by Zahra Stone
Like this was a body that had been torn apart. Both arms had been wrenched from the torso and chewed on. Chunks of flesh were missing. The torso and abdomen were ripped open, and I’d guess most, if not all, her internal organs were gone. The once sparkling eyes of Mrs. B were now wide open, glazed over with a film of white. I reminded myself that the real Mrs. B had died a long time ago, that the ghoul had taken over her body. And now, he’d discarded it. Probably because he knew he was busted, that we were on to him.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed the sheriff. Mrs. B was on the missing person list, and Lani deserved closure.
“Sheriff’s on his way. Jordan, take Rae back home. Rae, you need to write this up. I want a report on my desk before you sign off for the night.”
“Got it,” Rae replied with a nod.
“Oh, here. Take these, or you won’t get in.” I tossed two pass cards at them, remembering home wasn’t really home anymore. It was the Maxxan branch of the SIA.
After they’d left, I examined the scene. The body had been here for a couple of days at least, possibly more, but due to the heat, decomposition was fast. I couldn't guess a time of death. Not that it was important. The ghoul who’d inhabited her body had bailed, and judging from the mess he’d made, more than one ghoul had feasted here.
The sheriff arrived with lights and sirens.
“Want me to handle him?” Brax asked, and I bristled immediately.
“No. You can go. This”—I waved my arm toward Mrs. B—“confirms what we already guessed. Go back over our research, specifically at the recent missing persons, see if we can tie him in with the time he discarded this body and took the next.”
“Agent Shelton.” The sheriff touched the brim of his hat in greeting. “Where’s the body?”
“Here. From the height and clothing, I’m going to assume it’s Mrs. B. I hear she’s been missing a few days.”
The sheriff peered into the grave, wiped his hand over his nose, then stepped back. He spoke into the radio clipped to his shoulder, requesting the coroner van for pick-up.
“How did you find it?” he asked, hands-on-hips while he surveyed the area.
“Searching for something else, and one of my agents came across her,” I replied.
“One of your agents? Who? I may need to talk to them.” He pulled out a notebook, ready to take names.
“You may remember her? Rae Shelton?” I knew the history between Rae and the sheriff. It wasn’t good. He sputtered, and his cheeks turned red.
“What? Rae’s back?”
“She is. She’s an SIA Agent now, so it’s time you two learned to get along. A lot has happened that you don’t know about—and you don’t need to know, so don’t even ask. And before we go on, yes, this is a supernatural kill. I’ll tell you what killed her if you really want to know, but otherwise, I’d say you could file this under animal attack if it weren’t for the fact her body has been dumped in a shallow grave.”
“Wild dogs. A dog owner thought it was their dog and panicked, tried to hide the body,” he responded, deadpan.
“I’ll leave you to it.” With a nod, I walked back to my truck, lost in thought. Mrs. B had been our last link to Stillwater Pharmaceuticals. They’d cleared out the drugs Nate had found; everything looked above-board—on the surface.
“Wait.” I spun and headed back toward the sheriff, who was looking at Mrs. B with sad eyes. “Have you seen this woman?” I swiped through my phone and pulled up a picture of Ridgeway, and held it out. He squinted at the screen, then shook his head.
“Nope. But send it to me. I can pass it around the station and tell the guys to keep an eye out.”
“Thank you.” This time my smile was sincere.
“I take it she’s the one you’re after? The one who is responsible for this?”
“Indirectly, yes.”
“And she’s paranormal?”
“A shifter. Don’t approach her if you see her. Consider her to be armed and dangerous. Just call me. If any of your crew see her, call me.” With a heavy heart, I headed back to my truck. Paige was going to be devastated at the news of Mrs. B’s death. Although she knew, technically, that Mrs. B. was already dead when the ghoul took possession of her body, now it was real. Now it was tangible.
Chapter Eight
The buzzing of my cell phone was a welcome relief from the sounds coming through the wall from Rae’s bedroom. Through sleep-deprived eyes, I squinted at the screen. Sheriff Brady calling in the middle of the night couldn’t be good.
