by Jen Pretty
"You can get up now, Necromancer." It was a woman's voice and when I rose. I realized she was wearing a dress suit and heels -- much too business-like for the dirty parking garage. "My name is Detective Winscott, I've taken over for Detective Alder, for obvious reasons. I would like to apologize on behalf of Phoenix PD for your initial treatment."
I rose, dusting off my dress. There was a stain on the front now. It didn't look like grease, but I would call it that to keep my mind from trying to identify it. It was better if I didn't know.
"Thanks," I said, shaking her offered hand. "Nice to meet you."
She nodded once. "So, what do we have here?"
I realized she was asking me. I had very little experience dealing with investigations besides a couple of bumbling attempts.
"Um, this girl was killed. Looks the same as the other victims."
Detective Winscott nodded before stepping forward and crouching elegantly beside the body. The wraith had disappeared. My magic was all coiled up inside me now, but I could wait and raise her in the morgue. It would be more private with fewer eyes now that there were so many police officers mulling about.
Crow had hopped into a shadow, but I could still see his outline lingering in the darkness.
Nick, Zander, and Falcor were in discussion with a police officer who was jotting things in his notepad.
"Detective," a uniformed officer called out as he approached us.
Detective Winscott rose just as gracefully and turned to meet the officer.
"We have the lowest level secure. Best count is 244 party goers. Many of them aren't going to be useful as witnesses and we have already confiscated a lot of illegal substances. We are going to need some busses to bring them all back to the station, but we are starting interviews to cut down the number."
"That's good, thanks. Is the coroner on his way?" she asked.
"Yes, but this structure is condemned, so he'll have to walk down, no vehicles are allowed."
Detective Winscott nodded, and the officer turned, heading back down into the darkness with only a cautious look at the ball of light that still illuminated the area.
"Um, Detective, Winscott?" I asked.
"Oh, sorry, please call me Barb."
"Okay, Barb. How long before I can raise her?" I asked, tugging at the hem of my dress trying unsuccessfully to make it somehow cover more of me. I felt exposed now with all these fully clothed people around.
"Probably not till tomorrow. We won't be able to get her out of here for a few hours. Do you want to meet me in the morgue in the morning?"
I nodded. "Sure, that would be better, probably."
"All right, just give your statement to any officer holding a notepad and you can head out. You should have the paramedics look at your leg, too," she said, indicating the blood crusting on my calf.
"Oh, it's already healed, thanks for your concern, though."
"Oh," she said giving me a strange look. Yup, even the most open-minded people had a hard time with my weird abilities.
Just then someone showed up with extension cords and floodlights, flicking them on to blinding level and illuminating the entire section of the underground parking garage.
I moved away from the body and the detective, Barb, and towards Nick, Falcor, and Zander.
"So, we can go as soon as I find someone to take my statement. She will meet us at the morgue in the morning."
"I can take it," a voice called out. I glanced over to see Anlon striding towards us, dressed in his police uniform.
"Hey," I said. "Thanks."
Anlon grinned, his thumbs tucked into his belt. "Let's go up to the street so we are out of the way of the crime scene guys."
I glanced back and there were men and women moving around taking photos and setting little numbers down beside things on the ground just like in the movies.
We followed Anlon up the levels, passing many other police officers and swat team guys. The swat guys were intimidating with their combat style clothes and guns all strapped to them. I was sure that was the point, but they were also really fit, with bulging muscles and thick bodies.
Finally, upon the street, the air was crisp as a wind had picked up. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
Anlon noticed and grabbed a police jacket from the front seat of a cruiser, wrapping it around my shoulders.
"Thanks," I said, glancing back at Nick when he made a low angry sound.
I sighed and then told Anlon everything I remembered. It wasn't much besides the girl was stoned and she had given me a pill which I hadn't taken. I didn't know her name or anything else about her, which seemed wrong to me. I knew she was someone's friend, daughter, or sister maybe? But she wasn't anyone to me. I think it was just the fact I had danced with her. She had touched me. It made it more real. Particularly now that I was out of the darkness and could process what had happened.
The sadness of her death washed over me like an ocean tide, creeping in slowly, then all at once.
I fought back the tears that wanted to spill out at the thought of her life cut short, but it was more than I could take. Perhaps it was because the things I saw also exhausted and confused me, but I told Anlon about the mark I had seen and how it was almost the same as his coven’s symbol.
Anlon's eyes grew wide and he took half a step back. "Are you sure that's what you saw?"
I took out my phone and showed him the photos. He didn't say anything for a long time, just stared at the image.
"Can you email that to me?" he finally asked.
"Sure," I said, quickly forwarding the picture.
He tucked his notepad with my statement into the chest pocket. "Do you guys want a lift home?" he asked, almost distractedly.
"Um, no, it's fine. Falcor is here."
Anlon nodded. "All right. I'll see you tomorrow." He hardly even waited for my reply before he headed back into the depths of the underground parking lot.
I turned back to Nick and Zander, Falcor was gone again. "Damn it. Where is Falcor?" I needed to get somewhere private so I could have a meltdown about the dead girl.
