Chapter Three
New Orleans
Friday
Super Early
Two A.M.
G etting pulled from the comfort and safety of your home was always a pain in the ass, especially in the middle of the night, but Detective Seth Romney knew that sometimes, you had to do what you had to do.
Since he was on duty, it was on him to make sure the streets of New Orleans were safe.
He was a cop, and this was his job.
Well, his and his new partner’s jobs.
His world was chaotic to begin with, and not the norm. Being mated to a vampyre in New Orleans was NOT how he expected his life to play out, but he wouldn’t change it for a second.
Not.
For.
Anything.
His mate, or wife, if you would, Clariel, made him the happiest man in the world.
She was his soulmate, and there was no doubt about that.
Their son, Micah, was a joy and he couldn’t get enough of him. In fact, if he could clone the little boy, he’d have fifty more kids just like him.
The one surprising thing?
His son…
Well, he was a vampyre.
Oh, and Seth was not.
Only, that was okay. Seth knew the chances up front of producing a vampyre versus a human child when he and Clariel got pregnant. They’d still decided to do it .
Honestly, he was good with it.
His son was the second love of his life, and he wouldn’t change anything about him. It was why he was out in the middle of the night.
To protect what was his.
Since he was human, it was his duty to protect the Harcourte family. He was taking over where Flynn had once been the human-cop guardian.
It was on him to ensure that no matter what, they stayed safe.
So, he’d work nights to patrol the street to ensure his family didn’t come to any harm. It was the least that he could do since the family protected him as well.
They were symbiotic, and he wouldn’t drop the ball.
Survival was key.
That was all that mattered.
The Harcourte family was growing, and that meant it needed more protection. The family was extended, and made up of humans, vampyres, and a mix.
Jolie wanted them to do this, and she was their Mistress, even if she didn’t live with them. They were loyal.
To.
The.
End.
So, humans and vampyres alike were holding up the Harcourte family, and that was vital in New Orleans .
The city was a mecca of vampyres and they, luckily, were in charge there.
It was good to be the top of the vampyre food chain in a city fraught with all kinds of crazy, and as of late, it was only getting worse.
That was what worried Seth.
The crazy was getting…crazier.
It was a fulltime job on top of his fulltime job. There were days he felt like the ringleader of a supernatural circus.
As the other families moved away, going back to their homelands when the Tueur, the vampyre killers, were running amuck, they had no choice but to step up.
Oh, and Percy was running it well too .
With his mate, Mina, at his side, they were holding court for Jolie and her family name. In New Orleans, if you were a vamp, you wanted to be a Harcourte vampyre. They were the alpha predators in the city, and thanks to that, he was generally safe.
Thank freaking God.
Only, with each time he had to leave home, there was this wariness that hadn’t been there before.
Why?
The city was changing.
Now, for Seth, he didn’t like to not be at home. With the monsters that had been popping up, for him, it was about getting his ass home as soon as possible for his safety, and the family’s.
Truth be told, his gut said that no one was safe in New Orleans .
NO.
ONE.
As he walked that crime scene, he knew he wasn’t alone. His super focused human gifts told him who was following him.
His mate was lurking.
Because he was human and didn’t have the strength or power of a vampyre, he was susceptible to anything bad that rolled into town.
So Clariel would babysit him most of the time when he was out on a scene.
Oh, he should be insulted, but when you mated, that was a common thing.
You were uber protective of your partner and the same was true for them.
Besides, his mate wasn’t taking any chances. Clariel had lost her female partner a while ago, and he understood she feared losing him too.
So, he let her hover.
Honestly, there were worse things in the world than a gorgeous female watching you.
Mostly, they were the things that went bump in the night, and wanted humans dead .
His mate, Clariel, didn’t like it when he was out alone, so she hunted in the shadows to keep him safe. As if to prove he was right, he heard her.
You’re thinking about me, she whispered into his mind now that he detected her.
He sent love through their mental connection so that she knew what he was feeling.
I am always thinking about you, Clari. How can I not? I have the most beautiful woman as my mate. You spend a lot of time in my mind, but you’re mostly naked at the time.
