by Lauren Dane
The blade rested in her palm as he approached.
“I didn’t find him. But I scented him and I will know him by sunset tomorrow night.” His voice had lost the cultured cream. Now it was rough as he wrestled with his control.
“He left some physical evidence.” She held up a vial containing a tooth. Vampires very rarely lost their incisors because they were retracted most of the time and because they were immune to tooth decay. “Stupid. Lucky for me.”
“Give it to me. My people will run it through the database.”
“Back off. I’ll be awake during the day and I will get it through the database. By the time you’re awake, I’ll have a name.”
“Don’t you think I want to catch him as much, if not more than you do? I have a far more complete database and my people work during the day, we just don’t go into the sun.”
With a muted growl, she handed the vial to him. “I can’t afford to take any chances. The cops are on the way. Go. I’ll drive this back to town. David will have it delivered to Die Mitte.”
He paused, cocking his head. Surprising her more, he was against her body before she took another breath, the blade between them. “This thing between us is not done.”
She had to agree. But what she thought that meant and what he thought it meant were likely to be two very different things.
“How will you explain being out here? Do you need an alibi?”
She shook her head. “I’ll work it out. There’s a trail obviously with me leaving town with Carl in his cab and then going to the Devils’ bar so I can’t lie about that. This is further out than the other scenes. This is your car so I’ll say you loaned it to me.”
He blew out a breath as he stepped back. Sirens sounded in the distance.
“They’ll be here in moments. This thing between us will get out. We need to talk, about a lot of things.”
“Go. I’ll let you know what I say. You’re a smart man, cagey, so stay out of reach until I get back to you.”
He looked as if he considered arguing but the sirens got louder and louder and he had no choice but to take flight and begone.
Rowan looked at the sky as she put her blade back into place and put herself in order, waiting for the police cars to arrive.
That’s when she caught sight of the telltale dust cloud and knew she wasn’t alone. “I have leave to be on this ground,” she called out. “I claim this woman so that I may turn her over to the human authorities.”
The blink of red as the Dust Devil, remaining utterly motionless, watched for seconds longer, finally moved away as the cars arrived.
Chapter Eighteen
She’d been with the cops for several hours, first as she filled Fred in on how the body came to be out there and then with the what-were-you-doing-out-here issue.
She hated that she couldn’t give him the whole truth. It hindered his investigation and in truth, that was a good thing. But it sucked to lie and say she got a tip and drove out here just looking and happened upon the body.
They hadn’t believed her, but what else could they do? Say she’d done it when none of the physical evidence pointed that way? Like most humans when confronted with something paranormal, they accepted it rather than look too closely at something they might not want the answer to. And it wasn’t like this thing was ever going to trial anyway.
The sun was rising on the horizon when she finally finished up at the office with Carey and headed back to her place.
Where Jack waited on her doorstep, curled in a ball.
“Was it her? Why didn’t you call me first?” The questions fell from his lips even before his vision began to clear once his eyes had opened.
“Come on inside. What are you doing out here?” Keeping her voice gentle, she helped him stand and braced, readying against his anger. But what she saw wasn’t anger, it was the chaos of guilt, despair, relief, confusion and loss.
The door opened, and David stood aside to let them through. He’d known Jack was out there then, most likely had tried to cajole Jack inside.
“I need to know, Rowan.” His fingers dug into her upper arms as his gaze locked on to her face. “Please.”
“Yes.”
He allowed her to steer him through the door and into a chair. David materialized with the bottle of Jameson and a pot of coffee. “I’ll return momentarily with some food.”
“Fred wouldn’t let me go out there. Was it like the others?”
She sighed, looking for the right words, trying for the way to tell him without tearing him apart further. Knowing none of that was possible.
He had to know and there was no way to save him from the truth. No matter how much she wished otherwise.
She poured him a shot into the coffee and pushed it his way. “I’m going to tell you all I can, but you have to eat. You’re no good to me, or her, if you fall over and end up in the hospital.” David materialized with some simple sandwiches and fruit. She plated a little of everything for Jack and slid it next to his coffee mug.
Automatically he shoved a bit of apple into his mouth and gulped the coffee. At his acquiescence she sipped her own coffee.
“Yes. It was her and yes, the MO was the same. We did catch a break in that we found her hours before the others had been located. There’s more evidence this time.”
“But the location?”
“Further out than the other two bodies.” Which led her to believe that there were most likely more bodies out there in the desert they’d never find. If the body was in Devil ground, they might inform Rowan or they might not. But no one would find any evidence if the Devils didn’t want it found.
“Yes. Twenty-seven miles outside town. Far off the road.”
He’d dropped it there for her. To taunt Rowan, just as he had when she and Clive both had scented him outside the building.
“Torn up like the others? Worse?”
She considered lying but in the end, he’d find out the truth and it would be harder. “Worse. You don’t need the details, Jack, so don’t bother asking anything else. It was bad. He’s losing his control.”
