by Honor James
Chapter Two
She had to get her shit together, Lacey thought to herself. She had to get herself together before she revealed something that she couldn’t, shouldn’t reveal. “How long has it been since the ME has had to try to ID a body by dental records?” she asked quietly, simply trying to keep her shit together as she did so. “Because I can’t recall the last time that we went to a case where the hands had been taken as well as the chips in the back of the ears. What the hell?” She shook her head and sighed. “What the hell is going on?”
Anger, she hid behind her anger. It was the only thing that she knew, the only thing she could think of. Taking a deep breath Lacey closed her eyes when Zhubin got behind the wheel of the vehicle and thought about the first time she had met them.
* * * *
Five years earlier
Fresh from the FBI, Lacey had thought that the world was truly a wonder, even with knowing that there were other beings in the world she was happy to have the life that she had. She had a great family that stood behind her, even when she made the choice to go into the FBI, a family that had given her hope when she had felt as if she had bitten off more than she could chew. No, she truly believed that life was good, that it was perfect. She had truly believed in what she had done…Until the day that she met her first Vhampire, a man that had wanted to take her head off simply because she was a human.
“Hello, pretty one.” The voice whispered from the shadows. It was purely cliché since most Vhampires didn’t have to remain in the shadows, it was more the element of fright that made some sadists want to retain that age-old mystery about them and lurk in the shadows.
Lacey had turned when she heard the voice, her hand going to her weapon automatically. “I’m Agent Lacey Rose. Step from the shadows and identify yourself.” When he did she gulped, she hadn’t been able to help it. She was not a short woman, not by any means, but the tall and far-too-lean and pale man that stepped from the shadows was like the Slender Man of nightmares.
“Oh come now, darling. Rose fits you however,” he said softly, his voice seemingly caressing her face, cheeks, neck. “You are a beautiful Lacey Rose. So lovely. So perfectly splendid. Too bad that you are human, my darling girl.” He inhaled and then laughed, “Oh my, this is even better. Oh this is too delicious.”
Flipping the release on her weapon she charged the ultraviolet on the piece which would also automatically start recordings both vocal and visual. “Again, I am Agent Lacey Rose of the FBI. I demand that you identify yourself.”
“Oh, darling, I’m the one that is going to tear your head off. Don’t worry, though, I know just who to deliver it to. They will be so surprised that I was able to find you before they could. This is truly priceless. I was able to be rid of The Alpha Prime’s before he could seal the deal and now, oh this is too glorious. The new Alpha Prime will also be rid of you before he even meets you. I am truly a wonderfully blessed man.”
“You are no man, and what the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh darling, darling girl. You have just gotten out of the Academy and they have not briefed you? You poor, dear, and very dead child. Too bad.” He moved quickly, his hands wrapping around her neck and pressing her so hard to the brick wall at her back that she heard her skull crack. “You see, the animals that walk the world, Lhupines”—he spat the word—“are given a pair of mates. A man and woman, two women, three men, but it’s always in threes. And I love depriving those bastards of their mates. It’s a great pleasure to me to cause them harm.”
“Yeah? Well not this time.” Lacey was able to get the gun up and between them, pulling the trigger. As the blast hit the Vhampire that held her she heard his laughter, his mocking derision as he tossed her to the ground.
“Well played, pretty little human, but I will be back.” Lacey watched as he disappeared and her partner finally come running, weapon drawn but far too late.
Falling to the ground limp as a noodle cooked far too long, Lacey looked up at her partner, and blacked out.
* * * *
Today
Unconsciously Lacey rubbed at the holes that scarred over on her neck, holes left not by fang but by nail from her assailant, a man she had yet to catch. Her headache was starting again, typically did around her partners, not because of anything they did, but more of what her traitorous body did when they were near. She had thought of asking for a transfer, but that would be allowing a sadistic bastard to win and that just wasn’t in her vocabulary.
