Alina was on her feet in a blink, teeth bared, breathing ice just inches from Em's face. Her skin was so pale it was almost white, her eyelids a pearly shade of blue, her eyes wide and black as night. Ah, this was the Alina she remembered. This was the Alina she'd sparred with for centuries. So she was still here, underneath all that fat, those vibrant colours, those garish earrings. Why the ruse?
"You wouldn't dare," hissed Alina.
Em gathered a small handful of energy and pushed it at Alina. As before, when Alina tried to meet the challenge with a thrust of her own dark power, it was weaker, far weaker than Em remembered it.
"What has happened to you, Alina?" whispered Em.
Alina breathed out suddenly, her shoulders slumped and she sat back down on the lounge. The last glimmerings of the power she'd just shown evaporated away and Alina raised a hand to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. She sighed.
"What would you care, Emilia? Why haven't you turned me over to your father yet? Go on, that's what you're here for, isn't it?"
Em frowned. There was something here she was missing. Alina fled from her father's side, and sort refuge in a divey club that, out of all the cities to choose from, just happened to be in the same town as her master's only daughter. Her power seemed to be gone, she was plainly running for her life, and yet she settled in a place that made her only too easy to find.
Em watched her holding her face like that. Em recognized the gesture. She'd done it herself often enough these past few weeks with these shrieking headaches. Was Alina feeling the same thing?
"I'll have to tell him eventually," Em said softly. "Jarek's here."
Alina looked up quickly in fear. She masked it clumsily with a sneer and said, "I don't need your protection, Emilia. I don't need anything from you."
Em exploded. "Well, for heaven's sake Alina, you need to sort this shit out. I'm not going to protect you. I want to know what's going on here. Who is killing these humans if it isn't you and your little posse? I want some answers Alina, or I'll send Jarek in to tear you apart."
Alina's smarmy attitude was back. She smiled. "It's still so easy to push your buttons, Em. You have no self control, my dear, never have."
"Talk, Alina."
"I don't know who's messing up my neighborhood, all right? If I did, I'd ask them move along. I'm a businesswoman, darling. Bloodless bodies on the doorstep isn't good for anyone, though I don't mind the free publicity." She waved a hand airily and smirked.
"You don't know who's killing?"
"No, my dear, I do not."
But Em noticed a shadow flick over Alina's face, a tightening around her eyes. Either she was lying, or she was scared, and neither of those options was good news.
The door to the office opened and the girl Alina had introduced her to earlier walked in. Red head. What was her name? Raeisa. She was still wearing that same green dress with the snake print. She looked annoyed.
"Ah, Raeisa my dearest," cooed Alina. "Thank you for rescuing me from this boring woman and her tedious investigation. Look at all those people out there. All this fuss over four silly little bodies."
Raeisa climbed onto the lounge chair and sat on the back of it. She hooked one bare leg over Alina's shoulder and buried her toes in between the larger woman's thighs. She looked over Alina's head at Em and arched an eyebrow. The look was a challenge, the same brazen trumpeting she'd pulled earlier that evening.
Em ignored her. "We'll talk, Alina," she said and walked out.
She couldn't help but think the fear in Alina's eyes has just grown a little deeper.
* * *
It took until sunrise to get the crime scene properly processed. Robert was leading the team, as usual, with Em working as senior technician. Nick and Poll were doing photography and recording, and their usual medical examiner was late to the scene. They hadn't wanted to wait any longer and had started working the scene without him, but they couldn't move the bodies until he showed.
The victims were rather literally on Alina's doorstep, just a few yards down the adjacent alleyway. Em bent over the bodies and sniffed. She got nothing but the sickly sweet smell of sweat and cologne. It was too cold to smell even the beginnings of decay. The absence of any scent of blood was particularly obvious - the bodies were so pale Em was sure there wasn't a drop in them.
Despite everything Alina had said, all the signs were pointing her way. Four boys out for a good time getting a whole lot more than they'd bargained for.
And that was odd, when Em thought about it. Most vampires she knew preferred their victims to be female. Sure, they took the odd male every now and then, but on the whole, testosterone was considered a rather tasteless dressing. It was like the difference between hamburger and prime fillet steak. Vampires preferred the more expensive cuts. It was rare to find four males bled dry so soon after the last batch of lads met a similar end down at the docks last week.
"They're practically blue," said Nick. "But it doesn't look like they have a scratch on them otherwise. Why do we keep getting weird homicides down here near the harbor? Give me a simple shooting any day."
He'd just about finished photography and starting to bag evidence, not that there was much.
"Three Hispanics, one Caucasian," said Robert thoughtfully, talking to himself as much as to anyone else. "No known gang associations, no signs of a struggle, no major trauma and no blood either. There are no tracks, no marks, they've not been dragged here, but they didn't die here either. What the hell is this? And where is our medical examiner, for heaven's sake?"
Em put a soothing hand on his shoulder as she walked past him to examine the fourth body. "I can't even remember who was on tonight. He'll be here," she said.
Nick noticed the hand and said nothing, but gave Em a look. As soon as Robert was out of earshot he said to Em, "I know it's a bit early in the morning for something like this but, my sister's having a family barbecue on the weekend. Everyone's dying to meet you, and I promised I'd force you to come along."
He stopped as he saw Em sigh. "Of course, you don't have to," he said quickly, but Em interrupted him.
"I'd love to Nick, of course I would." Em was groaning on the inside. Dating Nick and flirting with Robert seemed even more crazy now that Jarek was here to complicate things. She cursed herself. You should have listened to Jennifer, she thought to herself wryly. Look at the mess you've got yourself into now.
Nick was looking at her with a worried expression. "You haven't still got that headache, have you babe?" he asked. "I think you're working too hard. Come on, come along on the weekend. It'll do you good to relax for a bit, take your mind off all this." He walked around behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Em leaned into his strong fingers as he massaged the muscles in her neck. Oh he was good, this one. She remembered why she liked him so much.
"You're so tense, Em. What's up?"
She stepped out from under his hands and faced him. "Just work," she said. "This case and the other one. They're related and I can't figure out how. I can't..."
She trailed off. Over his shoulder she could see a man approaching the scene. He was tall, thin, slightly dishevelled, with messy British looking hair - the neo-quiff - and an ill-fitting suit. Converse shoes, a leather satchel slug over one shoulder and a long coat over the other arm. He had a slightly confused look on his face, but Em recognized him instantly. Jarek. What game was he playing now? Hadn't she told him to stay away?
"Can I help you?" she called, as rudely as she dared.
The man smiled gratefully at her and bumbled over. In her head Em heard Jarek's voice: Play along now Emilia. You don't want to spoil my fun.