BodySnatchers (6 page)

Could she be wrong about vampires? Was there such a thing as
a good vampire, or was it all a part of his act? Mentally shaking herself, she
stared across at Melisande. “Don’t you understand? The two guys in the other
room are vampires, creatures of the night. Honey, they’re bloodsucking
monsters!”

“No.
You
don’t understand. They might be vampires,
but they’re more human than my father. He was the monster.” She yanked her
hands from Reggie’s. “The sun’s up. You can leave now.”

Chapter Five

The door closed behind Reggie with a resounding slam. She
hadn’t bothered to say goodbye, thank you or kiss my ass as she left.

And Yuri hadn’t tried to stop her. He couldn’t hold her
captive forever. Having promised to let her go at sunup, he wouldn’t go back on
his word. Even when his insides screamed he was a fool to let her go.

Why should he care?

“I still think you took a big risk letting her leave on her
own.” Torsten leaned against the bar separating the kitchen from the living
area. “She could lead others back here.”

“She won’t,” Yuri said, wondering if he was right. Although
he’d healed her wound, she hadn’t wanted him to. She didn’t like vampires, and
she was bound and determined to kill every last one of them. What made him
think she wouldn’t come back with a bunch of her buddies at the PIA and finish
him off?

Nothing.

He was living on wishful thinking, and that kind of thinking
got a vampire dusted.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Melisande entered the living area
from Yuri’s bedroom. “I can see why Yuri’s enchanted by her. Although she
didn’t seem to share the sentiment.”

“I’m not enchanted.” He shot a fierce frown toward
Melisande.

She smiled.

“I pulled her out of a tight situation, that’s all,” he
continued as if he needed to explain himself. As if he
ever
explained
his actions.

“Then why did you make love to her not once but twice and
then come out of there with a hard-on the size of Copenhagen?” Melisande’s gaze
flicked to Yuri’s pants, still slightly bulging from his tumble with Reggie.

Yuri’s frown transferred to his friend. “I’m not immune to a
sexy woman. That doesn’t mean I have feelings for her. She’s a vampire-hating
stranger, for the love of God. She tried to kill me.”

“Stimulating, wasn’t it?” Torsten grinned. “I don’t think
I’ve seen you this intrigued with a woman. Ever.”

“Enough,” Yuri said, his voice firm. All he wanted was to
put her out of his mind. “We have bigger problems to worry about than a PIA
agent.” Even if she had hair the color of fire and skin so soft… Yuri forced
himself back on track. “Seems our man Andrei is up to his old tricks.”

“Are you sure Andrei’s behind the gang attack last night?”
Torsten asked.

“I saw a tattoo on Cesar’s arm.” Yuri’s chest tightened when
he thought of the shot they’d fired at Reggie and how they’d hunted her down.
“It was Andrei’s mark of the dragon.”

“How bad is that?” Melisande asked.

“We have no idea how many gang members he might have
recruited. They’ve already captured over a dozen young women.”

“Damn.” Torsten shoved a hand through his long blond hair.

“We may not have much time.” Yuri stared at the curtains
covering the windows, the daylight edging in around the sides making him
squint.

Frustration welled up inside him. He needed every hour of
the day and night to find Andrei. He was as slippery as they came, and too evil
for too long to change.

“Not much we can do until nightfall.” Torsten yawned. “I’m
for some rest.”

“What about me?” Melisande asked. “I can go out during the
daylight.”

“No!” Both Yuri and Torsten shouted in unison.

“You two treat me like a baby. I’m twenty-three and old
enough to make up my own mind.”

“Yeah, and you fit the profile for Andrei’s buyers.” Yuri
touched a hand to her cheek. “Young, pretty and alone. We know you can make
your own decisions, but we can’t help you during the daytime. Andrei’s been
known to get his human minions to work the dayshift for him.”

“Still…” Melisande frowned. “I feel so useless. While
Reggie’s out fighting the bad guys, you two keep me cocooned from everything in
here. I’m getting bored, and I want to go back to my classes.”

“You will,
ma petite
, soon enough.” Yuri pressed a
kiss to her forehead as he would a child. At twenty-three, she wasn’t much more
than a child. “Let us take care of Andrei first. No woman is safe out there
right now.”

