Embraced by Darkness (13 page)

“Not if our vamp was an extremely strong psychic.”

“Can even the most powerful psychic push a human to superhuman extremes? I’ve never heard of a talent that could endow someone with that sort of strength.”

“There’s a lot of talents out there that we know a whole lot of nothing about,” Rhoan commented. “And there are lots of labs playing around with all sorts of enhancing drugs.”

“A comforting thought for those of us on the front line,” I muttered.

“Give it a few more years and you won’t even blink at the sort of crap you see or find.”

“Actually, that’s a place I’m fighting to stay away from.”

Rhoan’s gaze met mine, gray eyes serious. “You won’t have any other choice but to find that place in yourself. It’s either that, or go mad.”

“Then going mad is the better option.”

I didn’t
want
to have the skill to switch my emotions off. Didn’t want to ever lose the anger and horror of walking into a crime scene and seeing another useless death. For good or for bad, I was now a guardian, but I’d be damned if I became just another cold-blooded killer.

Which my brother, for all that I loved him, could be. I’d seen it happen. Seen the switch flicked.

It was damn scary stuff.

“Business, people, business,” Jack said. “Riley, I want you to go check the boyfriend’s current residence. See if there’s anything there that hints at supernatural or nonhuman involvement. Then check the girl’s apartment and go talk to her parents.”

I nodded. “What makes you think the boyfriend may have known this vamp, if indeed there was a vamp?”

“I doubt it was mere coincidence that this vamp and those two young people happened to arrive at that house the same night. Something is going on, and we need to uncover what.”

Before it happened again.

And it would happen again.

I shivered and rubbed my arms, wishing my goddamn clairvoyance would be a little more helpful. Like, give me a name, or a location, or something useful like that. Weird little premonitions of impending doom weren’t going to help anything, least of all my nerves.

“Rhoan, how are you doing with the Footscray killings?”

I jumped off the desk as Rhoan made his report, then dumped my purse on the next desk and sat down, logging into the computer and holding still for the eye scan. Once I’d typed in my password, I entered the system and pulled up Cole’s files. I studied his report but avoided the pictures. I’d seen more than enough bloodshed and human bits up close and personal.

There was nothing that leapt out and waved clue. Nothing that explained the sudden act of violence by a man apparently ready and willing to settle down with the woman he’d so brutally murdered.

Why would he do such a thing? There was no history of violence in Liam Barry’s background, no brushes with the law. He’d been a model student through school and university, and had been considered by the law firm he worked for future partner material.

So what had turned him? And how had he managed to tear Callie Harris—the woman he supposedly loved—limb from limb?

I didn’t know, but I had every intention of finding out.

I checked both his and his parents’ address, then glanced up at Jack, waiting until he and Rhoan had finished discussing the baby vamp case before saying, “I need a car.”

“See Salliane.”

“Unlike some in this room, that’s something I try to do as little as possible.”

He gave me his vampire face. The one that said he was annoyed but trying not to show it. “Will you two just quit the crap and get along?”

“Not possible, boss. She’s a cow, and I’m a bitch. Two species that will never see eye to eye.”

“Just get down there and get that car before I find something nasty for you to do.”

I was tempted to ask what could be worse than the murder scene he’d sent me to yesterday, but, knowing Jack, he probably
could
find something worse. So I shut my mouth, collected my purse, and got out of there.

The cow turned around as I entered the liaisons office, and rolled her brown eyes. She always reminded me of a caramel-haired Amazon—she had the height and the strength and the added bonus of big breasts. I pretty much figured she was wet-dream material for most men, which made Jack’s reluctance on the involvement front all the more puzzling. I mean, he was a man with needs, and Sal sure as hell was willing to fulfill each and every one of them. Or was it simply the fact that she was also a vamp? Quinn had told me two vamps couldn’t actually live together because of the whole territorial thing. And yet we had vamps living downstairs side by side without any real problems, so maybe Quinn had been flinging yet another lie. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

“Well, well,” she said, voice all sultry. “The mutt in person. Isn’t this a pleasure.”

I gave her my most pleasant smile. Her eyes narrowed and she stiffened in the seat, as if readying for an attack. Amusement bubbled through me. There might be parts of this job I hated, but God, little moments like this just made it all seem worthwhile.

“Jack sent me in here to show you how the liaison job is really done. He’s sick of your crappy mistakes.”

Her gaze darkened. “Jack would never say that!”

“If you think so, then you don’t know him as well as you think you do.” I swiped a set of keys off the hook and glanced at the number. “I’m taking car thirty-two.”

“That’s not your assigned car.”

“It is now,” I said airily, and walked out.

“Bitch!” she yelled after me.

I chuckled softly. No doubt she’d run to Jack and have a whine, which meant I’d get in trouble when I got back, but hey, if it pissed her off, then the pain of listening to Jack rant was worth it.

Though why I felt the need to be such a bitch around that woman, I couldn’t honestly say. She just rubbed me the wrong way—and that was never a good thing to do to a werewolf. Especially one armed with a mouth that tended to run out of control at the worst possible moments.

I found the car and headed out of the underground parking lot. Liam Barry lived in a Middle Park apartment that sat on busy Beaconsfield Parade, right opposite the beach. It was, I discovered when I got there, tiny—boasting one bedroom and a minute kitchen and living area—but the views were incredible.

I walked over to the mess of men’s magazines and discarded clothes, and stared out at the sea and sand for several moments, wishing I could throw open the windows and let the cool salty breeze in. Let it wash away the stale and unused feel of the apartment.

