Chapter
1
Detective Vaile
Wolfe stuck his pen into the little pile of ashes he was crouched over and
stirred. The burnt remains, picked up by the slight breeze from the mouth of
the alleyway, got stuck in his nostrils, forcing a low growl out from between
his lips.
What a goddamn fucking mess. The wolf that shared his body shifted
uneasily; the scent of the blood awakening his baser instincts. He could feel his
lupine form move under his skin—under his ribs—stirring to life restlessly. He’d
denied the Change for nearly two weeks, sending the flashing red light of
warning off in his head. He was putting the cops he worked with in danger with
every day that passed. He muttered a few words under his breath to calm the
beast and stood up, unable to avoid looking at the huge puddles of blood at his
feet. He’d be seeing red for a fucking week.
‘Did you find anything?’ he asked the officer that had been assigned to
him just that morning. He’d chewed through a dozen rookies in the last six
months and he had a feeling that this guy wasn’t going to make it much past
sundown. Vaile had a rep for being a sonofabitch to work with and that was just
the way he liked it.
This new kid was all WASP. His pale eyes were wide as he took in the
carnage around him. Vaile had caught him puking in the dumpster next to the
crime scene. As soon as he’d seen the blood, he’d gone as white as a sheet and
ran. He could still smell the stuff on his breath.
‘No sir. Nothing yet,’ he replied perfunctorily. Vaile’s lips flexed into
a parody of a smile. At least this kid knew who was Top Dog, not like the last
cocky bastard he had working for him. ‘We’re just waiting for forensics to show
up, sir.’ The kid turned back to look at the puddles. ‘Sir, where’s the body?’
‘There ain’t no body kid. It’s obvious that this was the kill site. The
body’s been dumped someplace else.’ What the WASP didn’t know was that two of
his pack had taken the stiff a few hours before they’d even got the call from a
sanitation worker reporting a lot of blood down an alleyway that morning. The
cops weren’t ever going to find the body either because by now it would be
nothing but ash. The other thing they didn’t know was that a vampire had been
given its Final Death in that alleyway, but they would never recognise the
signs. Humans only saw what they wanted to see. To them, the ashes that littered
the ground in that goddamned frozen, filthy alleyway were the remnants from a
hobo barrel fire, not the last resting place of a blood-sucking parasite.
The kid swallowed convulsively, his throat working over a lump; his skin
turning a pale shade of green. ‘You going to puke again?’ Vaile barked.
‘No sir,’ he replied in a shaky breath. His fear was coming off his body
in waves, causing a sneer to pull at Vaile’s top lip. He got up in his face,
taking him by the collar of his shirt and pulling the guy in close to his
massive body. Intimidation factor? He would have said around a ten.
‘Because if you are, you’re not working with me. You can just go back to
the station now and get desk-raped,’ he growled.
Vaile hadn’t thought it possible, but the kid swallowed the green and
blanched out even further than his already pasty skin. ‘I’m fine,’ he replied
with a quavering voice.
What a fucking lightweight. Vaile gave him a hard look and pushed him
away, causing him to stumble into the dumpster. He walked back to a beat cop waiting
just inside the yellow police tape. Beyond him—at the mouth of the
alleyway—were rubberneckers wanting to see a glimpse of the carnage. Although
another officer was placed there, arms outstretched and desperately trying to
stop the click-click of the camera phones, they still managed to get an
uninterrupted view. Sometimes Vaile thought humans were more bloodthirsty than
the wolf that shared his body. Looking away from them in disgust, he asked, ‘What
did you see when you got here last night Mack?’
Mack was a lycanthrope too. Werewolves made good cops. It was as simple
as that. His pale green eyes flecked with brown met Vaile’s for a split second
before dropping. ‘A human male drained of blood. That was all.’
Vaile grunted. ‘Were you told anything else other than to get your ass
down here?’
‘No. Just that there was a body. But judging by the smell, and—’ he
kicked his toe into the ashes at his feet, ‘I’d say a vampire got four-twentied
here too.’
Vaile grunted again. He didn’t know who had given the vamp the cure for
life, but he was goddamn elated that they had. He was a damn good cop and an
even better detective, but the stench of the vampire was cancelling out the
scent of any humans that may have been involved at the scene of the crime. To
his sensitive nose, all he could smell was burning, rotten garbage topped off
with a healthy dollop of cow shit.
‘So who was the guy we picked up last night?’ Vaile turned and spat on
the ground; the nasty taste of the blood-sucker had coated the back of his
tongue. After he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, he turned back to
Mack. Vaile didn’t need to worry about the police report cataloguing the sample
because it was going to mysteriously disappear in the near future.
Mack shrugged. ‘No wallet on the body, but he was dressed too nice which
is unusual for this area. Maybe he was a Renfield and the vamp lured him here.
