Blood Slave: A Realm Walker Novel (11 page)

Bobby pulled up along the curb in front of her building and shut the car off. He turned in his seat and leaned his back against the car door so he could look at her. “Yeah. Long before I met her. I’d bite her, but I didn’t feel right making her want it so much. She missed the high and would cruise for someone else to give her what she needed. I think she had a couple of regulars she hit up.”

“Wasn’t that awkward?” That’d be like knowing your girlfriend was banging the neighbor because you just weren’t quite good enough in the sack for her.

“That’s one way to put it. We fought about it constantly, but what was I going to do? It’s not like there’s rehab for this kind of thing, but I refused to become her drug.” Actually there was a way to cure the desire, but it was time intensive and required someone dedicated to helping the blood slave break the hold the bite had on them. As far as she knew there weren’t any support groups for former blood slaves, but there could be. There seemed to be support groups for everything these days.

“So did one of the vamps get carried away or what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know what happened. She went out looking for a score after work one night. I went home. She was supposed to show thereafter. When she didn’t, I went to her place but she wasn’t there either. No one knew what happened to her. A couple of weeks later, someone tells me they found her in the Dead Zone. That she’d been drained and dumped.”

“You have any idea who did it?”

“I wish I did, I’d make sure they never did again. My Cheryl wasn’t the only one they found out there.”

“How many?”

“Six altogether.”

And a dog. Let’s not forget Fifi. “Did you know any of the others?”

“I knew a couple of them fairly well, not like Cheryl, but I’d seen them around.”

“Did they work for Charles, too?”

His eyes narrowed. “I told you that I’d tell you what happened to Cheryl and I’ve done that. Don’t dig too deep, Jennifer or you’ll find yourself in trouble too. We don’t want that.”

She looked at him wondering at the sudden change in temperament and how much he really knew. “No, we wouldn’t want that,” she said finally. “Thanks for the lift.”

She shut her door with a little wave and headed into the building. Standing to one side by the mailboxes, she waited for Nathaniel before she headed up. He came in a few minutes later.

“So did you learn anything interesting?”

“He dated one of our vics, knew a couple of the others. Pretty sure that’s not in our file.”

Nathaniel frowned. “I don’t think so either. You know we were limited on the personals. Blood slaves are as bad as junkies when it comes to getting details on their lives. No one willing to talk or no one paying close enough attention to actually be able to tell us anything. You think he’s involved?”

“There’s something about him that doesn’t sit right, but I don’t trust my gut anymore. Not after Taft.”

“You know you’re going to have get past that at some point right? No one expected the Thief to be one of ours, Pup. Quit beating yourself up over it. You got him in the end. That’s what matters.”

She ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t want to talk about it tonight. I’ve got to get to bed. I’ve got training with James in the morning.”

Nathaniel opened his mouth to say something else then closed it and shook his head. She breathed an internal sigh of relief. She was done with this conversation. She’d had it with Thomas and James and the company psych more times than she could count. She didn’t need to have it with Nathaniel, too. Besides, she’d become good at telling people exactly what they wanted to hear whether it was true or not.

***

As usual, the morning came too soon and Juliana promised herself that when this case was over she was going to bed for a week. Her eyes were still bleary when she stepped through the portal, travel cup of coffee clenched in her fist.

“So she lives.” That caramel rich voice flowed through her, filled her with warmth at the same time anxiety crawled up her spine. She turned her head to find Thomas leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Gods, it was good to see him. Not that she’d tell him that. His ego was big enough thank you very much.

“You knew I was alive, Thomas. I’m not locked down that tightly.”

He straightened and moved toward her. “I only have a few minutes before James comes in and takes over, but I wanted to see you. To assure myself you are all right.”

She stretched her arms out to the sides. “As you can see I’m perfectly fine.”

He arched a brow. “Hmm, so I see. Where are you,
Joya
?”

“I’m right here.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I don’t understand why you play this game with me.”

“It’s not a game. It’s an undercover assignment. There is nothing undercover about you. Besides, I need to prove that I can do this without you.”

He ran the fingertips of one hand along the line of her chin and she barely resisted the urge to shudder at his touch. “Prove to who? Why do you care what any of them think? We both know you are more than capable.”

“Do I, Thomas? I did everything on my own with no help for so long and now I feel myself always wanting to lean on you, to turn to you. It’s not like me.”

“People change, Juliana. As they should. You are my mate. There is nothing wrong with you leaning on me. It is as it should be.”

