A Rush of Wings

7 Closer than She’d Ever Been « ^ »

HER NUDE BODY LAY face-up on the rumpled bed, her hands cuffed to the bedposts, legs spread, a black stocking wrapped and knotted around her throat. Stab wounds punctured her breasts and stomach. Long dark hair partially veiled her face, which was turned toward the door. Blood and foam flecked her lips and her tongue protruded slightly. Mascara and eyeliner and dried tears streaked her face. Her half-lidded gaze seemed to stare straight at Heather.

Carved into each milky-white inner thigh was the anarchy symbol.

Blood dripped onto the carpet. Heather’s gaze followed the blood up to the soaked sheets, then up blood-streaked forearms to the vertically slit wrists. Her vision narrowed down to the falling drops of blood. Just died. Minutes? A half hour—tops?

On the wall behind the bed, a message had been scrawled in blood, the uneven, slanting letters smeared across most of the wall.

Wake Up S

“Gina,” Dante whispered.

Heather looked at him sharply. “You knew her?”

Dante nodded, disbelief, shock, and something Heather couldn’t quite name shadowing his face. He fumbled for the sunglasses on top of his head, slipped them on.

Shifting her .38 to her left hand, Heather retrieved her cell phone from her purse and thumbed in the number for the Eighth District. “Agent Wallace,” she said into the phone. “There’s been a homicide at 666 St. Peter. Club Hell.”

Switching off the phone, Heather slid it back into her purse, her gaze fixed on the rain-damp curtains beside the open French windows.

Maybe the killer had left as they’d entered the club. Or—

Heather shoved Dante against the door frame. “Stay there.”

Or maybe he’d never had the chance.

.38 extended in both hands, Heather crossed the room, edging past the bed, to the French windows. Stepping out onto the balcony, she slid low and to the left, gun aimed at the opposite end of the rain-slick balcony. Empty. She leaned against the black iron railing, gun lowered.

She looked down into the street below. A few pre–Mardi Gras revelers staggered along the wet sidewalk. Laughter drifted up like smoke.

Wiping rain from her face, Heather closed her eyes for a moment. Two deaths in one location. Another broken pattern. The violence was escalating. Why now? And why here?

The sound of a car engine opened Heather’s eyes. Two squad cars raced down the narrow street, followed by a blue-light blinking unmarked. All three screeched to a halt in front of the club. As the uniforms climbed out of the squad cars, Heather waved.

“Upstairs,” she called. “Door’s open.”

Looking up, one of the cops waved back.

Heather pushed aside the curtains and stepped back into the room. Dante hadn’t stayed put. He sat on the blood-soaked bed beside the girl’s body, his leather jacket spread over the victim’s—Gina, he said her name was Gina—body.

Heather couldn’t see Dante’s face; his attention was fixed on the victim’s slashed wrists. His hands knotted into fists. The blood stench, the lingering echoes of violence and fear, the girl’s stark, glazing stare; none of it frightened Dante. Most people wouldn’t be able to stay in the same room with a friend’s body, let alone sit beside it on a blood-soaked bed.

But Dante had put aside whatever he was feeling in order to cover her, to give her back some dignity.

“She’s still warm,” he said.

Squatting beside the bed, Heather touched Dante’s arm. “I know this is hard,” she said. “I know. But you have to remove the jacket. I need to secure the scene—”

Dante turned to look at her, his gaze hidden behind his shades. “He took everything from her,” he said, voice low and harsh. “The jacket stays.”

“I understand,” Heather said. Had anyone done the same for her mother? Or even wanted to? “And I wish I could leave it with her. But you might be destroying evidence.”

From the hall, she heard New Orleans’s finest pounding their way up the stairs. Dante stood. Heather reached over and plucked his jacket from the body.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Dante took the jacket from her. “Y’know, I believe you are.”

Heather touched his elbow. “Let’s talk out in the hall,” she said, voice level and, she hoped, soothing. “You can’t be in here and I have some questions to ask.”

