Vivi Anna - [Valorian Chronicles 04]

by The Vampire's Quest

  He took the stack of photos from her hands. “I thought we could get out of here and go do something else.”

  “Like what?” Nerves were zinging through her again. She couldn’t believe she was considering leaving the lab with this man.

  “Going back to the crime scene and analyzing the blast pattern. I have a theory that I want to check out.”

  Sophie released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding, and laughed. She couldn’t help it; it just burst out of her. She thought he was going to proposition her. The crazy thing was, she had been prepared to accept.

  “Why are you laughing?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye, as if privy to her thoughts.

  “I just thought…”

  He smiled. “Why, Sophie St. Clair, what did you think I was going to ask you to do with me?”

  She blushed. “Nothing.”

  He raised his arm, gesturing down the hall. “Maybe, after we check out the crime scene, we can do that particular nothing you had in mind.”

  Speechless, she walked alongside him to the exit. Confusion swirled in her head. The vampire exuded a lot of charm. But it was more than that. She’d had charming before with Jean-Paul. It was the way Kellen looked at her, like he had every right in the world to be flirting with her. As though he was entitled. He knew she was attracted to him, and he was capitalizing on it.

  What bothered her the most though, was that she liked it. A lot.

  Chapter 8

  Kellen surveyed the blast pattern of the explosion. Several yellow markers indicating where certain debris had landed dotted the floor in a circular array. The center of the range pointed toward one of the doctor’s examining rooms.

  He stood in front of the blown out wall. “I wonder who the next patient was for this room.”

  Sophie stood beside him and flipped through her notebook. “According to the report from the receptionist and the schedule, you were.”

  “Hmm, good thing I was on the phone in the lobby.” He walked through the ravaged doorway and into the examining room. Sophie followed him. Pointing to the scorched crater in the once green tile, he said, “That’s where the briefcase would’ve been set. Someone just walked in and put it there. Maybe a patient?”

  “Gabe is looking through patient records and the schedule for the day.”

  Kellen eyed the damage in the room and the proximity of where the bomb would have been stashed. Anyone could have walked into this room: the receptionist, the nurses, patients, and of course the doctor. What did they all have in common? Besides that they were all in the medical center, nothing obvious. The receptionist was human, the patients mostly vampires and one lycan, and the doctor was a vampire.

  If it was an attack on Otherworlders, the group didn’t factor in that humans also worked in the building. Kellen knew that terrorists were known to sacrifice their own for the good of the cause. He’d seen it before. But maybe the receptionist was in on it. Except, she had appeared way too calm to be close to a bomb about to go off. If she had been afraid, Kellen would have noticed it—as would anyone among the vampires or the lycan in the waiting room.

  “Did you work the bombing at the blood bar?” he asked Sophie.

  “Yes.”

  “Does it appear to be the same MO? Did they use a pipe bomb?”

  She frowned and glanced around the room as if taking everything in for the first time. “They used plastique and a cell phone detonator.”

  “Then why go back to a simple pipe bomb? They would’ve done more damage with C-4.”

  “You don’t think this was an attack from a terrorist group?”

  He shook his head. “No, this was more localized. Whoever put this bomb here wanted to hurt someone in this office.”

  She eyed him intently. “Do you have any enemies?”

  “Yeah, lots, but none who knew I was coming here.” He shrugged.

  “I’m being serious.”

  The way the bridge of her nose wrinkled when she frowned at him made him want to smooth it away with the stroke of his thumb. Instead, he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, where they wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

  “So am I.” He wandered out of the damaged room and back into the patient waiting area. Sophie trailed behind him.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw her scowl. Damn if he didn’t love it when she scowled. It was sexy as hell. He wondered if she did everything with such fierce determination. Once more his thoughts ventured into the carnal realm. He imagined Sophie pressed against a wall, her eyes flashing, claws digging into his back as he pounded into her again and again.

