Soul Sucker (18 page)

“You’ve already mated? That’s awesome!”

“Are you sure about that? It seems a bit weird.”

“In what way?”

Ella lowered her voice. “The sex.”

“You mean the fact that you can’t keep your hands off each other?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, that’s quite normal.”

“Are you sure?”

“Didn’t you get the information pack from OCOS?”

“As I said, we didn’t actually
mean
to hook up yet. Technically, I haven’t even agreed to meet him.”

“That’s kind of funny.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh, hon, it is. If it’s too much sex for you, it’s definitely funny.”

“I didn’t say it was too much. I just said it was surprising, seeing as we hadn’t exactly hit it off before.”

Mari managed to stop laughing. “Listen, it’s a gift. Take it and run with it. Sharing your mind with another person can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but there are compensations.”

“Like great sex.”

“Exactly, and not going mad. That’s another good thing. Basically, the sexual act helps you learn to trust your mate and open your mind to him. As you share your thoughts and feelings you gain power and stability from each other.”

“I suppose so.” Ella sighed. “I still don’t understand why anyone would agree to mate an empath.”

“Don’t be dumb, Ella. Stupendous sex, increased magical powers and the opportunity to legally reside in two different worlds? Most men would jump at the chance.”

Not
Morosov
. He seemed as shaken by the consequences of their actions as she was, and from what she could tell, he already had all the advantages Mari had just listed.

“What happens if we just want to keep it casual?” Ella asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, just about the stupendous sex.”

“You could try, I suppose, but don’t you want someone to share your life with?” Mari’s voice gentled. “It really does make a huge difference to everything.”

“But what if we don’t even want to live in the same place?”

“I think you’d find that very difficult. Mated couples are supposed to be together.”

“So I could go mad anyway if he leaves?”

“I don’t know, Ella. Why would he want to leave? If he volunteered for the FAM program, he must’ve known what he was getting into.”

“I guess,” Ella said.

“I know this has all been something of a shock to you, but it really is a good thing. Your male will be able to help you with the psychic overload from your work
and
provide you with a safe and secure life. I don’t know how I managed without Cameron. He’s literally been a lifesaver.”

There was no doubting Mari’s sincerity. Ella smiled. “Thanks. I feel a bit better now.”

“Good.” Her tone turned businesslike. “Now, you should go ahead and register your consent with OCOS anyway. They can proceed in their own indomitable fashion and send you all the information you’ll need about the mating process.”

“Even though I’ve already done it.”

“It’s not quite as simple as that, Ella. It’s a lifelong commitment.”

“Oh God, don’t say that,” Ella groaned. “I was just starting to think about allowing myself to enjoy the sex.”

Mari started laughing again. “Start with that, definitely, and call me if you have any more questions. I’m dying to hear how it goes.”

“Will do. And Mari? Don’t tell anyone, will you?”

“Only Cam, and I swear he’ll keep it to himself.” The yelling started up again and Mari groaned. “I’d better go and see what’s up with the boys. Take care, Ella, and keep in touch.”

Ella put the phone down and stared out the window.

So it was okay.

Having stupendous sex was quite normal for mated couples.

And she was quite determined not to see Vadim Morosov until Monday morning at the office.

With the rest of the team.

Fully clothed.

She buried her face in the sofa cushion and howled.

Chapter Fourteen

Vadim looked up as Alexei joined him in the larger of the conference rooms. The Fae wore an immaculate charcoal gray suit with a silver tie and white shirt. His long hair was tied back at the nape of his neck and his expression reminded Vadim of a purring cat.

“Where were you all weekend?”

Alexei fluttered his eyelashes. “Having fun. Why?”

“No particular reason.” Vadim sat back in his chair and studied his partner. “It would be nice if you’d let me know your plans in future.”

“You’re not my mother.” Alexei took a seat at the table.

“No, but I am your superior on this assignment and I need to be able to get in touch with you.”

