Erin snorted and shook her head. “Well, then. Since I don’t have four spare tires, I think we’re going to need to borrow Holly’s car. And then she gets to call the police and a tow truck.”
She could only hope that whoever came to take Holly’s statement wasn’t on close terms with Selina, or this would start a family shit storm she didn’t want to deal with. Holly was going to have a cow and a large litter of wolf cubs over this, but she could be trusted to keep her mouth shut. She’d have a lot of questions Erin couldn’t—or wouldn’t—answer. If it was Asher messing with her, she’d have to hear about how dating vampires got you into trouble. If she admitted her fears, and it wasn’t Asher, she’d never hear the end of that either. “Fuck.”
“You said it,” Tina replied. “I’ll go get the other boss lady.”
“I’ll come with you.” Erin jerked to attention and followed the waitress back to the restaurant. A shiver went down her skin—that watched feeling again. There was no way in hell she was staying alone at the scene of a crime that proved she wasn’t totally nuts when she thought someone was screwing with her on a major level.
Rage burned to life in her chest. If this was Asher, she was going to beat him to death. He’d tried to victimize her before, and she wasn’t going to put up with it again. She wasn’t sure yet what she should do to figure out if she was right about his involvement in all this, but one way or another, she was going to make sure whoever was dicking with her sense of safety and sanity paid for what they’d done. She wasn’t normally a vengeful person, but she was making an exception here.
No one had the right to make her live in fear.
Chapter Eight
Tension ran through Luca’s muscles. Robert Hammond’s house would soon be surrounded by unmarked police and FBI vehicles from the various Magickal units in the area, just in case the man tried to bolt. It was an overcast day, which meant vampires could freely roam without worries of getting torched by the sun. Not a great day to make a vampiric arrest, but Luca didn’t want to wait any longer.
Some inner urgency forced him to act now. Though Robert had remained at large for several days since his child’s death, Luca felt they hovered on the cusp of some new development in the case. He had a bad feeling that might mean Cecily’s safety was in serious jeopardy. Call it intuition, call it an inkling of Uncle Vito’s premonitions, but Luca had torn out of the courthouse and gathered his team as fast as possible, calling in favors from the Seattle PD’s Magickal Task Force to get backup. They needed to be there now, but they couldn’t spook Hammond by going in with the blue lights on, and they had to get everyone in position to do this safely.
“Fuck.”
Jack sat in the seat beside him, and Luca felt his glance. The Normal cleared his throat. “Selina is leading the MTF on this one. I’d say it feels like old times, but considering the last time we worked a case together she almost died, I’ll just say it’s unusual to have her reporting to the same scene as me.”
Since some equally banal response seemed appropriate, Luca replied, “She’s good at her job. I’m glad to have her assist on this one.”
“You called us away from breakfast at Sugar Rush. She was none too please, since she hadn’t gotten to finish. She really loves the congolais Erin makes.” Jack tapped him fingers against his thigh. “You remember my cousin, don’t you?”
“I remember her,” Luca replied evenly. He pushed the car a little faster, speeding around a corner so Jack had to brace himself. A little distraction seemed to be in order.
Luca’s radio beeped, and Delta’s voice came through. “Boss, we have a report of shots fired at the Hammond residence. One of the neighbors called it in, and it got routed to us.”
“Shit. Shit.” Luca shoved the gas pedal to the floor, while Jack slapped the light on the dash and lit it up.
Had Hammond killed his wife so she couldn’t testify against him for his numerous crimes? Luca had worried this might happen, which was why he’d all but arm-wrestled Vito into issuing the warrant when he—and every other Magickal judge in Seattle—wanted to drag his heels and not be involved in messing with Elinor Hammond’s son. No one wanted Medusa’s eye turned on them.
Fucking politics. Luca clenched his jaw so tight he thought his fangs might crack.
The car squealed around the final corner to the Hammond house, and he was out of the vehicle in seconds, his weapon drawn. Three other cars soon flanked his, and he motioned silently for officers and agents to fan around the house. They scurried to obey, and Luca strode to the front door.