"He said he needed to talk to someone," Nick said.
"Can we go home?"
"I can take you," Zander said. "My car is around the corner."
I nodded, and we headed down the lit street to find Zander's car, my heart breaking for the young woman I was leaving behind. It was for the best I wasn't raising her tonight. My emotions were all over the place and the control of my magic was pretty low. It kept trying to trickle out towards the vampires ahead of me. Zander and Nick were talking low again, but I tuned them out and let the city envelop me.
Phoenix wasn't a bad city, just busy and dry as hell. My mouth was parched, and my skin felt tight as if it was the desert.
Zander's car Turned out to be a new Lexus with leather seats and tinted windows. It seemed weird for him to slip behind the wheel wearing only bright coloured shorts and Nick in his sparkly tank top. I was dirt-stained and bloody, so I didn't fit in with the luxury car either.
"Do you need directions?" Nick asked.
Zander chuckled. "No, I think I know the way to the king's house."
I stared at the back of Zander's head as he pulled out into traffic, I could feel Nick's eyes burning into me from the passenger seat, so finally dragged my eyes to meet his. My eyebrows drew up toward my hairline. I should have fingered out since everyone called him a prince… Prince of the Night, in fact… that maybe his parents were actually the king and queen of the vampires, but I hadn't thought it through.
"All right, so." I paused, trying to collect my thoughts. "Your parents are royalty of vampires in this country or like the whole world?" I asked, deciding to focus on that instead of the dead party girl.
Nick frowned and sighed. "All vampires, everywhere."
I shook my head. "So, what does that mean exactly? Like what do they do?"
"They make the laws, hand down sentences for those who break the laws, keep the peace in the
paranormal community. Things like that."
"And how does that relate to you?" I asked.
Nick paused long enough I wasn't sure he would answer me. "When they grow weary, I'm supposed to take over."
"As king of the vampires?"
Nick swung back around in his seat. "Not if I have any say in it," he muttered.
This was obviously the main reason Nick had left Phoenix and his parents behind, choosing to live at the Sanctuary. I hoped his parents never 'grew weary,' for Nick's sake.
As we pulled up to the mansion, Zander rolled his window down and flashed his badge again, giving the vampire at the gate his name. When the vampire peered in at the rest of us and recognized Nick, his expression changed to shock and he opened the gate, apologizing.
Zander drove us up to the house where the woman who had shown us our room and called us down for dinner was waiting.
"The King requests your presence in his office." She turned to look at Zander too. "That includes you."
Zander had a look of shock on his face but got out of the car.
"This should be fun,” Nick muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nick's father sat behind a large mahogany desk in the cavernous office lined with bookshelves. His shoulders were square, and his head slightly tilted down as he scribbled away on a stack of papers.
Nick had knocked and the voice within had said to enter, but the man himself had yet to acknowledge our presence.
A young woman in a low-cut top sat in an armchair, filing her nails in the corner of the room.
"Who is that?" I asked in a whisper.
Nick just made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat as he observed the young woman.
I noticed she had scars on her neck as if she had been bitten and I put the earlier warnings about the king of the vampires together. That was the king's snack. Gross.
Zander kept his head down, his hands linked in front of him like a peasant before... well, a king.
I could barely keep upright I was so tired. Nick, on the other hand, had his arms crossed in front of him and stood with a defiant air. His green hair was getting longer, and the style he had put it in when we left for the rave was now long gone, leaving it a floppy mess on his head. His shirt reflected the light, sending tiny coloured dots around the room like a disco ball.
It would have been funny if I hadn't been about to drop dead on my feet.
"Father," Nick finally said. As if that simple acknowledgment had won Amon the game they had been playing, he grinned and then looked up at us finally, letting his face return to the passive arrogance it usually had.
"So, you didn't catch the killer?" he said, tossing his pen on the desk to lean back and lace his fingers behind his head.
"No. He got away."
Amon's eyes scanned his son with a look of distaste before sliding to Zander where his frown became a scowl. "Is this usual attire for DPI agents?"
"He couldn't exactly have shown up to a rave in a suit, father," Nick said.
Zander didn't look up, keeping his eyes on the hardwood floor, but Amon's eyes shifted back to his son.
"The magic community is talking. I need this resolved now. It can't appear that a vampire is running loose in my city."
"Yes, father. Also, people are dying."
Amon waved off Nick's comment.
"Just get it solved."
Nick scoffed. "Yes, sir."
The sir came out with just as much vitriol as Amon's comment earlier and the family resemblance was uncanny. Nick might hate his father, but he was his son, all right.
"Do not use that tone with me," Amon warned, his voice dropping.
Nick didn't reply, but Zander crumpled lower, his shoulders hunching until he was nearly my height.
"I have a job for you to do when you're finished with this business with the humans unless you have forgotten your place here."
Nick scoffed, apparently unaware of how close his father seemed to be to the edge. "I already have a job. Have one of your lackeys do it."
Amon's hand slammed down on his desk so hard I thought the solid wood had cracked. The noise ricocheted through the office like a gunshot. "Do not disrespect me."
