Yet, it was upon seeing that blank security footage and, finding these pages missing, that her detective instincts straight away took the lead in her thinking.
“Where are these pages?” she quizzically looked at Albert, who first frantically looked from the log, to Kevin, and then back at her.
Chapter Three
Her boss was going to fire her. That is, if he didn't blow her eardrums out with yelling at her first.
She really hated working at the crummy diner, but she need the minimum wage job for her college tuition.
It seemed like a never ending cycle. No sooner did she get her paycheck, was she handing it over to the register's office.
The whole situation was similar to paying off a blackmailer. Once she got the person or persons paid off, she had a short reprieve of not worrying about them bothering her anymore.
She was always strapped for cash, and wondering why she was even wasting the time and money to attend this college. There were hardly any pluses about being a student at the U of A – at least for her. Possibly for others, there was something of a great opportunity. Yet, she hadn't seen her opportunity yet; then again, there was that chance that she just wasn't looking hard enough for it.
The way Jewel Freemen rationalized this though, was it being largely the college's fault. The U of A had hardly made itself appealing to her. At Pima, she had been told that either all or some of her course work would transfer over. Yet, once she got to the U of A, she found that most of her credits from Pima weren't accepted. So, she had had to settle on taking a lot of similar classes over again at the U of A. What had the college even less appealing, was that she was being hit up every month for tuition.
When she had gone to the register's office to complain about this, she had been told that she could take out more loans. Yet, it had been her sister, Genevieve, who had discouraged her from doing this. If she thought the register's office was a headache, she had another thing coming—the loan companies would be far worse than them.
As she rushed from her dormitory to the campus garage, her thoughts weren't on what was in front of her; rather they were on how horribly late she was for work.
It was as she was glancing down at her watch, for the fifth time, that she ran into him.
The moment she hit him, she hadn't a clue on who or what she had slammed into. Only that it sent her landing on to her ass.
When she felt these strong masculine arms around her, she was surprised and, slightly, unnerved by who it was that held her captive. Quickly looking up, she was astonished by these sterling green eyes that were staring down at her. She was even more dumbstruck by who these beautiful eyes belonged to.
The gorgeous specimen in front of her, definitely didn't look like any typical college frat boy that was popular around this campus.
He was....
There wasn't any words to describe him. Except to emphasize that he had beautiful green eyes, a hard physique, a well chiseled face, and shoulder length, sun-streaked, blond hair.
When eventually she came out of her daze, she tried untangling herself from this person's grasp. Yet, he seemed more than unwilling to let her.
“I'm awfully sorry...” he roguishly smiled at her.
It was his innocent attempt at trying to brush her off, that had her blushing.
“It's okay...”
When she, again, stared into those hypnotic green eyes, the whole thought about work, or even school, went out the window. All she could think about was how much she, desperately, wanted to go to bed with this man.
“Are you okay?”
“Yea...I'm supposed to be somewhere...” she was falling hopelessly in love with his hypnotic stare. Her responsibilities were becoming less and less a priority – all she wanted to do was run away with this man. “I just can't figure out..., where that is right now.”
“You're awfully pretty....” he chuckled.
As he yanked her toward him, her body instantly responded to his nearness. It was those eyes and his rough masculine fingers, that were her ultimate downfall; she wanted him to do wicked things to her with those fingers.
If she wasn't taken off guard by him skimming his fingers up and down her arm and looking at her in a way that no man had ever, before, looked at her, she was at the sudden feel of his mouth against hers. As she groaned at the pleasurable way his tongue parted her lips and gently caressed her, she instantly gave up on any rational sense – who cared if she was kissing a complete stranger, in a practically deserted parking garage.
Just as sudden as the kiss had been, it was surprisingly abrupt. When he pulled away from her, she didn't know what to feel, she was surprised, yet, disappointed—she wanted so badly for him to continue kissing her senseless.
“Don't stop...” she blushed, when she heard the neediness in her voice.
“I have to..., little one.”
Noting how he was staring behind her, she turned to see what or whom he was looking at. She was instantly surprised by the appearance of this new stranger; standing there in the U of A's scarcely populated parking garage – she had been almost positive, that it was just her and her dreamboat.
Since it was the start of the weekend, everyone was out having a personal life. And, supposedly, she was supposed to be out doing something...not fun..., she knew that...Yet, since meeting the handsome stranger in front of her, she had total amnesia on what that, none fun, something was.
As her gaze wandered over the new arrival, she subconsciously edged closer to the man who held her captive.
While the lighting in the parking garage was fairly decent, the new stranger still had this shadowy, dark, appearance, that made him more than a little frightening. With his dark brown hair flowing down his back, and the eery way he smiled at her, she was instantly chilled to the bone.
“Come along, little one.” her captivating dreamboat steered her over to her car.
As he deposited her behind the wheel of her car, her fear was gradually being replace with astonishment at how close she had been to her car.
While she was now in her car, and her muddled thoughts were starting to become less muddled, she still wanted to be with her captivating dreamboat; concernedly looking back over at the other stranger, she found herself desperately wanting her fantasy man to come with her. Just the thought of deserting the captivating man in front of her, had her unable to bear the thought—especially leaving him with such an eery individual as that other stranger.
