Once Bitten, No Longer Shy by Julie Steimle (to read list TXT) 📖

more. That thought made him cool down a bit, yet Nicole was whispering to him that Connor had killed her out of jealousy. That she loved him and she was so sorry for lying to him.

“Unless you do something crazy and bust out,” Deidre replied, hoping he wouldn’t.

“It’s well-played by the Order of Blood.” JJ thought out loud. “They targeted somebody you hated. Then they targeted someone you loved but lost your temper with. Who would they target next? Someone you hate?”

“Marcus?” Troy bit out, wondering where that creep was and hoping Tom gave him the worst time ever for what he had done to Nicole.

JJ snorted. “That won’t happen. He’s been arrested. He’ll go down for the crimes he has committed. You can count on that.”

“Arrested? That fast?”

JJ nodded. “Yeah. There was plenty of evidence.”

Nodding, Troy drew in a breath, then shook his head. “Then no one.”

“What about your friend?” Nicole’s breath whispered as her cold ghostly hands touching his chest. They stroked down his shirt front like they used to. Only… she was now dead and this was a cold shadow of her he was feeling.

“Bobo has nothing to worry from vampires,” Troy replied.

JJ nodded, though with raised eyebrows that Troy could hear her and was responding to her. Troy could not hear Brandon grumbling in the corner, nor could he see Nicole’s ghostly tears as she clung to him, stroking his face, trying to get his attention. Deidre was trying not to watch.

“No,” Nicole whispered to him, kissing Troy’s lips. “Your other friend. The cop who can hear lies. Matthew.”

Deidre rose. “What about Matthew?”

The ghost voice whispered, “He can find out the truth just listening to Connor talk, can’t he?”

Jumping to the door as if on fire, JJ quickly gestured to the police escort to stay with Deidre. “Stay here!” he said to her and Troy. “Get pictures of our ghosts. But don’t follow me!”

He ran out of there, quickly rushing to his vehicle, making calls.

Deidre sat back with Troy, looking to him. Her hands were trembling. She shook her head. “Stay here?”

“He doesn’t want you hurt.” Troy reached out for her hand, nodding to her. “We both have to wait.”

He could feel a shiver run down his skin again, reaching into his shirt.

“Would you cut that out?” Deidre snapped at Nicole’s ghost who apparently had climbed onto Troy’s lap. She then looked to Troy, “You’re her fixation, Troy. I’m so sorry.”

“Fixation?” Troy wiped his eyes again, feeling the cold hands rub along his stomach the way Nicole used to when she took off his shirt, trying to get him excited. His own shirt was still on. It was as exciting as a wash of cold water dumped down his front.

“I want you,” Nicole whispered, as if her ghostly cheek was pressed against his.

His legs felt like ice was resting on them. Unfortunately he could not grasp ghost to get her off his lap. He looked to Deidre, his eyes begging for help. She nodded then grasped Nicole by the hair, yanking her off.

“OW!”

“You are dead, Nicole. You’re just making him cold.”

Troy wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry, Nicole.”

He could hear her ghost sigh. “I’m sorry too. I just miss you.”

*

So stupid. JJ texted Matthew once more, hoping he would get the text before it was too late. But JJ also texted Rick to possibly foot some bail money for Troy and send a lawyer, and he contacted Jessica a second time. The first time was when Brandon had been killed, relating all the evidence and his concerns. But now it had gotten serious. He could not handle it as he had initially told them. Not without real backup.

His biggest concern as he had been with Brandon was how Connor had gotten around Matthew’s ability to detect lies. He went to Connor’s apartment first. He wasn’t home. His one roommate said he had gone off with a cop, but he did not know where. So JJ went to Joshua Miller’s apartment next.

He knocked, glancing to the lowering sun in the sky. It was getting late and the last thing he needed was for Matthew to be walking around without backup at the nighttime with a vampire sympathizer.

“Yeah?” Joshua took one look at JJ and rolled his eyes. “Oh, you. Look. Like I said to the other guy, the obvious culprit is the one you are protecting—”

“Do you know where your friend Connor is? Connor Davis?” JJ peered in at the room behind him, wondering if Joshua would hide him. He didn’t like the feel of this guy any more than Brandon. Brandon’s ghost was muttering over what a jackass Joshua was.

“No,” Joshua said, pulling his coat a little closer around his skin, glancing to the thermostat to see if the AC was on. “Have you tried his apartment?”

“Look, I don’t have time for this,” JJ said, shaking his head. “Remember at the meeting when I said I could see ghosts?”

Joshua’s eyes went wide. He pulled back, almost retreating into the apartment. JJ prevented him from shutting the door, stepping in.

“Your friend Brandon has just told me that Connor was the one who killed him.” JJ then looked around Joshua’s apartment, which was dark. “So if you’re harboring him—”

“No!” Joshua yelped. “I swear I’m not! Are you kidding me? I have been trying to ditch the guy, and he has been stalking me! He keeps saying crazy things like he wants to see what my blood tastes like!”

“Why didn’t you tell the police that?” JJ felt his insides broil. Here was his evidence, right here.

