Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (19 page)

             
“Maybe it’s like the others you found?”

             
“Perhaps. Of course if there aren’t any lemons or maybe limes then we won’t be able to read it.”

             
Chance hopped out of his chair and jogged off to the kitchen. The next several pages were more diary style entries, living history. Lilith was glancing over them when Chance walked back into the dining room. “No such luck.” He shrugged and sank back down into the chair. “So what do you have there?”

             
“It looks like more journal pages, but much older, ancient in fact. It’s a little hard to make out. I’m not really fluent in old English. There are a couple words I recognize from random bits of history I’ve read. It mentions something about athelings, noblemen, and unfrith, or a break of peace. Gregor’s name is here as well as Duncan’s and another name, Ashcroft Orrick. I would have to take this to either Gregor, Duncan, or an expert on Old English to translate it.”

             
“What about these portraits?” Chance picked up one and stared intently at it.

             
Lilith looked over the rest of them. “Well this one looks like Gregor, and these two might be sons of his. I don’t recognize the brunette woman or these men.” Chance was still staring at the one in his hand.

             
“Didn’t Duncan’s journal say something about you resembling one of Gregor’s daughters from back then?”

             
“Yeah.” Her voice was tentative, waiting for him to get to the point.

             
“Well. This is what you’d look like if you ever dyed your hair blonde.” He turned the little portrait and it was almost like staring into a mirror 15 years ago. It made her skin crawl and she visibly shivered. The girl in the portrait smiled with an innocence that seemed so alien to her now. A definite melancholy fell across her shoulders, weighing her down. She needed to shake this off. Lilith closed her eyes for a moment, trying to find her balance. The whole world was changing around her and she felt left behind. She wanted one selfish moment to mourn the loss of everything she’d been so certain of.

             
Chance seemed to sense that she just needed a moment and stayed silent. Finally, Lilith opened her eyes and refocused on the rest of the tin’s contents. She flipped over the sneering portrait of a middle aged man and it actually had lettering on the back declaring that this was Ashcroft. All the others were blank. The little coat of arms was interesting, but nothing she recognized. When she had time to deal with computer research, she’d look it up. The other wrapped items were little pewter trinkets that she didn’t really understand. They just looked like little figurines of people, crude and rough. In the very bottom, a little key rattled around. It looked like a deposit box key, but any unique markings had been filed off. Yet another dead end.

She stared at the Old English pages in pure and utter frustration. The story of Mary was right here. Right in front of her and she couldn’t read it. “Dammit!” She slammed her hands down on the table and rocked back in the chair. “Let’s just get to the lab with this vial and the cooler. I’m
tired of feeling totally useless. Hopefully the blood can tell me something. For now let’s just drop it off, get back here and try to get some sleep.”

             
“What about all this?” Chance motioned to the tin and its contents but his worried eyes stayed fixed on her.

             
Lilith ran a hand through her hair and scratched her nails at the back of her head. “Let’s pack it up. It may not be useful to most people, but if I’m right, and one of the players in this little drama is from Gregor’s time, he would be able to read these and I get the feeling that he wouldn’t like them. Maybe what’s right here is what started this thing in the first place. He was looking for something in that house when we showed up.”

             
Chance started placing the pieces delicately in the tin, closed it up and handed it to her. “You should put it somewhere safe. I think it’s best if I don’t know where that is.”

             
Lilith frowned at him and grabbed the little box. “Why do you say that?”

             
“Just a precaution. Extremely valuable information is best kept to the smallest number of people possible. Call it a habit.” He shrugged gracefully, but there was real worry beneath the surface.

             
Lilith was just too tired to dig any deeper into his clouded motivations. “Let’s go then. The sooner we get back the better.” She tugged her dark green coat back on and realized there was blood on it. “Crap.” Chance stopped with a “what now?” look. “My coat, it has Miriah’s blood on it.” She released a bone weary sigh. “I’ll have to dig some clothes out of my suitcase to change into, leave these at the lab with my kit and my coat until I can clean them properly. There’s no doubt that the police will become involved and I have enough faith in the police force to see that we will at least be questioned.” She looked Chance over, but didn’t see anything. Still. “You should change clothes and put your dirty clothes in this bag. Shoes too.” She dug a plastic bag out of her coat pocket and handed it to him.