  The image was so intense it made him almost stagger back. His heart raced like wildfire and his thigh muscles clenched in anticipation. Her scent came to him on a wisp of air. He inhaled it deeply, implanting it in his mind and gut. He’d recognize it now for the rest of his days.

  A touch on his arm brought him around, fangs bared. Sophie’s eyes widened and she took a step backward, wariness furrowing her brow.

  “What’s wrong? Your eyes are glowing.”

  Taking in a deep breath, Kellen rubbed a hand over his face, trying desperately to wipe away the erotic images from his mind. It would do neither of them any good if he was constantly thinking about having sex with her. He couldn’t function with those powerful images in his head. He had to do something about them. But the only thing he could think of was purging them by acting them out. Somehow, he didn’t think Sophie would go for that, especially not for the sake of his peace of mind.

  Despite the attraction he knew she felt, she had made it perfectly clear that nothing could or would happen between them. They were of different species, and her lycan sensibilities were too ingrained for her to step out of the pack’s protocols.

  It was too bad really, because he knew without a doubt that sex with Sophie would be spectacular.

  “There’s nothing to see. Let’s get out of here.” He started for the exit, hoping that the cool morning air would jolt him out of his fantasy.

  “Stop,” she called after him.

  He kept moving, afraid of what he would do if he didn’t. The rush of blood in his veins pounded like a hammer in his head. He had to get outside before he did something stupid. It was more than just lust pumping through his body. He could feel the rage of the disease starting to rise. He’d been lucky, and only had suffered a few attacks since being diagnosed. But this one felt like all of those combined.

  Sophie caught up to him as the elevator doors slid open and he walked in. She grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?”

  “To Dr. Bueller’s house. I have a feeling he’s at the center of this. It was his office that the bomb was placed in.”

  “You don’t even know where he lives, and you don’t have a car.”

  “I’m sure I can find it. I’m a resourceful kind of guy.” He shrugged and looked at the numbers lighting up as they descended to the ground floor. He kept concentrating on them, instead of on the way his body was shaking. The way his hands itched to touch Sophie, to caress her, to take her then and there without a care.

  “I’m in charge here, remember? We’ll go where I say.”

  He kept staring at the numbers, and bit out between clenched teeth, “Fine. Where are we going?”

  She didn’t speak right away, but Kellen could tell she was considering what he had just said. “The doctor doesn’t live that far from here. I suppose we could go there and take a look around.”

  “Great idea, Sophie. Wish I thought of it.”

  She cocked her hip. “You don’t have to be sarcastic.”

  “Sure I do. It’s part of my charm.” Sweat rolled down his temples. He wiped at it, trying hard not to look at her. Her close proximity was driving him mad. He could feel the heat from her body, the smell of her skin and hair and hear the thumping of her heart.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Like a ticking time bomb in his head.

  A dangerous mixture especia
lly in such a small, closed-in area.

  “Are you okay? You look flushed.” She reached out to touch his arm.

  Shrinking back to the far wall, Kellen bit down on his bottom lip to stem the rising fury in his body. “Don’t touch me.”

  “What’s wrong? Can I help you?”

  He shook his head. “I just need to get outside.”

  “You are sick.”

  He looked at her then and saw the sympathy in her eyes. He hated it. He didn’t want her sympathy, not from her, not now. A battle between rage and desire warred inside as he watched her regard him. In one thought, he had her pinned against the elevator wall, his cock plunging into her heat, screams of pleasure echoing in his ear. In another, she was on the ground, begging for her life, Kellen’s fangs buried deep into her throat, rivulets of blood streaming down her chest.

  Mercifully, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Kellen scrambled out and strode across the lobby and through the main doors, into the bright sunlight of the morning. He found a bench in the shade of a giant oak tree and slid onto it, hanging his head between his legs. Taking in deep breaths of air, he tried to regulate his heart and bury the rage back into his diseased bloodstream.

  After a few minutes, Kellen could feel a change. His heart slowed. The urge to ruin something with his hands and teeth evaporated into the crisp breeze. He could breathe again without his lungs burning with anger.

