She kissed him again, and this time she made it news worthy. Her hands were in his hair, her mouth and tongue were doing battle with his, and she could feel his body coming to life pressed to her.
Ethan pulled away and stared into her eyes. “That was like the kiss in Salem—the one in the middle of the street.”
She grinned. “Yeah, I know.”
Then she noticed something. “Why is your mouth cut? What happened?”
He carried her toward his brother, ignoring the media. Let them talk. He had his wife back.
“Chris came in, tore me three new ones, and punched me in the face before he made me apologize to the entire lab for being disrespectful to his sister.”
She stared at him.
Then she started laughing.
“I don’t care what you say. I’m going to kiss him later for that one. I almost wish I could have been a fly on the wall. If for nothing, to see him punch you in the face.”
“Well, he’s loyal to a fault,” Ethan admitted, and he knew that he should have seen that earlier—in both of them, instead of letting his unfounded fears win.
He touched her cheek. “Get him to stay. I don’t want him to leave. We worked it out.”
She didn’t say anything.
This was up to Chris, and she wouldn’t stop him from staying or going. He was healing, and he had to do what he needed to work through his pain.
Instead, she glanced back at Callen when he began busting his brother.
“Seriously, you let our ME take you out?”
“I never saw it coming. One minute he’s ‘let’s talk’, the next, I’m bleeding.”
They were amused.
“What did you need?” he asked. “I don’t get why you called me here.”
She jerked her thumb at the building. “We’re going to interview some vamp wackadoos, and I wanted my partner here.”
Those were the sweetest words he’d heard in the longest time.
He belonged again.
He stared at Callen. “Do you want to punch me now? I’ll let you.”
He laughed. “Normally, I don’t pass up an opportunity like this, but in this case, you’ve had your ego handed to you, Deputy Director.”
Yes, he had.
When he put Elizabeth down, he hugged his brother. “I know you fixed this. I know you went to bat for me. Please forgive me for what I risked.”
He always would.
“Let’s call it a day and move forward.”
Ethan could do that.
“Okay, how do you want to do this, baby?” Ethan asked. “It’s your case.”
“I want you to watch them. We need to figure out if they’re involved. If anything pops in that profiler mind of yours, I want you to dive right in and help. I’m at a loss so far.”
“What’s your gut saying?” he asked.
“I think this is a dead end. I really think that Chris is right. I really think that we’re being screwed with and misdirected. I’m putting my money on my ME and my team.”
“Let’s prove it.”
That they would.
At the door, they found a chalkboard with writing. It told anyone seeking solace in the blood to enter.
Yeah, these people were chock full of crazy.
Loving a challenge, they headed in to face down two ‘vampires’.
Once inside the building, they weren’t impressed. It looked like the props of some Goth show gone wild. The blood reds contrasting against the black made it look cheap and pathetic. This display didn’t shock them, and neither did the smell of blood in the air. They’d interviewed Satan worshipers, witches, and kooks galore—and the party tricks were simply that.
Theatrics.
This was going to be a walk in the park.
When they entered the main area, there were two coffins. Elizabeth shook her head. “People are freaks.”
Heading toward them, Elizabeth pulled her Glock from her holster and rapped the butt of the gun against the wooden coffin with Mistress Bella Rose’s name on it.
Really?
She needed to label her shit?
As it began opening, she slowly stepped back.
“Yes?” came the sleepy voice.
“Mistress Bella Rose?” she asked, pulling her badge to flash it to the woman.
“Yes, what can I do for you?”
“We need to ask you some questions about your where abouts on a few different occasions.”
The woman looked confused. “Uh, okay.”
“First question is about your teeth. Why the hell did you do that to them?”
The woman grinned, showing them her incisors.
“We run a haunted tour and this brings in more business. This is the vampire capital of the world, and I’m cashing in on it.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
Then she gave her the dates that the women had died and the corpses in the morgue had gone missing.
Mistress Bella Rose headed toward a desk. “I have to look them up. That’s a lot recall on very little sleep.”
Elizabeth waited. As the woman looked them up, she wandered around her space.
“Other than this, what else can I help you with?” she asked.
“Why did you steal blood from a blood bank?”
She began laughing. “That’s a trade secret.”
Elizabeth tapped her badge. “So is how long I make you sit in jail under suspicion of homicide charges. It could be twenty-four hours or it could be a life sentence.”
That loosened up her tongue pretty damn quick.
“Uh, would you believe it was an advertising stunt? When word got out that we were vampires, people came in droves.”
“So all of this is nothing more than an act?” she asked.
“No, I’m a vampire, but I only drink my husband’s blood. You don’t know the diseases that are out there.”
Interesting.
She drank blood, and here they had someone stealing blood from dead hookers. Honestly, for her sake, Elizabeth hoped this woman hadn’t siphoned off a few pints of Hep C blood, or she was in for a shock.
