Zombies Sold Separately

FIVE



Icy wind stung my cheeks and my hair twisted in the strong gusts of air. Snowflakes touched my face as my stomach churned. I wrapped my arms around myself as I shivered.

I didn’t shiver from the snow and biting wind. It was the grisly scene in front of me that had me wishing for a heavier coat.

Scarlet-splattered drifts of snow along Cherry Walk and more red on the walk itself made this scene look like a bloodbath. It wasn’t easy, but I made myself study the dismembered humans and look at the places where large bites had been taken out of arms and legs.

I didn’t want to breathe in the smells, but I had to scent the crime. All I could smell was blood and death, not what might have caused it.

They crossed over one another, but three sets of bloody shoeprints led away from the body parts. Judging by the number of torsos that remained intact, the dead had been a group of five. Looked like three males and two females.

Even though there had to be fifty norms at the crime scene, it was dead silent thanks to Lulu, one of New York City’s Peacekeepers—a Soothsayer. The crime scene was as frozen as the icicles hanging from barren trees and lampposts.

Soothsayers couldn’t stop time or the elements. Just the activity of humans within a certain radius. If the area was larger than she could control, we’d bring in a second or third Soothsayer.

Afterward, the Soothsayers spent time wiping key memories from certain individual’s minds. Memories that could compromise the paranorm community.

Snow had been trampled from the activity going on before our arrival, dark footprints stark against the white drifts. I didn’t doubt that the perpetrators of this crime had stepped in the blood and left it smeared in some places, not any of the investigators.

I glanced over my shoulder at the Soothsayer. Not counting Lulu, only Olivia, Adam, NYPD captain Alex Wysocki, and I were among the mobile. My companions were studying the scene as intently as I was, only I’d bet that out of our little group I was the closest to heaving my breakfast onto the patch of snow closest to me.

Lulu perched on a park bench behind us in her billowing satin gown. She had her back to us, refusing to look at the blood and gore. Her lovely personality had Olivia itching to pick up a dismembered foot and toss it into Lulu’s lap. Olivia had said as much when Lulu made a comment that had something to do with Olivia’s voluptuous figure, her petite stature, and Dwarves.

Personally, I thought Lulu would be lucky if Olivia didn’t throw a hand or two along with the foot straight at Lulu’s perfect golden-blond ringlets.

Lulu was a prima donna snob who acted like a spoiled princess and probably would have turned green if she knew that I am a real princess. I never let her or any of the other Peacekeepers know that I come from royalty and wealth, save for my closest friends.

I might be a princess in title and entitlements, but I refuse to act entitled. I am a warrior at heart.

NYPD officers and other crime scene investigators, paramedics, and one news crew stood stiff and unmoving, their faces and bodies frozen. Snowflakes had already begun to build a layer on their still bodies.

I didn’t think Captain Wysocki had really gotten used to frozen crime scenes over the past few weeks after she had a gruesome introduction to the paranorm world.

That unwanted introduction had been thanks to a large number of ruthless Vampires led by Volod, the New York City Master Vampire. It was a group that had decided they were sick of synthetic blood and sick of the control the paranorm world had over them.

But this … this had nothing to do with Volod.

“You’re wrong,” I said after a long moment of studying the scene, and I met the gaze of the tall and slender police captain. My breath fogged in the cold air. “It wasn’t a Vampire attack.”

Adam and Wysocki looked at me, Adam with a question in his gaze and the captain with a frown on her face.

“How can you say that?” Olivia gestured toward the assortment of arms, legs, torsos, and heads. “Hello? Doesn’t this remind you of anything?”

I didn’t know whether or not to feel relief or fear. Relief that it couldn’t have been Vampires. Fear of what had actually done this.

Because I’m Drow, the Elvin boots I’d changed into didn’t sink into the snow-covered grass as I stepped from the walk. The snow remained unbroken where I walked and I avoided a nearly frozen pool of blood. The attack had to have happened recently.

“You’ve obviously noticed the bites taken out of the victims,” I said to the three looking at me for my take on this. “Vampires don’t rip out hunks of flesh like that.”

The words tasted awful on my tongue and nausea continued to make me feel sick. But I continued talking as I walked from one end of the crime scene to the other.

“If you’ll notice, too, the bites were taken by something that’s not normally a flesh-eating predator. No fangs. No jagged teeth.” I looked at Adam, Olivia, and the police captain. “Those bites look like they could have been made by a human.”

“Humans don’t have the strength to tear apart bodies like we see here,” Wysocki said as she studied me with her assessing gaze.

“I didn’t say humans actually did this.” I turned my gaze back to the horrific sight. “What I am saying is that Vampires didn’t.” I glanced at Adam and Olivia. “And no being in Werewolf, Doppler, or Shifter animal form could have been the attackers due to their sharp teeth. Whatever things did this have flat, blunt teeth, like humans.”

Wysocki gave me a hard look as I said the words Werewolf, Doppler, or Shifter animal form. Adam, Olivia, and I hadn’t filled the human NYPD police captain in on the rest of the paranorm world yet. It had seemed enough to clue her in on Vampires when they started attacking groups of humans.

“What if the paranorms stayed in human form?” Olivia asked before Wysocki could say anything.