She wished he’d take off the shades. Unable to read his eyes, his expression was lost to her. But his tight jaw and tense, agitated body language spoke volumes. She didn’t want to force him out of the room, but would, if necessary.

With a curt nod, Dante stepped out into the hall. He glanced down the hall toward the stairs. Breathing in relief, Heather followed.

“What questions?”

“When did you see Gina last?”

“Last night.”

Heather stared at Dante, feeling as though someone had just dumped a bucket of ice over her head. “Last night? You sure?”

Another broken pattern. The CCK—if it was the CCK—always kept his victims for several days. Intuition whispered, It’s him, all right.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Dante said. “We were even in this room.”

No coincidence. Dante was meant to find her. Heather glanced at the blood-smeared wall behind the bed. WAKE UP S. Last time, it had simply read Wake Up. What did the S stand for?

Could an obsession with Dante be the reason for the broken pattern? The messages meant for him? Lafayette. The cigarette-lighter-burned symbol on Daniel Spurrell’s chest. The images of a hooded Dante wearing the anarchy symbol around his throat, then around his wrist. If he’d been meant to find the body…her pulse raced.

He’s communicating. With Dante.

She was close to the killer. Closer than she’d ever been.

“Does ‘Wake Up S’ mean anything—”

Heather turned as two uniformed officers rounded the corner from the landing. “Special Agent Wallace, FBI,” she said. “I’m reaching for my identification.” As she slid a hand into her purse, the first cop, flushed with excitement and adrenaline, zeroed in on Dante and dropped a hand to his holster.

“You!” he barked at Dante. “On the floor! Now!”

“Tell your partner to back off,” Heather said, displaying her badge to the second officer, a man older, thicker, and more certain than the one yapping like a terrier at Dante. “He’s the club owner. He knows the victim.”

“Jefferson,” the cop sighed. “Enough. Leave off.” Shaking his head, he stopped in front of Heather. “Manning,” he said. Nodded toward his partner. “Rookie and still green as a gator’s hind end.”

Heather smiled. “No kidding.”

She glanced at Dante. He stood at ease, pretending to ignore the now-silenced rookie. He even yawned. She wasn’t fooled, however; she read the tension in his shoulders and noted the wound-up-ready-to-spring tautness of his muscles.

“Oh, Jesus.”

Heather looked over at Jefferson. He stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the bound body, the message on the wall, his mouth open as he sucked in the reek of blood and death and shit. Jefferson blanched. Swallowed hard.

“Don’t puke in here, asshole.”

Two men stepped from the landing and into the hall. The speaker pushed past Jefferson and walked into the room. His low-voiced rebuke, rumpled suit, and easy, confident stride told Heather the newcomer was a detective, as was the man following him. Partners, no doubt. His bored gaze scanned the scene, his lids shuttering like a camera lens, capturing every detail, etching every shadow and blood trail into memory.

His partner nodded at Heather, an unlit cigarette between his lips, a camera in his hands. He stepped into the room, stopping just inside the door. The camera whined as he snapped shots of the scene.

Manning and his rookie partner stood at either side of the door, guarding the scene. Jefferson’s complexion was greenish and he kept his gaze on the floor.

“You must be the fed Collins told me about,” the first detective said.

“That’s right,” Heather said. She walked into the room, edging past the cameraman. “Special Agent Heather Wallace. And you are…?”

“LaRousse,” he said, turning to face Heather. “Homicide.” He tilted his head in the direction of his partner. “That’s Davis, over there.”

“Hey,” Davis said, tucking the cigarette behind his ear. He slipped the camera strap around his neck. Reaching inside his jacket, he withdrew a notepad with a pen clipped to it. He began taking notes, his pen scratching across the pad.

LaRousse’s gaze slid the length of Heather’s body, his lids shuttering several times. “Collins never mentioned that you were a looker.” He winked. “Guess he was keeping that info to himself.” Smiling, he shook his head, brown hair falling over his eyes in an aw-shucks kind of way.

“Must be the professional in him,” Heather said, voice level. “Could be he’s a little more interested in collaring bad guys than hooking up.”

