Page 57 of Wicked Bite
The door opened and Sergeant Larceny walked in accompanied by another detective. He pointed to the man, who was middle-aged, with gray hair, and a thick mustache. He wore a gray suit, complete with white button-down shirt and gray tie. He carried a laptop in one hand along with a Manila folder. They took the seats across from me and both glared.
I stared back. “What?”
“We are not here for stunts and games and certainly not when someone ends up in the intensive care unit.” Sergeant Larceny slammed his hand down on the table between us.
I glanced from him to the detective and back again. “I’m sorry, what?”
The detective still hadn’t said a word. He just opened the laptop. He clicked a few buttons, and the black and white video of an empty hallway came up. The walls were made of painted cinderblocks and linoleum flooring. Harsh fluorescent lights flickered, giving it an all-too-eerie look. It was the kind of hall I wouldn’t walk down in the middle of the night. No one should: I’d seen that horror movie a thousand times.
“You watch this,” the sergeant snapped. The detective pressed a couple of buttons and the video began to play.
A taller bald guy in a white lab coat walked down the hall and into a door on the side. The angle pointed down on him, like the camera was in the upper corner between the ceiling and the wall. He held a paper bag in one hand and wore a pair of headphones around his neck. He went into the door and disappeared. “I don’t really see what this is—”
The man came flying out of the room. He pumped his arms, running as fast as he could. A second later, a woman in a white dress had him in her hands. It was a blur of movement that the eye could barely track, and yet, there she was, holding him against the wall with her bare hands. He was at least a foot taller than she, but terror was plain on his face. I couldn’t make out the woman’s face behind her wild wavey hair. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was Piper. She had the same long hair and the same build. But she didn’t move like Piper. She was fast, and more cat-like than anyone I’d ever seen.
She leapt up on the guy, using his own height against him, and shoved her head in between his neck and shoulders. “Is she . . . is she?”
The detective looked me over like he was gauging my reactions. “Biting him? Yeah.”
The woman suddenly ripped away from him and shoved him into the wall. The bald guy slammed back into the wall then melted to the floor in a heap. The woman backed away from him, clutching at her stomach. Then she heaved and a fountain of blood shot onto the floor and walls. It was everywhere. She sucked in deep breaths and used the edge of her dress to wipe her mouth.
“That’s just . . . disgusting.” I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Is he going to be okay? No! He’s not going to be okay! He’s lost a massive amount of blood, and it took fifty-seven stitches. His collar bones are broken, and both shoulders were dislocated. He still hasn’t woken up.”
I shook my head. “Is that the same person who killed Piper?”
The detective paused the movie just as the woman turned her head to the side, and they got a clear profile picture of her. “Lady, that is Piper.”
I grabbed the computer and dragged it closer to me and squinted at the screen. My heart stopped in my chest. Adrenaline flooded my body. I would know my bestie’s face anywhere. It was her. “What the fuck?”
“Why don’t you tell us?” the sergeant snapped. “This ain’t play time. There are man-hours here. People got hurt. Reporting someone missing is illegal. You think this is a game. Assault isn’t a game, and you two are in a whole mess of trouble.”
“What the hell?” Visions of Piper at the bottom of that grave covered in dirt and not a sign of life about her flooded my mind. “This can’t be happening.”
“It is. Now tell us where she is.”
“I-I have no idea. I-I thought she was dead.” I glanced at the screen once more. She was most definitely not dead. But was that her? She didn’t move like Piper and didn’t act like Piper. But she looked like her.
“Don’t play with me. We need to get her off the street before someone else gets hurt.” The sergeant rose to his feet and placed both hands on the table and leaned over me. His face turned beet red. “Where is she?”
I leaned back in the chair and crossed my arms over my chest. If that was Piper and she was alive, she’d need me now more than ever. I wasn’t the person who would rat her out even if I knew where she was. I was the person she could call to hide the body. “I don’t know and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
They shared a look, and the detective joined the sergeant, both of them standing over me like two big guys were going to intimidate me into talking. “Maybe we’ll let her cool off here for a while until she decides to open up.”
I kicked my legs up on the table and crossed them at the ankles. I raised my chin at the two of them. “Yeah, it’s going to be a long night for you ladies. Because I have nothing to say, and you can’t hold me here.”
“Try us.”
Oh, I will. Piper was out there somewhere, and I was going to find her before they did. I pressed my lips together and stared straight at my own reflection. There wasn’t a chance in hell I would give them an ounce of information. Good luck, boys.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
PIPER
I pumped my arms, running as fast as I could through the forest. Sticks and icy leaves crackled under my bare feet. The lingering scent of animals filled the air and yet none of them could satisfy the thirst that burned deep within my chest. I needed more, something stronger to satiate the never-ending desire. Every muscle in my body burned to move, to kill, to hunt. My thoughts turned to one thing . . . food. Branches snatched at my hair and tore the dress. I didn’t care.
The smell of something warm and tangy hit my nose, and I stopped short, digging my heels into the ground and skidding for a few feet. I hooked my hand around a tree, and it snapped in my grip and fell to the side. Branches crashed around me and broke over the other trees. I held the piece for a moment, studying all the tiny fragments of wood and the way they splintered. Every color, every facet was so easy to see. The sounds of little creatures scurrying away from a greater predator filled my ears.
