When he was far enough away, he holstered his gun and adjusted his suit jacket, as if the routine motions would make this anything else but what it was. “I’m outta here. Tell your boyfriend to steer clear, payback is a bitch.”
“Ryan, wait. You need to hear this. Just let me explain.”
He shook his head, this time his eyes meeting hers, his gaze painful in its intensity. “Not a chance, sweetheart. I am so done with you and your freak show.”
Sean whined, his head swiveling toward where she stood, but Lily knew there was nothing he could do to help. At that moment, Jack lunged, mouth open and teeth dripping saliva as he aimed for the alpha’s throat. It was a blatant challenge, but the grey wolf’s posturing was raw with blind anger and that made it an empty threat.
The two collided in a hailstorm of snarls and teeth, with Jack’s front claws scoring bloody gashes along Sean’s flank. The wolves twisted in a vicious dance, crashing into the concrete wall, the hit splintering the painted cinderblock, and leaving a gory smear of fur and blood.
Lily pulled Ryan out of the way, chipped paint and concrete dust covering their hair and shoulders as they cleared the impact zone.
The grey wolf yelped as the alpha gained the advantage, pinning him to his side before he had the chance to strike again. Front and hind legs extended, the grey pushed at the alpha, keeping the larger wolf’s teeth at bay and tucking his neck against its razor sharp incisors.
With a low pitched growl, Sean bared his teeth once more, biting down on the side of the grey wolf’s throat in a show of clear dominance. Jack whined, its tenor a sign of submission and acceptance, and as quick as the fight began, was as quick as it was over.
Ryan coughed, his mouth a grim line as he shook out his hair and wiped his hands over his sleeves. His movements were stiff, as if he had to compel himself to stay calm, yet his face had paled, and his pupils had dilated to the size of saucers. “Yup. I’m done. And I have news for you too you’re done with this case.” Without as much as a backward glance, he turned and walked toward the exit. His stride moderated with restraint like he refused to let them see him run.
“Ryan!” Lily called after him.
“Let him go, Lily. There’s no place he can run. When he wants answers, he’ll be back,” Sean’s voice feathered across their shared mind link.
She looked at him, her body and mind weary with the weight of everything. “I hope sooner than later,” she murmured. She didn’t need to verbalize it. Each understood the situation would only get worse before it got better if Ryan didn’t get a grip.
Sean nudged her arm with his muzzle. “Stop worrying. You can always find him later and try to talk some sense into him. In the meantime, why don’t you find hothead and me something to wear so we can do what we came here to do?”
Lily nodded. “Okay, but are you two going to behave while I’m gone?”
Sean rumbled a low wolfish chuckle low in his throat and bumped her hand with the top of his head. “Junior and I need a little heart to heart, but I promise there’ll be no more trouble”.
She looked down at Jack’s shaggy head and twined her fingers into the fur at the scruff of his neck, giving it a short tug. “Be the hunter I know you to be, and pull yourself together, okay Jack? We have work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. If what you both suspect is true, then Ryan is a half-breed who has no idea who or what he is. It’s our duty to help him acclimate, not scare the piss out of him or make him think he’s crazy. You’re not the only one at fault, though,” she said, sliding a critical glance toward Sean. “We’ll all handle it better once I bring him around.”
Jack whined, the sound mournful, and full of doubt and regret.
Lily slid her fingers around, giving Jack a quick scratch beneath his chin before turning toward the double doors and the main hospital corridor. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Try not to be any more conspicuous than you already are.”
Chapter Twelve
“This is the best I could do without calling too much attention to myself,” Lily said, handing Sean the bundle. Her adrenaline level was still in overdrive nonetheless she nearly went into full panic mode when neither wolf was in the hall where she’d left them. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, a plastic supermarket bag with other essentials dangling from her wrist. “Clever. I didn’t even notice a utility closet on this floor.” She ran a hand through her hair, taking in the small, confined space. Leave it to Sean to stay quick-witted in an unexpected crisis.
