by Lisa Olsen
“And the part where he said he…”
Nick hustled past them to where Natalie stood staring at the monitor, watching Dwiggins pick his nose. “So… what do you think? Does this guy fit the pattern of our psycho or what?”
She didn’t say anything at first, just chewed at her fingernail, lost in thought. “I don’t know,” Natalie said finally, her head shaking slowly. “It doesn’t feel right to me. I don’t like him as our guy.”
“What’s not to like? We caught him with the drugs and the razor on his way to see Ruby May. The guy is clearly unstable. You heard some of the shit he said about liking to hear women scream, didn’t you?”
“Just because the guy is a sexual deviant doesn’t make him a killer.”
“Oh, come on, Natalie…” He stared at her as the reason behind her objection sank in. “Don’t tell me you still want to pin this thing on Jax.”
“I don’t care what you say, I’m going to stick close to May’s side tonight,” she insisted, striding away from the monitor to the desk she’d taken over for the duration of her stay.
Annaliese was right, Natalie couldn’t think clearly when it came to the rocker. Nick followed her, not ready to let it drop. “I gotta say, you’re way off the reservation with this one, Nat.”
“I know what I know, that’s all I can say,” she shrugged.
“And did you pick up that piece of insight when you slept with him and went through his stuff?”
“What?”
He’d managed to shock her, that much was evident. Only was she shocked because of the suggestion or because he’d found her out? His voice dropped to a whisper as he shared the accusation. “Jax told Anna all about it. How you seduced him in order to get an up close and personal look at the man.”
“He’s lying,” she hissed, focusing on the monitor before her. Nick knew her well enough to recognize the evasive technique. But he didn’t know for sure she was the one lying about her connection to May until she spoke, her voice rich and throbbing, definitely trying too hard as she turned her dark eyes to him. “I know I came on a little strong with you the other night, but I wouldn’t sleep with a perp to get close to him, that’s crossing the line.”
“It’s not just crossing the line, it’s obliterating it.” He shook his head in disgust. “What the hell happened to you? You used to be such a good cop, but you’ve lost all sense of objectivity now. All that can do is hurt the case in the end, and if you’re not careful, your career.”
All at once she dropped the emotional appeal, her eyes hard as polished stones. “I don’t need to sit here and be insulted like this. As far as I’m concerned, you can play pin the crime on the psycho all you want, I’m after the real killer. You know where to find me if you need me.”
“Nat…”
“Don’t fucking call me unless it’s to apologize.”
There wasn’t much he could say to that, she was the one who’d abandoned her principles in the pursuit of a vendetta.
It was late when he left the precinct, Dwiggins brought up on charges relating to his dashed attempt on Ruby with the hopes that they’d get the murder rap to stick with more prodding.
As he drove home, anticipating a cold, lonely bed, Nick thought about calling Annaliese. Chances were she’d be fast asleep, but this was news worth waking her for in the hopes that it put her mind at ease once and for all. And maybe he owed her an apology for coming down so hard on Jax. The more he learned about the guy, the more he’d started to feel sorry for him.
Thank God for Bluetooth, or he would’ve crashed for sure on his way through the curves on I-5 as he called her. “Hey, did I wake you?” he asked after her mumbled hello.
“Mmmhmm. What time is it?”
“It’s late, I know. I’m sorry, I just thought you’d want to know we’re pretty sure we caught the killer.”
“What? When… who is it?”
Nick suppressed a laugh at her tone, feeling almost giddy as he filled her in on Ed Dwiggins’ arrest and some of the more prominent highlights of the interrogation. “So that’s all she wrote. It’s only a matter of time now before the rest of it comes out, but I think he’s the one.”
“Really? That’s it?” There was a long pause. “Just like that?”
“You sound almost disappointed.”
“No, not at all. I’m just surprised. I had this feeling something was coming, I just didn’t think it’d happen without further bloodshed.”
“Well, you can chalk this one up as a win for the good guys.” It felt good, and despite the late hour, Nick’s mood was upbeat. They’d solved the case without further bloodshed, and that was huge in the world of multiple homicides. The fact that it was his team to crack it instead of the Feds was another thing his Captain would be happy about come the morning. Maybe he could even stand to get away for a few days, just him and Annaliese to catch up and take the next step. He was already trying to decide what sounded more romantic, Gig Harbor or Astoria, when Anna’s question caught him off guard.
“Does he have slender arms?”
“What?”
“The roadie. Are his arms slender and pale?”
“Ah… they’re pale, and he is on the skinny side.” Nick wouldn’t necessarily call him slender, but gangly definitely sounded about right.
She let out a sigh of relief. “That fits then.”
“I’m glad I have your seal of approval,” he chuckled.
“So, it’s over. It’s definitely over?”
“It’s all up to the D.A. now, but I think we’ve got him pretty solid on the attempt against Ruby. The guy’s not too stable, it’s only a matter of time until he breaks and confesses to the murders. You’d be surprised what a night in holding can do to a guy’s mental state.”
The exit for Tigard was fast approaching, and Nick had a sudden idea. “Listen, I know it’s late, but how about we have that talk now?”
