Finding the clasp on the front of her bra, he released it and the instant her breasts were free, he cupped one in his hand. He wasn’t rough now, but he knew what he was doing. His thumb circled the tip, bringing her nipples to full alert. She arched her back, moaning as their tongues danced.
“Condom.”
“Pants.”
She lay there panting while he searched through his jeans for a condom. Finding it, he held it up smiling, then it faded as he stared down at her. “Damn, you’ve got a nice body.”
“Yours isn’t so bad either.”
Perching over her, he took her mouth once more and their hands sought to pleasure. She felt him press against her, hard and ready. Tugging at his boxers, she couldn’t wait to feel him inside. Releasing her mouth, he tore the condom package open with his teeth then went right back to seducing her lips.
She took the condom, reached down between them and took him in her hand. There was nothing average about him and the thought of all that length pushing inside of her made her a little uneasy. Which added to the arousal.
She slipped the condom on while he tore at her panties, tugging them over her hips and down her thighs. She lifted the leg curled around his waist, bending it to allow him to slip the silk off her foot. Guiding him to her opening, their eyes met as he pressed slowly inside. Her body gave to his, spreading her wide. Feeling like she hadn’t had sex in years, she wrapped her other leg around his waist and invited him all the way in. Her body, fuelled and ready, began to move in a slow rhythm. She arched her back when his mouth took her nipple in, his tongue doing erotic circles around the tip. Gripping his hair in her hand, she urged him to continue while their hips moved in perfect unity.
He pumped. He suckled. His teeth nipped. Her body came alive.
She worked her hips as he pressed himself deep inside, over and over again. And when the orgasm began to build, she yanked his head up to her and took his mouth. Grabbing her hands, he yanked them over her head and pumped her even harder. She poured over him and cried out against his mouth as she was rocked with an earth-shaking orgasm. He grunted, pushed once deep inside, and she felt him twitch with his own release.
He collapsed on top of her, both of them panting. Sienna hadn’t felt this invigorated in a very long time.
“Damn it. Not now.”
“What?”
The phone rang, ending their happy moment.
“You knew that was going to happen?” He pushed himself up to look down at her.
“Yeah. Just like I know it’s a call about another body. I have to get it.” She pushed him aside, rolled, and grabbed the ringing phone. “Lieutenant Storm. Be there in five.” She hung up and bounced off the bed.
“Your dog’s a voyeur.”
“What?” She looked to the end of the bed and saw Daisy laying there with her tail wagging. “Guess so. I’ve got to roll,” she added as she threw her clothes back on. She grabbed another t-shirt from her drawer, not bothering to retrieve the one in the kitchen and slipped it on. As she ran to the kitchen to find her keys, she heard Nathan come up behind her.
“Where are we going?”
She eyeballed him. “We aren’t going anywhere. I am.” Spotting her keys on the table beside the pizza she scooped them up, then ran for the laptop. “If he calls, I’ll be watching.” She locked up behind him then raced down the stairs to her car. She casually waved to him as she pulled away.
***
If she thought he was going to just slink off to his hotel room and not follow her to the scene, she was mistaken. Throwing his car in gear, Nathan drove after Sienna. He saw her check her mirror, saw the moment she spotted him, and he was pretty damn sure she was growling when she saw him. He stayed right behind her even when she threw her hand out the window and flipped him the bird.
Laughing, he matched his speed with hers. This was actually fun. When she swerved around the next corner, he took it a little smoother but still kept up with her. He wished he could hear inside her car right now. Nathan was pretty sure she was swearing a blue streak.
The flashing police lights in the distance caught his attention and even if she found a way to shake him, he’d know where to go. When she pulled into an alley and came to a stop, he parked right behind her.
Let the fireworks begin.
Casually he slid from his car, knowing full well she was going to go off on him. When she turned, facing him, he walked toward her in a lumbering stroll. The fury on her face was a glowing beacon in the dark night.
“Back off, Detective. This isn’t your case anymore.”
“Are we seriously going to have this conversation after what happened earlier?”
“Just because we had sex doesn’t mean I’m letting you in on the case,” she stated in a low, deep tone, her index finger jutting out at him.
Nathan grinned, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. “I was referring to the demon bar and the sketch, Lieutenant.” He imagined there was a great deal of heat coming off her in her rage right now. “I thought we’d gotten past this.”
“Well, you were wrong. Stay back.”
“Free country,” he reminded her as he began to follow her. He kept his chuckle low when he heard her growling.
“Keep him back,” she ordered to the officers on scene before stopping at the side of the body lying on the ground.
Nathan simply stayed where he was and smiled at the young officer who came up to him.
“What do we have, Detective Vega?”
“Fenton, John, twenty-two. Same MO as the previous murders. Hole through and through, heart missing.”
Putting on her sterile cap, gown and gloves, she crouched down to the body and Nathan watched her work. The sympathy he saw in her eyes touched him deeply.
“The doc on his way?” she inquired while examining the body.
“Should be here momentarily,” Vega remarked, kneeling down beside her.
“Can I have a little more light over here?”