“Shelton,” I answered.
“Think I’ve got something for you,” Sheriff Brady said.
“Oh?” Sitting up, I clicked on the bedside lamp and glanced at the clock. Just gone two a.m. “A sighting on Ridgeway?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope. A missing person. A kidnapping, you might call it.”
“And this happened tonight?”
“Affirmative. I’ve got a very hysterical young woman here who says they were driving home when they came across a body lying on the road. Her boyfriend was driving; he stopped and got out to check. She dropped her phone, bent to pick it up, and when she looked up, they were both gone. No body. No boyfriend.” He paused, then added, “No signs of a struggle, no blood, nothing to go on except her story. Sound like something you’d be interested in?”
“Yes. I’m on my way. Are you still on the scene?”
“Yeah. I’ll wait for you.” He gave me the address, a dark, deserted road about ten minutes out of town. The perfect place for a vampire to snatch a victim. Pulling on jeans and a tank, I swept up my keys and headed out.
The night was dark, clouds covered any light the moon may have provided, and as I pulled up behind the sheriff's vehicle, I glanced around. The perfect spot for an ambush. Dark and deserted, with thick vegetation on either side of the road.
I made my way to where a young woman was sitting in the passenger seat of the sheriff’s car, the door open, her sniffling sobs carrying on the night air.
“Hi.” I approached with a smile; she was spooked enough as it was. “My name is Katie. I’m a special agent. Can you tell me what happened here tonight?”
She looked up at me, her pale face smeared with mascara, her nose red, bundles of tissues clenched in her fists.
“Braden and I were coming home from a party at Jesse’s place, it was getting late, and I’ve got work in the morning. Anyway, Braden said if we take the Old Mill Road, it will save us some time, and I was arguing because it shaves, what, two seconds off the trip? But I think it’s a boy thing, that they like the bends and curves up here and the extra challenge because it’s so damn dark you can’t see if an animal is on the road until you’re practically on top of it.”
“Take a breath.” I patted her shoulder. “What’s your name?”
“Amy.” She hiccupped, dragging in a deep breath, her shoulders shaking.
“You’re doing great, Amy. So, Braden was driving. Were you fighting?”
“Not really.” She shrugged, “Not angry arguing, just discussing whether Old Mill Road was the shortest route after all? I’d have taken Hadly Crossing; we were debating it, I guess you could say.”
“And then what happened?”
“We came around the corner.” She pointed to the curve just behind us. “And there was something on the road. Something lying down. I thought it was a dead animal, and I screamed at Braden to watch out. He hit the brakes, and we stopped, and he said he’d better clear it off the road in case someone else came around the corner and hit it.”
“So, he got out to move it. Could you see what it was?”
She looked at me with shiny, terrified eyes. “It was a man. Once we’d stopped and our headlights were right on it, I could see it was a man. He had dark pants, cowboy boots, a long coat—I mean, who wears a coat in Maxxan? It’s hot twenty-four-seven! And a hat, a Stetson that was laid over his face, and he was just lying there.”
“And Braden got out to check, see if he was alive?”
She nodded, sniffing. “Yes. He yelled for me to call 911, and my hands were shaking so badly that I dropped my phone. I bent to pick it up, and when I looked back up, they’d gone. It was only a second. Where could they have gone?”
“Then what did you do?” She had that wild look about her, the one that said she was scared out of her mind and couldn’t make sense of what she’d seen.
“I got out of the car and screamed for Braden.” She turned and looked out the windshield as if she could see him now. “But he didn’t answer. It was really quiet, no night noises, just the sound of the engine running. I came around to the front of the car because the man had been lying on the road right in front of us, but he was gone too. There was nothing there. No blood. Nothing. I can’t remember much else after that. I think I panicked. I was screaming for Braden and running back and forth a bit, looking for him at the side of the road, but I couldn’t find him.”
“You’ve done great, Amy, thank you. I’m going to get the sheriff to take care of you now, okay?” Knowing she was paying scant attention to me, I patted her arm, her mind struggling to comprehend what had happened here tonight.
