Forged in Flame (26 page)

“It’s against the edicts! Maybe you’re suicidal after four hundred years, but I haven’t had that long and would like to continue breathing awhile longer.”
 

“Come on. You know she won’t blab. Get her another drink and once she snaps out of it, explain everything.”

“Do you have any other brilliant suggestions?”

“A hot bath.” The other vampire replied with a wink before he turned and strolled out of the room.
 

“What did he mean, you’re a vampire?” Grace’s voice trembled, and she pulled her knees tight against her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

Eric walked over to the coffee table and sat on it a few feet in front of her. He poured another glass of the golden whiskey and offered it to her. When she drank some of it, he set the bottle on the table beside him. “The other night, on the roof, you asked about what happened to me back home. The short version is that I died. A vampire attacked and drained me, leaving me at the brink of death. Another vampire found me and gave me his blood. I technically died, and three days later I woke in a coffin as a full-blooded vampire,” Eric explained, simplifying the entire process because he wasn’t ready to share all of the gory details.

With a look of complete defiance, Grace stared him straight in the eye, lifted the glass to her lips and finished the drink in one long pull. “Show me.” She whispered, but left him no way to ignore it. He knew she needed to see proof for herself.
 

“You mean the hardware?” he asked, flashing her the full length of his fangs.
 

Grace’s eyes narrowed, her brow knit together. She tilted her head to the right. “Are they sharp?” She reached out with her fingers.

Eric snapped his head back before she could touch them. “They’re very sharp.”

“What happens if I touch them?” Her eyes were focused on the sharp tips of his fangs, lips parted in fascination.

Eric closed his eyes and swallowed hard, feeling his control begin to slip, the blood lust beginning to rise as he breathed in her scent. “I’m not sure I trust my control.”

“Why not?”

“I think you know, Gracie,” Eric whispered, leaning in close.

“Say it.” Her pupils dilated, pulse sped and the words came out on a breath.
 

Eric chuckled, low in his throat. “Demanding, aren’t you?”

“I think we’ve danced around this long enough, Eric.”

“Fine.” He leaned in so close that he could feel the heat of her body. “We have trouble controlling our baser instincts, to feed and to kill, when we’re around humans we care about.” His voice drifted to a low husky register. “It’s why I cut myself off from family and friends. I didn’t want the responsibility or temptation to kill them. That applies to you too, Grace, I don’t want to kill you.” He closed the small distance separating them and brushed his lips over hers in a chaste kiss. “Though I do wonder what your blood would taste like slipping down the back of my throat as your vein pumped it into my waiting mouth.” He smiled when he felt the shiver run through her body and saw how dilated her pupils had become in spite of the ample lighting in the room. Satisfied, he sat back and cleared his throat before taking another sip of his drink.

“I didn’t think vampires could drink anything other than blood.” Grace shook herself, gathering the bits and pieces of the world she’d known and holding them close.
 

“We can. Eating is another animal altogether.”

“Was that a vampire I saw tonight?”

“The victim you found? Had she been bitten?”

“One side of her throat had been torn out. I don’t know.” Grace shook her head. “She might have had a bite on the undamaged side of her neck.”
 

“Did you call the authorities?” A woman’s voice asked from the open study door.

Eric shook his head and smiled as he turned to look at her. “Done so soon?”

The woman’s brow furrowed for a second before she shook herself and shrugged. “Apparently, I’ve confounded Richard once more. He needs time to figure out how to teach me.” She cocked her head to the left and frowned, continuing, “Since his usual methods are, in his words, about as useful as an umbrella made of toilet paper in a downpour.” The woman finished and strolled into the room, her gaze focusing on the newcomer to their little circle.
 

“Morgan, this is Inspector Grace Callahan. Grace, this is Morgan Blackstone, my employer.” Eric made the formal introduction while concentrating on his mentor more than his former partner.
 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Morgan offered a slight nod and sighed. “Now, I know this is incredibly crass of me.” She flashed Grace a brilliant smile, complete with fangs very much like Eric’s. “But you mentioned something about a woman with her throat ripped out?”

“Yes.”

Morgan turned her attention to Eric. “Have you informed Nicholas?”

“No.”

“Do so. I will keep your guest company. If I don’t miss my guess, he will want a word or two with her, as well.”

“Love, we don’t want to scare the girl.” The man with the sandy hair said from behind Morgan. The other woman turned and smiled at him. “What is it you think I should know about?”
 

“According to Grace, there’s another victim. This one had her throat ripped out on one side. The other had fang marks clearly visible.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” Nicholas stepped into the room and walked over to one of the chairs beside the coffee table. “Can you tell me everything you saw?”

“I saw a man attacking a woman. When I scared him, he jumped from a seven-story building. I ran over, on instinct, expecting him to be dead on the street below. He landed, stayed down for maybe three seconds tops, then got up, dusted himself off, flipped me the bird and strolled away, whistling.” Grace looked at her empty glass and shook her head with a disbelieving laugh. “That fucking bastard was whistling.”

