Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (3 page)

Looking around, he waved her over to a spot before throwing another look around. Crouching, he leapt straight into the air onto a girder nearly thirty feet up. Balancing there he lifted a brow before dropping straight back down. “That”—he pointed to the print—“is nothing more than a push-off point. What is bothering me, I don’t see one other print leading up to it, not one. If you look at the floor all around the bodies there are boot prints but not a single paw print. Besides, if it was an actual push-off point, why isn’t it smeared? Blood is slick, that’s metal, it would have smeared no matter how a Luhpyne hit that wall. But it’s perfect, completely clear.” Zhubin shook his head.

“Unless the print was made with a body part,” Lacey whispered in horror. “Vhampires can hover in the air, right? I know we have several on the task force. Ask one to come in and take a bloody glove up and make a print. It’s the only thing that I can think of and if that is the case we have one hell of a freaking case on our hands.” One that would cause ripples in every aspect of society.

“Only other problem is I can smell Luhpyne in here and Vhampire as well as something else. I don’t know what it is, it’s being clouded by the blood which is annoying.” Cracking his neck he looked around. “Let’s go and see what the ME has found since she’s been here. I’d like to get the scene clear and then look around some more.”

“Sounds good. Maybe once we have the scene clear and the blood cleared up you will be able to use your sniffer and find something else, something that will help us out here.” Closing her small data pad she placed it in her jacket pocket and looked at him. “You okay, Zhubin? You are looking a little wolfy at the moment.” His eyes were glowing, his hands were curled and the claws were clearly visible.

He closed his eyes and a moment later, when they opened, they were back to normal. “Fine,” he said before spinning on a heel and moving toward the ME. “For future, note the term ‘wolfy’ is considered highly derogatory by my people. What do you have, doc?” he asked, stopping a few feet from the woman.

“We have six casualties, possibly another given what the officer has been letting me know from the hospital.” She looked at them. “Agent Rose.” She tipped her head to her. “Two non-human, I’m guessing from what I can see with a visual is they are likely Spirytes. The other four are humans. Of the three that went to the hospital, two are human and the third is Spiryte. He’s the one that may not make it through surgery given the extent of his injuries.”

She bent and lifted the edge of a tarp. “All their hands were removed. Cleanly and post mortem from what I can determine here on site. Looks like a sharp single-bladed tool with some weight. Again, can’t be positive until I do the autopsies. Obviously without the hands and corresponding wrists we will need to go old school and use dental records to identify the humans. The Spirytes, if they truly are Spiryte, will be a little harder to identify as I’ll have to contact their embassy and get permission to access the records.”

She didn’t even look to Zhubin or ask for his assistance in that but continued on. “From what I can determine and from body positions, they were all surprised. Two were hit in the back, unknown weapon at this time. The other four turned and were hit by the same unknown weapon. The three that are in hospital were likely on the fringes of this meet and were running. One was by the door where you came in and the other two were near a fire exit at the back.”

“From the hits, do you think we have one unsub or multiples?” Everyone hit differently, it was a signature in and of itself because no two people held a weapon the same way or hit the same way. It was unique to each person. “Why would so many have been gathered here, of all places? There are much more secure and safe areas in which to meet, even if it were for some nefarious purpose there would be a better place to meet than here,” she asked, to herself more than anyone else.

“I would, at a guess and the autopsy will confirm, I would guess three, perhaps four. As to why they gathered here”—she straightened and waved in her people—“that is up to you, Agent Rose, to discover. I will have the preliminary autopsy sent to your datapad by morning but this will take a bit of time to sort out so it will be at least a day or two before I can give you anything more. All right, lads, nice and gentle with them. They have a story to tell us and we need to respect that.” Stepping away from them she moved over to another body.

“Thoughts?” Zhubin looked to Lacey.

“Honestly?” Lacey looked up at him and at his nod said, “One thing that Spirytes are really, very good at is creating new identities for people. Some of them have the tech to replace the receivers behind the ears as well as the chips in the arms. If I had to guess I would say that the Lhupines that were here were trying to get away from something. I don’t know why I think that, but those are my thoughts on it.”

