Netherworld: Drop Dead Sexy (19 page)

The agents wove through the maze of
desks towards the back of the room. Neuhaus said, “It sure as hell
looks like a suicide, but that anonymous call—”

Heany nodded. “The vampire could’ve
glamoured Spaulding into hanging himself.”

Thrilled the detectives had arrived at
the same conclusion Tristan, Dan and I had, I followed them through
a door marked ‘Homicide’.

The homicide division was a smaller
version of the room we’d just left. Desks, chairs, computers,
telephones. A map with red pushpins hanging on a wall. Next to it,
a dry-erase board with lots of notes scribbled on it and pictures
of young women taped on top. Including mine. I recognized it as the
shot the escort service I’d worked for used, with perfect lighting,
flawless makeup and not a hair out of place. I was the prettiest
corpse on the board, as most of the other girls had not so
glamorous mug shots hanging up. I felt sorry that they hadn’t been
photographed nicer. Every girl should get to look
pretty.

I looked for Stacy Wilkerson’s picture
since she was the one that had been lost in the city below. Hers
was a mug shot too, the glaring light not kind to what had probably
been an attractive face. Limp brown hair hung down. Her eyes got my
attention the most. I don’t think I’d ever seen such vacant eyes
before, as blue and remote as the sky. Almost as if she’d been dead
before the Ripper had found her. I shuddered.

Heany and Neuhaus unknowingly joined me
at the board. They focused on my picture, where I smiled and
sparkled like a pageant contestant.

Neuhaus rubbed his chin. “This whole
thing’s got me wondering if Brandilynn Payson’s killer was our
serial perp after all.”

Heany sighed and stepped back to take
in the scribbled notes. He planted his hands on his hips. “Let’s go
over the differences and similarities. Difference one: Brandilynn
was an escort catering to wealthy men, not a street
prostitute.”

Neuhaus scribbled the note at the
bottom of the column beneath my picture. He kept writing.
“Difference two: there’s no evidence she was into blood sharing
with the Long Toothed.”

“Neither were three of the other
girls.”

Neuhaus huffed and erased the notation.
“True. Okay scratch that one. Brandilynn must have been stalked for
the unsub to have snagged her at Spaulding’s house. We’ve assumed
the other girls were just grabbed off the streets and
consumed.”

Heany snorted grim laughter. “You make
it sound like they were Happy Meals.”

“For this monster, they probably
were.”

While they talked, I drifted near a
computer and pulled in some energy, careful not to overdo it. I
just wanted a little boost after my run in with Erica and her
goons. I was so not getting high again and losing my ability to
concentrate.

Neuhaus continued. “This is my big
sticking point, him following Brandilynn to lover boy’s house. It
forced him to kill off Spaulding. He’s always taken his victims
with no known witnesses before. It just doesn’t match up with the
others.”

Heany looked over the scribbles.
“There’s a lot of heat on the areas where the first victims worked.
The killer is obviously local, so increased surveillance may have
forced him to upgrade to the more refined ladies of the trade.
Let’s look at the similarities.” He suddenly sounded like a college
professor as he ticked off points. “Like our other girls,
Brandilynn had sex for money. She was drained, mutilated, and
dumped in a remote area like the rest. The kind of cutting he did
on her body is the same as the previous vics, removing sexual
organs and breasts as well as creating new orifices for
use.”

I blanched to hear that tidbit. No
wonder Dan and Tristan had kept me from looking at my
body.

Neuhaus rubbed the back of his neck.
“Damn. If he’s changing his MO we don’t have a clue as to what
he’ll do next.”

A heavy tread coming into the room got
our attention, and we all turned to see Sheriff Grayson walk in. He
nodded to the agents, hitching up his pants. “I got some
interesting information for you boys.”

I could see their focus narrow like
laser points. Heany said, “We’re all ears, Sheriff.”

“Tristan Keith has put in a claim for
Brandilynn’s body.”

