Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (27 page)

She
dug through the cooler and finally found the plastic bag containing the bloody scrap of paper from Miriah’s pocket. As she pulled it out on a clean counter she tried not to think of where it came from. She’d had enough flashbacks about that horrific examination. The blood was dried now, making the paper stiff and uneven. It was a little bit bigger than the size of a credit card, with rounded edges on one side and what appeared to be a perforated torn edge on the other side.

As her brain rattled the possibilities around, she searched the lab for a magnifying glass
.  There was no real way to remove the blood without damaging the paper. If the magnifying glass didn’t reveal anything, she could run it under ultra violet and infrared light and try to record the inks color spectrum. If she couldn’t make out words, she could still determine the type of ink used and perhaps that would help narrow things down.

Lilith trained her magnifying glass on the now red slip of thick paper. There was a date from this year, but she couldn’t quite
make out the month and day. A few other numbers were half legible and there was a large 23A on the right hand corner. A ticket, more specifically, a plane ticket. It had to be. If she was right, the most important thing on that piece of paper was the date and destination.

With a thrill traveling through her bones, she reached for the UV light, holding it over the ticket while staring through the magnifying glass. It was no help at all. Blood absorbs UV light so the entire piece just looked dark.
Vampire blood doesn’t always absorb the UV light, but then in theory Miriah was being constantly supplied with blood during her…torture. The ink definitely didn’t pop out at her. Hopefully Infrared would do a better job.

After a few minutes of searching, she found the equipment she needed. When the ink jumped up from the slip she blinked and just stared down at it. “What the hell!” Lilith shoved the infrared light and the magnifying glass onto the counter as her mind reeled.

It was definitely a plane ticket, a plane ticket for Miriah Sanders from Knoxville Airport to New York City on a red eye flight Monday night. How in the hell did Miriah get from New York to here? She must have flown there with Malachi. He was killed there and somehow Miriah wound up dead here in Tennessee. A sudden flash of clarity almost knocked her from the stool. The suitcase, in the closet, it had to be Miriah’s. The clothes that were wrinkled in the closet were hers. Someone must have unpacked them and hung them there. It couldn’t have been Miriah. For one thing, Miriah wouldn’t hang clothes that wrinkled and secondly, Lilith was pretty certain she’d never made it back to the apartment.

Someone didn’t want her to know Miriah had ever been in New York. Why? They didn’t have any problem killing
Malachi and leaving him there. Perhaps Miriah ran back here, but why would she? In New York she’d have protection with Gregor, she had allies. She knew Duncan was missing, which only left her Spencer here as an ally. No. She must have been forced to leave. Suddenly she remembered the older bruises covering Miriah’s face, shattering her bones. It had to have happened in New York, perhaps when Malachi was tortured and killed.

Lilith
rubbed furious fingers against the growing ache in her skull. She couldn’t focus, her thoughts were scattering before she could fully form them. She reached over and snatched the now warm bag of blood floating in the sink. She didn’t bother with the social niceties of a glass. She simply tore the bag open and knocked it back, draining it. The effect was immediate as it warmed her stomach and instantly spread through her blood stream.  A sigh of relief flooded out of her as the headache began to recede.

There was something important, some vital connection, tugging at her but she couldn’t quite grasp it. She needed to let her mind decompress, let it relax with some menial tasks. After sanitizing the clothes meticulously and wringing them out, she stuffed them into fresh plastic bags. She’d have to make it to a Laundromat when she left here.
When she left the lab to go where? If she couldn’t get Chance out of Detective Cohen’s clutches, she’d have to get a hotel room, except that her wallet was locked in the rental car. Somehow she didn’t think she could find a seven dollar hotel room. Maybe Spencer would have better luck with Cohen. He had to be a smooth talker when the occasion called for it. He was an art dealer, after all. That’s all talk. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer that Spencer would succeed in getting Chance out, the very thought of aimlessly wandering Knoxville, by herself, just chilled her to the bone.

If Chance didn’t get out she could possibly stay with Spencer.
She definitely wasn’t thrilled about the idea, not as unstable as he’d been so far. Spencer. Her eyes widened as a string of thoughts came crashing down on her like a physical weight. She fell back on the stool in complete shock. How could she have been so blind? She’d seen every emotion in his face, but she interpreted them the way she wanted to see them, not the way they actually were.