“If you’d really needed me, I would’ve heard you.”

Vadim thought back to those frantic moments in the elevator. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“What’s up?” Alexei asked.

“Don’t you start saying that,” Vadim groaned. “I hate it.”

“Okay, let me try again. Why are you in such a bad mood?”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Alexei stared hard at him. “You need to get laid.”

Vadim smiled.

“No, seriously, Vadim, you’ve enough Fae blood in you to make it a necessity.”

“I’ve never liked that Fae excuse for debauchery and I don’t intend to use it.” Vadim looked up at the door. “Feehan’s here and I see Liz and Ms. Walsh just behind her.”

What the hell was Ella wearing today? She had a tie-dye shirt on and a pair of baggy denim overalls that were ripped at the knee. Her hair was in two braids on either side of her face. She looked like she’d just come in from raking the hay or something. Despite that, he found himself sitting up and sniffing the air like a bloodhound. She looked in his and Alexei’s general direction and muttered something vague but didn’t make eye contact. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t fool him any longer.

After she’d left him to go on the ferry, he’d struggled to know what to do with himself. Feeling conflicted wasn’t a new sensation but he still didn’t like it. Despite his resolve to protect Ella and see the case through, he disliked not knowing how she felt about him and what conclusions she would draw about their relationship when he wasn’t there to interact with her. He’d spent the remainder of the weekend doing tourist stuff, research on empaths from all over the world and taking cold showers. If she smiled at him, he might leap over the table and take her to the floor and...

“Everyone here?” Feehan asked.

Sam burst through the door wearing a pair of dark shades. “Sorry, guys.”

“Take a seat.”

Everyone waited as Sam settled himself down and took out a tatty folder with a picture of a skateboarder on it.

“Who wants to start?”

Vadim raised his hand. “I checked out the remaining empaths from outside the U.S. in Ms. Walsh’s graduating year. All the Russians are dead, as are the Norwegians, Swedes and Danes.” He consulted his notes. “A total of nine in all.”

Feehan wrote the details on the board.

Alexei glanced at Liz. “Would the rest of you agree that our killer seems to follow a pattern here? He likes to finish a job. From the dates Vadim gave us, the Siren has gone from country to country systematically murdering empaths.”

“Why hasn’t anyone noticed before?” Feehan stopped writing and turned around.

“Probably because the numbers in each country were relatively small until he reached Russia.”

“I have another suggestion.” Sam waved his hand in the air like a school kid. “From what I’ve seen so far, does he also kill them in alphabetical order?”

“What?” Feehan stared at Sam who opened his folder.

“Well, I spent a bit of time last night looking at all the empaths who had been killed so far in the U.S. I noticed that the ones who are left, all have names that are at the end of the alphabet and the last one to die was Laney Phillips.”

Vadim felt Ella’s wince in his head and glanced across at her. She immediately looked away.

“And the previous victim was Christa Morehouse,” Feehan added. “So who’s left?”

“There are four.” Liz went over to the whiteboard and started writing.

Jodi Petrello

Fay Roberts

Ella Walsh

Trini Yamada

“And do we know the whereabouts of Ms. Petrello and the rest of them?”

Sam looked up. “I’m still working on it.”

“Then work faster. We might need to put a guard on these women.”

“I think I’m okay, boss.” Ella glanced around the table. “I feel fairly well protected.”

Vadim opened his mouth to say something about him being all the protection she would ever need and then realized he couldn’t. That galled him far more than he would have expected.

“Anything else?” Feehan asked.

“Have we checked out the two male empaths who graduated with Ella yet?” Alexei said.

Vadim turned to stare at Alexei, who sat at ease in his chair. “Why would we do that?”

“Because the killer is male, and maybe one of these men—who would know all these American woman personally—might have lost it and turned to murder.”

“Mike Nichols and Paul Baker,” Ella said.

“That’s their names?” Alexei nodded to Liz and both of their Fae-Webs shimmered and expanded to meet over the table.

