by Candy Crum
Cass’ face lit up with realization. “Ah! I see the problem here.” He smiled. “No, Mia. You don’t have to have sex with him. Granted, you’d actually get full if you did, but you don’t have to. I know some of your kind gets off on it, but I think it’s kind of rapey. Having sex with a victim you plan to kill, but compelling him or her to feel only pain while you do it… Definitely rapey. Anyway, no. Don’t worry about that. You can kiss him. You can also make him feel whatever you want him to. In this case, pain.”
I looked over at the man and studied him. His eyes were cold, distant, but they held fear in them at that moment. Cass told him not to move; he didn’t tell him not to be afraid. He knew what was happening, and he had to good sense to be terrified.
I took a few steps toward my potential victim and saw something familiar. My steps quickened just before I snatched up his wrist. There was a symbol there. It was one that I’d seen before, but thought nothing of. It was a dragon tattoo. Nothing elaborate. Just a small, black, tribal dragon placed just inside his wrist.
“This tattoo. I’ve seen it before,” I said. “Where did you get it?”
He smiled. “If you’ve seen it, then you should be dead.”
Right then, I remembered. I saw it plain as day in my mind. The day that Jay had his gun pointed at Will’s head in that office, the day that I was shot in the chest and died, I saw the inside of his wrist. Tattoos are tattoos. I didn’t care then. I had no reason to stop and take in the scenery, including that bastard’s ink, but it managed to stay buried in my subconscious. Seems that it came in handy.
It was my turn to smile then. I felt the rage taking hold as my cheeks flushed hot. I saw the terror in his eyes grow as I saw the red glow of my own reflecting in his.
“Funny you should say so,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me. My name is Mia.”
His brows lifted as his eyes widened.
“No…” he said. “You… Jay said he’s killed you twice. If we ever see you, we are supposed to kill you. But he said that we couldn’t just shoot you.”
“Aw, that Jay. Always thinking of me. Tell me, did he get the little message that I sent him?”
The darkness I felt was eating this up. It was growing by the second as I stared into his eyes. I enjoyed the fear that he had of me.
He gave a shaky nod. “Y-yes. H-he did. He’s sent people out to hunt you down. Please, just let me go, and I can tell him to stop.”
I laughed. “How sweet! Unfortunately, he won’t stop. Jay will never stop. He is a murderer. Do you guys deal to children? Answer me honestly.”
He swallowed hard. “Jay says…” He took a deep breath. “Jay says, if they have money, give ‘em what they want.”
“Good to know.”
That was all the confirmation I needed. I damn well knew they sold to children. There were some ‘honorable’ dealers in the world that had personal rules about that, or at least I’d assume so. They can’t all be alike. Then there’s Jay. He wasn’t the type for such kindness and mercy. I’d be shocked if he didn’t cram it down their little throats himself.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“J-Jack,” he stammered. “Why?”
I smiled. “Because… I need to know what name to write on the note that I send to Jay in a box along with your heart.” My voice came out far more excited than I meant for it to, but it added to the badass psycho vibe I had going on right then.
His eyes widened, fear consuming him. “No! Please, no! Use me as a messenger! I’ll tell him anything you want!”
“See, I already sent a messenger. Clearly, it worked. The problem is, I can’t just make empty promises. I promised Jay that I’d rip everything he loved apart. That includes you. You chose to be a murderer. If you were an innocent man mixed in with Jay, I’d stop at nothing to help you escape him. But you’re not. You’re just a piece of shit, just like him. You killed, well, you tried to kill that woman, and for what? I don’t even know. I’m not certain that I want to know. All I saw from you was complete callousness. You couldn’t have cared less about what you’d done. You’ve done it before and you will again – if I don’t stop you. You deserve death, and you will be my messenger. Killing the messenger definitely sends a message, I’d say.”
“Kiss him,” Cass said. “Focus your rage and force him to feel anything you want.”
