Blood, Dirt, and Lies

by Rachel Graves

  “Uh, locked in the car?”

  “Officers are supposed to carry a weapon at all times,” he said with a sigh. Lucas was a textbook award-winning cop. He’d always been, even when he was human. Last summer being a really good cop meant a group of werewolves wanted him for their own.

  They’d kidnapped him, turned him, and then expected him to be a cop for them. He’d done everything right, always had, and it didn’t stop them from ruining his career. Now SIU was the only unit that would take him, no matter how many merit citations he had.

  “Right, I know but…why are you here, Lucas?” When you can’t answer a question a good deflection can be a godsend.

  “Three witches find a stabbing victim. What department did you think they’d send?”

  “It’s an SIU case? I want it.”

  “Sorry. It’s an SIU case until we determine it isn’t. And you’re involved, so it’s ours.”

  “Ours?”

  Simon appeared with his half-confused smile. I knew the smile lied; spirit witches as strong as Simon were never that lost. He used it to get people to open up to him. From the way he turned it on Bess I suspected it would work again.

  “Detective Simon Edwards,” he introduced himself to her, completely ignoring E. They’d traded words once when the squad room was almost burned down, and frankly, E scared the hell out of Simon. “Care to tell me about it?”

  Bess didn’t have much to tell. We went running. We found the victim. She sent E for help, the two of us took care of him. The story was short and clean, she wasn’t leaving anything out. But of course, Detectives Edwards and Brown couldn’t leave it.

  Lucas with his wide barrel chest and at least twice-broken nose stuck with procedure and facts; Simon let his spirit witch side do most of the work, his green eyes locked on her as he asked all the right questions. Did Bess usually run? No, well then gee, why today? Whose idea was it to run here? And on and on. I groaned realizing I was going to be on the wrong side of this investigation for a while.

  ****

  I made it to work late. At least that’s what my time sheet read; I felt like I’d been working since early this morning when I saw all the blood. A call came in before lunch telling Simon the victim was stable and he was good enough to share, but otherwise I had a case of my own to worry about.

  I spent the morning on the phone with people connected to Christine Sweeny. In short, no one knew anything. We’d had the case since Wednesday and we’d learned nothing. All in all my Saturday at work was not going well. I was finishing up a sandwich with one hand while doing paperwork with the other when my phone rang.

  “How is the most brilliant witch I know?” asked the perky voice I usually associated with Phoebe.

  “Not all that hot, but you sound amazing.”

  “I am, care to guess why?”

  “Uh, no idea. You tell me.”

  “I took your advice.”

  “My advice?”

  “Ethan came by for breakfast before we went to the river clean up this morning. On the drive there I asked if we were dating.”

  “And Ethan would be?” Between the lack of sleep and the strange morning I wasn’t quite with it.

  “The guy? The one I couldn’t tell what was going on with? Well I took your advice and I asked him. We’re dating.”

  “Great.”

  “I am dating”—she paused dramatically—“a nice guy.”

  “Uh-huh.” I shuffled a stack of papers to the left.

  “Did you not hear me? A nice guy. An environmentalist, a vegetarian, the kind of boy you take home to Mother.” She was giddy with the news. “A perfectly normal, totally nice guy. Me!”

  “Is that supposed to be shocking?”

  “I knew I should have called Anna.”

  “What? Just because I believe in your ability to pick an acceptable guy I don’t get to hear the news?”

  “No”—she drew the word out into several syllables—“but Anna would have been more shocked.”

  “Oh my God, you’re dating a nice guy! That’s so-o-o crazy! How did this happen?” My quiet voiced semi-shrieks made Lucas turn his head. I smiled at him and went back to the phone call. “Will wonders never cease? Phoebe dating a nice guy!”

  “Okay, okay enough!” she shouted back, on the edge of laughing. “I want you to meet him.”

  “Just me? I’m honored.”

  “Hmmm, no a double date, you and Jakob and me and Ethan.”