“Come with me.”
“Maybe later...” he chuckled. “Don't worry, little one.”
She frantically looked from the eery stranger, who was coming toward them, to him. “Please, come with.”
Leaning in the car, he kissed her. When his lips had gotten done doing wonderful mind blowing things to her lips, he pulled away from her; not but an inch away from her lips, he said, “Leave now...Don't stay, just leave...You'll forget all about this..., and me.”
She didn't reply, she just hypnotically started her car.
One minute, she was in the parking garage and the next she was pulled into the diner's parking lot. She had, practically, forgotten about the captivating stranger—whose lips were still imprinted on her mouth. He was still in her subconscious, but, if anyone had ever bothered asking her where, if, or when she had seen him last, she wouldn't have been able to tell them.
XXX
As he watched the departing car, he thought of the beauty behind the wheel. He had been watching her, for awhile now. All his lustful thoughts could think about, was how satisfying it would be to have her body in his bed. And to taste, not just those delectable lips, but that essence—she was, after all, his favorite blood type.
Turning irritably to the eery stranger, he, smugly, said, “Do you know how hard it is to find AB- blood?”
“Ah...Cailean...don't worry, her blood won't go to waste...” the stranger cackled. “I'll make sure of that..., but, before I go and claim my pretty little prize, I would like to know one thing?”
“Yea..., what's that?”
“Where's Alexandru?”
Chapter Four
“You lost a body?!”
Genevieve had thought that her boss would be angry, but considering how bloated his face was, her assumption had been more of an exaggeration than anything.
He was livid.
“You lost a body!!!” when he repeated this, it sounded more like a rampaging shouting than a question.
While Genevieve could understand why her Captain was upset—she hadn't been too happy herself—she was still baffled on why she was being blamed for it. Granted this stiff was one of her cases, but she had done everything by the book – and more. She followed the medical examiner to the morgue and made sure that all the appropriate paperwork was filed before she left.
No one was really to blame for this, except, that is, the person or persons that had taken the corpse from the morgue – there were some really sick, twisted, people out there. Some of the most demented people she could see doing this, were college kids – especially college boys. Probably a few frat boys thought it would be funny to go into the morgue, take a corpse, and then put it on a park bench. She could see that happening.
When she was in college, she remembered hearing how a bunch of stupid little pricks went to the cemetery and unburied a body – a fraternity initiation of some sort. At first, when she'd heard the gossip pertaining to this incident, she had been doubtful about the whole thing happening; surely these frat boys had better things to do—like flunking out of school and having loads of sex. Yet, once she heard it on the news, she knew it was true. No matter how far fetched it was, she had learned, then, that young college boys, that had nothing better to do and were drunk on testosterone, were likely to do anything.
If her stiff was on a park bench, she was definitely not looking forward to being called out for that. She could just imagine the decomposition that this summer heat would do to a corpse – definitely not a pretty sight.
With that unpleasant thought in mind, she found herself getting even more pissed off, than she was, over the realization that her Captain had a demented desire to blame whoever was in sight and yelling range; and since she was the only one in his office, she was the likely candidate – didn't that beat all.
The moment he got up from his chair and started stalking toward her, Genevieve nervously edged herself towards the door.
“Now, sir,...think of your blood pressure...and that really ugly vein, in your forehead, bulging out...I never knew that someone could get that angry...that's amazing...”
“Screw my blood pressure...you little...!” rolling her eyes, she frowned at the way the door's handle, dug into her back.
There really was no reasoning with the man in front of her, and, seeing how her Captain's temper was only getting worse, she didn't have many options. It was either let the door handle continue to dig itself into her back or hastily open it and make a quick retreat.
In the end, she decided to do the latter. For she had no desire to have her boss's door handle imprinted on her back; if she wanted a tattoo, she would get one at a tattoo parlor – possibly a bigger one than the one she had on her ass.
It was as she was swiftly sauntering out of her Captain's office, that she heard him yell, “Listen you, you find that body or you'll never work in homicide again...! Do you hear me, I want that...!”
She didn't hear the last part, due to her tuning him out.
She was so lost in her own thoughts, that the feel of fingers skimming over her arm, had her surprisingly turning around to stare into her partner's hazelnut eyes. Of all people she didn't want to deal with that night, he was one of them.
She had already dealt with one fucker yelling at her over a mistake, that wasn't entirely her fault. Who would have thought that leaving a body at the morgue, was worse than leaving it back at the crime scene.
Maybe she should have taken the corpse home with her.
Yea...now that would have gone down well with Amelia—she already thought Genevieve brought her work home with her.
Aggravatingly, yanking, her arm away from her partner, she headed toward her car.
“Gen, we need to talk...”
At the sound of her partner's persisted voice, she turned around to stare into his disgruntle face. “If it's about the missing stiff from the morgue, I already got my ass handed to me by Senor Douche Bag.”
At the mention of this, she noticed how surprised he got. Well, that was one way to put your foot down your throat and out your ass. Yet, she supposed that the slip couldn't be helped.
