by S. K. Lessly
“What room?”
“The bedroom.”
“Raped?” Cedric quipped, feeling a deep dread starting to course through his body.
“Probably, although the coroner didn’t want to speculate. You know how she is. She said she’d let us know once she got back to the lab.”
Cedric’s brows furrowed tightly. “You saw the body. What do you think?”
Johnson frowned. “I think she was raped. The way her body was positioned, the pained look on her face. She was violated in some way. I can’t tell you if she was penetrated by the killer or killers, but they did something to her. The body is pretty bad.”
Johnson’s words hung in the silence for a few seconds; Cedric and Johnson communicating to each other using only their eyes. Johnson was doing his best to convey what he had seen to his boss, and Cedric doing his best not to lose it before he even walked inside the house.
“Okay, what else?” he asked finally. “I assume the forensic team is in there gathering evidence. Looking for something the killer or killers may have left?”
Johnson shook his head before Cedric could get his entire question from his mouth.
“The scene’s been contaminated, so don’t hold your breath.”
Cedric frowned. “Contaminated? What the fuck does that mean? The scene wasn’t preserved? Did some fuckwad puke or touch something they weren’t supposed to?”
Officer Johnson shook his head. “Sarge, it’s bad in there; like right out of a fucking horror movie. The house is a mess. It’s hard to do a thorough forensic work up, but they are doing the best they can, going through every room, checking every corner and crevice to see if they find something. They’re not going to stop looking. So far, there were no fingerprints that didn’t belong to the family. It looks like no forced entry, so the family either let the attacker inside or they had a key.”
“Did the coroner rule out murder-suicide since there’s no forced entry?”
“The coroner did, sir. She said that even though the adult male had been killed after his family, he was in no condition to harm anyone or himself. There were signs that the male was tied up and tortured before he was killed.”
Cedric didn’t reply to that, but inwardly, he wondered what kind of hell he was about to walk into and find.
“How are the neighborhood interviews going? Did anyone see anything out of the ordinary today?”
Johnson shook his head. “So far we haven’t turned up anything. Most of the people living on this street work during the day, but those that were home didn’t see a thing. We’re also asking to see anyone’s security cameras. Maybe they captured someone surprising the family or breaking in.”
“Yeah, let’s hope we’re that lucky. All right, Johnson, keep me posted.”
Cedric put on a pair of extra-large black latex gloves that he retrieved from his truck and moved through the doorway of the house.
The second he opened the door, he was instantly met with the scent of death; decomposing bodies, blood, and human secretions.
Damn, Johnson wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the house was a mess.
Cedric’s eyes roamed the open living and dining room space before him. It looked as if someone had created abstract art on the walls using blood instead of paint. It was everywhere, on the furniture, the ceiling. Cedric could even feel his plastic covered boots sink slightly in the crimson carpet, regardless of the plastic tarp that was laid down as a makeshift walkway through the house.
The forensic lab workers moved feverishly around him, gathering what they could from the grisly sight. They were collecting any physical evidence they could find, taking photographs in order to reconstruct the scene once they were back in the lab. It was a very hard scene to work, Cedric knew. Some looked ashen as they worked, seemingly about to lose it inside of their disposable overalls and mask. Others threw curious glances Cedric’s way, noticing he wore nothing to cover his nose or at least stem the smell.
The smell didn’t bother him. Not because he was oblivious to the stench, he wasn’t. He knew that he would have to wash multiple times before he was able to remove the stench of death.
No, his mind was elsewhere as he took in everything. He looked at each of the victims in the living room, paying keen attention to the father’s body. He moved as close as he could without touching anything so he could study the wounds.
Each family member in front of him had rather large savage gashes along their necks. There was a lot of anger used in these killings. Cedric didn’t look twice at the kids that were sprawled at the feet of their father, soaking in a heavy pool of their own blood. He saw the barbarity, the cruelty in the killings by just looking at the father and the elderly woman. Their heads were barely attached to their spinal cords. To the naked eye, it seemed that the killer had used a rather large knife in all cases. But Cedric knew better.
Cedric made his way through the house taking visual pictures of everything he saw, cataloging what was relevant and dismissing what wasn’t pertinent. When he finally made it to the master bedroom and saw the contorted way Mrs. Hendricks’ body lay, the anger that was coursing through his veins erupted into hot seething rage.
“Fuck!” he spat. A few heads turned his way, but no one said anything. They knew better than to speak, especially due to the murderous look plastered on Cedric’s face.
The woman lay naked on once white sheets, which were now bathed in crimson. Her limbs were prostrated in a way that told Cedric she’d fought her attackers with everything in her. What haunted Cedric was the look that was permanently displayed on the woman’s face. Whatever she went through, had caused her insurmountable pain and anguish.
Cedric ached for this woman and her family. Who in the hell would… Cedric started to ask himself, but suddenly, he caught a whiff of something other than death and it hit him like a charged bull. There was something in this room. It wasn’t anywhere else in the house but this room. As he moved closer to the woman, the scent was stronger. An odor that instantly thrust him back to his childhood, back to the night terrors that the elders of his pack would tell.
