by Jenn Windrow
Detective Coleman’s eyes fixed on me for the first time. “That’s too many bites for one vampire. Don’t you think?”
“Why are you asking me?” I held out my hands, palms up. Totally innocent.
“Because I think you know more than you’re telling me.”
I had to applaud him for his honesty, but why didn’t he just come out and say what he was thinking. “The first time I saw this girl was in the playground and she was already dead.”
“That brings up another point,” Doctor Monroe interrupted the tension. “She wasn’t killed at the park. Her death occurred at least two days prior to the night you found her.”
Shit. The girl had been the main course at a feeding frenzy. Brought back to the nest and served up as dinner. But why dump her body at the park? It didn’t make sense.
“Are you ready to tell me the truth?” Coleman asked.
“I’ve told you all I can.”
Coleman walked closer to the body and pointed at the marks. “In all my years with the VAU I have never seen an attack like this.” The anger in his voice fully directed at me.
He obviously hadn’t been raised in a nest of newly turned vampires. Hunger is the driving force when you wake up. Without a Sire to control the urges, something like what happened to the girl on the gurney could happen easily.
I stole a glance at Reaper, hoping for some assistance, but he didn’t or wouldn’t meet my gaze. “What makes you think I have?”
He left her side and leaned next to my ear, his voice barely a whisper, just loud enough for me to hear, but not anyone else. “You and I both know the answer to that question.”
I didn’t know what to say. There was no way I was admitting to being a vampire, not here, not now, and certainly not to him.
He stepped back when he realized I wasn’t going to answer him. “You told me you didn’t see anyone at the park, but Doctor Monroe found vampire ash on her clothes.”
“That could have happened when the vamps were feeding from her. Maybe things got rough, one of them died,” I countered.
“I thought the same thing, but then I had them examine the survivor’s clothes and she was covered with ash as well.”
“What does that prove?” I knew he was leading me down a slippery slope, but all I could do was follow.
“Forensics says the ash belongs to two different vampires.” He allowed me a minute to digest this new information before he continued on. “The DNA confirms it.”
That dropped bomb exploded in my stomach “Vampires leave DNA?”
Doctor Monroe answered me this time. “They were human once and DNA doesn’t change.” Well shit, I guess it was still possible to learn something new, even after one hundred and seventy-three years.
Vampire DNA. The humans are learning more about our race then they should be allowed.
We know all their secrets, shouldn’t they know ours?
No.
Detective Coleman came closer. “You know what else we found?”
“No clue, but I’m sure you’re dying to tell me.” My nerves were shot and my inner smart-ass decided to pay a visit.
“More DNA in the wound of the survivor’s neck.”
“Probably from the vampire bite.”
“Nope. And it didn’t match the DNA from the other bite wounds either. In fact, this sample was deep in the wound, mixed in with another. It’s a good thing forensics is so advanced or we might have never found it.”
Yeah for forensics.
Doctor Monroe handed me a sheet of paper. Black dots and letters filled one side of the long page, colored waves filled the other. To the uneducated eye it looked like nonsense.
“What’s this?”
“A DNA sequencing run.” He leaned in, and his clean, woodsy smell distracted me. “This here is the DNA from the ash collected at the scene.” He moved his finger down the page. “This row is the DNA extracted from the survivor’s neck.” His shoulder bumped mine, and tiny tingles fluttered through my stomach. He met my gaze and gave me a tight-lipped smile before he moved away and finished his thought. “They don’t match, and neither sample is in the Vampire DNA Database…”
“You have a data base of vampire DNA?”
He nodded. “A pet project of mine.” He folded the paper and laid it on the table. “I added this new sample right before you came in. If this vampire is involved in any other killings I’ll be able to verify that they are a threat.”
Oh. Shit. Just what I needed, my DNA on file. I knew healing her was going to bite me in the ass. This is what I get for trying to do the right thing. I needed to know what Coleman knew. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because either you killed the vampires at the park or you had a hand in her attack.” There it was, the real reason we were here staring at a dead body.
I looked at Reaper again before I answered, wondering with my eyes if he knew anything about DNA and databases, but he continued to focus on the girl on the gurney. He was no help at all, and Nathan, well, Nathan kept popping up from inside the drawers explaining what every dead body looked like. “I didn’t have anything to do with the attack.” I purposely ignored the other accusation.
“How do you explain the two piles of ash?”
“I can’t.” I plastered a sugarcoated smile on my face. “How do you explain them?”
“I think you stumbled upon them just like you said, but that’s where the truth to your story ends.” He started pacing around the room, his hand on the top of his stake. If he was hoping to intimidate he was doing a good job. “Then I think you killed the vampires and tried to help the girl. But why would someone like you save a vampire victim?”
I wasn’t going to let him rattle me. “That’s one theory,” I said. “But here’s another. Stop worrying about what I did and do your job.”
The detective’s jaw fell open and he narrowed his eyes at me. I looked deep and what I saw was a man on the edge. Too much stress and too many bad things had hardened him through the years. He was dangerously close to his breaking point and grasping at straws. Right now, I was the only lead he had. I could help him, throw him a bone, but I was afraid of getting bit.
