I swallowed hard thinking about the lieutenant and how his skin had smelled. The acrid reek would turn up in my nightmares, no doubt accompanied by his screams. It could have been me.
I shivered and tried to pull myself back to the present. “So what do I have to thank for that very lucky coincidence?”
“A sleaze ball from a bar.” E smiled. “I had a sudden urge to visit an old haunt, the Corner Pocket?” She waited for me to nod slightly. “Yeah, so, I called a friend and met her to play pool. She lives down in ‘Orleans, so it took a while for her to get there. The whole time this slimy vampire is hitting on me.”
“You said it was a dive, you were alone and it was late, why is that special?” Danny asked.
“Because vampires don’t hit on fire witches, they avoid us in general, actually. Have you ever seen one of them burn? They go up like kindling; it’s amazing.” She finished with the look of a tiger who had seen a wounded piece of prey. I didn’t want to know what she was remembering. “So anyway, Bess gets there, and the guy doesn’t let up. Now, she’s a very strong earth witch, and I’m fire and this guy is awfully young to be okay with us. But he is. Perfectly okay.
“I thought about it the whole time we were playing, why would such a young vampire be okay with witches like that?”
“Maybe if he was one, like if you flirted with our fire witch vampire all night,” I countered.
“Nope, sorry, not a fire witch. I would’ve known. No, I think this means something else.” She looked at me intently. “What if your fire witch is being controlled by someone? Someone who’s making her burn things? That would explain the marks she’s leaving behind, wouldn’t it?”
“It works,” Danny admitted. “There’s a girl who might be bound to him. Would that be enough to control a fire witch who can burn things like that?”
“He could make her do whatever he wants, even if she hated it, even if she spent the rest of her life regretting it, she couldn’t fight him.” E’s eyes glazed over, and I didn’t think she was talking about Chris and Kelly anymore.
“Tell me more about this vampire you met.” I jumped in. “Would you be willing to look at some pictures?”
“Sure. Let’s see he was dumb, maybe dumb enough to think holding one witch means he could hold a few of them—”
“And he was out looking for another girl, you told us.” I finished for her. It felt like E wanted to pin the arsons on the guy, and while I wanted it to be Chris, while I hoped it was Chris, I wasn’t ready to trust her so easily.
E leaned back and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her fingers slid out, smoothing her eye brows down. “Look, I know I was a suspect, hell maybe I still am, but this guy bothers me. Something about him pissed Raya off, and She doesn’t tend to care a lot about, well, about anything. She loves people, or She kills them, but getting angry at some random vampire? That’s not how She works. You should check him out.”
“How? Have you got an address?”
“He didn’t give me one. But he did promise to play pool with me again tonight, and he’s very interested in meeting my witch friends.”
E left after deciding she wasn’t sure if the fuzzy bar video picture of Chris or even the clear yearbook photo of Chris matched the vampire she’d met. She claimed it had been late and dark in the bar, but I suspected she just didn’t want to go on the record. The more I learned about E, the more I thought she spent her life working outside of the rules.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Sometimes you had to bend the rules, but constantly breaking them made me nervous. We quietly made plans to go play pool in a very unofficial, completely off the record stake out before she left. If I could identify Chris, I’d follow him or find out where he was staying. Then go from there. Not the best plan, but a good compromise.
When I got back into the squad room, I couldn’t believe it. I expected chaos and disaster, but what I saw was an organized recovery effort. Someone had gotten the lieutenant a new shirt. He’d already worked enough to put ash stains on the white cuffs. Everyone else worked along with him. Where the windows had been there was a gaping hole, but beside it a pair of guys on a ladder were hammering silver backed boards in place.
My fellow detectives were picking up papers and righting half-burned desks. We were on the eleventh floor without windows, so every stack of papers had to be held down. There were staplers and hole punches, various bits of office clutter doing the job. The place looked like a war zone, but no one seemed to mind.
