“Are you sure about this, Vik?” Mike asked, sliding out of
his pickup truck as he approached the security fence with her. They stood
outside of Brad Devereux’s large mansion, staring up at the door and waiting on
someone to answer their call.
“Positive. One thing those trials taught me is that I’m not as
ready as I’d like to be. If there is a chance that I will come up against any
supernatural being I’ve no experience with, I need to at least try and
prepare.”
Victoria sighed and turned her back to the intercom before
responding. “There was a trickster demon at the event. He got into my head,
Mike. Made me relive some of my darkest sins. He used them against me,
attempting to trap me in my mind. I need Brad’s help to replicate that and
maybe, just maybe, show me a little more.”
“And is there any particular reason why you didn’t ask
Derrick to come with? I mean, why me?”
“Brad’s not so fond of Derrick.”
“Yeah? Well last I checked, he and I weren’t chatting it up
on Facebook either. The guy all but told me I was not welcomed company when we
had him in interrogation, remember?”
“Yeah, but, you’re human. He can tolerate you a little more
than a vampire and I didn’t want to come alone.”
“Hello?” a throaty voice sounded over the metal speaker.
“FINALLY!” Victoria exclaimed. “Hi there. Detective Victoria
Carson here to speak with Brad Devereux. Is he in?”
“Mr. Devereux is not entertaining guests at this time.
Please…”
“He’ll see me. Why don’t you go ask, I’ll wait,” Victoria
said, interrupting the obnoxious voice before he dismissed her.
“Please wait a moment.” Victoria shook her head and stood
erect on her tiptoes to try and peer through the fence. Moments later, the
grating sound of the chain pulley made her jerk back as the gate slowly opened
to allow them inside. Brad’s butler, the same voice from the speaker, opened
the door for them. “Mr. Devereux is in the study. Follow me, please.”
“Victoria,” Brad smiled as the door opened. “Fortune smiles
upon me at your presence.” He stepped from around his desk to greet her, taking
her hand in his as he softly kissed her knuckles. The soft scent of caramel
wafted from the man and she had a sense of why. “Always a pleasure.” His eyes
then moved over to Mike and the visible smile slowly dissolved as he
straightened his back. “And, Detective…”
“Rizzitello,” Mike finished.
“Yes, I remember.” Brad’s lip curled in a sneer and Mike
glanced over at Victoria as he cleared his throat.
“Brad?” she said, regaining his attention. He again met her
with a warm smile, all traces of his disdain vanished.
“Victoria, it’s not that I’m not thrilled to see you again,
I am, over the moon; ecstatic!” he replied, his voice raising a few octaves as
he spoke. “Yet, I fear you’ve caught me at a slight disadvantage. What I mean
to say is, I don’t exactly know why it is you’re here.”
“Yes, I was just getting to that.”
“Please,” he offered her a seat as he again moved around his
desk in front of her. Victoria watched as his hand slipped inside his top most
drawer and heard the sound of a candy wrapper and smiled to herself.
“Brad, I want to apologize first for just dropping in unannounced
but, I need your help.”
“Of course. As I told you before, I am at your disposal.”
“Great! That’s good to hear because what I want to ask is a
little…unorthodox.” Victoria noticed the way Brad’s eyes darted to Mike’s and
back to hers. He appeared to want to say something but, she quickly redirected.
“It’s ok, Mike knows about me and I may have also told him about you.”
“Indeed,” Brad replied. It was the closest she’d ever come
to getting an actual confession from the man about his true nature. “Well, this
truly is unorthodox, as you say.”
“Trust me, it gets better,” Mike offered.
“Yes, uh…the ask,” Victoria took a breath and leaned
forward. “I need you to trick me.”
“Come again? You need me to ‘trick’ you?”
“Well, I don’t exactly know what you call it.” Victoria
closed her eyes briefly as she thought over the best way to explain her point.
“You know about the Dawning, right?” Brad nodded and Victoria continued. “I was
recently subjected to the trial and during my mental test…”
“Ah,” Brad interrupted, finally understanding. “You want me
to reproduce this ‘trial’ for you, am I right?”
“Ding, ding, ding.”
“Victoria, surely you recognized how—dangerous that
particular event was. So my question is why on earth would you purposely submit
yourself to the will of a…” Brad again met Mike’s eyes and cleared his throat
as he sucked on his Werther’s hard candy. “Why would you want to go through
something so horrifying?”
“To learn how to fight it. To better my craft. That…man made
me feel weak and helpless. And while I hate the idea of experiencing all of
that again, I need to know how to handle it if I’m ever placed in that
situation again.”
“Ah. Understood. Well, Victoria, I will do whatever I can to
accommodate your educational endeavor.”
“Thank you.”
“However, there is a small favor I would ask in return.”
“And there it is!” Mike exclaimed. “I knew you weren’t the
type to give without taking.”
Brad smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes and he
placed his hands directly in front of him before he began speaking again. “As I
was saying, Victoria, I would ask of you a small favor.”
“Of course.”
“Well, two things. You and I can work on something first
thing tomorrow morning but first, I ask that you come alone,” he said, looking right
in Mike’s direction. “And secondly, that you look into a small matter for me.”
“Uh…”
“I understand you are no longer with the Avondale Police
Department and that you’ve opened up your very own detective agency, brava to
you I say, good job on being so enterprising.”
“Thank you.”
“This matter in question is something of a personal nature
and very time-sensitive.”
“Well, get me the details and I’ll get to it immediately.”
“Excellent. I knew I could count on you, Victoria.”
“I don’t trust that guy,” Mike said as they were once again in his truck and driving back to Moonlight.
