3. Kato
Chapter 3
Kato
“ D id you get anything from our vic that can help us?” My fists tighten at the question. The idea of Elara being reduced to ‘our vic’ simmers my blood. The idea that anything so evil would have happened to her, to put her name in the mouths of my team, has my wolf ready to break free. Deep breath in, deep breath out.
“She was drugged, held captive for days before being stuck in that grave, and she’d spent her time blindfolded. Unfortunately, with the drugs still in her system and the adrenaline wearing off she couldn’t say much. The hospital will alert us when she’s awake again and ready to talk more.”
“Whoever drugged her knew she was a shifter. Regular drugs wouldn’t be able to have a hold on her like that,” Hati says more like he’s working out the information in his own head, and saying it aloud as a courtesy to the rest of the team.
“The hospital is running tests now to determine exactly what the drug compound is and a blood sample has been given to our forensics team as well.”
“Good,” Hati says, “Do we know how long she was missing?”
“No, I need someone to look into that for me. She’s dehydrated enough that it had to be a couple of days.”
The team shifts their eyes to Hati who cracks a small grin hardly even looking at anyone but knowing that all eyes are on him, “I’ll look into that and look into figuring out where she was before the kidnapping. Intelligence is kind of my thing.” Gunnolf scoffs but no one denies Hati’s claim, as a former CIA agent, we know he’s not putting on airs.
“Go ahead and let me know the moment you find out anything,” I say nodding to Hati who is already standing at his desk pulling his long thick blonde hair back and putting it up. “What did we get from the other graves?”
Bruce clears his throat, “Each of the victims was found in varying states of decay. The medical examiner is looking over the bodies now and we’ve made this our top priority case. What I can say is that everybody found in those graves were paranormal women who looked to be between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. They had varying hair colors, and all their throats were slit.”
All their throats were slit except for Elara. What does that mean for her?
“The questions we need to ask ourselves now, then, is what makes Elara different? Is it something she did or perhaps there was a different unsub riding off the coattails of whoever created the mass graveyard out in Eagle Creek Park.” Callie asks what we are all thinking out loud.
“And if it is another killer, how did they find out about the makeshift graveyard? I mean that’s a little odd right?” Gunnolf chuckles but stops himself when he catches my eye. He never knows when to be serious.
I try to stay focused on the team’s discussion but my mind wanders toward my memories of Elara from all those years ago. Her brightness and the twinkle ever present in her eye like she knows something hilarious that you don’t. The way she tilts her head raising a singular eyebrow when she knows someone is full of shit.
That raspy laugh of hers and the softness of her hair when my fingers curl up in it. Her full lips and the way her breath hitches and breasts heave when she’s about to cum. The feeling of her body pressed against mine on lazy days in bed.
Then, as if taking away all my fond memories, come the images of Elara’s dirt covered tear-soaked face, the blood seeping from her knees and fingertips and the wild unbridled terror and sorrow in her eyes. Will she ever recover from this? Will she ever get that glint back in her eye?
And yet, she’d still managed to crack a joke in the ambulance. Long time Kato, my heart thunders in my chest as I recall the way she’d struggled to say anything at all and yet she’d said my name. She’d known I was there.
“Boss?” Callie says looking at me expectantly. “What do you think?”
Rubbing the back of my neck I roll my head from right to left and then back again letting out a long-exasperated sigh, “Think about what?”
Callie, Bruce, and Gunnolf exchange glances before Callie asks again, “The hospital called. Most of the drugs are flushed out of Elara’s system and she’s able to talk now. We’ll have to be patient with her while her throat and lungs heal but she can talk. I want to come with you.”
“Why?” I ask stopping in my tracks, I didn’t realize I was already heading to the door.
“It’s likely that the unsub was a male and I think it might help to have another woman present, especially while asking probing questions. I know that the two of you know each other but sometimes that can make it more difficult for the victim to open up.”
“Let’s go,” I nod at Callie and then look between Bruce and Gunnolf. “You two, see what we can find out about the other victims. I want to know who they are, where they worked, where they lived, when they went missing, and anything and everything else you can find out about them. Don’t be afraid of hounding the medical examiner.”
“You know we won’t be shy,” Gun says with an amused smile. Bruce merely nods and starts sifting through the missing persons database with the photos taken of the more intact victims from the graveyard at Eagle Creek.
“I’m driving,” I tell Callie as we head out to the parking lot. Devious amusement flickers in her emerald eyes.
“You don’t want to be chauffeured?”
“Not with the way you drive.”
“I’m a great driver,” Callie smirks.
“You would be great as a Grand Tourismo racer sure. I don’t want to puke again.”
Callie laughs settling into the passenger seat. Not a joke, she drives like an absolute madwoman with a serious need for speed. The first and only time Callie took the wheel with me in the passenger seat, I threw up when we arrived at the crime scene. I never made the mistake of letting her drive me anywhere ever again.
Bruce and Hati share my sentiments, but Gun seems to appreciate Callie’s driving. Let him. Ironically now I can’t keep myself from pressing down on the gas pedal a little more than usual. Callie mercifully doesn’t tease me about my driving, but she does make a point to lean over and look at the speedometer, once.
