Page 61 of Loving A Vampire Is Total Chaos

“Very interesting.” I feather a finger along her jawline. “Looks like I was right.”

She recognizes my power over her and yet isn’t afraid of me. In fact, it turns her on.

My words break the sexually charged spell, and she turns, pushing against my chest. She might as well be a small child trying to push a large boulder up a hill. I don’t move in the slightest. Thankfully I had closed my mouth over my fangs, or she would’ve ended up a bloody mess when she pivoted.

“What the hell, Zav!” Celine shuffles away as far as she can from me and runs her hands over her hair adjusting her jacket along the way. She shakes her hands out like she wants to rid herself of the arousal she’s currently perfuming the elevator with. “Start the freaking thing again.”

Her glare is meant to be intimidating but just makes my erection that much harder. I simply smirk in response and hit the button. It starts back up and we take the rest of our ride down in silence.

CHAPTER 27

CELINE

Police lights flash, casting shadows on the surrounding buildings.

A forensic photographer’s camera flashes, blending in with the reds and blues. The bloody scene is just as much of a massacre as every other time this serial killer has struck.

A stray flash of heat rolls through my body as I approach Captain Barnes. Flustered from the elevator earlier and needing distance from whatever that was, I drove as fast as humanly possible on the way here. Thankfully, Zavier took pity on me and didn’t say anything else about it in the car. Feeling his dominating aura in such an enclosed space afterwards, though, was torture.

Holding the caution tape above my head and ducking under, I cast one last glance back at my car. True to his word, Zav sits in the passenger seat like a seemingly perfect angel. His tall form looks hilariously normal folded into the vehicle and at the same time too ethereal for this world.

Zav must feel my eyes on him because he tilts his head in my direction and smirks. He waves mockingly and I shoot him my best no-nonsense glare to which he only grins more. Shiny white teeth sit in a perfect row, no fangs to be found. I roll my eyesand try to forget he’s on the scene with me when he definitely shouldn’t be.

“You okay, Brennan? You’re not supposed to be here. Time off, remember?” He arches a scolding brow in my direction. “Do you feel up to being here?”

His concern is sincere. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I kick a rock that sits right in front of my boot. “I’m good as I can be. That’s not to say it’s not shocking but I’ve been distracted for the most part. But I heard there was another crime from the Mayhem Murderer so I wanted to be here to see it first-hand.” I’m sure he knows Ava blabbed to me, who else would have, but I don’t want to explicitly throw her under the bus.

If I’m honest with myself, it’s been kind of nice not working and the small voice in the back of my head that says I should think about a career change is getting louder and louder. It makes me feel guilty thinking that way, and I shake my head at the thought for now. It’s not something I have time to dwell on at the moment.

Captain Barnes glances at my car and back to me before he nods. It’s impossible for him not to notice Zavier, but he doesn’t comment on the giant six-foot-plus man squished into my tiny car.

“I wish I had a better update for you, but we’re still trying to locate the bastard who broke in. We spotted him on a CCTV downtown at one of the clubs, but we haven’t gotten a name yet.” A folded-up photo crinkles in his hand when he pulls it out of his back pocket. Sure enough, the same hooded figure can be seen in the darkness of night slipping into the back door of none other than Vex.

My lips part in surprised horror.

This has to have something to do with my suspicions surrounding the club. Nothing else makes sense.

Mistaking my silence for fear, Captain Barnes rests a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Celine. I promise we’ll find him.”

I nod and clear my throat. “I appreciate it, sir. Now”—I turn to head toward the crime scene— “what’s going on here?”

Captain sighs and his hand falls back down to his side knowing I'm not one for emotion. “Frank Denvers. Charged with abuse, murder, and other things I don’t care to reiterate. He’s been on the loose for the last two years and somehow stayed under the radar, but it seems like he’s met his match with Mayhem.”

My eyes widen at the captain’s use of the nickname since we usually try not to use such language when talking about perpetrators.

Strolling around the perimeter of the body, I take in the scene before me. Just like all the other murders, the body has been mutilated and broken apart into a mass of limbs and stringy tissue. It’s disgustingly gory and formed in a hauntingly macabre picture as is the signature of the killer. Instead of the smiley face it’s been in the past it’s a heart.

I bend down, inspecting it.

Captain crouches beside me, his eyes boring into the side of my face. “Why do you think it’s different now? After all this time what changed?”

Standing, I plant my hands on my hips. I open my mouth to respond but stop when I feel a drop of rain hit my cheek. Another drop and another follow soon after before a torrential downpour berates us.

“Stay here! I’ll grab an umbrella!”

The captain jogs away as a team of crime scene officials hurry over with a pop-up tent to keep the body out of the rain until we can move it since the abandoned building’s roof is littered with massive holes.

These crimes are gruesome—to say the least—and now that I know vampires are real, I can’t help but wonder if the Mayhem Murderer is one or another type of supernatural. It couldn’t be Zav, I don’t think. He’s too goofy to go around slaughtering people like this.

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