Blood Slave: A Realm Walker Novel (12 page)

“First time I’ve seen him look anything but cool since he went in there,” Andrews said.

“I have no doubt that he did bite all the victims. He’s a vampire that frequents Gluttony. That’s like saying a dealer that works in the End might have sold an addict drugs.” Juliana agreed the bite comparison would add to the case in court, but they better have a hell of a lot more than that before pressing formal charges. Maybe the threat would scare him enough he’d start talking.

Apparently the interrogator was hoping for the same thing. She leaned forward in her chair and said, “If there’s something you think we should know, I suggest you tell us now. It’ll be better for you if you admit to it, than letting us come across it on our own.”

That wasn’t exactly true. A crime was crime whether they figured it out or he confessed. Still, it sounded good. Blake sat up in the chair, laid his forearms on the table and laced his fingers together. “You might find my mark on those girls, you might not. There’s a lot that wear it. I can’t keep track of them all. No reason I should.”

Juliana frowned. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to this attitude about the blood slaves. At least where she was from, the few she’d encountered had been connected to one vampire. And those vamps had protected the blood slaves to keep things like this from happening. Here they were passed around like a joint at a party and were used just the same.

“She needs to ask him about his timeline. He’s willing to talk. We need to take advantage of it,” Nathaniel said. Hopefully the interrogator would know that without being told.

“What do you know about these murders, Mr. Blake?” the agent asked.

“Just what I’ve been telling you since you dragged me in here. I didn’t do it. I don’t know who did, but it wasn’t me. I got too much control to kill my food. What good does that do?”

“It’s not as if there aren’t plenty more where they came from, right, Blake?”

He frowned and leaned back in his seat. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it. If you’re a cruel, heartless bitch. Are you a cruel, heartless bitch, Agent?”

Nathaniel snorted a laugh and the corner of Juliana’s mouth curled up. “She’s outmatched, Andrews. For one thing he doesn’t respect women. You should have a male in there doing the questioning. For another, she’s too confrontational. He’s not going to tell her anything.”

“I think you’re right.” He left the room, shutting the door behind him. After a moment he opened the door in the interrogation room. “Thank you, Agent Wilks. I think that will do for now.”

The agent looked surprised but she gave up her seat and left. Andrews sat where she’d been. “Hello, Mr. Blake. I’m Walker Andrews.”

Blake just looked at him without saying anything.

“I know you don’t trust us and there’s no reason you should, but I assure you, I just want to find the truth. If that truth is that you killed those women then so be it, but I’ll be just as happy finding out someone else did it. What I need to know from you now is where you were when the women were killed.”

There was a long stretch of silence as the men just looked each other over. “Give me dates and times and I’ll do my best,” Blake finally answered.

“What do you think?” Nathaniel asked as he came to stand beside her.

“I think that we’re going to find his mark on all the victims, or most of them at any rate, but I’m not sure he’s our guy.”

He looked at her. “Why do you say that?”

“When we got here, he was cool right, not caring about anything or worrying about the fact that we were questioning him. When they mentioned the bite, that’s when he got nervous. If he killed those women, he would know his bite was on them, that we’d link it to him.”

“And maybe he realized that might be the only thing they had and they’d stretch him for it, whether he did it or not.”

She gave him a cockeyed, joyless smile. “Why, Walker West. Are you implying that the Agency would put its numbers above the importance of putting away the actual perpetrator?”

Nathaniel waved a hand through the air in dismissal. “Of course not, that’s ridiculous.”

And it would be if they hadn’t witnessed it being done on more than one occasion. Juliana yawned as they watched a tech come in and take the bite sample for comparison.

“There’s one other thing that’s bothering me,” she said, watching the activity in the other room. “She had red hair.”

“Yeah, so?”

“All the rest were blonde.”

“It could just be she was convenient,” he said after a moment’s thought.

“Or it could be someone’s setting him up.”

“And how are we going to prove that?” He sighed. “Let’s get out of here. We won’t know anything until they run that analysis on the bite, anyway.”

With an uneasy feeling settling in her belly, she followed Nathaniel through the portal and back to the loft.

Chapter Twelve

Juliana pried open an eye and glared at her phone as it vibrated on the nightstand. When the phone didn’t shut off, she groaned. Work. And it was too much to hope for that they’d give up and let her get another hour, or five, of sleep. Finally untangling her arm from the sheet she grabbed the phone and shifted her glare to the snoring Nathaniel as she answered. “Norris.”

“Nice job, Norris,” Ben said. “Perp is in custody. Locals are happy. The senator’s happy. It’s time to come home.”

Juliana was too tired to process this shit. “Hold on.” She put the phone down and pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed. She grabbed one of her pillows and launched it at Nathaniel’s head, smiling in triumph when he snorted and sat up to look around dazedly.

“Okay, Ben,” she said when she picked the phone back up. “You want to run that by me again?”

Ben’s name caught Nathaniel’s attention as she’d intended it to. He shuffled past her and into the kitchen to start the coffee maker.

