by E A Price
Ling groaned. “Let’s get inside quick before those morons start throwing rocks at us.”
“Rocks?!” he bellowed.
“Yeah, they’ve been terrorizing the neighborhood for weeks, I keep calling the cops but they never do anything.”
Marcus tensed as the boys started hurling rocks towards Ling’s car. Oh, he didn’t care how old they were, heads were gonna roll! He was about to chase after them when a large rock hit her car, and it exploded.
Ling screamed at the enormous boom, and Marcus instinctively pulled her behind him. The teenagers rode away as swiftly as they could, scared witless by what happened.
Ling cowered in Marcus’ arms. “What the fuck?!”
Chapter Fourteen
Marcus felt a pang as Ling gave him a half-smile. She was sat in the ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her. She was okay, physically at least. She hadn’t been hurt by the explosion, but she was in shock.
On preliminary inspection, the police believed someone had attached a bomb to Ling’s car that was supposed to go off when it started moving. It must have been a tad sensitive. Marcus couldn’t believe that Ling owed her life to those asshole kids. Although, hopefully, the explosion would scare them straight too.
Detective Leeman, as he was a friend of Marcus,’ had come out to the crime scene. He appeared downright grim as he looked at Ling. “Is she okay?”
Marcus felt a twinge of annoyance at the other male looking at his female but pushed it back. Now was not the time for his irrational jealousy. “Physically, yes.”
Wyatt rubbed the back of his head. “I haven’t spoken to her, but I’m guessing she doesn’t exactly have any enemies that would want to blow her to pieces.”
“She used to be a secretary, so unless someone’s holding a grudge for her cutting in line to use the copy machine, I doubt it.”
Wyatt grunted. “You know what I’m going to say, don’t you?”
Marcus’ snake hissed in fury. “That Derrick Meyerson, the python, did this.”
“It’s a safe bet, and Meyerson isn’t exactly painting a picture of innocence by running away. I tried to warn you, maybe if you had taken this seriously, your girlfriend wouldn’t be sat in an ambulance right now.”
Marcus felt a flare of anger but soon tamped it down when he saw the pinched expression on Ling’s face. He hung his head. “Yes, you’re right. This is all my fault.”
Wyatt exhaled. “Jeez Marcus, I don’t want you to blame yourself for his actions. The python’s an asshole with an unholy ability to carry a grudge. Everything he does is not on you, but you gotta take him seriously, especially when you have other people to worry about.”
Marcus tensed and even his beast quieted. The thought of losing Ling was unbearable. No way in hell was she being taken away from them.
Wyatt clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Now that he’s suspected of attempted murder, we’re ramping up our search for him, and I’m guessing that you have your own people on this too.”
Marcus didn’t say anything and Wyatt sighed. “Just tell Jackson to stay out of our way, he’s already pissed off a lot of good cops, no need to make it more.”
Wyatt walked away to talk to his colleagues, and Marcus started dialing. Thankfully Jackson was still awake.
In a few short, terse words he told Jackson what had happened. After Jackson had a minor wrestling match with Carly was trying to get the phone off him, Jackson asked him what he wanted to do.
“Find the fucker,” growled Marcus, “and make him pay.”
*
“Ling, dinner is ready.”
She sighed and rolled off her bed. “Ugh, will this day never end?” she whined at her poster of Matt Damon.
Yep, she was staying with her parents and was somewhat disconcerted to find her bedroom hadn’t changed a bit since the last time she lived there. Ten years ago. The room was still alarmingly pink, and the walls were still adorned by pictures of the crushes she had when she was a teenager.
This could actually have been the longest day of her life.
After her car blew up the night before, she packed a bag and, at her mother’s insistence, came home. She had thought about going to a hotel, but Marcus didn’t want her to be on her own. She had argued that if someone wanted to kill her she didn’t really want her family to be put in danger, but her mother wouldn’t listen to her. Instead, she was now trapped in her family’s house with a patrol cop stood outside the front door. Ostensibly, he was there to stop anyone from coming into the house, but she knew better. She saw him confer with Marcus before he drove her here; he was there to stop her from leaving.