  Movement on his right brought his head up.

  Sophie sat beside him, her hands set primly on her thighs.

  He ran a hand over his head. “Well, that was awkward.”

  “Is it Sangcerritus?”

  He sighed and leaned back into the bench. “Yeah. Do you know it?”

  She nodded. “I had a friend who was diagnosed a couple years ago.”

  “Had?” That was the last thing he wanted to hear, not when he had come to Nouveau Monde looking for a cure.

  She nodded.

  “What happened?”

  Sophie met his gaze, and he fell into the vividness of her eyes. “Do you really want to know?”

  “Yeah, why not? I can pretend all I want, but I know this disease has an expiration date stamped on it.”

  “She jumped off her apartment balcony on a beautiful, hot summer day. She was twenty-one stories up.” She glanced up into the sky. “She left a note saying the voices in her head were driving her mad.”

  He sighed again and put his arm along the bench behind her shoulders. The tips of her hair skimmed his hand. He liked the feel of it on his skin. She flinched but didn’t move away from him. He moved over and touched her shoulder, cupping his hand around her arm.

  Sighing, she leaned into him. “I’m sorry you have the disease,” she said.

  “Don’t be. I figure, if I didn’t have this rushing through my blood I would never have come to Nouveau Monde.” He chuckled. “Just think, you would never have had the pleasure of meeting me.”

  Her lips twitched. “Yes, that would have been terrible.”

  “I’ll say.” He squeezed her shoulder, then stood. He held out his hand for her. She took it and he pulled her up. “Come on, let’s go play doctor…err, I mean, let’s go to the doctor’s house and solve this case.”

  Laughing, she punched him playfully. He smiled and made a grab for her. She danced out of his way, still laughing. He loved the sound of her throaty laugh. It made him feel alive and free. Emotions he hadn’t felt in a very long time…

  Chapter 9

  Dr. Bueller’s home was an upscale condominium on the tenth floor of a high-rise about nine blocks from the medical center. As of yet, no crime scene investigator had visited the place, so they had to stop by the lab and gather the keys from Inspector Bellmonte.

  Gabriel didn’t appear keen on them going to the doctor’s residence, but he didn’t say anything verbally when Sophie had informed him of their plans to search the place. He just dropped the keys in Sophie’s hand, gave Kellen a hard look, then turned his attention back to the computer files he was searching through.

  “Is the good doctor married?” Kellen asked as he moved across the gleaming tile of the front foyer and into the sparsely decorated main living area of Dr. Bueller’s home.

  Sophie read from her notebook. “Not married. No kids. No next of kin recorded.”

  Kellen glanced around the room as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. Everything looked bland and utilitarian. A simple gray sofa, wood coffee table and large, almost-empty bookcase were the only furniture in the living room. There were no paintings or pictures on the whitewashed walls to warm the room. No speck of dirt or dust coated the surfaces of the meager furnishings or the polished hardwood floor. If Kellen didn’t know better, he’d assume that no one was living here.

  He wandered into the kitchen to find the same emptiness. Pulling open the refrigerator door, he scanned the contents, finding almost nothing except a bottle of orange juice and some eggs. There weren’t even any condiments lining the shelves. He opened the freezer, finding it full of single-serving frozen dinners. Most vampires enjoyed a healthy appetite for all of life’s extravagances, food being one of them. Obviously, the good doctor didn’t fall into that category.

  “Wow, that’s even more pathetic than my refrigerator,” Sophie said from behind him, as she set her stainless steel crime scene collecting kit onto the center island.

  After closing the freezer door, Kellen started opening and shutting counter drawers. “It doesn’t even seem like he was living here.”

  Sophie pulled open some cupboard doors only to find them empty. “Maybe he spent his time at a girlfriend’s…or boyfriend’s, for that matter.”

  “Maybe.” He scanned the kitchen one last time, then moved down the hall. “I’m going to check the bedroom.”

