In the Blood Read online

  “Yeah. I guess he hasn’t really slept or eaten much since he found out. He didn’t even make it through his breakfast,” Caroline said. She was proud of how steady and normal she sounded. She hoped she did anyway. “I actually almost felt bad about finishing off his pastry, but no point in it going to waste.”

  “Our boss made him head to the doctor, but he looked really rough. I hope he’ll be okay. I can understand it, though. His cousin was a sweetheart, Hannah was,” he said. “We’re all pretty broken up even though we only met her a few times. We’re all raising money to donate to the cancer charity she loved. She was in the middle of training for a fundraiser marathon in a month, so we thought it would be a good way to honor her memory. And seeing Darien so unhappy…” he shook his head slowly.

  “The poor dear. How awful,” she said, the false sympathy in her voice mixing with something else. Satisfaction? There was some confusion as well, likely over the idea that a vampire was so concerned with a cancer charity. “And your friend is insisting he stay at work? That’s tough, but everyone deals with grief in their own way, I suppose,” she said. And now there was confusion and anxiety mixed into her words. Caroline was staring at the coffee cup that was now in her hands, put there by Greg in a show of concern. She looked up to find the woman watching Greg closely as he took a large bite of his chicken pie.

  “Oh man, this is good. Good choice, C,” he said, his eyes widening. He ate the rest in two quick bites, licking the crumbs off his fingers. Mrs. Claus looked pleased.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you like it. I had to fuss with the recipe a bit to get the crust right,” she said.

  “It’s perfect! What’s your name, ma’am? So I know who to write all the poems of adoration to?” He mimed a very Shakespearian moment and ended with a huge grin and a flourish, the woman’s hand in his, gazing adoringly into her face. She giggled and blushed like a teenager.

  “Oh!” she said with a shy smile. “I’m Dorothy Pelmet. I wish everyone liked my cooking so much!”

  “It’s divine, Ms. Pelmet. I can promise you that I will be back for more of your amazing food.” Caroline heard the double meaning in his words clearly, and though the old baker didn’t, Caroline knew that their search was nearly over, and the next time she walked out with her cooking, it would go straight to Ollie’s lab.

  Stepping back into the sunshine with their bags of food and cups of coffee, they set off down the street towards the office building that their base was located in. They rounded the corner and not ten feet down the sidewalk they saw Zanna and Felix, waiting for them.

  “We saw you in the cafe when we walked by. The walk-in clinic where most of the donated blood was pretty helpful. They’re appalled at the thought that their supply is tainted and want to help as much as they can,” Felix greeted them. The main office where they’d first run into the elves was another block down the street, all of it very conveniently clustered together for someone who is trying to contaminate an entire blood supply chain.

  “I think we have our lead, and our connection,” Greg held up the paper bag with the pastries he’d added to their order.

  “That from the place that poisoned D?” Zanna asked, her eyes narrowing. “Need some help ending them?” Zanna actually snarled and Caroline suddenly realized that she’d never seen the woman in a fight. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Elves weren’t known for being especially vicious, but then she’d realized that pretty much all the agents at FPAA other than herself had a particularly violent-when-cornered sort of personality. Even Felix looked almost dangerous with his scowl.

  “Here.” Greg handed them the containers. “Could you take this back to Ollie? I’m pretty sure I already know what he’ll say, but it’ll be good to have the record. I ate one of the pies in front of our suspect, though, so take a note of that. He can test my blood later.”

  “What if it affects you?” Felix frowned. “We know the effects on vampires, but not on the rest of us. And you’re kind of a special case, after all.”

  “Yeah, well. Caroline’s got everyone on speed dial if I go down, but I don’t think I will. It hit Darien pretty fast, didn’t it?” he glanced at her for confirmation and she nodded.

  “Yeah, in just a few minutes. He didn’t even finish his coffee,” Caroline confirmed.