LaRousse’s smile vanished. He jerked a thumb in Dante’s direction. “Is the rock god over there good for it?”

Heather glanced at Dante. He stood in the doorway, jacket hanging from one hand, his shaded gaze on her and LaRousse. Could he have killed the girl before De Noir had brought him home in the van? Could that be the reason De Noir had lied about his presence in the club?

She’s still warm.

Blood dripping onto carpet.

The stunned look on his pale, pale face.

Too much time had passed between Dante’s arrival at the plantation house and their return to the club. The windows had been left open. Cold air would’ve chilled the body; the blood would’ve congealed in the hours between. No, Gina’d been killed as Heather drove Dante into New Orleans.

Heather’s gaze shifted to LaRousse and his wintry eyes. All his down-home friendliness had frozen over, his gaze pale-blue ice. “No,” she said. “But I do want a statement from him.”

Digging out a microrecorder from her purse, Heather clipped it to the collar of her trench. “Dante, why don’t you wait downstairs? I want—”

“Let’s go one better,” LaRousse interrupted, jabbing a finger at Dante. “Manning, run Prejean to headquarters. I think we can dig up a couple of old warrants.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Heather stared at LaRousse in disbelief.

“Criminal mischief. Vandalism,” LaRousse said, gaze fixed on Dante. A hard smile twisted his lips. “Spray paints that damned anarchy symbol everywhere.”

Dante dropped his jacket. It hit the carpet with a muffled jingle. “Nothing like having your priorities straight,” he said. His gloved hands curled into fists.

“Hold on a minute—” Heather began, but LaRousse nodded at Manning. The uniformed cop unhooked the cuffs from his belt and reached for Dante.

Dante moved.

At least, Heather had a glimpse of movement; then Manning flew across the room and slammed into the wall. His head cracked against the plaster, denting it. The handcuffs tumbled from his grasp. Expression pained, dazed, Manning pawed at his holstered pistol.

Dante stood in the doorway, one hand still lifted, body tensed.

“Freeze, motherfucker!” Jefferson screamed, swinging his pistol up.

Dante’s shaded gaze locked on Jefferson. He lowered his hand, then knotted both into fists. His head ducked down just slightly. Heather’d seen enough street fights to know he was going to rush the rookie.

Stretching out a hand, Heather cried, “No! Wait!” Not sure if she spoke to Jefferson, Dante, or both.

She hurtled forward, but everything slowed down. Her vision narrowed into a long, dark tunnel ending in Jefferson’s gun. His finger spasmed against the trigger. Pulled it back. Catching peripheral movement—Davis and LaRousse helping? hindering?—Heather lunged for the gun.

She knew the moment she did that she’d never make it.

Jefferson fired.

E TOOK ANOTHER SIP of whiskey, then set the chilled glass down on the nightstand beside the half-empty bottle of Canadian Hunter. Ice clinked. He stretched out on the bed, worrying his head and shoulders against the piled pillows until he’d made a comfortable hollow.

E crossed his ankles and picked up his bloodstained book of poetry, Inside the Monster’s Heart and Other Poems by Juan Alejandro Navarro, and resumed reading. He read the same stanzas over and over without taking anything in. After a few more minutes of staring at the page without turning it, E slammed the book shut and tossed it onto the bed.

He needed sleep, but couldn’t. He was too wired. He burned to create. He kept hearing her voice, begging him to keep reading to her, and he had. In a gentle voice.

…frost-scorched and time-withered, this heart

its black edges curling in

like a dead spider’s legs…

AND STILL SHE’D SOBBED.

E reached into the pocket of his cords and slipped out his latest souvenir. Closing his eyes, he rubbed the silky black stocking against his face. It whispered against the beard stubble on his face. He smelled her, cherries and musky sweat. He opened his eyes and stared into a world tinted black.

Had she begged him to keep reading just to prevent him from reaching into his satchel full of sharp tricks? Or had she truly wanted the sound of his voice, the music of the written word?

Please, no, no, read to me, please…keep reading.