“FBI, open up!” He didn’t even bother knocking or waiting for any kind of reply. He slapped a metal charm again the frame that would disable any security system—a small perk of being in Magickal law enforcement—and then shoved his shoulder into the door. The door splintered under his vampiric strength, whipping open so fast it crashed into the wall, embedding what was left of the knob into the drywall.
There was an eerie silence in the house and the scent of death hit his nostrils. At the same time, his gaze took in the crimson that stained the white foyer tiles.
“Too late.” The muscles in the back of his neck locked with anger and frustration. He swore viciously as he stepped into the house, Jack and Selina on his heels. They quickly swept the house while Luca moved toward the prone female form in the middle of the foyer. The body of what used to be Cecily Hammond. A bullet had caved in half her skull, and a gun was clutched in her fingers. Suicide.
He was too late to help her. Too fucking late to be of any use at all.
“Jesus Christ,” Jack breathed from somewhere above him, and Luca glanced up to see the other agent staring into a room on the second floor. “Sir, you want to see this.”
The utter stillness that had filled the house when Luca had entered combined with the pungent scent of Hammond’s blood told him what he’d see before he walked up the stairs. He moved along the balcony above the foyer and drew up next to the Normal.
The master bedroom. The bed was mussed, but otherwise seemed undisturbed. It wasn’t until one glanced through to the en suite bathroom door that the truth became apparent.
“I think Mrs. Hammond got her revenge for what he did to her baby.” Selina’s voice was hard, and she holstered her weapon as she came up to stand on the other side of her husband. Jack set a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
Luca strode past the king-sized bed and took the first step inside the bathroom. The term bloodbath was too mild to describe what he saw. Robert had clearly been showering when it had begun, though his body had fallen out of the glassed-in stall onto the floor. Shards of glass scattered all over the tile, and clearly one of the bullets had missed Robert and hit a pipe because water gushed from a small round hole in the wall.
“Get someone to turn off the water in the house.” Luca glanced over his shoulder at Jack. The Normal nodded and spoke quietly into his radio.
Luca ignored the spreading blood-pinked water and broken glass to approach the body. Cecily had unloaded the entire clip into her husband’s head and chest, reloaded and then emptied the clip again. He was guessing she left one for herself or reloaded a third time. Each hole in Hammond’s body was blackened and scorched around the edges. Some were partially sealed, as if his body had tried to heal itself but couldn’t. Cecily had gotten her hands on Magickal ammunition. It was the only thing that could do this to a vampire.
There wasn’t much left of Robert’s face. Hunkering down, Luca looked him over. Tess would need to use fingerprints for a positive medical identification, but Luca could smell him, sense him. It was Robert Hammond. What remained of him, anyway.
“She shot his cock off too,” Selina observed, the thinnest thread of dry amusement in her tone. “Wonder if he was still conscious for that.”
Luca slanted her a look, only to see her husband wince behind her. It wasn’t as if either man would miss that fact. Hammond was stark naked. Missing pieces were noticeable. “I’m sure Dr. Jones will be able to t
ell us the rough order of the bullet strikes, but from the amount of blood in that area, he was definitely alive for that part of the attack. Conscious is another story.”
“Tess will tell me after she does her autopsy.” Selina cocked a brow as if he might challenge the notion that a cop could get information from an FBI coroner. Hardly. Law enforcement was a veritable bounty of salacious gossip.
The wall behind the shower rattled for a moment before the water stopped flowing. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up.” Luca swallowed. “Call Tess and let her know the case just expanded some.”
He straightened, his shoes squishing in the water as he headed back into the bedroom. The closet door stood open and he turned in that direction. Unsurprisingly, a small safe gaped from the wall. Velvet boxes with gem-encrusted jewelry spilling from them lay on the floor, as if someone had yanked them out of the way to get what was behind them. Cardboard containers with a few bullets left in them were all that remained in the safe. Presumably, the Hammonds kept a weapon in there for protection. Unregistered, because it hadn’t shown up in their investigation. Or more likely, it was registered in Elinor’s name.