“I want him to feel the fear of his victims. I want him to truly understand what it is to be preyed upon.”
Without another moment of hesitation, I stepped forward and grabbed the man standing before me. I pulled him down to me, my lips pressing against his. The moment our lips touched, I felt it. The connection between us. Once the bond was sealed, I could feel his life’s energy pulsing around him.
My entire body began to react to him. The aura surrounding me latched on to his and began pulling as it absorbed his essence. The pain in my arm immediately began to feel better as his life filled me.
Something flashed through my head. An image. It moved too quickly for me to make out, but not to worry. There were more. Suddenly, I found myself flooded with images, memories. I realized they were his memories. They were horrid, monstrous visions. I could hardly understand what I was seeing. How was it possible for someone to be so cold?
I saw women raped, not only by him, but by others. Men killed in front of their wives. Teenage girls sold off. Chills flowed through my body.
I…
Was…
PISSED.
Rage ripped through me, white hot and vengeful. I forced his memories to stop flowing through me. Instead, I took them, and I reversed them. I began sending them back through to him, only he played the part of the victim. He was the one that was tortured. He was the one that had his beloved killed in front of his eyes. He was the helpless teenage girl sold off to the highest bidder.
Jack began fighting me. His screams echoed through the room as I slowed the draining process. I wanted him to feel everything before he died. I didn’t want him to go quickly. A cold-blooded murderer deserved more mercy than he did. He was something else altogether.
Soon, his screams began to fade, and I could feel his energy waning. He slumped against me, breaking the kiss. He was still alive, but barely. The high of feeding quickly faded, my rational mind returning to me. I stepped back, his weakened body falling to the floor.
“I can’t,” I said, staring down at him. God, I wanted to, but I couldn’t.
“He’s a disgusting human being,” Cass said. “Don’t feel bad for him.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. I feel no remorse. Not after what I just saw. He will die, but not by my hand. It’s still too new. I can’t kill.”
“You’re waging a war against a drug lord, and you can’t kill? Mia, you’re going to get yourself killed, if that’s the case.”
I sighed. “I know. I’ll get better.” The morbid humor of that wasn’t lost on me. “I’ll get better… Me… The most trustworthy person I’ve ever met… will get better – at killing.”
“I know you’re having trouble with it, but if you’re serious, you have no choice. Kill or be killed. You don’t have a choice at this point. Jay knows about you, and he will find you. If not you, then your parents.”
“You’re absolutely right,” I replied, staring down at Jack. “You kill him. You probably haven’t drunk anything that wasn’t out of a blood bag in a while. Have at him.”
“This time,” Cass said. “Next time, you need to finish it yourself.”
I nodded. “I know.”
Chapter Four
Later thinking about it, I realized that it probably would have been a much better idea to take good ol’ Jack with us and ask him some questions. Oh well, I guess. Not really a big deal, as I was certain that I’d run into another one of the guys again. It was inevitable. There were too many people in my town that used Jay’s drugs for that to not happen. I knew they were Jay’s because there was no way in hell a guy like him would ever allow another person’s “
business” to come through and encroach on his. The newbies would have been dead.
The following day, I went to see Andrews. I told him the things that I’d seen in my vision while feeding on Jack. While Tristan said that I was too young to have such a power, he and Andrews both agreed on something: that it could be beneficial.
Andrews asked me to sit with him and look through some arrest records. It took a while to go through all of the men that they believed were associated with Jay’s drug ring, but I finally found Jack. Andrews wasn’t exactly happy when I told him that Cass and I had killed him, but he wasn’t surprised either.
He told me that I could earn forgiveness if I helped him identify some of the girls that I saw in the vision. There were still open cases for the teen girls that were missing. I took those files home with me and spent the rest of the night going through them. If I could help in any way to find those girls, even if it was unfortunate enough to be post-mortem, I wanted to. I needed to find them. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how scared they must be, or must have been. I shivered thinking about it.