“I can’t see either of them having the nerve to be a serial killer, though. Most nights, they were too scared to come out with the girls for a drink.” Ella half-smiled.

“Do you keep in touch with them?”

“Not really. I think Mike moved across the east coast. I have no idea where Paul went.”

“Who would know?”

“Either SBLE or the Merton office in Otherworld.”

Feehan wrote the new names up on the board. “I’m unsure of the protocol. Do male empaths get offered mates?”

Ella reached for her coffee. “Yeah, they do.”

“Do we know if these guys are already mated?” Alexei asked.

Ella shrugged. “I have no idea. You’d have to check with Otherworld.”

“I can do that.”

Vadim tensed as Ella stood up. “I’m going to get more coffee. I’ll be back in a sec.”

He waited a moment, and then followed her out. She knew he was there, but she kept her attention on the vending machine. He waited impatiently for her to face him.

“What’s up, Morosov? Do you need a dollar again?”

He smiled as he remembered his first sight of her and his prediction that she would be trouble.

“No, I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

Alarm flashed across her face. “I thought we’d agreed to keep that to ourselves.”

“Not
that
. Don’t you think it is odd that no one has mentioned anything about what happened with the elevators on Friday?”

“In what way?”

“I would assume the SBLE review the security tapes, so why hasn’t someone called Feehan asking what the hell we were up to?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“We need to tell Feehan what happened.” She opened her mouth, and he kept talking. “Not all of it. Just the part about us getting stuck in the elevator.”

“Why?”

“Because it doesn’t feel right.”

“Do you think we were set up?”

“It’s possible.”

“By whom?”

“That’s a great question. But if someone or something managed to get in here and disrupt SBLE security, Feehan needs to know about it.”

She met his gaze and he couldn’t look away. Without further thought, he reached for her, only to have her step back.

“Don’t.”

He dropped his hand to his side, his fingers curling into a fist. “I’m not sure if I can stop myself.”

“We’re at work.”

“Then come back to the hotel with me at lunchtime.” He couldn’t believe he’d just said that. He was
never
the pursuer.

She shook her head and an inhuman growl attempted to work its way out of his chest. Her brown eyes widened.

“I’ve got to go on a case.” She swallowed hard. “Maybe you could come back home with me tonight instead?”

“I’d be honored.” He inclined his head. “Now shall we go and tell Feehan about what happened on Friday night?”

“If we must.”

He wanted to take her hand, but instead, turned on his heel and went back into the conference room holding the door open for Ella to pass by him. Her denim-clad ass bumped against his groin and he was instantly hard. Thankfully, he was wearing dark pants so he hoped no one would notice.

“There’s something Ms. Walsh and I think you should know,” Vadim announced.

“You’re getting married?” Alexei’s smile was a mixture of sweetness and pure malice.

“Yeah, right.” Ella snorted. “Last Friday night, Morosov and I were the last people here. When we met at the elevators, I found the stairwell was off-limits thanks to maintenance.”

“Wait a minute,” Feehan interrupted. “I wasn’t told about that.”

“Neither was I,” Ella added. “Or I would have left earlier. Morosov persuaded me I could face the elevator for a few seconds, so I followed him into the car. Just as the doors opened at the lobby level, the elevator shuddered and fell back down the shaft.”

“Holy cow!” Sam whistled. “Did you freak out?”

“I did. Luckily, Morosov kept his head and we managed to climb out of the service hatch, and back up to the lobby.”

“We were wondering why no one had mentioned it,” Vadim said. “Don’t you receive security reports, Mr. Feehan?”

“I do. I saw nothing about any of this.” Feehan took off his glasses and stared at Ella and Vadim. “Are you quite sure?”

Ella put her coffee down. “Do I look like the sort of person who would make stuff up about being stuck in an elevator with an irritating Russian?”

Feehan held up a placatory hand. “No, of course not. I wonder if we can review the security tapes?”

