Blood Trails

by Alianne Donnelly

  The TVs were all turned on and circles on the floor indicated where one had to stand to hear the audio accompanying the video. Three of the twenty-one TVs were showing the news. Jeremy’s step faltered as he glimpsed the headlines out of the corner of his eye. He stepped into the yellow circle to hear the story.

  “The police department in Sapphire City is asking the public for help in identifying the animal responsible for the deaths of five teenagers,” the announcer was saying while several pictures of sheet-covered bodies flashed one by one, then arranged themselves in a row at the bottom of the screen. “A description has not yet been released but similar accounts from other colonies have prompted the officials to declare a state of alarm.”

  The chief of police then stepped in front of the camera. He was standing on the boardwalk by the beach. Jeremy recognized the area; he’d found Hailey not far from there. “We believe that the animal is most likely a stray dog. There have been reports of several large ones wandering the streets. The proper authorities have already been notified, and while the state of alarm is now in effect we want the residents of Sapphire City to know that there is absolutely no need for panic.”

  He was about to say more, but the picture cut back to the news anchor. “The police department has assigned surveillance teams to patrol high-risk areas after dusk. Residents are being warned not to approach strange animals or lost pets. If you see an animal out of place, the safest thing to do is to notify the police immediately and retreat indoors. In other news…”

  Jeremy left the circle.

  The report didn’t give dates of attack. It could have happened as early as a week ago and as recently as an hour ago. But it couldn’t have been Hailey, could it? He’d kept a close eye on her for two days prior to their meeting and she’d spent the last day and a half glued to his side. She hadn’t changed a single time, not even a little. Not with her arm refusing to heal properly; she wouldn’t take the chance.

  Or was he being too quick to dismiss his suspicions? He’d been tracking Hailey for weeks. Creating a mental map of her movements, Jeremy tried to compare her recent locations to the animal attacks on the news. They seemed to match almost perfectly. With the exception of Sapphire City, Hailey had been in each town at the time when someone was attacked.

  There was a neat and perfect trail of blood leading right to her.

  No, it couldn’t have been Hailey. He’d lightly scanned her a few times during the trip from Sapphire City. Not once had he detected any kind of bloodlust in her thoughts, aside from the brief one directed at him.

  But it wouldn’t have been Hailey, would it? It would have been the leopard. The two were separate enough that neither had much awareness of the other. The leopard could very well have been the attacker, and Hailey never would have known it.

  As soon as he thought it Jeremy discarded the theory. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Hailey that he preferred to think better of people and risk being proven wrong. As long as Hailey was in his care, he would keep an eye on her. Just as he’d promised he would keep her safe until she proved him wrong.

  He was still frowning when he sat down at a screen and established a connection with Torrey. Pixie noticed.

  “Something’s wrong,” were the first words out of her mouth. “What’s wrong?” She was wearing some kind of dark green thing, with her hair braided in an intricate pattern.

  “Is there another ball going on and no one told me?”

  Pixie grinned and stepped farther back to show off her gown. “You like it?”

  “Looks very nice.” And by that he meant expensive.

  “I got it for the Baroque Bash in English Village. It’s gonna be so amazing! A full month of period reenactment.”

  “Sounds like fun,” he said without enthusiasm. “When’s it start?”

  “October first.” She returned to her seat, arranging her skirts around her. “It’ll go the whole month, and end in this huge fireworks thing on Halloween night.”

  “And you only got one dress.” Hard to believe.

  She laughed. “No, silly. I got the whole wardrobe. Me and the gang”—the gang that consisted of Pixie’s hormonal classmates, all of them as nuts as she was but thankfully not a mind reader among them—“are going to rent a cottage in the village.”

  “Uh-huh. And who will be picking up the tab for that?”

  Pixie rolled her eyes. “No one, Jeremy. You don’t have to worry about shelling out a single copper penny. We’ll be part of the show for tourists. It’s a paying gig and all the proceeds will go toward our stay. It will practically pay for itself.”

  “Right.”

