I filled Ren in on what had happened. Three patrol cars arrived before I could explain everything. I laid my gun on the hood of the car. Then I stood there with my badge and the light stick held up in the air. The uniforms moved in to hold back the slowly growing crowd of gawking neighbors. Vicki shut the engine off but never moved otherwise.
This has been one hell of a day.
Chapter 17
Julie played the messages for me while I waited for a cleanup team to arrive. They were all from Ren as she tried desperately to find me. I decided that I needed to keep my glasses handy from then on.
It only took the team about fifteen minutes to show up. The dead vampire skeletons were still smoking. Julie explained how to pull out a hidden chord on my wallet, turning the badge into a necklace. It was easier to wear around my neck than just holding it up. I clipped the light stick to the necklace chord, leaving it hanging down my back. No vamps would sneak up behind me now. At least that was the theory I was using. None of the uniforms on scene questioned me, even with the way I was dressed, and with the sunglasses on in the middle of the night that I was using to enhance my night vision. They even followed my orders when I gave them. Since I was the ranking officer on scene there wouldn’t be a lot of questions or paperwork for the locals.
The badge has its advantages that way.
Vicki had been temporarily blinded by the flash. Even with her eyes closed. Her eyes were just that sensitive in cat form. She had to shift some more to counter the effects since she couldn’t use her psionics to heal herself. Now she had claws and fangs. She seemed embarrassed, hiding her face and hands. She never left the car and I didn’t force her to. She told me again that shifters can heal most wounds by changing shape. Unless the wound is extreme, or caused by silver. Then shifting would not help them heal, supposing it was even still possible for them to shift.
I was tired and my head was pounding. It was after three-thirty in the morning when we were just arriving at the police station. Vicki borrowed my glasses to hide her eyes. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her sweats to hide her claws. I was walking in with my badge around my neck, my gun in one hand, and my purse in the other. The ambush had me so spooked that I didn’t want to put the weapon up yet.
No one stopped us from walking in. Most everyone just got out of my way. The officer running the metal detector that separated the entrance from the rest of the building just stared at me as I walked through gun in hand, setting off the alarm. Vicki stayed like a shadow, right behind me as if she was afraid to become lost in the sparse crowd.
We reached the elevators without anyone saying a single word to us. There’d been a small group waiting for the elevator. I stepped past them when the first set of doors opened. Vicki was the only other one that got on. Everyone else waited for the next car. When the doors closed I caught my reflection in the metal. I actually looked like I felt, tired and pissed with a migraine the size of Texas.
“I can help you feel betterrr, if you want,” Vicki spoke with a slight feline purr to her voice, breaking the silence.
“Do I really look that bad?”
“Do you want an honest answerrr?”
I sighed. “How can you help?”
“Close yourrr eyes. I’ll touch yourrr head and heal the pain.”
“Why close my eyes?”
“I don’t want you to see my hands.” She dropped her head in embarrassment.
It must really bother her.
I closed my eyes. “Okay, go ahead.”
“You have to drrrop yourrr shields for it to work.”
I dropped my shields. Instantly I felt her hand on my cheek. I’d been shielding so hard that I hadn’t felt her touch through the shields. Her hand was warm. It grew warmer, and my pain faded away. When the pain was gone I opened my eyes.
“I thought you could only heal, not remove pain.”
“Yourrr pain was because of blood prrressurrre building in the brrrain. My powerrrs let me rrremove the prrressurrre.”
She still held my face in her hand. At least she was smiling now. I glanced at her hand as she dropped it. It was just like someone had glued large retractable cat claws on the ends of her fingertips in place of fingernails. I grabbed her hand holding it to my face. I looked at it for a second then kissed her hand. She let out a gasp.
I reached up taking the glasses off. She kept her eyes closed with her head turned away from me. I slid my hand over her cheek, turning her face back to mine. Slowly she opened her eyes. They were still cat eyes. I leaned in to kiss her.
“Don’t,” she pleaded softly.
