by Nova Archer
That went well. Caine rubbed a hand over his mouth. He supposed he deserved that for assuming any impropriety on Eve’s part. It was just that they didn’t need any more problems on this case. He didn’t believe in engaging in anything romantic with coworkers. Nothing good ever came out of it. It was difficult enough without making things more complicated with strained working relationships.
Ha! Talk about strained working relationships! Just having Eve here had put enough tension on his team, and on him, to break a tightrope. He could feel the high level of anxiety from both his people and from Eve. It was so palpable he felt like he was walking in water.
Jace popped his head through the doorway. “What did you do to the human? She looks like she could rip the universe a new black hole...with her teeth even.”
“I probably owe her an apology.” He sighed. “Did you happen to see where she went?”
“Women’s washroom. I heard some definite banging going on in there.” As quick as Jace was there, he was gone.
Taking a deep breath, Caine smoothed a hand over his hair, then exited his office and walked down the hall toward the washrooms.
He put his ear to the door, and heard a lot of banging and some mumbling. The word jerk and a few choice swear words came through a little louder than normal. Yup, she was definitely in there.
Without announcing his intentions, Caine pushed open the door and walked in. Eve was leaning on the counter, her head down, with the tap running. There were a few balled-up wads of tissue paper lined up on the Formica near her fisted hand.
She glanced up when he walked in and startled. Fumbling for the tap, she turned off the water, and then gathered all her tissues and shoved them into the garbage can.
“What are you doing in here? This isn’t a co-ed facility is it?” She looked around, obviously searching for any missed urinals.
“I wanted to apologize.” He cleared his throat, and smoothed a hand over his shirt, pressing down on a wrinkle he just noticed. “You’re right that it is none of my business in how you handle your...affairs, and I’m sure, if handled properly, that it wouldn’t interfere with this investigation in any way.”
When he was done, he noticed that she was staring at him, her brow wrinkled as if in deep thought.
“Do all your apologies sound forced and contrived?”
“If by that, you mean I’m not used to apologizing, then you’d be correct. I suppose I’m not used to someone so emotional that I would need to make an apology.”
Shaking her head, Eve turned back to the sink, turned on the tap and started to wash her hands. “You come in here all intent on apologizing to me, and end up insulting me again.” She sniffed. “Go figure.”
Caine blew out a breath, and then tried again. He wasn’t used to having to coddle anyone. Everyone on his team did his or her job without complaint. He’d had to discipline both Lyra and Jace several times on their behavior, but neither one had displayed any emotion other than anger. He wasn’t used to having to explain himself or his behavior. It was uncomfortable and he didn’t like it much.
“Eve, we are very different. The way we work, the way we think, and the obvious physical differences.” He took in a deep breath, trying to sort out his thoughts so they came out coherently. “I will try and remember that so I think before I speak to you.”
She glanced at him sideways, then nodded. Turning, she wiped her hands on a paper towel and gave him a half-smile. “I accept your apology.”
“And for the record, when I was talking about liabilities, I in no way was referring to you.”
She gave him a genuine smile, and her face lit up. He thought she looked quite beautiful, even with her hair in disarray. In fact, he preferred her that way. Unkempt, fresh-faced, and...stunning.
Clearing his throat again, he looked away and fiddled with his button on his shirt. Where these sudden nerves came from, he didn’t know. He was usually wound tight, confident, unfazed. However, being around this human, with her looking at him the way she was, started to unravel some of his tight threads. And he didn’t like the feeling one bit.
“And I’m sorry for calling you and your team hostile,” she said as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
He shook his head and smiled. “No need. We are. However, we need to all get along and try to work as a team. I know you are trying.” He smiled at her. “I know we seem like a freak show to you, and I appreciate your professionalism in not letting it get to you.”
She returned his grin, and for a moment it was as if the room had disappeared, and it was just the two of them standing across from one another in a white empty space. Caine felt an intense connection between them. A connection he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. One he wasn’t sure he wanted to feel again. It had caused him too much pain in the past.
However, as soon as the moment came, it disappeared.
“We have to leave soon.” He turned toward the door. “Why don’t you get something to eat, and I’ll meet you in the garage.”
He left before she could say anything. The moment he was out of the washroom, he took in a deep cleansing breath and rubbed at his eyes. This was going to be one hell of a case, and it had nothing to do with the murder.
Squeezing his hands into fists, he pushed down the hormones coursing through his body. This was not the time or place for his sexual appetites to be rising to the surface. He was close to three hundred years old, for pity’s sake, and had long ago learned how to control his hungers. He had stopped frequenting The Club, hadn’t he, since gaining control over himself? No longer feeling the need for the tension-relieving facilities to regulate his desires, he had revoked his membership.
However, there was something about the woman that battered at his senses. Something that yanked at the bars on his cage. If he wasn’t careful, those metal bars around his desire would dissolve into molten steel and no one would be safe. Especially not a defenseless human woman like Eve.