             
“I will eventually get them back, right?”

             
Lilith chuckled, looking over his casual jeans and his rumpled and faded black t-shirt. “You’re worried about them?”

             
Chance looked vaguely offended and smoothed a hand down his shirt. “This happens to be my favorite t-shirt.”

             
Lilith rolled her eyes and laughed. “Yes, yes. You’ll get it back.”

             
Chance disappeared into the bathroom with his duffel bag while she tore open her suitcase and grabbed another lavender t-shirt and another pair of comfy jeans. She changed lightning fast and stuffed her clothes into a zip lock bag along with her coat. When she emerged from the bedroom, Chance was still in the bathroom.

             
She was rambling off a to-do list, pacing the floor. She didn’t even see Chance emerge from the bathroom. Lilith was completely startled when Chance gripped her shoulders lightly, right in front of her. She shook her head and then, wearily, leaned her forehead against his chest. Her sorry was muffled and whisper quiet.

             
“Hey, we will get it all taken care of. Relax and breathe. Oxygen is your friend. Promise.” That made a smile tug at the corners of her lips. “Come on, Lily. Let’s go.” He handed her his bag of dirty clothes. “Just make sure I get that back.” He winked at her and it widened her smile.

Chapter 9

I
t was a quarter till one when they pulled up to the squat building. It wasn’t huge or elaborate, just a single level, cinder block building with a very small sign right by the door. Duncan definitely hadn’t paid for landscaping. Half the “lawn” was brown or simply bare red dirt. Weeds actually cracked through the sidewalks. The paint color on the building, which originally had been khaki, was faded and peeling in places. Absolutely nothing about this place screamed high tech lab, which was kind of the point. There were a couple security lights on outside, probably the bare minimum that still kept within safety code, but she couldn’t see any lights on inside.

There was a moment of panic that made her want to really hit something. No. She had to be right. The regular staff had to be here.
It would make sense if they blacked out the windows to be less suspicious. A lab advertising that it was open and functioning all night, might draw some attention, especially in a smaller city.

They spent a couple minutes gathering everything together. Chance insisted that she take a handful of pills with her. If the cops came, they would be easy enough to swallow and he couldn’t be sure when they would make it back here. Chance only needed a couple pills a month, so he wasn’t in any danger.

There was a buzzer panel at the door, just like Miriah’s apartment, except they were labeled with “Section 1”, “Section 2” all the way to nine. Lilith pushed the first button and seconds later a crackling voice came across the speaker. It sounded deep and rumbly over the static but with a tone of bored authority. “Goditha clinic is closed except for a light staff. Please return tomorrow during business hours if you’d like to speak to someone.”

“Well that didn’t sound rehearsed at all.” Chance started to turn away and Lilith grabbed his arm and pushed the button again.

“This is Lilith Adams, Duncan’s niece. I need access immediately. My security code is
A09178.” A buzz sounded and the door popped open just a tiny bit. Lilith grabbed it and held it open for Chance. “You coming?” He just stared at her for a moment.

“How do you have an access code here?”

“I have one access code that works in every lab that the family has any ties to, even some in Europe that they helped fund. Gregor wanted every scientific member of the family to have a code that would guarantee our identity to protect the lab and still allow us to use the facility. We shouldn’t be holding the door open like this, let’s go.”

Chance strolled in past her, careful eyes taking in his surroundings. The walls were the bland pale green that you see in
every hospital in the country. It must be some kind of clinical rule that all hallways must be the same color green. The floors were white linoleum with a fresh coat of wax that made her black flats squeak with every step. There were no pictures or plaques on the wall, nothing to tell you what they did here.  I suppose they didn’t have many visitors that weren’t directly involved in the operations.

A
t the end of the hall sat a squat desk that looked just like a Nurse’s station in an ER, sprawling and full of monitors. A large man with skin the color of burnt coffee sat hunched over the monitors, watching them carefully.
He kept his hair so short that it was just a shadow on his head and a razor thin line of hair traced his jaw line. Her best guess put him in his mid-thirties. Of course physical appearance didn’t really mean anything when you spent your life dealing with vampires.