“Why not?”
She never gave me an answer. I kissed her. When she gave in to the kiss, I ran my tongue over those razor sharp fangs. Instantly cutting myself enough to draw blood.
“Oh god! You didn’t just cut yourrrself did you?” she pulled back and asked with a look of absolute horror on her face.
“Kieran is immune to the lycanthropy viruses. You can’t turn me into a shifter with your blood. It was all explained to me earlier today by Tanaka. I’m perfectly safe.”
Her face turned sour at the mention of his name. She pulled away from me pouting. “So! You arrre back with him. You werrre just using me again. It was all a lie!”
“It’s not that at all. He is a coworker, a teammate, nothing more. I’m attracted to you, not him. I want to be with you. If you want I’ll ask to be assigned to a different team away from him.”
Vicki gave me a shocked look. “You just met me less than twenty fourrr hourrrs ago. You’rrre alrrready willing to change yourr life for me. Why?”
“I have Kieran’s old feelings. I know what she felt for you. And I know what I feel for you now. It is like I’ve known you for years, and yet like I just met you all at the same time. I’m so confused about so many things. But, I am certain that I want you in my life. Even if just as a friend. I want to be with you.”
She threw her arms around me. The hug felt like my back was being crushed. She let up and we laughed. Then the serious thoughts surfaced.
“Vicki, I think I know why Kieran dumped you, and it wasn’t just to be with Tanaka. Do you want me to tell you?”
“Please, it’s been killing me forrr yearrrs not knowing why.”
“You may not like the answer. Are you sure?” I waited for her to slowly nod. I took a deep breath then began, “Tanaka told me that he knew Kieran had a steady when they first started seeing each other. But, he has no clue who it was. He doesn’t know it was you. If I understand everything right, somewhere around a month before she left you, she was attacked by a werewolf. He bit her and got his blood in her wounds past her shields.”
Vicki gasped, bringing that clawed hand up to cover her mouth. “I had no idea, she neverrr said anything about it to me.”
“She waited for the full moon, and she never changed. Emmy ran some sort of test and found out that Kieran is immune to the lycanthrope virus, though I have no idea why they waited that long to run the test. Look, I don’t know exactly why she left you, but she did say one thing about it to Tanaka. She . . . she said that she ‘didn’t sleep with animals’.”
“Oh god! That’s why she left me? She knew I was a shifterrr well before then. Why wouldn’t she tell me? I’ve been angrrry with herrr all these yearrrs for the wrrrong rrreasons.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
What do I do now? The last thing I wanted was to make her cry.
I started to raise my hands to her. She fell into my arms before I was ready. We ended up on the floor of the elevator.
Between sobs she looked at me. “You won’t leave me just because I’m not completely human will you?”
The hurt was so raw in her eyes, I would have said or done anything to bring her smile back. But the truth was easier. “If you can accept me even though I’m the guy that took over the female body of your ex-lover, then I can accept you being a little furry from time to time.” She half laughed, half cried at that.
We both regained
our composure before the elevator stopped. We ran into Ren and filled her in on everything. She told me that she still didn’t like Tanaka though.
Chapter 18
Ren’s office was plastered with photos of the other victims and the crime scenes of Jacob’s murders. There had been seventeen attacks in St. Carver at that point. A high enough number that the Fed’s were doing their own separate investigation. That made a total of forty-three confirmed cases across the nation. We didn’t have any information for other countries, but I had a feeling there were more out there somewhere. On one wall there was a map of St. Carver. Little red pins marked where the bodies had been found. There were other color pins on the map as well. Yellow for the victims residents, blue for police and fire stations, one green one, and one black one.
“What are the green and black pins for?” I asked pointing at the map.
