Grave Illusions

by Lina Gardiner

  The team came back downstairs with ten body bags. They couldn’t carry bodies from the church in broad daylight, so they decided to sneak them out under the cover of darkness.

  While they waited for night to arrive, the team sat and discussed the logistics of the beast’s killing grounds and when and if he would return. It concerned Jess to know he’d been this close to her brother. There was every reason to believe he could even enter the church.

  Just the thought of Regent being in that kind of danger was almost too much for Jess to bear. At one time, Regent could fight vampires with her, but he was now too old and too weak. He’d never survive a battle with a vampire this strong.

  Number one on her agenda—always—was keeping her brother safe. As a human he’d always been at risk. Humans didn’t have a vampire’s strength. But for most of the last fifty years he’d been healthy and strong and an able vampire hunter.

  She’d often wondered how hard vampire hunting had been on him. He’d taken vows and killing was a sin. Killing someone clinically dead might not be a sin, but in his eyes, it was still a sin.

  But he loved her and did what he had to do for her sake. She heaved a ragged breath and felt years of guilt spread through her body, adding to her lethargy.

  No one on the team asked why Britt had left. They probably figured he couldn’t stomach what he’d seen on the roof. She knew better. He was a good cop. As gruesome as it had been up there, he could keep it together in situations like that.

  Though he wouldn’t admit it, Jess knew Regent was troubled by Britt’s quick departure. She figured her brother was afraid her future protector couldn’t cut it. She could see it in his eyes. From the very first moment he’d met Britt, he couldn’t contain the excitement behind those tired irises. She’d seen it in his face when she had surfaced from her bedroom, scarred but healing, that afternoon. He’d really thought Britt was the person who could take his place.

  For Regent’s sake, she’d never admit openly that she didn’t think Britt was the one. Regent was old and frail, and anything that gave him hope was well worth the pretense. If Regent needed to believe Britt could be her protector, she’d make sure he’d get his wish, even if she had to make Britt go along with the farce.

  As was her usual routine after spending an evening with her brother, she stepped onto the rectory’s roof and sailed to the ground, moving away from the house like a silent cat through the dewy grass. It bothered her that she hadn’t sensed the vampire on the church’s roof. In fact, she didn’t spend much time near the church itself, anymore. Besides that night she’d found Britt there, she avoided the church. Not because she wasn’t able to enter. She could. But because she couldn’t truly practice her faith. Not as a vampire. An abomination. Evidently, she’d made a mistake that could have cost her brother his life.

  A mistake she wouldn’t make again.

  When she reached Britt’s place, she scaled the wall. Usually she went in the front door, but it was late and she was in a hurry. The patio door was locked. Britt was in bed sound asleep. She could move through the room without him even knowing she was there, even if he was a light sleeper.

  She thought about that night in front of the brick wall when she’d pressed her body against his hard form. He’d wanted her instantly when he thought she was a red-blooded human. But even then he wouldn’t take her up on her offer. He was a good man, though, at the moment, he didn’t believe in himself.

  Unaware of her watchful gaze, he moaned and shifted slightly. Cursing, she lifted the blanket and covered his legs. Nursemaid she wasn’t. What she’d just done was totally out of character. It made her angry. It made her feel cornered.

  Britt shifted again, then settled in more comfortably. Even asleep, he looked so damned sexy.

  Gritting her teeth, she left his bedroom. She’d hoped to be able to talk to him tonight, but now that she saw him sleeping peacefully, she didn’t have the heart to wake him up.

  Why couldn’t she stop thinking he looked good enough to kiss? That image surfaced in her conscious mind with a will of its own, and she couldn’t make it go away.

  While he slept his face was peaceful. His jaw, covered in dark stubble, and his hard, bare chest brought images of what it would be like to be in that bed with him, wrapped in his warm arms, feeling his life infuse her.

  That would never happen though. Humans and vampires didn’t mix.

  She hissed out her frustration. Before she left, she glanced back at him. It was then she noticed he wasn’t wearing the cross.

  She found the cross on the kitchen table. Keeping him safely asleep with her powers of mind control, she lifted his head gently, slipped the chain over his head and pressed it against his warm skin. The cross sizzled a little in her hand, but the flesh around it felt warm and lovely.

  Back on the balcony, she locked his patio door behind her so no other unwelcome intruders from the night might enter his room. She looked at the skyline before her and sensed a vampire on a nearby roof. Her stomach clenched. This vampire had been there watching Britt for weeks. She hated to leave Britt alone. She had no idea when that vamp might decide to come after him. But as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t always be there to protect him either. He’d trained hard. He had to be capable of looking after himself.

  She tucked her chin down to her chest, said a silent prayer of protection, and scaled the side of the building.

  Britt woke with a hell of a headache. He lay there for a long time, hoping the pain would go away before he had to lift his head off the pillow to get some pain medication. No such luck.

  He stumbled to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet, retrieving the aspirin bottle. When he shut the cabinet door he saw the cross in the mirror’s reflection. Slowly, his hand went to it and touched the silver contours. Did he have it on when he went to bed? No. He didn’t think so.

