Shadows of Fire

by Nina Pierce

  His car steered itself down the rutted dirt road toward home. The wipers slapped away the early morning drizzle and he was grateful for the heavy blanket of clouds obscuring the sun. He wanted the world to feel the damp and deep gloom clouding his spirit and permeating his muscles. Reese wasn’t sure anything could penetrate the heavy coat of sorrow and guilt he currently wore. He should have solved this case months ago. Glenn had died because he’d lost focus. Well, no more. He’d follow the evidence, regardless of where—or to whom—it led.

  The pines opened to a small clearing. Morning fog hung heavy over the river running placidly behind their log cabin. Normal men would have found tranquility and sustenance fishing in its icy depths, but in the year they’d lived here, he and Josh had barely spent time on its banks. That’s why it surprised Reese when his eyes immediately fixated on the figure hunched on the boulder. He stared, not sure she wasn’t a mirage.

  He shoved the car in park and shut off the engine.

  Alex had come to him. Was she here to confess or make excuses? Glenn loved her like a daughter. Reese didn’t want to believe she’d have it in her to murder the man so heartlessly, but the evidence was certainly stacking up to the contrary.

  He’d told Ronan she deserved the opportunity to defend herself. Didn’t he at least owe her that much? He tamped down his anger, getting out of the car and slogging through the thick grass to the rocky shore. A thin veil of smoky aroma permeated the air. Reese wasn’t sure if it drifted through the trees from Glenn’s farm up the road, clung to his clothes or simply filled his nose as it did for days after an ugly fire. Reese wondered if he’d ever purge this one from his senses.

  The woman folded in on herself sitting on the boulder didn’t look dangerous. Coming up behind her, he squinted against the early morning light. The steady wash of rain on his ball cap did little to ease the tingle of sun upon his face. Though a vampire as young as Alex could withstand several hours of direct exposure, he couldn’t help wondering if sitting in its rays was some form of penance. Even in the rainy gloom, the dawn burned brightly.

  “Did Ronan bring you here?” he asked.

  “I walked over from the tavern.”

  “He let you leave?”

  She turned her head, the short strands of hair slashing darkly across her china doll face. Her eyes, usually sparking with life, were red and raw with sadness. “No, actually, I told him I had to go to the bathroom and left out the window.” She spun her body around and he couldn’t help noticing how her wet clothes molded to her shivering frame. “Were you afraid I’d fall apart after hearing about Glenn’s death and thought I needed some support?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Yeah, didn’t think Ronan’s babysitting had anything to do with condolences over my loss.” Alex jumped down from the rock, standing toe to toe with him. “But I thought maybe I’d find a little compassion and understanding here.” She pushed past him. “Sorry to interrupt your mourning.”

  He grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Two more vampires are dead and a woman’s missing. Forgive me for not comforting the one person who had a connection to all of them.”

  Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Me?”

  “Three people in the last twelve hours.” He counted on his fingers. “Glenn, John Sampson and now Hope.”

  “What about Hope?”

  “We can’t find her.”

  Alex wrapped an arm around her waist, her color paling. “What do you mean can’t find her?”

  “As in she’s missing. Her car’s missing. Vanished. No sign of her.”

  She looked to the cabin and back to him. He wasn’t sure if the moisture running down her cheeks was rain or tears. “Where’s Josh?”

  “At her apartment, hoping she’ll call or come home.” He couldn’t read her. Didn’t know if the news surprised her or confirmed information she already knew.

  “And where did you find John Sampson?”

  “Staked to the floor in the center of Glenn’s barn with his throat ripped open.”

  Alex fell to her knees and puked.

  His heart lurched. Either she was one hell of an actress or the news was more than she could bear. Squatting next to Alex, Reese reached for her. He didn’t blame her when she batted his hand away.

  She caught her breath and turned to him, swiping at her mouth. “Don’t try to play nice now, Reese. I get it, you don’t trust—”

  Her small frame once again convulsed as her stomach retched, purging everything in her system. Her shuddering breath sawed in and out of her lungs. Even he could see how little energy she had.

  Reese may have been confused over Alex’s involvement in all of this, but he wasn’t a complete asshole. He scooped her into his arms. Her efforts to stop him were weak and ineffective. “Just let me get you inside. You can fight me when you have your strength back.”

  Alex sipped at the cup of hot water Reese had set in front of her. It was the only thing she was sure would stay down at this point. He’d given her a spare toothbrush, a dry T-shirt and some time alone in his bathroom to pull herself together. She’d refused the blood wine he’d offered, his brow furrowing when she’d pushed it away, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat. Reese stood leaning against the sideboard, his arms crossed defensively over his heart. And didn’t their timing suck?

  “I need to know, Alex.”

  She inhaled deeply. Her head pounded with the pressure behind her eyes, her stomach twisting in painful contractions. After what Alex had seen of John last night, she had no doubt things would only get worse as the day progressed. At least someone had put the vampire out of his misery. She wondered how the end would come for her.

  In light of everything happening, Alex needed to tell Reese—at least the sanitized version of the events leading up to Glenn’s death. First, she wanted to know what Reese had uncovered. “You need to know about what specifically?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “It’s me you’re talking to, Alex. Don’t insult what we have by playing games.”