“All right guys, where are we headed again?” she asked and pulled out her mini tablet, shooting off a message to her doctor so that she could get a refill on her meds, meds she had been steadily increasing dosage on for the last five years. Then again she had nearly died from that asshole’s hands on her neck, as it was it was a miracle that she was walking and not paralyzed from the ears down. Yep, sometimes you just had to let go of what might be and focus on the truth, on what was. And what was, well that was that these strong, amazing and virile men didn’t want or need her in their lives. She was assigned to them simply because the AEDA demanded that a full human be paired with all their Alien operatives. Yep, bully fucking rah for her to be paired with two men that she knew were destined to be hers, or vice versa, and yay for her for having the only two men on the planet that seemed not to realize said fact. Wonderful. Just. Fucking. Great.
Chapter Three
Shooting her a look, Zhubin frowned and then glanced around, “Uh, there’s no one else here,” he said quietly. Turning the computer to face her he started the vehicle, “And I’m also pretty sure I told you where we were going.” Shaking his head he pulled out of the spot and got up to street level before looking her way again. “You sure you’re feeling okay, Agent Rose?”
“Yep, just a bit of a headache.” Lacey tried to replay the previous conversation and said, “McKinney Warehouses, had a bit of a brain-fried moment.” She was fucking losing it and she knew it. She was slowly forgetting everything that she should do and should know because of these men. No, she really couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t their fault that she had the hots for them, at all.
Nodding, he shot her one more look before his focus was fully on the road. The ride was silent to the warehouse district. Pulling in, Zhubin parked where the rest of the vehicles sat, their lights flashing an odd blue glow on everything. Climbing out, he looked to her, waiting for her to join him and precede him as always. Lifting the crime scene tape for her he ducked under and followed slightly to her left, half a foot behind.
Entering the warehouse he stopped with her and looked around, inhaling deep. A low growl rumbled from him. Shaking his head when she looked at him he took the booties one of the officers handed over and slipped them over his boots. Pulling out a pair of gloves he tugged them on and headed for one side of the warehouse, knowing she’d take the other. They would each work a side, switch and then meet to discuss.
Lacey’s eyes caught everything. Lifting a gloved finger, she raised her mini cam and snapped images. The fur caught in the loose boards of the wall and then the blood that was captured as well. Using flags she marked the areas and made sure that the CSUs would bag the fur and hopefully get a DNA match if there were follicles still attached.
Without speaking to Zhubin, she moved to the other side of the warehouse as he moved to her side. She looked and caught a couple additional images before meeting back with him in the middle, passing him her mini cam as she did so. “What are you thinking happened?”
Scrolling through the images after plugging her cam into his datapad he sighed. “Nothing good,” he muttered. Tipping his head, he led her over to a spot on the floor, “Tell me what you see?” he asked. When she looked around and then shook her head he pointed up on the wall, nearly twenty feet in the air, “Now what do you see?” he asked of the very clear pawprint in blood on the wall.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered. “How could he or she have gotten up there? You guys can’t fly can you? So how the hell cou
ld that print have gotten all the way up there?” She moved closer to the wall and added, “I found tufts of hair ten feet that way.” She pointed. “And if you look the dust looks like it’s been disturbed, but in an arc more of a straight line.”
Looking around, he waved her over to a spot before throwing another look around. Crouching, he leapt straight into the air onto a girder nearly thirty feet up. Balancing there he lifted a brow before dropping straight back down. “That”—he pointed to the print—“is nothing more than a push-off point. What is bothering me, I don’t see one other print leading up to it, not one. If you look at the floor all around the bodies there are boot prints but not a single paw print. Besides, if it was an actual push-off point, why isn’t it smeared? Blood is slick, that’s metal, it would have smeared no matter how a Luhpyne hit that wall. But it’s perfect, completely clear.” Zhubin shook his head.
