Bad blood, p.10
Bad Blood, page 10
part #7 of Jack Dahlish Series
Now I was really confused. Why would the head of a vampire family bring in a Native American shaman to look into a string of murders when he had a local investigator offering to do it? I couldn’t help but think the vampire patriarch had something he wanted to hide from me.
“Do you know his name, Mariah? Or what he looks like? Anything that can help me discover who this shaman is?”
“They call him Joe, but that’s the only name I’ve heard. I know he’s old, because they said his face is wrinkled like old leather and his long hair is completely white.”
It wasn’t much to go on. I’m sure if I walked onto any reservation in the States, I could find at least a dozen people who met that description, if not the name. But it was information I didn’t have half an hour earlier, so I was glad for that much.
“Hey Mariah,” a man said as he passed by to enter the coffee shop. She looked up like a deer in the headlights, and I realized how much being near me was stressing her out. I didn’t know what kind of punishment awaited if Uriah found out she’d spoken with me after being forbidden, but I was willing to bet it wouldn’t be pleasant.
I touched Annie on the arm and stood. “Thank you for telling me as much as you have, Mariah. Uriah may not want us on this case, but he doesn’t get to decide what I work on. It would be easier if we could get those forensics reports, but we’ll muddle through.” I smiled to take some of the sting from my words, then nodded before we walked away.
“What’s going on, Dahlish?” Annie asked quietly as we crossed the street to head back to the forensics lab. “Why wouldn’t they want you to solve this before more people die?”
“That’s what I would like to know.” And I had a pretty good idea of how to find out.
FIFTEEN
I called Ollie as we drove across town to Windemere. He answered almost immediately. “Jack, are you making any progress?”
“Nothing yet,” I said, always unsure of where to direct my voice when using the Bluetooth system. No one had ever complained about not hearing me, though. “It looks like we’re not going to get those forensics reports, after all.”
“Why not? Did Mathis get caught trying to send them out?”
“She’s been forbidden from sending them,” Annie scoffed. “The daddy of her little vampire family decided he didn’t want us poking our noses in his business.”
I shuddered at her words. “First of all, don’t call him daddy like that. Just… ew.” She chuckled lowly as she winked lewdly at me. “Secondly, it’s a little more complicated than that. Uriah brought in some shaman from out West to help with the investigation instead, Ollie. Do you know if the detectives working the cases have been in contact with someone like that?”
“Native American, right? I think I did hear about someone like that.” Ollie went quiet for a few moments, thinking back over the last few weeks. “My shift is over soon. I’ll head over to the office where the case is being worked and see if I can find anything out. Call you later?”
“That sounds good, Ollie. Thank you.”
Annie examined me for a moment after the call ended, and I smiled when I felt her hand drop onto mine on the armrest between us. “What’s the next step?”
“There are two of them,” I said, bracing myself for the protests I knew were coming. “First, you need to find someone who can analyze those hairs for us. I want to know why we found different types when they give off the essence of the same type of Nox.”
“Okay, I think I can handle that. There was a guy with the coroner’s office who was dating a biologist. I’ll see if he can get me in to see her. She should be able to tell us something.” Her fingers squeezed against mine. “What are you going to be doing, Dahlish?”
“I need to go check out the Harrison estate,” I said casually.
She waited for me to continue, and when I didn’t, she nodded. “You’re going to do something stupid. That means you’re taking me with you.”
“I can’t, Annie. Not this time.” I pulled her hand up to kiss it, which effectively shut off her protests. “Look, I’m not a total moron. I’m not planning to march in there and demand answers. I just want to take a look around. Maybe I’ll see this shaman Uriah brought in.”
“I still don’t like you going alone.”
Thirteen looked at me in the rearview mirror, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was. “It’ll be an hour. Tops. I’ll probably be back at Windemere before you finish with your biologist.”
“You better be. If not, I’m calling the cavalry and riding in to save you.”
I pulled to the curb in front of the house, turning to face Annie. “Now it’s my turn to tell you not to be stupid,” I said with a smile. “If something does happen and I get caught, and the chances of it are incredibly remote, you are not to come save me. The last thing I need to be worrying about is you getting captured alongside me, which would give them a massive bargaining chip to make me spill anything they wanted to know.”
Her jaw clenched a few times, but she finally nodded. “I’m still calling Nyk if you’re not back by midnight.”
“Fair. If I’m not back well before then, something definitely went wrong.”
Annie reached over to pull me toward her, and then gave me one of those fantastic kisses that left me breathless and craving more. As she pulled away, she looked deep into my eyes. “There’s more of that when you get home.”
I laughed. “That’s one way to keep me from doing anything too stupid. I promise I’ll be back soon, and we’ll pick this up again.”
“Promises, promises,” she said with a smirking wink. Then she pushed her door open and got out onto the sidewalk. I watched her walk toward the corner that would lead to the garage, where she would be able to take one of the other cars for her own errand.
