Dead-tective Box Set (Vampire Mystery-Romance)

by Flynn, Mac

  My eyes widened and I turned to Vince. "You have to bite me!" I commanded him.

  He shook his head. "I would take too much," he refused.

  "It's either that or he's going to take my life!" I snapped as I pointed a finger at Ruthven.

  Vince got the point, and I got the points of two fangs buried deep into my neck. Pain shot through my body as he drained me with a speed that mirrored his sprinting ability. The world spun around me and my legs buckled. My vision faded to gray, then black, and I knew only sound and touch. The moment my vision left me I felt someone grab me and wrench me from Vince's arms. I was tossed aside like a rag doll, and I flew across the desk. My hazy vision returned in time for me to see me fly towards the window, and I raised my arms to cover my face.

  A shadow flitted past me and snatched me from the air. It was Vince, and he held me close against him. I looked up into his face and saw there was color in his skin, but his wounds were only partially healed. Blood still flowed from the hole in his chest, and I could see a hint of bone beneath his charred clothes and skin.

  Vince looked down at me and smiled. "It seems I may be unable to take that retirement of which we spoke."

  My eyes widened and I clung to him. "Like hell you can't. You can beat him," I insisted.

  Vince leaned down and captured my lips in a passionate, blood-soaked kiss. My legs wobbled beneath me and I forgot to breath. He broke us apart and held me in the crux of one arm while his other one smashed the glass window to his right. "Farewell, partner," he whispered.

  "Don't you-" Vince lifted me in both hands and tossed me through the opening in the glass.

  I rolled and skidded twenty yards before I dug my shaky fingers into the lawn and looked back at the house. The yard was complete chaos as werewolves and doppelgangers raced away and towards the house. Through the window I glimpsed Vince jump across the desk and grapple with Ruthven as dozens of werewolves and the shadow creatures swept into the room. Vince leapt back and stood atop the desk. He pointed his palms upward at the ceiling and a blast of icicles burst from his hands. They sailed upward and crashed through the ceiling, destroying everything in their paths. Some of the daggers burst into small pieces when they hit the ceiling, and their tiny bodies rained down on Vince's oncoming attackers, skewering them.

  The whole house began to shake and the ceiling buckled beneath the strain of the holes. I clenched my teeth and pushed through my exhaustion so I could raise myself onto my feet. My legs held, and I stumbled towards the house and the window. I reached the glass just as the ceiling gave way. Vince aimed both his palms toward Ruthven as the mad man leapt at him. The icicles only slowed him down, and the pair collided as the ceiling fell to the floor.

  Shattered glass, splintered wood, and broken rocks flew out from the window and knocked into me. One large rock hit me in the temple and everything went black.

  Chapter 11

  The next thing I remembered was light and a pair of strong arms beneath my armpits. I was dragged out from beneath a heavy piled of debris, and I blinked against the harsh light of the midday sun. "Easy there," a familiar voice called to me.

  "Vince?" I weakly whispered.

  "No, Officer Romero," the voice replied.

  I squinted through the bright lights and saw it was indeed Romero who held me. He lifted me into his arms and carried me away from the house and towards a row of cars and vans. I was too weak to break free from his strong zombie grasp, but that didn't stop me from squirming. "No. Vince. He's still in there," I protested.

  "If he is we haven't found him yet," Romero told me.

  I looked over his shoulder and my eyes widened. Nothing remained of the house. All the walls had collapsed into the house and broken into millions of tiny rocks atop the fallen second floor and roof. Most of the remains were charred as though from a fire, and some of the other members of the Parasquad were still putting out the flames.

  "What happened?" I asked him.

  We reached one of the cars and Romero set me in the open door on the back seat. "We were hoping you could tell us that," he returned. One of his officers handed him a blanket, and he wrapped it around my shoulders and knelt in front of me. "We received reports of supernatural activity up here and by the time we arrived the place was in flames. It took us hours just to put those out so we could get close enough to inspect the wreckage. We managed to capture a few werewolves hiding in the trees along the driveway, but they aren't talking."

  I pulled the blanket closer around myself and nodded at the ruined house. "This was Ruthven's house. We-Vince and I-we found a book Tim stole from him. It was the one all the others were copied from. Ruthven had Field take us here so he could get his book back and steal our rings," I told him.

  Romero raised an eyebrow. "And did he?"