Nodding, he folded his arms over his chest and looked around. “Once they have the bodies out of here we need to work this from the start. See if we can figure out anything else, because I have to admit, something feels off to me. Let’s take a look at the personal effects before the lab boys take everything back. Might be a clue there.”

She nodded and when they were alone she looked up, “I wasn’t trying to be offensive. How long have we been partners, Zhubin? I’ve said that to you before. I’ve called you ‘wolfy’ before and you have never taken offense. I swear I wasn’t trying to be mean or rude or anything like that, just letting you know so that we didn’t scare off another tech.”

“I know.” He shoved a hand through his black hair. “I’m just feeling on edge, damned full moon’s in three nights and always makes me a bigger ass than normal. Ignore me,” he muttered, moving toward the bins of collected evidence. Crouching, he began to dig through slowly, looking at everything, turning it over and then either setting it on a lid to the side or dropping it back into the bin.

Placing her hand on his shoulder she gave him a light squeeze and said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s all good. Just wanted to make sure that you knew I wasn’t trying to be a bitch.” She then said, “Wait, stop.” She tugged at his shoulder, impossible to move him but had to get his attention. “Don’t touch another thing, Zhubin. Look,” she whispered and touched her ear. “We need bomb squad, now.” The small device was hidden under what looked to be trash and if Zhubin had moved one more piece, damn. “Back up, please.” She added the word that she typically didn’t use.

Moving his hands slowly he stood and, arm out in front of her, backed her up. “Get the squad,” he told her, moving back to the tub. “I’m not going to touch it,” he said when she grabbed his arm. “But I need to get a scent and can’t with yours mingling in and distracting me. Get them, I’ll be moving my ass back right fast,” he promised, looking her in the eye, “Go.”

“Don’t you dare. I will be mightily pissed off if you get yourself hurt, Zhubin. I mean it.” He might not want her as what she was to him, but she didn’t want him hurt regardless. He meant far too much to her for that. “Don’t touch it. Scent is fine but not touching. I mean it. I will kick your ass from here to hell and back if you do.”

“You and what army?” he asked, cocking a brow. “Go, the longer we stand here the more chance the thing has of going off. And if it’s from one of the realms, the Gods only know how much damage it can do. I’m going to sniff and then retreat to an extremely healthy distance.” He turned and then stilled, his head tipping slightly. “Fuck!” Spinning, he scooped her up over his shoulder and ran. “Everyone out, now!” he bellowed. “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!”

Lacey lifted herself up, the silence the first thing that caught her, and then the white blinding light only a moment before they flew in the air. She was sure she screamed, but when she finally landed she hit a little harder than she would have liked, blacking out as she bounced her head on the concrete. Her last thoughts before the darkness closed in were, “Zhu,” she whispered and was out.

There was a low groan and then a weight lifted. Someone hit her face. “Lacey, open your eyes,” his voice, Zhubin’s voice, called to her. “Come on, Lacey, open our eyes and look at me. Lacey, come on little one, eyes open, focus on me, come on damn it.”

“Geez Louise, did someone get the number of that planet that hit me?” Lacey didn’t open her eyes but she lifted a hand to her eyes, covering them and shaking as she did so. “Zhu, shit, you okay?” she asked and blinked her eyes open, forcing herself to focus on at least one of the three Zhubins that danced before her eyes. “And you said I had a hard head.” She snorted and closed her eyes again. “Damn that hurt.”

“I’ll survive,” he told her, moving his fingers to gently check her head. Hissing out a breath just as she cursed he winced, “You are going to have one hell of a bump. The medics are going to need to look you over so do not move. Not one inch and do whatever the fuck they say, clear?” Turning he waved at the EMTs, not once acknowledging the shrapnel sticking out of his back and shoulders.

Lacey frowned, his image before her dancing around but she raised to her elbows, wanted to hurl but reached out. “Son of a fucking bitch.” She swatted at the first medic to reach her. “Fucking hell, don’t touch me. He’s the one hurt.” She grumbled and grabbed Zhubin’s hand. “Don’t fucking play macho hero. Let them look at you and then I will let them have a go at me. I mean it,” she muttered. “Just let them get it out and bandaged so that you can start to heal. I mean it, Zhubin.” She growled.