The closer we get to the hospital, the stronger my ‘mate’ pull towards Elara becomes. My heart pulses thick heavy thumps in my neck. I know Callie can hear my heart, can sense the panic and desire flowing through me. She pretends not to notice, a kindness I will be sure to repay later.
Once we reach Elara’s bedside I can scarcely breathe. My beautiful mate is laid out on the bed in that thin paper hospital gown with a blanket draped over her from her waist down. She’s pale as a ghost and each breath she takes rattles a bit.
But despite her bandaged fingers, ghostly complexion, chapped lips, and the midnight purple circles under her eyes she is still the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on. A gentle smile plays on her lips when she sees me, but she winces as the split in her bottom lip reopens. Her eyes slide over to Callie.
“Elara, this is Callie. We are here officially with the SPIU to take your statement about what happened and to find out anything and everything you can remember. The doctors did mention that the drugs might have impaired your memories, so just do the best you can, alright?”
“Look at you, a special agent now, investigating supernatural crimes, nonetheless. I thought you’d never leave the military behind,” her voice is hoarse, barely a whisper.
“Change comes for us all,” not that it would have made a difference. Elara never could stand the idea of having a man in the service or in the law, not after what happened to her father. Elara doesn’t say anything in response. She just studies me like she’s never seen me before, like she’s trying to take in every new wrinkle on my face.
“Elara,” Callie steps forward. “Could you tell us what you remember about what happened before Agent Blackwood found you?” Agent Blackwood. My Goddess it feels weird to be using that title with Elara.
“It’s still so fuzzy. I can’t remember too much of what happened, but I know that I was kidnapped.” She closes her eyes searching the depths of her memories. “I can’t tell you how long that was. I lost track of time. I was drugged while being held so everything is a little confusing. I was blindfolded too.”
She swallows hard, taking a moment to collect herself as a tear slides down her cheek. My fingers twitch at my sides longing to reach out to her. I want to pick her up off that thin mattress and hold her in my arms. I want to stroke her hair and tell her that everything is going to be alright.
“It was a man who kidnapped me, I know that much. I got him to talk to me as much as I possibly could, and I talked to him too. I tried to humanize myself as much as possible, but I don’t think it helped.” She swallows hard letting her gaze drift out of the window.
Callie and I exchange glances, “It helped a great deal.” I finally say after a moment of silence.
As if moving in slow motion Elara brings her eyes back to us, “no one else survived?”
“No, you were the only one.”
“Elara, you were the only one put in that grave alive. Did your kidnapper mention any of his past crimes to you?” Callie asks and I fight the urge to dress her down for putting pressure on my mate like that.
“I,” Elara hesitates her fingers fiddling with the edge of her blanket. “I think he did. I vaguely remember him saying that he was sorry that he couldn’t do to me what he did to the others.”
My nostrils flair at the sentiment and Callie takes control of the questioning once again, “You said you were blindfolded while being held captive. Is there anything you can remember about where you were being held, smells, sounds, temperature?”
“It was cold, so cold, and it smelled kind of wet and like mildew. I was on concrete, chained to a wall.” My eyes shoot to her wrists, but I don’t see any bruising. She noticed and says, “Chained at the ankles.”
“That sounds like a basement or cellar of some kind,” Callie says nodding in my direction.
“I’m tired,” Elara’s eyelids begin to flutter just as a nurse enters the room.
“Agents, I need to administer medicine to my patient. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” It wasn’t a request; it was an order. “She needs rest, but you can come back in a few hours to talk to her more if you need to.”
“We’ll be back,” I say eyes trained on Elara’s pained face. The rattling of her breath filling the space between us. A tired smile is all she spares for me before the coldness returns to her eyes.
On the way back to the office to check in with the rest of the team, Callie doesn’t say a word and I don’t either. The silence between us speaking volumes. She might know there was once something between Elara and me, more than just being high school friends, but only Gun knows we’ve been mated.
It’s not something I want to talk about, especially not with Callie even though I know she’s loyal enough not to tell the higher ups. It’s just that Callie… she’s a bit sensitive when it comes to these things. She’s been broken-hearted for years. I’m not sure there will come a time in her life when she is not heartbroken.
Not after her mate cruelly rejected her. Not after she was exiled from her pride, left to wander off on her own and find her own family. I can only hope that she feels she ’ s found a new family with us.
“We need to head to the crime scene. Gun and Hati aren’t at the office, and Bruce has nothing for us yet.” Callie glances up from her phone. I nod in response. “Besides, I’d like to get a better look at it, while the sun is shining, myself.”
I sigh, watching the road for a place to turn around. We are heading in the exact opposite direction of Eagle Creek Park. The SPIU agent in me wants to check out the crime scene again, too, but the mate of the woman who nearly died there doesn’t... My stomach twists in uneasy knots. The closer we move toward the woods, the sicker I become.
I should have known something was wrong long before I did. I should have tracked her down the moment she was kidnapped. Why hadn’t I picked up on her panic sooner? As my mate, I can tell when she is stressed.
I already know the answer, even though I don’t like it.
Whiskey.
