Ulysses Exposed (Blaire Thorne Book 1) Read online

  “Did something happen?” he asked, as he made a snorting sound from the back of his throat and swallowed.

  I shuddered; that was disgusting.

  “Yes, now can you help us or not?” I was losing patience but tried not to sound too hostile; we needed his help if the cameras belonged to this shop.

  “Sure, sure—just chill,” he said. His name was embroidered on his shirt, and it read, ‘Gus’.

  “Thanks, Gus.” I said, forcing a smile that I knew wasn’t friendly, but he ignored me and moved around the counter.

  I wasn’t clued up on police procedures, but I was sure that we needed some kind of paperwork giving us permission to view their videos. I didn’t think he was the sharpest pencil in the box and we didn’t mind the help, so we continued as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

  Gus led us toward the back of the store and opened one door. “We record for one week and then record over the previous week's footage. Just leave the door open in case the manager comes back.”

  “Thanks,” Sebastian said, and entered.

  Sebastian sat on the chair and started pressing buttons, and one of the little televisions started rewinding. I stood behind him trying to see what he was doing and how he was doing it but gave up and watched the little monitor instead.

  There were date and time stamps at the bottom left-hand corner of the monitor, and Sebastian stopped the film a day before I was attacked and fast forwarded. The video wasn’t going fast enough that we couldn’t make out people's faces. It was a high-definition camera, and the video was clear at that speed. Three men walked along the pavement that night and stopped near the alley, two men moving out of view and, moments later, one man appeared carrying someone (me).

  There was no video of me arriving, only being carried out.

  When the time stamp reached today with the two of us walking into the store, we knew that I hadn’t entered the alley from the street side.

  “Shit. How did I get in the alley if I didn’t come from the street?”

  “From the park side.” Sebastian stood. “Come on, let’s go through the entrance next to the hair salon.”

  We thanked Gus and left.

  The entrance that led us to the park was cleaner than the alley, and the gate was unlocked. The park was large, with a few rides for kids to play on and plenty of trees that were high enough and big enough to cast large areas of shade for picnics. There were lamp posts scattered around the park that illuminated the play area and cast shadows across the grass. My shoes sank into the soft, wet ground.

  We walked along the brick wall of the building until we reached the spot where we thought the alley would be. On the ground was a wooden box pushed tightly up against the wall, fresh scratch marks going up and over it.

  “Let’s see if you are able to climb up.” Sebastian motioned for me to go closer to the wall.

  I hesitated with one foot on the wooden box and tested it to see whether it would hold my weight. It did. I lifted my arms to reach the top of the wall and held onto the ledge, but, when I tried to lift myself up, pain tore through my abdomen and I cried out, letting go of the wall. Sebastian caught me before I hit the ground.

  “You okay?” He held onto me until I could stand unaided.

  “I’m fine,” I snapped back at him, pulling my shirt down.

  I wasn’t angry at him, but at myself. What was I doing here?

  “Let’s go this way.” Sebastian ignored my bad mood and pointed toward the hill on the far side of the park. “You must have come through the entrance over there.”

  I followed Sebastian along the footpath through the park. It was a beautiful evening for a stroll and I admired the view in front of me; his body moved like liquid metal, smooth and limber. The rhythmic chirping of crickets sounded in the distance. The evening sky, with its same twinkling stars, reminded me of the cold ground I had woken up only a few nights ago. Autumn was only a month away, and the cool wind was pleasant. The smell of wet leaves and freshly cut grass played along my nose as we walked along the path. The park would be enjoyable during the day, with the warm sun on your face and being able to bask in the sounds of laughter.

  We came around a small hill and reached the beginning of the forest. Ahead, there was a jetty from which people could take their boats out to fish. There was a hiking trail that led deep into the forest with an assortment of color-coded signs showing various paths. There was only one car in the parking lot. As we approached it, I could see that the car was covered in a thin layer of debris.

  “Let’s check it out,” Sebastian said as he led the way.

  It was an old blue Honda that was still in good condition and was immaculate inside. Sebastian tried the driver's side door, but it was locked. I tried the other side, and the back door opened. I looked up at him and smiled. No alarms went off, and it didn’t look like anything scary would jump out. The back seat was clean, empty, with nothing in the pockets behind the front seats. I felt under the seat and came away with a parking stub for a dance club called ‘Kiss’.

  I held the stub out for him to see. “Do you know a place called ‘Kiss’?”

  His eyes widened and his expression changed, but he showed nothing, “Yes, I know it. It’s where everyone goes to dance with the vampires.” He said it like he had bit into something sour.

  He went around to the back of the car and tried the trunk. It opened.

  I crawled into the passenger's seat to open the glove compartment but found that it was empty; there was no pink slip, no license, no mail; just a map book of the city with a bookmark. I opened the map book to the page where the bookmark was, and it showed the street view of the little shops and apartment buildings surrounding the alley where I was found. It also focused on the park. There was a large red circle around everything.

  Shit!

  It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at, I frowned and wished I hadn’t. Pain pierced right between my eyes, and I started massaging my forehead and eye sockets with my thumbs.

