Free Under Wraps by Hannah Jayne Page A

my finger. He frowned and shrugged.
    “What am I looking at?”
    I crouched down to the hardwood floor, my fingers brushing a smooth white powder. “There’s a pentagram drawn around the bed.”
    Hayes wagged his head, eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t see anything.”
    “Veil,” I said, showing him my chalked fingers. “Someone was trying to cover their tracks—magically speaking.”
    Hayes swallowed thickly. “So, pentagrams? That’s demonic, right? So, vampires.”
    I looked at the destruction of the body, the dark red splatters of blood on the bottom sheet, the pool of red seeping into the mattress. “I don’t think so,” I said.
    Hayes pointed to the woman’s pale arms lying palm up, the delicate skin on each wrist punctured by two tiny, perfect holes spaced equidistantly apart, the skin puckered as though it had been violently sucked.
    “Aren’t those teeth marks? Fangs?”
    I shook my head. “Vampires don’t leave this kind of destruction. They generally aren’t interested in being caught, in leaving any traces. And the blood—” I swallowed hard against a fresh wave of nausea. “That’s a lot of blood to leave behind. Human blood is a life force to a vampire. They aren’t going to leave that much—they can’t. It’s a survival instinct. And the heart …” I couldn’t finish, and Hayes wagged his head.
    “Maybe the vamp was angry, sloppy. Maybe he wasn’t doing this to feed. Or maybe he didn’t care if he was found out. He certainly didn’t care the last time.”
    “We don’t know that it was a vampire last time. Besides, there is no reason that a vampire would gouge out someone’s eyes. And if he didn’t care whether or not he was found out, why would he bother to put her back in her bed? To veil the pentagram? Why would he bother to make it look like nothing happened?” I found myself whispering the last part: “And why would a vampire take out her heart?”
    Hayes blew out a long sigh. “I don’t know. But I know it’s a vampire. I know you’ve got a soft spot for whatever reason for the pointy-toothed bloodsuckers, but let’s face it: when you hear hoofbeats, you don’t go looking for zebras.”
    I put my hands on my hips. “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “It means that if there are teeth marks, I’m going to go looking for vampires.”
    “Vampires. Crap!” I slapped my palm on my forehead and glanced at my watch.
    “What?”
    “I was supposed to pick up Nina’s nephew from the Caltrain station. He comes in in eight minutes.”
    Hayes shrugged. “We’re done here and we’re not too far.”
    “Yeah, but I need to get my car. It’s going to take at least forty-five minutes to get back across town now—it’s rush hour. And then to get back to the train station. I can’t let him just sit there on the platform waiting all alone—he’s just a kid.”
    Hayes pulled his keys from his pocket and dangled them in front of me. “So we’ll turn on the siren.”
    “We’re going to pick him up in the squad car?”
    Hayes was already heading for the stairs and the front door. “Do you have a better idea?”
    Once I had buckled myself into the passenger seat and Hayes had pulled into traffic he looked at me, frowning. “I thought you said Nina was a vampire?”
    I nodded, fishing a half-wrapped piece of Trident out of my purse. Better my breath smelled like purse lint and peppermint than barf. “She is.”
    “So how does …”
    “How does she have a nephew? Same way anyone else has a nephew. And yes, he’s a vampire, too.”
    “Great. I’m going to go pick up a vampire. And now you’re going to have two vampires hanging around?”
    I nodded. “It’ll be kind of nice, actually. Nina and I have been friends for ages, and I’ve never met any of her family. I think it might be fun having another member of the LaShay family hanging around—fanged as they may be.”
    Hayes wagged his head. “I really don’t think I’m ever going to get any of this