Although, she didn’t think it would be particularly hard to leave if she wanted. The bear shifter cop was enormous but young and naïve; she saw the way he checked out her little sister, Shuang every time she found an excuse to go out there to talk to him. He was easily distracted.
Her day had been spent alternately hanging out with her mother, her sister, begging her father not to leave her with her mother and her sister and watching daytime TV. She’d had more than enough of that in the last few weeks and so had settled on trying to read a steamy romance. She used to devour them when she was a teenager, but they just seemed a bit flat compared to her encounters with Marcus.
Hmmm, Marcus. Her panda yowled; she hadn’t seen him all day. He’d called intermittently, but hadn’t given her any information on what he was up to; he was just calling to make sure she was okay. It was super annoying.
She reluctantly trudged down the stairs and made her way to the dining room. Her parents smiled, and Shuang let out an impatient grunt before ladling food onto her plate.
Ling surveyed the food. It looked yummy as always, but her stomach was kind of uneasy. She didn’t like to admit it to Marcus, but what happened last night was absolutely terrifying. She spent the better part of the morning throwing up, and hadn’t been able to eat much all day.
Ling toyed with some noodles on her plate. “Maybe I should take some food out to Officer Brown.”
“I already did,” said Shuang, flicking her a suspicious glance.
Ling rolled her eyes. Her sister didn’t have to worry; Officer Brown was safe from her charms.
She pushed the food around her plate for a few more minutes before looking up. A car had pulled onto the driveway.
Everyone held their breath until Ling heard the familiar voice talking to the cop and leapt out of her seat. She ran to the door, and flinging it open, threw herself into Marcus’ surprised arms.
Ling pressed her lips to his. “Thank god! I missed you.”
“Me too, beautiful, me too.”
Officer Brown politely averted his eyes as Ling tried to ravish Marcus on the porch. She would have continued were it not for her mother’s outraged whisper, telling her to get in the house.
Blushing furiously, Ling led a calm looking Marcus in the house. Did he ever get embarrassed by anything? “Marcus, this is my mother. Mother, this is Marcus, my… ummm…”
“Boyfriend,” he supplied with a wry smile, before holding out his hand to her mother. Ling felt her cheeks redden even more with delight and her panda whooped.
Fang looked at him distastefully, letting her feelings about snakes painfully clear. Marcus either didn’t notice or care; he held out his hand, unfalteringly staring at Fang until she gave in and shook.
Ling ran her hands over his chest, straightening his tie. “Have you eaten yet? We were just sitting down to dinner, would you like to join us?”
“I don’t wish to impose,” he said politely.
Ling gave her mother a beseeching look and Fang inwardly groaned. She had the feeling Ling was keeping something from her, but she never suspected it was a snake shifter. However, her little panda had been through a lot… “It’s not an imposition; you are very welcome to join us.”
Ling took his hand and led him to the dining room. “Daddy, Shuang, this is my boyfriend, Marcus.” Her panda yipped at the word.
&nbs
p; “Holy crap!” exclaimed her sister, while their father just opened his mouth in surprise.
Ling cringed, and her mother clucked her tongue at their reactions but Marcus didn’t seem to mind. He grinned at them, making them even more alarmed. He told them it was nice to meet them, before Ling quickly got him settled next to her.
The rest of dinner was fairly quiet. Marcus was polite to her family and made small enquiries about their lives; they in turn eyed him warily and gave him quick answers to all his questions. Ling could barely contain herself; she was dying to know what he had been doing all day but didn’t want to ask him until they were alone.
As the dinner went on, Fang seemed to gain more confidence, and decided Marcus wasn’t actually a threat. She just wasn’t sure she wanted him dating her eldest daughter. “Ling, your father told me something interesting earlier.”
Ling raised her eyebrows and looked at her father who had stopped mid-chew to blink at his wife; he seemed as surprised as Ling by that statement.
