by Gina LaManna
“Wow, this is a gorgeous bag,” I said, reaching out to admire it. “I’ll look fabulous with this draped over me. Very shapely.”
“Open it.”
“Come on, Grey. This is overkill. The bag is more expensive than my daily attire.”
“Probably.”
I rolled my eyes and tugged the protective layer off the hanger. I felt my ears getting hot at the sight of the dress. “Absolutely not.”
Grey gave me a stare with innocent, puppy dog eyes. “What do you mean? I showed the woman at the store a photo of you, and she picked it out.”
“Yeah, what’d you tell her to do—make me look like the prom queen?”
“Nah, I went with sex goddess.”
“You wanna keep yourself alive? Get me a different dress. You’ll see my underpants through the slit in the side.”
“You’re welcome for the dress, and for the tip about the elves,” Grey said. “I am very excited about our non-date tonight, sweetheart.”
I slammed the door, Grey’s laugh reverberating as he retreated down the hall. He moved quiet and smoothly, like all supernaturals, and I didn’t hear him on the staircase, nor did I hear the downstairs door open or close. All I could see was a blur of white in the distance as he sprinted toward The Depth.
“He is fine,” Marla said. “I’m changing my mind. I always did have a thing for them bloodsuckers, but I don’t know. The wolf is inching out Matthew. That man knows what he wants, and he goes for it. Did you see that dress? It’s sex on legs.”
“I’m not wearing it.”
“You have to,” Marla said. “If you want to get into the high stakes room, that’ll get you through the door. Sorry, honey, but those leather pants ain’t gonna cut it. Plus, it’ll make your man jealous.”
“My man?”
“Come on, we all know you’re hung up on Matthew,” Marla said. “He’s hung up on you, too, but he isn’t exactly stepping up to the plate and taking charge now, is he?”
“Things are complicated,” I said. “Our careers are on the line. Amongst other things.”
“I’m just saying,” Marla said. “Back when I was a witch, I had a man go off to fight for me in a war, then come back and sweep me off my feet. He didn’t lollygag around, picking his nose, playing games.”
“I told Matthew I needed time,” I explained to her. “He’s respecting me and giving me space.”
“Whatever makes you feel better,” Marla said with a little sniff. “You’re not over him, and it wouldn’t hurt to give him a peek of what he’s missing. You’re both unattached adults with enough sexual chemistry to blow up the necromancy lab, so I’d think you might want to do something about it.”
An image of the elf with the bright lip gloss getting all friendly with Matthew at the Gilded Gate popped into my head, and I reconsidered. “Okay, maybe I’ll wear the dress,” I said.
“That’s my girl,” Marla said. “Now, go get your man.”
“No,” I said. “I’m going to get my missing girl, and then I’ll wear the dress.”
Before I could head to the bedroom to change, another knock on the door startled me and the furniture into silence. I crept across the living room and peeked through the peephole.
“It’s you,” I said, pulling the door open. “You’d think it’s a fast food restaurant around here open all hours of the night.”
“I’m not the first person here this morning?” Matthew tried diligently to hold eye contact with me, but he was a vampire first, and then a male. And both of those traits made him glance down with interest at my gaping peacoat. “And here I thought you’d dressed up for me.”
I clutched the coat tighter around me. “Aren’t you here on official business?”
“Unfortunately, I am.” Matthew brushed past me, startling Marla into scratching the floor in her attempt to study the vampire. “Good morning, Marla,” he said dryly. “Sorry to startle you.”
I hid a snicker as I turned to face him. “What brings you here?”
“Work,” he said. “Get dressed. We’re visiting Sienna.”
“Sienna...” I closed my eyes. I needed coffee. “About the bodies of the two elves that were found?”
“Exactly,” Matthew said. “Now get dressed before I decide I don’t care about my career enough to keep my hands off.”
“Sheesh, Captain,” I said. “I didn’t know peacoats were your thing.”
