Mixed Blessing (Mixed Blessing Mystery, Book 1) (20 page)

Seconds ticked by and I knew this was the part in our little tête-à-tête where I chose which path to take. Denial and keep my secrets, or admit involvement and pray he'd accept me for what I am.

I am not naive, I knew the dangers this presented. I am Nothus, I am hunted by my kind to be terminated on sight. Too many people know what I am already. But there was something about Mark that I trusted. I couldn't pin it down and I knew it could be a fatal mistake, but still there was a part of me that hoped. That wanted to confide, that wanted to be accepted, forgiven. I'm not sure why, but I thought perhaps Mark could help me. Save me from what I had become.

I nodded slowly and stopped breathing altogether. I'd taken that step down this path, I now needed to know how far he would follow.

He watched me for a second or two then let a breath of air out. "OK, we'll get back to that too. I have more questions, but I think the most important right now is what happened when I tried to give you a cup of tea just before." His eyes hadn't left me and I still hadn't breathed. Mark was an observant cop, sooner or later he'd realise I wasn't holding my breath. I waited as he went on. "This is the part I have trouble explaining away. The eyes," he shrugged, "I've found excuse upon excuse for those. Even Denton's bizarre robot-like behaviour I could explain away with some reason or other. And I have been telling myself that I simply am attracted to you to such a degree it is clouding my mind, that's why I feel like chunks of time with you are a haze, or why I seem so preoccupied with parts of your anatomy." His gaze swept over me again and he let a little almost hysterical bark of laughter out. "But tonight you attacked me. I could arrest you right now for what you did. But something tells me you had no idea you were doing it. And then... what you were doing." A rush of air out of his mouth, a hand through his hair. "Did you drink my blood?"

This was it. Confessions of a blood sucker. To a cop. A human, Norm, cop. I could get into so much trouble for this. Forget about the trouble Mark could cause, I'm talking Nosferatu trouble. The Master of the City. The rules he has for how supernaturals interact with Norms. We live in secret, we hide who we are even as we live alongside them. Samson had never told me what he was when we dated before I was turned. I slept with him thinking he was human. I fell in love with him thinking he was human. He kept the secret like all good vampires should. He's told me since that he planned on letting me know and then I got attacked by that Rogue. But I don't believe him. He has too much of the good-little-vampire in him. He follows the rules.

I've never been a rule follower, at least not someone else's. This might have been breaking my own rules, but I could allow myself that prerogative from time to time. I decided now was one of those times.

God help me.

I nodded. Mark sighed.

"This case," he said abstractly, "it's unusual, it doesn't fit the normal parameters of a serial killer. Of any murder I have come across in fact. I've been racking my brains about it. The guy we're holding doesn't fit the bill, but the instructions from high above are to continue to hold him. But more and more murders keep happening, so why hold him? It doesn't make sense."

I wasn't faking the no breathing thing now, this was the most Mark had admitted about Stu so far. Finally I was getting somewhere and the part of me that was hoping confiding in Mark was a good idea, suddenly expanded.

Mark's gaze flicked over my face absent-mindedly, then sharpened. He cocked his head to the side. "You've not breathed for over two minutes, you're not even straining."

I nodded, despite the fact he hadn't asked a question. We were getting closer to the final admission, but I wasn't entirely sure he was ready for the reveal just yet. Still, I wanted to push him, to make him come to the conclusion and not have to be told. I lifted my hands to my eyes and removed my contacts, letting my cerulean blue back into the room.

Mark sucked in a breath. "That's the colour I know." I nodded and then let my Dark Shadow out of her box. My eyes changed from bright blue to red-tinged purple, then quickly back to the familiar blue he knew as I locked her away again.

Mark swallowed visibly. "Gigi, what exactly are you?"

"I think you know what I am, Mark," I said softly, then added. "I won't hurt you again, that was a mistake. I was weakened, I didn't know what I was doing. I won't let it happen again." Even if I had to embrace what I have become, feed every other night, I would not place another human in that danger.

"Your eyes change colour, you have some sort of control over people I can't explain, you're involved in these murders in some way, murders that are seeming more and more unnatural as each new one presents itself. You fed off my blood." He swallowed again. "What else can you do?"

I took a quick flash around the room, returning to my corner in under a second. He blinked, stunned. Then I lifted the armchair beside me and twirled it in one hand, replacing it softly back on the carpet. Speed, strength, all normal Nosferatu skills. Shadowing and scenting would remain mine, for now. I still didn't completely believe this was a good idea, but I was hoping more and more that I'd been right to trust him.

The last thing I did, as he continued to sit mesmerized on the couch, was to let my fangs down slowly. A flick, down and out, then a lengthened to half their biggest size. I didn't want to give him nightmares, it was enough to see them at all after I had fed so recently from his neck. His hand came up to my fading bite marks and rubbed slowly.

