SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (180 page)

She turned to face him as their car pulled into traffic. “Why don’t you like to talk about your mutation?”

“Because, my dear doctor—I don’t have one.”

Her jaw almost dropped open, but thankfully, she stifled her reaction. “Wait. I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

Jesse raked a hand through his hair. “No, I’m serious. Besides not being susceptible to possession, I’m also immune to ML52. In short, I’m just a man.”

Now it was her turn to have her mind boggled. She was no less shocked than he had been this morning when he’d learned about her being awake and aware during a possession. “But how did you rise through the ranks at Immortal Bounty? How can you compete against the Sentinels who’ve developed the more dangerous traits?”

“I have to be faster, smarter, work harder, train harder. It comes down to will and discipline, and I have both of those in spades.”

“I’m impressed.” And more than a little turned on. She knew about hard work and perseverance, and in her book, it trumped unrefined talent any day of the week. The more she learned about her partner, the more she liked him.

She went quiet for a minute, overwhelmed with feelings that she couldn’t quite define. But they were directed at Jesse Hayes, and they sent warm and fuzzy tingles from her heart to her naughty bits.

“Next thing on the agenda is to stop by the shelter and get a dog,” he said. “You wanna do it on the way home or go back and put the groceries away first?”

She thought about that. She would need plenty of time to pick her very first dog. She’d fed plenty of strays, sure, but she hadn’t been allowed to keep pets at the apartment. Adopting a dog had been on her bucket list of things she wanted to experience one day. She always figured the experience of pet ownership would last a lifetime…but Immortal Bounty was only giving her a month. “The trunk cooling system will keep the stuff cold for what…three hours?”

“Five in this model. But uh…how long do you need to pick a pooch?”

“Five hours of refrigeration should be fine. Let’s go by the shelter first.”

“Hold on, Doc.” Jesse put a hand to the ear that contained his communications implant. “Commander Hayes, here.” He paused and listened. “Well…shit. We’re probably ten minutes away from there, sir. Are you sure you want us to go? If anyone is watching the site where they dumped the body and they see us, our cover identities won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.”

Evelyn swallowed. She couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end, but clearly Jesse was talking to the steward and another body had been found.

For a surreal moment, it had almost felt like she and Jesse had been on a date—because for her, it really didn’t get better than food, pets, and hot men—but then reality reared its ugly head again. They were on this assignment to save lives, and they couldn’t let their guard down even for a minute.

Jesse signed off, punched another address into the computer and turned to Evelyn. “That was the steward.”

A shiver ran from her head to her feet. “I heard. Another body, right? We need to catch these bastards, Jesse.”

He took her hand and squeezed it tight. “We will.”

“Why do they need us there? Isn’t forensics on the way?”

He nodded and raised his brows. “The forensics team is already there along with a few Sentinels from the Red Unit, but they don’t have a supernatural specialist in the vicinity, and we may only have a few minutes left to get there.”

“Why? What’s happening?”

He tapped the car’s screen to increase its speed to the maximum allowed on public roads. “The victim’s spirit is still near the body, but it’s weakening. Clark says they need a specialist to communicate with the spirit because the investigator on the scene can’t get through to her. And guess what, Doc? You’re the closest thing to a specialist that we’ve got. This is your chance to show Clark what you’re made of.”

Immortal Possession: Chapter Ten

Jesse tapped the car’s computer screen and selected voice input. “Pull into the parking structure,” he said. “Park on the lowest floor.”

The car pulled smoothly around the corner and entered the structure, and every revolution of the tires brought Evelyn closer to her fate. What would the steward do if she threw up or even passed out when she saw the body? She doubted the photos she’d studied in school compared to being in the room with a real murder victim. Would she still pass probation if she couldn’t get the spirit to talk?

Cold tendrils of panic started making their way through her veins. “I’m not a supernatural specialist. I’m an investigator. What can I do?”

“Investigators may have the education you do, but most don’t have the joules. Whatever your gifts are, you’re probably better suited to getting that spirit’s attention than the guy we have there now.”

“I hope you’re right.”