He could see the sequences of events clearly. Something had happened to finally make Cecily snap. Maybe he’d forced her to have sex with him, maybe it was just being back in this house, but she’d waited for him to be in the shower—the running water muting his acute hearing—and she’d come in here to retrieve the one thing at her disposal that could be used against a vampire.
A gun with Magickal ammo. He recognized the brand name on the side of the box. To a Normal, the bullets wouldn’t look any different than the regular kind, but they were. They were explosive, armor-piercing rounds that had fragments of everything Magickal races were allergic to. Each had their vulnerabilities, and this ammo had been designed to take advantage of them. Bronze for witches and warlocks, silver for werewolves, iron for Fae and elves and a sunbeam spell for vampires was a component of the explosion in the explosive round.
Thus, the charring on Hammond’s body. He’d been scorched from the inside out.
Served the bastard right.
But it wasn’t Hammond’s fate that made Luca’s insides clench with guilt and anger. One way or another, Hammond had it coming. No, it was Cecily. A few strides took him onto the balcony, and he rested his hands against the railing while he looked down on the Normal woman’s stiffening corpse.
She’d left her husband in the bathroom and gone downstairs to finish the job. The woman had curled herself around where her son’s dead body had lain—and then blown her brains out.
It might have been prevented, if only Luca had been allowed to do his damned job. If only the case had been given to someone who wasn’t hampered by bloodsucking political and familial entanglements. If only, if only, if only. He knew that kind of thinking just twisted a person up inside and didn’t help with anything, but that didn’t make it less true. He was disgusted with himself, with the bureaucracy, with the whole fucking world.
And it didn’t mean shit because nothing could be changed now.
Commotion came from the front door, drawing his attention.
A harsh wail echoed from just outside the house. “Where is he? Where is my son?”
There was the sound of a small scuffle, and he’d guess one of the agents or officers was trying to hold Medusa back. Along with her, Luca sensed his father had arrived. Fantastic.
“Let her in,” Luca called. He saw no reason to worry about preserving the crime scene. The murderer had already been killed.
A disheveled Elinor Hammond streaked through the foyer at top vampiric speed, and even Luca had trouble tracking her movements as she shot up the stairs and into the bedroom. The scream that issued from her throat made hairs rise on the back of Luca’s neck.
Salvatore stopped to stare at Cecily’s dead body, and Luca saw his father’s Adam’s apple bob. He stepped carefully over the pool of blood, and followed his lover up the steps. When Luca met his gaze, he couldn’t read the older man’s expression. Deep emotion moved beneath the mask his father always wore, but that could mean a lot of things.
Not stopping to speak to Luca, he proceeded into the bedroom and then to the bathroom beyond, where Elinor continued to wail. Salvatore flinched when he saw her kneeling in the crimson-stained pool of water and blood.
Her arms were wrapped around Robert, cradling him against her breast as if he were an infant. “My boy. My poor boy.” Sobs rattled her chest. “My bloodline is ended.”
She rocked him, the motion jerky. “That bitch sheep of his. I told him not to marry her. I told him keeping her was too much of a risk. And now look what happened.” Her eyes closed and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why didn’t you listen to me, Robert? Why did you have to defy me? Why?”
The last word rose to a hysterical scream, and then she dissolved into sobs again.
Salvatore jerked his gaze from her, half-turning away as if he couldn’t bear to watch. Selina and Jack also studiously focused their attention elsewhere, though Luca caught the cautious glances they kept taking at the grieving mother. Good. The woman was dangerous on a good day. Today wasn’t a good day, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she went rabid wolverine on all of them.
He spoke quietly to his father. “What are you doing here?”
The other vampire had to clear his throat twice before he managed to speak. “I was driving when she felt her son die. In her place, I would have wanted to be taken to you as soon as possible too.”
