Ricky

Goddamn, he was a mess.

Ricky had known he was in trouble when Melanie had rocked up to his house, told him they would have to band together and work a case because everyone else had done a runner. But if he was being totally honest with himself, Ricky shouldn’t even be driving. The pills Draven had given him were almost gone, yet the pulse of magic under his skin simmered, as if it were waiting for its chance to be free of whatever kept it at bay for the moment.

And now Ricky was sitting in his car outside a crime scene, waiting for Melanie to come back from talking to one of the uniforms, willing the tremble in his hands to cease. Glancing up into the mirror, an exhausted face stared back at him. Red swollen eyes peered back at him with judgement, and Ricky looked away quickly. Twenty-four hours had passed since they’d gone to the first crime scene at Chester’s. Lack of man power resulted in an hour of broken sleep in the bunker. Right now, there was still a couple of hours before sunrise. At least the little murderous bitch had been considerate to commit her murders early in the evening.

Pulling his phone from his jeans pocket, Ricky cleared his throat as he dialed Draven’s number.

“Ricky, how are you?”

“I need more pills, Draven.”

Draven gasped in his ear and swore, muttering to himself before he said, “I gave you a month’s worth of pills…please do not tell me you have used them all up in less than four days.”

“I can still feel the magic.”

“Then I’m afraid you need more help than I can provide, my friend. You are at war with the magic side of yourself, and at this point in time, the magic is stronger willed than the man.”

“But,” Ricky said, unable to mask the pleading tone in his voice. “Just gimme a few more pills. We’ve had our asses handed to us right now, Draven. One more lot and once this case is done and dusted, I’ll get help.”

“No,” his friend replied. “I will not be the reason why you go mad. Unless you find a happy medium with your magic, Ricky, it will burn you up from the inside. I’m sorry.”

“C’mon, Draven. You know I’m good for it. I can pay you, if it’s money you want. I can stop anytime, ya know? I just need to get through this case without losing it. C’mon, Draven, help a brother out.”

“And you already start to sound like an addict. Please, Ricky, the council can help you.”

A knock sounded on the car window, and Ricky hung up the phone. Melanie lifted her eyebrow up in question, to which he just shrugged. Getting out of the car, Ricky allowed himself a brief second to take her in. Dressed in dark leggings, Converse high tops, Melanie wore a maroon T-shirt with ‘you only live once unless you’re a Winchester’ under a leather jacket. With her gorgeous copper hair falling just below her shoulders, hands perched on her hips as she waited for him, Ricky imagined what it would be like to stride up to Melanie, take her face in his hands, and kiss the ever-loving hell out of her in front of all these people.

But, right now, as volatile as his magic was, as new as she was to her undead life, Ricky didn’t want to rush anything with her. With Sadie, they had fallen fast and hard, engaged a few months after meeting, and soon enough, their wedding came upon them. Perhaps they’d rushed into things and that’s why Sadie had cheated. It was one of the things he had fixated on many a dark night while he smothered his feelings with alcohol and women.

“Hey, earth to Ricky. You okay?”

Melanie’s voice dragged him from his thoughts and he nodded, not trusting his voice right now. They headed into the creepy bar, down the stairs, until they reached the dance floor, his boots sticking to the floor. Shuddering to think what kind of fluids were on this flea infested floor, Ricky continued to study the scene.

Dead vampires—well, fully dead vampires—lay on the sticky dance floor in various positions of disarray. He could tell that their lives had ended by the greyscale colouring of their skin and the mouldy smell of death that hung in the air. Bones were broken in weird angles and there was enough blood spilled on the ground for Ricky to know that one or more of the vampires had major arteries nicked, slowing them down so that the little ninja girl could inflict more suffering. Even the vampire who appeared to be crawling away from the fray had failed to heal his injuries due to lack of blood.

That was a little titbit that vampires didn’t want you to know. Draining one of enough blood could send them off into their second death. And the only reason Ricky knew this was because Caitlyn had told him when he’d been a rookie and had asked the beautiful vampire to teach him vampire weakness.

“There’s so much blood in here.”

Melanie’s hushed whisper snapped him to attention. Her eyes darted around the room, and Ricky could only imagine what she smelled. This particular club was known for its open policy to feeding. No doubt Melanie had picked up the intermingled scents of human and vampire blood and it made her hungry.

“Hey, Lanie. Look at me.”

Her eyes turned to him as Ricky stepped into her. He put his hands on her hips, and Melanie jerked slightly, yet stayed in his grasp.

“Don’t think about it. Remember you have no need to breathe. Take a deep breath in and focus on me, my scent. Hold onto it while we work.”

