I didn’t say a word as I watched him turn and leave. Once he was gone Irulan bolted the doors and pulled me down beside her on the couch. “My poor baby.”
“You have no idea. Bet you won't catch me complaining about being bored anytime soon. Compared to today, I‘ll take the cubby hole anytime.”
She chuckled and laid a quick kiss on my nose as she turned on the t.v., and drew her legs under her. “I’m going to hold you to those words, Val.”
Chapter 4
When I was a kid, I hated that Constantine and Tamerlane could move around in the daylight while Valerian and I were stuck hiding from the sun. You wouldn’t catch me complaining today. My body was so tired from my little outburst that I spent the entire morning in bed. One of the things that I’ve found out was using my extra abilities put a huge strain on me. At least they did outside of the FaeLands. I knew better than to get that upset, but I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I did need to attend a few anger management classes, like Irulan suggested.
I got up and padded through the house looking for Irulan. It was almost time for me to get ready for work and I wanted to see her before I left. I found her in her office, meeting with a client. Rather than interrupt I went to the kitchen, grabbed a few slices of pizza from the fridge and headed for my closet.
“I’m beginning to hate black,” I mumbled to myself as I pulled a uniform from its hanger. While our uniforms looked nothing like standard security wear, I was quickly becoming tired of wearing the black leather jacket and pants every day. I wanted color, damn it.
I wolfed down the cold pizza and rushed through a shower. By the time I got back to my room, Irulan was sitting at my computer typing away. “Hey baby,” she mumbled, never taking her eyes off of the screen.
“Hey yourself,” I laughed and dropped my robe. I heard Irulan’s breath catch in her throat right before I felt her hands on me. She snaked her arms under my own and cupped my breast from behind. Desire shot through me; permeating my senses until there was almost nothing but the sensations Ire caused. I had to fight the urge to lean back into her. It would have been so easy to give my body what it was screaming for, but unfortunately I didn’t have the time.
I scooted away from her, snatching my bra off of the bed. “Aren’t we being a bad girl,” I teased.
“Me?” She shot me a mischievously-sexy, grin, “You’re the one doing the strip tease. How was I supposed to react?”
“Here,” I replied slipping my bra on, "fasten this for me". She grudgingly did as I asked and sat quietly as I finished dressing.
“So who's the new client?”
“It’s a referral from Marcus, actually. A neighboring pack is having some big meeting, and they want stock for their hunt.”
She and Marcus were getting awfully buddy-buddy. He was making it a habit of calling her in on cases and now he was sending clients her way. If it wasn’t such an insane notion, I just might be jealous.
I pulled my jacket on and Irulan came over and straightened my collar. “Could you please not do that,” I said as I pulled away. “My mother does that.”
There were still a few aspects of married life that I was struggling to get used to. Irulan straightening my clothes like I was a toddler heading off to school was one of them.
I grabbed my keys from my desk and turned to leave when I caught the hurt look on her face. Damn it. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t look like that, Ire, please; you're making me feel bad.”
“You should.”
“Why, because I believe I’m old enough to get myself dressed? Sorry baby, we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.”
The drive to work was a blur. My mind was in so many different places. I’m surprised I made it to the office without causing an accident. When I walked into the security office, Tamerlane and Thade were hunched over Tam’s desk deep in conversation.
“It’s not a primary holding area, just a warehouse for artifacts and such,” Tamerlane said as he ran his finger down a paper on his desk.
“If that’s the case then why do they need me?” Thade asked.
The phone rang, and Tamerlane held up his finger, cutting Thade off. While he talked, Thade turned his attention to me, “Heard you had a rough night, Val.” He gave me a quick hug and reached up to brush a stray hair out of my face.
“That’s putting it lightly,” I breathed. “When it rains it pours, right.”
“Don’t sweat Thomas. None of us are going to let him near David.” Outside of family, Thade Daniels was my best friend. I was older than him in actual years, but physically we were about the same age.
We banded together when he was around 16, and offered each other support from the prying eyes of the media. As Marcus’s nephew and his appointed heir, Thade was just as much a target for cameras as I was.
“Thanks, Daniels, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying.” I cocked my head toward my brother. “What’s going on?”
Thade screwed up his face and shoved his hands into his pockets. “There's been a fire at a warehouse in Russia, one that’s gonna have me flying my furry ass across an ocean and over an entire continent for some unknown reason, when Tamerlane knows how much I hate flying.”
Tamerlane hung up the phone, and low growl rumbled in his throat. “You know why you're going, Thade. Bennet has everything under control, but seeing as how you set up the cataloguing system in the first place, he needs your help in assessing the total loss.”
Bennet Trumaine was our cousin and Tamerlane’s Eastern European counterpart. Aside from the two of them, each regional headquarters had a Trumaine in charge of security. There are six total.
“Do they know the cause of the fire?” I asked.
“They believe it’s electrical, but that’s just the preliminary report. We'll know more in a few days.”
Tamerlane pulled a thin pouch from his desk and tossed it to Thade. “Here, a thousand cash and a company card for the hotel room and incidentals. The jet is fueled and ready for takeoff.”
