Blood Law

by Jeannie Holmes

  “What’s taking so long?” she demanded as she passed by her mother for the hundredth time. The plate-glass wall and door that separated the waiting room from the nurses’ and receptionist’s shared desk allowed her a full view of the rest of the emergency room.

  “I’m sure the doctors are working as quickly as they can.”

  Varik had been carted off to have his arm looked after. The bullet intended for her had struck his arm just below the shoulder. A few inches higher and it would have been a head shot.

  The waiting-room door opened, and she spun around, ready to pepper the doctor with questions and demands, but stopped when a woman with short black hair entered. “Janet.”

  “I heard you found another body,” Janet Klein, full-time bartender and part-time donor for Crimson Swan, said in a shaky voice. “And an Enforcer had been wounded. I figured you’d be here, and I wanted—I needed to know if—” Her brave façade broke, and she dropped into a chair, weeping.

  Alex exchanged a confused glance with her mother.

  Janet sniffled loudly and angrily brushed at her reddened cheeks. “I’m sorry. It’s just I keep thinking that Stephen wouldn’t have been attacked if he hadn’t taken me home that night. When I heard that—” Her voice broke. “When I—”

  The truth of Janet’s appearance hit Alex. This woman, the human before her, was in love with Stephen. Janet freely displayed the emotions she herself had been keeping tightly reined in. She knelt in front of her. “It wasn’t Stephen we found,” she said softly.

  Janet sighed in relief and then burst into another round of tears. “Then he’s still out there, and it’s all my fault!”

  Alex cupped Janet’s hands in her own. “No, it’s not. It’s not anyone’s fault. It simply is what it is. But we’re going to find him. Do you understand me?”

  Janet nodded.

  “We’re going to bring him home,” Alex said, with more force.

  Her mother sat in the chair beside Janet and took over for Alex, talking to the distraught woman in a soothing voice.

  Alex stood and moved to the back of the waiting room, drawn by the bitter scent of coffee. Her hands shook as she poured the thick brown liquid into a small insulated cup and added sugar and cream. She stirred the coffee and thought of Varik.

  He’d come for her tonight, blindly charged into an unknown and dangerous situation. She could’ve lost him at the very moment when she was once again becoming accustomed to his presence.

  The memory of Darryl’s and Claire’s ghosts dancing as they faded from view swam before her. They’d both been overjoyed to be reunited for eternity.

  She’d been given a second chance with Varik, and she’d squandered it. She’d been petty, defensive, and stubborn. Her selfishness had nearly killed him.

  A warm hand on her shoulder massaged the tension in her muscles, and she inhaled deeply. Sandalwood and cinnamon. Varik. She spun to face him.

  Heavy bandages covered his left arm, and it was held in place with a sling, but he was smiling. “I’ll be fine in a week or so,” he answered her unspoken question.

  She stepped into his one-armed embrace and fought to keep her tears from falling. She listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, the perfect match to her own. “It’s my fault,” she murmured against his chest.

  “What do you mean?” he asked softly.

  “If I’d caught Claire Black’s killers, none of this would’ve happened.”

  Varik squeezed her to him. “You did the best you could.”

  “But it wasn’t good enough, and now look at how many people have died or been hurt because of it.”

  The waiting room’s door opened. A muscular vampire Alex recognized as the security guard Stephen had hired for Crimson Swan entered, and Alex’s heart dropped into her shoes.

  Janet stood and gave him a quick hug. “It wasn’t him, Josh,” she said. “It wasn’t Stephen.”

  “What’s wrong?” Varik asked softly, when Alex pulled away from him.

  Josh released Janet. “That’s good. That means he’s—”

  Alex grabbed Josh’s arm and hurled him into a chair.

  Chaos erupted, with Varik rushing to her side, Janet screaming, Alex’s mother pulling the girl into a far corner, and Alex grappling for Josh’s throat. “Where’s Stephen? Answer me! Where is he?”

  “You’re fucking crazy!” Josh screamed. “Get her off me!”