“Really?” I asked aloud, incredulous to the calm way everyone worked together.
“We’ve had worse.” Danny shrugged. “There was the time some genius smuggled in a cockatrice.”
“A what?”
“Dragon wings, chicken head? Flew around the room, blowing everything all over the place, with breath so bad it could almost kill you. Not as bad as the Raiju—”
“Don’t tell me. I’ve had enough drama. I’m going to get my lunch in the peaceful, normal, cafeteria.”
When I made it back upstairs, the holes in the wall were completely covered, blocking out the wind and any sunlight. Without the constant breeze, the many paperweights were able to go back to being staplers or whatever they had been. It wouldn’t be a long time before things got to the lieutenant’s Marine Corp standards. My first pool game ever was hours away, and I had a serious lead from Puck to follow up, but this was more important. I was a member of the SIU now, and that meant rolling up my sleeves and cleaning. I couldn’t wait for the day when this was just a story I’d tell the next new guy.
Chapter Sixteen
I cleaned for hours, first dumping all of the papers I could find into an empty photocopy paper box, then slowly sorting through them. Half of the forms were burned on the edges. I suspected the SIU would be doing a lot of rework when it came to our daily logs and weekly reports. I was almost done with the box of papers when my phone rang.
“How is your second day of being twenty-eight?” Jakob asked.
“Hmmm, not unlike the days when I was twenty-seven,” I countered.
“You’ll have to describe it to me. I never made it that far.”
“Right, but you look older than…” I realized I just told my boyfriend he looked old and thought quick. “So in case you see it on the news, I’m fine and the station is recovering well.”
“What happened?”
“There was an explosion. E saved the day.” I should have started with that. Oh well. I didn’t want him to focus on it, so I quickly switched topics. “How am I getting the car back to you? Should I pick you up after work?”
“If you’re willing to do me a favor, I could meet you after sunset on your balcony.”
“What’s the favor?” I was hoping it involved nudity. Last night had been pleasant enough but I wanted more.
“Take the suitcase out of the back of the car and bring it upstairs.”
“Suitcase? What suitcase?”
“The one with my clothes, or did you forget? You offered me a drawer,” he teased.
“So you’ll be traveling as a mist this afternoon.” That presented some interesting possibilities, after all mists couldn’t wear clothes.
“Indeed, and there are precious few places in the city I’m willing to arrive naked.”
I leaned back in my chair, trying to make my voice seductive. “I’m glad my place is one of them.” There was a quiet cough beside me, and I realized even if Danny was off cleaning somewhere, I still had an audience. Even worse Lucas and his overpowered werewolf hearing could probably get Jakob’s side of the conversation.
“Anyway, that works out. I can see you before I go play pool with E at nine.” I finished in a business like tone.
“Wonderful news. I was afraid you two weren’t getting along,” Jakob said, clearly catching on to the change in my voice.
“Oh I don’t know if I’d say we’re getting along… When do you think you’ll be done tonight?” I asked.
“Late, nearly dawn.�
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“Then spend the night at my place. I want you home safe,” I said and then for the benefit of anyone who might be eavesdropping I added, “before sunrise.”
“Of course,” he said. He told me he loved me, and I told him the same thing with half my mind, the other half was split between worrying about my case and his appointment for tonight.
I had too many questions about this case, questions no one in the squad room could answer because they all focused on brothels. None of the guys would admit to any experience with them. Could Chris be working somewhere as a new vampire? My mind drifted back to Amadeus, wondering how he had gotten into his line of work. I wrenched it back on track. Had Kelly gotten a new license?
If she had, Chris was probably living off of her still. I needed to know how brothels worked, and as long as I was killing time, I might as well call my favorite Satyr. Cali would tell me what I needed to know without any embellishments.
Thanks to his powers as a Satyr, Cali could bring lust out of anyone, and he knew exactly what someone wanted. He’d never given me all the details, but I knew he’d worked in and owned a brothel or two. As the owner of the best sex shop in town, he knew everyone in Baton Rouge in the pleasure trade, from professionals to ‘net girls.