She was right to leave me. I am pathetic.
Since Elara left me, I’ve done everything I could do emotionally, physically, legally to dampen the connection between Elara and me. A bond that’s always there, pulling me toward her, twisting my thoughts and emotions; even when I’m obliterated with alcohol, I can’t stop my wolf’s desire to be with her, my desire to be with her.
The whiskey isn’t perfect, but it helps. When I’m sober, my Goddess, it’s like she’s beside me. I can hardly stand it.
Especially when I can feel her succumbing to pleasure brought on her by another man. The wolf in me is the hardest to contain in those moments. How he fights to break free to find the man who is taking what’s his and rip out his throat.
I hate that part of me, but I hate it even more because I feel the same way as my wolf- we are both insane when it comes to our mate.
“Red light!” Callie calls out, snapping my attention back to the road with just enough time for my instincts to kick in. I swerve out of the way of an SUV about to T-Bone the passenger side of the vehicle. Callie exhales, releasing her clawed grip on the passenger door. “The road Blackwood or I’m driving.”
“Right, sorry.”
She grins, raising an eyebrow, but a hint of panic is still etched on her face.
I kept my eyes locked on the road for the rest of the drive. My heart rate doesn’t lessen. I almost let Elara die because of my recklessness, and now I nearly got Callie killed, obsessing over that same recklessness. I can’t be a shitty mate and a lousy team leader. My ego, my wolf, can’t take that. We’re an unusually strong Alpha wolf shifter and leader of an FBI special unit after all. It’s time I started acting like the Alpha I am.
The makeshift graveyard is almost more ominous in the light of day. The juxtaposition between the cheerful chirping of the birds and the excavated graves makes my skin crawl. A place that was once a twisted killer sanctuary is now emptied and littered with bright yellow caution tape.
“Creepy,” Callie says, stepping up beside me, “the killer is not going to be happy about this.”
“No, he’s not,” Gunnolf says, stepping out of a thicket of trees. “Look at how much care he took to clean up the excess debris, to cut through tree roots, and to line up the graves.”
“Is that what you were doing in the thicket Gun? Looking for debris?” Callie asks, smirking.
“The trees here are less dense than around the perimeter, but they aren’t nonexistent,” he nods, “the killer played caretaker for his private cemetery.”
I nod, taking in the equidistant graves. He may not have put headstones on the graves or left bouquets behind, but this place was special to him—holy even—and now it’s been destroyed. All his efforts have been undone, and his ‘collection’ has been hauled away.
“He’ll be looking for a new place to bury his victims now,” Gunnolf says as if reading my thoughts.
“There are nearly 4,000 acres of forest here. He could set up anywhere, and it’s unlikely that we would find it, especially since he’s taking precautions not to be found.”
Scent-blockers, and who knows what else.
The look in Callie’s eyes churns my stomach. I know what she’s thinking and I’m not ready to talk about it.
“I guess he’s unlucky that I came out here to let my wolf out for a while last night.” I mumble.
“Unlucky indeed,” Gunnolf says, the corner of his lips lifting.
“If he stays in the park, he will likely find another spot not too far off the park roads. That could help us narrow it down,” Callie asks, eyebrows knit together as she looks out into the woods around us. “Whoever he is, he is strong but not strong enough to carry the bodies all on foot. If he’s a shifter, he’s a weak one.”
“An omega for sure,” Gun chuckles to himself. “There are five other parks and nature preserves in the vicinity if he doesn’t choose to pick a new site in Eagle Creek. There’s no telling yet how much we’ve spooked him.”
“Not enough,” I say shaking my head. He’s not done killing yet. I can feel it in my bones, especially once he learns about Elara surviving her burial. We’ve done an excellent job of keeping the media out of it for now, but there’s always a leak. It’s inevitable.
“Do you think he’s going to go back after Elara?” Callie’s quiet as she asks, looking like she regrets the question the moment it leaves her lips, but she had to ask; I’d be a fool not to understand the danger Elara might still be facing.
“He might,” I swallow back the acid of those words. “I have assigned a 24/7 uniform patrol to her. There is no telling what our unsub will do now that his M.O. has changed. He’s been unraveling. Otherwise, Elara wouldn’t have been left alive in the first place.”
An awkward silence falls between us. Gunnolf and I lock eyes, knowing he understands my feelings. Callie’s gaze sweeps around the graveyard once again, picking at the skin on the side of her thumbnail as she does.
My heart skips a beat as my phone rings, “Hello?”
“Agent Blackwood, I’m Elara’s nurse. I was told to call and tell you that Elara is ready to talk to you again.”
“I’ll be right there,” I hang up, not waiting for a response. “I’m going alone this time. Gun, give Callie a ride back to the office when you are done here, yeah?”
“Will do.”
Callie opens her mouth like she wants to argue with me but thinks better of it, snapping her jaw shut, “What about Hati’s intel?”
“Don’t call me. I’ll call when I leave the hospital.”
And with that, I’m on my way back to Elara’s hospital bedside. I wish I could hold her and kiss her and let her know that everything is going to be alright. But I won’t take advantage of her after what she’s been through. The best I can do for her now is solve this case.