  I shook my head. "No, but he-he did some sort of magic and Vince and him fought. Vince threw me out of the house and everything crashed down on them." I paused and clutched my head in one hand. The memories weren't pretty.

  Romero leaned back and shook his head. "If the story had come from anybody but you I wouldn't have believed he was capable of saving anybody else's hide but his own."

  I looked past him at the ruined wreck of a house. "He might still be in there. We have to-" I tried to stand, but Romero grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back down.

  "You do nothing. If he's in there we'll find him, or what's left of him. Vampire ashes are a little different from the normal stuff so there's a chance at finding them, but that's a bad mess in there. We might overlook it," he warned me.

  "Ashes? No." I turned away and shook my head. "He has to be alive. He just has to be," I insisted.

  Romero caught my eyes with his own gaze. "Listen, there's not much chance of anybody being alive in there. I don't think you would've made it if you'd been any closer. You were lucky the walls fell inward or I would've dragged out your corpse."

  "I-I can help. I can help find Vince. He might come to my voice," I insisted.

  "You can help by staying right here. Even if he did come out the sun would probably kill him. It's best you let the professionals manage this mess," Romero advised. I pursed my lips, but nodded. What was the use of arguing? I was as weak as a lamb and wouldn't be of much use other than falling into some hole. Romero smiled and stood. "Good. Now you stay here and we'll see if we can get you some food and water."

  The rest of the day was like a horrible nightmare. All I could think about was the last moments I'd seen Vince, and his lips against mine. The salvage work continued on the house, but it was slow-going. There was a basement in the house, and more than one zombie officer fell into a deep hole. A half hour before sunset I had enough energy to shuffle to the edge of the work.

  Romero noticed me and pulled himself from the wreckage to stand by my side. We faced the house, or what remained of it. "I'm going to call off the search in a few minutes," he warned me.

  My eyes widened and I whipped my head up to stare at him. "What? Why?"

  "We may be night creatures, but this is getting too dangerous. The human cops are breathing down our necks to see what's going on up here, and I don't know how much longer I can keep them away," he revealed.

  "But you can't give up! The study isn't finished yet!" I insisted.

  He put a hand on my shoulder and sighed. "Yes, it is. I just finished the search myself. There's nothing there except some rocks and-"

  "Romero!" one of his officers called to him.

  "What is it?" Romero yelled back.

  "I found something!"

  The other officer stood at mid-center in the study. Romero stepped gently through the debris and I followed. Other officers joined us and the first one knelt and pointed at a piece of cloth that poked out from beneath a large sheet of roofing.

  Romero turned to his officers. "Get it up!"

  A group of them grabbed the edges of the roofing and heaved. The sheet lifted and the men carried it away to reveal the rest of the cloth. It was a business suit attache
d to a charred body. There was a large hole in the chest the size of a fist and a fleshy skull glared back at us. I gasped and turned away.

  "Is this Ruthven?" Romero asked me.

  I shut my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, it's him."

  "I think that's enough. Let's get this body out of here and pack up," he called to his men. My shoulders slumped and Romero came up to stand by my side. "I'm really sorry about this, but he's gone."

  I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. "Can I. . .can I stay here? Just for tonight?" I pleaded.

  "I think I can give you that much time, but no more," he told me.

  "That's enough."

  The officers carted off Ruthven's body and piled into their vehicles. Romero was the last to leave. He set a hand on my shoulder. "You sure you don't want to come? It's almost dark."

  "I'll be fine. I'm not afraid of the dark anymore," I assured him.

  "All right. I'll need you to come down to the station later to make a full report," he requested.

  "Sure. Tomorrow," I agreed.

  Romero turned away and went to his car. The Parasquad turned on their lights and drove down the hill. In a few minutes I was alone. The sun in the distance glimmered its last glow as it set below the horizon. I stood among the wreckage of the house and my life, and cried my eyes out. My sobs pierced the air and my shoulders shook. I let myself fall to my knees onto the rubble and I clutched my face in my hands.

  "Why did you have to die? Why?" I cried to the growing darkness around me.

  Then, in my darkest hour, a bright light intruded on my mourning. I paused and lifted my head as a flickering light in the sky caught my eye. The sun was too recently set for stars to be out, and this light came from below the hill, from the city below me. I stood and watched the blue light zip to and fro, but always on track towards the hill. The light reached the edge of the grass and flew over the blades, leaving in its wake a ripple of wind.

