Death’s Sweet Embrace

by Tracey O’Hara

  Kitt took the coffee to her desk and sat down, shaking off the last of her lassitude. Oberon’s phone rang. He glanced at it and his smile returned. He let it ring a few more times before finally answering. “Neil—always such a pleasure. Yes, we’re leaving immediately.”

  Oberon slid the phone shut. “Okay, Kitt, let’s go. You too, Cody.”

  The Incubus looked up in surprise. “Really?”

  “Roberts has a way of getting under my skin—if I start to get too upset, zap me with your happy juice.”

  Oberon had waited several years for some payback, and now the day had finally come. Neil Roberts was his bitch. But Kitt was right—a boy had died and that soured his taste of revenge.

  The agents stood around looking uncomfortable and the head of VCU scowled.

  “I’m not happy about this DuPrie,” Agent Roberts growled.

  Situation normal. No preliminaries, no niceties, just straight for the throat.

  Oberon gave his former team leader the best fuck-me grin he could summon. “Do I look like I give a shit?”

  Tez rolled her eyes. “Dr. Jordan, shall we get started?”

  “Fine with me,” Kitt said. “But should we leave the children alone. Someone might get hurt.”

  Oberon could feel his temper rising; Neil Roberts tended to have that effect on him. Cody came to stand on one side of Oberon, then Kitt on the other.

  Oberon looked over at Tez and noticed how plump and delicious her lips looked with bright red do-me lipstick. A tingling warmth spread from the center of his chest and he melted into it.

  Agent Roberts also seemed to be wearing the same goofy grin, his eyes distant and unseeing. Even the other VCU had relaxed their stiff stance. Oberon glanced at Cody. The Incubus’s eyes glowed soft violet. He’d diffused the growing tension and Oberon duly noticed. He gave Cody an inconspicuous thumbs-up.

  Agent Roberts shook himself. “Okay, we’ll leave, but I want a copy of the report on my desk ASAP.”

  “In triplicate,” Tez said and smiled sweetly.

  The head of VCU signaled to his men and they withdrew. As he passed by Tez, he stopped. “Document everything, and I mean everything.”

  Obviously, thought Oberon, the agent didn’t know of his relationship with Tez or he would’ve insisted on another doctor. Still, he wasn’t about to let that little detail get in the way.

  Kitt snapped on the latex gloves and carefully unzipped the body bag. The boy’s face bore little resemblance to the one she saw at the games—that something-special, that vibrancy he had last night, was gone.

  “He must have been a good-looking kid,” Tez said under her breath.

  Kitt remembered the reactions from girls last night. “Yeah, he was.”

  She unzipped the body bag completely and they dragged it from the gurney onto the stainless steel table before rolling the corpse onto his side. The sliver of metal remained embedded in the back of his neck.

  “Tez, can you pass me—” She didn’t have to finish as Tez placed a set of forceps in her outstretched hand.

  “Just like old times.” Tez grinned at her.

  Yeah, it was, only this time it should be Tez taking the lead. “You know, I can observe if you want to do this.”

  The M.E. shook her head. “I’m happy having you as the expert consultant. Between the two of us, we hopefully won’t miss much.”

  Kitt extracted the metal and held it up to the light. Definitely silver, and definitely the same dimensions as the others. But more important, the placement is precise and consistent with the others. Even if the method of disablement had been leaked to the public, the exact placement, with such exacting precision, would have been damn near impossible to do without a lot of practice.

  “He’s human—why use silver?” Tez asked in a flat, far-off voice.

  “I suspect it was more about the ritual,” Kitt answered and looked at the younger M.E. “You doing okay?”

  “Yeah,” Tez said, her spark returning. “But it just doesn’t fecken add up—why use a ritual perfect for Animalians on a human?”

  “Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity,” Kitt said without much certainty.

  “Maybe.” Tez didn’t sound convinced either.

  Kitt turned the body onto its back. “Let’s look at the chest wound for any differences.”