The moment of silence that followed his
announcement was thunderous. Even I was left with my mouth hanging
open.

Heany recovered and spoke first. “That
is interesting. What ties does the most important vampire in town
have to an escort who wasn’t a donor?”

“None that I know of.” Grayson looked
like a shark that smelled blood.

Neuhaus checked his watch. “Looks like
we’ll have to speak with the commissioner come sundown. What about
her family?”

“They don’t want her.”

No surprise there.

Grayson continued. “They’re richer than
God and high on the social ladder here. The media attention from
their estranged daughter being murdered has been a big
embarrassment to them. They’ve done little to cooperate with the
investigation, insisting Brandilynn was disowned long ago and has
no bearing on their lives.”

Heany glanced up at my portrait and
shook his head. “Social standing over family. Poor
girl.”

I had a sudden rush of like for the
agent. I drifted close to him, seeing real sympathy on his face as
he looked at my pretty picture.

Grayson hitched his pants again. The
man needed suspenders in the worst way. “The coroner’s got no
reason to not release the body to Keith, otherwise she’s the
county’s financial burden.”

Heany sighed. “For such a pretty girl,
Brandilynn, you sure are making things complicated.”

I smiled at him. “Yeah, sorry about
that.” I kissed him on the cheek.

Heany’s expression turned startled, and
he lifted a hand to touch his face. Oops, I must have gathered so
much energy that he’d felt me there.

Tristan had to be warned the FBI was
going to have some questions for him. I wanted him to answer a few
myself. Fixing the library in my mind, I left the police
station.

Chapter Eleven

This time I got it right and popped
right into the library. I didn’t see Dan anywhere, and I feared he
had gone back to the Union Street neighborhood to find me. Crap. I
so didn’t want to return there myself, but I wasn’t about to let
him put himself in danger for me. But just to be sure…

“Dan? Are you here?”

A heavy voice sounded from behind a
bookcase. “Hi, pretty girl.” One of Erica’s thugs stepped
out.

I screamed in surprise, and yes, a
little fear. As the other goon rose up from behind the librarian’s
checkout desk, I readied to pop back over to the police station.
Not that Neuhaus and Heany could protect me, but it seemed like a
good idea.

The goons were still far enough away
that I postponed my escape to deliver some righteous anger. “What
are you doing here? This isn’t your turf.”

Okay, so I didn’t know that for sure.
But I wanted a safe territory for myself, so I drew a line in the
sand.

Goon Number One stalked slow and easy
away from the shelves, not in any hurry at all. “We came to find
you. Give us a taste, pretty girl.”

That statement could be taken more than
one way, but Goon Number Two’s comment narrowed the options. “We’re
not supposed to feed off her. She belongs to him.”

I wondered who they talked about, Dan
or Tristan? It didn’t matter. The answer to either was the same. “I
don’t belong to anyone.”

The goons closed in on me, and I
decided to take my leave. I visualized the police station’s
homicide office and went for it. The library blurred slightly and
solidified again. Goons One and Two laughed when I remained in
place.

Oh crap. I tried again and got the same
result. The men kept coming at me, and I slowly backed away until
they trapped me in a corner. Books filling the shelves poked my
back, and I looked frantically for a big, heavy coffee table tome
to bash the malicious beasts with who now stood over me. All I saw
were slim books. What I wouldn’t have given for a Webster’s
unabridged dictionary right then.

Goon Two sneered at me. “You’re not
going anywhere, girlie.”

At the sound of footsteps, they glanced
over their shoulders then returned their attention to me. “About
time you showed up, Erica.”

The witch’s too pale face peered over
their shoulders. “I can’t just pop in and out, you know.” She
smiled sweetly, a blatant lie of kindness in the soft light. “Why
don’t you come along quietly, Brandilynn? It won’t hurt as
much.”

My fists clenched. I might go down.
Heck, who was I kidding? I would go down with the strength of the
Goons pitted against me. They’d get a fight though. If I suffered,
I’d give them their share as well, plus extra. “I’m not going
anywhere with you.”

