Under Wraps

under the weight of her laughter.

“She’s with you?” I murmured, fitting the whole scene together.

“Anyway,” the chief continued, ignoring me, “I guess I should thank you. Really, I couldn’t have done it without your help. Sampson was going to be a tough one.”

My stomach lurched, and I swallowed a miserable wail.

“Oh, but enough revelry. Come on now.” Chief Oliver pushed me in front of him. “Lucy?” he said, and I stiffened, feeling the gun angled between my shoulder blades. He tapped it harshly against me. “Step lively, demon girl, I don’t have all night.”

“Oh, Chief Oliver, I’m not a demon.” I wagged my head, feeling a hysterical giggle escaping my lips. “Is that what you thought? No, I’m human. All human. I’m just an administrative assistant at the Underground. I file papers. I can prove it.” I took a chance, craning my neck to look over my shoulder and smiling hopefully into the chief’s stiff grimace. “Do you have any papers you’d like me to file? Alphabetically, chronologically? I’m really very good.”

He nudged me with the gun again, and I stumbled into the hallway.

“Just keep moving. I know exactly what you are, Miss Lawson. I know who you are, and I knew who your grandmother was.”

I paused and then winced as the chief drove the gun hard into my spine. “Keep walking,” he growled, the stubble from his chin grazing my ear. “You don’t want to make this difficult for yourself, do you?”

I wagged my head and gulped, feeling the lump growing in my throat. “Is Parker a part of this, too?”

Chief Oliver snorted. “Parker Hayes. A detective from Podunk, New York.”

“Buffalo,” I whispered through dry lips.

“What was that?”

I cleared my throat. “Parker Hayes is from Buffalo.”

“Whatever. He’s nothing to worry about.” The chief snorted. “He thinks he’s been chasing a mythical killer? That idiot’s been chasing his tail all this time.” The chief shook me hard, and I squealed. “Parker Hayes is nothing to worry about,” he repeated.

A fresh round of tears burned at my eyes. He’s nothing to worry about because he’s got a fork shoved in his thigh. I sniffled, and as we walked into the foyer, Chief Oliver wound his free hand in my hair and yanked. I bent down backward, wincing as my spine protested.

I heard another unmistakable, gleeful giggle escape Lucy’s lips, and from the corner of my eye, I could see her helicoptering around the chief and me, angling for the best vantage point.

“Now, you’re not going to do anything stupid like run away or scream, are you?”

“No,” I said, feeling strands of my hair snapping in Chief Oliver’s palm.

“You know, I’d like to believe you.” He shoved me so hard against the wall that I lost my breath and immediately tasted the hot blood that rushed from a fresh cut on my lip. “But I’ve learned that you never can trust a demon.” Chief Oliver leaned in, his breath moist and hot on my ear. “Even just a half-breed,” he muttered.

I heard the tinkle of his belt and then felt the searing pain in my shoulders as the chief twisted my arms hard and locked cold metal cuffs around my wrists. He spun me around and frowned, his bushy caterpillar eyebrows coming together.

“You’re bleeding,” he said, and for a brief moment I thought that the chief might actually feel bad for me. But then he rubbed his hand roughly over my lips and sucked the excess blood from his thumb and grinned. His smile was hungry, ferocious, and my blood had tinted his teeth a freaky, glowing pink. He smacked his lips. “Yeah, that’ll do quite nicely.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and shook it out, tenderly dabbing at my nose and lips. “We don’t want to waste it,” he said.

“Why are you doing this?” I moaned as Chief Oliver shoved me toward the front door. “Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?”

The chief snorted. “Good guy? Huh. In this city, it takes more than good guys to keep everything in line. Forty-seven square miles of demon-infested city?” Chief Oliver shook his head, his distaste obvious. “And you demons act like you own this town. Looking up to that damn Pete Sampson like he’s some kind of god …”

“But—”

The chief spun to face me, and I could see the spitting hatred in his eyes.

“You know, I’m getting awfully tired of listening to you.”

“I’ll be quiet,” I said, my voice small.

He smiled that twisted, grotesque smile and used one hand to pin me to the wall, the other to beckon for Lucy.

“Lucy, sweetie, do me a favor and watch over our little friend for a second here, will you?”

Lucy skipped—skipped—over to me, her dark hair bobbing around her shoulders, her wide lips spread in a pleased grin. I looked her over as the chief disappeared out the front, considered whether—cuffed or not—I could take her. My query was cut short when she pulled out that Taser again, flicking the on switch so the electricity between the two wires shivered and made my teeth ache with memory.

“Come on, Lucy. You don’t have to do this.”

“I know,” she smiled broadly, and I could see that one of her fake vampire fangs had broken off. “But it’s just so much fun.”

“Chief Oliver is a murderer,” I said, dropping my voice to a stage whisper. “Do you know that? Do you know that he’s already killed at least three innocent people? Lucy, you’ve got to get yourself out of this.”

Lucy’s grin didn’t falter. “Oh, Sophie, it’s all for the greater good. And they weren’t people, they were demons. And all those demons had something we needed.”

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

The smile abruptly dropped from Lucy’s lips, but she still held the Taser just an inch from my exposed skin. “Look, you demons have your restoration league.”

“VERM? That’s for vampires.”

“Haven’t you read the literature? It has tiers for all of you demons. So you have your thing for empowerment and restoration and so do we. The UDA has controlled things for too long and is losing its foothold. It’s time for something bigger.”

“And where do you come in with that?”

Lucy smiled, the pointed pink tip of her tongue curling over her remaining yellowed fang. “I get my own powers. What I get makes vampiracy look like child’s play. The chief promised me.”

“The chief is lying to you.”

Lucy’s small palm snapped against my cheek, and she leaned in, the Taser a millimeter from my neck. “Don’t you say that about Chief Oliver. All he’s concerned about is protecting the people—the human people—of this city. You have no idea what you’re talking about so just shut your mouth!”

The chief wandered back in, his red-rimmed eyes taking in Lucy and me. “You two getting along in here? Not that I care …”

Lucy stepped away from me, but her fierce eyes were still on mine. She held the Taser so tightly that I could see her knuckles had gone white.

“Chief Oliver, I—”

The chief put his hands on his hips and stared at me. “You know, Sophie, I’m really getting tired of listening to you.” He angled his gun at me again, and I cringed, pinching my eyes closed tightly. When a full second passed without gunfire, I chanced to open an eye. I saw the chief, gun still steadied and trained on me in one hand, the other rummaging through a duffel bag left open on the hallway table. Chief Oliver produced a silver roll of duct tape and tossed it to Lucy, who caught it and peeled off a piece, tearing it with her teeth.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re a demon or not, all you broads talk too much,” the chief said.

I was about to protest, to plead my non-talking-broad case, but Lucy smacked a piece of tape over my mouth, smoothing it with her delicate hand.

The chief came up behind her, grinned, and patted her on the shoulder. “Good work, kid.”

Lucy beamed like a proud kindergartner.

“Now take her car and get out of here.”

The smile abruptly dropped from Lucy’s lips. “But I wanted to see the ceremony!” she whined. “You said I could be there when the portal opened and I’d get my powers.” Lucy was stamping her foot again, her black hair