The Lion's Den (Knights of the Darkness Chronicles)

by D N Simmons

  Warren punched in several numbers and the red light turned green, indicating the door was now opened. Stepping inside, he motioned for Darian to stay by his side.

  “I figured as much,” Darian replied dryly to Warren’s silent command.

  “Do you want my help or not?” Warren looked over his shoulder.

  Darian’s mouth opened to respond with a condescending comment of his own, then he reconsidered. Their routine banter could wait for lighter circumstances. “No need to get testy, I need your help.”

  “Okay, we’re still going to do this the legal way, whether you want to or not. Reason being, there’s cameras all around the building, and I don’t want to have to explain why I let you walk around with me without signing in.”

  Darian sighed, but decided not to argue. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t hypnotize my way through here as you suggested earlier”

  “I guess, but at that point, I wouldn’t have been with you. You were on your own.” Warren smiled wickedly.

  Darian’s eyes rolled upward, but he understood. The last thing he wanted to do was get Warren into trouble. They walked towards the front desk and Warren signed him in.

  “You need to sign right here, too.” Warren pointed to the blank line beside the line where he’d signed his name.

  Darian obeyed, scoffing at the entire situation. “This is annoying.”

  “Yeah, I bet. I’m sure you’re used to getting exactly what you want e witho all the messy paperwork or explanations,” Warren commented.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.” Darian refrained from telling him about how he obtained information earlier that evening.

  Warren smiled. “Then you’re really going to hate this part.” His smile widened as he handed Darian a white sticker with his name on it under the word “visitor”.

  Darian looked at the sticker. “I think you’re enjoying this far too much. I’m not wearing that.”

  “Do you want to see the body or not?” Warren asked, hand and sticker still extended.

  Darian rolled his eyes, but snatched the sticker from Warren. Peeling off the protective paper, he pressed the sticker on his shirt. “Can we go now?”

  “Do you always make simple things hard?” Warren asked as he led the way to the morgue. Darian decided to not answer the question. The two men entered the morgue and saw the medical examiner bent over a body. “Hey Galen, need a favor from you.”

  Marshall looked up from yet another corpse, a victim of a vampire attack. “I’m going to have to start charging you for favors really soon, I see.” He looked at Darian. “Traded up on Matthew already?”

  Warren gestured to Darian. “He’s an expert in this field, so to speak. I wanted him to take a look at that body from the club. He may be able to tell me a bit more.” He knew that Marshall was fully aware of who and what Darian was. The incident three years ago sort of let the cat completely out of the bag, not that Darian himself seemed to mind.

  Marshall pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “If you think you can find out more about this murder than I did, please be my guest.” He walked towards the many stainless steel drawers and pulled one out. Laying there on the cold stainless steel slab was the corpse in question. Even before Marshall unzipped the thick plastic bag, Darian could smell the blood. He could also smell that it was a shifter from the feline lion breed.

  Darian stepped up to the corpse, studying it. He didn’t need Marshall to tell him how the victim had died or how the victim had been flayed. Even if he hadn’t already been told, he could see the handiwork of the vampire coven responsible for killing on his territory. They’d pay for their offense, of that, he was sure.

  “So, see anything we didn’t catch?” Marshall asked.

  Darian’s forest-green eyes locked onto the slender, unkempt man. “You did a very good job with your autopsy. Thank you for letting me view the body.”

  “Not a problem.” Marshall zipped the body bag up and slid the corpse back into its slot.

  Warren took a look at the body laying on the table under the bright halogen light. “What’s this here?” He pointed.

  Darian turned towards the corpse as did Marshall.

  “Ah, he just came in about twenty minutes ago,” Marshall said, walking towards the corpse.

  “What’s the COD?” Warren asked, approaching the table as well.

  Darian followed the men, secretly impressed with both the human and the shifter in their abilities to do their jobs well.

