Fatal Retribution Page 13

  When Ruy walked through the Metal detector I expected it to go off for some reason, but it didn’t. It took me three goes and the removal of everything but my shirt and pants, and it still beeped at me. The guard attending the metal detector gave up after a pat-down produced nothing. What metal did I have on? The world may never know…

  “You heading to EI?” the guard asked. EI stands for the Ethereal Investigation department. Its police for preternatural people and its called Ethereal, like we’re not real. That’s fucked up. “Cause, if you are, you’re going to have to take the stairs. The elevators are all down for maintenance.”

  Ruy nodded to the guard. “Sure they are,” he said under his breath, and we walked on. Ruy thought the guard was lying just to mess with us, but sure enough there were signs on the elevator proclaiming their out of order status. “Shit,” Ruy thought. The stairs were just to the left of the elevators.

  “How far up is it?” I asked. Ruy held up his index, middle and thumb. It was just my luck that the department was three stories up. Shit, indeed. I knew that being scared to climb the stairs didn’t make sense, but I couldn’t help it. I breathed deep and kept telling myself over and over again that I was calm and relaxed, but I had a death grip on the railing. My knees were weak and my head was spinning.

  “Are you going to be all right?” Ruy asked.

  “Peachy.” I rolled my eyes up to meet his and even that small movement made me nauseous. “Just a touch of vertigo,” I mumbled.

  Ruy sighed and came back down three steps. “Here, put your arm around my neck and I’ll help you up.”

  I made a face of revulsion. I was disgusted with myself for being so weak. It was too cruel a thing that I was reduced to a spineless jelly fish anytime I was faced with heights. I slowly took my hands off the railing and Ruy quickly grabbed me up into his arms.

  “Hey! Put me down!” I shouted.

  “Trust me, Raina. It’s better to get this over with quickly.”

  I spared a glance over his shoulder and saw the stairs disappearing behind us. The world darkened and narrowed until it consisted of only me and death. I knew for certain that I was going to fall, screaming bloody-murder to an agonizing death! It was an irrational thought, but if it made sense they wouldn’t call it a phobia. I shut my eyes tight. I would not scream, even though every ounce of my being was screaming.

  “Here we are,” Ruy said.

  He just let his arms fall from under me and I did scream then, with my arms still wrapped tightly around his neck. Ruy smiled down at me, and I turned my embarrassment into anger. I gave him the evil eye, but there was no magic behind it, partially because I’m not that petty—and partially because I didn’t have the skill to pull off a real evil eye.

  When Ruy’s smile didn’t faltered an ounce I gave him my back. We were in a hallway, presumably on the third floor of the Justice Center. There was a pair of double doors made of glass at the end of the hall. I followed Ruy in after a moment of hesitation.

  The department was designed in the blandest of the bland décor. Egg shell white walls, grey carpet, and round florescent lights on the ceiling. The only color in the room belonged to the American and Washington State flags hanging from their mini indoor flag posts. Most of the room was full of cheap particleboard desks with black plastic swivel chairs. There was a line of plastic white chairs sitting against a wall opposite the front desk.

  The front desk was the only desk that looked worth more than fifteen bucks at a discount store, and that’s where we were heading. I got a few dirty looks and I tried to clamp my empathic abilities up tight. I didn’t want to know what they thought of me. I didn’t want to feel their unwarranted malice or hear their cruel thoughts. Sometimes I wished I could pass for human or at least an elf. Being a witch is one step up from being a vampire and a step down from being a thieving gnome.

  “Hello Darcy,” Ruy said to the lady behind the front desk.

  She had tight blond curls and wore tasteful makeup that accentuated her natural beauty. But when she smiled at us some of the beauty was lost. Some people can’t pull off a mean smile, she wasn’t one of them. Somehow her smile was an insult to us.

  She turned and yelled, “Cortez!” An officer walked up slowly with his belly pushed out and his hands on his hips. “You remember Mr. Jonas?” Darcy asked. Cortez nodded but never took his eyes off of me. “He needs an escort.”

