Chapter Nine
The next morning Tobias had just finished his breakfast when his cell phone rang. While he rinsed blood from his glass he looked down at the display, then connected the call, bringing the phone up to his ear. “Yeah, Merle. What’s up?”
The council dispatcher didn’t waste any time. “There’s another dead vamp on Camelback just west of Scottsdale Road.” The werebear’s low sigh was very close to a growl. “Word I got is it looks like another attack against vamps. Get your rosy butt out there.”
Tobias turned off the water and placed the glass in the sink. He walked through the living room and headed down the hallway toward the master bath. “Now, Merle, just what makes you think my ass is rosy?”
Another raspy growl came across the line. “That’s for me to know. Now quit dickin’ around. You’re not the only liaison I gotta dispatch, ya know. I got a little old lady with a pack of coyotes pissin’ in her backyard and some damned fairy’s been spraying graffiti all over Old Town.” He clicked along on his keyboard then said, “You get out there pronto and suss the scene. Or Deoul’s gonna be screamin’, and I ain’t takin’ the heat by myself.”
“He gives you a hard time,” Tobias told the dispatcher, “you tell him to take it up with me.”
“Yeah, right. I’ll just tell the council president that you said if he don’t like it he can kiss my furry little butt. Or, better yet, your rosy-cheeked ass.” With that he disconnected the call.
Tobias tucked the phone into its holder at his waist. He brushed his teeth and used mouthwash to eliminate the smell of blood on his breath. Going back into the living room, he grabbed his coat and shrugged into it as he went out the door. He pressed the lock mechanism on his key remote and the black Jaguar chirped. Getting in, he started up the engine and backed the car out of the driveway. Whoever was doing these killings, they weren’t wasting any time. Three dead vamps in three days.
What the hell was going on?
He arrived at the crime scene in less than ten minutes. He parked the car and approached the vacant lot that had yellow crime scene tape cordoning it off. Already a crowd of onlookers had gathered. He looked them over as he got closer. They were mostly human, one or two vamps and maybe one of the fey. He caught the eye of one of the criminalists and jerked his head toward the crowd. The woman got his hint and turned to snap pictures of the onlookers.
Tobias stopped and stared at the lot. One thing was glaringly obvious—this was the actual kill scene. Blood covered the area in large pools and long arcs of spatter. As evidenced by the numbered markers littering the scene, pieces of the victim were spread out all over the large lot.
So much blood had been spilled here the air had a metallic tinge to it that he could taste. His eyes burned, muscles grew taut with a hunger that never took much to arouse. He put blue booties over his shoes and as he walked onto the scene he pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Techs were busy finding and marking evidence and photographing the scene. Tobias minded his step, making sure to travel a path already used by the criminalists as he walked toward the body, where the ME recorded his findings into a small recorder.
Tobias stopped a few feet away and waited. There was little left of the body except a gaping torso with one leg to the knee still attached, and a partial head with no face. Christ. Who, or what, had done this?
The ME looked up and turned off the recorder. “Tobias.”
“George. What do you have for me?”
He stood. “Male. Mid to late thirties when he became preternatural. But with all the damage…” He motioned toward the head. In addition to the face being removed, the lower jaw was gone as well, and from what Tobias could tell most of the teeth from the upper jaw had been yanked out. “Face is obliterated, no fingers for fingerprints. We only got a couple of teeth, one of which is a fang, so at least we know he was a vampire.” He stood. “Other than that there’s no way in hell to identify this poor guy.”
“Probably what they were going for.”
“No doubt. Hell, we found part of his spine in the bike lane.” George scratched his chin. “This kind of thing will only further inflame humans against us.”
Tobias didn’t disagree. He stared at the body a moment longer, then murmured, “Thanks.”
“You bet.”
