Page 2 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

CYRUS

The lights of the police vehicles flash in the dusk when I near the crime scene. It’s right on the edge of town, tucked between two other upper-class homes.

“Didn’t want to call you in this time of night, but I thought that we should probably tackle this one,” my boss, Lieutenant Altman, says as she shakes her head.

While Maeve Altman isn’t a were or a vampire, her daughters, Willow and Olive, are werewolves. They both were turned when they were in their teens, and after witnessing them shift on a full moon, she was pretty confident she’d just lost her mind.

Thankfully, she managed to keep them locked in the basement until morning, when they shifted back.

At that point, the three of them ended up getting brought to Terrance, Julian’s father and the leader of the pack in this territory.

Because of this, she knows about weres and vampires and is also aware of my role in their community.

It’s led to the two of us getting placed on every case that doesn’t appear to have been committed by a human, as well as those that involve vampires or weres.

Thankfully, we have someone like Casimir who can use his allure to convince people that vampires and weres aren’t real whenever there’s any need for it.

“Sounds concerning,” I say as I gear up with gloves and protective covers for my shoes so I won’t contaminate the crime scene.

I can smell the blood the moment I walk in, it’s so strong, but the main part of the house looks normal, and I see nothing that stands out as having been disrupted or moved around.

Maeve heads toward the group of people hovering outside the bedroom, and when I follow her, I see a man lying on the bed.

His legs dangle off the edge of it and his arms are splayed out as he vacantly stares up at the ceiling.

His pallor and the lack of apparent wounds make me question if he was drained.

“I see,” I comment, knowing I can’t ask her if the man’s been drained with others hovering around us. “But there’s clearly another.” The smell tells me there is.

“Sure is,” she says, stepping through a door and into what looks like an office where the scene unfolds.

I come to a stop to pull it all in as I realize that the woman has been staked to the wall.

Her feet dangle at least two feet off the ground, and there’s a metal stake driven straight into her heart, pinning her there.

But beside her, there are two streaks of blood running along the wall.

At first, I question if the person had accidentally rubbed their fingers on the wall before I see that the streaks seem to have been purposely put there, based on the way they stop and start again.

“Can we have the room, please?” Maeve asks.

The others, knowing the drill because the two of us occasionally do this, get up and exit the room.

“The man’s been drained, so I can assume he’s human. The woman?” she asks me. “I don’t recognize her.”

“Not one of Casimir’s,” I say. Casimir is the ruler of this territory and has control over who is allowed to be inside it.

The issue is that it’s not like Casimir can be watching all borders to make sure someone doesn’t slip inside.

Even so… she doesn’t look like a vampire.

“I really think she’s human. But the force it would have taken to slam a stake through her chest and into something strong enough to hold her up would be immense. ”

I lean in to get a closer look to see if the drywall has given at all, but it’s still intact, telling me the stake has been pressed right into the wall’s support.

The way the blood has run down the wall and puddled at her feet tells me that she was alive when this happened, but I can’t fathom she was for long, especially when it had to have pierced her heart.

The state of her body indicates that it didn’t happen recently, and if it really was a vampire attacker, it likely happened last night.

The house is air conditioned, so the deterioration of the body has been slowed by it.

“Fuck… and what is this?” I ask as I examine the blood smeared across the wall. The bloody line hooks up toward the end, but it’s obvious that they didn’t make a single streak; it has multiple points of stopping and starting, as if they needed more blood each time.

“I don’t know.”

“Let me message Ezio,” I say. “He should be able to be here within half an hour.”

“Okay,” she agrees as we let the team back in until Ezio shows up.

I’m waiting outside when Ezio’s car rolls in, and he beams the very moment he sees me.

“You really shouldn’t be so happy to be at a crime scene,” I inform him, feeling tired.

It’s not like it’s anything new, likely because I struggle to sleep, and it doesn’t help when my days are completely messed up since I’m dealing with work during the day and vampires who are awake at night in my evenings.

I work from eight until four and then try to sleep until it’s dark on the nights I have to deal with the vampires.

But attempting to sleep during daylight hours on random days hasn’t exactly gone well.

“Oh, let me try again,” he says as he literally gets back into the car.

