Her job. Another murder?
She put the phone to her ear. He stepped a bit closer. His enhanced hearing would let him hear every word that she and the caller said.
“Detective Hart.” Her voice was clipped.
“I have your card, Detective Hart.” The caller’s words were low, whispered. Aidan still heard them perfectly.
“My card?” Her breath rushed out. “Are you calling about a crime?”
Had to be, if the guy had—
“I stole it from the man beside me. I’m afraid it has a lot of blood on it now.” Once more, the caller’s voice was a whisper.
Jane had gone statue-still. “Who is this?”
“I think you’ve been looking for me.”
Jane stared straight at Aidan.
“If you want me so badly, why don’t you come and find me?”
“Tell me where the hell you are,” Jane gritted out, “and I’m there.”
“No, no…not that easy. You figure it out. Hurry, before the unlucky bastard with me joins the dead.”
The call ended with a click.
“Tell me you recognized that voice,” Jane said.
Aidan shook his head. The fellow had obviously been trying to disguise his voice but…I don’t think I know him.
“Shit, shit.” Then she spun on her heel and started running toward the street.
“Jane, stop!” He raced right with her. “You don’t know where to go. You don’t even know if he was serious—the guy could just be jerking you around. Some punk asshole—”
She whirled toward him. Her chest shook with her heaving breaths. “He’s back in the cemetery. That’s what he meant by the whole ‘joins the dead’ line. He has a victim and he’s about to kill the guy, and I am not going to stand around wringing my hands while that happens. I’m stopping him.” Then she was running again, and Aidan was right beside her.
Chapter Nine
In New Orleans, the cemeteries were called Cities of the Dead. They’d earned that moniker for a good reason—with the tall, rising crypts and mausoleums that filled the cemeteries, the places actually did look like cities. Cities populated by ghosts and phantoms.
The dead weren’t under the ground. They couldn’t be, not with the flooding that the city had to endure—and had endured—for centuries. The dead slept in their crypts. The tourists flocked to their cemeteries looking for a paranormal thrill, and a killer…
Well, it seemed that a killer had marked one of the cemeteries as his own private hunting grounds.
Jane’s gun was in her hands as she crept between the crypts. Before she’d gone in the cemetery, she’d taken the liberty of putting silver bullets in her gun and ditching the wooden ones. For the time being. Since all signs were pointing to the killer being a werewolf—Dr. Bob sure was convinced of that fact—she’d wanted to have the best possible weapon for this fight. Aidan was at her side. They’d just entered the cemetery—
“I smell blood,” he said.
Dammit. “Lead the way.” Because she didn’t want to waste time searching. If he could track their victim, that would just make things easier. “Get to him. If he’s still alive, he needs our help.”
Aidan rushed forward, but he moved too fast. She scrambled to keep up with him. She hurried to—
“Jane…”
A low whisper, one that froze her in her tracks.
She spun around with her gun up. She knew she’d heard that voice, just as she’d heard it the last time she’d been in this damn cemetery. Was it the same voice that had called to her then? Jane wasn’t sure and she didn’t see anyone. She could hear the thud of Aidan’s footsteps. He was rushing to the victim.
But I think the killer is watching me. “Show yourself!” Jane snarled.
He didn’t. He…
“What are you, Jane?”
Was it Vincent? He’d been outside of the cemetery before. Was the vamp the killer she sought?
Jane saw a shadow move to the right of a tall, crucifix statue. She lunged forward. “Freeze!”
It was so dark. She caught the outline of a man’s back. Strong. Muscled. Bare?
He took a step forward, moving away from her.
“I said, freeze!” Jane yelled at him.
***
The scent of blood was overwhelming. Fresh. Fresh blood. Aidan ran to the victim, following that thick scent and then…
Arms spread, as if reaching out to heaven. Body twisted. Blood all the fuck everywhere.
Aidan staggered to a stop. The guy hadn’t just been killed. Deep claw marks covered his face and body. So much blood. This wasn’t just a kill. This was…
Sadistic. Out of control.
A beast playing with his prey.
He’d heard talk of this before, but during his time as alpha, Aidan had never come across anything quite like this.
Travis Maller, you poor bastard. The guy’s blood was still dripping onto the crypt beneath him. The kill was so fresh, it—
Travis’s body jerked.