Taboo (A Tale of the Talhari Book 1) (6 page)

Rhonda leaned forward. “But they all drink blood, just as bloodsuckers drink blood.”

“Typically bloodsuckers don’t move around in hives. They’re solitary creatures. You may catch two or three of them in a pack, but not usually more than that. These must be clustered together somewhere as a group. I’m convinced of that.”

“I think they’re bloodsuckers. Except for the hive mentality, they behave like bloodsuckers.”

“I’m not prepared to decide the whole question on the fact that they behave like bloodsuckers. If we assume these things are bloodsuckers and they’re not, the consequences could be deadly.”

“Whatever is here in Lynchburg,” Paul interrupted, “these creatures seem to be gathering. We’ve killed at least seven of the things, but there are always more. That leads me to believe something is bringing them here.”

“Yeah,” Agreed Rhonda, “but we don’t know what.”

“I guess you’d have to know what they are to know what they’d be drawn to?” Sydney asked.

“If we can find out what they are we may be able to find out what they want,” said Alaric. “But we’ve been up and down the streets and haven’t been able to find a thing. That’s what I was going to do today when I found you, search the streets one last time.”

“Can I go with you?” Sydney asked.

“No way. It’s too dangerous.”

“But you said it yourself. I know this place like nobody else. I may see something strange that the rest of you have missed.”

He looked at the others.

Trina said, “She has a good point. But I’m with Alaric on this. If we knew for sure they were bloodsuckers you’d be safe till nightfall, but I don’t want to make that kind of assumption and have you end up dead.”

“Anything could happen. What I’d like you to do is research. You saw what killed your friend last night, dig into your books and see if you can figure out what that thing is. That’s how you can help us. But I want you to stay inside when you do it. You have books at home?”

“Of course I do.” She looked around the table. “So you’re taking me home now?”

“Yes. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Sydney drank down the last of her coffee then rose. “Fine. I’ll hit the books and see what I can find.”

Chapter Five

This time, Alaric came into her house, probably to continue browbeating her about the things she should not do if she wanted to stay safe. That’s what she thought, but there’d been an odd, unexplainable tension in his truck on the drive home. She kept catching him looking at her. She didn’t think it was attraction. All he’d done was tell her all the ways she would risk her life by getting too involved, to which she informed him repeatedly that by killing her friend the creature had involved her.

“I’d love to not know any of this,” she said, shutting her front door once Alaric was inside. “But unfortunately I had to watch my friend be murdered. And I can’t get the image of her throat being ripped open out of my mind.”

“I understand that.”

“So when you say I can help, in what capacity exactly do you plan to allow my assistance? Only research?”

“Yes, research. Also check if there are any historical references to places or things in Lynchburg that would draw these beasts to it? That sort of thing. You can do research while safely in your house. With the internet and your connection to various libraries I imagine you can get a lot accomplished.”

“I’m not as helpless as you think.”

Her legs came out from under her. One moment she was standing, the next she was on her back. And the next, something heavy was on top of her and her arms were levered over her head and pinned to the floor.

Alaric.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, outraged.

“Show me how you’d defend yourself if I were a bloodsucker.”

She struggled for a moment, tried to shove him off of her. “Well you weigh a good two hundred and fifty pounds. You’re heavy.”

“You can’t fight me and you think you could take down a supernatural creature?”

“You caught me by surprise.”

“And you think a beast will stop and introduce itself before attacking you?”

She tried once more to roll him off, shifting her hips left then right, then up and down. She could feel Alaric using his weight to force her flat, see the muscles in his thighs bunch as he shifted his weight. Then she could feel him. Feel the press of his body against hers, the warmth of his skin, the intensity of his gaze as he focused on her.

Suddenly, she was breathless.

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said.

Was it her imagination, or was he leaning in too close? Were his lips nearing hers?

He wasn’t human. In fact, she had no idea what he was. What she did know was he was deadly and dangerous. As dangerous as the thing that had killed Cora.

She twisted her head to the side.

He stiffened. For a moment he remained where he was, then he cleared his throat. “You get my point,” he said. He popped back to his feet so fast she thought he must have gotten dizzy. “I need to get back.”

Her body was cold where he’d been. She was surprised by an impulse to grab him, to pull him back to her.

He offered her a hand and she took it. Her head was spinning and her heart was pounding. She didn’t think she could have stood on her own if she’d tried.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay.” He nodded formally at her. “I’ll be back later to check on you.”

And then he was gone.

Well, she couldn’t have handled that any worse if she’d tried. Stupid girl. Why hadn’t she just kissed him?

“Because he’s not human,” she reminded herself. “And we don’t mess around with people who aren’t human.”

She walked around her house for a good thirty minutes, remembering the feel of his body on hers, the heat of his fingers as they wrapped around her wrists. His eyes as they stared into hers.

She sighed. She was obsessing and she knew it. She had to get her mind off Alaric and focus. If she didn’t, she was likely to do something stupid. There were monsters in Lynchburg. Actual monsters that killed people. That needed to be her main concern.

After an hour spent trying to find a book that might help her, she gave up. She wasn’t gonna find what she needed here. Maybe she’d find what she needed online.

She started up the stairs to boot up her laptop, but came back down and packed it in her laptop bag. She didn’t have any books on the supernatural here, her focus was history. Plain, clean old history. But there were all types of books at the office. Also, once she hooked in to the magazine’s net, she’d have access to hundreds of libraries throughout the world.