  “Ethan, huh?”

  “Ethan Georgio, it means strong earth worker. Guess what kind of a witch he is.”

  “Hmm, water? No wait, fire?” I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see them. “When should Jakob and I meet your nice guy earth witch?”

  “Dinner, tonight. Is tonight okay for you?”

  “I guess.” I tried desperately to think if Jakob mentioned any plans.

  “Perfect!” Phoebe completely missed my hesitation. “I’ll leave a message at your place with the deets. I won’t wake Jakob, will I?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Great!” She repeated herself at least another four times before saying goodbye. I hung up with a sigh, watching the clock tick along. That’s it, I was done. Over. Finished. I wrapped up one last form, put in for personal time and left.

  Chapter 8

  I’d been home about an hour when Anna called. She didn’t sound anywhere near as happy as Phoebe did.

  “Can I come over? Get a cup of coffee? I need someone to talk to.”

  I agreed, wondering what made Anna sound so mixed up. It was nearly three in the afternoon, a little late for a coffee break but why not? I made a fresh pot of coffee and rummaged in the fridge for the cream. Normally when someone who can’t cook has an unexpected guest there’s a minute of panic. Thankfully I was sleeping with an amazing cook. The muffins from this morning would be perfect.

  Anna rang my doorbell looking as sexy as she had the night before in her school girl skirt and cropped sweater. It helped that she was still wearing them.

  “Uh, Anna? Your clothes?” I stammered a bit inarticulately.

  “I know. That’s why I need to talk.” As she pushed by me and headed toward the couch I knew the artfully arranged muffins weren’t going to get much consideration. I swung the door shut and headed after her, taking the coffee. We might be in for a long talk.

  “I haven’t been home yet.”

  “Huh?” Yeah, that wasn’t the most helpful thing to say. I poured her a cup of coffee.

  “Exactly. I spent the night with a guy.” Anna pressed her lips together looking pensive. “I went home from a bar with a guy. Actually, that’s not true, I went to his hotel and I didn’t leave until ten minutes ago.”

  I nodded, not sure what to say. How do you respond when your very gay friend says that? Anna was living with another woman; she shouldn’t have been going to a hotel with a guy.

  “I had sex with a guy. And I kissed a guy.” She thought about it for a minute. “I guess the last one goes without saying?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, then for lack of anything insightful or helpful I asked, “How’d you like it?”

  “It was messier than sex with a girl.”

  “Messy?” That threw me. My first sexual experience was disappointing and mildly painful; messy didn’t even come into it. “Oh shit, you weren’t safe! Anna!”

  “Not the biggest problem, Mal, whatever disease I could catch is absolutely second to the fact that my life is falling apart here. I’ve always liked girls. Always. My first kiss when I was fourteen? Girl. My sleepovers in high school turned into steamy make out sessions. When I got my first modeling gig? I slept with my roommate, the one who was supposed to make sure no boys snuck into the place.” She threw up her hands, exasperated. “I don’t even look at guys that way, it’s not who I am. But for some reason last night…it’s like what I usually want didn’t matter.”

  “And all you have to say about it is ‘it was messy’? Honestly that doesn’t sound like a h
ot night.”

  “Oh I’m sure it was hot for people who are into that sort of thing…but I’m not.” Her hands were knotting up the edges of my throw blanket now, as confused as her voice. “I’m really and truly not.”

  “But you were there.”

  “You know the feeling you get in your stomach when you think about great sex? The butterflies-tickling-warm-wow, feeling? I don’t get that remembering last night.”

  “But you liked it at the time.” I slid down on the couch and stared at my cup of coffee. “Even though you don’t like that sort of thing.”

  “You see the problem.”

  “I do. But can I point out a second problem?”

  “Sure, anything to distract me.”

  “Nancy.”

  “Oh fuck.” Anna looked up with horror in her eyes. She dove for her purse, digging out the cell phone with lightning speed. A second later I was listening to her leave a frantic message.

