Carson nodded slowly. Dolan was bear-blooded, but he had taken a human wife, who still lived in the city. If the bear felt that he needed to live among men to protect them, the cause was dire indeed.
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” he asked. “Can you tell me when he will strike?”
Dolan blinked small round eyes at Carson, and it struck Carson that there was always a part of Dolan that remained a bear. There was always something slow and patient at the heart of the man, but he didn't doubt that it could be roused to vicious and insane anger in a moment if those he loved were threatened.
“He will strike when he is hungry,” the older man said, his voice dropping to an animal-like growl. “He will strike when he is maddened, and he will not stop until he is stopped.”
Carson stood up a little straighter, his eyes turning toward the city. “I'm going to be the one to stop him,” he said, his voice tight. “I have to. There is no other choice.”
***
It was almost one in the morning, and Violet was painfully aware of all of the other things that she could be doing. She could be at home in bed, or more likely, she could be at her computer, tracking down stray receipts and fake credit card numbers. People paid her well to find evidence of their spouse's infidelity or their employee's fraudulent claims, but it all paled compared to what she had found out that day.
There had been a murder, a young university student close to the dive bars on the riverfront. The police were keeping it quiet, but between Vicky's phone call and a discreet contact in the typing pool at the police department, she knew that the killer was back, and that he had struck against the town like lightening.
That was almost twenty-four hours ago, and the site where they had found the poor young man was already packed up. His body had been taken away and all that remained was the sad flutter of the yellow police tape. There should have been a cop to watch it, but she knew that between the budget cuts and the fear that there was a serial killer on the loose, every spare policeman would be pulled back to the station.
That meant that she could explore as she liked, and even if a part of her quailed at the idea of venturing into such dangerous territory, another part of her lit up at the chance to catch the killer. She wasn't sure what she could find there or what she might see that the police had overlooked, but she knew that she couldn't rest idle when the thing that might have killed her parents was back.
The deserted lot was ringed on all sides by derelict buildings. Not far away, there were dive bars full of drunk people and fights, but there was something terribly desolate about this place. The grass was already grown tall, and once she made it past the police tape, she could see the battered shack where the act had taken place.
For a long moment, Violet stood in the grass with her eyes closed. It was a thing her father had taught her long ago. When she opened her eyes, they were acclimatized to the dark, and she could see a little bit better.
She took a deep breath and started walking slowly. She had heard about the student from her contact, how he was a promising young man in the pre-med program. He had only been unlucky, the way that all of the killer’s victims had been unlucky. Violet looked around, trying to figure out what it was he had felt, and her stomach did a slow roll as she realized she was looking at the last things he had seen.
Perhaps he had looked over the river, where the lights from the buildings across it made it shimmer with beauty. Perhaps he had turned his head the way she did now, examining the darkened lots and the passages between the derelict buildings. She felt a shiver of fear run up her spine. She glanced up at the smoky sky above, but then she dropped her eyes quickly as she thought about lying on the cold asphalt as something terrible, something murderous, loomed over her.
“Poor thing,” she muttered.
Violet prowled through the dark lot, every sense turned up high and tense. She didn't know what she was looking for, but as years of detective work had taught her, sometimes you just had to be in the right place at the right time. There could be no other place for this to start than right now and right here, and she intended to start well and go on to the end.
She saw the place where the body had been found, and if her insider source was to be believed, had been killed as well. The chalk outline was visible in the light emitted from her phone, and it struck her that the body looked so thin when it was outlined on the ground in its final rest.
You're even smaller, a snide voice in her head whispered. Think how thin you'll look...
Violet shook the nervous thought out of her mind, and she continued her investigation. She swept carefully through the area, moving in a spiral with the body site at the center. She kept her eyes peeled for everything that she could see. The police would have done the same, but you never knew when something would be missed, when some tender little detail could be important.
She had come snug up to a chain link fence when she felt it.
Suddenly, Violet couldn't get her breath. There was a feeling of heaviness in the air around her, as if the pressure had dropped straight on her head. She stumbled, catching herself by wrapping her fingers into the chain link fence. She stayed upright, but the feeling of panic that suddenly surged up in her throat made her shake like a leaf.
Violet was no coward, but now terror surged at her, clouding her vision and making her shake like a leaf. She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She wanted to fall down, and her knees shook.
“No,” she heard herself whisper through numb lips. “No, I will not.”
No sooner had she voiced the thought then the presence lifted. It happened so quickly that she nearly staggered again, and when she got her composure back, she looked up to realize that she wasn't alone.
There was a shadowy figure on the other side of the fence, and in her frantic daze, she was at first convinced that this was the killer himself, come to kill her just like he had killed her parents.
“Who are you?” a harsh voice asked. “What the hell could you be doing here at this hour?”
“I'm a private investigator over in Palmson 45,” she said smoothly, naming one of the suburban precincts outside of Harrispont. It wasn't exactly a lie. She had consulted on several cases for that precinct, but that was years ago, when she was just getting her start.
