She heard the rumble of her cell phone before she felt it vibrate. “Dr. Strigoi,” she answered.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Raven, but we need you and Bo at the morgue,” Tracy said.
“We’ll be right there.” She snapped the phone shut. “Sounds like trouble,” she told Bo as they about-faced and headed back to her car.
She paced the floors, staring at Tracy. “
“I wish I knew. Davis pronounced him at the site. He’s a summer resident-a human resident,” Tracy explained as Raven headed for the autopsy room. “He had no pulse, his pupils were fixed and dilated, and his liver temp was ninety degrees. Raven, what’s going on?”
“This is the DB I did the paperwork on. I guess it wasn’t a heart attack,” Bo said.
Her shadow-Tobias-had appeared in the doorway. “You’ve got a
She turned in time to see Tobias’s grey eyes flash to icy silver. “What do you mean? Tetradotoxin?”
He nodded. “It’s taken from some species of puffer fish. It’s been used by many a
“English, please?” Bo asked, running his hand through his hair-a long-time nervous habit. They all headed out of the autopsy room and toward Raven’s office.
Raven explained, “Tetradotoxin, or TTX, is a neurotoxin. It blocks the channels that cause nerve and heart cells to provide necessary electrical impulses. Certain
Tracy stood in awe, shaking her head in disbelief.
Raven said, “The victim suffers total paralysis yet the body still functions, at a much slower rate. Scary, right? It gets better. Later, a compound of atropine and scopolamine are administered, putting the person in a permanent state of delirium and disorientation.”
“A zombie?” Tracy asked. “I-I’ve heard Sol talk about them, but we’ve never actually had any on the island… Have we?”
“In a word, yes-the process produces a zombie. And no, as far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any here on Mirabelle Island,” Raven said.
“No, you’re right. We haven’t had any problems with zombies,” Tobias responded.
“There’s more bad news,” Tracy said, followed by a heavy sigh. “Derrick’s blood vial is missing.”
Bo’s cell phone chirped out the Charlie Daniels’ tune,
“
Bo reported to Raven, “Jules just called from The Bed and Brew. Mordred’s been bitten. From her account, it looks like our DB is on the prowl. And Raven…a woman fitting Jade’s description was seen dining at the restaurant…where the alleged dead body was also seen.”
“You said you got an I.D. on the so-called corpse?” Raven asked, searching for his file on her desk. “Wait…what? Did you say Jade?”
Bo removed his notepad from his jacket pocket. “Yeah, Jade. Tim Donnelly’s the vic. He was here for the festival, a summer resident back for a long weekend. His girlfriend was supposed to meet him here tonight. The girlfriend checked into The Bed and Brew. Bridget saw the DB-Tim-in the back alley, right after Mordred got hit. Or, rather, bit. During the commotion the girlfriend went out back and that’s when she I.D.’d Tim. Both women are nervous wrecks. Mordred’s at the hospital. The doctor’s monitoring him carefully, doing blood work. Jet wanted to know if you could go down there. No doubt there’ll be inconsistencies in his blood.”
“You’re sure he was bitten?” Tobias asked.
Bo double-checked his notes. “That’s what Jules reported. Two puncture marks on his neck. Oh, and by the way, your other victim’s name is Bly-Derrick Bly.”
Raven nodded. “How did Jules know about Jade?” she asked, taking her jacket off the hook on the back of the office door.
“I made a few stops before I came to your home. I saw Julianna, Solaris and a couple of other friends. I’d left photos of Jade with them and asked them to call Bo if she surfaced in town,” her father answered.
“Where did you get a photo?” Raven asked, heading toward the exit with Bo and Tobias on either side of her.
“It’s a photo-enhanced picture. Between photos of your mother and Jade’s childhood pictures, a friend of mine was able to digitally print an approximation of what she would look like now. I’m leaving to meet with Jules.”
Tobias stopped before they reached Raven’s car and took her by the hand. “Be careful, Raven. You can be certain that if Jade is here, so is Laroque. He’ll try to get you any way he can.”
She wished her father would for once speak of how he truly felt. That he would someday say, “I love you, Raven.” It was just one of her fantasies, along with regular holiday and birthday visits. Most times she could safely tuck away these tender emotions, but with Tobias here, they clawed their way into her consciousness.
“I’ll keep my eyes on her, Tobias. I don’t want anything to happen to her, either,” Bo reassured her father.
“I’m counting on you, Bo.”
Emerald pulled up in her green Eclipse, which ran on solar power with a fairy dust booster. “I just dropped Iris off at the hospital,” she said as Tobias entered the car. “We’re driving back to The Bed and Brew to keep an eye on the place for Julianna.”
