Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (35 page)

“I’ve never sat in
the
front
of
the
Fiona Beetle
.
Such an honor,” he chuckle
d
with a
mischievous smirk
.

“
I know, you’re in Maddie’s seat.
Well, g
ood
morning!
Ready
?
”
I said, grinning
.

“
Let’s go.
Picking up anybody else
?” h
e inquired serenely
, his eyes holding mine.

I lost my train of thought for a moment, utterly distracted.

“No, haven’t heard back from anybody
and Maddie’s at soccer practice
.
I suppose Lauren and Willow are sleeping an
d haven’t seen the text message,” I
pointed out
, biting my lip to
hide
a smile.

He shut the door and buckled his seatbelt.

“
That’s fine with me.
I get Fiona to myself.
Hey, y
ou owe me one,”
he
said playfully, pointing to his tanned cheek
,
huge
grin lighting up his face
.

Ah, it was the deal I made in calculus class. I promised to kiss his cheek and he seemed
amused by
my apparent struggles on how
to proceed with
the
unexpected
request.
E
mbarrassed
,
I was
lucky it was still dark
outside
and he had closed the door
,
as
I was blushing
more with every second
that passed
.

Two scenarios
si
fted through my mind.
If I refused
his request
, it would put a damper on the mood in the car
and
increase the awkwardness
on the way to the cave
.
If I went through with it, well, I’d have to go through with it
,
and it seemed
like the act of
doing
it would be rather
humiliating
in a
peculiar
way
.

With flutters in my stomach, I leaned over to his
presented
cheek
, m
y lips connected, landing a brief, innocent kiss.
Upon the union of my lips to his cheek
,
I breathed in a
stronger
, more concentrated
version
of his
scent and I froze for a second
.
Twisting the key
,
I
ignited the engine
,
loo
king straight ahead at the road
,
feeling ill at ease for my inelegance.

“
Let’s go
!
”
I said, for a lack of something better to s
ay.

“Thank you for keeping the deal, Fi
ona.
You have very soft lips, my face
enjoyed it
,
and I will never wash it off
,”
h
e
said t
easingly in a velvet voice.

I had thought about what Maddie had said
and
knew it would hurt me far too much not to have Wolfe in my life.
I figured I could keep things playful between us wi
thout crossing the line for now until I figured things out.

After a quick car ride filled with a lively
and more serious
discussion of the potential of a serial killer in Godley Grove,
I pulled the
car
in the parking area next to the cave.
Seeming like a bad case of déjàvu,
we were
next to a crime scene van.
We hopped out of the car
and
sprinted over to
Detective Chase
at the
entrance of the c
ave.

“Glad you guys could make it,”
the detective
said, looking at Wolfe and
me
with a
curious
mask.

“
We’re glad to be here!
Lauren and Willow haven’t responded to my text yet
,
so I assume they’re sleeping
.
Maddie
’s
probably headed to soccer
by
now
,” I said as I viewed the time on my cell phone
.
“She was unable to miss practice
this
morning;
she’s got a game
Friday night.
”

Detective Chase
, wearing his black crime scene investigator jacket,
nodded as if he understood.
I couldn’t wait to have my own jacket like that one day.

“
Not a problem.
Alright
, shall we
?
”
he
held up the b
arrier tape, barely able to raise it
above Wolfe’s head.

We entered the
dark
main corridor of the cave,
and he passed
us
both a
n
industrial flashlight
.
Water droplets passed from the
stalactites
on t
he ceiling
, making random puddles on the ground
and the
musty aroma grew more intense a
s we progressed into the corridor, the limestone slush s
ounding
gritty underneath our fe
e
t.

N
ew
born
sunlight streamed through
the holes in the ceiling of
the Open Council Room
.
It was darker
in the room
than it had been before when I was there during midday
at full sunlight
.
The room
at dawn
was
even more
beautiful, tranquil
.
Listening to the
waterfall
,
I stalled
as
I stared at the spot
when we had embraced.
I tried
to capture and relive the
moment
while pretending
to survey the
room for evidence as we trekked towards the tunnel.

“Here we go, Wolfe,
go
first,”
he
directed sternly
, holding his flashlight stream down the tunnel for Wolfe as he clim
bed inside and crawled though.

I could hear distant voices belonging to the crime scene investigators
down
in Dracul’s Den.
I was next
to enter
,
and
after struggling to climb inside, I clumsily
followed
the irregularly worn bottom
s of Wolfe’s gray Vans as he
traversed through, trying to keep a
grip on
my flashlight as I moved forward.

As I
crawled half way through
the tunnel before the bend
, the static light beam behind me turned erratic as
Detective Chase
climbed
in
behind me
.
A slight tinge of panic stirred my senses as the
alabaster
walls close
d
in on me
, the air turning stuffy
.
With Wolfe in front
and Detective Chase behind
, the tunnel
constricted
as
I wiggled my way through on my elbows and knees.

A
surge of
adrenaline
blasted
through my veins,
forcing my
breathing to become rapid
,
and my head
to grow
fuzzy
.
I gasped for air as Wolfe
reached
the end and climbed onto the steep steps.
It was as if a gust of air whooshed in at me, allowing me to breathe deeply
, calming my secret panic attack.

I climbed
out of the tunnel with haste and jumped down
the
steep
steps
leading
into
Dracul’s Den
.
Detective Chase
was right behind me and
pointed to the section of the room
already
cleared by the
crime lab.
Wolfe and I took our places, surveying the room in what appeared to be a
d
éjà
vu
experience.

The crime scene investigators once again had the room well lit with generated lights and portable lanterns.
The cryptic graffiti on the bumpy, limestone walls and half-burned black candles in makeshift sconces hadn’t changed
since the Jody James murder
.
T
here
appeared to be
far
more blood on
the altar than in the Jody James’ case.

“Stay right there, folks.
This one isn’t going to take
as much time since there’s no
body.
We’ve already searched every nook and
cranny
of
the cave
.
The
body
isn’t here, it’s been moved,
”
Detective Chase reported a little breathless.

“Is there a murder weapon
?
”
I
wondered
,
camera
flashes
fir
ing
in all directions
from around the cave as the
investigator
s
diligently
record
ed
the scene.

“None found.
We assume
the murderer was a tad more careful this time
.
However, there were letters spelled
in blood on
the altar
.
”
he muttered, pointing
towards the
limestone altar
in the center of the room.

“What letters
?
”
I inquired abruptly
, surveying the dark blood stains on
the altar
.

“
SVA,
” Detective
Chase answered.

“What does that stand for
?
”
Wolfe added.

“Not sure but it could be for the Southern Vampire Alliance.”

“Would they be so obvious like that
?
”
I asked hastily.

“How do you kn
ow this is a murder
,
and
they weren’t just drinking each
other’s blood wi
th permission
?
”
Wolfe
inquired
.
“Isn’t that one of their tenets that Dimitri wrote?”

“Well, we have done more research on that practice
,
and it is rare
.
If
they do, there isn’t any waste.
They drink it from the vein
s
directly.
This much blood would definitely mean
the
death of the victim
.
I’ve seen other
murders
with
far less blood
at
the scene,
”
he
lamented, pointing
towards the
altar
.

F
rom
my vantage point
, I could see a
rough
outline of a body
in the taupe-colored limestone on the stage of
the altar
,
surrounded by
blood-soaked limestone.
I
elbowed Wolfe gently in the abdomen,
pointing
towards the
altar
.