“How do you feel about livers?”
“I’m a vegetarian,” she offered. “I don’t even eat fish, let alone organs.”
She pulled open the mini fridge, and it was packed with sprouts, grains, and tofu sticks.
That food selection alone made her want to slap the woman.
“If you’re a vegetarian, why do you consume your husband’s blood?” she asked.
“That’s all about really hot sex. While in the throes of passion, to bite your partner is really a turn on. The blood part adds to it.”
She didn’t even have to turn around. “No, Callen James. Don’t even go there. THAT is never happening—hot sex—or not.”
His laughter said it all.
His mind had gone there just like hers had.
The woman handed Elizabeth the list of dates, and she passed it off to Ethan. “Can you check these?”
He grabbed a seat on a red velvet couch and got to work.
“You have a permit to go into Saint Louis Cemetery to do tours, right?” she asked.
“I do, but then again so does about twenty other tour companies in town. I know you’re here working on a case, I saw the news.”
Elizabeth heard a creak. She and Callen both pulled their guns as the second coffin opened.
“Hey! It’s only Steve! Don’t shoot him.”
They both re-holstered.
“Babe, what’s going on?” asked the man as he sat up in the velvet lined coffin. He reached for a pair of glasses on the table beside his coffin.
She had to shake her head as she redid the introductions. God forbid she leave the man out of the conversation.
When he hopped out of the coffin, he was naked. Elizabeth stared him in the face and then looked down his body. Someone was definitely waking up and with a bad case of morning wood.
“Really? You may want to cover that up, Steve. It take
s a lot to horrify and impress me. I’m neither.”
The man grabbed a red robe.
“What do you need?” he asked.
His wife filled him in.
“Oh, wait! Do you think we had something to do with this? We didn’t. We’re running a business.”
“I hear you like being bit.”
“Want to try?” he asked, trying to be funny.
“That’s awful tempting from a man who has to sleep in a box and not near his woman.”
“Vampires are very sexually liberated. We like orgies and…”
She shut him right down. “I know you’re a computer guy. I ran your background. Before you try to impress me with how hot your sex is, I’m shacked up with these two at the same time. I know an orgy when I see it, and you, my computer friend, aren’t it. I’m betting you handle the website.”
He opened his mouth and closed it. “You’re right.”
She thought so.
It didn’t take a crystal ball to see it.
“I don’t see what we did,” offered Mistress Bella Rose. “We were doing tours those nights.”
She glanced over at Ethan. “Were they working in that cemetery?”
“Not on those nights, and they had full tours.”
“You can head out to that website where you share videos. We always record our walks—in case something happens and the tourists want to buy a copy,” Steve offered.
Crap!
Crap!
Crap!
Well, here is what she thought was going to happen. It was a dead end. Before she could leave, she needed to make sure.
“Can you look at a few photos for me?”
“Sure,” they offered.
When she handed them her tablet, she told them to flip through. The first one was of Page Rousseau. The second was of her mutilated body.
They both gasped in shock.
“Oh my God!” Steve said.
“That’s gross,” Bella Rose stated.
Elizabeth took the tablet back. There was no way they faked that shock at the same time without prompting. Her gut was telling her that these two were clean. They might be crazy, but they had nothing to do with the killings.
This was a waste of time.
Ethan headed their way. “I have a question,” he asked.
“What?”
“How familiar are you with Voodoo?”
Steve looked confused. “I don’t know anything. We’re…”
“Yeah, you’re vampires. I know. She already went down this road.”
Bella Rose moved toward her husband and held his hand. “I used to date a few men who were into it before I married Steve, so I know a few people.”
“Do you know Priestess Marie Babineaux?” Ethan asked.
It was a long shot, but they might pick up a thread to chase. He’d distracted Elizabeth enough, and now he wanted to pay her back. He’d do anything he could to help her solve this.
“Actually, we run in the same circles. We freaks flock together.”
“That’s not something to be proud of in life. Now, being in Mensa…that’s a badge you want to wear,” Elizabeth offered.
They looked confused.
Then Bella Rose finally got it.
“You’re riding two dicks, honey, you should talk.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You sound like that’s a bad thing. They are truly spectacular dicks, and it’s my goal to ride them every day. I’ve seen what Steve is packing…trust me. You’d be green with envy.”
The woman glared at her.
That wasn’t anything new in her world.
Now she could add pissed off vampire wannabe to her list of non-fans.
“Anyway,” Ethan offered, “let’s focus on the questions and not my penis.”
Callen covered her mouth.
He knew better.
“Everyone knows Marie. She’s the head practitioner in ‘The Quarter’. If you want a spell, she’s your girl. She had to fight damn hard to build her business.”
Elizabeth bit Callen.