She shifted her gaze to focus on her fingers where they fiddled with the coffee cup. “Maybe.”

A warm hand settled at her waist and he pressed his cheek to hers. She closed her eyes and breathed him in. “I love you, mate. Never doubt that.”

And then he was gone. She opened her eyes and watched him nod to James as they passed each other. With one last look back at her, he walked out the door.

***

Leaving Juliana in that training room with James was the hardest thing Thomas had done in a long time. He’d wanted nothing more than to toss her over his shoulder and carry her home. But he knew that would only lead to resentment and trouble. So instead he’d bide his time, find out where she was assigned and be prepared to help when she asked for it.

He tapped his phone impatiently against his leg. The training session should be almost complete and then he’d have his answers. The phone vibrated in his hand.

“Yes,” he answered. He’d taken the opportunity to plant a tracking device on her while whispering endearments in her ear. This should be the call telling him where she went when she left New Hope.

“You know the funny thing about being a Walker is all this training we have to go through.” Juliana’s voice coming over the line was unexpected and confused him for a second.

“
Joya
?”

“And part of that training,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “was recognizing when people were getting close to you to get something they wanted. Not that I think that’s the only reason you got close to me, but I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I hadn’t realized you’d put that tracker in my pocket now would I?”

Son of a bitch. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why must you make everything so difficult?”

“That’s my job, babe,” she said, a hint of a smile in her voice.

Despite his frustration, he couldn’t help a small smile himself. Things were certainly never dull with her around, not that he couldn’t handle a little boredom occasionally. In fact, sometimes he’d down right relish it.

“I gave it to James to return to you. I told you before why I need to do this Thomas.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” While he understood the desire to prove oneself to those in authority, he felt Juliana was still fighting being a couple, a United pair.

“Look, I’m not going to promise to clue you in or even call you every day, but I will call if I need help. Fair enough?”

It was a concession on her part, he knew, but the problem was that his bride seldom admitted to needing help until things were truly dire. But he’d have to take what he could get. “Promise you’ll call at the first indications of trouble instead of waiting until the apocalypse is nigh.”

“I’ll do my best. Love you.” She hung up without giving him a chance to respond.

Chapter Eleven

“I’ve got something for you,” Michael said as he walked into the Den of Iniquity.

Thomas folded the paper he’d been reading and tossed it on the table. It was well before opening time at the bar that he owned but he needed some quiet. Having James and Rachel residing with them was at times as nerve-wracking as it was comforting. If only Juliana didn’t change the subject every time he brought up buying a new house. Maybe he should just buy one for his brother-in-law and niece and move them out.

He frowned at the look on Michael’s face. It was if he didn’t know whether to be elated or terrified. Thomas could think of only one thing that would have that effect on his second. “Juliana?”

Michael nodded and dropped into a seat on the other side of the table. “Well, maybe,” he said as he handed a folder to Thomas.

Flipping it open, Thomas read through the report. Blood slaves had been found wandering around the Dead Zone in their afterlife. All the victims were from Kansas City. There were no other leads. Hadn’t Juliana said something to him about zombies the other night? Oh yes, and Pomeranians if he recalled correctly. But the thought of her in Kansas City chilled him. There were a great many things he would rather her be doing in a great many other places.

He clenched his teeth and worked the muscle in his jaw. “Where did you get this?”

“Clayton.”

“I wasn’t aware he was looking,” Thomas said, annoyed he hadn’t thought to ask the man himself.

“I asked him if he knew anything. He’s been keeping tabs on her.”

Thomas scowled and Michael shrugged.

“You know he wants to recruit her. Anyway, he said she’s dropped off the grid, but he said this sounds like the kind of thing they’d put her on.”

Unfortunately, his boss was correct. “But Kansas City? Surely, she wouldn’t. Not without telling me.” Charles Morgan was not someone he wanted unchecked around Juliana. The man had the ability of compulsion, but his was stronger than most. He had the ability to literally bend people to his will, particularly if they’d had his blood.

While the Council ensured his territory stayed limited to the Kansas City area, they’d allowed him to live because his ability didn’t extend to vampires. The last of their kind with that ability had been killed during the Inquisition. What Thomas didn’t know was if Juliana being his mate would afford her any protection against Morgan.

“I wasn’t going to bring it to you, because I don’t know for sure, but it’s Morgan. Does she know what he’s capable of?” Michael had his own reasons for hating someone with Morgan’s abilities but the thread of fear running through his friend’s voice did nothing to calm his own frazzled nerves.