  Varik peeled her off the larger vampire. “Alex!”

  “Look at his face!” Alex broke free of Varik’s hold on her arm. “Look!”

  Deep and long scratches covered one side of Josh’s face.

  “He’s the fucker who attacked me at Crimson Swan.”

  Josh bolted for the door.

  Varik stuck his foot in his path, and Josh crashed through the glass, landing hard on the tiled floor.

  Emergency staff and security appeared from all corners. Varik moved between them and Josh, holding up his badge. “Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation,” he announced. “Nothing to see, folks. Just apprehending a suspect.”

  Josh groaned and flipped over onto his hands and knees, attempting to rise.

  Alex grabbed his neck and his arm, forcing him to his feet, and rushed him out of the hospital. She pinned him face-first into a brick wall, twisting his arm behind his back in an unnatural and painful position. “Where’s Stephen?”

  “Fuck you,” he muttered.

  She kicked the back of his knee. He dropped like a stone, and she smacked his head into the brick. “You want to play rough? We can play rough, asshole.”

  “Alex.” Varik’s voice held an edge of warning.

  She flashed him a withering glance and leaned over Josh’s shoulder, whispering in his ear. “I’m going to ask you one more time. But you should know, if you don’t answer, I’ve already killed once tonight, and I have no qualms about offing a piece of shit like you.” She increased the amount of pressure she exerted on Josh’s arm, and he yelped in pain. In a louder voice, she asked, “Where is Stephen?”

  “Two-seven-one-three Grazzier Lane,” Josh gasped. “In the barn.”

  ———

  The barn doors collapsed under the weight of a massive iron battering ram.

  “FBPI!” a chorus of voices shouted. Enforcers swarmed into the building. “Get down! Everybody down!”

  Startled men were forcibly taken to the ground. The Enforcers moved systematically through the structure, searching, and calling out when they came up empty.

  Varik, accompanied by Alex and Damian, strode into the barn last. He surveyed the area and the men now lying on the ground. Midnight drug dealers had been posing as members of the Human Separatist Movement in order to use HSM as a cover for their illicit drug trade.

  “We’ve got him!” a voice called from somewhere in the loft area. “Southwest corner!”

  “Stephen!” Alex shouted, and sprinted for the stairs with Varik and Damian on her heels.

  Varik reached the loft two steps behind Alex. He slowed and allowed her to go forward alone.

  “Stephen!” she cried, and dropped to her knees beside his bound and unmoving form.

  Varik and the other Enforcers hung back as Alex smoothed the matted curls away from her brother’s bruised and battered face. His clothing was soiled and torn. Bruises and deep cuts covered much of his exposed skin.

  “Stephen?” Alex called, and her voice was thick with tears.

  He groaned weakly.

  “It’s me. It’s Alex.”

  Stephen’s lips moved. “About time you showed up,” he said in a barely audible whisper.

  Medics arrived, and Varik gently pulled Alex away so they could begin assessing Stephen’s condition.

  She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face against his chest, weeping.

  He stroked her hair and held her, repeating softly, “I’m here, baby. It’s over now.”

  eighteen

  October 18

  TASHA NURSED A CUP OF P
EPPERMINT TEA WHILE silently staring at her desk. The fallout from the Darryl Black investigation was only beginning to surface, and she wondered how long she’d continue to sit in her office.

  Three days had passed since Alex’s confrontation with Darryl and the discovery of Stephen Sabian in a barn on property owned by Tubby Jordan, who Tasha was shocked to learn had been a vampire passing as a human. In those three days, Bill Jenkins had turned himself in to the Jefferson Police Department and confessed to his role in the arson of Crimson Swan. Martin Evans and six other humans were also charged with arson.

  The FBPI had arrested four vampires posing as members of the Human Separatist Movement and charged them with kidnapping, drug manufacturing, trafficking, and a host of other felonies. In the interest of maintaining good public relations with the Jefferson Police and Nassau County Sheriff’s departments, they agreed to drop federal hate-crime charges against the arsonists in exchange for their testimonies against the impostor HSM members in the kidnapping of Stephen Sabian.