“I said the mission is over. It’s time to come home.”

“Did I miss something? Did Blake confess? Because he doesn’t seem like the talking type to me.”

“You put him assaulting one of the victims. His bite is confirmed on the rest. Why are you giving me shit about this?”

“And what about the other bite marks on the victims? Do any of the others match? These girls were blood slaves. They traded their body for a hit. You wouldn’t arrest a dealer on a homicide unless you had more to go on than he sold the victim a dime.”

Nathaniel pulled the pot out of the coffee maker, seamlessly sliding a mug into place to catch the still brewing coffee. He poured a mug then put the pot back grabbing the second cup. Keeping one, he handed her the other. She gave him a grateful smile then turned her attention back to her dickhead boss.

“I’m not going to let you do this again, Norris. You need to learn when to let go. Peter Blake is our vampire. You will come home and you will forget about this case. Understood?”

She clenched her teeth in an effort to bite back the more colorful phrases running through her mind. “And what about his alibis? Did any of them check out? He was giving Walker Andrews names and places when we left. If he killed them, why would he leave his mark on them? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“This is over, Norris.” Ben didn’t yell. Rather his voice took on a cold quality. One that told her she wasn’t going to win this argument. “You will drop this. That’s an order. I’ll give you an hour to get your shit together and then you’re taking a portal home. We’ll send someone else for the car.”

There were so many things she wanted to say, arguments she had to make, but none of it would do any good and she knew it. But there was one thing she could do. “I’m going to need more time. I’ve got stuff at the club.”

“Ninety minutes. Not a second more.” He hung up without waiting for a response.

She threw her phone against the wall, wishing uselessly that it would shatter into a million pieces. Cursed charmed phones. Damned idiot bosses.

“They’re pinning it on Blake,” Nathaniel said, accurately summing up the situation from the half of the conversation he heard.

“They’re going to try.” She snatched her phone up off the floor and dialed.

“
Joya
,” was all Thomas said. Gods, how she wished she could just curl into that voice and have him tell her everything was going to be all right.

“I need help.”

There was a brief pause and she wasn’t brave enough to drop the shields completely to see if she could pick up what was running through his head. “Go on.”

“I’m undercover in Kansas City. Blood slaves are being drained and dumped. I saw a local vampire with one of the victims. They picked him up and have charged him with all the murders based on the fact they’re wearing his mark.”

“But you don’t think he did it?”

She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck. “I honestly don’t know. He might have, but I want to be sure. I haven’t made a habit of randomly guessing who the bad guy is and I don’t want to start now. The Agency however doesn’t appear to share my viewpoint. They’re closing the investigation and bringing me home.”

“Let me see what I can do,” he said without hesitation and she loved him a little bit more. Even more so for the surprising lack of ‘I told you so’.

She glanced at the clock. “I’ve got eighty-five minutes.”

There was a pause followed by a weary sigh. “Of course you do.”

***

Thomas ran a hand down his face and wished there was a way to rid himself of the knot of dread that seemed lodged in his chest. He did not have a good feeling about any of this. Still, his mate had asked for his help and he wasn’t about to make her regret it. His first call was to Michael.

“We leave as soon as I take care of a couple of things.”

“How long is that going to take?”

“A couple of hours at most. I need you ready to leave the moment I am. Is our guest taken care of?”

“If you mean has our prisoner been sealed into a dark room which he is unlikely to ever leave, the answer to that would be yes. I took care of it myself. I can explain away many of your idiosyncrasies but this was a little beyond the norm. Spell’s been cast as well. No one will hear him unless they come right up on the room.”

Michael’s voice had a tight quality to it that Thomas recognized at once. It was the tone he got when he’d done exactly as ordered and hated every second of it. Thomas felt a brief pang of regret that he’d asked his second to oversee the task but there was no one else he trusted. Except his bride, and he was certain she would be displeased at Raoul’s fate. Or maybe not. He knew so little of her mood when it came to that situation. She knew he possessed Raoul and yet she had not once asked what happened to him. Perhaps, she was happier not knowing.

“Thank you for your faithfulness as always, old friend.”

Michael disconnected without saying anything.

Thomas’s next call was one he really couldn’t believe he was making. Ever since his superior with the Wardens had made it clear that he wanted to recruit Juliana, Thomas had done his best to keep them apart. Now he was practically handing her over to the man.

“Thomas,” Hamilton Clayton answered his phone. “What can I do for you?”

“There’s a case I think we need to be involved in. Blood slaves being drained in Kansas City.”

“I know about it. What makes you think we should be involved? Other than the fact your mate is leading the investigation, of course.”

He would know more than he’d let on to Michael. Of course he would. There weren’t many people Thomas would swallow his pride for and admit the truth to, but Hamilton was one of them. “She asked for help. They’re trying to pull her out but she’s not certain they’ve apprehended the correct man.”

There was a brief silence. “You know Morgan’s there.”

It wasn’t a question so Thomas didn’t respond.

“You think he’s involved with this?”