  “So tell me how the hunt is going.” She was eating chips, crunching each piece loudly with her mouth open.

  “Uh, good. I found Hailey.”

  Pixie straightened, her eyes going wide. “You did? Really? Where is she? Is she okay? What’s she like? Are you bringing her back to Torrey? Will I meet her?”

  “Yes, yes, upstairs in the room, relatively, insane, yes, and no.”

  She frowned. “What?”

  “Forget it. I can’t talk long. Just wanted to check in with you and make sure the house is still in one piece.”

  Pixie pouted. “Okay, but Tristan stopped by, wanted to talk to you. I didn’t have a contact to give him, so he left all cranky. And by that I mean all sexy intense, glowy-eyed, and tiger-striped.”

  Jeremy glared.

  She hitched her shoulders up to her ears. “Just saying.”

  “I’ll call him. And you stay away from him. I don’t want you to end up on the news.”

  “Oh, you saw that too?” He hadn’t told Pixie about the attacks, not wanting to worry her. Apparently she’d found out on her own. “I hope they catch the guy. And soon.”

  “You’re so sure it’s a guy?”

  “Well, yeah. Call it instinct. A girl just doesn’t fit. No. It’s a guy. A really sick one, like that one five years ago…” She trailed off, frowning at him. “Unless you think… No. I won’t believe that. Didn’t you scan her?”

  “She doesn’t have a grasp on her animal like Hunt does. I could scan her until I’m blue in the face but I still wouldn’t reach the animal. They’re almost completely separate beings.”

  “Trippy,” Pixie said. “Bring her over, then. I’ll do it.”

  Jeremy gave her a look.

  “Okay, okay. Fine. I won’t. Jeez.”

  “Be safe, sis.”

  Pixie smiled with genuine affection and his heart squeezed. She was growing up so fast. “You too, bro. I’ll see you soon, I hope.”

  “Yeah.”

  She made smacking sounds at the screen. “Hugs and kisses, darling. Mwah.” And then the screen went black.

  The next call he placed was to his boss. John MacMurphy greeted him with his signature straightforwardness. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing your pretty face so soon.”

  “Nice to see you too, John.” And it was. He’d missed the old man, and everyone at the Special Unit. They were the closest thing to family he remembered. Some people had Sunday dinners with their grandparents; he and Pixie had had a round of mind games before lights out. They’d taken turns telling bedtime stories from different rooms in the compound.

  “So, what do you need? Shot in the dark here that this isn’t a social call.”

  The curt tone made him wince inwardly. He should have checked in before now. “Do we have anyone working Sapphire City?”

  “The one on Jericho?” John didn’t show any surprise at the question. “Got a couple agents looking into the attacks.”

  Excellent. “I need everything you’ve got. Police reports, autopsy reports, witness accounts if there are any. Just send the whole file to my secure account. I can open it anywhere.”

  John chuckled. “I thought you were on leave.”

  “Private contract.”

  “That so? Must be a pretty important contract if you’re calling your old friends.”

  “John,” he warned
, “don’t start.”

  “Do you know Nell’s been keeping your rooms up ever since you left? She keeps expecting you to just show up out of the blue.”

  He did wince then. Nell was the mother of the group. Every person who came through the door, be it minor or adult, became her adoptive child. Whenever Pixie had scraped a knee, Nell had been the one to kiss it better. At the worst of times Jeremy remembered, when the world had started to close in on him and his responsibilities were so overwhelming he was afraid to get out of bed, there’d always been Nell to cook him a warm breakfast and pour him a cup of hot chocolate. He owed Nell a lot better than he’d given her.

  “And Rafe and Julie ask about you two every time I see them.” Everyone in the group had their own specialties. Jeremy’s was getting to the truth of the matter, making sense of what people wanted to share and exposing what they wanted to hide. Rafe and Julie were the artists of the group and Jeremy had envied them bitterly in the beginning. Julie had trained as a classical opera singer before her mild empathic abilities flared up to full-blown telepathy. She sang what people needed to hear and used her gift to heal them in some small way.