  “I know the way to the room,” Ruy said, but his words were ignored.

  Cortez pointed his finger at me, “And who’s the girl?” Somehow he made the word “girl” sound like the worst sort of insult.

  “This is Raina Kirkland.” He looked at Ruy like he didn’t believe him, which made me raise an eyebrow. Why would Ruy lie about my name?

  “You a vamp?” Cortez asked.

  “Not yet,” I answered, and left it at that. His face said he wanted me to elaborate on that, but eventually he let it go and escorted us to a dimly lit room.

  Mato sat at a long table in the back of the room talking heatedly with a large man. He looked utterly inhuman and beautiful in a room full of ordinary men. He was wearing a dark blue trench coat and a black silk dress shirt tucked into brown slacks. His skin had more color than before. He must have fed well. His long black hair was tied back and sun glasses hid his gold eyes. He seemed to be trying very hard to look as human as possible. I didn’t see being a people pleaser as an enduring quality. I think people should be true to themselves, even if that means standing out in a crowd—or being chased by one. It took effort to look away from him. It was like his very presence begged my full attention.

  The man he was talking to was tall, very tall, like near seven foot I’d guess. He was balding heavily at the top of his head, leaving shaggy light brown hairs to form a partial halo around his dome. He was wearing a boring tan suit that fit poorly.

  There were two other men sitting with Mato and Mr. Big N Boring. The first was slick, handsome, with a face meant for flirting. The other man was shorter, disheveled and stain ridden.

  Officer Ranger was standing along the wall by the door with another police officer from Darkness. Ranger was just as beautiful as I remembered. The other Darkness officer gave me the creeps. He watched the room with dark sunken eyes. He was a wizard, I could just tell. His badge said his name was Killian.

  Cortez walked over to the men sitting with Mato, “Ruy’s here with Raina-Kirkland.” The men nodded and Cortez left, but not without flashing me and Ruy one more dirty look.

  “Hello, Ruy,” said the handsome man.

  “Hello Detective Stevenson,” said Ruy. Stevenson walked him over to where the other men sat. I followed quietly. If anyone had anything to say about me being here, they kept it to themselves.

  We sat on either side of Mato. The moment I sat down his hand found mine under the table and I nearly jumped in my seat. He rubbed my knuckles with a soft, surprisingly warm, thumb.

  “We need to question them. This is our only lead,” Mato was saying.

  “I understand that you want whoever is doing this badly, Sheriff. We want him just as bad, if not more. Eighteen people dead and seven infected. But we can’t break down every door that looks suspicious.”

  “That is exactly what we have to do!” Mato interrupted.

  “We have to have more evidence than this.” He jabbed his big finger at a thin manila folder that sat on the metal table between them.

  “Then why call me and my officers down here?”

  “We need to compare notes.”

  “You have my reports.”

  “Yes, but is there anything else you can tell me? Something left out…accidentally.”

  Mato looked down at the table and shook his head. Most people look ugly when they frown, less approachable, but Mato didn’t. It was just another handsome face he made. “You do not trust our reports.”

  “Trust a town of vampires,” Big N Boring scuffed.

  “I am an officer of the law first and a citizen of Darkness s
econd and my reports have no holes!” The big guy crossed his arms and stared down at Mato unaffected by the angry vampire.

  “Ruy?” Mato asked, tilting his head in order to see him. “I was going to ask you to come with us. I thought we were going to do something to stop this... Is there anything you can think of that was not in our reports?”

  Ruy looked at Big N Boring and the look wasn’t exactly friendly. He shook his head slowly. Mato sat as still as death, one hand warm in mine, the other flat on the table. It had boiled down to a staring contest between the two men. Very mature. The other men in the room were getting fidgety.

  From where I sat at Mato’s side I could see the far wall. It was covered in at least two dozen eight by eleven photos that overlapped. Stuck to the bottom of each photo was a yellow sticky note. They were head shots of all the victims, including mine. Though, mine was mostly covered by Michael’s photo. I looked around at the men in the room. None of them seemed to pay any attention to me at all.

