Claimed by the Immortal tc-4

by Rachel Lee

  “You got it, boss. Although if you ask me, hunting demons is easier.”

  Everyone looked at her.

  “Well, it is,” she insisted. “They leave their stench everywhere, and Garner can usually suss them out in no time at all. This whatever-it-is doesn’t seem to be leaving a trail. At least not one that leads directly back to the persons who called it.”

  “It will,” Jude said wearily. “It will. One way or another.” Then without another word, he reached for Terri’s hand and led her into his bedroom in the back.

  Damien straightened to follow. “I’ll be in the inner office,” he said. “Wake me if you need me.”

  That left Caro, Chloe and Garner alone. Chloe sighed. “That’s a vampire for you. Leave a bunch of orders then hit the vault. Sheesh.”

  * * *

  Caro had to sleep. No escaping it. She took Chloe’s offer of the cot in a tiny room off the outer office and fell into a deep sleep that seemed empty of dreams.

  Her cell phone ringing woke her sometime around noon and she answered it sleepily, glad to hear Detective Pat Matthews’s familiar voice. Only as she heard it did she realize how cut off she’d been feeling from her life, her habits and her friends.

  “So how’s it going?” Pat asked. “Is Messenger being any help?”

  “Actually, yes. Is Malloy missing me yet?”

  “Not really. Not with two cases he can’t explain. He’s looking a little grayer these days. But it definitely would not be a good time to come back, Caro.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because some other people are muttering that something weird is going on here. If you show up, Malloy will probably blame you for the whispers. You don’t need that. Just stay out of the way for a little longer.”

  “We’re working on solving these cases,” Caro reminded her.

  “I know. Don’t give me any details. There are some things I simply don’t want to know.”

  After she felt sufficiently caught up on the news from the precinct and her friends there, Caro disconnected and sat staring at her phone.

  There was one problem here, she realized. One that nobody had mentioned and one that was going to drive the cop in her nuts.

  Even if they found the person who had set these murders in motion, there was no way they could bring him to justice. The crimes would remain unsolved. The perp would never be punished.

  “Damn,” she said. “Double damn.”

  “You okay?” Chloe called from the office.

  “No.”

  Caro jumped up and hurried to dress and brush her hair into some semblance of order. Then she stormed out to confront Chloe.

  “Why are we doing this?”

  “Doing what?”

  “Hunting for the person who caused these murders?”

  “To protect you,” Chloe reminded her. “Remember? That’s why you came here in the first place. Something is following you. Something that probably wasn’t too happy about having a witness.”

  Caro sagged into the chair beside Chloe’s desk. “I haven’t exactly forgotten that part.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “If we find the person who caused all of this, there’s nothing we can do about him. No arrest, no trial, no punishment.”

  Chloe rapped her pencil eraser on the desk in a short tattoo. “Have you considered that some crimes never reach that kind of resolution? That most of what Jude deals with he considers settled if he can just send it back to hell? Not everything in this world fits cop definitions of justice.”

  Caro put her chin in her hand. “So we just stop this and it’s over?”

  “That may be all we can do. People don’t go to jail anymore for practicing witchcraft.”

  The answer left Caro unsatisfied, but she couldn’t argue with it. She certainly wasn’t about to advocate vigilante justice.

  “You find anything?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been pulling up the development plans. Apparently Pritchett had just started to really roll on this. He has about six approvals for eviction and demolition. But you know what?”

  “What?”

  “I’m wondering what else is going on here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” Chloe said, “that man got more approvals for demolition in the last few months than this city has seen in over five years.”

  Caro sat up straighter and met Chloe’s gaze. “You think he was into something?”

  “Some kind of bad mojo, you mean?” Chloe nodded. “I’m starting to wonder.”

  “So maybe it rebounded on him.”

  “Well, maybe. Except there’d be no reason for it to come after you.” She leaned forward, looking almost excited. “What if he was up to some spell-casting himself? And what if he ticked off someone else with the power?”

  Caro almost gaped.

  “Think about it,” Chloe said. “The guy pulls off the near impossible with these demolition permits. That brother-in-law of his wasn’t all that powerful. More like a pawn. What if someone else didn’t like what Pritchett was doing?”

  “Clearly someone didn’t,” Caro agreed. “But, Chloe, this sounds like a bad movie.”

  “When you’ve worked with Jude long enough, bad movies start to seem real.”

  Caro had to admit she’d seen things backfire on people before, things that had nothing to do with magic or mystical powers. The more you did bad things, the more likely you were to become someone’s target—or get yourself into hot water up to your neck when it was discovered.

  “Okay,” she said slowly, “I’ll admit the possibility here. Pritchett may have been dabbling in some black arts. It could have rebounded. God knows I’ve seen enough criminals screw themselves up in ordinary ways.”

  “Aha, you’re getting it.”

  “But by the same token, I’ve seen others get into plenty of trouble because they ticked off the wrong person.”

  “It could be one. It could be both.”

  “You should be a cop, Chloe. That’s some devious thinking.”

  Chloe grinned. “You’d have thought of it if you weren’t still balking at magic.”