A tall, thin officer strolled off toward a patrol car, pulled out what he assumed was a flashlight before heading back to Sienna. When the light was shone on the body, Nathan could actually see more. He had a fleeting thought to say thank you but kept it to himself and watched them work.
“There’s something in the hole.”
Nathan shifted to his left to try to get a better look.
“No way that just fell off of the perp,” Detective Vega spouted and Nathan wished he could see what it was they were looking at.
“Give me a bag and tweezers,” Sienna ordered as she leaned in closer to the body.
Since no one was watching him, Nathan inched his way forward, stopping just behind the lieutenant. What he saw was a young man, eyes wide, one arm over his head, the other on his gut. Both legs were straight out, the heels of his runners touching and toes perfectly straight up. “He’s been posed.”
Sienna looked over her shoulder and her snarl didn’t faze Nathan much. “Didn’t I tell you to stay back?”
“Yep. He was posed. No one falls, landing perfectly straight with one arm over their head and the other one on their belly let alone their legs straight and feet perfectly pointed up. Look at the alignment of his body. It’s perfectly straight.”
Sienna stood up, walked to the boy’s feet, then back to the head. “You’re right. Damn it, I should have seen that.”
“You were busy looking at the handkerchief in the wound, which I am going to have to say was placed there as well. He’s getting bolder.” Cocky, Nathan thought as he glanced over the rest of the body. He flashed back to Leo laying on the ground, eyes wide, a hole in his chest. He hadn’t been posed but that was because the killer had other plans. When the killer had hit him over the head, Nathan had fallen face first onto his partner’s chest, his arms around his friend. That was t
he pose he’d wanted for the other officers to find.
“I would have to agree with the detective.” Vega held up the hanky bringing Nathan back to the present. On it written in bold red print—which Nathan would bet his paycheck was written in the victim’s blood—were the words Tag, You’re It.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“He wants to play,” Nathan supplied. He heard footsteps in the distance and saw the ME heading toward them.
“Well, I’m a poor loser,” Sienna remarked in a dark, determined tone. “Doc.”
“Lieutenant.” He clucked his tongue as he suited up in his sterile gear. “Have photos been taken yet?”
“We were just about to do so. Carmine,” Detective Vega waved his hand at the young officer who in turn headed back to the car.
Sienna held the doc back when he moved to the left side of the body. “Shoe prints over there we haven’t captured yet. That’s why we’re staying on this side. We’ll move back and give you room. Officer Carmine, take the pictures. Detective, take the impressions. Tell me we have an image scanner at the precinct so I don’t have to ship the prints off to God knows where.”
“We have one, except…no one knows how to use it,” Detective Vega remarked sheepishly.
“Well, today’s your lucky day.” Nathan stepped in. “I happen to know how to use them. We use them all the time at my precinct.” The steely glance Sienna gave him only made him smile. “Still want to keep me out of the investigation, Lieutenant?”
When she narrowed those beautiful blue eyes at him, his smile grew. Sleeping with her hadn’t garnered him rights on the case, but his technical abilities certainly would.
Victory was a sweet reward, and Nathan was going to milk it for all it was worth.
Chapter Fourteen
Sienna wasn’t all too happy at letting the detective in on the investigation, but she wasn’t so stupid as to keep him out for her own reasons. And she had to admit, the guy knew what he was doing. The instant they’d been shown to the crime lab he’d gone right to the scanner and got to work.
“I dated a girl in the crime scene department,” Nathan explained while he got the image scanner booted up. “She showed me a few things.” He winked at her.
“I’m sure she did. Stick to the task at hand, Detective.”
“I can multitask.” He clicked some buttons on the machine, then swiveled over to the computer. “I’m dying to know. What’s with the leather?”
“What?” Sienna had no idea what he was typing in but he definitely was no stranger to the task. His fingers flew over the keys in rapid time.
“Leather pants.” He scooted back to the machine, punched in some more numbers, hit another button, then scooted back to the computer. “Why do you wear them?”
“I like the feel of it. I want to have you sit down with a sketch artist and get a more detailed picture that I can send out on the airwaves.”
“You don’t like my drawing, Lieutenant? I’m hurt.” He grinned slyly at her. “It’s ready. Let’s slide the impression into it and see what it can tell us.”
“A more professional sketch would work better for identification.” It was fascinating to watch him work. He took the gel imprint of the shoe they’d captured at the scene and slid it into the slot at the side, then punched in a few more numbers before leaning back.
“This’ll probably take about a half an hour.” Getting up from his chair, he sent her a dark, sexy look. “I’m thinking we could probably figure out something to do to pass the time.”
She held her hand up, stopping him from coming any closer. “Not on the clock.” When the doors opened and Doc Hawthorn entered, she backed up a step and did her best not to show her embarrassment. “Doc.”
“Guess what I hold in my hands?” He waved a yellow envelope in the air.
“Please tell me those are my results.”
“They are indeed.” He glanced over at Nathan, tilting his head. “I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced. Dr. Cooper Hawthorn.”
“Detective Nathan Powers. You’re a vampire?” They shook hands. “So, do you, like, suck blood from humans?”
