When Kellen had enlisted, he supposed he did it so he could blow stuff up, but what he didn’t realize was that most of the stuff he was going to blow up in Vietnam was going to be people.
He had three months to go on his tour of duty. Once he got out, he made an oath that he’d never get involved in another war. Vampire or not, the last place he wanted to end his days was on a battlefield. Being blown up by a grenade would kill him, just like it would anyone else in his platoon.
During his ten months in-country he ran into twenty other vampires. Five of them were in his company but none in his own ordnance platoon. He had heard the news recently of a vampire in another platoon getting blown up by his own explosive. He didn’t want to die like that.
The sergeant tapped Kellen’s helmet, indicating he was ready to move out.
Kellen slung his M-16 over his shoulder and duck-walked behind the sergeant as he made his way toward their designated position.
But they didn’t get very far before rapid-fire gunshots echoed through the dense clumping of trees and bushes.
Halting, his sergeant pointed toward an overgrown section of brush, then crawled, belly to the ground, over the dirt path and into it. Kellen followed his lead. Setting up position on his stomach, Kellen wiped his eye clear and peered through the scope, waiting for the enemy to appear.
More gunfire sounded, this time closer. Kellen could also hear the shouts of both the Americans and the Viet Cong. To his dismay, the battle had started early.
Breath coming in slow easy draws, Kellen waited, peering through the scope for any sign of the Viet Cong. The moment he spotted any, he’d let the sarge know, so he could detonate the claymores.
Sweat dripped into his eyes as he waited, and he wiped at it with the back of his hand. All the sounds around him were louder in his ears. He could hear the sergeant’s quick heartbeat, racing like a hummingbird’s wings. He could hear the raindrops splattering on the leaves and in the dirt. It sounded like tin drums.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Then he heard the approach of footsteps down the now muddy trail. But he didn’t think it was a man approaching.
Blinking to clear his vision, he watched in surprise as an animal padded out of the thick jungle. A wolf ran toward him, its eyes glowing like blue fire, its beautiful auburn coat wet with rain.
She was spectacular.
Jumping to his feet, Kellen lifted his gun and started out onto the trail toward her. He had to get to her before the enemy did.
His sergeant called after him, but Kellen didn’t slow. There was no time. It was slipping away even as he moved. His legs were starting to feel leaden, as if he was running through a viscous liquid pool.
More gunfire sounded. The echoes bounced off the nearby trees. The enemy was close. She would get hurt.
Trying to run faster, Kellen reached out toward the beast. If he could reach her, he could protect her with his body.
The enemy appeared from the bushes nearby, rifles pointing in the wolf’s direction.
“Sophie!” he screamed.
Kellen jumped and wrapped his body around the animal, taking them both to the ground. He hit solidly, his breath shoved from his lungs.
A sharp pain rushed up his spine. He’d been shot.
“Kellen?”
Was it her voice? Was the wolf speaking to him?
“Wake up.”
A pressure on his shoulder jerked him awake. Sitting up, Kellen glanced around and tried to get his balance. He felt dizzy and confused. He’d only been asleep for a few minutes, hadn’t he?
Blinking, he focused on the woman standing in front of him, a look of concern on her elegant pale face. “Sophie?”
“Yeah.” She frowned.
“I thought you went home for a few hours.”
“I did. It’s six in the morning.”
“Oh.”
“Are you okay? You were twitching in your sleep.”
Mortified, he hoped he hadn’t called out her name while asleep. He wondered how long she’d been watching him.
“Did I say anything?”
She shook her head but looked at him strangely. Was she lying and not just telling him, so he wouldn’t be embarrassed? Or maybe it was her embarrassment she was hiding, that her name had been upon his lips while he was asleep.
Somewhat relieved, he nodded and rubbed a hand over his mouth, self-conscious. He’d been asleep sitting up, head and arms over the desk. Not the most comfortable way to sleep, and certainly not the most flattering, either.
“I guess I was more tired than I thought.” He twisted side to side trying to get out the kinks that had settled into his spine.
She pointed to her forehead. “Umm, you have a Post-it note stuck.”
Reaching up, he pulled a square piece of yellow paper from his head. He’d fallen asleep making notes about the various files. “Thanks.” He stuck the note back onto a file folder—where he had previously fastened it.
“What was the dream about?”
“Vietnam.”
She moved closer to him, her hands stuffed into her pants pockets. He wondered if she had them there to stop her from breaching the distance between them and touching him. She looked like that was what she wanted to do. Instead, she asked, “Was it bad? You look paler than normal.”
Nodding, he stood and stretched out his legs. “Bad enough.”
She kept his gaze as if she wanted to say something to him. But after taking in a deep breath, she turned her attention to the desk where the files were spread out in disarray. She tapped her finger on one of them. “Did you come up with anything?”
“Yeah.” He dragged two file folders toward him and flipped them open. “Both these guys were patients, one present, one past, and they both served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968 during the time Brenner was there.”
“Was that the time you were there?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you recognize either of them?”