“You lost a body?”
“Hey, listen, douche, I didn't lose the body.”
“You just said that the body is missing...”
Abruptly cutting him off, she said, “As I tried telling his highness in there...” she motioned toward the police building. “The body was dropped off at the morgue in the afternoon, and then a few hours later...it disappeared...” not wanting to mention Albert, she hastily turned on her heels and continued to her car.
When she hadn't heard her partner's persisted footsteps behind her, she had thought the conversation was over with; and hadn't even bothered to see if he was still behind her. Yet, it was upon her slipping behind the wheel of her Chevy Cruze, that she was slightly surprised to see her passenger door suddenly come open and her partner plop himself down next to her.
“So where are we going, first?”
“I'm going back to the crime scene...I was hoping you would stay here and keep the Captain off of my ass for a few hours.”
“No dice..., doll face,...I'm going with you.”
Frowning irritatingly over at him, Genevieve sighed at the stubborn expression on his face – there was no moving him.
As he sat there, smugly smiling at her, she had that unbearable desire to wipe that annoying smirk off of his face. Yet, it was when the car finally idled down, that she ultimately decided against it.
As she pulled out of her parking place, it was then that her partner said, “On the way there, lets talk about you and Keith.”
XXX
Brian Cailean stood irritably frowning at the vampire in front of him, wondering why after hundreds of years of being alive he had to still deal with that blasted Cirpian's problems.
Over the past centuries, he had fought hundreds upon hundreds of battles. The majority of them, hadn't even been his.
He had come to this conclusion, that starting now, in this new age, he wasn't going to help anyone, but himself. He was going to enjoy what this new world had to offer. The first thing on his list of enjoyment, was having loads of wonderfully, blissful, sex.
While he had already made a pretty go dent in the sex part, he decided to add one more addition to his sexual conquest. That beautiful lass he had just encountered, was going to be his next. And he was going to have the ultimate pleasure of screwing her like a bunny rabbit.
This whole fight between good and evil, so put a damper on his plans.
He didn't want to be stuck still fighting this battle. For one there were too many on both sides. And who's to say which side would win. Life, even for a vampire, was way too short. There was no telling when some Buffy wannabee would come and decapitate him. Or the vampire council, themselves, could decide that his number was up.
When that day came, he wanted to be able to say that he savored every moment.
Yet, at that moment, all he could honestly admit to was how he truly despised Cirpian—dumbass.
That bastard!
How dare he pull him into this.
Couldn't Cirpian accept that he was going to be alive forever? The sooner he did, the sooner he could live a happy...
Well, not happy, but pretty decent existence.
“I don't know where Cirpian is...I haven't seen him for...ah...I don't know...fifty years are so.”
“Now why don't I believe you...” his foe smiled. “Come on Cailean, I'm going to get it out of you, either way...It could either be painful or...painful
.”
Folding his arms across his chest, Brian frowned at him. “What's the difference?”
“You're right...you're going to die in pieces anyway.”
“Do you listen to yourself when you talk...? That didn't make a whole lot of sense.”
“What?” his foe stood there silently mumbling to himself. It was during this brief lapse, that Brian had moved over to his discarded black duffel and withdrew his sword from it.
Moving back over to the same spot as before, yet now holding his blade, he noticed how his foe finally was able to grasp that Brian had insulted him – took him long enough.
As Brian's enemy stood there, angrily swallowing his bottom lip, he spatted out, “I'll kill you, Cailean.”
“Not if I kill you first..., friend.”
XXX
“I can't believe you would be so insensitive...”
Genevieve had just heard the last part of what Kyle was spouting on about. Since she had been tuning him out, by picturing what it would feel like to run him over with her car, she hadn't been paying that much attention to his mouth.
As she glanced over to the practically deserted dark side walk, she couldn't help thinking how easy it would be to just leave the jerk at the side of the road. Yet, he was, after all, her partner, and...
Oh hell, who was she kidding; the fucker was getting on her nerves.
“Shut-up.”
“What...?”
“You heard me...shut-up...please.”
“Genevieve...Keith...”
“Kyle, shut-up...it's my personal life and as much as I like you, I don't tell you how to live your life...or, who you should sleep with...”
For a few brief, glorious, moments, he was silent. Yet, that briefness didn't last.
“Gen...”
“Ah, shit...”
“All I'm saying..., is that you could have handled the break-up a little better.”
“Okay...the next time a guy breaks-up with me..., I'll cry like a bitch.” she sarcastically smiled at him.
Genevieve's partner, Detective Kyle Ernesto, was a very attractive man. There were times, when the lighting was just right, that he reminded her of a young Lou Diamond Phillips. He was a mixture of Filipino and Cherokee, and he had dark brown hair that he refused to let grow out – he insisted on doing it up in a crew cut. And he had the prettiest hazelnut eyes, that Genevieve had ever seen on a man—there was this goldish glint to them. If that wasn't bad enough, his eyes were encased with thick eye lashes; that would have made any woman jealous.
The Alexandru Chronicles: The Beginning Page 3
