Into the Light (The Admiral's Elite Book 2) (5 page)

When everyone was unpacked they all met in Michael and Becca’s room. Not a fancy motel, their room had two queen beds and slightly more floor space than Ryan and Gabrielle’s king suite. Suite was the motel’s term, not theirs. Becca curled her legs underneath herself and scooted her pillows over to lean back on the headboard. Michael stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed. Ryan and Gabrielle lounged casually on the farther bed. Becca couldn’t help but wonder if they’d already had a quickie, if that was why they were so relaxed. Or maybe she and Michael were just that tense by comparison.

All having had sufficient time to study the files, they brainstormed. The attacks were random by all counts. The places varied from outside a bar to the middle of a farm field. The choosing of its victims also had no apparent rhyme or reason. The youngest was a recent high school graduate while the oldest had been a semi-retired farmer coming in from checking on his livestock. A variable the admiral’s people considered that the regular police didn’t, lunar cycle, also offered no insight. The only real pattern was the time of attack. Full night, and the victims were always alone. All of them had occurred after the Winter Solstice as well. Five kills in just under three months.

“Okay, so what do we know about our potential demon?” Michael caught his eyes from wandering to Becca at mention of the same type of creature that had nearly killed her, though not before she caught his slip.

The way they held their breath when someone said demon had Becca’s teeth on edge. “How do we know it’s a demon? What if it’s some other sort of thing that likes to,” she fought the lump in her throat while she shut down her mental pictures of the last demon she met, “eat people parts?” She’d read about human serial killers who did horrible things like that. Dahmer was a known cannibal and Gein used skin to make lampshades. She mentioned as much.

“Because of the screams,” Gabrielle answered first. Seeing Becca’s confusion, she went on. “Locals reported hearing a woman shrieking on the nights those people were killed, but not all the victims are female. Ryan called the DNR and there aren’t any mountain lions around here. I doubt it’s a shifter, they aren’t known for going after humans. It could be a werecat of some sort although with the kind of frenzy we’re seeing with the victims the moon would be a more consistent factor. ” She shrugged. “Nothing else sounds like a woman screaming, so it’s got to be demonic. There are a couple of them that use shrieks to freak out their victims. Part of the game for them.”

A game. No matter how many creatures they’d gone after, nor how many humans she’d apprehended as an MP, Becca couldn’t get past the sick way some hunters toyed with their prey. Her stomach clenched and a few spots appeared in her vision before she shut them down.

“Ryan, Gab, you can keep tabs on outside tonight. Becca, you and I are going to do some bar hopping and see what we can find out from the locals,” Michael said, assuming his role as their leader.

Hearing her name brought her focus back to him and Becca couldn’t help her irritation at his pointed efforts to avoid eye contact. It wasn’t until the other two left and they were alone that she felt free to speak. Very quietly, keeping her blood pressure as well as her voice down, Becca addressed him. “When am I going to be able to put it behind me?”

Michael stopped flipping through his file, tossing it down at the foot of the bed before he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at her. The denim shirt and tan trousers looked good on him. Strong forearms showed where the sleeves were rolled up partway and his hair hung down on his forehead in thick black waves. “It hasn’t been that long, Becca. These things take time.”

“I haven’t had a nightmare in weeks.” She felt her lip sticking out in a pout and sucked it back in.

Shaking his head, Michael didn’t let his gaze break from hers. “I’m not just talking about the fire demon. It’s everything. Two months ago you didn’t know about any of this. Now you’re a fully functioning member of the unit. We’ve been on what, six cases counting this one and you’ve seen things that shouldn’t be possible. You lost Danny.” He watched her closely, knowing his words hit home.

Michael was right. As much as she wanted to pretend this was all routine and it was no different than her previous post investigating cases on base, it
was
different. She’d seen vampires, shape shifters, werewolves, even a sea nymph. That wasn’t counting the fire demon who had melted the human shell he’d possessed right before her eyes. She barely got the others out before he burned the house down around them. It wasn’t her intention to get caught in the house with it. The pain had been horrible. She would never forget the smell of her hair and flesh being charred before she passed out from the smoke. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes and Becca rolled them up, willing them to stop. “I’ve always pulled my weight, haven’t I?” She hated to think they were back to considering her as less than an equal or believed her to be incompetent like they had in the beginning.

“Each one of us has been new. You’re no different.”

“Yes, I am,” Becca maintained stubbornly.

Head tipping, Michael came close to rolling his eyes. Not something he typically did. “You know what I mean. Coming in here, doing this, hunting things like ourselves, that’s hard in a different way than what you’ve done before.”

Feet going numb from lack of blood flow, Becca slid over to stretch her legs out in front of her on the bed. Her eyes stayed on her wiggling feet. “How so?” The discussion of how they’d come to their roles in Admiral Black’s elite force was one she’d been hoping to broach for some time. She’d come in as the newbie serving with three veterans. “How is it hard for you?”

