The Lion's Den (28 page)

“
Another fucking one?” Gabriel asked, his face contorting in outrage.

“
Yeah,” Matthew answered, telling them the address. He turned to Colin. “We should get going, come on.” The two detectives left.

Brian looked at Warren. “Do we have the authority to raid supernatural businesses?” he asked.

“
I’m sure we will,” Warren said, dialing their captain. When she answered he told her their plan, asked for permission.

“
I’ll call a judge and get the paperwork started. It shouldn’t be a problem,” Michelle said.

“
Thanks, Captain.” He closed his cell phone and waited. Several minutes passed before his captain called back. He answered. “Tell me something good.”

“
My pleasure, you have permission. Come and pick up the paperwork,” their Captain informed.

“
Excellent.” He ended the call and turned to Brian. “We’re all good. We need to swing by the precinct for the paperwork. Let’s go.”

 < />

C
hapter
F
ifteen

At the eleventh crime scene, Matthew listened to the initial report from Marlon.

“
Wait a minute, are you fucking telling me that this may be a copy-cat killing?” Matthew asked, both eyebrows raised.

“
That’s exactly what I’m telling you. None of the fang or teeth marks match the ones from the other victims. You have another group of supernaturals trying to make a name for themselves. The good news is … they’re not half as sophisticated as the originals. They’ve left saliva, footprints and a host of other clues. CSI lifted several fingerprints off her car,” Marlon said, still stooping over the body finishing up his initial examination.

“
Shit, this is something we don’t need,” Colin said. Both his hands resting on his hips as he looked down at the mutilated body of a young African-American woman who looked to be in her early twenties.

“
Listen, Marlon, if you find anything else, let us know right away,” Matthew said. “Let’s go talk to some of these people, see if anyone saw anything.”

The two detectives questioned everyone still standing around the crime scene. After a few minutes of somewhat gentle prodding of one of their witnesses, the man finally admitted to seeing the three men and one female drag the victim from her car and began feeding. Immediately, Matthew ushered the witness to their car. They drove back to the precinct to continue their line of questioning. Matthew sat the eighteen-year-old male at his desk, offered him a soda to keep him calm.

“
I understand how difficult this is for you, anything you can give us will be helpful. I hate to put you through this, but we need to know what happened, please start from the beginning,” Matthew said, gesturing for the teenager to give a recount of the attack he witnessed.

“
Yeah, dude, sure. I want to help. Man, I’ve got to tell ya, I’ve never seen anything like that shit before. They just jumped in front of her car, broke her window and dragged her out. She was kicking and screaming, begging them to let her go. I wanted to help her, I did.” The young man looked at the two detectives, his bottom lip trembled. He stared at them with wide eyes filled with a mixture of sorrow and shame.

“
Please go on,” Colin urged.

“
You don’t believe me, do you? That I wanted to help her? I did, but I was just scared. I mean, they’re vampires … super strong and shit. What could
I
do against them?”

“
Were you the one who called the S.U.I.T.?” Matthew asked.

The young man nodded.

“
Then you did all. She wyou could do and you have no reason to be ashamed,” Matthew said, hoping to ease the young man’s conscience.

“
I guess,” he said softly, not sure if that answer was enough to assuage the guilt he was feeling. “They killed her. The female with them was the shifter, when she started eating her legs … .” The young man’s voice trailed off. “I was so scared, I just ran. I ran so fast, I didn’t want to turn around to see if they were behind me. When I thought I was safe, I called you guys.”

“
Can you describe what they look like? We’re going to get a sketch artist in here, think you can give pretty good descriptions of her attackers?” Colin asked.

“
Yeah, I can. I’ll never forget their faces.”

“
Hold on,” Matthew said, holding up his right hand. “Going back to your story, you said there were four of them, right? Three vampires and a shape-shifter … the shifter was the female?”

The man nodded. “Yeah, really pretty, too. It’s too bad she’s a killer. When I saw them standing their talking, I was trying to work up the courage to talk to her before they started attacking that woman.”

“
How old did she look?” Matthew asked.

The man shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know, about twenty, no more than twenty-two.”

“
Thanks.” Matthew called the sketch artist, requesting his services. “David will be here in a few minutes to make the sketches. I’m going to the bathroom.” He rose from his chair and left. When he was alone, he called Warren’s cell. When his partner answered, he told him what was going on. “Warren, the DB we found on North Ave., was a copy-cat killing and I think I know who might have done this one.”

“
Who?”

“
Remember that little gang of vamps and their female shifter we busted last year for vandalizing the
Slayer’s Lair
nightclub?”

“
Yeah, think they’ve beefed up their criminal acts?”

“
To the highest level. They’ve taken the recent killings as inspiration. We have a witness that said he saw three vamps and one female shifter attack and kill a woman. They fit that description, they’re always hanging out together. We need to find them and fast. They should be in custody while we wait for forensics to prove them guilty or innocent. Right now, the witness is giving David their descriptions.”

“
Good, you keep to that. We don’t need any second rate hacks fucking up this investigation. Right now, I’m on my way to shake down a few supernatural businesses, see if anybody knows anything. If I see them, I’ll bring them in personally.”

