A Mate Worse Than Death by J.L. Ray Read Free Book Online

gingerly as he stuck out his tongue and tried to identify it.
    Tony raised one brow. “It’s a saying, Cal. It’s just a saying. You don’t have an actual sweet tooth.”
    “Really? Oh man,” he turned and started walking again. “Berthell keeps threatening to pull it out if I don’t watch what I eat!”
    Tony smirked, “I love Berthell.”
    They arrived at the alley where Lilith’s body had been found. Two different uniformed officers were working this shift, both of them familiar with Cal and Tony, so they were waved through the barrier. The detectives paced down the alley slowly, looking down and around.
    “That was a fairly quick walk from Monster-Mate’s offices,” Cal commented with obviously studied casualness.
    “Uh huh,” Tony agreed equally casually. She added, “It’s near a lot of other things as well, like the cupcake shop, three of our favorite restaurants, the National Portrait Gallery, and ooh, the Spy Museum! Maybe Lilith was a spy!” She heard Cal’s wind up and ducked the headsmack. “Hey, that one could have actually hurt! Watch it.” She turned back to her scan of the floor of the alley.
    “Something’s off here,” Cal growled.
    “What do you see?”
    “Nothing.”
    Silence.
    “Okay, Cal, you win the mysterious award. Nothing as in....?”
    “It’s an alley, Tony. What do we see in alleys?” Cal pointed at her.
    She held up one hand and started counting off, “Okay, I’ll play. In an alley we see--garbage, garbage cans, rats, broken glass like the stuff that cut up Lilith’s feet...” she stopped adding and looked around. “Uh, no glass.”
    “That’s weird.”
    “You’re right, Cal. That’s weird. But what does it mean?”
    “That pretty little demon really did a number on your brain.”
    Silence. Flared nostril silence.
    “Okay, Tony. Hell if I know what it means. I just know it’s weird.”
    “Okay. It’s not much so far, but I’m surprised the Lieutenant hasn’t called us yet. We better go report.”
    Cal grimaced, “This is gonna suck.”
    “Understatement. From you. Makes for a nice change, Cal.”
     
    Now that they had the victim’s identity, Cal and Tony could start delving into her background, try to see if they could find some lead on who might have killed her. Neither partner wanted to even say the word vampire in a report, but when they arrived at the station, Lt. Azeem took care of that for them.
    “I want to know,” he growled at them, literally growled that is, since it’s hard to talk without a growl for a Sphinx, “why the first I know about the possible reemergence of vampires on this plane of existence comes from Dr. Caligari teasing me about bloodsuckers on my watch instead of from my lead detectives.” As he spoke, his mane fluffed out a little, letting the two detectives know that the shit really was likely to hit the fan if answers weren’t forthcoming.
    Cal shot an answer before Tony could even start, “Because we were pursuing a hot lead on the vic’s id and we just got back and were on our way to give you a verbal, sir,” and he all but clicked his size 22 heels as he finished.
    Tony turned what had been a despairing shake of her head over Cal’s ability to lie to a vehement nod of agreement when Lt. Azeem turned his eyes on her. She didn’t have trouble with most Beings, but the Lieutenant certainly had a way with a reprimand. She had a high level of respect for his temper. He got very loudly quiet in that mode, like the end of the world had already happened and who mever he was reprimanding just hadn’t quite figured that out yet.
    “Sir, we have confirmation from both our chief coroner and the GOOEN squad that the victim, whom we have identified as one Lilith, a high, dark fae, was killed by a vampire attack.” She stopped, not quite sure how to go on. Especially when Lt.Azeem’s haunches suddenly slumped down to the floor and he started blinking back tears, his tail dropping hard to the floor.
    “Sir, did you