It was their way of scaring the young, especially the bad ones. Cedric and Andrew had heard these stories countless times growing up, so they knew them inside and out. These were stories of murderous beings with no conscience, remorse, or heart. They were evil and destructive and had one goal in life: to extinguish every living pack.
These creatures were like him, but with no soul, direction, or family. Their only purpose was to destroy. They were called blood packs. And typically, blood packs were led by an Alpha with strength only gathered by killing other Alphas.
Typically, blood packs didn’t kill humans. They didn’t live by a code that said humans were off-limits like Cedric and his kind did. Blood packs killed other packs. If humans got in their way, then they were fair game. They wouldn’t show mercy to humans, but they wouldn’t go out of their way to avoid them.
In this case, Cedric knew the second he walked inside of the house that he was seeing the slaughter of his own kind. The Hendricks family were wolves. He had also been right, they were the same family he had remembered years ago, which sort of made this case personal. Also, from the way Demond had been brutally killed, he could tell that he was killed for a purpose. He had been tortured and murdered for information that apparently, he wasn’t forthcoming with providing. At least not without a little coaxing, which was why his wife was in the other room and his kids were lying at his feet. Another point came to mind. The only being capable of killing in this destructive manner was a wolf. That fact was confirmed by the ligature marks on each of the victim’s necks. Except his kind wouldn’t kill an entire family like this. They weren’t above this type of behavior, which could only mean one thing.
Cedric cursed exasperatedly and fought the urge to run his hands through his hair. This shit couldn’t be happening, not here in his city, no way. However, as his eyes roamed the bedroom and surveyed the woman’s body, he knew what he’d surmised was true
.
Feeling the rage within him starting to spill over, Cedric walked out of the house. He didn’t utter a word to anyone as he removed the booties from his boots and tore off the latex gloves. He tossed the items to one of the techs from the forensic team and moved purposefully to his truck, ignoring the questioning glances from his fellow officers. Once inside, he reached for his phone and dialed a number from memory.
“Yeah, nothing to report. He’s still…” started the caller, but Cedric interrupted.
“Where are you?” Cedric asked, not hiding his growing apprehension in his voice.
Winston, sensing the urgency replied, “Outside of Andrew’s firm waiting for him to come down. Why? What happened?”
Cedric noticed his boss heading in his direction. “I can’t tell you now. I’m in the middle of some shit. Do you have eyes on him?”
Winston grunted. “Fuck no, you know I value my life.”
“Yeah, well, I need you to put your eyes on him and keep them on him. Got it? If you need backup or sense that you do, don’t hesitate to make that call.”
“Ced, man, what’s going on?” Winston asked, his own apprehension surging through his body.
“I don’t know for sure so I don’t want to speculate. But if I’m right, Alpha could be in danger.”
“Do you want me to talk to—”
“No,” Cedric said quickly. “All he’ll do is pelt you with questions that you don’t have the answers to, get pissed, and then call me. I don’t have shit to give him yet either. Just watch his lovesick ass like a hawk. I’ll get with him once I know more.”
Cedric hung up, got out of his truck, and met his lieutenant just outside his truck. He filled him in on everything he’d been told, which wasn’t much. He, of course, did not tell his lieutenant he thought the family was attacked by a blood-thirsty pack of wolves or that the victims were wolves themselves, nomads. And, he damn sure didn’t tell him that he had known the family either. He had to play this case close to his chest. It wouldn’t be the first time he had to do this; steer his fellow brothers in law enforcement from the truth to a story that they wouldn’t be able to swallow. He’d pay close attention to what the forensic team found. He had hoped they would find something, but it had been little over twenty-four hours since the murder of the Hendricks family, and so far he had nothing.
The sound of a persistent car horn behind Cedric brought him out of his head. He looked up and realized the traffic light was green and he made a left-hand turn.
As he drove, he tried to clear his mind, if just for a little bit. He had to be running on all cylinders. Andrew’s life depended on it. As he got closer to his apartment building, he thought about calling Andrew and telling him what he’d discovered at the Hendricks’ house and what he thought it all meant, the moment he walked into his apartment. AP would hit the roof and his paranoid ass would undoubtedly increase their already thinned-out detail, but Cedric felt that he needed to know what was going on. Cedric and Andrew were two peas in a pod. One didn’t work well without the other.
Cedric reached for his phone and looked up his number right before something in the far distance caught his eye. In the shadows of the sidewalk, to his right, he noticed a behemoth of a man; broad shoulders, tall, large arms. Cedric started to dismiss it, but for some reason, he couldn’t.
There was something about the man that bothered him. He wasn’t sure if he’d seen the man before or not because he was still pretty far from the person. But still, he couldn’t ignore that feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. Cedric focused on the figure before him, and that’s when he noticed the big man wasn’t alone.
Cedric slowed down slightly when he noticed the man looked to be yelling at someone he had gripped between his fingers.
Cedric rolled down his window so he could hear better. At first, he didn’t hear anything alarming. He thought about just calling the disturbance in and letting a black and white handle it. He didn’t care for the unnecessary paperwork he would have to file if he handled this on his own.
Just as he grabbed the mic off his radio to call it in, he heard a woman scream.