“
Okay, we’ll be here.” Matthew ended the call. He called Richard, giving him an update. Once he was done with that, he returned back to their witness.

***

A copy-cat killer!” Brian stated, surprised. “You know, at least have the damn decency to wait until after the original killer is caught or dead before you start treading on their territory. They might actually piss off the real coven.”

“
Not before pissing me off first. Matt and I have an idea who did the killing. If I see this gang in one of these clubs, I’ve got a good mind to bypass their ‘legal rights’,” Warren said, speeding toward
Desires Unleashed
. He reached into his pocket, removing his cell phone. “I need to make a call.” He called Darian.

“
Hello Warren,” Darian greeted.

“
Darian, I just thought I’d call and let you know, we have to do a sweep of supernatural-owned businesses. I’m heading to yours right now.”

“
I understand. I’ll call my staff and inform them to assist you upon your arrival.”

“
Thanks.” Warren ended his call.

“
Who’s that?” Brian asked.

Warren tossed him a look. “The Master vampire of the city.”

“
And you have his personal number?”

“
We have history.”

“
I see. If I’m not too out of line for asking, I’m sure he’s aware of what’s going on in
his
city … what’s he doing about it?”

“
Whatever he can. Listen, I’m going to tell you something only because you’re one of us. Can I trust you?”

“
We’ve just met, so I hope you can. I won’t tell anyone, I swear,” Brian replied.

“
Okay. Darian’s already had a run in with the Master vampire of the coven.” Warren felt he could be honest with Brian.

“
I feel like there’s more to that.”

“
I don’t want to use the word, damn-near ‘indestructible’, but that’s the vibe I got when they told me of the encounter he had. The Master vampire’s name is Marcus and we already know he’s a powerful son-of-a-bitch, but even the shifter in his group is stronger than Matthew’s Alpha, who is over three-hundred years old, and that’s a brand new bag of trouble.”

“
Holy shit! The S.U.I.T. really doesn’t have what it takes to take out that kind of power.”

“
Don’t you think I know that? Fuck! I feel like I’m just out here keeping track of their kills. I feel fucking helpless. Our ultraviolet bullets can’t do shit to this vampire,” Warren said, slamming his fist on his steering wheel.

“
But our silver-nitrate bullets can take out the shifter.”

“
If we can get him into the position for a straight shot, yeah.”

“
Do your leaders have a plan?” Brian asked, suddenly wishing he were back in Californiaand not anywhere near this “super coven”.

“
They do. I’ve been trying to get home for hours now to see what it is, but I just haven’t had the opportunity.” Warren pulled the car in front of the club. Several S.U.I.T. squad cars pulled in behind him. All of the officers climbed out of their cars. Warren stood in front of them, one hand raised high, while the other held tightly to his automatic handgun loaded with ultra-violet bullets.

“
Remember, we just want to pull in our regular rule breakers. Let’s spread out and search the clubs along this strip. Brian and I have this one. Move out.” Warren led the way.

The bouncers were aware of their “raid”. The doorman stepped to the side. He looked at the two detectives. “I’ve got to tell ya, Warren, I thought all of them were coming in here. I mean, that’s a lot of brass in one place.”

“
They did too, but I don’t want to disturb Darian’s business unnecessarily. I’m just looking for four people. Did a group of three male vamps and a female shifter come by tonight?” Warren asked.

The bouncer shrugged. “I haven’t seen them, but you can take a look inside anyway.”

“
Thanks.” Warren nodded toward the entrance. “Let’s go,” he said to Brian, who followed him inside. He knew there were only two sections of the club that were opened to the public. The dance section and the strip club section. They searched those areas quickly realizing that the group wasn’t there. He and Brian made their way toward the backroom for members only. Immediately, it hit them. The air was thick with the scents of sex and blood, desire and ecstasy. They could hear what was going on even before they opened any doors.

“
Jesus! You guys know about this place? It’s illegal!” Brian said. He swallowed hard, as he wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead. He was beginning to feel hot under the collar, his own arousal rising like an erupting volcano.

“
The S.U.I.T. doesn’t ‘officially’ know … if you catch my drift. Which is why it’s just you and me in here. Are you going to be able to keep yourself together?” Warren asked, smiling slyly as he witnessed Brian struggling to regain control.

“
Ye-yeah. I’ll be fine. Let’s go,” Brian said through heavy pants.

Warren approached the two shifter guards. “Hey.” He flashed his badge and they stepped to the side. The two detectives went into the middle room all the way in the back of the hallway.

Brian reached out, stopping Warren from opening the door. “Wait. Um, who are we looking for in there?”

“
We’re looking for anyone who may have seen them tonight. I don’t think they’ve been here. It would be pretty fucking stupid of them to show their faces in the club of the Master vampire after they broke one of his rules. They wouldn’t be able to get past the shape-shifter bouncer without setting off alarms. He would smell the scent of death all over them and alert Darian. I’m just looking for someone who may be able to lead me in their direction.”

“
Ah, I see. Okay, let’s go.”

Warren nodded then opened the door, releasing the full blast of the sexual essence that clouded the air.

“
Oh shit,” Brian gasped. His knees went weak and he had to grab a hold of the doorframe to keep from falling to the floor. His body quaked several times as he panted breathlessly.