Under a Blood Moon: Death Witch, Supernatural Investigative Unit, page 19
“And I bet he has a badge and handcuffs too,” she practically swooned.
“I didn’t know you were into handcuffs,” I said, then wished I hadn’t.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She didn’t give me a chance to say no. “What time are we getting together tonight?”
“I have no idea. Actually, you guys should leave without me. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing.”
“Right, you never know when you’ll be liaising.” She made it sound like a dirty word, which for her, it was. “We’ll meet you there. Eight-ish, don’t be late unless you’re saving the city.”
“I won’t,” I promised. Downstairs, the doorbell rang. I was still holding the phone when I let Anna in. She looked me up and down with frank appraisal. I raised my eyebrows, not sure what I was getting the once-over for, but I was glad my bath towels were extra-large.
“Oh, good, you’re naked. That will make the dressing part easier.”
I laughed and led the way upstairs. We went into my closet. It was another perk of luxury living that the two of us fit with room to spare. We spent entirely too much time with me wiggling into and out of clothes. She even made me try on different bras with each shirt.
“I’m never, ever going to be a fashion model,” I said, exasperated with all the changes. We finally agreed on an outfit and emerged into my bedroom.
“You’ll always be model perfect to me,” Anna said. After the bright light of the closet, I couldn’t see her face to tell if she was teasing me. I couldn’t see much, really. I practically walked into her. “Why don’t you open the shutters?” she asked.
“Jakob’s asleep. Didn’t you see him?” I gestured to the completely still lump in the bed.
“I’m not used to bodies that don’t breathe,” she said. “Can we get out of here?”
“The temptation is too much for you, huh?”
She hesitated for a second making me wonder if I’d read her completely wrong, then smiled brightly. “Why don’t you let me cook you lunch?”
Like most people who can’t cook, I was all too happy to let Anna cook for me. I warned her on the way that she might have to drive me to some hideous crime scene. “I’ll drive you wherever you want to go,” she said with a grin. We turned into a neat development of larger than life homes.
“You live in one of these?” I stared at the two- and three-story brick facades. They were all upscale versions of the traditional ranch home, wide porches and granite entryways. I was more of a modern architecture kind of girl; give me lines and angles, building materials that meant something. But being unimpressed didn’t mean I missed the obvious: this neighborhood was worth more than any I’d ever lived in.
“Yup.” She pointed to a red brick house with a perfectly manicured lawn. “My parents live in this one.” We drove to the end of the block and turned into a driveway. “And this one is mine.”
It was one of the smaller homes, which meant it was only two stories tall with at least four times as much space as my apartment. I swallowed hard. “I had no idea you were this rich.”
“Not me, this is all Daddy’s money. He was afraid I’d move too far away, so he bought me this.”
“He bought you a house? Like as a present?”
“Indeed. Don’t just sit there. Come in.” She went up the brick path without checking to make sure I followed. The entry way showed a curving staircase going up to the next floor; a dining room, a living room, and a kitchen that would make Jakob weep. I found her there, digging in the fridge. “How do grilled steaks sound? I picked some up yesterday.”
“Sounds great.”
She led me to the back patio and turned on the built-in gas grill. From outside, the house looked even larger.
“Are you ever going to use all this space?” I asked.
“Personally, I don’t think so, but if Daddy has his way, I’ll fill the house with babies in another few years.” She threw the steaks on the grill as we talked. I told her all about the fun I was having with Mark and my new position.
When the steaks were done, I offered to help with the rest of lunch. She knew how bad I was in the kitchen so the only thing she would let me do was open a bag of pre-washed salad. I searched her enormous kitchen for a knife to open the bag when I found a bulletin board of news clippings about the recent killings. All of them featured pictures of me. I guess I really was the media darling.
We finished lunch and went inside to do the dishes. I couldn’t miss the chance to comment on my photo gallery.
“You stalking me?” Anna went white, then quickly recovered as I laughed.