“You let Reggie go,” she pointed out.

“She’s trained in law enforcement and self-defense,” Yuri
said. “Taking care of herself is second nature.”

Melisande’s brows rose. “Then why didn’t you let her leave
when she wanted to instead of waiting until daylight?”

Gotcha.

Yuri clamped his lips closed. He wasn’t going down that
path. He hadn’t wanted her to leave, but he’d promised her by daylight.

“I think our Yuri has met his match in Reggie. Wouldn’t you
say?” Torsten laid an arm across Yuri’s shoulders, a smirky grin quirking his
lips upward. “In the meantime, let’s get some rest for the night ahead. We have
a lot of work to do in order to find and rein in Andrei.”

* * * * *

Heads popped up over the tops of walled cubicles as Reggie
stormed through the offices of the Paranormal Investigations Agency. When she
reached Blake Tanner’s office, she marched in without knocking, slinging the
door open so fast it crashed against the wall. “Where’s Madison?”

She’d been by their apartment before she came to the
station. No amount of calling raised Madison on her cell phone. Reggie’s last
hope was that she’d made it back to the station in the time it had taken for
her to get from Yuri’s penthouse to the station.

Tanner rose from the chair behind his desk, a phone pressed
to his ear and scowl on his face. “I understand, sir. We have our best people
on the case and hope to have it wrapped up by tonight.” He nodded as if the man
on the other end of the line could see him. “Yes sir. I understand how
important the safety of the city is to you. Yes sir, I’ll keep you informed.
Thank you, sir.” The line clicked loud enough that Tanner jerked the phone away
from his ear with a wince. Then he set it back in its receiver and turned his
full attention to Reggie. “Have a seat.”

“I don’t need a freakin’ seat. I want to know where the hell
my sister is.”

Tanner looked her square in the eye, one of his better
traits. He didn’t waste words or hold back on the truth. “She never came in
after the mission went south. I have ten people out combing the streets for
some sign of her, and so far I’ve gotten no reports.”

He walked around the desk and reached out to pat her back,
the movement awkward but well-intentioned. The man was typical type A and
didn’t know an emotion until it slapped him in the face. But not a man or woman
on his team had any doubt he’d give his life for every one of them. “I’m sorry,
Reggie.”

“Well, sorry ain’t cuttin’ it.” Brushing away a tear, she
glared at him through watery eyes. She would not break down in front of this
man or any other, for that matter. “She’s my sister,” she whispered, biting
hard on her lip to keep it from trembling.

“I know, and we’ll find her.” He turned away, his motions
jerky. The man probably wasn’t used to tears on a team consisting predominantly
of men. If she and Madison hadn’t gotten in his face and more or less worn him
down, they would never have been allowed on the team. “We recovered Macias and
Jones where they’d set up audio surveillance.”

Reggie gulped back her tears, her breath caught in her
throat. “Dead?”

“Didn’t even have a chance. Necks broken and both drained.
Looked like the work of vampires. Up until you walked in the door, we though
you and Madison were going on our list of missing women.”

He didn’t complete the thought. Instead of both of them
going on the missing women list, Madison would be the only one unless she
miraculously appeared in the next few hours. Where the hell was she?

“I have people out looking for you both. I’ll let them know
at least
you’re
back.” He sighed and sat behind his desk, rifling
through the stack of files until he unearthed one. He glanced across at her. “I
take it you’re not going to get any rest after being up all night?”

“You got that right. I can’t rest until I know where Madison
is.”

“Good, then you can follow up on a lead we just got. An A.
Skirko owns a warehouse on the waterfront. Word on the street has it that he
might be involved somehow with the disappearances. I want you to take Humberto
and check it out. And this time, don’t lose your partner.” His words weren’t
said with malice, but he meant it nonetheless. The rule in this business was to
fly with a wingman and never let him out of sight.

Reggie understood, but her reckless sister didn’t always
play by the rules, and sometimes that came back to bite her. Hopefully, this
time the bite wasn’t from a vampire.

“By the way, where were you? Why didn’t you report in?”
Tanner pinned her with a stare. “You had us all worried.”

