Blood Secrets - By Jeannie Holmes Page 0,35

out Enforcer Sabian’s brother regarding Enforcer Baudelaire?”

“I didn’t trust him.” Tasha dropped her gaze to Varik’s still form. “Still don’t.”

“Hmm.” Morgan moved past Damian. “A word, Chief.”

“Does this affect the way the Tribunal will judge Alex’s case?” Tasha asked.

Morgan paused and glanced at Tasha over her shoulder. Sharp white fangs gleamed in the sunlight when she smiled. “Oh, yes, it changes everything.”

Tasha watched the two vamps move some distance away. The thought that she’d once again betrayed her oath as an officer crept into her head. But did it even matter anymore?

She’d already stolen evidence. She’d already determined she would hand it over to whomever her mystery caller ordered. She would report on everything she’d seen and heard here. Her pledge to protect and serve had become twisted, and the inner voice that taunted her laughed merrily at her rising misery.

“Well, I didn’t like the sound of that,” Tony said as he finally joined her. He nodded toward the obviously heated argument brewing between Damian and Morgan. “And I don’t much like the looks of that.” He swept his hand out to encompass the unconscious Enforcers. “I think Alex and Varik are going to wish they stayed down once they finally wake up.”

In the distance, Tasha noticed a hearse bouncing over the rough terrain. “Coroner’s here.” She spun away from Tony, anxious to silence the laughter in her mind. “Will you take care of the body transfer? I want to check on something.”

“Sure thing, Lieutenant.”

She nodded her appreciation and headed in the opposite direction of both the hearse and the arguing vamps. The internal laughter continued as she rounded the remains of a white panel van.

With shaking hands, she pulled a small flask from an inner pocket of her jacket beneath the Tyvek suit. Tipping her head, she let some of the liquid within burn its way down her throat.

Drinking on the job, her internal tormentor chided. Just like your loser parents.

Memories of her father coming home early because he’d been fired from yet another construction job for showing up intoxicated swept through her mind. Those shifted to memories of how her mother thought nothing of “having one for the road” before climbing behind the wheel of a school bus.

She swore she’d never be like them. Yet here she was—the latest in a long line of pathetic scum that deserved all the shit they found heaped on their heads.

Maybe Caleb was right. If she continued to be a part of Maya’s life, her daughter would be just as screwed up as Tasha’s parents had made her.

Tasha took another swig of the bourbon. As it slid into her belly, she slid down the side of the panel van to sit on the cold, dead ground that was a perfect reflection of her soul.

Alex awoke surrounded by dense forest. What little sunlight filtered through the canopy above gave the ground a dappled effect. A cool breeze shifted the leaves and sent shadows skittering.

She was searching for two shadows in particular and turned in a slow circle, stretching her senses to detect them. The scent of sandalwood and cinnamon wafted to her on a breeze from the left. Movement in that same direction drew her attention.

A shadow darted among the trees, and she gave chase. Her feet flew across the ground, churning to catch up with the fleet figure she could now see running ahead. She burst through a thicket and came to a stop in a small clearing, the figure no longer in sight.

“Damn,” she muttered. She scanned the trees but all was still.

Voices whispered behind her and she spun, finding no one. The voices swirled around her. Snippets of conversations long forgotten rose to a crescendo and then vanished.

“Where are you, you son of a bitch?”

Over here.

She spun, searching for the source of the voice, and once again found only empty forest.

A hand trailed over her shoulder.

She recoiled from the phantom touch. Her foot snagged on a root and she fell, twisting to land on her back.

A silhouette blocked her view of the dense tree canopy and an uncomfortable weight pinned her. The specter cocked its head, studying her.

“Get off me!”

Alex screamed as a brilliant flash of light left her momentarily blinded. The light disappeared, as did the weight pinning her to the forest floor, and her vision returned. She sat up, looking for her phantom attacker.

The forest remained quiet and still.

“This bullshit is really starting to piss me off,” she muttered. Pushing to her feet, she brushed the ground debris