“Nights like this one.” When he kissed her, the flames they’d carefully banked before leaving his apartment threatened to overwhelm them again. Breaking off that kiss and stepping away was one of the most difficult things he’d ever had to do.
“If I don’t walk away now, we’re going to put on quite a show for Rafferty and his neighbors. Hug Phoebe for me.”
Megan’s face was flushed, her lips swollen and so kissable. “I will. I’ll see you at work tonight.”
“And after?” He hadn’t planned on pressing her, but he found he couldn’t leave without knowing.
“And after. Now go. The sun will be up before too long.”
“I’m on my way.”
But he jogged backward until she reached Rafferty’s front door safely. Then he took off at a full-out run toward the trees. The last time someone was sneaking around back there, it had been Banan. Since he was gone, most likely it was one of Rafferty’s employees with a legitimate reason for being there. But all things considered, he’d sleep better knowing that for certain.
Banan wallowed in the human’s blood: his fangs, his fingers and his face dripped with the stuff. He licked a few drops off his hands, savoring the rich flavor. It would be a hell of a mess to clean up, but at the moment he didn’t give a damn. It was just a shame that he’d had to take his temper out on this human weakling instead of Seamus Fitzhugh or Megan Perez. Even Rafferty O’Day and that bitch wife of his would’ve provided more entertainment. Humans simply lacked the stamina for this kind of dance.
Eventually his enemies’ time would come. Until then, he’d have to make do. At least the human he’d caught had been female, which meant she’d been good for more than her vein. If he hadn’t seen Megan Perez walking out of that medic’s place, he would have been satisfied with bedding the human and then draining her dry, offering her nothing but pleasure until the instant she realized he wasn’t going to stop. That she’d suffered was not his fault. No, that blame belonged to Seamus Fitzhugh for daring to touch what belonged to Banan.
Even from the far side of the field, Megan’s body language had been all too easy to read. She had bedded that damn vampire, no doubt about it. The truth was written in the way Seamus stood a little too close to her as well as in the easy touches.
If dawn wasn’t so close, he’d wait for Megan to arrive back at her cottage and teach her a painful—and definitely fatal—lesson about betraying him. How sweet it would be to dump her bloody and abused body on Rafferty’s front doorstep. Or better yet, the medic’s. Let him explain how his lover had ended up dead, her throat ripped out by vampire fangs.
But right now, Banan would dump his substitute date in the creek and then wash up before getting dressed. The water would wash away all trace of his scent. How long would it be before someone found her? He wished he could risk being close enough to watch the security officer’s investigation.
The cause of death would be painfully obvious: death by vampire. A chancellor could rip out a throat, but wouldn’t have drained the blood. The only real question was which vampire would Conlan suspect first?
It was probably too much to hope that he’d blame Rafferty, although there was no love lost between the two. Conlan seemed to like Seamus a little too much for him to be the leading suspect. Eventually, though, as the attacks continued, Conlan would have to consider them both.
Once they were all spinning in circles and pointing fingers at each other, Banan would find a way to make all the evidence lead straight to one of the two. He was having too much fun envisioning the various possibilities to decide which it would be.
Playing God with lives was a lot of fun and good practice for when he took over the Delaney clan. Things were definitely looking up. He picked up the body and headed for the creek. Then it would be time to get back to the pickup point. He couldn’t wait to crawl into his tent and dream of great times to come.
Seamus normally started off his nightly runs at an easy pace, only picking up speed when his muscles were warmed up and stretched out. However, acutely aware that Megan might be watching, he couldn’t help but strut his stuff a bit. He might pay for it later, but after all, a vampire had his pride.
He turned off the road to cut across country, preferring the open spaces where he could more easily lose himself in the waning hours of the night. He loved the quiet peace of these last moments of darkness when daybreak hovered just out of sight over the horizon. However, tonight he had little time to dawdle if he wanted to check out the trees for any proof that someone had been lurking there.
A few humans were already stirring in their homes, lights slowly coming on as they started their days. Because of the human affinity for sunlight, they were the ones who did most of the manual labor on an estate like Rafferty’s, especially out in the fields. Seamus gave Rafferty credit for treating his workers a lot better than other high-ranking vampires did. He valued them as individuals, not just for their muscles and their blood.
Sure, there were drawbacks to living on the O’Day estate, its distance from any other center of civilization being chief among them. However, his progressive attitudes and an offer of a new start left O’Day with no shortage of applicants.
Seamus’s role as the sole health-care provider had already brought him into contact with a fair number of the estate’s residents from all three species. As usual, the humans outnumbered the other two combined. Most of Conlan’s security people were chancellors, which only made sense. To police any given population, you needed staff who could be out in daylight and were strong enough to handle any problem vampires.
He circled back the way he’d come before heading into the trees. A steady wind had come up, making it doubtful he’d be able to pick up any scents. He slowed to a walk as he entered the copse, quieting his own breathing in order to hear better. Other than the rustling of the leaves, the woods were quiet.
He was alone as far as he could tell. Moving from tree to tree, he studied the ground although it was hard to pick out many details even with his superior night vision. A broken twig here, a crushed leaf there, but nothing that said definitively that someone had been there recently.