  The ribs were torn apart in the same brutal manner, and the heart had been ripped from the gaping hole in the chest just like the rest. There seemed to be more marking on this body than the previous deaths, more superficial cuts on the chest.

  “Take a look at this,” Tez said. “I think we have another symbol.”

  These marks were too uniform to be random wounds. And the one thing that made this death different was giving them another possible clue: an Animalian would have had time to heal these kind of injuries, humans couldn’t.

  “I’m pretty convinced it’s the same killer,” Kitt said. “The MO is the same, but his victim typology has shifted.”

  “I agree,” Tez said. “Let’s finish the autopsy.”

  Kitt peeled off the latex gloves and dumped them in the special trash can. Then she crossed to the phone on the wall and dialed.

  He answered on the second ring. “Oberon!”

  “We’re done,” she said and looked down at the mark, the one simple pattern that confirmed all their fears. “And it’s definitely our killer. But we’ve found something new.”

  The team gathered around the conference table. Bianca, Cody, Raven, and Rudolf sat to the left; Antoinette, Tones, and Kitt on the right, with Oberon at the head. They all stared at the photograph on the screen, all silently contemplating the symbols carved into the victim’s flesh, comparing them against the one in Rudolf’s book. They matched. One, the mark of the Dark Brethren, and the other couldn’t be deciphered.

  “It could be a coincidence,” Tones said. “I mean, up until a couple of days ago, we’d never even heard of these Dark Brethren.”

  Rudolf sighed. “I wish I could agree. But these events are coming together. I’d say the Dark Brethren are building their strength for a push to free themselves from the imprisonment placed on them by our ancestors. I have done some more research, which has been difficult because most old texts have removed any reference to the Dark Brethren. Apparently, they prey on the immoral or malevolent among us. They twist and manipulate the individual until they control them and make them a disciple of the Brethren. Once a disciple, every negative emotion such as greed, lust and envy is exacerbated. Our problem is how to identify these disciples and stop them from freeing the Dark Brethren from their imprisonment.”

  “Then how would we stop them?” Oberon asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Rudolf said. “But my research seemed to also indicate the need for some kind of blood sacrifice. I think this second mark may be the personal identifier of the Brethren controlling their disciple.”

  “So we need to stop the sacrifices to stop the Dark Brethren?” Kitt mused aloud.

  They all looked at her, as if she’d said something stupidly insane. All except for Rudolf, who tilted his head as a slow smile creased his aging, withered face.

  “Well, maybe not stop them, but at least slow them down,” he said and turned to Antoinette. “We need to identify any other murders similar to this—murders that may be Dark Brethren influenced; murders that bear the same Dark Brethren mark.”

  “You mean like blood sacrifices to ancient powers of old,” Bianca said.

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” Rudolf said. “The more violent and bloodier the death, then the stronger the Brethren grow.”

  Tones raised his head from where he’d been resting it in his hands. “But how’re we supposed to find them all?”

  Antoinette stood straight up and looked around at them. “Maybe we need to recruit some more operatives.”

  Raven had been silent throughout the entire discussion, frowning and in deep thought, but now his face suddenly changed. He looked over at Oberon and ex
changed one of those annoyingly male, tiny reverse nods that other males instantly understand. Being around Dylan and Oberon all these years, Kitt had learned to interpret some of them. This one said, “Dude, we need to talk”—and with exactly the same replying head movement, Oberon said, “Later.”

  The ursian then moved on. “Tones, run an analysis on all the violent crimes in the area and see if there are any others bearing these marks. Then cross-reference with other ritualistic murder cases in the state, looking for any evidence with the same patterns from this area, then widen the search to the rest of the country.”

  Tones braced his arms on the table. “Do you think it’s possible Marvella’s latest dreniac recruitment drive is linked to this Dark Brethren thing?”

  “Good point,” Oberon said. “Let’s split our efforts. Antoinette can you continue to handle the dreniac case?”

  The Aeternus female gave him the same terrifying, deadly grin that Kitt did in the alley. She suppressed a shudder; the look still creeped her out.

