by Nova Archer
“Revenge maybe?” Jace offered. “To prove that he could.”
“I’d like to know how the hell he got out,” Caine growled, turning on Mahina.
“We don’t know, Caine. It had to have been an inside job though. Anyone in law enforcement would have access to the holding cells.” She pushed away from the counter. “Including staff of this lab.”
Caine stopped pacing and glared at her. “Are you saying one of my team did this?”
“I’m not saying that.”
“What are you saying?”
“That we have to look at every possibility.”
Caine rubbed at his forehead where a massive migraine was pounding, making a valiant effort of break his skull in half. “Okay, what do you need?”
“Access to everyone on staff. I need to ask everyone where they were between five and eight last night.”
“On a Sunday night most of the staff would’ve been at home.”
“Then I’ll need names and addresses.”
Caine nodded. “I’ll get the list. It’s in my office.”
Kellen slid off the counter where he’d been sitting silently munching on day-old pizza. “Well, kids I’m out of here. Looks like you have it all handled. Nothing I can do.”
Caine glared at him. “No one’s leaving until we find Eve.”
Kellen put up his hand in defense. “Hey, I feel bad for the girl, it’s a real shame, but it’s not like I have a vested interest in her.” He snorted. “I’m not the one nailing her.”
Faster than anyone could blink, Caine gripped Kellen by the throat, heaved him up off the floor and slammed him onto his back on top of the table. The other vampire struggled, but it was pointless. Caine’s strength was fueled by fury. There was no breaking his hold, however much the other vampire punched and scratched at Caine. He’d let go only if he wanted to.
Leaning down into Kellen’s face, Caine sneered, “I could end you right now.”
Mahina approached the table, hers hands out in a calming gesture. “Caine, this isn’t helping.”
He ignored her. He wanted to hurt something, someone. Maybe then the pain of Eve’s kidnapping would dissipate. Maybe it would somehow dampen the agony that tore through him since she was taken. Caine wasn’t sure how much more he could stand before he completely lost his mind, and his soul. He felt fractured without her.
Kellen mumbled something, snapping Caine from his blood-lust rage. Releasing his grip a little, he leaned in closer to him.
“I’m sorry,” Kellen rasped.
As he stared into the other vampire’s eyes, he saw a flash of regret. It was enough to snap Caine out of his fury and back to reality.
He released his hold and took a step away. His hands still shook with anger, but he reined it in. Not once had he ever physically harmed any member of his team. Until now.
Aided by Mahina and Jace, Kellen sat up and rubbed at his neck. He looked up and met Caine’s gaze. “I’m sorry, Chief. I didn’t realize.”
Revulsion swirled in his stomach. Clenching his hands, Caine dropped his gaze and turned. He’d come so close to seriously hurting Kellen. Over fifty years ago, he had vowed not to use his power to harm another being. And he had snapped over something as harmless as a few careless words. Mean-spirited certainly, but words nonetheless.
What were his feelings for Eve doing to him?
Kellen slid off the table and approached Caine. He offered his hand to him. Sighing, Caine took it.
“I’m sorry for my stupid mouth. I didn’t realize you had actually bonded with her. It won’t happen again, Chief. I swear.”
They shook hands.
“I apologize for nearly snapping your neck.”
Kellen smiled and shrugged. “I’ll live.” Taking his hand back, Kellen shuffled out the door. “I’ll go see if the trace lab is done.”
When he was gone, Caine ran his hands over his face and through his hair. He couldn’t believe what he’d almost done. His feelings for Eve would be the death of him—or the death of someone else.
Mahina placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned in. “Do you want me to see where Kellen was a few hours ago?”
Caine met her gaze. He could see the wheels turning inside her head. Unfortunately, the same wheels were spinning in his. Something had triggered Kellen’s passive attitude toward Eve. He didn’t want to consider it, but at this point he had to look into every possibility.
He nodded.
She squeezed his shoulder in understanding, then took a step back.