Erica seemed amused at my show of
ferocity. “Yes you are.” She tossed another handful of green mist
at me in a light overhand throw.

With nowhere for me to go, it hit me. I
didn’t feel the substance pelt against my skin like I expected. It
seemed to pass right through my body. Yet in the next instant, I
felt a tug in my belly, like I’d been hooked and some sadistic
angler reeled me in. It grew painful fast.

Over my startled gasp, Erica said,
“Let’s go before her boyfriend shows up.”

The men stepped apart, and Erica walked
away. The power that snagged my guts yanked at me until I felt
ripped in half. I found myself pulled after the witch. I screamed
and jerked back. The pain got worse by about a million times,
letting up only when I staggered a few steps after Erica. I made
myself halt and the feeling of being torn apart increased. I
shrieked again.

“What have you done to me?”

Erica paused, turning to face me with a
happy smile. She’d landed her fish and was extremely pleased with
herself. “I’ve got you on a leash, so to speak. Come on,
Brandilynn. It’s almost dark and your master is expecting you.” She
turned towards the main doors again.

I didn’t want her to hurt me more than
she had. I sure didn’t want to go with her even more. Stalling for
time despite being bent almost double in agony, I gasped, “What
master?”

Erica stopped again, turning that smile
on me again. I so didn’t like seeing her happy at this point. I
would have loved to punch that little girl’s grin off her too-white
face. And when I heard her answer, I wanted to really pound on
her.

“The one who killed you, you silly
slut. The one who is going to make sure you keep your pretty mouth
shut for all eternity.”

Goons One and Two howled behind me, and
not in laughter. I heard torment in those cries. I caught a glimpse
of Erica’s smile falling off her face, replaced by cartoonish shock
as I turned to see what was happening. Dan stood behind the Goons,
his hands on their shoulders. As I stared, the two men faded before
my eyes, becoming insubstantial wisps of gauzy forms. They
screamed, horrible hellish wails filled with pain. Dan drew on
their essence, making them wraith before my dismayed
eyes.

Dan let them go and rushed at me. The
next thing I knew, he tossed me over his shoulder. I bounced in his
grip as he ran for the door. The pull of Erica’s ‘leash’ eased
considerably as he carried me past her then grew again as he put
distance between us.

“No!” she screamed, and I screamed too
while the pain doubled, quadrupled, million-dupled as we hit the
door. The agony became so intense I felt sure bloody insides would
burst from my gut.

Dan vaulted down the library steps, and
at the foot of them through my tears, I saw wards scratched into
the sidewalk. The moment Dan carried me over them, the terrible
pain vanished.

The darkness of the buried city blurred
and froze, and I clung to Dan as he transported us away from Erica
and her pet goons.

We landed in the King George’s lobby
amid the well-dressed dead. No one seemed to pay us much mind when
we materialized beneath the grand chandelier. The unseen band
played ‘In the Mood’.

Dan set me on my feet, and I clutched
at my stomach and its memory of pain. “Dan, oh my gosh. That really
hurt.”

He held onto my arm, as if afraid I’d
crumple to the floor. “It’s going to be all right.”

I straightened, wincing in anticipation
of the agony returning. Not even a twinge remained. I really was
okay. Dan slipped his arm around my waist nonetheless, helping me
to the clerk at the front desk. I’d forgotten the gentleman’s name,
but that was the least of my concerns right now.

The clerk, his smile pleasant but brow
pinched with obvious worry, handed Dan a key without being asked.
“Shall I send a message to Mr. Keith when he arrives?”

Dan nodded. “The serial killer sent a
witch after Brandilynn. We’ll need a practitioner to clear the
wards around the library.”

The desk clerk – Charles, his name was
Charles – lost his smile but not his professionalism. “Very good,
Mr. Saling. I hope the rest of your evening passes more pleasantly,
Miss.” He gave me a little bow.