Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) (3 page)

I pulled into my
driveway and walked up to my small house that sat on the last remaining acre
owned by my family, the only piece of my grandfather I had. The man had died
before I was born. My grandfather once owned over a hundred acres of land in
this area but over the years my grandmother had to sell off parcels of it. I
held onto the house even though the neighborhood was quickly going downhill.

I unlocked the
door, stepped in tossing my keys onto the table, and strode into my bedroom
where I flopped across the bed exhausted. Images of the beautiful woman and a
faceless vampire flashed through my head as soon as I lay down. I could still
feel him inside me…her. Awful the way she died…but what a way to go.

Geesh, I was
disgusted by my rebellious libido. Perhaps if I had a playmate my libido
wouldn’t be so aroused by things that shouldn’t be arousing. It’d been too long
since a boyfriend, and I’d gotten to the point where just about anything made
me licentious.

I gave up on
fighting the need and slid open my nightstand drawer.

Chapter 3

Sunlight glared
through the window, mocking me. I’d gotten so distracted last night I forgot to
close the curtains.

Rolling over, I
stretched and tried to get out of the light, but it wasn’t working. I glanced
at the clock, 9:00 A.M. That was early for me. So not a morning person. Oh
well, I needed to get up and turn in my official statement at the station,
minus the overwhelming sex scenes. Didn’t think I could handle another round of
those images or emotions. But it didn’t matter what I wanted or could handle,
Malone would probably try to drag every little detail out of me like he always
did.

Shambling into
the bathroom like a zombie, I turned on the shower and let it warm up for a few
seconds before stepping in. The hot water sluiced over my skin reviving me a
little.

Even though
exhilarated by the shower, I still didn’t look forward to donning my official
role as Preternatural Investigator and Liaison today. I just wanted to be
simply Anwyn Rose, witch un-extraordinaire. Instead, I had to help the Flint
police find a vampire killing innocent human women.

Sounds crazy
right? Yeah, it is. Over half of the human population didn't believe in
vampires, witches or anything else that tended to go bump in the night. Of
course that was partially our fault. After The Hysteria event in the late
twentieth century killed many humans and Others, the remaining Others put together
a powerful long range spell that made humans forget. Mundane humans all went
back to believing Others were nothing but stories and fairy tales. Humans not
affected by the spell had enough Other blood inside them the spell didn’t take
or they were connected to Others by some kind of relationship, either personal,
professional, or political. Many with high rankings in human politics that
supported “our side” were spared from the spell.

The spelling
spanned the globe and did the job far more successfully than Others ever
intended. So much so, werewolves could wolf-out in the middle of the park and
some humans may just be like, “Cool, dude, where’s the movie crew.”

To make matters
worse here in Flint, there might actually be a movie crew somewhere close by.
Flint had become a cheap and sad Hollywood-esque destination for film makers.
The empty streets, abandoned buildings and people needing jobs made for good
filming conditions. Who knew?

So now, Others
like me-an empathic, clairsentient, sometimes psychic witch, helped protect the
humans from the bad guys that most didn’t even believe in.

It was all part
of my job as a Preternatural Investigator and special forensics consultant for
P.I.T. to become Preternatural Liaison for the state of Michigan. To those who
don’t know about Others I’m simply known as Detective Anwyn Rose for the FPD’s
Special Unit.

I went through
the academy, took all the necessary classes, took the test to get my
detective’s shield, and I have my concealed weapons permit to carry a gun just
like a normal cop. Well, most of the time I carried my gun but preferred
knives. A gun seemed worthless for most of the things I helped the police
track. I could use silver bullets but those only worked for the were-creatures
and vampires. Not that it would kill them but a silver bullet put a hurt on
them if one couldn’t get a kill shot. At least it slowed them down.

The
Preternatural Liaison position was relatively new, created several years ago
when the government officially decided the things that go bump in the night
really did exist and those monsters were committing crimes. Then the
enlightened law enforcement agencies realized not all the monsters were bad
guys, and they needed Others to help find the bad guys. Kinda like back in the
day when they used Native Americans to track other Native Americans. Only we
weren’t turning on our own kind, we were trying to keep the peace.

While the
majority of humans still didn’t believe in or just chose to ignore the
existence of Others, the US government along with a select few governmental
members of many other countries made it mandatory to have a Preternatural
Liaison on staff in all major cities. This helped create an understanding
between the humans and the Others and offered a mediator so no one got hurt.

I never thought
Flint was a large enough city to have a Liaison, but we’ve had an extraordinary
amount of crime in the past several years and most of it involved supernatural
qualities. Even the human crimes seemed to be spurred on by supernatural means,
we were just not sure why. Experts thought Flint sat right in the middle of a
preternatural hotbed—which could be causing the humans to act erratically.

I was just a
little witchling before getting this job. Most people still saw me as such, in
both the human and supernatural communities. Some of the Others on the P.I.T.
Crew didn’t see me as a valuable member of the team. Sometimes I questioned my
own validity. I rarely used my fancy college degrees or forensic knowledge,
mainly using my visions—which got the job done. But it didn’t feel like my real
skills were being put to the test. I still needed to prove myself to
everyone...including me. It made the job very exhausting.

Malone didn’t
treat me like the rest of the force did. He seemed to trust my skills and he
always had my back, even if he was staring at my backside in the process. He
didn’t know about Galen though.

Malone hated
vampires with a vengeance. But I couldn’t let his feelings or mine get in the
way of the job. I wanted to make my dad proud and follow in his footsteps.

I worked my ass
off to go above and beyond being just a beat cop out of the academy by
attending the paranormal forensics university where I graduated head of my
class. I became the youngest female cop to get my Detective shield in Michigan.
Then my name was one of the first to come up when the Liaison position opened.
But, most of the guys on the force made it clear I got the job and my shield
because of my dad. He was the head of The Preternatural Task Force during The
Hysteria, the twentieth century one. He died during the final battle that ended
that war…but his skills, and kills, were legendary.

