by AE Jones
“But he doesn’t have clearance,” I yelped. Couldn’t seem to help myself, no sleep made Kyle a grumpy girl.
Jean Luc shook his head. “I talked to Nicholas this morning. He said Dalton is to be given full access.”
Well, wasn’t that special of him. “He’s the boss. I’d like to tag along to hear what Doc has to say.”
Dalton studied me. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Let’s motor.”
It was a little too cozy in the van with the four of us, since Misha had also insisted on coming along. We drove to our building in the warehouse district, a large, red brick monstrosity built in the twenties. From the outside it looked like it should be condemned, and luckily no one paid much attention to it. But that was the plan. We had also strategically placed biohazard signs throughout the property to keep squatters from taking up residence.
Jean Luc pulled the van into the back bay of the building and shut the door. The warehouse reminded me of every government conspiracy movie I had ever seen—rows and rows of shelves with evidence which would never see the light of day. Being a closet conspiracy theorist, I often wondered what else was being kept from all of us. Which in itself was hypocritical, since I was a keeper of the closet keys. At least the supernatural closet.
Dalton walked next to me as we wound our way toward the morgue. He was trying hard not to gape at the shelves containing beakers of God only knows what, but was failing miserably. We came to the door leading to our lab and small morgue. Jean Luc typed in the security code to access the room. The doors opened with a swish. Very evil la-BOR-a-tory-like.
The headless vampire lay in the middle of the room on the exam table. Doc Miller leaned over the body with her hands immersed in his chest cavity. She stood up and placed the vamp’s heart in a metal dish. Stripping off her gloves and pulling down her mask she smiled. Even standing over a corpse she was beautiful, much like she had been yesterday in the ER. How could she look like a supermodel after she just extracted a bloody organ from a corpse? My little green monster reared its ugly head and I gritted my teeth.
Doc Miller laughed. “You need to dial down the animosity, McKinley. I can feel it from here. A girl can’t help it if she’s beautiful.”
I smiled broadly. “All-knowing bitch.”
She frowned. “I am not all-knowing. You scared me to death at the hospital. Luckily Misha called so I could make sure to be available when you got there.”
“Sorry, Doc, not my choice. If I had known you were on call, I would have asked the guy to wait until you were off shift to bean me on the head.”
“Smart-ass.” She walked over to me. “Nice bangs.”
“Shut up.”
She reached up and pushed back my hair, checking my scalp. “The stitches look fine. How are you feeling today?”
“Better.”
“Why did you bother trying to lie to me yesterday about how you were feeling?”
“A girl can’t help her natural inclinations.”
“Enough with the girl talk. Introduce me to your newest team member. I didn’t get a chance to meet him officially yesterday.”
“Doctor Sabrina Miller, this is Lieutenant Joe Dalton. He’s the media relations officer for the police department. Dalton, this is Doc Miller. As you already know, her full time job is as an ER doc. But she’s also our part-time ME and a succubus.”
He gawked at me like I’d goosed him.
“You know, she can suck your life energy when she has sex with you.”
His eyes actually bugged out more.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe. She’s reformed.”
“Good to know,” he croaked.
Doc Miller beamed at him. “Sorry for the playacting in the ER yesterday, Joe. But we don’t acknowledge each other in public.”
“Got it.” Dalton stared at her like a deer in the headlights.
Okaaay… It was time to move things along. “What have you got for us, Doc?”
She walked over to the other exam table and folded back the sheet. Even though I had seen Byron’s body in the earlier photos, I was not prepared for the live rendition. I stifled a gasp. Staring down at his body, I kept hearing his voice when he begged me to wipe his memory. But it hadn’t been enough to save him. A lump lodged in my throat. Why did life have to suck?
Doc interrupted my thoughts. “First of all, the slices on his chest were not made by a knife as I first thought. It appears as if the skin split apart from the inside. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I gulped. “And that’s how he died?”
“No, his heart stopped.”
“He had a heart attack from the torture?” Dalton asked.
“No, a heart attack would have caused tissue scarring and there was none.”
“So why would your heart just stop?” I had to ask, although I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“It wouldn’t stop under normal circumstances.” Doc glanced at Misha.
I glared at him. “Have you seen this before?”
“Not personally, but there have been cases of this.” He hesitated. “There are demons with the ability to stop a person’s heart.”
“What! Why haven’t you told me this before?”
“I’ve not heard of this in over a century, little one. I didn’t see any point.”
I opened my mouth to protest some more, but he continued.
“I did not see any point in telling you about these demons, since they were tales told to me as a child. Demons this powerful are no longer allowed on earth. They are too dangerous.”
I blurted, “So you’re telling me some crazy rogue demon is on the loose?”
“Yes, it looks that way.”
Dalton jumped in. “If something is powerful enough to stop a heart with a thought, why would he knock Kyle over the head?”
Misha pursed his lips. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe we are dealing with two attackers?” Jean Luc spoke up.
Great, because things weren’t already complicated enough. “Why would they both go after Byron? They obviously believed he knew something important.”
Dalton shook his head. “I think we’re missing something here. We need to start back at the beginning. The question we should be asking ourselves is, what is so important about this vampire that a demon and an angel would fight over him?”