"Then do not command me like one of your employees. I am my own man, now, father."
"You are my son!" Amon roared. "And you will do as I say."
"I won't," Nick yelled back and I had the urge to back out of the room.
Zander had already taken two steps back, he wasn't stupid. He might work for the DPI, but he was a vampire first, and an angry king was nothing to mess with.
"You will if you want to keep running around with this little girl." Amon's eyes turned my way, the anger like knives stabbing at me.
I took half a step back, but Crow burst into the room in a flutter of black feathers. He circled the room once and then landed above the door, perching on an ornate portrait. His cry as angry and harsh as if he was screaming back at the vampire king.
Amon paused, his angry face clearing.
Crow leapt from his perch and circled the room before diving directly at me, his glassy black eyes trained on my stomach.
"Shit," I managed to get out before he hit me full speed, knocking me to the ground. But instead of finding myself seeing through the eyes of Crow, I found my body moving without my will and then against my will, pulling me to my feet.
My eyes trained on the king of the vampires and my mouth began to move.
"King Amon, you will address the Black Crow in the manner befitting her power, lest you wish to be removed from your place of insignificant power. Do not forget who put you in that position in the first place."
My mouth closed, but my eyes bore holes into the vampire who had risen to his feet, his angry look now wiped from his face. A look of awe was quickly replaced with a chagrined expression.
"But you have taken my first-born son."
"And you will relent him. He has no desire to be king and our work is much more important. You will not speak of it again, I do not like taking this form."
I was still too stuck on 'first-born son' to be insulted by the distaste in Crow's voice when he mentioned my form. Or was it my voice? whatever.
With a nod of the King's head, Crow leaped out of me in a flurry of feathers and I dropped to my knees coughing and choking, like usual. I prayed I wouldn't vomit as I shoved my hand down my throat and ripped the long black feather out.
Crow flapped slowly toward the wall and disappeared into thin air as he tended to do after jumping me. This was the first time he had used my body though. I felt gross, slimy, as I rose to my feet, Nick's arm wrapped steady behind my back.
"Always a pleasure, father," Nick said, turning us toward the door.
"Zander, could you stay behind for a moment, please? I have a message for you from the DPI."
Zander's eyes got big as his gaze shifted from us to Amon and back to us again before nodding and turning back towards the king of the vampires. Zander's face was nearly white.
I pitied him, but not enough to try and stay behind. He would have to deal with Amon on his own.
I placed the long black feather on Amon's desk and scurried out of the room.
As soon as Nick and I were behind the closed door to the suite of rooms we were staying in, his shoulders dropped, and he let out a heavy sigh. As I watched, his face split into a grin and a weird giggle bubbled out. Then he broke into a full laugh. He grabbed me and swung me around before setting my feet down and cupping my face; his lips captured mine. "You did it!"
"I didn't do anything," I tried to say, but Nick was too far gone to even hear me.
"In just a minute, you did what I had been trying to do for decades. I'm free. Really free!"
I couldn't help but join his happy mood. He had been so miserable since he learned we were coming here, that the change in him was almost too startling.
He grabbed me again, kissing me with a passion and fever he hadn't before. His tongue flic
ked into my mouth as his soft lips pressed against mine.
He broke away after a moment, keeping his forehead against mine he whispered, "Thank you." Then he just held on to me, his hands running up and down my back. It felt nice. Warm. So nice, I relaxed and let my magic loose to flow into Nick, trickling out like a leaking tap.
Nick gasped, his body pressing against mine. More of my magic flowed out until Nick's head tipped back and he hissed between his teeth. As the magic flowed out, more crept in as if I was an endless source and I could keep this up all day long.
A door slamming startled us out of the peaceful moment and we both looked to find a very angry Zander storming through the door.
"That's the effect he has on people," Nick said, obviously referring to his father.
Zander's angry eyes latched on to Nick. "You have some explaining to do," he said, pointing to Nick.
"What are you talking about?" Nick asked.
"Tell me, Nick, where were you while the girl was being murdered?"
"That's crazy, Zander. Nick was up on the stage, remember? We left him there."
Zander looked at me in Nick's arms, something like pity crossed his face, then he spoke again. "No, he left as soon as we did. Video cameras caught him coming back down the stairs into the parking garage after the girl was murdered wearing a long trench coat. After Falcor had chased someone wearing a trench coat out onto the city streets.
Zander's eyes latched back on Nick. "So, tell me Nick, was she just too delicious? Maybe you are exactly like your family after all?"
Nick's face was pale and blank. "Oh, no."
I pushed away from Nick. Suddenly unsure I even knew him at all. "What did you do?"
Nick just shook his head, then ran out the door, so fast I hardly saw him go. Zander took off too, leaving me alone in the extravagant suite with a huge pit in my stomach.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I ran through the house, trying to catch up to the vampires, but it was a fucking maze and I got so turned around I somehow ended up back at the suite.
"What the hell?" I moaned, leaning against the wall.
Falcor appeared in front of me suddenly and looked at my face with squint eyes. "What's your problem?"