I returned my fangs to their dormant state and waited.

"Vampire," he whispered.

I took a slow breath in through my nose and sifted through his emotional scents. Bitter sweet dark chocolate, apple mixed with lime, but also calming chamomile tea. He was scared, rightly so, and confused, but also he felt compassion.

"When did this happen?" he asked, quietly.

"Two months ago, I was attacked coming home from work." I watched as his fists clenched at his sides.

"How many are out there?" As long as he was asking questions, he wasn't running, so I answered as best I could.

"Tens of thousands, only a hundred or so in Auckland though."

"What else is out there?"

I hesitated. He frowned. "I'm not sure knowing would help you," I said in reply.

"More than just vampires though?"

"Yes."

He took a deep breath in. "Is this serial killer human or other?"
Other
. I hadn't heard us called that before, I guess that's what I am now. Other. It was better than a freak of nature, but then we're not natural. He'd said this case was unnatural, and it was. We are.
I am.
Unnatural. My shoulders slumped and I frowned for a moment, then straightened my back and met his gaze. He was cop-faced again, hiding.

"I believe it is... other."

We sat there immobile, staring at each other and I had no idea what he was thinking, what he would do with this piece of information. I willed him to talk to me, I prayed he wouldn't run and I hadn't made a mistake. I dreaded Jett finding out what had transpired here tonight. I was in so much trouble, but still I believed Mark would not betray me. Maybe I was foolish, maybe I
am
naive, but I clung to that belief fiercely and waited for him to speak.

He opened his mouth to say something at the exact moment there was a knock on the door. The take-out. I forced my fangs to stay hidden, the interruption had caused them to throb in my gums. I started to head in the direction of the door to answer it, but Mark stood abruptly and held up his hand for me to remain where I was.

I cocked my head at him, raising an eyebrow. "It's your food," I said in way of explanation.

"I know, I can smell it," he answered, surprising me again at how good his sense of smell was for a Norm. "But I'm going to leave." My stomach sank, my heart beat a useless thudda-thud-thud rhythm. "I need to think about all of this, Gigi. I'll be in touch."

He turned on his heel and opened the door, grimaced at the delivery man and then pushed past him without a word. The delivery guy looked at me and held up the bag of Indian food I had ordered for Mark. I stared back blankly.

Then took the steps necessary to come face to face, allowing my glaze to capture him.

"You've made a mistake, wrong address."

He nodded dumbly and strode away. There was no way I wanted food in my apartment with no one to eat it. Plus, it would just remind me of how many rules I had broken and how Mark had simply walked out.

I lifted my head to turn back to the flat and met the watchful gaze of Mark at the edge of the top of the stairs. He held my eyes with his impassive ones for several seconds, letting me know he'd seen the glaze and command, then turned without a word and walked down the stairs.

The uncomfortable smell of decaying leaves and grass hung in the air after he had long gone.

His disappointment.

With a heavy heart I made myself close the door to my haven, locking it soundly. As though that would keep out the emotions I was feeling as well as unwanted guests. I stood numbly in the centre of my lounge and tried to compartmentalise my feelings. I had taken an enormous risk by confiding in Mark. I had broken Nosferatu rules, Jett's rules, not to mention some of my own rules. Two in fact.

Trust no one.

Keep to myself.

What was happening to me, that I was opening up to people when I had promised I never would again? This was so wrong and I couldn't explain why I had done it. The only thing I kept coming back to was these murders. If Stu hadn't have been accused and arrested for Alison Danvers' murder, I wouldn't be where I was now. Exposed. Naked. About to be fed to the wolves.

If Jett found out I would be in so much trouble, maybe even the kind of trouble that would lead him to announce what I am on the
Iunctio's
network. I had told myself that if I wanted to survive this new Dark night time world I now traversed, I'd have to rely on no one but myself. Yet here I was confiding in Jett and Aliath, and now Mark.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Anger replaced the bewilderment and fear of before. Anger was good. I grabbed it and pulled it around me, let it fuel the flame inside. The night was still young, only just shy of midnight, there was still much I could accomplish and the sooner this case was solved, the sooner I could hide again. I toyed with the idea of just curling up on the couch and pretending none of tonight ever happened, but I needed to find answers.

I wanted to visit Stu, but going anywhere near the police station when I'd just had Mark turn his back on me and my secrets left me feeling ill. Still, it was something I desperately needed to do, so I did send a text to Kara asking if she could arrange this somehow through Stu's lawyer.

Finding out what involvement Jett had in all of this was also near the top of my list of things to do, but confronting him on it was somewhere near the bottom along with getting my head chopped off and admitting my feelings for Samson. So, the next best thing was to go through the video footage of the security cameras at Alison's apartment complex. Not exactly exciting stuff, but it would keep me off the streets and maybe - just maybe - I could find something that would make sense.

