Blood Doesn't Lie (Otherworld Crime Unit Book 1) Read online

  To this day, the city wasn’t on any map. Only those with their eyes wide open knew of the city’s existence. And that was very few people indeed.

  “What else Givon?”

  “Her throat was cut with a serrated blade and her blood was siphoned with a quarter-inch rubber tubing inserted into one of the bite holes.”

  “Sounds like our guy is knowledgeable in blood handling,” Jace stated.

  “All vampires know how to handle blood, Jace,” Caine said. “If we didn’t, we would die.”

  “Have you received a call from the baron yet?” Givon asked as he prepared to start the Y incision.

  Caine patted his pants pocket to ensure that his dreaded cellphone was still there. He had it on vibrate, and so far, nothing hummed against his leg. “No.”

  “You will.” Givon winced, as he cut into the young woman’s chest just below her left clavicle.

  He knew why Givon cringed. No one liked getting calls from Baron, Laal Bask. He was a young, wet-behind-the-ears vampire with delusions of grandeur who had been handpicked by the Mistress of the City, an overbearing, manipulative vampire a few hundred years older than Caine. Laal became her direct link to the crime unit and police force in Necropolis as a way to keep her thumb on the pulse of the city. A situation the baron continually pointed out every time he spoke with Caine, thinking that he had wanted the job for himself. The last person Caine had ever wanted to work directly for was Lady Ankara Jannali.

  “Yes, well, eventually she will need to become involved. We’ll definitely need a liaison between our community and the human one, if we want to solve this case.” Caine sighed, knowing somehow that he was going to carry the weight of this case around and deal with the consequences. Shit always rolled down hill, even in Necropolis.

  THREE HOURS LATER, Caine sat in his small cramped office and went over the evidence they had obtained so far. Haunting melodious strains of a vampiric aria floated from the speakers of his office stereo. Sung by Nadja Devanshi, his preferred chanteuse, The Crimson Moon was his favorite opera. Everything seemed clearer when he listened to her poignant voice. Right now, he had a need for some clarity.

  Oddly enough, he hadn’t received a call from the baron’s office. Maybe the warnings he gave his people about keeping their mouths shut in the lab worked this time around. Maybe this time, if he prepared himself quickly, he could be the one calling the Baron with the bad news, instead of the other way around. Wouldn’t that prick the vamp’s pale ass?

  He flipped through his pages of notes and through the evidence log. The autopsy had gone as planned, with nothing showing abnormal. The COD on the girl was exsanguination. No surprise there. Her carotid artery had been punctured, her throat then slit and she bled out. They were still waiting for the results on her rape kit and toxicology. Caine suspected that they would find XYV, vampire sperm. Sex was very closely linked to blood-lust in the vampire community. For the most part, a vampire could control it. If a case of blood-lust came over a vampire, he or she could engage in sexual activity and the hunger would pass, replaced by rapturous sexual pleasure for both partners.

  It had been over five years since they had a vampire slaying in Necropolis. And that case had been proven accidental. The perpetrator had been sentenced to three years in jail for the accidental killing of his witch lover.

  Running a hand over his face, Caine wondered if they had a re-offender on their hands. He’d have to check in his case journal, look it over and call Mahina to look Chester up and question him to see where he’d been over the past twenty-four hours. He really hoped not. During the case, Caine had ended up liking the quirky vampire. He’d really hate to have to put the guy back in jail.

  Perhaps the offending vampire had acquired some of his dead lover’s spells. The markings on the doorframe of the hotel room and on the victim were definitely magical. Lyra had gone through her texts she had packed into the small shelf in Caine’s office, but couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she asked to go home. She had archaic texts at home in her extensive magical library. Some of her books, she claimed, were two thousand years old, and passed down to her from her grandmother. So far, he hadn’t heard back from her either.

  Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get an accurate bite radius measurement. Therefore, they couldn’t hit the OBRN, Otherworld Bite Radius Network, a database with all former vampire and lycanthropy bite offenders—a system Caine had developed himself. When a perpetrator was arrested, their fang circumference was measured and their tip-to-tip length recorded. Just like fingerprints, vampires and lycanthropes had individualized bite marks. If they could’ve matched that, they would’ve had a suspect. However, as it stood, the knife wound ruined any chance of an accurate measurement. Maybe the perp’s bite was on record and that’s why he slit her throat?

  This case, definitely, had the makings of a disaster. For all the communities. What did a vampire, human, and witch, possibly, have in common? What was this young innocent girl doing in Necropolis with a vampire?

  It was illegal for a human to be in the city. The city crossings, all four of them, were like border controls, and everyone coming or going had to produce identification. But so far, there had been no record of a young human girl crossing the borders. Caine had them check every point of entry around the city. And no one reported seeing or recording a human girl fitting the victim’s description. So how did she get into the city? Smuggled in? Most likely. But why? For the sole purpose of killing her? If so, they had a larger problem then just one murdered girl.

  The pager sitting on his desk by the stacks of paper suddenly buzzed. Caine picked it up and checked the number. It was the lab. Hopefully, it would be some good news. Maybe the lead they desperately needed.

