I could give him a talking to if you want. Who would have thought you even had time to date let alone there’s anyone ballsy enough to ask you out."

  Faye shot him a glare and practically snarled, "Not a boyfriend, you asshole. He calls himself Patient X. Somehow the fucker got my cell phone number and has been sending me ominous text messages."

  My interest was piqued. "Like what?"

  "Hold on." She clicked around on her touch screen. "The first one threatened me not to ignore him. The second one said, 'I don't like to be ignored.' And the one I got just now was longer."

  "What does it say?" I asked.

  "It says, 'I am the idea that killed William Archer. Are you listening now?' Is he saying that he killed him? I thought Alan killed him."

  "What's the number?" I asked.

  She told me the number and I ran it. I said, "It's registered to a woman named Patricia Xenia. Do you know her?"

  "No. What does she mean by the idea? Hold on, there's another one."

  Declan walked over to her and read the text aloud from over her shoulder. "I'm tired of trying to get your attention. It's time I made my announcement. Turn on your TV. I will make the world bleed for its sins."

  I grabbed the remote off my desk and clicked on the television. The channel showed security footage. I said, "What is this?" I changed the channel, but they were all the same. "It's been hacked."

  Declan said, "Where is that?"

  I noticed it had stopped raining and tried to puzzle out the location, but Faye beat me to it. "That's the intersection of Keowee and Monument. It gets busy around this time of the day."

  I noticed numbers in the corner of the screen. "What are those numbers? It looks like it's counting down instead of up."

  "Wait!" Faye said, looking down at her phone again. "When the clock hits zero the bomb will explode. Good luck, lieutenant."

  "A bomb?" I asked.

  "Lieutenant, we need to call your department. Things just suddenly got out of hand," Declan said.

  "Shit!" She called 911 and requested her commander while the three of us ran out of the office and piled into Faye's car. Declan took the driver’s seat with me in the passenger’s. Declan turned to me when Faye hung up her phone and handed me his mp3 player before gunning the pedal.

  "You know what to do, Oda."

  I turned to Faye. "Where's your AUX port?"

  She furrowed her brow. "By the cup holder. Why?"

  "You'll see," I said as I plugged it in and turned it on. Once again, dub step blasted through the speakers and Declan drove like a deranged lunatic. Takes one to catch one I guess.

  ***

  There have been a few times in my life where I regretted doing something necessary. The first time I can remember was when I went through the haunted house to find my s
ister when we were separated. I was scared shitless, but I did it anyway because that was what good brothers did and I knew she was a lot more scared then I would ever be. It took me twenty minutes to realize she had somehow found her way out and was waiting for me outside. I had subjected myself unnecessarily for someone else's sake, which I later regretted.

  So when I turned on Declan's mp3 I hadn't realized what I had inadvertently begun. I really should have seen it coming. The same way I should have realized that my older sister could find her way out of the haunted house. We hit traffic about a block away from the intersection of Keowee and Monument and Declan didn't even think twice about driving up on the sidewalk scattering pedestrians like ants, while honking his horn manically. He was singing the lyrics to his favorite song; the whole time Faye was screaming over the music. Me? I was gripping my seatbelt praying we didn't kill anyone on our way to save everyone. That just didn't make sense. That was just crazy. I was definitely regretting it, but I couldn't deny it was necessary.

  When we reached the intersection Declan parked next to a fire hydrant and we all climbed out to a furious crowd of scared humans. I was beginning to fear for my life when Declan turned to me. "How much time is left on the clock?"

  I pulled out my cell phone and turned it to the television app. The channel appeared showing the timer in the corner. "Six minutes."

  Faye said, "Where could it be? Is it in a car, in a building?"

  "Five minutes."

  "What the fuck, Declan, where do we look?" Faye yelled.

  "I don't know. Where are the police? Shouldn't they be here by now?"

  "Four minutes," I said and could hear sirens in the distance."

  "Should we start looking in cars?" Declan said.

  "We can't just start searching people's cars, Declan!" Faye said.

  "Three minutes."

  "Then what the fuck do we do? Why did we even come out here?" he yelled back.

  "Two minutes." I looked up and across the street there was a blue eyed vampire woman. She was staring at me with a smile on her face. I watched as she reached down and typed something into her cell phone. I heard the jingle of Faye's phone, and then took off running across the busy street, jumping over cars stuck in traffic. Declan and Faye called out to me, but I ignored them. I watched, horrified, as the woman pulled out a gun. I kept running. If she is going to shoot me I’m going to take her down with me, I thought as I jumped and tackled her to the ground. The gun went off.

  My ears rang from the shot and for a moment there was silence. I couldn't hear the sirens of the cops or the honking of the cars. I couldn't hear the screams of my partner or the lieutenant. Then, suddenly, crystal clear I heard the woman ask, inches from my face, "Who are you?"

  "Oda Ko. Are you Patricia Xenia?" I asked.

  "I go by Patient X now." She smiled.

  Suddenly, I was being dragged away from her and Declan was yelling at me, "What the hell, Ko? Is that your blood? Are you okay?" He patted me down and poked the blood stain on my shirt. When I felt no pain I realized it was the woman's blood.

  "It's not mine. I'm okay. It's hers. It's hers," I repeated when Declan didn't immediately stop his examination. I looked behind him to see Faye handcuff Patricia who winced. There was a bloodstain rapidly growing over her shoulder, but she was laughing.

  "What the fuck is so funny?" Faye yelled and shook Patricia.

  "You are."

  When he realized I was alright, Declan rounded on the vampire. "Where's the bomb?"

  Patricia continued to laugh and Faye shook her head again, asking, "Enough of your games, where did you put the bomb?"

