A little over a hundred miles to the east was the city of Spokane, and it was there the vampire appeared to be heading. Colin would be right behind her before the sun set.
It was five o’clock by the time he’d stopped for something to eat and then revisited the other drop sites for one last look around. He kept hoping something would come to him but it didn’t. He still wasn’t sure why this place. The day didn’t have enough hours left to figure it out either.
Colin got back into his car and, after checking his navigator, had the address of the coroner’s office in the center of the town. He put the car in gear and started to drive away from the park. He’d need to get into the place before dark to make sure the locals didn’t get a nasty surprise.
Just a few blocks down Stratford Road, he made a U-turn to head back in the direction of the freeway. He almost missed it, then caught it out of the corner of his eye––the coroner’s van heading south toward the on-ramp of I-90. When he closed the gap, he could see the driver was the same woman who’d been down on the dock earlier. The same one who secured the body bag. The van pulled onto the freeway headed east. He followed, keeping enough distance between the van and his car to avoid arousing suspicion. Not easy, considering the driver of the van wasn’t exactly keeping to the speed limit. Getting pulled over wouldn’t be good. It also wouldn’t be good if he lost sight of the van. He pressed the accelerator.
“Slow down, will ya,” he muttered.
There was always a chance the body from the lake was back at the morgue in Moses Lake and he was now in the process of chasing his tail, although he really didn’t think so. His gut told him the two things he sought were right in front of him: one, in the back of the van, and the other, somewhere in the heart of the city ahead. He kept his speed up and the van in sight.
Colin yawned and rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand. Man, he was tired, and much more than just physically. His neck ached, his eyes burned, and his arms were leaden.
His spirit was weary as well. He was tired…mind, heart, and soul weary. The journey had been long and, thank God, was now about done. Truthfully, he’d be both relieved and lost. His entire life had been about the hunt, but what would he do once he completed it? He didn’t have the answer. He wasn’t sure how to live in a normal world where creatures that hunted in the night didn’t exist. His reality was shrouded in mist and mystery, blood and fangs, death and undeath. It was almost impossible to even try to remember what life was like before.
It didn’t matter. He’d worry about it later. First, he needed to finish what he’d started when barely in his teens. It was all he really knew how to do anyway. So, he kept his eyes on the van ahead and followed it toward the mountains, the pine trees, and the mighty Spokane River.
*
Folk legends were simply that: legends. They had little to do with reality. Or, so most people wanted to believe. Doctor Riah Preston was both a folk legend and a reality. She was a creature of the night and over five hundred years old.
Riah was a vampire.
She didn’t like it––not that she’d had a choice. She was turned without so much as a word on a gray, foggy winter night many centuries ago, just as she was offered under a veil of secrecy to satisfy a gambling debt when she was a newborn. Life had never given her choices, and it didn’t give her one now. That was the one constant in her life.
Ivy’s call today wasn’t completely unexpected. For some time now she’d feared that more would come to leave their discarded victims like trash throughout the county. She could almost hear the whispers on the night air, the sounds of discontent in the fabric of her reality.
And, there were the calls from those who were not part of the darkness but were touched by it nonetheless. People with knowledge they should never have needed to possess, like Ivy Hernandez. It hurt that innocents, like Ivy, got drawn into her shadowy world. It just couldn’t be helped. If there was another way, she’d be the first to grab it.
The darkness clouding this world for thousands of years was growing thin and weak, and not by accident. It was past time for change. Together, Riah and friends like Ivy worked to destroy the darkness until, one day, it would be Riah’s turn to find the light. They would banish the darkness forever.
It would be easy to take the coward’s way out. To simply lie down and allow a hunter to pierce her tired heart. Her life was lonely and, many times, like now, she wondered why she kept going. Nothing had been the same since the death of her beloved. Not her life, not her heart, not her very existence. The ache in her heart never seemed to go away and she grew tired of the pain. She longed for the peace a simple wooden stake could bring her.
