Bound to Shadows Page 0,49

I said briskly, backing away further. "Remember; contact us if you hear anything."

She merely smiled so I turned and got the hell out of there.

I'd barely made it down to the ground floor when my phone rang. I knew without looking that it would be Jack.

It was that sort of day.

I plucked it free from my pocket and said, "What's up boss?"

"I want you to get over to Dante's straight away." My stomach sank. "Not another beheaded vampire?"

"Nope. This time it's a human. A drained human and a very ugly crowd of onlookers." His voice was grim. "The shit has hit the fan big time."
Chapter Seven
The shit, as Jack had so aptly put it, really did look nasty.

I parked half a street away from Dante's, but even so, as I climbed out of the car, the noise hit me. It was voices and anger and nastiness all rolled into one, and I hoped like hell they had more than one cop down there. Cole and his team might be able to protect themselves, but they shouldn't have to. They were only doing their job.

As was I.

But that didn't stop some fool lobbing a full can of beer straight at my head as the cops hastily cleared a way through the thirty-strong crowd for me. I caught it with one hand and met the gaze of the drunken fool who'd thrown it. His blue eyes were full of anger, his expression daring me to throw the can back. I raised it, but crushed it one handed instead - length wise, not through the middle. His eyes widened a little. Obviously he hadn't thought a woman could be that strong. The cops opened the barriers to let me through and I walked across to the three figures huddled around a small, somewhat forlorn looking body.

Cole looked up as I joined them. There were shadows under his eyes, and I very much doubted they were from spending time with his new lady love. "It's not a vampire kill."

"What? But Jack said - "

"Yeah, I know. It was reported as that, but its not." He reached out and shifted the dead man's neck, revealing two neat holes.

"It sure as hell looks like a bite to me." I hesitated, and leaned closer. "Except that there's no redness, and no skin reaction."

"Exactly," Cole said heavily. "This is an imitation. A damn fine one, but an imitation all the same."

I squatted down beside him. "Meaning we'll find another wound somewhere on the body."

"Probably. We can't be sure until we get him back for an autopsy."

I studied the frail old man for a moment, wondering if he'd been selected simply because the sight of him would garner more anger and sympathy than someone in his prime. My gaze came to rest on his left leg. A faint hint of blood rode the air, and there seemed to be something bulky wrapped around the upper part of his thigh under his pants. I was betting on a bandage. "Strip him here."

Cole looked at me like I was mad. "The crowd is going to love that."

"The crowd is the reason I'm suggesting it. Do it."

Cole shared a look with both Dusty and Dobbs, then nodded abruptly. As they started stripping him, I rose and stalked over to the mob. They weren't pressing against the barricades just yet, but they were hurling abuse and litter at the cops who stood behind it. It wouldn't take much for this whole situation to explode.

"You, you and you," I said, pointing to three of the men who appeared to be the ringleaders of this nasty little crowd. "Get over here."

They pushed forward belligerently - big, handsome men with an ugly attitude.

"What?" the middle one said. He was the tallest of them by about three inches, and towered over me by a good five.

"You think vampires did this?"

"We know it. Like we told those men over there, we saw the car. It was a vamp car."

Meaning the windows had been fully shielded against sunlight. "And you know for certain that it was a vamp either driving or being driven in it?"

He frowned. "Who else would fucking drive one of those things?"

"I see." I stepped forward, grabbed him by the shirt, thrust my other hand on his crotch, and none too elegantly hauled him up and over the barrier. He wasn't a small man and it was a huge effort, but it had the desired effect. The crowd fell silent.

"You two," I said, dumping the stranger