“How about we talk here? That way, you can get back to Quantico sooner?” I suggested to JT.
To Dad, I said, “I’ll be over in a few minutes.”
“All right. See you later.” Dad left.
Allegra Love cleared her throat. She moved closer, extending her arms in front of her, fingers spread, hands held palm out toward us. She closed her eyes and smiled.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s ... remarkable.”
With absolutely no warning, she grabbed my arm and practically broke into a sprint, dragging me back toward her psychic reading room.
“I must get a clean reading.”
At the door, she motioned to a very confused-looking JT. “Young man, please follow me.”
He hesitated for a moment before following us into the room.
Allegra Love sat. I started toward the door. “If you leave, I’ll have no choice but to call your parents and cancel.”
Sneaky, manipulative woman!
“This had better be quick.” I glared at her and plunked into the closest chair. JT sat in the chair next to me.
She lifted her hands again, holding them upright, palms facing us. She closed her eyes. “Oh, yes. My goddess, yes.”
JT and I exchanged bewildered glances.
“Your energies are so harmonious. They produce the most amazing effect. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I feel almost”—she swayed—“intoxicated.”
“‘Intoxicated’?” I mouthed to JT.
JT grinned and shrugged.
“That’s all fine and good, but we need to get going,” I said to the intoxicated minister.
Love’s eyes snapped open. “You two are lovers.”
“No, we aren’t,” I stated matter-of-factly.
Reverend Love’s gaze shifted to JT.
He shrugged. “We’re coworkers. It’s against bureau policy.”
Love shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There’s no way anyone could ignore such a strong natural force. Your energies are like two magnets, drawn toward each other. Like the pull of the Earth on the Moon. Nobody, not even your boss, will be able to stop it.”
I’d heard enough. More than enough. Had JT paid ... ?
I snapped a glare to JT. “Did you by any chance pay this woman to say these things to me?”
“I’ve never spoken to this woman before in my life. I swear.”
I checked his face for any sign of deception. Seeing none, I checked Allegra Love’s face next.
She shook her head. “I’ve never spoken to your friend. I don’t even know his name. I’m telling you the truth. You two aren’t merely compatible. You are soul mates. Your energies resonate on a level I’ve never seen before. It’s beautiful.”
Not completely convinced of anything, especially our magically resonating souls, I beat a retreat, with JT at my heels. I got as far as the door before remembering I had promised to let JT get off his chest whatever he’d come to tell me.
I rested against my car’s passenger-side door. “Okay, you drove a long way to talk to me. Why? What’s so important you couldn’t wait to tell me later?”
“It’s not that it’s so important, but that it’s personal, and I know you’d like to keep our personal lives out of work.”
“Fair enough.” I motioned with my head that he should proceed.
“I can’t keep this from you anymore. It’s about Hough.”
“Yeah?”
“She’s pregnant. And I’m the child’s biological father.”
It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. When they did, something inside of me coiled into an excruciating knot. My lungs deflated. Thankfully, I had the car to support me. If it hadn’t been there, I would have probably been lying on the ground.
“She’s ... pregnant. And you’re the father,” I mumbled.
“I am.”
“Then it’s true. You’re sleeping with her. You said it wasn’t what I thought.”
“We had sex once. Only one time.”
“Sure. Only once.” I jerked open the door and tossed my purse on the seat before rounding the front end of the car.
JT stopped me just before I reached the driver’s-side door. He yanked on my arm. “Sloan, let me explain.”
“Explain? JT, I’ve known where babies come from since I was three. What’s to explain? Sperm meets egg. They fuse. Twenty-three chromosomes become forty-six—”
“There’s a whole helluva lot more to it than that.”
“Oh, I’m sure there is!” Ready to kick JT in the noodle, thereby assuring his gametes would never again meet an ovum, I gritted my teeth. “You’d better let me go right now, or your baby-making days will be over.”
He let go. Smart man.
I jerked open my car door and plopped into the seat. The second I had the door closed, JT was at the window, knocking. Ignoring him, I started the car, shifted into reverse, and pulled out of the parking spot.
