All the same, a room with this many bodies made the task a little more difficult, and Em was both annoyed and intrigued to find her headache had returned when she had entered the club. She wandered through the crowd, allowing her mind to ripple over every existence in the room. Just one gentle push at each and every mind, and then she'd pull right back if she didn't sense that dark and tell tale difference.
It was a motley group. Most were just civilians, a range of ages, but with some decidedly twisted tendencies showing. A good number were lower vampires - mostly Alina's staff, she guessed, and ...
Em had no idea what that was.
That mind wasn't human, nor had it never had been. It wasn't mortal, but it didn't feel entirely vampire either. It wasn't Family, and it wasn't wolf. It wasn't...
Em pushed a little further at the mind and shivered. Whoever it belonged to, it held more hostility than Em had ever encountered before. It wasn't a hostility based on hunger, or greed - it was hatred, Em realized. A hatred that made her decidedly uneasy. She pulled her thoughts back quickly, but even as she did, she was sure the mind had not been aware of her presence.
She scanned the crowd using her eyes instead of her mind, and began moving toward the corner of the room where she'd felt the ... whatever it was.
There were quite a collection of Alina's vampires there. Her muscled dancers were writhing together, all open shirts and tight jeans, and short skirts and bra tops. The doorman was there, standing to one side, a dark coloured drink in one hand, a girl pressed against his side. He stared at Em, and smiled thinly. He nodded toward the center of the group of dancers.
Em walked closer and then...
"Oof!" She'd walked right into a girl in a black net dress, who stepped aside to reveal Raeisa wrapped around - oh god - Jennifer.
Jennifer giggled, but Raeisa wiped a hand across her lips and started moving toward Em. Em felt the rest of the vampires in the group focus their attention on the pair of them. She heard Jennifer giggle again, and then, as Raeisa's fingertips brushed against Em's skin, the headache Em had been holding back exploded in a searing, burning burst of white hot noise so violently Em staggered and had to close her eyes.
She pushed out wildly and felt Raeisa stumble back. There was so much pain in her head, and then in one shocking instant, it disappeared until just the usual headache was left there, as if nothing had happened.
Raeisa stared at Em for a second or two, a very small smile curling around her lips. Em pushed with her mind again, and met the same unworldly hatred she'd felt earlier. Yes, there was no doubt about it now. Raeisa was the source of the hatred, and probably the headache too. But then Raeisa shrugged, and slung an arm around Jennifer, the two of them pulsing in time to the music. Had she even felt Em's mind touch?
The vampires in the group were still watching Em closely. Em glanced at the doorman. He looked at her darkly and shook his head almost imperceptibly. Em took one more look at Raeisa, and felt the tension in the watching vampires rise sharply. She turned away.
What the hell was that? wondered Em. What kind of bitch was Raeisa, and did Alina know what she was? Alina had introduced Raeisa as her favorite, remembered Em. But then she'd seemed nervous when Raeisa arrived during their talk after the killings. The vampires had seemed frightened just now. Of Raeisa? The red headed girl had seemed completely unaware of Em's searching energies pushing at her mind. Em had been pretty ruffled by whatever had caused that blast of pain in her head. The gentle push she'd been 'soul searching' the room with earlier was probably a less than subtle thrust when she tested Raeisa just then. Surely, any creature with any amount of power would have felt that! But Raeisa had just shrugged.
Em didn't have time for this right now. She was here to find this dealer. Raeisa could wait. She keep an eye on her, maybe send Jarek to sort her out. The dealer would be able to give her more information about Raeisa and Alina's relationship to her - so long as she asked him nicely, of course. Now she just had to find him.
She focused her mind, and the headache subsided to its usual dull murmur.
There he was. Not in a corner as she'd been half expecting, but right out in the open, leaning against the bar. Em pushed her way through the people gathered around him and suddenly stopped short. She hadn't actually expected her hypothesis to be right.
She did know this drug dealer. He was her dealer.
Em took a deep breath as the man turned a happily surprised smile toward her. "Em!" he exclaimed. "I've missed you. Let me buy you a drink."
Em stepped in and kissed him on the cheek. She whispered into his ear, "Will, we need to talk."
Em, Nick and Jarek stood outside an old warehouse at the end of a narrow alley. The alley ran down to the business end of the harbor. The marinas full of white super yachts, the boardwalk restaurants and cafes were way up the other end of the waterway. Down here it was all rotting fishing trawlers, barges spilling oil and old dinghies rocking against the seaweed covered harbor walls. There was a smell about the place, an old weary smell of things decaying. It was in the water, and in the buildings all around the water's edge.
Em had told Robert of her suspicions about a dealer associated with Alina's club. Her boss had quickly set the wheels in motion. A few meetings with Bec's lieutenant boyfriend and some others from the narcotics division and they'd all given the go ahead for a chat with Will. He wasn't the main picture, narcotics had said. Small fry compared to the meth heads and crack dealers in the main gangs. Talking with Will wouldn't disrupt any of their existing investigations, so pathology were free to step right in.
"Generous of them," Robert had muttered in disgust. He didn't do bureaucracy very well. "I'm glad to know our quest for justice and truth doesn't inconvenience their 'further investigations'."
He looked at Em over the messy collection of files on his desk. He was catching up on some paperwork.
"Take Nick and go pay this dealer a visit. See what he knows about Alina's club. We need a lead of some sort. We've got a morgue full of seriously mauled bodies and no clue at all as to what happened." He lowered his head into his hands and massaged his temples. He looked tired.
"Oh, and take that English guy with you, will you? What's his name again? Edwards. Jarek, wasn't it?" Em stiffened slightly. That wasn't going to be pleasant. She really didn't want Jarek and Nick anywhere near each other, but Robert was determined.
"He's after a full time role here, or a three year professional exchange, at any rate. Says he's got a girlfriend here and wants to live here eventually. He seems a nice enough guy, but check him out, will you? I can't offer him the role if he's not up to it."
Em had nodded. What could she do?
And so here they all were. One big happy criminology team - her human boyfriend, her demon ex-lover and the man who fetched her blood waiting just inside the warehouse door. Life couldn't get any more complicated, thought Em. She tried not to listen to Jarek's smug laughing inside her mind.
"It's locked," said Nick. "Damn. What a waste of time."
A look of intense scorn crossed Jarek's face and he turned to Nick with a sneer. "Since when is that a problem?" he hissed. "Are you as stupid as..." He stopped abruptly as Em whipped out a tendril of dark energy that smacked him upside his mind as thoroughly as if she'd punched him in the stomach.
Have you gone insane? she threw at him. British medical examiner, remember? You're supposed to be a dork.