Melanie did as Ricky asked, pressing herself up against him, and damn, did his vampire girl feel good in his arms. His pulse quickened as she inhaled. No doubt Melanie could sense the lust in his scent, but that had never been their problem, had it? Since day dot, the chemistry between them had been combustible, a spark that would blaze when ignited. Stepping back suddenly, her nostrils flared. Annoyance flashed in her eyes as she glared at him.

“That doesn’t help much.”

Ricky flashed her a grin as he winked. “No. But it gave you something else to think about. Bet you feel so much better now.”

She gave her head a brisk shake, but Ricky could see Melanie tying to conceal a smile as she walked toward the bodies. Ignoring the untidy mass of corpses, she went straight to the one who lay in a heap in the corner. Pulling a pair of plastic gloves from her pocket, Ricky moved to the opposite side as Melanie crouched down to examine the body.

“Every kill looks like she had a specific target, right?”

Ricky nodded as he snapped on his own gloves and pulled down the collar of the vampire’s shirt. There it was in bold. “She’s got her own signature. Did she mark any of the other kills with the brand?”

Melanie got up and examined the other victims and came back over. “No, just this one.”

Ricky rose to his full height and glanced around. “So, she came in, waited until she lured him in, and then killed him in full view of all the humans and other vampires. Girl’s either tough as nails or stupid as fuck.”

Melanie folded her arms across her chest as she stood. “Or she’s over confident in her skills. I mean, this girl took on all of these vampires and came away without a scratch.”

One of the uniforms came up to them, advising them that there was CCTV footage of the killings and it was a heck of a show. Melanie and Ricky made to go check it out, but a commotion sounded on the stairs that snagged both their attention.

Rolling his eyes as the head of the Cork vampires came down the stairs as if he were royalty, security in front and behind him, Ricky felt Melanie stiffen beside him.

“What kind of amateur game are you both playing at? I mean look at all this carnage! How could you let this happen?” Chester exclaimed, his face full of entitled splendour.

“It’s a P.I.T investigation, Chester. These things take time.”

“And I’m just supposed to wait around while more of my innocent vampires are slain?” Chester shot back at Ricky.

“Dude, chill out. It’s not like they were the salt of the earth or anything. From what I heard, dead guy over there liked girls who didn’t look quite legal.” The words flew from Melanie’s lips as Chester turned his attention to her.

“There is no evidence that Horace had a liking for young girls,” Chester said.

“Liar.” Melanie snorted, then blanched in fear as Chester scrutinized her further.

“What Melanie means,” Ricky started, drawing Chester’s attention away from Melanie, “is that the gossip around the place is that Horace and a few of his cronies liked stuff that was not strictly within the confides of the council’s laws. Perhaps, they managed to keep his indiscretions from you somehow, Chester.”

“I know all about the vampires in my territory. Maybe I need to get to know more about Agent Newton.” To Melanie, Chester gave a smile of someone who had found something new and shiny to play with. “I know who your sire is, but I also know who her sire is. I know what Caitlyn is capable of. She passed those gifts onto Donald; I can tell. If I looked inside of you, Agent Newton, what delicious secrets might I find?”

Anger, white and hot in its rage, seeped through him and Ricky reacted before he thought better. He wrapped his hand around Chester’s throat and pinned him to the wall a second later. “You don’t look at her or so much breathe in her direction, or I swear I will burn you to a fucking crisp.”

Heat crept into the palm of his hand and Chester let out a yelp as his bodyguards loomed over Ricky’s shoulder. Chester’s eyes bulged, and Ricky could swear that the magic in him purred. A hand on his arm had Ricky glancing to his right.

Melanie watched him cautiously with a quirked brow and said, “Okay, can you let Chester go, please, before Sarge has another political incident on his hands. C’mon, you’ve made your point…growl and snarl…you’re a badass.”

Ricky chuckled, loosening his hold on Chester’s throat, trying to ignore the print of his hand on Chester’s skin. As Chester gave a little cough, Melanie sighed and strode away.

“That, Richard, lacked a serious amount of common sense. My men could have killed you.”

“What I lack in common sense, I make up for it with sarcasm.”

Ricky jogged after Melanie into a small side office where Melanie studied a small monitor. He wondered if he should apologize for his yoyo actions. One minute, Ricky pushed her away; the next, he was acting like no one but him had the right to admire her. But, keeping his trap shut, he leaned over her shoulder and watched the video as she pressed play.

A figure came into focus, evidently female, swaying to the music. Her hood was pulled up, so Ricky could not get a clear view of her face. After a few minutes of dancing, Horace, their victim, hopped down from a balcony, suddenly coming into view. He pressed up behind the young woman and they moved toward a secluded corner when the girl went all ninja, and seconds later, Horace was dead.