He shot up from the chair and began to pace. “How’d you know where to find her?”
“Tip and a hunch. I’d driven around awhile before I found her.” How naturally the lies fell from her lips.
“Tell me all of it. I need to know.” He tugged at his hair and a wave of his anguish hit, souring her mouth.
She moved to him, slowly, like you would a panicked animal.
“No, you don’t.” She took his face in her hands, gently but firmly.
Tears welled up but didn’t spill over. His mouth twisted, lips trembled as he fought his grief. “I wasn’t there to help her. She must have been afraid. No one helped her.”
That way lay madness. She knew having been down it many times over her parents.
A line was somewhere. A line she shouldn’t cross. He needed to grieve, everyone did. Grief was part of life, part of the continuum between birth and death and to rob anyone of it was to disrespect the human experience. If she deadened it she’d help him today, but it wasn’t her place to steal it from him entirely. She’d be betraying her own path and his too.
At the same time, there would be a place she could step in and help him find some peace. She had to listen for it, to be patient and wait for it, even though she wanted to fix him now. She knew this with utter certainty, just as she knew equally surely, just exactly when she’d intervene. The gifts of her birthday had sharpened her intuition as well as many other things.
“I have to know.”
She shook her head. “You don’t. You’ll only torture yourself. She’s dead. Can’t change it. You can wish it and wish it different and it will never be. She’s gone. How she died can’t change.”
“It wasn’t normal. What is it, Rowan? Don’t lie to me! I know you see it too.” He drew from her reach.
“You know serial killers aren’t normal. Sure these scenes are freaky and horrible, but this monster c
an be killed.”
His gaze locked with hers as he understood she’d just said she would kill a murder suspect. She waited, mostly sure he’d agree with it.
“Is he using animals? Come on, this is some high-level creepy shit! The bodies are…what’s been done to them isn’t normal, not even for a serial killer.”
“If you go trying to make sense from what a severely violent, mentally ill person does you’re always going to fail.”
“Coroner says he’s never seen that sort of damage. I tell you that?” Jack’s gaze went far away as he began to pace again. “I read through the reports and nobody wants to say it out loud but goddammit, this is not normal!”
“Who’s arguing that it is? Was Dahmer normal? Huh? Human zombies? What is normal about a serial killer? There’s a soap opera in their brain and no one else knows the storyline but them.”
“I should have known. About the meth. I should have seen how bad she looked lately. I should have connected the killings with meth sooner. She didn’t have to die.”
She let him go for a bit as he ranted and raved. He looked so exhausted she was surprised he was still walking.
“Did you know it would end this way?” he asked suddenly.
There was no use lying. “When she disappeared and you told me all the connections, yes, yes I feared she’d end up like the other two.”
“You didn’t like her.”
“No, I didn’t. But you did and I care about you. Even absent that, no one should go through that. This killer is an abomination of the worst sort.”
“You know more than you’re telling me. You always know more than you tell me. You can’t sandbag me on this. Tell me what you know!” He was on her in moments, still slow enough she braced herself for impact and kept her feet when he latched on, gripping her upper arms. “Tell me!”
It was time.
Slowly, she let the heat build from within. Let the Goddess fill her up from toes to scalp. This new gift came to her far more readily than some of the others had. She let calm emanate from her skin and into Jack. Deliberately, she avoided the sharp edges of his loss, those were his to exorcise, but she smoothed away the animal panic of his fear, the wildness of his feelings of failure. She let that sweet, healing heat slide from her body and into his.
He needed to let it go, needed to release his hold on the tidal wave of tears he’d tried to brick off.
“I will take care of this. I promise you.”
“Tell me, damn you.”
She needed to get permission and only one person, scratch that, one Vampire could give it.
“Jack, you need to let Fred and his team do their job. Keep out of it. I’m going to be working it from my angle. Fred knows this and he’s okay with it. So what you need to do is trust the people who care about you to get this done.”
He sighed, long and hard, and fell to his knees. She followed, taking him into her arms and rocking as he cried. Deep, ragged sobs of a man who wasn’t prone to a great deal of emotional expression.
Each time he drew air into his lungs to sob again she felt his spine ease just a tiny bit more as she fed him comfort and wisped away what sorrow she could.
Finally he seemed done and lay his head on her shoulder, his breathing calm but for an occasional cry-induced hiccup.
“Why don’t you stay here? I have a guest room. Sleep awhile. Wake up, shower and eat and I’ll fill you in on whatever I find out in the meantime. You’re running on empty and you’re not doing anyone any favors being so exhausted. You’re going to miss stuff this way.”
“I can’t sleep.”
She stood and helped him up. “I have several meetings to attend. I only came home to change clothes and check in.”
“Are you involved? What are you hiding?”
She knew it wasn’t personal, or even serious, but it hurt anyway.