“You know I’m worried about you, right? All this werewolf stuff…” She waved the dish towel as she finished. “Why don’t you go into the living room, I have to get something from upstairs.” I followed the way she pointed and found a soft leather couch set in front of a huge fireplace. I was trying to decide if it was taller than I was when she walked in, holding a small box.
“I’m worried about these wolves,” she started. “I don’t think you realize how dangerous your work gets. Anyway, I’m worried.” The living room had windows on every wall. When she walked toward me on the couch, she came in and out of shafts of bright afternoon sunlight. She sat close to me, holding out the box. “Well, here.”
It was small, like the box a bracelet would come in, and my first thought was that it held a magical charm. When I opened the lid, I saw I was incredibly wrong. Inside, nested in soft cotton, was a series of capsules filled with blue powder. The pills had been arranged to look like a sun, a bright electric blue sun. There was only thing they could be.
“This is Blue.” I said, using the street name for the drug that made witches a thousand times more powerful and anything supernatural more potent. I looked down, fascinated and repulsed. I’d dealt with a witch who’d taken Blue before killing people with his abilities. Anna had handed me a murder weapon. “Anna, I’m a cop.”
“Then you know that it’s illegal to sell or manufacture it, but there’s nothing stopping you from using or possessing. That’s not enough to count as possession with the intent to sell, either. You’re a good twenty grams short.”
She was right. Technically there was nothing illegal about her present. I still didn’t understand. “What am I going to do with this?”
“You’re going to take it. Not tonight, not tomorrow, maybe not even for months. It doesn’t expire. But if some big bad wolf finds you, you’re going to take it and wish him dead.”
I shivered at the thought. “I wish someone dead and they die.”
“Exactly.” She leaned in even closer to me. I could see the depths of her brown eyes. I’d never noticed before how golden they looked, how the sunlight highlighted their depths. “You’re important. If something is going to kill you don’t hesitate: kill it first.”
Could I kill someone with my power? Reach out and will them to die? Was I strong enough? Even if I wasn’t now, I would be after I took these. I swallowed hard at the thought. Anna looked at me, her eyes filled with something I couldn’t place…blood lust maybe? Or concern for me. Whatever it was, it scared me enough that I was happy when my cell phone rang. Extracting myself from the couch was like trying to get up when Jakob and I were wrapped up together watching a movie. I made it to my purse by the third ring.
“Mors.” My voice sounded like I was at work, I cringed.
“Auster.” He sounded half-asleep. It was the middle of the afternoon, not the most wide-awake time for a night shift man. “Your pet FBI agent needs to see you. Didn’t tell me anything else, so I guess he thinks you know how to get hold of him. He’s a bit of an asshole, isn’t he?”
“More than a bit,” I replied with a tight laugh. “Did it sound like an emergency?”
“Who can tell? He barked a few words at me and hung up. Have fun.”
I thanked him for the message and hung up the phone. Anna was posed on the couch, sunlight coming in on her face, making her bright red hair look even more like flames. She was working, posing as a model, trying to look sexy and cool. I couldn’t imagine why.
“Mark needs me for work stuff. Can you drive me out to Jakob’s?”
Her face fell. She recovered quickly enough that I wondered if the unguarded moment had really happened.
“Sure, right after you put those in this.” She dangled a silver necklace on a long chain in front of me. The charm was a rounded rectangle with raised metal in the shape of stylized flames. I took it from her fingers. The silver was cold but tingled with magic. My surprise must have showed because she said, “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to feel it. I made it myself.”
She pressed her finger into the center of the flame. The charm popped open, wide enough to hold five of the capsules. She filled it for me, showing me how to work the mechanism.
“This is really beautiful. I don’t know what to say except thank you.”
“Thank me by using it to stay alive.” Her voice was serious.
I could only nod in response. The ride to Jakob’s took an hour. I spent the whole time playing with the necklace, watching the sun reflect off its surface. Anna didn’t seem to mind my half-hearted conversation.
