Page 2 of The Wentworth Vampire (Pittsburgh Vampires #29)

D etective Rowen Dalhousie found himself assigned once again to the lowlands.

Homicides in the lowlands were becoming too common.

Master Hadden had increased the patrols in the area, but still death came often to the residents of the land known to spawn sadness and desperation in those who lingered too long.

There was a report that five men had been found bound and gagged in cages in the basement of one of the old, broken-down, and abandoned commercial buildings.

When he arrived, he was told that three had survived, but two were deceased.

By the looks of the level of decay, they had died a while ago.

The three that survived were being stabilized and transported to the local hospital. They were all human.

“They were being held captive in here.” The officer shook his head in disgust and led him into a small room on the ground floor of the large brick building.

It was tragic and sickening and should never have happened.

They were not bled dry but were drained of their energy forces like the others had been.

These men were experimented on in an attempt to make them functional and obedient slaves.

“What was the purpose? I don’t understand why anyone would do this.” The officer was definitely being affected by the scene.

“As you know, there are evil people in the world who do terrible things.

The why doesn't matter; it probably wouldn't make sense to us anyway. It is our job to find them and stop them, and that is where we keep our focus.” Rowen understood where the young officer was coming from and the upset that he felt, but it was not productive.

The officer nodded and stepped back to let Dalhousie complete his walk-through.

Magic had been involved, but he couldn’t share that piece with the officer since he was human.

The police force was a mix of humans and paranormal, which sometimes made things difficult, and such cases needed to be handled with special delicacy.

As he walked through the scene, it became very apparent that they were dealing with a slaver.

Slavers were magics that kidnapped and broke individuals and put them for sale to other magics and mystics, either as staff, servers, or subjects.

It was an ugly profession, and not all those they broke survived, as evidenced by the two dead captives.

As he approached the cage in the back corner, he noticed something out of the ordinary.

He crouched down and ran his fingers over the door frame.

He took a deep breath, taking in the scents and auras around him.

This captive had not been human; this captive was a vampire.

Rowen took another deep breath and leaned into the cage.

The thin cushion on the floor of the cage shifted under his hand, and he saw something.

He brushed the dust and grime away and saw something scratched into the metal floor.

“Mateo.” He said and then repeated the name.

He remembered that name his mate Dumas had mentioned it.

The man had gone missing prior to the fall of the Baltimore Coven.

He was the brother of Teo Wentworth, the mate to one of the Cyprian Knights.

It was bits and pieces that he recalled, but he remembered the name, Mateo.

Rowen excused himself, stepped outside, and walked off to a private area of the yard. He put in a call to his mate Dumas, a highly regarded security specialist of the Hadden Coven. He quickly explained what he’d found.

“Could you tell how long since he has occupied that cage?” Dumas was very interested. He knew that Thayer and Marek had been searching for Mateo Wentworth for a very long time, and this could very likely be him.

“His scent is still clearly discernible, so he can’t have been gone for more than a day or two at most.”

“Why would they move him but not the rest?” Dumas questioned casually.

“The others were all human.” Rowen offered.

“Slavers, I thought that practice went out ages ago.”

“Apparently not, but the authorities are looking at this as basic human trafficking; they are not aware of the magic element."

“Do you have a lead on the magics involved?”

“Not yet.”

"I'll speak with Thayer and also Master Hadden, and a magic expert will be over to do a walk-through," Dumas told him, clearly excited by his discovery.

“Be sure to tell him to keep it casual; the officers on site are all human."

“Be safe, and I'll get back with you shortly." Rowen closed the call and returned to the scene, hoping to pick up some clue as to those responsible.

Pascal Lacrosse was patrolling the Plaza of the Hadden Center when he received the call from the Second in Command, Josef McQueen, to go to the lowlands and check out a location for magical influence.

With his background and lineage, he was considered a specialist when it came to identifying magical influence.

It was a background that his previous Coven saw as a problem and something that needed to be feared and controlled, but which Master Hadden viewed as advantageous. Pascal had petitioned the Hadden Coven for membership at the time Master Hadden had sent out the call, and he was accepted.

Pascal was born into the Revere Coven of Frederick, Maryland, and had been trained as an assassin. He was considered unsuitable for anything else, considering his mixed parentage. Assassins worked alone and in the dark, and his Coven believed that was where he belonged.

Master Hadden thought otherwise and saw Pascal as useful in so many ways. His life truly began when he joined the Hadden Coven, and he would be forever grateful to Master Nikolas Hadden.

He met Det. Dalhousie, the cat shifter, in the lowlands at the abandoned building. “Come, I’ll show you where we found them.” He said and led the way to a dark and inhospitable backroom filled with the sounds and scents of sadness and pain.

They’d kept him drugged for days now, and Mateo was not sure where he was or what they planned.

He'd become lucid while in that horrid, rotting building and nearly escaped, but those bastards had magics at their beck and call.

He fucking hated magics, and someday he would make them pay all of them for the pain and degradation of his brothers and his people.

He would not die, and he would not forget.

Forcing his eyes to open, he noticed he was once again in a cage, but he was alone this time. There were no other captives in the room. Suddenly, someone slammed the cage, making him jump.

"Time to wake up, pretty boy.” Then the cage was slammed again with a rod of some kind. Mateo was slowly coming awake and pushed himself to a sitting position. Glancing around, it was clear he was fucked, totally fucked.

The men standing around were paranormal. The one who spoke to him was a cougar shifter, not particularly strong, but Mateo was in no condition to be able to challenge. The drugs they had used on him were powerful and lingered, making his mind foggy and his reactions slow.

The two by the door were wolves, and the one seated staring at him was a shifter, but also something else.

He had an aura around him that was dark and beguiling.

This man was a mystic like Claud. Claud was evil and dangerous, but no one would listen.

He had everyone believing that he had the best interests of the Coven at heart.

He only cared about his own interests and gladly killed anyone who got in his way.

"Wake up!" The man yelled again, pulling Mateo from his demoralizing memories. He rolled his eyes up to look at the man standing next to the cage, but remained silent. Words were useless. “There you are.” He mocked with a chuckle and then turned his attention to the man in the chair.

“He’s in good shape, even with being starved and isolated for months. He isn't broken, but I'm sure you can take care of that issue easily enough." Mateo listened and realized he was being sold again.