Thade shoved the pouch into his back pocket and pecked me on the cheek. “I’m off. See you when I get back, Val.”
Thade took off, and Tamerlane sat down with a plop, releasing a big breath. “He’s right. We're not going to let anyone near David. He's one of us now; we protect our family.”
I adjusted a few monitors as I talked. “I know, Tam. Can we change the subject? Talking about it isn’t going to make me feel any better about the whole thing. I need to focus on something else or I’m going to march to the Meriwether mansion and deck Thomas right in the mouth.”
“How did Valerian’s interview go? Marcus didn’t give you any flack did he?”
I almost put my foot in my mouth and was about to ask what Marcus had to do with Valerians case when I remembered he had no idea the client was human.
“No. Everything went okay. I didn’t even see Marcus. It was almost like he wasn’t even in the building.”
Tamerlane nodded and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk. “Thade told me he'd talked with the pig-headed mutt, but I wasn’t sure. I’m going up to brief Father on what’s happening in Russia.”
When Tamerlane left, I took the opportunity to use our database to see if I could come up with any hits on the list that Valerian had given me. We had extensive files. Thanks to Thade and our mutual tendency for thumbing our noses at authority, we were hacked into the CMS’s system, which in turn allowed us access to the police database.
I’m not sure how he did it and avoided detection, but in the three years he's worked for our company, we haven’t heard so much as a peep from either entity.
My fingers flew over the keyboard as I typed each name and address and repeatedly came up with next to nothing. The only thing criminal I could find was a parking ticket for William’s next door neighbor, and he got that around forty years ago when he was sixteen. Talk about a dull bunch and this is the type of crown my brother Constantine ran with. Yeesh.
Since the electronic route didn’t turn up anything useful, it was time to check out the scene of the crime for myself. The remainder of my shift passed without much fan fair, unless you count the argument Tam had with Daddy.
When Tamerlane got back from talking with our father, he was pissed, to say the least. After Tamerlane’s report, father immediately called his uncle Sethy who ran the Eastern European division, and reamed him out about the fire. Then he turned around and gave Tamerlane the once over about not going and looking into the situation himself. Tamerlane countered and said that’s Bennet’s job and he wasn’t about to step on his toes and make it look like he didn’t have any confidence in his job performance.
My father ran our family’s company with an iron fist: he had to. A few of my uncles had a duck fit when my great-grandfather promoted him over them. Once my grandfather died, everyone assumed his younger brother, my great uncle Sethy would take over in his place, nope. Old Kemet fooled everyone and named my father CEO of the entire company.
My dad’s brother Seth, ran the West Coast offices, and my aunt Amina headed the Western European one. That leaves the Mid-Western and Japanese offices, which are run by Sethy’s son Julius and his daughter Helen.
Each CEO liked to believe they were in total control of their domains but when it got down to the bottom line, great-grandfather Kemet had the last word, and for the last 30 years he’s deferred all decisions to my father.
“Father expects too much from us,” Tamerlane hissed as he paced back and forth. “I’ve got prototypes for the new psi dampeners being delivered tomorrow from the Houston office. I can’t leave the country. Besides, Bennet specifically asked for Thade. That system is his baby, not mine.”
As I watched him go back and forth I couldn’t help but chuckle; pacing must run in the family. “Tam, why do you let Daddy get under your skin like that? In one ear and out the other, Brother. God, I’m surprised you don't have high blood pressure.”
Tamerlane stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me with a confused look on his face. “We don't get high blood pressure.”
“If we did, you’d have it. Did anything he said change your mind? Are you leaving for Russia? No? So let it go.”
“Tamerlane shook his head and smiled. “You know, Val, you are a total enigma sometimes. One minute you're behaving like you're five and acting like a complete brat, the next you actually make sense.”
“That’s all part of my charm, Tam.” I turned back to the monitor and inwardly screeched when I saw I still had the criminal database onscreen. I logged off before Tamerlane saw it and began asking questions I couldn’t answer.
“Tam, it’s been a quiet night and I want to pick David up from Valerian's. My shift is over in twenty minutes anyway. Do you mind if I leave now?”
Tamerlane groaned but pushed me away from my seat. “Tell my nephew I said hello, and don't worry about a thing.”
As I left the building, I asked for forgiveness for the lie I told Tamerlane. I didn’t make it a habit to lie to my siblings but I couldn’t rat Valerian out. Constantine had us both in a hard position, and right now William Baker’s case had my full attention.
I drove to his tight knit community and drove by his brownstone before parking a few blocks away at a strip mall. I flashed back to the Baker home, and after finding the back door loaded with deadbolts, I had to break the door off its hinges to get in.
I fumbled with the wooden pane for a few minutes trying to get it back in place, but the door had had it. Let the police think it was a break in. What did I care? Proving William’s innocence was more important to me than fixing a lousy door.
I followed my nose through the house and found the bedroom easily enough. The overwhelming stench of dead blood permeated the air in the hallway outside of the pale yellow door. I know what you may be thinking. What about bagged blood? Isn’t that dead blood? Yes, it is, but bagged blood is stored in cool temperatures, it stays fresh…well almost fresh. While it’s an acquired taste, bagged blood smelled nothing like the odor that was filling my nostrils.