“Move it, Detective. And that’s an order.”
Chapter 8
As Dani jumped in the shower for a quick rinse, Matthew prowled her apartment in a fury. He could smell the wolf on her. In her apartment. Or, at least, in the doorway. Thank God she hadn’t let him inside, though if her outfit reflected what she’d been wearing all night, Grey had gotten an eyeful.
And Matthew didn’t like it.
Matthew knew he and Dani couldn’t be together. At least not the way things were going at the moment. And it frustrated him to no end that Grey had that opportunity. Matthew could feel his advantage slipping away, and while winning Dani’s heart wasn’t a competition, it was a zero-sum game. If she fell for the wolf, that was it. Game over.
Matthew paced, prowled, growled, and stomped around the room in such a fury that even Dani’s smartass refrigerator dared not toss out his usual snarky comments.
By the time Dani had changed into her standard black on black on black—an outfit that never ceased to get Matthew’s blood boiling—he’d spotted a new object for his fury. It hung on Marla and smelled expensive.
“What’s this?” Matthew clutched the luxurious fabric, appreciating the feel of the blood-red dress under his fingertips. “And why does it smell like the wolf?”
“It’s mine,” Dani said with a haughty sniff. “And what happens in my apartment is none of your business.”
“Why do you have this gown?”
Dani looked annoyed, but then a smug smile edged out her frustration. “I have a date tonight.”
“With who?”
“I thought we had to get to the morgue,” Dani said, snatching her travel belt and attaching it to her hip. She had a Stunner there, along with a few vials, potions, and standard spells. “Let’s move it, Captain. We’re on the clock.”
Matthew had no choice but to join Dani as she left the apartment. He frowned as he caught a strong whiff of wolf, and he inherently knew that Grey had purposely run his hands along the wall as he left, leaving his scent sprinkled everywhere. Grey had known it would infiltrate Matthew’s senses and destroy his mind from the inside out, wondering... just wondering what had happened between the wolf and Danielle.
The idiot.
Grey didn’t know who he was dealing with. But unfortunately, Matthew couldn’t do anything about it now. Like Dani had so kindly pointed out—they were on the clock, and an innocent elf’s life depended on their quick work.
“Keep up,” Matthew said, deliberately moving too quickly for Dani. “I want to get this thing wrapped today.”
“So you don’t have to deal with me anymore?” Dani asked pointedly. “Us working together has its pain points. Obviously.”
“I’m fine with it,” he said. “If you are.”
She was breathless, jogging beside him. “Right,” she huffed. “You’re fine. Because this is what fine looks like.”
Matthew and Dani arrived at the morgue in record time.
Matthew had burned off some of his frustrations, but not nearly enough. To do that, he’d need to run the length of the world twice over, and then maybe he’d be able to control his breathing into normal patterns. Now, he’d just given up on breathing and blinking and formulating other basic human behaviors because it simply wasn’t worth the effort.
“You’re not blinking again,” Dani said. “Or taking breaths. It’s weird.”
“So’s the fact that a wolf came to your door at six in the morning.”
“Yeah, well a vampire showed up ten minutes later. Sounds like the start to a bad joke, doesn’t it?”
>
Matthew conceded her point. It irked him that his influence over Dani extended only as long as she was on the clock, and not a second further. Later, he’d have a long think about whether he could continue with their partnership. Already, Matthew had crossed a line by having any sort of reaction at all over Grey. If the chief heard what had happened, he’d tear Matthew apart for interfering on an officer’s private time.
Matthew gave himself a shake, the frustration not quite out of his system, but controlled. He blinked, took a breath, and felt as human as a vampire ever could.
Dani had continued past Matthew while he gathered himself, so he followed her into the morgue and found her leaning over the front desk. Ursula, the unidentified monster who worked as the receptionist, was pouting with an extremely fat lip.
“Sienna’s busy today,” Ursula said. “What’s this about?”
“She’s got two elves,” Dani said. “We need to see them.”
