Chapter Sixteen
“I was wondering when you were coming home. It’s almost dawn,” Derrick called as David opened the front door to the mansion. “You should be careful, Meaghan might—”
“See me coming in?” David finished the sentence and watched his brother’s mouth drop open in surprise as he entered the lounge room, holding Meaghan’s hand. He felt the familiar tug as his brother attempted to connect with him telepathically. “It’s all right, Derrick. Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it out loud. Meaghan knows what we are.”
“Are you out of your bloody mind?” Derrick cursed. His shoulders drew back, extending his chest and his eyes glowed with anger.
“Don’t hold back,” David answered but he also used their mental connection to warn his brother that he should choose his next words carefully if he wanted to avoid a fight.
Derrick shook his head. “For all we know, she could be the killer.”
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black isn’t it?” Meaghan reminded him. “I, for one, have never killed anyone. Can you honestly say the same?”
“She got you there.” Anna walked into the room carrying a tray of wine glasses and a decanter. “Would you like a glass Meaghan?”
Meaghan stared suspiciously at the decanter and then at David who fell back onto the sofa with a chuckle. When he regained composure he informed her, “Its wine, kitten. A crimson cabernet if I know Anna.”
“Alcohol? I thought that vampires drank…” Her cheeks paled as she said, “…blood.”
“We do, but that can become a bit boring and I do enjoy a glass of the other red. You two look very relaxed.” Anna noticed as she handed Meaghan a glass of cabernet. A sly, knowing grin spread her mouth. “What have you two been up too?”
“We’ve been learning a lot about each other.” David answered her as he turned his head slightly to wink at Meaghan. “There is more to my little student than meets the eye. For example, I’ve discovered that Meaghan is able to astral travel.”
“Wow, really? I would love to be able to do that,” Anna confessed as she grabbed Meaghan’s good hand and dragged her over to a seat on the couch. She began to question her about her abilities. “How do you do it? Could you teach me? Can you do anything else?”
“You must excuse my wife…” Derrick interrupted. “She’s recently discovered that she is a witch and, being an impatient little firecracker, she’s trying to learn all she can in the shortest possible time.” He smiled at Anna who screwed up her face and poked out her tongue in response to his teasing. “What I would like to know is, if you’re not the killer, what is your interest in the murders? Why do you seem to turn up at the crime scenes?”
Meaghan turned to David who nodded his head in agreement to her decision to share her story. It occurred to him that he hadn’t fully questioned her on her reasons for stalking him at the university. Later never came. But he did. Multiple times.
“I’m an undercover cop, sent to the University to locate and identify suspicious characters. My ability to astral travel ensures my safety while giving me freedom to explore the campus at night. I was the only officer at my precinct with artistic interests so I was pretty much the only choice they had.”
Anna shrugged her shoulders. “Seems like a reasonable alibi to me, although I think that you’re underestimating your artistic abilities. David tells me that you’re a really talented artist. You do have a cherubic face, which I imagine would help you blend in with the younger crowds.”
“How old are you anyway?” Derrick interrupted. “You seem a bit young to be a cop.”
“I’m twenty-five.”
“Excuse my suspicious husband.” The corner of her Anna’s mouth turned up as she made an observation. “I think it’s great that you’re twenty-five and can pass for eighteen, although, today you seem to have swapped your usual braids and heavy glasses for the bed tussled look. It suits you.” She turned to David and added, “It suits both of you.”
David grinned but Meaghan blushed and downed half her glass of wine in one gulp so he rose from his seat across the room and shooed Anna away, taking her place on the couch. “Go and sit with your husband and tease him instead.”
He leaned in close to Meaghan, whispering in her ear, “Teasing you is my job, kitten.” His thoughts raced with ideas of how he could torment her with images of naked bodies and warm flesh, until he felt the annoying probing in his mind and turned his attention back to his brother.
“All right, all right. Back to the murders. Meaghan tells me that she was encouraged by her superior to accept our scholarship in order to keep an eye on my movements. Obviously, I’m no longer under suspicion due to my untimely death.”
“My boss believes that David proved his guilt by attacking the security guard.” She turned to David who was about to profess his innocence. “The security guard believed you were about to attack him. Anyway, Terry has closed the case and nothing I said would convince him otherwise. He’s withdrawn the extra guards and left the campus relatively unsecured with only the usual skeleton staff.”
Derrick pinched his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “This complicates things,” he thought out loud. “If the killer is smart, he or she, will use David’s death to their advantage and begin taking the bodies away to avoid suspicion.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than you realize,” Meaghan informed him. “We’re not dealing with a single killer. There’s a whole group of people involved in the murders.”