  The light looked so familiar as it reached me and spun around me in a heightening flurry. It was like a lost shooting star looking for a friend, and found me atop this lonely hill. The light was a burning ball of blue as it flitted in front of my face and zipped over to a pile of debris close at hand. It disappeared into the nearly-invisible cracks, but I could still see a faint glow from its body. I crept over to the debris and tried to lift the top. Some of it pulled away, enough to let me see there was a cavity into the basement. I leaned down and peeked inside.

  A pair of red eyes stared back at me. I shrieked and fell back on my butt and scrambled backward. The debris in front of me rose like a dome and the top pieces slid off the bottom until the final sheet of stone and wood was tossed aside. Vince stood before me a mess of tattered and bloody clothes and flesh. Never had he looked so good to me.

  "Vince!" I squealed as I dove for him and latched onto his shoulders. He still stood in his hole so that I could only see his upper half.

  He wrapped his arms around me and chuckled. "It seems I was missed," he teased.

  I pulled away from him and tried to slap his cheek, but he caught my hand. He didn't catch the other hand before it connected with his other cheek. "That's for scaring me half the death into believing you were dead!" I scolded him.

  "Destroyed," he corrected me.

  "Not coming back ever," I rephrased. I leaned back and looked him over. His chest was covered in blood and his clothes were in tatters. Deep gashes covered his arms and his face, and his hair was partially singed. "Just to stay on topic, how did you make it through that wreck?"

  "Luck, and some assistance from Ruthven," he told me.

  I raised an eyebrow. "Ruthven helped you?"

  Vince chuckled. "Not willingly. He shoved me downward into the basement, and I flung him out of my hole before the ceiling collapsed atop me." Vince paused and looked around. "Has he been found?"

  "Yeah, the Parasquad found what was left of him. He's not going to be bothering us anymore," I assured him.

  "And are we alone?" he wondered as he looked around.

  "Yeah, everybody else left and I-" I frowned and glanced down into his hole. "Where'd that little light go?" I asked him.

  "Light?" he repeated.

  "Yeah, the little blue light. I saw it fly in there. That's how I knew you were down there, or that something was down there," I explained.

  Vince shook his head. "I saw nothing before I awoke. However, we-" He moved forward, but he froze and clutched at his chest.

  "Vince? Vince, what's wrong?" I asked him.

  "I have solved your mystery," he told me. He held out his hand and the same blue light as before erupted from his hand. The light was similar to when he used the powers of the ring and his own powers, but it gave off a warm, comforting glow.

  My eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful flickering flame. "What's that?" I whispered.

  "Do you not recognize the soul from the vial?" he returned.

  "Soul in the-your soul?" I yelped.

  "The same," he replied.

  "But how? Why? When?" I asked him.

  "It seems my soul thought it time to return to me whether I wished for it or not. Perhaps-" He trailed off in thought.

  "Perhaps what?" I persisted.

  His eyes flickered up to mine. "Perhaps it was what truly awakened me, and I was in true death, or close to it."

  I smiled and grasped his warm hand between both of mine. "Then I say you owe your soul an apology for neglecting it for so long, and it's about time you took it out of that vial and let it live with you."

  Vince reached up with his free hand and cupped my cheek. "Only if you will live with me, also," he insisted.

  I leaned into his touch. "I guess I can live with that," I teased.

  "Perhaps in undeath?" he suggested.

  I pulled away from his hand and snorted. "Baby-steps, Vince. First we have to get you some new clothes, have you finally take a bath, and-" Vince leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. He pulled me against him and the feel of him pressed against me made me moan into our kiss. I broke away for some air. "Or maybe we can skip the new clothes."

  "And the bath?" he wondered.

  "Not the bath. You need one pretty bad."

  Vince chuckled and swept me into his arms. "As you wish."

  I snuggled against his chest and smiled into his red eyes. "You know I love you, right?"

  "Perhaps."

  "Good, so let's get out of here and start living our lives. That retirement isn't going to enjoy itself," I quipped.

  Vince cradled me against him and swept us down the hill on our way to a new and better life. I couldn't wait to see what fate had in store for us.

  For all books by Mac Flynn visit her author's page or visit Mac Flynn's website.

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