The shadowy figure on the other side of the fence paused, and now she was wondering who he was. He didn't act like a cop or flash a badge, and she was just beginning to get nervous again when he spoke.
“That's a lie,” he said flatly.
Violet barely had time to register his words and then, without backing up, the man simply leaped into the air, straight over the eight-foot high chain link fence and landed lightly next to her. She started to scream, but it was choked off when he took her by the arm and started to haul her away.
“Oh god, no, no, let me go, you fuck!” she shouted.
She raked at him with her free hand, trying to recall everything she knew about self-defense, but as quickly as he had grabbed her, he let her go again.
Blinking, Violet found herself in the harsh orange light of one of the street lamps that ran along the frontage road. She gazed up and up at a man who must have been more than six feet tall, and she locked gazes with one of the most handsome men she had ever seen.
His face was stern, with a mouth that was sensual even as he glared at her. She couldn't tell what color his eyes were in the dimness of the light, but she knew they were pale, and his short hair was so pale it shed the light like water.
“Who the hell are you?” he snarled. “I can smell the lie on you, so don't try it again. Are you with one of the rat tribes? Do you run with the dingos?”
“I'm not in any of that gang crap,” Violet finally managed to get out. “Stop shouting at me!”
Her words brought him up sharply, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
“Truth,” he said, nodding, but he looked no less suspicious. “You're not with the rats or the dingos. If you're not, then what the hell
are you doing here?”
“Told you,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height. She saw his gaze drop down her body, but instead of pissing her off as that kind of thing usually did, something kindled low in her belly. She shook it off and resumed glaring at him.
“I'm Violet LeFay, and I'm with Palmson 45. I'm investigating the murder.”
The tall man snorted at that, and he jerked his head to one side in irritation. There was something curiously dog-like about the way he moved, no, not dog-like, wolf-like, but before she could really put her finger on it, he was talking again.
“You're lying, but not about anything important,” he said. “Either way, you're not mine to interfere with, so you need to get out of here.”
“Damn straight,” she retorted, “I'm not your meat, and I don't need to do a goddamn thing you say.”
He stared at her, but instead of shouting or even shoving her as she was afraid he might do, a slow smile spread across his face. “If you won't listen to me, what about Chief Holstead?”
“Who?”
“The police chief over at Palmson 45,” he supplied smoothly. “You know, the people you're working with?”
Violet bit her lip, wondering if he was bluffing her bluff, but he looked completely relaxed, crossing his arms over his broad chest and grinning at her.
“I'll bet that since you're on such great terms with absolutely everyone at the police department in Palmson that they'll know who you are, right? They'll know exactly why you're out here, in the dark, with no backup and no gun...”
Violet swore under her breath, her inventiveness making the man chuckle, and she shook her head. “All right, you caught me out,” she said with a defensive shrug. “I'm alone.”
“What a coincidence, so am I.”
The words were uttered with a velvet catch to them that shot heat straight to her belly, and she bit her lip hard. Surely it hadn't been that long since she had had a partner? Well, it had actually been almost two years since she had had a man, and that was just a fling...
She looked up at this man who smiled down at her with just the barest hint of humor, and suddenly she knew that just as he could tell when she was lying, he could tell when she was aroused as well.
“So what's your deal?” she asked suddenly. “Bet the cops wouldn't like to know you were out here either.”
He laughed, but there was a slight nervousness to it that made her grin.
“Oh yeah, I bet if I call the local PD that they would totally know who you are,” she said, mimicking his words with smug glee. “No backup, no gun, no badge that you bothered to flash...”
He held up his hands as if surrender. “All right, all right,” he said, shaking his head. “If you don't tell on me, I won't tell on you.”
“Fair enough,” she said, comfortable enough to smile now that she knew she wasn't going to be brought up on trespassing charges.
“There's nothing here either,” he continued. “Nothing for the police, and nothing for me, and that probably means nothing for you.”
“Who says that I'm after what the police want or what you want?” she retorted, but he simply raised an eyebrow at her.
“The only thing that happened around here that means a damn thing is the murder,” he pointed out. “That and drug deals and johns looking for hookers. Excuse me if I didn't think that you don't look quite like a junkie looking for her fix.”
“And not much like a hooker, either, I guess?” she said, quirking an eyebrow at him. She barely knew what was coming out of her mouth, but her attraction to this man made her brave and even more reckless than she would have been otherwise. She could feel her heart beat faster and a part of her longed for him in a way that she had never wanted a man before.
“I was going to be a gentleman about it,” he said, his voice lowered in a way that made her shiver. She could see the smile that quirked his sensual lips, and he leaned in closer.
Instead of taking a step back, she gazed up at him with a grin, one hand on her cocked hip. “A gentleman, huh,” she asked softly. “So I guess a gentleman wouldn't be looking for...”