  Possibly true, Caro admitted to herself. That side of this whole affair was still troubling, still making her hesitate as she waded into this strange world. Maybe it was time to stop hesitating and just dive in with both feet.

  Hell, she was walking around with some kind of talisman in her pocket and locked into some kind of sensual dance with a vampire. Why stick at a little black magic?

  “I’m going out,” she announced.

  “Oh, no, you’re not!” Chloe jumped to her feet. “The whole reason I’m here is to make sure you’re not alone because Jude and Damien have taken a notion that this thing that’s after you doesn’t want to be witnessed, and that’s all that’s protecting you. Are you insane?”

  “No. Listen, Chloe, out on the daytime streets I won’t be alone. There will be dozens of people out there. Plenty of witnesses. How likely do you think it is to act?”

  Chloe sank slowly back into her chair. “Even in a busy city it’s possible to be alone some of the time.”

  “How about if I promise to avoid that?”

  Chloe’s expression turned glum. “Do you really believe that thing couldn’t make your heart explode in public like it did to Pritchett’s brother-in-law? Everyone would think it’s a heart attack.”

  “Then maybe having witnesses isn’t protecting me at all.”

  Chloe shook her head. “Then what is? If you had some idea, I’d feel better. Maybe the point is having witnesses who would know what’s happening. Like me. Like Jude and Damien. People on the street wouldn’t know, would they?”

  Caro had to admit Chloe might be right. But the need to act in at least some way was beginning to overwhelm her. Sitting here all afternoon speculating about what might have caused all this was apt to drive her to distraction.

  “I’m going to need a straightjacket,” she muttered. “I can’t stand being const
antly cooped up this way.”

  “I don’t blame you. But that doesn’t mean you need to take this on alone. What could you learn out there anyway?”

  “What people are talking about in the vicinity of the buildings that are scheduled for demolition.”

  “Nice idea, if folks will talk. You think they want to talk to a cop?”

  “Not in some of those neighborhoods,” Caro admitted. “But I won’t be going as a cop.”

  “Then what? A social worker? Get real. You cops don’t realize how obvious you are to people even in street clothes. Especially in places they don’t like cops.”

  “Give me the addresses, Chloe.”

  “No. I happen to like this job and I want to keep it.” With that Chloe pointedly turned off her computer.

  “You’re gonna make me mad,” Caro warned her.

  “You can’t arrest me for that. Garner told us what they were talking about anyway. Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to find out if there’s some voodoo queen out there in the locales? Some weird kind of church maybe.”

  “Voodoo isn’t weird,” Caro said. “It’s an established religion, unlike some. Why did you pick that in particular?”

  Chloe shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. Too many movies, maybe. But one thing I know for sure—we ought to be searching for something very different from a traditional religion. Something that could and would call down a curse.”

  Caro gave in. Chloe was making sense, and her desire for action was getting in her way. Didn’t she want to be a detective? Yes. And what did detectives do most of the time? It sure wasn’t cops and robbers. It was research and questioning. Questioning in those neighborhoods would meet a lot of resistance. That meant she needed to skip the action and do the mental legwork.

  She sighed. “Can we at least get out of here for a walk?”

  Chloe chewed her lip. “Well, if you promise it’s just a walk, and not very far, I’ll admit I could use some sunshine, too. But it’s cold out there.”

  “I spend a lot of time on the streets. I don’t mind. Just bundle yourself up. Say just for a walk around the block.”

  “This isn’t one of the best parts of town,” Chloe reminded her.

  Caro patted her belt holster. “How often do you have an armed escort?”

  At that Chloe giggled and bounced off to find something warm to wear.

  Not that a gun would do much against the threat they were worried about, Caro thought. But God, she needed some sunshine. Living like a bat might suit vampires, but not her. Checking her pocket, she felt the talisman again and closed her eyes. She could still sense the invisible bubble it seemed to wrap around her, and she wondered if it would extend to Chloe, as well.

  While she waited, she reached out, trying to sense even more. Little by little she picked up on things. The vampires and Terri sleeping in the next rooms. The wards Jude had put around this place. In fact, the more she concentrated on the wards, the more they became visible until they nearly glowed.

  Oh, wow! She could see those invisible marks of chrism, and some of the things Chloe had spread around, as if they were lit from within. Inevitably, she pulled the talisman out and looked at it. It, too, seemed to glow, though differently. Not bright and white like Jude’s chrism, but more of a lavender. A different kind of power?

  Trying to reach out even farther, she found herself blocked by the wards, as if they created an impenetrable shield she couldn’t see beyond. That was interesting, she thought. Now she wondered what might happen out on the streets where there were no wards. What she might see and sense apart from the auras she had for so long tried to ignore. What if she could read those auras? What if she could sense other things about people, as well?

  All of a sudden a desire to know her own inherent powers burst to full life within her.

  She definitely had to get out for a walk.

  “What’s going on?” Chloe asked.

  Startled out of her concentration, Caro took a moment to connect. “What do you mean?”

  “You looked funny. And I felt something.”

  “I was just trying to...” She hesitated, wondering how much she should say. It wasn’t as if she’d talked with Chloe about this much before. On the other hand, she figured that nothing happened in or around Messenger Investigations that Chloe didn’t know something about.

