Authors: Dixie Lynn Dwyer
“Okay. I’ll cooperate. I want April’s killer to be caught. I don’t want to hear another story about another innocent person murdered.”
“I understand. Can you meet me at the department or would you like me to have an artist meet you somewhere else?”
“I’m a little scared now. I don’t want him to find me.”
“Give me your address. I’ll personally come along with the sketch artist, okay?”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
Dani got off the phone and took an unsteady breath. Could this be the lead she’d been waiting for? She also needed to check out that club on Chester. She knew the one. It was a big place. If her memory served her correctly, there had been a few strange incidents over the years there, and usually one of the special task forces was called in. She punched in the number to someone in the department that did sketch work. He would meet her at Baily’s.
Chapter 4
“You let her, a human, get the slip on you?” Van asked as they all stood around the meeting room at the department. No one had seen Dani anywhere and Miele and Bently just arrived.
They looked upset and Van had the feeling that something was up. As soon as the brass left the room, Van demanded answers.
“What the fuck really happened?” Van asked.
“She’s our fucking mate,” Miele stated and they all stood up from their lounging positions.
“Say that again.” Baher took a step toward Miele and Bently.
“You heard him. We were shocked, too. First that Dani was a she, not a he, and second that she’s our mate,” Bently stated.
“What is she like?” Baher asked.
“Here’s a picture of her,” Van stated as he clicked a button on the laptop and Dani’s face came up on the full-screen board in the front of the room.
A long, slow whistle went through the room.
“Fucking beautiful,” Baher whispered.
Van knew she was beautiful and highly intelligent. The current picture showed her wearing tapered black dress pants that hugged her shapely figure. The holster and gun, badge, and other paraphernalia sat against her waist. She had long brown hair that was pulled back and into a braid down her back. From the picture, she appeared to have light-green eyes.
“It states that she’s twenty-six years old and has been a detective for five years now with more than sixty closed cases under her belt. That’s impressive,” Van stated.
“She’s top notch. Received numerous awards in the police academy, graduating top in her class. She has a high success rate of closed cases in her file, and hey, Randolph, she’s got a thing for guns,” Van teased their quiet, very serious brother.
“Interesting,” Randolph stated. His eyes never left the screen.
“She smells incredible, too, and her lips, damn,” Bently added.
“Her lips? You fucking kissed her?” Van asked.
“We both did. Couldn’t resist doing it. Nor would you if you were there,” Miele added.
“No wonder she fucking ran. You two playboys probably scared her.” Baher ran his hand through his hair.
“She knows that wolves exist,” Bently told them, and they all looked right at him.
“What? How can she?” Van asked, now really concerned for their well-being.
“She’s best friends with a magic healer,” Miele informed his brothers.
“Yeah, from the Fennigan Pack,” Bently added.
“The Fennigan Pack? What the heck is she doing living in New York? The Fennigan Pack’s been busy in Ireland helping to restore the Order along with Ava and the Declan brothers,” Van replied.
“There’s a reason for everything, Van. We all realize that. My main concern is this rogue wolf. I’m not certain that he’s working alone. I’m not even sure why he’s killing these people,” Miele stated.
“We haven’t come up with any connections between the victims. Over at the crime scene, in the warehouse, we came up with shit,” Van explained.
“The one thing we know for sure is that this wolf or whatever kills violently. It has no control over its anger. It is wild, nearly causing complete destruction to the human body. That in itself has raised so many red flags in the departments that we have to take over the investigation,” Baher stated.
“The pictures from the crime scene were that bad, Van?” Bently asked, and Van nodded his head.
“We had to call in a few wolves to get rid of more than half the bodies and replace them with human ones from the morgue. Otherwise, the coroner’s office could have realized something was different about the bodies, their blood type, organs, et cetera. It was a fucking close call. We also got lucky and Sarah from Tolga pack was the coroner on duty. She got rid of the human and covered for us.”
“We need to find Dani. If she were to stumble upon this killer…” Miele began to say then turned toward Bently.
“We do this together. Baher, make the call. Get her cell phone number and accounts open. See if she made any calls since leaving the apartment. Bently, you call in to our men and have them locate her vehicle. We’ll track her down and take her to our place and explain to her that she can’t run from us and she can’t continue with the investigation,” Van ordered and everyone moved about the room, pulling out cell phones and making calls.
Van looked at Randolph.
“What, Randolph?”
“She may know about wolves, but she doesn’t know what she’s dealing with. This thing is not like us.”
Randolph looked away from Van and out toward the window and the city skyline.
His brother was a man of few words. He was always deep in thought or silent. He had been like that for so many years, never showing emotion or an effect from even the heaviest of violence around him. Van had the same fears that Randolph did. They were together when they saw the massive amount of blood, the pictures of the torn flesh and violence. They were worried that this killer could blow their covers and make the humans aware of the existence of their kind. It needed to be stopped, and they would be the ones to stop it.