21
When I got to Jakob’s, I paused, walking through the double doors, giving my eyes time to adjust to the gloom. I didn’t want Mark to have the advantage. I found him at the dining room table, paperwork spread everywhere.
“I got your message.”
“Good. I need you to…” He looked up and stopped mid-sentence. A second later, he was next to me, holding Anna’s gift. He’d used vampire reflexes to move faster than I could see him. When Jakob did that, it took my breath away. When Mark did it, it was creepy.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was a gift.” I bristled at his tone. I was not an ignorant five-year-old.
“They hold things.”
“Yup, Anna showed me when she gave it me.”
“It was made with mating fire.” The chain threaded through his fingers, the charm resting on the palm of his scarred hand. Even in the dark, I could see his look was intense, powerful.
“Maybe that’s the only fire she has.” I’d never asked Anna what she could do. It seemed like prying. I detached my necklace from him and stepped back. “You wanted me for work?”
He had a confused look on his face, as if I’d missed something painfully obvious. He turned to the table and gestured to the map. “Tell me about this neighborhood.”
It was Indigo’s neighborhood, Rakesh’s home, and where the WPL had its offices. I sat down to tell Mark everything I knew about it. When I was done, he asked about Madame Marie, wanting to know everything that wasn’t in the reports.
“Enough, I need a glass of water if you’re going to interrogate me.” I stood up to get one, my body sore from sitting in place too long.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bad host.” It was the first half-human thing he’d said. I tried to contain my shock. We walked into the kitchen, and he darted in front of me.
“Let me get it.”
When he opened the refrigerator, I caught a glimpse of several bottles I hadn’t seen before. Mark was staying over, and he was keeping blood in the fridge. For some reason, he didn’t want me to see it. It was endearing, almost cute. I wouldn’t have expected it from him. I smiled and thanked him for my drink, realizing there might be hope for him yet.
“Shouldn’t you be dead to the world right now? Jakob is.” I thought about him asleep in my bed, a very pleasant thought. I could have woken him up, but at three o’clock in the afternoon, his preference was to sleep.
“I eat more, so I don’t have to sleep as much.” He shrugged. “But Jakob sleeps during the day even when he’s…when he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t see the point in being awake when there’s nothing to do.”
“German efficiency, I guess.” It was something interesting, though. Jakob had managed to stay awake this morning when I wanted him. On Sunday, he’d woken up before sunset for me. Remembering the two occasions made me smile.
“So, we should get back to work,” Mark stammered before bolting out of the kitchen. It took me a second to realize that remembering making love to Jakob made my heart pound. It was probably enough that Mark could hear it. I hoped my blush would fade before he could see it.
Somewhere between crime scene reports and trying to explain what each death had felt like to me, the shutters clicked and came up. Any hopes I had that Mark would call it a day when the sun set were dashed. We spent another hour going over lab reports and city politics before Jakob woke up.
I was sure he’d mention that his dining room table wasn’t meant to be a police blotter, but he surprised me by kissing me on the cheek and then leaving us alone. A few minutes later, the most delicious aromas came from the kitchen.
I followed the yummy smells to find Jakob was already dishing up a plate of things I didn’t recognize. I dipped a finger in the deep brown sauce that surrounded something that looked like beans. It was rich and spicy with a hint of vinegar.
“Tsk tsk, at the table, please.” Jakob did everything but shake his finger at me. It was all I could do to follow the food in his hand back the dining room.
Mark had cleaned up the worst of the pictures, no doubt out of respect for me. Unfortunately, I was too hungry to be touched by Mark’s behavior.
“What is this?” I asked, taking a fork full of something that could have been a noodle but might have been potato.
“Linsen mit Saitenwürstle und Spätzle,” Jakob pronounced. I couldn’t tell if that was the name for what I had on my fork or the whole meal.
“Okay, what is this yummy yellow stuff that’s coated in butter?” I smiled up at him, doing my best to be cute and ignorant at the same time.
