Page 13 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

He pulls his hand back and stares at Casimir and Julian while they talk.

I can tell they’re talking about the incident, and as head detective, I really need to be paying attention, but I can’t seem to focus.

All I want is to rewind time. But I can’t tell if I want to know what he has to say or if I want to take back ever asking him as I realize that this is why it’s taken me so long to even bring it up with him.

After Julian and Casimir update everyone, Julian asks if there’s anything I’d like to add but I don’t even recall what he’s talked about, so I shake my head.

Julian tells the group, “We would hate to believe it is anyone of our own doing this, but we can’t overlook anything.”

“What if it’s being staged to look like a vampire is doing it?” Olive, Maeve’s daughter, asks.

“Ezio or Cyrus can explain it better,” Julian says.

“It’s a possibility, but the force that is being used goes beyond what a human could do without some kind of machine,” Ezio explains.

“The stakes are thick and they are driven deep. I’m confident that even a strong human with tools would struggle to hold a body suspended in the air and drive a stake into a supporting beam.

The one down in the cellar was driven through cement blocks.

There wasn’t enough room to swing a mallet.

Let’s just say it leans heavily toward the killer being a vampire. ”

“But why?” Genevieve asks. “A vampire murderer can literally go anywhere, so they’re going to set up shop in an area with one of the strongest vampires I know and a council that’s dedicated to keeping peace?”

Terrance frowns. “It has to be targeted.”

“It very well might be, but at this point, we’re not sure how or why,” Ezio says.

“The nights you listed that the deceased were killed, a good percentage of us were at the casino,” Steve offers. “You can watch the camera footage and see.”

“Y-Yeah,” Jake says. He’s a vampire who has harassed Julian enough that I think he’s on Casimir’s shit list. But he, at least, seems to be pretty harmless.

“There was also a group of us who went out of the city to Donovan’s club.

He has humans there that we can feed off.

He can verify that we were there the whole night.

We were there the night before and stayed until last night. ”

“Thank you,” Julian says. “The alibis are extremely helpful. At this point, I’m afraid it’s someone who isn’t part of our community, but hopefully we can identify them soon.

I’ve gone through every crime scene, but so far, I haven’t been able to pick up a specific scent.

They’re undoubtedly doing what they can to hide it.

And then the smell of blood has been quite prevalent.

Please remain vigilant. We don’t know what’s happening here and who might be at risk.

If you see or hear anything, please contact us immediately. ”

The meeting adjourns and most head for the door, but I notice the young man with Yorick hangs behind.

Julian walks over to greet him, so I feel like I really shouldn’t just leave when he is definitely someone we should interview.

I walk up as Yorick takes note.

“Oh, do I smell too much for you to sit by me? I shed a tear. A tear, I say!” Yorick tosses in some hand movements like that will help convey just how heartbroken he is after… you know… the grave sin of me sitting on the other side of the room.

“Oh, sorry, I just saw some open seats.”

“Not the open ones I saved specifically for you?” Yorick asks. “Not the very seats that I had to fend off others for you. They tried to take them, and I had to say to their faces, ‘You shall not sit. These are for my bestest friends .’ And now… I don’t even know what we are.”

“You might not know what ‘we’ are but I know ‘you’ are dramatic. We didn’t instantly become enemies because I sat somewhere else,” I say.

Ezio isn’t saying much, and Yorick seems to take note that something is going on because he stops his playful harassment.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, sorry. Been some late nights. Anyway,” I say as I turn to the son. “I’m Detective Torres.”

“Phil. My… my parents were the ones you found yesterday.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. I apologize that you have to go through something like this. It’s…” I think back on my own parents. “It’s something that’s really hard to handle.”

“I feel like I destroyed them, you know? I know some people tell their family when they become a were or a vampire… but I didn’t think my parents could handle it, so I hid from them for years.

But was it my own insecurities? My own fears…

my own ideas that led me to just… walk away from them?

And now I’ll never get to make it right. ”

“I’m sorry,” I say, wondering if there was more between them that made him avoid them for what? Fifty years? He was turned at such a young age, so when did he just stop seeing them?

I would do anything to get to see my family again. To have my mother hug me…

Fuck.

“I was hoping to stay here for a bit to see if I can be of some help tracking the killer down,” Phil says.

“You’ll need to be registered if you wish to stay,” Ezio states.