  But how else could it have gotten there? He only drank a couple of beers. He would’ve remembered putting the cross on.

  A splash of cold water helped revive him enough to find a water glass and take some aspirin. He’d been prone to headaches since he’d killed Randy.

  With a sigh, he went into the kitchen. Looked around the room out of habit. Everything appeared to be in place.

  First on the agenda, he needed to make a pot of coffee. And despite his headache, his stomach growled. He opened the cupboard to see if he could find anything for breakfast.

  When someone knocked on his door, his heart sank. Until a couple of weeks ago there hadn’t been anyone at his door for an entire year, but now he couldn’t keep people away.

  Still feeling raw, he moved toward the door and opened it with an irritated jerk. “What the hell do you want?”

  “Morning.” It was Jess. From her almost bored expression, he could tell his method of opening the door didn’t faze her.

  “Why are you here? It’s daytime.”

  “Gee, thanks for the lovely greeting.” She wore a full length black velvet coat that she peeled off as soon as she stepped inside. He was almost afraid to see what she wore underneath, afraid to feel the emotions that she stirred up inside him.

  “You know what I mean. How can you be out in the sunlight?”

  She tugged at her fitted white blouse that looked as if it was made just for her. A black silk mid-length skirt with a slit halfway up her thigh was nearly his undoing. Lord the woman knew how to dress.

  Her eyes went immediately to the cross at his neck, or to his bare chest. Her perusal reminded him that he wasn’t dressed. His pajama bottoms were decent enough, but at present they were riding low. He pulled them up and tightened the knot.

  “If I want to, and given a little time and preparation, I can move around in the daytime just like you. That’s why Prometheus is a concern to us. He’s not just a night stalker; he’s capable of much more.”

  “Look, make yourself comfortable while I throw on some clothes.”

  “Right.” She walked to the kitchen area and kept her back
turned while he dressed.

  “Why are you up and about this early? Don’t you usually spend your night hours working?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I had to talk to you. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on, and I think I might be on to something.”

  “Really.” He pulled his jeans up and zipped them as he walked back into the dining/kitchen area and poured himself a coffee. For an instant he almost offered her one. “What is it?”

  “I want to ask some questions about when you were a cop.”

  “Okay,” he agreed with reluctance. The last thing he wanted to do was discuss the past, especially with a headache.

  She flicked her hair back and touched her neck, as if feeling for a necklace that wasn’t there. “I could be way off here, but I think they’re following you because you were a cop. Something must’ve happened. Maybe something that didn’t mean anything to you at the time.”

  He frowned and plunked down onto a chair at the table, then braced his elbow strategically so he could hold up his pounding head. Damn, he felt like hell.

  “Mind if I close the patio curtains?” she asked.

  “Sorry. I should have thought about that.” Since the room was so small, he reached over and closed the vertical blinds without leaving his chair. “Light still bothers you?” Who was he kidding, it bothered him today, too. The aspirin should start working soon.

  “Just a bit. Sunglasses help, but I’d rather not wear them while we’re talking.”

  “What do you want to know?” He was racking his brain about his work as a police officer, but he couldn’t think of anything, outside of his partner’s death, that was the out of the ordinary.

  “How long were you a cop?”

  “Ten years.”

  “Were you ever involved in anything less than legit? Took money under the table or looked the other way for a price?”

  He stiffened, but then he realized she wasn’t accusing him. “No. Never.”

  She looked down at her hands, then placed them on the table. “But your partner Randy took bribes, didn’t he? You knew nothing about that at the time?”

  “Not until the night that I … punched him.” His words felt like acid in his mouth. Saying he killed someone would never be easy.

  “And the punch proved fatal, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened next?”

  He gave her a weary look. Why put him through this? “You must’ve read the files.”

  A strange excitement illuminated her eyes. “Actually, no. The files are missing.”

  “What?”

  “Missing. Strange isn’t it. First your partner’s body goes missing before the coroner can do the autopsy, then his personal effects are stolen, and now the files that explain the entire situation are gone. Why would that happen?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Someone is covering up something.”

  “Hey, it’s not me. I would have willingly gone to jail for my crime. I still don’t understand how that punch killed him. I thought I hit him in the gut, but maybe I was too close to his solar plexus. I just don’t know.” He pushed his forehead against his propped hand. “I wanted to see the autopsy report as much as the police force did so I could figure out what the hell happened.”

  “Maybe there was a reason the police force didn’t get a chance to see his body.”

  “What are you getting at?” Britt leaned forward, his jaw aching from the tension that suddenly gripped him.

  She breathed out a long sigh, as if trying to calm herself. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, but in light of Prometheus’s ability to function at the church, I think there may be others like him. Vampires who can mix in with humans, undetected. What if your partner Randy was a vampire? After all, you two did work the night shift.”

  Britt felt the room tilt. He closed his eyes and reflexively grabbed onto the table. “It can’t be true.”

  “Maybe it isn’t. But what if it is?”

  “Then why would he play dead after I punched him?”

  “If he’s what we think he is, he doesn’t have to play. He is dead in the human sense of the word. That gives us a whole new set of questions. But you’re right. Why’d he want to make it look as if you’d killed him?”

