10. Elara
Chapter 10
Elara
M y lips still tingle from kissing Kato on the hand. This is a dangerous game that I’m playing now. The ghost of Kato’s arms wrapped around my waist still haunts me, tingling flesh teasing me as I sit here all alone.
I want him to hold me again, his scent flooding my nostrils. His strength and warmth remind me that no matter what, everything is going to be alright. That someday I will feel like myself again.
Guilt clutches my chest as I remember Ezra, home alone, stubborn, and perhaps a little stupid. He’s not perfect, I remind myself. Actually, he’s far from it.
To keep my mind off Kato, I reach for a stack of pamphlets about the SPIU, leafing through them. The SPIU office is modern. Nicer than the other parts of the FBI we passed through on the way here.
I can’t imagine how that makes some of the other agents feel about their worth to the FBI, or the worth of the new branch of the agency that was formed a decade ago.
It’s not that there isn’t a need for a paranormal investigative unit. Over a hundred years ago, once supernatural were understood to be more than the stuff of nightmares, it took time for society to move through the stages of denial to acceptance. However, in the last fifty years, there have been some major advancements for us all around.
At first, supernatural were segregated. But eventually, politicians and ordinary people alike realized that that did more harm than good, and slowly, we’ve been integrated. There used to be hospitals solely for supernatural care, but now we have rooms and specialty services within the same hospital that serves humans.
These pamphlets explain the importance of accepting our new integration and unity, the FBI’s bright new future . I throw the pamphlets aside, and they scatter to the floor. Oops.
Sighing, I hop off the bed and pick up the pamphlets, looking around this room once more. My skin prickles, and the smell of leather, rain, and home floods me once more. Kato’s back.
My spin tingles. Reaching into my bag, I slide a layer of vanilla lip mask over my chapped lips. The tender cuts in my bottom lip sting slightly but ultimately succumb to relief.
I find myself pulled towards the door without thought. Kato’s presence on the other side is magnetic. The more time I spend around him, the more I remember who I am underneath it all. After all this time fighting to change myself, I think I like that old me the best.
To be this near to him, not to see him, not to speak to him, I can’t quite explain it, but it feels like a crime. I’m twisting open the door handle before I realize what I’m doing. A goofy grin like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar spreads across my face when the door opens, and Kato is standing right there.
“I had a feeling you’d be up to no good,” Kato says, a half-smile on his gorgeous lips. Goddess.
“You should know since you were always the resident troublemaker.”
“Sorry that I brought you here and left you alone most of the day. It was a bit of a fight with the boss to allow you to stay here, and between that and waiting for forensics, we were a bit caught up. Now that you are awake, I heard you didn’t eat dinner. I’m ordering Chinese food, and I’m not taking no for an answer to you eating.”
“I’m not hungry,” I protest as my stomach growls.
“You might not be, but your body is, and you are wasting away.”
I glance down at myself. I haven’t looked in a mirror in days, but the pajamas I packed fit looser than usual, and they are hanging low on my hips. I fight the urge to wrap my arms around myself to cover my figure.
“Besides,” Kato says, a trace of pain glimmering behind his eyes, “if you want to help with the case, I need your brain nourished and in tip-top shape.”
“Okay, but I want a whole order of crab Rangoon for myself.” I nod, I don’t have the energy to fight, and if eating is what it takes to get Kato to show me the evidence, I’ll eat.
“I remember,” he smirks, and it drives me wild. My wolf wants to jump his bones right here and now. She’s practically in heat with how desperate she is for him. “I’ve got a confession to make, I already ordered the food. It’s in our main office. Are you ready to eat?” He asks, extending his elbow.
I take his arm and let him lead the way. The room is full of pictures of the victims, copies of pieces of evidence, and photographs from the crime scene. Paperwork litters various desks pushed against the walls, and a few tables are pushed together in the center of the room.
My stomach growls again as Kato pushes in my chair and pulls out food containers. My eyes shift to a ‘murder board’ with the photos of all the other identified young women. Photographs not of their lifeless bodies but as their family and friends remember them, smiling, bright, and in the prime of their life.
Something about those smiling photographs makes me realize that one could have been of me. My photograph could have been tacked up on that board, frozen in time, while my body lay in a fridge down in the basement of the building.