“Unless the print was made with a body part,” Lacey whispered in horror. “Vhampires can hover in the air, right? I know we have several on the task force. Ask one to come in and take a bloody glove up and make a print. It’s the only thing that I can think of and if that is the case we have one hell of a freaking case on our hands.” One that would cause ripples in every aspect of society.
“Only other problem is I can smell Luhpyne in here and Vhampire as well as something else. I don’t know what it is, it’s being clouded by the blood which is annoying.” Cracking his neck he looked around. “Let’s go and see what the ME has found since she’s been here. I’d like to get the scene clear and then look around some more.”
“Sounds good. Maybe once we have the scene clear and the blood cleared up you will be able to use your sniffer and find something else, something that will help us out here.” Closing her small data pad she placed it in her jacket pocket and looked at him. “You okay, Zhubin? You are looking a little wolfy at the moment.” His eyes were glowing, his hands were curled and the claws were clearly visible.
He closed his eyes and a moment later, when they opened, they were back to normal. “Fine,” he said before spinning on a heel and moving toward the ME. “For future, note the term ‘wolfy’ is considered highly derogatory by my people. What do you have, doc?” he asked, stopping a few feet from the woman.
“We have six casualties, possibly another given what the officer has been letting me know from the hospital.” She looked at them. “Agent Rose.” She tipped her head to her. “Two non-human, I’m guessing from what I can see with a visual is they are likely Spirytes. The other four are humans. Of the three that went to the hospital, two are human and the third is Spiryte. He’s the one that may not make it through surgery given the extent of his injuries.”
She bent and lifted the edge of a tarp. “All their hands were removed. Cleanly and post mortem from what I can determine here on site. Looks like a sharp single-bladed tool with some weight. Again, can’t be positive until I do the autopsies. Obviously without the hands and corresponding wrists we will need to go old school and use dental records to identify the humans. The Spirytes, if they truly are Spiryte, will be a little harder to identify as I’ll have to contact their embassy and get permission to access the records.”
She didn’t even look to Zhubin or ask for his assistance in that but continued on. “From what I can determine and from body positions, they were all surprised. Two were hit in the back, unknown weapon at this time. The other four turned and were hit by the same unknown weapon. The three that are in hospital were likely on the fringes of this meet and were running. One was by the door where you came in and the other two were near a fire exit at the back.”
“From the hits, do you think we have one unsub or multiples?” Everyone hit differently, it was a signature in and of itself because no two people held a weapon the same way or hit the same way. It was unique to each person. “Why would so many have been gathered here, of all places? There are much more secure and safe areas in which to meet, even if it were for some nefarious purpose there would be a better place to meet than here,” she asked, to herself more than anyone else.
“I would, at a guess and the autopsy will confirm, I would guess three, perhaps four. As to why they gathered here”—she straightened and waved in her people—“that is up to you, Agent Rose, to discover. I will have the preliminary autopsy sent to your datapad by morning but this will take a bit of time to sort out so it will be at least a day or two before I can give you anything more. All right, lads, nice and gentle with them. They have a story to tell us and we need to respect that.” Stepping away from them she moved over to another body.
“Thoughts?” Zhubin looked to Lacey.
“Honestly?” Lacey looked up at him and at his nod said, “One thing that Spirytes are really, very good at is creating new identities for people. Some of them have the tech to replace the receivers behind the ears as well as the chips in the arms. If I had to guess I would say that the Lhupines that were here were trying to get away from something. I don’t know why I think that, but those are my thoughts on it.”
Nodding, he folded his arms over his chest and looked around. “Once they have the bodies out of here we need to work this from the start. See if we can figure out anything else, because I have to admit, something feels off to me. Let’s take a look at the personal effects before the lab boys take everything back. Might be a clue there.”
She nodded and when they were alone she looked up, “I wasn’t trying to be offensive. How long have we been partners, Zhubin? I’ve said that to you before. I’ve called you ‘wolfy’ before and you have never taken offense. I swear I wasn’t trying to be mean or rude or anything like that, just letting you know so that we didn’t scare off another tech.”
