Kissed by Ice(17)

"I don't think I need to roll out a major investigation. It's clear what happened here." Magnussen stood up.

"It is?" I couldn't help the surprise in my voice. I mean, of course it was clear to the rest of us, but what exactly did he think happened?

"Of course," he said, looking at each of us in turn, eyes cold and serious. "I think you have some vampire hunting to do, Miss Bailey."





"How the hell does he know what I am?" I hissed at Eddie as we hurried down the hallway toward the storage room cum command center.

"I will tell you in a moment," Eddie replied, pulling me behind him, Kabita striding along in our wake.

While Kabita and I had stared at the head of security in shock, he and Eddie quickly plotted a cover story to explain the latest death. They'd come up with bath salts. Not the kind you put in your water for a nice soak, but the highly illegal drug kind. It made total sense, as bath salts did crazy ass things to people. Like the guy in Florida who'd literally ripped another guy's face off with his teeth. Combine drugs with a steampunk ball, and presto chango, you've got a strung-out killer who thinks he's a vampire. Perfect cover story for the local police. After they'd settled on the story, Magnussen and his men had taken over and we were dismissed with a promise that Magnussen would meet with me later. Oh, goodie.

It would be much later, if I had my way. The guy made me strangely nervous.

Once we were inside the storage room with the door shut behind us, I whirled on Eddie. "Okay, spill. How does Magnussen know who I am? For that matter, how does he know about vamps? And what about the other bodies? Does he know about those, too?"

"No, no. He doesn't know about the other bodies. I felt it best not to, ah, alert anyone. Unfortunately, we will probably have to tell him now."

"Okay, so the Hunter stuff? How does he know?"

"Magnussen once worked for the Underrättelsekontoret. The Swedish Intelligence. Much like our own CIA. For a branch similar to the SRA."

I blinked. "He was in supernatural intelligence?" That was a turn of events I hadn't expected.

"More than that." Eddie licked his lips. "Haakon Airik Magnussen is a Sunwalker."





Chapter Seven



"I'm sorry," I said. "Can you run that through the ringer again?"

"He said Magnussen is a Sunwalker," Kabita snapped. She turned to Eddie. "What the hell is he doing working head of security on a cruise ship?"

Eddie shrugged. "Who knows? Could be he still works for the Underrättelsekontoret and he's here undercover. Or maybe he just wanted a change of scenery."

"How old is he?" I asked.

They both stared at me. "I don't see how that is relevant," Eddie said. "But he is quite old. He was a Viking."

"A real one?"

"Well, of course. What did you think I meant? The sports team? I believe he was a friend of Erik the Red or some such. How much older he is than that, I do not know." Eddie began shuffling through the piles of documents on the table. I wasn't sure if he was actually looking for something, or trying to avoid further questions.

"And you managed to research all this?" Kabita asked, eyes narrowed. "How exactly? You can't find that stuff on the internet." She leaned one hip against the table and crossed her arms. The glare she shot Eddie was enough to make a strong man quail.

Eddie seemed to pale a little, but quail he did not. "I have been around the block once or twice, you know. I have my ways. Now, ladies, we have bigger fish to fry than Haakon Magnussen. There is yet another vampire aboard this vessel, and we must find and stop it before it kills anyone else."

I decided to allow him the subject change. At least for the moment. "I think I've finally figured out the pattern."

Eddie sighed, but Kabita raised a brow. "And that is?"

"I think someone is trying to frame Eddie for murder."

Eddie all but rolled his eyes. "That is ridiculous."

"Is it?" I asked. "Think about it. If you were investigating a series of murders in which all four deaths happened in close proximity to one man, wouldn't you be suspicious of that man? Consider him a viable suspect?"

Kabita snorted. "You'd better believe it."

"But it is clear the killer is a vampire," Eddie said. "Haakon…"

"What if the head of security wasn't a Sunwalker?" I asked. "What then? I believe it was only sheer bad luck for whoever planned this that the person investigating these crimes would be the one person who would know exactly what the perpetrator was."

Eddie sighed. "It does make a strange sort of sense, but the question is why? Why would someone care to frame me for murder?"