Black Moon Rising (DarkLife Saga) (6 page)

She dropped her head to the crook of my shoulder for a few moments before raising it to weakly smile at me.  I tilted her chin and kissed her.  “I changed my mind; I don't want you to do it.”

“Don’t be silly, Valeria; the man needs our help.  Of course, I’ll do it.”  She waved her hand through the air and nervously laughed.  “I’ll be alright. You’re not going to let anything bad happen to me.”

I kissed her again and began maneuvering her
toward the bed.  “You’re right because you're not going to do it.  I’ll find another way...but enough of that.”  I pushed her back onto the bed and climbed on top of her.  “Right now, all I want is you.”

Irulan purred and reached up to pull my hair back out of my face.  “Ooh baby…you know I want you.”  Her tone was all wrong.

“Why do I hear a 'but' somewhere in there?”

She gripped my hips and winched.  “I’m going to be running on a daytime schedule tomorrow, baby.  I need to grab a few hours of sleep.”

“Let me guess, Marcus.”

She frowned.  “Don’t even, it’s your pig-headed fault I’m working with him in the first place.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on reigning in the sexual tension that was riding my aura.  Two nights of let downs in a row was so not kosher.  I nodded my head and rolled off of her.  “Yeah, no, it’s okay. It's cool.”

I rolled to my side, putting my back to her and settled into my pillow.  Irulan poked my side.  “No, you are not pouting like a poor, sex-starved teenager.  Come on, Val.”

Okay so I was pouting.  I rolled over and stuck out my tongue at her.  “Promise me he doesn’t have you doing anything dangerous.”

She promptly bit my bottom lip before falling back on her pillow, pulling me with her.  “The only thing I’m in danger of getting is a paper cut baby.”

I settled into her arms and let my mind begin to wander.  “If you say so, I guess I’ll get up and go see Baker tomorrow.  I might be able to jog his memory and come up with something else.”

“Alright, Val, don't push it,
out by eight, in by ten.”

“Not a problem.”

I was the last person Nurse Champion expected to see walking through the recently repaired doors of her unit the next morning.  “Ms. Trumaine,” she said surprised.  “I wasn’t expecting to see you this time of the day.”

I put on my best neutral face, and swallowed the sarcastic remark that was building in my throat.  I mean--all these people claim to be such big fans, but the minute they see one of us out in the sunlight, they freak out.  Hell, if it wasn’t for the damn cameras that tried to follow me around, most humans wouldn’t even be able to tell what I was.  It was getting really, really old, but I held it in.  What I said to her was, “I’ll be home long before it gets too dangerous for me to be out.”

When I walked into William Baker's room, the man I found was a far cry from the one I met a few days ago.  Gone was the shaken mass of nerves that was lost in an oversized unflattering drab hospital getup.  He was sitting at the table pouring over piles of newspapers, with a determined look on his face.  His head snapped up when I moved
toward him.

“Ms. Trumaine,” he eagerly exclaimed as he jumped up from his seat and took my hand.  “Have you found out anything?”

“Isn’t this a change?  What happened to the man that was ready to die?”  I sat down across from him and slid one of his papers in my direction.  “Do you mind?”

I held the paper up to my face and waited for a reaction.  I didn’t have to wait long.  William snatched the paper from my hands, crumpled it up and tossed it to the floor.

“The man you met couldn’t see anything past his own grief, even when it was staring him right in the face.”  The old codger leaned forward; the frail table creaked under the extra weight.  “That wasn’t me.  Someone killed my Fee and the only way I’m going to walk free is if you find out who did it.”

A veil of shadows fell across his face.  It wasn’t visible, but tangible just the same.  I knew that look.  I got it myself every time I detached my emotions from the heart before I had to make a kill.

“Justice and revenge are two entirely different things, William.  What are you going to do if we do find out who killed your wife and you're set free.  You won't be doing her any favors by landing yourself in jail for real.”

All the fire that was in William Baker's brown eyes faded, leaving doubt and uncertainty
, “I feel so helpless," he admitted, "I’m here while her killer is running free.”  He reached across the table and grabbed both of my hands.  “Please; you’ve got to find out who did this.  I don't care if I ever see the light of day again.  Just help me bring Fee’s killer to justice.”

“That’s why I’m here.”  I pulled my hands free and folded them across my lap.  “I have a few questions for you and I also want to slip into your mind with your permission.”