Luca nodded, uncomfortable with the emotion in his father’s voice. It almost sounded as if the man would give a damn if something happened to him. Not just that he’d feel the duty of their blood-tie, but that he’d care. Such a sentiment had never crossed Salvatore Cavalli’s lips before.
“How did you get here ahead of us?” The older vampire shook his head. “You wouldn’t have sensed his death. They aren’t of our bloodline.”
Taking in a breath, Luca let it out slowly before he replied. “I had an arrest warrant.”
“Which judge signed it for you?” The question was sharp, and one Luca felt no need to answer. His father already knew.
“I had more than enough for probable cause, Father. The evidence was pretty damning.” It just sickened him that he hadn’t been able to serve that warrant thirty minutes earlier. So close and yet not nearly close enough to have prevented this final disaster.
Salvatore’s jaw flexed, and his throat worked as he swallowed. He stared at the keening, rocking Elinor for a long moment before he sucked in an audible breath. “Maybe this is best then. For all concerned.”
Growling, Luca shook his head. “Not for Dillon or Cecily.” He sighed. “But for Robert? Yes, I agree with you.”
“An unfortunate, messy business.” The words had the hard resignation of a man who’d seen much in his life, and as bad as this was, it wasn’t the worst.
Luca could relate.
“Yes.” He met his father’s eyes. “You should go. We can take care of Elinor.”
The older man hesitated for a moment. “She called the wife a sheep. Was Hammond really keeping one?”
Luca shrugged one shoulder. “It was one of the charges being brought against him.”
“And Elinor knew about it.” Something hardened in Salvatore’s gaze, and his mouth tightened. “I don’t like it. Never did believe in keeping them, even before elixir.”
“I know.” Luca set his hand on his father’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
A small smile kicked up the corners of his lips. “You’re welcome.”
Elixir had come on the market maybe a decade ago, so vampires had needed to feed fully on blood before that. He was grateful that they’d never kept sheep in his family. A few of his cousins had, but his parents had never condoned the practice, even if other vampires insisted it was the practical choice. Perhaps it had been, but his parents had used means other than defenseless humans. They’d hired household staff—Magickals who knew exactly
what they were getting in to—who would serve as blood donors.
Sheep were often mesmerized humans who had no idea what was going on. They’d be used up, bled dry and then discarded. Most didn’t survive with their lives, and those who did usually didn’t keep their sanity.
Some were willing, he’d grant them that. A little blood magic, some seduction, and the Normal was addicted to what a vampire could give them. Many vampires saw it as a necessary evil, and since both parties were using the other for something they craved, then it was a mutually beneficial relationship. Luca saw that as the same kind of logic a drug dealer used. Hook a junkie on your product, then claim it was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Had the humans been left alone, they would never have known that vampires could give them something to crave.
Salvatore slid his hands into his pockets. “Sunday dinner is at my house tomorrow. You’ll come?”
The question surprised Luca. His father was usually more likely to command or demand than ask. Today had rattled his old man more than he’d probably ever admit. Luca nodded. “I’ll be there. I always am, unless I’m called away by work.”
A faint smile curled Salvatore’s lips. “I don’t think I’ll invite Elinor, even with this…situation being resolved.”
“It’s up to you.” Luca knew better than to get between a vampire and the woman he wanted, even if that woman were someone as loathsome as Medusa. Though looking at her now, she was more pitiable than anything else. She’d raised her son to be a vicious, self-involved man who thought nothing of breaking the law and his blood oaths, using, abusing and murdering people for his own needs. That arrogance had gotten him killed. Still, her grief was real enough, and on that level alone, Luca could feel sympathy for her.
“Some distance would probably be advisable.” Salvatore shot him a sideways glance. “You know, in the end, she’ll blame you for this…and me and the rest of the family by extension.”
“I know.”
“The gods forbid she would ever let her precious baby take any responsibility for any of this. Or herself, for that matter.” He sighed. “That attitude has worn pretty thin, listening to her rant and defend him the last few days.”
Edge of Night Page 14