There were giggles, and he could feel that sentiment sent right back to him.
Oh, his woman was an enigma.
She was sweet, loved fashion, and could kill with the ferocity of an alpha predator.
How did he know?
He’d seen it happen.
The bottom line was this.
Clariel, like the other Harcourte vampyres, was a killer.
I missed you, Seth admitted.
Well, wrap this up, and that woman might be so inclined to crawl all over her sexy detective—a few times. You can’t knock me up since I already am, but you can pretend.
Oh, well, sign him up.
There was no way he was saying no to sex. Clariel had just found out she was pregnant again, and he was all about that. He loved his son, but he would love another.
And another.
And another.
Since he would live as long as Clariel, he could have a brood of babies that grew up to be more family for all of them. Maybe, if he was lucky, one would choose to be a cop, and help him protect the family.
Speaking of cops…
He and his partner had been called to the cemetery for a body, and they were a little shocked by what they’d found.
Oh, there was something rotten going on there.
The bodies ?
All of them were missing from their crypts.
Oh, and then, to add some spice to the mess, there was one very fresh dead woman inside one of the vaults.
The blood alone…
Yeah, something was going on, and knowing New Orleans , it wasn’t going to be good.
Seth would bet on it.
This screamed supernatural.
“What do you see, Seth?” he was asked by his partner as he was staring at the dead woman in the hundred-year-old crypt.
Yeah, that definitely wasn’t the last inhabitant. Someone did a body dump.
Call it a hunch.
Seth glanced over.
His new partner, Detective Logan Grayson, was standing in the middle of the scene, making notes about the crypt as he tried to avoid the blood splatters.
He was failing at it.
Yeah, that’s how much blood was there. Someone bled that victim out—everywhere.
“Carnage,” Seth admitted, keeping it close to the vest on this one.
He knew the truth.
Most of the homicides that weren’t gun related in the city were tied to one thing.
MONSTERS.
This was going to be that. He could tell.
Should I be insulted? Clariel asked, her voice softly whispering into his mind.
Never. I’m not talking about you, my love. I’m talking about the rogue things that Rinnon hunts. They are the monsters in this story.
There was laughter.
Good save.
Oh, he was aware.
Vamps got touchy when you called them monsters. They were one step down on the food chain under humans, and likely the more civilized .
Honestly, there wasn’t much that separated them—minus a soul.
“What do you think did this?” Logan asked, as he pointed at the dead woman inside the crypt. “She’s fresh.”
The date on the outside was way too long ago for her to be the dead woman.
This was a new kill. He’d have to be an idiot to miss that little detail.
The coagulated blood everywhere gave it away.
Seth shrugged.
“I have no idea, my dude. This is a messy one. The ME is going to have to give us more.”
If he could find COD.
As for him not knowing what happened…
That was a lie.
A huge one.
He knew because he saw the telltale sign of her neck being ripped out. Either a random dog had a snacky-snack, or a rogue vamp was having a meal.
And that was his domain.
If they had a rogue vamp, the families would have to go to the society, and have this handled.
By the vampyres—not the cops.
Only, there was something perplexing.
Where were the bodies that had been in the crypts originally?
That was the question.
In his mind, he heard her.
A vampyre has been here, Clariel offered, sharing what she could smell. If I can get closer, I can sniff around. Literally. If we’ve come across him or her before, from one of the societies, I will be able to tell who it is.
Well, that was handy.
Lucky him.
What he needed was to get the information to Percy, and he would go out and ‘handle’ it.
By handle, he meant execute the vamp who was feeding on humans. As a once-guardian, and now head of a family, that was his job .
The end would be swift.
Feeding on people was a no-no in their world. It only brought trouble to their doorsteps.
Someone got angsty here, Clariel admitted. I would have done this a lot cleaner. This draws attention.
That befuddled him.
Not the clean part. Honestly, Seth never understood how his mate was a well-tuned murder machine when she was as sweet as an innocent lamb.
Clariel laughed in his mind, and was honest.
I don’t kill unless my very human mate gets his sexy ass into trouble. Then, I have to step in and show him how to take care of your man.
