“Not good enough, Stern. You have until tomorrow to wind up your investigations and hand the woman back for prosecution.”
Prosecution. He snorted softly. So Sam’s fate had already been decided—and she was being shafted big-time. The question he had to answer now was why. And there was precious little time in which to do it. “You’ll have my final report tomorrow afternoon.”
Hanrahan nodded. “See that I do.”
The screen went blank. Gabriel swore and leaned back in his chair. Someone wanted Sam out of the way, someone powerful enough to put pressure on Hanrahan to wind up an investigation.
He had to find Sam, and fast. Not that he had any intention of handing her over to anyone—at least until he’d sorted out the puzzle she presented. But where would she have gone? Where would he have gone, in the same situation?
Jack had been her partner for five years. Given their work, the stress and long hours it often entailed—as well as the fact they were rumored to have been lovers—she had to have known him better than anyone. Except, maybe, his wife.
Which was exactly where he would have started. He swung back around. “Computer, do we have an address for Jack Kazdan?”
“Subject currently has two addresses listed—19 Lincoln Street, Mulgrave, and Apartment 811, 15 Russell Street, Melbourne.”
He raised his eyebrows. That end of Russell Street was right near Federation Square and considered prime real estate. Kazdan, like Sam and her Brighton apartment directly opposite the beach, should never have been able to afford to rent a bathroom in that area, let alone own an apartment.
Maybe the two of them had some connection other than sex. “Which address is listed as his permanent address?”
“Mulgrave.”
Great. It might be only a ten-minute flight in normal conditions, but the wind was picking up. He rolled his shoulders slightly. The muscles protested. If he flew anymore today, there’d be hell to pay tomorrow. But flying was quicker than driving, and he had a suspicion he’d better get to Mulgrave promptly or risk losing Ryan for good.
He stood and headed for the roof.
THE HALL WAS EMPTY. Sam bit her lip and pressed back against the wall. Slowly, carefully, she edged along to the next doorway. After silently counting to three, she quickly stepped inside, her gaze sweeping the semidarkness. Nothing.
Tension slithered through her limbs. They were here, somewhere. She could feel them—a whisper of evil that burned across her skin. She moved on to the next room, but it, too, was empty. She flexed her fingers and tried to relax a little. The last thing she needed right now was to blow someone else’s head off.
Another board creaked, this time in the kitchen. It didn’t make any sense. She’d checked the house and had found no one, though she had stupidly left the back door open. But the vampire, at least, shouldn’t have come in from outside. Vampires couldn’t move around in daylight—it was the one myth that was true.
Yet Jack’s body, or at least his clone’s, hadn’t burned when touched by sunlight. But then, maybe the real Jack had been the vampire, not the clone.
She stared at the kitchen door for a moment longer, then took a deep breath and kicked it open. Two people sat at the table, drinking coffee, totally unconcerned by her sudden appearance. One was a man she didn’t recognize—he was the vampire she’d sensed. The shifter she’d sensed was Suzy. Sam frowned. Why had she never noticed this before? Or had she been too busy hating to observe the almost translucent quality of Suzy’s skin—the sure sign of a shifter?
“Well, well, if it isn’t the little cop killer,” Suzy said, her tone dry but her eyes stormy with hatred.
The tension in her limbs increased, though not because of Suzy’s words. The vampire’s expression was one of amusement. Either he hadn’t yet seen the weapon in her hand, or he simply didn’t care because he knew she’d never have time to use it.
Heat washed over her skin, whispering secrets to her mind. A second vampire was behind her.
She spun, pressing her finger against the trigger as she did. The weapon bucked as it fired, throwing her back against the wall. A blue bolt of light hit the second vampire square in the chest. He made no sound, just fell down in a heap, gasping for air and clutching at his chest. He was lucky she’d switched the gun to a lower setting; otherwise he’d have a hole burned right through the middle of him.