His face and body language made it clear he’d done this before. “Like they say, any port in a storm,” he replied, stepping into the navy blue scrubs he unwrapped from the bundle. “You’ve got to be resourceful otherwise you end up in jail for public nudity.”
Jack whined from the corner towards the back, still in wolf form and lying on a stack of standard issue hospital towels, as if to say ‘been there, done that.’
She snickered, a sound somewhere between a chortle and a snort. “Public nudity, huh? I can see it now, WeTV’s newest reality series, Weres gone Wild…drama, hot guys and lots of infighting. Right up Edward’s alley, dontcha think? It has everything he wants...fame, devoted fans…throw in a little network control and you’ve got a real ace up your sleeve. A real dealmaker.”
Sean glanced up from knotting the drawstring on his pants. “Not funny.”
Lily slid in behind him, slipping her hands onto his shoulders and skimming her palms across their broad expanse. “It would be worth it just to see the look on his face at the proposition,” she said, resting her chin on the back of his shoulder blade.
He turned, glancing at her crosswise. “How about we stick to removing him from the equation, altogether?” Taking her hand, he planted a quick kiss on the flat of her palm and then moved to look at where the pants met his bare feet. “Not a bad fit,” he said, turning around to face her. “Looks like you can be pretty resourceful yourself.”
“A perfect fit, if I do say so myself,” she said, helping him slip the boxy shaped top over his head and wrapping her arms around his waist in the process.
“Hmmm,” he murmured, leaning in for a little more than a quick peck. “A perfect fit, indeed.”
With her hands on his chest she took a step back and scooted under his arm. “Bad timing, bad place,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Not that the idea of wild monkey sex in a utility room isn’t appealing, but we have work to do,” she murmured through their shared mind path.
Sean’s lips curved up, and his eyes darkened. Even without the telltale bulge in his pants, Lily knew exactly where his thoughts were headed. Psychic sense not required.
“Maybe later we could play the night nurse and the custodian,” he grinned, eyeing a utility belt on one of the shelves,” he replied with a mental smirk.
Ignoring him, she looked at Jack sitting patiently in the corner. “Is there a reason why he’s still a canine?”
Considering the two of them and the size of the grey wolf, the closet seemed even smaller, with every type of cleaning supply known to man crammed into the six-by-six room. PCV shelving, brooms, mops and an industrial shop-vac took up most of the space.
Sean shrugged, tucking the top of his scrubs into his pants. “Just easier that way.”
Lily didn’t even pretend to know what that meant, nor at this point did she care. With a soft breath, she rubbed her hands together. “Okay Fido, your turn.” He whined in response, and Lily felt horrible. The poor guy had been through enough, even if it was his own doing.
The grey wolf chuffed, and with a snap of bone and muscle, and a quick whiff of ozone, Jack was in human form, utterly naked and standing adjacent to the bucket mop.
Woof! Down boy! Self-conscious, Lily did an about face, looking for somewhere else to direct her gaze. Bingo! She grabbed the second set of scrubs from the shelf next to the floor polish, and reached behind to hand them to Jack backwards.
The third bundle on the shelf was the lumpy plastic bag she had carried in wi
th the clothes. “There are two pairs of sneakers inside, and a box of wet-naps. I swiped them from an open locker in the nurses’ station,” she said with an apologetic shrug, and handed the bag to Sean. “I can’t vouch for the sizes.”
Sean took it and tore open the plastic, reaching in for the first pair. “I’m sure they’re fine,” he offered, tossing the bag to Jack. “A little snug, but nothing a strategically placed rip can’t fix.”
“I grabbed some of these, too. Just in case,” she said, handing them each a pair of blue surgical booties.
“Good thinking,” Jack nodded, tying the drawstring on his pants. “…and you can turn around, now.”
He struggled into the shirt, which would have been roomy on anyone else, except a broad-shouldered wolf. Lily did an unconscious double take. Sean was her mate, without a doubt, but a woman would have to be blind not to notice the hunter’s muscular good looks. If the girl in pink scrubs could see Jack now, she’d faint.