  “Another vampire attack. Only this time, one is responsible. See here,” he pointed to a set of puncture wounds on the shaft of the penis. “He pierced the vein. I was able to match this set of bite marks to a pair I found on the other corpse. So it looks like at least one of our guys fed again.”

  The muscles in Darian’s jaw tightened. How dare some unknown coven enter his territory uninvited! How dare they kill in his city and with such callousness!

  “Shit, why the fuck weren’t Matt and I called in for this?” Warren asked, pissed that he wasn’t notified about the body until now.

  “Because the MO didn’t match. Not until now. Your DB was a shifter, between the ages of twenty and thirty based on the size of his bones. This guy is a human, and looks to be fifteen, no more than seventeen. Your DB had multiple bite wounds, this one only had a single wound. Your DB was flayed alive, this one”

  “Galen, I get it. I’m not dense,” Warren huffed.

  “Okay, all I’m saying is, easy to miss. It wasn’t until I had a closer inspection did I recognize the space and size between the two punctures and was able to match them to your DB.” Marshall nodded in the direction of the steel drawer. He was quite pleased with himself for being able to make the comparison.

  “Fuck me,” Warren hissed as he ran fingers through his dark locks. “Who’s on this case, now?”

  “Currently, Johnson and Weinstein. But that’ll change once I pass my findings over to the captain.” Marshall and Captain Michelle Lawrence were in a pretty serious relationship outside of the precinct. Inside, however, it was strictly business, so no one had anything to say about it.

  “Yeah, that ought to please them greatly, having their case yanked out of their hands and given over to us,” Warren stated sarcastically.

  “I’d be happy if it were me. Your case isn’t looking any prettier now than it did last night.” Marshall looked at Darian. “Are you able to catch a scent off this body?”

  Darian looked up from the body to Galen with a start. He was surprised to find the man so blunt. “You know who I am?”

  Marshall nodded. “Who and what. I remember you from a few years back. The remains of a crime you were accused of did come across my path. To tell you the truth, I’m glad you were cleared of all charges. Looking at you now, something tells me I wouldn’t have wanted to see the outcome of a guilty verdict.”

  In spite of himself, Darian smiled. He liked the man. “No one was more please than I was with the outcome of that particular case.”

  “And the lawsuit that foowed, no doubt.” Marshall nodded, remembering the high profile case and the multimillion dollar suit that followed, which set a new precedent for standard procedures on proper investigating of crimes involving murder by a supernatural.

  “To answer your question,” Darian began, getting back to the matter at hand. “I did catch a scent.” He decided against elaborating on how useless a scent on the body was now if he couldn’t track it later.

  “Well, it’s a start,” Marshall said. Darian nodded.

  “Is there anything else, skin particles? Hair follicles, anything?” Warren asked, hoping that since the newest victim still had his skin and nails, maybe he took something from his killer that would be able to put them on the right trail.

  “I scrapped under the nails, sent what little I found there to the DNA lab. Like the body found last night, he was also naked.”

  “Where did they pick this one up at?” Warren asked.

  “Hyde Park. He
was laying between two parked cars in that huge lot over there off 53st street.” Marshall’s cell began ringing. He looked down at the little device, noting the number. “Well, looks like we may have another DB.”

  “What the fuck?” Warren tossed a glance at Darian then back at Marshall who was returning the call. Both Darian and Warren could hear the conversation. Apparently, another victim was found, this time a female adolescent, the bite marks were very visible as the body was also naked. Once Marshall hung up, Warren’s cell phone rung.

  Marshall chuckled at the accuracy of the S.U.I.T.’s hotline. “I take it you already know what that phone call is going to be about,” he said, letting Warren know that he knew he heard his conversation due to his superhuman hearing.

  Darian caught the subtle hint and wondered if Xander was aware that a human knew about Warren and quite possibly Matthew’s nature.

  “Yeah, but I have to keep up appearances anyway,” Warren replied as he called the number back. It was the same conversation Marshall had, only he was instructed to get there ASAP.