He shook his head yes without hesitation.  “Whatever you need, I’ll do anything.”

“
OKAY then, um, as far as you know can you tell me if any Extras live in your community?”

“No,” he answered, then paused and dropped his head like he was ashamed to continue.  “Our neighborhood is Extras free. That's one of the reasons we chose it.”

I caught the growl that was rumbling up my throat.  “I wasn’t aware that restrictions like that were legal.”

William turned red and scratched nervously at his beard.  “It’s not advertised, but everyone there moved to Green Haven because Extras were deterred when they came house hunting.”

“Um hum,” I mumbled as I focused on the reason I was here and not the nagging notion to get up and walk out on his ass.  “Look; I want you to concentrate on the last time you saw your wife alive.”

“That was right before I fell asleep.  She was in the bed beside my reading.”

“That’s good, think about that night; any dreams you might have had, and end up with your waking for the morning.”

He shied away from me as his face took on a sickly pallor.  “No, I don't want to remember seeing her like that.”

“You’re going to have to.  I need to see everything you saw.  Hopefully I’ll catch something that you may have missed considering everything that was going on.”

He slumped forward under the weight of his memories
, as he reluctantly let his mind take him back to the worst moment of his life.

As he relived the horror of finding his wife’s remains, I slipped into his thoughts.  He replayed every memory, and I poured over every thought looking for anything that might help me, but his thoughts weren't consistent.  I should have been able to hear anything that was going on in their bedroom.  His mind would have recorded whatever he heard, regardless if he were asleep or not.

I should have been able to hear Fee Baker crying out, begging, pleading, anything.  All I saw were empty black voids, where the memories should have been.  That's when I realized what I was looking at.  His mind had been glamoured some type of way.  If I had doubts as to whether or not an Extra committed the murder of his wife, now I had none.

Shit!  This still wouldn’t pass go in a human court.  It was times like this that I hated the separate legal systems.  As I pulled out of his mind, the dazed look that humans got when they were under our influence began to fade.

“Well,” he asked expectantly when he was back to himself.  “Did you find anything?”

“If you were an Extra I’d have you home by now.  You've been glamoured, William, but I have no scientific way to prove it, and the word of another vampire or even telepath, won't do either.  Don't worry, I’ll find something tangible.”

Yeah, I’m still going to prove he was innocent…even if he was a small minded bigot as far as Extras were concerned.  Once I get him in the clear, we're going to have to talk about his views.

Chapter 6

W
hile it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to find, the blank spots in William’s memory gave me hope.  The human courts might not recognize them as proof of innocence, but Valerian could certainly get the CMS involved now.  The foreign scent was a little sketchy, I’ll admit it, but any telepath could look into his head and see his memories have been tampered with.

I smiled and pulled my phone out to call Valerian with the good news as I walked out of the hospital.  The moment I set foot outside of the tinted doors, my smile fell.  Where most pureblood vampires had films over their eyes that allowed them to see their prey in ultraviolet, mines allowed me to see normally.  Without them, sunlight would be too blinding for me to be out in the day.  I was beyond shocked when the bright light of the midday sun cut through my films causing my eyes to burn and water.

I held my phone up, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the time.  Sweet Jesus, it was fifteen minutes till eleven.  I had fifteen minutes to make it across town in midday traffic, or else I was going to end up with one crispy little vampire.  Running would be faster than driving, but the sunlight was already hurting my eyes.  Running blind wasn’t an option.

I flashed to the car, pulling my keys from my pocket as I went.  Bile rose in my throat as I fought with the growing panic and focused on putting the key in the ignition.  “Come on, come on,” I mumbled to myself until the key slid home.

I’d been caught by the sun once and surprisingly enough had gained greater immunity for it, but the actual getting burned part, hurt like hell.  I’d rather not go through that again if I could help it.

I turned the key with one hand on the gearshift ready to throw the car into drive, but the engine didn’t purr to life like I expected.  The damn thing didn’t even turn over, cough, sputter--nothing.  “FUCK!”

I squinted away the red haze of tears that were pooled in my eyes and turned the key again.  Still I got nothing.  “SHIT!” I screamed and slammed my fist down on the dashboard.  The panel buckled and caved under my assault.  The seven hundred dollar radio I so lovingly installed just a few days earlier twisted and bent around my fist.  “For the love of…” I muttered as I dislodged my hand.