“He’s new to the whole vampire/demon thing,” Sienna explained when the doc’s brow lifted, then turned her attention to Nathan. “It’s against the law for vampires to take victims without their consent in Jacob’s Cove, though we’re still working on getting that law through the vamps’ heads.”
“Get out. You have vampire laws?”
“In a town filled with them, yeah, you’ve got to have rules.” Sienna took the envelope from the doc, tore it open in her eagerness to find out the information. “Blood analysis came back as the victim’s. No foreign bodies in the blood to indicate anything other than human blood. No fingerprints on the button or any other substance.” She looked up at the doc, pursing her lips. “He doesn’t leave any hair fragments, no skin on the inside of the wound, no traces of clothing. How the hell is this possible?”
“Maybe he wears a sterile suit when he kills them,” Doc offered.
“He was wearing jeans and a black jacket when I saw him.” Nathan took the papers from Sienna, glancing over the data.
“You’ve seen him?”
He looked up at the doc as he responded. “Once. There’s nothing in here about the weapon he might be using.”
Sienna looked at him with a lift of her brow. “He doesn’t use a weapon, at least we don’t believe he does.”
“He has to use a weapon. How else do you explain it?”
“He uses his fist,” the doc explained, curling his own hand in a fist. “He punches through from the back to the front, catching his victims off guard.”
“You’re serious?”
“Perfectly.”
“He’s a demon, remember, Nathan? Some demons have extraordinary strength,” Sienna began explaining, taking the papers back. “No one hears the victims even mutter a plea so that leads me to believe he catches them off guard and kills them quickly. One sharp blow to the back, shoving his fist through to the front, snatching the heart out with it. Bam! Bam!” She jabbed her fist out, pulling it back in a quick example of what the killer might do.
“Jesus.” Nathan wiped a hand across his mouth. Then his eyes went wide. “He eats the hearts. He told me he eats them raw. Said if you snatch it from the body fast enough it still beats. Holy fuck…that means…”
“Sit down, Detective,” Sienna coaxed, seeing how white his face had turned. She knew where his thoughts had just trailed.
“He ate Leo’s heart.”
“Get him some water, Doc,” Sienna instructed, putting a hand on Nathan’s shoulder to ease him down into the chair. “Don’t think about that.”
Nathan looked up at her and swallowed deep. “He fucking ate his heart.”
“Here.” She handed Nathan the paper cup of water the doc had brought her, urging him to drink.
Absently, Nathan took the cup and had a sip.
“I’m afraid I’m a bit lost,” the doc whispered to Sienna.
“Leo was his partner in Boston,” Sienna spoke quietly to Cooper. “Our guy killed him a few weeks ago and knocked out Nathan. He’s been on stress leave ever since.”
“I didn’t need the fucking stress leave,” Nathan blurted out, getting to his feet. “I wasn’t nuts when I gave my description of the guy. He’s a demon and I wasn’t nuts. I’m bringing him down.” His voice dipped low.
The bell rang on the scanner, drawing everyone’s attention. “Let’s get something on him first. What does it say?”
Snatching the readout from the printer, Nathan cleared his throat as he read. “Shoe brand, Dawson; size, twelve large. Instep indicating he puts pressure on the inside of his feet as he steps. There are traces of sand, particulates of clay, plastic, paper, animal, and hu
man feces. Our boy doesn’t clean his shoes often. The list of suppliers are long.”
“Yeah, but how often does a guy with horns and a thorny face walk into a shop?” Sienna took the printout and saw what Nathan meant by a long list. “We can split the list in three after we get a composite of the killer.” Looking up at Nathan, she saw the fierceness in his eyes. “Put your personal feelings on the back burner, Detective. We need you to give an accurate description of this guy without revenge clouding your vision.”
“My vision is perfectly fine. Am I included in the three?”
It was time she put her stubbornness aside and let him in. “You bet. Now let’s get rolling.”
Chapter Fifteen
At least this time when he’d given his description of the killer, he hadn’t been laughed at. It made a world of difference, and gave Nathan some much needed peace of mind. It didn’t hurt that the sketch artist was a demon himself. What race had he said he was? Right—Shradluc, whatever that was. Aside from the pointy ears, orange saucer-shaped eyes, forked tongue and three fingers on each hand instead of five, he looked normal.
Sure he’d been pissed the shrink and his captain put him on stress leave, but deep inside, Nathan wondered if he hadn’t imagined what he’d seen. A man with horns and a thorny face. Not your typical human characteristic, but he hadn’t known at the time that the killer wasn’t human.
He did now.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the world believed in demons and vampires. As was the case with the last three shoe stores he’d called and faxed the photo to. Two of them had laughed at him, the third had simply hung up on him. Undaunted, Nathan plugged on.
He’d been given an office to work in, which came with four walls, a door, and a window. Not to mention his own coffee pot. Could it get any better than this?
“Any luck?”
Nathan glanced up from his list to see Detective Dante Vega leaning on the doorjamb, coffee cup in hand.
“Not so far. You?”
Shiela Stewart - [Darkness 07] Page 10