She heard him inhale deeply as he lowered himself to sit on the corner of the mattress, body turned to face her. “Some people choose to become like this.” He rubbed at a finger, studying his palms with singular focus. “None of
us
did.” A chunk of hair fell and blocked her side view of his eyes, keeping Becca from seeing if emotion colored his irises. “All of us served before we were changed and that calling did not end with our humanity. Serving with Black affords us the opportunity to continue to do some good, to use our altered selves to help instead of hiding or losing ourselves in our monsters. The ones we hunt, they aren’t that different from any of us. The only thing that separates us is who chooses our targets.” He didn’t address the fact that Black also had found some way to keep all of them; that none could leave the unit.

Feeling Michael’s words resonate, Becca was silent. Before she could try to come up with some sort of intelligent remark, Michael put his hands on his thighs and pressed himself up. “We should get going. There are a lot of bars for a small town.”

Chapter 6

Their third stop,
Sneaky Pete’s
was much the same as the previous two. The twenty-something kid working the front desk at the motel had recommended it for some local color. They hoped it would be
and
be a bit more used to outside traffic than the others if the motel was recommending it. Barely longer than the six stool bar along the back wall or wide enough to accommodate the row of three narrow tables on the other side of the aisle, it was easy to scan the place for anything out of the ordinary. A few seconds in and they realized the only thing out of the ordinary in there was them.

No dancing spots or sick stomach, Becca trusted they wouldn’t come to any harm and gave Michael an encouraging grin. Her early warning system was, after all, why the admiral brought her on. It had saved all their skins several times and the unit looked to her for guidance often before entering a potentially dangerous situation.

Michael led the way to the second to last stool giving her the option to sit on either side. She knew he would prefer to keep himself between her and the bar and didn’t want to needle him. Taking her seat at the end, she set her purse down on the bar and turned to keep an eye on the lone occupied table. Only one other patron sat at the bar two chairs down to bring the building occupancy to a grand total of five, including the bartender. A wall mounted jukebox was playing CCR, loud in the empty space.

Their elbow room disappeared quickly, the music picked up in speed and volume, and it got crazy noisy. Within half an hour, right about the time they were considering leaving, a steady stream of people began trickling in and didn’t stop for the next two hours. Becca was grateful for the man beside her and bar behind providing a small buffer from the press of people all around. How so many could fit inside was a mystery. There had to be thirty people. There was no way they were in compliance with fire code. Fire. An involuntary shudder sent ice racing down her spine.

Michael ran a hand up her arm and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Remind me when we get back, I still want to take you dancing.”

“You do?” She tipped her face up to see if he was serious or if he was merely trying to distract her after sensing her discomfort.

The corner of his mouth twisted. “I made a promise, Becca. I always keep my promises.”

Becca felt the tension leak from between her shoulders as she allowed herself a brief daydream. What would it be like to dance with Michael? If he was half as good at dancing as he was at some of the other things he could do with his body… she felt herself flush.

He chuckled beside her.

“You did that on purpose.” She felt her own mouth twitch.

Michael’s soft laughter moved her hair. Then their moment was gone as the front door opened and a gust a cold air blew against their feet.

“Hey Josh,” the bartender called over the crowd to a round-shouldered kid who looked barely old enough to be there, even if he was large enough to pull a car with his teeth.

The towheaded kid raised his chin to the rail thin bartender. “I’m thirsty, Pete.”

Grinning, Pete wiped his fingertips on the white rag hanging over his shoulder and disappeared into the little room beside the bar. When he came out, brown beer bottles hung from his fingers like ornaments.

Josh and two of his equally large friends made their way through the throng, reaching above the heads of two young girls giggling over light green martinis. One doe-eyed giggler ogled him hungrily. Taking the beers and handing them back to his friends, Josh smiled at the girls before giving Pete his money.

“Figured you might be in again. Still not safe out there.”

Michael and Becca both heard the bartender’s cryptic comment even with the noisy chattering all around. Hiding their interest behind bored expressions, they listened in.

The big blonde head shook and frowned. “No, we’d rather be drinking around the bonfire and taking the girls for four wheeler rides but a little groping’s not worth dying for.”

The bartender looked grim. Even the giggling twins sobered at the mention of the creature haunting their town. “I heard the last guy they found was all cut up.” The doe-eyed girl joined in. Her friend took a hurried gulp of her green concoction.

“I got a friend with the sheriff’s.” Josh’s expression darkened. “He said they’re
all
that way. Each one they find has stuff missing too. It’s pretty sick.”

“And gross.” The quieter of the girls chimed in over the rim of her glass.

Leaning in Pete let his eyes fall on each one and, instinctively, they brought their faces closer. “There’s an Indian fella that comes in here sometimes.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “Lives on the reservation. He called it some sorta spirit. Said in his grandpa’s time they had one feeding on their tribe. He said they sent a warrior out into the woods to wait for it and when it came he chopped its head off with an axe and burned the body.”

Doe Eyes gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh my God.”

The men ignored her. Their eyes were locked; sharing in some unspoken manly hunter exchange about what needed doing.

Michael’s cool hand on hers below the bar startled Becca back to her body. His face came close to hers and he started nuzzling her neck. “I know what we’re looking for.”

An involuntary rush of goose bumps tightened her skin. Whether it was his words or merely his breath on her flesh, Becca couldn’t tell. The woman in her wanted to go back to their room, even the car, while the soldier in her knew they had work to do. “Should we go?” She hoped he didn’t notice the hoarse catch in her throat or the way her heart had picked up.