  “To be fair, if it had been almost any other toxin, there was enough in that cup to kill a rhino, apparently,” Felix said. “It was an unbelievable level of contamination. Perhaps three or four hundred times what was in the cans of blood in his fridge.”

  “Holy shit,” Greg said. “Glad I didn’t drink that coffee then. That pastry was in the case before we even got there and she isn’t the one who served us, so she shouldn’t have been able to add anything extra to the dose. Thank goodness for small favors there.” He shuddered. “Still, if humans can consume the stuff with no effects, I suspect I can as well. I think that this poison works specifically on whatever it is that sets vampire digestion apart from the rest of us. There aren’t many paranormals that consume blood, after all, and I’m not one of them.”

  “Okay, you keep eyes on her and we’ll go report back. Stay in contact,” Zanna said with a grim nod. She and Felix took the takeout samples and a scribbled note with Dorothy Pelmet’s name and turned back to the office building, looking for all the world like office drones heading back from a late lunch.

  Greg led Caroline towards a small alley between two buildings. It was barely more than access for the garbage and delivery trucks, she noticed, and led back towards the kitchen entrance of the cafe. He reached down and grabbed her hand and when she frowned and started to say something he motioned her to stay silent. He leaned close and explained.

  “If I stay in physical contact with you, I can cover you with my sneaky obfuscation powers,” his whisper barely breathed into her ear. “We’ll stay in the shadows as much as we can, and stay very quiet. She’s only human and she thinks she’s got us completely fooled, so she should completely miss us.”

  Caroline only nodded and turned her attention to the back door of the cafe, waiting for a sweet cheerful, twinkle-eyed, murdering granny.

  10

  Greg came damned close to disappearing, even from Caroline’s eyes, and she was looking straight at him and holding this hand. His whole body went still and even his presence— that vague undefinable awareness of another living thing nearby that all creatures notice— faded into the shadows.

  His hand held hers, warm and solid and comforting, and she still had a hard time remembering that she wasn’t alone in the alley. He watched the door with nearly unblinking eyes and a focus that would have frightened her if it had been turned her way, and he waited for his prey with single minded devotion.

  Caroline was not as good at waiting as he was. She fidgeted slightly, trying to stay still, and the minutes passed slowly, bleeding into each other. What if Mrs. Pelmet left through the front? What if she was inside right now killing someone else? What if she knew they were outside waiting and took a hostage?

  Caroline shivered, trying to flick away the thoughts. This was not her very first stakeout, but it was significantly less fun than her last. That had been boring, sure, but at least she and Darien had been sitting in a car, drinking coffee and talking about her upcoming classes. This time, there was no chatting, and she actually almost felt like she’d been put off coffee completely.

  After some time— probably an hour or so considering the lengthened shadows— Mrs. Pelmet stepped out of the door and adjusted her bags. She had a big, roomy leather purse that flapped behind her as she walked, and two reusable shopping bags from the nearby supermarket. They looked like they held something, but she carried them like they weighed very little. Greg’s hand twitched slightly as the woman settled her purse strap more firmly on her shoulder and turned off down the access alley towards the street.

  They followed her on foot for maybe half a mile, staying back and keeping as close to the shady parts of the street as they could. When she sto
pped to unlock a car and slide in behind the wheel, Greg cursed quietly. He pulled out his phone and started typing, then turned to Caroline.

  “Well, we have a choice now. Let Felix and Zanna follow her via the traffic cameras which he’ll do anyway, or…” he frowned and glared up at the late afternoon sun.

  “Or what, Greg? She’s pulling away.” Caroline glanced at the red light that would slow the woman’s departure, but not for long.

  “Or I give you a lift and we follow her from above,” he said, pointing up to the sky. “It’s much riskier, flying in the daylight, but it’s doable. It might not even come to that since I’m faster on foot in that form as well. Between my ability to obscure us, and the human mind’s reluctance to see things that don’t make sense to them, we should be okay, but Point will bawl me out. I’ll still do it though.” He glanced back to the car now idling at the stoplight, and a snarl crossed his face quickly.