  “I didn’t kill anyone as you seem to think.”

  His eyes grew dark, the corner of his mouth curving in a malicious smirk. He straightened and held his palms out, inviting her to rebuke his theory. His silent recrimination filled the air and Alex could hardly draw breath. Jesus. She’d only been grabbing at straws. He really thought she’d started the fire that had killed Glenn and John.

  “He was my father.” Alex’s chin trembled, but the words had come out strong. “I’ve been listening to him in my head since the day he saved me … and now there’s nothing.” She swallowed the sorrow threatening to overwhelm her. “Hope is my best friend. What could ever make you believe I’d hurt them much less …” She couldn’t say the word. She’d barely processed Glenn’s death and now her best friend seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth.

  In one long stride, Reese was in her face. “Then make me understand how every human and every vampire who’s been killed in the last eighteen months has some affiliation with you. Because from where I’m standing, Alex, it’s hard to see past those facts.”

  His words were like a hard slap that jerked her head back. “Firefighters don’t investigate deaths. And if the fire marshal suspected anything, I’d be sitting in a jail cell and not at your kitchen table.” Her gaze raked his face watching emotions playing over his features. “Who the hell are you, Reese Colton?”

  “An investigator for the tribunal.”

  “If they think I’m guilty of killing vamps, why haven’t they taken me?”

  “They don’t know what we know. We just uncovered the information yesterday.””

  “You’re not the only one?”

  “No. Josh and Ronan too.”

  That would explain the weird interaction between Ronan and Reese in the wine cellar yesterday morning. She’d known the two had been connected somehow. “That would explain why Ronan was so nice and offered me a ride home from the fire.” She shot him a sarcastic smile.
“He didn’t want me to get away.”

  Reese simply shrugged in agreement. “We’re here at Glenn’s request to the tribunal.”

  “He never said anything.” It was all too much to process. Alex got up, pacing the kitchen, trying to make her mind work through the haze of confusion and pain. “Glenn believed this evidence also implicated me?”

  “We never had a chance to tell him.” Reese dropped into the kitchen chair, as if the information they’d found were a burden he couldn’t carry. “Hope discovered your connection to the fires over the last eighteen months and shared it with Josh yesterday. We think that’s why she’s missing.”

  The last Alex had seen of her friend, Hope had been running from the barn. She had tracked John for nearly two hours. By the time she’d followed his trail back to Glenn’s, the barn had been burning wildly and she hadn’t seen anyone else. Alex believed Hope had gone for help. “I didn’t hurt her.” Alex’s stomach dropped and it was all she could do to keep her legs under her. Details were running together in a sickening haze, confusing the sequence of events, but she was sure she hadn’t seen the yellow VW at Glenn’s when she’d returned to the barn. “Reese, I didn’t hurt any of them.”

  “Let’s start with the fire last night. Why were you at Glenn’s?”

  That was a loaded question. “Glenn didn’t show up for his shift at the tavern. Since he was supposed to bring the week’s supply of pig blood for the winery, someone needed to get it.” It was a lie, but one she’d concocted last night when she’d run from the tavern. “John Sampson was there feeding the animals. He’s done it hundreds of times before.” Alex kept her voice steady through the deceit. Reese didn’t need to know why either of them had been at Glenn’s. Her reason had nothing to do with hiding a murder, but she did have to wonder if it had something to do with John’s death.

  “What time was that?”

  “I don’t know, seven or eight? Does it matter?”

  “Yeah, it fucking matters.” Reese’s hand came down hard on the metal table. “Glenn called us in because vamps were being burned in fires throughout South Kenton. Since we’ve arrived, not only have the numbers of fires escalated, but now they include humans who have been sucked dry. And within the last two days the only human who knew about our covert investigation, Paul Morgan, has been murdered along with the vampire who got the ball rolling. It’s not just anyone who drives a stake in a man’s heart and burns them to death. We’ve got a rogue vampire on a rampage. So yeah, Alex, I think any information you have about the fires fucking matters.”

  “Reese, I just don’t know. It was dark by the time we finished with the animals. John left and I went to get the pig blood out of the cooler where Glenn stores it.”

  “Did you see anyone else at that time?’ His voice, smooth and thick as blood, dripped with bitterness.

  She shook her head. There’s no way she could explain Hope’s involvement in the night’s activities. Besides, the woman had been alive when she’d left her. Tears welled in her eyes as the sadness pressed hot in her throat. She dropped in the chair across from him.

  “You didn’t see anyone around who could have started the fire?”

  She’d been too intent on stopping John to know if anyone but Hope had been at the barn. “Not until I got back, after dropping off the wine.”

  “What sent you back?”

  “I hadn’t heard from Glenn.” It frightened Alex how easily the lies tripped off her tongue and rolled into a huge tangle of deceit. She’d concocted the whole scenario by the river in the early hours of dawn while she’d waited for Reese. There was no reason for anyone to know she’d run after John in hopes of saving him. No one would believe her anyway. Not when everyone who mattered to her was dying. They hadn’t died at her hands, but obviously knowing Alexandra Flanagan was a pastime you didn’t survive.