  “My team is already on their way to the scene. I’ll be here still going over this one. Seems like the two patterns that’s tying all of these corpses together are their lack of clothing and loss of blood,” Marshall pointed out.

  Both Darian and Warren nodded.

  “Okay, I’m going now, I’ll be back later.” Warren tapped Darian on his arm, gesturing for him to follow.

  Once outside of the precinct, Darian looked at Warren. “He knows about you?”

  “You caught that, eh? Yeah, he does. I just found out earlier today that he knew.”

  Darian arched one jet-black eyebrow. “Is Xander aware that this human knows your secret?”

  Warren froze.

  “I’ll go on ahead and assume that your sudden silence means that he doesn’t know.” Darian shook his head with a sigh.

  “I’m going to tell him.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight.”

  “Now.”

  “No, not now. I want to be face to face with my Alpha before I drop a bombshell like that,” Warren said, convinced it was the best thing to do.

  “Do you think this human is trustworthy?” Darian studied the young shifter closely.

  Warren nodded. “I don’t have any reason to think otherwise. He said he’s known for some years now. I was none the wiser. Besides, he saw Matt in the throws of bloodlust and he hasn’t ratted us out yet.”

  “Matthew lost control?”

  “Yeah, the first corpse you saw brought it out of him. Supernatural crime has been down since we took out those three bitches and their clans. Matthew hasn’t really had to deal with a bunch of blood and guts, until now. Richard knows all about that.”

  “Ah, so Richard knows about this human knowing your secret, but your own Alpha does not. For your sake, I hope he doesn’t get the information second hand.” Darian gave Warren a wicked smile and took off into the air, heading towards the location of the second crime scene where the young boy was found.

  “Damn vampires,” Warren muttered. He understood where Darian was coming from, especially since the soon to be sixteen-hundred and fifty-three year old bloodsucker was one of the most fierce leaders he had ever met. Darian was right, he should have told Xander right away about Marshall knowing what he was. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t. There were many reasons he’d thought of. Xander would want to kill the pathologist, or Xander would have Darian erase his memory … but he knew the truth. Xander would be disappointed that Warren had lost enough control to get discovered. He hadn’t been as careful as he thought he was and it was the main concern his Alpha had when he agreed to allow him to join the S.U.I.T..

  Be careful, don’t get discovered or it’ll all be over for your career. Xander’s words echoed inside his head as he drove to the third crime scene. Perhaps Darian was right. He should call Xander right away. Any delay would only increase his Alpha’s irritation, especially if he found out that Richard knew hours before he did. Even more so if he found out from Richard instead of him. Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved his cellular and dialed Xander’s.

  “Hello Warren?” Xander greeted.

  “Hey Xander. I’ve got a couple of updates for you, some good news, some bad, or it could all be bad depending on how you want to look at it.”

  “I’m listening?”

  Warren took a deep breath, releasing it in a sudden rush. “Okay. I’m just going to come out and say it. Marshall Galen, our resident M.E., knows our secret, and by ‘our’ I mean, Matt andme.”

  “Go on,” Xander’s tone was reserved. Warren didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. He figured he’d gain a better understanding once he told him the rest.

  “Earlier today, Matt had an episode. The bloodlust got to him really bad and he lunged for the remains of last night’s corpse. Marshall was there, saw him, saw me contain and calm him.”

  “Earlier today?” Xander’s tone was a little less reserved.

  Oh boy, here it comes, Warren thought, but he decided he’d take his medicine. “Yeah … um … I was going to tell you face-to-face. I was on my way out there to see you when Darian called me.”

  “Warren, I must say that I am disappointed by the fact that you’ve waited hours to tell me something so very important. What if he wanted to expose you, you would have needed my protection. Why did you wait so long to tell me?”

  Xander didn’t raise his voice, but that didn’t mean the anger wasn’t palpable, even over the phone.

  Warren winced. A scolding from his Alpha always affected him, making him feel as if he were a small child being chided by a parent. He wanted to say; because I was scared you’d be mad at me. But what came out was; “I don’t know.”