  I pulled the door handle, but it was locked. I tried the handle again, and it was still locked. I flicked the latch until the red square didn’t show and pulled the handle to open it. As I started to step out, my foot caught on the lip of the carpet and I fell out of the car, landing on my knees on the concrete. I yelled “Ow!” and started rubbing my knees.

  When I glanced at Sebastian, he was standing near the open trunk; his face pale and his eyes wide. I wouldn’t have thought someone like him would scare easily, but something in there had clearly got to him.

  “What is it, Sebastian?” I stood and approached him slowly.

  He lifted his hand and shook his head. I stopped.

  “You don’t want to see this.” His green eyes seemed a shade lighter, and I saw more of the whites of his eyes.

  There was something in there that I shouldn’t see, but now I had to see. I was stubborn that way. “I have to see what’s in the trunk, Sebastian. I found a map with a circle around this area. This has to be my car, and I need to know what the fuck is going on.”

  I heard him swallow. “Trust me. You don’t want to see this.”

  “I’m coming to have a look.” I stomped my feet toward the open trunk, and the smell of rotting meat took my breath away.

  I stood beside Sebastian and looked at the contents. I saw something inside, but I couldn’t quite understand exactly what I was looking at. My mind was trying to protect me from the horror in the trunk. There was a tarp stained maroon by something wrapped within it. Sebastian pulled the tarp open.

  I blinked, but I was slow to process what I was seeing. Once I saw it, I could no longer unsee it, and, for that, I would suffer from a shit load of nightmares.

  Something on the tarp moved through the thick black goo. At night, blood appeared dark, which I had to admit was a relief. I squinted and eventually saw little white maggots were crawling through it, over and around the tarp. There were even little black bugs and flies. The thing wrapped in the tarp
was bloody and missing pieces. The pale skin of a man’s torso. His arms, legs and groin all torn or bitten off—I couldn’t tell. I didn’t know.

  I didn’t want to know.

  On his pectoral muscle above the left nipple was a tattoo of a Ulysses butterfly, with the same blue and green wings as on my back. It was also a 3D Ulysses butterfly and looked considerably more alive than the man, as though it was resting on his body and could still fly away. The tattoo had similar hieroglyphic detail as the one on my back, but it was smaller; I wasn’t sure, but I also didn’t want to get up close and check.

  The smell of rotting flesh and dried blood filled my nostrils, and I felt that my dinner was about to come back out. I ran as far away as I could before the vomit came. My head hurt as I hunched over the wet grass, vomiting again and again, until I had nothing more to throw up. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and stood straight.

  Fuck. My body either reacted to the smell from the trunk or to the fact that I must have known the person lying in the trunk of my car. I didn’t want to cry again this evening, but dammit, I couldn’t help it. Tears stung my cheeks. I heard Sebastian talking to someone on his phone, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I only heard the catch in my breath and the rush of blood pumping in my ears.

  I didn’t want to look at the car or at Sebastian. I looked everywhere else, and there was nothing else around us except nature. Nature was good. Nature was pleasant. It was a place where people could go on hikes through the forest or take a boat out on the water. A place with parks for the kids to play in. It was a lovely family area to do fun things in; not for anyone to find dead bodies.

  I inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to concentrate on my breathing and wiping the last of the tears away. I let out a slow, shaky breath, and the tears stopped.

  Was someone trying to kill me and the people I knew?

  Are the butterfly tattoos important, or just something I shared with that man in the trunk?

  Who did I work for, and where did I live?

  All I had was questions. Definitely no answers.

  My breath came quick and shallow, and my hands clutched my chest. I thought I had been doing so well with the controlled breathing.

  I looked out across the water and saw the fog roll in closer to me. The trees from the forest swayed where they found the faint wind.

  I couldn’t comprehend what was happening around me. I thought too much; my chest ached, and my head felt foggy. My eyes closed, and I fell. All I knew as I fell was that I was glad that the darkness swallowed me whole.

  CHAPTER 5

  I AWOKE TO find that I was lying in a Victorian bath, water lapping gently up to my neck. The soapsuds felt soft and silky against my skin, and there was the scent of lavender and roses in the air. The fragrant aroma was a comfort as I closed my eyes and drifted off to the soft melody of a harp.

  A splash brought me back to my surroundings. Tiny bubbles escaped the water near to my knees. The dark curve of something sharp yet round rose gently out the water.

  Was it a snake?

  I reached for it, expecting its surface to be smooth and glossy as the skin of a snake would be, but instead it was hard and coarse. I held on, trying to bring it closer. More of the object rose out of the water, and its black claws reached for me and slashed my face. I hit and kicked those black claws away from me.

  “Jesus, woman— calm down. It was just a dream.” I recognized Elena’s voice.

  I was in bed, and her hands were holding onto mine, pinning me down. She was straddling my waist and keeping my wrists above my head and away from her. I relaxed in her grip, and she climbed off.

  “Those claws felt so real; they were coming at me. I had to stop it from hurting me.” I choked back a sob. “What happened? Why were you on me?”

  “You fainted at the park, and when they brought you back, Mel changed your dressings and found your stitches had split. She stitched you back together, and I took the first shift to lie beside you.”