  She stopped laughing and an eerie smile settled over her lips. "Haven't you realized it yet, lieutenant?"

  Faye frowned. "Realized what?"

  "I am the bomb. Rather, my blood is."

  It took a moment for us to all to comprehend what she was saying, but once I did I looked around at the cars stopped in traffic. It had turned out to be a sunny day after the morning showers and several of the cars’ windows were open to let in a nice breeze. I glanced back to Patricia, then to her bleeding shoulder, then back to the cars. Hungry red eyes stared back at me and I felt fear like I had never known it. Declan dragged me in the direction of the sirens with Faye running close behind along with Patricia. Patricia was laughing the whole time as several red eyed men and women climbed out of their cars, a deranged, hungry look in their eyes.

  A man stepped out in front of me and grabbed my shoulders. Declan stepped in front and punched him in the face causing the man to fall. Declan continued to drag me. Everything was happening in slow motion. Suddenly, Patricia was being dragged into the growing crowd behind us and both Faye and Declan were sandwiching me between them, fending off red eyes. When one was knocked down another would replace it. My mind wandered in my daze. It was six o'clock. We were just unlucky that was all. Red eyes tended to come out around this time because the sun was usually beginning to set and was therefore easier to handle. I just kept repeating in my mind that we were just unlucky.

  Pain exploded in my neck and I was dragged to the ground. My injured arm was pulled out and I felt teeth sink into it. My body was stretched out like in a cross and it felt as though every inch was being torn into. Was I going to die like this? Would it end without my ever realizing my dream of becoming a real police officer? Was this the end of Oda Ko, the pathetic blue eyes who never did a damn thing worth mentioning in his entire life?

  "Ko!" I heard Declan's voice screaming my name and I felt a pair of teeth dislodge from my shoulder.

  "You bastard! Fight back!" he yelled again and I felt another pair of teeth ripped away.

  I felt a bubble of raw, uncontrollable energy burst inside my chest and, suddenly, I could move again. I thrashed, kicked and punched, fighting with everything I had. A hand found mine and I was pulled to my feet. I heard gunshots and looked behind me to see several police officers firing into the sky scaring off the instinct driven vampires. The police surrounded me and I turned to see Faye pulling Patricia from the ground as well and into the circle.

  "I thought I was a goner!"

  "You were," Declan gasped out and I finally got a good look at him. His knuckles were bloody, whether it was his or the vampire’s I didn't know, and his clothes were ripped in several places.

  "I hope I don't look as bad as you," I managed to laugh between the moans of pain.

  "No, you look way worse."

  "You're an asshole!" We moved as a unit until we reached the bomb squad’s bulletproof van and everyone climbed into it. Only when the van began to move slowly did I finally breathe a sigh of relief and let myself rest. I was alive somehow and it was all thanks to my pessimistic asshole of a partner.

  "Thanks partner," I said and when he looked up at me for a moment I saw fear, relief, and pain before it was quickly masked with a grin and a chuckle. "You can pay me back by working for free, Mr. Secretary."

  "I wouldn't go that far," I said and we both laughed before cursing in pain.

  Faye yelled, "Would you two shut up? I'm trying to think." We turned to each other and grinned.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cato

  Cato was there when Patient X had shot herself. She barely restrained her inner desires to attack the blue eyes, but luckily Jack had driven away, saving her job as well as her life.

  "What the hell was that?" she said, coming back to her senses.

  "That, my dear girl, was the Red Haze. How was your first dose?" He laughed.

  "It's no wonder they can't control themselves. Damn, that was strong."

  He pulled into an alley and turned off the engine. "We should be out of range here."

  She looked up. "Why aren't you affected?"

  "I am. I just hide it better."

  She caught her breath and met his gaze. "Shouldn't we go back and try to catch her? She is the root of all our problems."

  He shook his head. "She belongs to the police now. Going back would not be
in our best interests. Looks like we have lost the battle this time, but we can still win the war so to speak. We need to speak with Father Dimitri, he will fix this. I'm just a little annoyed we didn't find that woman sooner."

  "How were we supposed to know she was a blue eyes though?" Cato asked.

  "It was one of my theories. Some of my sources suggested it, but I didn't believe them. Look where that got us."

  "How are we supposed to tell Father that we failed? I might lose my job."

  "Don't worry, Cato. I already told you that the only person in jeopardy of losing their job is me. Besides, Father isn't one to sweat the small stuff. He has probably already made a plan should something like this happen, or at least he is flexible enough to adapt to this situation."

  "How can you cover up a crowd of vampires attacking other vampires? There are probably some casualties. What the hell is the House of Caeruleus going to do about this? They are going to be pissed and looking for answers."

  "We will give them their answers. They have their fair share of fuck ups. Things will be smoothed over in a day or two and it will be like it never happened."

  "If you say so, but I doubt it."

  "You're young and have yet to see how forgetful people are. If something seems too farfetched then most of them will deny that it even happened."

  "But something on this scale will leave an impression, won't it?"

  "For some it will. As a matter of fact, we should be on the lookout for people acting out against vampires. There might be some protests and it could be a little dangerous for vampires to walk the streets alone at night, but that will all blow over with time. Trust me, I know these things."

  Cato nodded and looked out the window only to see a brick wall. She realized, belatedly, that they were in an alley. She turned back to Jack, "Should we call someone?"

  He pulled out his cell phone and dialled. "Hello? Yeah. I'm on my way. I need to speak with Father concerning what's on the news. Yes. Thank you."

  He hung up and started up the engine. "I have an appointment with Father. Would you like to sit in on it or do you want me to drop you at your apartment?"