18. Rip My Heart Out #3
Tim’s blue eyes flicker between the two of us as if this is a tennis match. Ruby is trying her best not to gape. And Micah is watching me with a smirk that’s devastating my equilibrium. I know he can hear my heart rate pick up. I’m surprised my micro isn’t going crazy.
‘Tell me what you got.’ I mentally shake myself as I focus on Ruby.
It’s this place, the memories attached, plus what we shared earlier. Nothing more.
I sink into what used to be my favorite chair, a wingback in emerald velvet that Micah said matches my eyes. Flirting with him may seem harmless, but the hunger that flashed through his eyes reminded me of everything I once longed for with every fiber of my being. And exactly how long ago that was.
Tim and Ruby share a low couch, while Micah sits in a matching chair opposite, where he has a sweeping view out the windows. He once told me he can’t abide feeling trapped.
‘COD was her heart being ripped out. But she was also drained.’ Ruby moves smoothly into medical examiner mode.
‘How does a Vamp that old, that powerful, get drained of blood?’ Tim asks, but we already know the answer.
‘She was held down. The claw marks on her back and shoulders are the deepest I’ve seen. They dug in and held on. Her throat was cut first to weaken her.’ At this, she looks at Micah for confirmation. We have a theory, but he’s the Vampire.
‘You are correct.’ A nod of acknowledgment to Ruby, a subtle lifting of his shoulders.
‘Lila would have needed to be incapacitated. Whatever this creature is, it’s strong enough to take down a very powerful, very old Vampire.
It held her while the rogue Vampire slit her throat, further weakening her.
Draining her blood was unnecessary. It was done for pleasure, revenge, or to make a statement.
But taking her heart was the only way to permanently kill her.
’ Pain flashes across his face before he wipes it clear.
His midnight eyes are as empty and cold as Lila’s, his body preternaturally still.
‘Fuck me,’ Tim says, running a hand through his hair, blue eyes so wide I can barely see the whites of them. I let out a huffed laugh at my partner. I can count on one hand the number of times since I’ve known him he has dropped an f-bomb- and most have been during this investigation.
‘Any idea who or what could hold a Vamp like Lila? Who would work with a Vampire on a killing spree? Why Lila? Why any of them?’ Every time I think we’re getting somewhere, another curveball comes out of nowhere.
I’d briefly filled Micah in on what we thought was a probable connection between Jason and Evan.
Now, we had to fit Lila into that picture.
But something about her death feels different.
More personal. It was overkill in the extreme.
And then to lay her body across the steps to Micah’s kingdom.
It’s a clear message for him. But how does that tie in with framing Jake?
‘It sure as hell isn’t a Werewolf,’ Ruby says. Her professional opinion, not conjecture. She’s run the tests. The curvature, length, and strength of the claws are not Lycanthrope in origin.
‘What about one on illegal supps?’ My partner echoes a thought I had earlier.
The strongest a Were could ever be was something Ruby and I had already discussed- an Alpha in a frenzy, where their Wolf nature took over completely.
Could illegal supps mimic that? But that still wouldn’t explain the unusual claw impressions.
Tim is glancing between Micah and Ruby. He’s sitting rigidly, and I’m not sure if it’s this case or if he’s not comfortable being in Micah’s study, at the heart of the Vampire Coven. Most humans aren’t.
Micah gives an elegant shrug of his broad shoulders, his dark eyes giving away nothing of his thoughts. Ruby’s face is a study in concentration, as if she’s running an algorithm in her head.
Weres don’t need the boost of strength that steroid supps gave humans. They’re dangerous for humans to take- steroids on steroids, a mix of new methamphetamine and performance enhancement. They are illegal for a very good reason.
‘I don’t think they would have any effect on a Lyco.
They don’t give humans nearly the same level of power.
It’s like a poor imitation of Were strength.
And I think their metabolism would burn any drug from their system, the same as with alcohol.
’ Ruby’s frown doesn’t detract from her beauty, and I notice Tim’s focus is on her, a look of longing passing fleetingly over his handsome face when he thinks no one is watching.
‘So, no ideas on what this monster is?’ I direct my question at Micah, letting some of my frustration leak into my words.
‘I wish I knew.’ Micah is facing the windows, but something in the way he’s holding himself…it may have been seven years, but back then I knew him almost as well as I knew myself. I know all of his tells.
Pinning Micah with an uncompromising stare, my growing suspicion solidifies into certainty.
‘But you know who the rogue Vampire is.’