Leaving her in the sheriff’s car, I walked up to where he waited in front of Braden’s vehicle. The engine had been turned off; the headlights left on to light the way.
“What do you think?” the sheriff asked, leaning back against the bonnet and looking out into the darkness.
“Vampire for sure.” I kept my voice low so that Amy wouldn’t overhear.
“Figured it was something paranormal. No way an animal could have dragged him off that fast, not without a scream, a fight, or a blood trail.”
“You know that’s what you’re going to have to tell her, though. That an animal took him.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed a heavy, weary sigh. “Right then, I’ll get the car towed and take Amy to the hospital, get her checked out. The rest I’ll leave to you. Maybe it won’t be such a bad thing having the SIA in town after all.”
“Thanks.”
I waited until the sheriff had left with Amy. The tow truck would be here soon; they’d be taking Braden’s car to the compound. I didn’t need it; it would contain no evidence of what had happened here tonight, but what did interest me was the description Amy had given of the vampire who had taken her boyfriend. Cowboy boots. Long coat. Stetson hat. Could it be the Gunslinger? But what would the Gunslinger be doing back in Maxxan? The Red Witch had broken the spell that had allowed vampires to walk in the daylight; the drug crops were gone—what could he be doing here?
I laughed softly to myself. I was guessing; it probably wasn’t the Gunslinger at all. All I had to go on was the confused recollection of a hysterical woman whose boyfriend had been snatched by a vampire. And experience told me people in shock didn’t recall details as clearly as they think they did. The Stetson could turn out to be a baseball cap. The boots could have been sneakers. The coat, though? She seemed pretty sure of what she’d seen.
Pulling out my phone, I hit speed dial.
“Is this a booty call?” Brax drawled, his voice thick with sleep, “Because if it is, I’m all for it. The answer is yes.”
My whole body flushed at his words, and I had to bite my tongue from saying yes. Instead, I said, “We’ve got a case. A vampire attack.”
“Where?” He was all business; I could hear rustling in the background and pictured him throwing back the bedcovers, sitting up, naked. Urgh, the mental images were killing me. Memories flooded me, his body against mine, skin to skin, his hands on me, caressing, his mouth following the path his hands had taken. I groaned.
“Katie?”
Brax’s voice down the line snapped me out of my sensual haze, and I quickly gave directions to Old Mill Road, glad he couldn’t see the flush in my cheeks. He’d know—and give me hell.
I was scouring the foliage by the side of the road when he arrived, searching for…anything really. A bent twig to indicate someone had crouched here, a torn piece of clothing that had caught on a branch, but I came up with nothing.
“You’re positive this is a vampire?” Brax asked after I’d filled him in.
“Well, it’s a classic MO. Hear a car coming. Pretend to be dead on the road. Wait while the intended victim gets out and approaches, and then bam. Come on; it’s a classic vamp move. Even The Vampire Diaries does it.”
“You watch The Vampire Diaries?” His laugh held a hint of surprise.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t seen an episode or two. I won’t believe you, even if you deny it,” I mocked.
“What’s your favorite TV show?”
“Grey’s Anatomy. Why?”
He shrugged. “No reason just wondered.”
I watched him with narrowed eyes, unsure of his motives. Who cares what my favorite TV show is? Then it hit me. He was getting to know me.
“No. This stops. This stops now!”
“You can’t stop it, Katie.” He knew exactly what I was talking about, and it scared the hell out of me that he was that in tune with me. He stalked toward me, eyes dark and intent, and I swallowed. There was something about this man that made me weak at the knees, that made me want to throw caution to the wind, that made me want to strip him naked and make him mine. But such thoughts were crazy dangerous, and I’d made up my mind that there would be no more sex with this man, despite the mind-blowing effect he had on me. Absolutely not.
Standing my ground, I concentrated on breathing as he approached. A tingling of anticipation thundered through my veins; arousal leaped inside me so fast I felt the world spin. Yet I didn’t move, couldn’t move.