McDreamy? Ha! Eat your heart out Grey’s Anatomy… you’ve got nothing on my wolves!
Lily’s appreciative smile disappeared almost as fast as it came. “What?” It was all she could say in response to Sean’s amused smirk, and the words, “You are so busted,” feathering across her mind.
The big alpha grinned, shaking his head, and bending to slip the booties over his too small sneakers.
“Okay, then...,” Lily breathed out. “Just so you know, I checked with the front desk, and the deputy medical examiner is still in a meeting. There’s only one person inside right now, and he shouldn’t give us any grief about Ryan being M.I.A. Plus we have a little time before our resident detective regroups enough to do something stupid.”
Sean looked up, raising an eyebrow.
“I tapped into his head just to check he’s okay,” she clarified, with another shrug, handing them each their passes. “He’s having a drink at some random bar by the river. I didn’t want to poke around too much or for too long. We don’t need him freaked out any more than he already is.”
“All things considered, he didn’t seem to be that freaked out. He actually seemed pretty calm,” Jack replied, clipping his pass to the top of his pants.
“He’s a good cop. He keeps his emotions in check and out of the equation,” she said, regretting her words immediately.
Jack’s lips compressed. “Maybe Sean should send his hunters down to the N.Y.P.D. for training. That way he can limit the collateral damage.”
“Jack, I didn’t mean anything by that. Ryan just handles things bet…” She hesitated, pulling her foot from her mouth before it was too late. Exhaling, she recovered tactfully. “I mean, differently,” she added with a quick smile.
Sean clipped his pass to the front pocket of the scrubs and cracked open the utility closet door. “All right, it’s been a rough day all the way around, and my hunch is it’s going to get worse once we see what’s waiting for us inside. Let’s go. I’ve had enough of this place.”
***
Lily rapped on the double doors, pushing one side open the same way Martinez had done previously.
With Jack and Sean close behind, she stepped through the threshold. Except for the music playing in the background, the place seemed deserted. A single tech worked alone, occupied at one of the aluminum examination tables lining the side of the room. It had been raised, and was slanted toward one of the sinks where he busied himself with the business end of a long hose, rinsing instruments and any collected blood from a previous procedure.
Harsh smelling disinfectant bubbled along the curved edges of the examination table, and even from their vantage point, it wasn’t hard to guess what tinged the foam red as it funneled toward the drain. Jack coughed, wrinkling his nose at the noxious cloud of bleach and blood in the air, and even Sean’s eyes watered despite his stoic expression.
The room was exactly as Lily remembered, except this time there was no lifeless body in plain view prepped for autopsy. The fluorescent lights cast a sterile gleam across the industrial polished concrete floor, and despite its careworn feel and the barbaric subtext attached to the equipment, a sense of purpose encompassed the room.
“Don’t only doctors perform autopsies? I thought you said the deputy M.E. was in a meeting?” Sean whispered from the corner of his mouth. Based on the routine cleanup that was front and center, they must have just missed the main event.
Lily gave him a wide eyed shrug. “That’s what I was told. Maybe this guy is higher up on the food chain than I thought.”
The tech spotted them and released the trigger on the hose, turning the sprayer off. “Can I help you?”
Lily stepped forward. “Yes. I’m Lily Saburi. I believe I’m expected.”
The man put the nozzle down and wiped his gloved hands on a paper towel. “Yeah, I remember seeing your name on the list. What happened to the detective? He was here earlier.”
Without so much as a blink, Lily met the man’s gaze. “He was called away on another matter. I’ve just arrived with my associates to view the latest victim and any evidence you may have collected. If you need to check our credentials…” she trailed off, hoping her face didn’t give away their bluff.
He lifted his clear plastic face shield and looked her over, sparing a glance for Jack and Sean standing off to her side, his eyes resting for a moment on their hospital passes. “That won’t be necessary. You wouldn’t be allowed down here without the proper paperwork. I’m Jeff Holton, Bellevue Morgue Diener.”