Forcing myself to turn away, I let my gaze sweep the tiny, dusty interior, looking for something that jumped out. Nothing did. The magazines and mess were pretty much what I expected from a high-flying bachelor—which, until he actually married Callie, was what he’d been. An attached bachelor, granted, but a bachelor all the same.

I toed through the magazines, then moved into the kitchen. His fridge had a sour smell, and the milk looked to be forming into butter. I shut the door quickly, wrinkling my nose at the odor. On the side of the fridge were several bills—electricity and gas. The only thing unusual about them was the fact they were overdue. For some of us, overdue bills were a fact of life—especially when we had a brother who loved shopping sprees—but Liam made a ton of money. Still, maybe he was just one of those people who tended to forget them.

I blew out a breath, then turned and walked into the bedroom. It was barely big enough to hold the king-sized bed. And the rumpled, stale-smelling sheets suggested they hadn’t been used or changed in quite a while. Obviously, Liam didn’t spend a whole lot of time here anymore. After searching through his closets and drawers, I gave it up as a bad joke and headed outside to suck in some air.

Once back in the car, I typed Callie’s address into the nav computer, then headed there. She lived several blocks up the road in Port Melbourne, in an old industrial area that was rapidly gaining popularity with young trendies who liked being close to both the city and the beach, but weren’t willing to foot the million-dollar price tags some of the other beachside suburbs were now commanding. Her apartment was one of those converted warehouses, with views over the bay and port.

Again, the apartment wasn’t big, but it had two bedrooms and a larger living space than Liam’s. He’d obviously been living here for a while, because his clothes were scattered haphazardly about. I searched through the rooms from top to bottom, but couldn’t find anything odd. There were lots of pictures of them together, and some of those had other people in them. They looked like a couple very much in love, which made what had happened all the more puzzling.

I pocketed a photo of the two of them and left. I’d barely reached the pavement when my cell phone rang, the sound seeming shrill and uneasy against the cool calm of the sea air.

Trepidation ran through me, and with some reluctance, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and answered.

“We’ve got another one,” Jack said bluntly.

Chapter 5

I
closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It didn’t do too much to ease the tension running through me. I didn’t want to face the destruction I’d faced yesterday. Didn’t want to face the horror and pain of another soul. Didn’t want to feel her in me or around me. Two in as many days was at least one too many.

“Exactly the same?” I asked, after a moment.

“Apparently so.”

“Where?”

“Essendon.”

Which was a northern suburb, and nowhere near Richmond. Which meant whatever the hell was going on wasn’t being restricted to the one area. “Cole on his way?”

“Yep. Should be there in five.”

“It’ll take me twenty or so.” I paused. “Were there any witnesses?”

“No neighbors reported anything. The woman’s sister found her this morning. She’s currently in the hospital under sedation.”

As she would be, if this morning’s murder was anything like yesterday’s. “Did she say anything to the cops beforehand?”

“No. And the cops have tried contacting the woman’s husband, but there’s no response. Apparently he didn’t turn up for work this morning.”

Her husband. Good Lord. I briefly closed my eyes and blew out a breath. “I’ll get there ASAP.”

“Keep me updated.”

“Will do.” I hung up and climbed into the car. The journey over wasn’t a pleasant one, my mind more on the images of bloodshed than the road. It was a wonder I didn’t crash.

Cole and his team were already in place and investigating by the time I pulled up. I ducked under the police tape and walked up the steps. The smell hit me almost immediately and I stopped, unwilling to face what I knew waited.

Because not only did death wait, but that thick sense of gloating evil, as well. It wanted a reaction.
Needed
a reaction.

And if my turning stomach was anything to go by, it might just get it.

Though I made no sound, footsteps began to echo through the house, heading in my direction. Cole was a wolf, even if he was a shifter rather than a were, and he must have scented me. He appeared out of the gloom of the hallway, stripping off bloody gloves and tossing them in the special waste unit that had been set up to one side of the door.

“It’s as bad as the first one,” he said, stopping in the doorway and filling my senses with his warm, masculine scent. It was a nice distraction, but one I knew couldn’t last.

“Same deal as before?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” His gaze swept me, but it was more clinical than interested. “You ready to face it?”

“Her,” I snapped. “Her soul is a
her
, same as she was.”

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Just reached to one side and handed me another pair of those paper-thin shoe-covers. “Use these. It’s pretty messy in there.”

I slipped the things on yet again, then asked, “Has the husband been found yet?”

“Nope. But he’s looking a likely suspect.”

“Except if this murder is like yesterday’s. Then something else is going down.” I stood up and blew out a breath. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

He stood to one side and waved me ahead of him. The stink hit harder the moment I stepped into the small hallway, filling every breath with the scent of death. I shuddered, and tried to ignore it.

Which was a hard thing to do when it seemed to permeate not only the air, but the walls themselves.

“Through the living room and into the kitchen,” Cole said, his warm voice almost jarring against the cold stillness of the house.

I walked through the living room, avoiding the bloody splashes and bits of gore. The bird-shifter glanced up and gave me a nod as I passed him, then got back to examining the bloody handprint on the wall.

There were more bloody prints on the doorframe. I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the tension rolling through me.

I knew what to expect. Knew it would be bad. And yet my stomach still recoiled when I saw the utter destruction of what once had been a human body. No mere man could have done this. Hell, even with the strength of a vampire and a werewolf behind me, I had serious doubts as to whether I could have done this.