Under a Blood Moon: Death Witch, Supernatural Investigative Unit, page 22
25
Jakob walked into the kitchen to start dinner wearing jeans that covered him like a second skin. Suddenly, I was thinking about my own sex life, not Mark’s or Phoebe’s. I got so lost in my thoughts that when I looked up Mark was coming back into the room. He’d changed completely, putting on a pair of leather pants and a dark high-collared shirt. I wondered if he bought his shirts by the dozen. He didn’t seem to own anything that showed even the smallest bit of his scars.
“I’m going to get something to eat. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. We can go see the crime scene then,” he said.
“Do you really need to feed?” I asked. “Something makes me think you could go a day or two and be fine, maybe emulating a certain suave vampire I’m in love with.”
“Not all of us are willing to dine for the rest of eternity on—”
“Mark.” Jakob’s angry voice cut like a knife, literally. I saw a thin line of blood blossom along Mark’s perfect cheek. The blood formed tiny drops while the cut healed.
“I’d say that’s my cue to leave the happy couple alone. A bientôt, Mallory.” Despite the cut, Mark left looking happy.
I listened to him walk out of the house shaking my head. He was making progress toward being more human, but he was still a troublemaker. I wandered into the kitchen and found Jakob angrily chopping. I’d watched him cook enough to know something was bothering him. Normally he took care with the food. Tonight, he was practically stabbing it to death.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
He dumped the contents of the cutting board into a frying pan. It looked like I was having fajitas. Then again it could have been any dish where everything was diced and fried.
“I’m trying to contain my jealousy. It’s not working.” He didn’t look at me.
“Who do you have to be jealous of?”
“Mark.”
“Huh?” My confusion made me inarticulate.
“I don’t like the idea of him sharing intimacies with you on the couch.” I was relieved to hear it was something simple.
“You mean when he was telling me that he hasn’t had sex in four hundred years and that the idea of being alone with a woman makes him nervous? If you want to be jealous of that, feel free.” I shrugged.
“What?” He turned away from the cooking to stare at me.
“You heard me.” I grinned at him but couldn’t let it go. “Phoebe came on to him, he didn’t handle it well. Things would have ended there, except…”
“She’s Phoebe,” Jakob finished for me.
“Exactly, she couldn’t stand the idea that she had read someone so wrong. She asked me to find out what his problem was.”
“Which one? There are so many.”
“Mostly the one that made him leave her place profoundly afraid after she came on to him. She was dying of curiosity, so I talked to him to find out what was going on, and that’s what you walked in on.”
“Oh.”
“Uh-huh. In the future will you check with me before taking off on these wild flights of fantasy?” I teased.
“I’ll do my best,” he promised, sealing it with a kiss. I caught him as he started to pull away and kissed him back, laughing. We stayed locked together, our bodies pressed close, tongues exploring. There was something decadent and young about just kissing him, something I missed. I indulged myself until I could smell my dinner sizzling.
“What am I having?” I asked, moving a bit away from him.
“Umm…” He searched for an answer as he walked away from me to move the frying pan.
“Fajitas, maybe?” I offered.
“Yes, exactly what I had in mind.” He smiled broadly.
“Liar.”
Dinner turned out much better than I had thought. There wasn’t anything even resembling a tortilla shell in the house, but I managed a lettuce wrap. It was probably the healthier of the two alternatives, but I didn’t mention that to Jakob. In fact, I used it to tease him mercilessly as he got dressed for work. Finally, he found a pleasant way to stop my teasing. He left me naked and asleep in his bed, which was where Mark found me two hours later.
“Mallory?” Even on the edge of sleep, I could tell his voice was hesitant.
“Hmmm?” I rolled over, and then realized I wasn’t wearing a shirt. Coming more fully awake, I pulled the covers up. “What’s up?”
“They’ve found something. They’re not sure what it is. We need to go.” I focused my eyes on the clock. It had only been hours ago that Danny had said nearly the same thing to me.
“Give me ten minutes.”
“Gladly,” he replied. The tone of his voice told me he meant it. I wondered if Mark knew how incredibly jealous Jakob could be or if he was just mortified to find me naked in his friend’s bed. I showered and got dressed, carefully tucking my service revolver into its holster. The full moon would be over tomorrow night. I couldn’t wait.
We took Mark’s car. While he drove, I called Auster for details on my cell phone. When he picked up, I was shocked to hear Danny’s voice in the background. The call was important enough for Danny to work nights. Remembering some of the things we’d seen this week, the idea scared me.
“What’s going on, Ben? You guys are making me nervous.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about any more. Someone just delivered our bad guys.”
“Delivered?”
“All they need is a bow, and it would be a Christmas present.” I could hear his disbelief through the phone.
“Seriously, like you’re there and you can see them?” I didn’t believe that the werewolves who had been terrorizing the city for the last week were gone either.
“Danny and I are on our way, but we got it from Officer White. She called us. Danny says we can trust her.”
“Wait, Officer White? She’s with…”
“Artmann’s unit. It’s the only problem I have with the whole setup.”