Jack jerked his eyes away from the deli-style slicing machines and dissection equipment, his gaze speculating as he looked at the tech. “You work in the morgue, and you’re called ‘the diner’?
The man gave a snuffling sort of laugh. “Kind of creepy when you put it that way, but it’s actually pronounced, ‘deener’. It’s from the German word, leichendiener, which literally means morgue servant. Basically I get to do all the grunt work. You know, clean up after the big boys finish with their slicing and dicing. It ain’t pretty, but it’s a living.”
Jack swallowed hard, still considering him.
“You okay, buddy?” the tech asked, raising a gloved hand to wave in front of Jack’s distracted face.
The young hunter nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just trying to imagine what a regular workday must be like around here.”
The diener shrugged, picking up the nozzle and turning on the spray to continue his wash down. “It isn’t pretty, that’s for sure. And speaking of which, the guy you want is down at the back end of the freezer section. The doc already marked the drawer. He also asked me to let you know that most of the bodies in this case have been released back to their families. That is, except for that teenage girl. She’s a Jane Doe. Do you want her drawer number, too?”
Lily shook her head. “That won’t be necessary. I have all the information I need on that. It’s the newest addition to the list of victims we need to see.”
“Help yourselves,” he said, gesturing toward the back of the room. “Mind if I turn up the music? Dr. Weaver won’t be back for about an hour or so, and Dr. Rush left a little while ago. Trust me, that one’s name says it all.”
Lily and Sean exchanged glances. “Thanks, we’ll take it from here.”
He nodded. “Hey, if you don’t mind my asking, what’s with the scrubs? They’re not exactly police issue, if you know what I mean.”
“Slush puddle and an uptown bus,” Sean answered before Lily could open her mouth.
The diener made a face. “I feel for you, buddy. Ouch.”
Sean rubbed his side where Jack’s claws had slashed him. “Ouch, indeed.”
***
Sean gripped the stainless steel lever, the metal in his hand as cold as the air that rushed out from the compact refrigerated compartment. Jack faced the three foot square box, his hands on the end of the cadaver tray. One pull and the gurney slid out with relative ease.
“Whew! The stench coming off of him is almost worse than the bleach,” Jack frowned, lifting
his hand to his nose.
Unlike the last time, the body wasn’t covered with an evidence sheet. The victim was another young male, stiff but not yet completely rigor mortised. His skin was a bluish hue, with tiny ice crystals dotting his body hair.
“Another kid,” Lily murmured, her jaw set and her stomach dropping at the slashes crisscrossing the young man’s throat and chest. The marks were almost identical to the ones on the young vampire in the park, and there was no question as to the creature responsible for his death.
“Jack, do you see the similarities to the wounds? Any patterning?” Lily asked, turning the man’s head to offer him a better look at the gash marks. “The smell coming off this guy is also comparable to that on the other victims I inspected, but why is it so strong? The vamp in the park had the same putrid scent, but it was subtle.”
“It’s because this one’s a Were,” Sean announced, his face as somber as his tone.
Both Lily and Jack turned. “Are you sure? How can you tell with that rancid odor masking every other clue?” she asked.
Sean took a deep breath, despite the smell. “The symbol on his chest.”
There above the victim’s right pectoral muscle was a tiny fleur-di-lis. The symbol was ornate, despite its small size, only this was no tattoo. The mark had been burned directly into the skin, a brand, and as it was the only mark on his body that wasn’t raw, it was easy to assume it had been there for a while, despite the owner’s youth.
“It’s a mark from one of the badland wolf packs,” Sean surmised. “They’re the only ones I know of that still use branding. They live out on the edges of the great plains near the mountains of South Dakota.”
“What’s he doing this far east?” Jack reached out to run his fingers over the blackened mark, but Lily caught his wrist. The admonishment subtle, but clear: Don’t touch till I’m done.
The Cursed by Blood Saga Page 34