Chapter 11 #2
Humans didn’t trust regular civilians to have real firearms in New Nebraska, but the paranormal police were federally authorized to carry and use firearms. My piece was a .
45 caliber automatic pistol, but instead of its bullets firing lead, they shot out high-grade silver.
Extremely effective against any kind of paranormal, but particularly so on vamps and wolf shifters.
I also had a back-up .380 ACP holstered on my ankle, and a—not exactly police issue—titanium switchblade in my back pocket in case things got up close and personal.
Not that I’d have used any weapons on my estranged brother, of course, despite his haughty attitude.
Hunter had to understand I was the law and here on official business, and not just here to mooch his fancy coffee.
“Like it or not, this is a very serious investigation. So can you please keep out of it while I question”—I paused looking at Serenity, pretending I’d forgotten her name—“I’m sorry, your name was… ?”
“Serenity, Detective. And I’m happy to answer all your questions if it’ll help you. I just don’t understand what you mean?”
“Well, thing is, Rico’s near-death emergency happened because he’d been given drugs at the shelter.” I took a moment to let that sink in for her, picking my coffee up and taking a larger mouthful from the slowly cooling liquid.
“Drugs? At the shelter?” she said, with a look of shock on her face. I stayed fixed on her eyes. The surprise was genuine.
I nodded. “Yes, yesterday.”
Bryce piped up. He was pacing back and forth on an expensive-looking rug, several feet in the background. “I hope you’re not implying Serenity has anything to do with this, Dagger?”
“I’m not implying anything. Just answering the lady’s question. Are you going to keep butting in as well now? Or do you want me to get the answers I need and leave?”
“The second option, as fast as possible,” Hunter said.
His face’s shade was now matching the ruby sofa and his tone had become deeply irritated.
A ginger cat pounced on to his lap, and he began petting it, the stroking motions seeming to calm him, reducing the redness in his cheeks.
I held back mockery the best I could, though my tone was swathed in sarcasm.
“Oh, nice kitty. That pet therapy? When’d you get it?”
He exhaled hard through gritted teeth. “You’re the one who needs therapy. In spades. Now just get on with it.”
“Great, let’s do that.” I turned my focus back to Serenity. “Rico said yesterday some vamp came up to him outside the shelter, said he was close friends with you.”
Hunter and Bryce both began protests but Serenity held her palms up in both directions, signaling for them to stop. I liked that, the stripper putting the tough guy and the big shot in their places with such ease. “Guys, I know you mean well, but I want to answer these questions myself, please.”
Hunter huffed, Bryce sighed, and I let her speak. “Detective, if you knew me, you’d know I’d never be friends with any vampire, let alone a drug-dealing one. I’m frankly shocked at this. You have to believe me.”
Again, her eyes spoke the truth. Unfortunately, the vamp marks told a solid story too.
A story that could be quite different than the one she was telling me.
Was she in collusion with the vamp gangs?
One of these girls who had a kink for being fed from violently, maybe.
They were rare but they did exist. One thing was clear though: if she was playing Hunter and Bryce for complete fools—a hard task in itself—she was doing it with the best act I’d ever come across. And I’d seen many in my time.
I smacked my lips and shrugged. “Okay, let’s say I believe you. Why was he handing out fifty dollar wraps to this kid and his friends for free, saying it was the same sort you liked? And—”
“Detective, please. That’s crazy. I’ve never used—”
It was my turn to hold up a palm. “Let me finish. This same kid also said the vamp showed him a photo of you, saying he was your biggest fan and good friend.”
She gulped, her voice shaky. “What photo?”
My jaguar growled but I stifled the sound.
He was furious at the prospect I might embarrass this woman he’d grown strangely attached to in a matter of minutes.
I didn’t enjoy shaming adult entertainment workers either, they were just doing a job that was in regular demand.
I decided to tread a little lightly for once.
