[Draven's Crossing 1] Hidden Diversions (14 page)

Torger strode over the pile and picked up the indicated correspondence.
After a cursory read through, his stomach threatened to rebel.
The son-of-a-bitch was so calm, so cocky,
so
confident it made him sick. As much as he wanted to stay with Isy he had to get this to the lab. He called the crime scene unit and then Draven before leading Isy out of her office and putting her in the hands of her assistant, Michaela. “Get her somewhere she can sit down, I’ll be back to take her statement. I’m going to seal off her office.”

Michaela nodded and led a visibly shaken Isadora out of the room. Torger went to his car and got out a roll of police tape, a recorder and notebook. Just as he was shutting a door, several cars screeched to a halt in front of the building. Urban and Jagger were the first to reach him.

“What the fuck happened? Draven is shitting kittens right now,” Jagger demanded as he strode up to him.

Torger gave them a quick rundown of the situation.

Jagger ran a hand through his hair. “Shit. Well that’s something. I’ll call boss man and calm him down.
Cocky son-of-a-bitch.”

“That’s what I said,” Torger answered as he and Urban headed into the building. They found Isy in her dressing room with a cup of herbal tea. She’d changed into jeans, a sweater and thickly padded bedroom slippers. She was wrapped up in a loose cardigan that swamped her hands.

Torger crouched down beside her. “Hey,” he started off softly. “I’m gonna have to ask you some questions, okay? They’re going over your office right now. I’ve got Urban here with me. Do you want to start?”

As much as Torger wanted to clear the room, he needed his brother there to help him. His emotions were a complete wreck. His wolf wanted to comfort her, and he wanted to find the killer and beat the shit out of him. Rage throbbed under his skin and pulsed through his veins.
His territory yet again, his woman this time.
Torger focused on Isy and resisted the urge to pace and howl and run. The last bit had more to do with the full moon than the situation at hand.

Isy licked her lips. The little pink tip of her tongue darted out to wet her plump bottom lip. For a moment he latched onto that movement and allowed it to calm him and remind him that she needed him. Her usual steely control was rattled. He could feel her unease and vulnerability. Her emotions were spilling out of her, and every one of them hit him in the chest. It was as if tiny fists were pelting him. He shook off the feeling and focused on getting Isy’s statement. He had to keep telling himself that she was a witness rather than his mate.
She’s a victim, not mine. She’s just any other person, not someone special.
Telling
himself
those lies calmed him a little and let him grasp what she was telling him but that was about it. Every instinct he had was to take her home with him, settle her in his bed, get her feeling safe and secure and then go back to work with his brother in charge of her safety.

As soon as they were done, he gave her arm a squeeze and left Urban and Michaela to make sure she didn’t have a breakdown. After supervising the situation with her office, he called Draven and gave him an update and then went back to Isy. The crew had found nothing else in the office from the killer and they could release her space back to her within the hour. Draven sounded almost relieved to have new evidence from the killer pop up, it was something he could give the public an update on and then give the Council his report.
Urban came up to him just as he was about to return to the DCPD.
“Hey bro, I’m gonna take her back to your cabin. She’s really shaken up and wants a safe place to process and decompress, then she’ll come back and do her report. I’ll make up the guest room next to your room. I’ll order out.”

Torger could have honestly kissed his brother in that moment. It was what he’d wanted to do for Isy but hadn’t been able to bring himself to say anything about. It wouldn’t have been professional in his opinion, even though no one would really protest or care. He gave Urban a nod. “Go for it. Send out for Chinese, she’ll like that. I have to go back into the office, do my official report and then see Draven to give him all the details I couldn’t over the phone. I’m sure Jagger is doing a happy dance now that they have something to go on.”

Urban chuckled. “The man is probably salivating and chomping at the bit to track down the paper and everything. Go do what you have to do. I’ll send her assistant to go get her clothes and stuff and hold down the fort here. See you when you get home.”

Torger grinned and left. Things were finally looking up for him all around. By the time he got back to his office, the place was practically buzzing with activity. Jagger was waving a report like it was a victory flag, and there were detectives vying for his attention with information.
Looks like the killer had finally tripped up
. He grinned as he moved to his office with his new entourage in tow. The first person to grab his attention was Jagger. As soon as Torger sat down behind his desk, the vampire shoved his way to the front waving a piece of paper out in front of him.
“Got the blood results from the ME.”
His shit eater’s grin scared the crap out of Torger as he was also flashing fang as well. Torger had never seen him smile before. It was so fucking creepy that he felt as if he should cover up his neck and any exposed skin just in case.

“And?”
Torger demanded as he tried to mask his discomfort.

“Blood type matches the last victim found at L and C and it’s also the same blood type on file as well as the first
vic
. He’s checking into the other victims in the case but we have something.” Jagger slammed down the report and strode out of the room, head held high like a king or conqueror. Torger could only shake his head and read over the report before taking more information from the detectives around him. Detective Santa Rosa gave the next update. “Abbott says the victims did stop into his shop but that he didn’t see who they left with and that the security feed has been recorded over; it’s a twenty-four hour cycle. We’re checking into the surrounding shops and hotels again to see if we can get more information.”

“Thanks, keep up the good work. Check back with Abbott again. Maybe his staff has seen something. The guy’s an institution for the vacationers. He’s their first stop in the city once they leave their hotels. Someone had to have seen something.”