“He’s ok, Mike, really.”
“No, he’s…off. Maybe it’s the supernatural thing, I don’t
know but, he really rubs me the wrong way. Are you sure you want to go through
with this?”
“Absolutely. If all goes as planned, he may even be able to
train me for more than just tricksters. Before you know it, I’ll be a certified
bad-ass.”
“You’re already certified as a bad-ass in my book. You gave
me my legs back! You throw yourself head first into one scary situation after
the next and never once expect a thank you. You’re a fucking witch! You
conjured an apple out of thin air in the middle of my living room. It doesn’t
get any more bad-ass than that.”
“I love you too, Mikey.”
He smiled over at her before turning into the parking lot of
their agency. “All I’m saying is you shouldn’t trust this man. He could be up
to anything. And I’m really not comfortable with you going back there alone.”
“Going back where?” Derrick asked as the two rounded the
corner. He was perched outside their front door, waiting patiently for the dual
detectives to return.
“Derrick,” Mike said and tossed an apologetic look towards
Victoria. “Didn’t see you there.”
He waved a hello before glancing at Victoria. “Going back where?”
he repeated. “No, absolutely not!” Derrick nearly shouted as he followed her
into the building. She’d explained her and Mike’s meeting with Brad Devereux
and as expected, Derrick was not on board; even after she pointed out the
theory she had worked out.
“Well, Derrick, I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t asking
for permission.”
“Victoria…”
“No. You and Rowan had me thrown to the wolves…literally. And
the only thing it taught me is that I need to ramp up my training. Derrick, I
felt something in that place. Something very ancient and very evil. There is NO
way I can take that on without a little wet work. ”
“Whoa, what do you mean you ‘felt’ something?”
“I don’t know, I just did. Maybe it’s similar to how you
know when you’re in the presence of another supernatural person or maybe it’s
nothing like that I don’t know. All I do know is whatever was there was
extremely powerful, Derrick, and it scared the hell out of me. Your Elders and
everyone else expects that I’ll be the one to take care of whatever is coming
and in order to do that, I need to do this.”
He thought for a moment, briefly closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall beside her. “Fine. Alright, if you’re doing this then I’m coming with.”
“Can’t. Brad wants her to come alone,” Mike inserted and
Victoria shot him a look.
Derrick looked back at him and then to Victoria and shook
his head vigorously. “No, hell no, abso-fucking-lutely not. Anything could
happen there and you need…”
“Supervision? What am I 6?”
“Victoria, you’re talking about someone playing in your head.
Not just any someone but a trickster of all demons. Do you know how many ways
that can go wrong? Hell, I had worries you weren’t going to pull through the
first time.”
“Thanks, Derrick, nice to have your vote of confidence.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do, Derrick, and I appreciate the concern but, I’ll be
fine. I’m not exactly walking in there unarmed.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m putting a few backups in place, in the event everything
doesn’t go as planned.”
“An anchor,” he replied with a sigh. “Good, that’s smart.”
“Yeah, like I said. I’m not new,” she grinned, drawing a
smile from him and he caught her arm as she started for her desk.
“Hey, if at any time something feels off…”
“You’ll be the first to know,” she said pointing at her
bracelet and he shook his head. “Great. Now that we have that settled, I need to ask a
favor.” Derrick gave her a shrug and she continued. “Brad asked me to
look into something for him and since I’ll be a little…tied up, I was hoping
you could check it out with Mike?”
“Oh, so you’re too old for a babysitter but, I’m not?” Mike asked, feigning offense.
“I just want to make sure you come home in one piece.
Besides, you said you didn’t like the feel of Devereux. I wouldn’t want you
doing something you’re not comfortable with.”
“Uh huh…sure. So you think sticking me with the fangy one
will ease those concerns?”
“Well, it’s a start, Michael Sean Rizzitello. Excuse me for
not wanting to be responsible for Aria’s sorrow.”
“And yours.”
“Excuse me?”
“What? Not five minutes ago you were telling me how much you
love me. Are you saying you wouldn’t be sad if I died? Especially when it’s due
to investigating something for some weird ass philanthropist doing you a
favor.”
“Alright, alright, I get the point. Geez. Aria better be
sure she knows what she’s getting into.”
“Guilt. I learned it well from my Catholic mother,” he said
with a smile.
Derrick laughed to himself watching the two argue back and
forth before interrupting. “What’s the case?”
“External threat investigation,” Victoria replied.
“What does that mean?” he shrugged with a sigh.
“It means the guy apparently pissed someone off, shocker,
and now that someone is fucking with him. He wants us to figure out the who and
put a stop to it,” Mike explained.
“I take it you got the not-so-pleasant version of Devereux
too?” Derrick asked, crossing his arms into his chest.
“I don’t think the guy likes anyone other than Victoria. She
tells me you didn’t quite make his Christmas list either.”
“I’m not on many people’s Christmas lists. Comes with the
fangs,” Derrick again shrugged before crossing the room to Mike’s desk.
“Alright. Where do we start?”
Continue---->
Continue---->
Really loving where you are going with the story. I am not sure if you are taking a break or not but i really hope you finish.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Blame the new love of my life LOL. He has taken over much of my attention. But he's now a year and more independent (read: destroys the house for entertainment) and I am back to writing (finally...). I've been working on After Midnight to get the last of that finished (two chapters left to complete) and will then turn my attention to Cold Blooded.
DeleteThank you for sticking through all my craziness :)
Aww that so wonderful. A new addition to the family is always wonderful. Take your time. Your story is amazing but this time is so precious.
DeleteThank you! I'm slowly getting back to everything again. I really am working to complete the rest of this story.
Delete