As I drove away, Thirteen leaned forward. “You believe this vampire leader has information that can help you solve this case, Jack Dahlish?”
“Patriarch, and yeah. Or at least get me much closer to figuring out who is killing their donors and why.”
“I would think the why is simple. They wish to inflict pain on the family and taking out their food source is the easiest way.”
“No, I think that’s simply the how. Killing those donors is how this person is getting revenge against the Harrison clutch. I’d like to know why they need revenge, or why they hate the family so much. Is it directed at one person, or the entire clutch?”
“Could this not be a straightforward vampire hunter, Jack Dahlish?”
I shook my head. “If the killings were spread out across the families, maybe I’d go for that idea. But this Nox has killed almost a dozen people all over town, and each of them were donors only for the Harrison family now or in the past. That’s far too many to be coincidence.”
Thirteen thought about it for several moments, and then leaned back again. “Perhaps you are right, Jack Dahlish. We will need more information to be certain.”
“That’s the story of my life, Thirteen,” I muttered as I turned off residential streets. The large estate that had been home to the Harrison clutch for decades, if not more than a century, was in a part of San Antonio that had always been lightly populated. It was just inside the city limits, situated only a few miles from an old military base that had been decommissioned but must have served as a steady source of food for decades.
As we left houses behind, entering large swaths of farmland and greenery that had been untouched for a long time, I turned onto a gravel road that didn’t appear on any maps. Out of curiosity, I had once checked several online mapping programs to look at the estate. All of them showed only pasture and trees where I knew an assortment of buildings existed. That had been my first glimpse of the amount of power an influential vampire clutch could yield.
I had to slow to a crawl, dodging potholes and deep crevices in the gravel road that had been created by time and rain. The brush was grown high on either side, appearing to have been untouched for several years. If I were a random person who turned onto the road by mistake or from rampant curiosity, I would quickly conclude there was nothing worth seeing at the end of it.
Half a mile in, I stopped. I wasn’t entirely sure how good the security system was for the estate, but I expected the last mile of the road would be monitored in some fashion. I twisted around in my seat and looked at the gray man. “You know what I need you to do, right?”
“Yes, Jack Dahlish. You wish me to scout this place and find out everything I can about the people inside.”
“Especially this shaman, if you happen to see him. Or even hear anything about him. I want to know where he comes from, and what he might be searching for.”
Thirteen nodded. “I will do all that I can, Jack Dahlish.”
I bent to feel around under the passenger seat, pulling out one of the two boxes that were kept there. After my phone had been used to track me during an earlier case, I had decided it was prudent to keep a couple of pre-paid burners available at all times. I ripped open the box and turned the phone on to quickly go through the activation steps.
“My number is programmed in, so call me once you have any information or if something happens and you need to be extracted.” I started to pass it over, and then hesitated. “Uh, this thing won’t give you away in there, right? Is it only the items you had on you during the ceremony that can go unseen?”
Thirteen actually smiled as he took the phone from my hand. “Do not worry, Jack Dahlish. This is why I have pockets.” He slid the phone into one of them, and I had to hope that would work to keep it from alerting anyone to a strange presence.
As he turned to exit the car, I put a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I’m not commanding you to do anything, just asking you to help me out.”
He looked at me in confusion. “I am aware of this, Jack Dahlish. I have seen the way you work over the years I have watched you, and it is an honor to be able to assist you.”
“Thanks,” I said. “And good luck in there.”
The gray man closed the door softly behind him, and then began walking calmly along the road toward the estate that waited in the distance. I watched him for a few minutes, then started backing along the gravel road to get back to civilization. If I thought getting through that half mile of potholed minefield was hard, doing it in reverse proved to be a hundred times more difficult.
I was tempted to call Thirteen, just to be sure the phone was working. It had a nearly full battery, but I was already cursing myself for not testing it before I’d sent him into the lion’s maw. He was resourceful, though, so I knew he’d find a way to contact me on the off chance the phone didn’t work.
Hopefully, within twenty-four hours we’d know more about what we were dealing with. My greatest hope was that Thirteen might find documents explaining why the Harrison donors were being attacked, or that he might overhear Uriah talking about it with someone. Perhaps he’d even hear what kind of Nox was so determined to bring down the clutch.
SIXTEEN
W hen I returned to Windemere, there was an empty spot in the garage where the Mustang should have been parked. That told me Annie hadn’t returned from her errand yet. I decided to make productive use of my time while I waited and headed across the yard to the other outbuilding.
From the outside, it looked to be a vastly oversized shed or barn. One look inside was enough to make its purpose clear, however. The open area was filled with mats, a boxing ring, workout gear, and a display of weapons and armor that would make any enthusiast drool in envy. I called it the armory, but it served dozens of purposes for myself and my Knights.
Annie and I had both left our preferred weapons back in New York, but that didn’t mean we were short on options. My predecessors had built up a collection of weaponry that could provide something for every type of battle. I found a scimitar that was comparable to the falcata that she preferred, and then set about running a whetstone along the blade. The building was filled with the steady hiss as I sharpened it to a deadly degree.
