A cracking sound was followed by Ivan as he kicked through the lock on the front door of the apartment. “What is wrong?” The Russian snarled as he scanned the apartment for some anticipated threat. Breathing like he’d just run a mile, he held his vodka bottle in one hand and a large, wicked serrated blade in the other.
Aaron put it together instantly, “Katya came at me, but I never hurt her!” Hands in the air he backed far out of Ivan’s reach.
“I left you two alone to have fun, not fight!”
“Bloody hell! I knew you were up to something.” Katya swiped the empty shot glass off the coffee table and hurled it at Ivan.
He ducked as it smashed against the wall to his left. “It has been too long. You need to get laid.”
“Oh fuck off, Ivan. Who are you to tell me what I need! I need this bastard to keep his ruddy teeth away from my neck, that’s what I need!”
Ivan laughed in a full-throated chuckle and flipped his folding knife closed to shove it in his pants pocket. “That’s what you were so afraid of?”
Finally, Ivan confirmed what Aaron has suspected all along. “You two are bonded. You felt her fear.”
Ivan nodded.
Katya snorted. “I wasn’t afraid. I was ruddy pissed-off! I almost shot his teeth out.”
Ivan looked back and forth to Aaron and Katya. “Stop trying to bite her and maybe you’ll get somewhere.”
She laid into Ivan. “He’s not getting’ anywhere, asshole.” She turned on Aaron. “And you keep your teeth and your cock to yourself. I’ll have neither.”
* * * *
Chapter 16
Michelle straightened her skirt down over her hips as she walked down the hall, away from the office where she left Detective Sergeant Billings slumped his chair, half-conscious. She had fucked and bit him into a complete stupor. Though men like him could be entertaining at times, this one was nothing more than a means to an end.
Since Aaron had come into her life, he had ruined her in the bedroom. Sex with humans was a poor substitute to Aaron’s virile, punishing love. She did the dirty deed and now had the autopsy file zipped up tight inside her jacket.
In the taxi, headed towards Katya and Ivan’s apartment, she wanted nothing more than to go back to the hotel and shower – wash away the evidence of the nasty man. His acrid scent plastered all over her body made her skin crawl and turned her stomach sour.
But business came first. She instructed the cab driver to let her off at the abandoned storefront below Ivan and Katya’s apartment, then noticed the busted front door. Alarmed, she burst in to find Katya sitting in the living room glaring at Aaron, and Ivan cracking open the seal on a new bottle of vodka. The Russian had a smirk on his face. He was always laughing at something, or someone. Aaron had the same smirk, as though sharing an inside joke.
Katya’s aura swirled with a crazy blend of irritation, arousal and even a measure of fear. She feared Aaron? Or perhaps Aaron triggered all these conflicting emotions in Katya.
Michelle didn’t care about Katya, but the situation piqued her curiosity. “Did I miss anything?” She directed her question to Aaron. She hadn’t established much of a relationship with the wolves. They tended to look at her with disdain whenever Aaron’s back was turned.
“This cockup tried to roger me.” Katya thumbed towards Aaron.
Aaron shrugged. “She flipped out. All I wanted was a little bite.”
Michelle smirked and sat down beside him. “I will make up for it.” She kissed him on the mouth and pulled at his lip with her teeth, looking sideways at Katya and Ivan.
“Better watch it. Don’t know where that’s been.” Katya glared at Michelle in open hostility. Cunt.
Michelle glared at Katya and unzipped her jacket to toss the autopsy file on the scratched surface of the second-hand coffee table. “I got what I wanted.”
“Bet he did too, eh? Bit of fair trade?” Katya was in a real mood, pushing every button Michelle had.
Aaron snapped, “Enough. She did what you couldn’t do, and you should be thankful.”
“Oh I could do it, I just wouldn’t.”
Michelle held her tongue and fought back an urge to tear off the bitch’s head. She opened the folder to the first page and sent Katya a knowing look. “I doubt that. But it is done. Let’s have a look.”