As I drove away, tears of fury and hurt blurred my vision. I just kept blinking and driving until I couldn’t see a damn thing. Then I pulled over and let it all out. I cried until my head felt like it might split in two and my tear ducts had dried up. Then I let my head fall forward. My forehead rested against the steering wheel.
A knock on my window made me jump.
I looked. “Are you kidding me?”
“Sloan, are you okay?” JT mouthed.
“I’m fine. Go away,” I mouthed back.
He didn’t go away.
I rolled down the window. “JT, I don’t know what you expect me to say.”
“I don’t expect you to say anything. I just want you to listen.”
“But I don’t want to hear any more.”
“I kind of got that when you just about ran me over.”
“I didn’t get even remotely close to running you over. Believe me, if I had wanted to, I could’ve run you over.”
“The truth is, Hough—Brittany—asked me to be a donor.”
“Yeah? So what’s wrong with doing it the old-fashioned way? Shooting it into a bottle and then letting the doctor put it in there with a meat-baster thingy?”
He gave me a
really?
look. “Doing it the natural way was less complicated. And less expensive. I didn’t want to make her pay a doctor to do what I can do for free.”
What a freaking pathetic excuse. “Oh, and I’m sure you enjoyed every minute of it.”
JT shoved his fingers through his hair, pulling it out of the low ponytail he’d slicked it into. I tried not to notice how incredibly hot he looked with his hair loose. That was the last thing I needed to be noticing.
“I really didn’t enjoy it. It was ... awkward. But I’m beginning to see you aren’t going to believe that.”
“If you managed to finish the job, which you clearly did, then you couldn’t have found it too terribly ‘awkward, ’ could you?” I waved him away. “Not that it matters, anyway. Not that any of this matters. After all, we’re coworkers. We aren’t lovers. We’ll never be lovers. And I don’t give a damn about harmonious energies or soul mates. That’s all a bunch of bullshit.” When JT didn’t say anything else, I asked, “So, are you done explaining?”
“I guess so.” He stepped back from the car.
I roared away, leaving him eating my dust.
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
16
I was not in the mood to deal with my parents, but I knew I needed to get over there. Hoping Mom might be preoccupied with a movie or something, I roared over to their place, parked the car, and dragged myself inside.
Sergio met me at the door with a sparkly-toothed grin. I grunted a greeting at him and shuffled past him.
“Your parents are out on the patio,” he informed me.
“Thanks.” I headed out to join them.
When I got outside, my father was staring at the huge outdoor television, while my mother was floating around in the pool.
“Sloan, why don’t you come for a swim before you eat,” Mom said, waving me toward the water.
“No thanks. I can’t stay long. I’m on my lunch break. I need to get back to work.”
She pouted, then went back to fluttering around. I took a seat by my father.
Sergio came out, bearing a plate and a glass of something. “Your lunch.”
Salad.
Water.
I grimaced. “I thought Mom said she’d had him make my favorite.”
My dad shrugged. “Lately she says a lot of things. Most of them make no sense whatsoever.”
“Have you talked to her doctor?”
“I have. We have an appointment next week. I couldn’t get anything sooner, since she’s not a threat to herself or anyone else. What did you want to speak with me about?”
“I need some help identifying our unsub. We’re pretty sure it’s vampiric.”
“Okay.” His gaze didn’t move from the screen, much like Mom’s when she was watching that stupid movie yesterday.
“We believe it shape-shifts to some kind of flying creature, at least at night. And we believe it feeds through some sort of long proboscis.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So what do you think?”
“About what?” he asked.
“The unsub.”
“I think you’re on the right track.”
Gah!
“I was hoping you’d be able to identify its species.”
“Sloan, that research is decades old. I haven’t looked at it in a long time. Can you tell me you remember everything you read twenty years ago?”
I started to answer, but he interrupted me.
“Of course, you do. You’re brilliant. I’m just your run-of-the-mill elf. A lot of muscle. Not a lot of brains.”
“Bullshit. If you had no brains, you wouldn’t be the head of the queen’s army. And you wouldn’t have a Ph.D. So what’s the deal? Don’t you want to help me?”