  “Shit. Thank you. Sorry for attacking you. Did I hurt you?”

  “Don’t sweat it, girl.” She looked at her forearms; there were bloody trail marks from where I had embedded my nails as we had grabbled. “I needed to get up, anyway. Change of guards and all that.” She smiled and started pulling on black jeans.

  “Don’t you guys wear anything else besides black?”

  “Ha-ha. Don’t you know that the number one rule of guarding is to always wear black?” She gave me a two-finger salute and pulled on her black t-shirt. This one had a logo above her left breast, an open mouth with a pair of fangs. It looked like it would take a bite out of her breast.

  “Where are you working?” I said, pointing to the logo.

  “At one of the master’s clubs. He has everybody working on rotation, so each day we work somewhere else.”

  “What is it called? How many clubs does he have?”

  She stopped what she was doing and gave me her attention. “You know the master owns a lot of businesses, right? Besides the clubs, he has a few buildings and apartment blocks with a shitload of people working for him.” She sounded tired when she said that. Did she ever take vacation days?

  “I do now.” I sighed and pulled the sheets over my chest, tucking them under my body.

  “He hired a private investigator to help you, especially after you guys found that body in the car last night.”

  “Fuck, I forgot about that. I’m a terrible person.” How could I forget about that?

  Elena smiled reassuringly. “Stop beating yourself up; you’ve gone through enough trauma. You need to try and relax. Maybe if you didn’t stress so much about it, your memory might return. Usually when I stop thinking about something, that’s when things click into place.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “And, just so you know, the master is in the bathroom.” She grinned as she said that. “I’ve got to go. Hang tight; Sebastian said he would be here soon.”

  “Thanks.”

  All I wanted to do was get dressed and get out. I was half-naked, in a vampire’s bed, and I didn’t want to be here when he finished in the bathroom. I tried listening but couldn’t hear a thing. Was his bathroom sound proof?

  I scanned the room for clothing, but there wasn’t any. If I didn’t have any clothes, I would have to stay in bed. I turned to face the wall away from the bathroom door and tucked the pillow under my neck until I was comfortable.

  There was something missing; the sheets were cold. I was missing Elena’s heat, her warm body beside mine. As the silk sheets finally warmed against my skin, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  A heavy, metallic sound began grinding against concrete and the walls shifted. As the sounds vibrated through the walls, there was a slight movement on the bed. I rolled over to see what it was and caught sight of Léon’s back. He was wearing a black shirt with a high collar and dark blue jeans. He was pulling on boots.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, without turning around.

  I tensed, but I didn’t think he heard me move.

  “I guess I’m fine, considering.” I tucked the sheet between my face and the pillow and wanted—no, needed—a teddy bear or something soft to cuddle against me in the sheets. My sanity depended on it.

  He laughed.

  I frowned.

  “Sorry; when I’m near someone, I can hear whispers of their thoughts, like soft music playing in the background. I don’t normally tune in, but I heard yours for a second. I will see what I can do about getting you a plush toy for your slumber.”

  I felt heat creep up my neck and cheeks.

  “You know exactly what to say to a woman, don’t you.” I sounded grumpy even to myself. That was a private thought, and he tuned into my personal station.

  His laughter felt like velvet rubbing against my skin, so soft. He turned to face me, and his smile reached his eyes as he hid his fangs. “I try.”

  There must have been a look on my face b
ecause he sobered quickly and said, “Are you all right?” He placed his back firmly against the headboard.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re safe here.”

  “Were you reading my mind again?”

  “No, it’s the look on your face that tells me how scared you are. I employ a lot of were-animals to keep me and my people safe, and they will keep you safe, too.”

  “What if I’m the reason your people are no longer safe?”

  He understood what I meant. What if I was the boogeyman? Or what if the boogeyman came here to kill me—or him? He leaned over and gently brushed hair out of my face. “I have a private investigator looking into your shared Ulysses butterfly tattoo and whether it means anything, particularly in light of you sharing the same design with the corpse from the car. I hope you don’t mind, but we took your fingerprints in the hope that it will speed up the process.”

  “What if the news is horrible? I don’t know if I want to know.”

  “Cross that bridge when you get there.” He shrugged as though it meant something and nothing all at once, then added, “I will be over at the club if you and Sebastian want to come over.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t think I’m in the mood for a club. Besides, I don’t have any clothes.”

  He smirked. “You have plenty of clothes.” He climbed off the bed and opened a cupboard to reveal an array of women’s clothing.

  I sat up to look at the clothing and frowned. “Did you buy all those for me, or are they someone else’s and they left them behind?”

  “Elena bought them for you today. That way, you have a choice of items, and not just jeans and t-shirts.” He glanced down at something on me, and I followed his line of sight. I pulled the sheets up to my neck, covering my breasts. My entire body was now hot.

  “Well, if you change your mind, just let Sebastian know. He can be a lot of fun. Maybe you need something to take your mind off the bad things.”

  “You are the second person to say that. If someone else suggests it, I will take it as a sign.” I still sounded grumpy.