Doc Miller, Jean Luc and Misha nodded. What the hell?
“Doc, have we ID’d the vamp yet?” Dalton asked.
“I’m running his fingerprints through the database right now.”
Dalton continued. “Misha, can you research demons who have the ability to stop someone’s heart? Jean Luc, would you check with your other vampire contacts to see if they have heard anything about a vampire going missing?”
I interjected. “Why was the vamp’s head taken?
“Good question.” Dalton addressed the group. “Would the head be a trophy?”
“Supes don’t normally play the psychological games humans do,” Doc Miller said. “And before you ask, they wouldn’t eat it, either.”
Dalton grimaced. “Thanks Doc. Can you call someone on the team as soon as you have positive ID?”
“Sure can. Misha, why don’t you show Joe the storage area? There are plenty of interesting things for him to look at. I’m going to spend a couple of minutes checking Kyle over.”
The guys filed out and I walked back to her. “I’m fine, I swear.”
“What’s the deal with you and Lieutenant Beautiful Eyes?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m getting some strong vibes from him.”
“I’m sure you are, Doc. I’m surprised the corpses don’t sit up and ask you out on a date.”
She glared at me. “I don’t mean vibes toward me, idiot. I mean vibes toward you.”
I shook my head a little too emphatically. “Your powers are misfiring. Nothing’s going on between us.”
“Why do humans overanalyze
everything?”
“Have you been talking to Misha?”
“No. Why?”
Dalton poked his head back in the room. “Kyle, are you ready to go?”
Since when had Dalton become the leader of the band of merry males? Operation Dalton Has to Go was back in play. It was one thing to put up with an overprotective vampire and a demon, both trying to boss you around. It was another to have Mr.-Joe-Blow-Normal think he could step in and play leader. There were too many males in the lifeboat, and one of them needed to go over the side.
Chapter 6
Driving back to the office, the tires squealed as Jean Luc took the corner of Lakeside and Ontario on two wheels while Misha hollered “yee-haw,” and quoted lines from The Dukes of Hazard.
I closed my eyes and took some deep, cleansing breaths. Soon I was on a tropical beach, the fragrance of cocoa butter wafting through the air. A tanned, swim trunk-clad waiter slowly walked toward me carrying a Mai Tai. I ran my eyes up his magnificently toned legs to his six pack abs and paused, taking in his muscles as they flexed. I continued my perusal up his strong arms and shoulders until I came face to face…with Dalton and his haunting turquoise eyes.
I jerked awake and blinked. Jean Luc screeched to a halt in the office garage. Misha glanced over from the seat beside me and smirked. “I thought I might need to carry you into the office.”
From the front passenger seat, Dalton watched the two of us in the rear view mirror. His eyes narrowed slightly when Misha made his comment. Maybe Misha wasn’t off base about Dalton’s jealousy. A new plan to get rid of Dalton started to germinate. But I had to tread carefully.
In the reception area, Dolly sat filing her fingernails to points. I didn’t bother asking her why. Dolly wasn’t the sharing type. I didn’t even know what animal she could shift into. It was considered rude to ask a shifter what their animal side was, and Dolly had never opened up to me about it. I had often wondered, but eventually decided speculating about it was more fun in the long run.
Misha excused himself to run research on his computers, and Jean Luc left to place calls to his “vampire network” as I liked to call them, to see if any were missing. Which left Dalton and me alone in the back office.
I walked over to the coffee pot and poured a cup of thick-as-mud coffee—damn Jean Luc—and sat down on the couch. Awkward silence permeated the office. Dalton was the first to cave.
“Did Doc say you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe you came back too soon. You don’t normally fall asleep in the car do you?”
“I normally don’t have someone waking me up every hour on the hour. I didn’t get much sleep.”
He wandered over to the counter and reached for the coffee pot. I stifled the urge to warn him. If I couldn’t convince him to leave, maybe Jean Luc’s coffee would. Before he was able to take a sip, his cell phone rang. He checked the screen.
“It’s Doc Miller.”
That was fast. How in the hell did she even have his number? I blatantly listened in on the conversation. His part at least.
“Doc…great, thanks. I’ll let the rest of the team know. Right.” He laughed. “Thanks.” He hung up the phone. “Doc ID’d the vampire. His name is Charles Hampton. I’m going to get Jean Luc and Misha and we can start digging into his past.”
I nodded. “I’m going to make a fresh pot of coffee.”
Ten minutes later the four of us sat around the table. Misha typed away on his laptop. Jean Luc had not recognized the vamp’s name, so he must have been new to the area.
Misha leaned forward, chewing his lip intently while he hammered away on the keyboard. After a few more seconds, he clapped his hands and sat back. “Got him.”
Always low on patience, I piped up. “Don’t keep us in suspense, Misha.”
“According to what I could find, until a few months ago Hampton was based out of Chicago. It states here he was an antiquities dealer. He supposedly imported artifacts from Africa and Asia to the States and sold them for a pretty penny.”
I rolled my eyes and Dalton spoke up, “I take it you don’t buy the story?”
