“What was the eyebrow for?” Adrian asked, turning towards her as they waited for the valet to bring their vehicle.

“Not now,” she kept her voice low. A few minutes later, their truck pulled up to the curb. Teague helped her into the vehicle, while Adrian tipped the valet and jumped in the driver seat, quickly pulling off.

“What’s up?” Adrian said.

“First off, thank you for leaving me all alone!” She slapped both of them on the back of their heads.

“What did we do this time?” Teague yelled, acting as if he was actually hurt. “You’re always complaining that we are too overbearing! Sheesh!” he said shaking his head. “I will never understand a female’s brain!”

“It’s not for you to understand!” Her brothers became serious as she proceeded to describe what she witnessed.

“Shit, we’re going to have to let Nicu know,” Adrian said, turning down the street that led to the Olaru mansion.

“I thought you guys said I could stay with you?” she asked, as they drove closer to their home.

“Shit’s changed. We don’t know what killed that guy. That was not a rogue,” Teague said, texting on his phone. “Nicu is home. He was just about to leave. He said he will wait for us.”

Adrian quickly pulled into the long narrow driveway leading to the Olaru mansion. The extravagant stone mansion had been in their family for centuries. The house was set back away from the main road, sitting on ten acres of immaculate landscaped land. Adrian pulled into the garage. Nadira hurriedly jumped out of the truck, going straight into the house, heading towards Nicu’s office.

She pushed open the door finding her eldest brother leaning against his massive desk. Aside from his personal quarters in the home, this was his domain. This was where the eldest Olaru offspring ran the Dark Shadows. Nicu stood up straight, his massive size and intimidating glare always demanding respect. As the head of the Dark Shadows, Nicu was not a vampire that you would want to cross. He, Adrian, and Toma took after their father, Vladimir, with their midnight black hair and olive skin tone. All of the Olaru offspring had the same ice blue eyes inherited from their mother. As the eldest brother, he was the most protective of Nadira. If he had his way, she would never date and would have a guard glued to her hip at all times.

“What happened tonight?” His piercing dark gaze locked on Adrian.

“Not quite sure. We took Nadira to that new club so she could hunt. She found a donor and the next thing we know, we heard screaming and a commotion outside the club. We found Nadira in the middle of the action,” Adrian reported, Nicu’s gaze whipped around to her.

Way to throw her under the bus!

“I don’t know more than you,” she shrugged her shoulders. “I heard the scream and ran to the front of the building. The guy was already dead, lying face down.”

“Hold that thought. We’re going to talk about why you were behind the building in a minute,” Nicu’s deep voice rumbled as he held up his hand, throwing daggers with his eyes at her other brothers. “But first, what did you see?”

“There was no heartbeat when I got to him. When the paramedics arrived and turned him over, there wasn’t a scratch on him. No blood, no bite marks not even a little cut,” she said, looking around the room.

“He was just dead,” Nicu stated. She nodded her head.

“Adrian, I want you, Viktor, and Ronin to see what you can find out. Go back to the club; I’m sure some patrons are still there talking about it. See what they know. Get in their heads if you have to.” He turned is gaze to Teague. “I want you to see what you can find out on the internet. See what the police have been up to.”

“No problem,” Teague said before heading out of the office, with Adrian behind him. Teague had been known to crack into a database or two on the internet. He had a wicked way with computers and it would take him no time to get into the local police department’s website.

“Now, what were you doing behind the club?”

* * *

“Something out there is killing people on my streets and I want to know who the fuck is doing it!” Captain Lou Newton screeched in front of the room. Captain Newton was a large African American man with salt and pepper hair. No one wanted to get on his bad side and currently everyone in the room was on his shit list. When the vein in the middle of his forehead popped out, it was never a good sign.

This morning’s huddle was not going well. Each morning, members of the Cleveland Police Department got together before leaving the precinct. The meeting was to discuss current cases, any updates and any leads that teams may need help with. This morning’s meeting turned into a screaming session for the captain.

On the television screen behind the captain, morgue shots of the victims that Sam and Cooper were currently working on were displayed.

“How is it that we have four John Does sitting in the morgue right now with no cause of death, no suspects, and no leads?” Captain Newton continued to rant. Cooper cringed on the inside as the captain’s glare turned to him and Sam. “Not even a witness to see how their bodies got to where they were found!”

“We don’t have much to go on,” Cooper said. “There were no defensive wounds, no DNA, no nothing! It’s like these guys just fell over dead,” he looked around the room.