  “I was just testing my senses. My grandmother said I had some kind of power, but I’ve never really used it. Damien’s been encouraging me.”

  “Oh, girl,” Chloe said cheerfully, “do we have stuff to talk about now. Come on!”

  They emerged onto the street to find some snow had fallen since sunrise, just enough to make the world sparkle and look fresh under a blindingly brilliant sky.

  “Gawd,” Chloe said, pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her purse, “there really is a daytime world!”

  Caro had to laugh. “Come on, you must get out during the day sometimes.”

  “I do,” Chloe admitted with a grin. “But when things really heat up, I generally go home at dawn and come back around sunset, and in between I’m usually asleep or trying to wake up. Sometimes I don’t get out of the office at all for days on end.” She shrugged, stuck her hands in her coat pocket and started walking. Caro strode beside her. “Most of the time I don’t mind. It’s exciting. But every so often I snipe a little about it.”

  “I can’t imagine never seeing the sun again.”

  “Neither can I, honestly, although Terri seems to be adapting pretty well to Jude’s hours. I don’t hear her complaining anyway.” She glanced at Caro. “What about Damien?”

  “What about Damien?”

  “I can see that vampire has a big case of the hots for you, and you don’t seem exactly unhappy about it. If you really can’t live without the sun, maybe you’d better be careful.”

  Caro tried to shrug it off. “It’s just a passing thing.”

  “Maybe.” Chloe surprised her by letting the subject drop. “So what’s this about having powers? I’ve been trying to develop some of my own, but I haven’t been having a whole lot of luck. Mostly I can do a few protective spells that seem to work. Are we talking about spells here or something bigger?”

  “Something else. I don’t know if you could call it bigger. My grandmother told me I had inherent powers, but I never really wanted to listen to her about it.”

  “So you became a hardheaded realist, namely a cop.”

  “I guess so.”

  They reached a corner and turned to circumnavigate the block. Even though this wasn’t the best part of town, there were plenty of people out and about. Only a few of them made Caro’s hand itch to touch her service pistol.

  “So Damien’s helping?” Chloe asked. “Because Jude said he used to be some kind of mage.”

  “He’s trying, I guess. Trying to get me to focus on things I sense by other than usual means. It’s working a little bit. For example, today I could actually see all the wards in Jude’s office. Even the chrism seemed to glow.”

  “Oh, man, that would be so cool. Anything else?”

  “I couldn’t see beyond the wards. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get out here. To see what else I could sense.”

  “Then I should shut up and let you sense. Just promise to tell me what you pick up.”

  The quiet was welcome and pierced only by the crunch of feet on the fresh snowfall and an occasional voice. With a sigh, Caro let go of some tight restraint within herself, opening a place she usually kept fairly shuttered. The world was suddenly alight with the auras of the people they passed. Beautiful auras for the most part, although the colors in some made her uncomfortable, and others worried her a bit.

  That woman might be sick. That man is thinking something ugly. The rainbow colors seemed to speak to her at a level below conscious thought. But how could she be sure her interpretations were correct?

  Prodded to find out, she walked over to the woman whose aura dimmed in the region of her heart. “Ma’a
m, are you feeling all right?”

  The woman, who appeared to be about fifty, seemed startled, then said, “Actually, I’m not really feeling well. Do I look sick?”

  Caro hesitated only a moment, then took the risk. “You look ill. Can you get to a doctor? Do you need me to help you?”

  “I’m awfully tired,” the woman said with a wan smile. “I feel as if I’m walking uphill. I think I’ll just go home and rest.”

  But having gone this far, Caro decided to let her view of the woman’s aura guide her. “I think I should call an ambulance.”

  At that the woman panicked. “I don’t have insurance. I can’t pay for that! No, don’t call anybody. I’ll just go home and rest.”

  She hurried past Caro, but as Caro watched, she could see that after a few steps the woman started lagging again.

  “What’s that about?” Chloe asked, keeping her voice down.

  “Something in her aura. I don’t know if it’s her heart or what, but something’s not right.”

  Chloe looked after the woman. “I wish I could see that. But if she won’t take help, what can you do?”

  “Nothing without a reason,” Caro admitted. More than most people, she was aware that even touching another person was battery, and if she called an ambulance and the woman objected, nothing would get done anyway.

  “But you’re worried,” Chloe said.

  “Very. I just wish I knew exactly what was worrying me.” Then she had an idea. Shoving her hand into her pocket, she pulled out a ten-dollar bill. “Do you have any cash?”

  “I think so. What for?”

  “Maybe she’ll let us call her a cab to take her to Mercy. Their E.R. treats everyone whether they have insurance or not.”

  Chloe brightened. “Great idea.” She snatched the money from Caro’s hand. “Let me do it. I think you weirded her out enough for one day.”

  While Chloe ran after the woman, Caro stood waiting and watching. She probably had weirded out that woman, she thought. In a major way. If it saved her from a serious health problem, that was okay, but what if she was misinterpreting the woman’s aura? Regardless, she hadn’t managed to learn a thing about her powers yet. Nothing she could begin to rely on.