Behind her, a chair lightly scraped across the tiles. She swung back around and fired a second shot. The blue bolt hit the first vampire in the side of the head. He went down fast, hitting the ground with bone-jarring force. She swung around, centering the weapon on Suzy.
“Unless you want to end up lying next to your coffee-swilling friend, get up and drag this thing into the kitchen for me.” She lightly toed the vampire at her feet and then stepped back.
Suzy rose, hate warring with fear in her eyes. Moving with a model’s grace, she walked across and grabbed the second vampire by the arms. With some effort, she dragged him to the table, dropped him next to the first vampire, then crossed her arms and resumed her glaring. Sam couldn’t help noticing the slight rounding of her stomach. Suzy was pregnant. She wondered if Jack knew.
Sam stepped back into the room and kicked the door shut, ensuring no one else could sneak up on her. “Now sit back down.”
Suzy did. “How dare you come into my house and assault my friends like this?”
Sam snorted. “Say that with a little more venom and I might just believe these two are actually your friends.”
“What are you here for, Samantha? Come to finish the job you started with Jack?”
“The man I shot wasn’t Jack, and we both know it.”
Amusement flickered through the hate. So she’d guessed right. Suzy did know about the clone.
“And that’s your defense? It wasn’t Jack?” Suzy gave a mocking, hard-edged laugh. “They’re really going to believe that.”
“They will when I produce the real thing. Where is he?”
“Like I’d really tell you if I knew.”
She knew, all right. The cynical half-smile touching her artificially full lips said as much.
“Then tell me why you came back here today,” Sam said.
“I live here, remember?”
Not recently, she hadn’t. Maybe she’d come here to collect something Jack had forgotten—like a certain set of digital disks. Sam frowned. If Jack was a vampire, it made sense he’d keep Suzy near to do his daytime work. What didn’t make sense was the fact that he’d sent two guards, both of them vampires.
Apparently, they could move around in sunlight. But how? Her gaze flicked down to the two men. There was enough light coming in through the kitchen window and back door to cause them discomfort, yet their skin remained a pasty white, untouched by the slightest hint of burn.
It also appeared shiny, as if someone had taken a roll of cellophane wrap and stretched it tightly across their faces.
Had someone figured out a way to enable vampires to move around in the sunlight? Foreboding began to beat through her. If that were true, it could be very, very bad.
“Don’t move, Suz. Or I will shoot, love of Jack’s life or not.”
Suzy gave her a mutinous look and crossed her arms. A sign of rebellion and compliance in one action, Sam thought grimly. She knelt next to the men and lightly touched the first vampire’s face. He glared at her, brown eyes promising death—or worse—when he could move. Not that she was planning to hang around until then. His cheek felt as shiny as it looked, and sort of wet.
She looked at the vampire she’d shot in the head. What looked like skin had peeled away from the wound near his temple. She grasped it and pulled. With a weird sucking sound, a three-inch sliver came away.
Though it felt like real skin, the odd shininess suggested it was some sort of plasticlike substance. She shoved it into her pocket. Maybe Gabriel would know what to make of it—once he’d finished throwing the book at her for escaping his noose yet again. She rose and returned her gaze to Suzy.
>
“Time to cut to the chase. I know, and you know, that Jack’s alive. I want you to arrange a meet. Midnight tomorrow at the Dragon and George.” Hopefully, that would give Gabriel enough time to calm down, and her enough time to convince him this was a good move.
“He won’t come.”
“Oh, I think he will. Especially if you tell him that I have the disks.”
Suzy’s gaze narrowed. There was nothing pretty about her face now. In fact, she looked like the harridan Sam had always thought her. “That’s theft, Officer. Those disks belong to me.”
Suzy didn’t ask which disks, Sam noted. “So report me.”
Suzy didn’t respond to that, and Sam half smiled as she added, “Just give Jack the message.”
“Why, so you can kill him all over again?”
“If it’s another clone rather than the real Jack, most certainly. And if it’s not the real Jack, the disks are history.”
“He’ll kill you, you know.”