“A beautiful woman with a lovely face and a brave walk? I'm always looking for someone like that.”
“Enough to pay for it?” she asked daringly, and the soft laugh she got out of him warmed her straight to her toes.
“Perhaps,” he said, playing along. “Maybe enough to pay quite a lot for it. If and only if I knew what I was buying, of course.”
Violet knew that he couldn't see her blush in the dark, but suddenly she was certain that he could sense it. There was something more than human about him, and she knew that he could feel her interest, even her arousal.
“Do you want to see?” she whispered, hanging on to their strange game by a thread. “Do you want to see before you buy?”
“Yes,” he said, and there was a real growl in his voice this time. Instead of frightening her, it only made her ache with desire.
Before she could chicken out or think better of her actions, her hands were on the hem of her tank top, and she was slowly rolling it up. She could feel those sharp eyes on her as she revealed first her soft supple belly and then hesitated below her breasts. The slight chill in the spring air was already breaking her out into gooseflesh, but before she could lose her nerve entirely, she pulled her tank top up, revealing her bare breasts to the cool air. She never wore a bra unless she had to, and she could almost feel the way that the man's eyes locked on her dark nipples. Violet could feel them puckering, tightening up in the cold breeze, and she knew that she wasn't imagining his breath coming faster.
“That's... that's definitely worth paying for,” he said, swallowing hard.
“One thousand,” Violet grinned, naming the first large figure that came to mind, and the man laughed. She grinned, anticipating a joke, perhaps something about bargaining her down, but he was shaking his head.
“I'd pay a thousand easily,” he said, “but that doesn't tell me what I get to do.”
“What do you want?” Violet asked, feeling bold and daring. Her heart was fit to beat out of her chest, and he hadn't even touched her yet.
“I want to touch you,” he said, his voice soft and vibrating with promise. “I want to run my hands along your sides to find out if you are as soft as you look.”
She swallowed hard, and instead of telling him he could, she reached for his hands and laid them against her sides. He was shockingly warm, and she sighed at the touch of his calloused hands on her softest flesh. Violet heard the man's soft gasp, and then those rough hands were sliding along her sides, up and down.
He circled his thumbs against the sides of her hypersensitive breasts, and after a long moment where she was swaying with desire against him, he flicked her nipples gently, bringing a rush of heat over her body.
“What else do you want?” she whispered, her voice hoarse, and it took him a moment to continue.
“I'd want you against my body,” he said unsteadily. “I want you to feel how hard I am, and how ready I am for you...”
She whimpered and, stepping close, she was overwhelmed by his size. She should have been horrified, should have been appalled that she was behaving like this with a man she had met in such a strange circumstance, but instead, she felt his hardness through his jeans and she only wanted more. She breathed in the clean scent of him, pine and something deeper and male underneath that.
“What else?” she whispered, and he laughed raggedly.
“I... I want you to lean against the lamp post there,” he whispered, “Face away from me, while I see what a gorgeous ass you have...”
The thought of how exposed she would be only added to her desire, and she stumbled back to do just as he said. Now she could only look over her shoulder at him, and she could see the way he licked his lips like she was something good to eat.
“Oh, that's a gorgeous girl,” he murmured. “I know you want me, and oh god yes, I would pay a thousand for you, dear, I would pay more...
”
His hands came down to stroke across her rear, squeezing the round globes gently before traveling to her hips. He wrapped strong fingers around her hips, and she let out a small cry when she felt herself pressed back against him. She could feel the hardness of his cock through her jeans and his, and the thought of how close she was to simply being fucked in the open against a lamp post in a dirty part of town excited her so much she could have shouted.
Slowly, his hands made their way around her waist to the fly of her jeans, and they hesitated there until she found the presence of mind to whisper, “Yes, oh yes, please.”
He unzipped her jeans quickly, and then his warm fingers were sliding inside. They slipped against the sleekness of her satin panties, but then her jeans were being eased down over her hips. Violet shuddered when the cool air brushed across her bare buttocks, but he was there again, pressing against her and warming her up.
“You're so gorgeous like this,” he whispered. “You should be careful. I might decide that I want you so much that I'm going to keep you.”
“Go ahead and try,” she said, bumping her hips back against him firmly and making him gasp. ““You'll find that this kitty has claws.”
“A cat, hmm? Well, I've had problems with cats before, but you I think I want to chase. After all, you've got such a cute tail...”
Gently, his hand slid against her mons, which was still covered by her panties. She knew that now he could feel how damp they were, and even she could smell her earthy womanly scent. After another moment, one fingertip slid underneath the elastic of her panties' edge and he was touching her soft skin, riffling his fingers through the tangle of dark hair there to find the damp flesh underneath.
Violet's fingers tightened on the lamp post, and she couldn't help arching her back, making it easier for him to touch her. Her legs parted, and she heard him gasp as his questing finger sunk more deeply into her liquid heat.
Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle - Books 1-3 Page 2