“Your father told me that Robert is buying the Jefferson house two doors down from us. Just think, soon we’ll be neighbors with him!” Fang beamed at both Ling and Marcus.
Ling gave Marcus a sideways glance; he hadn’t reacted to the mention of her ex-husband at all, thank god. He was still kind of sore about the slashed tires. Ling would have been too, had it not been for more recent events overshadowing that.
Although Ling didn’t want to rise to her mother’s bait, she was kind of curious as to why he would want to buy that house. Her parent’s house was pretty big and upscale, but it was nothing compared to the Jefferson house.
“Why the heck would he want to do that?” asked Shuang, and Ling mentally thanked her obnoxious little sister. “That place is hideous.”
Fang exhaled. “It is not hideous.”
Shuang snorted, “Oh, it is! It looks like the Munsters’ dream-house!”
Fang gave her a small growl. “It is a nice, old house. Apparently, he wants to settle down and start a family.”
Fang gave Ling a meaningful look; who in turn gave Marcus a worried one. She was pleased he didn’t seem to care. She could tell Marcus wasn’t someone who was overly emotional, but she got the feeling he was prone to jealousy. It hadn’t been overt, but his reaction to the message she played from Myron the day before hadn’t been positive.
Ling shrugged unconcernedly. Her mother was about to say something else when Ling’s phone rang. “I better get that; it might be the cops,” cried Ling gratefully as she took it and excused herself into the living room.
“Hello?”
“Ling!” came the anguished voice down the phone line.
Crap! “Myron, I’m hanging up.”
“No, please don’t,” he pleaded. “I need to speak to you.”
Ling tapped her foot, and against her better judgment and the wails of her panda, she didn’t end the call. “Make it quick.”
“I wanted to apologize…” Ling could almost imagine his naturally florid face reddening even more.
“Apology accepted, now I’m…”
“No, wait, Ling, I love you and I want to…”
Ling hung up and jumped when she found Marcus stood behind her.
“Everything alright?” he asked quietly.
She nodded quickly. “Yeah, just an old colleague of mine.” She winced as she lied, and her beast let out a disapproving bark, but Marcus had enough to worry about without a horny gorilla to worry about. That was all it was. Myron was horny, so he was trying to tap Ling for a mercy screw. Ha! Not even if she weren’t in love with Marcus.
Love. Ooh, butterflies flitted through her stomach. Yep, there was no doubt about it. She was in love with her sexy snake shifter. She just prayed he felt the same way.
*
It was another hour before Ling managed to get Marcus alone. She took him to her bedroom under the disapproving glare of her mother, the knowing smirk of her sister and the uncaring ignorance of her father.
When she finally did have him to herself, she gave him a toe-curling kiss, and he happily wrapped his arms around her. Their beasts sighed in happiness.
She led him to her very pink bed and sat him down. “Tell me everything that’s happening.”
Marcus smiled and ran a finger over her jaw. “There’s not really much to tell…”
*
The day had been frustrating as hell, and the only bright spot was being with Ling.
Mia had tracked down one of Derrick Meyerson’s cellmates. Over the years, he had gone through numerous cellmates. Usually, they ended up fighting and had to be separated, but Derrick had lasted with a bull shifter named Thorn for more than eight months.
Marcus, Jackson and Logan had surprised Thorn ever so slightly, by knocking his door down and dragging him out of bed. The bull’s girlfriend hadn’t hung around and made it clear she was leaving and not coming back. Marcus thought it was for the best; the bull had been in jail for half-beating his last girlfriend to death. He had not inclination to treat the Thorn with any kindness or care, a sentiment with which his thrashing beast, Logan and Jackson all concurred.
Thorn had jerked and tried to shift, but he was easily subdued by the three of them. The bull certainly didn’t want to pick a fight with them; he preferred to pick fights with women half his size…
Logan and Jackson sat the naked bull down on his couch, and Marcus walked around to sit opposite. He took his jacket off and laid it over the back of his chair.