“Because you can’t trust the cops!” Joshua shot back.

JJ gave him such a dirty look. So did Brandon’s ghost.

“You obstructed justice by withholding what you knew,” JJ growled out. “Now Nicole Collins is dead—killed by the same guy.”

“How do you know it wasn’t her vampire lover?” Joshua shot back, snarling.

Moaning, JJ said again, “I don’t have time for this. Where do you think Connor will be? Where do you think he would lead Officer Calamori?”

That man Joshua snorted, saying with air quotes, “The ‘mind reader’? Anywhere Connor wants. The guy knows how to fool the cop.”

“How?” JJ stiffened, hand near his gun. He had a bad feeling in that place. Joshua wasn’t any more a paragon of virtue than Connor or Brandon. There was a feel of dirtiness in that apartment.

Brandon hissed, “Josh is a total addict. He sells too, you know.”

JJ listened.

Joshua said with shivers as Brandon got closer to him, glaring, “It is a mental game. Dual think. We use euphemisms, like ‘parted ways’ to mean death. Or ‘rearrange’ to mean beat up. Or ‘laid up’ to mean spend a night with a hot chick. He practiced so much that he thinks in those words. Nicole actually found out about his game and made fun of him, calling his—”

“I’ve heard,” JJ cut him off. “Where would Connor take Officer Calamori? If you don’t tell me, I will hold you as an accomplice.”

The guy paled. “You can’t do that.”

Grabbing him, JJ hissed, “We’re dealing with supernatural murder here—vampires. Rules get bent in this case. Where would he take my friend Matthew?”

Shaking, Joshua said, “I don’t know. I just know he hates the guy.”

“Damn!” JJ let him go. This was bad news. He got on his phone, heading out the door.

Brandon followed a pace then lingered, kicking at Joshua before trailing after JJ.

“Hey, Tom,” JJ said into his phone the second it picked up. “Matt is not picking up his phone. He’s with the killer. He needs backup now.”

<< Slow down. What Killer? Give me a name. I can stall until we can get there. >>

“Connor Davis. And I think he is with a vampire.”

<< It’s still daylight, >> Tom said.

“Then I think he is leading him to one,” JJ said.

Death’s Door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

 

Matthew did not like how Connor spoke. There was something so euphemistically false about his manner of talking that rubbed him entirely the wrong way. Matthew did not know what exactly it was. But it was like an itch… or a mosquito buzzing too close to his ear.

“Yeah, I didn’t really think Troy killed Brandon,” Connor said, shaking his head while leading Matthew into a rougher neighborhood filled with rundown brownstone buildings. Matthew looked around, thinking it really wasn’t that much different from his own neighborhood, though he at least felt safe in his block. Here he had shivers going up and down his skin, what his friend Tom Brown would call ‘imps dancing on your back just to freak you out’—which Tom knew intimately. But what Connor had said was true, so what reason did he have to be worried? Connor didn’t think Troy had killed Brandon, though his brain also said he had thought it a possibility—that being nearly vampire made it a logical conclusion. And Connor verified it when he said, “He hated Brandon though. Your friend Troy almost broke his arm.”

Also factually truthful, though those shivers continued throughout Matthew… almost like his imps were screaming: ‘For the love of Tom, get out of there. Go back to the precinct. Connor is a creep’.

Most unhelpful. He had to solve this case, for the love of Troy.

The only reason they were walking was that they had left Matthew’s car at the nearest parking garage, as parking was impossible in that area also. It reminded Matthew of the night Troy had become like a vampire. It was nearly the same kind of place too. And the sun was getting low already. A bad deal. Maybe he should go back to the precinct.

“And you thought you saw this guy dump Nicole’s body on the road?” Matthew said, getting tired as it was oddly difficult to keep up with Connor who seemed to have manic energy over this. When he had tracked Connor down—which had taken all day—his feet were already killing him. Connor was exasperating besides. He was drunk when he had found him, supposedly mourning over Nicole. “Why didn’t you contact the police?”

With his own exasperation as they continued down the road under an old derelict train overpass, Connor said, “Somebody was already talking to the police. And the deed was done. What really could I have done? Besides, I thought it was more important to follow this guy. Get evidence, you know.” But his mind said, “I saw a woman scream and make the call. The police were coming. It was important that I follow the vampire.”

Matthew cringed. Human thoughts were usually more eloquent than their spoken words. Connor’s mind felt so unnatural. “That was a dangerous thing to do. Do have any idea how dangerous that was?”

Connor shrugged. But then he asked as they walked on, “How many vampires have you dealt with?” His thoughts were just as curious, no deviation at all. Creepily succinct.

Moaning, Matthew replied, not wanting to elaborate. “Enough of them.”

But Connor halted on the sidewalk. “No. Really. How many vampires have you met? Do you know a lot?” His shadow seemed to deepen as the sun started to make the sky a little red.

It was irritating, this guy’s obsession. Matthew could see it now. Connor was absolutely fixated on vampires and vampirism. He loved the romantic notion of their power and hedonistic lifestyle. It was not healthy. He also