“Do you know what tune?” Nicholas asked.
 

Grace stared at him for a moment, searching for a hint of mockery, but finding none. Shaking her head in denial about the entire situation, she mouthed
no
.

“After the perp got up and walked away, what did you do?” Eric asked, keeping his tone light and encouraging.

“I checked on the girl and used the elevator’s emergency handset to call for help. My stupid phone battery had crapped out on me. It was my only option that didn’t require leaving the crime scene.”

“So, the police department came and took care of her?”

“Yes, of course.”

Nicholas stepped closer into the room, rubbing his temples with the tips of his fingers. “That would mean the body is with the coroner’s office?”

“Yeah.”

“How soon until an examination is completed?”

Grace frowned.
Why am I being questioned,
she wondered. “It depends on how busy things are, though generally they try to get them done as soon as possible.”

“Damn.”
 

“I’m missing something here. What is it?” she asked, not liking being kept in the dark.

“We hide what we are, or try to,” Eric said.
 

“I never would have guessed.” Grace rolled her eyes as the world began to right itself.
 

“And, as such,” Nicholas continued, choosing to ignore the verbal taunt, “we must be careful about what the human authorities learn.”

Grace shook her head. “They’ll chalk it up to the vampire killer. A few of the bodies have been found with similar bite marks.” She made a sweeping gesture with one hand. “The authorities think it’s a spree or budding serial killer trying to find his signature.”

“In a way, he is,” Nicholas answered, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s a case of a young vampire trying to figure out how and when he needs to feed.”

“You’re saying he’s not going to stop?” she asked as her stomach twisted with dread.

“Unless we can track and take care of him ourselves, yes.” Nicholas paused, trying to decide how much more he could reveal to the young inspector. After a moment, he continued, “He will continue to kill, and if I do not miss my guess, he will become more reckless.”

“Killing more people?” She shook her head. “No, that’s not right. Do you mean he’s going to kill more people than he needs?”

“I mean he’s going to become more creative with each kill. Perhaps even leaving the bodies out where they can be found.” Nicholas sighed. “He was already highly creative and cruel with Emily Stanton.”

“She was one of his?” Grace asked. “The department didn’t have her death on the Vampire Killer’s tally.”
 

“Yes.”

“But she didn’t have any bite marks.”

“She had bites,” Nicholas answered. When he answered her unvoiced question, he finished, “My Enforcer, Daniel, got there before the police and hid the bite marks.”

“Your who did what?”

“It is what we do,” Nicholas said without apology. “You have your duty. We have ours, Inspector. At this point, while we may not agree on the methods, we are on the same side and have the same goals.”

“And what goal is that?”

“To stop him from killing.”

“And how will you go about doing that?”

“My people and I will hunt and kill him.”

“Your people?”

“Yes. I have different resources than your department, my dear.”

“Can’t you bring him in? Do something other than kill? Why does there have to be more bloodshed?”

“Do you really want a vampire that’s stronger, faster and more brutal than any human in your department locked away in your cells?”

“You wouldn’t help? Will he have a fair trial?”

“He gets no trial. I am judge, jury, and executioner. There’s a reason they all call me the Assassin behind my back.”

“That’s barbaric.” Grace shook her head and frowned at the empty glass.

“It is how we maintain the balance between the mortal world and our own.”

Grace stood, held up her hands and began shaking her head. “I can’t. I can’t. I’ve got to get out of here.” She had repeated it several more times under her breath before she bolted, racing past the two men as fast as her legs would carry her.

Acting on instinct, Eric reached out, ready to catch her arm, to stop and explain, but something stopped him. He turned to his left and saw Nicholas watching her go. The Lead Enforcer spared the young vampire a quick glance and shook his head. The door had slammed before Nicholas moved, releasing Eric’s hand. He reached into his inner jacket pocket.
 

“Why did you let her go?”

“Because she needs time. Time to process what she learned. This was not the ideal way for someone to learn about our kind.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m calling a mutual friend who can help her begin to cope with what she now knows,” Nicholas said as he searched through his contact list for the right name.
 

“A mutual friend?”

“Yes,” Nicholas said as he turned his back on the young vampire and held his hand up for silence. A moment later he said a few quick words to someone on the other end as he strolled out of the room.
 

Grace ran, as though sheer force of will and speed could change what she’d seen and heard. Every step jarred through her body and helped keep her grounded. She knew if her body experienced pain, she wasn’t dreaming. She ran past her parked car, needing to feel the burn in her legs and lungs. Voices chased one another around in her head until they became nothing more than white noise, but every now and again one word pushed its way to the surface, to bounce around her skull, echoing…
vampire
.
 

Her muscles quivering with exhaustion, her joints aching, lungs and throat burning, Grace stopped and doubled over, gasping in long gulps of cool night air.
 

A few minutes later, she pushed off her thighs and started walking, knowing she had to keep moving so her muscles didn’t seize up. She walked through the streets, not certain where she headed, knowing only that she should go get her car but not wanting to go near that house again.