by Skye Knizley
"Of course, do come into the office proper," the receptionist said.
She buzzed them through into the records office where an Asian woman greeted them.
"Good morning officers," she said. "I am Wei Lin and I would be happy to help you with whatever you need…do you have a warrant?"
"No, but we can get one," Raven said, staring into the woman's eyes. "Show us Rayne DeGrey's medical records from her breast augmentation surgery."
The woman stared back for a moment and then blinked. "Of course, detectives, I would be happy to help you."
The Asian receptionist walked into the back room and began searching through the older records. Levac watched her for a moment and then turned to Raven. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" Raven asked.
"You know what, get her to go look up the file, you know we don't have a warrant and you can't get one, you're suspended!" Levac replied, his voice rising.
"Shh! Keep your voice down!" Raven replied. "Maybe it was my intimidating manner."
Levac folded his arms and turned so he could see both receptionists. "Yes, I'm sure that was it."
Raven nodded, sat in a chair and crossed her legs, one foot wagging impatiently. As she sat she thought she heard Levac mutter "mushroom", but she chose to ignore him.
Long minutes passed before the receptionist returned, a thick file in hand.
"Here you are, officers," she said. "You can review this in the back conference room, if you will follow me?"
Raven and Levac followed her to a small room at the back of the office. The teal and cream colored room contained a small table, four chairs and a coffee machine.
"Please take your time," Wei Lin said. "If you need anything, just call, I won't be far.
Raven watched the woman leave then helped herself to a cup of fresh black coffee while Levac began thumping through the file.
"This can't be right," he said after a few minutes.
"What do you mean?" Raven asked, looking over his shoulder.
Levac was looking at the form DeGrey had filled out to have her surgery. The page included prior surgeries and DeGrey had written a list of four, including the removal of her gall bladder when she was fourteen.
"These should have left scars," Levac said, tapping the page. "Are you sure you looked at the right body?"
Raven gave him a look and picked up the before and after photos of DeGrey's surgery.
"The woman at the morgue isn't DeGrey," she said.
"I was starting to sense that, but why do her breasts make you positive?" Levac asked.
Raven turned the photo so Levac could see. "Because DeGrey's implants were inserted through her armpits. The woman at the morgue had hers implanted beneath the breasts, I saw the scars myself."
"Then who the hell is in the morgue and where is the real Rayne DeGrey?" Levac asked.
"That may be the ten thousand dollar question," Raven replied. "Come on, this should all be in the file down at the office, let's get out of here before someone finds the Bass."
They left the file on the table and made for the exit, pausing only to thank the two receptionists. They arrived back at the car a few minutes later.
"I don't get it," Levac said, leaning against the back of the car.
Raven leaned beside him. "Get what?"
"We had Rayne DeGrey in custody," he said. "Her prints were a clean match. Now we have someone who looks like her in the morgue. How the hell did that happen?"
"I haven't a clue, Rupe," Raven replied. "It’s a weird one for sure. We need to get someone to fingerprint her and find out who she really was."
Levac nodded and pulled out his cell phone. Raven listened as he argued with Zhu, finally getting the scientist to agree to go print the woman.
"It's going to take a while to get the results," Levac said, closing his phone.
Raven unlocked the car. "That should give us time to go check out DeGrey's residence."
Levac look puzzled as he slid into the car. "Um…why?"
"We have a woman who looks like her in the morgue, which means the real DeGrey is either missing or dead."
Raven started the car and backed out of the spot. "Maybe there are some clues at her house. Besides, we can't go to the office, it's too early for lunch, what else are we going to do?"
"I can always eat lunch…"
* * *
CHAPTER FIVE
Rayne DeGrey had lived in a forty story apartment building in the heart of Chicago, within walking distance of both Grand Station and the offices of Riscassi and Levine. Raven again made use of the underground car park to hide the Bass and the pair took the back stairs into the apartment building. They walked past a gym and an indoor pool before reaching private elevators for use by residents who didn't want to parade around the lobby in their bathing suits or workout wear. A few moments later they were outside the door to DeGrey's apartment. A piece of crime-scene tape crossed the door from one corner to the opposite corner near the floor. Raven pulled the tape off and tossed it aside. She was about to use her lock picks when she noticed that someone had put an additional lockbox over the regular lock.