My phone rang while I was lost in thought and absorbed in the work, and it took me a few moments to carefully set the sword aside. “Ollie, did you find out anything about the shaman?”
“No, Jack. I just missed the lead detective, and the couple of guys still working wouldn’t share anything with me.”
“Let me guess… you’re still ‘tainted’ by your association with me?”
He sighed, and I heard the rasp of a finger rubbing through his mustache. It was a habit he had while thinking or frustrated. “Yes, but they weren’t rude about it. They just reminded me that I’m not part of the investigation team, and they can’t share information with anyone outside the group.”
“Don’t worry about it, Ollie. I’m sure we’ll find what we need elsewhere.” I wanted to tell him about the gray man I had scouting the Harrison estate, but then I’d have to waste time explaining why I was working with one of the creatures that had been sent to kill me not that long ago.
“I hope so, Jack. This is starting to look like I called you back to San Antonio for no reason other than to sit around waiting on developments to come in.”
“You did the right thing. I would just be sitting around in New York, too, but at least here I have a chance of being useful once we have the information we need to act on.” I sketched out what Annie and I had found during the day, and then told him about the hairs she was trying to get analyzed.
“I don’t know how you do it, Jack. All these different kinds of Nox, and you never seem to be phased when a new one turns up.”
“It would be boring if there wasn’t something new once in a while,” I chuckled.
“Maybe so, but I’ll take a meth-head killer over a werewolf or vampire any day of the week.”
I had offered Ollie the option to be one of my Knights. It wasn’t like anything came with the job but the title and the privilege of throwing oneself into danger alongside me more often, but I hadn’t been surprised when he turned me down. The police sergeant was in his late fifties, and quite happy just to offer an assist now and then as needed. Sandra would have killed both of us if he’d accepted and run into some of the fights Annie and Nyk had been through in the last several months.
“Go home and get some rest,” I said. “Call me tomorrow if you manage to talk to someone who will share information, or if you happen to hear anything new.”
“Will do, Jack. Have a good one.”
I turned back to the scimitar, holding it up to the light to look at the edge. I ran my thumb over it, wincing as the blade sliced through my skin. As I sucked at the blood, I returned the sword to its spot on the rack.
The old wooden staff I’d used in the fight at the Alamo was resting on several brackets, and I reached out tentatively to brush my fingers across it. It seemed to quiver at my touch, and this time I was sure it wasn’t my overactive imagination. There was something very odd about that staff. Even more odd was that Narise had found no entry explaining it from my predecessors’ days, while every other Relic they’d recovered was described in detail.
I was rubbing an oil-dipped cloth over the chainmail links of the armor Annie liked to wear under a coat when she walked through the door. She slumped down on the bench beside me, watching me work in silence. After a minute, her head fell onto my shoulder. I smiled, enjoying the closeness and peacefulness of the moment.
“How did it go?” I finally asked, once I’d finished oiling the links and hung the mail back on the wooden supports.
“Allan introduced me to his wife, Sheila. Apparently, I missed the wedding while we were busting into warehouses and penthouse suites up north.” Annie shook her head regretfully, and I imagined both of us going to the event and enjoying the party afterward. We needed more normalcy like that in our lives. “Sheila is going to run some tests on the hairs to be sure, but she was pretty confident the shorter gray hairs came from a coyote.”
“And the others?”
Her lips pulled up in a smile. “Black bear.”
I did a double take. Coyotes were a native animal to South Texas, and quite common even on the outskirts of large cities like San Antonio. That made any Nox counterpart likely to be drawn to a place where they could blend in. Bears, on the other hand, were extremely rare in Texas, especially the central portion of the state.
“What are you thinking, Dahlish? Werebear?”
I choked on a laugh. “I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but that would mean there are two killers.”
She shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time two people have teamed up to work professional jobs.” She meant assassins, but that didn’t seem to be right in this case. The victims had died in ways that were almost ritualistic in a subdued way. If not for the string of murders, the first few probably would have been written off as robberies gone wrong, despite the lack of cash or items missing from the scene.
“The essence tells me it’s a single Nox. Or, if there are more than one, they’re the same type of Nox. Each of the were-creatures that I’ve encountered in the past has a different essence, which rules out two different types working together.”
“Okay, so what kind of Nox can present as both a coyote and a bear?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted, shaking my head.
She chewed on her lip as we were both lost in thought. “Jack?”
Uh oh. I knew she only used my first name when I was in trouble, or when she was extremely worried about something. “Yes, Annie?”
“You sent Thirteen to scout the vampire compound, didn’t you?”
I looked at her in surprise. “You remember him?”
Annie nodded, reaching up to tuck stray black hairs behind an ear. “As soon as I pulled into the garage, I remembered meeting him. And that he was going with us when we left to investigate the crime scenes. That’s who you were talking to, isn’t it? When I thought you were being crazy?”