13
Cedric flicked on the strobe lights for the grill of the truck and floored it in the direction of the scream. The scuffle that played out on the sidewalk in front him gave him a slight glimpse of a small figure being man-handled by a bulldozer of man. Before Cedric pulled his truck on the sidewalk right next to the couple, the big man swung a large ferocious fist to the woman’s face.
She fell instantly, hitting the sidewalk with a loud thud. She didn’t move. The man then sent his booted foot into her stomach just as Cedric pulled out his Beretta and trained it on the big man.
“Police, you son of a bitch, don’t fucking move or I swear the next thing you fucking see will be your maker.”
With a two-handed grip on his weapon, Cedric moved quickly around the front of his truck to the attacker.
The man hadn’t moved. He stared down at the woman before him as if he was waiting on the telling sign that she was still breathing.
“Get down on your knees, put your hands behind your head, and lace your fingers. Do it now!” Cedric demanded, voice rising with each syllable that left his mouth.
The man remained where he was, staring at the woman.
“Hey, fuck face, did you hear what I said? Get down on your fucking knees and put your hands behind your head. Do it!” Cedric repeated as he continued to get closer.
“This is none of your business, so get back in your truck,” barked the big man, his Russian accent heavy in his voice.
“This is my business, you son of a bitch. Now, step back from the woman slowly and—”
The man’s massive head whipped sharply in Cedric’s direction, narrowing a pair of dark eyes at him. “She’s not a woman,” he countered in heavily accented English, while pointing down at the figure at his feet.
Cedric started to respond, his gun trained on the man’s chest when something flashed in the man’s cold eyes. In that instant, Cedric noticed the color of the Russian’s eyes changed to a gold hue. Cedric looked confused at first. That was until a growl erupted from the man before him.
“Aw shit!” Cedric forced out, knowing that the gun he had trained on the man was useless.
In a blink of an eye, the Russian man charged toward Cedric, teeth exposed and growling with nothing but rage in his eyes. Cedric holstered his weapon and braced himself for the fight he had no energy for when the woman lying on the sidewalk unexpectedly kicked outward, catching the big man at his ankles.
The man cried out in shock more than pain and fell to the ground. The woman scrambled quickly to her feet and went on attack bringing her knee to the man’s face as he tried to get to his feet. You could hear the man’s nose breaking, the sound bouncing off the buildings around them.
“Son of a bitch!” yelled the woman as she continued to kick the living shit out of the man who was now writhing on the ground.
“All right, ma’am,” Cedric said to the woman as he started toward the scuffle. He hadn’t expected the woman to go on attack, but it was refreshing to see she could take care of herself.
“Ma’am,” Cedric repeated, a little louder this time as he got closer.
The big man made a move of his own, trying to grab for the woman, but she sent a fierce kick to the man’s face.
“That will teach you to follow a woman and assault her,” the woman scolded as she stomped down on the man’s groin and then sent another hard kick to the man’s face, knocking him out cold.
The woman stood over the man, just as the Russian had done a few minutes ago, as if she was daring him to move. She pushed her hair behind her ear and Cedric finally caught a small glimpse of the woman and the color instantly drained from his face.
“Holy shit!” fell softly from his lips as he stood there, unable to move any part of his body.
“I know I was a bit rough, but he deserved it.” He heard the woman say in a matter-of-fact
tone, but he hadn’t responded. In fact, he just couldn’t move.
Could it be her? He asked himself. He blinked a few times, trying to understand what he’d just witnessed. He tried to make sense of what was starting to take over his entire body.
It first started in his chest. Then his heart began assaulting his chest cavity as it started beating out of control the second his brain registered what his eyes saw. His body started to shake profusely. Sweat started to bead along his forehead, down his back. It was her. He knew it deep down in his soul, but he could also feel it all over his body. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in years; a feeling that had only thrived in his dreams.
“I hope you aren’t going to take me in. I mean you did see him assault me, right?” she asked, without moving her eyes from her attacker. “Plus, I just saved your life. You’re welcome by the way.”
Cedric shook his head, trying to clear it, but it remained clouded. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen or what he was now feeling. He only saw a glimpse of the woman before him, but that was all he needed.
“Theresa?”
The woman’s back stiffened at the sound of the name the cop whispered.
“Oh God,” came her reply as she closed her eyes. This couldn’t be happening…not now please…
“Theresa,” he said again with more confidence in his voice.
She heard the shuffling of his feet and knew he was coming closer. The woman backed away slowly from the still figure at her feet, needing the darkness around them to swallow her.
“Fuck…” floated softly from her parted lips as she continued to back away from Cedric.
“It’s you, isn’t it?” he asked. “Isn’t it?”
She jumped slightly at the harshness of his voice and stopped. The woman, unable to fight the pull he had over her, lifted her head and met a pair of stark green eyes.
A sharp breath caught in her throat. It was him. It was the boy who she had crushed for years. It was her Cedric.
He was just as she remembered. His chiseled features, his fierce and deadly green eyes that destroyed anyone that dared to look into them was definitely more prominent than they were before. But the passion in them, the strength, the promise they held in them was still the same. He was still able to make her weak in the knees by just looking at her.