  “You would?” Caroline asked.

  “She’s trying to quietly commit genocide! She went after one of us. She went after Darien,” he said, simply stating a fact.

  “Then let’s do it,” Caroline said. “I’ve never actually seen your other form.” She grinned, unable to hide her excitement. When Greg told her what he was, she’d looked up as much information as she could, but so much of it was straight-up mythology she had no idea what to really expect.

  “Well, I won’t be able to chat much. My larynx changes a bit. Fair warning,” he said.

  He pulled her back into the deepest shade he could find, under a tree that stretched over the awning for a closed newsstand. He released her hand and let her step back a pace, and then the air around her took on an odd, stretched-thin feeling, like the laws of physics were having a time out and even the molecules around Greg were taking the opportunity to relax for a moment.

  Then Greg was gone and she was looking at the middle of the shoulder of an impossibly large, red lion. Her gaze darted around as she took in the wild, golden mane crowning his head and the scaly, serpentine tail that swept the sidewalk behind him and ended in a series of needle sharp spines as long as her hand each one of which she knew— if the myths were right— were probably the most lethally poisonous barbs on the planet.

  Greg shook his body like he was settling his new skin over his muscles and then crouched down, turning his familiar human face to her with amusement in his eyes. She noticed that the lion’s mane came down over his forehead the same way that his human hair had, back over his ears and down to his neck. It was the weirdest, most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, even when he grinned at her and revealed a row of entirely feline teeth in his seemingly human mouth.

  “Man. Skip one little afternoon of classes in high school and the next thing you know you’re riding a manticore through town to catch a vampire-poisoning granny. Life is too weird,” Caroline muttered as she awkwardly scrambled onto Greg’s back. “You’re gorgeous, but I’m not going to harp on it because you’ll develop ego problems.”

  Greg chuckled, sounding strangely musical, and surged to his feet just as Mrs. Pelmet’s car was turning a corner and disappearing.

  “We’re going to lose her! I thought manticores had wings? Didn’t you say you could fly?” Caroline leaned forward, not entirely comfortable riding a giant mythological beast through downtown. She grabbed fistfuls of mane to help steady her, and did her best not to fall off as he surged into motion. The pan-pipe sound hit her ears again and she realized that was what Greg meant about his larynx. He didn’t speak in words that she could understand, but in a sort of woodwindy music. Wings unfolded from his body right behind her knees to the sound of leather sliding across itself and more fluting laughter.

  “I have so many questions, and I’m pretty sure they’re all rude and nosy, and you can’t answer them right now anyway, can you? I’ll store them up and ask later. Just don’t lose her, okay?” Caroline squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on not sliding off Greg’s broad shoulders where she was perched. A musical grunt answered her and they emerged from between a building and a fenced in parking lot to see Mrs. Pelmet’s car passing in front of them. Greg crouched in the shade from the building and waited.

  They followed her like this, giving her some lead then catching up, keeping as much as they could to the growing puddles of evening shadow, until she pulled into the driveway next to a tidy house in an outer suburb. It was the last house on the block, the end of a cul-de-sac and the backyard overlooked the neighborhood little league field. There were three well-kept rose bushes along one side, and cheerful flowerbeds lined the walkway up to the front door. Caroline shivered and wondered if this was what Gretel felt like, sighting the witch’s house.

  Greg’s voice sounded like a breeze gently playing over a bottle at just the right angle. A manticore’s answer to a whisper, Caroline guessed. He didn’t need to shift back to his fully human form to translate for her, either. She pulled out her phone and started typing a message to Point, Zanna, Mack, and the rest of the team. Quieter than if she called in, and the last thing she wanted to do was alert their suspect. A moment later her phone vibrated in her hand.

  “They have our location. It’s not her house, or at least she’s not the owner. Belongs to someone named Nicole Pelmet. Daughter, maybe? They’re still looking into it while a team heads our way,” she whispered into his ear.

