Soul Sucker (11 page)

“I’ll get him for you, Laney. I’ll get the bastard if it’s the last sane thing I ever do.”

Vadim returned accompanied by two police officers and a couple of medics. He came over, then helped her stand up.

“Is there anything else you need to do here, Ms. Walsh?”

She glared at him. “I’m not leaving, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yes, you are.” He lowered his voice until only she could hear him. “You are in shock, and far too personally involved in this to help anyone.”

“I am perfectly in control of myself. I won’t leave unless you knock me out and carry me.”

His gaze narrowed. “That could be arranged. If there is nothing else you can add professionally, will you at least wait on the sidelines until Feehan gets here?”

“So he can kick me out?”

“He’s the boss. He can do whatever he likes.”

“Not if I don’t work for the SBLE anymore.”

He went still. “You’re quitting?”

“I want to catch this sick bastard and when I do catch him, I want to kill him slowly and painfully. The SBLE won’t let me.”

“So you’ll quit on Laney?”

“Of course not. Didn’t you hear what I said?”

He gripped her shoulder. “Ella, the best way to get this man is to work within the SBLE.”

“You’re just saying that because you need to solve this case.”

He scowled. “That’s not the only reason. What if I promised you that if we catch this guy I’ll make sure his punishment is as slow and painful as you could want?”

“How could you do that?”

“I have...contacts in Otherworld who could make it happen.”

She stared into his eyes and for a second he allowed her to feel the complex power he hid so well behind his shields.

“I swear on my mother’s grave, Ella. You will get your vengeance.”

She sank down onto a chair by the wall. “Okay. But don’t fuck this up.”

Chapter Nine

Ella pushed her hair away from her face and studied the worn surface of the table at Laney’s apartment. They’d found the pine table at a garage sale. It had taken months to remove the old paint and wax the pine, but it had been worth it.

“Here.” Vadim sat down beside her and handed her a can of soda. “It’s the full sugar version.”

She couldn’t quite believe how efficient he was being, deflecting questions from the police and medics, liaising with Feehan and the rest of the SBLE team and somehow protecting her at the same time. Laney’s body had been taken away and the apartment was silent. She’d also been aware of Alexei and Liz gathering evidence in their own particular way, but even they were no longer around.

“Do you feel up to driving back to the city?” He took a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

“You said Feehan was coming here.”

“I lied.”

She couldn’t even raise the energy to glare at him. “Do we have to go into work?”

“Briefly, so that we can bring Feehan up to date.” Vadim sipped his water. Despite the air conditioning running full blast, it was still warm inside the apartment. “I wanted to make sure there was nothing else you needed to do here.”

She looked around the neat kitchen. “I don’t think there’s anything left to do. Laney’s gone. It’s as if she never existed.”

Vadim briefly touched her hand. “She’ll come back to you. You’re in shock.”

Ella stood up and carefully pushed in her chair. “Really? I had no idea.”

Vadim didn’t react to her sarcasm, which meant he must have been feeling very sorry for her indeed. Instead, he found her purse and car keys and handed them to her.

“Don’t worry about locking this place up. The police and the SBLE will want to come back in to search for more evidence.”

“I’m sure they will.”

Ella shut the door and went down the hallway, her footsteps muted by the soft beige carpet.

“Can I ask you one thing before we leave?”

She turned to look at Vadim, who had paused by the closed door.

“Sure.”

He caught up with her. “Did you get a sense that the killer was actually in the apartment with Laney, or did he just call her?”

“He was there.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, there’s something visceral about his power. It kind of infuses the air with his particular blend of magic. Like a signature aftershave or something.”

“So you can smell him?”

“It’s not really a scent in the human way, more of a psychic feeling.” Ella stopped at the stairs. “It’s hard to explain.”

“And you wouldn’t get that through a phone or internet connection?”

“No, definitely not.” She glanced up at him. “Why, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering if the OCOS male she was speaking to earlier was able to get at her through the phone.”

“Peter?”

“That’s right.” Vadim held the door open for her and studied her carefully. “Do you want to go back to your parents’ first? If you’re feeling too overwhelmed by all this, I could ask Feehan to hold the meeting tomorrow instead.”

She shuddered. “My parents wouldn’t be any help. I’d rather go back to work.”

He surveyed the parking lot. “I guess Alexei and Liz didn’t wait for me. Are you okay if I come with you?”

“I should make you take BART.” She went toward her car. “Did Feehan ask you to babysit me or something?”

“No, I decided to do that all by myself.” He held up his hand. “And I’m not babysitting you. I just know how it feels to see someone you love murdered.”