“You saw them?” David cupped her face in his hand and stared into her eyes. What if she’d been caught? “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Meaghan frowned and tilted her head slightly into his palm as she reminded him, “I tried to tell you about it last night but you insisted it could wait until later.” She smiled and kissed his palm.
“Why on earth would you prevent her from telling you something as important as that David?” Derrick barked at him.
“Maybe I had more important issues of my own … did you think of that little brother? I seem to remember you recently allowing your hormones to control your better judgement.”
“Oh.” Derrick stumbled over his apology. “Oh, well. Yes, I understand your predicament.” He glanced quickly to his wife, then at his feet.
Meaghan closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. Anna saw her discomfort and reminded the brothers of the importance of Meaghan’s previous statement. “Meaghan, how do you know there’s more than one killer?”
Meaghan opened her eyes and directed her story to Anna. “Last night, I was invited to a party at the campus. Of course I declined.” She gazed up at David. Her soft, pale blue eyes sensually framed by the longest lashes he’d ever seen. It took all of his concentration to focus on her story as she continued. “Considering David’s…” She used air bunnies to make her point. “…Death. I thought the party was in bad taste. Then, it occurred to me that the rave was a perfect place for the killer to find a new victim. I was right, although I wish now that I hadn’t gone.”
“Are you telling me that you saw the murder take place?”
Meaghan nodded between sips of wine. “Unfortunately, yes. It was heartbreaking. The poor woman begged for her life as her throat was cut by a hooded figure. The rest of the group were chanting and having sex as if the whole murder slash ceremony was somehow turning them on. It was disgusting to watch them take pleasure in her death.” She shook her head. “The poor woman looked terrified. There was nothing I could do to help. I’ve never felt so helpless.”
David took her shaking hand in his. “There was nothing you could have done. Even if you’d been corporeal, you couldn’t have survived a group of killers on your own.”
“He’s right, Meaghan. I’ve been in your shoes. I know how it feels to be powerless to help. My best friend was taken by a rogue vampire who not only fed on her but also shared her with his minions. By the time I located her, she was barely alive.”
“How awful.” Meaghan sat forward on her seat and reached for Anna’s hand. “Did she…”
Anna shook her head. “She’s alive but she’s changed. When I first met her she was outgoing, trusting, and vivacious. Since the attack, she’s terrified to leave her home. I’m trying to convince her to move in with us but I’m afraid she’s even wary of me now that I’ve become … well, you know.”
Derrick put his arm around her his wife’s shoulders. “We’ll find a way to help her get back on her feet, mon amour. She’ll get through this.” He turned his attention back to Meaghan. “How many would you say were part of the group?”
“Eight people plus…” Meaghan shrugged her shoulders. “…I don’t know how else to describe the thing I saw except that it looked like a demon.”
“Derrick, you know what this means.” David squeezed Meaghan’s hand protectively as he came to terms with what she had just revealed. Derrick nodded his understanding of the situation but Anna and Meaghan looked confused.
“Are you guys going to fill us in on what you are talking about?”
“Devil worshippers,” the brothers announced in unison.
“I thought you said they were witches?” Anna argued as she turned to her husband. “I thought Devil worshipping was an urban legend. I’ve read about cults but I didn’t think they could actually conjure anything. Don’t they just—”
“Listen,” Meaghan interrupted. “I don’t have a clue about witches or covens and I am only just beginning to come to term with the idea of vampires. Now you tell me that there are real devil worshippers on campus? What the hell is that about?”
Anna shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m only new to being a vampire and still learning how to be a witch. This is the first I’ve heard about demons.”
Meaghan wiggled her hand free from David’s grip. She held out her empty wine glass and asked, “Would you mind? I think I need a little more liquid courage. This has been a very strange night.”
Anna filled the glass and poured herself another while Meaghan addressed her question to David.
“Let me get this straight … the killers are actually sacrificing the victims to the Devil?”
“The sacrifices are usually made to a lesser demon, one who wishes to return to live on earth in corporeal form.”
“Why would anyone in their right mind bring a demon into this world?”
“Usually for greed or personal gain,” David answered without hesitation. “The worshippers offer a sacrifice in exchange for wealth, happiness, power, and sometimes for unreciprocated love.”
“How do they choose the sacrifice? I noticed that three of the victims were women while only one was male. Does it make a difference?”
Both the brothers cleared their throats. David chose to answer.
“The blood of a virgin is usually the key to sacrificial spell. I guess their previous choices weren’t as pure as they would have liked but I’m sure they’ll keep trying until they find one.”
Meaghan swallowed. She leaned close to David and whispered into his ear. “I think you may have saved my life.”
He smiled and whispered back. “It’s only fair, kitten. By coming into my life, you saved mine.”
