Disclaimer: Just the usual gang. If you recognize them they’re not mine, and if you don’t then guess what they belong to me so :oP
Author’s Note: Well let me just thank you if you have taken the time to read this story. If you have even left me a review then I give you much love. I live to write and write because I love it. But it makes it much more worth while when I get feed back from those of you that review my work. Also if you don’t like this story the back button is ^^^^^^^^^^^^ there feel free to use it. Sorry about this chapter being so short but I have just started school again and I’m trying to do papers, work and my story so please be patient with me
In a side note I would like to say a special thanks to Songbird and my sister for keeping me motivated. Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. Now without further ado.
I woke up to the sound of a phone ringing persistently. I groaned and stretched trying to find a more comfortable position. It was only as I moved that I realized at some point I had thrown my shirt off and the feel of naked skin next to mine turned my insides to mush. I instantly tried to shrug it off, I knew, from my reading that you weren’t supposed to notice any one was naked unless you’re specifically asked to notice. But it’s kind of hard not to when your squashed between two hard bodies. I groaned again this time in pure frustration. And I heard three answering male chuckles. Just keep it up boys and I’ll throw a pan of ice water on ya and see how you like them apples, I thought miserably.
As I was about to roll over and go back to sleep when I heard footfalls coming down the hallway. I was instantly on alert. As soon as I tensed so did everyone in the room. Not only had they noticed but also they had reacted without hesitation. It made me feel better about them as a pard. It meant that they were aware of their surroundings. I felt someone outside the bedroom door and waited. I didn’t know exactly what I was waiting for but I knew that it was something important otherwise he or she wouldn’t be standing there.
Finally there was a soft knock at the door. I answered hesitantly, “Come in.” And in walked Anita. She looked none to thrilled either. I sat up as she walked into the room forgetting that I had lost my shirt. She seemed to stare at me a moment then motioned me over to her. I crawled off the bed and over the bodies that groaned as I jostled them.
When I was standing right next to her, she spoke softly but urgently, “Luna, there’s been another attack Dolph wants us down there ASAP!” I don’t know why she bothered to lower her voice everyone in the room had heard her. But I didn’t say anything to her. These cases were clearly up setting her and I didn’t want to add to her stress level. Besides didn’t the men in her life do that enough for her?
I nodded understanding but as she turned to leave I placed a hand on her arm to keep her from going just yet. With more than a little fear I asked, “How bad is it?”
She seemed to think about that for a minute then simply said, “Bad.”
I felt my gut tighten I didn’t know if I was ready to handle a full-blown crime scene. But having let my alligator mouth write checks for my humming bird ass I now had to go down to the new crime scene and be the ice princess that had worked so well in my old unit. “How long do I have before we need to leave,” I asked not just because I was stalling but I needed to know if I had time to pick out some clean clothes or just throw on the same outfit I had been in for the last 36 hours.
When she told me I had twenty minutes I could have done the happy dance. Yes! I said to myself a nice, clean new outfit. She turned and left closing the door just as softly as she had opened it. I quickly went to my gym bag pulled out a pair of blue jean overalls and a fresh tee shirt that read “I Recycle Boys” I really liked this shirt too. I grabbed the matching bra and immediately began getting dressed.
When I was dressed I turned my attention to my weapons such as they were. And tried to figure out if I would need them. Quickly dismissing the small of the back holster because there is just no place to put it in overalls, and on top of that if I really needed it I would loose precious seconds in trying to draw the thing. I took the Browning and holstered up and to complete my ensemble I placed the four-inch locking knife that I had found in my bag in my back pocket. No it was going to be real handy trying to get it out of there or even being able to use it if I had to. But somehow I just felt better having it on my person.
I walked groggily to the living room and heard noise in the kitchen and the smell of coffee drew me there. I walked in on Anita fixing herself a cup of coffee noticing me in the doorway she asked if I wanted a cup. I nodded and said as long as she had a travel mug so that I could take it with us. She produced the mug and I went over and poured myself a cup leaving enough room to add cream and sugar. Opening the fridge I rummaged around until I found the French vanilla creamer. I fixed my coffee and we got going.
We were seated in the jeep and moving at a fast pace down the freeway and I couldn’t have told you what direction we were going. I’m not one of those people that easily loose direction but I was in a new city and hadn’t yet gotten used to the area just yet. We had been driving for all of thirty minutes when she pulled off the highway and into a residential neighborhood. All the homes looked new and similar like they were track homes.