People had a tendency to throw around terms like soul mate as easily as they tossed back cans of soda. They didn’t really know what it meant. Only those whose lives became eternal could truly understand. Only those of that dark good-night fully grasped the complete meaning. True love, the kind that consumes the very soul, comes once, and when it’s gone, that’s it.
For Riah, it had been gone a very long time.
She shook her head and walked to her desk. Enough with the soul searching and self-pity. It was a waste of time because it changed nothing. She was alone and would be for eternity. This was her destiny. She’d earned it and she’d live it. The best she could do was try to make amends.
When Ivy’s van pulled into the driveway, Riah hit the button to automatically open the doors to the loading dock. The sun was almost down and time was at a premium. They needed to move fast or their problems would multiply quickly.
Riah was an old vampire and, contrary to the legends, didn’t go up in a puff of smoke when daylight touched her skin. While it was true she preferred the shadows night afforded, she could move in the light if need be. It was uncomfortable but far from deadly. Riah didn’t race against the clock, but what awaited them in the back of Ivy’s van did.
Jumping out of the open driver’s side door, Ivy came around to the back of the van. She was a bit taller than Riah, maybe five feet five or so, with thick black hair that curled around a beautiful face. Ivy reminded Riah more of a favorite Spanish teacher than an investigator who dealt with death daily. She’d trained under Riah before taking the head job in her hometown of Moses Lake. Without a doubt, Ivy had been one of her best and brightest students. She was a natural and Riah always felt Ivy could go anywhere. Over the years they became much more than friends.
“Hola, chica,” Ivy said as she threw open the rear doors of the van. “We best get on this guy pronto. He started twitching just about the time I hit the Maple Street Bridge. We’re wasting moonlight, sister.”
“Everything’s ready and Adriana’s on her way.” Riah eyed the black bag. It was still and smooth. Contrary to Ivy’s proclamation, nothing twitched now.
“Bueno.” Ivy snapped the doors of the van shut and pushed the gurney to the double doors Riah held open. The wheels squeaked softly as it rolled down the brightly lit hallway.
The slight rustle of movement inside the black bag made Riah glance back at the gurney. “Damn,” she muttered as she hurried ahead of Ivy down toward the autopsy suite.
“I told you,” Ivy said. “He’s a feisty one. Never would have guessed it from the boring business suit he was wearing when we pulled him out of the lake.”
Inside the morgue, Riah moved fast. The window in which to do her work was small, and seconds were ticking away in what seemed like double-time.
Chapter Two
Ivy stood next to Riah and they both stared at the body on the stainless-steel autopsy table. She should concentrate solely on the victim, yet Riah’s hands caught her attention. They always did. They were beautiful, and it amazed her how they could be so lovely after centuries.
Though she knew the truth about her friend’s life, the reality of it still gave her pause. How many years had she and Riah known each other? Fourteen? Fifteen? In that time, Ivy had changed from an energetic college intern with a fresh face and long dark hair, to a
mature woman with tiny lines around her eyes and strands of white peppering her now-short hair. The first time she stood next to Riah beside an autopsy table, she was an eager student. Now they stood side-by-side as seasoned contemporaries. Ivy felt every one of those fifteen years and suspected she looked them as well.
Riah, on the other hand, appeared as vital and attractive as the first day Ivy met her. Her auburn hair was still long and shiny with just a hint of wave. Not a single line distracted from her intelligent hazel eyes. At just a touch over five feet, she was thin, athletic, and very pretty. She didn’t look more than twenty-one, though once she opened her mouth, no one would mistake her for young or inexperienced. Maturity and knowledge radiated from Riah despite her youthful appearance and diminutive size.
A door opened behind them, the sound little more than a swish. Ivy turned in time to see Adriana James step through. Like Riah, she was a small woman, though Adriana sported far more curves than Riah. Her black hair was cut short and close to her head, her black eyes full of life. Ivy liked Adriana quite a lot. She was smart, educated, and determined. If anyone could find what they searched for, it was Adriana James.