Chapter 5
He knew that he should have killed the brunette. In his sane mind, he was aware that what he was doing needed to be controlled better, but he was losing that control too quickly now. He glanced around him, being sure to avoid the cameras by the front entrance to the apartment building. He needed to find more of that special blood, that scent that was all consuming. Detective Dani Lynch had it. The moment her fear wafted through the air in the warehouse, he knew that she was special. The smoke, the blood from the other worthless bodies couldn’t hide her scent. He needed to find her. Dani would first serve him and then his master. Although everything about her yelled “human,” there was something inside him that wanted her, needed her in every respect. It was strong enough to grab his full attention, and even now, just thinking about her made his hunger grow stronger.
He entered the apartment building, knowing that Baily’s blood could hold him over a bit longer. It wasn’t like he was a vampire that needed to feast on blood to survive. It was a side effect of the transformation Dr. Evans had conducted. The doctor should have known better than to try to trick a vamp into giving him blood. The vamp he chose probably tainted it with something. Perhaps just the incredible urge to get blood, drink it, and kill for it.
He didn’t want to think about it. The need was far beyond his control unless the doctor’s idea was correct. A healer, with powers strong enough to fight even vampires existed, and he prayed that Dani was the one with such powers. He had no idea what that scent was until he felt that urge to kill and take more blood eased in her presence. He was almost hypnotized by her powers, but it seemed she hadn’t a clue what she was doing. That was perfect. She was pure, untouched, and he would use that once she was in his possession and under his control.
He had a new hunger growing. It ran deep through his bloodstream and straight to his soul. He practically felt his incisors expand. Dani was the one he had searched so long for. If he told his master, then he would want her for himself. No way was that going to happen. Dani’s scent was all consuming, enticing to the point that he wanted to fuck her, plant his seed in her special womb, and keep her as his own forever. He couldn’t let the master know about her. Not yet. Perhaps not ever, because he knew how evil his master was. Dr. Evans would want to experiment on Dani and use her for his own personal achievements and advances. The wolf growled low. She belonged to him and not the master and not anyone else. She could cure him of his need for blood. His kind needed special care. He would prove to his master that he wasn’t an experiment gone badly, but a gift so powerful that he would lead the way. No one would ever try to control him again.
* * * *
Dani and the sketch artist, Martin, knocked on the apartment door. Baily wasn’t answering, and Dani was feeling concerned.
“Should we call it in, Detective?” Martin asked.
“With what has been going on with the murders, yeah, I don’t want to take a chance,” she whispered as Martin took a few steps away from the door. He called the department, whispering their location and situation when suddenly the door he was next to opened, and Martin was pulled inside at record speed.
Dani’s gun was drawn and she yelled, “Police!”
A body came flying back out as she began to approach the doorway. It happened so damn fast she thought it couldn’t be real, but it was real. The body hit the other wall and fell to the rug. There was blood everywhere. Martin’s throat was slashed open.
She abruptly turned around as a huge growl echoed from the room. The wolf, the monster she’d caught a glimpse of from the warehouse, was there. He showed his face, lifted his claws prepared to strike, and she fired, one, two shots and nothing happened. All that did was enrage him. She turned to run, knowing that if bullets from her Glock wouldn’t kill him, then she didn’t have a chance.
Dani slammed the door opened and it was on her fast. It slashed at her side, causing her to scream then lower for cover from another strike. The pain radiated down her arms. It burned so badly, and the force sent her into the wall. She grabbed onto the railing and then another strike to the back of her head sent her tumbling down the stairs. She screamed and yelled with every step she slammed over.
“Dani!” She heard someone yelling her name as she turned toward the landing then back up toward the monster. It vanished.
The next thing she saw was blood covering the steps she had just stumbled down and then movement to her right. She had no way of defending herself now, with her arms underneath her and her face planted against the concrete floor.
“Dani! Fuck, are you okay?”
She looked up and saw Bently, and Miele was right behind him.
Relief flooded her body as she closed her eyes and took an unsteady breath.
“Don’t move, baby. Just lie still,” Bently whispered.
“Is it up there, Dani? Is the wolf still there?” Miele asked as he began to make his way up the staircase. She shook her head.
“He’s gone. He killed Martin.”
Dani tried to move despite Bently’s command. His tone, the way his large hands, so masculine and thick caressed so gently, soothed her. It was strange and it felt as if it eased the sharp, burning pain against her ribs and under her breast.
“You’re bleeding. What from?” Bently asked, trying to gently move her, but Dani resisted his help. She was fine. She would get up on her own and she would tend to her wound on her own. If only the dizziness would pass. Her head was throbbing and she felt so sick to her stomach.
“I think she hit her head,” one of them stated, and then the other cursed.