“I’ll go get you that employee list, Mahina.”
“Good idea.”
Before Caine could exit, Lyra spoke. “Maybe he’s trying to finish what he started.” She peered around the room.
Caine knew that look. Her witchy senses were tingling. “You mean with this demon summoning?”
She nodded.
“He began the ceremony with Lillian, so now he wants to use Eve to finish it.”
She nodded again, her face growing pale.
Bile rose in his throat. He didn’t want to consider it, but knew if he didn’t he might miss something important in the evidence. That was all they had to go on.
“What would he need to do it properly?”
Chewing on her lip, Lyra said, “The second ceremony is a longer one. He’d need the blood from his first victim, another animal bone, and time. A secluded place most likely and a stone dais. So, I’m thinking he must’ve had the place already picked out long ago.”
Jace grunted. “I can’t believe we’re entertaining this notion. It’s ridiculous. Demons don’t exist.”
“Whether they exist or not isn’t the issue here Jace,” Lyra said. “The suspect believes in it.”
“Lyra’s right. We need to consider every possibility.” Caine ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Let’s think of places where he could go. Secluded buildings or areas. And somewhere close. He’d want to do this quickly.”
Looking around at the others, he knew what they were thinking. That it was already done. That Eve had already been sacrificed. But he knew it wasn’t true. He would know if she was dead. Because of their bonding, he would feel if she was gone. A feeling of complete emptiness would invade his heart. So far, it hadn’t. They still had time to find her. He had to find her.
Lyra stood. “I’ll get a map of the downtown grid, from Twelfth Street to Digger and Moonglow Road to Fallen. There must be a few abandoned warehouses in the area.”
Caine nodded.
Jace stood. “I’ll help you, Lyra.”
As they left the room to locate a map, Jace patted Caine on the shoulder. But before they got two steps out, Gwen came barreling into the room, paper rustling in her hands.
“Got the results, Chief,” she panted, clearly out of breath.
Caine took the sheet and scanned the results. “Soil decomp and trace bits of grass.”
“Decomp?” Jace questioned. “Where the hell would he have picked up that?”
“The dump?” Mahina offered.
Caine shook his head. “The landfill is pretty far out of the area. It’s at least a forty five minute drive from here.”
Rubbing his fingers at his temple, Caine pondered the evidence. The answer was there. It always was, if a person knew how to put it all together. So how did it go together? Decomp. Demons. Blood. Sacrifice.
Caine turned to Lyra. “What did you say he’d need for the ceremony?”
“Blood, an altar, someplace secluded, and an animal bone to draw the symbols with.”
“Animal bone. We found one at the last scene. Decomp. How about a slaughterhouse? Any near here?”
One by one they rushed into the analysis room. Caine sat at the computer and pulled up a map of Necropolis. In the search engine, he typed ‘slaughterhouses’. Three possible results came up.
Excitedly, Lyra pointed to the screen. “Look. This one’s on Nightspell and Digger.”
“And it’s been closed for years,” Caine added.
>
Jace slapped Caine on the shoulder. “That’s got to be it.”
“Do you want me to send units to the other two locations?” Mahina asked.
Caine nodded. But now that they had a location, he knew deep down inside it was the right place. He could sense it on several levels. When he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could feel Eve’s pain and her fear. Thankfully, she was still alive. And waiting for him.
Hang on Eve! I’m coming!
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Eve jerked awake. Something had jolted her out of her dreamless slumber. A sound. A thought. She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she was still on the hard cement floor struggling to stay alert and conscious. So far she wasn’t doing very well with either.
Mel had injected her with something. Her neck still throbbed from the puncture wound. Vampatamine, she guessed, by the way her body moved like thick molasses, as if restrained by some unseen chains. And her mind was muddled and confused.
Time was irrelevant to her. She didn’t know whether a minute passed since last time she was awake or a few hours. She knew that it couldn’t have been any longer than six or seven hours as her stomach rumbled from hunger but didn’t feel hollow.