CHAPTER NINE
By the time they drove out of Necropolis and onto I35 to San Antonio, the silence was killing Eve. She was normally a quiet introspective person, but sitting in the same vehicle as Caine, his spicy cologne tickling her senses, it was becoming increasingly difficult to stay still and pensive.
She had busied herself looking out the passenger window as they drove down the dark road, but there were only so many road signs that could occupy a person’s mind. There was nothing to see out in the darkened desert. The only thing she could discern was the lights of San Antonio as they approached.
His presence was starting to affect her. Oh, she’d been careful to avoid as much eye contact as possible, not wanting to be unnaturally swayed by his vampiric charms, but she found she was enjoying being around him. Although he was uptight, arrogant, and seemingly very anal about his office and personal things, she was starting to like him. He had a very old world charm to him, very Mr. Darcy.
It was obvious to her that his crime investigation team and the law enforcement community respected him. He ran a tight unit and she had been impressed with what he had done with the lab. She heard from Lyra that Caine had created most of the systems and procedures. When Necropolis was formed and its citizens given their own level of government and law, Caine was the one that oversaw the creation of the OCU, without much help from the human community.
She respected that level of dedication and determination. But she supposed being so old gave him a lot of time to become that goal driven.
After fiddling with the glove box, Eve glanced over at Caine. His eyes were straight forward, his hands tight on the wheel, and he looked very focused on his driving. Focused. That was a good way to describe him. She wondered if he attacked every task, every activity, with such concentration.
For a brief moment, an image of Caine flashed in her mind. Sexy and sleek in a black silk robe, he stalked across a room towards her, his gorgeous blue eyes glinting like cobalt blue steel.
She shook her head, dislodging the image, and swi
veled her head back to the glove box. Focus on the boring gray plastic. Much safer that way.
“Would you like some music?”
She nodded, eager for anything to break the disturbing sexual images from her mind.
Caine turned on the SUV’s stereo system. Within seconds, a hauntingly melodious strain of stringed instruments floated through the vehicles speakers. Eve thought she had never heard anything so breathtaking in her life. Not until the poignant heart-wrenching voice joined in. Instantly, tears sprang to her eyes and her chest tightened with emotion. She could hardly breathe with the intensity of it crushing her inside.
“Oh my God,” she said, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I have never heard anything so beautiful, so moving.”
“Nadja Devanshi,” Caine sighed. “She sings like an angel.”
The tears flowed freely down her face while she closed her eyes and listened to the music. It was an opera, she was sure, but it was sung in a language she’d never heard before. However, she didn’t need to understand the words to know that the song was about loss and pain. Eve could feel it in her heart, in her head. Nothing like this had ever affected her before. It seemed almost unnatural.
Her eyes sprang open and she looked at Caine. “Turn it off.”
“What?”
“I said turn it off. Please.”
He pushed the stop button on the stereo. Abruptly, they were plunged into silence. “What’s the matter?”
“Her voice. It seemed to overpower me.”
Caine shook his head. “Right. I should’ve known. I didn’t realize it would affect you so intensely.”
Eve ran a hand over her face, scrubbing away the last of her tears. The tightness in her chest lessened, and she was able to breathe without feeling the need to sob uncontrollably.
“Nadja’s power comes from her voice.”
“Do you have that...that power?” she asked, her voice quiet, the need to cry still clutching at her throat.
“No. Every vampire is different.”
“Does her voice affect you?”
He chuckled. “Yes, I suppose it does, but not in the same way it did you.”
“What is your power?”
“I can sense things, strong emotions mostly.” He glanced at her. “If someone is afraid, even if they try to mask it, I can sense their fear.” He turned his gaze back to the dark road. “It comes to me as a smell or taste.”
“All emotions?”
He nodded, and she thought she saw a twitch of his lips. “Some more than most. The stronger the emotion the more I can feel it. Fear, hate, love, lust.”
She stared at his profile, wanting to trace a fingertip allow the line of his jaw. His muscles twitched there, and for some reason, she wanted to smooth it away. She wondered if he could sense that she wanted to touch him, if he could smell her blossoming attraction.
Pulling her gaze from him, she looked down at her hands and tried to will her feelings away. Just knowing that he could sense them, taste them even, made her even more uncomfortable than before. It was hard enough keeping them from her face, or from her voice. To know that Caine could read them anyway, no matter what she did, caused a treacherous ripple of pleasure over her body. She shivered, knowing that he could probably read that too.
“Are you cold?” he asked while he turned on the heater.
She nodded, relieved that he attributed her quivers to the temperature. However, the gleam in his eye as he turned his gaze to the SUV’s controls, told her he knew damn well, what caused the goose bumps on her arms and legs. And it wasn’t the lack of warmth in the vehicle, but the rising heat in her body.
He flicked on the heat hoping to lessen the tension in the vehicle. Tension that was quickly becoming sexual more than anything else. Caine could smell Eve’s increasing attraction toward him. Not the way most males could by the scent of her body, but it was something more. Something floral, sweet and enticing. An odor he didn’t want to discern. Because her attraction to him only increased his toward her.
Tightening his hold on the steering wheel, Caine directed his thoughts away from the beautiful woman sitting beside him to more pressing matters. The case.