  “Hey honey! I got a little drunk last night and passed out on Mallory’s couch. I’m just now stumbling around…hope you aren’t out looking for me! Be home soon.” It was a cheerful-sounding lie and I immediately hated her for bringing me into it. The look must have showed on my face because she immediately started apologizing.

  “I’m sorry, shit Mal, you don’t have to cover for me if she asks. I just…I just don’t know. I don’t know what to say to her because I don’t know what to say to myself. It’s completely unlike me. The whole night is this blur of me doing things I never do. Things I’d never want to do, but I did. I can’t figure out why I did it.”

  “Could it be magic? A charm, a potion, something in your drink or on his skin?”

  “No, I don’t feel any kind of magic hangover.”

  “What about a drug? He got a little pushy for a second there. Maybe a roofie?” I tried to remember all the signs I’d learned in training. “Are you having trouble seeing? Do you feel like you’re going to puke?”

  “No and no. Besides all my drinks were with you guys. If he was using magic to push me into drinking something else, the table would have felt it.”

  “Well, okay, tell me about him. What do we know?”

  “He works in fire protection, something about really hot chemical fires. Putting them out maybe?”

  “You went home from a bar with a super-hot fireman?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay…what’s his name? Do you know his name?” I asked cautiously. Anna might be an assault victim. It might also be something else, but until I knew for sure, I wanted to be gentle.

  “Aden. It’s like his great-grandmother’s last name or something? Anyway, it’s a family name. We talked about names a little after the first time.”

  “After the first time?” A couple goes back to a hotel drunk from a bar there isn’t usually a second time.

  “After the second time we slept, but after the third we ordered room service and talked until it came. The fourth, the fifth, no talking there.” Her voice kept getting higher, more frantic with each word. “Yeah, I really and truly screwed his brains out. Went through every position I’d ever heard of and made up some new ones. What am I going to do?”

  I didn’t know. What do you do when you wake up one morning and you’ve done something completely unlike yourself? Do you try to understand why? What made someone do something they normally wouldn’t? We talked about it for a while and then Nancy called her back.

  The conversation was short. Anna didn’t want to head to a hospital to get checked out when there was such a small chance they’d find anything. Not to mention the bigger chance that she’d have to come clean to Nancy. I could tell she didn’t like lying but no matter how much we talked, Anna still wasn’t okay with telling Nancy what had happened.

  I found my way upstairs, bumping around in the darkness. My apartment came with state-of-the-art vampire shutters but the designer assumed it would only be lived in by vampires who could see in the dark better than I ever would.

  “Careful.” Jakob’s voice came out of the darkness upstairs. “You’re inches away from the bed.”

  “Humph,” was my less than articulate reply. I threw myself down on the bed when I came to it, content to be someplace where I couldn’t stub my toe. Lucky for me when I moved to Jakob’s place there was discreet floor lighting.

  “You know I won’t have this problem when we move in together.”

  “But you also won’t have Anna stopping by to tell you about her crazy nights,” he countered.

  “Don’t believe it. The girls wouldn’t abandon me just because I move.”

  “Hmm.” I could tell that hmm meant he was considering saying something but he wasn’t sure how. In the dark I could see his eyes but I couldn’t read his expression.

  “Well?” I finally asked.

  “Do women never tire of talking about sex?”

  “Hmmm.” I thought it over for a long minute. “Pretty much, no.”

  He rolled his eyes with a groan.

  “Oh and we’re having dinner with Phoebe and her new boyfriend.”

  His only response was a second groan.

  Phoebe called around five, spending a good twenty minutes on the phone with Jakob. I did my best to appear disinterested when really the conversation, which focused on why she didn’t need to pick a restaurant he could eat at, fascinated me. I waited until he was done scribbling down directions to pounce on him.

  “Are we going to talk about that before I move in or after?”