“Any drugs in their system. Are we sure these aren’t overdoses?” Detective Hackman asked from the back of the room.

“Dan said that was the first thing he thought. All the tox screens are coming back negative,” Cooper responded. Dr. Daniel Bevins was stumped again when he spoke to Cooper this morning. He was not able to come up with why these guys were dead.

“We’ve run their prints and none of them have ever been fingerprinted. We’ve checked all systems and nothing!” Sam spoke up from beside Cooper.

“The only weird thing that is coming back is that they are all missing blood,” Cooper announced.

“But, I thought you said none of them had wounds?” Detective Brynn Reagan asked from the back of the room.

“When Dan did the autopsy, either they were missing about half their blood supply or all.” Sam said.

A few curses escaped around the room. “What does Dan think?” Detective Logan Archer inquired from his side of the room.

“He’s just as baffled as we are,” Cooper replied, leaning back in his chair.

“Well, we need to get a lead soon! The media is circling and there is only so much I can do!” Captain Newton stated. “I need answers, people! You’re dismissed!” He stomped out of the room. A few people immediately left the room after the captain, while some stayed chatting.

“Cooper, you guys need help with anything?” Hackman asked.

“We need a miracle. Dan thinks he’s going to have to rule these as natural causes soon. His boss is demanding that he pronounce and release the bodies.” Cooper said.

“Well, let us know if you need us,” Reagan offers as she walked away. She glanced back, winking at Cooper before following her partner out of the room.

“What was that about?” Sam asked as they left the room, walking down to the bullpen

“I have no idea,” he answered, shaking his head.

Cooper knew that Brynn Reagan had the hots for him. She had not been too subtle with her attraction to him. He refused to get involved with a fellow officer at the same precinct. He tried to keep everything business oriented when around her.

They both sat at their desks, checking and responding to emails. Cooper’s phone on his desk rang.

“Homicide, Detective Cooper. Can I help you?” he answered, holding the phone on his shoulder as he continued to go through his emails.

No one answered. Deep strangled breathing came across the line. “Hello?” he said again, stopping what he was doing. Sam looked up from his computer, glancing at Cooper from across their desk.

“They are coming.” A deep scratchy voice came over the line. Cooper instantly hit his record button on the phone, snapping his fingers to grab Sam’s attention again.

“Excuse me?” he asked, trying to get the person to say more. Sam paused what he was doing to pay attention.

“They… are… coming…” The deep voice was breathless.

“Who is coming?” he asked.

“This… is… the… beginning…” The voice faded away as the line went dead.

“Shit!” Cooper yelled, slamming down the phone. Several people stopped what they were doing to glance over at Cooper.

“What the hell was that?” Sam asked.

“Hell if I know!” Cooper shared with Sam what the voice said.

“So it just said ‘they are coming’ and ‘this is the beginning’?” Sam asked. “You think this has to do with our case?”

“I’m sure it does! But who the hell are coming?” They both got up, Sam following Cooper.

“Where are we heading?” Sam inquired.

“Down to the tech room so that I can hear the call again.” Cooper said, taking the stairs down to the basement where tech support was housed.

“Nate!” Cooper called out, barging in the technical support room, finding Nathaniel Duggins glued to his bank of computers.

“What’s up, Cooper?” Nate asked, not looking up from his computer screen.

“I need you to replay a call for us.” Cooper and Sam pulled up chairs on each side of Nate.

“Sure.” Nate’s fingers flew across his keyboard. A few seconds later, the media player on the screen replayed the phone call.

“That’s some creepy shit!” Sam exclaimed, sitting back.

“I know!” Cooper agreed. He didn’t know what the hell to make of it. Why did the caller decide to contact him? This didn’t sit right with him. How did the person know to contact him and got past the switchboard?

“Can you trace it?” Sam asked Nate.

“Let me see. Not sure if the call was long enough, but let me see if it will give us a general range of where it came from.” Nate typed a few more commands. “Looks like a payphone over on the East Side.”

“Payphones? There are still payphones around?” Sam asked chuckling.

“Believe it or not, yes.” Nate replied laughing. “Here we go — an address for you. Looks like the call came from the corner of Fifty-Fifth and Chester.”

“Don’t delete that, log that as evidence in the John Doe cases that we’re working on.” Cooper instructed Nate as he and Sam left the tech room.

“Well, this is our first break!” Sam declared as they jogged out of the precinct to their car.

“Not much of a break, but I’ll take it!”