Cali told me everything about the local business, including a few insights into the staff at Fairy Tails and the way licenses worked. By the time I hung up the phone, I was fairly positive Kelly could be working someplace new, and no one would know. I was even more positive Chris could be working somewhere, and no one would know. Unfortunately, the possibility they had jobs meant there was a very good chance they had money, and my morning visiting the resting places of the not rich or famous was wasted time.
My best chance was going back to the pool hall with E tonight. Officially, I was still on the clock for another half an hour, but I rationalized that the time I spent looking for E’s bad boy vampire who might be Chris would be work and left early. As I pulled into the Eclipse, I happily pushed every other thought out of my mind, and I got Jakob’s clothes from the trunk.
I had lied to Jakob. There was no way I could give him a drawer. I’d rented my apartment in the last stages of depression over the death of my husband, and his subsequent reanimation as a zombie. I still swear I didn’t know what I was doing when I brought him back to life. I was so scared I ran away to the city. At the time my apartment with its wall of floor to ceiling windows, gas fire place, and shiny showroom furniture looked like a dream. I’d grown up with Salivation Army pieces that matched a little but never really went together. I bought the showroom furniture, never thinking the decorator might have forgotten something, like a dresser.
I had a closet though, a giant walk in closet that easily fit two people and all the clothes I’d ever owned. It even had shelves for underwear and things you couldn’t hang up. I moved a few things around, reorganizing the clothes as I went so Jakob could have his own side of the closet. That was almost as good as a drawer right? The hanging was going fairly well until I got the ties. How do you hang a tie? One per hanger, or several on one hanger, or maybe they didn’t get hung instead, maybe ties were folded neatly, or rolled. They might be rolled. I’d seen them in stores that way. Finally, I decided the five ties he’d packed could go on one hanger, in color order. I stepped back to admire my work. Jakob officially had clothes at my place. Not things he left behind, but clothes for work, for play, the whole bit. His toothbrush was in my bathroom and his clothes were in my closet, the healthiest relationship I’d ever had moved forward a tick.
I went out to the balcony with a celebratory glass of wine. The day had been a little more fall like and a little less gray than my birthday. A bright orange harvest moon appeared on the horizon, glowing like a Halloween pumpkin. I suddenly wanted one—a jack-o-lantern, a house in a neighborhood with trick-or-treaters, and the whole pile of candy to give them. I was lost in the many neighborhoods of my own trick-or-treating days, when I noticed the cool mist that had floated up to my balcony. It slipped around my ankles, plucking at the bottom of my pants, then trying to find a space at my waist to get under my clothes. It tickled a little. I reached down to swat it away and caught fingers. Jakob had formed behind me, his arms around my waist, his head above mine. I leaned back onto his chest; it was as cool as the mist had been.
“It’s a beautiful night,” he said softly.
“A beautiful night for you to have a drawer at my place,” I said with a smile.
“Did you buy a dresser then?”
“Okay, a beautiful night for you to have clothes at my place.” I rolled my eyes. “I can see you’re going to hold me to exact letter of the law with these dating rules, aren’t you?”
“It only seems fair.” I turned around to see his eyes sparkled in the moonlight. I was going to protest, but he looked too good, instead I kissed him. He was naked, miles of porcelain skin cried out for me to touch it. I couldn’t resist. I ran my hands over every inch of him leaving trails of warmth.
“Come upstairs and celebrate with me,” I demanded it of him, even though his body had already agreed with me.
“I’m sorry, my love, but my chores will not wait,” he said, stepping back and out of my embrace. Something about him seemed sad, almost melancholy.
“Chores, plural? What else are you doing tonight?” I tried to tease, but my heart wasn’t in it.
“A million small things at work.”
“I didn’t think you’d be going into work afterwards.”