Now was the time to tell her boss she’d been detained by a
vampire and held until dawn. If she were a good agent, she’d do it without
hesitation. An image of Yuri Kovak sprang to mind. The image where he wasn’t
wearing a shirt and she was naked. Her body tensed all over again. “When I lost
Madison, I hunkered down in a safe place until daylight.”

His attention was back on the stack of documents in front of
him. “Smart move. Next time, try to get a call in to me.”

“Yes sir.” She spun on her heel and headed to her desk. Once
seated, she gathered her thoughts. Where was Madison? The only leads she had
were the Dragóns and the folder Tanner had given her.

The Dragóns were a diverse group of gang members, primarily
from the poor neighborhoods. Kids who’d been left to run the streets by parents
who were either too spaced-out on drugs or just didn’t give a damn. Those kids
grew into criminals, running in packs like rabid dogs, ripe for any illegal way
to make a buck. Nothing was off-limits to them. Stealing, killing and
kidnapping women would be right up their alley. But was there a bigger fish to
fry at the core of their work?

Reggie pored over the file of A. Skirko, foreign-born
businessman with substantial financial holdings in the Houston area, including
shipping ties and warehouses along the waterfront. She jotted down the
addresses of the places that might be used to hold over a dozen—make that
fourteen women, counting Madison. Reggie refused to believe any one of them was
dead, and her sister was only waiting for her to find her and save her sorry
ass.

And she’d kick it from here to tomorrow, after Madison was
safe and sound back home.

“Bert?” she yelled as she rose from her desk.

“Yo, Reggie, good to see you back in one piece. Like the
shirt.” He nodded at the cleavage no amount of tying could cover.

He was a notorious yet harmless womanizer, but all in all
not too bad. Reggie had worked with him on occasion when Madison was out sick.
“Keep it in your pants, Casanova. We have work to do.”

In one of the agency’s nondescript gray sedans, they
traveled east along the congested highways crisscrossing the metropolitan
spread that was Houston toward the inland waterways and ports. When they turned
onto the road where one of the warehouses was located, Reggie caught glimpses
of the water between the rows of buildings.

Clouds churned in the sky, blotting out the sun and turning
the water to a perpetual dark gray.

Reggie parked the car three buildings shy of their target,
pulling around back, out of sight. When she got out, she was hit with the full
force of the coastal humidity the air conditioner had effectively cut up to
this point. “Remind me why I live in Houston?” she grumbled.

Her family had been in Houston as far back as her
great-great grandfather. They’d settled in this area, coming all the way from
Ireland to start over in the new world. Why couldn’t they have found a cooler,
drier place to start a new life?

With her sister’s life hanging in the balance, she had to
hurry. Reggie broke into a jog, covering the distance between the buildings
with Bert barely keeping up.

All the warehouses looked pretty much the same, and she
feared she’d lose count or get the wrong one. Then she recognized the symbol
painted in bold black across the back door of one of them. She’d seen it in the
file and on Cesar’s arm in the form of a tattoo. It was a circle made of the
coil of a snake’s body with the head and tail of a dragon. “I’ll take door
number one.”

“Sure this is it?”

“Absolutely.” She grabbed the doorknob on the off chance it
would open, only to be disappointed. The door was locked.

“How do you suggest we get in?”

“There has to be a way.” She scanned the walls of the
steel-and-metal-sided building. Without so much as a window close enough to the
ground to crawl into, the place was a veritable fortress.

A truck rumbled along the street out front, slowing to a
stop.

Reggie ran toward it, calling back over her shoulder, “Come
on.”

Tucked in the shadow cast by the morning sun, Reggie and
Bert skimmed along the sheet metal siding to the front where a delivery truck
stood. The driver honked three times and waited.

When the giant doors rolled open, a man stepped out to speak
to the driver.

“Be ready. We’re going in,” Reggie said, never taking her
gaze from the truck.

“What? Are you crazy?” Bert whispered. “We don’t know how
many people are inside.”

“A chance we’ll have to take.” Especially if her sister was
inside. “I tell you what, you stay out here and keep your eyes peeled for
trouble.”

“I can’t let you go in by yourself.”