Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 (3 page)

Because as they finally reached their destination and Eve was about to meet the chief investigator of the OCU, Caine Valorian, a vampire, she realized it was a very big deal.

She was scared…big-time. The fear was enough to make her want to pass out. When she stepped over the threshold of the tiny, stuffy office and came face-to-face with the most beautiful man that she had ever seen in her entire thirty years of life, she almost did.

She’d been expecting to see a man with long black hair, aristocratic features and pale blue eyes, like the haunting creatures described in most movies and books. Caine did have dark hair but it was cropped short around his ears, with the front a little longer and falling over his remarkably sculpted and handsome features. A little gray peppered the sides, giving him an air of distinction. His eyes were haunting, but they weren’t pale.

They were so blue she couldn’t even put a name to the color. And he was tall. Tall enough to make her five-eight seem dwarfish in comparison. Looking at him, she imagined that she would fit quite nicely into the crook of his arm.

Oh Lord, she was in trouble. She had just arrived and she was already imagining the lead investigator on the case in flagrante.

Squeezing her lips together, she pasted on her very-nice-to-meet-you smile and offered her hand.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Valorian. I’m Eve Grant. I’ve heard wonderful things about you and the work your team does here.”

He took her offered hand with a look of amusement. “Nice to meet you, Eve.” He glanced at the two bodyguards. “I didn’t realize you were bringing your own assistants.”

When he pulled his hand away, she noticed that he rubbed it on his pant leg. She wondered if it bothered him to touch her. She had heard about some Otherworlders’

aversion to humans.

“Oh, no, these two don’t belong to me.” She started to smile when Caine smiled. “My Captain Morales thought it might be a good idea to have…ah, assistance into the city. Mr.

Bask agreed.”

“Of course he did,” Caine remarked as he glanced at the baron. Eve could see the obvious distaste for the other vampire in his face.

“As I’m sure you realize, Caine, this situation is very sensitive and we thought, Lady Jannali and I, that it would be best if our guest here—” he nodded at Eve “—felt safe and secure in our city.”

“Hmm, I see.” Caine smiled at her again. “I’m sure Eve will feel quite safe here in the lab.”

She cleared her throat, then nodded. “I do, thank you, Mr. Valorian.”

“Caine, please.”

“Caine.” She nodded, although she had the sudden urge to lick her lips. “I think it would be best for everyone involved if we skipped the bodyguards.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Caine turned toward the baron. “Laal, if you could escort these gentlemen back to where they came from, I will make sure Eve is properly introduced to the team and informed on the status of the case.”

Eve knew a dismissal when she heard one. She glanced at the baron and noticed that his eyes had got a lot brighter in the past few minutes. There was obviously some very bad blood between these two.

Thin-lipped and with a curt nod, Laal motioned to the two beefy men to follow him out of the office. He glanced at Eve on his way out. “I’ll inform your captain of your cooperation.”

When he was gone, Caine smiled again. Eve had to get herself together if she was going to work here. She had heard about the sexual potency of the male vampire, but no one had mentioned that the simple lifting of the lips alone could inflict feelings of instant desire. Although his lips were certainly full and sensuous, even soft-looking, she shouldn’t be having daydreams about how they would feel on the sensitive spot under her ear. She would have to train herself to deal with his potency. But for now, she would just avoid eye contact.

“I apologize for the baron. He’s a rather boorish man.”

Chuckling, she waved her hand. “No need to apologize. I understand perfectly about politicians. We have them, too.”

“Right, of course you do.” He gestured toward the door. “Shall we meet the rest of the team?”

She nodded and followed him out. She tucked the stray hair behind her ear again. She wasn’t sure if she was really ready to meet her new team. Before she came, she had read up on the members of the OCU. A couple of vampires, a couple of witches and a lycan.

She wondered what else was on this team. A two-thousand-year-old mummy with bandages still hanging from its decaying body? She expected Bela Lugosi to jump out from around the corner any minute and say, “Good evening,” in a thick Romanian accent.

Caine led her to a large, glassed-in room. The only one, she noticed, that didn’t seem so cramped and stuffy, an obvious reminder that they were underground beneath the police station. Her own lab back in San Antonio was bright and cheerful, despite the fact that they dealt with violence and death every day.