“Who?”

His mouth twisted. “My brother.”

He yanked open the door and disappeared inside the car. Ella followed him in, yelping as the volcanic heat stored in the seats and the steering wheel burned her hands and the back of her knees. She fitted the key into the ignition. The pathetic air conditioning came on and promptly died.
Shit
. With another curse she wound down the window and Vadim did the same.

“I don’t suppose you can fix air conditioning?” Ella asked as she released the handbrake, and guided the car out onto the street.

“I wish I could.” Vadim wiped his face with a folded handkerchief. “It certainly gets hot out here.”

“It’ll get better when we cross over the bridge. It’s always cooler on the other side.”

Part of her couldn’t believe she was having a conversation about the weather when all she wanted was to tear her hair out, beat at her breast and scream for Laney. But Vadim was right. It was such a cliché, but Laney was gone, and the best thing Ella could do for her now was find her killer. When she’d done that, maybe she’d have time to grieve. She’d learned quite young that sometimes in order to survive, you just had to make the best of a bad situation. Her mother said she was cold and unfeeling but how else was she supposed to be? She had to compartmentalize to survive.

As it was the weekend, the journey back into San Francisco wasn’t too bad and apart from the usual bands of roving tourists the city center was almost deserted. Feehan’s car was in the parking garage and she chose a spot well clear of him. Peach wasn’t at her station at the reception desk either, but there were always a couple of guys hanging out at the office just in case anything bad happened. With Otherworld there was always something that needed taking care of.

Vadim walked beside her, wrapped in his own thoughts. He’d been pretty quiet on the journey back, only rousing himself to ask the odd question about a landmark or the name of a place they were passing through.

The lights were on in the big conference room so she headed there, her steps slowing as she neared the door. Rich and Andrew were talking quietly to Liz. Only Vadim’s hand at the small of her back propelled her forward.

Feehan came toward her. “Ella, I’m so sorry.”

She nodded, then avoided him by slipping into the nearest chair. Vadim shook Feehan’s hand and then sat beside her. Ella raised her gaze to the whiteboard and immediately saw a picture of Laney. She looked away, but not before she remembered when the picture had been taken. Laney had insisted on having a new picture for her driver’s license renewal and had spent the whole day making herself look beautiful for it.

What a fucking waste.

Feehan resumed his seat at the head of the table.

“I’m sorry to drag you all in this weekend, but, as I think you all know, we’ve had another empath murder.”

“From our initial observations, and the fast response of Ella and Vadim to the scene, we can almost certainly say that we are dealing with the same killer who murdered Christa Morehouse and the Russian victims.” Feehan paused to look around the table. “Obviously we’ll wait to have the findings confirmed by the police department and our lab, but we’ll move forward with the assumption that we are dealing with the same man.”

“He’s even given us his name,” Vadim said. “He sent a text message from Laney’s phone to Ella calling himself ‘The Siren’. The caps are his.”

“The Siren?” Feehan looked at Liz and Alexei. “Do either of you have any prior knowledge of this individual?”

“Only of the original Greek variety,” Alexei said. “The Sirens were dangerous creatures portrayed as femme fatales who lured sailors with their enchanting voices and music to shipwreck their vessels on the rocky coast of their island.”

“So what does that have to do with our current-day killer?”

“Well, he lures empaths into letting him into their apartments, and they don’t seem to struggle, do they?”

“That’s true,” Feehan said.

“It might also explain the feeling of relief both Natasha and Ella said they noticed in the empaths’ final thoughts.”

“Interesting.” Feehan wrote something on his notepad. “Good input, Alexei, thank you. Anyone else?”

Ella looked up. “Only that we have to catch this sick bastard and string him up by the balls.”

Feehan and Alexei winced.

“We’ll certainly do our best, Ella.” Feehan smiled encouragingly at her. “Do you have anything more constructive you’d like to add?”

“That’s not constructive?” Ella said. “If we’ve established we have some kind of serial killer, how is he picking his victims? Where is he getting his information from?”

“All good questions and ones we should discuss at length tomorrow when the preliminary reports come in. Do you intend to speak to Laney’s parents when they arrive, or do you want the department to handle it?”

“They won’t come,” Ella said. “They haven’t visited her since she left college.”

“But—”

She stood up. “They won’t come. They’ll probably be glad she’s dead and that they don’t have to deal with her anymore,
okay
?”

Vadim touched her shoulder. “I think Ms. Walsh has had enough. Perhaps we should reconvene tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Feehan went out and straight into his office, closing the door behind him. Alexei moved across to talk to Vadim and Liz drew Ella into a hug.