He almost laughed out loud.
One time, Clariel. One time.
Because the man made her so happy, she sent him laughter and love.
It was time to focus on work, and not his sexy vampyre woman.
What worried Seth was that in NOLA, there were a lot of supernatural deaths, as of late.
And it sucked.
Well, for the victims.
Who knew what was preying on people now? Somehow, he didn’t think it would be Vamps because the ones here knew better.
Every kill would have consequences.
Percy ran this city just like Jolie had.
Firmly.
Most of the time, they were safe, unless you considered the mess with Fate and the bruhaha she was having with Rinnon.
No one was safe then.
Since this was Jolie’s home, and she loved New Orleans , this was a target city for most of the angst being thrown at Rinnon.
The whole family knew it.
This was going to be bad.
Seth could feel it .
“Someone’s sick,” Logan admitted, as he shook his head in disgust. “Who cracks open a grave, then dumps a fresh body in after removing the corpse and desecrating other graves?”
Seth said nothing.
Why?
Because he knew.
A monster.
It all seemed to point back at that, now didn’t it? That’s why he was worried. They weren’t equipped to deal with the things Rinnon chased.
Not.
Even.
Close.
When they heard a whistle not far away, the city ME peeked his head around the corner to get their attention. When the ME wanted you, that only meant one thing.
Trouble.
“Uh, we have another empty grave. It looks as if someone was stealing bones or grave robbing.”
Oh, boy.
It wouldn’t be that simple, and he knew it.
Seth didn’t know how to break it to the man. Someone was likely doing more than stealing bones. This screamed all things nefarious.
And deadly.
Seth pointed toward the ME, and he and his partner headed that way. It was time to dig deeper into this mess.
Sniff around but be careful, he warned his mate. If I have to ground you…
Clariel laughed.
Oh, I will be, and if you want to spank me, Seth, just say it, she offered, sending him pictures of erotic things that made his blood pressure rise.
Holy shit.
His brain almost shut down—well, the upper one .
Behave, and there won’t be spanking. I’m absolutely not spanking my pregnant woman. Hell. No. That will have to wait until after this pregnancy .
I love you, my nut.
There was laughter in his head, and a warm rush of desire that she sent through him.
It made him shudder, and he tried to cover it the best he could, but it was so hard.
No, he was so hard.
Because his mate needed space to get closer to the scene, Seth got them all away from that first set of open graves and to the other one.
Only, he knew this was dire.
In that one section of the cemetery, they saw the grave that had lost its inhabitant.
Oh, Jesus.
This was going to be bad.
Really.
Really.
Bad.
Seth knew the grave and knew it well. It was a tourist spot for most people coming to New Orleans, and quite possibly the most famous crypt.
The ME explained how he found it.
“I was walking around looking to make sure there weren’t more victims, and found this,” Doctor Lex Wren said, pointing.
Oh, his gut dropped, and for a couple of reasons.
So many tourists came to Marie Laveau’s grave, and now, it was broken open too.
Marie Laveau—the Voodoo priestess.
Inside, there were scraps of clothing where she’d been laid to rest.
But no bones.
Oh, shit.
Logan went there.
“Someone stole the Voodoo queen’s bones? This has to be a witchcraft kind of bullshit thing. Maybe someone was doing something dark and went a little too far with the dead woman we found or maybe she was the partner, and it went south? ”
Well, never let it be said his partner wasn’t astute about bad shit happening. There was no doubt in Seth’s mind that this was going to be about Voodoo—and Rinnon.
Black Magick was his Achilles’ heel.
It was what he’d used eons ago when he’d created this mess—or so Flynn told them when he informed them to be on the lookout for it.
“What has your attention piqued?” Seth asked, not sure what to ask, but the scene needed to be handled, and that was his job.
What he wanted to do was run.
His fight or flight was kicking in, and that was never a good thing. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and he didn’t know why.
Be careful, Clari. This is off.
I know. I was just going to say that to you.
From where he stood, the ME shook his head.