She was also in love with Riah, though Ivy didn’t think Riah even noticed. Not that it had happened overnight. The three of them had been working side-by-side for the better part of a decade, and Ivy had seen the change occur slowly, steadily. It wasn’t that Adriana was blatant about her feelings for Riah. No, she was far more subtle. A look here. A soft touch there. A sigh when she thought no one was looking.
It occurred to Ivy as she watched Adriana bring her case to the table, in all the time she’d known Riah, she’d never been involved with anyone, man or woman. At least as far as Ivy knew. Sad if it was true. She didn’t wish that kind of loneliness on anyone.
Then again, once Riah had shared her secret with Ivy it explained so much. Of course she looked young––she hadn’t aged since she was attacked five centuries earlier. Truthfully, it had taken awhile to fully grasp that her teacher and friend was a vampire.
Vampires were fiction, not reality, or so she believed until a decade ago. Once she finally got it, she was intrigued. She hit Riah with at least a million questions. Some she answered, some she didn’t. Ivy soon learned certain topics were off-limits, like Riah’s family, her love life, and how she was turned. Definitely how she was turned. It was the only time Ivy ever felt the full force of Riah’s fury. She didn’t want to again.
“What have we got?” Adriana’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“Same as the last one,” Ivy explained. “Found him floating in my lake.”
“Wicked,” Adriana murmured.
Ivy and Adriana both jumped when the body on the table twitched, legs quivering and fingers splaying. Riah didn’t even blink.
“Ladies,” Riah said like a teacher in front of a daydreaming classroom. “We’re running out of time. We need to get to work.”
She was right. Riah’s words propelled them into action. Ivy pulled four pair of handcuffs from her jacket pocket and attached one each to eyebolts at the corners of the table—not exactly the standard-issue autopsy table. Then she attached a cuff from each to the body’s arms and legs.
At the same time Ivy was securing lake-man to the table, Adriana opened her case. She pulled vials and a large syringe from inside and proceeded to snap one vial into the syringe. The first blood sample she drew was from the neck wound. When the vial was full of deep crimson blood, she removed it and popped in a second vial. The next sample came from his right arm, the third from his left.
Adriana was putting everything into her case when, with eyes wide open, the body on the table strained against the handcuffs. An inhuman roar tore from his throat, bouncing off the walls of the cold room. The sound sent Ivy’s blood pressure sky-high. It didn’t matter how many times she’d seen this in the last ten years; it still scared the bejesus out of her. It was nothing like depicted in movies or books. It was so much worse. She jumped away from the table just as Riah moved in with a wooden stake in one hand and a heavy mallet in the other. Ivy turned away as another piercing scream made her shudder.
Then, nothing but silence filled the room.
*
“Damn it.” Colin quickened his step along the side of the building. Why couldn’t these buildings have more than one set of doors? He’d had no trouble scaling the security fence, but gaining entrance to the building so far proved to be more problematic. The doors were locked up nice and secure with mag-card readers that he’d learned from long experience were hard to circumvent. He kept looking. There had to be a way in.
A few minutes earlier he watched the two women roll a body into the building through the rear doors. It didn’t take a huge leap to figure out the body was the same one pulled from the chilly waters of Moses Lake, though none of it made much sense. Why bring a body some hundred-plus miles from the county of the murder? And when there were facilities for autopsy in the same county? One sure way to get the real story––only first he needed to figure out how to get in damn place.
A muffled scream came from somewhere deep within the building. He stopped in his tracks. Ah, shit. All hell was about to break loose and he was the only one who could stop it. He moved even faster along the perimeter of the facility. Finally, he saw it. Colin slammed his hand against a round red button and waited. He tapped his foot and drummed his fingers on top of the red button, ready to smack it again if need be.
It seemed to take forever before a gray-uniformed, beefy-armed rent-a-cop opened the door. He filled the doorway like a block of concrete and effectively blocked Colin’s entrance—but Colin wasn’t intimidated. This bozo was an obvious wannabe who’d never be. He just didn’t know it yet.
