“Let’s see if I can pass the exams first.” I laughed as I unloaded the contents of my bag and sat with my pen poised above the paper. “Okay, let’s get this out of the way, then we can sit and catch up properly. So, tell me about the murders.”
She beamed, but then instantly put on a serious face. Her eyes grew deadly serious. “I’ve never seen anything like it, V. I swear on my life.” She sighed, glancing out the window. “They’re butchering each other.” She pushed a newspaper, a few days old, across to me. It was open to a story about the rash of violent crimes plaguing the city. The center photo depicted the edge of a local road, dirty snow banked into drifts. Swaths of dark, bloody red cut across the surface. I stared at the unmistakable imprint of a body in the snowfall.
“This doesn’t look like a vamp scene,” was what I told her at first. For one principal reason. “They never leave that much blood behind.”
“It doesn’t look like a human scene either,” Lian countered.
“I don’t know…” Some of my forensics books would have disagreed. “Even good old mortal men can do some serious damage to each other.”
But Lian would not be persuaded otherwise. “I think they must be beefing pretty hard,” she said. “Otherwise, why kill like that? Doesn’t it seem like someone’s trying to send a message?”
I couldn’t hide the skepticism in my voice or face. “I mean, I guess so.” My gut told me her vamp assumption might not be completely correct. I knew that she was worried, and Lian was my best friend. “Listen, I can’t promise I’ll find anything out. But you need me, and I’ll try to figure out what the hell is going on.”
Instantly, she relaxed and smiled. “Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to bail on me for a second there.” She took a sip of her coffee. “To be honest, I’m more worried about the business than anything. These are my dad’s employees turning up dead. No one’s going to want to work with a company where everyone’s on a hit list.”
The point was salient. Still didn’t mean the vamps were the ones behind the carnage. Nonetheless, I had already made my commitment. “All right. If you’ve got any leads, I’d love to hear them. It’d help to hit the ground running.” I couldn’t imagine Mr. Zhao’s fishing empire going belly up, but the rumor mill was a powerful force, even in the city. It wouldn’t do to let shady gossip spread out of control.
“Not much,” Lian admitted. “Only that someone moved into one of the big houses down along the inlet recently. It’s been empty for months, but apparently there’s been recent traffic. Neighbors have seen comings and goings at night.”
It was only a blip on the radar, and an uncertain one at that. Still, it was the only crumb we had. “That’s a start.” I jotted down the address of the formerly empty house, as well as a few of the crime scene locations. “Anything else?”
Lian was quiet for a few minutes. “I really care for you, V,” she said softly. “So much. And I missed the hell out of you. Please be careful out there. I want you safe so we can grow old and move to Florida together as we agreed.”
I laughed lightly. “No promises,” I teased.
My friend rolled her eyes, walked around the island’s granite surface, and dragged me into a hug. Her breathing quickened as I knew she worried about those close to her a lot. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more,” she assured me. “Let me know if there’s any other way I can help you. Money, food, whatever.”
I pulled back. “Actually, you know what would be really helpful?” I grabbed my notepad and flipped it over to a clean page, then turned it toward her, offering the pen as well. “A map.”
“You got it.” She beamed a smile and studied the addresses she had just given me and then began to sketch.
Collecting my cup, I sipped my hot coffee as I watched her label landmarks and streets, an odd sense of foreboding crept up into my stomach. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t push it back down.
Chapter 5
Orion
I had a love-hate relationship with the house on the inlet shore. It rose three stories and an attic above the beach, and if I looked out the bedroom window on the top floor, I could see the slate-gray tide glimmering under the moon. That was the nice part.
My problem lay in the company I had chosen. Once spacious, the place had become crowded with conflicting energies, always at a high simmer. Some days it seemed as though one of us might end up a cadaver on the nightly news. Were I a betting man, my money would have gone on the demon. Nonetheless, I held my tongue. They were necessities for the moment, inconvenient generals in a war against the fools intruding upon my stronghold.
Rageful vengeance was my constant companion. I was the one who held Anchorage in the palm of my hand, who watched this microcosm spin on its axis. No one else had the right.
And I’d prove it—in any way I needed to. Fire burned through my veins with the need to hold onto it and not be driven from my home. Plus, I detested the Seattle clanmaster. Our pasts had clashed before. He took from me someone dear long ago. For that, I would destroy everything and everyone connected to him. Then I was going for him.
My enemies were relentless and always growing in number. I’d fought to claim this land for myself long ago from another clanmaster, and there was no way I’d let another take it from me.
Hence the present predicament.
If I closed my eyes, I could feel the angel and the demon in their opposite corners of the house, one brooding and cold, the other blazing with restless fire. More than once, the thought had crossed my mind that Seth might present more of an immediate threat than anything else, with the way he flung his flames around and never shut up. On the worst nights I fantasized about destroying the whole damn house—with him inside. But he offered the strength I needed, and beneath all the raging flames, Seth dealt with his own dark history. I did my research on who I asked to join me on this mission. Seth wore his fury as armor, but I trusted him to follow through on the plan as he needed a new start. I’d been there and I understood the desperation, so even if I wanted to kill him most days, a part of me sympathized with him and wanted to aid him. Though, I’d never tell him that as he’d gloat and use it against me at every argument we had.
Suddenly there was a knocking on the door. Through the peephole, I saw a lean, whipcord-tough young man, nattily dressed in a dark suit. His comb had left tracks in his oiled hair.
We stared at each other for a moment or two after I opened the door. He was obviously waiting for me to speak first, but I had nothing to say. He reeked of the rain-soaked artificiality of Seattle, the pollution and greed of the city. I knew exactly where he had come from.
“Clanmaster Orion?” The young vampire used the correct form of address, but he barely inclined his head, and he never broke eye contact. Rarely had I seen such flagrant disrespect from one who was little more than a toady in my eyes. An errand boy sent to do his own master’s bidding.
I smiled as disingenuously as possible. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” There was something about this boy that managed to grate on every nerve. Maybe it was the way he continued to stare me full in the face, his flat, pale eyes issuing the weakest form of challenge. It was maddening that he refused to look away, and even worse, that I knew he couldn’t back up any threat.