Ursula heaved a huge sigh that sent her purplish skin rippling in strange ways. She jiggled all over when she stood, then continued jiggling as she lumbered back to call the medical examiner.
Sienna appeared out front a few minutes later, walking with an annoyed clip to her step. In a way, Sienna resembled a rebellious teenager. She often had changing hair color and black pants ripped in all sorts of places. Often, her shirts had vulgar words or leather straps affixed to them, and she had piercings from her nose to her ears and likely places Matthew had no interest in knowing about.
“What do you need?” Sienna snapped her gum. “I’ve already had several officers stop by. I thought it was their case, not yours.”
“We’re hoping it’s not our case,” Dani said. “But I’m starting to doubt it. We have a missing person, and we think she might be linked to the elves on your table. Have a minute?”
“For you?” Another pop of her bubblegum. “I’d rather not, but whatever. Follow me.”
Sienna adjusted the rose-colored headphones as she spun on a heel and headed back toward the lab. Judging by the bobbing of her head, she’d resumed listening to whatever music she liked at a decibel that would destroy her hearing.
Dani shot Matthew a look that said this was about as good as they were going to get. On a good day, Sienna was tolerable. Friendly wasn’t in her vocabulary.
Then again, she was a necromancer through and through—and necromancers weren’t exactly known for their hospitality. Whatever fragile bond Matthew, Dani, and the necromancer shared, it tended to hang in a precarious balance.
Dancing along with the music, Sienna pushed open the door to her lab and proceeded straight to the wall where corpses were tucked away to rest in drawers. She let her fingers rest on two different drawers and simultaneously pulled them open.
Matthew and Dani inched forward to look for themselves. Matthew knew better than to dive in with his questions. Sienna would talk when she was ready. Matthew wasn’t sure what she was waiting for—the end of her song, maybe?—but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut.
“Cause of death?” Dani hesitated as she scanned the bodies. “I don’t know. What do you think, Matthew? They look...worn.”
Matthew studied the two young elves, taking a moment to process the frustration that came along with senseless deaths. Two young women, plucked from their lives, gone from this world all too soon. In his own way, he grieved for them, albeit briefly. Once the tender moment passed, however, he was all business.
“They look drained,” he said. “Drained of what...it’s hard to say.”
“Life force.” The necromancer popped off her headphones and moved closer to the bodies, gracing Matthew and Dani with her attention. “Strange, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean life force?” Dani asked, her eyes fixed on the women. “They’re so small, so thin. What did they do to them?”
“This is what it looks like when the life force is sucked out of you,” Sienna said. “We all have variations of magic within us, yes?”
Dani’s eyes flicked toward Matthew, and she nodded. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“Well, imagine a medical procedure similar to extracting bone marrow, or draining someone of their blood—” Sienna’s gaze landed curiously on Matthew—“No offense, Captain.”
Matthew clenched and unclenched his fists. “None taken.”
“A similar sort of thing happens when a power is isolated and drained from a user. In this case, it killed the girls.”
Dani audibly swallowed. “I’ve never heard of power draining before.”
“Me neither,” Sienna said. “But it’s my job to explore every possibility, and while I’m not one hundred percent sure that’s what killed them, I’m very close to proving it. That’s my best working theory.”
“What other theories do you have?”
“Not much.” Sienna tapped a pink lacquered nail against her headphones and bit her lip in thought. “They weren’t strangled, poisoned, shot, stabbed, cursed, hexed, or any other manner of regular old murder. These elves just seemed to shrivel up, and when they didn’t have enough left to go on, they passed.”
“That’s awful.” Dani shuddered. “How long were they tortured?”
It was Matthew’s turn to wince when Sienna guessed the girls had been drained for over two months. “So, it began shortly after they were taken,” Matthew said. “A few weeks to a month later.”
“I’m sure whoever took them had to perfect their procedure,” Dani said with a grimace. “Can you tell what sort of power was drained?”
