A Mate Worse Than Death

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

Book: A Mate Worse Than Death by J.L. Ray Read Free Book Online
Authors: J.L. Ray
know the victim?” Cal asked.
    “We, uh, we dated. A long, long time ago.”
    After he didn’t elaborate, Tony gently asked, “Long ago meaning circa....?”
    He looked over at her and smiled ruefully, “Long ago meaning Old Kingdom, Egypt. I was there, helping out a friend. You may be familiar with a little something the Pharaoh put up in my honor there, later. And no, I didn’t even know Lilith was in D.C. I thought she had a place in Persia. I mean Iran.” He shook his mane, “She must have moved since the Great Change. There is still a hard pocket of resistance to the current magical status quo of Mundania in some parts of the world, and that area is one of them. I guess she must have moved to the States at some point.” His amazingly long tongue flicked up to groom the tears off of his cheeks, and he shook his head. “It’s been quite a while since we even talked. I wish she had called me.” He stood again, so large that even sitting he had towered over Tony’s 5 foot 8 inch frame. “So how did you identify her?”
    Cal cleared his throat and winced as he told his boss, “She had a profile on the Mageline dating service for Supers.”
    “Monster-Mate?” the Lieutenant asked, and Cal and Tony shot each other a look.
    “Yeah, boss,” Cal admitted, waiting for the eruption. Instead he got a soft purr.
    “Well at least she had the guts to get out there and keep trying,” Lt. Azeem shook his head. “Look, pick this up tomorrow. In the morning, I’ll give you some more names to look into. We should hold off on notification of her friends until you question potential suspects. She had no next of kin, and if she was going to the singles service, I have to assume no mate.” His lips tightened as he added, his normal growl even deeper, “I want to find what did this. If it really is a vampire...” he shook his head and trailed off without finishing.
    Somehow, they were both relieved to go home to bed without hearing the end of that sentence, especially Tony. This was not the vacation day she had hoped to have--dead high fae, potential vampire kill, the first in over 80 years according to the records, her Lieutenant upset over a dead former lover, and to top it off, a grinning demon in an uber haute couture suit who seemed to be able to give her instant brain freeze every time he opened his mouth. She tried to put the thought of that mouth and all it might be able to do right out of her head when she got home, but her subconscious betrayed her. She dreamed of purple and black and tempting, warm lips whispering in her ear.
     
    The next day Lt. Azeem was waiting for Cal and Tony by their desks. He caught Tony first as she came in the door at 7 a.m. He gestured her over and waved one large paw at a stack of paper on her desk, his mane ruffed out enough to signal to those who knew his moods that he was excited.
    “I have some information here that won’t be on any server you can check. I printed out some of the local contact information you’ll need, and I also pulled some of Lilith’s prior residences and names of potential interested parties.”
    Tony swallowed and carefully asked her question, “Former partners?”
    The Lieutenant coughed out a leonine laugh, “You mean former lovers? Sure. Also, some past enemies.”
    Tony nodded, trying to be totally sophisticated about the idea of her Lieutenant and some random fae, but it was too much like picturing her parents. Urgh. So she focused on looking at individual papers. “Uh, boss?” she asked,”Some of these are long distance.”
    “Yes?”
    “No, I mean, like, really long distance,” she said.
    “Yes?”
    “So I have permission for contact between planes of existence?” she almost whispered at the idea of such access.
    “Cal has permission. They won’t answer you.”
    “They?”
    “The Beings to question in Fairie. Hand those off to Cal, for now. Maybe you can go another time,” and the Lieutenant all but patted her on the head while

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