  Big N Boring looked away first, pretending to have to check his cell phone.

  “Meet me half way Detective Travis,” Mato pleaded. “At least subpoena their bank records.”

  “I don’t want anyone talking to these kids, at all!” Travis roared. “They are not suspects, and they have nothing to do with this case. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes sir,” said Stevenson and the other man in unison.

  “I think we’ve wasted enough of each other’s time. Don’t you?” Travis asked rhetorically before leaving as quickly as his massive build would allow. Mato just stared at the wall with his jaw clenched until the other two detectives left the room. The nameless disheveled man apologized and thanked us for our time on his way out. Stevenson walked out without a word, just a nod to Ruy. Once the door closed behind them Mato turned to me. His face was grim.

  “Raina?”

  “Yeah,” I said shyly. He just shook his head and smiled, and I let out a breath of air. “I thought you’d be mad.”

  “To see you? Never. But, why are you here?”

  “I’m Ruy’s stowaway.”

  “I see,” he smiled. My hand was still in his and I awkwardly took it back.

  “What was that about?” Ruy asked. “You found a lead?”

  “Yes,” said Mato. “And, it appears that EI has come to the same conclusion that I have, but they are refusing to investigate further.” He stood up and smoothed the line of his slacks.

  “They are being stubborn.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the people involved are powerful, or rather their parents are,” Ranger said. She took the seat across from me. “We discovered that the vampire blood that you and your brothers, as well as others, were infected with was altered.”

  “In what way?” I asked, leaning forward.

  “The vampire virus has three affects on humanoids. The first is repair. Like healing injuries, disease, and in some very rare cases it will grow back a limb. Then it kills the body slowly while somehow keeping the person’s conscious the whole time. Once the body is dead the virus reanimates it. The blood that infected you was somehow altered to amplify its healing properties, which in turn quickened the whole process. You and your brothers have an earlier version of the virus, but the last couple victims turned within seconds. Not minutes or hours, seconds. One man injected himself during the day and burst into flames on the spot.”

  “So, someone is playing with vampire blood?” Ruy asked folding his hands on the table.

  “Yes, and we think we know who, but EI says our evidence is circumstantial at best. These kids, as they say, are college students at University of Washington. They’re working on a project that deals with making vampirism into a miracle drug.”

  “So, why won’t EI bring them in?” Ruy asked.

  “Because they are rich?” I asked.

  “Yes, in part. Also, their school project didn’t begin until a couple of days ago. People have been dying for the past month.”

  “How is this not on the news?”

  “Most paranormal crime is kept off the news as a general rule. It tends to breed panic,” Ranger said.

  “Ah, torches and pitch forks. I got it.”

  “Ranger, Killian, time got away from us,” Mato said. I looked at the wall clock by the door. It was almost four. Without another word they walked out of the room, and Ruy and I followed. Outside of the Justice Center, Mato climbed into the back of a shiny black police car with black windows. Ranger climbed into the driver’s seat and Killian got in the back with Mato.

  I looked up at the orange horizon. “Will he be all right?”

  “The windows will keep the sun out,” Ranger assured me.

  The back window rolled down and Mato held his hand out to me. I didn’t leave him hanging, I grabbed it and he held my hand firmly.

  “I am glad Ruy brought you here,” he said, softly.

  “I am too,” I said, but I felt bad that I was probably glad for a different reason than him—mostly.

  The window went up and for a moment I was left looking at my refection. I didn’t know what Mato saw in me that no other man did, but I was thankful for it. Mato’s crush on me made me feel valued, even if I didn’t understand it.

  “To home then?” Ruy asked after Mato’s car drove away.

  “Yes. If Mom’s going to kill me it’s best to get it over with.” Ruy laughed.

  When we climbed back in I fastened my safety belt and turned in my seat to look at him.

  “What do you see in my mom?” He started the engine without answering. “I mean, she’s not ugly.” He whistled then. “But, she’s a total bitch, isn’t she?”