Ren looked as tired as the rest of us. She was laying down on the couch in her office. Her hand thrown up over her eyes as she talked. “Green is where we found the girl that’s still alive at the hospital. I doubled her guard after we ran into those wolves at her apartment. They were there to tie up loose ends. I’d say the girl still living is one hell of a loose end. The black pin one is the central point from all of the attack sites. It marks an office building downtown, the Dark Towers. The building is owned by Ahmed Targ. Targ is the Head Master Vampire of the Region. He has a form of diplomatic immunity because of that. We can’t touch him, even if we can prove he is guilty of any crime, including murder.”
Vicki was sitting in Ren’s desk chair. Her clawed hands cupping an insulated paper cup of hot cocoa from the coffee vending machine, eyes staring out into space lost in thought. She was trying not to be noticed as Ren and I talked shop. Ren never asked her to leave. Even though Vicki technically shouldn’t have been there.
Hell, I don’t even want to be here.
“Do you think that Targ is hiding Jacob?”
Ren sat up looking worriedly at Vicki. “It’s possible. But even if we could prove it, we can’t do anything about it. He’s protected by the Vampire Council. He’s simply immune to our laws.”
“When the Vampire Council gave me my guns, they also offered their support in stopping Jacob. I was told that any vampire that stands in my way was an open target. I could kill them without backlash from the Council. I’m not sure, but it may give us an edge to use against Targ. It should be at least enough to go question him.”
“Well, that plus your lead about the tattoos gives us a direction anyway. . . . I watched the tape,” Ren announced with a heavy sigh. She paused a long time with her head down before continuing. “It shows everything they did to that girl. . . . Eve-ry-thing! When I felt her before, I saw what they did through her eyes. I don’t know which version is worse, hers, or the tape’s. Jacob’s on the tape. Along with our white werewolf and a few others. They . . . they taped the whole thing, like some sort of trophy.”
“Jesus,” Vicki whispered under her breath from behind her cocoa.
“Yeah. Look Kieran, I hate to force you to watch the tape. But. . . .” she trailed off.
“Ren. This bastard has to be stopped. We both know that. Hell he’s even sending out his thugs after me. I think we may be closer to him then we realize. Just show me the tape. Let me see what’s been keeping you up at night.” Really, I did not want to see it. Hell, I would’ve given all of my newly acquired money to not see it. But, I had to. It was my job.
Right?
“Vicki, it’s pretty bad. Do you want to join me in the lounge while Kieran watches?” Ren gave her an out. I was kind’a jealous.
“No. They followed us back to my apartment tonight. They planned to kill Kieran, and they would’ve killed me just for being with her. I want to see just who is behind this.”
“Neither of you need to see the whole thing. So it’s set up to start in the middle.”
Vicki and I sat on the couch in front of the small TV. Ren placed a small trash can next to each of our feet.
That can’t be a good sign.
After starting the tape, Ren went to lean against the door. She didn’t leave, but she did turn away from us. I guessed she’d seen enough. She got brownie points for hanging around though.
The picture crackled to life.
Immediately on the screen, the girl was naked and screaming with fear. Three werewolves–including the phantom white werewolf with the tribal markings–held her to the bed. A vampire was thrusting himself between her legs, oblivious to her screams, brutally raping her. The sight made me instantly feel sick and angry. Very angry. The vampire tossed his head back bearing his fangs. Then he struck, digging his teeth into her shoulder. I had to force myself not to cover my ears to block out her screams. The vampire shook as he spilled inside her.
“Good, good,” a male voice said on the tape. The voice sounded familiar. Where in the hell have I heard that voice before? “Jacob, what do you think of her?” A man’s left hand appeared on the screen pointing at the girl. On the index finger was a ring. A gold ring with at stone that glowed like it was liquid fire.
The vampire slid off of the girl trailing his fangs down her body in bloody cuts. She was screaming so much that she started to hyperventilate. Jacob entered the view. I recognized him right away from the pictures Emmy had shown me. The sharp edge of his nose, the narrow almost Asian eyes, jet black hair falling loosely around his broad shoulders to his waist over his expensive custom designer suit. Only the short scar high up on his right cheekbone ruined the glowing perfection of his skin. There was no doubt. It was Jacob. His eyes were blood red orbs. The sign that he was dangerously drunk with power. His hair spilled over his shoulders in a sea of black. He knelt down taking the girls arm in his hand.