She caught the truth in Katya’s eyes as the wolf scowled at the short hemline of Michelle’s designer dress, envy. A common problem she encountered with other women. Michelle had honed her sexuality into a sharp weapon. She had carved her way through the nightlife for over seventy years, alone, with nothing more than her wits and sex appeal.
Wonderful. A new reason to be hated. As if Katya needed another reason.
Michelle prized Aaron for his easy assurance with her. No jealousy, no envy, no twisted little issues. He was just Aaron, simple and loving, no insecurities. After seventy years, human frailty got old.
Katya leaned forward and snagged a few pages from the report to scan through it, and Ivan snatched several pages away from her. He grunted, “Let me see.”
Michelle and Aaron leafed through the remaining pages on the table.
The grainy black and white copies of the crime scene photos brought a shivering chill to Michelle. Dark memories of old times tried to resurface. The woman lay in the street in her nightgown and overcoat. She had black circles around her eyes, far too thin. She looked a lot like one of the bloodslaves Michelle’s master Julian had drained. One of many bloodslaves who had suffered this fate. Thank God Julian was long dead.
Michelle refused to deal in bloodslaves anymore. It was unnecessary and cruel. They never survived more than a few weeks, and their deaths weighed heavily on her conscience.
She hoped Aaron had learned his lesson well with the loss of his wife Anastasia.
Aaron stabbed at a page. “That’s odd. This says her coworkers at the bank noticed she’d been calling in sick a lot. The investigator requested her medical records.” Aaron had a puzzled sound to his voice.
Michelle knew exactly what that meant. “She could have been anemic, a bloodslave.”
Katya glared at Michelle hard.
Interesting. She knows of the bloodslaves.
Ivan tapped his sheet of paper. “There is a cell number she called twice. The notes say it’s a prepaid phone. A throwaway?” He looked to Katya. “Can you track it?”
“If it’s a smart phone with GPS, and only if you apologize for leaving me with him.” She tilted her head at Aaron, and both men smiled.
“Yes, Katya, I am sorry I left you with the big bad vampire and he tried to bite you. Now get your fucking laptop.”
“Fine!”
She got up, angry, and Ivan smacked her ass, “Hurry.”
Aaron couldn’t help but grin as she glared over her shoulder on her way out of the room. “So … what … she’s a hacker?”
“Something like that.”
Katya sat down and placed her laptop on the coffee table in front of her. “This is England. You left your privacy behind when you entered the country. Haven’t you heard about the voicemail hacking trials? It’s all over the BBC. That was years ago. Now, there are all kinds of tools available to track phones and phone calls. A few mouse clicks and I can pull GPS logs, messages, call records. Fuckall.”
* * * *
Mike Jamison shivered atop the building opposite the abandoned storefront as he sighted his binoculars on Aaron, Michelle and the two others, watching them through the half-open blinds in their window. He had a nasty gut feeling he knew exactly what they were looking at in that file folder. When the dark-haired woman sat down with her laptop and started typing in data from one of the pages, he sensed the situation was turning against him.
Hands shaking from the freezing wind, damn near numb, he fumbled with his cell phone to dial Bresnik.
“Hallo.”
“Is this Bresnik?”
“The one and only. Who wants to know?”
“This is Mi
ke. I followed them from Nicky’s tip. They’re right where you said they’d be, in Soho. When do you want to do this?”
“Yesterday, mate. We’ll be there in ten.”
Looked like he wasn’t getting out of the cold anytime soon.
* * * *
Aaron scooted up close to Katya to better see the screen of her laptop. “So, this is where the woman was found, right?”
Katya looked at him, at how close he was sitting. “Yeah. It’s also the last reading on the GPS.”
To her other side, Ivan sat back and scratched the blond-grey stubble of his buzzcut. “He dumped the body and the phone at the same time, same street. A dead end! Svoloch’!”
“That’s it? What about before?” Aaron’s finger tracked the GPS lines leading up to the end point.
Ivan and Katya both shook their heads. She pointed at the screen. “Jamison went to a nearby hotel, to the hospital, to the bar, back to the same hotel, and dumped her here. He never traveled more than a few blocks from the hotel bar and hospital. But it looks like he went to the hospital several times over the course of two weeks. Do you think he’s stupid enough to be in the same hotel, on the same street where he left her dead body?”