  “To quote my wife, ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’.” Xander knew that his young Pack member was fully aware of his reasons. He wanted the truth, he felt he deserved that much.

  Warren sighed. “Because I was afraid that you’d be disappointed in me for failing to cloak my nature.”

  Xander thought about chastising the young wolf even more, then decided against it. Admitting his faults was punishment enough. “Tell me about this human who knows?”

  Surprised that his Alpha changed the subject, Warren answered him, hoping he would also agree with him that Marshall wasn’t a threat. “He’s known about me for years and he’s known about Matthew since his change. He’s trustworthy.”

  “That may be, Warren. I know that you have a lot of respect for this human. I’ve heard you speak of him favorably, allow me to give you advice in this matter. Do not trust him as you would trust your own.”

  “He hasn’t betrayed us, Xander.”

  “Not yet and he may never, but that’s no reason to let your guard down.” Xander couldn’t resist. “Once was more than enough.”

  Warren winced again at Xander’s clever jibe at his failure to keep his guard up enough to fool the inquisitive M.E., he agreed. “I understand. I’m sorry.”

  “Very well. What are the other updates?”

  Warren told Xander about the second corpse. “… And right now, I’m on my way to the scene of another. I’ll be able to tell you more about this later.”

  “Three bodies in less than twenty-four hours. One was a shifter. I’m wondering if this is the morbid idea of a vampire coven’s hi-jinks or something much more sinister?”

  “A flayed shifter points to sinister for me. I just want to catch these bloodsucking sons-of-bitches and roast their asses!”

  “Agreed. Keep me informed.”

  The two men ended their conversation just as Warren pulled into the parking lot where the third victim lay. He killed the engine and climbed out. Walking towards the S.U.I.T.’s red and white tape, he was approached by a member from Marshall’s coroner’s team.

  “Did you get a chance to talk to Marshall?” Janet asked, her dark hair bounced with each step she took struggling to keep up with Warren’s long strides.

&nbs
p; “Yeah, the second victim is linked to the first.”

  “I’m glad I’m not you and Matt, I’d hate to be you two when Johnson and Weinstein get the news.”

  Shit Matt! I forgot to call him! Warren remembered he’d been so busy with his Pack Alpha, he hadn’t told Matthew about the third murder. He was reaching for his cell phone when he caught a familiar scent.

  “About time you made it. I’ve been here a full minute before you,” Matthew said, walking up to him.

  “Had something to take care of first, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. So … ,” he looked at Janet. “… What do we have here?”

  “Some very sick shit. Female DB, about twelve years old, multiple puncture wounds on her wrists, breast, throat over the jugular and over the artery near her groin. That’s what we have for the preliminary report. Once we get her to Galen, we’ll know more. Cause of death looks to be massive loss of blood which lead to a cardiac arrest.” Janet swiped at her bang with the back of her gloved hand, freeing her vision.

  “Twelve years old. Jesus!” Matthew whispered.

  They stood looking down at the little girl laying naked, cold and dead on the crude pavement. She appeared as though she’d been posed. One hand was positioned by her head, the other rested on her stomach. One leg was propped up, slightly bent, the other lay flat. Her breast, barely developed were marred by two sets of puncture wounds on each small mound. Her pale blue eyes, which were once bright and full of life lay opened, blank and staring off into nothingness.

  “I think I actually feel sick to my stomach right now,” Warren spoke his innermost thoughts vocally without meaning to.

  “I’m right there with you. I have a daughter around her age. We’ve got to catch these sick fucks and make them pay for stealing the lives of three people.” Janet hated this part of her job the most, viewing the discarded victims where they lay. She, however, loved discovering the clues that led the trail to their killers.

  Warren and Matthew slipped on a pair of latex gloves.

  “Are you done with her?” Matthew asked.

  Janet nodded. “I’ve gotten everything I can get at this point. CSI will be here soon to do the rest. When you’re all done, Roberts and Marks will remove the body.”