by N Gray
I composed myself and replied, “Why are you apologizing?”
“I should have spoken with him first before taking you to him. I should have known he would try something like that. In case you hadn’t noticed, he is a vampire.”
“You don’t say,” I replied sarcastically.
More to the point, Léon was male, and being a vampire wouldn’t change that part of him; men had their own desires to satisfy. Even though I had an immense attraction to Sebastian, there was something burning there for Léon, too—but I suspected that it could just be his vampiric wiles at play. It had to be.
And, following their fight afterward, I didn’t want to be in the middle of, or the cause of, a feud between the two brothers.
I had to go. “Anyway, can’t we just move forward? I need to bring my A-game if I’m going to catch this voodoo fucker with Ralph. I can’t have this”—I waved my hands in the air—“at the back of my mind while I deal with the real monster.”
“Are we good?”
“We’re good, but whatever you and your brother keep fighting about—don’t drag me into the middle of it.”
He nodded, took my hand, and then led me down the various hallways until we met up with Sawyer, who was standing near an open door. Dusk sunlight greeted us. Both men trailed behind me as I approached Ralph’s car.
“What are you doing?” I said with one hand on the door handle.
“Coming with you,” Sebastian said.
“Nah-huh. This is my work, Sebastian. This is what I do. I can’t have you with me while I work.”
“Then take Sawyer with you.” Sebastian glanced at the tall dark man behind him.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Sebastian.” I opened the car door, and Sawyer advanced closer. I lifted my hand to stop him. “No.” I made it a command. “If you want to know if I’m fine, call me on my cell,” I said, lifting my phone.
“Please humor me, Blaire. That priest has tried to harm you twice already. I want to keep you safe. Please let me. If you don’t want me with you, allow Sawyer to tag along. What’s wrong with the extra firepower? He’s one of our best.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I didn’t see the point. It was true; we might need him. And it didn’t look like Sebastian would stop until he got his own way.
“Okay, fine, but don’t interfere, Sawyer. Unless we need backup.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What did I tell you about calling me ‘ma’am’?”
Sebastian came to my side, cupped my face, and kissed me. I melted in his arms and forgot about everything; I felt his soft lips on mine, his tender touch on my face and how hot his hands were, and all I could think of was how I wanted to touch more of him. I felt him smile in our kiss, then he pulled away and gazed at me. I stared into his kitty-cat green eyes and was lost. The horn on Ralphs car broke my concentration, and when I blinked, I could think again. I smiled shyly and climbed into the backseat, with Sawyer joining me.
I introduced Ralph and Devan to my bodyguard, and we set off.
We were a block away when I remembered I hadn’t said goodbye to Sebastian. I touched my lips; his kisses always seemed to pull me in deeper, to the point where I forgot things. Could I put Sebastian in the boyfriend category so soon, or was that too high school? I wanted to say bye.
I pictured that hug and that kiss and said, “See ya later,” in my head.
In my mind I heard someone say,
“What?” I said out loud.
“What?” Ralph said back to me.
“Nothing. I wasn’t talking to you.”
Ralph frowned at me, and Sebastian spoke to me again.
That made me smile.
Once I had buckled myself in and we were out on the highway, I said, “Okay, Devan; talk to us. Tell us what you think about those dolls and how we can get this priest without dying in the process?”
I stared at Devan in the mirror on the sun visor in the passenger seat. He looked back at me and said. “The dolls had a curse on them, but it was only directed at each of you. I think someone must have told him who you were; he had to have had help. There was no way for him to know where you lived. Voodoo doesn’t work that way. Someone told him.” Devan’s eyes darkened slightly. “Who would benefit if neither of you survived this? What would the priest gain, or what would anyone gain from your disappearance?”
“The only people who know about this case is Martin and Désiré—and we only told her about it yesterday,” I said, looking at Ralph as he drove.
“What about Marcus?” Ralph said, and there was something in the way he said it.
Two months ago, Marcus had disappeared on us when we needed him the most, when I was attacked, and our colleague, Shane, was ripped limb from limb. His torso had been dumped in the trunk of my car, and his limbs had been left in Marcus’s bathtub, which he didn’t dispose of until we discovered it. Only then did Marcus explain everything to us.
But I still thought he hadn’t told us the whole truth.
“See where Marcus is, and then let’s go over to the priest’s shop.”
Ralph pulled into a parking lot and dialed Marcus’s number, but he didn’t answer. He pulled a device out of a bag from the glove compartment, plugged it into his phone, and started to tap into it. A map showed on the screen of his phone, and he asked Devan to hold it. He pulled back onto the road and followed where the map said he needed to go. The end of the map’s red line brought us to a warehouse, where Marcus’s car was parked out front. Ralph parked around the block.
We walked past open windows and found a door on the side near where Marcus’s car was parked. As we walked in, Sawyer stopped Ralph and mouthed that he would go in first. Ralph stepped back and allowed Sawyer to go ahead of him. Sawyer took his Beretta 92 out of his pants holster and pointed it at the ground.
