Caine stepped out of his office and 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 turned her intense blue eyes to 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 anticoagulant 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 a lot of people,” Jace said. “Plus they could have stolen it.”
Caine nodded. “Check to see if there have been any pharmaceutical break-ins or hospital thefts reported.”
As Jace flipped open his phone to make the call, Caine thought about the implications 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 were 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 cell phone 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 flipped open the phone. “Valorian.”
He listened for a moment, not getting a chance to say anything. After a few minutes, he flipped his phone closed 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 wouldn’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.