Free Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) by Rachel Rawlings Page B

away faster than her eyes could follow. She fell to the ground, utterly destroyed. Something moved in her peripheral. Was he back, had he changed his mind? Hope sprung eternal in the young girl's chest for the return of her vampire and the promise of immortality. She turned and let out a terrifying scream, which now poured from my mouth.
    Graive let go of us, breaking the triangle of power. I swayed, exhausted from reading the dead girl. Graive on the other hand hadn't so much as broken a sweat. She channeled my abilities through the dead but the energy e xpelled to make it work had come from me. Aidan wrapped an arm around my waist and I leaned into him. I heard Conry barking and knew we were out of time.
    A voice came from outside the door. "You're not with the paper. That was Ed Clancy, homicide reporter at the Times, on the phone and he's never heard your name. You can't go back there. I'm calling Detective Masarelli. Hey man, call off your dog." The technician was in a panic.
    I glared at Aidan. "The paper? Really?"
    "We needed to gain access to their files, or at least see what they knew and if any identifying marks had been found by the diener."
    I gave a whistle for Conry - he probably wouldn't listen to Cash's command to back-off if he thought the technician was a threat. "Aidan, do you're vampire Jedi mind trick and wipe this disaster of a reconnaissance mission from his mind. If you wanted to see the files I could have gotten them from Masarelli."
    "Masarelli won't be getting a copy of the files."
    I pointed Aidan toward the guy manning the morgue. "We'll talk about that later."
    With the morgue attendant taken care of, we settled on going back to my apartment. All of us. Fun, right? Not. My apartment overflow ed with head strong, powerful sups. The air was thick with magic and attitude. I opened the window behind the couch so I could breathe.
    When we left the morgue I sent Amalie to raid the Daily Grind. I wished she'd hurry up because I seriously needed to feed my addiction and there wasn't enough coffee in my pantry to do it. Plus, I wanted croissants. I needed protein after a reading like that but right now it was all about comfort.
    I couldn't quite shake the sadness I felt from the girl. Maybe because it brought back feelings I had when Aidan said he was leaving , outside the station. For a second I wondered if I had made the right decision to trust him.
    As if sensing my thoughts, he looked at me. Something in my expression mu st have given me away. He dropped his gaze but I caught the disappointment in his eyes. I refused to feel guilty for my wavering emotions. No, Aidan and I were definitely not out of the woods yet.
    Cash caught the exchange. Thankfully Amalie hit the b uzzer for the door just then. Cash helped her with what I declared essential items to solving our case, but I caught the look in his eye as he brushed past me.
    "One thing's for certain," I said around a mouth full of croissant. "We know Caligula is involved, was involved with the girl."
    "I thought you knew that before going to the morgue."
    I glared at Graive as she mumbled something about it being a waste of her time. I may not have been sure if Caligula killed these girls, but I knew for certain she was still a bitch. "Now we know he knew her and that the necklace wasn't a plant. It's enough to get us an audience with him."
    " We aren't going to talk to him. I am."
    Everyone backed out of the kitchen. Everyone but A idan. He glowered, daring me to argue with him. " You're not going anywhere near him."
    "Like hell I'm not. I. Am. Going. With. You. End of co nversation." He obviously hadn't learned anything. Not that I should expect someone as old as him to change his ways in a couple days. Old dogs, new tricks and all that. Still his attempt to order me around kind of undermined his apology.
    He grabbed my arm when I moved to storm out of the kitchen and gently shoved me in one of my chairs. He fired up my laptop. The anger and