Tobias moved to the edge of the site and carefully walked the perimeter. In theory there should be some sort of evidence at the crime scene, this one or the others, to point them toward a suspect or group of suspects. He knew the crime scene techs were working as hard and fast as they could. There was almost always some DNA, some fiber, some plant spore, a tire tread, something to link the murder to the bad guy. The last location hadn’t had much since it was a dump site, but this… This was the kill site. He didn’t want to obliterate anything of importance so he watched where he put his feet.
While most serial killers were a few points shy of a Mensa invitation, pure dumb luck ended up playing a large part in catching them even with brilliant police work factored in. Tobias didn’t care how it happened, he just wanted to find the bastards who were doing this.
At one edge, near an alley between two buildings, he paused. Among all the scents here, those of human, werewolf, and vampire, there was something else. Smoky and dark. Demon. Yet there was an underlying scent of something more. But hell if he could figure out what it was.
Hunkering down, he studied a set of footprints, side by side and facing the crime scene, as if someone had stood here and watched the carnage. This could be the break they needed.
Tobias gave a sharp whistle to get the techs’ attention. “I need somebody over here.”
A vampire Tobias knew from his days with Maldonado walked over. “Whaddya got?” he asked as he squatted next to Tobias.
“You’re a field geek now, Mike?”
The tech grunted. “Can’t run around raping and pillaging forever. Gotta make a living somehow.”
Tobias grinned at the vampire’s dry wit. “Get photos and an impression of this, will you?” Tobias pointed to the footprints.
“Sure thing.” Mike opened his field kit and began to rummage through it.
“Thanks.” Tobias rose to his feet and moved toward the alley. More parts of the victim rested there, and Tobias called back to Mike, “When you’re done with that, print the wall here.” Just in case someone had braced his hand on the brick while he watched the victim be torn apart. “Also, there are more body parts back here.”
“Got it.”
Tobias stared down at the pavement. What had happened here was carnage purely for the sake of carnage. He’d seen prets under the influence of blood frenzy, and their victims ended up scattered like this. The question was, was this third murder a case of some poor sap being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had he been targeted? Tobias hoped the latter was true, because they had a better chance of finding the people who did this if they could build a profile on the victim. Understand the victim, find out who his enemies were, and you had a much better chance of catching the ones who killed him. If the victims were random, they’d have a much harder time apprehending the suspects.
He caught a fresh scent among the smells of death and knew Nix had arrived on scene. He steeled himself to see her again. Being around all this blood was eroding at his control, and being around her was not going to help. At all.
He hadn’t lied to her last night when he’d told her he still cared. But he was under no illusions. Love didn’t make the world go round. It just complicated things.
Nix donned protective gear and ducked under the yellow tape protecting yet another crime scene. Shit. Was that a dismembered hand one of the techs was bagging?
She pressed her lips together. Whoever the victim was, he or she hadn’t gone easily. She headed toward the black tarpaulin covering the newest corpse. This scene was so much more gruesome than the others. Various pieces of the victim’s body lay tagged as evidence all around the crime scene.
She caught the familiar flow
of vamp pheromones and stiffened. She was not going to succumb to Tobias and his damned allure. They were professionals, co-workers. Nothing more.
As she reached the body, Tobias came from around the corner of the nearby building, his face grim. Crimson circled his irises, statement to his agitation. Determined to keep her focus on the scene and not on his delectable face and body, she caught his gaze and lifted her chin in greeting, then squatted next to the largest piece of the victim. She adjusted the shoulder strap of her workbag and pulled back the tarp, exhaling at the carnage before her.
The body was shredded. Barely recognizable as bipedal except for the stub of one partial leg. “What the hell?”
“Whoever’s doing this, they’re escalating.” Tobias hunkered down beside her. This close, the frustration at the lack of leads and the anger at such a senseless crime wafted clearly to her on a wave of lust that always seemed to accompany him.
As did the subtle scent of soap and virile male.
Nix cleared her throat. “For someone to have done all this, the murder had to be personal.”
