Vampire's Curse Read online

  "Your lab mage is at the house already, has been for some time now. He kicked me out after about ten minutes," Joe grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "He's sure, um, dedicated to his job."

  Darien laughed. "Yeah, Mitch is a grump at the best of times, unless he's in full professorial lecture mode. But he's one of the best."

  "I believe you. I was going to head back over there soon anyway. Hopefully, sweeten him up a bit with some coffee and a snack," Joe grabbed the jacket that was slung over his chair and turned off his monitor. "I need some coffee anyhow, and then we'll head over to the house. Walk with me to the bakery and we'll get y'all the good stuff, and I'll tell you all about it."

  They followed him out the front door and turned in the direction of the historical society building. Caroline couldn't help but chuckle again and shake her head slightly.

  "Must be pretty different from Stonehaven. I've never been up there, myself, but I'm pretty happy staying out of the big city. I like small-town life, what can I say? Heck, we're barely big enough to qualify as a town I bet," Joe grinned at her and she smiled back.

  "I was just saying on the way in that Scarford reminds me a bit of the town I grew up in. Had quite an adventure in our local history museum my senior year of high school," Caroline said. She heard Darien snort behind her. "It's a beautiful area, here. I can see why folks like it."

  "Small town girl, huh?" Joe smiled warmly and Caroline felt herself smiling back.

  "Yeah, well. I moved to Stonehaven for school and my internship," she said.

  "What degree are you after?"

  "Criminal Justice. I'm planning to join the agency full time, but I need a degree for that, so..." Caroline shrugged. "So far the most interesting part of school was uncovering a human trafficking plot dealing in kidnapped students, and getting allegedly kidnapped myself." She framed the last word with air quotes and Darien laughed.

  "I don't know, Sunshine. You were knocked out deliberately, then ended up in a cage and up for sale. I think that qualifies as actually kidnapped," he said, mimicking her air quotes

  "Pfft," Caroline waved her hand like she was shooing a fly. "Whatever. You were the buyer. I wasn't worried."

  "This attitude is how you keep winding up with extra training sessions from Peaches," Darien said with a laugh.

  Deputy Joe was wide-eyed for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. "That was not at all how my college life went. That sounds like one hell of a story. Like I said, leave me a small-town life."

  Caroline grinned. "Well, no more students have gone missing since then, and I got a fancy recognition award from the university. And a lot of paperwork from Chief Point for putting myself in harm's way." She huffed a frustrated sigh when Darien raised an eyebrow at her. "And yes. I had to take some extra sessions with our hand-to-hand trainer. Point's a bit overprotective, that's all. But small towns aren't immune. You should hear what happened to me in high school."

  "Stop getting kidnapped and maybe Point'll calm down," Darien laughed.

  "I got a job offer out of the first time, and the second time got me a commendation and some new lock picking skills," Caroline laughed. "I dunno, it seems to be worth my time so far."

  Joe just watched this exchange like he was watching a ping-pong match. He laughed again and pulled the door of the bakery open. "I have a feeling that I'm going to want to hear this story," he said, holding the door for Caroline and smiling broadly. "Both stories! Maybe sometime when we're not headed to a crime scene."

  "Later," Caroline promised, breathing the spicey, sugary vanilla scent of baked goods. Since the good Deputy was minding his manners, she decided to relax a bit and let him be interested. He was kind of cute after all. And his manners were actually quite good which was a nice change of pace.

  A few minutes later they piled back into Darien's car with a carrier tray of coffees and a bag of assorted pastries.

  "So tell us about this disappearance," Darien said, pulling out of his parking space and following Joe's directions. "Start at the beginning and pretend we haven't read the file."

  "Victim's name is Michael Mathews, forty-six years old, born and raised here with his brother and his sister. Sister got married and moved to Tennessee about ten years back, but his brother's still around. They co-own a pizza place a few blocks over from the station, and there's been a bit of a fuss there, which I'll get to."

  Joe took a sip of his coffee and pointed out Darien's next turn.