“Uh, nothing explicit. Just a picture of you. Dancing. Wearing a cowboy hat and smiling widely. He showed it as some sort of proof, though I suspect the free drugs would have been enough temptation without it. There’s been a huge rise in drug deaths recently.
I know the vamps are behind it. You have experience with vamps, right?
” The marks made my question almost obsolete, but I wanted to see if her eyes would keep shouting the truth.
They did. But through a glaze of tears. “I do. But not in the way you’re implying.”
Now my suspicions were starting to ease.
But not disappear. She seemed genuinely pained and I felt it vibrate across my body.
I kept my composure though, wincing inside at the next question I had to ask.
“I can’t help but see you have certain marks.
Seen them thousands of times. They only happen one way.
I’m sorry I have to ask, but have you ever received money for letting vamps feed from you? ”
Hunter growled under his breath.
Her tone hardened suddenly and sharply. “Not a goddamn cent. I was a victim of them, not a partner. And I’ve had nothing to do with any vamps since. And certainly not any drugs. Ever. Is that clear enough?”
My years of working New Omaha’s streets told me both her eyes and lips weren’t telling lies. I couldn’t finish it there though, unfortunately, despite her obvious pain in answering my last question.
“Clear as crystal. And I’m sorry if some of these questions are upsetting, but I have to ask. Just like I have to ask if you might know what vamp might’ve been flashing your picture around.”
“Conrad Marchand.” She shuddered. “It’s the only name I have for you. Or perhaps his friend, Armand. But really it could’ve been any vamp at the club that night.”
“What night was that?” I pulled out my phone to make a note of both names she’d thrown out.
“Last Wednesday.”
“Could you pick those two out of a photo lineup, if needed?”
She nodded.
“Hunter, I’ll need your security footage from that night. All of it.”
My twin’s jaw flexed, but one look at Serenity, and he said, “Fine. Come by the club tomorrow.”
The ginger cat moved onto Serenity’s lap, and she cuddled her tight. “Is there anything else? I’m not sure I can talk more about vamps right now. But I’ll help if I can.”
I slid my phone back into my pocket. “We can leave that, for now. I’m sorry I upset you. But why did you leave the shelter so suddenly yesterday? Why didn’t you wait for the police?”
Petting the cat’s head, her eyes teary, she replied with her tone climbing higher and more flustered with each sentence, “I was stressed out from it all. Beatrice said classes were cancelled and that I should go home and rest. I didn’t even know the police would be called.
How could I have known? I thought he’d had some sort of epileptic fit or something. Why would I wait around for police?”
A fair answer. And her eyes had been honest the whole time. I was about ready to strike her off my suspect list.
Bryce chimed in, his voice now stern. “I think you’ve got the answers you came for. If you still think she’s in on this, you’re a moron.”
I laughed. All that money had made Bryce quite comical in some ways. “I’m a moron? You know that news station of yours is practically a propaganda machine for those creeps at the Temple of the Pure Breed? You know how much pro-Temple bullshit I see when the news comes on?”
Bryce tugged at his shirt collar, flustered.
“I know some of the reporters are members, maybe they go a bit far in their praise sometimes. I have a lot of companies to oversee. I can’t micro-manage every goddamn employee, I—” He paused, breathing deeply.
“I’m working on it. I don’t want my news channel biased to any group any more than you do. Especially the Temple.”
I set my half-finished coffee on the table and stood. “Yeah, you do that, rich man. Because for all I know, in fact, I have some strong suspicions, the Temple might have a part in all this drugs mess.”
Serenity looked at Bryce, her face masked in confusion. “The Temple?”
“A bunch of fanatics,” I said, butting in before Bryce could answer.
“They’re the reason most humans moved out of Nebraska to begin with.
They formed when the Agreement was signed.
Started spouting their bullshit. All against humans and half-breeds.
This drug that’s being dealt around here in New Omaha, and is showing up across all New Nebraska now too, only seems to have severe reactions in humans and half-breeds.