Lips caressed the skin on the inside of her elbow. Then the lips parted, bearing the fangs. Jacob bit into her arm. He drank from her. Sucking it up like it was the last water in the desert. The screams had faded some as the girl went into shock again. The lack of other noises leaving the wet sucking sounds from Jacob incredibly loud. When he had his fill, his head tipped back as he let out a growl, blood running obscenely down his face and neck.
“She tastes sweeter than the others,” Jacob finally declared. Laughter filled the room from everyone except the frightened girl.
“Master,” the white werewolf growled. “May I take my prize?” It asked Jacob.
Jacob bowed with his arms out and backed away in a graceful move, grinning with his fangs showing. The werewolf moved to her left leg.
My stomach flipped. I knew what came next. I’d seen the girl in the hospital.
The werewolf stood over her looking like a starved man at a free all-you-can-eat buffet. In a blur it bit into her thigh. Shaking its head back and forth, it was gnawing noisily at the flesh and bone.
I grabbed the trash can just in time to catch what my stomach emptied. I could hear someone else getting sick as well. The mixture of sounds and the images still circling in my head made me heave again. A large, impossibly loud feline hiss filled the air. I glanced up as Vicki lashed out. Her claws tearing clear through the TV, knocking it to the floor in a splatter of sparks and scrap. She hissed and growled at the broken TV like a cat defending its territory. Neither Ren nor I said anything as we let Vicki calm down. Once she was calm, she took her turn being sick. Ren had been the one I heard earlier.
Ren passed around a bottle of mouthwash. We all used it to swish the taste of the vomit away. She gathered the three nasty trash cans, and handed them very unceremoniously to an unsuspecting uniform passing by to have them dumped. We all sat in silence staring at the claw marks in the remains of the broken TV on the floor.
Ren finally broke the silence. “The raping vampire has been identified as Douglas Adams. He works directly under Targ.”
“Any I.D. on the others?” I asked, trying to focus on the job at hand and not the images that haunted me if I closed my eyes.
“No. Another victim was found about nine-th
irty tonight, or last night, whatever. I haven’t been down to see the body yet. Are you up to it?”
NO!!!
I was not up to seeing the body. Especially after what I’d just saw. I just wanted to go get a pass from the nurse and go home. Too bad my conscience wouldn’t let me just say no. Jacob was the only lead we had on what had “killed” Kieran. Regardless, he was a rogue psionic that had to be stopped.
“I need some air first. Then we can go.”
“Count me out,” Vicki blurted out with a level of finality that left no room to question.
“That’s okay Vicki. You can stay in my office as long as you like.”
With that we left.
* * *
Ren and I stood out in the cold winter air, ankle deep in snow. She shivered even though she had on a thick oversized police-issue winter coat. I let my shields keep me warm. I still felt sick. I hadn’t eaten in hours since the party, and I’d just revisited that meal back in the trash can in the office. My growing headache was telling me I was overdoing it again, and there was no telling when I was going to get a break for some sleep. I fished my belt pack out of my purse. I pulled out one of each of the pack’s contents. Painkiller, then ration cube, and sleepstim, followed by a drop of hydro. I felt better almost instantly.
Ren still looked green. I offered her the same combination. I called it a feel better cocktail. Even though the name was cheesy, she accepted my offering. It didn’t take long for her to look better.
I need to offer Vicki some when we get back in.
“Why are we out here Kieran?”
“To ask a question,” I replied.
Ren looked at me with confusion on her face. I led her out in the snow, away from the doors and the people.
“Look, I’m going to call someone for help. I need to know where we stand with this Targ guy. I am calling a vampire. I do not know how, when, or even if he’ll appear, so please don’t shoot him.”
Survivor Reborn (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 20