  "About another couple of miles then you'll be looking for the drive on your right. Big, fire-engine red rooster mailbox. Hard to miss," he said. "Anyhow, last night around ten-thirty, call comes in from Mike's security company. He's got one of those fancy packages with the keypad inside the front door and all that. Two concentric wards around the house and one on the entryways, and all the fancy electronic gadgets that come along with it, cameras and electronic locks and sensors. The works. So the company calls the switchboard and tries to order out everything from patrol cars to SWAT, EMTs, and every firetruck we've got because I guess their monitoring stuff went nuts."

  "The wards were broken, weren't they?" Caroline leaned in between the seats from the back. "That's why we got called in?"

  "Blown to shreds, sounds like," Joe said. "I don't know much about that, but apparently the whole system imploded. None of the electronic stuff survived either, it's all fried. Your guy said he knew someone who's a whiz at the tech stuff. H said that he's going to take the cameras and stuff with him and maybe we can get some images. I'm okay with tech, but I'm no specialist. I hope your guy can do it, though. I like Mike, he's a good guy. A little paranoid, but then it seems he was right to be."

  "Guess so," Darien agreed. "Wow, that is some mailbox, you weren't kidding!"

  Darien took the turn into the gravel drive, slowing down to look at the remarkable, giant glossy red bird standing on a concrete pillar.

  "He thinks it's funny," Joe said with a smirk. "Anyway, the security company called the switchboard at just a bit after one A.M. and we sent out a patrol car, and given what we found we've been looking for Mike since. We called your office about four this morning, once we knew we couldn't find him ourselves. We still have folks out searching the area, but it's not looking good, to be honest with you. You'll see the house when we get there, but someone went through there with no interest in being subtle. I'm pretty sure there's nothing in there that's not destroyed somehow," he said. "They even left the fridge open so the milk would go bad."

  "That's disturbing, certainly. But why are we sure that the victim didn't do the damage himself and just take off?" Darien asked. He parked the car behind Mitch's Mini Cooper and turned to look at the deputy, who grimaced.

  "Mike's a solid guy. He's lived here his whole life and we all know the guy. He's got an ex-wife that he has an up-and-down relationship with, and I hate to speak badly of anyone, but that's mostly on her. Couldn't tell you why, but Mike is still fond of the woman. He's got a younger brother that he never got over looking after, even now that they're both well into adulthood and settled," Joe shook his head. "No, he wouldn't trash his place and disappear. Not unless something else was very, very wrong already."

  They let that sink in for a moment before Darien nodded and they all got out of the car. Caroline stepped forward and turned to Joe.

  "What do the brother and the ex-wife say about this?" she asked.

  "We haven't tracked Marcie down yet. She took off a few weeks back, which is something she does from time to time, but she hasn't answered her phone. I was going to look up her mother in just a bit and see if she had any idea where Marcie headed this time," Joe shrugged and stopped on the front stoop. "We can go see his brother in person, at the restaurant. He was up last night searching with us but headed back around six so he could catch a little sleep before opening up. Felt responsible for the place and his staff, but he's pretty upset."

  Caroline hadn't heard anything but a frank recitation of the facts as Joe knew them, so she nodde
d and turned to look at the house. It was a plain, one-story house with white siding and a small porch. The ancient remains of a tire swing hung in the biggest tree in the front, and Caroline guessed that either he had kids with the ex-wife, which didn't sound likely, or this was where Mike had grown up himself and the swing was a leftover from his own childhood.

  "Okay, folks. here it is," Joe said and swung the door open.

  3

  Caroline sat back in the booth, the smell of pizza sauce and garlic making her stomach growl loudly and protest her lack of eating right now. She was trying to be patient, but it felt like years since those pastries this morning.

  "I know it's a late lunch, but I'm impressed you still have an appetite after that place. I think we can let Bill send a cleaning crew over this evening, there's not much more we can get from that mess," Joe said. He leaned over the table and smiled broadly at her. It probably didn't require her skill to hear the personal interest in Joe's voice, but Caroline was still glad to be sure.