That’s mighty convenient from the Temple’s point of view, wouldn’t you say?
” I turned toward Bryce. “And getting their image whitewashed by your news station helps their cause even more.”
“He said he’d look into it,” Hunter said, his words wrapped in a snarl. I could tell his patience was coming to an end. He could go fuck himself.
I fixed my gaze on Serenity. “You gave me straight answers. I believe you. And I’m glad it looks like the kid’s going to be okay. Sorry for upsetting you.” I glanced at Hunter and Bryce. “I’ll see myself out.”
I started walking toward the elevator, but paused when Serenity’s voice called after me. “Detective?”
Turning, my jaguar pining as we met eyes once again, she said, “If you catch the monsters who are doing this, could you let me know? I want them in prison as much as you do, if they’re hurting people, especially vulnerable kids.”
I liked that. I even managed a genuine smile. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
“Thanks, I’ll give you my number,” she said and I didn’t bother telling her I already had it from the shelter, appreciating her offer to give it to me freely.
She moved to get up and the cat pounced right on the table where I’d set my cup down, spilling coffee onto it and the rug underneath.
“Oh!” she cried, trying to sop some of it with the sleeves of her hoodie.
“We’ve got it, Serenity.” Bryce hurried into the kitchen for towels.
“Go ahead and give him your number, it’s okay,” Hunter said, nodding toward me.
She slipped off her soiled hoodie, threw it over a bar stool and grabbed a pen and notepad off the counter, scribbling out her digits quickly.
I strode over to take it from her. “Here,” she said, pressing it into my hand and in that instant, everything I thought I’d known about my life up until that moment changed.
Standing inches apart—the closest we’d been all morning—her sweet scent filling the space around me, my jaguar roared within me and smacked me with a single thought: MATE.
He rarely pushed his thoughts into me so violently, but this time he did, again and again, like I hadn’t heard the big, needy guy the first time, saying it over and over so emphatically, mate, mate, mate, mate, mate.
I didn’t even need his own thoughts to sense it.
I felt it, deep inside me, where I’d been burying feelings toward her all morning.
Fuck, she was my mate. And possibly Hunter’s too, since we were twins and twins often shared a mate, if they were fortunate enough to get one.
Though Hunter didn’t seem to realize she was our mate—he was protective over her, but there was no mate mark or other signs—probably because of the separation he’d put up between him and his jaguar.
I inhaled her scent again and took in her lovely, smiling face.
She was mine. If Hunter was too stupid to claim her, I would.
And I wouldn’t share. I’d take her away and cherish her.
My gut already told me the girl was innocent in all this drug and vamp business, and that she was remarkably strong to have survived whatever had given her those vamp marks.
Moreover, she had such spunk coupled with a sweet demeanor and was something really special.
But I couldn’t do anything about all that, let alone claim her, now.
“You’d better go help them,” I said, needing to distract her for a moment.
“Oh, okay. Bye.” She rushed back over to where Bryce and Hunter already had the mess well under control and Hunter was cradling the cat in his arms, cooing at it like it was a baby.
I snagged her hoodie off the stool, turned before anyone could see it against my chest, and pushed the button for the elevator, hearing it clunk and whirr its way slowly upwards.
When it arrived, I stepped inside, about to go down with my stolen goods, but she spoke again, asking, “One last thing. This vamp, the one handing out drugs. Did he… give a name?”
I paused in the elevator doorway so it wouldn’t close, my back to her as I shook my head. “No name, sorry. But no matter how long it takes, I’m going to get everyone behind this, I assure you.” I said it all over my shoulder as I stepped inside and pushed the button for the bottom floor.
As the bulky industrial elevator began its clunky descent, I held her hoodie to my nose, knowing that having her scent with me like this was the only thing that would keep me and my jaguar sane until I could see her again.
And I would see her again. Very soon.