“If I was Jamison, I’d leave the country.” Ivan rubbed his hands over his face, grabbed the vodka bottle and poured another shot. “Why stay?”
“He is here. He was at The Rocking Horse recently. Reza sold him that gun barely a week ago. Jamison’s here, somewhere.” Aaron eyed Katya, the soft supple skin at the nape of her neck. Yet again, he wondered what she would taste like.
When she looked up at him, nose to nose, she stared into his eyes. He could feel his vampiric web of enticement sliding over her, drawing her in. She broke eye-contact with a shake of her head and stood up abruptly, wiping nervous hands on her jeans. He loved to see her fidget as he slid past her defenses.
She paced the room, stealing glances at Aaron, but maintaining her distance. “Okay, if we assume Jamison is still here, now what?”
Michelle watched Katya, a hint of annoyance in her eyes. “We wait and watch the news. When he kills again, we hunt him down.”
“You’re so bloody content to let that happen! We want to stop him from killing, don’t you get it?” Katya scowled at Michelle who glowered right back.
“Michelle has a point. There might be something in the news.” Aaron reached for the laptop, pulled up Google, and searched for the BBC news website.
Katya stared at him like he was insane, for agreeing with Michelle, or messing with her laptop, or maybe both. “Fucking wanker!”
With that she marched over to the dresser and shoved her pistol in the top drawer and headed for the door. “I need to breathe. I can’t deal with these leeches.” The wicked look she shot at Aaron left no room for misunderstanding. He had triggered something animalistic in her, and she was fighting it off.
She slammed the door on her way out and left Aaron sitting there feeling like an ass.
Ivan stood up shaking his head. “I will talk to her.” He tossed his pages of the autopsy on the table in front of Aaron. “See what you can learn.”
Ivan walked out the door after Katya.
Michelle stared at Aaron with an accusation waiting on her lips.
Aaron shrugged. “What? Don’t look at me like that.”
“Is not wise to play with wolves.”
He nodded, knowing she was right. Katya was a pile of contradictions. An obnoxious tomboy, anti-social bitch, and yet strangely, still fun to be around. He had this ridiculous urge to claim her, to have a wolf of his own. Seeing how she had almost shot his face off at the prospect of being bitten, it was probably a bad idea.
“Yeah, the wolf pack might not like me mucking around with one of theirs.” But if Urvashi could get away with having her manservant pet, Renault …
* * * *
Katya heard Ivan jogging to catch up to her before she sensed him. She had been walking at a fast clip down the pavement.
As soon as he reached her she turned on him. “What the hell did you think you were doing leaving me alone with Aaron?” She jabbed her thumb back towards the apartment.
He laughed in her face. “I thought you would have a few minutes of fun, nothing more.”
“Damn you, Ivan!” Katya nailed him in the arm with a solid punch, knocking him back a couple of steps.
“Admit it, you like him.” Ivan was still smirking, the bastard.
As usual, Ivan had struck at the heart of the matter. “I don’t want to like him. Can’t you see? I can’t like him. He’s a fucking vampire, Ivan! They are nothing but users and consumers, sucking the life out of everyone around them.”
Ivan’s amused gaze searched hers. “Yes, he sucks. But you still like him.”
Katya snorted. “It’s not right, Ivan. I won’t be in his fucking harem. I won’t be his bloody pet. It’s not going to happen!”
“I know what you fear. You don’t want to live like Kristina. I understand Katya. I’m sorry I left you with him. Forgive me.” He seemed about as sincere as an insurance salesman.
“I mean it. I don’t want him near me. I’m serious, Ivan. I can’t trust myself around the bastard.” Ivan’s candor had stolen her steam. But at least she felt in control now, her wolf suppressed. She had barely restrained the savage animal inside her from making a meal of the fool leech rubbing his damned prick all over her.
Ivan looked over his shoulder and then slid his arm through Katya’s, ushering her down the street. That was strange. Ivan wasn’t the type to prance around with a girl on his arm. When she glanced back once more, she knew something was wrong.
