Embraced by Darkness(18)

“Jack sent me in here to show you how the liaison job is really done. He’s sick of your crappy mistakes.” 
Her gaze darkened. “Jack would never say that!”
“If you think so, then you don’t know him as well as you think you do.” I swiped a set of keys off the hook and glanced at the number. “I’m taking car thirty-two.”
“That’s not your assigned car.”
“It is now,” I said airily, and walked out.
“Bitch!” she yelled after me.
I chuckled softly. No doubt she’d run to Jack and have a whine, which meant I’d get in trouble when I got back, but hey, if it pissed her off, then the pain of listening to Jack rant was worth it.
Though why I felt the need to be such a bitch around that woman, I couldn’t honestly say. She just rubbed me the wrong way—and that was never a good thing to do to a werewolf. Especially one armed with a mouth that tended to run out of control at the worst possible moments.
I found the car and headed out of the underground parking lot. Liam Barry lived in a Middle Park apartment that sat on busy Beaconsfield Parade, right opposite the beach. It was, I discovered when I got there, tiny—boasting one bedroom and a minute kitchen and living area—but the views were incredible.
I walked over to the mess of men’s magazines and discarded clothes, and stared out at the sea and sand for several moments, wishing I could throw open the windows and let the cool salty breeze in. Let it wash away the stale and unused feel of the apartment.
Forcing myself to turn away, I let my gaze sweep the tiny, dusty interior, looking for something that jumped out. Nothing did. The magazines and mess were pretty much what I expected from a high-flying bachelor—which, until he actually married Callie, was what he’d been. An attached bachelor, granted, but a bachelor all the same.
I toed through the magazines, then moved into the kitchen. His fridge had a sour smell, and the milk looked to be forming into butter. I shut the door quickly, wrinkling my nose at the odor. On the side of the fridge were several bills—electricity and gas. The only thing unusual about them was the fact they were overdue. For some of us, overdue bills were a fact of life—especially when we had a brother who loved shopping sprees—but Liam made a ton of money. Still, maybe he was just one of those people who tended to forget them.
I blew out a breath, then turned and walked into the bedroom. It was barely big enough to hold the king-sized bed. And the rumpled, stale-smelling sheets suggested they hadn’t been used or changed in quite a while. Obviously, Liam didn’t spend a whole lot of time here anymore. After searching through his closets and drawers, I gave it up as a bad joke and headed outside to suck in some air.
Once back in the car, I typed Callie’s address into the nav computer, then headed there. She lived several blocks up the road in Port Melbourne, in an old industrial area that was rapidly gaining popularity with young trendies who liked being close to both the city and the beach, but weren’t willing to foot the million-dollar price tags some of the other beachside suburbs were now commanding. Her apartment was one of those converted warehouses, with views over the bay and port.
Again, the apartment wasn’t big, but it had two bedrooms and a larger living space than Liam’s. He’d obviously been living here for a while, because his clothes were scattered haphazardly about. I searched through the rooms from top to bottom, but couldn’t find anything odd. There were lots of pictures of them together, and some of those had other people in them. They looked like a couple very much in love, which made what had happened all the more puzzling.
I pocketed a photo of the two of them and left. I’d barely reached the pavement when my cell phone rang, the sound seeming shrill and uneasy against the cool calm of the sea air.
Trepidation ran through me, and with some reluctance, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and answered.“We’ve got another one,” Jack said bluntly.
Chapter 5
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It didn’t do too much to ease the tension running through me. I didn’t want to face the destruction I’d faced yesterday. Didn’t want to face the horror and pain of another soul. Didn’t want to feel her in me or around me. Two in as many days was at least one too many.
“Exactly the same?” I asked, after a moment.
“Apparently so.”
“Where?”
“Essendon.”
Which was a northern suburb, and nowhere near Richmond. Which meant whatever the hell was going on wasn’t being restricted to the one area. “Cole on his way?”
