Page 18 of Patrick’s Seduction (Scanguards Vampires #19)
18
P atrick parked the car in his assigned spot in the parking garage underneath Scanguards’ headquarters building and got out. At the elevator, Benjamin was already waiting.
“Hey, got Lydia’s call to come to HQ right away. What’s so important?” Benjamin said, just as the elevator doors opened.
Patrick entered just behind him. “I’ll catch you up when everybody is here.”
“Fair enough. By the way, I just got back from talking to somebody who has a not-so-legal private zoo down on the Peninsula, but the wolf they keep there is a big white one. Beautiful actually, but Buffy said that the hair she found was black. And anyway, their wolf is accounted for.”
Patrick nodded. “Any other zoos that you still need to check out?”
“Nope. No leads there.”
“Not surprising,” Patrick said with a shrug. “I spoke to Nicholas earlier, and he said it’s impossible to train a wolf. Our theory that somebody could have trained a wolf to kill that jogger and rip his heart out is dead in the water.”
The elevator doors opened, and he and Benjamin headed for the command center. When they entered, several of his colleagues were already assembled. Their conversations quieted, and they turned their heads to look at him and Benjamin.
“Hey, guys, thanks for coming,” Patrick said, greeting them.
“We’ve been here a while,” Eddie said with a look at his watch.
“I know. Apologies, but when you hear what I’ve found out, you’ll understand.”
That he’d had sex with Fallon, and that was the reason why he was late, was something he’d keep to himself. It would only distract from the problem at hand.
He cast a long look at his colleagues. There weren’t as many assembled as he’d hoped, but it would have to do—for now. Besides the hybrids Sebastian, Benjamin, Nicholas, and Ryder, several pure-blooded vampires were present: Eddie, Amaury, and John. It appeared that everybody else was out on assignments.
Patrick took a deep breath. There was no way to break the news any other way than coming right out with it.
“We have a situation. There’s a werewolf roaming San Francisco and its surrounding counties.”
For a fraction of a second, it was completely silent in the command center, and apart from the humming of the computers, nothing made a sound, not even his own heartbeat. Maybe because his and his colleagues’ hearts had all just skipped a beat.
Amaury was the first to find his voice. “Are you shitting us?”
“I wish I were. But I’ve not only seen him, I know who he is, and where he lives. And I have reason to believe that he attacked and killed our vic.”
He caught Nicholas nodding to himself. “That would track with the size of the pawprints I found around the body, and the black wolf hair Buffy found under his fingernails.”
“How about you fill us in on the whole story,” John said calmly, his southern accent just as pronounced as always. “I have the feeling that you didn’t just run into a werewolf by accident. And trust me, you don’t wanna get involved in anything to do with werewolves. They are ruthless, uncivilized, brutal creatures. And where there’s one werewolf, the pack isn’t far.”
Amaury jerked his thumb at John, grunting, “What he said.”
The vampire who was as massive as a linebacker crossed his arms over his chest as if he was a bouncer standing in front of a club, intent on letting nobody enter.
Patrick nodded. “I get it. Trust me, I’m aware of the danger werewolves represent. I’ve heard the stories from all you old-timers.”
Amaury narrowed his eyes and grunted. He was one of the old-timers, a vampire who was over three hundred years old.
Patrick lifted one hand as an apology. “And that’s exactly why we have to get involved. We don’t want a pack of uncontrollable werewolves roaming our city. Can you imagine the bloodshed?”
He shifted his gaze from Amaury to John and then to the rest of the assembled. Nobody replied.
“That’s what I thought. We’ve gotta deal with this before it gets worse. So, hear me out. Anita brought me a case of a young doctor who’s being stalked and threatened by her ex-boyfriend. At first, I wanted to reject it, but Anita is very persistent, as you all know.”
A few grunts bounced against the walls.
“After Fa—uhm Dr. Doyle was attacked by someone or something two nights ago, I looked into her ex. I saw him tonight, and I recognized his aura as that of a werewolf. I researched his background. His family is wealthy and owns properties all over the Bay Area, mostly in Marin County. But there isn’t much information about them anywhere.”
He looked at Eddie. “Maybe you can dig around a bit, see what you find? Their last name is Gallagher.”
Eddie nodded. “I can do that.”
“So far I don’t see any evidence,” John chimed in. “At best, it’s circumstantial. I hate seeing a werewolf in San Francisco as much as the next vampire, but we can’t just pin any crime on him, no matter how much we’d like him gone.”