It all suddenly fit.
Spencer being out of contact, not picking them up at the airport, being hours away. Ida seeing him carrying a suitcase, Miriah’s suitcase, into the apartment when Lilith was recovering from a vicious head wound. Spencer had to have killed Malachi. Whoever attacked her couldn’t have done it. All that anger, resentment, rage. It wasn’t directed at the enemy, it was directed at his own family. The guilt was real on his face, because he was directly responsible.

It felt like her soul sank into complete, cold, numbing darkness as terror vibrated through her bones.
Whoever their unnamed foe was, Spencer was working with or for him. She remembered how torn up his knuckles has been and what he said. “I have a tendency to punch things when I get angry.” Things like his sister’s face apparently.

Chapter 13

S
pencer wasn’t just passively involved in the death of his brother-in-law, or his sister. There was no doubt left in her mind, he’d beaten his own sisters face into a fractured, bloody pulp. He’d tortured and killed her husband. He must have brought Miriah back down to Tennessee, but her death was definitely someone else’s work. Was he ordered to bring her back alive? Or was killing Malachi and beating his sister’s face in the extent of his evil mojo? Crap. Right now, Spencer was heading to Chance. Her heart felt like a lead weight, dead in her chest.

Lilith fished Detective Cohen’s card out of her pocket and dialed as she quickly stuffed things into the cooler and shoved them into the refrigeration unit.
His silky voice answered as she pushed her way through the doors into the hall at a running pace. “Detective Cohen.”

“Detective.
This is Lilith Adams. I don’t have time to explain, but Spencer MacEwen is on his way to see you. Do not let him leave and do not let him anywhere near Chance.” She was panting by the time she reached the security desk. She definitely needed to work on her cardio.

“
Your cousin, Spencer? What is this about, Ms. Adams?” His tone was deathly serious and full of roiling tension.

“I can’t explain right now. I’m on my way down there and I promise I’ll explain as much as I can, just please do not let him anywhere near Chance. I need your word!”

“Yes…of course.” As soon as she heard his somewhat shocked answer, she hung up the phone and stared up at Coffee. Even sitting, the man was taller than her which was just unnerving.

“Richard, I need your help.” His huge, dark eyes widened as he looked at her. “I need a ride or a vehicle, something. I have to get to the police department
immediately. I just don’t have time to wait on a cab. It’s urgent.” She knew her voice was trembling with desperation, but she was beyond caring if some stranger thought she was falling apart.

It felt like an eternity stretched out while Richard Coffee sat perfectly still in his too small chair. His enormous hands sat folded on the desk and she could almost see the cogs moving in his head. Finally his boomingly deep voice rumbled out. “There’s a security truck for the lab. I can let you borrow that. I can’t leave the lab unprotected so you’ll have to take yourself. Just bring it back when you’re done.”

A key ring with one long key dropped on the counter and she snatched it up. She was about to race off when a thought stopped her. She turned back with a frown and glanced up at the mountain of a man. “Don’t let Spencer in here, for any reason, with any authorization number.”

Lilith could only watch in fascination as his enormous brow furrowed into deep lines of confusion. “Spencer never comes to the lab.”

“I realize that, but he may try to get in. I can’t really explain right now, but if he does contact you, don’t give him any information and definitely do not let him inside.” Richard nodded in slow motion.

Before she could turn around again, Richards booming voice stopped her. “I hear Detective Cohen is on your case.”

She stopped dead in her tracks with the menacing tone in his voice. “Yeah? Do you know him?”

His massive jaw clenched into a firm, hard line. That definitely wasn’t a good sign. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him, Ma’am. He moved to the area a couple months ago from some small town in Alabama. Duncan was concerned about Cohen’s interest in him and his research. Whatever he is, he’s not human and he knows about us.”

Her heart sank again. It seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “So he’s a vampire? But not with a family that we knew about?”

The skin around his eyes tightened and the right corner of his lip crinkled, just a bit. “I couldn’t say. Research isn’t my job and no one seems to know him. Just be cautious.”

