“I questioned someone last night, a guard from the palace. The prince had been seen with a red-haired woman, an older woman. They were quite intimate,” I explained, using compulsion to wave off his fears of the unknown. This was against my personal rules, but he had a right to know, and I needed to make him believe that everything was perfectly normal. His overactive imagination could cause problems with The Watchers. Sometimes they took on the identity of humans, so they could access crime scenes and take care of the problem. Right now, the dead demon was a problem.
Zach was forced to leave me alone five minutes later, when he was called by another female cop.
“Stay here and don’t touch anything. I’ll be right back,” he told me.
I had to get my shit together. I had never lost control like that before. The hair was filled with charms used for rituals, to summon other creatures from the underworld. As soon as I brushed my hands over it, I was shot with a strong source of demonic current. The prince was too valuable, and whoever had him wouldn’t simply kill him just yet. The dead demon was somehow connected to my case, and I still had no idea how or why.
After a few minutes, Zach came back. He was pissed off and reluctant to share anything at all. I knew that I shouldn’t have said anything last night, but tequila made my lips flap. I just didn’t know when to shut up.
“I just had a phone call from one of my sources. Apparently, the dead woman was a well-paid high-class escort. Her friend showed up at the station ten minutes ago. We need to go and question her,” Zachary said.
“I’m not a cop,” I muttered. Maybe I should have let him beat me in poker. Then we wouldn’t have to be stuck working together. I wasn’t his dead partner; maybe he thought that I could somehow replace her.
“We made a bet last night. You yourself agreed to be part of this investigation, Flower, and I’m not done with you yet. There are some things that we need to discuss,” he said. “I don’t think you want to miss something like this.”
He was right; I had no other leads, and maybe the woman at the station had seen the prince with the victim. A few mongrels and a demon blended in the crowd of people behind the yellow tape. I felt them watching me, trying to break through my protective wards. I was tired of being on the other side, fed up that others were ready to tear my mind apart to satisfy their burning curiosity.
Zachary was tormented, his emotions unsettling. There was unexplained tension between us. I was nervous getting to the car, thinking that maybe I was taking this too far. Rodriguez asked me to work with this guy, and I was never planning to be friends with him.
“Hey, Detective Quinton, a quick word please?” someone shouted behind us.
“Fuck, what now?” Zach muttered under his breath, turning around. A very attractive, tall blonde human ran towards us. She wore a long, brown trench coat and high heels. Her thoughts were burning with curiosity, looking for answers. I didn’t have to jump into her soul to figure that out.
“What do you want, Lori? You know I’m seeing someone else. Find yourself a decent guy without any psychopathic tendencies,” Zachary said hoarsely, but there was a playful tone in his voice. The woman tossed her long shiny hair behind her and glanced at me, well, mainly at my old jeans and leather jacket.
“Oh, Zach, you’re such a joker. We always had a good time. Don’t forget that.” She laughed. “Any comment about that murder in the canal? There are rumours going around that young Prince George hasn’t been seen in public for quite some time.”
Zach didn’t move, didn’t even appear to be caught off guard, but I nearly unleashed my power, as panic soared right through me. This was bad, a human reporter knew about the prince and the fact that we just linked the dead woman to his disappearance? How? The royals couldn’t have leaked this. Everything about this case was classified and I had always been so careful.
“Young Prince George? As far as I know, he’s still partying in Cannes,” Zach said, and the vein on his neck bulged. He was getting impatient, and he wanted to get the hell out of here. Yep, I couldn’t block anything that he was feeling at this point. “And the dead woman is just a hooker. Nothing exciting about that.”
Lori wasn’t buying his lie. She had a very reliable source and wasn’t planning to let this go.
“Cut the crap, Zach; the body down the canal is linked to the missing royal. I’m running this story tomorrow unless you give me what I want. The woman is dead, and she was the last one seen with the prince,” Lori insisted, moving so close to Zach that their foreheads were nearly touching.
“Don’t push me, Lori. I don’t know who is feeding you this nonsense. You don’t want to have an enemy in me.”
“All right, lady,” I said, pushing Zach to the side and grabbing blondie’s hand. “Listen to me carefully. There is no story here. The dead body down by the canal is just some unknown hooker. She was raped and abandoned there. Walk away, go back to your boss and report to him everything that I just told you.” I was going to pay for compelling my power later on, but we couldn’t afford any leaks just yet.
As the energy surged down my body, connecting with Lori’s, Zach didn’t take his eyes off me. My demonic soul produced enough charms to make Lori believe what I said. I hated doing this to anyone, stripping them of their memories, interfering. Sometimes I hated that I had been born this way, detested that my mother hooked up with a demon and created someone like me. A person who never belonged anywhere, who had to fight to survive in the cruel world where, no matter what, she would never find acceptance.
“Of course, the hooker was murdered; that’s the story we are going to run tomorrow,” she mumbled with a detached, blank expression on her face. I let go of her, ceasing the energy transference, and felt slightly on edge. I just had to pray that no one had witnessed this.
“You owe me a lot of answers, Flower, and I’m going to get them even if I have to drag your sexy arse to the station,” Zach said, watching as the beautiful blonde walked back through the crowd.