“I’m so sorry, honey. Every way you look at this, it sucks.”

“I know.”

Liz searched her face. “You’re holding up real good. Laney would be proud of you.”

“Laney would...” She couldn’t even finish that sentence without starting to cry and she would be damned if she’d ever cry on government property again. “Do you want to come and have a drink?”

Liz’s face fell. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have to go with Doug to this local pack thing tonight. He’s waiting downstairs for me. Will you be okay?” She hesitated. “I can call him and skip it. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Ella stepped back from Liz’s obvious concern. “I’m a big girl.”

She waited until Liz said goodbye to Alexei and Vadim and then picked up her purse and keys.

“I’m going home now, guys. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

Alexei looked up as she passed, then enfolded her in a brief hug. “I’m sorry for your loss. Laney was an exceptionally nice human being.”

“She was.”

The tears she’d been holding back threatened to crawl up her throat. Her smile was already tight with them. She ducked her head and kept going, ignoring Vadim’s soft question and heading determinedly to the stairs.

The dimly lit parking lot was almost deserted. She stood there for a moment, savoring the sour smell of old oil and burned rubber. What if the killer was watching her now? Would she be lured into his web just as Laney and Christa had been, or was she stronger? What did the Siren offer that made trained empaths let down their guards so easily?

She found her keys and opened her car door, sinking down onto the worn leather seat with a sense of relief. For a moment, she rested her forehead against the steering wheel and then turned the key. Nothing happened and she tried again. The engine coughed to life, rolled over and died again. She glared at the hood.

“Not now, you fucker. Can’t you see I’m having a bad day?”

An episode of an ancient British comedy show her dad loved flashed into her mind, featuring an irate car owner giving his broken-down car a good thrashing. She was
so
tempted to imitate him. A shadow moved beside the car. She immediately dug in her open purse for her gun, cursing her lack of attention.

“Do you need a hand?”

Vadim bent down to the open window and hardly blinked as she shoved a gun in his face. She wondered if he’d had anything to do with her car not starting, but he’d claimed not to have the power to interfere with engines. But who was she kidding? She had no idea what he was capable of. Ignoring him, she turned the key again and the engine stuttered and died.

He walked around the car and got in beside her. “We can do this one of two ways. You can sit here and call for a mechanic and hope he’ll be able to get this rust bucket on the road for you.”

“Or?”

“I can fix this little problem for you.”

“And why would you do that?”

“To gain the opportunity to see you safely home.”

“Why?”

He met her gaze. “Because I am concerned about your welfare.”

“And you need me in one piece to help solve this situation.”

“Exactly. If my boss hears that another empath has withdrawn from a case I’m working on, she’s going to get all the wrong ideas.”

“So you’re not being noble, you’re just being selfish?”

“That’s correct.”

She searched his shields but could sense nothing of his true intent or his feelings. “Okay. At least you’re being straight with me. So how are you going to fix this? Are you going to wave your magic wand?”

“I don’t have one.” He smiled. “I don’t need one. Try the key again.”

She did and the engine roared into life. She threw him a sideways glance. “What exactly are you, again?”

He pointed at the exit. “I’d keep the engine running and just head out.”

* * *

As they crawled across the Golden Gate Bridge, Vadim sat back and let the breeze blow through the open window. It was a curious smell, a mixture of the open sea and the briny waters of the bay, and gave off a metallic odor that reminded him of the taste of blood. Unconsciously, Vadim licked his lips and tasted salt and the faintest hint of the candy-flavored lip-gloss Ella wore. Her ability to separate her emotions from her job impressed him. Like him, she’d learned at a young age to conceal her feelings and focus on surviving. Okay, so she might not have faced death on a daily basis as he had, but as a young female torn away from her family and forced to claim a gift she must have hated, she definitely knew how to detach herself.

He’d heard her trying to persuade Liz to go out with her for a drink and had found himself worrying about her being out and alone while a serial killer targeting female empaths was on the loose. She wasn’t stupid, but he knew from experience that alcohol had a way of dulling even the most exceptional psychic powers. When Feehan had called him back and asked if he might consider keeping an eye on Ella overnight, he had been more than willing to oblige. After what he’d seen in the Fae-Web, he knew his and Ella’s fates were somehow intertwined, and he’d become an expert at self-preservation. Even if it meant consorting with an empath, he’d do whatever it took to stay alive. He was also more than willing to get drunk with her if that’s what she needed. He always wished there had been someone with him when his brother had died...