A ray of sun cut through the glass of my windshield and hit my arm setting it on fire.  A scream ripped
its way up my throat as my skin sizzled and smoked.  “Not good, not good,” I chanted as I reached into the back seat looking for anything to shield me from the looming midday sun.

The only thing I had was a thick newspaper.  It would have to do.  I popped my trunk, threw the paper over my head, snatched the keys and kicked my driver side door clear off
its hinges.

In less time than it takes me to blink, I was diving into my trunk and jerking the top down over me.  As fast as I was moving, it still wasn’t fast enough to keep the sun from scorching my hands where I held the newspaper.  They were both raw and covered in blisters.

I pulled a blanket over myself for added protection and gingerly slipped my cell from my pocket.  I dialed Irulan’s cell as carefully as I could to avoid brushing the sensitive skin on my hands against anything.  I wasn’t careful enough.

When Irulan answered the phone, I was out of breath from the Herculean task of trying not to scream my lungs out.

“Baby, are you working out with Yosh and his gang of lunatics?  You sound winded.”

“I wish,” I moaned.  I put the phone on speaker and dropped it.  Holding onto it was causing the blisters to crack and ooze this disgusting blackened blood.  “Ire…get to Billy Graham Memorial now!”

“Why in the hell aren't you at home?” she screeched.  I heard the sound of doors opening and closing and knew she was already on her way.

“The damn car wouldn’t start.
  My hands are fried and my eyes feel like I doused them in liquid sandpaper.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she huffed and the line went dead.  I threw my head back and let my body go limp.  Maybe if I didn’t think about the pain it would go away.

I lay there, still as the dead and tried to think happy thoughts.  I focused on my family.  I pictured Irulan's face, and the smile that graced it first thing in the morning.  I remembered the unnecessary look of trepidation on David’s face when I first took him to meet my parents. And the unexpected tears in his eyes when my mother snatched him into her arms and called him her grandson.

I replayed every decent second in my life since I’d mated with Irulan, but you know what, my hands still hurt like hell.  The pain was crazy but at least I was distracted.  I heard the ear splitting screech of tires spinning and knew it was Irulan.

Three loud knocks resounded over my head, and Irulan's muffled voice was music in my ears.  “Baby, I’m here.  Is there anything you can cover up with?”

“I’m wrapped in a blanket.  Why?”

She didn’t respond, but a few seconds later something jarred the entire car.  Car doors slammed, and she was back.  “I’ve backed my car up to yours and opened the trunk.  As soon as I pop your trunk, I’m going to get you into mines so I can get you out of here.”

I didn’t say a word.  I was too tired to speak.  I pulled the blanket tighter and braced myself.  The soft click of the trunk was my only warning before I felt myself floating through the air.  I landed with barely a thud and then the heat of the day was gone.

“I’ll have you home in just a few, Val,” Irulan called out to me as she started the car.

The vibrations of the engine must have rocked me to sleep because the next thing I knew I was at home, in my bed, staring up into the faces of not only Irulan and David, but Valerian and my mother as well
, “Hey, Ma, what are you doing here?”

“Making sure you're
okay,” she said as she sat down on the edge of my bed.  “Care to explain to me how you got caught in the midday sun?”

Not really
, no.  How was I supposed to tell her I was conducting an interview with a client Valerian wasn’t supposed to have?  I settled for the old standby…I shrugged my shoulders and humped.  “I don't know, Ma.”

My mother thumped me on the forehead and sighed.  “Whoever said girls were
easier lied.  None of your brothers gave me half as much grief at your age.”

“At my age,
Ma, I’m damn near a hundred years old.”

The entire house went hush.  David gulped and flashed away so fast my head was spinning.  Irulan groaned and slapped her palm to her forehead. 
Valerian was the only one who saw humor in my response.  He burst out laughing, but one look from our mother shut him up faster than I could say boo.

“Did you just use a swear while you were talking to me, young lady?” My mother hissed as she jumped up from the bed and firmly planted her hands on her hips.

I sat up on the bed and shook my head.  “Mother, I didn’t mean it like that and you know it.”

“It doesn’t matter how you meant it,” she rebounded.  “I don't care how old you get you'll never be old enough to use that tone when you're talking to me.  Am I clear?”

The natural instinct to talk shit and antagonize didn’t rear its ugly head.  I may be a smart ass, but I’m not stupid.  “Yes, mama,” I quietly answered, as I got up and brushed past her heading for the bathroom.