Staring into the black-smudged light, E heard her whispers again; he listened to her voice—low and shaky and seductive.

Read to me, please…please…

For a moment, as he’d read to Gina, he’d felt a sudden warmth in his chest. Looking up from the page, he’d seen a golden bond stretching from her heart to his own. The golden bond had shivered and shifted into a pale mist of light spilling between them, pouring like heated honey between Gina’s lips. When she’d opened her eyes again, they were golden.

Please…read to me…

Be my god…

Okay, maybe she’d never said that last part. All the same, he’d seen it in her transformed eyes.

Setting the book aside, unmarked, E kneels beside the bed, and kisses her bare shoulder. She shudders, her breath hitching. And, looking in, he sees a hard, crafty smile beneath the golden light, falsely curving those honeyed lips and dimming the radiance of her gaze.

Ice hardens in his belly, frosts his guts, and quenches the fire raging in his veins.

“Name the one you love,” he says, sitting back on his heels to watch her face.

Her eyes flick back and forth, searching his face for clues. He goes still and gives her nothing.

“He’ll come for me,” she finally breathes. “He’s nightkind.”

E slides a shaking hand into his satchel; cold steel sticks to his icy skin. Wraps his fingers around the shiv’s hilt.

“Say his name.”

She sobs. Closes her eyes. Knows, maybe, that he can look in and see her lies. Her betrayal. “He’ll come—”

“For you?” E finishes. “No, he won’t.” He lifts the shiv out of the satchel; dawn light sparks along the blade. “Dante doesn’t care about you. Why would he? You’re just a piece of ass.”

Her eyes fly open at the sound of the name she hadn’t spoken. At the same moment, E plunges the knife into her belly.

E rolled over onto his side, Gina’s stocking locked within his hand, a rosary for meditating upon the mysteries of lying bitches.

She’d offered him love with her golden gaze, tempted him with adoration in the shape of her pleas. But he’d been smarter and stronger. He’d seen the lies squirming beneath her smooth skin. And beneath her black cherry scent, he’d smelled deceit, ripe and rank.

He could’ve given her so much. He could’ve been her god.

Which brought up an interesting point—being a god, why would he need a fucking bloodsucker like Ronin to guide him…control him?

He’d awaken S all by himself.

THE BULLET EXPLODED FROM the gun’s muzzle, the sharp retort cracking through the air, rebounding from the walls and shattering the narrow tunnel obstructing Heather’s vision. Her heart stopped for a split second, then everything zoomed forward in a blinding rush of speed.

She slammed Jefferson into the wall with a body block. She seized his wrist and jerked his gun hand up. Davis wrenched the pistol from Jefferson’s fingers.

“Holy shit, asshole,” he said, voice harsh. “You wanna fuck us all?”

“Nothing to worry about,” LaRousse said. “He missed the bastard.”

Heather looked at the doorway. Dante wasn’t there. Instead, he stood in the center of the room. As she watched, he walked back to the doorway, bracing his gloved hands against either side. He looked ready to launch himself at Jefferson. Again.

Heather felt herself unknot. She drew in a deep breath, then slowly released it as relief leeched her strength and left her weak-limbed.

She caught Dante’s shaded gaze, or thought she did, anyway, and shook her head. Don’t move. No more stupidity. He remained braced in the doorway, body coiled. She could almost smell the adrenaline and fury that radiated from him. And testosterone. Don’t forget that. With all the males in the room, the air crackled with it.

Heather turned to Jefferson. “What the hell were you doing?”

Jefferson met her gaze, opened his mouth, then shut it again. He looked down.

“Protecting his partner, Agent Wallace,” LaRousse cut in. “Or don’t y’all do that in the Bureau? Here, we do whatever’s necessary.”

Heather closed her eyes for a second, then turned. LaRousse knelt beside Manning, one hand on the cop’s shoulder.

“Prejean was unarmed,” she said, voice tight. “There was no need for deadly force. And you know it.”

LaRousse snorted. Shook his head. He helped Manning to his feet.