Maybe he was just unlucky.’
Renfields. Weren’t they a treat? They were humans who believed that
vampires were real, who regularly donated their blood to other humans
pretending to vampires. Ignorant fuckers. And they wondered why HIV was
spreading through the human population like wildfire.
Vaile drew in a deep breath and coughed. ‘Goddamn vampires. I hate their
fucking stench.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Mack replied in a drawl.
Just then the forensic crew arrived in their signature white van, parking
outside the alleyway’s only entrance. The uniformed began pushing people out of
the way again, trying to make room for them to get out of the van. ‘Hey kid!’ Vaile
called out. When he couldn’t see his blond hair, he marched over to the closest
dumpster and peered over the other side. The kid had curled himself up into a
ball in a pool of his own vomit. ‘Ah, fuck.’ He called over the other cop. ‘Mack?
Come give me a hand, will ya?’
Vaile drove him and his “partner” back to the station after Mack and him
had got him into the back of his unmarked. Sure Vaile could have lifted the kid
no problem, but hauling a grown man around on your shoulder like he weighed
nothing drew too much unwanted attention.
There was a groan, and when he looked into his rear view mirror, the
rookie was coming to just as he the car humped into the car park behind the
station. The smell of vomit had permeated through the car thanks to the guy,
and no amount of Febreeze was going to get that shit out.
‘Get out and get reassigned,’ he barked, slamming his car door behind
him. He navigated his way to the building’s back door without looking back to
see if the kid had got out or not. When he got to the heavy steel door, he
heard the door of his unmarked pop open and close straight after. Hauling open
the heavy door, he walked into central command.
People were everywhere. Vaile passed through the security check point,
disarming himself and producing his badge. When he was finally through, he
slipped his holster back on again as he walked up the stairs. At the top, he
hung a left.
His office had about twenty people in there, each sitting behind a
computer with three soft walls. It was partition heaven. Parking it behind his
desk, he turned on his computer and clicked into his emails. He’d been working
the Buxton rapist case, and the latest medical report was front and centre. He
opened up the email and scrolled through the three-page report, skimming it for
anything that was useful. So far nothing viable had been collected from the
women or the scenes. The sick fucker was getting more violent with them. He’d
started just by threatening the girls with cutting them up, but now he was
following through on the threat. The last girl had a broken jaw and a fractured
cheek bone thanks to the bastard.
Kicking out of his chair, he went to the kitchenette they had in the back
corner of the office to make himself a cup of instant. It tasted terrible, but
at least it got rid of the taste of vampire that was still sticking to the back
of his tongue. He took another sip and from over the lip of his coffee cup, he
saw his boss walking towards him.
‘Wolfe. My office. Now.’
‘You got it,’ he replied, walking casually back to the desk to dump his
still-full coffee cup.
‘Sit down,’ his boss said as soon as he’d shut the door to his office
behind him. His boss’s name was D'Angelo. His dark hair had started going grey
around the sides, but his black eyes were still sharp. ‘I’ve just spoken to Hauptmann.
He says he wants off your service.’
‘Really?’
‘Don’t give me that fucking tone Wolfe. Jesus!’ He ran a hand through the
grey. ‘You only had him for … fuck, like two hours.’
‘He’s not cut out for the work. He’s a beat cop at best. And besides,
I’ve already told you that I prefer working alone.’
D'Angelo’s blood pressure went up a few clicks. ‘You know what, if you
weren’t my best detective, I would get your ass transferred someplace else
where I don’t have to see you every single damn day.’
‘But I am your best detective,’ Vaile reminded him. ‘And I’m sure you’d
miss me.’
D'Angelo opened his mouth to argue again, but a knock on the door saved
him. ‘Come in!’ he barked. The door pushed open and the scent of roses wafted
in. Vaile’s head swivelled around to see a female officer standing in the
doorway. He’d never seen her around the station before, but then again he’d
never really looked at human women. What was the point? Love couldn’t transcend
species. Lust? Fuck yeah, but love? Not a chance.
‘You wanted to see me, sir?’ she asked, breaking Vaile’s fixation on her.
He turned back around in his seat.
‘Grey, come in.’
She shut the door behind her and parked it in the chair next to Vaile.
The scent of roses grew stronger, but it wasn’t her perfume. It was something
fainter than that. Maybe it was her soap or shampoo or some shit. ‘You
expressed interest in working with Detective Wolfe. Does your interest still
stand?’ his boss said.
Vaile looked over at her and wondered why in the hell she would volunteer
to spend time with him.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Congratulations. You’ve been reassigned. Now get your asses over to
Buxton Gen. There’s another girl been brought in overnight—rape suspect. Get a
statement. See if we can’t finally nail this guy’s ass to the wall.’
Vaile stood up, Grey shadowing him. ‘You got it,’ Vaile rumbled.