It was starting to unnerve him that they only had so many clues to go on. No crime was perfect. It was impossible for a murderer to exact his force on another without leaving pieces of himself behind. But so far, they had nothing concrete that was pointing them in any one direction.
He knew eventually it would come together, it always did. Criminals didn’t remain free for long. Not in his city anyway. Something always gave them away. He just hoped that they could find that something soon. The longer this case remained unsolved the longer scrutiny would remain on Necropolis and its inhabitants.
It wouldn’t be long before the humans took matters into their own hands. He’d seen it before, so many times before. War, bloodshed, persecution. The Otherworlders had already been rounded up and tagged. Watched constantly. It wouldn’t take much more for that to increase. Soon, there would be electronic surveillance or worse.
He would do what he had to, to make sure that never happened.
Solving this case was what mattered. For more reasons than just catching a criminal. It was about the survival of his people. If they didn’t find out something soon, he feared the worst.
CHAPTER TEN
When they arrived at the victim’s place of residence, Caine noticed two cop cars and an unmarked sedan parked in front. For a moment, he wondered if there had been another crime committed, but then he realized they were there because of him. He parked on the opposite side of the street, their escort parking behind him.
After he jumped out of the SUV, he went around back and opened the hatch so Eve and he could grab their kits. Once equipped, they walked up the cement walkway to the front door of the blue-trimmed two-story house. A uniformed officer greeted them on the porch.
He glared at Caine, and then turned his gaze to Eve and nodded. “They’re waiting for you in the living room.” He opened the door for them.
Caine motioned for Eve to go first. It would be best if the victim’s family and Detective Salinas saw her first. Maybe it would cut down on the animosity he could sense all around him.
Upon entering the house, Caine took note of the simple furnishings and decorations. Simple and understated, like a picture from Better Homes and Gardens. It was obvious the Crawford family was solvent. Not wealthy by any means, but comfortable.
As he followed Eve through the entranceway and into a large, homey room, Caine noticed a few family photos on the walls. Mom, dad, Lillian, and a younger male sibling. All smiling. One average happy family.
When they entered the living room, a large man with a shirt and tie stood. His eyes took in Eve, a quick assessment, and then locked on to Caine. Caine could feel the man’s hate as if someone had poured hot water on his head.
Detective Salinas looked like a man made of iron. Wide shoulders, barrel chest, and big meaty hands that now clenched at his sides. Caine was strong, stronger than any human, but he would’ve thought twice about tangoing with the steely-eyed cop.
Eve took a step forward, blocking the detective’s line of vision. “Aaron.”
He nodded to her. “Eve. Good to see you.”
“You too.” She glanced over her shoulder. “This is Caine Valorian from the other lab.”
Caine tipped his head. “Detective Salinas.”
Aaron ignored him and motioned toward the couple sitting on the pale blue sofa. “These are John and Barbara Crawford.”
Eve nodded to them respectfully. “Sir, Ma’am.”
Caine observed that the couple sat apart on the sofa, indicating a level of guilt and accusation between them. He wondered who blamed whom for Lillian’s rebellion and eventual disappearance.
“Do you have news about our daughter?” Barbara asked, her hands wringing in her lap.
Eve looked at Caine. He nodded his head to indicate for her to proceed. It was be
st that everything came from her. No one would appreciate his input. Not now. Not when the girl’s slaying was so fresh in their minds.
Setting her kit down, Eve slid out some autopsy photos of Lillian from the manila envelope she’d been carrying under her arm. She set one of the photos, a facial shot, on the coffee table in front of the Crawfords.
“Is this your daughter Lillian?”
They both looked down at the black-and-white photo of the dead girl’s face. By the wave of horror that surged over him, Caine had no doubt that they recognized the dead girl to be their daughter, Lillian Crawford. He could taste their anguish in the air. It had a bitter tang.
Barbara covered her face in her hands and sobbed. The father just stared down at the photo, unmoving, his hands curled over his knees like claws.
“How did she die? Can we see her?”
Eve picked up the photo from the table and slid it back into the envelope. “She was murdered, sir, out of town.”
He looked up at her then, and even from across the room, Caine could see the pain in the man’s eyes. Caine had no doubt that neither parent was involved in the girl’s death. They may have pushed her away, or misunderstood her, but they didn’t contribute to her actual murder.
Barbara’s sobbing increased. John looked at her. Caine thought he was going to say something. Instead, with a shaking hand, he reached out and touched her shoulder. Turning, she threw herself into his arms, burying her face into the safety of his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, tears now streaming down his cheeks.
“Who did this to our girl?” John choked out.
“We’re working on that, sir,” Detective Salinas grunted. “But I promise you this; we will do everything possible to find her killer. You have my word on this.” His hardened gaze turned to Caine.
Caine kept Detective Salinas’s gaze, his predatory instincts rising to the surface. He would only allow the man so much leeway with his prejudice and hate before it crossed the line. If the cop pushed him too hard, he’d push back, and it wouldn’t be pretty.
