Cause of Death: Unnatural (The Cause of Death Series) (7 page)

Talking to Will should definitely be the next
step. Will would know Alina's
secrets,
he might even
know who this new power was. She'd love to just show up at Will's, sort it out
and close the damn case, but she knew that
Bec's
lieutenant and Robert would probably put two and two together soon enough and
the team would all be down at the warehouses looking for Will anyway. She may
as well do it all on the level. Explaining her hunch about 'the dealer'
connected to Alina's would be easy. It would be more challenging to lead a
search for his location without revealing that she goes there every few weeks
herself. But what was she saying? She loved a challenge.

Em sighed. There she was planning to dupe
Robert again. The man didn't deserve it. He might be a bit of a geek, but he
was blisteringly intelligent, sophisticated, and, if she admitted it, had a
sense of
humor
as dark as her own. She was beginning
to realize his curious desires might plunge just as deeply into the dark. That
was appealing. She probably owed him a little bit more than smart conversation
and clever flirting. But he wasn't Nick.

Nick wanted her to attend this family lunch
he'd invited her to. What was it? A nephew's Christening, or something? Now,
that was getting serious.

And Jarek, of course, just messed up all of
that...

The slam of the bathroom door hitting the
wall broke into her thoughts. Em got to her feet. The sound of slightly drunken
giggles and the scuff of stumbling high heels emerged from the other side of
the doorway.

"Oops!"
came
Jennifer's voice, overly loud. Em went to help her friend before she walked
into something pointy.

And then there was Jennifer, Em reminded
herself, and the vodka.
Gotta
work on that too.

"Emilia,
daaarling
,
you're back!" This evening Alina had squeezed her voluptuous frame into a
metallic silver satin sheath dress with a split up one leg that revealed rather
an off-putting amount of thigh. A black feather boa was draped around her
shoulders and a ludicrously large tiara perched on her black
beehived
hair. The razor sharp retort that Em historically
delivered whenever she met Alina died in her mouth as she surveyed the woman's
outrageous outfit. Alina was just so different like this. Em doubted her father
would even want her back.

"And who have you brought us, my
dear?" Alina continued, eyeing Jennifer hungrily.

Jennifer had finally convinced Em to bring
her along to the club, against Em's better judgement. It was late in the
evening and Em was there to try to find Alina's live-in drug dealer, not that
she was going to tell Alina that. She'd told Jennifer she could get her in, but
she was on business. As soon as she was done, she'd be going. After that
Jennifer had better behave herself.

"Yes, mom," Jennifer had said,
rolling her eyes, and Em had felt slightly guilty.

"This is Jennifer. A friend of
mine," said Em.

Alina shook the end of her boa playfully
under Jennifer's chin. "And isn't she an angel. Where did you get
her?" she said.

Jennifer looked pleased, and slightly
bemused, but Alina threw an arm over her shoulder and squeezed her tightly.
"Any friend of Emilia's is welcome here, my dear. May I steal her, Emilia?
Let me give you the VIP tour, Jennifer. I'm sure you'll just adore my little
place."

Jennifer had time to flash Em an
I-owe-you-one smile before Alina swept her away to the bar and into the milling
throng of the club.

Em flashed a tendril of dark energy into Alina's mind.
She's mine, Alina. Don't you dare do
anything to
her.

In the distance, Alina waved a hand airily in Em's
direction and the thought came back to her:
Keep
your knickers on, Emilia. I'm just having some fun.

Em sighed and turned to survey the club. The
burlesque show had already finished, the music was loud, and the
patronage were
concentrating on their poisons of choice. The
tables and chairs had been cleared away and the dance floor was full, grinding.

Em let her energy flow loosely across the
crowd. She was going to search the room her own way. Soul-searching, she called
it. Every soul was different, and most carried the marks and scars of their
owner's lives. This drug dealer, she was only assuming it was Will, would feel
different. Drug dealers always did. There were others in the general populace -
doctors, butchers, lawyers,
plumbers
- who had some
darkened corners on their souls, but they were just corners. In the soul of a drug
dealer that darkness was a blackness that soaked through and through. They made
their living from twisting the spirits of mortals, from buying slavery and
addiction with bittersweet honey, and from hiding in the shadows. That left a
mark on the soul that stood out like a beacon.

All the same, a room with this many bodies
made the task a little more difficult, and Em was both annoyed and intrigued to
find her headache had returned when she had entered the club. She wandered
through the crowd, allowing her mind to ripple over every existence in the
room. Just one gentle push at each and every mind, and then she'd pull right
back if she didn't sense that dark and tell tale difference.

It was a motley group. Most were just
civilians, a range of ages, but with some decidedly twisted tendencies showing.
A good number were lower vampires - mostly Alina's staff, she guessed,
and ...

Em had no idea what that was.

That mind wasn't human, nor had it never had
been. It wasn't mortal, but it didn't feel entirely vampire either. It wasn't
Family, and it wasn't wolf. It wasn't...

Em pushed a little further at the mind and
shivered. Whoever it belonged to, it held more hostility than Em had ever
encountered before. It wasn't a hostility based on hunger, or greed - it was
hatred, Em realized.
A hatred that made her decidedly uneasy.
She pulled her thoughts back quickly, but even as she did, she was sure the
mind had not been aware of her presence.

She scanned the crowd using her eyes instead
of her mind, and began moving toward the corner of the room where she'd felt
the ... whatever it was.

There were quite a collection of Alina's
vampires there. Her muscled dancers were writhing together, all open shirts and
tight jeans, and short skirts and bra tops. The doorman was there, standing to
one side, a dark coloured drink in one hand, a girl pressed against his side.
He stared at Em, and smiled thinly. He nodded toward the
center
of the group of dancers.