Goddess, I am lucky. Even despite the horrible things that I’ve been through, I am so blessed to be alive. I won’t let this second chance at life pass me by. I can’t, it would be a slap in the face to all those young women who didn’t make it out alive.
There’s a twisting in my stomach, and I realize I am hungry—for the first time in days.
“We can go to another room to eat if it makes you uncomfortable to be here,” Kato says, following my gaze and glancing around the rest of the room. “It is a little morbid.” He says this as though he’s realizing this for the first time.
“No way,” I say, popping a crispy fried crab Rangoon into my mouth. “You said you’d catch me up to speed while we eat. I’m eating, so tell me everything,” I say through a mouthful.
Kato’s eyes light up in a way they haven’t in a long time as he scoops various helpings of all our old favorite Chinese dishes onto a paper plate for me. As he tells me everything about the case, I listen and eat, realizing that almost everything he knows came from me except for the commonality of the bar, the creepy patron of that bar, and the letter…
“You know almost everything you have on this case, I already know. Did you trick me with this deal just so I would eat?”
“That sounds like something I would do, doesn’t it?” He chuckles, but his eyes darken. “I wish I had more. We keep running into dead ends, a lack of physical evidence, and we still haven’t been able to identify all the victims. This guy’s almost like a ghost. I feel like I’m failing you and all of his other victims.”
“You aren’t,” I say, fighting the urge to kiss him. “Do you know how many cases go unsolved for the same reasons? Sometimes, these guys are better at hiding than others.”
Kato doesn’t say anything, he just keeps his head down for a moment before letting out an exaggerated sigh, “Don’t worry; this won’t be another unsolved case. That letter gives us a lot more insight, doesn’t it?”
“He’s gunning for the SPIU, he has something personally against me, he’s mocking me, us, and he doesn’t like your boyfriend. Actually, he and I might have that last one in common.” He says with a slight smile on those delicious lips of his.
“Kato!” I laugh, reaching out and shoving him playfully. He shrugs and takes a sip of his soda.
“That’s not how he spoke when he talked to me,” I say out loud finally after rereading the letter for the third time. “It’s like in this letter, he’s trying really hard to sound intelligent. He’s definitely taunting you and when I read this, I can certainly understand how a man with this level of inferiority complex could do such terrible things to these women.”
“He definitely wants to prove he’s smarter than us and at this point I don’t know how much of an act it is. He hasn’t left any evidence behind. All we found at the grave site was a cough drop wrapper and some thin plastic in your grave, and honestly, those items could have come from anyone or anywhere. There was nothing significant in the letter. It really does feel like he’s going to win.” Kato says with a bit of a defeatist attitude. That’s so unlike him.
“He won’t. With an ego like that, he’s bound to make a mistake. What worries me is that he’s going to keep killing. That he might have someone in his disgusting clutches right now.” I say emotionally almost pleadingly.
“That’s why I sent the team home. We’ve been running on fumes, and everyone needs a good night’s rest. We’ve got little to nothing so far to work with but come tomorrow that’s not going to stop us from finding this young woman and putting a stop to this psychopath.” He says determinedly. Now that’s more like him.
“If you have any suspects, I want to hear their voices. I’ll never forget his voice.” I offer.
As the night continues, Kato and I sit sprawled across the rug on the floor, paperwork, photographs, and copies of the letter sprawled out around us. Eventually, my eyelids grow heavier and heavier, and the next thing I know, I wake up with Kato’s heavy muscular arm wrapped around my bare stomach and the rest of the SPIU staring down at us.
“Morning,” Gun says, “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything.”
He winks, and the rest of the team does their best not to look too amused.
I push Kato’s arms off me, and he yawns, opening his eyes and looking around wearily.
“We’ve got bad news,” the wickedly tall blonde man with a head of thick golden hair says, kneeling down and sorting through the documents sprawled out around us.
“The media is in a frenzy over the case. Somehow, they got a copy of the letter and now we are basically fucked if we don’t get this all figured out soon.”
“What?” my jaw tenses and my heart sinks. Callie grabs a remote that’s mounted on the wall and flips on the television.
“Watch for yourself. It’s on every local station, and it’s starting to make its way onto national news, too.”
“Crap,” I say, repeating the general sentiment. “This is really going to fuel his fire. He’s so starved for attention I wouldn’t be surprised if he sent in a copy of the letter himself.”
Hati nods approvingly, “I believe that’s exactly what happened Elara.”