  Rafe was DaVinci reincarnated. There weren’t many artists around who bothered with canvas anymore, let alone those who could afford it. Rafe was hired by the richest of the rich to paint their dreams and souls. Every day that man went to work he got to lose himself in fantasies. Jeremy got to scan felons and criminals standing trial.

  Yeah, there was a lot to envy.

  “The younger ones don’t say anything,” John was saying, pulling him out of his bitter thoughts. “But they don’t have to. It’s all over their faces that they miss their brother and sister.”

  “We’re not family,” Jeremy said but the words felt forced. “Pixie is my family, the only one I have left. You know she’s my priority.” Seven months of living in the streets of a city like Gray Dublin with a toddler sister wasn’t something a guy just forgot. There’d been nights when he’d sat up watching Pixie sleep for fear that she wouldn’t wake up in the morning. They’d starved more often than not. They’d spent nights in places that most people wouldn’t even come near. Jeremy had learned to hate everyone except Pixie. In the winter when he’d held his little sister close for warmth, praying to whatever God would listen to keep them safe just one more day, he’d watched fashionable strangers pass him by unseeing, so preoccupied with how they looked to the world that they hardly even saw the world.

  Jeremy owed John and the Special Unit his life.

  But he would forever hold the memory of nearly losing Pixie’s in his heart.

  John rubbed a weary hand over his face and Jeremy knew he was remembering the little girl she’d been—a dirt-streaked little bag of bones with big blue eyes that could see right into his soul. “I’ll get you the files,” he said. “They’ll be in your account later today. I should warn you, though. It’s some pretty messed-up shit.”

  “After Dara’s case five years ago, I think I’m immune to messed up.”

  “If you say so.”

  Jeremy ended the call soon after that. He was left feeling bereft. John and Nell had practically raised Pixie and made it look as if it was all Jeremy’s doing. They’d taken in two kids off the streets, given them a home, a family, and a purpose; a reason to live. But something had changed when he and Pixie had left Gray Dublin. There was a line now that cut between them, marking them employer and employee. As he’d told John, they were no longer a family.

  It seemed … wrong, and he didn’t know how to fix it.

  He considered calling Hunt next but wasn’t in the mood to deal with whatever was bothering the guy enough to come visit. Instead he got back to the business at hand, checked his bank accounts and the shuttle departure times. He hadn’t made reservations beforehand, not knowing how Hailey would handle the first trip and whether she’d need time to recover.

  Ten minutes later he was heading back to their room.

  He could sense something wasn’t right as soon as he stepped off the elevator on his floor. Jeremy cursed. She wouldn’t have climbed out the window, would she?

  He burst through the door to find every window in the room wide open, transparent draperies billowing in the cross breeze. Heart in his throat, he charged to one of them and leaned out as far as he dared. His head spun looking so far down. People were little more than dots down there.

  There was no sign of her.

  Behind him, the door closed and he froze. Stupid!

  “Are you looking for paw prints or a corpse out there?”

  Jeremy had never been one for teeth grinding but this assignment was driving him to it. He took his time to turn around. The longer he took the less he would be tempted to wring her lovely neck.

  When he caught sight of her through the draperies his breath left him, his power of reason fizzled out with a baffled, Mflaehbnwow, and he nearly backed out the damn window himself.

  That towel had to have been wrapped around her at some point. Now she’d stripped it off to dry her hair. Her head was bent forward so she couldn’t see him staring but Jeremy could not tear his gaze away.

  Sleek lines, toned muscles, but all woman in all the right places. Wet, her hair looked silvery gray, but old age never once entered his mind. Jeremy tried to close his eyes, he really did, but his eyelids refused to lower even a fraction of a millimeter. He greedily drank in the sight of her, fingers curling into the window ledge to keep from reaching out.

  Hailey straightened again, flipped her hair back so hard it lashed at her hips and stuck there. “Ahhh,” she sighed. “Much better.”

  He wholeheartedly agreed. The woman was temptation given shape. And while Jeremy was now certain on some level that her genetic change caused her to emit some sort of pheromone to attract males, that level had shut down the moment he’d caught sight of her.