There were times that she really wished they could just tell by sight or instinct if someone was a vampire or not.  The truth was there was no way to just tell. If it was that easy by looks they wouldn’t be able to
hide as effectively as they had for hundreds of years. They didn’t have some spidey sense that told them someone was the same as them either. It’s entirely possible, even highly probable that she’d dealt with vampires and hadn’t known what they were.

Popular culture often inferred that vampires could smell their own kind. While their sense of smell is heightened, it’s not strong enough to actually detect a person’s race on a cellula
r level. Not even dogs can tell another dog’s breed by smell. They have a sense memory. When they smell a certain dog, they remember that dog by that particular smell. They don’t recognize the entire breed by it. She was aware of different scents associated with different people, but the very idea that there was a “vampire smell” was just ludicrous.

The man sat up tall as they approached the desk, very tall. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Chance tense slightly. She could definitel
y understand why. The man, whose name badge read Coffee, oddly enough, was huge. Standing he was probably close to seven feet tall and definitely wide in that muscled linebacker sort of way.

“Ms. Adams. I’ll need to see Identification.” His voice was like the beat of a huge drum, impossibly low and smooth. There was a pleasant smile on his face when he looked at her, which completely vanished w
hen his eyes moved to Chance. They narrowed in an intimidation play and his mouth became a thin, firm line. “Name?”

Lilith smiled sweetly while digging out her trifold. “This is Chance Deveraux. He’s my escort and body guard.
Assigned by Gregor Adams. You can verify that with him if need be.” She handed over the ID and the huge mountain of a man looked it over closely, then examined her and went back to studying her ID. Finally he held it out to her.

“I will have to verify Mr. Deveraux.” His eyes stayed on Chance as his voice rumbled. Lilith flashed a smile and nodded politely.

After a tense moment, Coffee picked up the phone and dialed, apparently from memory. That surprised her, but then that seemed to be happening a lot lately. Since the age of cell phone address books began people just didn’t memorize numbers anymore. Coffee’s eyes never left Chance for an instant, pinning him in place with his stare. Chance was trying to appear casual, but she could see the stiffness in his back and the tension pulling at his muscles. He was used to being on the other side of that stare.

A moment later he hung up the phone and finally looked at Lilith. “There was no answer. I’m afraid Mr. Deveraux will have to stay here. I can’t allow him any further without clearance.”

Lilith was confused and troubled that Gregor didn’t answer his phone, especially from this clinic in particular. However, she was fully aware of the rules and pulling any kind of rank wouldn’t work in this situation. You have to pick your battles, preferably ones you actually have a chance of winning. “Thank you, Mr. Coffee, is it?” She flashed a sweet, yet professional, smile as she tucked her trifold away.

He nodded sharply in a proficient sort of way. All of his actions seemed minimalized, like he was storing energy for later, not wasting any on pleasantries. “
Richard Coffee, Head of Goditha security, Ma’am.” His dark lips curled in a small smile as his voice rolled like thunder.

She extended her hand warmly and he took it, his mas
sive hand swallowing hers in its grip. Her skin looked horribly pale against the dark mahogany color of his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I won’t be long. I simply need to drop off a few things, submit something for testing and grab a few simple supplies. Is there anyone else here tonight?”

Richard’s eyes darted to Chance again, but quickly returned to her this time.
“Yes, Ma’am. There are several teams working tonight. Do you know which division you need to see?” No specifics on personnel in front of someone unauthorized. She didn’t need to know any names. It wouldn’t do her any good. She didn’t know anyone here, but it was good to see just how well trained the security was here.

Richard Coffee
may look like a mindless linebacker that could dominate a WWF ring, but he was very well spoken and he knew his job. “Blood Analysis. I have a sample that I need some tests on including a DNA workup. Beyond that I just need to store some blood supplies that might be inconvenient to have on hand right now, and restock my crime scene kit with bags, swabs, that sort of thing.”

Thankfully, Chance was remaining very calm. The last thing they needed was another incident like
the one on the plane. Perhaps it was because this man had the authority of his job behind him. Maybe it was just mutual security respect. Testosterone with a badge unite!

Richard nodded again and it seemed a touch warmer. “You’ll
find blood analysis in Section 2, down the left hall, first door on the right. Our storage refrigerator is in Section 3, which would be the second door on the right. Supplies you can find in any of the labs. Most of them should have just about everything you need.” The low tones of his voice rumbled in the halls like smooth velvet. It was so soothing that she could definitely see it being an asset to someone with his job title. You can’t really argue and scream at someone with a calm, deep voice like that. It’s like instant Valium.

