Blood Debt (Judah Black Novels Book 2) (23 page)

“What else?”

“Well, she’s not a zombie, if that’s what you’re asking. Or, wasn’t in the traditional sense, before you shot her in the head.”

“I said I was sorry!” I exclaimed. “And anyway, that was Doctor Kalma and not me.”

“Water under the bridge, Judah,” Doc said excitedly. “I did some digging and came back with some information. Just after the Revelation, up in Finland, some supernatural researchers claimed to have come into contact with some similar creatures. There were fae involved. Something about necromancy. There’s some jargon…”

“This is starting to sound a little familiar.”

“Necromancy is one of the least studied varieties of magick.”

I shifted the phone against my ear with a sigh. “That’s because it’s illegal.”

“Magick of any kind isn’t inherently bad or good. You’ve said that yourself.”

“Yeah…But there are kinds that naturally lend themselves to abuse. You know that. How many schedule one drugs started out as legitimate medical treatments?”

“If you ask me,” said Doc, “some of them still have their uses. Cannabis, for example, is actually less harmful than caffeine.”

“My badge is going to forget I heard that,” I said. “So there’s necromancy involved. Great. What’s that got to do with an ice giant?”

“No idea. Putting everything together is your department, agent. I just cut people open.”

“Thanks, Doc. Keep me posted.”

He promised he would and we hung up.

I rubbed the back of my aching neck. My whole body felt gross and I decided I needed to get cleaned up. I trudged down the hallway to the bathroom where I washed all the initial blood and gore off of me in the sink and then ran a hot bath.

Like most people, the bathroom is where I do my best thinking. But that day, I could barely wrap my brain around where I was. I hadn’t realized just how sore and tired I was until I sank down into a tub full of hot water. I tried to work the case in my head, to make some progress since I was technically on the clock. But I’d been on the clock doing something since before sunrise the day before and, honestly, I really needed a nap.

No!
my brain screamed and I jerked awake.
You’ve got to stay busy, Judah. What haven’t you looked into yet? What’s the connection between fae-based ice giants, necromancy and a porno directing vampire or a nightclub owner?

My eyes fluttered closed in thought. I held a picture of the room in my mind’s eye and, as much as I hated to, I tried to imagine the scene. I placed cameras around the room, moved the crew and equipment into place. It took some doing but I put Annie’s body back together and made her beautiful again, doing my best to re-imagine everything from her point of view.

I slipped under water in the bathtub and held my breath. Harry had mentioned some thugs in leather broke his jaw. One of them might have decided to teach Harry a more permanent lesson rather than just throwing him out of the club. But it didn’t make Kim a target and it didn’t explain everything else. Dammit, I had to be missing something, something important.

A sudden noise made me open my eyes. I sat up out of the bath, not sure if I’d actually heard anything. My eyes were sagging and my brain was pounding.
It could be just my headache playing tricks on me
. But then there it was again, the distinct
thud, thud, thud
of footsteps in the hallway.
Sal
did say he would drop by later and he has a key. I probably just didn’t hear him come in.

The footsteps came down the hall and stopped in front of the closed bathroom door. Something in my gut told me it wasn’t Sal. I reached around, feeling for something I could use as a weapon and grabbed the only thing within reach: a plunger. Curse my knack for always getting into trouble when there isn’t a chainsaw nearby.

There wasn’t time for me to get out of the bath and go in search of a better weapon. As soon as I grabbed hold of the plunger, the door exploded inward and the towering form of Sven charged in. He reached for me, his eyes wide and bloodshot, thick lip curled up in a snarl. I didn’t even get a chance to smack him with the plunger. For a big guy, Sven was fast. He barreled into the tub on top of me and pushed me back under water, holding me there.

There was a sudden burning pressure in my chest that forced my mouth open as I struggled against him. I gulped water into my lungs instead of the lifesaving air and choked on it. Even with all my magick thrown into my muscles, I couldn’t budge him. Believe me, I tried. I kicked and punched. Once, I scratched him so deep blood poured down his arm and plopped into the tub, turning the water red. The guy was like a rock and I was already tired and drained. The edges of my vision turned black and every pump of blood through my temples built up pressure in my skull.