  She rolled her head a little, eyes closed, a smile playing on her red lips, looking like she was in the throes of an orgasm, and his cock jumped to attention. Again.

  Hailey opened her eyes then and looked at him, her smile stretching wider. She let the towel slip from her fingers and it caressed her hip and the length of her leg on its slow-motion way to the floor.

  Breathe, you idiot!

  He couldn’t draw in air to save his life.

  Hailey sauntered toward him, hips swaying sensuously. She stepped with her toes first, rolling her shoulders seductively. Smooth, feline… Dangerous!

  Jeremy dropped his gaze, seeking the floor, but it snared on her breasts instead. Her nipples were beaded, seeming to strain toward him and his mouth watered for them. No! Don’t think like that. Floor. Look at the floor. His gaze dropped lower and snared on the triangle of dark curls at the apex of her thighs. He nearly went to his knees.

  Hailey hummed. “I can feel your eyes on me,” she whispered. “I can smell your need.” Her voice turned breathy as she came within inches of him. Nothing stood between them except the damn draperies. “Agent like?” she purred and leaned closer, a breath away from leaning on him.

  Air exploded from his lungs and on it a hissed, “Yes,” and he could finally breathe again.

  He gripped the windowsill harder, picking up on her intentions before she did. She leaned her face in and drew a deep breath, scenting him, her eyes closed and lips parted the slightest bit. Jeremy wanted to snatch her up and force those lips wider, taste her just as she was now. Lost in abandon, wild.

  Hailey shifted closer and rubbed herself against him, then brought her hands up to touch him through the drapes. She was panting now and her eyes, when she opened them, were glowing. Her foot caressed the side of his leg up to his calf, then her knee brushed his hip and she braced that foot on the windowsill next to his white-knuckled hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  Her unfocused gaze latched on to his in surprise but it soon faded as her lids drooped and she smiled wickedly. She rose up, nuzzling his neck, his jaw up to his ear. He could feel her parted lips thr
ough the wispy drapes; willed her to turn her head just a little. Just enough for a taste. That was all he needed. A hint of her.

  And then all of her.

  Hailey took his hand, coaxed it from the windowsill to the curve of her hip. Jeremy couldn’t hope to stop his fingers from curling into her soft, giving flesh. Without meaning to, he brought her closer and she leaned on him, breasts flattening against his chest.

  Christ, the woman could tempt a saint.

  Which he wasn’t. Not even close.

  Hailey’s parted lips brushed his through the drapes. Her tongue peeked out to touch. Jeremy moved to catch it but the damn drapes were in the way. He reached for her hair with his free hand and became entangled in the fabric.

  Hailey smiled, kissed him just barely, then pulled back.

  “Tease,” he said and she laughed low and sweet, tilting her hips to press the core of her against him.

  Jeremy sucked in a breath. Whatever his mind could conjure, this was so much more. More real, more intense, more everything. He tried to recall his professionalism but it was like swimming against the current. No matter how hard he fought he couldn’t move from his spot and it would be so much easier to give in and let that current carry him further.

  He could smell the generic hotel soap she’d washed with and on her it was more enticing than the most expensive perfume. Jeremy wanted to get closer, the way she’d done with him, and find the source of that scent.

  He was beginning to hate draperies.

  “What are you doing to me?” Christ, even his mind-voice was unsteady.

  “I thought every man dreamed of an animal in his bed.”

  It was the one thing she could have said to break the spell.

  Jeremy snarled and snatched her shoulders. He cursed himself when he hesitated at the feel of her bare flesh through the draperies. Impatiently he tugged them aside and reclaimed his hold on her, shoving her back, taking both of them away from the window.

  Her eyes lost their sensuous haze and he hated himself for causing it. But he hated her more right now. “You are not an animal,” he said, his voice harsher than he’d intended. “You want to drop your inhibitions and go wild, fine. Believe me, you’ll get no complaints from me. But don’t use the cat as an excuse. This is all you, Hailey. Nothing else.”