"Oh for shit's sake," she muttered.
Levac turned from nervously watching the corridor. "What?"
"Nothing," Raven replied.
She glanced down the corridor and then kicked the door just above the lock. Wood splintered and the door slammed open, denting the wall with the doorknob.
"Christ, Ray!" Levac exclaimed.
Raven shrugged. "Sorry, I ate my Wheaties this morning."
The two of them entered and Raven pushed the door closed, or as closed as it would go. She and Levac were standing in a foyer. The walls were painted a light cream color that matched the carpet. Black candles sat in sconces on either side of them and the hallway ahead led into the apartment proper.
Raven led the way, following a faint scent she couldn't quite identify. She checked a closet they passed only to find it contained linens and more candles before stepping down into the sunken living room. Here the cream motif had continued in the walls and carpet, with a black leather sectional and glass tables to break up the monotony. There were also a few paintings on the wall of Chicago landmarks. On closer inspection Raven realized the images were from the 1920s and 30s and most contained scenes of the Mafia in its heyday.
"Looks like our girl had a real thing for the mafia," Levac said, looking at a painting that depicted the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
"From what I remember she can trace her family history to Antonio Lombardo," Raven replied. "He was a pretty powerful enforcer in Capone's day."
"I knew there had to be something," Levac said.
The master bedroom was only slightly more interesting than the living room had been, but what Raven found most odd was that, though there was crime scene tape and a lock box on the door, the apartment showed no signs of being searched. Most cops she knew weren't all that neat in a turn and burn search. This place looked as if the maid had just left. It didn't make any sense.
Levac rifled through the nightstands turning up a few odds and ends like condoms, lubricants and other tools of the call-girl trade, but there were very few truly personal items.
He slammed the last drawer with a look of disgust on his face. "This woman is a ghost, Ray. She's left enough behind to do her job and that’s about all there is in this place."
Raven had walked over to the guest bedroom and was leaning against the door frame, peering inside. "Maybe not, Rupe. Come check this out."
Levac joined Raven by the door and his voice caught in his throat.
The room had been turned into an effigy of evil. The carpet had been removed and the floor was painted red with a black circle in the middle. The walls were black and dotted with sparkles that seemed to twinkle like the night sky, below which murals of human torture and sacrifice had been painted. The remains of human bones, thousands of candles and countless occult symbols lay scattered on the floor and the whole room reeke
d of sulfur.
Raven entered, her vampire senses stretched to their limit. She could feel the evil in the room like sparks dancing on her skin.
"Ray, I don't think you should be in there," Levac said from the door.
Raven ignored him and continued to inspect the runes, wishing she'd paid more attention when Marie was trying to teach her about magik. She took out her phone and began photographing the walls and floor, kicking gnawed bones and chalk out of the way when necessary.
She was so caught up in her work she was almost oblivious to the increase in the sulfur smell until Levac called, "Raven, you need to get out of there!"
Raven lowered the camera and turned. A blood-soaked bald figure was rising from the black circle in the floor, which had opened like some kind of well. It oozed an inky black substance that smelled of sulfur and death.
"Okay… that's different," Raven said, drawing her Automag. She edged toward the door where Levac had drawn his own Automag and was aiming at the half-formed creature.
The creature opened eyes like black pits and looked at the floor. It then grinned, showing a mouth full of sharp black teeth and stepped forward out of the well. The back of its hand sent Raven flying through the wall and into the living room where she collapsed, stunned from the impact. With ears dulled by shock she could hear the report of Levac's Automag and all she could think was he was using normal rounds. With great effort she stood, gasping at the pain in her ribs and neck. She felt her side and confirmed her fear. Blood dripped freely from cuts where the creature's claws had sliced neatly through her skin.