“I try not to let that part of my life interrupt my work.”
“You mean vampire politics.”
“I suppose so.”
“You know, anytime you want to tell me about it, I could listen. It won’t change how I think of you.”
“It changes how I think of me.”
“Should I be worried about your appointment with Vianne?” I asked. I wanted to ask about his mood too. He seemed upset, but he clearly didn’t want to talk about it.
“I promise you it’s nothing…if I hadn’t given my word, I would send Mark in my place.”
“Send him anyway,” I suggested hopefully. There was a small chance I could persuade him to stay. His stern expression answered my question. “All right, all right, but be careful.”
“I promise.” He kissed me softly on my forehead. His lips were cool and solid against my skin, and I caught his mouth for a real kiss. Caught it, but not the rest of him, when I moved my arms to embrace him he was already half mist, a second later he was gone. I shook my head at the insanity and followed the trail of cold air upstairs. At least he was getting dressed with clothes he’d found in my closet.
I gave Jakob a chaste kiss goodbye at the front door and made him promise to come back to me by dawn. Somewhere a quartet of vampires was beginning a night they wouldn’t finish. I wished Jakob would have stayed naked in my bed until he had to be at work, maybe even past when he had to be at work. Instead he was off to do things he didn’t want me to think about. I shut the door, worried about how the night would go for all of us.
I dressed for pool, taking my first chance to steal clothes from Jakob’s side of the closet. I ended up in tight jeans and boots with one of his thin black undershirts stretched taunt over my breasts. I threw a white shirt over it and admired the results in my mirror. Dangerous was never going to be my look, but a head or two would turn when I walked into the bar.
When I knocked on her door, E’s head didn’t turn. She might like girls, but I guess I wasn’t her type. We rode the elevator and got into her car with a minimum of conversation.
“What’s your problem?” E asked, clearly pissed off that anyone other than her would have an issue.
“I’m worried about Jakob. He’s going after another vampire tonight.” Okay, there was more to it, but it was enough for her. We weren’t friends. I wasn’t about to discuss the other things on my mind.
“So? Is this other guy older or stronger?”
“No. She’s like one h
undred and fifty, maybe seventy-five.”
“So why are you upset?”
“Because he could be hurt.”
“But you said this other vampire isn’t stronger. I mean one hundred and fifty, Jakob’s gone up against bigger before. Hell, I’ve gone up against worse before. It’s really no big deal.”
“Yes, but I love him. When you love someone, you worry about them.” I was picking a fight. It was childish, and it was wrong, but I’d already started, so why not keep going?
“No, this isn’t about love; it’s about trust. Did Jakob tell you not to worry about this?”
“Yes.”
“And don’t you trust him?”
“Of course I trust him; I’m still going to worry.”
“So wait, you trust him to pick out dinner or to treat you right, but you don’t trust his assessment of a fight?”
I trusted him with a lot more than her two examples, but I wasn’t going to admit it.
“Because either he knows what he’s doing and it’s no big deal, or he doesn’t and you should worry,” she concluded.
“Is life really that black and white for you?” I sneered, but she didn’t catch it. Her eyes were on the road.
“Not all of life but Jakob is, that’s why he’s so great. If you needed to worry, he would have told you to worry. End of story. What you’re doing now is second guessing him, playing armchair quarterback.”
“And what do you suggest I do while the man I love is risking his life?”
“He’s not risking his life. We already established that remember? I’d suggest you put it out of your head and play pool. He’s doing exactly what he did before he met you, what he’s probably done a half dozen times since he met you, the only difference is now you know about it. Get over it, and deal with the things in front of you.”
“Fine,” I declared, bored with the fight I’d started. “Let’s go play pool.”
We were quiet for the rest of the drive, but when we pulled into the parking lot, she turned to me.
“Are we going to be bitchy to each other for the rest of the night? ’Cause if we are, it changes how I handle things in there.”
Fire in Her Blood Page 27