Even so, his own predatory nature insisted that someone had been there. What he didn’t know was who or why, and he didn’t like that, not one damned bit.
It was too late for him to do any more checking, but he could contact Conlan and ask him to take a look around while the sun was up. Maybe he’d pick up on something Seamus had missed. Having done all he could for the night, he walked across the field to the infirmary.
Thanks to the specialized training he’d had in medical school, normally he could function for extended periods of time when the sun was up. But after the night he’d had, he needed to seek out his bed. Once he had some hours of sleep under his belt, he’d contact Conlan before it was time for Megan to arrive. There was no use in worrying her unnecessarily. At least she’d already agreed to spend the hours after work with him. He’d keep her safe—and occupied—until dawn.
Yep, it was shaping up to be another busy day—and night.
Dreams for vampires were rare, especially ones as peaceful as this one was. Seamus smiled at the pastoral scene before him and started down the hillside toward the woman waiting for him at the bottom. Megan waved at him, a bright smile lighting up her pretty face.
Before he’d gone three steps, a rough hand clamped down on his shoulder from behind, preventing Seamus from being able to reach Megan. With a simple touch, his dream went from fine to furious. He struck out, ready to take no prisoners to keep the woman he loved safe. Wait? What had his dream-self said? The woman he loved? Was that right? At least here in his dreams, it was true. But what about when he was awake?
Then the jolt of landing a solid punch jerked him out of his dreamworld and dropped him right in the middle of a painful reality. He came up fighting.
“Seamus, damn it, quit swinging! It’s me, Conlan. I’m getting damned tired of being used as a punching bag by you.”
>
Conlan? What the hell was he doing in Seamus’s dream? No, wait, he was awake now. So make that, what the hell was Conlan doing in his bedroom? Seamus forced his eyes open and glared at the chancellor, who’d wisely put the width of the room between them.
The clock on the dresser said it was still daylight outside, so for the second time the security officer was waking him up to deal with a crisis. It wouldn’t be the last, but they definitely needed to lay down some ground rules before one of them got hurt. He sat up on the edge of the bed and waited for the cobwebs to clear or the chancellor to explain himself, whichever came first.
He glared at the security officer. “I understand that you need my services, but next time, call me. I usually don’t punch a phone.”
“Thanks for the heads-up. Maybe I’ll just poke you with a long stick, but for now, get your ass out of bed. I need you. I’ll wait for you out in the clinic.” Conlan started out the door, but stopped briefly. “And, Seamus, don’t make me wait long.”
Seamus quickly pulled on yesterday’s shirt and jeans. What had the chancellor’s tail in a twist? If it were a medical emergency, wouldn’t he have said so? Instead, the chancellor had just looked grimmer than usual. Only one way to find out.
More curious than worried, he left his quarters and headed toward the light pouring out of the closest room. To his surprise, Conlan wasn’t alone. Rafferty stood with his back to the door, looming over someone stretched out on the exam table. Seamus’s nostrils flared wide as he stuttered to a stop just inside the doorway.
The odor of death easily overpowered the heavy medicinal smell that usually permeated the clinic. That explained why Conlan and Rafferty were both there as well as the high level of tension in the room.
He moved to the far side of the table and studied the still form outlined by the opaque plastic sheeting that shrouded the body. Feminine for certain, but that was the only thing to be learned at first glance.
“Who is she and what happened to her?”
Rafferty’s furious eyes snapped up to meet his, the length of his fangs and the deep lines bracketing his mouth only underscoring the high emotions that thrummed in the room. “Why don’t you tell me, Dr. Fitzhugh?”
Okay, so that’s how it was going to be.
Before Seamus could pull back the plastic to reveal the body, Conlan blocked him. “Do you have any forensic experience?”
“Only what little they showed all of us in school. I’m a surgeon, not a forensic pathologist.”
He tugged harder on the plastic. “However, I’m the closest to it you’ve got. I’m guessing since you’re asking the question at all, this woman was a victim of a crime, not an accident.”
Rafferty moved closer to the head of the table and pulled back the sheet himself. “Her name was Maggie Travis.”
Seamus hissed when he saw what was left of her throat. “Who did this?”
Conlan ignored the question to ask one of his own. “Vampire or chancellor?”
“I’ll need to take a closer look. I’ll be right back.”
He went next door to the operating suite and picked up a tray of sterile instruments and his surgical telescopic headgear that would allow him to scan the wounds and flash them up on the computer screen. Not that he had any doubts that a vampire had played long and hard with this poor female. Yes, a chancellor’s fangs were capable of inflicting that same damage to her throat, but she’d been drained of blood.
However, he’d follow the protocols as he remembered them from school. Preserving the evidence had to take priority, to make sure that a case could be made against the guilty party once Conlan hunted the bastard down.
He slipped on the surgical goggles. After he adjusted the focus, he turned on his voice recorder. Leaning in close, he studied the wounds, starting with her head and working his way down her body. He noted each wound, each bruise, each violation. Then he repeated the journey, this time with a digital camera. He was dimly aware that both Rafferty and Conlan kept their eyes averted from the body, preferring to watch the computer monitor.
