by R. Lee Moore
“It's on the handout I gave you,” Mendoza's replied with just a slight hint of annoyance tinting her voice.
Tamina frowned to herself and fished around the interior of the car trying to find where she'd tossed the list of frequencies and other information Mendoza had given her. She really should have paid more attention to what was written on the handout, she told herself, but all she was interested in at the time was getting the proper radio frequencies. She must have missed the rest of it.
Once she found what she was looking for, she took her phone from her pocket and quickly sent off a copy of the pictures she'd taken to the listed address. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long, but then again she wasn't really sure at how good the Departments resources were in that regard. Might have been better to wait for Decker to pass along anything he found, but she didn't have high hopes for the Lieutenant fulfilling his part of the agreement. Especially after what she'd just dumped into his lap.
“Let me know if you find anything,” she said into the Mic.
“Copy that,” Mendoza responded. “Are you still on site? Your partner is looking for you.”
Tamina winced at the mere thought. Partner? Oh no, she thought. That wasn't happening. The last thing she needed was to get stuck with some empty suit who was looking to either use her as a springboard for his career, or worse sabotage any effort she made just to get her out of there. She was going to have to shut that sort of thinking down quick at the first opportunity. She'd have to have a talk with Harris when she got back. Now wasn't the time, though. She had work to do.
“Negative,” she lied smoothly. “Already on the road. I'll call back in when I get to where I'm going.”
“Right,” Mendoza replied.
The sound of Mendoza's voice gave Tamina the distinct impression that the Dispatcher didn't believe what she'd said in the slightest, yet at the same time she hadn't questioned it either. That was a good sign, Tamina thought, and it even made her smile a bit. It looked like there was at least one person back at the office that would potentially have her back.
That just left the question of what she was going to do now. There really wasn't much for her to go on, Tamina realized. She had a dead werewolf mauled victim with as yet no leads. It didn't give her many options. She could wait around twiddling her thumbs waiting for Decker or whoever she'd sent the pictures to get back to her with an ID on the victim, but that really wasn't going to sit well with her. There had to be something else. The stamp/tattoo on the woman's wrist might be worthwhile to look into, but she'd have to wait for that too. The only thing she had to go on was the victim's proclivity for getting bitten down between her legs. Everything else was at this point, a dead end. At the moment, there was only one place she could go fishing around for anything that might be useful on her own. The Preserve.
“Damn it,” she swore under her breath. Avoiding that place as much as possible was one of her life's goals.
Sliding fully into her Firebird, she cranked the engine back to life and peeled back onto the road leaving a trail of smoke and the scent of charred rubber in her wake. It only took a few minutes to get back onto the freeway, and for the most part traffic was light enough that she could speed around weaving in and out of lanes as she needed. That all changed once she took the ramp towards the Preserve. Even as early in the day as it was, the traffic was a nightmare that made her wish she was driving on the 405 during rush hour instead. The closer she got to the Preserve, the worse the traffic got until all her progress slowed to a crawl.
As the minutes passed by, up ahead in the distance Tamina began to catch glimpses of the first thing anyone saw when heading down into the Preserve. Before long, she could clearly see the silhouette of a glittering black glass pyramid rising up from out behind the horizon. As the miles slowly passed, that same silhouette grew larger and larger until it utterly dominated the whole of the city skyline. It was an unmistakable landmark, and an overt show of vampiric power and authority that dwarfed everything around it with a negligent and dismissive ease. Not even the array of neon lit Gothic structures that clustered around it like little children could draw the attention away from the great pyramid at the center of the vampire world. Everything else simply paled in comparison, and that was most assuredly by design.
The pyramid was world-famous. Everyone knew about it and all the glitz, and the glamour of vampiric nightlife with all the sex and depraved debauchery that went along with it. The whole of vampire and supernatural society within the Preserve centered on that singular immense structure. It was one of the things that people came in from all over the world to see. To experience.
The tourists didn't know what all else went on there of course. How could they? Even the whole of Supernatural Affairs had only the slightest inkling of the dark secrets the pyramid held. Even then it was mostly just rumor and innuendo. Nothing concrete.
Officially, outside of being one of the most sought after nightspots in the whole country, it was the seat of vampire government on the west coast. The residence of the Viceroy and all those that served him. It wasn't a place Tamina wanted to go to if she had any say in the matter. In fact, she was reasonably sure that anyone inside the Department that wasn't from the Diplomatic Office had been barred by law and threat of imprisonment from going anywhere near the place. As far as Tamina was concerned, the Diplomatic Office could have it. All of it.
When the immense three-mile-long walls that encircled the whole of the district slowly came to view, Tamina felt herself becoming anxious, and the little hairs on the back of her neck began standing on end. A faint chill ran through her in spite of the warmth of the weather. The traffic had held her up far longer than she was comfortable with. By the time she pulled her car into one of the large open air parking lots that surrounded the main gates, she could already see the sun starting its slow meandering descent down into the mountains far away on the horizon. Other people might have looked forward to being in vampire territory at night, but Tamina wasn't one of them.
