She held on, tears filing her eyes.
She didn’t want to leave when this was over, but she had to be strong.
She knew she was lying to herself.
If she stayed, Derek would hurt Boone. He’d track her down, and he’d kill him just to watch her bleed. All the times he physically abused her, the only reason he didn’t kill her was because he knew she didn’t find someone else.
Once that happened…
Yeah, it would be bad.
Having to face her demons wasn’t why she couldn’t stay.
Merry was willing to sacrifice her heart for his life.
And that was how she knew he was the one.
Chapter Sixteen
When he took her, he knew he was running out of places to do the deed. So, he had no choice but to take her back to his place. Fortunately, it was dark, so there wouldn’t be anyone who could say she’d been there.
He’d been extra careful.
Bringing her upstairs, he pretended that they were going to be having sex.
He wasn’t interested in her body or what she could bring him by way of pleasure. She wasn’t his type.
For now, it was about saving his life.
He didn’t want to die.
Besides, when you stuck your dick in a hooker, you were asking for trouble. He liked being safe and he knew what would and wouldn’t bring him a world of hurt.
As she wandered around his place, he watched her. When he was finished with this woman, he’d carefully have to eradicate any trace that she’d been there.
Just in case the FBI got a clue and found him.
He was smart, and he didn’t want to go to prison for murder. Then again, who did?
“You have a nice place here,” she said, picking up one of his picture frames. “You and a girlfriend?”
“Sister,” he replied, stirring a drink for her. In it, he’d dumped a shitload of aspirin. He needed to thin her blood. That was part of his goal. “I’m not in a relationship thus why you’re here.”
She had two things he wanted, and nothing was going to stand in his way.
“Are you close?”
“Not anymore.”
She put it down. “We should talk about my fee. You look nervous, handsome. Honestly, I have to tell you that I find that sexy.”
He knew she said that to all the johns who tried to pick her up. She wasn’t his first tricky female.
At this rate, he wouldn’t be the last.
“What are we talking?” she asked. “What is it that your little heart desires?”
“You definitely have something I want.” He crossed to her, handing her a red glass.
“You first,” she stated. “Not that you would drug me, but a girl has to be cautious.”
He genuinely liked her.
She was smart, attractive, and it was too bad that she’d strolled into his world as he was trying to live another day. Honestly, he felt horrible about it.
Taking a large sip, he showed her the liquid in his mouth, and then swallowed it.
That put her at ease.
She immediately took the cup and downed the glass. “So, let’s talk money.”
“I want the works.”
The woman grinned. “Darlin’ it would be my pleasure to rock your world.” She rattled off a number.
It was steep, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t as if she was leaving the house with it. She wouldn’t be leaving until he had what he needed, and then it would be wrapped in plastic.
“Deal. I keep my money in my bedroom.”
He headed that way. He could hear her following behind. There was the clipping of heels on his immaculate wood floors.
Once there, he pulled out his cash and stripped off the bills. Then he looked up.
He had an idea.
“How much for sex in the shower?”
“It’s the same price. You pick the location. I don’t mind getting slippery with you.”
He wanted to laugh.
It would simply be easier if she undressed and stood in the tub. That’s where he would take her blood.
“Great.”
He handed her the money. “Ladies first.”
She tucked the money into her purse and headed to the bathroom, stripping as she went. Once in there, she called to him.
He didn’t hesitate.
Entering, he pulled her against his body to run his teeth across her throat. She smelled healthy.
She tasted healthy.
That was all he needed.
Biting her, she moaned. “Someone wants to get the party started a little sooner.”
She ran her hand down his body, right to his erection. Only he wasn’t aroused. When she looked up, she saw it.
There was madness there.
As she went to move away from him, he hit her. With all of his might, his fist swung out, clocking her in the face. He could hear the bones breaking.
The gurgle of breath.
Yet, she was still alive as she fell to the bottom of the tub and against the tile.
He was glad.
That had been his ultimate goal.
Taking blood worked so much easier if the heart was pumping.
Digging in his drawer, he found the tubes and needles that he’d pocketed from the morgue. He bound the woman, and rested her against the white immaculate tile.
“I’m sorry I have to do this to you. I’m so sick, and you’re the only way I’ll get through the day. I need your blood and liver. It has the iron I need to survive.”
She gurgled, almost in protest.
He jammed the needles into her carotid artery and the precious fluid began flowing. He put one tube in a bottle, and the other one he began drinking right from the hooker tap.
He sat beside the tub, the euphoria filling him. She tasted so good. At first, the coppery penny flavor made his stomach want to revolt, but now…
He knew it was helping him.
She was healthy.
She would buy him some time.
“So good,” he muttered, being careful not to lose a single solitary drop. As the old milk jug filled, he found one more container. He would take it all.