“Yep. Should be there in five.”
“It’ll take me twenty or so.” I paused. “Were there any witnesses?”
“No neighbors reported anything. The woman’s sister found her this morning. She’s currently in the hospital under sedation.”
As she would be, if this morning’s murder was anything like yesterday’s. “Did she say anything to the cops beforehand?”
“No. And the cops have tried contacting the woman’s husband, but there’s no response. Apparently he didn’t turn up for work this morning.”
Her husband. Good Lord. I briefly closed my eyes and blew out a breath. “I’ll get there ASAP.”
“Keep me updated.”
“Will do.” I hung up and climbed into the car. The journey over wasn’t a pleasant one, my mind more on the images of bloodshed than the road. It was a wonder I didn’t crash.
Cole and his team were already in place and investigating by the time I pulled up. I ducked under the police tape and walked up the steps. The smell hit me almost immediately and I stopped, unwilling to face what I knew waited.
Because not only did death wait, but that thick sense of gloating evil, as well. It wanted a reaction. Needed a reaction.
And if my turning stomach was anything to go by, it might just get it.
Though I made no sound, footsteps began to echo through the house, heading in my direction. Cole was a wolf, even if he was a shifter rather than a were, and he must have scented me. He appeared out of the gloom of the hallway, stripping off bloody gloves and tossing them in the special waste unit that had been set up to one side of the door.
“It’s as bad as the first one,” he said, stopping in the doorway and filling my senses with his warm, masculine scent. It was a nice distraction, but one I knew couldn’t last.
“Same deal as before?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” His gaze swept me, but it was more clinical than interested. “You ready to face it?” 
“Her,” I snapped. “Her soul is a her, same as she was.”
He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Just reached to one side and handed me another pair of those paper-thin shoe-covers. “Use these. It’s pretty messy in there.”
I slipped the things on yet again, then asked, “Has the husband been found yet?”
“Nope. But he’s looking a likely suspect.”
“Except if this murder is like yesterday’s. Then something else is going down.” I stood up and blew out a breath. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
He stood to one side and waved me ahead of him. The stink hit harder the moment I stepped into the small hallway, filling every breath with the scent of death. I shuddered, and tried to ignore it.
Which was a hard thing to do when it seemed to permeate not only the air, but the walls themselves.
“Through the living room and into the kitchen,” Cole said, his warm voice almost jarring against the cold stillness of the house.
I walked through the living room, avoiding the bloody splashes and bits of gore. The bird-shifter glanced up and gave me a nod as I passed him, then got back to examining the bloody handprint on the wall.
There were more bloody prints on the doorframe. I flexed my fingers, trying to ease the tension rolling through me.
I knew what to expect. Knew it would be bad. And yet my stomach still recoiled when I saw the utter destruction of what once had been a human body. No mere man could have done this. Hell, even with the strength of a vampire and a werewolf behind me, I had serious doubts as to whether I could have done this.
My gaze stopped on her torso, hunkered down in a far corner under a table. Like yesterday’s victim, a knife had been plunged deep into this woman’s right eye, pinning her head to the wall behind.
And she’d died with a scream on her lips and terror locked in her remaining eye.
My stomach rebelled. I turned and ran for the front door, barely getting outside before I lost the contents of my breakfast into the shrubbery. I stayed there, bent over the mint bush, sucking in the scent as I tried to calm the trembling in both body and spirit.
I couldn’t go back in there. I just couldn’t.
I didn’t care if her spirit was there. It wouldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know—and I certainly didn’t want to feel any more of her pain than what I’d already seen.
“Here, drink this.”
Cole’s soft voice came from behind me. I looked around, then accepted the glass of water he was offering. After rinsing my mouth several times, I sipped the remaining water, not wanting to stir my fragile stomach any more than necessary but needing to get some moisture back into my body. It felt like that house had drained me in more ways than one.
“I’m sorry,” I said after a moment. “That was very unprofessional of me.”