  "After the few parties I went to at school, that house didn't seem so bad, honestly. And I had a late night last night, so I'm still sort of recovering," Caroline grinned. "My roommate was very insistent that I go out with her, and well. She's always an adventure."

  Joe laughed, and it was a pleasant sound. Caroline found herself smiling back at the handsome deputy. Maybe I ought to apologize to Julia for all the whining I did about those dates she made me go on. Turns out they really were good practice, like she said.

  "She sounds like a character," Joe said. "How do you get ay studying done around her, then? You seem too smart not to be doing well in your classes."

  "Oh, I just moved back into her apartment at the beginning of the summer. I was in the dorms last year. I don't think I'm moving back on campus, though. Julia is distracting but not nearly as distracting as the girls in the dorm building." Caroline laughed again. "Also, it's closer to work."

  The waitress put down their drinks and a basket of garlic knots, which Caroline attacked with gusto.

  "So, how did you manage to wind up working for the FPAA, anyway? I heard you talking to Agent Davisson earlier and it sounds like you're not a mage," Joe asked. He leaned over and slipped a plate under her hand where it hovered with half a second garlic knot.

  "Yeah, Mitch probably should have taken up university lecturing. I've learned more from that man than I expected to from a guy obsessed with trace magic. How did I get hooked up with the Agency? Man, that's a bit of a story," Caroline laughed. Looking back even she didn't believe it happened, and she had been there. "My senior year of high school, I made the incredibly mature decision to skip out of class for the afternoon."

  "As all wise high schoolers do, once or twice," Joe nodded.

  “Yeah. I've done smarter things," Caroline brushed her fingers off on a napkin and leaned her elbows on the table. Joe didn't seem like the sort to call her on bad table manners, and this didn't seem like the sort of place where anyone cared anyway. "So, I ducked out of school and headed for the most boring, quiet place I could think of. The local history museum in the back of the city hall building."

  Joe chuckled. "I see why you’re so amused by the Historical Society building, now."

  "Yep," Caroline nodded. "Well, long story short, that was also the day that some crazies decided to raid the place for some artifact they were looking for, and they collected me at the same time. I ended up locked in a basement room with Darien, who had been set up by the previous Section Chief, and that's a whole other story and in all fairness, I actually can't tell you about it."

  "The investigation is closed, but it's still a lot of sensitive stuff, and C doesn't even know most of it anyway," Darien said, sliding into his chair and taking a long sip of his water before moving on to his soda. "Point says that he'll get someone on tracking down Marcie since her mom doesn't have any idea beyond 'she said south, I think'. Sorry to interrupt, get to the good part."

  "Which good part?" Caroline tipped her head. To the best of her memory, it was all either equally good or equally horrible, depending on her mood.

  "The part where you took out several elves on your own, then faced down the crazy mage on your own until I got free again," Darien grinned and lifted one finger to point around his soda glass. "This girl has surprising depths of badassery."

  "Really?" Joe turned back to her. "So let me see if I've got this right? You're not a mage, or... anything else?" Joe raised his eyebrows, silently finishing the question. Caroline shook her head and Joe huffed out a quietly impressed laugh.

  "You are, however, a student pursuing a Criminal Justice degree so that you can join the FPAA as a full agent. But meanwhile, you're being called an intern. And yet, you're still being sent out to investigate cases like this as if you were already a full agent?" Joe finished up his summary.

  "That's pretty much exactly right," she nodded.

  They paused their conversation when the waitress put the pizza down, and a stack of plates followed. "There you are, folks. Jim'll be out in a little bit. He just got in, poor thing, and has some office stuff to get done real quick. He was up all hours looking for Mike which is probably why y'all are here anyway. But we made him sleep in," she smiled sadly for a quick moment. "Y'all enjoy your lunch and I'll send him right out in a few minutes."

  Caroline watched her step away before reaching over to distribute the plates. When she looked up, Joe looked almost nervous.

  "Uh, so..." he frowned slightly at his cup and spun it slowly in place. "So you work up there, and you know about... about things?"