  The Midnight dealers had been driving the van used during the kidnapping, so it was easy for them to whisk Stephen away to a different location without Harvey or the others being the wiser. Tubby had masterminded the kidnapping so as to use Stephen as leverage against Alex. While the initial demands had been for all vampires to leave town, Tubby’s ultimate goal was to drive Alex away. His plan had backfired.

  Harvey remained in the hospital, listed in stable condition. The doctors had been able to repair his leg, and physically he was on the mend. Psychologically, however, the man was a goner. He mostly stayed in a catatonic state, not responding to any outside stimulus, but every so often he had brief periods in which he would scream continuously and seemed to be fighting to awaken from some horrific nightmare. The doctors couldn’t explain his condition, and until Harvey’s mind returned from whatever dark place it’d fled, he wasn’t being charged with any crimes.

  All of Darryl’s vampire victims had now been identified: Trent Thibodaux, Grant Williams, Eric Stromheimer, Gary Lipscomb, and Scott Adams. Once they had names and dug into their backgrounds, they’d discovered all had a connection to Claire’s murder and Alex. Thibodaux had been arrested by Alex but was working as a confidential informant for the FBPI office out of Natchez as part of a plea deal.

  Williams and Stromheimer had been named and interviewed as potential witnesses in Claire’s case because they’d been two of the last people to see her alive. Lipscomb had bought Midnight from Thibodaux in the past, and Adams was a small-time dealer that Alex had begun investigating before Darryl started his murder spree. The time between Claire’s murder and Darryl’s rampage had been long enough that Alex hadn’t thought to connect the two.

  Then there was her own fate to consider. When the word got out about what she’d done, her career would be over, and that frightened her to her core.

  A knock on the door pulled her from her musings. “Come in.”

  The door swung wide to admit Varik Baudelaire, his left arm in a blue and white sling. “Is this a bad time?”

  Tasha glanced at the file in his free hand. Ice settled into her bloodstream. She set her teacup aside before he could notice how her hand shook. “Is that the final report?”

  Varik closed the door and settled into the chair across from her. He laid the file on her desk. “That’s the final report on the Crimson Swan arson and all the subsequent events.”

  She picked up the file and thumbed through it. She had to give the FBPI credit for one thing. They were efficient. “Diesel fuel–soaked rags around the perimeter,” she read from the section regarding the arson, “and more fuel splashed on the outer walls and through the windows, combined with the alcohol inside the bar itself, equals total destruction.”

  “That confirms what Bill Jenkins and the video told us.”

  She stopped on a page in the file, not understanding what she read. She looked up at him. “This says—”

  “That the Taser report was discovered in Sheriff Manser’s pocket after his arrival at Jefferson Memorial,” Varik finished her sentence. He grimaced as he shifted his injured arm. “He must have picked it up after you accidentally dropped it in his office.”

  “But I didn’t—I mean, I told you—”

  “I know what you told me. Alex asked me to keep it out of my official report, and I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, like Alex, I don’t think a good cop deserves to have her career destroyed for a momentary lapse in judgment.”

  “But Harvey. What if he—”

  “That’s a subject for later discussion, should the need ever arise.”

  Tasha laid the report aside, astounded. She’d been given a get-out-of-jail-free card courtesy of the very woman whose brother, only a few days prior, Tasha had refused to help search for. “What’s going to happen to Alex?”

  “There’ll be a hearing.”

  “And then?”

  “The matter will be dealt with accordingly.”

  She knew vampires had strict laws governing human interaction. Alex had crossed more than a few lines in her quest to find Stephen. Part of her wanted to point fingers and place blame, but Tasha thought of what she would’ve done in the same situation. She didn’t think she would’ve acted much differently than Alex had.

  “I should be going,” Varik said. “I still have a few things to take care of before I leave town.”

  “You’re going back to Louisville?”

  He stood up and extended his hand. “I’m going back to retirement. I’m too old for this shit.”