Two futile hours into scrolling through shot after shot of well dressed inhabitants of the building Alison lived in, coming and going throughout the complex, my cellphone rang, breaking the monotony but not offering a better alternative to the skim-watching I was undertaking. The caller ID said, Jett. I stared at the screen for a long moment, contemplating the wisdom of answering his call. It took me so long to decide whether ignoring him was a good idea or not, the call went to voice-mail.

Relief mixed with a small smattering of guilt flashed through me to be replaced with apprehension when the phone immediately rang again. And again the caller ID identified Jett as the caller. I bit my bottom lip and stood up from my dining table abruptly, taking a few steps back away from the cellphone, which continued to blithely ring, taunting me with its shrill tone. By the time I made it to the far wall, my back against my front door, the phone went dead.

I let a small breath out. This was ridiculous, I would have to face him eventually, he'd want to know what I had found out, and doing it over the phone was far preferable to a face to face confrontation. I waited silently for the phone to ring again, Jett was not the sort of man to take no for an answer. Nothing happened for several minutes. Neither the phone nor I made a sound. Then without warning the phone trilled again. I jumped, having thought he might just have given up, and then yelped as there was a loud knock on my apartment door, right at my back. Spinning around and crouching down in a split second, a hiss escaped my lips before I could stop it. Fangs out and eyes glowing red.

Don't frighten a skittish vampire.

"I know you're in there, Georgia," came Jett's far too reasonable voice from the other side of the door. "Not only can I hear your cellphone ringing, but your heartbeat is loud and your response to my arrival most impressive." A pause, then, "Open the damn door."

I growled low in my throat at his off-the-cuff demand. Screw him, he could break the
damn door
down before I opened it for him.

There was a loud crack, the splintering of wood around the edges of my door and then the unmistakable crunch of hinges behind torn from their positions as the door was lifted forcefully from its
locked
spot and Jett calmly walked in. He turned and replaced the door where he had removed it, making it appear intact, despite the shavings of wood littering the floor at his feet. He turned slowly and took in my position on the ground, still crouched, still fanged, still growling.

He smiled, an amused twist of his lips. I couldn't smell a damn thing, but I knew a sticky toffee look when I saw one.

Neither of us spoke for a moment, Jett just letting his gaze wash over me and then the apartment, taking in my haven with curious eyes. How dare he enter my home and look so damn smug about it.

"You could have used
Sanguis Vitam
to release the lock," I said through gritted teeth, standing from my crouch and forcing myself to look relaxed. It was an act and I was sure he knew it.

"And miss out on your delightful reaction?" He shook his head and wandered further into the room.

His gaze took in everything, from my choice of artwork, to my laptop and the frozen frame of video footage I had been assessing, to my furniture, my kitchen and then God help me, he even walked into my bedroom and took in the décor there as well.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at his back. He turned toward me with a low growl.

"You've had a visitor. The cop." I raised an eyebrow at him. Wasn't he the one who insisted I get closer to the good detective to find out what I could about the case? "In your bedroom," he added as though that explained his caveman-like response.

"He used the bathroom," I replied with a shrug. The bathroom was through my bedroom, if Mark had used the toilet he'd have had to cross that space. Jett's eyes flashed a little azure in amongst darker blue and he inhaled softly, his gaze trailing over my robe and then slowly back up to my face.

"You take your instructions to heart," he said in a low, deadly voice, laced with criticism. "I did not know you were so dedicated to the task."

How dare he! I flashed fang at him, before I realised how bad an idea it was to allow myself to be baited by the Master of the City. He was on me in a second, barely enough time to catch my breath. His hand wrapped around my throat, but far from being painful, it felt intimate. His thumb absently caressing my neck as his nose nestled into my hair.

"He is on your skin, he is all over you. Was it worth selling your body? Did you get the information you sought?"

I let a little air out unnecessarily at his harsh words and fought with my dignity not to reply. My Dark Shadow had awoken the moment Jett walked in the room, her presence in my mind a constant torment. She wanted me to bait him back, to challenge him, to force him to react. The part of me that still clung to my human side knew how dangerous that would be. A battle of wills inside began, my body giving away what my mind so frantically fought not to show. I leaned in closer to Jett's chest, his arm automatically bending to allow the intimate action. A smile coasting over his fierce features. A smug smile. I growled.

"Kitten," he said on a purr, "did you want to play?"

Yes
, the Dark Shadow purred back. "No," I croaked aloud. He just smiled knowingly.

"Tell me," he whispered, his hot breath washing over my lips. "What did the policeman say?"