  “Excellent! Now, Bianca, can you hit the Academy’s database and student records to see what you can find out in the way of exceptional students, so we identify any potential new recruits? And, Cody, I want you to help Kitt. I’ll keep everyone off your backs. Share nothing of what we’ve discussed here, especially not with anyone in the VCU.”

  They all rose with purpose and filed out of the room.

  Kitt tapped Cody on the arm. “Can you take me to the latest crime scenes?”

  “Sure.” He slid his hands into the pockets of his khaki cargo shorts, his sun-bleached hair flopping into his eyes. “But why?”

  “I just want to get a feel for the kill zones.”

  “Good idea.” Oberon followed them out of the conference room. “Take Raven with you.”

  “What?” she said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea after last night. Shouldn’t he just lay low?”

  “He’ll be more useful out there than sitting around here on his ass.” His eyes flicked past her. “Take him with you.”

  She turned and found her ex-lover standing in the doorway. “How long have you been there?”

  “Long enough,” Raven said and crossed his arms. “And you don’t need to worry about me.”

  “Hey—she’s only trying to protect your ass,” Oberon interjected and frowned heavily at Raven. “Rightly or wrongly you’re a hunted man, so don’t get too blasé about the danger you’re in or the danger you put her in.”

  “Come with me,” Cody said, steering Raven toward the back rooms. “No one will recognize you once I’m done.”

  “There’s a janitor’s uniform back there,” chimed in Oberon. “The guards sometimes use it in the outer office—no one pays much attention to a janitor . . .” For a moment, Oberon’s mouth hung open, his eyes glazing, and his internal cogs spinning double time. “Tones. I need you in my office— ASAP.”

  Tones gave him a distracted wave from his computer terminal. “Just a minute, Captain.”

  “NOW!” the ursian yelled.

  As Tones scurried to comply, Oberon dropped his voice to her. “You can’t keep him locked up down here, even for his own good. He’s just not the kind you can keep penned in.”

  Another reason she’d been attracted to Raven—no commitments, no long-term aspirations: the perfect material for an extramarital bit on the side. Oberon was right about one thing, though. Raven was not a man who took well to restriction.

  After several minutes, Cody led a hunched, portly blond janitor back into the room. If Kitt hadn’t known who it was, she would never have recognized him. Cody did good.

  “Let’s go get this over with,” she said.

  Classes had already started, so there were only a few students in the halls. The library was still closed, and yellow crime-scene tape barred access. Cody unlocked the door and they all ducked beneath the tape.

  The smell of old blood and violence was ripe in the enclosed area.

  “Why aren’t there cameras in here?” Antoinette asked.

  “There were.” Cody shrugged. “Apparently they malfunctioned a couple days before the murder.”

  Raven straightened, immediately becoming the hunter. His eyes went lupine as he sniffed at the air. “The victim was in here awhile with the killer, not knowing he was being stalked.”

  He moved between the rows of books, occasionally stopping to breathe in deeply. “The killer is definitely male and in an extremely excited state. There’s trace pheromones just under the latex smell on everything he touched. Like here, where he stood leaning against the shelf. And here, where he moved these books aside.”

  “Could you trace him through this scent?” Kitt asked.

  Raven’s features froze in concentration. “Yes, I think so.”

  They moved to where the body had been discovered. The carpet would need to be replaced; a large blood-stained area surrounded a spot in the vague shape of the body. Blood spatters covered nearby shelves and book spines, a table, and the back of a chair lying on its side. Kitt stared at some smudged footprints but couldn’t discern any shoe pattern.

  “With this much blood, he must’ve been covered,” Raven said. “Which would’ve made him very visible.”

  Cody squatted to look at the dried blood. “Unless he changed. There was a janitor on the monitors outside the library, but we couldn’t be sure he came from or into the library—however, we do know the usual janitor was off sick that night. We have no idea who that was on the surveillance cameras.”

  “Of course it was,” Kitt said. “He’d have to plan this to know the best time to strike and how to avoid detection.”