She began to turn down the hall when a thought occurred to her. She turned back to Mr. Coffee and flashed a quick smile. “Do you have anyone in local law enforcement?”

His dark face actually looked surprised, if only mildly. “We have one man in the forensics lab. He catches any trace evidence for us. We don’t have enough incidents in this area to warrant anything else. Why do you ask?” His voice was almost unnaturally low, like he used some kind of voice changer behind his desk.

“There is a situation about to occur. Your man’s help would definitely be appreciated.” Lilith gave him the address. “We found the scene, but it’s incredibly complicated. We examined the scene and I’m ninety percent sure we didn’t leave any trace, but I would feel more confident if someone had our back.”

He nodded his massive head with all the professional appreciation he had. “I’ll call my man and forward this on to him. His name is McClung.”

Lilith nodded
a simple thanks and turned to Chance. She grabbed the cooler, her kit and the bags of clothes and smiled up at him. She could see the nervousness in his eyes and suddenly realized that the tension in his body wasn’t a response to authority. He was tense because he was concerned. “I’ll be okay. This is a very secure facility, thanks to Mr. Coffee here. I won’t take long, I promise. Ten minutes tops.” Very subtlety, her right hand caressed his left, hidden from Richard by their bodies. That simple reassuring touch eased his tension a little for an instant. His eyes moved from hers to look at Richard Coffee. There was a confliction in his face that she found confusing, but she didn’t have time to deal with it now.

When Chance focused back on her, s
he winked slyly and that finally coaxed a grin from Chance, who shook his head at her. Under his breath, he whispered in a hushed tone. “Don’t leave me here long.”She knew that he really meant ‘Don’t stay out of my sight for too long.’ After what happened in Duncan’s basement and how Miriah ended up, she didn’t really blame him for being worried.

He took several steps backward until his back was against the wall. She loved that casual lean that he’d perfected
, but the smile on his lips felt hollow somehow. It felt like he was trying to show her what she wanted to see while covering up conflicting emotions. Maybe it was just about letting her out of his sight, secure building or not. If it was anything else, it would have to wait.

Blood Analysis was her first stop. She met several scientists working there that were more than happy to put aside their normal, monotonous work to run tests on the sample. Of course the fact that they were hermits with no social skills and she was a tall curvy redhead might have had something to do with that. Well, that and the clout she had with her own merit coupled with her “pedigree”.

They agreed to run DNA sampling and tried to show off by saying they’d run a comparison with all known samples and Law Enforcement databases. She’d have some preliminary results by tomorrow night, which, despite the horrible inconsistency of TV shows, was actually pretty damn fast.

Just as she was about to leave, she remembered the swab she’d taken from the family portrait and asked the guys to do a work up on it as well. The smear hadn’t given her a clear print, just a smudge. The blood was probably Duncan’s which wouldn’t really help them, but there was always a possibility that it was something else. It was a habit of hers to be thorough, usually to the aggravation of everyone else.

It was hard to get away, but she finally managed to refill her kit. She took a moment to completely sterilize her tools again, just in case, and dispose of all the gloves. The only thing she still had that could be dangerous was the bloody scrap of thick paper she’d found in Miriah’s pocket and their bags of clothes. She decided to slip the scrap into the cooler with the blood supplies until she had time and a safe place to really try and figure out what it was. She couldn’t take the time necessary to do it now. For one thing she was far too tired to work it, and she definitely couldn’t leave Chance standing there all night. They’d have to come back, hopefully, tomorrow night.

She pulled the tin out of her pocket and tucked it in the cooler too. She didn’t know why, but somehow she just knew it was far too dangerous to keep on her. It may be a collection of portraits and some undecipherable pages of Duncan’s journal, but there was power in it, even if she didn’t understand what it was.
This facility was the safest place to stash it in the entire state of Tennessee.

The storage room was thankfully quiet. The crew that worked here was either gone for the
“day” or hadn’t come in yet. She carefully labeled the cooler and added a “DND” (Do Not Disturb) sticker to the white top and two more to the bags of clothes. She stood in front of the oversized walk in refrigerator and tried to think of anything she may have missed.