70: Ready to Grumble – Pt. 1

“Morning!” Derrick greeted Victoria with a smile as she sauntered into the kitchen. He was busy preparing breakfast, expertly tossing pancakes around a skillet before plating them for her.

“Good morning. You seem cheery. Add a little something extra to the coffee?” she asked, taking a seat at the bar counter as he set a plate and mug of hot coffee down in front of her.

“What? Can’t a guy just be happy? The woman of my dreams; love of my life is with me, safe and…whole. What more could I ask for?”

“I guess.” Grabbing her phone, she began checking her messages and responding to a text from Mike. “Hmm. Looks like we have a new case.”

“New case?” 

“Yeah, Mike is waiting for me at the office so we can review,” she said standing and moving toward the fridge in search of jam.

“Victoria, after everything that’s happened recently, I’d feel more comfortable if you took the day off. Just stay here, kick your feet up and relax,” he said. Derrick inched forward. His hands claimed her hips and he turned her so her body was flush against him, pressing every inch of her from the waist down into his body. “Please.”

“Ok,” Victoria replied. Derrick’s eyebrows fused together and he narrowed his steely gaze at her.

“Ok? Wait…no arm twisting, no bribing—just, ok?” he asked, feeling the place between her thighs, the hot, moist part of her rub against him in a way that ached. A groan fell from between his lips and she shuddered as his mouth skated across her neck, to settle at her earlobe. “Victoria, I mean it. I don’t want you to go out,” he said, nuzzling her and feeling her warm breath move over him.

“I know, Derrick, and I’ll stay.” His hands slid upward until he cupped her head and his fingers slid along her jaw in a smooth motion. Victoria looked up at him as his mouth brushed against the softness of hers, enjoying the shy blossom of her lips. “I promise.” 

Derrick dipped his head, completing the kiss and felt Victoria moan against his lips. He loved the little catch of breath she gave as he slid his tongue inside, loved the taste of her and the way she couldn’t resist putting her arms around his shoulders and twining her fingers in his hair. She touched his tongue with hers and when his tongue fell back, she followed, delving into his mouth, touching his teeth, strumming his lips. 

Gently, he sucked at her tongue, rasping the end with his own. When she leaned back, out of breath, Derrick lifted his head and waited for her to open her eyes. When she did, he was struck by her beauty. He searched her face, watching as she returned from the sensual place where the kiss had taken her. He knew if he explored for the rest of his eternity, he would never find the words to describe how she made him feel. It was deep-seated male pride, wrapped in a hard need to please, surrounded by that now-familiar warmth that clung to his chest and made him feel invincible. “I love you, Victoria.”

“I love you too, Derrick.”

“Come on. I’ll start you a bath and then you can have whatever you want.”

“Ice cream?” she asked with a girlish giggle and smile that lit up her eyes, producing one just as big on his face.

“Ice cream it is.” Hades trotted along behind them as Derrick led Victoria upstairs. After preparing a warm bath for her, he gently kissed her forehead and headed for the store.

Just as Viktoria settled into the warm bubbles, she heard a loud knock on the front door. “Seriously!?” she exclaimed, her eyes shooting open at the sudden interruption. Hoping it was just a Girl Scout selling cookies or a wayward pack of Jehovah’s Witnesses she could ignore, she waited and slowly began closing her eyes again and once more, was disturbed by the loud, incessant knocking at the door. “Great!” she sighed, realizing whomever was downstairs was not giving up so easily.

Tossing on a robe, she started out of the bathroom and peered through the small window in Derrick’s front door, groaning as she saw who was waiting on the other side. “That’s right! It’s me,” Mike shouted from the other side, “I’m not going away either. Better open up or I’ll come through a window.”

Opening the door, Victoria offered him a smile and noticed the stack of files clutched in his left hand. “Hey, Mike.”

“Partner.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“Really?” Mike asked, quirking a brow in her direction. “I’m a detective, Vik, don’t insult me. You’ve just gone through something horrific; I knew Derrick wouldn’t want you out of his sight. Besides, I went by your place and you weren’t home,” he humorously admitted.

“Ah ha. Well, nice work, Partner,” Victoria laughed before stepping aside and allowing him to enter. “What’s all this?”

“Oh uh, I decided that since you wouldn’t come to me, I’d bring the work to you. Got a place I can set up?” Looking her up and down, he realized Victoria wasn’t dressed and cleared his throat before deflecting his gaze. “You uh, might want to go and put something on. We have work to do.”

“Right!” she responded, remembering that she’d just thrown on a robe. “Feel free to use the study,” she pointed. “I’ll be right back.” Moments later, Victoria returned to find Mike had sprawled casefiles over nearly every surface of Derrick’s work space. “Whoa! What is this? How can one new case already have so much paperwork behind it?”

