by Laken Cane
I nodded. “Energy from a hunter.”
“No. Energy from a bloodhunter.”
“And because we’re so rare…”
“He’s fixated on you. He’s found you, and until we kill him, he will be a threat to you. But there’s a problem.”
“Demons can’t be killed,” I murmured.
“Exactly.”
“Then what do we do?”
“I’d like to find a way to help him return to his world. A way that doesn’t involve him killing you.”
“I would like that as well,” I acknowledged.
He gave me a ghost of a smile.
I didn’t return it. “Do you have any ideas about how to do that?”
He hesitated. “No. I’ll let you know when I do.”
His hesitation made me think he knew more than he was telling me, but I didn’t press the issue. “Anything else?” I asked.
He stared over my head, his eyes about as blank as I’d ever seen them. “Miriam has not retracted her orders that I protect you.”
I dunked a cookie into my coffee. “What happens if you disobey her? Will you die?”
He laughed, a sharp, humorless bark of sound that was nearly sharp enough to cut me. “I would have disobeyed her long ago, if death were the outcome.”
“The reward,” I realized.
He lowered his stare to mine. “Yes.”
I released a soft breath, suddenly tired. “Life is hard.”
That time, when he laughed, it held genuine amusement. “At times.” He sobered. “It has been a very long time since I laughed, Trinity.”
And despite everything, I softened once again toward the man who was Miriam’s nightmare. But only a little. Thank God, only a little.
I put the conversation back on the demon. “How do you think he makes the foam?”
He shrugged. “The Foam of Aphrodite has always been immersed in mystery. It’s believed that it was originally created by the faeries, and the demons stole it, then modified it. We think it’s made from sperm and blood, some of the energy they steal from their victims, and the…magic, you could call it, inside them. ”
I stood abruptly and carried my empty mug to the sink. “So we have a face and a name for him. We just have to figure out how to ship him back to his world.”
“We have to keep you alive,” he said.
I rinsed my cup, then put it in the drainer. “That, too.”
My cell vibrated and I pulled it from my pocket, then put it to my ear. “Captain.”
“Frank,” he reminded me. “I wanted to touch base.”
I hesitated. “I picked up Gray’s tracks but lost him in the woods off Raeven’s Road.”
“The two dead humans,” he said. “Stark called me.”
I hesitated. “The humans…”
“They’ll serve as further cautions to those who think it might be fun to hang with the monsters.” His voice was brusque, and maybe even a little bitter. “They need to know it’s not so fun to bleed and die.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see me. “I’m going back out tonight. I’ll be in contact.”
“Thanks, Sinclair.” He cut the connection.
I slid my phone back into my pocket. It wasn’t likely Shane was going to be up for a little tracking so soon, even if he were so inclined to give me another chance. It didn’t matter. I’d feel better going alone. Less risky that way.
At least for my partner.
“I’ll be with you,” Clayton said, as though he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I only nodded. He had his orders, and if I refused to let him go along, he’d simply follow me. No sense wasting my time or breath arguing about it.
“Clayton,” I said. “If the demon stays in Red Valley, dead human bodies will start piling up. Can we blame it on the vampires?”
“We can try.”
If the humans believed the vampires were responsible, the heat would be taken off the supernats. The vampires were hated and persecuted anyway, and they deserved their hard lives. They ate humans. They became infected and went nuts and tore people up. I could understand the hatred.
But the supernaturals of a city played by the rules.
I shuddered, imagining Angus’s children hauled in, separated, and imprisoned if things started going sideways. Their freedom was tenuous, and they lived with an insidious, creeping fear and insecurity I could barely comprehend or imagine. Every single day of their lives.
The supernaturals just wanted to live their lives. For the most part, they hurt no one, and I would do everything I could to help funnel the blame from them to the vampires.
We could tell the humans an incubus was on the loose, but they’d want someone they could catch. Someone they could see, and someone they could hurt—so until we contained the demon, the humans were getting the vampires.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Crawford wants me to bring Gray to him,” I told Clayton. He rode shotgun as I drove us through the city, searching for the familiar misty trails that belonged to Gordon Gray. “He and his family want to face his niece’s murderer.”
“They want to torture him,” Clayton said.
I nodded. “True enough. But I can’t bring myself to care.”
He looked at me, and his eyes held a grim smile. “If you become close with one vampire, you’ll begin to care about all of them. Your indiscriminate killing and torture of vampires will come back to haunt you.”
I frowned, angry that he would make me consider something that should have been an impossibility given my history.
But I’d protected Amias, and things had changed.
I had changed, and we both knew it.
Still, I wasn’t ready to admit it. “Not going to happen,” I muttered. Then, “Your feelings for Miriam don’t make you hate all women. Or all supernats.”
“I don’t hate Miriam.”
“You’d have to,” I scoffed.
He kept his silence, and I didn’t press. How could he not hate Miriam? She enslaved him. Humiliated him. Hurt him. Of course he’d hate her.