  Cody pulled out a small notebook from the pocket of his cotton shirt and started jotting notes. “I’ll get Tones to check out the CCTV again to see what he can find. The crime scene cleaners will be here shortly to get the library reopened as soon as possible; Oberon has stalled them for as long as he can.” He closed up the book and looked at them both. “Do you want to take a look at the fresh scene now? The arena scenery is due to be rebuilt tomorrow.”

  “Sure.” Raven looked at Kitt and frowned. “Unless she’s had enough.”

  “Of course we’ll take a look,” Kitt said nonchalantly, trying not to let his little barb sting.

  Why is he so pissed with me?

  Raven shifted to his wolf senses as they entered the arena. This place was worse than the library. From the looks of the kill room, there was a definite struggle, with broken overturned furniture and lots of blood. But in the end, the human had lost, unlike he had earlier that night.

  The strong scent of the same pheromones he’d found in the library lingered on the walls and the floor. He followed the smell and it led him to a room across the corridor. Behind an old cupboard was where the killer hid; there, a condensed patch of scent had collected. He had waited here, maybe watching his prey. Raven also caught the fresh, strong scent of lust and sex by that wall, and it was mixed with the lingering odor of a woman’s perfume.

  “In here,” he called out to the others.

  Kitt’s amber eyes were wide and her face flushed with excitement as she joined him. God, I love that look on her. It’s the same look she had last night, before Oberon’s interruption.

  But this time it wasn’t for him; the hunt sent color to her cheeks.

  “What happened in here?” she asked.

  Was it the scent of lust that stoked his desire, or the scent of her? He felt himself responding to Kitt’s nearness with a familiar stirring—his hunger for her growing stronger.

  Cody’s eyes glowed and narrowed. Raven’s lust had stimulated the Incubus’s hunger as well.

  “Raven, what happened here?” Kitt repeated when he didn’t respond.

  “Uh.” He snapped himself out of it, for the time controlling his wayward desires. “The victim had a female in here . . . on that old desk over by the wall, to be precise. And the killer watched them from here, his bloodlust rising.”

  He concentrated on the perf
ume and followed it. “The girl left not long after sex, but the boy stayed and moved into the room opposite.”

  Raven closed his eyes, scenting the air, reading what had happened. “The boy must have sensed the killer as he came in after him. He turned and fought back. A scuffle ensued. But eventually the killer overpowered and disabled the human.”

  “Can you tell if the killer was human or not?” Cody asked, writing notes on a small pad.

  “Usually, yes,” he said and frowned. “There’s something different about this scent, though, like several meshing into one, nothing identifiable.” He’d never come across anything like it before in all his years as a tracker.

  “The killer wasn’t wearing shoes but wasn’t barefoot either. Look. Another smudged bloody footprint here has nothing definable,” Kitt said.

  “The scene has been fully documented and photographed; let’s get this info to Tones,” Cody announced.

  This killer enjoyed his work and he wouldn’t stop. Raven hoped everyone had strong stomachs, because he had the feeling the body count was about to rise.

  Chapter 16 - Lovers Lost

  “Where’s everyone?” Kitt asked Tones as they walked into the nearly deserted Bunker.

  “Huh?” He looked up from the computer screen and glanced around, amazed. “Um, I don’t know. I’ve been working.”

  “I got some more data for you,” Cody said, sitting on the chair next to him. They soon had their bent heads together, going over the notes in Cody’s notebook.

  Kitt rubbed the tension knots in the back of her neck. The last few days had been more than eventful. All the talk of bloody violence freeing an imprisoned race that sounded like demons from hell had taken its toll.

  She was tired, sore, and hungry, and didn’t feel like returning to her cold apartment alone. As if reading her mind, Raven came up behind her and started working on the knots with sure, strong yet gentle hands. She dropped her head forward and moaned—his fingers knew exactly where she needed them to go.

  Raven leaned forward, his lips close to her ear. “Why don’t you let me cook you something to eat? Oberon’s stocked the kitchen.”