by Nova Archer
Eve cleared her throat, jostling both men back to the task at hand, and addressed the Crawfords. “We need to ask you some questions to help us in our investigation. Would that be all right?”
Mr. Crawford nodded, letting go of his wife, and wiping at his eyes.
“Lillian lived here with you?”
“Yes. She was planning to move out next year with—” he paused, “—a friend.”
“A boyfriend?” Eve interjected.
He nodded.
“What’s his name?” Detective Salinas asked, his pen poised over his small pocket notebook.
“Chad Murphy.”
“Do you have his phone number or address?”
He nodded.
“Was it usual for your daughter to be out all night, or gone for days?” Eve asked.
Mr. Crawford nodded again. “We were starting to worry about the people she was hanging around with. Strange bunch of kids.”
Caine stepped forward. “Strange...how?”
“They wore black all the time even when it was ninety degrees. Black and white makeup, red lipstick. Even the boys.” He ran a hand over his face. “Dressed like, like what’s the style called?” He glanced up at Eve.
“Goth?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Goth.” He shook his head. “They all looked like damn vampires to me.”
Eve and Detective Salinas swiveled and stared at Caine. He didn’t meet either of their gazes and looked straight at Mr. Crawford. “Can we look in your daughter’s room?”
He motioned toward the hallway to the right of the living room. “The last room on your right.”
“Thank you.” Caine snapped on a pair of latex gloves then proceeded to move toward the hallway. Eve followed him, also putting on a pair of gloves.
“I’m sorry about Aaron,” she said softly as they reached the last door on the right.
Caine wrapped his hand around the doorknob and turned, pushing the door open. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault he’s an asshole, is it?”
“No, I blame his parents.”
The moment Caine crossed the threshold of the girl’s room, he began searching, scanning the room for anything that would give them a clue as to how Lillian Crawford ended up with a vampire’s fangs in her neck.
Her bed was neatly made. The things on her dresser, and desk were precisely arranged. The girl was orderly and tidy. There were no clothes tossed on the floor, or shoes lying haphazardly on the rug. No outward signs yet on how she ended up hanging with the wrong crowd.
Eve made her way toward the girl’s desk. A pink colored laptop sat open on the bleached oak frame. “I’ll check her computer.”
While Eve booted up the laptop, Caine searched through the dresser drawers. He found nothing but neatly folded clothing. No secret letters or diary.
Turning, he eyed the bed. He pulled off the covers, and checked under the plump pale blue pillows. Still nothing. Leaning down, he checked under the bed. Nothing. Not even any dust bunnies.
As he grabbed the edge of the bed to push himself to his feet, he noticed the edge of a something black poking out from between the top mattress and the box spring. He pushed the mattress aside. A black piece of paper—looking a lot like a promotional poster for an alternative rock band—lay flat on the box spring. Right next to a black bound book on vampires.
He picked up the paper by the right edge to study it.
It was a promotional poster for a band calling themselves Crimson Strain. There were four members pictured. Male, varying colored spiky hair, facial piercings, and dark leather accessories.
And all vampires.
Even in a photo, Caine could see that the four males were Other. It was in their eyes. They shimmered like tinsel on a Christmas tree. If a person didn’t know what they were looking for, they definitely wouldn’t be able to discern it. However, they would be drawn to the poster regardless. Their power wasn’t in their voices like the chanteuse Nadja, but in their eyes.
“What do you have?” Eve asked.
Caine turned around and showed her the paper. “Poster for a band. A vampire band.” He read the dates. “Looks like they played at Creston Community Hall a couple weeks ago.”
“Whoa. That’s illegal.”
Caine took out a plastic evidence bag and slid the paper into it. “It sure is.” He zipped it closed. “Looks like we have a few suspects to talk to now.”
After tucking the evidence into his kit, Caine walked over to where Eve sat working at the girl’s laptop. “Got anything?”
She nodded. “A couple of emails from someone named X, talking about the concert and how he really enjoyed meeting her, and can’t wait to see her again. His email address is vamploverX at hotmail dot com.” She looked at him sideways, and arched her brow.
“Looks like we have another suspect.”
“Or this X is one of our VBB members.”
“VBB?”
“Yeah, vamp boy band.” She grinned.
Shaking his head, he rubbed a hand over his lips. “That’s clever.”
“I have my moments.” Eve looked down at the computer and fiddled some more with the girl’s email account.
As she worked trying to backtrack and locate the address of vamploverX’s computer, Caine watched her. She certainly did have her moments. This was one of them, when he saw past her forced bravado and glimpsed the woman behind the crime scene investigator. A woman he found to be very appealing.
She looked up, caught his gaze, and held it. Once again, to Caine it felt like the room disappeared and they were alone in a blank space with nothing around but them. He could feel her heat embracing his body, taste her attraction on his lips. He licked them with the tip of his tongue and tasted sugar, sweet and savory.
Her face heated and she glanced back down to the keyboard, breaking the spell.
Sighing, Caine took a step back, and grabbed his kit. “Let’s go. We’ll take the laptop with us and try to get the guy’s address from the ISP.”