“Do you?” I countered. “What did you find about him in our database?”
A couple of clicks later, Misha continued. He moved the laptop so we could see the picture. “He was relatively young. He was turned only fifty years ago by Sebastian.”
Jean Luc tensed. Far more emotion than he normally showed. It was the equivalent of one of my temper tantrums.
Dalton asked, “Who’s Sebastian?”
I glanced at Jean Luc, who motioned for me to explain. “He’s a founding vampire. There are only a few vamps allowed to turn humans. Sebastian is one of them and, unfortunately, the vast majority of vamps he sires are bad news, in their human lives and their vamp lives.”
Dalton spoke to Jean Luc, “What do you think Hampton was up to?”
“He could have been dealing in stolen merchandise, money laundering, or anything else illegal.”
“Next steps?” Dalton asked the group.
It was amazing how quickly Dalton had taken on the de facto leader role. Why were Misha and Jean Luc not bristling? Had living for centuries lowered their testosterone levels? Well, I could take charge with the best of them.
“Misha, do you have an address for Hampton?”
“Yep, he had one of those refurbished downtown lofts.”
“You stay here and keep digging into his past. In the meantime, Jean Luc and I will go check out his place.”
Dalton cleared his throat. “I think I’ll tag along with the two of you, if you don’t mind.”
I smiled. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Hampton’s loft building was upscale. He must have been into something major to afford it. This wasn’t going to be an easy break and enter.
We walked into a lobby with sleek, blue leather couches, an abstract brown and blue wool rug, and large potted plants scattered strategically around the space. Light jazz played softly from hidden speakers. The lofts were definitely out of my price range.
However, the opulence did not hide the Fort Knox vibe. A security pad next to the elevators taunted us. We had little chance of getting upstairs on our own. I pointed to the small gold sign above a door in the lobby that read Thomas White, Apartment Manager. I smirked at Jean Luc. “You ready to go upstairs to visit our friend Mr. Hampton?”
Jean Luc flashed a quick grin, his fangs just peeking out. “Ready when you are.”
Dalton’s eyebrows furrowed, but I wouldn’t enlighten him now. He would see what was what in a minute.
I knocked on the door and an older man answered. He reminded me of an English butler with his white hair, mustache and dark suit.
“May I help you?”
I smiled at him. “Mr. White?”
“Yes.”
“We’re guests of Mr. Hampton. He left instructions to let us into his apartment.”
The man shook his head slightly. “I haven’t spoken to Mr. Hampton in a couple of days. I don’t remember that.”
I went to work. I created a memory, using the photo Misha had showed me of Hampton, and pictured him standing in this very doorway instructing Thomas to let us into the apartment when we arrived. Holding that image for a few moments, I waited till warmth bubbled along my forehead. It was time to insert the image into the manager’s brain. His energy pattern was fluttering softly and I weaved the memories around his current thoughts.
“I’m sorry, but unless Mr. Hampton is here I can’t…” The man’s eyes widened and he smiled as recognition hit. “Wait, I do remember Mr. Hampton telling me you were coming. I apologize. I will escort you upstairs at once.”
I wanted to watch Dalton’s reaction, but I needed to concentrate until we got upstairs to make sure the memory solidified.
We headed up the elevator and were in the apartment lickety-split. When Thomas left us alone, I faced an astonished Dalton.
“How?”
&nb
sp; “I’ll explain later.”
We went to work. The loft had large windows with a panoramic view of the city. The main living area was an open floor plan, kitchen, dining and living areas all in one. There was also a small office area in one corner of the room. I headed straight for that. Misha had instructed me to download as much information as I could onto the flash drives he had given me. So I went to work.
Meanwhile, Dalton and Jean Luc scoured the rest of the room, rifling through everything. I was downloading files on the first stick when a hand touched my shoulder and I jumped. “Jesus, give a girl some warning next time.”
Dalton held up his hands. “Sorry. Will you be okay up here? Jean Luc and I are going to check the rest of the loft.”
“As soon as my heart starts again, I should be fine.”
He nodded and disappeared down the hallway.
The files continued to download, and I didn’t bother taking the time to open them. Misha would sort through everything back at the office. After a couple more minutes, the flash drive registered as full and I pulled it out and put the second one into the USB port.
The longer I sat there waiting for the computer to do its thing, the more anxious I became. For a second, when the loft doorknob rattled, I thought I was imagining it. But when the door swung open, I grabbed the first flash drive and stuffed it down my shirt. I didn’t have time to pull the second one out of the computer. I stood and spun around, my heart thumping like a jackhammer.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Four men crossed the threshold, three of them scowling menacingly while they cased the room. The man who had spoken stood in the middle of the group. He was smaller than the others, but they still deferred to him.
He was dressed in a ridiculously expensive gray suit and shoes. His blond hair was wavy, and he had the greenest eyes I had ever seen, eyes that would have been gorgeous if there had been even a spark of humanity in them.
This had to be Sebastian.
“Jean…” Before I could get his name out, Jean Luc appeared in a flash, standing between me and the vamps. A few seconds later, Dalton came running from the back.
Sebastian stepped forward. “Jean Luc. It has been a long time.”