“Take him to the emergency room,” LaRousse said to Jefferson. “And write a detailed report.”

“I’m fine,” Manning said, face flushed. “Christ!”

Jefferson slipped an arm around his partner and walked the protesting Manning to the doorway. Dante still stood there, hands braced. A wry smile tilted up one corner of Dante’s mouth. Lowering his hands, he stepped inside the room.

“Je va te voir plus tard,” he said to Jefferson.

All color drained from Jefferson’s face. “I don’t know none of that Cajun talk,” he stammered. Pushing Manning through the doorway, Jefferson hurried into the hall.

Heather blew loose strands of her hair from her face and glared at Dante. “You weren’t kidding about that problem with cooperation, were you?”

“He told Jefferson he’d see him later,” LaRousse said. “Sounds like a threat.”

“No threat,” Dante said. “Just bound to happen.”

Swiveling to face LaRousse, Heather said, “Prejean is not a player. I think he needs to be placed in protective custody.”

“No thanks,” Dante said. “And my name ain’t Prejean.”

“Shut up,” Heather said. “You’re not helping.”

“Oh, he’ll be placed in protective custody, all right,” LaRousse said, a tight smile thinning his lips. “In jail. For assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.”

“Let’s get things straight right now, LaRousse,” Heather said, stepping closer to the detective, muscles tight, hands clenched. “I’m in charge of this investigation—”

LaRousse leaned in and met her head-on. “That’s where you’re wrong, Agent Wallace,” he said. “You’re not in charge. You’re consulting. Hell, you haven’t told us whether or not the damned Cross-Country Killer is even here.”

LaRousse’s words hit Heather like an open-handed slap. Her cheeks burned, but she didn’t look away or back down. Her nails dug into her palms.

“I’m waiting for DNA confirmation,” she said, keeping her voice level.

“Even if he is here and you’re put in charge, I wouldn’t give a flying fuck,” LaRousse said. “That prick”—he stabbed a finger in Dante’s direction—“assaulted one of my officers.”

Still holding Heather’s gaze, LaRousse called, “Davis, cuff that piece of street trash and hand him over to the uniforms downstairs.”

“We’re not finished,” Heather said, voice low, and turned around.

Davis approached Dante cautiously, handcuffs held loose in one hand. “Take it easy,” he murmured, a man gentling a growling dog. “Don’t have to be hard. We can do this easy.”

Dante’s wary face and coiled body spelled hard in a big way.

Look, we don’t have to do this the hard way.

It’s the only way I know.

“Wait. Back off,” Heather said. “I’ll cuff him.”

Hands lifted in a gesture of surrender, his gaze still locked on Dante, Davis said, “Fine. He’s all yours.”

Well aware that LaRousse watched her every move, Heather took the handcuffs from Davis’s outstretched hand and crossed the carpeted floor. Dante watched her, expression guarded, hands clenched at his sides.

“What’d you do?” Heather murmured as she stopped in front of him. “Stand LaRousse up at the prom? What a hard-ass.”

A smile quirked up the corners of Dante’s mouth. His hands unclenched, relaxed. But his gloved fingers curled in slightly, on the verge of closing into fists again.

Heather realized in that moment that it had been need she’d seen on Dante’s face as he’d looked at Gina’s body, need mingled with the shock and disbelief.

The room reeked of blood, the bed drenched in it. He believed he was a vampire… Had it been a vampire’s need she’d seen? Or something darker yet?

“Just relax, okay?” Heather said. “Trust me. I’ll get this all straightened out.”

Sweat trickled along Dante’s temple and his jaw was clenched. Migraine? Annie had often looked the same just before a headache.

“I’ve never trusted a cop,” Dante said, voice husky.

“I’m not asking you to trust a cop,” Heather said. “I’m asking you to trust me.”

Dante looked at her for a long moment. Sudden dizziness swirled through Heather, spinning from her head to the base of her spine. Just as panic touched her, the sensation vanished.

Without another word, Dante tugged off his gloves, tossing them into the easy chair. Then he turned around, hands behind his back.