“I can’t recall us ever having reason to discuss it. Reach out to our contacts in the area. See if you can find out for sure if she’s there. But be discreet. The last thing we need to do is let people know precisely who she is if they aren’t already aware. We must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

“I’ll make some calls, but I can’t just leave.”

“Why not?”

“Raoul. You didn’t want to trust him to anyone but us. I can leave him for a few hours here and there, but not for days at a time. There’s too big of a risk that someone will come for him.”

While Thomas hated for Raoul’s torture to end so quickly, his bride’s current well-being was more important. “Put him in the cell at the end of the hall. Remove the door and brick him in.”

A brief look of horror flashed across Michael’s face. “You can’t be serious, Thomas. He’s claustrophobic.”

“You reminded me of that before. I believe you also said he’s afraid of the dark. Remove the light from his cell. And make sure you leave an opening so he can be fed. We wouldn’t want him to starve, would we?”

His friend said nothing, obviously trying to process this new set of instructions.

“Get a mage in to put a suppression spell on the cell. There’s no reason to subject everyone to his caterwauling. Call James if you don’t trust anyone else, he’ll know who to use.”

***

Juliana pulled her coat tighter around her body as a cold wind whipped in a frenzy sending a chill through her. She hated the weather in this city, constantly changing without even a weather mage to blame. Maybe she should try to convince Morgan to bring one in just to regulate things. At least until she left town. Scanning the area again, she shook her head. How was she supposed to find a killer in the midst of so much depravation?

The scene around her seemed as if it was pulled straight from a public service announcement about the dangers of prostitution. Hookers and blood slaves staked out their territory, chasing off those that dared encroach. Flyers littered the fronts of buildings, and loose ones skittered along the pavement as they raced to freedom. While several of the men and women plying their trade made eye contact with her, it was evident that she was poor and not a vampire. Their interest quickly waned and moved on to the next target. The unclean taint in the air was familiar from the time she’d spent in Devil’s End in New Hope. Desperation had the same stink no matter where you were.

Juliana had opted to walk to work, hoping that immersing herself in the city would help her find a clue, a suspect. So far it wasn’t working. But it wasn’t as if she thought someone was going to hop up and down in front of her screaming, “I did it!” It would be lovely if that was the way things worked, but nothing ever happened the easy way.

Walking through a neighborhood like this without her sword or her gun was not high on her list of experiences she cared to ever repeat. Even though she knew Nathaniel was following discretely not far behind, it did little to ease her nerves. She trusted the wolf more than most, but a lot could happen in the time it would take him to get to her.

The closer Juliana got to the strip club the more uneasy she felt. Something wasn’t right. She searched the area with her eyes and stumbled a step when her gaze fell on Peter Blake. He leaned against the building across the street, watching her approach with dark eyes. Doing her best to ignore him, she hurried down the street and into Lust but she knew his eyes never left her.

She really needed to do something about that vampire. Usually when she threatened to geld someone they left her alone. If anything, Blake seemed even more intrigued. The man clearly had issues. She peered out the window to see if he’d left now that he watched her arrive at work. No such luck.

“I called Morgan. He’s not happy Blake’s out there. He’ll have a word.”

Juliana glanced at Cullen but quickly turned her attention back to the vampire across the street. “Will it do any good?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe. Maybe not. Peter Blake may not be Charles Morgan but he wields his own kind of power in these parts. The boss has to tread carefully.”

Cursed vampires and their damn politics. She hated that part of their world and it was something she was never ever going to be able to get away from. Being Thomas’s mate kind of assured that. “I need to go get ready,” she told him and headed to the locker room.

Candy was already in the room popping her gum when Juliana walked in. The usually friendly woman rolled her eyes and turned her back. “What’s up with you?” Juliana asked.

“As if you don’t know.”

This is why she didn’t get along well with women. She didn’t know how to do the whole nuance, emotional touchy-feely thing. “If I knew I wouldn’t have asked.”

Candy snapped around to face her. “I just don’t get it. You’re new. Nobody should give a shit about you and you’ve got Bobby driving you home, Morgan telling Cullen to keep an eye on you and even Blake is hanging around. Spreading yourself a little thin aren’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just because you aren’t wearing the marks, doesn’t mean you aren’t a slave just like the rest of them.”