The old timers
knew me as Sloane Tremaine’s kid, the witchy one, what’s she called, oh yeah,
She Who Knows.

Chapter 4

I stumbled into
the station still not feeling quite myself. I looked at the clock on the wall,
11:30 A.M. I normally rolled out of bed right about now. Instead here I was,
dressed and out of the house with a mochaccino in hand, ready to deal with
Detective Malone.

“Walking a
little funny today, Annie girl. You feeling Okay? Rough night?” Detective
Malone smiled at me. He looked fresh, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Could he be
more disgusting? As if he wasn’t annoying enough, I added being a morning
person to his list of offenses.

“I’m fine, just
tired.”

“I could have
helped last night, you know. Contrary to what you may think, some women have
found my kind of magick to be very pleasurable.” He puffed up, shook out his
sleeves, and turned up his collar like he assumed the role of suave and
debonair. Hah!

“Yeah, I bet.” I
snorted. Sure, many women probably did think of him as sexy. Okay a lot of
women did, I have seen them fall all over themselves to be near him. But Malone
and I…we were co-workers that was it. I glanced at him over the top of my
mochaccino.

Damn, there was
that look again, like I kicked a puppy or something. But just as soon as it
appeared it disappeared, like I had imagined it. Back to business as usual.

“Let’s get to
work then. Come up with anything useful from the visions?” His emphasis on the
word come did not go unnoticed, but I ignored it.

“No, nothing.
Nothing made him stand out. No hair color, eye color, scars, tattoos, anything.
No magick trace, nothing. It’s like a completely clean slate. All I get is the
woman’s feelings, emotions, impressions, but even then it’s like an edited
version. Anything she really saw was cleared out. I tried casting a few spells
to make things be seen openly but nothing works. This guy is too good.”

“Damn, that’s
what I was afraid of. Oh, well. I have the recorder, let’s get the whole vision
on file and don’t leave anything out, not one moan, or orgasm should be
deleted, okay?” He looked at me so intensely I shivered, feeling naked under
his gaze. He acted like I was going to tell him about my own sexual encounter.
Perv. I sighed and agreed to go through it all over again.

Malone turned
the recorder on and I closed my eyes, unable to look at him while reliving the
vision. He shifted in his seat and made a few of those coughing, throat
clearing sounds people make when uncomfortable.

By the time I
finished telling the tale my body sizzled in lusty heat, ready to pounce on the
first man I laid eyes on. The recorder clicked off.

I opened my eyes
to Mike Malone. His face flushed. He’d loosened his tie and his jacket had
disappeared. I bet he was pitching a tent under his desk. My curiosity really
wanted to look and find out. I stood up.

“Well, I better
go.” Damn, his jacket lay across his lap. I really needed to get out of that
stifling room filled with the scent of him. Why did the jerk have to smell so
good?

“Wait, there’s
something I haven’t told you yet.” He hesitated a moment, as if pulling himself
together, then continued, “I didn’t want it to interfere with the vision before
we had a chance to record it. We found out a bit of intel. The victim’s name
was Carrie Stevens. Looks like she had been at the VAMP last night with her
friend and roommate, Shelley. When she didn’t come home afterwards, Shelley
called to report her missing.”

“We already knew
she was at VAMP, we found her right behind it,” I said hurriedly, really
wanting to get out of there. The room overheated, so hot.

“No, we assumed
she had been at VAMP, but no one really confirmed it. There are a couple other
bars and clubs downtown she could have come out of.”

“Right, so now
we have confirmation that a murderous vampire was hanging out at a vampire
club. Damn, it’s not looking good for the vamps in town.” I squirmed and tugged
at my collar as I moved toward the door. “He’s one of them, not just hanging
out in shadows on the fringe anymore. He’s in their faces, in their clubs. One
of them has to know who he is.”

“Yeah, that’s
why we need you to go talk to Satinka Tala, the owner of VAMP.”

I stopped dead
in my tracks and turned to face Malone. “You’ve got to be kidding me! She’s the
Other big shot in the city, the top fang. I don’t know…I….” I couldn’t believe
my fumbling. Why? I shouldn’t be scared of Satinka Tala…something about her was
different, yet familiar. Couldn’t put my finger on why, maybe because she
wasn’t just a vampire; rumor has it she’s a shifter, too. Not a Were either,
but a flat out shifter, no moon needed.

It probably
wasn’t Satinka Tala making me hesitant, no something else…like, Galen might be
there. The guy…uh…vampire I totally crushed on. He made me tremble and shake
without ever touching me—and it had nothing to do with him being a vampire and
everything to do with my attraction to him. We had hung out a few times after a
mutual friend introduced us at a party, just casual stuff like having coffee
and walking in the park. Yeah, witches and vampires did normal things like
that, and yes vamps could drink things other than…blood

Before meeting
Galen I always thought vamps had to stay out of the sun but it seems that was
just a myth. Which was great because hanging out with Galen during the day had
been nice—and walking in a Flint park after dark could prove to be hazardous to
one’s health—even if they are Other.

I knew Galen
hung out at VAMP, even worked there for Satinka sometimes. I knew this
because…I knew things. I was that type of witch. Plus I, well…kinda made it my
business to find out as much about Galen as I could, which wasn’t a whole hell
of a lot, other than he hung out at VAMP and worked for Satinka Tala. Not sure
about Galen and Satinka’s connection, but I knew he was part of her entourage…
part of her inner circle, possibly one of the Guardians. I just prayed they
didn’t have a more intimate connection, considering my big time crush… cough…
obsession with him.