Em walked closer and then...

"
Oof
!"
She'd walked right into a girl in a black net dress, who stepped aside to
reveal Raeisa wrapped around - oh god - Jennifer.

Jennifer giggled, but Raeisa wiped a hand
across her lips and started moving toward Em. Em felt the rest of the vampires
in the group focus their attention on the pair of them. She heard Jennifer
giggle again, and then, as Raeisa's fingertips brushed against Em's skin, the
headache Em had been holding back exploded in a searing, burning burst of white
hot noise so violently Em staggered and had to close her eyes.

She pushed out wildly and felt Raeisa stumble
back. There was so much pain in her head, and then in one shocking instant, it
disappeared until just the usual headache was left there, as if nothing had
happened.

Raeisa stared at Em for a second or two, a
very small smile curling around her lips. Em pushed with her mind again, and
met the same unworldly hatred she'd felt earlier. Yes, there was no doubt about
it now. Raeisa was the source of the hatred, and probably the headache too. But
then Raeisa shrugged, and slung an arm around Jennifer, the two of them pulsing
in time to the music. Had she even felt Em's mind touch?

The vampires in the group were still watching
Em closely. Em glanced at the doorman. He looked at her darkly and shook his
head almost imperceptibly. Em took one more look at Raeisa, and felt the
tension in the watching vampires rise sharply. She turned away.

What the hell was that?
wondered
Em. What kind of bitch was Raeisa, and did Alina know what she was? Alina had
introduced Raeisa as her favorite, remembered Em. But then she'd seemed nervous
when Raeisa arrived during their talk after the killings. The vampires had
seemed frightened just now.
Of Raeisa?
The red headed
girl had seemed completely unaware of Em's searching energies pushing at her
mind. Em had been pretty ruffled by whatever had caused that blast of pain in
her head. The gentle push she'd been 'soul searching' the room with earlier was
probably a less than subtle thrust when she tested Raeisa just then. Surely,
any creature with any amount of power would have felt that! But Raeisa had just
shrugged.

Em didn't have time for this right now. She
was here to find this dealer. Raeisa could wait. She
keep
an eye on her, maybe send Jarek to sort her out. The dealer would be able to
give her more information about Raeisa and Alina's relationship to her - so
long as she asked him nicely, of course. Now she just had to find him.

She focused her mind, and the headache
subsided to its usual dull murmur.

There he was. Not in a corner as she'd been
half expecting, but right out in the open, leaning against the bar. Em pushed
her way through the people gathered around him and suddenly stopped short. She
hadn't actually expected her hypothesis to be right.

She did know this drug dealer. He was
her
dealer.

Em took a deep breath as the man turned a
happily surprised smile toward her. "Em!" he exclaimed. "I've
missed you. Let me buy you a drink."

Em stepped in and kissed him on the cheek.
She whispered into his ear, "Will, we need to talk."

Em, Nick and Jarek stood outside an old warehouse at
the end of a narrow alley. The alley ran down to the business end of the
harbor. The marinas full of white super yachts, the boardwalk restaurants and
cafes were way up the other end of the waterway. Down here it was all rotting
fishing trawlers, barges spilling oil and old dinghies rocking against the
seaweed covered harbor walls. There was a smell about the place, an old weary
smell of things decaying. It was in the water, and in the buildings all around
the water's edge.

Em had told Robert of her suspicions about a
dealer associated with Alina's club. Her boss had quickly set the wheels in
motion. A few meetings with
Bec's
lieutenant
boyfriend and some others from the narcotics division and they'd all given the
go ahead for a chat with Will. He wasn't the main picture, narcotics had said.
Small fry compared to the meth heads and crack dealers in the main gangs.
Talking with Will wouldn't disrupt any of their existing investigations, so
pathology
were
free to step right in.

"Generous of them," Robert had
muttered in disgust. He didn't do bureaucracy very well. "I'm glad to know
our quest for justice and truth doesn't inconvenience their 'further
investigations'."

He looked at Em over the messy collection of
files on his desk. He was catching up on some paperwork.

"Take Nick and go pay this dealer a
visit. See what he knows about Alina's club. We need a lead of some sort. We've
got a morgue full of seriously mauled bodies and no clue at all as to what
happened." He lowered his head into his hands and massaged his temples. He
looked tired.

"Oh, and take that English guy with you,
will you? What's his name again? Edwards. Jarek, wasn't it?" Em stiffened
slightly. That wasn't going to be pleasant. She really didn't want Jarek and
Nick anywhere
near
each other, but Robert was
determined.

"He's after a full time role here, or a
three year professional exchange, at any rate. Says he's got a girlfriend here
and wants to live here eventually. He seems a nice enough guy, but check him
out, will you? I can't offer him the role if he's not up to it."

Em had nodded. What could she do?

And so here they all were.
One
big happy criminology team - her human boyfriend, her demon ex-lover and the
man who fetched her blood waiting just inside the warehouse door.
Life
couldn't get any more complicated, thought Em. She tried not to listen to
Jarek's smug laughing inside her mind.

"It's locked," said Nick.
"Damn. What a waste of time."

A look of intense scorn crossed Jarek's face
and he turned to Nick with a sneer. "Since when is that a problem?"
he hissed. "Are you as stupid as...
"
He
stopped abruptly as Em whipped out a tendril of dark energy that smacked him
upside his mind as thoroughly as if she'd punched him in the stomach.

Have
you gone insane?
she
threw at him.
British medical examiner,
remember? You're supposed to be a dork.