I held his gaze, determined not to show fear. Fear that he'd find out how much Mark now knew. And I realised, absently, that it wasn't for my own safety alone. If Jett knew Mark was aware of what I am - what lived alongside the humans - he would be in danger. I wouldn't put it past Jett to kill Mark simply to contain the leak. And even though I knew he'd follow up that murder with my own, it was my fear for Mark that made me strong in the face of Jett's inquisition. I would not let this vampire harm my friend.

"He is resistant to my glaze or
Sanguis Vitam
." Jett's eyes widened slightly. I ignored his response. "He hasn't divulged anything other than an insinuation he is unsure of Stu's guilt." I added that last bit of information simply to get Jett to back off. I hoped he'd see that admission as evidence of me doing my job.

He studied me for a moment, then cocked his head to the side. "We knew he wouldn't respond to your glaze, he doesn't mine." Well, Mark had responded, but not the way Jett inferred. He withdrew his hand from my throat finally and took a step away. I had a feeling he was going for casual, so willed my own reaction to chill as I tried to determine his emotional scent.

"What made you think using your
Sanguis Vitam
would work?" he asked, flicking his eyes up to mine and watching intently. Just what was he looking for.

"It was worth a crack, he wasn't giving me anything, so I tried to influence him with my power."

"Has that worked for you before?" he said, turning and taking a seat uninvited in one of my armchairs, his eyes flicking back up to mine to catch my reaction.

I hesitated, there was more to this question than met the eye. "Sometimes," I hedged, unsure what the correct answer here would be.

"I see," he said and indicated I should take a seat on the couch. My couch. I huffed, but did as he directed, watching his lips twitch again at the edges.

"Show me," he instructed. I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

He waved his hand toward me. "Use your
Sanguis Vitam
to influence me." Then when he saw my continued frown, "It's not a request. I am asking as your Master of the City, I would like to know how best to use this talent."

I was momentarily stunned at his open admission of his intentions: to use me. But his choice of words made my Dark Shadow growl in warning. Talent. We only called those skills unique to each vampire a talent. Like my Shadow Walking and empathic scenting. I had assumed using
Sanguis Vitam
to influence was a master vampire's ability. Any master vampire could achieve it. I suddenly felt very scared.

"I'm not sure it would work on you," I said, stalling for time. Could I fake this?

"Like I said, show me." His eyes bore into mine. "Or do I need to command you?" As Master of the City he could command, but it wasn't exactly like a master vampire's command to one of their line. It was compelling, but not impossible to resist. It just depended on the vampire. I was sure I could defend myself, I had seen Samson defend himself against one of Jett's commands. There was more to Samson than most vampires knew. I think Jett had never underestimated him again since that time.

I swallowed and allowed some of my
Sanguis Vitam
out and then half-heartedly shoved a mental command at him. He growled in response, clearly aware I was not committing myself to the task.

"Must I resort to threats, Georgia?"

I held his gaze, but didn't reply. He lazily reached into his suit jacket pocket and withdrew a cellphone, then pressed a number on the display. Someone answered the other end of the line and Jett lifted the phone to his ear, his eyes holding mine, azure blazing in their depths now.

"Are you outside her house?" he said to the other person on the phone, I heard the vampire's response, confirming the address he was at. Kara's address in Ponsonby. I didn't try to hide my growl at that. "Good," Jett said casually. "Standby for my instructions." The vampire grunted in reply. I held my breath. Maybe Kara wasn't home. Jett smiled. "What's the girl doing now?" he asked the other vampire. I heard him relay Kara's current whereabouts and the fact she was watching T.V. in nothing but her PJ's and woolly socks.

I sprang to my feet and slammed Jett with my
Sanguis Vitam
, the command to pull the vampire away from Kara's house the first thought that entered my mind.

Jett's eyes widened, then a very slow smile spread across his lips.

"You can leave the house now, Raymond," he said quietly and disconnected the call.

I was unsure if my
Sanguis Vitam
laced command was what made him do it, but I was sure he wouldn't let me know either way.

"Sit down," he instructed, returning the phone to his jacket pocket.

I sunk to my seat, my breathing rapid, my Dark Shadow ready to do battle, but my desire to tango with this particular vampire all but gone.

"An interesting talent, Georgia. But I am thinking you were not aware how special it is." Understatement. I was sure I was not the only one able to do this, but clearly it was still considered relatively rare. I closed my eyes in a slow blink. Another talent he was aware of. Another nail in my coffin.

What was he going to do with this knowledge?

"What now?" he said, as though reading my thoughts. "You're are an interesting creature. Fascinating in fact." I knew then that appearing fascinating to someone like Jett was an altogether very bad thing. He looked at me as though he wanted to own me. Completely. But not in a desirable way. No, Jett wanted to pin me to his wall, display me like some prized possession. Show me off and use me at his whim.