by Candy Crum
The next morning, I awoke to Tristan standing over my bed. Or, the bed that I had at my parents’, I guess I should say.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice deep.
“Uh… Good morning,” I said. “So… What’s up with the creepy stalker routine?”
“What?” He looked genuinely confused for a moment before shaking his head. “I’ve been here all of thirty seconds. I came to wake you. Do you want to actually get somewhere in your investigation?”
Hmm. This was a cause for alarm. He’d been rather against my investigation, though he supported me. I guess that was “good dad” behavior. I liked that he tried. This, however, was quite different. He was on a mission himself.
“What do you have in mind, old man?” I asked.
“We are going to that house that you were first killed in. I want to look around. We should look for anything the police missed. I’m sure there will be plenty. With my eyes and the nose of a vampire, we should be able to find something. I also talked to Andrews. He was able to get us into the prison.”
It was far too early. My “I understand exactly nothing, so every response is going to be dumber than hell” button hadn’t yet been switched off. I stared at him for an uncomfortable moment, his words rattling off of every corner of my mind, but striking nothing important.
Tristan rolled his eyes. Interesting. It seemed that he was picking up my mannerisms. It was kind of amusing really, given he was so old and regal for an incubus.
“It’s so we can interview men associated with your Jay.”
“Uh, they’re criminals. They aren’t going to tell us anything.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, but quickly realized that was a mistake. It was a rather embarrassing – and I’m sure hilarious to anyone other than Tristan – display of my fingers getting stopped halfway down, me realizing the tangled mess, but fighting it anyway. Insert a few grunts, Tristan’s bored expression, and then my painful triumph, and I was once again back in the conversation.
“As I was saying… They are hardened criminals. Assholes. If they are anything like Suzy Sunshine that Cass and I took care of, they are pieces of work. Lost cause, padre.”
If looks could kill, I would have died multiple times. He stared at me, an unbelievably incredulous expression on his face. He clearly wasn’t having anything to do with my morning shenanigans. Too bad for him. I fully planned to be that way for the next forty-five minutes. Not purposely. My mind just didn’t work that well first thing after waking up.
His arms extended to the side. “Excuse me? Hello?”
I laughed. “Oh, yeah!” I tapped on the right side of my head. “I remember. Superpowers. God, I’m useless in the morning. You know, you brought this on yourself. I didn’t sleep well. I was up all night going through case files for Andrews.”
“Because of the things you saw?” he asked.
I nodded. “I saw a lot. I know you don’t believe me, but I did.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s that you shouldn’t be able to do that, yet. It took me a great while. Hell, I know succubi and incubi decades old that still haven’t learned that. Most never do. It’s a strange form of telepathy. The oldest, most powerful vampires have the ability. As do werewolves, due to their spiritual nature. Immortal humans are able to see flashes, but only of those from their own bloodline. In short, it’s a rare ability. You shouldn’t have it without a lot of practice. We don’t come by it honestly. It’s an intense bond between us and our victim. You can only do this if your compulsion is so strong that you convince them to give themselves completely. I’ve seen your compulsion. It’s weak. Ergo, my confusion.”
I waved my hands in front of my chest. “Padre, it’s a bit too early for all that. I can’t process much, as I’m sure you could tell. The braining doesn’t come easy for me anyway. Let me take a shower, get some coffee, and then we can go. I know you want to know more about the telepathy, but I don’t know what I did. I was feeding, then his memories started flooding through my head. I saw… Oh, my God… The things I saw.”
“I know, Mia.” Tristan’s voice was soft then.
When I looked up at him, I saw the softness in his face as well. He reached out and brushed a few stray hairs out of my face.
“I know it was terrible for you to see these things. We will get them. I promise.”
I smiled. It meant a lot that he wanted to help me. That he understood.
After a shower, a quick breakfast, and some coffee to go, I was feeling much more coherent. Tristan and I talked more about my abilities on the way to the house that Jay killed me in. Cass was supposed to meet us there. I was happy that it was too early for my mom to be awake before we left.
It was still a bit weird seeing my mom with Tristan. She looked at him like she looked at my dad. It was disturbing. I knew it was the incubus charm, but it was strange to watch your mom ogle a man in front of your father that she had an affair with. Granted, it was strictly to conceive a child, but still. God, my life was weird.
When we got to the house, I began to have flashbacks. I remembered good ol’ Shaw-nee best. Ah… Memories.
“What are we hoping to find here again?” I asked.
“Anything at all. I want to see where everything happened. Cass might be able to sniff out some things as well.”
I nodded. “Okie dokie.”
As we were walking up to the house, Cass followed us up. He’d been parked down the street and saw us pull up. It didn’t take much to break in. Turns out that Cass was well trained in picking locks. That was a house we highly doubted anyone would be stupid enough to go inside of and trash. It was likely that anyone in the immediate area knew whose house it was. That would work to our benefit. It would be undisturbed, minus what the cops did to it.