“What?” He frowned at her and then looked over his shoulder. “Shit,” he breathed out long and low. “I didn’t even feel that.” Sitting down next to her he shot her a look. “Obviously your vision’s getting better if you managed to actually focus to see that.”

“There are like three of you but yeah, I see it,” she muttered and reached out a shaky hand to find his. “But the blood kinda gave it away too.” She leaned back and sighed. “That’s going to hurt like hell when they pull it out, squeeze my hand if you need to or yell, either one,” she added with a smile.

“We have a higher pain threshold than humans do. And if I squeezed your hand I’d likely crush the bones,” he reminded her. But he didn’t pull his hand from her grip, just shifted the hold slightly and cradled it to his thigh. The EMT began to yank out the shrapnel as he sat looking down at her, his thumb rubbing slowly over her knuckles.

“Thanks,” Lacey whispered. “For saving my ass. Thank you.” She then did as the EMTs instructed, opening her eyes and wincing at the light they shone into her eyes. Finally she pushed them away and shook her head. “We have a killer to catch. I will take some Tylenol when I get home for the headache. For now, we have a case.” She had to put her thoughts, her feelings to the side or she would wallow in the feeling of having Zhubin holding her hand close, the feeling of the heat of his body close. Nope, she had to focus on the task at hand, catching a killer.

“You’re going home and resting,” Zhubin told her as he got to his feet. Scooping her into his arms he looked at the EMTs. “I’ll make sure she rests and I’ll even poke her once an hour to ensure she still knows what happened and who she is. Back off.” He growled at them, sending them running. Snorting, he headed toward their vehicle. “Humans,” he muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes at her. “Scared of the big bad wolf.”

Lacey patted his chest and laughed. “Yeah, most of them are scared spitless of you. I bet that you and Ansell just don’t know what to do with me because I’m anything but scared to death of you guys.” She felt far too much for them to be afraid of them. If anything she was only afraid of them learning her secret and pushing her away faster than they could move.

“We’d much prefer if they acted somewhere in between the two extremes,” he said, ducking under the tape. Stopping by the vehicle he eased her to her feet. “We want them to remember we’re not human, but we’re not the beasts they think we are.” Unlocking the door, he helped her inside and got her buckled up. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”

“Yep, if I go there I will have mountains of paperwork to fill out and I honestly don’t want to deal with it. I just want to go home, take something for my headache and rest. It’s not the first time that I’ve been hit in the head, likely won’t be the last either.”

“And you wonder why I comment on how hard-headed you are?” He shook his head. Shutting the door, he walked around the vehicle but paused before he opened the door. For long moments he didn’t move and then he slid behind the wheel. “You do realize that pretty much all of our evidence just blew up in there right? And what didn’t is either long gone or ended up buried in my back, contaminating it all.”

“Yep but someone fucked up.” Lacey didn’t open her eyes, just spoke. “They tried to kill us. Knew that we were coming. The paper you lifted had my name on it,” she told him quietly. “So I have a pretty good idea who it is. And no, before you ask I don’t have a name.” Just a case long since buried, a case buried before she even came to be an AEDA agent.

Turning his head he pinned her with bright Luhpyne eyes. “What aren’t you telling me, Lacey?” He growled softly. “And don’t say nothing because that would be a lie. Which given someone just tried to kill us and my current mood wouldn’t bode well for anyone. So spill it, now.”

“When I was fresh from the Academy, before I joined AEDA,” she began softly. “I was attacked.” She pulled her scarf that she always wore from her neck and bared her neck to him for the first time, pretty much ever. “He had me by the throat, was going to kill me, but I was able to get my pistol up and between us. I was able to shoot him but not before he shook me like a rag doll and left these pretty scars for me to remember him for all time. Yep, good times. I just know that it’s him. I don’t know how I know, it’s just a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Could be because he called me some very strange things but he knew who I was, and who else would know me like that? No, I’m positive that it’s him.”

Reaching out he ran a very light finger over the scars on her throat and frowned, his eyes returning to their normal, if odd, coloring. “Those look like Luhpyne claw marks but they’re too narrow,” he murmured. Shifting in his seat he tipped her head gently and leaned in, still running a finger over the marks. “I’ve never seen anything that could do that. Do you know what he was?” he asked, looking into her eyes as he let her chin go.