Great. The last thing she needed was another player in town. It was getting down to the line. She could feel it like a storm looming, almost ready to unleash its fury. She nodded and jogged for the door, which was a little tricky in her strappy heels. She should have listened to Chance. Her little black flats sounded like heaven right about now.

Minutes lat
er, Lilith was scrambling into a white, eighties model pickup. Goditha Security was slapped in simple black letters across both doors and the tailgate. The engine roared to life and she threw it into gear, peeling out of the parking lot. She had to get to the station as fast as she could. Chance was sitting in a viper’s nest. Cohen might be an enemy, and Spencer definitely was. Everything else left her mind, she just focused on getting there, getting to Chance. Nothing else mattered right now.

Her chest was tight with panic, her blood pounding in her ears like thunder. Every second that ticked by just made the tension thicker. She knew in her gut that something very bad was going to happen if she didn’t get there.

Perhaps it was her unnerving focus that made her realize too late that there was a car following her. She glanced up at the rearview mirror just as a red sedan slammed into the rear end of the truck. The whole thing lurched forward and Lilith gripped the steering wheel as tight as she could. Her head whipped forward and the seatbelt strained to keep her from flying up in the air from the force of the hit. Her heart leapt into her throat and her foot slammed down on the gas.

The little truck took off like a rocket, pulling away fro
m the red car. It looked like a nineties model Oldsmobile, boring and ratty. It was nothing at all like the ominous black SUVs you see bad guys driving in the movies. Maybe they weren’t standard issue in real life or maybe his bad guy union card was expired. Her eyes kept flickering from the mirror to the road and back again. The road was pretty straight for the next half a mile, with cornfields and farms on either side. She hadn’t reached the city limits yet and civilization out here was sparse. A bright yellow sign indicated a hairpin turn ahead and the red beater car behind her was gaining fast.

Lilith floored it, praying that the little truck could handle the curve without rolling. If she was lucky, the Oldsmobile wouldn’t be able to take it and would be forced to slow down.
With her heart thundering and her stomach churning, she gripped the wheel tight and raced into the turn. Her eyes flashed to the mirror just in time to see the Oldsmobile roaring straight for her. He wasn’t going to even attempt the curve. He was heading straight for the center to T-bone her in the apex of the curve.

Her nerves rattled with panic as she slammed on the break
s and straightened the wheel. Flying off the road was inevitable. All she could do was slow down and hope that she didn’t flip when the beater car hit her. The whole world crawled in slow motion as she watched the car heading straight for her. Lilith swallowed the lump in her throat and held onto the wheel for dear life. Time seemed to completely stop as she drew in a deep breath, and then it all just exploded.

The deafening sound of metal crashing into metal and glass shattering rocked her world. The impact to her front quarter panel sent the small truck spinning and skidding off the road. Her fingers tightened painfully as the shock traveled through her whole body, sending
her flying against the restriction of the seatbelt. She could already feel the bruises. The truck careened onto the side of the road, scraping against a telephone pole with a sickening sound. It helped to slow her down, but not enough.

The truck lurched down as the grill slammed into the high side of a huge drainage ditch.
Lilith’s head thrashed forward, bouncing off the wheel with a blinding pain that made the world spin. Her vision went white hot as pain flared like fire up her arms. The windshield shattered in millions of spider web cracks, but thankfully stayed in place.

In sickening slow motion, the light bed of the truck flew up
from the momentum, leaving her dangling by the seat belt and struggling for every breath. Finally the bed slammed down, making the whole vehicle rock and groan. Her head flew back against the headrest and her vision swam with bright points and dark shadows. She didn’t even have time to blink before the darkness pulled her under.

The sound of shattering glass pulled her from the
murky depths of unconsciousness. Her entire body screamed for her to wake up but her eyes were struggling to open. It wasn’t until she felt a hand dig into her hair and viciously yank her head toward the window that her eyes blinked open, trying in vain to focus. Pain seared across her scalp and down her already battered body. Lilith screamed, clawing at the hands that grabbed her. The seatbelt was the only thing that kept her attacker from dragging her through the window by her hair.

