By the time they reached head office, the iconic NEW SCOTLAND YARD sign spinning in the morning sunshine, she’d managed to get a grip. For now at least. Later, when she was alone, she’d replay the incident, over and over. That’s how it went. Some things had to be processed before they could be parked up.
Beside the steps leading to the huge gray building were three uniformed officers. That in itself wasn’t unusual, or disconcerting, but for Corey it was yet another reminder that her life had changed.
Flynn, Cooper, and Elijah stood in a semi-circle, shoulders back, feet hip width apart, talking quietly. Their peaked caps cast their faces in shade.
Like Ben, they all wore stab vests today with phones attached to the top right corner. Their belts were loaded with the usual paraphernalia, tight trousers hugged their cute butts and long legs, and their big boots were polished fit for an inspection.
As she approached with Ben, each vampire turned to face her.
Their scrutiny was a heated caress, and her cheeks flared.
She beat down the sensation their undivided attention drew. So what if they were all drop-dead handsome, intelligent, and fascinating with it and, not only that, she’d put good money on the fact that beneath those pristine uniforms their bodies were as perfect as their faces.
For God’s sake, they’re vampires. Get a grip, Corey.
“Good morning, Sergeants.” She came to a halt and shoved her hands in her trouser pockets.
“What happened?” Elijah swung his gaze from her to Ben. His eyes narrowed.
“Incident with a tanker. It came off the road, straight at us.”
Corey shuddered at the memory.
“Bloody hell.” Flynn stepped close, his mouth a downward curl. “Are you okay, lassie?” He brushed her shoulder, removing brick dust from her jacket.
“Yes, and I’m not a lassie.” She was his superior, even if she were a mere mortal and very squashable when it came to huge trucks and tunnel walls.
His eyes drilled into hers.
“Flynn, I’m fine, really.” She swallowed, her voice quieted. “Ben, he…he protected me.”
“Good job you were there.” Cooper clasped Ben’s shoulder. “I said we shouldn’t leave her alone.”
“Your vision was right.” Ben nodded and smiled at her. “Again.”
“What do you mean ‘vision’?” Corey asked, tearing her attention from Flynn’s face.
“Cooper has a way of guessing—” Ben started.
“Predicting,” Cooper said. “Call it a gut feeling, but times ten.”
“Oh, so you can predict where the shifter is, the murderer we need to have caught yesterday?”
“Sadly, when it comes to shifters and The Carlton Pack, then no, I can’t.”
“Who are The Carlton Pack?”
“A group of—”
“Good morning, ma’am.”
Corey turned at the sound of Nancy’s voice.
She stood with her partner, DS Patrick Jones, who appeared sleepy, as if he’d had a late one with a few Jamesons. For all Patrick appeared knackered, Nancy was perky. Complete opposites in the morning, by late afternoon Patrick would be ready to take on the world and Nancy would want her duvet and Netflix.
“Good morning, Inspectors.” Corey smiled.
“Are you coming in?” Patrick gestured to the entrance.
“Yes, in a minute.”
“Actually no, ma’am,” Cooper said. “We have somewhere to be.”
“Somewhere to be?” The only place she needed to be was her office so she could verbally abuse forensics if they hadn’t been up all night getting answers into her inbox.
“Yes, ma’am.” Cooper nodded, and his jaw tightened. “Somewhere to be.”
“Where?”
He didn’t answer.
She turned to Ben. He also kept quiet.
“We’ve actually got a few things to discuss with you,” Nancy said. “About the case. A convicted murderer just out of Belmarsh has a similar MO, thought we could go through the details and—”
“It won’t be him,” Elijah said.
Nancy swung her attention to the smart young policeman at her side. “I beg your pardon, Sergeant.”
Elijah hesitated, as if berating himself for speaking up. “What I mean is, if you’re talking about Denzel Drew, he’s already been ruled out of the investigation.”
“How did you know I meant Denzel Drew?” She paused, then after reading his badge, “Sergeant Benham.”
“A guess. We went through recent Belmarsh releases yesterday. His name came up.”
“Did you now? Is that really the job of a beat sergeant?” Nancy tilted her chin, and her eyes narrowed. It was her equivalent of putting on boxing gloves, Corey had seen it before. Nancy was little but she was feisty.
“It’s okay,” Corey said. “I asked him to do a check through recent releases.”
Patrick scowled. “When? I mean, we were waiting for you to come back after the second attack, but you were a no-show.”
“I got called away by the DCI.” They couldn’t argue with that.
“About the case?” Patrick asked, his attention skipping along the line of vampires standing at her side. Ben and Flynn on her right. Cooper and Elijah on her left.
She had the feeling she was being flanked by them, protected somehow, but not from a tanker this time, from members of her own team. The sudden feeling of being guarded, cared for, came over her. It wasn’t unpleasant; in fact, it was kind of hot.
“Yes, about the case, Patrick. Now it seems I do have to go somewhere.” She turned to Cooper. “Shall we?”
Chapter Five
“We’re going where?” she asked as Elijah opened the side door of a patrol vehicle, a plain black Transit van, the like of which she hadn’t seen before.
“To the Worshipful Company of the Ancient Order.”
“Remind me, which area of the city is that exactly?” Corey prided herself on her geographical knowledge of London and all the major institutions. Hell, she’d grown up here, hardly left the city apart from the odd jaunt to a Mediterranean beach for some sun and sangria over the years.
“It’s in Smithfield, ma’am.” Flynn climbed in behind her and slid the door shut with a slam.
“Master Concorde needs an update on what’s going on,” Cooper said.
“Plus he’d like to meet you,” Flynn added.
“And who is Master Concorde?”
“I guess the best way to describe him is to say he’s our version of your Henry. He gives out the orders, we follow them.”
She took a seat, side-on in the back of the vehicle on a long soft bench with safety buckles. Opposite was a range of high-tech surveillance equipment and monitors.
Elijah and Ben climbed in the front; she could see the backs of their heads through the oval window that was made of smoked glass.
“What is this vehicle?” she asked.
“It’s ours, for stakeouts.” Cooper’s leg pressed up against hers, hard and cool.
“Stakeouts?” She raised her eyebrows and kept her leg where it was. A little thrill went through her at his nearness.