Blood Secrets-Valorian 1 (4 page)

However, by the look of anger and hurt on her face, he assumed she had been standing there long enough.

“Yes, Eve, hello. Has Lyra got you up to speed?” He walked toward her, hoping to defuse the situation.

“I need a computer.” She brushed a stray hair from her forehead and lifted her chin, but avoided meeting his eyes.

Caine had to admire her. She had likely heard everything they had said, and she still had the guts to walk in here and rise above the insults.

He’d been worried when he first saw her, looking like a Malibu Barbie doll. Long white-blond hair, dark blue eyes, blemish-free tanned skin, little pert nose with a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge. Thankfully, she was not rake thin. No, she definitely had curves. She filled out her navy pinstripe suit jacket and skirt very well. Not that he was trying to notice, it was just one of those things a man couldn’t help but observe. For a human, he had to admit, she was attractive.

When he had taken her hand, he had felt something jolt through his skin. An energy of some sort. She wasn’t psychic, but she possessed some kind of gift. And given the fact that his hand tingled after, remarkably with pleasure, she had certain sexual potency as well. Something, he believed, she had no idea that she possessed.

“Yes, of course,” he answered, giving her his best diplomatic smile.

“I thought since the rest of the team is processing evidence, I would get a jump on IDing the victim. I can access AFIS, CODIS and missing persons reports.”

“You have complete access to all the systems in San Antonio?”

Arching a brow, she smiled back at him. “What I don’t have access to, I can hack.”

Gwen whooped. “A girl after my own heart.”

Caine’s lips twitched. The woman had guts, he’d give her that. More than he expected from a human woman. Now, if she could back that up with skill, he’d be one happy crime investigator.

“You can use the computer in the analysis room.” Still carrying his clipboard, Caine exited the lab and led the way down the hall to another small, enclosed area.

When he walked through the doorway of the analysis room, he stopped in his tracks, and Eve nearly collided with him. The computer was being used. Lyra was happily going through magical symbols and spells that she had archived in their system years ago.

Lyra glanced up at him and smiled smugly. “Why don’t you let Eve use the computer in your office?”

Caine wanted to reach over and strangle Lyra. She knew how much he detested people being in his office, in his space. It wasn’t that he was possessive about it. He just didn’t like when others touched his things. Working as an OCI, he knew how germs could spread just by opening one’s mouth.

“How long are you going to be?” he asked.

“As long as it takes to figure out these symbols, Chief.” She raised her brow. “You do want me to figure that out, don’t you?”

As Eve sidled up next to him curiously, he cleared his throat and nodded to Lyra, his little troublemaking witch, who he was tempted to write up under some insubordination charge.

“Of course.”

Turning toward Eve, he motioned toward the door. “We’ll use my office.”

Without a word, she followed him out and down the hall to his sanctuary.

Once through the door, he showed her where his computer was and motioned toward the chair for her to sit. Instead, she looked around his office, seeming to take everything in.

She particularly eyed his book collection with intense scrutiny.

Before she could take a step toward his extensive and private collection of books, he moved in front of her blocking her path. He motioned toward the computer once again.

“Do you need some help getting started?”

He meant the question to be condescending, and by the dark gleam in her eye, he suspected he made his point.

Lifting one perfect brow, Eve flexed her fingers and sat down in his chair in front of the computer. “No. I think I can handle it, thank you.”

Caine watched, at first unconcerned and then with rising interest, as her fingers flew over the keyboard accessing more programs and screens than he’d ever seen. In five minutes, she had full access to the San Antonio police department mainframe and was tapping into AFIS and CODIS. Using the prints and DNA samples they had on the victim, she ran both searches at once.

Seemingly very satisfied with herself, Eve leaned back in his chair and smiled up at him, the blue in her eyes sparkling. “May take awhile, but at least we’re in. If she’s in the system, we’ll find her.”

“Great.” He nodded. “You’re, ah, very efficient with the computer.”

“Thank you. I’ve been hacking systems since I could type. This was when I was four.”

She laughed.