Struggling to move, Eve jerked her shoulder and rolled onto her back. The motion made her nauseous, but she managed to keep the bile rising in her throat down. If she could just focus on something she’d be able to ride out the effects of the drug. As long as he didn’t inject her again, she was sure it would wear off in a few more hours. Hopefully, someone would find her before then.
Blinking her eyes repeatedly, she tried to take in more of the room. It was still dark, but she was starting to adjust to it. She was definitely in some sort of large empty room. A rancid odor was ingrained into the cement. She’d smelled something similar before, but couldn’t place it.
Lifting her hands, she smoothed them over her form. She was still wearing the robe, and it was still done up, marginally, but it proved to her that Mel had not taken advantage of her. Not yet anyway. Gauging her body, she didn’t feel anything wrong with it. No immediate pains radiated from having been violated. Maybe she’d be saved that agony.
She had a sense that he had been interrupted before. As if someone else had entered the room. She’d seen another shadow on the floor hadn’t she? Shaking her head, she tried to remember.
But her memories were disjointed, fractured like glass shards scattered all over her mind’s surface. When she tried to put everything back together, the entire picture made no sense. It didn’t fit. Either something was missing or there were too many pieces.
The sound of the door opening startled her. Rolling her eyes, she tried to see who had entered. It wasn’t long before she found out. Mel leered down at her. But there was something wrong with his face. She couldn’t exactly say, but it seemed like his mouth had grown wider, longer even. As if somehow his face had melted, letting gravity do its work on his flesh. There were also dark streaks over his chin, and across his cheeks. Was it blood?
When he crouched down next to her, a distinct metallic odor wafted over her and up her nose. It was most definitely blood.
He licked his lips and snarled. “He told me to feed before the ceremony. Said he didn’t want me to interrupt it with my voracious thirst for blood.” Reaching up, he gently touched her hair, rubbing the strands between his fingers. The action reminded her of Caine, and a sense of utter loss swept over her, tearing at her heart. Tears filled her eyes. Oh God, she didn’t want to die. Not before having one more chance to tell Caine. To tell him she was in love with him.
Mel trailed his fingers over her forehead, down her nose and to her lips. “As if I would do that. The summoning is more important than anything else.” He pushed his finger into her mouth. “Even a sweet thing like you.”
She wanted to bite down on his finger. To give him one ounce of the pain that he had inflicted on his victims. But she was too weak even to spit. Besides, she had the foresight to consider what his blood might do to her. Could she turn? Hadn’t she read that in one of the texts?
Sliding his finger out of her mouth, he brought it to his lips and rubbed her saliva over his flesh. Revulsion filled her, and she gagged. Turning her head, she spit up bile. There was nothing else in her stomach to bring up.
Shaking his head, Mel grinned. “Ah, what’s the matter, bitch? Don’t you feel well?” As he snickered, he put his hand on her breast squeezing and pinching hard. “You feel good to me.”
Clamping her eyes shut, Eve tried to pull away from his horrid touch. But she could do no more than arch her shoulder and slightly roll her hip. He laughed at her effort and continued to pinch and grab her flesh. Thankfully, the fabric of Caine’s robe was a barrier between her skin and his, but she could still feel the iciness of his touch. It was if someone had opened a window and a cold wind had blown through the room.
Flinching as if struck, Mel yanked his hand back from her body. He glanced over his shoulder nervously. “I’m doing it, Master. I was just playing a bit.”
Eve rolled her head back and stared at Mel. Was he hearing voices? Or was that a whisper she had heard on the breeze that swept over her. Had someone spoken Mel’s name?
Before she could consider it, Mel stood, walked around and stooped down by her head. He hooked his hands under her armpits and lifted her up. Her legs were like rubber and she couldn’t support her weight. She crumpled into his arms.
With a sigh that sounded like disgust, Mel grabbed her around the chest and began to drag her across the room. “I guess I gave you too much V.”