The car pulled into an open spot, and Jesse said, “Just wait in the car until someone from Red Unit comes to us. I don’t want to take any chances that we might be seen. We’ve gone through too much to establish our cover to fuck it up now.”

Evelyn’s hands were visibly shaking. If that wasn’t unprofessional, she didn’t know what was. “Okay.”

Jesse surprised her by looking around and then scooting across the seat toward her. “Come here real quick.”

He held his arms open to her and her heart lurched. She wanted so much to feel his strong arms around her, but not here, and not now. She didn’t want to look weak when the moment called for being tough. “Investigators don’t need hugs, Jesse.”

“Sentinels do. Come here, Evelyn.” He grabbed her hand and yanked her to his chest, and when she felt his arms close around her, it was like being enveloped in pure warmth and safety. He only held her for a few seconds, but her body still felt the impression of his strength on her skin after he backed away.

Heavy knuckles rapped against the window, and she jumped away from the noise in surprise. “It’s okay,” Jesse said. “That’s Eric Haveland from Red Unit. You can open the door.”

“Haveland… Why does that sound familiar?”

He smiled. “From the briefing yesterday. Let me give you a hint…
Woof, woof
…”

Evelyn made an O with her mouth but didn’t say a word. Haveland was the Sentinel who could mutate into a dog!

“Commander…” Haveland said through the window, “with all due respect, sir, canids have exceptional hearing. Don’t make me open up a can of
woof ass
.”

Jesse laughed in response and reached across Evelyn to push the car door open. “I was just filling my partner in. She’s in the market for a dog.”

Haveland blinked and looked at Evelyn more closely. “Really?”

He was a big man with his dark, shaggy hair pulled back into a ponytail. He had sharp features and reflective gray eyes. She had visions of him morphing into a fluffy white bichon frise, and it didn’t fit with his hulking, hard physique and intelligent eyes.

“Uhm…not uh…a man-dog,” she stammered. “Just a regular dog. Sorry.”

Haveland cast Jesse a glance that said he’d like to murder him, then he held his hand out to Evelyn. “Ma’am? Follow me please.”

“Of course.” Evelyn took his hand and scooted out of her seat, then hustled after Eric Haveland as he wound his way through the parking garage.

There were Sentinels stationed at the four corners of the structure, each wearing black face masks in addition to their black fatigues, and they held automatic rifles fitted with laser cannons which were already armed and glowing red. Three were clearly men, given their wide, heavily muscled physiques, but one looked tall and slender with the proportions of a woman, like Lauren would have looked when she was alive.

Evelyn followed the Sentinel into the building and down a long corridor, only pausing long enough to look behind her and see that Jesse was right on her heels.

Eric pushed the door open, and everything in Evelyn came to a halt, even her heartbeat, it seemed.
Just stay focused, Evelyn.
You can do this.

She quickly assessed the scene. The forensics team bent over a covered form on the floor, and she breathed a sigh of relief that the body was shielded from her view. She’d seen a couple of dead bodies in her life, but never a murder victim, and there was a vast difference.

The forensics team was dressed in disposable white suits from the tops of their heads to the cloth booties over their shoes. One forensics expert held the victim’s hand in his gloved fingers and was scraping debris from under her nails, while yet another ran a scanner over her exposed arm, bathing her skin in blue light.

A man that was neither a Sentinel nor dressed like the forensics team stood off to the corner of the room, his hand to his ear just like Jesse did when he was talking to IB ops control.

Evelyn stopped walking and Jesse almost smacked into her back, but he grabbed her around the hips instead, steadying them both. “Sorry,” he said, quickly dropping his hands.

Evelyn turned to him and whispered, “Where’s Clark?”

“The steward never goes out on assignments.”

She frowned in thought. “Is that good or bad that he won’t be here to see me work?”

Jesse squeezed her shoulder. “I didn’t say that he wouldn’t be here, just that he doesn’t leave Roseview Terrace. You’ll see.”

“Dr. Vale,” Haveland called from across the room. It was hard not to want to stare into his reflective eyes.

Evelyn walked to the corner of the room where Haveland and the other man stood. “Dr. Vale, I’m Investigator Bruce Reynolds. Welcome to Immortal Bounty.”