“I think he’s involved with her and that’s all I care about right now.”

“Then go get her. I’ll have more men in the area within the day.”

The unease that Thomas had felt since he received her call finally lessened a bit.

“Do you want me to tell her boss we’re appropriating her or do you?”

Thomas smiled. “Oh, that will be my pleasure.”

***

Thomas received a few odd looks as he strode through the halls of the Agency. The eight-pointed star marking him as a Warden hung against his chest staving off anyone that might try to stop him. He glanced at his watch as he neared his destination. Fifteen minutes left. Nothing like cutting it close. “Boss in?” he asked the secretary sitting outside Ben Nichols’s office. He’d had to call Michael to get the man’s name. He was sure Juliana had told him many times, but he hadn’t cared enough about Nichols to learn it.

“He’s not to be disturbed, sir. I’m sorry.”

“I think he’ll make an exception for me.” Thomas didn’t wait for her to respond, instead walking over and throwing open the door to the office. Nichols looked up and hissed, showing fang. He was wild eyed and pale.

“You look worse than she said you did,” Thomas said stepping into the room. “Or maybe you’ve gotten worse since she left. Which is it, I wonder?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the secretary said, running in behind him.

“It’s all right, Maria. Shut the door behind you on the way out.”

The woman looked uncertainly between the two of them and Nichols made a shooing gesture with his hand. Finally, she left and closed the door, leaving the two vampires alone.

“What are you doing here, Kendrick?” Nichols asked, shutting the folder on the desk in front of him. “I assume it’s not just to check up on me.”

“I’m here on official business actually, as a representative of the Wardens.” Thomas handed him the paper that Hamilton had emailed to him earlier then sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Nichols snapped the paper as he straightened it. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said once he’d scanned it.

“I’m not, actually.”

“You think I don’t know what you’re up to? What both of you are up to? You’re doing this for her, the Wardens be damned.”

Thomas said nothing, just stared at the man in front of him.

“I won’t agree to this. I refuse.”

“Very well. You may file a grievance. They should hear your argument in six to eight months. By that time, we’ll be done with our investigation and will no longer need Walker Norris’s expertise.”

“And what expertise is that precisely?” he sneered. “Stripping?”

Every muscle in Thomas’s body went taut as he struggled not to leap over the desk and beat the man senseless. If not for Juliana he would. Of course the way the man had been treating her lately, she might not mind.

“Didn’t she tell you where she’s working undercover, Kendrick? What was the name of that place again? Oh, yes…Lust. I believe that’s right.”

Thomas knew the place. Morgan’s first, and therefore favorite, business enterprise in Kansas City. The thought of Juliana working there turned his stomach but he wasn’t about to let the peon before him see it.

Instead, he arched one thin brow, the perfect picture of disinterest. “You will make the call. Bring the wolf home if you must, but she stays and maintains her cover.” He stood and looked down at Nichols. “And because you look days short of turning feral, you will report to the coven and have them assign you a keeper at my order. You will report daily or I’ll have you locked up immediately. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” he responded with a sneer.

Placing his fists on the desk in front of him, Thomas leaned forward to make sure he had the other vampire’s attention. “There is one more thing, Nichols. You will cease your inexplicably hostile behavior toward my mate. If you do not, there will be consequences. You’re near feral. It is completely within my authority as the master of this territory to lock you away somewhere and lose the key. And don’t think for a moment I wouldn’t do it.”

He left without waiting for a response and shut the door behind him. With a smile, he turned to the secretary. “You best get him something to eat, he looks rather peaked.”

***

Juliana paced the floor at the foot of the beds while Nathaniel sat on the couch petting Fifi. A tuft of fur came off in his fingers. “That thing is disgusting.”

Nathaniel covered its ears and frowned. “She’ll hear you.”

She rolled her eyes. “At least take the thing to a good mage and have a stasis spell put on it before it starts dropping pieces all over the place.”

“Hmm…I wonder who amongst my acquaintances might know a mage?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh, come on, Jules. He’ll do it for you.”

“I am not asking the Director of the Gathering to cast a spell on your zombie mutt. No. Just no.”

His phone rang, startling her. He grinned and answered. “I understand. Yes sir. Absolutely.”

After he hung up he looked at her with a small smile. “I’m gone, but you are to remain in place and maintain your cover.”

She glanced at the clock. Three minutes to spare.

“Ben said to tell you someone would be in contact within twenty-four hours.”

A tendril of unease snaked through her. Why didn’t Thomas call her and tell her what was going on? And why had Ben called Nathaniel, not her? And why was he being so formal? Something didn’t sit right with this whole situation. She didn’t like not having a plan or knowing precisely what was going to happen.

A portal opened a few feet away and Nathaniel got up. Tucking Fifi under his arm, he grabbed his bag with his free hand. “I don’t like leaving you here on your own.”

“I’ll be fine. And Ben said there’d be someone here within the day.”

Nathaniel still looked doubtful.

“Will it make you feel any better if I tell you I won’t go looking for trouble?”