“You’re no good to me like this. You need me, Jack. The cops aren’t going to let you in. You know it. They can’t. So if you want to hear what’s going on you’ll get your shit together, man up and deal with it. I’m it for you. Me and my access to the case. So shut the fuck up with that and go take a few hours’ kip.”
David must have been at the ready because in two strides he was in the room and at Jack’s side. “Mr. Elroy, please, this way. I’ve laid out some pajamas for you.”
“I can’t sleep! Why isn’t anyone listening? Lisa is dead and her killer is out there right now. How can I sleep?”
“Like this.” David whispered into Jack’s ear and escorted him through to the guest room. David had his own form of powerful magick and Rowan had no doubt Jack would be in a deep, dreamless sleep for a few hours.
She moved to the phone in her office which had started to ring as she approached.
“The First is on his way to you.”
“He is?” Rowan couldn’t help her surprise. Not only at the news of Theo being on his way to her—he’d have had to procure a special dispensation to set foot on American soil—but at the sound of Enzo’s voice. Her third cousin and the man who’d taken over after Rowan had left the Keep.
“You have reason to hate him. I know this. But he loves you in his way.”
“He had my parents murdered, Enzo. And then he raised me like a foster father. He pretended to mourn my father’s death as deeply as I did.”
The level of that betrayal—of the way she’d laid herself bare for him in her grief and rage at missing people she’d never known, all as he’d played along—stung to that day.
“Your father broke our oldest rules. There was nothing else to be done.”
“How? By falling in love with my mother? She wasn’t connected enough?”
“Do you think Theo would have cared for that? Are you so blinded in your upset that you can’t see reality, Rowan? Never had I met a human more vicious and whip-smart than your father. Until you. Be his daughter.”
“I have no fathers anymore. Theo killed the one who gave me life and finding that out at sixteen killed the one who’d taken on that role.”
“You’re too old to think like a sixteen-year-old. Your father had been promised to another family. This is the way of the Human Servant and has been for thousands of years. Your mother was on another path entirely. What he created with her set our entire existence on its head. You were not anticipated. He had to kill your parents or he’d have lost his position. More than that, our family and the family of the female your father was supposed to join with would have lost everything. Hundreds of humans would have been at risk.
“I loved your father like a brother, but he took a risk when he acted on his feelings for your mother. He took my life into his hands. My mother’s life, my sister’s, the children I’d have some day. I forgave him that. But he acted knowing the likely outcome. The First had no choice. But he saved you. He raised you and trained you. You are the fearsome woman you are today because he loved you when he shouldn’t have.”
She didn’t want to hear this. Didn’t want to try to understand Theo or what he did to her all those years ago. She sure didn’t care to empathize with the man who had her parents murdered.
“I’m asking you to look past his mistakes, past the things that make him so very different than we are, and to see he comes to you, keeps a watch over you because he loves you. And you love him. Your father, my cousin, would not want you to miss this fact. Even as it hurts to see it.”
He disconnected and she scrubbed her hands over her face.
It was daylight so she had a while at least before she’d be summoned to wherever he’d decided to nest.
Clive attempted to sleep but knew it would evade him for some time yet. He’d given the tooth over to China and she was on it. Once they’d examined it closely, he’d noted the decay there. Vampires didn’t lose teeth like human children did. That this killer had wasn’t a good sign at all.
On top of that, he’d received word that The First was on his way to Las Vegas with his lieutenants in tow. Explicit word that The First was c
oming to see Rowan Summerwaite.
Rowan most likely had a very full agenda with the cop’s girlfriend ending up dead in the middle of the desert, and now this. As tough as she wanted to appear—as she was—Clive saw through her when it came to her foster father. He’d seen and heard the way she interacted with him and knew there was a great deal of complicated affection between them both.
That Clive had a part in what must have already been a tense emotional time for her only made him feel worse.
In the time she’d been gone he’d come to accept the very inescapable fact that he liked her. He enjoyed sparring with her. Admired her intelligence and strength. Her viciousness only sharpened his hunger for her. It shouldn’t have surprised him as much as it did. After all, she was the product of thousands of years of service to the Vampire Nation. Vampires were, he could admit, prone to shallow behavioral tendencies. They liked pretty things and pretty people. It wasn’t a surprise that the Human Servants, who served the Nation for as long as there’d been Vampires, were attractive to them.
But she was more than a pretty shell. Blast it all she wasn’t even beautiful! Not like the ridiculous perfection of the female form she’d killed in his parking garage. It was that essential spark within her, the surety he had that there was simply no one else in the universe who was like her, that drew his attention to Rowan Summerwaite over and over.
Not just the sex, though it was extraordinary, he had to admit. If it were just the fucking, he’d do it over and over until he lost interest. No, it was the whole of her.
He enjoyed being with her. Found himself wondering what she’d think of this or that situation as he moved through his day. This was an entirely new situation for him. He had to admit that when he’d found out about the killing in the parking garage, so soon after they’d broken the rules yet again and had sex in his penthouse, he’d been knocked off balance at the clash of the different aspects of his world.