Reluctantly, I turned the car in the direction of Raeven’s Road. I didn’t want to go back there, but that was where I’d pick up his scent. Somewhere in the woods off that road, Gordon Gray was hiding out.
I just had to find him.
Then I had to try capturing him without killing him so the captain and his family could get some revenge. It wouldn’t bring back Lucy, but it’d give them a little satisfaction. Maybe.
“Best case scenario,” I said, more to myself than Clayton, “I’ll find his den, then go back when he’s sleeping to silver him. When the sun goes down, I’ll take him to the captain.”
My cell rang and I dug it out of my pocket. Clayton grabbed the dashboard when I glanced down at my phone and nearly ran us off the road, but I pretended not to notice.
“Captain?” I put the phone on speaker.
“We have a dead body,” Crawford said. “CSI is done, so you can come have a look.” He gave me the address. “I’m hoping you’ll get his scent and track the bastard down. This has priority, Sinclair.”
I understood. His need to avenge Lucy and appease her family was important to him—very important—but catching the vampire currently killing the women of Red Valley was crucial, and it was urgent. “Of course,” I said. “You’re there now?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m on my way.” And maybe I was a little relieved at the delay in traipsing back down Raeven’s Road.
“Sinclair,” he said, before I could end the call.
Something in his voice made my stomach tightened and my heart begin to beat a little too fast. “Yes?”
“A substance was discovered on one of the bodies.”
Clayton and I traded dread-filled stares. “What substance?” I asked the captain. As if I didn’t know.
“A drug that’s been banned for decades, and one that hasn’t surfaced in all the years I’ve been on the force.”
The
Foam of Aphrodite. They’d found it.
Unfortunately for the supernaturals, they’d found it.
And that was going to change everything—a lot sooner than we’d believed.
“I’m on my way,” I repeated. I glanced at Clayton as I pushed the phone back into my pocket. “This is bad.”
He nodded. “The vampires aren’t killing the Red Valley women. The incubus is.”
I smacked the steering wheel. “Shit!” Then I frowned. “But there were fang punctures on the bodies. They were drained. The incubus couldn’t have done that, could he?”
“Maybe,” Clayton told me. “But I don’t know why he would.”
“I’m going to have to tell the captain about the incubus. If I don’t, they’ll start looking at the supernaturals.”
“If there’s no incubus to give them, they’re going to be looking at the supernaturals anyway.”
When we arrived at the scene, there was a small crowd of people standing outside the taped-off area, most of them craning their necks to get a glimpse of the corpse.
Despite the crowd, the situation appeared controlled and the atmosphere was subdued. News vans were parked along the street, but they were wrapping up.
“Captain,” I called, when a uniform reached out to stop me.
Captain Crawford lifted the tape and motioned me through, but refused to allow Clayton to accompany me.
“There’s something wrong with that man,” the captain muttered, when I stood beside him. Then he forgot about Clayton as he took my arm and walked me toward the dead woman on the ground.
“We pulled traces of the rape drug off the corpse.” He blew out a heavy breath, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. New lines radiated from the corners of his eyes, and he could’ve packed for vacation using the bags under his eyes. “Someone is using the Foam of Aphrodite on human women, and the vampires are draining her. What is going on here?”
“Captain,” I murmured.
He narrowed his eyes. “You know something about this, Sinclair?”
I wanted to say no. I nodded. “We should talk.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, his expression going from angry to suspicious to weary, before he finally put his hands on his hips and nodded. “I’m listening.”
I glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear the conversation. “The absolute last thing the supernats need is for word of this foam to leak to the public,” I said.
“I’m not worried about the supernatural community right now, Trinity,” he barked. “I’m worried about the piles of dead human women I’m carting to the morgue.” Still, he lowered his voice. “What do you know?”
“Vampires aren’t killing these women,” I told him. “It’s an incubus. We think he’s making the foam from…” I swallowed, suddenly hesitant. “From his…er…sperm, blood, and the sexual energy he steals from the women he kills.”
He frowned, absorbing my words, then shook his head. “The bodies are drained. There are fang marks—the lab confirmed both those things. And incubi, not that I believe your story, don’t kill when they feed. They rape and terrorize, but they don’t kill.”
“Usually they don’t,” I agreed, “but this one is sick. He’s stuck here. Maybe he was banished as punishment for something. The longer he’s here the sicker and weaker he becomes. He can’t exist here on sips of humans. He needs all of them. They will keep him alive until he can get what he needs to propel himself back to his world.”
“And that would be…”
I shrugged, offering him an uneasy grin. “Me, I’m afraid.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You.”
“He needs the energy of a bloodhunter to gain enough power to return to his world. We’re pretty rare, as you know. He discovered me, and he’s been trying to eat me ever since.”
“How long?”
“A little while now,” I mumbled.
He nodded slowly and pursed his lips, wondering how angry he should be at me. “A little while now. You knew about this incubus from the beginning.”
“Of course not,” I snapped. “We just—”
“We meaning you and the supernaturals.”