“No, there isn’t a lot of evidence, not yet. That’s why I called this meeting. What we do have is what the autopsy tells us: our victim was killed by a wolf, who ripped the heart clean out, and most likely ate it, since we couldn’t find any trace of it. And since Nicholas confirmed with his contact at Yellowstone National Park that wolves cannot be trained like dogs, the attack couldn’t have been perpetrated by a regular wolf. That leaves us with the only possible suspect: a werewolf. Now, I’m not saying that Cameron Gallagher is the werewolf who did this—” Though he really wanted him to be the killer, because it meant that he could justify eliminating him. “—but as you pointed out, John, where there’s one werewolf, the pack isn’t far. My guess is that the pack lives in Marin County.”
“That’s all well and good,” Amaury said, nodding, “but that’s still not gonna tie him to the Presidio murder.”
“No, it doesn’t, but—” An idea sparked. “—we might be able to place him at the Presidio if we compare his photo to the security footage that we pulled from the neighbors in the area. Eddie?”
“Yeah, we can totally do that. We just finished checking if any vampire in our database was in the area that morning, but we came up empty. I can do facial recognition using that guy’s photo. What’s his name?”
“Cameron Gallagher. He’s got a California driver’s license, but it’s expired.”
Eddie tapped something on the computer console, clicked on a few links, and moments later, Cameron’s driver’s license appeared on the large monitor on the wall.
“Handsome guy. That him?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get on it.”
Patrick nodded and turned back to the others in the room. “I also need somebody to talk to Hank Corcoran. He used to work at Dr. Doyle’s lab at UCSF. He was beaten up by Cameron, but he denies it, and he never pressed charges.”
“Why would he beat up a lab assistant?” Ryder asked.
“Because that lab assistant hugged Fa—Dr. Doyle to congratulate her on the grant she got, and Cameron saw it. He considers her his property.”
“Wow,” Ryder said shaking his head. “If that’s true, he’s a piece of shit. I mean I get jealousy, I do, but there’s a line you just do not cross. Women don’t like to be treated like property.”
“Is that why she broke it off with him?” Benjamin asked.
“Yep. She confronted him after she saw what he did to Hank.”
“Yet, Hank denies it happened?” Ryder asked.
“Who knows what Cameron threatened him with,” Patrick replied. “I questioned him, but he stuck to his guns and said that he fell down the stairs.”
“That might well be—if Cameron pushed him,” Ryder said dryly. “I’ll go speak to this Hank guy.”
“Thanks, bro. Use mind control if he still denies it.”
Ryder tilted his head to the side. “Why didn’t you use mind control to make him tell you the truth?”
Patrick shrugged. “The situation didn’t warrant it. When I spoke to him, I didn’t know that Cameron was a werewolf, and it was also before the attack on Fal, uhm—”
“Patrick,” Amaury interrupted. “A word outside.”
Patrick stared at Amaury. “What the—”
“Now!” Amaury bellowed and marched toward the door.
He had no choice but to follow him, while his colleagues stared at them in confusion. Once in the hallway, he closed the door and turned to Amaury.
“What is it?” Patrick asked, taking the offensive. He wouldn’t let Amaury steamroll him, whatever this was about.
Amaury narrowed his eyes and took a step closer, going nose-to-nose with him. “Are you fucking suicidal?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Patrick grunted. “Are you challenging my authority? ‘Cause I don’t remember my father putting you in charge during his absence! Or have you forgotten that?”
Amaury made a dismissive movement with his head, before jabbing his index finger into Patrick’s chest. “You think I don’t know what’s going on here? You’re sleeping with this werewolf’s ex!”
Shock made him take a step back. “How the—”
But he didn’t even get a chance to finish his sentence.
“Oh please! Every time you speak of Dr. Doyle, you wanna call her by her first name, which wouldn’t be suspicious at all if you weren’t trying to correct yourself every time. And you’d only do that because you’re trying to hide that you’re fucking her.” He paused for a moment. “Besides, you reek of sex.”
Apparently, taking a shower after leaving Fallon’s bed hadn’t been sufficient.
“It’s none of your business!” Patrick ground out.
“It is when you’re painting a target on yourself and on Scanguards. The moment Cameron figures out that you’re sleeping with his girlfriend—”
“Ex-girlfriend!” he corrected his colleague.
Amaury scoffed. “As if that’ll make a difference. He’ll come after you. He’ll come after all of us. And I don’t particularly want a pack of werewolves gunning for our necks. You don’t know what I know. Trust me, werewolves are uncontrollable, and a jilted lover is just like a wounded animal: more dangerous than anybody else.”
“That’s exactly why we have to nail Cameron for what he’s done. As long as he’s out there, he’ll kill other innocents.” And the next one might be Fallon. But he wasn’t going to voice his concern in Amaury’s presence.
“Well, then you’d better find some evidence!”
“I intend to.” And he wouldn’t rest until Cameron had been dealt with and was out of Fallon’s life. Out of all their lives.