"Swell…Mom's going to lecture me about not carrying claret with me," she muttered. She held one hand to her neck and continued down the hall. Levac had retreated toward the master bedroom and was now firing bursts from his 93R. The soft copper slugs seemed to annoy the…whatever it was, but weren't slowing it down much.
"Yo, big red!" Raven called, her Automag aimed at the creature's head. "I want a rematch!"
The creature turned, laughed and opened its black-toothed maw. "Dhampyr! Your flesh is not as sweet as a human's. I hunger, I must feed! Leave me and I will not suck the morrow from your bones for dessert!"
"Fat chance, gruesome. That's my partner you're trying to eat, not meals on wheels. You want a snack? Grab a fucking Snickers," Raven replied. She squeezed the Automag's trigger three times and watched Thad's "the works" rounds punch through the creature's face like a pencil through paper. The demon howled in pain and shook its head, causing the slugs to drop to the floor like three discarded pennies.
"Okay…also new," Raven said in surprise.
The creature moved quickly, its next swing hitting Raven in the stomach and sending her flying over the bar and into the kitchen where she landed on the cold tile with a painful thud.
"You cannot harm me, Dhampyr," the creature said, moving toward her. "I am not of this plane."
"You need a better travel agent then," Raven said, stifling a groan. "But I bet you're really racking up those frequent flier miles."
She rolled to the side as the demon's claws slashed through the bar mere inches from where she had been lying. As she squirmed away, her eyes focused on a cast iron frying pan hanging among other cooking implements beneath the shattered bar and she heard Marie's voice from the past saying, "cold iron, child. Anything called from the pit can be returned with cold iron."
"Oh you've to be kidding me!" she said. "A frying pan? Someone up there has a weird sense of humor!"
She picked up the skillet and again rolled to the side, scarcely avoiding being sliced to pieces by the demon's claws. As it pulled back to swing again, Raven leapt to her feet and swung the pan like a major-league batter going for the bleachers. The cast iron slammed into the creature's head and the monster howled in pain, smoke emanating from a wound on its face.
As it staggered away, Levac reappeared from the hallway and unleashed with his 93R. Again the bullets did little damage, but it distracted the demon enough to give Raven another chance. Holding the pan over her head like an axe she brought it around toward the demon's neck. The frying pan whistled through the air and cut through the demon's throat like the proverbial hot knife through butter. The creature dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, slowly dissolving into a sulfurous yellow goo on the tile. Raven sank down beside it, blood pouring from the cuts in her side and throat.
"Ray? Raven? Where are you?" Levac called, still covering the spot where the creature had been.
"I'm here, Rupe. Lodge Logic to the rescue," Raven said, dropping the pan.
Levac spotted Raven on the floor and ran to her side, his hand immediately going to the gushing wound in her neck. "Holy shit, Ray!"
"I'm fine," Raven replied, "just need a hotdog. With ketchup."
"You need a hospital!" Levac said. He pulled off his coat and shirt and wrapped his shirt around Raven's torso, trying to stem the flood.
"Don't you die on me!" he said.
Raven smiled and raised a hand to Levac's face. He really was handsome under that beard, in a goofy, dorky sort of way.
He kissed her wrist and again said, "Don't die, Raven."
She thought she heard him say, "I love you," but the world was going black. He could have said anything.
* * *
Raven woke with a start, her hand immediately going to her neck. A bandage covered the wound and she could tell by feel it was nearly healed, as were the cuts across her ribs. She sighed with relief and looked around. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom; when they did she realized she was at home, in her room.
"Hey you," Levac said from the chair beside her bed. He had on a clean shirt and his coat looked like it had been cleaned as well. For once he wasn't so rumpled.
Raven smiled. "Hey…how'd we get here?"
"My men brought you," another voice intoned from the darkness.