Walking inside, I noticed that it smelled musty and old. It smelled like it hadn’t been lived in for years, not only weeks. The sun had barely come up, and the rays were shining through the cracks in the blinds. It didn’t offer much light, but it would have to do. We didn’t want to go opening windows in case the neighbors caught us sniffing around. Literally, in Cass’ case. He was like our supernatural bloodhound. I’d never met a werewolf, but I wondered if they’d be any better at it. They’d have to be, right? There was still so much to learn.
“God, it smells awful in here,” I said.
“There’s good reason for that,” Cass said, his voice grim.
As soon as I heard the tone, I knew what he was referring to.
“Please tell me there aren’t dead bodies in here,” I said.
He nodded. “Quite a few, from the smell of it. If the cops didn’t find them, it’s because they are sealed off pretty nicely. Only a supernatural being would have senses good enough to sniff it out.”
“I want to find them,” I said. “We have to. It could be men that were dealing along with Jay, or innocent victims, or those girls. It could be anyone. We need to see if we can put any missing persons reports to rest. Andrew would probably appreciate it.”
“Call him,” Tristan said. “He’s going to want to be here.”
Tristan was right. Andrews was more than excited to come help. As soon as he realized things had been missed, he was on it. He said that if we found anything that he was going to say some local thugs broke in, started hunting for drugs, found the body or bodies, and then called it in before fleeing. Easy.
While waiting for Andrews, I began making my way around the lower floor. Tristan kept suspiciously close to me, and I recognized the worried look on his face. It was the same one that my dad gave me the first time I walked through the mall by myself. I hadn’t been alone at all. He stayed several paces back, and when I turned, I saw the exact same expression on his face. Guilt. Pride. Worry. It struck me odd that Tristan would have that for me, but I suppose that I gave him too much crap.
The kitchen proved to be worthless. Cass was able to tell us that. Not only was he able to smell dead bodies, but he said that he
could smell drugs. Pot, cocaine, and a few things he couldn’t identify right away. He said that he thought the drugs were coming from upstairs, but he wanted to finish downstairs to be sure.
As I exited the kitchen and headed back into the living room, I saw the office off to the right. I wanted to go in, but I found myself to be a bit scared. Tristan must have noticed my hesitation as I stood there, staring at the door.
“I smell blood in there,” Cass said.
I nodded. “I bet you do. That’s where I was shot.”
I took a deep breath and stepped forward. I doubted that I’d have that big of an issue walking back through my house. I’d been killed there, too. Well, obviously, I wasn’t killed, but I’d had my head damn near blown off. I wondered why that room in particular gave me the chills.
I slid the doors open and the scent of blood smacked me in the face. I never would have smelled it if I’d been human. Even still, my nose wasn’t even a fraction of what Cass’ was. I couldn’t begin to imagine what he smelled.
As we stood in the door, I looked down to the floor just in front of the wall to my right. There it was. A massive blood stain. My eyes filled with tears as I stared at it. It was much larger than I expected. Actually, I wasn’t sure what I expected, but that wasn’t it.
“Why am I crying?” I asked, wiping away the tears that had spilled onto my cheeks. “Why is this room and that spot affecting me the way that it is? I feel scared. Abandoned. Anxious.”
“That blood is human,” Cass said, his voice very soft. “Is that yours?”
I nodded.
He followed suit, nodding his head as well. “If I had to guess… I would say your tears are coming from you mourning your human death.”
“What?” I asked.
Cass sighed before he spoke. “This is the very last place that you were human. You can’t even consider the hospital the last place because you were in the process of changing. This is the final resting place of you. You lost your mortal life here. That Mia is dead, and she’s never coming back. That blood stain, right there, is the last shred of your innocence. Now, you are a part of the shadow world. You’ll never again know what it’s like to wake up and go to work, come home, and just live without the knowledge of everything you’ve learned. That is why you cry, sweets. You’re mourning your death.”
His words hit hard. There was no doubt in my mind that he was right. The emotions that I felt were strikingly human. Fear. Anxiety. All things that I felt just before, and also as, I laid there, dying in a puddle of my own blood. I couldn’t believe it. The amount of strength that I’d found within myself over the couple of weeks prior was significantly different than anything I could find before. I’d always considered myself a strong person, but it was nothing compared to the new me. It made me wonder how much more I would change.
“I can’t smell anything else in here,” Cass said. “Just your blood. Uh… Sorry. That was a little insensitive. I’m going to walk around.”
He tried not to look me directly in the face. I knew he had no idea how to handle what I was going through right then. I had no idea how old he really was, but I assumed that he was old enough to have forgotten what it was like to say goodbye to his human life.
“There has to be something,” I said. “I’m betting they hid a bunch of stuff in the walls.”
We each heard the front door open and stepped just outside the office door to find Andrews walking in. He wasn’t even shy about it. It wouldn’t matter having an obvious unmarked police car out front because the police have been in and out. It’s obvious to Jay they haven’t found anything. However, random people breaking in would be suspicious. Drug dealers know how other drug dealers work. They’d be more likely to know what Jay was hiding and where.