Doing the right thing really sucked.
I opened my mouth, knowing what I was about to do was stupid, but the knowledge didn’t stop me. “Detective Coleman, the vampire responsible for this will pay. I promise.” That was as close as I was going to get to admitting I was a vampire. He’d have to be satisfied.
Reaper, Nathan, and Doctor Monroe all stared at me. Eddie groaned from his cozy home inside me. I’m guessing the words, “She’s gone completely insane,” marched through their minds.
Coleman looked at the M.E and motioned to the gurney between them. “I think we’re done here.”
Doctor Monroe covered the body, walked to the door, and held it open. Before I passed by, he grabbed my hand and gave it a shake. The warmth of his skin seeped into my flesh and spread out through the rest of my body. “It was interesting to meet you, Ms. Black.” I slid my hand out of his and nodded as I passed.
Coleman walked through the door and quickly caught up to me. “I’ll be watching you,” he said, and then walked to the elevator.
Wasn’t that a comforting thought.
Reaper, Nathan, and I walked out of the morgue and piled into the Chevelle. Once we were settled Reaper started. “Fuck. You just told Coleman you were a vampire.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“The hell you didn’t,” Nathan piped up from the back seat.
I turned and looked at the ghostly traitor. “Shut it, ghost.”
“What’d the spook say?”
“He agreed with you.”
“Because he knows I’m right.”
The conversation continued on like that all the way back to my place. At least Reaper and Nathan were finally in agreement on something. They both thought I was a complete and total idiot.
I hopped out of the car the moment it came to a stop in fro
nt of my building, thankful to be leaving one of the nagging ninnies behind. I opened the door and there he was, sitting on my foyer floor, legs stretched out, t-shirt pulled out of the waist of his pants, and a few curls of light brown chest hair peeking out of the top of his t-shirt.
Doctor Julian Monroe, M.E.
Chapter Ten
My first thought. I wanted to lick him up and down like a lollipop. My second. What the fuck was he doing here? My priorities were really messed up. That’s two break-in’s in five days. I needed a guard dog.
When he saw me come through the door he stood. Without his lab coat, I got a better look at his toned chest and a hint of six-pack abs through his thin black t-shirt. He wiped the dirt off the back of his cream-colored dress pants, and I watched as his hands traveled over the curve of his well-defined ass.
Fear filled the room when I first walked through the door, but after a few seconds, Doctor Monroe’s heartbeat slowed and the smell of fear was replaced with something savage and sexy.
“I’ll just go upstairs and leave you to your drooling.” Nathan’s voice broke through the cloud of lust that had fogged up my brain.
I waved my ghostly partner off and then realized what I must look like and forced my arm back down to my side. “Can I help you, doctor?” I hoped my voice sounded calm and not like a love-struck teenager.
He walked closer, but still kept a good ten feet between us. “I need to talk to you.”
I pushed the call button on the elevator and leaned my hip against the wall. “How did you find me?”
“I followed you when you left the Morgue and snuck in while you talked to Reaper in the car.” He glanced around my dingy downstairs, the walls that had been painted too many times, and couldn’t decide what color they were anymore, the chipped and yellowed linoleum, the dirt that accumulated in the corners, and grimaced. His high eyebrows and slightly down turned lips told me he wasn’t impressed. “You live here?”
“Is there something wrong with my home?” The elevator creaked to a stop and I pulled back the cage, got on and waited for him to follow.
He hesitated, but then stepped on. “Not what I expected is all.”
I ignored him. Silence was the only way to control my slutty urges. Something about this man shouted do-me-now, and my mind was already imagining him naked. If I wasn’t careful, I’d jump him and we’d end up having sex on the elevator floor. What was it about Julian Monroe?
We exited the elevator, and he took a moment to take in the polished hard wood floors, gleaming granite counter tops, and a Degas collection that took me most of my long life to collect.
“Now this is what I was expecting.” He walked close to one of my paintings and touched the slight brush strokes.
“You know what they say, don’t judge a book...” I tossed my keys on the entryway table. “What do you want to talk about?” I didn’t feel like beating around the bush.
“I know you’re not human.” Obviously neither did he.
Eddie growled and clawed, ready to take charge and put an end to Dr. McHottie. I took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly let it out. “If that’s a new pick-up line, it needs some work.”
“I know who you are too.”
I made my way over to the sofa and scooped Raja off the arm, my fuzzy coat of armor. “Who and what do you think I am?”
He followed me to the couch and lowered himself onto the soft leather seats. “You’re the vampire they call Evil’s Assassin.” He reached out to pet Raja. She hissed, growled, scratched at his hand and then wiggled out of my arms and hid in her cat tree. I’d never seen her act like that before. Figures. First hot guy I bring home and the cat hates him.
I glanced back at my perturbed kitty to avoid his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He moved closer, so close that I lost all ability to think coherently. “I think you do.”