Chapter 15
“Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
The woman ambled away, and I ignored Zach’s comment, walking ahead toward his car. The tension inside me escalated, as I tried to ease my anxiety. Zach was silent and that could only mean one thing: he was thinking about that night when he found his dead partner. I exposed myself and now he was suspicious. Fuck, if it wasn’t one thing it was another. It’s true what they say: the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Demons had first escaped the underworld centuries ago, breaking the rules set in Hell, wanting to taste the life on the outside, amongst humans. When things started getting out of control, Lucifer established a faction system to keep order and a better control of the population. Things had started going wrong downstairs a long time ago, before the Watchers tasted life on earth. No one kept a tab on things upstairs. It was in a demon’s nature to break rules, to taste the freedom.
Soon mongrels were being born that would never be accepted in the underworld. Half humans gifted with demonic abilities. Later on, the decision was made to send them all to orphanages, where they could mix with other humans and possibly end up having a good life here on earth. Lucifer wasn’t too happy with the fact that demons enjoyed copulating with humans, so new rules were put in place and any sexual contact with a human was strictly controlled downstairs from then on. That rule didn’t quite apply for mongrels.
My own mother died because she wanted to protect me. Most of the time, if a human woman gave birth to a half demon, her instinct told her to abandon the newborn. That was the new price that every demon had to pay. I didn’t remember much from the time I spent with her. She cared for me for some time, then after her death, I was sent to live with nuns in a monastery. It took me years to figure out that I wasn’t like any of the other kids in the orphanage, that I had gifts and could use them to my advantage. Being able to use my gifts early in life stood me in good stead as I had control m
uch earlier than other demons. I made my mistakes and learnt early that there was always a price for magic.
“I came to the station earlier to thank you,” I blurted out, wanting to break the uncomfortable silence that settled between us. He shifted in his seat, as he took a sharp turn, driving onto the main road.
“You don’t need to thank me. I’m the enemy,” he responded. “I looked into your background. I couldn’t find much; no records of your birth parents. Why is that?”
I exhaled sharply, knowing that my records were tightly sealed. I should have predicted that he was planning to run a background check on me. He wanted to make sure that I was clean. His last partner ended up dead, so his checks were more than fair.
“I don’t know why that is so surprising. I grew up with nuns, without parents, and I don’t like talking about it. I’m just a girl who keeps on living her own life,” I said, sighing loudly.
“You might have grown up in an orphanage, but I know you’re hiding secrets, Flower,” he added, harshly. “Roland. Who is he, and why does his name keep popping up in your records?”
The colour drained from my face, as I tried to appear unfazed. Zachary wasn’t supposed to hear about Roland. This part of my past was insignificant, and I wasn’t prepared to explain anything.
“I think you’re trying to make something out of nothing, Zachary,” I told him. Zach was digging for information, and I knew that this wasn’t about his own curiosity. Someone must have told him stuff about me, a foe not a friend. The only person who I was ever close to was Ricky. Friends came with responsibilities and I didn’t need that kind of hassle.
“I don’t think so, Flower. You’re hiding your true self away from me, and I’m the kind of guy who wants all or nothing, and now it’s all,” he added with a flirtatious wink. At that moment his phone rang, and he had to stop the car on the side road. I was so grateful that this conversation was over for now. The bottom line was that I was fiercely protective of my privacy. Ten minutes later he was back, and he didn’t press me with further questions.
We arrived at the police station in Hackney forty minutes later. Zach headed straight to the guy at the desk, probably because he was outside his designated district.
“Where is the hooker who was brought in earlier on?” he asked, without any introductions. The guy had a superiority complex and no manners.
“Hold on a minute. I’ll check with the dispatcher,” the officer at the desk said. He disappeared for a good ten minutes. After that, we were taken through a wide door inside the building. The policeman who led us was short and fat. He was worried about the payment for his new car, and the fact that he hadn’t gotten laid in years. I was wearing quite a revealing top today, and he kept staring down at my boobs. It was a boy school error, but I had no idea that I would be hanging around horny cops all night long. We stopped in front of what looked like an office door.
“Her name is Natasha. She reported her friend missing five minutes after we had a phone call about the body in the canals,” the cop said.
“Okay, thanks. We will take it from here,” Zach said. The cop unlocked the door and let us inside the interrogation room, but it was empty.
“I don’t understand. She was here. Hold on. Maybe someone moved her to another room,” the guy said, looking around, like he was expecting that the girl was hidden under the table. Zach exhaled sharply, and I instantly felt sick. A demon was here not long ago. I smelled arsenic and blood. The girl was taken against her will; we had gotten here too late.
He vanished for about five minutes, but when he came back, his whole face was red, his hair was tangled.
“She’s gone, but that’s not possible. I locked the door and I wasn’t out for any more than five minutes,” he said.
Zachary was staring at me. He probably noticed that I’d gone slightly pale all of a sudden. Sweat ran down my temple, and the sudden rush of energy was pushing my lunch up my throat. I didn’t like how I was feeling, and I was certain that the hooker had disappeared because the police had found the body of her friend down by the canals. The Watchers were on their way. I felt their presence outside.
