Page 59 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“Thank you! I will. When’s your next class?”
“Tomorrow… wait… we have tomorrow off, right?” Brandy asks.
“Yes, tomorrow’s class is cancelled,” Julian says, since tomorrow is a full moon and he definitely can’t make it. Instead, he’ll be locked away in a little cage… or just manhandled by Casimir, who knows.
My phone starts ringing and I freeze when I pull it out and see the name shown on the screen. “Class! Class, he is calling.”
“Put it on speaker,” Malcolm urges.
“Invite him to a nice dinner, no strings attached,” Brandy suggests. “Just say that there’s this nice place you’ve been hoping to check out, but you didn’t want to go alone.”
“Good, good,” I say before answering the phone on speaker. “Helllllo, sweet Cyrus.”
“Hey, bad news. Another dead couple. The wife is staked to the wall of the kitchen. A huge mess?—”
I quickly take that off speaker while the class stares at me in horror. I don’t even want to turn and see what Julian’s face looks like. “I… will be right there. Send me the address.”
And then we end the call.
“Well… this was fun,” I announce.
“A dead guy?” a woman asks.
“He says another,” Malcolm says. “Is there a serial killer?”
“Nope. Ha ha.” And then I hastily leave the room while Julian tries to take control of it. I grimace a little as I go.
When I reach the crime scene, it’s already quite busy. I climb onto the porch and step up to the door just as someone comes running for it. I hear them, but I don’t expect them to bust through it so hard it whips open, smashing me right in theface with enough force I hear bones break. How hard was he planning on throwing that door open that he’d break the nose of a damn vampire?
“Shit!” the young man yells before rushing over to the edge of the porch and proceeding to vomit over it.
“New guy. I think the scene caught him off guard,” Cyrus says as he exits the house and looks at me. “You’re bleeding all over the porch. Let me get you something.”
I touch my recently broken nose, but it’s already healed, so it really doesn’t matter. I let the door swing shut when Cyrus returns and starts wiping my face with a tissue, and even though I’m positive I could wipe my own face, I’m enjoying it far too much. He scrutinizes my face intently, even taking my chin in his hand and pointing my face this way and that.
“Turner. When you’re done there, we need to get this blood cleaned up here. Can you do that?” Cyrus asks. “We don’t want it contaminating the crime scene.”
Detective Turner slowly pushes himself off the railing. “Yes. I’m so sorry. I’ve just… I really apologize. I’ve never done that before.”
“It’s fine. We were all new once as well,” Cyrus says as he pulls me back. “You okay?”
“Yeah, fine.”
“Your shirt is all stained. It looks like a nice shirt. Some hydrogen peroxide should get that out.”
“I thought you were gone tonight?” I say, knowing it’s wrong to be pleased he isn’t when I’m sure the reason he can’t go is the dead couple inside. I don’tlovethe idea of him going off on his own with this shit going on.
“I was supposed to be but I got a call right before I left.”
“Oh… that’s good you hadn’t gotten on the road with your…friendyet,” I say, trying out the word to see if it fits.
“Right? It would have been a pain if we had.” He dabs at my shirt but at least he doesn’t correct me. “Ezio, make sure you spray something on this right when you get home.”
“I will. Thank you for cleaning me up.”
“It’s not a big deal,” he assures me. “I just didn’t want you getting blood all over my crime scene.”
“Is that the only reason?” I ask with an arch of my eyebrow.