“Everything has my attention on this scene. Marie’s grave was cleared out. There’s nothing in there but the fabric scraps, and that’s sick. Who would want her bones? Who would desecrate it? And how did they crack that open like that? I’m sure it was sealed.”
Oh, it was something all right, and the only thing that could get through that slab was something supernatural.
Yep.
They had a problem.
From wherever his mate was, he felt her confusion and panic building.
That freaked him out so much that he was now focused on her.
What’s wrong, Baby?
It took her a minute.
I can smell him.
Seth wasn’t sure who ‘him’ was, but from the tone of her voice, it wasn’t going to be good.
Who, Baby?
She didn’t speak.
Not at first.
Do you need me? he asked .
Finally, she shared what she was picking up.
I have to be wrong. There’s no freaking way, Seth. He’s dead. He was killed by Flynn and Jacques a year ago. They put him down in Paris. He can’t be here, but why do I smell him?
He was confused.
Who? Again.
Clariel told him.
Mathew. I distinctly smell Mathew, and I know that can’t be. I told Flynn about what he was doing. They ended him.
Seth had heard about that particular vampyre, and the man was the reason he had his mate.
They’d gone to Paris, and Clariel had called Flynn to get her out. When she came back, Seth had found her.
Apparently, Mathew had been a vamp who had gone rogue. He’d been feeding on innocent people all through Paris, drawing suspicion.
Oh, and when Flynn and Jacques handled it…they HANDLED it.
Since the Tueur would normally police the renegade vamps, and Flynn had killed all of them and was the top Tueur, he’d had to take things into his own hands.
Oh, and he did.
They kept it quiet, but they all knew he’d put the vamp down due to his predatory actions. Was it only because of that? Probably not, since everyone knew Mathew had been one of Jolie’s underlings.
To protect what was left of the vampyres from being found out, and hunted, they supposedly killed the problem.
DEAD.
He and Jacques had proved that they were killers, and took down Mathew without a second thought.
They never told Jolie how he died, but only that he’d died. Granted, she was very smart and old. There was no way she didn’t know they’d had a hand in it.
If his mate was smelling him here, that was off.
Could you be wrong ?
No. I know his scent. It’s our thing. We hunt by our nose. He’s been here. Mathew has recently been to this place! I can smell his blood.
Oh, boy.
Yeah, that was a problem.
Flynn didn’t make a mistake when he ended a creature. He put them DOWN for good.
Well, if he’s dead how is that possible? He didn’t rise from the dead. He went to ash.
Clariel was honest.
My love, everyone here was dead, and you have bodies missing. That can’t be a coincidence. And Marie Laveau? Come on. Put two and two together.
She was right.
Black magick was afoot.
Before he could say anything, that’s when he heard it from somewhere off in the distance.
The sound was so faint, but his hearing was super strong now that he’d mated and shared blood with Clariel.
He turned, and that’s when he saw it.
Oh, and it was right out of a horror movie. The visual made his heart jump in his chest.
Heading their way, through the rows of tombs, there were decaying bodies crawling on the ground toward them. The sound he heard was the clickety-clack of their bones on the ground.
Their half-rotted corpse bones.
“Jesus Christ! Run!” he shouted, but it was too late. The skeletonized remains were coming from every direction. They were surrounded.
“What the hell?” Logan said, seeing the bodies crawling toward them. “Are those…bodies?”
He spun in a circle, and the look of terror on his face was crystal clear.
Before anyone could reply, the bodies leapt, and were right there, going for them.
Without a single hesitation, Seth pulled his gun, and began firing into the approaching and clawing bodies.
Only, it didn’t work .
The rotting corpses didn’t stop moving toward them. Instead, they kept crawling, trying to gouge their bodies and do as much damage as possible with their boney-finger claws.
Holy.
Shit.
There was no way out of this nightmare.
Seth called for his mate, knowing that she was likely his only chance of survival. He was harder to kill, but he could be harmed.
Clari! Help!
Let me! she said, willing to do anything to help her mate. I’m coming!
It took seconds.
Clariel charged the scene with her fangs and claws out as she ripped into one of the dead who was threatening her mate.
She tore him to pieces and his remains were scattered all around them.
And got Seth free.