Raven turned her head and instinctively reached for her pistol, which wasn't there. Smiling, Francois Du Guerre stepped into the dim light. "Hello, Ravenel."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Raven asked with more strength than she felt.
"My men brought you here, as I said. I saved your life," Du Guerre replied. "Again."
Levac cleared his throat and took Raven's hand. "I called him, Ray. You were dying in my arms and I didn't know what else to do. His number was in your phone and I knew he'd helped you before."
"You also knew he served me up on a platter!" Raven said. "What the hell was wrong with 911?"
"If your partner had called the police you would now be back in their custody," Du Guerre replied. "And I did what I had to do. I didn't want to give you to Strohm, he gave me no choice. I made sure you had both the means to escape and a way to put us both out of our misery."
Raven blinked and turned to face Levac. "Rupert…Francois was your tip off?"
Levac couldn't meet Raven's gaze. "Yes. One of his men dropped off your pistol and a note saying where you were. All I had to do was sneak in. You know the rest."
Raven gaped at him. "All this time and you never told me?"
"Ray…I couldn't. I just…couldn't."
"Your partner did what he thought was best, Ravenel," Francois said. "His actions saved your life, then and now."
"You broke my heart, Francois." Raven said. "And he helped."
Francois shook his head and leaned down to look Raven in the eyes. "I never meant to break your heart, Ravenel, or hurt you in any way. Don't think what happened between us, what was happening, was one-sided. I betrayed you and gave you to the man you hated most, that is true. But it wasn't only your heart that was damaged that day, and your partner had nothing to do with it. It was I and I alone."
Raven felt her strength return in a frenzy of hurt and anger. She grabbed Du Guerre by the throat and lifted him off her like he was a rag doll. "Do not come near me ever again, Francois. You used me. You don't think I remember how you referred to humans as sheep? I've heard Strohm and my brother Xavier refer to them the
same way. Those damn renegades too. You're all cut from the same cloth. If I ever see you again, I will rip your throat out."
She tossed him aside and sat up, her hand going to her ribs. Levac stood next to her, his eyes wide with shock.
"Believe what you wish, Ravenel," Francois said, his hand on his bruised throat. "But I mean neither you nor your family any ill will and I am not a part of this war."
"Oh? Then why did a witness see you and my psychotic brother talking to the victim in my latest case the day before he died?" Raven asked. "Why did I find his head in your refrigerator."
"My relationship with your brother is a purely financial one of the 'he owes me money' variety," Francois replied. "If we met it was for that reason and that reason alone. I find him as distasteful as you do. As for your victim, I have no idea who they may be or why their head was in my old apartment. I moved out shortly after you killed Strohm. I left only the katana. Again, Ravenel, I am not involved in anything other than trying to save your life. Trust me or not."
With that, Francois stood, bowed to Levac and took his leave. Raven could hear Thad escorting him to the door. When she was sure he was gone, she lay back in the bed and stared at the ceiling.
"What just happened, Raven?" Levac asked.
Raven continued to stare at the ceiling. "Aside from Du Guerre lying through his teeth, you mean?"
Levac leaned on the bed and Raven met his eyes. "I mean what I just saw. You just lifted a two hundred pound man with one hand and threw him across the room. Earlier you cut some kind of monster's head off with a frying pan. You should be dead from those wounds, but you're healing in just hours. How is that possible?"
Raven didn't answer, she just stared at Levac, a man she trusted with her life, trusted with almost everything and wondered if she could forgive him this one trespass and really let him into her life.
"Ray…are you a vampire too?" Levac asked in a quiet voice.
Raven closed her eyes and shook her head. "No. I'm something different. My father was Detective Wulf Crane, as you know. My mother is Valentina. She's a pureblood vampire, which makes me half-vampire, a dhampyr. To make it simple, I am a human, I can eat food, walk in the sun, do everything you can do. But when I need to…when I need to, I can call on my mother's strength and be more than human. And less. Is that what you wanted to hear? Or were you happier being a mushroom?"