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After Ten years Rae is called back to L.A after a series of murders comes to light. |
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Chapter Two Ten years later I stared down at the lilies I laid across the marble headstone. I picked her a beautiful place under a tree offering protection from the blistering sun and the freezing rain. There was no rain today but it was over cast and gray just the same. The heavens thundered loudly matching the equally powerful pain still in my heart. If only I could go back to that day and do something, anything to stop her from leaving my apartment. If only I had known the girl in my vision wasn't the one in the file in front of me all those years ago but of Analise. What freaking good was being a seer if so-called seer couldn't make sense of her visions until it was too late? “I miss you.” I whispered. My rock gone snuffed out in a moment of violence ten years ago but the pain, the pain made it feel like yesterday. A single tear slipped from my eye and slid down my cheek. Then only comfort was that I had caught the man who had murdered her so viciously. “I love you.” Buzzz, buzzz, buzzz. The extremely annoying sound of my cell phone vibrating in my pocket ripped me away from my grief. I resented the call but thanked it for ripping me away from the painful past. Picking up the phone I slid the call button across the screen, “what”? “Is it impossible for you to answer the phone, just once with a simple, sweet hello?” “What do you want Gabe?” “How long has it been since you been at the BSI, six years now?” “What's it matter Gabe?” It was pointless. Justice was never fulfilling the way it was on t.v. It always looked so easy, neat and tidy. Ya, in real life it was anything but. The justice system took too long in the real world. Killers should be killed once convinced, just like their victims were killed immediately. I quit being an enforcer and forensic psychologist for the BSI because the lengthy wait never seemed fair to the families. Analise's killer never went to trial. It had been two years after Analise had been killed and we had been so close to catching her killer but then just like that he disappeared from our radar. He quite killing. Did I believe that? Not a chance. He changed his MO and started hiding the bodies but he was to proud of his work to stop leaving his signature once he thought we had lost his trail. I had kept on looking for that one piece of evidence that would bring him back to me. Ten women taken in the seven year period before I had finally tracked him down. After ten years I found him in the Arizona desert. He had been holding up in a run down shack. I often referred to the property as his killing grounds because there were more then thirty hogs on his isolated property. Huge hogs with massive tusks. I remember the smell of pig shit and metallic stench of blood. I remember my skin crawling because I knew why a killer would have so many of that particular breed of hog. I knew he had taken and killed each victim but even I couldn't imagine the horrible way he disposed of the bodies. Once I stepped foot on that property, I knew. I walked right up to the door and knocked. When he answered I pulled my custom colt .45, engraved with Analise's date of death out of my shoulder holster. Only word I spoke was her name before I pulled the trigger. In that moment my days of being the good guy were over. He released a deep breath. “I know but you're gonna want to hear this one.” Gabe certainly made a name for himself in the two years that I had been gone. He was now Director of the BSI non-human violent crime division. He never did marry Shelly but they had a good relationship as co-parents raising there nine year old son. He never got into a serious relationship again. Sometimes I thought maybe Analise was right when she said that cheating on me had been his biggest regret and I might have forgiven him had she not been murdered. After she died, nothing had mattered but the rage and obsession to bring her killer to justice. To watch him suffer as I knew she had suffered. Now, I often wondered if I had made a mistake rejecting him and the comfort and love he tried to show me but it made little difference now. Things had changed and sometimes you couldn't change them back no matter how much you wanted to. “ You know I can't work for the BSI Gabe.” Not after what I did. “Self defense.” I snorted, my ass. It had been justice. Justice I knew the law wouldn't give quickly enough. “Was it that bit of information that you called to tell me or is there some point to this conversation? Because if there isn't I'm hanging up. I'm really not in the mood to reminisce about the past?” I had buried that part of my past and I intended to keep it that way. “I've always called for a reason.” He sounded defensive. “Oh, I can remember not too long ago when you called me in the middle of the night for no particular reason.” “For fucks sake Rae! I was drunk, really drunk which I clearly explained when I called to apologize the next day remember?” “Vaguely.” The word was a simple mutter which was my indication that the conversation was over. “As stimulating as sparing with you is Gabe, in the interest of saving time why don't you just tell me what you want?” A long pause followed by a heavy sigh and my instincts knew what he was going to say. “I need a favor. A big one.” “Tell me.” “Three different bodies, all within five miles of each other. The MO is the same and it was an arranged crime scene. We found them the way he wanted us to find them.” “Where?” “L.A.” My heart skipped a beat. There was a place I never wanted to see again. “Forensics?” “Nothing. Not even a hair, other then the hair he chopped off the victim.” Analise. “What aren't you saying Gabe?” “It's just like him.” I shook my head, Jackal, called that because of his signature. The perfect imprint of two rows of teeth on the upper left thigh. “It can't be. He's dead. DNA confirmed it.” I killed him, set the shack on fired and watched him burn. I shook my head. “It's not possible.” “I didn't say it was him Rae. I said it's like him.” My heart raced. A copy cat? “What do you want from me?” “You