  Ruy smiled wide. “Yes, you’re mom is a total bitch: Beautiful, Intelligent, Tenacious, Charismatic—Humanoid.

  20:

  “RAINA!”

  I woke up from a nightmare with a jerk. Mom was standing over me wearing a green Celtic robe. Her hair was up, exposing her long vulnerable neck.

  The fear that left me winded faded as soon as I realized it was only a dream. “What?” I whined, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. The clock by my bed told me I slept a good long time, but I didn’t feel rested.

  “You were screaming, Raina,” she said before she sat down on the edge of my bed. I was drenched in sweat. “What was your dream about?”

  I thought about it, or tried to. I could only remember bits and pieces. “I was walking down a street and all the buildings were on fire. And there were half eaten goats following me, chasing me I think. They were screaming for help.” I looked down at my soaked nightgown. The black silk was sticking to me like a second skin.

  “Why’d you dream that?”

  “Last night, after class Tristan called me. He said Nicholas was waking and I went to see him.” I swallowed hard. “They fed him a live goat.” I flinched remembering the look and sound of it. The high pitch screams, the ripping flesh, the hungry sounds Nick made as he tore into a living breathing animal with his bare hands and teeth! Mom patted my legs, a poor gesture of comfort.

  “And the fire?” she asked.

  It felt connected to Mort Villa’ somehow, but I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it with her, or anyone for that matter. I didn’t know whose vampire blood was running through my veins, Adia’s maybe.

  “I don’t know,” I lied. I’ve never been a good liar but lately I’ve been getting a lot of practice, and Mom didn’t question it. She left my room after giving me a few words meant for comfort. “It’s only a dream,” she said, as though I were five years old. “And dreams can’t hurt you.” I watched her walk out of the door with her robe trailing behind her.

  After Ruy dropped my off last night, I sat on the sofa for nearly an hour while Mom yelled at me. She took my house key and tied it to her key chain. She grounded me like I were still a child. I didn’t point out that I was twenty-one. I was too old to be grounded, but I knew the fight that would follow if I argued. Something along the lines of, “As long as you are in m
y house, under my roof, you will do as you’re told.” Or, “You’ll play by my rules!”

  I threw on a dark blue wrap skirt and a semi-sheer black top that fit nicely, and sat at the computer in the living room with a big mug of coffee and some cinnamon toast.

  Mom came out of her room wearing a tight gold t-shirt, brown and gold striped capris, and strappy brown sandals.

  “I never got the chance to ask you what your instructor said about your vampirism,” Mom said.

  “Uh, I’m changing slowly,” I said without taking my eyes from the computer monitor. I was staring at my profile on facebook; no messages, no comments, no surprise. I had sixty-five friends, half of them were family, I knew three from school, one used to be my best friend, and the rest were strangers that added me to boost their numbers…Pathetic. “My, uh empathic abilities are heightened.”

  “Well, that’s nice,” she said. I looked back at her. If she wondered what the fight at her shop was all about it didn’t show on her face.

  “Have you ever felt someone’s emotions in your head?” I asked her, “Or has anybody else in our family?”

  “Nope, not that I know of,” she said.

  “Nope?” She didn’t answer me. She was fidgeting with her hair in the gaudy mirror that hung by the door. She heard me, I was sure of it. I waited a moment longer before I shrugged and turned back to the monitor. Someone posted a picture of their new familiar, a big black raven named, Cleo. I “liked” it.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “Fauna and I have tickets for the theater,” she said. “The opera, Faust is playing.”

  I nodded and then a thought occurred to me. “I know I’m grounded, and for good reason, but I do need to leave tonight.”

  Mom stopped and gave me the look Moms give when they think their kids are being stupid. That one look said, “You got to be out of your ever-loving mind. My mom gave it to me quite frequently, actually.

  “Class,” I sighed. She didn’t say anything for a long time, and for a moment I thought she was going to ignore me again. Ignoring me seemed to be her favorite pass time lately.