  Tasha clasped his hand. “I thought that after everything, you and Alex …”

  He paused with the door half open. “So did I,” he murmured. His eyes grew distant for a moment, and then he seemed to come back to himself. With a final nod, he left and the door closed with a soft click.

  Tasha picked up her tea and thought of what had just transpired. Alex had asked Varik to falsify official records in order to keep Tasha out of legal trouble. As long as no one uncovered the truth, she was safe as far as the law was concerned, but she knew the truth, and she’d have to live with it.

  Liquid sloshed onto the desk as her hands trembled at the thought of ever facing Alex again.

  Emily Sabian was happy. As she strolled down the fourth-floor corridor of Jefferson Memorial Hospital, she hummed an Irish ballad Bernard had taught her long ago.

  Her children were safe again. At least for the time being. Alex still faced an FBPI investigation, and Stephen had an extended recovery time looming ahead of him due to his injuries. However, both were alive and, for the most part, whole.

  She had no doubts that Stephen would mend, but Alex concerned her. Her daughter was in pain, and Emily couldn’t alleviate it. However, Alex wasn’t the only one suffering.

  Emily had visited Varik and returned the silver shamrock charm he’d slipped to her. She’d told him that it was identical to the one she wore that had been Bernard’s. He thought it odd that Gary Lipscomb would have a charm used by the Special Operations division to indicate Talents. There was no record of Lipscomb having been a Hunter, a part of the FBPI after its establishment, or having any psychic ability at all. How the charm came into his possession was a mystery.

  Varik hadn’t asked about Alex, but Emily could tell Alex occupied much of his thoughts. When she suggested that Varik simply call Alex and arrange to meet before he returned to Louisville, he shook his head, saying, “I tried. She refuses to accept or return my calls. I can’t even reach her through the bond. No, I won’t force her to see me when she doesn’t want it.”

  Emily left him and returned to the hospital, happy to have her children safe but also sad that one remained in misery because of pure stubbornness.

  Laughter greeted her when she opened the door to Stephen’s room. “What’s all this?”

  “Gifts from my admirers,” Stephen replied, gesturing with his one usable arm at the balloons, flowers, and cards filling the room.

/>   “Admirers?”

  “Apparently my brother is some kind of previously unknown stud muffin,” Alex said from her perch on one of the windowsills overlooking a park behind the hospital. “He gets his picture plastered all over the news, and he’s suddenly receiving marriage proposals from as far away as Kansas.”

  “Yeah, but that one was from a guy in prison.” Stephen shook his head. “No, thank you.”

  “Well, there’s only one proposal you need to worry about,” Janet Klein said, as she adjusted his pillow.

  Beneath the fading facial bruises, Stephen blushed as Alex laughed.

  “What proposal is that?” Emily asked.

  Stephen reached for Janet’s hand, and she readily gave it, along with a broad smile. “Since I’m officially homeless, Janet’s offered to let me move in with her once the doctors clear me for release.”

  “I see,” Emily said, sounding skeptical of the arrangement.

  “He’ll be in good hands, Mrs. Sabian,” Janet said. “I’m not just a bartender. I only do that so I can pay my way through school. You see, I’m studying for a degree in physical therapy, so I’d help Stephen with whatever he needs when they send him home.”

  “Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Emily said with a dismissive wave. She focused on Stephen. “You have months of recovery ahead of you. You’re going to require more blood and more frequently.”

  “It’s okay, Mom. The hospital’s going to send me home with a supply, and Janet is a certified donor. I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re perfectly capable of making your own decision, Stephen, so long as you’ve explained to Janet the risks of a human living with a vampire.”

  “I understand the risks, Mrs. Sabian,” Janet said. She smiled down at Stephen. “I think he’s worth it.”

  Stephen tugged on her arm, pulling her toward him, and kissed her.

  Alex hopped down from her perch and left the room.

  Emily followed her down the hallway to a small waiting area beside the elevators. “Is something wrong, honey?”