A few feet more and they were at a doorway. Pale yellow light spilled through it. Not light from electricity, but a glow from several candles. He dragged her through the room.
“Won’t matter, I guess. In an hour you’re going to be dead and I’m going to be immortal.”
While he dragged her across the cement, Eve could see her surroundings more clearly. They had entered a vast area, a warehouse-type structure. Some of the features she recognized as industrial. Long chains hung from the vaulted roof. On the end were hooks in varying sizes. They were in some sort of abandoned warehousing unit. She saw dirt, trash, and what looked like hay on the floor as he pulled her along.
The rancid smell was stronger out here. But the air was also fresher. She could almost place it. Something from her childhood. A disturbing memory of when her father had taken her to a farm one summer. And she’d seen her first murder.
She was in a killing house, all right. The odor was one of animals, of blood, and of death. She was in an old meat processing plant, she now knew. And she was the animal on the chopping block.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
When Mahina pulled her cruiser into the barren stockyard of the old slaughterhouse, the first thing Caine noticed was Mel’s red Pontiac sitting in front. He hadn’t even made an effort to hide it. For some reason Caine found that vulgar. As if Mel was flaunting his crimes. Daring the authorities to arrest him.
Anger flared inside. Caine couldn’t wait to get his hands on the murdering vampire. Mel had better pray that Eve was relatively unharmed, because if she wasn’t, Caine knew he wouldn’t be able to maintain his vow not to hurt another being.
After Mahina parked, she and Caine got out of her vehicle. The lab’s SUV pulled up behind them. Jace and Lyra jumped out, both of them wearing flak jackets and carrying guns. As a rule, the OCU didn’t possess weapons, but the baron had made an exception in this case, granting them all the power to carry on duty.
Caine decided to forgo a gun, as he knew he’d be way too tempted to use it when he saw Mel Howard.
Mahina upholstered her weapon. “Okay, this is how it’s going down. I go in first. Caine you are behind me. Jace and Lyra come in when I give the go-ahead.” She stared at Caine, her eyebrow raised. “Everyone clear on that?”
He nodded, but knew he couldn’t promise her he wasn’t going to rush in if he saw Eve. That was all he could think about—saving her.
Mahina moved forward. Caine followed close behind. Approaching the main service door, she stopped and checked the knob for a lock. There was none, so she slowly opened it. Entering gun first, Mahina stepped over the threshold. Once she was through, Caine moved into the darkened abandoned structure. Neither one of them needed a flashlight to see.
The smell of new and old death hit him like a sledgehammer to the abdomen. He nearly doubled over from the intensity of the sensation. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense if the new death was Eve’s.
He didn’t think so, but he knew she was in trouble. He could sense her alarm and confusion swirling all around him. It was disjointed and incoherent. She must have been drugged. Vampatamine was his guess. He feared they didn’t have much time.
After they passed the doorway, they entered what looked like a series of offices. The windows were broken, and the desks long gone. Just the dirt and trash of something long ago forgotten remained on the cement floors.
Once they passed the offices and ascertained there was no inherent danger, Mahina radioed to Jace and Lyra that it was safe to enter. Once done, she and Caine continued on into the open warehouse area.
Mahina stopped in her tracks, glanced over her shoulder at Caine and whispered, “I can smell the bastard.”
“Me too.”
They continued walking side by side now. Caine had conveniently forgotten to stay behind. He couldn’t now even if he wanted to. His predatory instincts had kicked in. He had a vampire to hunt down.
As they moved farther into the warehouse it became apparent quite quickly that there was no one else in the expansive room. There were no walls or structures to hide behind in the vast area. It was one open floor space. Probably when in use, it had been the shipping and receiving area of goods and merchandise.
The slaughterhouse was where they needed to go. That was where Mel would do his work. His summoning. Where the stink of death and decay already permeated the air like a cloying perfume.
Caine pointed to the far wall. Mahina nodded and picked up her pace. They were nearing a set of double doors. A faint yellow glow emanated from underneath the metal. Candlelight most likely.