“Show me her statement,” Zach demanded. “And her fingerprints. You did take her fingerprints, right?”
The guy started stuttering, saying that he was going to do it, but then he’d forgotten about it. Zach was fuming, and he wanted to see all the CCTV footage from around the station. I couldn’t wait, hanging around humans when Watchers were sweeping the area. My past was complicated, and I had a lot that I needed to keep away from the whole demonic community. A demon had taken the girl, and the humans could look through that footage as long as they wanted, but they weren’t going to find anything there. She was most likely dead already.
I was hoping to head straight to Ricky’s to discuss what I found out so far. We also needed to go through previous evidence again. Zachary was busy, so I sneaked away half an hour later through the back entrance. I didn’t get very far, well, not unnoticed.
“Where are you going, Flower? We are not done here yet. Our witness is missing,” he shouted after me.
“I’m going home, Detective. It’s late and I need a strong drink,” I said.
“So you were just planning to leave without saying a proper goodbye?” Zach asked, catching up with me.
“I didn’t think you would miss me that much. I’m tired and tomorrow is a new day,” I complained, turning around to face him. Zachary was a man with his own set of priorities and it would be easier if I stayed away from him. Our worlds were poles apart.
“Oh, yes, I would… very much so. Come on, I have a good bottle of tequila at home. Besides, you need a lift. You ain’t walking home alone in this shitty weather,” he said, winking at me.
I appreciated the fact that he was looking after me, but right now I didn’t need the company.
“The offer is tempting, but I can take care of myself,” I told him, then turned around and started walking toward the tube station. I took a couple of steps when I was lifted off the ground. Zach threw me over his shoulder and started carrying me through the car park.
“What the fuck? Put me down, caveman, or I swear to God, I’ll kick your arse,” I shouted. He held me tightly, and when I attempted to wiggle away, he slapped my arse hard.
“Shut up, Flower, you wanna drink, so let’s have a drink together,” he said hoarsely. For a moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be a tough and independent kick-arse demon. Instead I felt kind of cared for, special, normal for once. It was stupid. Zach was acting like a total alpha male, but surprisingly I liked the fact that he wanted to take care of me. No one had ever done that for me, not even Arthur. We were together, but our relationship was initially based on sex. Later on, it turned into love.
Several moments later, we were back in his car and I was sitting in the passenger seat, feeling torn between what was right and wrong. The trouble was that I knew Zach was looking for answers, and I was trying to hide them away. We could never be truly honest with each other.
He smiled at me and switched on the engine. When it started raining, I was glad that I didn’t have to walk home. He drove for what felt like hours, before he parked the car in a private housing estate on the north side of the city.
“This is where you live?” I asked, stretching my arms above my head.
“Yes, Flower, it’s not what you were probably expecting, but it’s home,” he smirked. “Plenty of women before you left satisfied.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not like other women,” I told him and then got out of the car. I followed him to his front door, asking myself if this was a good idea after all. Arthur had always managed to trick me into going away with him. At first, I’d pretend that I didn’t see it, that he was simply polite and genuinely liked spending time with me. There was that instant connection between us, a spark that quickly turned into something more. After he made a move, I couldn’t stay away from him. Now I was in control of the situation with Zach, and
I needed to remember that he wasn’t my prince, just some random human.
He unlocked the door to his semidetached house and gestured for me to come inside. When the lights came on, I was a little taken aback by the natural decor and ordinary furniture. Maybe I was expecting something completely different from a man of his character.
“Make yourself at home, Flower,” he said, taking off his jacket. I walked into the small living room. I wasn’t used to normality. My dates with Arthur were crazy, and intense.
“Zach, I think I should go. This isn’t a very good idea,” I said, glancing around, hoping to find some picture of his family, something that could indicate I wasn’t suited for his lifestyle, for him. He brought out the bottle of tequila and a shot glass.
“Why? Are you scared of me?” he asked, pouring some yellow liquid down.
“No, I’m not, but I know for a fact that I shouldn’t be here,” I mumbled, losing my cool. He pulled the bottle away from me when I tried to grab it.
“Not so fast. First, I want some answers,” he said, suddenly sounding completely serious. “I have seen enough weird shit in my life, so tell me—what kind of crap are you into?”
Suddenly he was broadcasting a lot of anger and frustration. I finally realised that he enticed me here for an interrogation, not because he wanted to seduce me. I should have known. After all, I had lost my grip on my usual control down at the canals. Why wouldn’t I have totally misread this situation?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said with a nervous chuckle, trying to relax.
“Your eyes glowed when you were leaning over that dead hooker, and you did something to Lori. She doesn’t listen to anyone and doesn’t just let go of a story, so tell me before I stop being a gentleman,” he snapped, moving closer.
Crap, so he had noticed my glowing eyes amongst other things. I didn’t think I had gone too far earlier on, knowing that Zach was sensitive to my world. I had to turn this around somehow, but I didn’t want to use my abilities to make him believe that nothing happened, and that I was a normal human.
Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel Page 15