Blood Sport (The American Arcane Book 2)

by Justen Hunter

  “Serena Laurent. I'm driving him around. Promise I won't touch anything.”

  Hernandez glanced back to me, and he saw the sling. “That from the attack earlier today?”

  “Yes,” I grunted. “I got lucky on the hit. Still, getting shot is a new experience.”

  He nodded. “Never been shot. Got stabbed once, it wasn't pleasant at all.” Hernandez turned back to the crime scene. “Here, this one's different, but once you see it...” He trailed off, and gestured for us to follow.

  We walked past the ring of cops. The scene was a few hours old, but the body was still there.

  I could tell the dead man was a vampire right away. His mouth had lolled open in death, showing his fangs. He was white, with dark curly hair that was surrounded by a halo of his blood. There was a cut across his neck, where blood had spilled out from it, forming a neat little pool at his head and shoulders.

  I looked further down. He wore a black coat of a decent make, a blue button down shirt, and slacks that spoke to a professional background. He had a clip on his belt for a cell phone, with a rather recent smart phone still holstered. “ID?” I asked softly.

  A rough smoker's voice spoke up. “Yeah, right on the body.”

  I turned my head, and saw a black man in what I guessed was his late forties. He had salt-and-pepper hair, a grim frown, and the hard glare in his eyes had me guessing on who this was.

  “Captain Francis, I presume?” I stood. “Eric Carpenter. I'd shake hands, but I'm currently...” I gestured to the sling.

  He gave a gruff nod, then looked to Serena. “And you are?”

  “Serena Laurent,” She introduced herself. “I'm his assistant for the evening.” She said, and extended her hand. The two shook hands firmly, and I saw a little smile play across Serena's face. Was she enjoying this?

  “Well, pleasure to meet you.” He said, then addressed both of us. “The victim's name is Robert Cole. We ran a quick check on him, he works for a marketing firm downtown.”

  I nodded. “So, any idea what happened?”

  “Vampire physiology isn't exactly a specialty of our criminalistics team. However, our first look is that the slash of the throat did him in. There were some of the signs of your case up in San Francisco.” He knelt down and pulled on a glove. “Notably this.” He pulled the sleeve on the coat up to show burn marks, similar to the ones on the Otero's bodies.

  “Yea, the killer knew how to restrain him.” I grabbed a glove from one of the crime scene techs, and I awkwardly pulled it on my left hand. I reached down to check the other wrist. There too. “But the wounds don't match. Our couple were killed by a slash in the stomachs.”

  He nodded. “We got told that your killing might have had some ritualistic ties in it.”

  “That was a theory I was working with.” I paused a moment. “There's something else.”

  “We have a witness,” Francis chimed in.

  Holy crap. I stood up, careful to keep myself steady. “Who?”

  “A homeless man. He saw it all happen.” Hernandez supplied. “Says he saw the killer talking to the vic.”

  I frowned. “Can I talk to him?” I asked.

  “He's been getting coffee from one of our officers. He's over by the pay booth.” He gestured towards the entrance to the lot.

  “Thank you very much. I'll talk to him in a second.” I looked to Serena. “How about you see if you can break the ice with him?” I asked her.

  “Who, me?”

  I shrugged. “I've got faith in you. I'll join in after a minute. Just get his name, drink a cup of coffee with him. I'll join in once I'm done here.” I didn't want to gang up two-on-one with a homeless man. Serena didn't have any association with law enforcement.

  “All right,” She shrugged. “I'll give it a shot.” She turned towards the entrance to the lot, and started walking.

  I bit my lip, chewing it unconsciously as I crouched next to the body of Robert Cole. I closed my eyes, and let my Arcane senses search over the body.

  The first thing I noticed was the same, dark sensation of magic. The slick, cold sensation of the killer's magic washed over my senses. However, I could feel something else lying beyond that blanket of dark energy. I shaped a hand in my mind, and visualized brushing away the magic. It slowly cleared, until I saw what I wanted.

