Blood Moon (10 page)

“Come in,” he bellowed through the door, and
I pushed it open. “What can I help you with, Detectives?”

“Have you seen this?” I dropped the open
file on his desk, startling him and forcing his gaze away from his
computer screen.

“Only briefly,” he replied, picking it up
and looking at it a little more closely.

“Briefly?” I was on the verge of losing my
composure again. “You get a case where the cause of death is
exsanguination, and you only glance at it?” That got his attention.
I really tried to remain professional, but that line was blurred
the minute this case mirrored my brother’s and a rash of murders
just like it from almost a decade ago. “Tell me I’m seeing things.
Tell me this isn’t happening again,” I pleaded, my voice shaking
slightly.

“I-I didn’t realize…” He read the report,
and I Recognized the minute he came to the same stark realization
as both David and I had. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped
slightly. “I’ll…uh…” He struggled to form a sentence as his eyes
remained glued on the file. “I’ll put somebody else on this.
Immediately.”

“No.” Firm in my conviction, I leaned on the
front of his desk and pressed my index finger onto the file. “I
want this one.
I’m
going to solve it. If this is the same
sick freak that took Bobby, you better believe I want to take him
down. Personally.”

“Brooke,” David whispered from the doorway
behind me, and I turned around sharply. “Maybe he’s right. I think
you’d be too emotionally involved in the case if it turns out to be
the same guy.”

“I’m not emotionally involved,” I corrected
him. “I’m
invested
.”

“Regardless, I don’t think it’s a good
idea,” David said, his tone a little more firm. “You were just
promoted. Is this really the case you want to start your career
with?”

I looked at him point-blank. “Yes.”

David and my dad exchanged a look. I could
tell that David really wanted it assigned to someone else, but with
a resigned sigh, Dad gave the final order to keep us on it. “Fine.
But the minute I see that this case is becoming too much for you,
you’re off it, do you understand me? I won’t have you fall back to
where you were seven years ago, Brooke.”

Before he could take it back, I nodded,
snatching the file from him. “I understand. Thank you.” As I turned
to walk away, a photo slipped from inside and fluttered to the
floor. Kneeling, I picked up the picture, but when my eyes focused
on the close-up image of the victim’s neck, I inhaled sharply, my
entire body freezing as it triggered a long-forgotten memory.
There, at the apex of this woman’s neck and shoulder, was a strange
laceration, and the longer I stared at it, the more I realized it
wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this.

Bobby.

“Brooke?” David asked. His voice sounded
distant as I was thrust back to the night I found Bobby in that
alley seven years ago. I felt his weak pulse against my palm again,
his blood pumping from a wound on his neck—a wound very similar to
the one in the photograph—as his heartbeat slowed and eventually
stopped.

Lost in the memory of that night, my lungs
burned hot with every breath I took, and it was growing more and
more difficult to breathe the longer I stared at this picture. The
room felt like it was getting smaller, the panic in my chest
tightened as my vision started to darken around the edges, and my
ears rang. When my knees trembled and threatened to buckle, I
reached out, dropping the folder and all its contents, and grabbed
the front of David’s jacket to hold me upright. His reflexes were
quick, and he grabbed me around the waist.

“Whoa! Easy,” he soothed, steadying me.

“I don’t…” My tongue was numb, and my skin
prickled with an icy sweat as I clung to him, my shoulder throbbing
harder and burning hotter than before. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Okay,” he whispered, picking me up in his
arms and carrying me quickly through the office and outside. “I’m
taking you to the hospital.”

My vision faded in and out, and I fought the
urge to pass out. David tried to talk to me, telling me to stay
with him. I tried—I did—but I went limp in his arms, my limbs
heavy, like they were filled with lead. David carried me with ease
from the precinct and toward the car despite this, making me feel
somewhat weightless, too.

The last thing I remembered before I lost
consciousness was David shouting my name.

T
he entire world
slipped away whenever I was in his arms. I always felt so safe and
secure with him around, and he’d proven himself to be there for me
on more than one occasion. I foresaw a long, happy future together,
even if we were both still so young. He was all I could see when I
looked into the future…which was why I’d accepted his marriage
proposal three days ago. He was the love of my life, and he had
proven time and time again that I was his.

Of course, I never expected this feeling to
dissipate as quickly as it did at the first sign of tragedy.

“Hey, where did your brother go?”

I searched the darkness for a glimpse of
Bobby’s bronze-colored hair or even the sweater he changed into
before we left the dorm, but couldn’t find him. I didn’t
understand. He was
right there
a second ago…talking to some
blonde chick. I’d only looked away for a minute—if that. Panic rose
in my chest, bile churning in my stomach as I feared the worst…no,
not just
feared
the worst; I could sense that something was
wrong.

“I…I don’t know.” Detached from everything
but the feeling that something was terribly wrong, I pulled out of
Nick’s arms and walked toward the table. My hands shook as I pushed
through the crowd and headed back to the last place I saw my
brother, but he wasn’t there. His beer hadn’t even been touched,
and there was no sign of him here at all. Not his jacket, not his
keys, nothing.

The tremble in my hands spread to my entire
body, and my heart raced. Something wasn’t right; I knew this. I
took one more look around the club, hoping that maybe I’d spot—or
even sense—him, but I came up empty once more.

“Babe?” Nick was as concerned as I was, and
I grew more and more frantic by the second. My chin quivered, my
hands gripping the hair at my temples tightly, and tears burned my
eyes. “Maybe he stepped outside,” Nick said behind me, trying to
calm me down, but I shook the thought off before letting it sink
in.