“Most retain some paranormal strength when in human form,” I said. “But I don’t think enough to do this.” I frowned as I considered it further. “Although anything’s possible.”

Adam folded his arms across his chest. “What about Demons?”

“Demons?” Wysocki said looking even more incredulous. “And Werewolves and whatever else you mentioned—you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Also Shifters and Dopplers,” I said. “We did mention to you that there’s a whole paranorm world out here that humans aren’t aware of. Vampires are only a small part of that world.”

The fifty-one-year-old captain’s short, normally smooth blond hair was ruffling in the wind. She braced her hands on her waist. She didn’t look like she believed anything I had told her, but still she said, “Go on.”

“All of this blood.” I gestured around me. “Vampires make a mess, but not like this. They prefer to ingest, not leave what looks like the majority of their victim’s blood covering the ground.” I pointed to one head that was still attached to the body. “No neck wounds.”

My gaze traveled to the shoeprints. “Vampires would never step in blood, much less leave a footprint of any kind. It’s a sort of sacrilege to them.” I added, “Plus I don’t scent anything remotely like a Vampire anywhere around here.”

“You smell Vampires.” Wysocki said it as a statement with a heavy overlay in her tone that meant she had a hard time grasping that concept.

“Yes.” I met her gaze. “Their odor is like graveyard dirt. The older the Vampire, the stronger it is.”

Her frown deepened. “I never smelled anything like that when I was on cases involving Vampire attacks in the past.”

“That’s because you’re not a paranorm,” I said. “Most of us have a keen sense of smell. Some more than others.”

Wysocki stared at me for a long moment. No one said anything to break the silence.

With her thumb and forefinger, she rubbed at her temples as she stared at the body parts. Finally she said, “You did a damned good job on the last case. I trusted you on the Vampire slayings and you came through.” Her gaze met mine. “What you call paranorms … I guess anything is possible in this city.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Anything is possible. Things humans would never believe are a part of the world I come from.”

“I take it you’re not a Vampire,” she said with an assessing look. “If you’re not human, what are you?”

“I’m half human…” I glanced at Olivia, who shrugged, and Adam, who gave a brief nod. I met Wysocki’s gaze again. “I’m also half Drow.” The police captain tilted her head to the side, clearly not understanding, so I added, “Drow are Dark Elves. My people live in Otherworld, not here.”

Again it was quiet as she studied me. “One of these nights I’ll buy you a beer and you can explain everything.” She held up one hand as I started to say something. “Not promising I believe every word you’re saying, but I’ll listen. Enough has happened to convince me there is more out there than I had ever thought.”

“Good enough for me.” I thought briefly about taking her to the Pit and decided that might be too much for the captain to absorb.

The change in Wysocki truly was incredible. From the disbelieving police captain who’d wanted to kick us off the first Vampire massacre scene, to her growing if reluctant acceptance of the paranorm world, and her willingness to listen, was a huge difference. Her newfound respect for me had been hard won, but I’d earned it.

I turned to face the horror we had to figure out how to stop from happening again. Snow was already starting to cover the bodies. We needed to hurry and complete our own investigation before Lulu unfroze the scene.

“Were there any witnesses?” I asked.

“No.” Wysocki blew out her breath. “However, we did find a couple of cell phones in the snow and a wallet and phone on one of the male victims.”

In her rubber-gloved hand, she held up a black Motorola wireless. “Made a few calls from the phone that was on the victim who had a wallet and we got lucky on the fifth call.”

She continued, “A family member said that the victim and his girlfriend, along with two other couples, left together to take a stroll down Cherry Walk. They’d been partying just a couple of streets up on Seventy-Fifth. That means the victim was possibly with five other people.”

Olivia pointed her finger at each torso. “I only counted five bodies.”

Adam’s frown deepened. “So we’re looking at a possible abduction, too.”

“Maybe.” Wysocki must have had a killer headache by the look on her face as she rubbed her temples again. “Judging from the brutality of the attack, I have a feeling we’ll find her body somewhere else in the park.”

I shuddered. I’d seen my fair share of grisly scenes over the past couple of years, but they still made me queasy every time.

The snowfall began to thicken and visibility wasn’t as good. “We’d better hurry so that they can get back to their investigation,” I said.

We were always conscious of not disturbing the scene or impeding the NYPD’s investigation. Minus any paranormal evidence that might require a little cover-up.

Olivia and I did a quick but thorough search and examination of the scene while Adam tracked the bloody footprints leading away from the slaughter. Wysocki was busy making calls.

“Not a damned clue beyond what you’ve already laid out.” Olivia came to stand by me. “Other than those prints Boyd is tracking.”

My gaze followed the trail of prints in time to see Adam jogging back. When he reached us, he said, “No more visible prints after the perpetrators leave Riverside Park.”

I looked at the captain. “You have my number to update me on whatever you find.”

Wysocki looked beyond my shoulder. “We’ll finish photographing and processing the prints, along with everyone else, as soon as your princess over there unfreezes the scene.”

Adam, Olivia, and I turned to look at Lulu who sat on the park bench with her back stiff and straight.

Olivia glanced at the bodies, then back at Lulu. “Hold on while I borrow a foot.”