  Darien shot Joe a confused look over the slice of pizza he was dishing up onto his own plate. "Things? That's a bit vague, Deputy."

  Joe flicked a glare up at Darien for a second, then a nervous glance at Caroline before returning his gaze to the cup. Caroline stifled a giggle. Instead of laughing, she cleared her throat.

  "Yes, Joe. I am fully aware of the variety in the world. It's okay. Any secrets that a person decides to share with me will stay that way unless they're, you know, illegal stuff I need to get them arrested for. Besides, if you're um, if you mean the things that are not mentioned in your personnel file..." she paused, biting her lip for a moment. "Um, we kind of know about that stuff."

  Joe's eyes got huge and he glanced between her and Darien, who was simply chewing and letting her direct the conversation for the moment.

  "You... do?" Joe finally managed to ask.

  "Yeah," Caroline nodded. "You're not the only heavily paranormal office in the country. We don't actively track that stuff or anything, aside from licensing mages, but it's something we generally try to be aware of."

  "It helps to know if we can be a bit less discrete in our on-site investigations, or if the officers might have noticed something extra," Darien added.

  Joe blew out a relieved breath and his shoulders relaxed a hair.

  "Okay then. Good. That's good." Caroline wondered how long it would be until he said anything about being a shifter himself. She decided to finish putting him out of his misery.

  "My two best friends in the world aren't human, and I wouldn't change a thing about them," she paused for a second before smirking. "I'd ask Greg to stop juggling in the break room. If he breaks one more coffee mug someone's going to kill him."

  Darien chuckled. "True enough. But he makes up for it. You'd think that for a big kitty like that he'd be a bit more coordinated, but he still hasn't got the hang of five balls."

  Joe's shoulders fell to a much more comfortable looking angle, and he grinned. "Juggling, huh?"

  "Yep. He's always playing with something," Caroline said. "

  Joe's smile returned and he helped himself to two slices of pizza and turned the conversation back to lighter subjects. By the time they were finishing up the last slice, they were chatting comfortably.

  "Hey, Joe. Any news?" A short, slim man with thinning hair stepped up to the table. His face sagged and there were dark, smudgy rungs under his eyes. He looked like
he hadn't gotten much rest at all, despite his employee's best efforts.

  "No, Jim. Nothing so far, but these folks are from the FPAA office over in Stonehaven and are here to help," Joe stood and shook the man's hand, then nodded at the empty chair at the table. "Grab a seat and we'll talk about it, hey? Maybe something new will pop up?"

  Jim slumped into the seat and propped his arms on the table's surface. Their waitress silently slid up and put a cup of coffee down in front of him before shooting them a worried glance and heading back to the kitchen.

  "Mr. Mathews, I'm Agent Darien Webb, and this is Caroline Peters. We're here to help find your brother," Darien's voice took on his professional investigator tone and Caroline's own amused friendliness from a few moments ago slid to the background. It was usually her place in these situations to play the kind young woman role, and it worked out since she was honestly concerned about the victims they talked to.

  "I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. You have a great place here," she said.

  Jim nodded and flickered a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Thanks. Mike and I are damned proud of what we've built here. We don't agree on the future of it, but..." his breath hitched and he reached for the coffee. "Last I saw him yesterday we fought. God, what I wouldn't give to see him again. Tell him I'm sorry for some of the things I said. We have to find him, Agent Webb."

  Jim sent Darien a wide-eyed appeal and Darien reached out to grip his shoulder.

  "We're going to do everything we can. Our lab mage is already working on analyzing what broke the wards on your brother's house, and he's taking the camera equipment back to our office for our I.T. staff to look at," he said.

  "Now, Jim," Joe said. "Why don't you walk us back through the last day or so. Anything you can remember about Mike and the folks he might have seen. Anyone who might have a grudge against him, anything. Was he seeing anyone?" Anyone could hear the sympathy in his voice, but Caroline heard the interrogator's determination underneath the surface intention. It was a significant difference from his flirting earlier.