“How many.”
“Three. Latinos.”
What they hell did they have going with the bloody Latinos? Katya tried to recall anything recent with the pack that might have involved Spaniards. Nothing came to mind.
Ivan leaned in and whispered, “You have your gun?”
She shook her head. She never carried her gun unless she thought she absolutely needed it, like when they were hunting, or when they met with Aaron and Michelle. It was just too risky to carry a weapon without reason. A good way to end up in an English prison.
His grip on her arm tightened. “In the alley up here, follow my lead.”
Bloody hell. She hated when Ivan pulled his Russian Superman routine, trying to take on the world alone. Before she had a chance to balk, he steered her into the uneven brick surface of the alleyway.
His knife out, Ivan pushed Katya back against the wall and crouched low, waiting. The first of the three men came around the corner with his pistol drawn. Ivan slashed up across his wrist, and the pistol fell.
The man’s surprised yelp was cut short by Katya’s right cross punch, snapping his head sideways. He dropped. “Stay down.”
Ivan scooped the gun off the ground, and then snagged Katya’s sleeve to shove her back out of the way, but he was too late. Cold gunmetal touched the back of her neck. One man, behind her, held his pistol on her steadily, and another man had a pistol pointed at Ivan. “Damn it, Ivan. You knew this would happen.”
Ivan aimed straight for his attacker’s forehead, a kill shot.
The one behind her spoke directly in her ear, loud enough for Ivan to hear. “You don’t know me, but my name is Abel. I once had a cousin, Juan Carlos. Your friends killed him and burned his body, like savages. There was nothing left to bury.”
Ivan growled low. “I don’t know this man, Juan Carlos, and I did not kill him.”
Abel shrugged. “I can’t say. I know you are together, so I’m taking something precious from you.” He snagged Katya’s jacket and pulled her back. The steel of the gun pressed painfully into the base of her skull.
“Fuck.” Her blood boiled with the need to lash out. She could feel the change hovering beneath her skin, a ripple of power dying to get out. The power and strength of her wolf built up slowly in her hands. She could do it. All she needed was a split second to turn the tables on this s
on-of-a-bitch. Spin, grab, smash, and shoot the other one before he even knew what had happened. She envisioned killing both men in a couple of seconds.
Ivan watched her and Abel, his jaw twitching with tension.
“Make a move, and she dies right here in front of you.”
Ivan didn’t move, and he had stopped twitching.
Abel’s breath blew across her neck. “My cousin JC was like a brother to me. I knew him all my life. For JC, I’m taking her. I walk away, and you stay here. That’s the only way she lives.”
Ivan’s gun-hand swung to Abel’s forehead. “She dies, you die, I die, we all fucking die.”
Katya waited for her chance, for the moment Abel moved his gun, with his attention distracted by Ivan.
The man on the ground regained his feet, shaking off Katya’s punch and holding his bleeding wrist. He stared at her warily. Latin men have such pride when it comes to being hit by a woman. His damaged pride flashed in his eyes.
Abel pushed her towards the other armed Colombian. “Vete con ella, por el carro.”
Abel’s pistol never moved from the back of her neck while the other man also put his gun to her temple. A fucking tradeoff.
Ivan’s eyes flashed her a warning, and Katya knew he didn’t want her to try anything, yet. He called out to her as she was pulled down the sidewalk, at gunpoint, “Podozhdi, poka mi poiavimsia. Ne soprotivliaisia.” Go with them, without resistance.
“Koziol!” Her frustration blossomed into righteous fury. Her wolf growled low in her throat. She hated when Ivan played these sick games with her life.
Finally, she was able to look at the man with the gun to her head, Abel. What she saw was not encouraging. Abel was not a man who would hesitate to pull the trigger. He had those hardened, emotionless eyes – a man who had seen and done horrible things, and would do them again if he had to.
He looked her up and down. “Where is your phone?”
There was no point in playing games, so she did as Ivan requested – cooperation without resistance. “In my coat.”
The Nightlife: London (Urban Fantasy Romance) (The Nightlife Series) Page 9