“I need to get to the coroner’s office. I think that there is a serial kill loose in the city and I think there is a chance my department, our department, has been covering it up. The evidence that I have is all that links some of the deaths together and if someone gets to it before I do it will be lost for good. The shoes I wore the night I was abducted have paint on the heels. I stomped on Viktor’s car. The same car that was stolen from impound. The paint on my shoes matched the paint on the car. If the shoes are gone that is all I have. They were taken as evidence that night I went to the hospital. If the crime lab can match that paint to the paint under the victim’s nails we have a case. If not I don’t know how to link all together.” I know I am rambling but I am trying to put together what I have left. I can’t count on anyone but myself now. Everything I have ever believed in is gone.
“Either I work with what I have and make it stick or Viktor will walk out in 80 years exactly like he is now only more pissed off. All the girls will be dead. I have to fix this and then I have to leave.” I can hear the panic in my own voice.
“That being as it may you are going to sit down and listen to me and you are going to do it now.” As she speaks I can feel her power crackling in the air. Gran is totally pulling rank on me. This is new.
“I never pushed you to learn about our people because I didn’t want you to feel different. You mother always felt different and that is what pushed her away but you are different. You are different and I am different and so are all the people closest to us. Did you never notice that no vampire or witch ever goes to jail? Does that not seem a little odd to you?” Gran is looking me in the eye. I had never thought of it. “Why do you think that you were always pulled of the case as soon the perpetrator was identified? They were allowing you to keep your hands clean. Letting you take the highroad and pretend that we were all treated equally. That is more than naive, it is denial and you no longer have that luxury. Think about it.”
Gran then asks, “Did you think that vampires and witches just never commit any crimes that went to trial or was there maybe another reason? A more practical one? If someone locked you away and you did not want to stay could they make you?”
“No.” I answer quietly.
“And why is that?”
“I can open locked doors, lock open doors, I could probably knock out walls if I wanted to.” I can see where this is going.
“Could you lock all the doors and windows and set the place on fire?” Gran is smiling. “I am a seer, dear. Did you really think I didn’t know about your little trick with the bad old vampires? Did you think I don’t know that even without training you have learned to make things happen to suit you? And if you are wondering, you are changing. You are getting more powerful by the day. Your grandfather’s incubus powers are waking in you. Within a few days you will be a full succubus as well as a witch. Vampires can already see it and so can I. No one can predict how being ruler of the vampires will affect you but I can tell you it will not make you weaker. You have responsibilities now that I cannot help you with.” I can see tears forming in her eyes. “You are no longer a child. It is time to put away childish things.”
I sit quietly and try to take it all in. This is not right, it’s not fair. Everything I ever believed to be true is being yanked away. We have rights, due process, trial by jury, evidence is presented and decisions are handed down. It’s not perfect and it’s not always equal but we have to try, don’t we? We don’t just cover things up and handle them.
Except we do. We always have. It is the only way.
I lean back on the old sofa and stare at my Gran. She is right. No jail could hold a vampire or witch that didn’t want to stay. And even if they did what is a life sentence for someone who is essentially immortal. How could I have not seen this?
This is why my cases were always taken away. Why the evidence we collected was never used in court. I knew the bad guy had been caught but after that…what did I think happened?
Gran is right. I am a child. I am still the little girl who wanted to fit in and it has blinded me to the fact that I don’t. After a certain point none of us do.
“So we handle our own, too?” I have to ask.
Gran nods. “The only witch trials I have ever seen were always conducted by other witches. Fortunately for our people that rarely happens but when it does the consequences are very sever. If it gets to that point second chances are never given.”
“So, death?”
“If a witch or wizard is that far gone it is the only way. We are too dangerous otherwise. I should have explained it to you earlier. I have been a coward. I lost your mother because she wanted to be “normal” and I could not bring myself to risk losing you the same way. It was selfish of me.” Gran is crying. “It is time for you to go home. You have a husband and a house of your own and it is time you tended to them.”
Something occurs to me as I am walking towards the door. I turn to Gran and ask, “I my mom normal?”
Gran smiles and says, “As normal as a full succubus can be.”
