Raised in Fire

I paused, listening. There was a random buzzing noise from something electronic across the room, but that was it. He didn’t plan on yelling back at me through the door. I would say he was taking the high road, but he’d just informed me that he planned on killing a stranger just because one time, a while ago, I’d had a fling. Like…what?

He had definitely gone insane. That couldn’t be good.

I headed to the bathroom and took a shower. I needed some sleep, and then tomorrow, I needed to find a mage without alerting his demon friend to my presence in the Pacific Northwest. I’d certainly had worse ideas than taking this case, but at that moment I couldn’t think of one.

“A little late, Reagan,” I muttered to myself.

Chapter Thirteen

My boots squeaked on the floor of the police station. The large space was quiet, those with regular office shifts having likely gone home. A check-in desk spread out in front of Darius and me, and the woman sitting there had her eyes downcast at her work.

I’d decided Callie and Dizzy hadn’t needed to come along since I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I’d find on this first leg. This gave them time to accost that poor, untrained mage we’d found after the last battle a couple months before. That mage lived in a small town somewhere outside of Seattle, and little though she knew it, she would soon get two bullies on her doorstep. Dizzy might seem nice, but that was because he was the good cop.

Full night had fallen before we’d left the hotel. I’d had a long sleep, a large meal—charged to the room—and enough time to slip out of the blackout shades in order to sit on the small balcony and watch the setting sun. The weather was sublime, cool and moist without being humid, and the gentle lap of the water on the support beams under my section of the hotel had helped me relax.

Not long after sundown, Darius had engaged the mechanical mechanism to open the shades before stepping out to join me. Without a word, he’d sat down in the chair opposite me and looked out over the blackened waters, allowing me to enjoy the moment unmolested. Or maybe just enjoying it with me.

“Do you wish you could see the world in the sunlight again?” I’d asked quietly, letting my voice melt into the moment.

“That desire has reawakened for me recently. A new vampire misses the sun keenly. That sentiment goes away, however. In time. I do not have an explanation for the return of that desire, just as I do not have an explanation for how my primal side is reacting to your presence. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“How is your primal side reacting? Or is it just the constant desire for my blood?”

He gave me a sideways glance. Silence took up real estate between us, and I started to think he wouldn’t answer. I was probably better off not knowing. But a moment later, he did.

“For some reason I can’t identify, I feel an overwhelming need to protect you. The primal side of me views you as mine, solely. I cannot pinpoint when this need took hold, just that it continues to grow stronger. I crave you constantly. I dream of you when I haven’t dreamed in over five hundred years. I take blood from others, but nothing quenches my insufferable thirst. We are not tied through blood, and even if we were, the bond shouldn’t be this consuming. Yet I am powerless to absolve my desire for you. In addition—”

“Oh good, there’s more. I was worried the crazy was about to end.”

“—you are incredibly valuable to me. Your abilities and lineage ensure it. There has never been anything as precious to me as you, be it as my beloved or as a bartering chip. My primal side wishes to claim you, but worse, my logical side realizes I must do that as a man claims a woman, as a husband claims a wife, in order to sustain your happiness. It is absolutely unheard of, not to mention absurd, for an elder to feel this way, yet…”

“I can see that this is sitting with you about as well as it is sitting with me.”

He looked away. “Something is causing this, but I have no idea what. I would like to undo it, but I need to find the root. A vampire in my position needs to think strategically. Without emotion. You are making that impossible.”

“Well. As is often the case with you, I’m sorry I asked.” I stared out over the blackened waters.

“I wonder if it has something to do with what you are. I want to ask Vlad, since he has been around longer than most of us, but I fear it will give away your true identity.”

I nodded and let the silence fall between us, until a new thought occurred to me. “He’s been around longer than most of you? You mean, there are vampires older than Vlad?”

“Yes. A few. They don’t engage much in political maneuverings, choosing instead to stay quiet, mostly in the Brink, letting time pass. They’ve let their minds go to sleep, it seems. They are content to live within the flow of humans.”

“And you can’t ask them?”

“I could. And they might know—one of them, at least—but they are unpredictable. It is not rare for a vampire to take a hundred years off, but then come back with drive and ambition. I don’t want to create that problem. Vlad is bad enough.”

“Being a vampire sounds exhausting.”

“You are young and within your first lifetime. That sentiment is to be expected.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I stalled for a moment longer, letting the cool breeze ruffle my hair, before summoning up the gumption to go to work.

The policewoman’s eyes flicked up when I stopped in front of her. Her hard gaze took my full measure—what she could see from beyond the desk, anyway—pausing on my leather tank top. To her credit, she took my weird in stride without furrowing her brow or shaking her head. When she got to Darius, she only let slip a tiny moment of holy crap that guy is hot in the widening of her eyes and small smile before closing it down, resuming her hard, straight face. I was pret-ty impressed, I had to say.

“Hi, I’m Reagan Som—”

“Ms. Somerset. Hello.” A man with glossy black hair, slicked back on his head, hastened toward us from the side. When he reached me, he stuck out his hand. “I’m Detective Allen. You can call me Oscar.”

“Hi. I’m Reagan.” His shake was firm but didn’t last long. He glanced at Darius. “This is my…associate, Darius. He’ll be helping me.”

“Not likely,” Darius said, shaking Oscar’s hand before stepping back.

“He’s a real charmer.” I shrugged and threw up my hands comically. Apparently, despite what he’d said on the airplane, Darius would only be playing the completely unnecessary role of bodyguard. Whatever.

“Right, sure. Okay.” Oscar gestured back the way he’d come. “Please, come with me. I was coming out here to see if you were waiting for me. Good timing.”

The woman glanced after us for a moment, but went back to her work without comment.

“Just in here.” Oscar led us to a small office at the back of an open space littered with messy desks. In his mid-forties, he carried a little extra weight, the kind you’d expect from someone with a slower metabolism and a settled life. This guy wasn’t physically chasing magical people, that was certain.

“An office?” I asked, seeing him gesture toward a seat and choosing to stand instead. I hoped we’d be leaving soon.

“Yes. If you’ll have a seat, I have the pictures right here.” He picked up a folder from his desk.

“Pictures?” I stepped forward and put out my hand. He handed over the file. “What about the scene of the most recent crime? There have been two, correct?”

“Two, yes. With the recent one, the body was found in a dumpster in the Seattle port. We processed the evidence already. We’ve noted everything of value.”

“How long ago did the recent crime happen?”

“About a week ago now.”

I sighed. Even if I saw an actual crime scene instead of a body dump, there was no way I’d feel even earth-shaking magic a week later. Still, maybe I would find something the others missed.

I opened the file and immediately felt my brow furrow. Beyond the fact that it was disgusting, the picture didn’t mean anything to me. The next one was the same. It was the third one that I pushed away from my face. “Gross.”