“Now?” She didn’t sound too keen on the idea.
“We’re both up. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t? I feel like we’ve had too much left unsaid between us, and I’d like to clear the air.”
“Sure, I guess that’d be fine.”
Not exactly ringing enthusiasm, but he’d take it. “Do you think Rose will let me in? Or will she come after me with a shotgun for trespassing?”
“She’s not here, she’s staying over with Ruby.”
“Oh, that’s right. Even better, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Only he didn’t get a chance to talk things out with her. Almost from the moment he stepped into the house, Annaliese surprised him with a heated kiss and he forgot all the carefully crafted phrases he’d chosen on the drive over. All that mattered was the feel of her, warm and willing in his arms. There would be time later for apologies and maybe even proposals, but in that moment, Nick needed to show her how much he loved her with more than words.
Somehow, they made it upstairs before the clothes started coming off. It was all Nick could do to keep up with her as she tore at his shirt, nearly strangling himself in his hurry to remove his tie. He couldn’t get enough of her smooth, silky skin; every taste of her made him crave another. Everywhere he touched only made him want more, to know every secret her body possessed. To make her his in every way that mattered.
Some part of his cop’s brain catalogued that the room was fancy, beautiful even, but all he had eyes for was Anna as they tumbled onto the bed, nothing between them but the briefest ribbon of air as their mouths crashed together hungrily. This was his reward, for all the years of service, the sacrifices both personal and professional in order to do the right thing. Annaliese was everything he’d ever wanted, and Nick was humbled by the gift she gave him as she settled him between her thighs.
The sight of her leaning back, dark hair strewn across the pillow, her eyes smoky with desire, it was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. She reached for him, and his breath caught between his teeth in a sharp hiss as he resisted the urge to buck against
her. He needed to say something first.
“Wait…”
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, her face clouding with doubt.
“Nothing is wrong. It’s just…” He braced himself up on his elbows, fingers exploring the soft contours of her face. “I love you, Annie. I should’ve said it before when you did, but I wasn’t sure if you meant to, or it was a mistake and…”
“I love you too,” she breathed in wonder, her growing smile radiant.
“I’m sorry about before, I…”
Her finger lay across his lips, silencing him with a single touch. “Shhh, it doesn’t matter. Whatever came before, it’s all in the past. This is all that matters now, you and me and the future we make together.”
“Is that what we’re making? I sort of thought we were making love.”
“It’s the same thing,” she dimpled.
“As long as we get to the lovin’ part, I’m in,” he grinned, growling as he attacked her neck, and Anna’s head fell back with laughter, fingers teasing his sides in retribution. The giggles and squeals gradually gave way to sharper breaths and moans as the touches grew more intimate, a sense of urgency leading their movements until he sank into her and found his future.
* * *
The scent of long dead things assailed her senses, but Annaliese couldn’t cover her nose. She couldn’t make her body move at all, merely a passenger with no control and no voice.
A nude girl lay on the bed, her head thrown back, blonde hair obscuring her face. Her body was ripe and rosy, at the peak of perfection. The gash on her wrist, wide and gaping, seemed almost obscene in the face of such youthful beauty, the blood too dark, the corruption pooling onto the floor. These things Anna saw in the space between one heartbeat and the next, her attention diverted by the movement of her own hands as she peeled off a disposable glove to reveal slender fingers, nails bitten to the quick.
No, this was different, this was wrong. In a sudden shocking revelation, Anna realized this was not the same scene she’d glimpsed in Jackson’s vision. The girl on the bed was stripped completely naked, the design etched into her flesh on her abdomen, not her hip. This was another victim, another death.
A voice spoke, words of power in a harsh, guttural whisper. “Vos obsecro, domine mi profanum. Hanc oblationem, et potestas tua me saties tuas carnem et sanguinem petere.”
Her uncovered hand stretched out over the outline cut into the girl’s belly and Annaliese felt the power flowing through her. The smell of charring flesh intensified, the sigil darkening under her hand, a blackened mark appearing on the flesh until a tattoo formed where the cut once sat.
“Sanguinem enim, et caro in phantasia. Veni ad me, et salvum me fac. Venit Mael…”
Annaliese knew enough Latin to get the gist of every third word, not enough to gauge the intent more than in a general sense, but she could tell it wasn’t good. The final two words were clear enough to understand though, and they filled her with dread.
Mael comes.
And then it hit her, a sinister force thrumming through every fiber of her body, filling her to the limit with dark energy until she felt like she wanted to peel off her own skin to let it out. Mute and helpless, Anna screamed in the confines of her mind as the body she inhabited reveled in the power, drinking it in and craving more. The stain of evil grew and grew until she thought she might drown in it, and Anna tried to make herself as small as possible, safeguarding her soul from corruption.
All at once she slammed back into her body, sucking in a long, gasping breath as the candles in the room all flared to life at once. If she wasn’t freaked out before, the spontaneous use of her power certainly kicked her heart rate up another notch, and Anna reached for Nick. She had to warn him, she had to stop it from happening again.