I stood in the mirror under the harsh florescent lights of the bathroom and slowly dropped my films.  My eyes were still scratchy, but I couldn’t assess the damage to my hands under blacklight.

My hands looked like oversized lobster claws, and my eyes were bloodshot. Their normal ice-blue coloring was a deep purple.  “For the love of Mike,” I exclaimed.

Valerian had better make good use of what I’d found inside of Williams head; I thought as I stood there staring at my poor hands.  Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

“Please tell me you're alright,” he whispered as he ducked inside the bathroom and quietly shut the door.

I held up my hands.  “Does this look alright to you?”

“Jesus Val, I am so sorry I should have handled Williams’s case on my own time and never involved you.”

“It’s not your fault my car wouldn’t start, Vedo.”  I said as I fruitlessly tried to pull open the medicine cabinet.  My brother reached by me and pulled it open.

“Val,” he said, his voice sounding hollow, “Your car was intentionally damaged.  Someone wanted to see you burn.”

“What?”  The glass jar I was holding in my hand shattered into so many pieces as I tightened my grip.  Valerian grabbed my hand and shoved it under the cool water of the faucet.

“Shit,” he exclaimed as he gingerly picked shards of cream covered glass out of my swollen, bleeding hand.  “What did you go and do that for Val?  That stuff is hard to come by, and your hands have been through enough already.”

I looked down at the mixture of blood and burn remedy that was swirling in the sink and an odd sense of calm spread through me.  I pulled my hand free from my brother's grip and wrapped a towel around it.

“My hands aren't what we need to be focusing on right now.  You need to call Marcus and let him know that we've got a murder committed by an Extras hand being handled by the CMPD.”

Valerian shook his head.  “I’ve tried that already with the scent you caught.  Daniels says unless we can identify the species, don't waste his time.”

That sounded like Marcus.  “Tell him to get one of the division telepaths to go down and read William Baker, and they'll find the same thing that I did.”

“And what was that?” He asked, his voice full of hope, betraying the calm façade he was trying to present.

“That Baker’s memory of the night of his wife’s murder is full of blank spots.”  His face lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning as he realized the full weight of my statement.  “That’s right Valerian.  He's been glamoured.  Show me a human that can do that.”

Valerian turned and reached for the door before I was through talking.  He stopped long enough to smack a kiss on my cheek.  “Thanks, sis,” he called out as he flashed through the hallway heading for his cell in another room.

I padded through the house, steeling myself for my overprotective mother’s hovering, but when I got to the living room the only people there were Irulan and David.  “So, where’s the crowd?” I asked as I flopped down on the couch between them.

David winched as he gently took one of my hands.  “
Grandma’s gone, she left right after you got fussed at, and Vedo just flew out of here saying something about work.”

He examined my hand before softly letting it go.  “Does it hurt much?”

“Not anymore, the blisters have healed; the swelling is uncomfortable, but that’s about it.  Once I feed, they'll be back to new.”

David solemnly nodded his head.  “So this is what happens when we’re exposed to the sun?”

“No, David, this is what happens when a pureblood is exposed to the sun.  If you were caught out in the open, your skin would blacken and begin to ash away until you found cover.”

He humped and got up.  “I’m glad you're
okay, Val,” he pecked me on the cheek and pointed toward the door.  “Is it okay if Dante spends the night again?”

“I don't see why not.”  David pumped his fist through the air and shot off.  “I’m still amazed at the change in him.  Once all that anger was gone, he turned back into a normal teenage boy.”

I twisted on the couch so I could look Irulan in the face.  On second thought, maybe I should have stayed the way I was.  She scowled at me with a look of such ill content that only age could have given someone the skill to don it so effectively.

“Um,” I wondered, almost scared to ask.  “Did I do something?”

“Why ask when you already know the answer?”  Her eyes, usually a sea of bright green, were clouded over with anger.  “You’ve been walking around here pissed at Marcus for asking me to fulfill an obligation that I made because of you, constantly asking me if he's got me doing anything dangerous and then you pull a stunt like this.”

As her anger built, the control on her glamour faded.  The human façade that she donned so easily blurred around the edges.  It almost looked like her body was coming apart at the seams.

“Baby I…”

“No!”  She shouted.  “Nothing you can say is going to make this right Val.”  She stomped her foot and sparks flew.  “Damn it; I thought all this lone-gun bullshit was going to stop when you left the CMS.  I almost lost you once; I’m not going to
lose you to sheer carelessness.”