I was not a fan of that gun; my hands were too small to handle it, and the safety wasn’t in the best spot either. You needed big hands with long fingers to switch the safety off and aim at the same time. The other thing I didn’t like about it was the recoil. If you didn’t know how to take care of your gun and clean it properly, the recoil could be a bitch.
We heard echoes of someone talking: a woman. We entered a hallway and followed the sounds until we came to a large room. In the far corner, Marcus was sitting on a chair next to a bed, with an occupant lying motionless under the covers. The woman was tinkering with the drip and talking about various drugs she had tried on her patient.
All four of us walked into the room and didn’t hide the sounds of our footsteps as we approached them. Marcus spun around and pointed a gun at us, but Sawyer’s gun was already pointed at his head.
“What are you guys doing here? How did you even find me?” Marcus commanded, a soft growl trickling from his lips. When he saw the large, dark man with a gun pointed at him, he lowered his own.
Sawyer kept his gun pointed at him regardless. I was really starting to like Sawyer.
“You weren’t answering your phone, douchebag. We had to trace you,” Ralph said with an edge of hostility.
The woman behind Marcus said, “Who are these people, Marcus?”
“They work for me, Melinda.”
“Is this the same Melinda who dumped your ass and left you for dead?” I asked as I walked closer to them. The person on the bed still wasn’t moving, and I wanted to make sure that they were alive. Pointing at the bed, I added, “What’s going on here?”
“This is Tommy. Melinda used to work with him at the Med Tech Lab before her attack. A were-wolf bit him last night, and he called her for help. He knows what she’s been working on, and that’s why he reached out to her.”
“Tommy still alive?”
“Yes,” Melinda said defensiv
ely. “And what happened to Marcus was a mistake. He wasn’t breathing, and I panicked.”
“It doesn’t look like Tommy is breathing.” I walked right up to the bed and touched Tommy’s hand. His pulse was still strong. “Are you still trying to cure Marcus of his were-animal?” The look I gave her was not a friendly one.
She glanced from me to Marcus, then back to me; she was trying to figure out what to say.
“Well?”
“Yes,” she yelled. The veins on the side of her forehead bulged.
“Marcus?”
He turned to look at me. “What?”
“You can’t be serious? You’ve already lost two fingers to her incompetence. Do you want to lose your life?” I said to Marcus, before turning to Melinda. “And you, Melinda, is your animal still with you?”
“Yes,” she yelled again.
“Sweet Mother, Marcus, this is wrong. What the two of you are doing to poor Tommy is wrong. He needs medical treatment, not a scientist poking and prodding him.”
Melinda edged around the bed and started walking toward me. I reached for my Glock 19, pulled it from the holster, and aimed it at her.
“Don’t fucking try it, Melinda, or I’ll shoot you in the face.” I glanced at Sawyer; he still had his gun pointing at Marcus.
Ralph had his Glock 43 out and was pointing it at Marcus and then Melinda. We covered them from all sides. Devan was the only one of us without a gun, but a firearm was superfluous in the hands of a nineteen-year-old born with metaphysical weapons.
Melinda’s stare was icy, full of rage and anger.
I went to that dark place that I knew was all mine. It’s the place I would go to to switch everything off and focus on the gun and the person I wanted to shoot. Something must have shown on my face because Melinda’s face thawed, her icy stare now replaced with fear. She lifted her arms in the air and stepped back. My lips curled upward, but it wasn’t a happy smile: it was a smile I remembered that showed, ‘I’ll shoot anyone who tries to get in the way’.
“If I hear you are still doing this shit, I will turn you in myself, Melinda. And if you hurt Marcus or anyone in the process, I will kill you.” The look I gave Marcus was the same one I gave Melinda, and he put his gun away and lifted his hands in surrender. “You really need to stop seeing her, Marcus. She’s bad news.”
In all the commotion, I had almost forgotten why we were looking for Marcus in the first place. “Who have you been speaking to about the voodoo priest, Marcus?”
He swallowed hard. “No-one.”
“Liar!” I yelled, lifting my gun with both hands and aiming it at his face. “Who have you been speaking with? Who did you give our addresses to?”
He closed his eyes. “No-one, I swear.” The corner of his left eye twitched.
In a calm voice, I said, “You’re lying, Marcus. What have you done?”
“I’ve done nothing, Blaire. I swear, I’m not lying.” The twitching stopped.
Did he know that I had seen his telltale sign, that his poker face had failed him?
Ralph waved to get my attention. I lowered my gun just a little, taking the strain off my shoulders, and said, “Yeah?”
“It’s time. We need to get to the shop so we can follow the priest.”
Shit.
“This isn’t over, Marcus.” I put my gun back in its holster and walked around the bed and equipment, out of Melinda’s reach, to stand beside Marcus. “Think hard, Marcus. This is the second time your name’s come up where there has been a disaster while Ralph and I are in the thick of it. We’ve already lost Shane. Do you want to lose two more?”
Marcus shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “No, I don’t want to lose any more people.”
“Then stop fucking around.”
Marcus nodded fiercely.
“And one more thing.” I remembered another reason why I wanted to speak with Marcus. “I understand I’m coming with you to your Lion Den tomorrow evening?”