  Britt sucked in a ragged breath. Even so, he felt the first glimmer of hope he’d experienced in two years. “Maybe so I wouldn’t turn him in? He knew I couldn’t work with a dirty cop.” But thinking that he might have been a vampire? It was just too hard to believe. “I can’t even let myself think that he was a vampire. What are the odds?”

  “Not so far fetched, I think. I came to you in the first place because they were following you. If Randy is a vampire, maybe he’s keeping tabs on you for some reason.”

  “Okay,” he said, holding his hands up in front of his face, palms out as if it could stop the crazy thoughts from whirling around his brain. “First thing we have to do is get Randy’s personnel records. They didn’t disappear with the other records, did they?”

  “No, those records are still at the station.”

  “He might have been able to fake blood tests and doctor’s reports, but maybe we’ll be able to find something that will prove whether or not he was human.”

  “You and I are thinking along the same lines.” Jess tapped her index finger against her lips as she gazed thoughtfully into the distance.

  “What about his wife? Do we talk to her?” Do you think she’s a vampire too?” He felt the blood drain from his face. “They had a baby. Can a vampire father a child?”

  “We can worry about the wife later. She’s not the one I’m concerned about right now. And in answer to your question, vampires can’t father or bear children, so his wife must be human. And if the child is his, Randy must’ve been human at some point, too.”

  She leaned one arm on the table and looked him in the eye. “If Randy is what we think he is, we don’t want to show our hand yet. We’ll have to be careful about how we handle our investigation. I don’t think we should tell anyone what we’re doing. Except Drake. In fact, I’ve already asked him to get the files. They should be waiting for us at the station.”

  They really were on the same wavelength. “If this is true, I’ve been a prize sap for the past year,” he said, thinking about the money he’d sent Randy’s wife.

  “Let’s just take this one step at a time. Want to go to the station and check out his records now?”

  “Since you operate outside the regular police force, do you have access to records?”

  “No, not directly. That’s why Drake pulled the records on the QT. They’re in his office. Let’s go.”

  Britt had finished dressing and followed Jess out the door before he realized that his headache was suddenly gone. His adrenaline was pumping, and he was anxious to be on the job.

  Had Randy’s death been faked? If so, why? And why frame him?

  It didn’t make sense. But what else was new? Nothing had made sense since Jess walked into his life.

  Chapter Ten

  Jess unlocked the doors to Regent’s truck, a brand new SUV sport with chrome roll bars. Everyone in the parish got a kick out of their elderly priest’s wheels. They didn’t realize he bought vehicles like this for much darker reasons, such as providing transportation for his sister. One of the undead.

  Poor Regent. In some ways, his life had been more difficult than hers. Instead of living a good life as a priest, he’d spent it fighting vampires and trying to save a scrap of his sister’s humanity. She very much appreciated his devotion and would never do anything to let him down. At least not if she could help it.

  But even her darkest thoughts couldn’t deter her today. A surge of excitement thrummed through her. If Prometheus had been on the roof of the church they were on the verge of a discovery. Finding Prometheus’s hunting ground was a big deal. It would prove that he had abilities believed to belong exclusively to Jess and James, and only because her brother had saved their immor
tal souls from total damnation through prayers and baptism.

  And, thanks to Britt, she had survived the holy water ordeal and then the cross. Without him, she wouldn’t have been so lucky. Vampires had their frailties and she was all too intimately aware of her own, especially lately. In fact, Prometheus was the first vampire who had posed a threat to her fifty-year record. He’d been the first one who survived her attack and got to talk about the fight afterwards. She didn’t like that. Not one bit.

  On the drive to the station, Britt remained quiet. She knew how it felt to be off the police force. It had been decades before she got to go back. In fact, her picture was on the wall at the station along with the other ten rookies who’d just made the cut that year. 1952. She’d been the only woman in the precinct back in those days—well ahead of her time.

  She turned a corner and the brownstone station loomed on top of the hill. Squad cars filled the parking lot. It felt strange to be working with Britt after watching him for so long. Of course, he thought of her as nothing more than a vampire. She was intimately aware of the way he scrutinized her, as if trying to figure out how she really ticked. Psychoanalyzing her the way a good cop should. Kudos to him. Not many people dared to look below her surface. They were usually too afraid they might see the real truth. For that matter, so was she. It had taken years for Regent to coax her into believing in herself again.

  She parked the truck and readjusted her sunglasses. “Ready?” She hated the dark circles under Britt’s eyes and the desolation marring his features. If only she could take away some of his pain. Unfortunately, he had to learn to do that for himself.

  With a quick movement he unclipped his seat belt and opened his door. “Yeah.”

  It didn’t escape her attention that even though he tried to feign indifference, he hung back after she stepped into the building. This was the last place in the universe he wanted to be right now. Too many memories.

  She waited for him, pretending not to notice his unease. She knew he wouldn’t like it if he realized she sensed his weakness. Besides, she didn’t consider his reluctance to go back inside the precinct a weakness. She’d been in the same position herself many years ago, and she understood the relationship a cop had with his home base, his precinct.