Our knees touched, the contact sizzled through the layers of denim and cotton that separated our skin. I jumped off the couch and sat down in the leather armchair a safe distance away. Talk about mixed signals. An hour ago, he was deathly afraid of me, now he was playing touchy feely on my couch. “Enlighten me,” I said when I found my voice again.
He sank back into the cushions and placed his elbow on the back of the couch and his hand on the back of his neck. Nice and relaxed. “There’s a rumor among certain circles I’m familiar with about a vampire, beautiful and deadly, at least to the supernatural world. They call her Evil’s Assassin.”
My heart jumped when he said I was beautiful. Well, okay he said others said I was beautiful, but his comment implied he did too. “What makes you think I’m her?”
“Just a hunch.”
When a gorgeous man tells you he thinks you’re a deadly assassin the best thing to do is change the subject. “Why are you really here?”
His lips lifted in a knowing smile. He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “I need your help.”
“With what?”
“Finding someone.”
“Call the police.”
“They can’t help me. I need someone with your special skills.”
If by special skills he meant dealer of death then he had his girl. “Why do you think I can help? I’m not a private investigator.”
He scrubbed his hands through his hair then rubbed his eyes before looking at me again. “I’ve exhausted all my other resources. I figured fate brought you into the morgue tonight.”
Fate or a pain-in-the-ass detective. Either way, Doctor Monroe was convinced he knew my true identity. Did Batman have these problems? Tonight seemed to be the night for guess-what-Alex-is and I was sick of playing. But one look at Doctor Monroe and I knew I couldn’t just show him the door.
“Who’s missing?”
“My sister.” He pulled out his wallet and opened it. I leaned over and studied the picture of an attractive young girl, not more than twenty-eight. They shared the same dark brown hair, pale blue eyes, and slightly wide nose.
“Pretty,” I said because I lacked the appropriate response.
He closed the wallet and tossed it on the coffee table. “She’s my twin.”
Pain speared my heart at the word twin. Memories of the last time I’d seen Andre, my twin, who I’d been separated from for over fifty years, surfaced, bringing with them fresh heartache. Andre who had risked his own life to give me mine, to help me escape from Xavier. My twin brother, I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. If I could spare Julian the hurt, the loss, the devastation of losing someone so close to him, I would. Looks like my decision to help the good doctor has been made.
“I’m not saying I’m going to help you, but if I decide to what other information can you give me?”
“The vampires have her.”
“How do you know that?”
“She’s dating one.”
A human dating a vampire? Not unheard of, but she looked to white bread to be the type. This good-looking guy and his missing sister seemed to know a lot about the world of the supernatural.
“Do you know his name?”
“Terrance. Some big shot in the Underground.”
And the surprises just kept coming. Doctor Monroe’s sister was dating the vampire I was looking for. Maybe fate did intervene. And now I had a second location to find him. The Underground. The vampire’s answer to Disneyland. Created as an unlimited source of food, fun, and fetishes.
A place I made sure to avoid.
I’m sure plenty of humans knew about it, even with its spelled entrance and glamoured building, but he seemed to be well informed about a world he shouldn’t know much about. “How much do you know about the Underground?”
“More than I want to.”
“How’d you find out about it?”
“Same circles that told me about you.” The good doctor had some strange friends.
“How long has she been gone?”
“Almost two weeks.”
I didn’t wan
t to be the one to tell him, because sex would pretty much be out of the question after I did, but I had my doubts his sister was alive. No human could survive two weeks with vampires; the blood loss alone would kill them. If they were lucky.
I looked up ready to give him the bad news, but the worry that creased his brow made me hold my tongue. Instead, I said, “Where did Terrance hang out?”
“At the club my sister worked at. Cuff’s.”
“Have you checked it out yet?”
He looked down at his feet. “I’m banned from the premise.”
“Banned?”
He lifted his head and gave me a lazy smile. “I might have started a brawl the last time I visited.”
I let out a loud unladylike laugh, happy I didn’t snort.
“Alexis, I need your help.” His tone switched from a man answering my questions to a man who stayed up late at night worrying about his loved one. “I can’t get to the people who can give me the information I need. You’re all I’ve got.”
My decision had already been made, but I didn’t want Doctor Monroe to think I was too eager or easy, so I let him sweat. He started fidgeting. Playing with the cuffs of his shirt, the hem of his pants, the buckle of his belt that sat just above his…
This man will get you killed. Eddie interrupted my oogling.
What makes you say that?
More years of experience than all your human and vampire years put together. Remember if you die. I die. Eddie just made death seem way more appealing.
“Fine. Leave the picture with me, and I’ll help you find her,” I blurted out to keep Eddie from voicing any more of his unwanted opinion.
“Really?”
I sighed, a sigh of someone who knows when they’ve made the wrong choice, but can’t make the right one. “Really.”
Julian removed the picture from his wallet and placed it on the coffee table. He rose from the couch and started walking to the door, but stopped mid-way. “I should warn you Detective Coleman suspects you’re not human.”
“He made that quite obvious tonight.”