I coughed in an effort to clear the heinous taste from my mouth, but it didn’t do any good. If it were this bad in the hallway, I hated to imagine what it smelled like on the other side of the door. Might as well get it over with...
I took a deep breath and stepped inside. The first thing that caught my eye was the color of the walls. If I hadn’t focused my vision, I would have thought the sheer amount of burnt red on the walls was paint, but beneath the sickly shade of brown I could see flecks of white trying to poke through.
Jesus, every ounce of blood in her body must have been on the walls. I let my weight fall, and the pressure of my foot caused the thick, caked blood in the carpet to crack and give. I looked down at the stiff fibers, and a pang went through me. No one had been to clean up after William's arrest. Didn’t the man have any family that could have taken care of this for him? What about the wife, surely someone had been here since then, who cared enough to want things set back right?
I moved farther into the room and stopped near the bed. I took a deep draw of air into my lungs. While I was doubtful I would catch any other scents over the smell of blood, it was worth a try. The draw of air resulted in more gore and blood, nothing useful. I turned around and took in another deep breath. There was something behind me, near the door.
I backtracked, bent my head and inhaled. I picked apart the layers of smells and checked them off. Sweat…blood…carpet fresh…cheap cologne…and what was this? There was definitely something there. Someone other than the occupants of this house had been in here recently, and the smell was on top of the blood. I inhaled one last time and smiled to myself.
Unless William Baker had an Extra neighbor that visited, the scent I smelled could be our murderer. This trace was definitely ‘Other’. Unless a human was gifted, they lacked that little hint of ’more’ that was present in all Extra’s blood. Each species had their own smell, and compared to us, humans were dull.
I had enough to take to Valerian so he could petition for a change of venue. While scenting done by a vampire was a little sketchy outside of vampire politics, it was enough to cast doubt. Once Valerian takes the evidence to the CMS, Marcus will assign a licensed, were or a shifter to confirm. After that it was only a matter of time. I had no doubts that the case wouldn't be reassigned. Marcus would have a fit if he thought humans were in charge of a case that should be his jurisdiction.
That was the good news. The bad news, no matter how much I wracked my brain, I could not place the smell. It wasn’t any type of were or shifter that I had ever encountered. I didn’t smell like any witch or witch-kin that I knew of, and it certainly wasn’t a vampire of any kind. On top of that, this mystery person must have wings because as I followed the trail through the house and back, I realized it ran in an obvious path from the backdoor, to just inside the bedroom door.
Well damn, maybe I didn’t have such good news for my brother after all. I needed to get the duty roster from Valerian and see if any of the officers or members of the forensic team were undercover Extras. I also needed to check out the neighbors and see if they were the owners of my mystery scent.
Since I was already in the neighborhood, inspecting the other homes came first. I tacked a sorry note to the back door and pulled it flush with the frame, and then I began flashing from house to house as fast as I could. I didn’t need to go inside to get a base scent. I stopped at back doors and leaned inside car windows searching for anything that smelled like what I’d found in the Baker home. I didn’t even come close to finding the scent, thank God. Although there was a were that lived in the vicinity, a were that smelled like cat. I wonder if the were is out or closeted?
I jotted down the house number so I could come back and formally interview the Panthera during daylight hours. It was too close to the full moon to piss off a were at night. I wasn’t scared of confrontation, but why barter trouble right. See, I can act like an adult sometimes.
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I made my way back to my car and dialed Valerian's number as I put it in gear. He answered on the first ring. “Tell me you’ve got some good news.”
“You sound anxious. Bad day in court?”
“Depends on how you look at it. I won the case against Home Defense Industries. With all the meticulous paperwork Tam keeps, I was able to prove we held the patent on the personal psi-shields they were trying to pass as theirs.”
Honk! Honk! So went a red Mercedes behind me, obviously the property of an obnoxious driver. Said idiot refused to let up off of his horn. I looked up, saw the green light and jerked my car forward. Said jerk passed me and offered his middle finger. One, two, three, four… “Asshole,” I muttered.
“Excuse me,” my brother exclaimed.
“No, Vedo, not you, the asshole that flipped me off. What were you saying?”
Valerian huffed. “You should have been paying attention.”
“I was. That's what got me flipped off. I was paying attention to you and not the light. Keep going.”
“The judge has determined we have more than enough solid evidence to go to trial. They are fast tracking William's case to throw off the media, which brings me to my first question.”
“I may have something, but I need you to get me the duty roster for the officers and forensic units that worked the case. I need the coroner’s personnel files also. No, just get me the names and addresses of anyone who’s been in that house since the body was discovered.”
“I’ve already given you the names and addresses of the neighbors that were present at the scene. What angle are you working Val?”
I took a left and hit Tryon. “I don't want to get your hopes up until I’m sure Valerian.”
“Val, I need a little bit of hope right now, because the DA already has his victory party planned. Gent was passing out flyers today like the courthouse was a club.”
I laughed and took a sharp right, pulling my car up to the main gates of our community. “You, sir, are such a liar,” I said as I waved and drove past the guards.
Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga) Page 4