  The huge head nodded and he tipped his head to the side. Greg lowered his massive body to the ground and folded his wings back, carefully out of her way.

  “I learn new stuff every day.” Caroline shook her head and stumbled when she landed, her legs feeling wobbly. She was glad that flying hadn’t actually been necessary after all. It would have probably stopped her from walking at all for a few hours while the adrenaline woe off. As it was she would be unsteady for at least a few minutes. When she straightened up again and turned back, Greg was there in his usual human self, reaching out to take her hand again and grinning.

  “Have fun?” he asked.

  “Just like the merry-go-round,” Caroline said. “Except with less creepy music. And way more exciting.” But seriously. She just rode a manticore across the city. This was actually her life now! Greg tugged gently on her hand and turned back to the house. Together they snuck up close to the house and crept quietly around the corner.

  Okay, Caroline admitted to herself. She crept quietly. Greg was silent as a corpse as he moved, and for the first time inspired real shivers. The look in his eye when he glanced back to her was focused on one thing, hunting his prey.

  “—came in twice today!” Mrs. Pelmet was speaking. They both stopped and looked towards the back yard. There must be a window or a door open for them to hear so clearly. Greg pulled out his phone from his pocket— Caroline had to remember to ask him how the heck that worked when he was covered in fur and not clothes— and pressed a few buttons.

  “Twice?” a new voice answered. Nicole Pelmet, presumably. “Think she knows something?”

  “I’m not sure. She didn’t come back with the same guy though. This one was blonde. Very handsome and charming to boot.” Caroline could hear the sly hinting in Mrs. Pelmet’s tone and had to stifle a grin when Greg frowned at her next words. “You should come in sometime, maybe I could introduce you.”

  “Aunt Dorothy, I am not looking for a date.” Nicole was clearly used to this line of conversation. “We’re too busy right now, and besides. This man is probably a friend of that monster’s. He didn’t come in today, did he?” There was the sound of dishes clinking and then water running.

  “No,” Dorothy snickered now and in Caroline’s ears it sounded like a crow of victory. “The woman said he was grieving, so I sent him a complimentary coffee and some pastries this morning. Then, like I said, he didn’t come in for lunch with her, but the handsome blonde did. Apparently the first one got really sick this morning. They looked rattled though, so I bet it all worked out.”

  “I hope you sent him some special coffee. You said you got that gut fee
ling, after all.” There was a pause before Nicole continued, the disgust in her voice so clear anyone could hear it. “I still can’t believe that monsters like that are real, and walk among us. We did some good today, Aunt Dorothy. We saved that poor woman’s life and she probably doesn’t even know it.”

  Caroline felt a snarl forming and there was a distinct sensation of magic starting to lace the air. Greg looked back at her and she knew that the rage straining his own expression mirrored her own. His eyes were glittering gold in the dusk.

  “I know full well she works in that building with the paranormal people, we talked about it. She has to know about the monsters, even if she’s up in that law office. Either way, she definitely cared for that creature, it’s true. I wonder how long he planned to play with her before draining her dry? How many others have there been before her? And don’t forget that he was grieving, apparently. We got at least two of them!” Mrs. Pelmet sounded so satisfied and content with her work that Caroline was moving before she consciously decided to.

  11

  Caroline crept along the house and Greg ghosted along right behind her. They rounded the nearby corner and saw the kitchen door cracked open to the evening air. Greg pulled his badge and his gun out and yanked the screen door open so hard that it came off its hinges and he tossed it to the side.

  “Twitch wrong and it will be the last thing you do. We are federal agents, you are both under arrest for murder and attempted murder, tampering with food supplies, and I’m willing to bet the chief has a few other charges he’d like to add,” he growled.

  The sweet looking Mrs. Pelmet was sitting at a kitchen table, about to take a bite of her spaghetti dinner, and standing by the stove was a petite, black haired woman gaping at the sudden intrusion of a large, angry man who seemed to be blurring slightly around the edges.