“I know.” He shoved a hand through his black hair. “I’m just feeling on edge, damned full moon’s in three nights and always makes me a bigger ass than normal. Ignore me,” he muttered, moving toward the bins of collected evidence. Crouching, he began to dig through slowly, looking at everything, turning it over and then either setting it on a lid to the side or dropping it back into the bin.
Placing her hand on his shoulder she gave him a light squeeze and said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good. Just wanted to make sure that you knew I wasn’t trying to be a bitch.” She then said, “Wait, stop.” She tugged at his shoulder, impossible to move him but had to get his attention. “Don’t touch another thing, Zhubin. Look,” she whispered and touched her ear. “We need bomb squad, now.” The small device was hidden under what looked to be trash and if Zhubin had moved one more piece, damn. “Back up, please.” She added the word that she typically didn’t use.
Moving his hands slowly he stood and, arm out in front of her, backed her up. “Get the squad,” he told her, moving back to the tub. “I’m not going to touch it,” he said when she grabbed his arm. “But I need to get a scent and can’t with yours mingling in and distracting me. Get them, I’ll be moving my ass back right fast,” he promised, looking her in the eye, “Go.”
“Don’t you dare. I will be mightily pissed off if you get yourself hurt, Zhubin. I mean it.” He might not want her as what she was to him, but she didn’t want him hurt regardless. He meant far too much to her for that. “Don’t touch it. Scent is fine but not touching. I mean it. I will kick your ass from here to hell and back if you do.”
“You and what army?” he asked, cocking a brow. “Go, the longer we stand here the more chance the thing has of going off. And if it’s from one of the realms, the Gods only know how much damage it can do. I’m going to sniff and then retreat to an extremely healthy distance.” He turned and then stilled, his head tipping slightly. “Fuck!” Spinning, he scooped her up over his shoulder and ran. “Everyone out, now!” he bellowed. “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!”
Chapter Four
Lacey lifted herself up, the silence the first thing that caught her, and then the white blinding light only a moment before they flew in the air. She was sure she screamed, but when she finally landed she hit a little harder
than she would have liked, blacking out as she bounced her head on the concrete. Her last thoughts before the darkness closed in were, “Zhu,” she whispered and was out.
There was a low groan and then a weight lifted. Someone hit her face. “Lacey, open your eyes,” his voice, Zhubin’s voice, called to her. “Come on, Lacey, open our eyes and look at me. Lacey, come on little one, eyes open, focus on me, come on damn it.”
“Geez Louise, did someone get the number of that planet that hit me?” Lacey didn’t open her eyes but she lifted a hand to her eyes, covering them and shaking as she did so. “Zhu, shit, you okay?” she asked and blinked her eyes open, forcing herself to focus on at least one of the three Zhubins that danced before her eyes. “And you said I had a hard head.” She snorted and closed her eyes again. “Damn that hurt.”
“I’ll survive,” he told her, moving his fingers to gently check her head. Hissing out a breath just as she cursed he winced, “You are going to have one hell of a bump. The medics are going to need to look you over so do not move. Not one inch and do whatever the fuck they say, clear?” Turning he waved at the EMTs, not once acknowledging the shrapnel sticking out of his back and shoulders.
Lacey frowned, his image before her dancing around but she raised to her elbows, wanted to hurl but reached out. “Son of a fucking bitch.” She swatted at the first medic to reach her. “Fucking hell, don’t touch me. He’s the one hurt.” She grumbled and grabbed Zhubin’s hand. “Don’t fucking play macho hero. Let them look at you and then I will let them have a go at me. I mean it,” she muttered. “Just let them get it out and bandaged so that you can start to heal. I mean it, Zhubin.” She growled.
“What?” He frowned at her and then looked over his shoulder. “Shit,” he breathed out long and low. “I didn’t even feel that.” Sitting down next to her he shot her a look. “Obviously your vision’s getting better if you managed to actually focus to see that.”