  Caine stepped out of his office, strode down the long drab hallway to the lab. When he entered, Jace was already there sitting on one of the vacant chairs.

  “What do you have?” Caine asked.

  Gwen Mckinley, the lab technician, raised her plastic goggles and set them on top of her head. She set her intense blue eyes on Caine and frowned. “I pulled two different strands of DNA from the kit Givon sent me.”

  Jace nodded, excitedly. “So, there were two perps.”

  The report that had been sitting on the printer suddenly lifted in the air and floated over to Caine. He snatched it from the air. Gwen had strong telekinetic power for a witch and often used it in the lab. Sometimes it was like having two separate techs doing the work.

  Caine glanced over the report. XYV. Vampire sperm present. No surprise.

  He handed the reports back to Gwen. “Okay, so we have two suspects that the victim willingly had sex with.”

  “Well I wouldn’t say that.” Gwen handed him another report. “Tox came back. Vampatamine and Heparin.”

  Caine glanced over the report. He shouldn’t have been surprised. The drug Vampatamine, or street name V, was an illegal substance produced from vampire saliva. It had the power to sedate and paralyze the user. A person wouldn’t be able to move on V, but he or she would be completely aware of what was going on, or being done to them.

  Heparin on the other hand did surprise him.

  “They used the anti-coagulant to make the blood flow faster,” Jace suggested. “They wanted to be out of there as quick as they could. Bleeding her out would’ve taken several hours if they hadn’t, even with the rubber tubing.”

  “They wanted to keep the blood from clotting.” Caine paced the lab, the sheet of paper rattling in his hand. “They needed the blood for later. How they got it is what we need to know. Who would have access to Heparin?”

  “Pharmacists, paramedics, anyone that works in a hospital,” Gwen offered.

  “That’s potentially a lot of people,” Jace said. “They could have stolen it.”

  Caine nodded. “Check to see if there have been any pharmaceutical break-ins, or hospital thefts reported.”

  As Jace picked up his phone to make the call, Caine thought about the implica
tions of the information they just received. A human in Necropolis. Humans consorting with Otherworlders. The possibility of two vampires conspiring together to commit murder was baffling. It would be a first as vampires were naturally solitary creatures. If that was the case, and he prayed that it wasn’t, how could they solve this crime, when there was no possible way that Otherworlders and humans could work peacefully together? There was too much fear there, too much hatred. From both sides.

  His cellphone took that moment to vibrate in his pocket. He didn’t need to be psychic to know that Baron Laal Bask had beaten him to the punch again.

  Caine answered. “Valorian.”

  He listened for a moment, not getting a chance to say anything. After a few minutes, he ended the call and slid it back into his pocket. The situation had just taken a turn from bad to disastrous.

  “What’s the word, Chief? Do you have to make an appearance in the Baron’s office?” Jace asked, with a chuckle. He couldn’t miss a chance to bug Caine about his ongoing feud with the Baron.

  Caine turned toward his team and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, a headache starting to brew. “Get ready, my friends.” He licked his lips and met their gazes. “They’re sending in a liaison on this case tomorrow. A transfer from another lab.”

  Jace frowned. “But there isn’t another lab in Necropolis.”

  “No, but there is in San Antonio.”

  Jace jumped out of his chair. “We’re getting a human in our lab?”

  Caine just nodded. He was too disconcerted to voice an opinion, as of yet. The news was still trying to sink in. He had thought he was finished dealing with the human race. Had hoped.

  “Why don’t they just stick pins in our eyes? It would be easier to deal with.” Jace paced in front of Caine, his shoulders hunched and his hands clenched angrily.

  “I’m sure it won’t be that bad, Jace,” Gwen commented.

  “Like hell it won’t be.” Jace turned and snarled at Gwen. “I pity the poor sap that walks into this lab. He has to have some big balls to think he can just stroll in here and be welcome. Because I don’t play well with humans.”

  Caine eyed his team member. No, none of them played well with humans. They all had their sad, sordid history before coming to Necropolis. A human had wronged every single one of them in some way. However, they needed help if they were going to solve this case and avoid persecution from the outside world. If this human had the resources to help them, he would take it, regardless of how he felt.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Eve Grant walked down the drab hallway with her chin up. The soft clink of her high heels echoed off the graying walls. Tucking a stray blond hair behind her ear, again, she tried not to stare at her two beefy lycan bodyguards and the vampire baron with the glowing blue eyes.

  He glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled, his straight, white, elongated fangs flashing at her. She gave him a half smile and tried not to vomit. Why did she ever volunteer for this job? She was not strong enough for this. No research in the world could have possibly prepared her for what she was getting herself into. Why did she have to open her big fat mouth at the emergency lab meeting and say that working in the OCU would be no big deal? Her pride was going to get her killed.

  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 5’8’’ 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 just arrived and she was already imagining the lead investigator of the case inflagrante.

  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 laugh 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 furtively 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 me, 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 feels 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, I will make sure Eve is properly introduced to the team and informed on where we are on the case.”

  Eve knew a dismissal when she heard one. She glanced at the Baron and noticed that his eyes had gotten 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 its 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 my team?”

  She nodded and followed him. 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 bad 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 in death and crime 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 had 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 breath 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. “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.”