She just nodded, shut the top on the computer, slid it under her arm, and followed Caine. He grabbed her kit for her before they left Lillian Crawford’s room to secure permission to take the victim’s laptop from her parents.
On the way out, Detective Salinas caught up with them. Once they were through the front door and outside, he put his hand on Eve’s arm and stopped her from walking any further with Caine. Caine paused at the end of the walkway and turned around watching. He didn’t like the way the detective was looking at Eve.
“Why are you doing this?” Aaron asked Eve.
“Doing what?”
“Working with them.” He motioned toward Caine. “When I heard you had volunteered, I couldn’t believe it.”
She sloughed off his hand. “I volunteered to work the case, Aaron, nothing more.”
“How does it feel working around them? I hear they have a wolfman on staff.” He sniffed derisively and glanced over his shoulder at the uniform still standing at the front door to share his joke. “It’s like working with an animal.”
“Well, it’s no different than working with you, now is it?”
Caine could smell the cop’s anger intensify. Colored waves swirled by Salinas’s right hand indicating motion. Without another thought, Caine rushed toward the cop. To the humans it would like he transported there in front of them, his hand circling Salinas’s wrist before he could raise it.
“What the hell?” Salinas took a step back, his eyes wide in shock, and fear—Caine was pleased to see.
“Don’t even think about what you were about to do, Detective.” Caine squeezed the man’s wrist tighter
Salinas tried to pull away, but Caine held him there. “Let go of me, freak!”
“I will, but only if you turn around and go do your job, instead of interfering in Eve’s.”
Eve put her hand on Caine’s shoulder. “Let him go, Caine.”
After another tight squeeze on Salinas’s wrist, Caine released his hold, but didn’t st
ep back. He wanted the detective to know that he wasn’t backing away. It was one thing to insult him, but even to think about hurting Eve—there was only so much he would let slide, and that was not one of them. There were two things he hated most in the world: child abuse and crimes against women.
“Now go back in there and ask the right questions. Get the phone number and address of this boyfriend, her other friends, then phone it into us at the lab,” Caine demanded.
The detective rubbed his wrist. “I’m reporting this.” He turned and rushed back into the Crawfords’ residence.
Without a word, Caine walked back to the end of the sidewalk, picked up both kits and made his way back to the SUV. Eve ran to catch up with him. Once she was at his side, she grabbed his arm.
“What was that all about?”
“Your Detective Salinas seems to like violence.” Opening the back of the vehicle, he slid both kits in.
Eve set the laptop carefully into the back on a soft cushion. “The only one I saw being unnecessarily violent was you.” Without looking at him, she walked along the SUV and jumped into the passenger side.
Expelling a deep sigh, Caine closed the SUV hatch. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised at her reaction. She would’ve had no idea that Detective Salinas was about to raise his hand to her. She couldn’t see things the way he did. He could explain it to her, but he didn’t think under the circumstance that she would believe him.
Caine jumped into the driver’s side, and started the vehicle. He glanced at Eve. She was staring out her window, seemingly unfazed by what had transpired, but he could see her hands fidgeting in her lap.
“Why would you date a man like that anyway? He seems like a Neanderthal.”
Without looking at him, she answered, “At first he was really sweet. Romantic. And he’s a good cop no matter how he looks tonight.” She rubbed her mouth with her hand. “I really don’t want to talk about it with you, okay?”
“Okay.”
He turned and watched out the front windshield as the sun started to lighten the night sky. Dawn was rapidly approaching. It wouldn’t be long before it was full and glaring down. He could walk in the sunlight, but not for extended periods. Too much exposure gave him a sunburn from hell. There were no beach trips in his future. Another reminder of how different Eve and he were. Day and night. Literally.
“How about I drop you off at your lab with the laptop. You’d be more comfortable there tracking down his real name and address, then you can phone it in to me and we can go from there.”
She swiveled in her seat and glared at him. A strong sense of hurt washed over him. He predicted her anger, but not this emotional pain.
“You can’t keep me out of this case. It’s mine just as much as it’s yours.”
“I’m not keeping you out of anything, Eve. I just thought it would be...easier if you were at your own lab.”
“Easier for whom?” She sniffed.
“I thought in order to keep incidents like the one with Detective Salinas from interfering with our case it would be best to keep our involvement separate.”
“I don’t care what Aaron has to say.” Frowning, she waved her hand around. “If I truly cared what anyone thought, I would never have volunteered. Besides, I think we’re better together than we are apart.” She pointed at the gearshift. “Now, put this sucker in drive and get us back to the lab. I want to catch this bastard.”
“Okay.”
She smirked. “Anyway, the sun’s coming up. If you turn into a pile of ashes, who’s going to drive the SUV?”
Smiling, Caine picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the button to speak with the escort vehicle. “We’re heading back to Necropolis.” Setting the communicator down, he put the SUV in drive and pulled out onto the street. It was getting late and they had a killer to catch.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Before Caine and Eve could step through the door to Caine’s office, Baron Laal Bask was stalking down the hallway toward them, a look of mania on his pinched pale face.
“Caine, we need to have a little talk.” He brushed by them both and stormed into Caine’s office.