She got out her cell phone and dialed Alaric’s cell, but nobody answered. So she left a message saying she was going into the office to do the research he’d asked her to do.

She rushed up to her bedroom, showered and re-dressed in jeans and a black tee-shirt. That done, she slid back into her sneakers.

She knew what Alaric had told her, but in her shoes, would he wait around for someone to get back with him? Hell, even after he did call her back he’d probably just order her to stay inside and wait for him to drive her downtown to the magazine. She could do that herself. And if she had to drive around the block ten times before she could find a parking spot on the street in front of the building, that’s what she’d do.

Chapter Six

It took her ten minutes to get to the magazine and there was a spot out front just waiting for her. The magazine was downtown in a four-story, brick building. There were a number of businesses inside, but hers was on the third floor. Chisolm, the owner of the magazine, had rented the space, remodeled it so it looked like a posh, upscale New York magazine office, and set the magazine there. It was wonderful to look out of her office window and see people walking the sidewalks, the colorful kids’ museum, runners and bikers.

She tried the main door, but was surprised to find it locked. On a Friday afternoon the building should not have been locked this early.

“Oh, you’re here too.”

She swung around, fists clenched.

A man, a little taller than her, stood behind her. His brown hair was oiled to within an inch of its life and combed over a protruding forehead. He held a briefcase in one arm and a set of car keys in the opposite hand.

“Benny. You scared the crap out of me.”

Benny was one of the magazine’s staff writers.

“First day of Friday Cheers. Everyone left early to beat the traffic. You know how it gets down here.”

She’d forgotten. Friday Cheers was a summer long event that included live music, beer, wine, and lots of dancing. It was a Lynchburg tradition and people looked forward to it. It didn’t start until five-thirty, but often by five-fifteen people were jockeying for position in the parking lots. By six, traffic was a nightmare. People parked and walked to… she closed her eyes. They walked to Riverfront Park. Where Cora had died.

“It’s that time already. I forgot,” she said.

“Believe it or not, Chisolm let us leave early. From what I understand, everyone turned in their stories so he let us leave during the mass exodus of the rest of the building.” He looked down at his briefcase. “Well, almost everybody. I left a research book at home and had to go back and get it before I could finish my story.”

“Why not finish the article at home?”

“Chelsey, Ariel, and Becca.”

I understood at once. Benny had three kids, all under ten.

“It’s like a zoo at home.”

The front door had been white at one time, but was brick red now. The glass panes inside the door were scuffed, but clear enough for her to see that inside the building it was dark.

Benny unlocked then pushed the door open, held it for her, then stepped inside. He locked the door behind them and Sydney couldn’t say she minded.

“Closing the office early is unheard of for Chisolm, even because of Friday Cheers,” Sydney said. “I wonder what got into him.”

Benny shrugged. “Who knows? But why look a gift horse in the mouth.”

They got into an elevator together. She pushed the button for the third floor and he pushed the button for the fourth.

“I’m going to my office. If you’re gone by the time I finish, I’ll lock up when I leave.”

“A okay,” he said.

She’d left her office door unlocked last night, so she went in and quickly got settled. She had a small coffee maker in the corner of the room that she used to brew hot water for tea. She filled the coffee pot with tap from the hall bathroom and set the pot to brew. That done, she took out her laptop and booted up. As the water boiled and her laptop came on she went to the library to retrieve whatever books she could find on the supernatural.

In minutes she was walking back to her desk, arms laden with books that she dumped on the desk top. She poured herself a large mug of tea then sat down to work.

Almost instantly her eyes went to the chair where Cora had been sitting yesterday. It probably still had the imprint of her body. And today, Cora was dead. It still didn’t seem real. And it seemed somehow cruel that she couldn’t talk about it with anyone. She had to suffer in silence. But this was the best thing she could do for Cora, figure out who…what had killed her.

She scoured the net, online libraries and the books, but couldn’t find anything helpful. She looked at pictures of various monsters, studied myths and folklore from a variety of countries, and came up empty.

By the time she stopped to look out the window she saw that her tea was cold and it was getting dark.

Alaric would have a cow if he knew she’d been out this late. And truth be told, she didn’t want to be out so late after what happened last night in the park. It wasn’t likely anything bad could happen tonight with all the people gathered for Friday Cheers, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Again, she looked at the chair Cora had been in less than twenty-four hours ago. How could her friend be dead? It didn’t seem possible.

Forcing her eyes away from the chair, she looked at the clock. It was time to pack it in and head home.

She booted down her laptop, poured the excess water in the coffee pot into the bathroom sink, and then shoved her laptop into its bag. Maybe she’d get home before Alaric realized she’d ignored his dictates and had left the house.

She froze when something overhead scraped the floor.

She stared at the ceiling. “Is that you, Benny?”

For a moment, only silence greeted her. Then Benny called, “Yeah. I’m about ready to pack it in, though. How about you?”

“Me too. It’s gonna be dark soon.”

“Okay, be right down.”

She had enough time to secure her bag and grab her purse, then Benny was jogging down the stairs.

Again, something scraped along the floor upstairs.

He paused mid-step and turned to look behind him. She looked up.

“That wasn’t you this time,” she said, rather stupidly.

“No, it wasn’t.”

They continued to stare, then Benny moved, clearly about to start back up the stairs.