I agreed with him and got the address. If someone had caught our murderous trio, Artmann would try to take credit for it. I gave Mark directions to the industrial side of town. Before I had time to make any small talk, we pulled up to an unmarked car with Ben and Danny inside.
We were in front of an empty warehouse, not far from where the car had been found this afternoon. At night the white painted metal pipes going into the ground and the high smoke stacks of the industrial district looked creepy and alien. I could tell the other cops felt it too. Even though I wasn’t overly fond of Mark, I was happy to walk next to the strong vampire.
“You didn’t give me any details. Which building?”
“The one on the right,” Mark answered before Danny had a chance. “I’m sorry. The wolves are bleeding. I can smell it.”
I let him lead the way. He got points for correcting himself, but telling me how he knew canceled them out. Oh well, at least he was trying. We fell in step behind him.
“You tell him anything about Artmann?” Ben asked.
“No. I couldn’t think of what to say.”
“Perfect,” Danny declared with a smile. “I can’t wait to see these two go at each other.” There was a chance they would be civil to each other. A slim chance that Artmann would respect Mark’s authority as an FBI agent or that Mark wouldn’t cause trouble. That wasn’t what Danny was looking forward to seeing.
We walked into the interior of a gutted warehouse. The floor was bare concrete. Above us heavy beams crisscrossed the ceiling where the other levels had once been. Dangling from a crossbeam like some sick Halloween decoration was a pair of lifeless werewolves.
I’d never seen a body hung before. It was completely unlike the movies. Dark fluid dripped down from their clawed feet onto the floor. Even in wolf form, their heads were at the wrong angles to the body. Beneath the coarse fur, they were both naked.
When the doors into the building opened the bodies swung, revealing both had been gutted. I hoped they’d been hung with rope and not their own insides. The tingle of magic started as I got closer. The death hadn’t been quiet, and the power was itching to tell me more. There was only one thing in my way: Artmann.
Officer White was in front of him getting a stern talking-to, probably for calling us. He called her some inappropriate names and shouted a bit before he saw us. By then we were close enough to see he hadn’t shaved that morning. Something about his complete contempt for the world went deeper than his sloppy clothes, but I didn’t care enough to want to find it.
“Oh good, the Ghostbusters are here.” I wasn’t sure which was worse, Artmann’s sour breath or his bad attitude. “Christ, is that a vampire?”
“I’m a Federal Agent.” Mark flipped out a badge without breaking his walk toward the bodies.
“Makes sense. Send a monster to catch a monster. Guess you weren’t weird enough, huh, Mors?”
Before I could say anything, Mark was next to him, so close to his face they almost touched. I’d never been confronted by an angry vampire before but from where I stood the view of Mark’s red glowing eyes and sharp fangs was fairly impressive. From less than an inch away, it must have been breathtaking.
“Mark, you don’t have to do this.” I hesitated. I very much wanted to see someone take on Artmann, but I knew the rules: vampires didn’t get any more consideration in these things than witches did. If Artmann reported Mark, it would end his career, if not his life.
“Obviously, someone has to.” At first I thought he said it just to me, whispering in my ear, but I realized Danny and Ben had heard him. Both men looked on with studied indifference. Mark went back to Artmann.
“Look, I don’t know what your problem with this unit is, but it’s yours.” He emphasized the last word. “Handle it on your own because no one here cares. And if you can’t, I will.”
“Are you threatening me?” Artmann’s voice quaked with fear. His tone changed to a high-pitched whine. “You’re threatening me! I’ll have your badge! You can’t do that. He threatened me!”
“Prove it,” Mark said, walking away.
“You saw him, Auster, Gallagher? Right?” Artmann turned to the two of them, his eyes bright with tears and need.
“I didn’t see anything.” Ben shrugged.
“He never touched you.” Danny walked away with a barely concealed grin.
“Mors, you saw that?”
“I guess weirdoes like me have bad eyesight.” I brushed by him with as much hardness as I could muster, fighting not to laugh. When the four of us met underneath the bodies, my fellow detectives wore satisfied smiles. I didn’t have to ask to know Mark had gone up a notch in the eyes of the department. Officer White came over and offered to answer any questions.
“Has anyone been up there?” Mark asked, pointing to the top of the beams.
“There aren’t any steps up to that floor and we can’t trust the service elevator. Even if we could get up there, no one is willing to walk around two stories up on a thin piece of steel. We called for a bucket lift. There’s some trouble getting one here after dark, something about extra fees.”
The litany of excuses made me bristle. If Artmann had any idea how important this was, no one would have wasted time dickering with the rental company.
“What do you think, Ben?” Danny asked with a grin.
“If you could get me up there, walking around wouldn’t be a problem, but flying up? I’m good, but I’m not that good.” Ben chuckled.
I’d been the only one with abilities for so long it was a delight to hear someone else asked to do witchcraft.
“I think I’ll be able to find a way up. Give me a second,” Mark said. He walked into one of the darker corners of the building. Ben’s eyes lost focus for a second. Officer White looked at him like he’d grown a second head.
“Our FBI agent can fly,” Ben announced. I wondered if my face took on the same otherworldly look when I sensed things or if air witches looked one way while death witches looked another.