Sven stayed glued to me, eyes wide and unblinking. Tears streamed down the side of his face and his lips worked to form the words: “I’m sorry.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

I came to on the bathroom floor, water all around me, gasping and coughing. The burning pressure was still in my chest, and it felt like someone had just punched me in the neck. The coughing forced my shoulders up off the floor and I turned on my side only to vomit up mouthfuls of bloody water.

That’s about the time sound came back to me and I heard a loud crash in the living room. Fighting the pain, I jerked down a towel, stumbled to my feet and staggered down the hall, wrapping the towel around me.

The scene was confusing. Sven was there, being held on the floor by a big, brown wolf I recognized as Sal. He had his jaws closed around Sven’s arm, which was a bloody mess along with much of the rest of Sven. Sven was punching Sal in the snout with his free hand. The punches weren’t particularly effective since they were coming from a position of panic and fear rather than of malice.

“Stop!” I screamed and then ran over to pull on Sal. I jerked on the wolf’s shoulders as hard as I could but it was no use. I couldn’t move him, not unless he wanted to be moved. “Let him go!”

Sal growled at me and shook his shoulders, sending me back. Then, as I stumbled back into a chair, he turned and let out a fierce bark in my direction. The message was clear:
Don’t interfere.

I’d distracted Sal just long enough for Sven to get the upper hand. He landed one good fist to the side of Sal’s face, sending the wolf spiraling. Sven scrambled to his feet but, instead of jumping on Sal and showering him with more punches, the big man scampered behind my overturned kitchen table and hid there, blubbering like a baby. “Please! Please save me!”

I seized my discarded handgun from the stand next to me and jumped forward, throwing myself between Sven and Sal, pointing my gun at Sal’s bared teeth. “Stop it or so help me, Sal…”

Sal’s whole body spasmed. Bones cracked. Skin and fur fell away as Sal shifted back into his human form. The whole process took less than a minute. When he was once again bipedal, Sal cracked his neck and said, “Get that gun the hell out of my face.”

I held it steady, afraid he would charge as soon as I did as he asked.

He pointed at Sven. “He just tried to drown you. Why are you defending him?”

“Because it wasn’t him.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t him? I found him standing over you, his hands around your neck. I pulled you out of the water.”

“Sven,” I shouted behind me. “Get out here.”

“No!” Sven shouted back. “He’ll kill me!”

“Damn right I will!”

“Shut up, Sal,” I said lowering the gun. I picked up the jeans he’d gotten out of when he shifted. They were a bit ripped up but they’d work for now. I tossed them to him. “Nobody’s killing anybody.” I turned and jerked Sven up by his shirt. As I’d proven before, I wasn’t strong enough to lift him, but he didn’t resist when I pulled upward. He was trembling and had wet himself. I guided him around the table and shoved him toward Sal as Sal finished buttoning them up. “What were you saying to me while you held me under, Sven?”

Sven blubbered something incomprehensible. I pushed him closer to Sal. “I’m sorry!” he screeched. “I was saying I was sorry. I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t hurt a fly. But he made me…My master makes me hurt people.” Sven turned to Sal and got down on his knees, which was the only way Sven was ever going to be shorter than Sal. “He has my friend.”

“What friend?” Sal growled.

I shrugged.

Sven hung his head and pulled his knees up, rocking back and forth. “The Master is in my head. He makes me hurt people. He makes me. I don’t have a choice. I don’t want to.”

Pity ached in the pit of my gut. I had read about this but never seen it. Free will was something a lot of people took for granted. Free people got to make choices. They chose what to wear, what to eat, who to make friends with…The thrall of a vampire was no longer capable of those things. Crux had taken all of that away. It was a form of magick, similar in nature to the control an alpha werewolf exercised over his pack. The two were interconnected in mind and body. I had seen Chanter use his magick to make unruly werewolves stop and pay attention when needed. He’d even used it on me once when we first met. A strong mind could fight it. But Sven didn’t have that kind of mental strength. Perhaps that’s why Crux had sought him out. Who better to ensnare and enslave than a huge, mentally delayed man?

“This man is enthralled to a vampire,” I told Sal. “He can only exercise so much control over his own actions. If Crux ordered him to hurt me, he really didn’t have a choice.”

“My friend…He took her,” Sven bawled.