The next morning, I awoke to Tristan standing over my bed. Or, the bed that I had at my parents’, I guess I should say.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice deep.
“Uh… Good morning,” I said. “So… What’s up with the creepy stalker routine?”
“What?” He looked genuinely confused for a moment before shaking his head. “I’ve been here all of thirty seconds. I came to wake you. Do you want to actually get somewhere in your investigation?”
Hmm. This was a cause for alarm. He’d been rather against my investigation, though he supported me. I guess that was “good dad” behavior. I liked that he tried. This, however, was quite different. He was on a mission himself.
“What do you have in mind, old man?” I asked.
“We are going to that house that you were first killed in. I want to look around. We should look for anything the police missed. I’m sure there will be plenty. With my eyes and the nose of a vampire, we should be able to find something. I also talked to Andrews. He was able to get us into the prison.”
It was far too early. My “I understand exactly nothing, so every response is going to be dumber than hell” button hadn’t yet been switched off. I stared at him for an uncomfortable moment, his words rattling off of every corner of my mind, but striking nothing important.
Tristan rolled his eyes. Interesting. It seemed that he was picking up my mannerisms. It was kind of amusing really, given he was so old and regal for an incubus.
“It’s so we can interview men associated with your Jay.”
“Uh, they’re criminals. They aren’t going to tell us anything.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, but quickly realized that was a mistake. It was a rather embarrassing – and I’m sure hilarious to anyone other than Tristan – display of my fingers getting stopped halfway down, me realizing the tangled mess, but fighting it anyway. Insert a few grunts, Tristan’s bored expression, and then my painful triumph, and I was once again back in the conversation.
“As I was saying… They are hardened criminals. Assholes. If they are anything like Suzy Sunshine that Cass and I took care of, they are pieces of work. Lost cause, padre.”
If looks could kill, I would have died multiple times. He stared at me, an unbelievably incredulous expression on his face. He clearly wasn’t having anything to do with my morning shenanigans. Too bad for him. I fully planned to be that way for the next forty-five minutes. Not purposely. My mind just didn’t work that well first thing after waking up.
His arms extended to the side. “Excuse me? Hello?”
I laughed. “Oh, yeah!” I tapped on the right side of my head. “I remember. Superpowers. God, I’m useless in the morning. You know, you brought this on yourself. I didn’t sleep well. I was up all night going through case files for Andrews.”
“Because of the things you saw?” he asked.
I nodded. “I saw a lot. I know you don’t believe me, but I did.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s that you shouldn’t be able to do that, yet. It took me a great while. Hell, I know succubi and incubi decades old that still haven’t learned that. Most never do. It’s a strange form of telepathy. The oldest, most powerful vampires have the ability. As do werewolves, due to their spiritual nature. Immortal humans are able to see flashes, but only of those from their own bloodline. In short, it’s a rare ability. You shouldn’t have it without a lot of practice. We don’t come by it honestly. It’s an intense bond between us and our victim. You can only do this if your compulsion is so strong that you convince them to give themselves completely. I’ve seen your compulsion. It’s weak. Ergo, my confusion.”
I waved my hands in front of my chest. “Padre, it’s a bit too early for all that. I can’t process much, as I’m sure you could tell. The braining doesn’t come easy for me anyway. Let me take a shower, get some coffee, and then we can go. I know you want to know more about the telepathy, but I don’t know what I did. I was feeding, then his memories started flooding through my head. I saw… Oh, my God… The things I saw.”
“I know, Mia.” Tristan’s voice was soft then.
When I looked up at him, I saw the softness in his face as well. He reached out and brushed a few stray hairs out of my face.
“I know it was terrible for you to see these things. We will get them. I promise.”
I smiled. It meant a lot that he wanted to help me. That he understood.