  “Talk about what?” He feigned innocence.

  “Your eating habits. Why you don’t eat in front of me when E says you used to eat in front of her.”

  “Oh that.” His answer was a non-answer and I wanted more. We’d been sitting on the couch, lounging about with a copy of the paper I’d brought home for him, not really doing anything. It seemed the perfect time for a good long talk.

  “Yes that. If we’re going to do this moving in together I think I should know.”

  “All right.” He paused, his body tight beside me. “I don’t need to eat every day and I assumed you’d find it distasteful, so since I’d prefer you not think of me that way I’m happy to eat when you’re asleep.”

  It wasn’t the answer I wanted. I suspected the “why” he didn’t eat in front of me had something to do with him feeling ashamed of being a vampire, or maybe he changed somehow, got violent or scary. I wanted to know but I was patient; we didn’t need to go into details the first time the subject came up in nine months. “What do you eat?”

  “Deer.” He didn’t relax.

  “Deer?”

  “My property extends ten acres in any direction. I keep a small herd.”

  “Always deer?”

  “Well I did have some werewolf last summer but I was hoping that would be the exception.”

  I shivered remembering the police photos of torn limbs and destroyed throats. He was capable of such great violence but instead fed on deer.

  “Wow that’s”—I searched for the word—“noble.”

  “Or weak.”

  “Weak?”

  “If I dined otherwise I would be stronger.”

  “Human blood is stronger than animal?”

  He nodded. “Yes, and the blood of a supernatural creature is stronger still.”

  “Drinking my blood would make you stronger?”

  “Drinking your blood would make me a monster.” I could see this was a battle he’d had before with himself.

  “Nothing could make you a monster,” I said firmly. He frowned slightly, his lips tight in disagreement. “I mean it.”

  “And that is why I love you so much.” His fingers played down my skin but I could feel him battling with himself.

  “I love you, it doesn’t bother me.”

  “It bothers me,” he replied. I kissed him hoping to wash the bitterness out of his mouth. “Your touch is powerful but it can’t change this.”

  “No, but it can distract you for a little bit.” I smiled, u
ndaunted as I lead him upstairs to the bedroom. Some designer long ago chose smooth mirror doors for my closet, creating a wall that reflected everything on the bed. I left Jakob there, watching the reflection, and put my back to the glass as I undressed him.

  He stood still, motionless, letting me unbutton the shirt he’d put on a few hours before. I followed each button with a kiss, running my hands over his skin. His resolve broke when I got to the last button, the one low over his hips and I saw a smile begin to break through his seriousness.

  “I know you don’t like talking about it, but I love you, not despite what you are, but because of what you are and how you act.” I undressed as I spoke, then moved close to him, pressing my naked body against his, feeling my hair on the bare skin of my back and the flat hard planes of his chest and stomach against me.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he said, trying to sound serious when already his hands were running through my hair.

  “Then we won’t, not now anyway, but you need to know, you need to accept that you don’t have to hide from me.” I kissed the point home, letting my fingers move to his waistband, opening his jeans. The denim fabric fell to the floor with a soft noise. I reached down to find there was nothing else in my way. I gently massaged him, holding while I kissed his soft lips, feeling him grow hard. When he moaned, I stopped, pushing him back on the bed, leaving him sitting there. I stepped back to look at him, to take in his wonderful blond hair and all his marble pale skin. But I took too long admiring and he moved forward, his head against my belly, his kisses searching.

  They found their mark. Those kisses made it hard for me to stand and his cool hands came up to support me. His tongue moved across my skin, making me burn with desire. I expected to seduce him. I wanted him to watch me take him in the mirrors. Instead it was all I could do to moan and beg for more while he licked. My body began to tense, pleasure turning into a pressure that defied meaning. I knew if I wanted to recapture the seduction I planned I needed to do it soon.

  I pushed back from him, standing on legs weak with passion and he looked up at me a teasing smile on his lips.