Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,63
drained away. My senses focused on the words coming out of the scanner.
Within seconds, the airwaves were briefly choked by squad cars calling in their responses. I held my breath, fingers clenched tightly around the pen. One mention of a strange-looking corpse and I’d be on my way. Gray skin, no blood, neck wound—didn’t matter what it was. Every muscle in my body was primed and ready.
But clarification didn’t come easily, even after the first cops arrived on the scene. The first thing they did was start to report discovery of bodies. More than one. By the time the officer had counted to four, I was up and grabbing my hunter’s kit. They were already far out of their depth. Fortunately, it wouldn’t take long to get there.
The sun hovered just above the horizon as I left the hotel, sitting low in a blood-red sky. I was never a big believer in mystical omens, but it was hard not to take it as an ominous sign of things to come. I wondered what I would find on scene, and whether or not the police had managed to cordon things off already. I picked up my pace; if I moved fast, I might be able to beat them to investigating the scene.
The road leading up to the crime scene headed right into the woods, and it was in the process of being blocked off. A line of police cars formed a temporary barricade, their lights casting the dirty snow and darkening day in intermittent reds and blues. On the approach, I saw an officer with a huge roll of yellow tape starting to establish a perimeter, and I thought better of advancing. No way would a supposed citizen be allowed anywhere near multiple fatalities. The more I peered around, the curved street and houses revealed nothing. That told me the incident happened perhaps at the end of the street, closer to woods… or perhaps just beyond the edge of the forest.
But maybe I could trick a little extra information out of them. The best investigators were extremely tight-lipped, but they were also not usually the first ones on site. I wove a long path around until it looked like I was coming from the other side of the road, heading toward the hotel. Twenty yards from the police barricade, I stopped and looked confused. An officer came up to me, waving his hand.
“Sorry, miss. You can’t come through here. Road’s closed.”
I blinked innocently. “But I just came through here a couple hours ago and everything was fine.”
He scrutinized me. “It’s a recent development, and I’m afraid it’s very serious. Where are you trying to go?”
I frowned. “I’m staying at the hotel over there. Are you sure you can’t just let me under the tape real quick?” These were abhorrent, annoying questions to ask any law enforcement officer in the middle of securing a violent scene, but I wanted to know if he’d let anything slip.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, ma’am. A crime has been committed. I can’t let you across this line.” Still wanting to help, he turned in the direction of the Grand Hotel and pointed out a detour. “If you cross here and head that way a few blocks, it’ll take you down near where you want to be.”
I sighed. “Okay. Thank you, sir.”
A voice came across the cop’s radio and summoned him away, which was perfect timing. The moment his back was turned, I got the hell out of there. The beginnings of a crowd of rubberneckers was forming outside the tape. I disappeared among them, transitioning from the small sea of interested faces into the protection of the trees that surrounded this town. I’d go the long way around to reach the scene. The going was a little tough, as well as being wet, slushy, and icy in the woodland, but I picked my way along parallel to the scene. With any luck, there’d be an adjoining clearing or some other space I might use as a vantage point to an unobstructed view.
Every ten seconds or so, I shut my eyes and let my senses lead me toward the epicenter of the incident. I had known from minute one that vamps were not likely to be involved, based on time of day alone. But I also knew at that point that ruling out vampires didn’t exactly narrow down my options. Anchorage had become a teeming petri dish of supernatural energy, ever shifting, ever evolving.