“Maybe.” He gestured toward the building from where he’d just come. “We’ve got his spleen and what looks like part of his pancreas around the corner. One hand was over there”—he pointed toward the east side of the lot where she’d seen the tech putting the hand into an evidence bag—“and the ME says part of the victim’s spine was in the street.” He grimaced. “I found a pair of footprints over near the alley and had Mike take a cast.”
“Great.” Nix stared at the body and tried to disassociate herself from all the blood and gore around her. Peering closer at the face, she noticed bone shining through the flayed skin, and one fang protruding from what was left of the open mouth.
Getting to her feet, she drew in a deep breath and held it. She filtered out the scent of humans, pushed past the smell of motor oil on the pavement, and focused her olfactory sense to the smallest degree. There it was again, that smoky scent, the same one from the last crime scene. Only now it was much stronger.
“You smell it too, don’t you? Like burned paper.” Tobias draped the tarp over the victim, compassion evident in the careful way he did it. He rose and faced her. His expression was hard, his gaze steely. His pupils had completely expanded, obliterating the gray of his irises, and crimson had taken over the whites of his eyes. “Demons were here. It’s likely they did this.”
As much as Nix wanted to argue, she had nothing to offer up except her gut feeling. Demons didn’t sneak around. “Yes, I can smell demon scent here, too.” She looked at him. “Don’t you think there’s something different about it, though? Something…more than demon?”
He shoved one hand into the front pocket of his jeans. “You’re being a little stubborn about this, aren’t you?”
She frowned. “You can’t tell me you don’t smell that extra scent underlying the smell of demon. It’s like a mixture of different prets—a little vampire with a dash of werewolf and a twist of…” She paused and drew in another breath, trying to work out the odor that eluded her. She let out a sigh of frustration and propped her hands on her hips. “I dunno. Maybe pixie? Or brownie. They smell a lot alike. I just don’t think demons did this.” Before he could respond she waved one hand. “I know, I have no evidence to support that supposition. Yet.”
“Maybe you should check with your mother.” His lips quirked. “Sheena of the Seventh Circle knows everything that goes on with demonkind, and she wouldn’t lie to her daughter.”
“Shut up, Tobias,” she muttered, but the order was delivered without much heat. She knew he was only teasing, plus she knew he was right. If demons were behind this, her mom would know. Nix was less than enthused about going to see her, though. “You know she hates it when you call her that.”
His laugh was gravelly, rough, as if he hadn’t laughed much in the last five years. The sound stole her breath away. To cover her reaction, she turned to look at the waiting body snatchers. “There’s not much to ID the vic. Did the ME at least give a gender?”
“He thinks it’s male. But he won’t know for sure—”
“Until he gets the body on the table.” Nix finished the often-repeated phrase. She started a slow circuit of the crime scene, very aware of Tobias walking next to her. Pools of blood indicated the various places pieces of the body had been found.
She ground her teeth together. They’d already started collecting evidence, which meant that bastard werebear dispatcher had once again delayed the call to her. Damn it. She couldn’t worry about that now, it would only distract her from the case. When she got a chance, she was going to show Merle just what the consequences were of messing with her. For now, though, she pushed aside her irritation.
One of the techs photographed some small piece of evidence, then he picked it up with a pair of tweezers and deposited it into a paper bag. As he taped the bag closed, she asked Tobias, “Was this just rage? Or is there some significance to the scattering of body parts? And why kill him here? Why not dump the body like they did with Amarinda?”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I don’t know.” He glanced around the scene. “This could have some significance to the people who did this, but none that I can see at the moment.”
“Hey!” The tech motioned them over. “You two need to see this.”
Nix and Tobias made their way over to him. He held a scrap of paper about the size of a credit card between the ends of his tweezers. He held it out so they could see it.
“Dimensions…radio…” Tobias read. He shook his head. “The writing’s too distorted. Those are the only two words I can make out.” He glanced at Nix. “What about you? Can you see anything more?”