Bo and Raven headed to the hospital.
“Is there any way a transfusion could alter the outcome? Is it inevitable that he become Lamai?” Bo asked, rubbing Raven’s hand with his as they walked arm-in- arm.
Raven furrowed her brows. “I hope so. This is all new. I’ve never come up against anything like this.”
They entered Seacrest Hospital. Heading toward the ICU, Raven could feel the energy in the air. Julianna had been administering Reiki to Mordred, and the healing combination of Iris the fae and Julianna’s treatments was potent. Vibrations surrounded everyone there, especially Julianna’s daughter Bridget. Jet performed reflexology to try to stimulate the organs to maintain their natural size.
The on-call doctor approached Raven and Bo. “We’ve given him a transfusion. As a matter of fact, this is his second. We’ll draw more blood. I’d like you to look at what we have, Raven,” Dr. Sanjay said. “I value your opinion. There are some oddities to his platelets, and his clotting factor was abnormal.” She led Raven into the lab. Bo remained with Jules in the ICU.
Raven instructed, “Have Iris donate some blood for Mordred. Perhaps his fae blood is fighting the infection.”
Dr. Sanjay smiled. “I’m one step ahead. Iris is donating her blood now.”
Raven peered into the scope. “I’ll need a sample in order to compare it to what I have in my lab. From what I recall, this blood doesn’t seem to have quite the same characteristics as the sample from Derrick Bly. He was our most recent fledgling vampire.”
Raven, having finished her analysis, walked out to find Bo. Dr. Sanjay prepared a blood sample for Raven to bring back to her lab for further comparison.
Julianna entered the hall outside of Mordred’s room. “Bo told me to let you know he had to leave. His partner was waiting for him outside to pick him up. He said something about Jade showing up at the festival.”
“Tell Jet we’re doing all we can for Mordred,” Raven said as she headed for the exit. Soon she was in her car, racing toward town. Her bad feelings about this night were growing in intensity. By the time she reached Town Hall, her suspicions that the evening would end in disaster were no longer simmering beneath the surface, but were quickly approaching a boil.
Chapter Seven
Raven got out of her car and raced to the park next to Town Hall. There had been no mistaking her. All the photos Raven had seen, including the computer- enhanced picture, indicated that the young woman at the center of the commotion was Jade Laroque. Amidst the clamor, Jade was calm. That was just before Raven observed the sea of people gawking at Bo who lay on the ground unconscious.
Raven’s stomach clenched then threatened to expel its contents. Her head swam as all the sights and sounds pulsed around her, threatening to pull her into darkness. “Bo!” His name tore out of her in a rush of adrenaline. Her incisors lengthened and she knew her eyes changed to silver ice.
Pushing her way through the crowd, Raven knelt beside him and felt for his pulse. She noticed her hands were shaking and moist with perspiration. She blinked back the tears that blurred her vision.
He had a fairly strong rhythm, but he didn’t respond to her verbal or psychic requests. “Boo, please…open your eyes. Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” She caressed his cheek and forehead pushing his hair off his face. A white, powdery substance stuck to her fingertips, and she wiped it on the moist grass beside her. The film covered the skin around his nose.
“Raven, what happened?” Joe Menendez asked as he ran over, out of breath. “Did anyone call 911?”
“I did,” Jade said, waving her cell phone. From the memories Raven had of watching old family movies, Jade even sounded like their mother.
“What happened here?” Raven’s gaze never left Jade. Her hand clutched Bo’s.
The two sisters stared at each other. Jade glared at the Raven with resolve-while Raven overflowed with anger.
Jade placed her cell phone into her jacket pocket. Leaves crunched under her feet as she started to approach Raven. “I was returning from the parade and some lunatic jumped out at me from the bushes.” Jade pointed to a thicket of bittersweet behind her. “The next thing I know this man here pushed me out of the way. I didn’t see anything after that.”
Raven felt her skin growing colder. That was not how things had transpired and Raven knew it, somehow she could scent the lies. She looked around, tuning in psychically to see if there was anyone who fit Laroque’s description, but no one felt unfamiliar.
Screeching sirens filled the night air while wisps of clouds blocked the moon’s light.
“Can I go now?” the young woman impatiently asked.
“No, you can’t go now. This man’s a cop, and we need a statement from you,” Joe tersely responded.
“Coming through!” the EMTs warned as the crowd parted.
“What happened?” Solaris’s familiar voice called from behind the crowd. “Oh. My. Gods. Raven. What happened to Bo?”