He shook his head as he stared down at the photos of the two men. “Not right out. This name might be familiar,” he said, pointing to the file on one Louis Martin, “but I can’t be definite. I’ve known quite a few Louises in my lifetime.”
“Any of the surveillance photos match?”
He pulled two eight-by-ten glossy pictures across the desk and set them in front of Sophie. She eyed them, then the photos from the files. She nodded. “Could be either of them. They have similar builds and the same color hair.”
“Yeah, but only Jacques DuPont had an appointment that afternoon.”
“Did you call Gabriel?”
“Twice. He never called me back.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t give me your number.”
“Oh, right.” She gathered the files together, fidgeting with the top flap.
He could tell there was something on her mind, something she wanted to say to him. He moved closer to her, but not so close that she would feel pressured.
“You were in my dream.”
She looked at him, her eyes narrowed. “Just now? The one about the war?”
He nodded. His throat felt dry, like leather out in the sun too long. Her presence in his dream scared him. He normally wasn’t one for premonitions, but this one had needled at his mind like one. It could have been just his fear for her safety. But he couldn’t shake the sensation that it was more, so much more than that.
“Promise me you’ll be careful.”
Her nose scrunched up. “What do you mean?”
“Just be careful, okay?” He sighed, grasping her hand in his and running his thumb over her knuckles. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks on this one.”
“Do you have visions?”
He shook his head. “No, just a feeling.”
“Look, I’ve been on the job for years. Every case has a certain amount of risk.” She slowly pulled her hand from his and tucked it into her pocket. “Beside
s that, I can take care of myself. I’m a lycan, after all.”
He went to say something else, to tell her he was afraid of losing her, but Gabriel took that unwelcome moment to march into the room.
“Sorry I didn’t get back to you.”
Sophie showed him the files. “Kellen found us a couple of prime suspects.”
Briefly glancing down at the names and addresses, Gabriel flipped open his cell phone. He nodded to Kellen. “Good job. We’ll get backup to meet us at the DuPont address.”
Kellen nodded, but his heart wasn’t into it. He was happy that he was able to put some of the pieces together on this case, but something about it was nagging him. He had a feeling that digging deeper was only going to get someone hurt. And he feared that someone might be Sophie.
Chapter 18
Jacques DuPont’s apartment was downtown, in a fashionable part of the city. Winding cobblestone streets lined with quaint cafes and designer boutiques meshed with the best in nightlife clubbing.
Kellen sat in the backseat of Gabriel’s Audi as he and a special police task force amassed on the apartment building’s front stoop and at the back, in the alley. He and Sophie were told to wait in the vehicle until they cleared the man’s apartment and hopefully had him in custody so they could question him about the black briefcase he was photographed carrying into the medical center the day Dr. Bueller’s office exploded.
Kellen didn’t mind sitting in the vehicle. He was never one for police action. Unlike some crime scene investigators he knew, he didn’t get into the field because he wanted to be a cop or thought it would be a good stepping-stone onto the force. No, he liked working in the lab, where he could assemble together all the puzzle pieces. Behind the scenes was always better than being out in the open, in the line of fire. He’d been in the line of fire before and he hated it.
He stole a glance at Sophie as she sat staring out the window from the front seat. From her tensed shoulders, he guessed she hated being out of the action. He smiled to himself, thinking she probably loved the thrill of the chase. It had to have been a lycan thing for sure. Most of the best cops he knew were lycans.
Suddenly she perked up and pointed to something out on the street. “Isn’t that him?”
Kellen followed her line of vision to see a dark-haired man with an average build sauntering down the street. As he neared the building, his gait slowed until, finally, he stopped and stared at the front door, where several officers and Gabriel were entering.
Looking around him, he turned and went back the way he had come from. Quickly.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
Sophie was out of the car before Kellen finished his sentence.
“Sophie!” Kellen pulled at the door handle and jumped out of the vehicle as Sophie crossed the street in pursuit of the suspect. He jogged to catch up to her. Once at her side, he glanced at her. “What’s your plan? Run this guy down?”
“Something like that.”
“All right. I got your back.”
Sophie didn’t have time to respond, because their suspect, Jacques, had made them and was upping his pace by dashing across the street and turning the corner. She took off first, Kellen following behind. She was fast, and he had to make a real effort to keep up to her.
Jacques was sprinting hard, weaving back and forth down the sidewalk to avoid colliding with people. Sophie was now only about three yards behind him, and Kellen about two feet behind her.
As he ran, Kellen thanked the clouds above that the sun wasn’t beating down on him. He wouldn’t have lasted long, baking in the ultraviolet rays, but then neither would their suspect.
Jacques turned another corner, making a wide berth around a woman and her baby carriage. Sophie barreled right toward them, crouching for a second, then leaping about six feet in the air and landing safely on the other side, without breaking stride.
Kellen nearly ran into the stroller as he watched Sophie glide through the air. At the last moment, he made an arc around them and continued the chase. Now Sophie was about seven feet in front of him and gaining on the suspect.