  There were symbols, glyphs magically imprinted on Robert Cole's neck. They were variations on the same theme, of wind and smoke. I recognized enough of the symbols from my mother's notes. Lines with curls on the end, segments crossing the neck. Like stitches.

  I swallowed deeply, and I focused my senses on one of the images. It was like tapping a whole new line of magic, and something entirely new filled my mind.

  It was that same oily sensation from before, but it still felt new. Instead of the cold, ice water feel, it was like a volcano, hot fire rushing through my body. It felt alive, and like it was angry at me, angry for touching upon it when I shouldn't have. I gasped in pain, and I heard Hernandez's voice.

  “Carpenter? Mister Carpenter?”

  I wanted to pull away, but it felt like it was trying to draw me in even as I fought to pull away from my Arcane sense. I could feel it. It was intelligent. Whatever it was, this was deeper than what had been done with the Oteros.

  “Carpenter!” I gasped, and my eyes flew open. Hernandez was standing over me, hands on my shoulder. He had been shaking me.

  “Wha...” I murmured, groggily. My body ached, particularly my Amy-sealed wound. I felt like hell had ripped it open.

  “You looked like you were in pain, man.” Hernandez knelt down. “Was that...” He lowered his voice. “Was that your magic?”

  Novak must have told him. “Yea.” I whispered. “I need to talk to this witness.”

  I stood and headed over to the little toll booth at the entrance to the parking lot. I saw Serena standing there with an older man, dressed in a long overcoat that had seen better days. He was a black man with grayed hair, and even in the dim lighting of the lot, I could tell the signs of malnourishment.

  Serena turned to me. “Eric, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is my friend, Eric.”

  The man looked me over for a long moment. “Hello there, Eric.” He said in a rough voice. “Serena tells me you're helping the police.”

  “I am, we both are.” I said. “The cops say you saw the murder happen.”

  He nodded. “I...You won't believe me, though. I don't think they did.” He took a sip from the coffee he had in his hand, then looked up to me.

  I offered a smile. “I'm listening. I've seen some weird stuff, Anthony.”

  “All right, well, I saw the man. I guess his name was Cole?” At my nod, he continued. “Well, Cole was opening up his car, when someone in a hoodie comes up to him.”

  “What color was the hoodie? About how tall was this person?” I asked.

  “Ah, black. She was shorter than him.”

  “She. You could tell it was a woman?” I asked.

  Anthony nodded again. “I heard her voice. She wasn't speaking English. Some...I don't know, some weird stuff. It was distorted. I wasn't really close, so I couldn't see or hear it. But she grabbed him by the wrists and did something to him. She said something, and the vampire, his voice changed.”

  I looked closer. “Changed?”

  “Yea, like it was growling or something. It was speaking English, but I couldn't really hear most of it.” He looked down. “I was scared. Hid behind a car.”

  “That's all right.” I said. “This woman, she is very dangerous.” Hell, I hadn't even seen her, but she scared me. She knew more than I did, or at least knew things that I did not. “Can you describe the woman?”

  “Average height, I guess. Don't know much else that I saw.”

  I frowned. “No chance you could tell if she was white, black, Hispanic?”

  “Naw, I'm sorry.”

  “Then, how about where she left after she killed him?”

  “She went up north.” He gestured
to one of the streets. “Probably went to one of the garages or something.”

  “This was very helpful, Anthony.” I smiled. “You were very helpful.” I looked over to Serena, and she nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah, anything to help you guys out. Just hope you catch this woman.” Anthony said.

  “I do too,” I said, and I turned away, gesturing for Serena to follow. We headed back towards the body. “So, I think we can rule out your run of the mill killer.”

  “How so?” Serena asked.

  “She was doing magic. Using the vampire for...something. I think she was using his blood as a magic source.”

  “You can do that? Use blood as magic?”

  I shrugged. “Metaphysics. Not my best subject.” It probably should have been. “Hey, how're you doing on hunger?”

  “I could use a drink. I've got a bottle or two in a cooler in the back. We packed accordingly.”

  “Remind me to thank Amy on that.” I said. We walked back to the parking garage before I decided to talk more about the case. “So, how're you doing?”