“The deal is ...” He sighed. “I don’t remember. I was sick a while back—right before I came home. I had a pretty bad case of meningitis. It seems to have affected my memory. I don’t remember a lot about that time of my life. It’s all a little hazy.”
He looked genuinely sorry, and a little concerned and frustrated too. “I’d love to help you, but I can’t.”
“Well, damn. I thought you came home to protect us.”
“I have. That’s why I’m marrying your mother again. And why I’d like for you to move in here with us until ...”
“Until what? I’m married?” I asked.
He nodded.
“That could be years.”
He didn’t respond.
“Is that why Elmer started coming around recently? The timing is a little suspicious.”
“The timing is convenient. Sloan, when I told you there was a danger—”
“Back to the case,” I said, turning the conversation to a topic I preferred, “I need to find out what this creature is. There are children missing.”
“Children?”
“Every victim has been pregnant. And the infants are missing.”
My father squinted his eyes and stared down at the floor. “Infants ... ?”
I waited, breathless, hopeful. When he didn’t supply the answer I was so desperate to hear, I said, “Anything?”
“You have my files still, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Take a look at Malaysian folklore. I remember a creature ... don’t recall what it was called, though. I’m sorry, Sloan.”
“Don’t apologize. That’s more than I had before. Thank you.” I checked my phone. “I’d better get back to work. Thanks again.” To Mom, who was reclining on a floating chaise in the middle of the pool, I said, “See you later, Mom.”
“Six o’clock? Right?” she asked.
“For what?”
“We’re going dress shopping tonight. You and me. Don’t you remember?”
Of course, I didn’t. “Oh. Okay. I guess. Unless something comes up at work.”
“I’ll see you at six.” Mom gave me a cheery wave.
The minute I got back to the office, I made a beeline for my cubicle. I saw no sign of JT. That was a good thing. Gabe had reclaimed his laptop while I’d been out, but a loaner sat on my desk. I powered it up and Googled Malaysian vampire folklore. There were 1,360,000 results. I clicked on the Wikipedia article first and skimmed it.
I hit pay dirt. It would seem many of the Malaysian legends involved some form of a vampiric being that preyed upon pregnant women. The trick would be in determining which creature we were dealing with, and then finding out how to stop it.
I printed out the article for reference and checked in with the chief. Her door was shut. I knocked. Then, at her response, I stepped inside.
Sitting at her desk, she waved me inside. “Skye. Thomas and Wagner are on their way down to Jacksonville to check out another case. It’s just you and me.”
“That’s okay. I think I’m onto something. But I need to go home and dig into some of my father’s research before I can say for sure.”
The chief raised her brows. “What can you tell me?”
“I’m looking at Asian vampire mythology, specifically Malaysian legends. There are several creatures that prey upon pregnant women in Malaysian myths, several that fly and feed through a proboscis, like our unsub.”
“Interesting.”
“But so far, I haven’t found the exact creature we might be dealing with. The myths vary. I’m finding conflicting information. Which is why I’d like to check my father’s research.”
“By all means. Any mention of the unborn children in the articles you’ve read?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I’m not finding any good news there.”
“Damn. I was afraid of that.” She stood and circled the desk until she was standing directly in front of me. “We need to stop this beast. Yesterday.”
“I agree.”
“What do you think about going undercover again?”
“Posing as a pregnant woman?” I asked.
The chief nodded. “We still don’t know how the creature is finding his or her prey.”
“Her,” I said. “I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with a female.”
“Very well. What about it?”
“I guess we could give it a shot. I’m not sure if I can fool whatever it is we’re dealing with.”
“At this point, I’m willing to take that chance. I’ll make the arrangements. Of course,” the chief said, leveling a look at me, “you’ll have to have an agent with you at all times. Especially at night.”
Let me guess....
“You don’t have any objections to JT being that agent, do you?” she asked.
I forced a smile. “No, of course not.”
“Good. I’ll have everything ready for you by tomorrow. Let me know if you find anything in your father’s research.”
“Will do. Thanks, Chief.”
“No, Sloan, thank
you.
You’ve done a remarkable job for this unit. I hope you’ll consider becoming a permanent member of the team once you’ve graduated.”