Thankfully she didn't have much problem finding a place to park in the sea of open air parking lots that hugged the outer walls. There were always Supernatural Affairs parking spots nestled right up close to the main gate for easy access. Vehicles, even official Supernatural Affairs vehicles, weren't allowed beyond the gates, so it was necessary to have a few spots reserved in case of emergencies.
Once she slid into an empty spot and parked, she got out and started stripping off her jacket and shirt on her way to the trunk of her car. She got a few odd looks here and there for stripping down right out in the open, but most people didn't seem to notice. Seeing half naked people wandering around in this part of the city was probably the norm, she thought. Hell, it was what the people were looking for.
She pulled a set of light body armor from her trunk, and gave a longing look at the shotgun and cache of ammunition sitting there. She wouldn't be allowed to take that beyond the gates no matter how hard she tried. If the uniformed Department security forces didn't stop her, the Preserve security would. She probably wasn't going to be able to get in with her sidearm either, but she was going to keep it with her all the way up to the gate anyway just in case. Once she got there, the vampires' pet werewolves would likely sniff out and demands any weapons she carried be confiscated before entry. They wouldn't care about the body armor, and in fact it probably wouldn't do much if she got into trouble, but it was better than nothing in her opinion.
Strapping on her body armor and redressing, Tamina threaded her way through the throng of people flowing enmasse towards the heavily armed main gates. It was slow-going, and that allowed her to get a good look at the tactical situation she was walking into. The walls that surrounded the Preserve had to be well over a hundred and fifty or so feet tall, and just as thick. Heavily armed towers spaced out at regular intervals looked to be fitted with every type of heavy weapon imaginable from heavy .50 caliber machine gun emplacements, automatic grenade launchers, and in a few places artillery pieces. A
ll of which gave the whole place a fortress like vibe to it. No, Tamina thought, not a fortress. A fortress that had been designed to keep an enemy out.
All the weaponry and soldiers manning the walls were all focused inward. The walls weren't to keep people out, they were meant to keep all the inhuman creatures that lived there in. If it came down to it, she was sure that everything was set up to kill anyone and anything within range. Even if that meant slaughtering civilians and tourists. If the men on the walls got given the order to engage, they weren't going to take any chances. They'd mow down everything in sight just to be sure that nothing got out.
She finally ended up pulling her badge out from under her shirt and letting it dangle down her chest and shoving her way forcefully through the crowd to make her way to the front of the line. If she hadn't, it was going to be dark before she even got up to the checkpoint in the first place. There were a few complaints, but they were quickly silenced by the sight of the badge around Tamina's neck and the murderous look in her eyes.
“Damn tourists,” she muttered under her breath.
When she made her way up to the armed guards at the entryway, a tall brick wall of a woman with a silver bar on her collar stepped out from inside the moment Tamina got close. Tamina groaned to herself as the woman gave a curt wave of her hand to motion her over. She was hoping to have avoided this and just have to deal with the grunts at the gate. No such luck, she thought with considerable irritation.
“Ma'am,” she said walking over to the armed officer. “Sergeant Martinez. Investigations.”
The lieutenant held her hand out expectantly without saying a word, and Tamina grumbled to herself as she fished her identification out of her pocket and handed it over.
“We weren't told about any of you coming in tonight,” the officer said curtly. “Why are you here?”
At least she was straight to the point, Tamina thought.
“Nothing official,” she said. “Some vampire junkie in Culver City got herself half-eaten by a wolf sometime last night. No ID on her so figured I'd take a look around see if I can nose around a bit. See if anyone recognizes her.”
“Heard about that,” the officer replied. “You got a warrant?”
Tamina shook her head.
“Unofficial,” she said. “Mainly my own curiosity. First day on the job sort of thing.”
The officer tilted her head a bit to the side and gave a questioning look.
“First day?” she said.
“Yeah, two days ago I was in the 18th,” Tamina replied. “Don't ask me how the hell that happened. Still trying to figure it out myself.”
The other woman's face split open in a wide highly amused grin, and she gave a short barking laugh.
“They're letting grunts in there now?” she asked. Her entire demeanor had changed. “How's that working out for ya so far?”
“About as well as you'd expect,” Tamina said with a bit of a grin to match the other woman. “Bull in a china shop type of situation.”
The officer nodded her head in amused understanding, then suddenly her deadly serious, authoritative expression returned.
“Alright,” she said. “I'm sure you know the drill here. You got no authority past these walls. Understand? And if you get into it, we aren't allowed to go out and get you. You'll be on your own.”
Tamina nodded her head. She knew the drill. Any authority she had on the outside world stopped at the gates of the Preserve. The only law that mattered in there was vampire law. She'd just be a regular civilian in there. A highly trained civilian, but a civilian nonetheless. No special rights or privileges at all. She was going to be wholly and completely at the mercy of the vampire's security forces. She wasn't worried though. For all the danger the place represented and offered, it was pretty safe from what she'd heard. The vampires knew what they'd been given when they'd opened up their territory to tourists. Their prey came to them willingly. Even paid for the experience. They tended to take a dim view of anything that interfered with that arrangement, and were known to make examples of anyone who put that at risk.