He would consume it all.
He needed it all.
Then, he would leave this woman where they would find her. Only he knew how to mess with them.
It wasn’t hard.
So far, the FBI had been less than stellar, and that amused him.
He couldn’t wait for them to locate her. This time, he’d see their faces—maybe it would be from the crowd, maybe from the news. It was still dark, and he could handle that.
As the woman drained into the containers, he pulled out his knife.
It was time to finish this.
By tomorrow, he’d feel a million times better.
He knew it.
This was his cure.
This was his salvation.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Friday Morning
When the phone rang, they knew why. There was no doubt in their minds why. All three of them moaned as they rolled toward the single ringing phone.
It was Elizabeth’s.
“Whitefox-Blackhawk,” she muttered.
“Director, I’m sorry to bother you, but we have another body,” Detective Le Bleu said. “It’s another prostitute. I was called to the scene.”
She began sliding out from between the men. “Secure the location, get the cops there, and my people will be there before you know it.”
“On it, Director.”
“Don’t let the freaking reporters get to her!”
“It’s pretty quiet here, so I think you’ll beat the media,” he offered.
That made her happy. She really hated working with them scrutinizing everything they did.
“Thank you, Detective. Send the location.”
She hung up.
As she dressed, Ethan was standing there with a Kevlar vest. “I really need you to put this on.
I have that sick feeling in my gut.”
She got it.
“You both do the same,” she stated, slipping into the vest. Honestly, she didn’t mind wearing it now that she wasn’t pregnant. “Crazy might aim at you two if it can’t reach me.”
Yeah, they were well aware.
The men followed suit.
As they were strapping on their guns, the text came through. Elizabeth glanced down at the location.
“Well, we have a dick who’s having fun screwing with me,” she offered.
Tossing the phone to Ethan, he and Callen read the address. It was incredibly familiar.
She filled them in. “It’s the priestess’s home address. How’s that for a coincidence.”
“Christ,” Ethan muttered. It was like one big circle.
Callen didn’t like this at all. “He’s studying you.”
“Yeah, he really is.”
Ethan pulled on a pair of leather boots and then tugged on a shirt. “He’s playing to you, so you’ll be fine. It’s like you’re a challenge.”
“Uh, he nearly blew her up,” Callen reminded him, “or have you forgotten that little mess? If that’s his way to show she’s safe, I’d hate to see what he does when it’s time to eliminate the investigator chasing him.”
Yeah, he was very aware. Only he didn’t want to freak his partner’s out.
Blackhawk patted his brother on the back. “Technically, if you think about it, he didn’t know it would be her. This feels more like it was to slow us down. He nearly killed her, and we fell behind.”
Callen still didn’t like it.
He pointed at their woman.
“I know this should be a given, but you stick close. I want to stop walking and have you run right into the back of me.”
She didn’t even argue.
Instead, Elizabeth grabbed her phone and began sending out the alert to her people. They needed to hustle. It wouldn’t take long for the media, if they were watching her, to head there. They would be right on her tail.
“I want everyone on the scene,” she said.
Ethan knew they needed a break in the case, and soon.
“Let’s hope this guy left me something. We’re running out of leads.” Then she had an idea.
“Cal?”
“Yeah, angel?”
“Run any unsolved cases like this one. I think you should run the parameters with mostly missing livers, but toss in blood too. I feel like we’re missing the obvious, and we’re being set up. I like to always go with my gut.”
He added it to his list of things to do.
They knew she was right. They had a pimp, a missing Voodoo practitioner, and now a body being left at a priestess’s home.
They were digging a huge investigative hole, and someone was dicking them around.
Now it was about figuring out who.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Priestess Marie
Babineaux’s Home
When they arrived, the scene was contained. The detective was there, and he was making notes in his notebook as the priestess was talking to him. Normally, that would have pissed Elizabeth off, but she was simply grateful to have all men on deck.
This was no time for her to get bitchy.
“What do we have?” Elizabeth asked, strolling up to the woman.
Detective Le Bleu motioned for Marie to share what had happened.
“It was a normal night. I heard a doorbell, I went down to answer it, and I found her on the ground. She’s all cut up.”
Yeah, it sounded like another one of their girls.
Elizabeth glanced over at the body in question. Doctor Chris Leonard was there, and he appeared to be fine. That gave her hope. She knew that later in the morning, Doctor Gaines was going to want to talk to him again.
“Chris, what do we have?” she asked, leaving her husbands to handle Marie and the detective. They knew how to run a scene. For now, she needed to be worried about the dead, and the man standing over her.
They were her priority.
Elizabeth was only as strong as the weakest link on her team. In this case, that was going to be Chris.
Crouching beside one of her best friends, she placed her hand on his leg. “You look beat. Do you need a break?”