He swallowed hard. “Yeah, Sebastian called me last night to arrange. He thought if you visited the various animal groups you were infected with ahead of the next full moon, if you shifted, you would be comfortable enough with that group.”
“What about you, Melinda? You seem to be the expert on all things furry. What do you think about all this? Do you think I’ll shift?” I said, leering at Melinda.
“From what I’ve heard, it’s rare to be infected with more than a single lycanthropy strain,” Melinda said. “I only know of four other cases. Each of those people didn’t change, but one of them died when their inner animals fought—metaphysically, of course.”
“I guess I will see you tomorrow as well?”
Melinda nodded and cast her eyes to the ground. She was about five foot eight, which made her taller than me. She had curly black hair that swept her shoulders and brown eyes, a small nose, pursed lips, and olive skin. She was voluptuous and wore a dress that would attract any man: no wonder Marcus couldn’t stay away. She wore glasses, which were for show; as a were-lion, you had better eyesight, along with super-strength, faster agility, and some impressively sharp teeth.
“And get Tommy home,” I said, pointing to the now-stirring figure on the bed.
“Yes,” Melinda said, and she set about pulling the needles from his arms.
“Let’s go,” I said to Ralph.
Chapter 13
WE PARKED ACROSS THE STREET NEAR the shopping center. All four of us hadn’t said a word after we left Marcus and Melinda at the warehouse.
In the silence, I kept thinking about the three lycanthropy strains I now carried within me and about going to the Lion’s Den tomorrow night with Marcus.
The clock on the dashboard read 7:08pm, and the center was busy and noisy. Inside the car, the silence was suffocating.
I turned to Ralph and said, “Will you come with me tomorrow night? To the Lion’s Den?”
He stared at me. “Sure, but we should go in my car. That way, we can leave when we want.”
“Thanks.”
I was now in the front passenger seat, having swapped places when we left the warehouse. I turned in the chair so that I could see both Devan and Sawyer in the back seat. “Is there anything else about McNielty you can tell us, Devan? You saw him up close when you were in his shop.”
“No, like I said yesterday, he has the standard stuff. It’s what he has out the back that interests me.”
Devan squinted at something behind me, and I turned to look at what he was staring at. The voodoo priest was closing his shop for the day.
“Let’s go,” I said, and Ralph started the engine.
We kept a short distance away from McNielty’s red Chevy truck. The drive around Sterling Meadow lasted for over an hour. McNielty stopped at various houses, knocking on doors with something under his arm and leaving empty-handed. It seemed that he offered a personalized home delivery service of sorts. Probably one of the ways he supplemented his income.
Another hour had passed by the time we stopped outside his house. Ralph parked around the block like the first time we’d been here, but we stayed in the car. We could see his car in the driveway from where we were and would know if he left the house. We agreed to take turns watching it.
It was close to midnight, and McNielty still hadn’t left his home.
“Are we sure he’s going anywhere tonight?” I asked, staring at Devan.
Ralph turned to face me and shrugged. “Who knows? But at least we’re here if he does.”
I frowned. “It doesn’t help us catch him, Ralph.”
“I know, but it’s all we can do for now.”
Dammit.
Ralph turned to face the window so he could watch the house.
“Has anyone searched his car?” Sawyer said from the dark corner of the backseat behind me.
He was so quiet I had forgotten he was there.
I glanced over the headrest. “I like the way you think, Sawyer. Who’s going?”
Ralph turned
and glared at me. “We can’t go. He knows what we look like.”
“I’ll go,” Sawyer said, opening his door.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” he said, then added, “Anything specific I should look for?”
“Anything you think a voodoo priest really shouldn’t have in his car, like the appendages of other men,” I said. “Good luck, and don’t get caught.”
Sawyer held two fingers to his forehead in a salute and exited the car. Like a tall, dark shadow, he blended with the night and was gone.
Twenty minutes had passed.
“Shouldn’t he be back by now?” I said to no one in particular. “Can you still see the front door, Ralph?”
“Yeah, no one has opened the door or gone out the back.”
Someone knocked on the car's bonnet, and I jumped in my seat. Sawyer came around the car, opened the door, and climbed inside.
“It’s clean; been vacuumed recently. There’s even that new car smell. So, whatever you were hoping to find, it’s not there anymore. Sorry.”
“Thanks, anyway.”
Ralph switched the radio on to break the cold silence, and we waited quietly in the shadows of our own consciousness.
“We should have brought coffee,” I said, yawning and rubbing my eyes. Stakeouts were the boring part of the job, waiting in anticipation for anything to happen.
By the time it was one in the morning, I honestly didn’t think McNielty was going to go anywhere.
“Devan, you sure McNielty was up to something tonight?”
“Yeah. When I was in his shop, I saw it clearly. He was planning to kill again tonight. A man with grey eyes. Appearance or hair color doesn’t matter, just as long as he has grey eyes, is six foot to, and weighs between two hundred and two-hundred-and-twenty pounds.”
We hadn’t shared any of the details from the police reports with Devan; he’d said he didn’t need to see it to know the details.
“You sure you didn’t take a peek at those police reports?” I asked as I turned in my seat to see his face.
“No, like I said, all I had to do was focus on him while I was in his shop, and that was the feedback he projected.”