“No,” I disagreed. “He would have said
something. He’d have come to tell us if that’s what he was
doing.”

“He’s twenty-one, Brooke,” Nick argued, but
I was already headed for the door when something unseen and
unexplainable drew me in that direction. “Brooke?”

The crowd was too thick, and I struggled to
get through; it was like they were unwilling to let me pass—trying
to keep me inside. Eventually, I gave up and scanned the bar for an
alternate exit. When I found an emergency door, I rushed toward it,
not stopping for anyone who tried to get in my way. I threw the
door open, stepping into the back alley so quickly that when I
stopped abruptly, Nick almost bowled me over. The tingle that still
covered my entire body intensified until all the tiny hairs on my
body stood on end. I was close. I knew it—
felt
it.

Trusting my gut, I turned and ran in the
direction I thought I sensed him, skidding to a stop at the mouth
of the alley when the feeling faded. I looked out into the street,
desperate for even a glimpse of him—anything to indicate he was
okay. There were too many cars, though, and so many people that I
found it hard to make out anyone’s face.

Then I felt it: that sharp tingle shooting
up my spine until I turned back toward the alley.

He’s there.

I turned slowly, my eyes falling to the
darkened alley floor where a slumped shape was hidden in the
shadows a few feet in. A passing car’s headlights illuminated the
still figure, and I gasped, recognizing the shirt and his hair in
an instant. Everything else left my mind, my thoughts only on
Bobby, as I bolted down the alley, falling to my bare knees at his
side.

The pain from the cuts and scrapes of
sliding over the pavement was nothing compared to the fear I
experienced when pulling Bobby’s limp body into my arms. His green
eyes were wide—terrified—and completely void of life. And his
skin—
oh, god
—his skin was so cold and pale…almost as though
his life had been drained from him.

“Help! Somebody, help me! Please!” I
screamed, the tears I’d been able to hold back now flowing freely
down my cheeks. I sobbed, my lungs burning as I tried to gulp in a
breath of air, and loud footsteps approached hard and fast behind
me.

“Oh, dear god,” Nick gasped, and while he
stood right next to me, I couldn’t stop looking at Bobby as I
attempted to shake him awake.

I screamed again, crying out his name as I
shook him harder, causing his head to roll lifelessly to the right.
There, illuminated by the light of the full moon, were two
perfectly round puncture wounds with a thin trickle of blood
seeping from each of them.

Bright white light blinded me as I forced my
eyes open. I tried to bring my right arm up to shield my eyes, but
an uncomfortable tug in the top of my hand stopped me. It pinched
and it stung. Groaning, I opened my eyes a little more to let them
adjust to my surroundings. I was in a room I didn’t recognize, and
a high-pitched beeping drew my attention to the monitors next to
the bed I occupied. As my vision cleared, I followed the leads
hooked into the machines down to my arm and realized the tugging
was from an IV catheter that violated the back of my hand. It
itched again, and I wanted it out.

“Hey, you’re awake,” a rough voice said to
my left, and when I looked toward it, I found a worse-for-wear
David lifting his head from my bed. His left hand was wrapped
firmly around mine while the other reached for the call button. He
pushed it several times. There was a commotion in the hall before
two nurses bustled in and started fussing over me.

“Wh-what happened?” My voice sounded
hoarse—even to me—and I tried clearing my throat. It didn’t help;
it only hurt more.

David’s brow furrowed, and he ran his free
hand down over his weary and unshaven face; I had never seen him
look this frazzled…this worried. “You don’t remember?”

One of the nurses lifted the hand with the
IV in it and checked my pulse—regardless of the fact that I was
hooked up to one of those heart monitors. It was weird and I admit,
I questioned the reason behind it. My head throbbed, and I let my
eyes wander around the room, taking in the institutional white of
the walls and the generic artwork that adorned them. I was in a
private room—swanky—and one look out the window indicated that I
was back at Osborn. The nurses finished checking my vitals before
assuring both David and me that the doctor would be in momentarily,
and then they left us alone.

Slowly, bits and pieces fell into place as I
remembered the events that led me here. “We were at work—looking
over that case, and then I passed out.” There was more…
I
think
…but it was really vague, and I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t
part of a dream while I was out. “I remember feeling like I was
floating through the air, and then the smell of leather before a
high-pitched wailing filled my head…”
Sirens…they were
sirens
, I realized. As the memory played out, I remembered that
my eyes opened briefly to see David behind the wheel of my car and
racing through the streets. His voice was soft and soothing, but
there was also a note of panic that laced it; even my muddled brain
picked up on that.

“That’s the gist of it.” Hearing his voice
so low and full of worry caused my stomach to clench; I hated that
I put him through this.

My eyebrows pulled together in shame, and I
glanced at him as he looked down at our hands, his thumb moving
back and forth over my skin.

“You picked up a picture that fell out of
our case file, and then you went blank. You stared at it for a few
minutes and whispered your brother’s name… Do you remember that?”
As he told me this, I definitely recalled it happening, and the
horrific image of the woman’s neck came crashing back to me.

“You’ve been out for two days,” he concluded
before I could say anything about the picture, my focus snapping
back to him like a rubber band.

“W-what?”

He nodded sadly. “You scared the hell out of
me, Brooke.”

“I don’t understand,” I rasped, trying to
wrap my head around why I would remain unconscious for so long with
no real trauma. Realization slammed down on me, weighing heavy and
causing my stomach to churn, and I squeezed David’s hand. “The
bite… Was it some kind of infection?”