We had no trouble finding the place just a parking space. Anita pulled out her unofficial badge and clipped it to her royal blue polo shirt. Shit! I thought to myself I hadn’t brought my badge with me but that could have been because I couldn’t find it. Oh well nothing to do now but to be ballsy about the whole thing. We got out of the jeep and I put on the short sweatshirt I decided to bring at the last minute. Actually it was to cover up the gun I had brought with me. I hadn’t as of yet worked with this bunch so I didn’t want them to mistake me for something other than I am. A pain in the ass mostly I thought to myself with a small smile.
We got fairly far into the crime scene before a young uniformed officer stopped us. He smiled at Anita and looked strangely at me. I smiled back putting all my happy go lucky force behind it. He told us that we would have to wait for permission before we could continue on to the crime scene. Again I smiled and told him that would be fine. Anita huffed she so did not want to be told to wait especially when she had been woken up to come down here. No she didn’t tell me and no I don’t have ESP I just know how to read people’s body language.
I hadn’t thought to bring my purse so when I wanted a cigarette I was out of luck. I scanned the assembled crowd there were just too many people to be doing anything useful. Most just milled around the house keeping the media and the spectators at bay. Noticing the uniform that I had bummed a smoke from just the night before I walked up to him and introduced myself to him. I shook hands with him and found out that he was a rookie it was still his first year on the force and his name was Ricardo. I again told him that I needed to bum another smoke from him he smiled and offered me up one and even lit it.
We were making small talk about how what we thought the job was going to be and how it actually turned out. When I noticed a mountain of a man walking this way and quickly. Must be Dolph I thought with amusement. I thanked Ricardo for the smoke and rejoined Anita. She asked me if I was always this male friendly. That comment caught me totally off guard. I wanted to ask her just what the hell that was supposed to mean but before I got the chance Dolph was in front of us.
Dolph asked me why I hadn’t just flashed my badge to get passed the uniform. When I informed him that I hadn’t find my badge in my belongings he gave a short bark of laughter which considering everything was the last thing I expected from him. Noticing my look of confusion he told me that I had handed in my badge in LA and I was supposed to a new one when I arrived in St. Louis. At which point he handed me my new badge complete with the newest picture of me. I accepted it gratefully that at least now Anita and I wouldn’t have to wait on the perimeter of a crime scene again. I put in the other back pocket of my overalls and we all continued up to the house.
The house it self was an off-white color the lawn was perfectly manicured but the roving red and blue lights made the house seem more haunted than the welcoming that I’m sure it made during the day. The house seemed familiar but for the life of me I couldn’t have told any one why. I stopped a short distance from the door and I could already smell the blood and knew I had to make this quick or I was going to eat the evidence.
I put up my shields I heard the metal click into place and on top of this I added another element I added ice, cells were notoriously cold but I put a layer of ice so thick not even the fires of hell would melt it. I took a deep breath and walked through the door. The living room was like any other I’d seen. It had pictures of a happy couple but I didn’t want to take a good enough look to see the actual couple. Not if I was going to have to see another dead body. As I was walking by the couch I noticed an afghan on the back that looked like one I’d seen my mother make for my sister and her husband. I quickly brushed that thought out of my head. I had no time for sentimentality.
Dolph and Anita were standing in front of a bedroom or at least what I assumed to be a bedroom. They were staring at me in an impatient manner. I was soon by them and Dolph just stepped aside and let me view the scene. It was awful. The furniture was destroyed and the clothes were all over the floor. There was blood spray all over the walls and a single white female lying in a pool of blood. There was something wrong here. The face and the hair were familiar. It was Dayla. I was in shock here was my beautiful baby sister covered in blood and her room was a mess.
I had to act like this was any other case or run the risk of being thrown off the case. I turned to Dolph and asked him if her husband had been found on the premises. He gave me a dark look and I suddenly had the sinking feeling that Jared had also been one of the others assaulted. I hardened my features I could get through this. I walked over to her and it was all I could do not to grab her up in my arms and carry her out of this, this carnage. I wanted to cry but not now and maybe not ever.
I tried to remain objective but I didn’t think I was doing such a good job of it. I turned to Dolph and asked if they were finished, he nodded. I walked around the right side of the bed and noticed the only piece of furniture that hadn’t been destroyed was a picture on the nightstand of Dayla and I at the beach just before her wedding. I wondered why was it the only thing to escape the total and abject destruction of the rest of the room. I looked at the nightstand a long time before I picked up the framed photo of my sister and I as soon as I picked it up a note fell from behind the frame.