  “I'm...okay, I guess.” She shrugged as she fished out the car keys. “I don't know. It's been so crazy. I mean...blood. I drink blood.”

  “I'm pretty sure you could also bench a hybrid.” I remarked. “Vampiric strength and stamina isn't anything to laugh at.”

  “Oh, I know it.” She flexed her hands a bit before moving to open the door. “I know I'm stronger, but I'm not tearing doors off on accident or anything. That's something, at least.”

  “I know that the vampire side of you knows how to control that. It gets...shaky when you get angry or upset.” I opened my own door and got into the passenger's seat.

  “Know that from personal experience?” She asked.

  “All too well.” I said. “You should talk with Teresa. She can either teach you herself, or she can find a vampire who knows how to show you how to adapt to your new capabilities.”

  She smiled a little. “Oh. All right. There's not a peace offering or anything for it, right?”

  “Peace offering?”

  “I don't know, they seem all so...tense and focused.”

  I leaned back in the chair as Serena took us out of the garage and drove us towards 87. “How's your hearing?”

  “Better than it ever was. I can hear your pulse in your throat.” She took a deep breath.

  “Imagine hearing that every day. For centuries. And being able to smell fear on someone, to hear their breathing.” I lowered my voice. “It's grating, from what I've been told. Meditation helps. Lets you focus, sort out the white noise.”

  “So, the tenseness is...”

  “Concentration on filtering out the bugs. Us.”

  “You're not a bug.”

  I shrugged. “Vampires like Anselm, they see humans like that. As food, insubstantial, or as resources to become exploited.” I reached my good hand over the middle of the car, offering it to her. “Please, Serena, promise me you won't ever become like Anselm. Remember the little people.”

  She placed one of her hands in my good one and squeezed. “Deal.”

  We had a moment of silence, which was interrupted by my cell phone ringing. I withdrew my hand quickly. “Oops. Sorry.” I reached inside my jacket. I didn't recognize the caller ID. I put the phone on speaker. “Hello?”

  “Eric Carpenter?” The voice of Renee Corazon inquired.

  “Yea. Renee? What's up?”

  “Well, I know it's late, but Amy stopped by, and I've got some stuff. Can we meet?”

  I smiled a bit. “Sure. You're not a vegetarian, are you?”

  “Uh...no. Why?”

  Chapter 16

  I'm going to die early, I'm okay with that. I don't expect to live long in my line of work. Policing vampires and weres, hunting down criminals. I was going to make a lot of enemies and die young. The idea was to do as much good as I could in the time I was kicking around as Knight of the Bay.

  Between that and a witch's metabolism, diner food was the best. High-cal, meaty foods. I was pretty sure I could never go vegan. After an upbringing of my grandparent's cooking, fried and unhealthy things to me were like blood to a vampire.

  We were at Midnight Blue, a place I had started frequenting when I moved in with Matt. Burgers were off the menu. I didn't want to do one-handed eating with the messy burgers I preferred. So fried chicken strips it was. Serena was on her third coffee when Renee came in, carrying a messenger bag over one shoulder.

  “Eric, nice to see you again. And who's this?” Renee asked, gesturing to Serena.

  “Serena Laurent. Vampire. I'm tagging along with this.” She explained.

  She looked at my sling. “What happened?”

  “It's not really a big deal.” I answered. “Take a seat. Your bill is being covered by Count Ishmael, so order what you want.” Well, eventually it would be. For now I was just charging it. Expense reports weren't going to be fun.

  “All right,” She sat in the opposite booth, and unslung her bag. “So, the second murder. It's connected, right?”

  “Yea, it is.” I nodded. “We're pretty sure it's the same killer, but the methodology was different.”

  Renee flagged down a waiter and ordered coffee. “How so?” She asked once the waiter walked away.

  Both she and Serena watched the waiter as he walked away. Serena even licked her lips. I gave Serena a look, and she shrugged. “You try living on that bottled stuff.”