The street they had turned onto was a wide boardwalk lined with majestic trees, but it was crowded with people milling about at various kiosks, shopping or hawking wares, and scenic cafes selling iced cappuccinos, red wine and atmosphere. One cafe had its tables scattered across the pavement, and a line of scooters and Vespas crowded around them. Someone was going to get hurt in that mess.
Kellen watched as Jacques jumped over empty chairs and tried to weave around patrons, but to no avail, a few people went flying into the street as he collided with them.
“Move out of the way!” Sophie yelled as she waved her hands at the crowd.
Some did move, but most heard her warning too late. Kellen cringed as Sophie came sprinting through the cafe, knocking tables and scooters over as she ran. Kellen followed the path she cleared.
Jacques weaved across the street, stopping traffic as he went, and nearly getting hit by a large garbage truck. It screeched to a stop about half a foot away. Sophie followed him, much more agile and quick. She jumped over one car and slid across the hood of another.
Kellen followed her across the road, but without as much style. Hand out, he avoided the cars as much as possible. But one motorcycle skidded to a halt too late and nicked him in the knee. Pain ripped through him, but he didn’t stop. Nothing was broken. He’d heal.
Sophie glanced back at him and looked as if she was going to slow. But he shook his head at her. “Keep going!”
Whipping her head back around she kept on running. Kellen followed, realizing that he was falling behind. He thought he was in good shape, but compared to Sophie he was an amateur.
Chasing Jacques around another corner, Kellen saw a huge obstacle in the way. A large stone fountain with a circular pond encasing it sat in the middle of the walkway. The way Jacques was going, he looked as though he was going to run right into it.
At the last second, he dodged around it. This gave Sophie her opportunity, if Kellen was right about what she planned to do. Sprinting straight at the stone structure, Sophie leapt onto the edge of the pond, pushed off with her back foot and sailed over the fountain, her feet churning in the air to give her continual motion.
As she landed on the other side, Kellen lost sight of her.
Pushing harder until his lungs burned, he wheeled around the fountain, but came to a screeching halt when he saw Sophie on the ground, cradling her ankle.
A few people had crowded around her, asking her if she was all right.
He pushed past them and crouched beside her. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Between her fingers he could see blood and bone. Her ankle bone had punctured her skin.
He brushed at the tendrils of hair sticking to her sweaty brow. “I’m calling Gabriel.” He flipped open his cell phone.
“Keep going,” she grunted between clenched teeth. “Don’t let him get away.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“I’ll be okay. I’ll heal. It just hurts like hell right now.” She grabbed onto his arm. “Go. Take him down.”
A siren wailed in the background. Someone had obviously already called an ambulance.
Looking down at her, he saw the disappointment in her eyes. He didn’t want to let her down. He wanted to be a hero for her.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he murmured, “I’ll be back.” She nodded, her face pale and sweaty.
Standing, Kellen surveyed the street and saw the tail end of Jacques’s green shirt as he dashed down a one-way street.
Kellen ran after him, the defeated look on Sophie’s face propelling him forward.
After two more blocks, Kellen lost Jacques. He had darted down a narrow lane leading to a dead end, and then Kellen had lost sight of him. There was really nowhere Jacques could have gone, but it looked as if the man had disappeared anyway.
Maybe the vampire could mist. In Kellen’s long lifetime, he’d only encountered one vampire who posses
sed that ability. To dissolve into nothing and reassemble elsewhere like a floating mist. He really hoped Jacques didn’t possess that kind of anomaly.
Vigilant, Kellen slowed his pace and crept along the road, his gaze eyeing the surrounding nooks and crannies in the old stone buildings. Jacques had to have gone somewhere; inside one of the buildings, maybe.
As he walked, he noticed a fire escape along one building. A perfect way to disappear. When he neared it, Kellen noticed a group of four teens milling about on the steps of one of the apartment buildings across the street. If Jacques went up they would have had to have seen him.
Jogging across the road, Kellen approached them. One of the boys noticed him and nudged the others. They all began to act as if they didn’t have a care in the world, except about how cool they were. Little did they know that Kellen had invented that attitude about one hundred and eighty years ago. And since not one of them was a vampire, they couldn’t say the same.
“Hey, how long have you been here?”
They all did the collective shrug, but one of them, obviously the mouth of the group, answered, “Why do you want to know?”
“Because a friend of mine came this way and I need to know where he went.” He glanced at each of them. None of them met his gaze. “He has dark hair, average build and is wearing a green shirt.”
“What are you, a cop or something?” the only female in the group asked.
“Or something.”
“If we give you that info, what are you going to give us?”
Leaning toward them, Kellen put on the power and bared his fangs. He knew his eyes were glowing, and likely other energy was flowing from him. They all shrank back.
“I’ll let you keep your lives.” He licked the tips of his fangs. “I’ve been running for ten blocks now and I’m awfully thirsty.”
“You can’t do that,” the mouth stuttered. “It’s illegal to take blood out on the street, dude.”
“Hey, I’m from out of town, ‘dude.’ I’ll take blood wherever I choose to.”
One by one, they pointed to the fire escape. The girl said, “He went up there. To the roof.”
Vivi Anna - [Valorian Chronicles 04] Page 11