Sienna shook her head. “I’ve been reading up on elfin magic, but it’s a very secretive subject. They have all of the standard supernatural magicks—great eyesight, hearing, sense of smell, that sort of thing.”
“But there’s more,” Dani suggested. “A big secret.”
Sienna studied the bodies. “I believe so. One that’s not written in any text book. If you want my opinion, Detective, the elves have a secret form of magic they’ve been keeping quiet for centuries. You find out what that is, and you’ll find out why someone wanted them.”
“That won’t be easy.” Dani groaned and looked to Matthew for confirmation. “So far, everyone has lied to us. Including the missing girl’s father. He’d let his daughter die before he expunged the secret elfin magic.”
A shadow darkened Sienna’s face. “There are ways to make people talk, Detective.” The necromancer flexed her fingers as if itching to be let loose. “In the Dead Lands, we—”
“Absolutely not,” Matthew said sharply.
Instead of looking chastised, Sienna gave a playful sort of smile. “Just offering my services, Captain.”
Matthew ignored Sienna’s cockiness. He needed her—the department needed her talents—but damn if she didn’t make for one difficult employee.
“We’ll find her with or without the elves’ cooperation,” Matthew said. “There must be another way to find Linsey. What can you tell us about these girls? They were kept for three months...”
“They were well cared for,” Sienna said. “No blatant signs of abuse of any variety, though I can’t speak to their mental state. Of course, that’s not including the draining of a certain mystery magick.”
“So, these girls were taken because they had something special,” Dani said. “Maybe not all elves have the gift. Maybe it’s only certain ones.”
“I would agree with that,” Sienna confirmed. “I don’t think their captor took pleasure in their pain. If you look here, their nails are manicured—no signs of a struggle. Their hair has been washed recently and is clean. No grit or grime on the girls anywhere; they might have been kept hostages, but it appears they were well cared for. Again, excluding the fact that they’re dead.”
“Sort of a big exclusion,” Dani said. “I wonder if it hurt.”
“Imagine someone sucking the ability to see Residuals from you,” Sienna said. “Yes, I think it would be painful on multiple levels.”
Matthew watched a pained expression flash across Dani
’s face. Being a Reserve was a part of her—a part of her very core. She’d been able to see traces of spells since she was born. He could tell she was imagining what it might be like to have that power taken away from her, extracted without permission.
No doubt, it would feel like losing one of her senses, or a limb. It would be like Matthew losing the ability to hear whispered words or see delicate details or move at great speeds—he’d feel crippled.
The room descended into a more somber tone as Sienna watched over the bodies like their last guardian angel. Then, in her usual fashion, she gently stroked a finger down each of the girls’ cheeks with a special sort of reverence and pushed the drawers back into their resting places.
“In conclusion,” Sienna said, “we had two bodies dumped in a back alley in the Goblin Grid. They were last seen alive three months ago leaving a grocery store. Their cause of death is to be determined, but preliminary findings suggest the extraction of a certain life force. Their bodies would have gone into shock over time as it drained, eventually causing their systems to shut down.”
“If the cases are related,” Dani said, “that would mean Linsey has this exceptional quality too. How does the kidnapper know who has it and who doesn’t?”
“I don’t know, Detective, but if you want to save Linsey’s life, you’ll have to up the stakes. You need to find that secret or you’ll lose her, too.”
“Nobody’s talking,” Dani said, torn between fury and resolve. “We can’t torture them.”
Sienna examined her nails as if she disagreed.
“Who the hell would have any idea how to go about finding out?” Dani muttered. “Even Grey didn’t have insights.”
Matthew stirred at the name. “You discussed a case with the wolf?”
“No,” she said shortly, but Matthew sensed a lie, and she continued. “Fine, a little bit. But I just asked him what he knew about the elves.”
“In the future, please refrain from discussing your caseload with outsiders,” Matthew said. “I thought that was a given.”