“Makes sense. He’s a vampire.” I had to stop myself from staring when Ben literally shook off the look.
“Wait. You did magic. And he, he flew up there?” White’s voice was equal parts awe and shock.
“Does it bother you? Because I’m about to read these two bodies, so you might want to step back.” I stood close enough to the bodies that I could heard them whispering to me. It was hard to follow conversation and tune them out.
“When you did it before we were hidden, I mean, away, we were away from everyone else. You guys do magic in the open?” Officer White asked, still stunned.
“All the time,” Danny told her. “You really should think about coming over.”
I didn’t bother to listen to the rest of Danny’s recruitment speech. I stepped beside the bodies and focused in on the conversation only I could hear. Even without touching them, their hurt pushed at me. Taking a deep breath, I reached out to the foot that dangled above my head.
She died in pain. Terrible agony spread through my mind, and behind it, betrayal. A phrase rang inside my head, ‘not like before.’ The dead woman kept saying it to me over and over again. I tried to go deeper, past the pain to the moment she had died. My mind reached that place where I couldn’t hear the people around me, where there was only witch and no more Mallory. I brushed the other body, and it came to me.
Fur, claws, teeth, and blood. Images scattered and confused. They’d died as wolves, and I saw through their feral eyes. The warehouse changed to echoing sounds and old scents. I felt the presence of other wolves around them. Neither of the victims felt safe with the pack. When I concentrated on the feeling of mistrust, the images came too fast for me.
I was overwhelmed by claws cutting into skin, sharp jaws snapping at faces and then, the worst, angry yellow eyes bearing down on them. There was nothing there that was human.
I walked away from the bodies to lean against a wall. My mind kept turning the images over. There were too many sensations for me to process. I’d never been able to smell that finely, never been able to hear sounds echo through concrete walls. For a tiny moment I’d entered the world of a werewolf, but I couldn’t understand what I saw there.
It was like reading a book printed on transparent pages; when I tried to focus on one thing, I saw a hundred other things. There was too much information for me to make sense of it.
Danny found me a few minutes later. Everyone else had their eyes glued on Mark as he walked nimbly across the six-inch wide steel beams, never noticing how high he was. I guess when you can fly, you don’t have to be afraid of heights.
Danny asked. “Your eyes are gone. Did you eat?”
“Yeah, tons. Jakob made me dinner.”
“Lucky girl.” He looked at me with concern. “Are you all right?”
“I need…” There was no right way to say it. “…A minute.”
“Take as much as you need, everyone else is itching to call this case closed.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m not a trusting kind of guy.”
26
I watched Mark walk the beam while I caught my breath. My stomach performed flip-flops thanks to my healthy fear of heights. I focused on the facts, hoping they would calm me. The wolves had been tied with thick rope. Mark bent at the waist to take a set of samples, and I had to look away. He might not have a single thought of losing his balance, but I had plenty. When he was done, he turned and walked off into the shadows. A few minutes later, he was standing next to me.
“Are my eyes back?” I asked, trusting him not to be amazed.
“Almost, you could pass.” He sounded like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I’m sorry I missed the floor show, what did you see?”
“I’m not sure. It didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense.” I raked my fingers through my hair, frustrated. Mark grinned at me. “What are you smiling at?”
“That’s Jakob’s gesture. If you were him, I’d say you’re annoyed and slightly pissed.”
“Well, I am.”
“And that’s adorable.” He used his smug tone of voice that annoyed me so much, but somehow I couldn’t get angry this time. “Would you be willing to dream about what you saw?”
“Oh, I think I’ll see it in nightmares for a good long time,” I said, hoping he could tell I wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I meant with me. Would you be willing to share it with me in a dream?”
Some vampires could dreamwalk. When Jakob did it, I assumed it was because we were that close or he was that powerful. The idea of someone I barely knew stepping inside my head seemed wrong, overly intimate, and dangerous. “You can do that?”
“Jakob’s a good teacher.” He looked down sheepishly. “Of course, I haven’t had much practice.”
“But if it helps us catch whoever is doing this, I guess we should try.” I didn’t like the idea of opening my mind to him, but I saw the necessity.
“So you don’t think those are the wolves we’ve been hunting?” His eyes revealed mirth as he asked me.
“Nope. First, there’s only two of them. I saw three wolves at the college crime scene. Second, the wolves at the college sexually assaulted a woman. The one hanging on the right is a female. While she could’ve taken part, it seems unlikely. And then…” I hesitated, wondering if I should trust him. “There’s something wrong about the way they felt when they died. It feels like betrayal.” Saying the words brought the images to mind, and I was once again lost in the sea of scents and sounds. I pushed the images away, shaking my head. “It doesn’t make sense for killer wolves to feel that way.”
“I don’t think Artmann agrees with you. I suspect his report will announce his ingenious apprehension of the dreaded killers. That’s why I want to see what you saw.”
“How’s Jakob going to take that?”
He looked away.
“How’s your cheek?” I asked, remembering the thin line of blood dripping down Mark’s face. I searched for the scratch but couldn’t find it. Mark had fed, so it healed without a trace. That didn’t stop his hand from touching the spot where it had been.