Then, to make sure he wasn’t injured, she dragged him up to the top of a mausoleum where he’d be safe. It had to be a sight to be seen as she clawed her way up the marble.
“Stay here! Keep them off the mausoleum!” she warned, knowing there were more people down there, and Jolie didn’t like to let humans die.
She was up to bat.
Not far away, his partner was screaming, and the ME was being buried under the pile of rotting corpses.
Clariel jumped back down, pulling out a blade, and began fighting her way through the pile of zombies to get to the man at the bottom.
Somehow, she got to him, despite the clawing to her flesh that wasn’t healing.
Well, shit.
These zombies were magical. They were dangerous and now, they had a problem. She could be damaged beyond repair so she couldn’t keep fighting .
Pulling Logan out, she climbed the mausoleum to get his partner up to her mate. The man was a mess, and he was bleeding profusely.
All around, the other cops ran, and that was going to be a problem.
Somehow, the ME got free and wisely did the same. Oh, she was going to have to find all of them and compulse them into forgetting about this or the shit was going to hit the New Orleans fan.
Clariel knew what this meant.
They had to clean this up, and FAST .
Reaching for Percy, she knew he’d get there fast with the other vampyres. The Harcourte society home wasn’t that far away.
She needed backup.
Percy! I’m trapped at the Saint Louis cemetery and need our guardians. We have zombies!
His reply was exactly what she expected. How could it be anything else? She would have asked the same thing.
ZOMBIES?
Yeah, color me surprised. Marie Laveau’s bones are gone, Percy. Get here. Something is trying to attack the city, and we all know why! We can’t let this get out. We have to make them forget. Send out the family to get it done!
He knew she was right.
We’re heading there right now. Just keep fighting. Half of us will wipe memories, and half will be ready for battle!
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
In case this kills me, you have to let the master know that I picked up a smell. It was Mathew. His scent is here! He has to be part of this.
Percy was worried. They were damn hard to kill, and if Clariel thought that was possible, that made him…twitchy. They were marked by Rinnon, but was this magickal?
Don’t you die, and how could he be there? He’s dead, Clari !
That was a question that she honestly couldn’t answer for him.
Is he? Because we have dead rising, and that can’t be a good thing.
And it wasn’t.
Yeah, she could say that again.
As soon as we handle this, you’d better call for Flynn. He’ll want to know about this. You don’t have dead rising and Mathew’s scent in New Orleans, and not have it be Fate fucking with Jolie.
She was aware.
He was going to be pissed.
Oh, as was Jolie.
I’m injured and so is one of the humans. I’ll heal but it’s going to be slow. As for one of the human cops, he’s infected with something. We need help. Fast. There’s magick going on here.
Percy knew how dire it was.
We’re almost there. Hang in there, Clariel.
She kicked a zombie who had successfully made the climb up the mausoleum. It landed on a metal fence impaled through its rotting flesh. The screams of pain it made were horrific, and she felt bad.
They’d been innocent dead, and now, they were being used for something nefarious.
All around them, chaos was breaking out.
Logan was sitting on top of the mausoleum and scared stupid. He was holding his oozing wound on his arm, his gun empty of bullets.
“I must be asleep. There’s no way. Why is your wife here, and why do we have dead bodies climbing a mausoleum?”
Oh, well, the jig was up. It seemed that someone else’s memory was going to have to be wiped too.
Instead of answering, Seth kicked another zombie off of the side as he helped his wife keep them safe.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure what to tell the man.
That he was seeing this …
That was a huge problem for him and their society. They were now being outed, and while compulsion worked, if the person was strong enough, eventually, it would wear off. They’d need someone stronger to wipe his memory.
Like Rinnon.
Clariel was all fangs and fury, and his partner was staring at her like she was a monster too.
Technically, I am, my love.
Never. You’re my angel .
Because he respected his partner, he gave him an answer.
For now.
“You’re not asleep. We’ll explain later if we survive this!”
Now, it all came down to Percy, and his fighting skill as a guardian. Oh, and if he got there in time.
If not…
They were screwed.
Yep.
This was a nightmare.