Chapter Thirty
Nick came awake with a start, automatically reaching for the gun on his nightstand that wasn’t there. Neither was his nightstand, and it took him half a second to figure out where he was that would have so many candles. He was pretty sure they hadn’t gone to sleep with them lit, that was a surefire recipe for a horrible, smoky, death.
“Who… what?” he blinked blearily, reaching up to wipe the sleep from his eyes. “Why are all the candles lit? Was that you?”
“Nick, I just…” Anna’s sobs reached him as she buried her face in his chest and he came fully awake instantly.
“What’s wrong?” he frowned, looking for some sign of what might have upset her, but coming up with nothing.
“Everything,” she sniffed, her voice muffled. “I saw… God, it was awful. So much blood.”
“Are you hurt? What happened?” There was no sign of blood that he could see.
“No, I’m not hurt, it’s… it was so real.”
All at once he began to understand. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“I think… I’m not sure.” She pushed herself up to look at him, her eyes red and teary. “I think it was another vision. I tried it again before, hoping I’d be able to see more about the killer, but it didn’t work.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, rubbing her back in little circles. “We caught the guy, there’s no reason for you to be so upset. It’s all over.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Anna sat up, hugging the sheet to her body. “This wasn’t what I saw with Jax, this was new. It was a different murder. She was nude, and the mark wasn’t on her hip, it was on her abdomen.” She clutched her own middle, as if she felt the mark there. “We have to stop it before it happens again.”
“Annie, try and calm down. Maybe you saw one of the other prior deaths? What makes you think it was a new death?”
“I don’t know,” she said, her brows drawing together into a single dark line. “It’s just a feeling I have, that it was new.”
“Is there a possibility you had a bad dream? Don’t get me wrong, I know you have that sight thing like you had when you dreamed about Mei and Seraphine. But isn’t it possible this was a dream and nothing more?”
“But everything was so vivid and that room had the worst smell, like burning flesh.” Her face twisted in disgust.
“I know that smell,” he said, laying a hand on her knee. The possibility that she’d tapped into something so awful freaked him out, and Nick used his training to keep them both from jumping to conclusions without examining all of the facts first. “Calm down and take a breath,” he said, sitting up in bed. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Annaliese launched into a description of the dream and Nick was shocked by the level of vivid detail she was able to provide. He might’ve very easily believed in the possibility of upcoming danger if not for one thing. “Only I already told you we caught the guy. There’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
“Did you? Or did you just pick up a guy with a sick fetish? The body I was in, I’m almost positive it was a woman’s body. The hand I saw without the glove, it looked like a woman’s hand, not a man’s. And the thing with the tattoo…”
“Right. The part where he branded her with a tattoo without even touching her? That’s the part that makes me think it was more of a dream than a premonition. Is such a thing even possible?”
“How can you ask me that, Nick? You know what Ellie did to my sisters.” She got up, tugging on his shirt with short, angry movements.
“Hey, hey calm down a sec. I’m sorry, but you can understand why I have my doubts, can’t you?”
“Mael comes, that’s what she said,” Anna muttered distractedly, as if she hadn’t even heard him.
“Who’s Mael?”
Annaliese paced around the room, shaking her hands as if flinging off something sticky clinging to her skin. “A dark entity, a demon or a spirit, no one knows for certain. But he’s not good, that’s for sure. Whoever’s doing this, they’re doing it to please Mael. It’s an offering.”
“Okay then, why pick band groupies? Aren’t you supposed to sacrifice a virgin?”
She shot him a dark look. “That
’s not funny. I don’t know why she’s doing it, but there was definitely a lot of dark energy flying around in that room.”
Nick scooted to the edge of the bed, capturing her hand when she passed by. “Or… it was just a dream.”
“Okay, but…”
“I’m willing to keep an open mind about the possibility that there’s a crazed wicked witch looking to summon a demon for unknown reasons, but you need to acknowledge the fact that it’s possible this was only a dream.”
She looked at him mutely for long moments before she took a breath. “Fine, I admit, it’s possible.”
“And you didn’t see the girl’s face, so there’s no way to identify her.”
“That’s right.”
“And the only part of the killer you saw was one hand.”
“True.”
“Then come back to bed and we can talk about this in the morning.” He tugged lightly on her hand.
“Nick…”
“I promise you, everything will look brighter in the morning with a good night’s sleep.”
Anna’s face was still set in mutinous lines. “Somehow I don’t think I’ll be able to skip off to dreamland after what I saw tonight, but you go ahead.”
“Nuh uh, nope. You’re not getting off so easily.” Giving her a sharp tug, he tumbled her in beside him, immediately swallowing her up with the warm covers. “Get in here and I’ll help you fall asleep.”
“Oh, you will, will you?” she smirked, even as she wrapped her cool limbs around him.
Nick prepared himself for the shock of cold feet against his. He didn’t even flinch when it came. “Right. Now when Veronica has a bad dream, the first thing I do, besides look under the bed and in the closet, is to tell her a bedtime story.”
“You’re going to tell me a bedtime story?” Her lips curved in amusement as she snuggled closer. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“We listen with our ears, not our mouths,” he cautioned, enjoying the feel of her in his arms.