Pandemonium broke out in the club, but the girl seemed not to notice. A gang of vampires surrounded Horace’s killer, one of them trying to be brave and acting first. The woman dispatched him with an effortless ease that Ricky had only seen once or twice in his lifetime. The woman made short work of the others, slicing and dicing with a wicked looking scythe. Her hood slipped, and a mass of black hair came into view. The woman was about to end the vampire when she suddenly stopped and spun round.

Now that they had a full view of her face, Ricky was taken aback at how much like Caitlyn the girl was. Melanie paused the video.

“I’m not the only one seeing the resemblance, right?” Melanie quizzed Ricky.

“Nope. I was just thinking the same thing.”

“But.” Melanie lowered her voice as she glanced up with those haunting green eyes of hers. “It can’t be right. I mean, this girl is the spitting image of Caitlyn.”

Ricky found himself leaning closer, as if Melanie was a magnet pulling him to her. “For now, let’s keep this to ourselves. We have enough on our plate without Chester getting more involved in this than he already is.”

“Got it. I’ll take the only copy of the video so no one else can join the dots. What are you looking at?”

Ricky had shifted his attention back to the screen, leaned over Melanie, and pressed play. The Caitlyn lookalike stared at a blonde who hugged her and looked genuinely surprised to see her. The killer walked away from the woman without a second look and disappeared up the stairs.

“Nobody mentioned a witness,” Ricky stated, waiting until Melanie removed the disk, slipping it into her pocket before exiting the office. Chester and his cronies still gathered around the dead vampires.

As soon as both Ricky and Melanie came into view, Chester’s bodyguards formed a protective circle around the age-old vampire. Ricky grinned and slipped past them, while Melanie shrugged her shoulders.

“Agents…”

They cast their eyes in Chester’s direction.

“I would like to be kept in the loop if you please. I may be of more assistance than you think.”

“We’ll be sure to hit you up should we require you to hide behind your little entourage. Leave the hard work to the police, ’kay?”

Ricky gave a chuckle as Melanie jogged up the stairs and followed her, trying and failing not to stare at her cute little behind as he did. They headed back to Ricky’s car, giving instructions to the uniforms to allow Chester to take the bodies of his vampires away. After they got in the car, they sat there for a few minutes, not saying a word.

When the silence became too much for Ricky, he leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and groaned. “Why do I have a feeling this case just got hella complicated?”

“What’s going on with you?”

“I’m just tired.”

“That’s not it and you know it.”

Observant little thing, aren’t you.

“I promise, I’m good. Listen, it’s been a long week, I’m sure you remember. In the past week, I’ve been seduced by a succubus, stabbed by a gorgeous redhead, lost control of my powers, and burnt down a very exclusive hotel. Now, we have a wannabe vigilante to catch and Chester frayed my last nerve. I’m still hungover, need about two weeks of sleep, or a holiday. But I’m okay.”

From the look Melanie shot in his direction as he turned to face her, Ricky could tell she tasted the lies in his words. Yet, she didn’t call him on his bullshit.

Melanie simply nudged him with her shoulder. “I wish I could get hold of Caitlyn and ask her what might be going on. I hope she’s okay.”

Ricky started the car, driving back toward the station. “Caitlyn’s made of strong stuff. She hasn’t been alive for this long without a backbone of steel. Donnie will catch up with her, you know he will. But now, we can hold the fort here. I think we need to run this mystery blonde through facial recognition and find out what she knows about our grim reaper. We hold this team together until they come back. And they will come back.”

Melanie nodded and cast her gaze out at the rain beginning to trickle down the car’s window. Ricky turned on the radio, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel to a classic rock track. Flickers of blue sparked from his fingertips. For a moment, the magic inside him surged and he gritted his teeth.

“Unless you find a happy medium with your magic, Ricky, it will burn you up from the inside.”

Draven’s words played over and over in his mind. But Ricky had made a point of refusing to make the most of the power inside him. His dad’s expectations for the good son who emulated his dad’s power and willingness to conform to tradition sent him running the other way. Bucking against the rules and expectations of his father’s legacy, Ricky ignored all the warnings, all the principles, and all the obligations that came with having power. His mother always told him having magic was an honour. And it was, it really was. Until it became a shackle.

“You will never amount to anything, boy. Magic is who we are. What we are. Your rebellions disgrace the family. You are not fit to carry on my legacy, the name I built. If you do this, if you join the guards and forgo your seat on the council, you are no longer my son.”

His dad had disowned him that night. Ricky walked from the house, leaving his mother in tears, and his brother begging him not to go. And he’d never looked back until now. Now when the magic he’d tried so hard to ignore came back to bite him in the ass, just like his dad predicted.

Doing what he always did, Ricky swallowed the magic building up inside of him, locking it away mentally as best as he could. Couple more days, he could do it. He could spread out the measly few pills he had left and work the case. He would not fall victim to his dad’s words of warning and be overwhelmed by the magic inside of him.

Ricky knew he’d find a way around…or die trying.