If anyone thought that our little trio was part of another drug ring, we could get busted, quickly. Andrews showing up kind of saved us from that. It was obvious that Jay had been very confident that nothing would be found, or they wouldn’t have left it for so long. Someone would have been back by now.
No, they were sitting and waiting for it to all blow over before coming back.
“Find anything, yet?” Andrews asked.
I sighed. “Just a shit ton of my blood in the floor. Other than that, no. We haven’t physically found anything, but Cass can smell bodies and drugs. He wanted to scan everything on this floor before moving on, though.”
“Actually, that’s a good idea,” Andrews said. “Thorough. Don’t be random and move from room to room only to go back again.”
“Found something!” Cass called out. I hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t in the living room.
We went into the office again, and I was careful to ignore my blood spot. We looked over behind the desk, where Cass was standing. He began furiously ripping books off the built-in book shelves. Once it was clean, he began tearing it apart. The boards were nothing against his strength. They snapped into pieces under the force of his hands.
Once he’d cleared the area, he punched through the back and straight into the wall. When his hand emerged, he was holding a plastic-wrapped packaged full of something white. Cocaine.
“The smell of your blood was throwing me off,” Cass said. “I guess there was something on this floor after all.”
“How much more?” Andrews asked.
Cass began tearing the wall apart and found several more.
“I don’t think there is very much hidden in any one place,” Cass said. “At least, if they were smart, they wouldn’t have done that. I’d say this is the majority, if not all of it in here.”
Once Cass and Andrews were convinced the room was clear, we moved further into the house. We cleared the first floor and moved up to the second. The second floor had two rooms that hid drugs within their walls. Still – we found no bodies. I had a feeling those would be the last things that we’d find. With every moment that passed, I became more and more nervous.
“All that’s left is the basement,” Andrews said. “If you smell decayed human bodies, I have a feeling that would be the safest place to keep them. I can’t smell anything. It smells just like it did the last time I was here. You fuckers really need to come out of the closet already. We could use you as detectives.”
“If the immortal queen has her way, that will happen soon enough,” Tristan said.
“That’s no shit,” Cass said.
“You guys keep talking about this war, but haven’t told me shit about it,” I said. “Why do you keep talking about immortals? Aren’t we all immortals?”
While I both wanted and needed to learn all about this crap, I was actually trying to distract myself. I didn’t want to see what was coming.
“We are all immortals,” Tristan said. “Meaning that we are all immortal. The immortals are different. Khia, their queen, is a deceitful, vengeful woman. She was born human, but allowed a demonic-like soul to possess her and give her immortality and power. Each generation from there on was able to inherit her power like she’d had it from the day she was born.”
Cass spoke then. “Khanae, my queen, is hell bent on reclaiming the Egyptian throne that Khia stole from her three millennia ago. She wants to protect the humans. Rumor has it that the girl that’s supposed to bring about the end of the great war has been found and Khanae has her.”
“It sounds like they aren’t too different from us. I’m planning to start a war of my own, but local,” I said as we made our way through the kitchen and to the door that held the stairs to the basement.
I took several deep breaths before Andrews opened the door.
“This war will affect all of us,” Cass said. “At some point, every vampire on earth will be called to join. Khia has many rogues fighting on her side against our queen, Khanae. We will all be called to choose our side and fight.”
“This really affects everyone? It’s not just a squabble among the species?” I asked.
The smell of dead bodies grew stronger and stronger with every step I took descending the
stairs. Tristan grabbed hold of my arm and looked down at me in the almost darkness.
“Mia, our immediate concern is finding this Jay and killing him before he finds a way to kill you. You need to learn to control your power. I worry for you more than you think, even in the very short time that I’ve known you. Right now, we must worry about the immediate future. But make no mistake, this war will come, and you will be asked to fight. You can choose to, or you can hide or flee, like I suspect many will do. When that day comes, I want you to be ready.”
The seriousness in his tone and the way that he looked at me made me even more nervous. I didn’t want to run. I never wanted to run again. I wanted to save the city from Jay, and then I wanted to save the world. With Tristan and Cass with me, and even Andrews, there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish.
Well… unless it was walking into a seemingly clean basement that smelled of decayed human flesh, mildew, and dust. That one I wasn’t doing too good with. Cass was already standing in the middle of the room staring down at the concrete floor. He took a deep breath as he looked at all of us, a small bit of the early morning sun peeking through the tiny ground level windows.
As he exhaled, he lifted his fist and punched straight down, neatly painted concrete shattering everywhere. When the dust settled, I saw it… A shiny black trash bag glistening in the sun. It was tightly taped around something oddly shaped resting just under the surface.
Chapter Five
Despite knowing what we’d come down there for, I still took a sharp intake of breath. My entire body locked up. I knew what it was, but that still didn’t stop me from asking, “Is that what I think it is?” all while hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t what I thought it was.
Cass cleared away the large broken pieces of concrete as Andrews watched carefully. Once the concrete was cleared away, even he could smell the scent of human decay with his human nose. That meant that it was even worse for the rest of us.