“Because I realized, much like all of our other cases, this was not one of the garden variety murders we’ve been solving. It’s another from your side of weird.”

“Ok. That still doesn’t explain all of this research.”

“Well, when I got the details from our client, I did a Nexus dive. Found out similar circumstances occurred five, ten, fifteen and twenty years ago. A pattern. Always five years apart and always sparked by what, at first, appears to be a random homicide.”

“So, what’s the case?” The front door slammed closed and heavy footsteps approached from down the hall. Victoria turned with a smile seeing her boyfriend entering the study.

“Mike.” Derrick acknowledged flatly, seeing the quick-witted detective standing in his home.

“Hey, Derrick,” Mike nodded a greeting.

“What happened to taking the day off?” Derrick asked, glancing toward Victoria with a questioning expression.

“I was but…”

“Oh, don’t blame her. I kinda bombarded her.”

“What he said,” Victoria sighed.

“Well then, I guess I’ll put this stuff in the freezer for later,” Derrick responded, pointing to the bag of goodies. “Can I get you anything, Mike?”

“Beer if you got it.”

“Coming right up.”

“As I was saying, the client believes her boyfriend has been brainwashed or something.”

“Brainwashed?” Victoria repeated. Mike nodded. “How does someone’s brainwashed beau equate to something my side of weird.”

“I don’t know. How many brainwashed suspects did we encounter while on the job?”

“Do jacked up meth users count?” Victoria laughed and Mike sighed. “Ok, let’s say it is supernatural, what prompted you to research twenty years’ worth of homicides?”

“Tracy, that’s our client, said her boyfriend went to work at the Kaufman & Pierce law firm as a temp for a few days and when he came home on the last day he had changed. So, I did a quick search on the place and found there had been reports dating all the way back to 1998. All of them young men, hired out by the same temp service. The way she described her boyfriend fit the profile of the other victims to a T. Tracy said her boyfriend has been displaying growing signs of aggression when he normally has a meek and subdued disposition. He has been unemotional and non-communicative the last few days; growling even. He’s clumsy, sickly, and persistent, with a growing, insatiable appetite for raw meat.”

“Ah. A zombie,” Derrick said, returning with Mike’s drink. “I haven’t encountered one of those in almost 200 years.”

“I’m sorry. You said what?” Mike asked, taking the bottle from his hand and twisting off the top.

“A zombie; what you’re describing is a reanimated corpse.”

“No. I’m describing a man who has been brainwashed. How do you get zombie from what I said?”

“Zombies are aggressive and extremely violent with a tendency to attack humans in their enraged states. They are dangerous, cannot be reasoned with because they no longer possess the ability to communicate and operate on the most basic of human needs: the desire to feed. This growing and insatiable taste for raw meat will soon become an undying hunger for human flesh.”

“I’m sorry, cleaning the wax out of my ears over here, zombies are real?” Victoria asked. “Since when?”

“Since some Houngan or Mambo, those are voodoo priests and priestesses, tampered with the dark arts and experimented with necromancy. But like I said, it’s been a while since I’ve encountered an actual undead.”

“Derrick, you’re an actual undead,” Mike pointed out.

“No, Mike, I’m a vampire. And while I’m technically not alive, I’m also not a walking, rotting, stinking corpse; trust me there is a HUGE difference.”

“Wait so, you’re saying there is an actual Romero style monster roaming the streets of Avondale at this very moment?” Victoria inquired.

“I am. I’m also saying that if we don’t find it and give it a proper death, there will be hundreds more before nightfall,” Derrick replied.

“Hundreds?” Mike reiterated.

“Make no mistake, these things are vile, gruesome creatures with the ability to infect the living at an alarming rate. We need to find Patient Zero as soon as possible.”

“Mike, Tracy didn’t happen to say what became of this boyfriend?”

“Just that he walked out of their apartment sometime after 1 A.M. and she hadn’t heard from or seen him since.”

“Great. There could already be a dozen more at this point.”

“One other thing I should mention, Victoria,” Derrick said, a grim expression overtaking his features. “Zombie is on the list of creatures needed for the resurrection. I can only assume that this sudden reappearance of the undead is no mere coincidence, especially considering Cassatt was kicked out of the Elders’ guild for his practices of the dark arts, in particular: necromancy.”

“So, he either has a role in this case or lucked out that if he gets his hands on one of these monsters he will now be one step closer to the revival of the Destroyer,” Victoria summarized.

“Exactly. And we don’t know how far along he was to begin with. This may very well be the final piece.”

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