“Spätzle,” Mark condescended.
“And that would be?” When Mark answered, I felt dumb. When Jakob answered, I felt like I didn’t know something. The difference was maddening in that there really wasn’t one. They’d both answered in a foreign language, but one had sounded sweet, the other like a snob.
“Noodles, homemade noodles,” Jakob answered. “For some reason, I was feeling traditional tonight. That’s sausage, lentils in sauce, and noodles.”
“When you say it that way, it sounds much less romantic.” I smiled and cut into the thin-skinned sausage. “Very good.”
“I’m surprised you’ve never had it before, it’s a famous dish. Didn’t your high school German class have you eat traditional foods?” Jakob asked.
“Perhaps you forgot the part where I went to public school.” The memories of the small, slightly war-torn, concrete block building bubbled up in my mind. I doubted Jakob had any experience with such places. “Our German food was apple strudel and pretzels. Yours is much better.” I would have leaned over to kiss him, but Mark was sitting at the end of the table.
I concentrated instead on the dinner before me. I was halfway through my meal when I realized both of them were watching me hungrily.
“I take it both of you ate like this.” I waved my fork over my plate, not sure if it was rude to say before they’d been turned. They both nodded. “You know I had lunch with Anna. I forgot how nice it was to eat with someone.”
Jakob looked slightly pained while Mark’s eyes glinted. “Isn’t there something else about that lunch you’d like to mention?”
He sounded like a nine-year-old tattling on a schoolyard rival. Anyone else would have been rattled, but I’d spent years as a social worker. I could handle petulant children.
“It was lovely. Anna’s house is huge. She definitely has father issues.” I blinked innocently. “What more could there be…oh, yes, my present!”
I stood up and walked close to Jakob so I could show him without taking it off. The long thin chain let the necklace dangle between my breasts. It was warm against my fingers as I passed it to Jakob. “She made it for me, isn’t it stunning?”
His long fingers traced the design. I wondered if they tingled the same way mine did. I got my answer when he spoke.
“I didn’t realize she had such fire,” he said softly, turning it over. The length of the chain meant we were as close as I had been to Anna when she gave it to me. His face was entirely more interesting. My heart raced and I struggled to calm it down before it embarrassed me in front of Mark.
“Here, I don’t want to abandon my dinner.” I slipped the chain off my neck and went back to my seat, hoping Mark hadn’t heard my heart. Jakob deftly pressed the flame pattern. Apparently, I was the only person in the world who didn’t know how these things worked. I watched his expression as he took in the capsules filled with Blue. There was room inside for all five. He used the space to roll them back and forth.
“You’ve used this before?” he asked.
“Never,” I shook my head. “It’s for emergency purposes only. Anna’s pretty worried about the werewolf thing.”
“She should be,” Mark pronounced. Jakob ignored him. It looked like an old habit.
“You’ll need to eat more when you take it. It’s not enough to overdose on, but you’ll burn through more sugar because of how easily the magic comes.”
I nodded, committing his advice to memory. There was no beginner’s guide to drug use available. I was grateful for the help. He slid the mechanism closed and handed it back to me. Jakob seemed reluctant to even touch the capsules inside. It made me wonder.
“What do vampires do when they take Blue?” I asked.
“We kill things,” Mark answered for him. “Lots of things.”
I fought not to roll my eyes.
Mercifully, dinner was short. I wasn’t sure how much more of Mark’s complete lack of social grace I could take. He did offer to do the dishes, a noble gesture if it hadn’t been accompanied by a crack about the prince doing dishes for the pauper. I wanted to tell him no one cared what he was four hundred years ago but stopped myself. Obviously, he cared a great deal. Alone in Jakob’s bedroom, watching him get dressed for work, everything else in the house was forgotten. After six months, we were on the edge of that place in dating where all you do is have sex all the time, but we hadn’t moved on to the part where I didn’t notice his naked body.