He didn’t blame them, knowing it would allow them some small emotional distance from the horrific wounds. Whoever had done this had done more than play with his food, resulting in her accidental death. Although Seamus was no expert, it was obvious the vampire in question had deliberately set out to inflict pain, terror and death, but had at some point lost control. This woman had suffered greatly, and she would have embraced death as a blessed release from the horror of her last few hours of life.
Once he’d completed his examination, he quickly summarized his impressions, keeping his voice neutral, professional, his comments succinct. Then he clicked off the recorder, calmly set his surgical goggles aside and left the room. Out in the lobby, he calmly picked up the closest chair high over his head and heaved it against the wall with a resounding crash, putting all of his vampire strength and rage into the effort.
Breathing heavily, he studied the hole in the wall and the heap of broken wood and torn fabric on the ground. It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough to vent the fury churning his gut. He started to reach for another chair, but destroying a room full of innocent furniture wouldn’t do a damn thing to help that poor woman.
No, what he wanted, needed was to wrap his hands around the guilty party’s neck and slowly, slowly choke the life out of the sadistic bastard. And that only after he’d ripped into his arteries to let his blood pulse out onto the ground.
“Remind me not to piss you off anytime soon.” Conlan eased up beside him, but Seamus noticed he was careful not to touch him. The chancellor bent down to pick up the broken chair leg. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“Why? Because I did my job in there?” Seamus growled, his voice thick with anger. “My impressions and descriptions may make the difference in a conviction. I don’t want the son of a bitch that did that to get off because we didn’t preserve the evidence correctly.”
“Thanks. You might not have forensic training, but you did a hell of a job in there.” He studied Seamus’s expression. “Are you up for answering some questions now?”
“What kind of questions?”
“The same ones we’ll be asking all of the vampires on the estate.” Rafferty had joined the party. “He needs to know where you were this morning, right before dawn.”
Okay, so they needed to do this. That didn’t mean he had to like it. “I was with Megan right up until she dropped me off in front of your place. From there, I took my nightly run.”
“Did you come straight back here?”
Not exactly, but how would it sound if he mentioned his suspicion that someone had been out in the woods? However, the truth was still the better route. Lies tended to come back and bite you on the ass.
“When Megan and I were leaving the clinic, I thought I saw someone standing at the edge of the woods across the field out back. I asked Megan to slow down in case it was someone who might be looking for me. But the next time I looked, there was no one there. I decided to swing through the woods on my way back home to check things out. Either way, I was going to call Conlan this morning to have a look around in the daylight.”
Conlan was frowning. “Why didn’t you call me when it happened?”
“Because it didn’t seem like an emergency and I was tired.” He still was. “As I was running, I noticed the lights were on in several of the human quarters I passed. I know some of the farm workers head out pretty early, so I figured it was probably a human on his way to work.”
Time for a few questions of his own. “Were you able to narrow down the time of death for Ms. Travis?”
“Near as we can figure, it happened somewhere between three and six this morning. She works the late shift at the dining hall. Her boss said she left a little later than usual to help cover for someone who called in sick. Normally she walks home with a group, but obviously that didn’t happen. The last time anyone saw her was when she left work a little after three.
There was real gri
ef in Conlan’s voice. “Her family knew she was working late and so didn’t get suspicious until close to sunrise. That’s when they called me, but some workers had already found the body in the creek before I could get here. At least they had the good sense to back off and wait for me to supervise retrieving the body. My men are out there now combing the area for evidence.”
“She was found in the creek? Damn it, I should have guessed that she’d been submerged in water from the lack of blood in the wounds and no scent other than her own.” Seamus walked back into the examination room with the other two trailing behind.
“What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to swab all the wounds to see if we can find any trace evidence. If she wasn’t in the water all that long, there’s a chance the deeper wounds weren’t washed completely clean.”
Conlan joined him beside the body. “Those tests take time, and we need answers now. They’re also expensive.”
Seamus put on a fresh set of gloves. “So what’s it to be, Rafferty?”
To give the vampire credit, he didn’t hesitate. “Do it. I want my people to know that I’m more concerned about justice than I am the expense. Tell me what I can do to help.”
“Use the computer in Megan’s office to print out labels with the victim’s name, the date and the case number, if there is one. Conlan and I will get the supplies together. Once we’re done, we’ll all three sign off on when and where the specimens were collected.”
“Good thinking. The better job we do in collecting evidence, the better the chance we’ll get the death penalty when this case goes to trial.”
“So you think we’ll catch him?” Seamus asked as he laid out swabs and transport media, along with a scalpel to take scrapings from under her nails.
“If Banan was still here, I’d be hauling his ass in for a long talk. However, I followed up to make sure he really did return to New Eire. He’s still racking up charges at the hotel. Too bad.”
Conlan ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “This whole mess just feels like something he’d do, but since he’s out of the picture, we’ll have to look closer to home. We pretty much have a captive population, and I’ll know if someone tries to leave. It will be a process of elimination after we finish tracking everyone’s movements.”
Vampire Vendetta Page 18