Brax raised a hand to my face. The heat that emanated from him caressed me like hot silk. He was a fire demon, like me, and I welcomed his heat, reveled in it, wanted to rub my cheek against his palm and purr like a kitten.
“I have a plan.” His hot breath against my lips made my pulse flare. “A plan to get to know you, body and soul, inside and out—and nothing you can do or say is going to discourage me from that course of action.” He paused, his palm slowly sliding around to my nape, the frisson of awareness electrifying. I had the devil on one shoulder, an angel on the other. I wanted him. Physically there was no doubting I wanted him. I craved him, the way his hair tussled beneath my fingers, the reverent way he touched me, the sensations he could coax from me, all of that was indisputable proof of how much I wanted him. But it was sex. Chemistry. And that was all I could offer him, ever.
And Brax Lane wanted more. Oh, he hadn’t said it. Yet. But I knew. It was in the way he touched me, the way his eyes devoured me. And that scared me more than any monster on earth.
“Stop thinking.” His lips hovered above mine. “Just feel.” And then he lowered his mouth to mine, fusing us together. The heat was blistering and surreal at once, and I felt it all the way down to my toes. He broke off the kiss and nipped at my ear. “Just feel.”
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I gave in. I surrendered to the heat, and my surrender was intoxicating. Pressing my mouth to his, I was lost. He fought a smile for a moment, returned my kiss enthusiastically, then backed me against his car. One hand wrapped around my nape, his long fingers pulling at the short strands of my hair, while the other hand slipped beneath my shirt, then slid around my waist and up my spine, his fingers tracing the hollow line of my vertebrae.
I pulled him closer. He let a husky growl escape him; the deep sound reverberated through my bones. The time for words was over. I wanted this man, all of him.
Tearing my mouth from his intoxicating kiss, I tugged at his shirt. He obligingly pulled it over his head, tossing it over his shoulder. My hands ran over him, explored the hills and valleys of his muscles as they contracted and released under my touch. I felt the smoothness of his skin, the hardness of his muscles, the tautness of his abdomen.
Brax dipped his head, kissing me again with an intensity that took my breath away. Any last vestiges of resistance were gone, evaporating in the searing heat of tha
t kiss.
Then, our hands were everywhere. Tearing at clothing in our haste, sensations overpowering, the world outside of us disappearing as we lost ourselves in each other. I held him to me, immersed in his essence, in his taste and texture and scent. The night air caressed my skin, the faint sounds of nightlife reached my ears, and for a brief moment, I was at peace.
“I don’t know what all this means,” Brax murmured, lifting his head to rest his forehead against mine, “but I think I may be falling for you, Katie.” It was a bucket of cold water over my overheated flesh. I froze, then pushed him away, the movement catching him by surprise and making him stagger. I had to get away from him and the damn spell he seemed to cast over me every time he was near. He was dangerous.
Angrily I hurried back to my truck, hobbling as I clutched my boots against my chest, trying to dress as I walked. How had he managed to get me naked so fast?
“Katie! Wait, wait, Katie.” I kept going, cursing when a stone dug into the sole of my foot. I hopped to dislodge it, then picked up the pace as I heard him dressing behind me.
“Stop!”
I didn’t.
“Stop, Katie.” He slammed his fist on the bonnet of his car, and I jumped. “Please.” I was at my truck, opening the door, climbing inside.
“I’m sorry, okay? What do you think? That I meant to fall for someone who’s made it clear they’re not interested!”
I looked at him through my windshield, my vision unexpectedly blurry. In silence, I turned the key, shoved the truck into gear, and sped away, leaving him half-naked on Old Mill Road.
Chapter Nine
“He did what?” Rae’s voice dripped with mock outrage. “How dare he tell you he’s falling for you.”
“Shut up.” We were at Stanley’s. I’d spent the whole day avoiding Brax, and it hadn’t been easy because he’d spent the entire day trying to get me alone. When Jordan had suggested taking Bear out to Old Mill Road to see if he could pick up a scent, I’d told him to take Brax with him. As soon as they’d gone, I’d dragged Rae to Stanley’s.