“The ME’s office is closed. You’ll need to come back tomorrow.” He popped his gum and rested a hand on his baton. His face was neutral though his eyes sparked. Probably practiced the look in the mirror every night.
Colin narrowed his own eyes. “Not acceptable.”
He threw a carefully placed punch to the man’s neck and the guy went down like a big bag of wet sand. Colin stepped over him before pulling him inside. A second scream, louder now that he was inside, echoed through the hallway. Leaving the unconscious man on the floor, he ran in the direction of it.
The whole time he was sprinting through the empty hallway, he kept thinking something wasn’t right. Then it hit him: after the second scream…nothing. It didn’t make sense, there should be more noise. The thing would be disoriented and hungry and looking for a way out. These things could get more than a little vocal when first rising. So where was the noise? Please, Jesus, let me be in time.
Colin continued to run down the hallway, pushing open doors as he went. One on his right. Two on his left. Where was he? Goddamnit, he had to find him. Everyone here would die if he didn’t get to this creature now.
At the end of the long hallway, he smacked a wide door with his palm. It flew open, banging against a wall with a deafening crash, and he stopped, sliding on the smooth tile. The door hit his shoulder as it swung back. Bright light filled the room, spilling down like a halo around three women who stood by an occupied autopsy table. They looked up in unison, surprise mirrored on all three faces.
“May I help you?” This came from the smallest woman.
Young and pretty, she had a voice filled with authority. Had to be a tech of some sort. He didn’t need a flunky, he needed the boss.
“I’m looking for the ME.” He peered around the room.
“That would be me. I’m Dr. Preston and you are?” Her eyes seemed to bore through him.
“In a hurry.” Colin didn’t have time for the young woman’s games. He needed the ME and he needed him now. Her dark, menacing look didn’t cut it with him. Quite the opposite, in fact. This youngster was wasting his time.
“And I’m in the middle of an autopsy.” A single eyebrow rose though her voice did not.
He paused and studied her. “You can’t be the
ME.” So maybe she wasn’t a tech. Med student, maybe?
“I can and I am. Now, sir, as I said, I’m rather busy at the moment.” Ice began to drip from her words.
His gaze went to the table and his mouth opened. Nothing came out. It couldn’t be. Less than five minutes ago, he’d heard the scream. The man, the one pulled from Moses Lake, had turned. Colin would bet his life on it. Yet the same man was on the table and opened up like a treasure chest with a very precise Y-incision. He was, as the old saying went, dead as a doornail, and an ME who looked to be about twelve years old glared at Colin like the intruder he was.
None of this made the least bit of sense. Not the dead man. Not the young woman who declared she was, in fact, the ME for Spokane County. “I…I…ah…”
“Well, that certainly clears things up.”
She slowly laid an instrument on the table. It made a slight ping as metal met metal. Inside the quiet room, the sound was like a cannon shot. Her gaze came up to his face, her eyes dark and intelligent. The face might be that of an adolescent, the eyes were not.
“I think,” he began to back toward the door he’d come through only minutes before. “I think, I’ve possibly made a mistake.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
“My mistake.” He turned and ran.
Colin was in his car with the engine running in less than a minute. One thing this job had taught him was speed. He knew when to get out of Dodge. He didn’t look back as he sped away from the offices of the Spokane County Medical Examiner.
At the hotel, he booked a room with a balcony overlooking Riverfront Park. The downtown jewel was once the site of dirty rail yards, renovated in 1974 for the Spokane World’s Fair. Or so the helpful desk clerk informed him. It was impressive, even to his tired mind. He couldn’t envision what it might have looked like years ago riddled with train tracks, rail riders, and boxcars. These days, in addition to the lush lawns, paved walking paths, and an incredible historic carrousel, the river ran right through the middle of the park, the waters deep and clear. It was all so beautiful. If only evil didn’t lurk beneath everything majestic and beautiful.
Crimson Vengeance Page 2