That stopped Juliana’s anger short. Candy thought she was a blood slave. And why shouldn’t she? It was easier to let her think that than to explain that Morgan picked up on her tendency to attract trouble, and perhaps so had Bobby. Or that Peter Blake saw her as a puzzle he needed to figure out by whatever means necessary.

“That’s what I thought,” Candy said and slammed her locker shut, obviously taking Juliana’s silence as agreement.

Juliana sighed and changed into her uniform. This was going to be a long night.

***

It was shortly after midnight when Nathaniel came in and made his way to a table at the back of the room. What was he doing here? He’d positioned himself in Candy’s area, so Juliana ignored him for the time being. She had drinks to serve and hands to dodge. Once she’d made the circuit around her section, she told Cullen she was going on break and headed to Nathaniel’s table.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she sat in the chair beside him.

“You supposed to be sitting with the customers?” He took a drink from the mug in front of him.

“Not usually, no, but Cullen’s seen you. He knows you’re my roommate. Besides if you were worried about that you wouldn’t have come here.”

He shrugged. “True enough.” He glanced around to make sure they were alone before picking up his phone and sliding through several screens. After a moment he handed the phone to her. A photo of a beautiful redhead corpse filled the screen.

She glanced at her partner in surprise. “When?”

“They found her this morning. It took this long for it to get through the channels to us. Same MO. Fresh bites, looks like she had sex right before, I’m guessing they aren’t going to find any DNA.”

Juliana looked at the screen again and was overcome by a sense of familiarity. She’d seen this girl before she was sure of it. “Does she have any tattoos?”

Nathaniel took the phone and flipped through a few more screens before handing it back. There were several images of tattoos on the screen, undoubtedly taken for identification. One of the photos showed a line of small stars on the girl’s neck. Damn it. She handed the phone back to the wolf. “I’ve seen her.”

His eyebrows shot up into his hairline in surprise. “When?”

“Here. Last night. She was the one in the hallway.”

“Shit. Do you—”

“This is my table,” Candy’s voice cut across Nathaniel’s stopping him from saying anything else.

“Not waiting on it,” Juliana said, pointing out the obvious. She didn’t have time for Candy’s shit right now.

“Yeah, well, I’m waiting on all yours. You want to get off your ass and get back to work?”

Although she could tell Nathaniel was annoyed, his lips twitched. “You just make friends wherever you go, don’t you?”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Candy didn’t move. “I said I’ll be there in a minute,” Juliana repeated. She kept eye contact with Candy until she turned in a huff and walked off.

Juliana turned her attention back to Nathaniel as she stood and grabbed her tray off the table.   She leaned over and spoke in Nathaniel’s ear to make sure no one overheard. “Peter Blake is the vamp’s name. Have them pick him up and find out what the hell he’s been up to, other than being an asshole.”

***

“They grabbed your vampire. Wasn’t too hard since he was standing across the street from Lust when they found him,” Nathaniel said as she slid into the car at the end of her shift.

“He’s not my anything,” she said, slamming the door shut. “Did they get anything out of him?”

He shook his head. “Agency picked him up. Locals refused to cooperate.”

Irritation throbbed through her. “I’m not surprised. The impression I got from Cullen was even Morgan’s afraid to cross him.”

“We can grab a portal if you want to watch the questioning.”

“I think that might be a good idea.” Ordinarily she’d let the agents do their job but Ben had made it clear that didn’t always happen around here if a vampire was involved. She wanted to make sure nothing got overlooked.

When they arrived back at the loft, Nathaniel called for a portal and they stepped through into the observation room. A lone agent awaited their arrival, his suit jacket was thrown over a nearby chair and dark circles framed his eyes.

He held out a hand to them in greeting as the portal shut down. “West and Norris I presume?” he said, shaking their hands in turn. “I’m Walker Andrews. Nice to meet you.”

“He say anything yet?” Juliana asked as she stepped up to the two-way mirror.

Blake reclined in the chair with an elbow resting on the back. Every question the agent asked him, Blake’s answer was “I didn’t do it.” Or “It wasn’t me.” He had that cocky half smile on his face and Juliana itched to slap it off. Arrogant bastard. It was obvious from looking at him, that he wasn’t the least concerned that he’d been picked up for suspicion of murder.

A tech walked into the room and handed a piece of paper to the interrogator. The woman read the note and smiled. “And what would you say, Mr. Blake if I told you that we had a warrant to compare your bite to the bites on our victims?”

Blake’s sure smile faltered a little at the edges and his eyes narrowed, if only for an instant.