Reynolds looked old enough to be her father, but unlike her father, he was packing on weight around the middle. If she had to guess, she’d say he fit the bill of a retired police detective who thought he could pad his retirement account with contract work. And although his words said welcome, his expression was perturbed. Great. She wasn’t here to step on toes. But bringing her here was the steward’s decision, and she was going to do her best to help with this case in whatever way she could.

“Call me Evelyn, and thank you.” She stuck out her hand and shook his with vigor. “So…where is the spirit of the deceased?”

Reynolds shook his head. “She was right here a minute ago. Have you ever seen the spirit of a murder victim right after they leave their body?”

“I can’t say I have…but I’ve…studied it quite extensively.”

Reynolds didn’t hold back his snort. “Well, it’s not pretty. They tend to panic or be confused and it can get ugly. At least this one wasn’t packing much juice.”

Yeah, Evelyn thought, but that will make her harder to contact, too. “Okay…”

“We don’t have her name and can’t guess where her final resting place will be,” Reynolds said, “so if she’s still here at all, this is our chance. Do your thing, doctor.”

Her thing? Oh shit.

Jesse walked past her and gently bumped his arm against her shoulder, then he came to stand between her and Reynolds. She knew for a fact that the shoulder bump was his way of cheering her on, and in that moment, she felt what it was like to really have a partner. He was there to work with the team, just like her, but he had her back.

Evelyn closed her eyes and simply reached out to the energy in the room. Sometimes, she could feel a presence before a spirit tried to overtake her body. If she determined that the victim’s spirit was still here, maybe she could entice her to come out using Evelyn’s own energy. She seemed to be a magnet for every other soul in a state of unrest.

Evelyn cracked her eyes open when she heard activity a few feet away from her. It was just a Sentinel setting up a metal device with three prongs on the floor. The distractions weren’t helping.

“Well?” Reynolds crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you going to be able to help or aren’t you?”

“Give her a break,” Jesse growled. “She isn’t trained as a supernatural specialist.”

Reynolds smiled. “That’s my point exactly, Commander.”

No, this wasn’t helping. She needed to concentrate. The energy in the room was getting weaker and weaker. Just then, the tripod that the Sentinel had placed on the cement floor lit up, and rays of color burst upward from the bottom of the device in the shape of…Tanner Clark. Please no. A hologram of the steward overseeing her work wasn’t going to help. Not one flippin’ bit.

“Give me an update, Commander,” Clark said. The way Immortal Bounty was structured, Jesse was the highest ranking officer present, which made him the lead contact. But that was stupid in this case. She and Jesse had just arrived. They didn’t know what the hell was happening any more than Clark did.

“Dr. Vale is preparing to contact the spirit,” Jesse answered.

Clark growled out a breath. “Stop preparing. Start doing, doctor. Her spirit may already be departing to her final resting place.”

“Yes, sir.” Evelyn said. No need to argue. If she couldn’t do it, they would all know soon enough.

She pressed her eyelids closed and felt every pair of eyes in the room heavy upon her. Blocking it out, she eased the knot inside her and invited her energy to reach out and explore, to become a free-flowing force in the room. It was ridiculous because as they all knew, Evelyn’s energy was undifferentiated and basically unusable for anything other than impressing the nurses who scanned her. It was as advantageous as a billion dollars in paper money…from a planet that had long since perished.

“Hello?” she called. “Hey, there…can we talk a minute?”

When nothing happened, Reynolds snickered. She glanced up in time to see Jesse turn toward him, all intimidating male presence. But it was Haveland who spoke, his eyes literally glowing bright blue now. “Let her work. Can’t you feel that energy in the room?”

Another Sentinel nodded in agreement. “I can.” His eyes weren’t glowing, but his black hair was standing on end like he’d rubbed his head against a balloon.

A man from the forensics team adjusted his thick glasses on his nose and slowly waved a beeping wand through the air. “I was picking up on a large increase in some sort of energy—quite impressive, really—but it’s not spectral energy.” He glanced at Evelyn, his expression earnest. “Sorry. It’s true.”