Meaghan turned back to the others. “If I hadn’t seen the sacrifice myself, I’d say you were pulling my leg. This is the twenty first century.”
“Look, I’m not saying that all of this is real…” David rationalized. “But obviously the people holding these orgies believe in what they are doing. They’ve probably taken parts out of the Malleus Maleficurum and bits out of horror movies, hoping that they’d get it right.”
“Malleus Maleficurum?”
“The Hammer of the witches,” Anna answered. “A book written in fourteen eighty-six as a manual for finding and persecuting witches. It makes me shudder to think about all the white witches and innocent people rounded up and killed in the name of religion.”
“Well the instructions in the manual must have been helpful in some way or they must have done something right because I saw something … something big that was mightily pissed off when the blood wasn’t the type it wanted.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Anna scratched her head. “The Malleus Maleficurum is not an instruction manual for witches, it’s a manual for witch hunters. If they were able to conjure a demon, they must have found instruction from somewhere else.”
“Unless”—David quickly rose from his seat and hurried to a large teak bookshelf. He searched for and found an old book which he held up for the others to see—“they wrote a curse or spell.”
“Is that book about Devil worship?” Meaghan asked, unfamiliar with the title but impressed by the heavily jeweled leather binding.
“Not exactly,” David answered as he sat beside her and thumbed through the pages for an example, “but it gives examples of ancient curses that call upon demons to help them blight their enemies.”
“Curses? Not sure I like the idea of an instruction book for cursing but at least the binding is nice. What type of leather is that?” Meaghan took a sip of wine.
David grimaced, knowing that his answer wouldn’t go over well. “The binding is human skin, kitten and the paper is vellum.”
Meaghan chocked on her wine, coughing into her hand. “Human binding and calf skin paper? Are you pulling my leg?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Thumbing through the pages, David found one that made his point and he handed the book to Meaghan. “The Mesopotamians believed in daemons or as we call them, demons and believed that they could be conjured to help vanquish enemies or to fulfil curses. Modern worshippers seem to believe that they also grant wishes.”
Meaghan read the text. “This spell comes with a translation. Is it for real?”
“The person who paid good money to the mage for that spell certainly thought it was.”
“But you think it is a bunch of hokum?”
“Oh don’t get me wrong, evil does exist. I’m just not sure that these people have any real idea of what they are doing. Demons have a way of using stupid people; they actually enjoy playing a game of deceit. This coven or whatever the hell they are … pardon the pun, will never get what they desire or if they do, it will be short lived. Demons don’t play by the rules. It will expect its pound of flesh.”
Meaghan’s face paled. She looked into David’s eyes. “How do you know all this David?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt but I do believe it’s time we retired,” Derrick announced as he took his wife’s hand and helped her rise to her feet.
****
Before Meaghan had a chance to argue that there was no point in going to bed because it was already morning, she realized the significance of Derrick’s statement. The reality finally struck her like a slap. She’d spent the night drinking expensive red wine and discussing the case with three vampires. The whole situation seemed so unreal but then again, so did the murders on campus. David’s proximity didn’t help her think clearly either. Whenever he was around, her mind seemed to vacate the premises. All she could think of was his touch on her skin. She knew she was falling in love. No. Not falling. She loved him. But could she really trust him? Even if he was the genuine and considerate man slash vampire he seemed to be, what future could she expect with him? She would be destined to grow old and die while he stayed eternally beautiful and ageless.
“A penny for your thoughts.”
“What?” Meaghan asked as she turned to face David.
“You spaced out for a few minutes. Anna and Derrick have gone upstairs and I thought we should retire to the studio before I combust.”
“Oh, my god. Is that likely to happen in here?”
David laughed. “Not in here, kitten but I would have major sunburn problems if I tried to walk you back to your cottage.”
“As much as I’d love to join you downstairs, I don’t expect that either of us would get any sleep and you look dead tired, so I think that I should go back to my place.”
David pulled her against him and held her tight. “That jibe about looking ‘dead’ tired didn’t go unnoticed. I may have to put you over my knee.”
“Assaulting a police officer is a criminal offense, Mr. Corel, and that would be your second crime.” She held up her cast to remind him. “Besides, I know your naughty mind and I need a few hours alone to recuperate.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” David informed her with a twinkle in his eye that alluded to more mischief. “I will allow you to go this time, but after your nap, I intend to collect on that promise of posing nude for me.”
Meaghan swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded agreement. Despite their earlier intimacy, she still felt self-conscious about posing for him but she knew he would be relentless in his request. Better to have done with it. Besides, by the time he woke up, she would already be back on campus. There was something she had to discuss with Lilith.