The paper was yellowed, ragged around the edges. The writing appeared to be in pencil, written lightly, faded with age. She pointed toward a word taking care not to touch the paper. “This looks like it could be trans…something. T-r-a-n-s… That’s an m I think…” She pondered a second. “Maybe transmit? Because of the word radio.”
Tobias raised his eyebrows. “You could be right.” He looked at the tech. “Thanks. Let us know if you find more of this.”
The tech nodded and got back to work.
They moved toward the edge of the scene. Nix paused and watched the body snatchers secure the body in its crimson bag onto a stretcher. “I wonder who he is,” she mused aloud.
“No idea. Yet.” Tobias’s voice turned hard. Deadly. Even if Amarinda hadn’t been one of the victims, she knew he’d still be taking this personally. Someone was targeting vampires, and Nix and Tobias were no closer to finding out why. The council would not be pleased, and no doubt they’d find a way to lay the blame at her feet.
Tobias blew out a sigh. Lifting a hand, he scrubbed the back of his neck. In a low voice he said, “Look, I know I said I wouldn’t tell the council about the demon scent, but you know we can’t rule out demons.” He shot her a glance. “I wasn’t completely joking when I suggested you talk to your mom.”
“I know.” She pursed her lips. She really had no desire to talk to her mother. At best their conversations were awkward and stilted, at worst they bordered on hostile. It was something she’d be glad to put off as long as she could.
His mouth firmed. “This is the third killing in three days. All the victims are vampires, which on the surface at least leads to the conclusion that someone is targeting us. There appears to be no connection between the first two victims, and until we know who this third one is, we can’t tell if there’s anything different or new that might connect him to the other two. Go see Sheena.” He ignored her glare. “Find out what she knows.”
“And you’ll go to the council and tell them that we both smell burned paper at the scenes.”
“Would that be a lie?” Tobias peeled off his latex gloves and walked to the perimeter of the site. When she followed, he reached out and lifted the yellow tape for her to pass under, then he did the same. They removed the rest of their protective gear and dropped them in the
bin. He tipped his chin at the uniformed officer standing guard and walked with Nix to her car half a block down the street.
“It wouldn’t be a lie, no. But there wasn’t any demon at the first crime scene, just the second two.” She glanced at him and brushed her hands together to remove the powder the gloves always left behind. “That has to mean something.” Staring up at him Nix saw the anguish he couldn’t hide in the way his pupils were still dilated, leaving just a thin line of gray circling them. She was glad to see the crimson had faded, but she knew this crime scene dredged up thoughts of Amarinda’s murder. Without thinking she put her hand on his forearm.
Muscles bunched beneath her fingers. He looked down at her. His tongue swept out, leaving his lips moist and inviting. Even the hint of fangs peeping over his bottom lip was sexy. Memories of their time together, of the joining of their bodies twisting on soft, silky sheets swirled in his darkened eyes. Memories she shared. He bent toward her.
“Don’t,” she whispered, putting her other hand against his chest. She wished she’d sounded more sincere. Wished the hand against his chest was firm and determined instead of soft and giving.
“I have to.” He brushed his lips over hers once, twice.
She should tell him no and mean it this time. This was where she should push him away and tell him to go screw himself. He’d walked away from her, he had no right to touch her anymore. She should tell him that, but she couldn’t. She was as desperate for a fix as he seemed to be.
His mouth settled over hers, open, seeking, and with a hoarse moan she leaned into him, lips parting to allow him entrance. He stroked his tongue along hers, rolled his hips forward so she could feel his growing erection against her belly.
She’d missed him. Missed his smell, his smoldering intensity when he looked at her with desire darkening his eyes. Missed feeling like she’d finally found her home.
He kissed a path to her ear, gave her lobe a light nip, not hurtful but enough to send a shock of arousal jolting through her. He cupped her breast, thumb rubbing across the tip. Fire raced from her nipple to her core. She let her workbag fall from her shoulder and lifted her arms, twining them around his neck, tangling her fingers in his dark, silky hair.
Kiss of the Vampire Page 14