  She’d come seeking solace in Reese’s arms—and his bed. She’d wanted one day of lust to take with her when she left. That had been something else Alex had decided while she’d sat by the river. She needed to leave and take her secrets with her. The cracker and blood wine mash hadn’t stayed down. Alex had puked on the side of the road on her way to the barn.

  If she couldn’t help herself, there was no way she could save others from John’s fate. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Life as she knew it was over.

  Reese squeezed her hand, pulling her from her morose thoughts. “Hey, you need a minute?”

  She grabbed a napkin from the metal dispenser on the table and mopped up her tears. “No. I’m fine. What did you ask?”

  “I asked you what time you got back to Glenn’s.”

  “I have no idea. When I got there the second time, the barn was on fire.” It was the one solid fact she’d based her whole story upon. “I panicked and tried to go in to see if I could put it out.” Her voice grew weak with exhaustion. “But it was too hot and it was spreading so fast. I dialed 9-1-1 and went looking out back for Glenn. His truck was there.” She looked at Reese with renewed hope. “Dispatch should have the time of my call. That should help piece everything together.”

  Reese’s eyes didn’t reflect her optimism. “They do. Ten fifteen.” He paused. “According to Chris, you left the tavern a little after seven. I checked with him this morning. He said you didn’t come back.”

  “I went directly into the cellars from outside.”

  “And no one saw you?”

  “I didn’t want anyone to see me with the pig blood. I took a chance bringing it during business hours, but I needed to get another batch started. Glenn …” She shook her head. The vampire’s name opened her to the grief squeezing her heart. “I didn’t know Glenn and John were in the barn. I should have tried harder ….”

  “There’s just got to be more to this whole thing. Obviously, you’re the common denominator.” Hard lines creased the corners of his eyes and mouth as he grabbed a large pad of paper and a pen. “We’re going to start from Glenn’s and work backwards through all the fires. Tell me about Thursday night and the professor …”

  Reese continued taking working backward over the last year. Asking questions and taking notes. Fire by fire. Death by death. Alex had remembered how every loss had stolen a piece of her heart, but not where she’d been when the fires had started. She’d touched the lives of every vampire and every human Reese asked her about, either at the tavern, the university or in her personal life. The evidence mounting against her was damning.

  Over the two hours Reese grilled her, Alex focused on the facts and not the panic working to tear her apart. But as Reese leaned back in his chair, stretching his cramped muscles, she could no longer deny that the tribunal had a solid case against her.

  Restless, she got up, clearing away the bottle of blood wine neither of them had touched and her empty cup. The tepid water had managed to tamp down the nausea, but not her hunger.

  “I don’t know why someone’s done this. But they certainly have crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’ on my death certificate.” Alex stared out the window over the sink, watching the flow of the river. Maybe this was an easier ending. She certainly didn’t want to feel the desperation John had been experiencing last night. She guessed it was inevitable given the path she’d chosen months ago that her life would end in a slow, agonizing hell.

  “So you’re just going to give up?”

  She turned back to Reese as he pushed back from the table.

  “Someone’s been systematically slaying vampires to make it look like I’m a killer.” She waved at the pages of notes spread across the table. “They killed my friends and neighbors, murdered my only family …” Sorrow ripped open the raw wounds, bringing a fresh sting of tears behind her eyes, but she refused to give in to them. “They stole my father from me and now have done who-knows-what with my best friend. What have I got left?”

  “Me.” His strong arms wrapped around her waist, holding her up, pulling her into the security of his body. “Someone’s setting you up and I intend to f
ind out why.” She wanted to fight him, but the look in his eyes said he had enough faith in his convictions for the both of them.

  “I have to warn you, hanging with me could be hazardous to your health,” she whispered.

  “It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  His mouth came down hard on hers. No soft exploration. No gentle probing. Just raw male lust devouring her mouth. His hands fisted in her hair and she opened herself to him, wanting to fill the void Glenn’s death had left in her mind and heart. She needed to feel alive in the midst of so much death. Her lips parted and welcomed the heat of his tongue. It tangled and danced with hers, teasing and tasting.

  “Alex … we’ll figure it out … later.” His lips wandered her face, kissing her lids, her nose and trailing fire down her neck. “Right now, I need your body thrashing hot and wild beneath me.” His teeth scraped across the tender flesh of her throat, his fangs stretching long. “I want your soft cries of pleasure to fill the missing voice in my head.”

  Her world spun and shifted as he lifted her into his arms and covered her mouth with his. She was dizzy with need and had no idea where he was taking her until his body shifted and his foot kicked closed a door. Without preamble, Reese laid her on the soft mattress of a bed and came down heavy on top of her. Reveling in the sensation of his hands on her body, she didn’t open her eyes. The essence of him permeated the air. The pillows around her head were filled with the thick male scent of him. She wanted to drown in its heady aroma.

  Their hands were everywhere at once, tugging at clothes, ripping away buttons, clawing at zippers. The desperate need to have flesh searing flesh was all that drove them until they lay naked and gasping in each other’s arms. Their lips, teeth and hands moved in frantic hunger to taste and touch. She couldn’t get enough of him.