“Why don’t you do that while I go and sort out this little problem for the Bonetti family on Folsom Street?” Ella picked up her backpack. “The owners think they have a poltergeist. One of the waiters isn’t so sure.”

Vadim grabbed his jacket. “I’ll come with you.”

She was already moving. “You don’t need to do that.”

“Yes he does,” Feehan raised his voice to her departing back. “You need someone with you at all times.”

Ella’s answer and gesture was luckily too far away for Feehan to register, although Vadim got the gist of it. He kept after her, taking the elevator as she took the stairs and meeting her in the lobby.

“I’m coming with you.”

“All
right
.” She glared at him. She seemed even crankier since they’d mated than before. He didn’t mind, knowing he was the cause and that it meant he was getting to her. “But don’t touch me and don’t get in the way, okay?”

* * *

It was busy out on the streets and grew even more congested as Ella headed deep into tourist central, at the other end of Market, where the famed trolley buses turned around. The place was noisy with street vendors, bums, and the occasional crazy person. San Francisco always had a nice line of crazy, and it all came out when the sun hit the sidewalks. Ella sidestepped three guys and their bedding huddled in a doorway and ignored a smiling clown jiggling a cup in her face.

The smell of onions made her pause and Vadim ran right into her.

“Do you want a hotdog?” Ella asked.

His revolted expression was almost enough to brighten her day. “From a street vendor?”

“Sure. I haven’t been sick once.” She handed over a five-dollar bill with instructions to put everything on her dog. “Well, not really sick.”

Vadim watched in fascinated horror as she chomped on the bun and kept walking. There was one thing you could say about comfort food. It never let you down.

“Where exactly are we going?”

She pointed up the street that ran almost parallel to Market. “There’s a diner above one of the big drugstores up here. It’s been in the same family for several generations.”

“And they think they have a poltergeist?”

“Apparently. I said I’d go and check it out.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I won’t know until I get there.”

“But it’s lunchtime. Won’t they be too busy to talk?”

“I’m not going to talk right away. I’m going to eat.” She veered off to her left. “Here it is. Right up these stairs.”

Once they got above ground level, the space opened up considerably giving the diners a great view of the teeming hordes below the windows. It was decked out in traditional style with Formica topped tables, chrome fittings and red plastic leatherette booths. The place was three-quarters full and the smell of fried food and maple syrup hung thick in the air. She breathed it in appreciatively. A harried looking waiter approached them.

“Two please.”

He nodded, picked up two huge plastic covered menus and led them to a small table close to the half-exposed kitchen. There was a lot of yelling going on, but it didn’t sound too bad. She’d heard far worse on previous visits, and even seen some hapless waiter chased out of the kitchen by a hail of pots.

“Are you really going to eat here?” Vadim looked around the busy space.

“I’m hungry.”

“What about that hotdog you just had?”

“That was just an appetizer.”

He looked down at his menu, one eyebrow raised in a way Ella wished she could emulate. “What would you recommend?”

“I’m a big fan of the cheeseburger and sweet potato fries followed by the banana split.”

A reluctant smile curved his lush lower lip. “I remember banana splits.”

“We could share one if you like.”

“That’s very tempting.” He studied the menu again. “There’s definitely some Otherworld magic swirling around in here.”

“You feel it too?”

“Hard to miss.”

“Let’s eat and see if we can get the waiter who called in his suspicions to the SBLE hotline to talk to us. I think he’s one of the Bonetti cousins, so he’s family.”

Another dark-haired waiter appeared and Ella checked out his nametag. “Hey, are you Mark?” She held out her hand. “I’m Ella Walsh from the SBLE. This is my colleague, Vadim Morosov.”

Mark briefly shook hands. “Thanks for coming. I talked to my uncle. Despite his initial blustering, he’s quite relieved I did something about this.”

“That’s good to know. How about we eat our lunch and get a feel for the place, and then maybe you can come and tell us what’s been going on?”