“Who?” I asked putting a hand on Sven’s shoulder. “Who has her?”

“Crux,” he bawled. “If I go back a failure, he’s going to make me hurt her. I can’t…Please.” He turned to me, giant, meaty hands grabbing at the towel. I only barely managed to hold it in place. “You can’t let him hurt my friend.”

I squatted down in front of Sven, leaving my hand on his shoulder. “I promise you I’ll do everything I can to help you, Sven, but I need you to help me first.”

“Anything,” he said, drawing a hand under his nose to wipe away the snot. “Just tell me what you need.”

“I need to know what really happened at Aisling with Harry and the girls.”

“I can’t,” he choked. “What if my master finds out I helped you? He’ll make me hurt more people. I don’t want to hurt people.”

“You have to tell me the truth now, Sven.”

He looked behind him at Sal who narrowed his eyes. Sven’s gaze sank to the floor. “Harry and Crux and Kim Kelley are bad people.”

“What do you mean?”

“They take people,” he explained, fidgeting with his fingers. “Fae without papers. Illegals.”

“Crux is responsible for the missing fae?”

Sven nodded.

“What does he do with them?”

“They put them in rail cars and then take them out on a boat. When they are out to sea, they put them upside down and make them bleed. Then, Crux makes me lift the bodies and drop them over the side of the boat. They keep the blood. I’m not allowed to touch it. I’m not allowed to touch anything expensive.”

Fae blood. It was one of the most expensive drugs on the market, particularly because of the people who sought it. While it was toxic in quantity to vampires, several found it irresistible and made it their drug of choice. I’d heard some ambitious dealers were even mixing a drop or two with heroin or other drugs. Crux must have been working on something similar. That would be the only reason he would need fae blood in quantity. He meant to sell it.

Sven wiped an arm under his nose, leaving a smear of blood behind. “Crux said he could make Kim’s debt go away. He said he would take people instead of money.”

“And Kim went along with it?” I asked.

“No. Not at first. But eventually, she did.”

That explains why Kim hesitated when I asked her about the missing fae
, I thought.
But it doesn’t do anything to clear Robbie. If he’d found out…He may have decided she was as guilty as Harry and Crux.
But then, why wasn’t Crux a target? There was still a piece that wasn’t fitting somewhere.

“Sven,” I said. “Do you know the name of the girl who didn’t show up to the set the night Harry was killed?”

A big, wide grin spread over Sven’s face, the kind a puppy dog gets when its owner comes through the door after a long day. “My friend, Tammy. She’s so nice. And she’s pretty.” The smile faded. “But Harry was so mean to her. Harry made Tammy cry.”

My skin prickled and I was suddenly cold and dizzy. “Tammy?” I repeated, my mouth dry. “What…What does Tammy look like?”

“Pretty,” said Sven, color rising in his cheeks. “I saw her without her clothes. She has scars. She said bad people did it, bad people like Crux. But I think even her scars are pretty. She has rainbow hair, like cotton candy.”

I stumbled back and caught myself on the table, barely holding myself up. Mara…Mara’s full name was Tamara. She had rainbow colored, cotton candy hair. She had magick. She hung out at Aisling. In fact, she’d been right there when I came out. And Sven said Harry made her cry. Could it be Tammy and Mara were the same person?

But I couldn’t let on what I knew. It could get back to Abe or Crux and if Crux had her…

I swallowed and turned back to Sven. “Sven, this is my friend, Sal. He’s going to get you cleaned up and take you to the police station.”

“Like hell I am,” Sal grunted.

I shot him a glare of daggers. “Find Detective Tindall. Tell him I sent you. Tell him I promised you’d be safe. Can you do that, Sven?”

“I think so.” Sven stood. “What about Tammy? You promised you’d help her.”

“I will. Just go with my friend.”

Sven turned and gave Sal a wary glance. Sal sighed and jerked his head toward the door. “Wait outside.”

Sven didn’t hesitate. He broke into a jog for the door and slammed it excitedly closed behind him, plopping down on the porch to wait.

“What gives?” Sal said, gesturing to the door, clearly meaning Sven. “I’m not your errand boy, Judah. You gotta learn to ask, respect some boundaries. I’m not okay with this. That guy tried to kill you.”