  “I’ll check the bathroom,” Sophie called back.

  Kellen liked that the two of them had already established a groove in working together. Sophie had made it known that she was in charge, but she had yet to shove it down his throat. He had stepped into the job as if he’d been working with her for years. It was a comfortable rhythm they were in, and more than that, he enjoyed being around her.

  The bedroom was huge, appearing even more so because of the lack of furniture. Only two things took up space in the room: a neatly made bed and an old wooden desk, pushed up against the far wall near the bay window. There were no dresser drawers or night tables. Marching to the closet doors, Kellen wrenched them open and found a few dress shirts and suits hanging. Two pairs of dress shoes sat below on the carpeted floor.

  On hands and knees, Kellen searched under the bed and found nothing—no dirty clothes, no neglected pair of slippers, not even any dust bunnies. Standing, he walked to the desk, then sat down in the rolling, ergonomic chair, systematically pulling open the drawers. The three along the side opened with no problem. Inside one was a ream of blank white paper. Another held a three-hole punch and an empty three-ring binder. The third, smaller drawer was full of pens and pencils.

  It was the middle top drawer that was locked.

  “I found nothing of interest in the bathroom,” Sophie said as she walked into the bedroom and took up a spot behind Kellen. “The usual things were in the medicine cabinet, like antacids and aspirin. There weren’t any shaving tools, though. No razor or shaving cream.”

  “We have a locked drawer,” he said as he jiggled it with his right hand. It didn’t give.

  The sound of keys jingling prompted Kellen to glance over his shoulder. Sophie was checking the doctor’s key chain for a small key. “There’s no key.” She slid the keys back into her jacket pocket. “Hold on, I’ll get my lock-picking set.”

  When he knew she was gone, Kellen grasped the drawer in both hands. He raised it up then tugged hard. The lock broke in seconds.

  “I got the kit.” Sophie held it up as she moved toward Kellen, but halted a few feet away. He swore he could hear her teeth grinding. “Don’t tell me you broke it.”

  “Oka
y, I won’t.”

  She moved to his side and glared down at him. “You could get in trouble for that.”

  “I’ve never really been one to follow the rules.”

  “Well then, you’re going to get me in trouble.”

  “Nah, you have deniability. You weren’t even in the room.” He slid the drawer open. It was empty, save for a few utility bills. Kellen picked them up. “Huh. A lock for a few bills? That doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Wait.” Sophie snatched the paper from his fingers. “Look at the address. It’s not for this place.” She folded the paper down to show the name and address on the bill.

  “The girlfriend’s maybe? If there is one.”

  She frowned. “If it is, she lives in a really bad part of town. Looks like it’s down by the river where there are a bunch of abandoned warehouses. There used to be a big shipping industry in Nouveau Monde, but not anymore. Most of those businesses went bankrupt.”

  “Let’s check it out.”

  “I’ll call Gabe and let him know.”

  “Okay, but don’t let him tell you we can’t go.” He stood.

  She flipped open her cell phone. “If he says we’re not going, we’re not going.”

  “Well, maybe you can’t go, but I’m definitely going. He’s not my boss, and even if he was, I’d probably go anyway.”

  “Are you always this pigheaded?”

  He shrugged. “Pretty much. I have to do something, Sophie. Waiting around doing nothing would drive me…well, you know, insane.”

  She met his gaze and he could tell she was trying to gauge him, trying to figure him out. He could have told her it was pointless. He couldn’t even figure himself out. Finally, she nodded and started dialing. “Okay, but if it comes down to it, I’m saying you kidnapped me and forced me to take you there.”

  “Good. That’s believable.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door. “Let’s go. You can call him on the way.”

  “I don’t think this is the girlfriend’s place.” From the open front door, Kellen surveyed the apartment. It was run-down and messy, without the slightest feminine presence. One bare light bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a sickly yellow glow over everything. The odor of mildew and mothballs permeated the air.