I’m going back home. Did you miss me?” I tease as I walk over to him and ruffle his hair.
He growls something at me and tries batting me off. “Absolutely not. I’ve actually been able to get work done and think!”
I give him a look of shock. “Wow! I don’t remember the last time you used your brain. Marcus! Karsyn is trying out ‘thinking’!” I shout.
“Don’t hurt yourself, Karsyn!” Marcus says.
Karsyn clearly doesn’t think we’re as funny as we think we are. “Ha fucking ha. You’re both comedians. It’s been nice without either of you for the past two days. Although, my peace and quiet has been interrupted by this Claude person texting me. How the hell did he get my number?”
Marcus hesitates. “I… don’t know.”
“Go tell him to take a hike,” Karsyn growls.
Marcus nods approvingly. “Sure. He’s been annoyingly staying with us, so I’ll help him take a hike right to your house. Boy look at the time. I think we need to go. Right, Finn?”
“Sure, sure,” I say, realizing that this might pertain to Marcus telling Claude he’d get a date with Karsyn if he watched me.
I return to my desk and grab some paperwork I want to take with me and stuff it into my bag. At the moment, we’re not quite sure what we should do. Clearly, that monster is determined to keep me away from the VRC, so for now, I think I’m going to step back in the hopes that more people don’t get hurt. If he’d been alone with Claude a moment longer, he would have killed him, and Claude is a true vampire. There are so many people in my life that aren’t as strong as him because they’re not as old, like Karsyn and Aria. Orin’s older but I know he also couldn’t face that man in a fight even if he had to; Orin’s just not a fighter.
So I’ll work from home, and hopefully, it’ll appear like I’ve backed off or, at the very least, taken a leave. He’s watching me, but how closely? I guess we’ll find out.
Once Marcus is in Brooks’s office, I get up and head toward the door leading into the hallway. I follow it over to the far door, which I pull open. Inside is our evidence room that contains all of the evidence from our many cases. I stop at the desk out front that belongs to a woman who is in charge of the room and what goes in and out of it.
“Morning, Li, I needed to take a look at something from Tonya Everest’s case.”
“I thought Brooks was removing you from that? At least, that was what I heard since you’re going on break,” she says.
Brooks had spread the word that I was going on break in the hopes that it got back to him.
“Yeah, I am. But before I go… last night I was thinking about a ring the second victim was wearing and it reminded me of an item the first victim was also wearing, and I want to make sure I’m right. Brooks said he’d put a call in. He hasn’t yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Just an in and out.”
She nods and has me sign in, which I do. Then, once inside the evidence room, I glance down at the paper where I’d written the number. Once I’m positive I won’t be interrupted, I move through the room to evidence from a prior case I was on. More specifically, the first case I ever worked with Marcus; the one where the humans had been drugging vampires and forcing them to attack other humans in an attempt to drive a wedge between them.
I glance at the door, wishing I had the power to hear if someone was coming like Marcus could, but instead, I just have to pray no one notices and no one checks out the surveillance camera either. I open the bag with my gloves on and look inside at the different paraphernalia. That’s when I see the case and reach into the bag for it. Carefully, I pull it out and pop open the lid when I hear a noise. The issue is that these damn vampires hear everything. If she’s suspicious about what I’m doing, she might be listening in.
The door handle turns, and I quickly shove the bag back before rushing over to where I’m supposed to be.
“What are you up to?” Briar asks as I slip the case to the back of the shelf.
“I’m getting ready to