He even starts it and I wonder if he’s going to drive up, but instead he jabs the ignition off and comes out with a gruff look on his face.

It’s actually a very good rendition of Casimir when he’s stuck dealing with Terrance, Steve, or the council.

I can see the tension in his shoulders, the brooding look on his face, the “I would rather stab myself than be here” attitude.

“What the fuck is it now?” he growls out. “Don’t you realize I have a poodle to spritz?”

And my entire body betrays me when I snort and have to look away to keep from laughing.

Ezio freezes as his eyes latch on to mine. “Did… Did I make you laugh?”

“A bug was buzzing in my face, that’s all that was,” I assure him.

He even claps a little, like he’s rewarding himself for a job well done. “I… I made you laugh,” he says, looking far too joyous. Really, the man should have better things to think about than me. “I’ve had a lot of time to perfect my Casimir.”

“I’m sure you have,” I respond as I start toward the house. “Are you coming or are you just going to stand there rewarding yourself?”

“Why not both?” he asks and hurries after me. He dons the protective gear before following me in. The crew is always interested in him, possibly since he’s a consultant who is only called in on specific cases, but more likely because he’s so bubbly he seems incompetent.

“Good evening!” he says as he smiles and greets everyone while he walks by. Of course they all love him and often try to shower him with coffee or sweets which he just awkwardly holds while raving about how much he loves them.

They really shouldn’t trust a man who could tear them apart with such ease.

It doesn’t matter how nice a vampire is—they shouldn’t be trusted.

I feel uneasy thinking that, though whenever I look at Ezio, I never feel anxious.

Honestly, he knows how to make himself seem so innocent and gentle that I can’t help but wonder if he knows how much vampires can terrify me.

We walk into the bedroom, and he eyes the man on the bed before looking around. “Where is the blood coming from?”

“This room,” I say, and he trails after me into the adjoining office. He looks at the woman and cocks his head as Maeve shoos everyone out. Only once we’re alone do I freely speak to him.

“Do you recognize either of them?”

“I have to assume both were human. I mean, they could have been weres, but if so, they’re not from our pack, and there’s no way two weres were living here without my knowledge.

They’re much easier to keep track of than the vampires.

I do agree that a vampire had to have done this…

but why?” He takes a deep breath. “I don’t recognize any of the scents in the room and, seeing as this had to have happened last night, all I can smell is the blood and the bodies beginning to break down.

I can walk through the other rooms, though, where the smell of blood is less overpowering, and see if I smell anything elsewhere. ”

He walks back into the bedroom and stares at the man for a while.

“There are punctures on his neck,” I say. “He appears to have been drained.”

Ezio leans in and sniffs the man. “He does, but the blood on the wall is not hers, so I didn’t know if it came from him.”

“It smells different enough you can tell?”

“Her blood had high traces of alcohol in it—I could smell it the moment I got close to her—but the blood on the wall doesn’t.”

“Kind of odd to be that drunk on a Monday night that you can smell it, right?” Maeve asks.

“I can smell it on her clothes, too. She spilled some.”

“It looks like they were pulled out of bed. He’s wearing boxers and she has underwear and a sleeping gown on, yet still her clothes smell like alcohol?” I question.

“Now… I know you’re going to think I’m… odd, but they smell a bit like death too.”

“Yes, they’re dead,” I say.

Ezio chuckles. “No… like… decay. There are different levels of decay at play here. They’re in an air-conditioned house, they’ve decayed very little, but they also smell like… older decay.”

“As in they touched something dead recently?” I ask.

Ezio stands near the body before turning to me and smiling. “I dunno!”

“He’s like your very own scent dog but he can talk,” Maeve decides.

“Aww, then will you give me pets?” Ezio asks. “I require a pet for everything I help you with!”

“Maeve, don’t feed into him,” I say pleadingly.

She laughs, knowing better than to ever encourage Ezio.

“Alright… let’s start from the beginning. What smells like decay?” I ask.

Ezio scrutinizes them. “Possibly their hands? They washed them, though, so I can’t tell you much more than that. Have you looked through their trash? Any place they might have chosen to hide gloves?”