He glanced over. “I’m good. Honestly, I had just fallen asleep in the morgue. I was going to take a nap and some downtime.”
“Do you want me to call in Doctor Perette to cover for you?”
He laughed. “I will be really pissed if you do. That’s pretty much breaking ‘The Boyfriend Code’.”
She snorted at the use of the term.
When Chris couldn’t consider himself part of ‘The Girlfriend Code’, he made up a new one. There weren’t as many rules and most involved pizza, a scary movie, and always having your bestie’s back.
Subtly, he was calling her out on it. Elizabeth could see that this was about him proving himself to everyone around him.
She’d give him a chance and cut him a break.
“Okay, darlin’, spill it.”
“There’s no blood on the scene, and none in her body.”
“None whatsoever?”
“Nada, Lyzee. In fact, look at her neck.”
They both did. There were puncture marks across her carotid artery.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say we have some vampire,” she teased.
Chris’s wheels began turning at her comment.
Blankly, he stared at her.
“Hey! Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked, beginning to worry.
Suddenly, he smiled, and then kissed her soundly on the lips.
“Uh, Doc, I never thought I’d be saying this to you, but no kiss-y face on a scene.”
He laughed. “Lyzee, honey, you’re a genius.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, as he raced to the nearest tech for their tablet. When he came back, Merry and Detective Savage were heading their way. It looked like there’d be witnesses to him losing his mind.
“Chris, what’s going on in that big, gray, squishy brain of yours? I hate to say it, but you’re acting all loco—even for you.”
He grinned at her.
“I had an epiphany!”
“Uh, okay.”
“This has been bugging the shit out of me for days. I’ve seen a case like this before, but it was a long time ago and I couldn’t place it. Until this very moment, when you said what you said, it was locked up in my brain. Now, it’s free. I know what the hell has been driving me insane.”
“Did we work it together?” she asked. Certainly, she’d recall something like this, and she didn’t.
“No, it was in medical school. I was in my second year, and I was doing my forensic rotation. I recall being intrigued with it because it sounded so crazy.”
“Uh, okay. What was it?”
“Let me find it.”
While he worked on digging up the case, Merry began taking pictures while Detective Savage stood over her. No one there missed that he was following her as she moved around the dead woman.
It was pretty sweet.
He was watching her with pale blue eyes and a goofy smile on his face.
Yeah, someone had it bad. Elizabeth was about to bust some ass when Chris excitedly cleared his throat.
Chris flipped through the information on the screen. When he found what he was looking for, he handed it to Elizabeth.
“Read the case file and see if you agree.”
She could do that.
As her team worked around her, taking pictures, she and Chris took a seat on the curb.
‘A case study on Porphyria.
The subject displayed symptoms of vampire disease. Unable to go out in the sun or make enough heme in his blood, he began supplementing with human tissue and fluid.’
She looked up at him.
“Are you serious? This can’t be an actual thing.”
He nodded. “Yes, yes, I am, and yes,
it really is a genuine disease. It’s been around a very long time, but scientists don’t know a whole hell of a lot about it.”
“Vampire disease? You have to be shitting me. Someone is yanking my damn chain.”
He shook his head. “It’s real. When I was in college, we studied this one case subject. When he found out he was sick, he began drinking blood. It started with him stealing it from the blood banks, and then it escalated to him killing for it.”
That sounded absolutely appalling.
And it sounded like the mess they were dealing with at that moment.
“Why were you studying it? If he was killing, he should have been a police case.”
“He wasn’t because they didn’t know it was him. They also didn’t have time to catch him.”
“Time?”
“He died before they could put it together. We only figured it out when he was on the table, and we ran his DNA. They matched it to the cases and searched his place.”
She stared down at the dead woman.
This was the craziest shit she’d ever seen in her life, and that said a lot—they’d had cannibals, plus Bonnie and Clyde.
“Let me give you a background on this. Many years ago, people actually thought that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was based on this disease. It was a way to rationalize vampirism in medieval times. They needed an explanation for the need to drink blood, the pale skin that blistered in the sun, and the mental illness.”
“Uh, okay.”
“With this disease, it mimics the symptoms of a vampire and thus the name.”
She corrected him. “If they were real, but we all know that’s a load of BS.”
“Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t relate it to it. Fiction is almost always based on some thread of reality or fact.”
He had a point. Look at Callen’s books. He used fact to weave the tales of fiction.
“Okay, and?”
“For years, in outdated books, it was thought to help to consume heme, but back in the late seventies and early eighties, it was proved that the consumption of blood didn’t even remotely help. In fact, it kicked up the paranoia and mental issues. So the man thought he was feeling better, but he really wasn’t. It’s a progressive disease and there’s really no cure.”
Blood Shall Run (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 15) Page 43