“Yeah, I know,” Tamina replied. “I'll be fine. Don't plan on staying any longer than I have to. Just looking for information is all.”
The officer nodded, handed her identification back, and waved her through. It looked as if that was all there was to it when another man stepped out in front of her from the far end of the entryway and gave a low throated growl in Tamina's direction. He wore a similar uniform to the Supernatural Affairs forces, but his had this faint silver lining along the edges and shoulder patch depicting a silver Anu on a black field. It marked the man unmistakably as a member of the Preserve's internal security forces. A peacekeeper of sorts. A dog on the vampires' leash.
He moved up close to Tamina, and his head lifted just slightly. Just enough for him to begin sniffing at the air around her. Great, Tamina thought, a werewolf. That was just what she needed right now. She'd almost gotten away with it.
“She's armed,” the man growled. “I can smell the oil.”
Tamina turned her head and gave an apologetic and slightly guilty look to the female officer, who gave her a disapproving look in return. The Lieutenant held her hand out forcefully in a silent demand. Tamina didn't hesitate or even try to deny that she was armed. It wouldn't have done her any good to try anyway. She opened her jacket and slid out her sidearm and turned it over with a sour look at the werewolf.
“Tattletale,” she grumbled in his direction.
“It'll be here when you get back,” the other woman said with a stern and disapproving look in her eyes. “You should have known better.”
“Oh I did,” Tamina agreed. “Figured there was no harm in trying, though.”
That earned her a bit of a smile from the officer, and a glare from the werewolf. With a quick look to the wolf at her side for affirmation, the officer again waved her through without another word. Tamina didn't waste time and brushed past the werewolf. She could feel the thing's eyes on her as she walked through the archway and into the interior. He'd probably be radioing in to whomever he reported to before she got out of sight. Whatever, she thought. Just one more thing she had to deal with. She hoped it wasn't going to hold her up any. It was getting dark way to quick for her tastes. She needed to get in and out as fast as she could. There wasn't any time to waste.
CHAPTER SIX
When she'd passed fully through the gateway into the Preserve, Tamina felt as if she'd stepped through a gateway into another world. The interior of the Preserve was so different from the modern city beyond the walls. There was an almost quaint old world feel to the buildings and the streets that hid the faint dystopian undercurrent that threaded its way along the edges of perception. The heavy Gothic architecture seemed to loom over and threaten to consume the more modern dark industrial aesthetic clustered together beneath the bright glow of multicolored neon lights.
Scantily clad men and women of every flavor imaginable, human and otherwise, called out to and beckoned the teeming masses of humanity swarming through the streets offering and promising the fulfillment of every dark desire that dwelled deep within. Seducing and enticing those passing by towards the myriad of shops and market stands lining the narrowed streets.
Most of the shops were offering all sorts of deviant little creations made from combinations of leather, chain, and lace. The type of clothing and accouterments that seemed better suited to a cold dark dungeon than city streets. It was fitting however odd she might have found it , Tamina thought as she wove her way through the crowds. The Preserve thrived on those dark little fantasies that most people kept buried deep within themselves. It whispered in your ear, and filled your senses with the promise of everything you could ever want. Seducing you with that intoxicating little combination of sex and controlled violence. Whatever dark and depraved thing you were into was probably being offered somewhere in the Preserve. People seemed to crave the seductive danger that the supernatural world seemed to offer up so willingl
y. The whole atmosphere felt like an unending mixture of Carnival and Mardi Gras all rolled into one that would never end. A hypnotic supernatural orgy of peril and carnality.
Everything in the Preserve had a price, though, even if most people couldn't see it or could even recognize it if they did. The vampires that ran the place weren't seeking fame or fortune. Nothing in the Preserve existed simply to entertain or give pleasure to the teeming masses of humanity that passed through its gates all throughout the day and night. No, there was a purpose to it all.
The vampires were smart, Tamina thought to herself, they'd convinced their prey to willingly come to them. Hell, they'd pay good money to be able to offer themselves up. Tamina couldn't decide which side of that particular coin was the more horrifying of the two.
It was almost overwhelming. Enough so that several times, Tamina had to stop and take deep breaths to recenter and focus herself on the task at hand. As much as everything going on around her horrified her down to the very core, she could still feel its seductive tendrils worming their way into her mind and trying to entice her into letting her guard down. The place seemed to bring out urges inside her that she'd rather they didn't. It was all the half naked, and sometimes fully naked people walking and writhing around her, she reasoned. She was only human. That sorta thing would get to anyone eventually.
She was here for work, not for play, she told herself. The trouble was, she didn't have much to go on as far as the case went. The only thing she knew was that the dead woman had been a bite freak. Someone who got off on letting vampires sink their fangs into them. She'd known a few here and there, but never could fully understand the allure of the whole thing no matter how many times the intense pleasure it supposedly gave was described in lurid detail. Nails and teeth during sex were one thing, she felt, but drawing blood and feeding was a bit to far in her opinion.