His eyes widen. “Even if I’m not living here? We don’t require registration where I’m from.”

“We require it here,” Ezio says. “I apologize, but you’re given no choice. I’ll need blood and fingerprints.”

Phil glances over at Casimir like he thinks he might be able to persuade him. “I’m just here temporarily.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Casimir tells him. “Everyone who steps in here gets registered.”

Phil nods. “Alright. Where do I do that?”

Ezio hesitates and I glance over at him.

“Ezio handles that,” I say, wondering what the hesitation was about. This is something we’ve always done together. Does he just not want to be around me? “I don’t have to be present.”

“It’d be best if we do it together,” Ezio comments, confusing me more.

“I’ll go too! It sounds delightful!” Yorick says. “I want to be a detective when I grow up.”

“At the rate you’re going, it’ll take a few hundred years,” Casimir observes.

“Casimir is such a kidder,” Yorick tells Phil. “He’s actually one of my best friends.”

“Sure. Best friend, please come to this dark and isolated forest where no one will hear your screams,” Casimir says, obviously planning on hunting him.

“Ah ha ha… screams of joy, I assume! I wonder what you have planned. Is it a water balloon fight? I’ve always wanted to have one of those. Julian, please?”

“Sure, next time we’re over we’ll do a water balloon fight.”

“Can I fill mine with holy water and garlic?” Casimir asks, even though neither does much to vampires since it’s folklore. “Maybe little nails.”

“Hon, please don’t forget that there are others around who might not… realize how funny your sense of humor is when you joke with your best friend,” Julian says. “They might… weirdly think you’re evil and should not be running our district.”

“Oh… yes. It’s fine. Just an inside joke between me and Yorick here. He loves my inside jokes, don’t you?”

Yorick smiles. “Ha… ha ha. I sure do! His jokes are delightfully sweet.”

Phil doesn’t look convinced.

I clear my throat. “Let’s head out, then. We’ll go to the local station to get everything. Your prints and information will go into a specific database that only those who are in charge of the vampires and werewolves have access to.”

“Okay. I have my car, so I’ll just follow you to the station?”

“That’d be great,” I say.

I get into my car and see that Ezio is heading over to it, but before he can get into the passenger seat, Yorick hops in, so Ezio gets in the back.

Yorick turns his bright smile on me. “Can I be a detective? It sounds delightful.”

“Sure, you just have to get a degree,” I tell him.

“Oh… no, I was thinking just like… you hand me a badge and a gun.”

“That’s not quite how that works.”

“Does Ezio have a degree?”

“No, but I’ve been doing random detective work for years,” Ezio says.

“He couldn’t even detect that this Zach guy was into him. I heard all about it from Julian after Ezio cried about it for?—”

Ezio’s hand wraps around Yorick’s mouth while his other hand rolls the window down. Since I’m currently driving about sixty as I head toward the station, the wind is whipping Yorick’s freshly done hair all around.

“Out we go now,” Ezio says as he tries to push Yorick out the window. He’s released his mouth to pick him up, but even the odd angle isn’t slowing him down.

“Ha ha… Detective. Detective, there’s a murder happening right before your eyes,” Yorick calls.

“That will make it easy to file the paperwork,” Ezio says.

“Wait… there’s paperwork? Never mind. Being a detective isn’t quite for me, then. I just wanted the shiny badge.” He has to shout a bit since he’s partly out the window.

“Does any of this look safe? If I wreck, you two would be perfectly fine, but I’d be splatted all the fuck around,” I say.

Ezio jerks back. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I apologize.”

I pull into the station, and Phil’s car parks next to mine. He seems oddly reluctant to get out of the vehicle. “You think maybe he’s horrified after seeing the detective he’s supposed to deal with attempt murder?” I ask mockingly.

“Yorick would have bounced,” Ezio assures me.

“I don’t bounce!” Yorick cries. “What if something happened to my beautiful hair?”

He pats it to make sure the wind didn’t mess up his bun too much. When he gets out, he beams at Phil, which makes the man look even more nervous. He does get out and says not a damn thing about Yorick hanging out the window.

Phil follows us inside as I take him over to the machine to read his fingerprints. Then I have a tech, who is a werewolf and knows about our database, draw his blood for me. Once he’s all set, he hesitates near the door. “Can I see my parents?”