There were three people in the room when they entered. One at the table eating, one lounging on a sofa with a huge textbook opened on her lap, and another with a tattooed bald head, tattooed arms and bright pale blue eyes, standing at the sink eating what looked like take-out Chinese.

They all stopped their various activities and stared at Eve when she walked in, still battling the hair coming loose from her hurriedly done French braid.

She knew she would be facing animosity when she volunteered for the job, but had no idea of the level of hostility until she entered the room. She could feel it physically, like a clammy fog floating over her when she stepped over the threshold. She found it difficult to breathe from the cloying thickness of it.

“Good, you’re all here,” Caine announced as he stepped back, allowing Eve to fully enter the room. “This is Eve Grant, from the San Antonio lab. She will be working with us on this case.”

Eve smiled and tried to meet everyone’s eyes. She managed to until she came to the tattooed man at the sink. He was grinning at her like a maniac. Pursing her lips, she nodded to him and then turned her attention back to Caine.

“I’ll do the introductions, and then we’ll get down to work.” Gesturing to the petite dark-haired woman on the sofa, Caine said, “This is Lyra Magice. She specializes in spells, potions, poisons and healing.” He nodded to the table. “Jace Jericho—bites, wounds, metals and audio and video analysis.”

Eve nodded to them both, noticing that they both looked very normal. She’d never guess they were Otherworlders. Caine gestured to the man at the sink, noodles hanging out of his mouth.

“And this lunatic is Kellen Falcon. Specialties include explosives and ballistics.”

Kellen slurped the last noodle into his mouth and grinned. “Chief, you forgot social director. I’m a frigging awesome party planner.”

“Right.” Caine smiled at Eve. “So, that’s the team. You’ll meet Gwen McKinley, she’s in the lab, and Dr. Givon Silvanus in the morgue.”

The one called Jace pushed up from the table, and tossed his paper plate into the garbage.

“Welcome to the Boneyard,” he barked. Making a wide path around her, he walked past without a smile and left the room.

Kellen approached her and rolled his eyes back into his sockets. “Welcome to the nuthouse.” He stuck out his tongue and waggled it back and forth, his metal piercing flashing at her.

“Kel, go do something constructive,” Caine chided.

He bowed his head and walked backward out of the room. “Yes, Master.”

When he was gone, Caine turned to the woman still lounging on the sofa. Her head was buried in the thick volume of text on her lap. “Lyra, could you please get Eve up to speed on the case?”

“What? Why do I have to?” she whined.

Eve bristled inside. She knew why Caine had asked Lyra to be her guide. She was as close to human as an Otherworlder got, and the only other woman. A witch was essentially human, just with magical power and connections to other planes. Personally, Eve had never put much stock in witchcraft. Her best friend in high school had been a practicing Wiccan, and it didn’t impress her much.

“Don’t whine, Lyra. It’s unbecoming for a witch of your station. What would your grandmother say?”

“She’d open a portal to another dimension and blast your butt through it, is what she’d say.”

“Well, it’s a good thing she’s not working here and on my payroll, now is it?”

She stood and set her book down on the sofa. “Fine.”

Caine smiled at Eve. “Lyra will also show you where you can put your things.”

“Okay.”

“Great.” He nodded to her again, and then backed out of the room as if he couldn’t leave fast enough. She had a feeling that Caine Valorian, despite his forced charm, wasn’t too keen on her being here, either.

When he was gone, Eve looked at Lyra, who was standing glaring at her from across the room. “So, um, where can I put my bag?”

The woman opened her mouth and it seemed to Eve that she was about to tell her exactly where she could put her bag. But she closed her mouth and walked toward Eve. “Follow me. I guess I’m your tour guide.”

Eve followed her out of the staff room and back into the drab gray corridor. Lyra opened her arms wide and looked up toward the ceiling. “You see, Gran, this is why I think all men are sexist pigs.”

Great, she’d been shackled with an insane person. What else could possibly go wrong?

Eve pretended not to notice that the woman was conversing with thin air, until Lyra turned around and cocked her head as if deciding about something.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll give her a chance.”