lived and breathed Jackal for ten years.” “Exactly.” Frustrated I ran my fingers through my chin length, straight black hair. “You of all people know how dark my life was back then.” A long pause. “I know, I was there with you.” What could I say? He had been there every step of the way. “Shit.” What if the DNA had been a plant? What if it hadn't been him in that shack? “Give me a few hours.” “Rae.” “Ya.” “Thanks.” “Thank me if I can help.” With that I ended the call. A Jackal copy cat, crap. Hell was about to come to the women of L.A. * * * Pissed and just a little bit tense, yup that was me. Gabriel knew exactly what he had been doing with that damn phone call, baiting me. Groaning I took a long drag on my cigarette and looked out the large window over looking the city I had abandoned three years ago. L.A, what a waste. Night had fallen and the doors were all open for business. Gambling, drugs, lavish pleasure clubs catering to every sexual fantasy possible L.A had it all. For those who couldn't afford the lavish lifestyle there were strip clubs galore and of course there were the low level hookers who walked the streets hollering 'hey baby, want a date?'. Sadly, it was those low level prostitutes that were often found cold, broken and lifeless most of the time. Crime was abundant in this city. Stretching out from the Underworld to the sometimes corrupt police departments and higher city officials. L.A catered to Limmikins, Thasophilians, Angels, Demons, Witches, Fae, and humans from every walk of life looking to dip into the power of the city or to indulge in carnal pleasures not afforded to them anywhere else. As soon as night fell, what happened deep within the city was anyone's guess. Very different from the relatively quite existence I lived as a internet security adviser in Colorado Springs. If it wasn't for that damn call I could be relaxing alone in my cabin nestled in the solitude of the woods just five miles from the city. “The rules haven’t changed in the three years you’ve been gone.” Came a deep voice behind me. I'd know that voice anyway and no matter how much I attempted to dislodge its owner from my life, he was still always there. “I'm not subject to your rules.” I dropped the cigarette into the diet coke can I was holding and turned around. “Yet.” He chuckled. “Maybe.” I studied him as he leaned against the door frame of his office. Three years hadn't changed him at all. His six foot four frame still stretched the seams of the black suit he wore. A trim black beard graced his masculine square jaw, but doing nothing to hide his moderately full, sensual lips. Those eyes, those golden amber eyes that I had seen burn with passion and anger so many times now studied me with a coolness that I had grown accustomed to. I hated that he looked at me like he knew me so well, because he did. He knew who I had been and who I had become. “It's nice to see you Rae.” I inclined my head. “You too Gabe.” Pretenses between us seemed so veneer, we both knew why I was here. “I could almost believe you mean that.” I shrugged, turning to him as he sat down behind his desk. “I do.” My gaze met his as I strolled over and sat down in the large chair in front of him. “Despite our history, you have been there for me and I consider you a friend. A poor one but a friend just the same.” Instantly, the golden fire ignited his amber eyes as they locked with mine. “I may have failed as a partner Rae, but I never failed you as a friend.” I opened my mouth to call bullshit but he held up a hand silencing me. “I hate to bring up all those nights and days after Analise died.” I tightened my jaw drawing a deep breath, irritated at him from bringing up those dark days but even more irritated because he was right. He had been there for me. Sometimes dragging me out of bars or Dragon Lairs, where I was chasing my next high. He was the one who had forced my sobriety and convinced me to enter FBI training so I could join the BSI division he had been promoted to over see. It was because of that decision that my whole life changed and gave me back the control I had felt I lost for those first few years. It was a choice that had given me the power to take justice for Analise. But vengeance had taken a part of my soul, an innocent part I would never get back. Did I regret it? Sometimes. Would I change it? Never. “Why don't you show me why you brought me here?” Without hesitation he slid the manila folder in front of him across the desk to me. “Victim number four.” I picked up the file, flipped it open to check out the crime scene photos but stopped short at the next words spoken. “Marcella James.” Fuck! “Marcella James?” He nodded. “You're sure?” “DNA confirmed this morning.” He was quite a moment. His lips pulled into a thin line the way they always were when he was anticipating trouble. “Has the family been notified?” “I've kept the details out of the papers but leaks are getting out.” “Damn it Gabe!” I snapped. “Did you notify Aex or are you just going to let him find out on the five o'clock news?” “No!” I stuffed the file, along with the other five into my bag and stood up. “You could have at least found some way to tell him. You owe him your life.” I turned to rush out the door but stopped cold as realization dawned on me. “You son of a bitch.” Slowly, I turned to glare at him. “That's why you brought me here so quickly. Not just for the case but because you knew I'd rush to tell him before the news could.” “I need you on this case...but yes.” He looked guilty but convinced that he did what he had to do the only way he could. “You're the only one besides me that could be trusted with this information and be able to get close enough to him.” “You unbelievable...” “You better hurry. The story airs at ten that gives you seven hours to find him.” “Asshole.” I muttered storming from the room and slamming the door so hard behind me that the windows rattled. Damn, he could have at least warned me over the phone that he planned on me telling the king of the Underworld that one of his ex mistresses was dead and to complicate the situation even further, she was freaking human. “This just keeps getting better and better.” |
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