When he let go, she continued, “I told you it was bullshit,” she muttered.
Ethan kept up the questioning. “What do you mean she had to fight?”
The woman shrugged. “In this tourist trap, you have to have a gimmick. There can be only one alpha. Like with you two, one of you has to have the bigger set,” Bella Rose said, pointing at the men.
Elizabeth raised her hand. “Actually, out of my partners, when we’re working, that would be me.”
Ethan laughed because it was true. “How about Kaleb Meeks? Did he have a beef with the priestess?”
They looked confused.
“What?”
“You have that backward. She had the beef with him. Kaleb rolled into town, and his gimmick was poison. If you wanted to deal with spit of frogs and snake venom, he was your guy. When he tried to take over her territory, she flipped out.”
“Define that,” Ethan asked.
“She told him she’d end him.”
Oh, that was funny.
Steve spoke up, “Kaleb was all show. He was a really nice guy just trying to make a buck. He had pet bunnies.”
Elizabeth stared at them. “Bunnies?”
“He liked doing magic tricks on the side for kids’ parties. When he had a day off, he’d go to the hospital and perform for the kids. He got into poison because he loved animals. He was a vegan and animal activist.”
What the hell?
That wasn’t the picture they’d been painted. It appeared someone was shoveling the shit.
Shouldn’t she have figured that out?
Oh, Elizabeth knew why she was clueless…she was skipped over when it came to searching his place.
When she stared at Ethan, he had the dignity to look embarrassed. “My bad?”
She snorted. “Yes, your bad, Cowboy.”
“Have you ever heard of Porphyria?” Elizabeth asked, watching both of their expressions.
“Uh, no. Is that where you get old at a young age? You know, that disease where little kids look like old men?”
“That’s Progeria.”
Yeah, these two couldn’t sell tickets to Mensa, let alone be criminal masterminds.
Now she needed to figure out a way to prove they weren’t bullshitting her.
Ethan knew what his wife was thinking. He’d worked with her long enough to track her thought process.
She had that look on her face.
He knew there was one way to prove they weren’t lying. Chris had said the killer had Porphyria, so he, or she, would blister in the sun.
“Can you step outside for me?” Ethan asked.
Elizabeth glanced over.
“Why?” Bella Rose asked.
“I want to see if you burst into flames in the daylight,” Ethan offered.
Elizabeth started laughing.
She was going to ask them the same thing. This was proof that her husband was always going to be her partner.
Great minds, or sick ones, thought alike.
Callen stared at them as if they had lost their minds.
“What?” she asked.
“Really?”
It didn’t bother her that he thought they were crazy. This whole case was smoke and mirrors—a priestess who was out for money, a killer who was stealing bodies, and then blood, and now these two. She couldn’t wait to interview the pimp.
That was going to be a good time.
“Sure. We’ll go outside.”
They headed toward the door.
When all five of them stepped outside, the sun hit the two vampire wannabe’s and nothing happened.
“Can we go?”
“One minute,” she said.
Elizabeth pulled out her cell and dialed her ME. When he answered, she explained what they were doing and asked him about the blisters related to the disease.
“How long does it take to appear?”
“Almost immediately. It’ll look like they’ve been out i
n the sun all day.”
She pointed at the door. They were in the clear. Well, at least from the case. They weren’t clear from Darwinism arriving to slap the stupid out of them.
“Thanks for your help, Chris.”
He stopped her before she could hang up. “Merry found something that you need to see. You should head back,” Chris offered over the phone.
“Okay, we’re on our way. This was a dead end.”
She hung up.
“We have to go,” she stated.
“What’s up?” Ethan asked.
“Merry caught something. Maybe it’ll give us a killer.”
They could only hope. They were eliminating potential suspects left and right.
At this rate…
Yeah, they’d be back to start all over again.
And that sucked.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Men’s Room
Morgue Bathroom
Friday Afternoon
The entire day, Boone had been thinking about Merry. The way she laughed, the way she smelled, and how she was a gentle soul. There wasn’t anything he didn’t find alluring about her.
In fact, he was ready to beg her to stay.
When it came down to it, he was more than willing to swallow every ounce of pride and do anything it took to keep her in his life.
He couldn’t live without her, and yet, he knew the truth. If they were meant to be, he had to set her free. It sucked, but he’d always love her.
He had hope.
When this was over, he might have a chance. Boone knew he should be helping more with the case, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side. He was supposed to be liaison to the Feds, and instead, he wasn’t bothering.
He’d rather be with Merry.
When she found something huge, he opted to take a few minutes to regroup. He prayed that information wasn’t going to solve the case.
He wasn’t ready.
If she had the information that would end the case, she’d be leaving soon, and that killed him.
That’s why he was hiding in the men’s room.
Blood Shall Run (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 15) Page 52