“Let me guess,” Kato says unimpressed, “SAC wants to meet with us?”
“Indeed he does.”
“SAC?”
“Special Agent in Charge,” Bruce nods. His low voice rumbling through the room.
“Alright,” Kato says, pushing himself up to his feet and offering me a hand. “The room we’ve got you in has showers. I’ll walk you back there. As I told you earlier, two agents are assigned to watch you. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask them for it.”
We don’t even make it halfway down the hall before I hear a familiar voice calling out for me. Ezra? What the hell is he doing here?
I take off following Ezra’s voice with the other agents beside me.
“Elara!” He says rushing forward when he sees me. His eyes scan me, pausing at the strip of skin on my belly. “Elara, I saw the news. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“What are you talking about Ezra?”
“You can’t trust anyone here. I mean, they got a letter, and suddenly everyone knows about it? Besides, the killer clearly has some vendetta against this Mr. Clean ex-boyfriend of yours. It’s not safe to be around him. We can get a hotel. We can hide out. I will keep you safe.”
“I do not look like Mr. Clean,” Kato says calmly from behind me while I struggle to find the right words to say. “Elara is much safer with us than with you. You’re a liberal arts professor and a little skinny too. How do you intend to protect her?”
I wince at Kato’s harsh words and the hurt that flashes through Ezra’s eyes as he hears them and glances between us.
“You wore that same outfit yesterday,” he says, accusation dripping from his voice as he looks Kato up and down.
“Sometimes, I work through the night,” Kato shrugs. I appreciate him not telling Ezra how we fell asleep on the floor together last night and woke up cuddling.
“Ezra,” I say, finally finding my voice again. “I need to stay with the SPIU. I need to help them solve this case or I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for being the only one to survive this guy. You can stay here too if you want. You’ll be safe here.”
He swallows, hard fists clenched at his side and takes a step forward. Within a split second, Kato lifted me and put me behind him.
Ezra’s eyes widen, “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
“I wasn’t sure what you were going to do.”
Ezra looks between us, and I can practically see the gears turning in his head, finally he looks me right in the eyes. “You little filthy fucking whore. I see what’s going on here?—”
Before he has a chance to say another word, Bruce has stepped between Ezra and Kato. “Not now, buddy. Not here.” He says, looking at Kato, holding Ezra an arm’s length away with a fistful of his shirt.
“Ezra, I want you to get the fuck out of my house.” I am seething. “Maybe you can go stay with one of your young little graduate students with whom you like to indulge in late-night phone calls and private dinners on that River Boat you used to take me to.”
Ezra’s mouth drops open. His face turning a dark beet-like purple. “That’s right, I know all about your extra-curricular activities. You’re the filthy little whore.” I practically spit at him and Gun lets out a howl of a laugh.
“Fine,” Ezra says looking between us all. “I’ll gladly get out of your pathetic little mismatched house.” He doesn’t say another word as he turns and huffs off.
“Are you okay?” Kato says, turning to me when Ezra’s back is to him. His soulful eyes search mine for signs that I am broken or unhinged.
I let out a deep sigh, “I need a shower and a change of clothes.” I say, heading back toward my temporary home. Callie wraps her arm around my waist, pushing Kato off behind her as she does. I hardly know the woman, but I’m grateful for the gesture.
“We will send an agent to your house to make sure Ezra doesn’t destroy anything while he packs up,” she whispers before leaving me in the dark of my room.
I do shower and change my clothes and crawl into bed to cry myself to sleep. Waking up hours later to the smell of chicken soup and Kato’s musk.
“Elara,” he says quietly. “Would you please eat something?”
Slowly I pull myself out of the twin bunk and approach the door, “is there bread?”
“Sour dough,” he says handing me a white paper bag from a local cafe I’ve always loved.
“Thanks,” I say, making my way back to the bunk and taking out the to-go bowl of soup.
“I’m sorry about earlier and I’m sorry about Ezra. Can I ask you something, though?”
I already know what he’s going to ask so I say, “I didn’t know for certain, but I had my suspicions before all of this happened and once it did, Ezra sneaking around with his students was the last thing on my mind.”
It’s silent for a long time, save for the slurping of my soup. When I’m done and set my trash to the side, Kato looks at me for a moment and then says, “I want you to stay at my house with me until we catch this guy.”