I turned to Dolph and asked him if he had noticed the note as well. He looked shocked so I took that as a no. I asked him for a pair of gloves so that any fingerprints on it would be maintained. I put them on carefully and picked up the note. It said, “She was first your next Luna. I will have my revenge.” There was no signature or identifiable marks on it. I handed it to Dolph who had also put on a pair of gloves. I watched as he read it his face hardened he didn’t know how it had gotten there because it wasn’t there when they had been taking pictures of the scene.
A small sound caught my attention. I turned to the bed and finally looked at my sister I so wanted her to among the living that I might have misinterpreted the sound of the final breath leaving her body as a sign of life. Whatever it was I took a good long look at her and saw she was breathing irregularly and shallowly but breathing nonetheless. “Get a medic she’s still breathing,” my, voice bright with the hope that maybe I hadn’t been too late after all.
Dolph looked shocked and immediately bellowed for a medic. I was wondering why Anita hadn’t mentioned it. She was a practitioner of a kind of death magic surely if she had been dead Anita would have known. I was jostled out of the way as the paramedics moved in to take over my position. They confirmed what I had told them and they rushed her out of the house. I had wanted to go with her but Dolph told me to finish up here first then I could follow her.
I wanted to tell where exactly to go with that but restrained myself, barely. Now that my sister was out of the room I was able to think more clearly. I noticed the destruction of course and the clothes again. It looked like whomever attacked her had been looking for something and had been unable to find it. So when they hadn’t found what they were looking for they turned their aggression on Dayla. There was also quite a wad of cash on the floor so just out and out robbery was not why they had been there. Yes I said they, there had to be more than one, according to the police my sister was a lycanthrope so it was the only conclusion to come to.
I took a final look around the room hoping to gather something else but I didn’t. I walked out of the room and out of the house I didn’t want to look at the pictures now, I knew who graced the walls. Dolph was talking to a one of his detectives and I didn’t want to interrupt so I waited a few feet back from them. The detective noticed me standing there and motioned Dolph in my direction. The detective walked off and Dolph walked over to me. “Well,” his voice was bland but his demeanor was anything but.
I wanted to say well what but I didn’t. I wanted to find out where they had taken my baby sister. “The assailants were looking for something but couldn’t find it. It looks like when they didn’t get what they were after they turned their frustrations on Dayla. I think that the message could just be an afterthought.” I paused thinking about the way the things had looked and felt.
“Why do you say the note was an afterthought,” Dolph questioned.
“Because if the note was the only reason they were there it would have been placed in a more obvious place,” I stated still trying to figure out why someone wanted me dead.
“What if the note was only meant for you,” his questioning voice reached me.
“Only if it was meant for me than why go to the trouble of wrecking her room? If they had meant for this to just be a warning they wouldn’t have felt the need to destroy her house. Do want to know what I think. I think that because the assailants wouldn’t know for sure that I would be called in on the case they’re using the note as cover for whatever else is going on here,” when I finished I was out of breath.
Dolph seemed to think about it and nodded his understanding of my logic. I noticed then that he had been taking notes the whole time we had been talking. And then I had a second to realize that I hadn’t need Anita to keep my beast under control. I should have known better than to throw a victory celebration. As soon as that thought crossed my mind another took its place. My brain showed me a picture of Dayla’s lifeless looking face covered in her own blood.
I felt a rage unlike anything in my experience. It heated my blood and scalded my brain. I was now totally and completely livid. Who could have done this to her and why would they want to? I wanted to beat them to death to tear out their throats and roll around in their blood. I was quickly loosing control and I distantly heard Dolph call for Anita. I walked away from him and the cops at the scene cleared a wide path for me. I came upon a tree and having no other outlet for this rage this fury I took it out on the tree. I slammed my fists repeatedly into the trunk. The rough bark tearing at my skin leaving bloody gashes in its wake.
I was spent and slid down the tree trunk. With my forehead resting against it I cried. I cried for my lost memory, for my sister, and her husband and for not being able to help even now. I was crying my heart out because I had no power and that was the worst feeling in the world.
Anita approached warily and brushed her hand down my back in a soothing motion. I let her I needed to feel something other than powerless. She whispered nonsense words in a soothing tone. Helping me come back to myself. After a while she asked if I was all right. I nodded I didn’t fully trust my voice. I feared that I would dissolve into tears again. We stood and Anita talked to Dolph. He turned to me his eye full of sympathy and told me to go to my sister. I nodded my thanks and Anita and I walked back to the car.
As we drove to the hospital I kept praying that she would still be alive when I got there. It was like a chant in my head. “Please be alive. Please be alive. Oh God please be alive.” I could hardly breathe and Anita floored it making it to the hospital in record time. For once I think that she had forgotten her road rules. And mentally I thanked her for it. Now I just had to make sure that Dayla came through this.