“I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” Eve asked.

Lyra shook her head. “Gran says you’re all right. That you have a part to play in all this.”

“Oh, okay.”

Eve lowered her gaze but kept walking. Maybe if she didn’t keep eye contact, the woman would ignore her.

“But I told her she’s crazy.”

Eve smiled and nodded. Right, her grandmother was crazy.

“I got you what you needed. Now when can I expect payment?”

The figure dressed in black stepped out of the shadows in the drawing room and into a soft pool of moonlight streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling window. His hooded cloak kept his face partially hidden. He spoke from beneath his hood, “Payment. Hmm, what exactly are you expecting?”

The vampire shifted in his seat, licking his lips. Fear floated off him like cheap cologne.

Oh, how the cloaked man hated vampires. Basically useless creatures. Vain and pompous, without reason. They had their purposes certainly, like the errand he had sent this particular one on. But he hated dealing with them, hated the fact that he needed them for his plans.

“Three hundred and fifty thousand. Cash.” The vampire sat up straighter, trying to project confidence.

The cloaked man waved his hand in the air as if he was swatting away an insect. A big bald man dressed in black leather stepped toward the vampire and tossed a brown leather duffel bag onto his lap. The vampire squeezed the bag to his chest.

“Did you dispatch your accomplice?”

The vampire glanced up from inspecting the satchel and shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Well, see that you do. I’m not pleased you included him in our operation. We can’t have him walking around with information that can be used against me, now can we?”

“No. But I told you why I needed him. There was no way I could carry that much blood out by myself. Besides, he’s my main source of V.”

The shadowed figure sighed and waved his hand again. “Fine. Now get out. Our business is done.”

The vampire rose and walked to the exit, hugging the bag to his chest. The burly guard opened the double doors and promptly ushered the vampire out, shutting them behind him.

“Do you trust him?” a voice spoke.

The cloaked man turned and glared at the source of the voice, into a corner where another form sat, unseen, shrouded in the dark.

“Of course I don’t.” He moved and sat in a burgundy leather chair near the fireplace, where a low fire still flickered. “That’s why when he finishes his mission, he’ll be taken care of like the rest.”

“I heard the OCU has brought in someone from the outside to help with the case.”

He smirked. “I’m not worried about Caine and his team of misfits.” The police and crime lab didn’t concern him; he’d been playing under their radar for a long time now without interference. There was no reason to suspect that that would change.

“They brought in a human to help with the case. A human woman.”

Well, that did interest him. Sitting back in the chair, he chuckled. “Perfect.”

“S o what’s the new girl like?” Gwen asked as she poured liquid into the plastic test tube with the errant hair that Lyra had extracted from under the victim’s fingernail.

Before Caine could respond, Jace growled from his perch beside Gwen. “She stinks.”

“She does not, Jace,” Caine protested.

“I can smell her a mile away. I know when someone stinks, and she does.”

“Well, what does she smell like, then?” Gwen asked.

“Like plums and vanilla,” Caine answered, not lifting his head from going over the other trace evidence they had logged. When it suddenly became as silent as a tomb, he glanced up. They were staring at him as if he had grown another head. This, of course, was genetically impossible. “What?”

“Ah, nothing, Chief.” Jace smirked, then went back to filling test tubes with liquid.

“Is she pretty, then?”

Jace pushed off the worktable. “Who cares? She’s an NOP.”

Caine bristled. The last thing he needed was animosity within the team on this case. They couldn’t afford to have biases blind them to the truth. “Jace, I’d appreciate if you didn’t use that word in this lab. I will not tolerate any speciesism here.”

“You hate them just as much as I do, Chief.” Jace stared at Caine. “Hell, man, you have more reason than anyone here to hate them. What they did to you.”

He put his hand up to stop any more accusations. “Although I find this matter as difficult to swallow as you do, I do not hate—”

“Excuse me?”

The soft, feminine sound came from the doorway. Caine swore under his breath and turned toward the voice. Eve stood framed in the doorway, her white-blond hair falling in her eyes. He wondered how long she had been listening to their conversation. He hoped not long.