The venom in Suzy’s rich voice sent a shiver down her spine. “If he tries, I’ll shoot his brains out. Again.”
One of the vampires on the floor moved. Though it wasn’t much more than a fingertip, it was warning enough that the painful effects of the wound were starting to wear off. She backed toward the door. There was no way in hell she wanted to be around when those two got mobile. She might still have the laser, but they were both pretty pissed off, and she’d lost the element of surprise. Plus, there was Suzy. Three against one weren’t good odds, whether or not she was armed.
“It was such a pleasure to see you again, Suz.”
Suzy didn’t reply. Grinning slightly, Sam backed out the door. And realized about a heartbeat too late that someone was standing behind her.
HER REACTIONS, GABRIEL THOUGHT, WERE almost too fast to be human. Though he hadn’t spoken, much less made a sound, she seemed to sense his presence behind her. She leapt away with almost vampiric speed and spun, her left hand raising so fast it seemed to blur.
It was then that he saw the deadly Holcroft laser clenched between her fingers.
“Whoa. I’m on your side, remember?” He raised his hands and watched her blue eyes. With most people, the pupil dilated a little before the trigger was pulled—not much of a warning, but generally, it was the difference between life and death. Of course, as he was beginning to discover, she wasn’t most people.
Luckily, it was recognition, not the need to kill, that sparked in the depths of her eyes. She lowered the laser but didn’t entirely relax. Neither did he.
“How did you find me so quickly?” Despite her question, she didn’t really seem all that surprised to see him there.
He shrugged. “It wasn’t all that hard to guess where you might go.” He hesitated, hearing movement inside the house. Footsteps, receding slightly. “Suzy’s obviously home.”
She grimaced. “Yeah. And she’s not alone. Can we get out of here?”
“Why? What have you done now?” From inside the house came an odd sound—like someone was scuffling around on the floor. He glanced down at the weapon in her hand. Obviously, she’d used it to incapacitate one of Suzy’s companions.
“They attacked me. I defended myself.” She hesitated, her bright gaze searching his face, lingering a little on the side that held the bruises. “You can’t go in there.”
“Why not?” Given that he was supposed to be in charge of the investigation against her, he was duty bound to go inside. Of course, he and duty weren’t often the companions they were supposed to be—not that she knew that.
She hesitated. Deciding, he guessed, whether or not he could be trusted. Something he had a feeling wouldn’t happen fully unless he reciprocated. And that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Hell, the only people he completely trusted were his twin and the rest of his immediate family.
“I’ve asked Suzy to arrange a meeting with Jack. If either of them suspects your mob is involved, they won’t come.”
By “your mob” she obviously meant the SIU rather than the Federation, as very few people knew of his involvement with the latter. But such a meeting could prove very interesting indeed. At the very least, it might just prove how much Kazdan, and ultimately Sethanon, knew about the Federation’s infiltration of the SIU.
“Kazdan’s smart enough to realize the SIU would have to be involved. He’d be more suspicious if I wasn’t there.”
She tilted her head slightly, her expression a mix of curiosity and dislike. “You don’t like him.”
And that was obviously a bad mark in her books, despite the fact that Jack had tried to kill her. “No, I don’t,” he said, a little sharper than intended.
She raised a pale eyebrow. He rubbed a hand across his rough jaw, wondering where the sudden rush of anger had come from. “Look, I’ve got a cab waiting out front.” He’d arranged for one to be here so she wouldn’t question how he’d arrived. “I think we need to go somewhere and talk.”
She nodded. “Preferably somewhere with food. I’m starved.”
If she thought it strange that he was using a cab rather than an official car, she certainly didn’t mention it. “Fine. But first, tell me who’s in there with Suzy.”
Her hesitation was brief, but nevertheless there. He couldn’t say he entirely blamed her. So far, he’d given her no real reason to trust him.
“Two vampires. Guards, I presume.”
And somehow, she’d bested not one, but two of them. Something no human should have been capable of—even when armed with a Holcroft laser. The human eye and brain just weren’t designed to assimilate the speed with which a vampire could move. That was why most humans thought vampires could disappear into shadows. The fact was, they couldn’t. Humans just couldn’t see their movements.