“Yes. And if word gets out that it’s not actually vampires killing these women, the humans will go after the supernaturals. You know they will. You have to protect them.”
“No,” he said. “I have to protect the women this incubus is killing.”
My stomach hit the ground. “Captain. Frank. Please.”
“Captain,” one of his men called. “Have a minute?”
“When this gets out, and it will, I’ll make sure the public knows the foam is coming from a demon,” the captain told me, turning to stride away. “That’s all I can do.”
I stared down at the ground, trying to avoid the woman’s face as I searched for tracks. They weren’t difficult to find. I picked up a few of them, but two of them, both vague blue—one darker than the other—were the most vivid. Both of them swirled not only around her body, but inside it. Blue fog drifted from her mouth, her ears, even her eyes.
But why?
Before I could think too hard about it, I knelt beside the woman, closed my eyes, and put my nose close to one of the colorful fog tracks. I pulled in the scent, latched on, then straightened, only realizing when I heard horrified shouts of disgust and anger how I must have looked to the watching crowd.
“Corpse sniffer,” someone screamed.
“Oh hell,” I muttered, climbing to my feet. “That’s not how I want to be labeled.”
Captain Crawford hurried to me. “What the fuck are you doing?” he muttered.
“Picking up a trail,” I told him. “Vampires were here. I want to find out why. I want to find out what they know.”
He ran his hand over his face, then blew out a hard breath. “If you bring him to me and he agrees with what you said, I’ll put the story out to the public.”
Maybe I could save the supernaturals. With that one vampire, I could save them. I just had to find him.
I nodded. And then, ignoring the jeers from offended humans, I lifted my nose to the air and began to follow the scent one of the vampires had left behind. Clayton joined me once I left the taped-off area, and I became vaguely aware that he was keeping irate humans from my back.
I jogged down the street, ignoring everything but that scent, and at last, we left the outraged humans behind.
Sometime later Clayton clicked on a flashlight when we entered darkness not penetrated by streetlights, and when I glanced at him, I saw he held a silver chain in his free hand.
I sniffed the air and slowed my jog to a walk, determined that before the night was over, I would give the humans yet another reason to hate the vampires.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I had to be careful—vampires full up on blood would be stronger than ever. But they’d also be careless. One human body to share between two scavengers was a feast they had likely, depending on their ages, never before experienced.
They’d stumbled behind a huge, empty brick building, climbed into a dumpster, then pulled the lid over them.
I motioned quietly to Clayton, then pointed. He nodded and started toward the dumpster, moving like a silent shadow.
I reached for Silverlight. The sword slid from the sheath with a barely there snick and then expanded with a light so intense it was almost a sound.
She attached seamlessly, her light traveling up my arm and over my shoulder, and half a second later, Clayton flipped the lid over the side of the rusty container.
I was ready for them when they leapt screaming from the dark depths. Silverlight sliced through one as Clayton slapped the other one with the silver chain. It spun around the vampire’s neck like a lasso and began to incapacitate him immediately.
The chain had burned halfway through his throat before I withdrew the sword from his dead friend; Silverlight went immediately for the silvered vampire, but I sheathed her before she could fight me for him.
&nbs
p; I needed one of them alive.
And I also needed him to be capable of speech, so I dragged the chain off his throat and down his body, leaving it to rest over his heart.
Clayton held the flashlight while we waited for him to recover his vocal cords. I hunkered down beside him, watching the glistening rawness of his throat slowly darken and close.
When he spoke, his voice was almost too hoarse to understand. He tried to lift his hand to the silver burning into his chest, but he was simply too weak, and the silver was too strong. “It hurts a lot,” he admitted, matter-of-factly, and with an absolute absence of hope.
I blinked, and reached for the chain before Clayton took my wrist. “Answers first,” he said gently.
Killing vampires was one thing. And maybe a couple of weeks ago, torturing one of the assholes would have given me pleasure. But now…
Now it didn’t.
I cleared my throat. “Answer my questions and I’ll release you. If you lie to me, I’ll walk away and leave you here with this chain until the sun comes to finish you off. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” he said. “Ask.”
He was young. Very young. Most of the old vampires had dealt with torture, either by humans or by their masters. This one wasn’t hardened, and he wasn’t tough. He just cried quietly from the agony and the fear, the human’s blood leaking from his eyes in crimson tears.
“I don’t want to die.” His dark stare pinned me in place. “I’ve seen people return from the after. I don’t want to go to where there’s such desolation.”
“God,” I whispered.
It didn’t help that he reminded me of my little cousin William, who’d died in a pool of blood, died because I hadn’t saved him. I hadn’t even told him goodbye. But I’d led Amias to him. I’d done that.
“Trinity,” Clayton said, sharply. “Ask your questions.”
Maybe this was my job. Maybe this was what I was. But maybe I didn’t want it anymore. I didn’t seem to be very good at it.
I cleared my throat and tried to remember what vampires had done to me. What they’d done to my family. What they were. “Tell me about the human you just ate.”