The smell of fury, like the sulfur from a lit match, wafted to Caine’s nose. This was obviously not going to be a pleasant conversation.
Turning to Eve, he said, “Why don’t you set up in the analysis room.”
“Okay...” She hesitated as if wanting to say more.
“I’ll be there when I can.”
After a brief nod, she made her way down the hall. When she was gone, Caine took a deep breath and crossed the threshold to his office.
“What’s up, Laal?”
The Baron whirled around on Caine, his eyes glowing like twin headlights. “Are you mad?”
Caine brushed past him, set his kit down beside his desk, and sat in his high-backed leather chair. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Laal leaned over the desk and pointed his long, bony finger at Caine. “You assaulted a detective. And a human one at that.”
Caine returned the vampire’s glare. He desperately wanted to grab Laal’s finger and snap it in half. “I didn’t assault him. I actually stopped him from striking Eve.”
Laal let out a deep breath and backed up from the desk. “You know what, I don’t care what happened. What I do care about is that their captain called Mistress Ankara and she in turn called me, yelling and screaming.”
“The usual,” Caine retorted as he turned on his laptop.
“She wants me to fire you, Caine.”
Leaning back in his chair, Caine shook his head. “She always wants to fire me, Laal, and knows she can’t. So, tell me something new.”
“All right.” Laal sat down in the opposing chair across the desk from Caine. “The human woman is to be your lead on this case.”
That brought Caine forward to lean on the desk, now acutely interested in the conversation. “I have a lead. Jace.”
“Instead of being on the side, we want her on scenes collecting evidence, firsthand. Mistress Ankara thinks it would be best all around if Ms. Grant is a more prominent investigator in this case.”
“As in, best for her political aspirations with the human community.”
Laal just gave him a tight-lipped smile. The Baron didn’t need to confirm or deny the statement. Caine knew exactly what Ankara Jannali was all about—domination and control.
“Eve is out of her element here. She almost got snacked on at the crime scene for Christ sake.” Caine shook his head. “She’s not ready to be a lead, on this case, or any other for that matter. I’ve seen her personnel file. She only has two years experience, and that is in the lab. She’s still green in the field.”
“Never-the-less, she is to be-,”
“Jace is lead on this case,” Caine interrupted. “He’s earned it, and I won’t take it from him to satisfy our illustrious Mistress’ hard-on for politics.”
Laal smiled as if he was pleased that Caine refused the suggestion. “Then I’m taking the case from you and giving it to Montgomery to head up.”
“What? You can’t be serious.” Caine balled his hands on his desk into fists. “Monty is an incompetent ass.”
“Oh, don’t be melodramatic, Caine.” Laal leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, in apparent joy at rattling Caine’s cage. “He’s done some good work. And he’s always cooperative, unlike you.”
“I cooperate when the suggestion has merit. This one does not. It’s a bunch of bullshit to rein me in.”
“It is what it is.” Laal titled his head and smirked. “Now, do I transfer the case over to Monty?”
The Baron knew he had Caine by the balls. He knew all too well, Caine’s weaknesses. The lab was his baby. He spent months setting it up, getting it organized, buying the equipment. All funded by his own sizeable fortune. A vampire didn’t live as long as he had and not amass some wealth. And when a man was intelligent and inventive like Caine, that man amounted more than he could logically spend. He had sun
k nearly all of that money into the lab. Whether the law dictated it or not, Caine felt like he created it out of nothing, like giving birth.
Sighing, Caine slumped back into his chair. “Fine. But if she dies out there, I will tell Captain Morales that you sent her out there ill prepared and defenseless. And your political aspirations will get flushed down the toilet, like the rest of your bullshit.”
Rising to his feet, Laal smiled. “Well, I guess it’ll be your job to keep her safe then, won’t it?” He brushed at his suit jacket as if flicking off dirt. “Pleasure to see you again, Caine. We miss you at The Club. You should really consider rejoining, you’re looking a little tense, on edge. Nothing like a little vigorous sport to cure that.” After tipping his head, Laal headed for the office door.
“Screw you,” Caine grumbled right as the Baron passed over the threshold.
He knew Laal had heard him, by the way the vampire’s shoulders flinched. But he kept on going as if Caine had said nothing.
Rubbing a hand over his face, Caine leaned on his desk, suddenly exhausted. Sure, he’d been running purely on fumes for the past six hours. He hadn’t had a decent sleep, or any sleep in the past thirty-six hours due to this case. But what exhausted him was figuring out how to explain to Jace that he was moving Eve, a human, ahead of him on the case.
He could explain the politics to the lycan, but he knew that Jace couldn’t care less. He in fact, cared less about that shit than Caine did. All his fiercest team member wanted was to follow the clues. By nature, Jace was like a tracker, born and bred to follow his nose. Now Caine was going to put a barrier in front of him.
It wasn’t going to be pleasant. Jace wasn’t the most even-tempered person Caine knew. In fact, he could be volatile under the right circumstances. Certain circumstances that had now appeared.
He picked up the phone and punched in Jace’s beeper number. No time like the present to engage in deadly combat with a hundred and ninety pound lycan.
Within minutes, Jace appeared at the open door. “Hey Chief, what’s up?”