“Will do.”
Santa Rosa left him with other Detectives demanding his attention. By the time they were all done he had more information to go on. The stationary had been discovered to be special order, with only one shop carrying it. The customer list was limited, but they had them combing their database to find who had ordered in the last three months. The leads were starting to flesh out but it wasn’t fast enough, in Torger’s opinion. They still needed to figure out a way to keep people safe and give the Council and Evanson enough meat to keep them off their backs. Stationary and blood types weren’t going to be enough. They would mock their findings and ask if they wanted tourists with those blood types to not come to the city at all. Besides that, there was the Tourist Board lead to pursue. Those contests weren’t running themselves and there were no updates from Urban on that front. Not that Torger blamed his brother. He had other things to do, namely taking care of Isy. Once the report was done, he went to Draven’s office to touch base with him.

Draven was in a more jubilant state of mind than the last few weeks. He was practically beaming at him. “So, what are the updates? I knew you’d find something.”

Torger resisted the urge to shake his head. Of course he was happy now that they had leads. Torger gave him the rundown of what they had and how they were proceeding. Draven nodded but said nothing until he was done.

“Okay, great. We have a start, a real start. And I can see your concerns loud and clear. I can also see the mocking we’ll be in for, especially about that blood report. As a vampire, from my point of view, there is a rarity in our community where a vampire can only have a certain type of blood. That they’re allergic to all other types and only one would do.”

Torger blinked. “Why the hell didn’t Jagger tell me this at the station? So, our perp may be targeting people with a certain blood type due to an allergy? Jesus, I’ve heard everything now.”

Draven shrugged. “Well, we were human once. But yes, that’s possible. So you have to go back and see if the other victims can fall into that new theory. Sometimes it can also be the maker’s fault.”

Torger rubbed the bridge of his nose. He could feel himself getting into a lecture about Vampire 101 and wasn’t sure how much information he could take without feeling it would be overload. “Okay, hit me.”

“Well, sometimes if the process of conversion is interrupted, the maker can unintentionally cause an anomaly in their intended victim and complications can ensue.” Draven took a breath before he dived back into his explanation. “Such as allergies, inability to feed on blood but still crave it, no immunity to sunlight, no fangs or their digestive system can’t handle the intake of blood, so feeding would have to be taken intravenously rather than orally.” He stopped again and looked Torger over.
“You getting all this?”

Torger nodded as he allowed his brain to wrap around this new knowledge.

 
Draven continued. “All of these cases are rare but have been known to happen. You should see Madcap Madigan in archives for more examples of vampire conversion failings. He’d know all about that. You can ask your girlfriend, Isy, too. She’s done enough research on vampirism to be an expert.” Draven grinned at the last comment and Torger resisted the urge to cuff him on that prod.

“How do I get an audience with the
Mad
one? He hates company and refuses to see anyone without the proper credentials.” Torger didn’t want to even think about the hoops he’d have to jump through to get a pass just to get to archives. Madigan wouldn’t take a word from Draven. He had to have a paper trail, oral permission, written permission, passes,
keys
…the works.

“If you want to avoid all that, get Isy to help you. Madigan loves her. Lots,” Draven teased.

Torger resisted the urge to scowl. “Fine,” he spat out. “I’ll talk to her tonight. Urban is watching her at my place after the whole letter thing. I’m sure he’s been doing more background and investigation on his end.”

“Will it stand up in court? Urban’s stuff? We have to make it stick.” Draven’s face was serious as he said this, and Torger knew he was thinking about the future, and the fanfare of the trial.

“It will. I’m sure of it.” Torger left before Draven could ask him more questions about the case. He didn’t want to give away too much since he didn’t have a lot to go on to begin with. His mind was filled with questions. The foremost one was if this killer had an allergy and all the victims have the same blood type, how was this guy finding out that they’re a match to his need? A contest is one thing but breaking into medical records, especially in different states, is something else entirely. It speaks of a more sinister agenda, something pointed and direct. Unless they were dealing with two killers, one for the contests and the other just hunts random vacationers. The idea sent an icy finger down his spine. He shivered as goose bumps broke out over his arms despite the covering of a jacket and long sleeved shirt.

As soon as he got into his car, he decided to swing by the station just in case there was anything else. As much as he wanted to check in on Isy, he had to do his job first. As soon as he pulled onto Excalibur Avenue his phone rang. He answered it via the Bluetooth hands free option in his car.
“Torger.”

“Sorry to bother you boss, found a body. It’s… You’ll have to see it.” Detective Santa Rosa’s voice was weak, almost as if she was trying to fight back vomit. A sense of anger shook him. Could the son of a bitch have struck again and this time taken his anger out on the victim? He hoped not. There was already enough hell to pay as it was. Torger would rip up all the afterlives if he had to, to get the killer.

Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, he responded. “I’ll be there.”

Detective Santa Rosa gave him the address and rang off. He blew out a breath. “Here we go again.”

* * * *

Blood splattered the floors and walls. The crimson liquid formed pools on the linoleum. All he saw was red. It bathed his hands, covered his vision, stuck in clumps of his hair. There was nothing neat or tidy about this killing and yet the hunger gnawed at his stomach, scratched through his veins, quivered along his muscles. His body throbbed with the pangs. The echo of the metallic ambrosia floated on the air. He could taste it on his tongue, feel it slide down his throat in thick rivers until he was practically choking on the memories of gorging on the victim. It had been nothing short of glorious delirium. Euphoria made his mind and body soar even though he was still on the ground. Finally, he’d fed.
And fed well.
Now it was all over and his thirst gnawed through his satiation of the good meal.
Demanding more.
The need for another, the never ending unquenchable hunger tormented his mind and roiled through his veins.