“Cover yourself; no one wants to see that,” ordered Marcus coldly.
Thorn grimaced and pulled a cushion over his flaccid manhood. Logan and Jackson stood over him, arms folded.
“I need to find Derrick Meyerson,” said Marcus calmly.
Thorn snorted. “Good for you.”
Quick as a flash, Jackson slapped him round the back of his head.
Marcus’ lips twitched almost imperceptibly. “I need to find Meyerson, quickly.” He pulled out a pair of plastic gloves and slowly pulled them on, snapping them against his wrists, making the bull flinch. “You were his last cellmate before he was released.”
Thorn was starting to get nervous. Bears and wolves were one thing; they were all brawn, and he probably could have come out okay fighting them, individually at least. But snake shifters were another thing. Their beasts were cold blooded reptiles; when it came to getting what they wanted, they had no issue with being vicious and violent. He’d learnt that the hard way in prison. If a snake was in prison, you knew it was for something bad.
Marcus rolled up his sleeves as he surveyed the bull shifter with ice-cold precision. “He must have said something about his plans after he was released.”
Thorn shrugged. “He said he would have to live with his mom until he could get away.”
“Get away to where?”
“I… I’m not sure,” he replied, forcing his voice not to waver.
Marcus licked his lips. “What about his visitors? Who came to the prison to see him?”
“Uh, his mom, a few times, and, some woman.”
“What woman?” Marcus asked crisply.
Thorn looked to the bear and the wolf; there was no way they were going to help him. “Some church woman, she wrote to him through this prison pen-pal scheme, that’s how I met my new girlfriend.”
Logan snorted. “Ex-girlfriend.”
Thorn let out a growl, and Jackson slapped his head again.
Marcus leaned back in his chair, tenting his fingers. “What can you tell me about this woman.”
“Nothing, I never met her.”
Marcus reached into his jacket, and Thorn started to panic. “Okay, okay, look all I know is that she was this hippy chick, and after they met Derrick was reading the bible and praying every night. Dumb fuck reckoned he was in love with her and that they were going to live together on the farm after he got out.”
Marcus froze. “What farm?”
“This farm where her church lived, the children of the midni
ght sun or the midday moon, something like that. Sounded like some fucked-up cult to me, but Derrick was psyched about it.”
Thorn squirmed under Marcus’ gaze. The snake shifter nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He started dialing Mia.
Marcus got up and made his way to the door, with Jackson and Logan following.
“Wait, that’s it?” called Thorn in confusion.
Marcus turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. “What else were you expecting?”
The three of them left quickly, and Marcus asked Mia to find out anything she could about the children of the midnight sun, or the midday moon as the case may be.
They split up, and Marcus was considering talking to the python’s mother again. She wasn’t his biggest fan, but if he kept probing her, she might give something away. He was determined to do just that when he spotted the other asshole currently conspiring to make his like miserable. Norman, the camel shifter.
He was ducking into a family restaurant called Henry’s. Marcus quickly pulled over and parked. If he couldn’t lay his hands on Derrick at that moment, Norman would do. He grabbed a pair of handcuffs and swiftly made his way inside.
He soon spotted Norman talking to one of the waiters and, without hesitating, Marcus slapped a pair of cuffs on him.
The camel shifter’s eyes bulged at seeing Marcus. “No more games, Norman, it’s time to go back to jail.”
Norman licked his lips. “Get off me Blind Date Killer!” he yelled loudly.
Marcus knit his brows. “What?”
Norman inclined his head at Marcus and swung around looking at everyone else in the restaurant. “He’s the Blind Date Killer; he’s trying to kill me.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” he growled in annoyance as his snake slithered in fury.
He grabbed at Norman when an elderly woman stood up and pointed at Marcus. “It is him! He looks just like those wanted posters!”
“You’re kidding?!” Marcus cried in irritation.
The Blind Date Killer was supposed to be six foot four, with black hair and brown eyes. He looked nothing like the posters!