OMG. It all made since now. The husbands, the admirers, the way she seems to get more appealing with age. My mom is a fucking succubus. Collecting rich husbands like a black widow. That soul sucking, sanctimonious bitch. She and I and Marvin are going to have a talk.
When I step out the front door Trevor is standing by the Alfa waiting for me. It is at least three in the morning. I have to apologize to both him and Michaels and come to accept the fact that none of the arrests we made last night that mattered will ever see central booking. That stupid Viktor and the assholes are probably already dead and will never form a punk band. It’s okay. I didn’t really expect them to be all that talented anyway.
Trevor picks me up and hugs me as soon as I am close enough. I start crying again. I don’t even have a chance to apologize before he says, “Can you forgive me?”
That just makes me cry harder and I can only nod.
“Then home?”
I nod again. I hope that being a succubus thing makes me prettier too. It would be nice to finally have a benefit to having that monster for a mom.
I need to do something to make this up to Trevor. I was more than just childish. I was mean. He is the best man in the world and I get to have him for a very long time. I need to show him how much that means to me. Starting tonight.
Chapter 16: A whole new game
By the time I am cleared to return to work I am more than ready to go. Trevor can read my mind and now I can read his. I feel him reach out to Michaels and he falls in behind us. No one loves violence as much as Michaels and now that I am queen we are connected. I feel what he feels. I can feel what they all feel. It is a total rush.
Every vampire in the city is picking up the vibe because I am a more natural “broadcaster”, for lack of a better term, then a vampire would be. The energy feedback is amazing. I didn’t ask for it but I will take it. For the first time in my life I have moved from feeling like a passive protector to the feeling like an actual predator. I know it’s not really me, not really my feelings but I want blood. Trevor has promised me that we are going to find those girls and the men who took them.
We are going to be closing in from all directions. I have gone from bunny to wolf. From prey to apex predator. I am no longer afraid of losing it because the world looks much different to a tiger then a gazelle.
That being said I still prefer sushi and tofu and never, ever intend to kill anything more viable then the box of wine in my fridge.
I have moved in with Trevor and it has been three weeks of marital bliss or whatever you want to call it. We call ourselves spouses with benefits. It’s kind of like being friends with benefits only we are married and get a better deal on our taxes and insurance. So we have the going for us, which is nice. I have to admit that Trevor was right. I am happy.
Charles moved in with Gran and they are doing great. Gran is even drinking less. She may be around for a while after all. Molly has taken all my s
tuff down and turned my room into a room for herself. I am not sure what a ghost needs a room for but she has been here longer then me so I hope she enjoys it.
My dad and David call me every day and David is homeschooling until next semester. I think his scared straight experience has really scared him straight. Go figure. We have met for lunch twice and I think I am going to like having a dad.
David, Jan and I filled up my mom’s convertible with werewolf poop last week and we enjoyed that as well. Don’t tell my dad. He is dating Jan and she might be embarrassed. I had no idea her pack was that big and that cute!! Doing things as a family is important and I think that David had a really good time. He is such a good kid.
The arrests we made barely even made the papers. They closed club Venom because its owner is missing, it lost its liquor license and had fire code violations out the ass. Rainy was so pleased. The other charges against Viktor are serious but in a city this size not really that big a deal. No one will ever link the missing or dead girls to him. That would generate press. I cannot believe I was ever that naïve.
Professor McNeil will be tried and sent to a phyc unit but I am not sure he will care. No one else will. It was a fifteen year old cold case at best. The other five deaths could not be linked and you can’t charge a ghost with murder. Christine will spend the rest of eternity with a man she hates in a body she can’t escape. I guess that is a kind of prison.
I can hear the Alfa coming up the drive. I have seven vampires in my security detail and we spent the whole day gardening. It wasn’t hot but I made them take their shirts off. If they won’t leave I am going to put them to use. Trevor feels bad but I don’t. Their rules their problems. I never wanted to be queen.
I think it’s all going to be okay.
COMING IN MAY, 2014……
“Keep Your Figure and Drink ALL the Blood You Want” (Det. Catherine Adele, Book 2)
The Bloody Mary Diet: The Detective Adele Series Book 1 Page 12