After a shower, a quick breakfast, and some coffee to go, I was feeling much more coherent. Tristan and I talked more about my abilities on the way to the house that Jay killed me in. Cass was supposed to meet us there. I was happy that it was too early for my mom to be awake before we left.
It was still a bit weird seeing my mom with Tristan. She looked at him like she looked at my dad. It was disturbing. I knew it was the incubus charm, but it was strange to watch your mom ogle a man in front of your father that she had an affair with. Granted, it was strictly to conceive a child, but still. God, my life was weird.
When we got to the house, I began to have flashbacks. I remembered good ol’ Shaw-nee best. Ah… Memories.
“What are we hoping to find here again?” I asked.
“Anything at all. I want to see where everything happened. Cass might be able to sniff out some things as well.”
I nodded. “Okie dokie.”
As we were walking up to the house, Cass followed us up. He’d been parked down the street and saw us pull up. It didn’t take much to break in. Turns out that Cass was well trained in picking locks. That was a house we highly doubted anyone would be stupid enough to go inside of and trash. It was likely that anyone in the immediate area knew whose house it was. That would work to our benefit. It would be undisturbed, minus what the cops did to it.
Walking inside, I noticed that it smelled musty and old. It smelled like it hadn’t been lived in for years, not only weeks. The sun had barely come up, and the rays were shining through the cracks in the blinds. It didn’t offer much light, but it would have to do. We didn’t want to go opening windows in case the neighbors caught us sniffing around. Literally, in Cass’ case. He was like our supernatural bloodhound. I’d never met a werewolf, but I wondered if they’d be any better at it. They’d have to be, right? There was still so much to learn.
“God, it smells awful in here,” I said.
“There’s good reason for that,” Cass said, his voice grim.
As soon as I heard the tone, I knew what he was referring to.
“Please tell me there aren’t dead bodies in here,” I said.
He nodded. “Quite a few, from the smell of it. If the cops didn’t find them, it’s because they are sealed off pretty nicely. Only a supernatural being would have senses good enough to sniff it out.”
“I want to find them,” I said. “We have to. It could be men that were dealing along with Jay, or innocent victims, or those gi
rls. It could be anyone. We need to see if we can put any missing persons reports to rest. Andrew would probably appreciate it.”
“Call him,” Tristan said. “He’s going to want to be here.”
Tristan was right. Andrews was more than excited to come help. As soon as he realized things had been missed, he was on it. He said that if we found anything that he was going to say some local thugs broke in, started hunting for drugs, found the body or bodies, and then called it in before fleeing. Easy.
While waiting for Andrews, I began making my way around the lower floor. Tristan kept suspiciously close to me, and I recognized the worried look on his face. It was the same one that my dad gave me the first time I walked through the mall by myself. I hadn’t been alone at all. He stayed several paces back, and when I turned, I saw the exact same expression on his face. Guilt. Pride. Worry. It struck me odd that Tristan would have that for me, but I suppose that I gave him too much crap.
The kitchen proved to be worthless. Cass was able to tell us that. Not only was he able to smell dead bodies, but he said that he could smell drugs. Pot, cocaine, and a few things he couldn’t identify right away. He said that he thought the drugs were coming from upstairs, but he wanted to finish downstairs to be sure.
As I exited the kitchen and headed back into the living room, I saw the office off to the right. I wanted to go in, but I found myself to be a bit scared. Tristan must have noticed my hesitation as I stood there, staring at the door.
“I smell blood in there,” Cass said.
I nodded. “I bet you do. That’s where I was shot.”
I took a deep breath and stepped forward. I doubted that I’d have that big of an issue walking back through my house. I’d been killed there, too. Well, obviously, I wasn’t killed, but I’d had my head damn near blown off. I wondered why that room in particular gave me the chills.
I slid the doors open and the scent of blood smacked me in the face. I never would have smelled it if I’d been human. Even still, my nose wasn’t even a fraction of what Cass’ was. I couldn’t begin to imagine what he smelled.