Usually, the only vampires killed by humans were the newly turned, the careless, or those so fed up with eternal afterlife that they virtually committed suicide. From what he’d seen of Kazdan, the two guards he’d sent with his wife would be the best. Yet Sam had beaten them.
Maybe Karl was right after all.
“Why did you leave them alive?”
Her eyes widened and color leached from her face, only to be quickly replaced by a flush that spoke of anger. Her fingers clenched and unclenched around the laser. He watched her warily. Her psych profile suggested her hatred of vampires ran so deep that her response when confronted by one would be to shoot first and ask questions later.
She might have shot, but she didn’t kill. A huge difference.
“I wanted to give Jack some reason to trust me.”
“If it weren’t for Jack, would you have killed them?”
She glared at him. “What do you think?”
He thought not. Somehow, the profile and the computers had gotten it wrong. She might hate them, but she wouldn’t kill them, not unless forced to. As she had been forced to kill Kazdan’s clone.
“I think it’s time we get something to eat.” He stepped back and motioned her to go first.
After a moment, she did. The bright yellow cab waited out front, stopped right behind an old Caddy with darkly tinted windows. A vamp wagon if ever he’d seen one. He frowned slightly, studying the car as he opened the cab door for her. When he’d walked past it earlier, he could have sworn he’d felt heat coming from the engine. But that didn’t make sense—not if the two men inside were vampires.
“Did the vamps arrive in that car?”
She glanced at him over the roof of the cab, and then glanced at the car. “I don’t know. It wasn’t here when I arrived, though.”
Odd. But as they were probably being watched by those still inside the house, he resisted the impulse to inspect the car. Instead, he climbed in the cab and fed the computer the address of a restaurant in the Southgate entertainment complex. It was owned by a good friend, and he knew it would be safe to talk there.
The seat belt sign flashed. He buckled up, then glanced across at Sam. Her color was still high, and she refused to acknowledge his
stare. At least she no longer held the laser. Maybe she’d put it away to avoid the temptation to shoot him. Where had she gotten the weapon in the first place? At Kazdan’s? And if so, how did that fiend get hold of it? Through Sethanon, or through his sources on the street? Either was a pretty frightening thought.
The cab sped away, the electric motor humming through the silence growing between them. He returned his gaze to the road and watched the traffic roll by. It took just over half an hour to get to Melbourne. The cab rolled to a stop near Princess Bridge. He swiped his credit card through the debit slot, then climbed out and walked around the cab. Sam stood on the pavement, arms crossed, eyeing the mid-afternoon crowds somewhat pensively. “When you suggested we talk, I thought you meant to go somewhere quiet.”
“What can be quieter than standing alone in a crowd of strangers?” He led the way to the steps leading down to the promenade. Han’s restaurant sat in the shadows of the bridge, overlooking the Yarra River.
She flashed him a surprised look, a smile almost touching her lush lips. “Is that a quote from Kuchoner?”
He nodded. “A great poet and something of a favorite of mine.” He noted the surprise that flitted across her face and smiled grimly. “What, I’m with the SIU, so I’m not allowed any interests outside the paranormal?”
“Well, that’s the rumor, and from what I’ve seen, the truth.”
“Then you haven’t seen enough.”
“Obviously.”
He opened the restaurant door and ushered her through. Inside, it was dark, the only light coming from the rainbow sparkle that played like stars across the ceiling. But in an hour or so, when the restaurant officially opened for evening trade, candlelight would join the stars and help provide the intimate, magical atmosphere that made Han’s so popular.
“Gabriel, my friend.” A big man loomed out of the darkness, arms opened wide. “It is so good to see you.”
He allowed himself to be engulfed, and he briefly returned Han’s embrace. “And you, old friend.”
Han stepped away, wide grin barely visible beneath his bushy handlebar mustache. “And who is this pretty little lady?”