“I’m flattered, Chief. I’ll definitely think about it.”
Several hours later, after I had dug through half of my father’s research and had failed to find anything on Asian vampire legends at all, I met Mom at the dress shop.
To say it wasn’t going well was an understatement. But at least she hadn’t swelled up like a life-sized blow-up doll.
“This dress makes me look fat,” she said for the eighty-ninth time.
“Mom, you don’t look fat.” I held up the last dress she’d tried on. “What about this one?”
“That was even worse.” Mom sighed. Her shoulders slumped. “I’ve tried on close to a hundred dresses, Sloan. They all look horrible.”
“They don’t look horrible. Honest.”
Mom headed back toward the changing room. Over her shoulder, she said, “Maybe I should give up and just go to the Salvation Army, buy some piece of polyester faux silk and then throw it away when it’s over.”
“Mom, really, you’re being hormonal,” I said, following her.
Through the door, Mom said, “I know. I can see myself acting like a whiny baby, but I can’t stop. I’m just so tired.”
“You need to sleep more.”
“I’m trying. But I keep waking up in the middle of the night, and I can’t get back to sleep once I’m awake.”
“Maybe you should try drinking some warm milk.”
“What I’d like to try is drinking some wine.” Mom exited the room bedecked in yet another stunning silk gown. This one, I had to admit, was my favorite so far. It was simple but elegant, with a bodice that was draped in such a way to emphasize my mother’s still-tiny waistline and an A-line skirt with a short train. She stepped up on the podium in the main viewing area and studied her reflection. “Hmm.”
“It’s perfect,” I said.
Mom scrunched up her face. “I don’t know.” She ran her hand down the front of the bodice. “My stomach is protruding.”
“Mom, since you stopped taking your medication, you’ve lost weight. There’s nothing protruding. I swear to you.”
“You just want me to pick one and be done.”
The saleswoman brought a small, simple tiara with a veil attached and set them on my mother’s head. “There you go, dear. You’re a picture.”
Mom stared at her reflection some more. “It isn’t too over-the-top gaudy.”
“Not at all, Mom. It’s elegant and simple, yet very pretty. Just right for the venue.”
With the pushed-up date, we’d had to change the setting, opting for an outside garden wedding at a local historical landmark, instead of the formal event she’d originally planned. Of course, that meant the weather would be a huge factor. In Maryland, July wasn’t the rainiest month of the year, but we had our share of summer thunderstorms.
Mom sighed. “Okay. This is it.”
I bit back a “wahooo” and prepared myself for what would come next.
It was my turn.
In view of the changes, Mom had altered her color palette. Instead of the dark colors she’d originally selected, she was now going with white, black, and daisy yellow. I was a little scared what that meant for my dress. I wasn’t overly thrilled about walking down the aisle looking like a giant bumblebee. But it beat looking like a jack-o-lantern.
While Mom changed back into her street clothes, the salesclerk went in back to pull some dresses for me. She returned a few minutes later with several gowns in tow. She stuffed them into my arms and shooed me into a fitting room.
Option one was absolutely hideous. Okay, maybe I’m being a little harsh, and perhaps the clingy, uber-tight scrap of yellow would look nice on someone—if that someone had absolutely no hips, no boobs, and no curves whatsoever. But that someone wasn’t me.
Next!
“Sloan, aren’t you coming out?” my mother shouted through the door.
“No. This one’s not worth a second look.”
“But I let you see every dress I tried on.”
I heaved a sigh so big, I almost split the seam on the stupid dress. “Fine.” I tromped out to the podium while yanking the back of the dress down so my ass didn’t hang out, did a three-sixty, said, “I won’t wear this in public. End of story.” Back in the changing room, I went.
The saleslady helped me into something a little more appropriate for round two. This one was full-length and it didn’t look like a hooker dress. Two things going for it. But the one-shouldered gown had this ugly bow on that one shoulder, and it kept smacking me in the face. If I had to wear it for more than ten minutes, I’d be tempted to rip off the dumb bow.
For the sake of keeping the peace, I let my mother get a look at it. She grinned.
“Mom, I can’t handle this.” I grabbed the huge bow and shook it.