“Bitch!
” The hands pulled back fast after her nails raked hard enough to draw blood. “I told him! I told him calling Gregor was a mistake. He just had to have you here. I told him you were a meddlesome bitch.” Spencer’s voice was almost unrecognizable. It hissed past his thin lips, dripping with anger, hatred, and resentment. Lilith was still trying to make the world stop spinning and force her eyes to focus when a fist hit her cheek with a crushing blow that made her teeth rattle. The entire side of her face exploded in blinding pain as she fell over the center console. The plastic dug sharply into her ribs and the seatbelt pulled against deep bruises, but she didn’t care. Her head was pounding ferociously and she had to make it stop. She had to focus right now or she was going to die. With a flash of sudden clarity, Lilith scrambled to unlock the seatbelt, which thankfully didn’t jam.

“He’ll see. When I drag you back to him, he’ll see I was right.
Maybe he’ll let me have you. I was supposed to have Miriah, you know. That was the plan, but no… I had to play babysitter instead, dealing with all your damn emotional crap. Oh poor Spencer…wah. I hated every minute of your damn pity.” Spencer was pulling at the handle, trying to get the warped door to open. He hadn’t noticed what she was doing yet. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll be a happy family soon enough. Duncan, Chance, Gregor. Well maybe not happy, but together at least.” His laugh was dripping with homicidal glee.

With her heart thundering like a scared rabbit, she pushed herself over the console and
into the passenger’s seat. She glanced at Spencer’s cruel face, completely contorted in anger. He was almost as unrecognizable as his voice had been.

Miriah must have felt like this, shocked at the monster her brother had become. Her face ached and burned where he’d
punched her. It still made her vision swim and her stomach churn. All the signs of a concussion. Miriah. He’d beat her face into a mangled mess. Through the noise and deliriousness in her head she realized that the same thing would happen to her if she didn’t move. MOVE! Her mind screamed it and her shaky hands fumbled around for the door handle. Once she found it, she shoved her shoulder against it and a fresh pain shot up her arm making her whimper.

That caught Spencer’s attention. His blue eyes were glowing with pure hate. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He still hadn’t managed to get the driver’s side door to open. He slammed his hands against the truck, making it rock. Panicked, she shoved harder at the passenger
door, biting back the screams as excruciating pain made her fingers go numb.

Spencer’s arms shot through the shattered window, clawing at her legs, trying to get a hold on her. “No!!!” She screamed and with fierce determination not to die, gave one last giant shove at the door, finally cra
cking it open. Her heel kicked out, catching Spencer’s jaw with a sickening crack and then she was falling out of the truck. The impact, even in the soft grass of the drainage ditch, rattled her bones. If she lived through this she’d be black and blue for months. She didn’t bother looking for him. She could hear his screams as she scrambled up the hill on unsteady feet, terror pounding through her body. Her fingers clawed into the dirt desperately pulling her up as her feet kept sliding on the wet grass.

Whoever was working with Spencer probably wanted her alive, so he might not kill her right now. However, she knew exactly how being taken alive had worked out for Miriah. There was no way she was going to let him drag her to that butcher.

“Come back here! Dammit! I hope he lets me have you. You almost broke my fucking jaw!” She didn’t dare stop to look for him. She just kept clawing, kept climbing, desperate to get away.

When she finally reached the crest she
looked wildly around for somewhere to go. They were surrounded by cornfields and cow pastures with no sign of any real help. Movement caught her attention just in time to see Spencer come running up the embankment. His eyes were red rimmed and cold, just as they’d been before in Miriah’s apartment, but they were worlds different now. She didn’t feel sympathetic anymore, just sick and terrified.

             
Lilith tried to run, but Spencer intercepted and grabbed her around the waist, hauling her to the ground. She screamed and pushed but he was definitely stronger than he looked. He had to be all wiry muscle because his hands were like steel manacles around her wrists. She tried to kick at him, but he swung a leg across her and straddled her chest. The weight of him crushed against her bruised and possibly broken ribs, making her cry out in an agonized scream. When it ended, she couldn’t breathe, her chest just kept tightening more and more. Her legs flailed uselessly and all she could manage were tiny gasps of air.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going…cousin?” He spit the last word at her like a dagger.
The hard line of his mouth split into a demonic grin that made her skin crawl and her stomach lurch again. The swimming in her head was even worse, combined with not being able to breathe, it was just too much. She managed to pull her head to the side just enough to not choke on the vomit as violent heaves wracked her body.