He joined in, intrigued by the dimple in her right cheek and the crinkle of her eyes. She didn’t look like a Barbie doll right then, more like a confident woman. A warm tingling radiated up his spine, telling him he needed to get out of this situation. The room suddenly became too small, too warm. She was too close. Taking a distancing step back, he rubbed a hand over his face.

“It’s my shampoo, by the way.”

He looked at her, eyebrow lifted in question.

“Plums and vanilla.” She touched her hair with the tips of her fingers. “That’s what you smell.”

Before he could comment, his cell phone buzzed. Feeling very aware of Eve’s presence, Caine turned from her amused gaze and flipped open his phone. “Valorian.”

While Mahina grumbled in his ear, Caine felt Eve watching him. He sensed that she was eyeing him up and down, taking in everything about him. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched her face blush and she quickly turned her head, her attention focusing back on the computer screen.

He needed to get out of the office, and now. It was becoming excessively uncomfortable in here. Thank the moon, Mahina needed him at the crime scene.

He flipped his phone closed, pocketed it and shuffled his clipboard from one hand to the other. Without looking at Eve, he started toward the door. “I need to go back to the crime scene, so if you’ll excuse—”

“Can I come?”

Pausing, his foot just over the threshold, Caine turned around. “I’m sorry?”

“The search will take awhile. I could sit here in your office and paw through your things, or you could take me with you to the crime scene.”

Again, that sparkle in the blue of her eyes flashed at him. She could read that he didn’t want her in his office around his personal effects.

Sighing, he nodded.

With a smile, she stood, smoothed down the line of her skirt and followed him out.

The intoxicating scent of plums and vanilla clung to her like a gossamer spiderweb.

He had no desire to be the fly lured into it.

I t was nearing ten in the evening when Caine maneuvered the lab’s black SUV into the Black Heart Hotel’s parking lot. Eve had stared out the passenger window as they whizzed through the city, taking in everything she could.

Necropolis wasn’t all that different from any other city in America.

High-rises brushed the night sky. Storefronts lined the busy streets. Fluorescent signs declared this week’s special sales. Couples out on the town lined up to get into the hottest nightclubs. What were you expecting? Neon signs flashing: Beware Vampires Live Here?

She’d seen all the same things in San Antonio, and it was easy to forget that these people were not the same. They were Other. And she was the outsider.

Glancing over at Caine, she thought the same about him. He was nothing like she’d expected him to be. Vampires were supposed to be flamboyant and extravagant, with a penchant for flair and dramatics, just like in the movies. But Caine was the exact opposite of that. He seemed aloof and reserved. Right down to his cornflower-blue tie and pressed gray slacks. At first, he had been charming, with his killer smile, but now he seemed almost nervous. Why would he be nervous around her? It’s not like he had anything to fear from her.

Opening the passenger door, the heat of the sultry night hit her full blast. It was hot in the summer in Texas, but lately it had been unbearably humid as well. Already, her blouse was sticking to her back as she rounded the vehicle and grabbed her field kit from the back.

Caine had offered her one of theirs, but she had come to Necropolis with her own stainless-steel, fully packed kit. Everything was right where she needed it. Using someone else’s gear just didn’t feel right to her. Like wearing someone else’s clothes.

With her kit in hand, she followed Caine into the hotel.

“This is the Black Heart. One of a few unsavory hotels here in the Digs.”

She glanced around the lobby, taking in the grime on the yellowing linoleum floor and the greasy sheen on the walls. Definitely not the Four Seasons.

They took the stairs up to the second floor. Eve was very careful not to touch the railing.

She didn’t like the look of the substances stuck on the flaking orange-painted metal. One she was certain was gum, but the other goo she really didn’t even want to think about.

Her stomach was already queasy as it was.

This was technically her first crime scene. Back in San Antonio, she had worked the lab.

For two years, she processed evidence and maintained the computer lab. When she was training, she’d been out on a few crime scenes, but this was the first time she was out here by herself, or without anyone she knew, that is. She really hoped she didn’t blow it.