  “Anyways,” I shook my head. “the difference is that she didn't just kill the vic. She used silver to restrain him, then did something. I think she was communicating with something.”

  “Communicating? Like with the vampire?”

  “No. A witness said he heard the vampire's voice change.”

  A little frown crossed Renee's face. “It...changed, you say?”

  I nodded. “Witness described it as like it was growling.”

  “Growling.” She thought for a moment. “Okay, work with me here. I looked at the killing you described. It looked, at least, somewhat familiar. I mean, in the theoretical stuff I have.”

  “You have literature on magic theory?” I asked. “Real magical theory?”

  She nodded. “A little bit. But the point is, I found something that might link up. There was some writing in some notes about blood magic.” Renee reached into her bag and pulled out a small leather journal. I placed it as old, how old I didn't want to guess.

  “So, magic fueled by blood sacrifice is a solid theory.” I remarked. I hadn't thought of it before, but it made sense. I used magic with occasional blood letting.

  “It's an old, difficult magic. The reason I thought of it was that, supposedly, it was a form of magic that didn't require any actual ability.” She opened up the journal, flipping through it. I looked over the table, and looked down at the pages. They were written in a precise cursive, compact. “Blood magic is built on the basis that there's magic in life, and the easiest way to get to that is through the blood.”

  “How do vampires factor into that?” I asked.

  “Basically, a vampire is kept alive by blood. Because they drink the stuff, they've got some potency in it that humans lack.”

  I nodded. “So vampires basically have magically resonant blood.”

  “Simply put. Because they feed off it, it's more...potent.” Renee said. “Now, blood magic has a few uses.” She explained. “It's not like you can use it for just anything. Because its source is violent, it's got specific uses.” She flipped to a page that showed a series of paragraphs written in more of that precise cursive. “One is contacting beings it calls Other Siders.”

  I froze for a moment. Finally, I found the composure to whisper. “Say that again.”

  “You use it to contact Other Siders. Now, I'm going off a translation. It made the best sense. It's capitalized. What's it mean?”

  I ran my good hand through my hair, letting out a heavy breath. “Okay, basic metaphysics of Magic 101. There's stuff beyond our plane
of existence. There's another plane, called the Other Side. It's...I don't know. It's another world, parallel to ours. The Fae live there, but there are other things there. Things that aren't benevolent at all.”

  Renee leaned forward, her eyes concentrated on me. “How do you know all of this? I'd never even heard of this until I read these journals.”

  “The Arcane leaders kept mention of it out of any documents. I know, however, because I've been there. Six months ago with Amy.” I said. “We were tracking down a murderer. He went over there. It's not a place you go to. If the killer is trying to talk with something there, it's not good. Especially if she's racked up two bodies to do it.”

  “So, what does this tell us, really?” Serena asked. “I mean, beyond her end goals?”

  “I think it means she's not done yet.” I said. “We've got to bring this to Ishmael. Make it so we can warn the other vampires.”

  “What, stay away from women with silver handcuffs?”

  “Something like that.” I shrugged. “Until we can stop her, the entire vamp population's in danger.” I looked back to Renee. “So, what else can those journals tell us?”

  “Read French?” She replied.

  “A bit?” I said, hopefully. High school French was a little too far back, but I could give it a shot.

  Renee turned the journal around to face me. “This is the part that talks about the blood magic. Maybe you'll be able to make a bit more sense than I could.”

  I lifted the journal with my good hand and started to read. Our food arrived as I started to look through it. My French was damn rusty, and I consulted with Renee when I could. I worked my way through the chicken, alternating between handling the pages with a napkin and eating my dinner.

  After several minutes and a demolished plate, I declared. “All right. It looks like that the blood magic for the Other Sider is an escalation thing.”

  “Escalation?” Serena asked.

  “Yeah, there are three rituals.” I explained. “The first was our double murder. It's designed to create a link of some sort between the caster and the Other Sider. For communication, I guess, and a baseline. The second is a ritual for direct contact.”

  “Why do you want to contact it?” Serena asked, then added. “I feel like this is already a bad question.”