Captain Morales had given her the opportunity for this assignment, and she didn’t want to disappoint him. Because she knew if she failed out here, she would never get another chance to prove herself.

When they arrived on the second floor, Eve noticed a muscular woman in jeans and T-shirt standing with a scrawny weasel of a man and a taller man in a suit in front of an open doorway with yellow tape across it. The crime scene.

Caine nodded to the woman. “Mahina.”

“Valorian.” She turned her scrutiny onto Eve. “Who’s this?”

“This is Eve Grant from the San Antonio lab. She’s helping with the case.”

Mahina smiled. The woman’s grin made Eve’s stomach clench. She swore the woman was eyeing her as if she were a late-night snack.

“Eve, this is Captain Mahina Garner.”

Mahina stuck out her hand. Eve took it reluctantly.

“Nice to meet you.”

Eve had to stifle a gasp as the police captain almost crushed her hand. Finally, she let go, and Eve nearly sighed in relief. “You, too.”

The man in the suit grunted. “Can we move on to my problem, please?”

Caine turned his attention to the man. Eve could see a slight rise in the way Caine stood, a shifting of his shoulders, a tilting of his chin. A predatory stance? She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by it. Males of any species showed aggression when confronted by another male. It was natural. However, for some reason, she really seemed to notice it in him.

“And what is the issue, Mr. Porter?”

“I’m losing money keeping this room quarantined.”

Eve glanced sideways and looked into room 210. She was itching to get inside and look around. She imagined Caine’s team had done a thorough job of collecting the evidence, but sometimes fresh—even foreign—eyes could pick out things that they couldn’t see.

She tapped Caine on the arm and motioned to the room. “May I?”

He nodded briefly. “Just look, don’t touch.” Dismissively, he then turned his attention back to the uptight man in the suit, the hotel’s owner, she assumed.

“Mr. Porter, this room is a crime scene, and it will continue to be blocked off until we are satisfied that we’ve collected all the evidence we need to solve this case.”

Eve opened her kit, snapped on a pair of latex gloves and wandered into the room, leaving the men to argue. She took small measured steps on a straight path, trying to note every detail: The way the room was arranged, the smell of disinfectant and the sharp metallic odor of blood. She set her kit down on the floor and neared the bed.

Back at the lab, she had looked over the crime scene photos briefly. But she remembered the way the girl looked sprawled out on the bed, as if she were viewing it right now. The grisly image had been ingrained in her memory. The way her arms were splayed out to the sides, and her legs spread. To Eve she had looked like a five-pointed star positioned like that. A pentagram, Eve had thought. The symbols written on the girl’s bare chest and stomach had been foreign to Eve. She’d never seen anything like it. However, she didn’t need to be a witch to comprehend that the girl had been an unwilling part of a spell or sacrifice of some sort.

Why and how had the girl come here? Where would she have met a vampire?

For the most part, the existence of the Otherworld community was a guarded secret from the rest of humanity. Because of its proximity to San Antonio, some people knew of the undead city and its inhabitants. Those in law enforcement had been made aware, and each of them had to sign a contract that kept their silence and prevented them from speaking about the Others to anyone. If that silence was broken, the perpetrator was severely dealt with.

Eve had signed such a contract when she was hired as a forensic investigator. There had been lots of speculation on what the otherworlders were like, lots of misinformation and prejudice. She had read the files on each of the species, on each of the OCU members, but it didn’t prepare her at all for the reality of the situation. She was as ignorant about them here as she was before.

So, how did this young, seemingly innocent girl hook up with a killer vampire? Maybe she had been kidnapped or seduced by his vampiric charms. But if that had been the case, then the vampire had been in San Antonio.

On a hunting trip.

That thought brought shivers over Eve’s body. Shaking her head from her dangerous thoughts, Eve turned from the bed, intent on leaving, and nearly collided with the weasel-like man from the hallway.

He was grinning at her. “Do you need some help?”

Immediately, her heart started to thump in her chest. All kinds of warning bells sounded in her head. “Um, you shouldn’t be in here. This is a crime scene.”