Chapter 13
The Detectives
Scarlett's POV
I attempt to mind link my Beta to ask him if we have an ETA as to when the human cops are expected to arrive, but very quickly find that he's blocking me from interrupting something that I don't want to be a part of. I just smile and shake my head just as one of my patrols mind links me to let me know that an unmarked police car has turned onto the road between the Crimson Snow Pack and the Midnight River Pack.
"They should be here any minute." I tell Bree, Dax, Blake, Serafina, Theo and Conan, just as Tasha and Channing return from showing Alpha Connor where they had found the human body and where the scents of the vampires are. It's then that we see two headlights heading our way.
The car comes to stop about 15 feet from us and out come two human police detectives. One them I know. Scott Buckingham, a good-looking guy (well, good-looking as far as humans go) with deep brown eyes and light brown hair that always looks like he has bed head. Add to that his slightly crooked smile that shows off his perfectly arranged, white teeth and he has the kind of easy, all-American boy good looks that you'd expect to find in a movie about a high school football team. Except he's no longer a high school student, instead he's actually my age. The other guy, shorter and stockier than Scott but cute in his own way with reddish-brown hair and soft green eyes, is not someone I know. It might just be his build, but he appears to be older than Scott which makes me wonder if he's Scott's superior who perhaps rides a desk most of the time, or if he's newly transferred from either another police department or another department within our local PD.
"Alpha Scarlett" Scott says with a nod as he walks towards me. Given the weariness of his voice, he's either been having a long night or he was woken up to respond to this call. I'm guessing it's the latter because Scott is one of the human cops that works a lot with the local packs. He's not from around here originally, but he is from an area that also has a werewolf population that is fairly well integrated with the area humans. Apparently, the werewolf population in his hometown was smaller, so the pups actually went to the same school as the humans, and all the students had both human and werewolf teachers. So, from a very young age, Scott was pretty knowledgeable of the shifter community. When he was getting his undergraduate degree, he spent a year studying at a werewolf university, which only deepened not only his understanding but his appreciation of our kind. As a police officer, he sees it as part of his job to not only maintain, but encourage ongoing, improved relations between the human and shifter communities. As far as humans go, Scott Buckingham is one of the good ones.
"Detective." I reply, giving him a grimace that is combined with a smile. "It's always good to see you; I just wish it were under better circumstances." I extend my hand to him and he shakes it as he and his partner reach our gathering of wolves.
"Agreed. Alpha, this is Detective Doug Fergeson. He recently transferred to homicide from narcotics." Scott introduces his partner. That explains why I've never met this one, as I've never had the opportunity to work with any narcotics detectives. But at the moment, I'd much rather be involved with bringing down a werewolf-run drug running operation instead of a vampire-inflicted human homicide bordering pack lands.
"Detective Fergeson, it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry it has to be under these conditions." I say, turning to shake his hand. "I'm Alpha Scarlett, the Alpha of the Crimson Snow Pack and these," I point to Bree and Dax, "these are my Gamma and Lead Warrior, Bree and Dax." Motioning to the others, I tell him, "this is Blake, Serafina, Theo and Conan, four more of my warriors. And this is Tasha and Channing, two of my trackers. Channing is the one who found the deceased." I hear someone clearing their throat near me. "Oh, forgive me, Alpha! And this is Alpha Raul Farkus, the Alpha of the Dark Sun Pack. He's visiting our pack." I hear a couple of snickers, obviously coming from some of my pack members who find it amusing that Raul is "just visiting" our pack.
"Dark Sun is a bit of a hike from here, isn't it?" Detective Doug asks. While I doubt he's at Scott's level of werewolf understanding, I have to admit I'm impressed that he seems to know where Raul's pack lands are. Or that he at least knows enough to know that they're not super close-by. What I don't like however, is the somewhat suspicious-sounding tone in his voice, as though he might be implying that Raul somehow has something to do with the dead human.
"Alpha Raul and Alpha Scarlett are close friends and they confer with each other a lot about goings on in their respective packs, Detective. It's not unusual to see Alpha Raul around these parts a couple times a month." Scott jumps in, obviously getting the same impression that I was from Detective Doug and wanting to nip it in the bud before offending either myself or Raul.
"Yes, Alpha Scarlett contacted me earlier today, alerting me about the strange scents that her patrols picked up around her pack lands. I came out here to get the scents for myself so I'd know what to be alert for around my own pack lands. By the time she and I were done discussing everything, a meeting with Leader Bruno was set-up for tomorrow—well, I guess later this morning now—so it made more sense for me to stay the night instead of heading home." Raul explains. Okay, so it's not EXACTLY the truth, but it's not an outright lie, either.
"The bear shifter?" Scott asks.
"Yes." I respond. "We contacted him when my patrols initially picked up the unknown scents around our pack lands. I'm sure you know that bears have a better sense of smell than wolves, so I thought he might be able to help us figure out what it was and even follow it further than we could." I sigh and look down where the drained human is lying. "But then this happened and seems to be confirming our worst fears."
Scott kneels next to the human male and with a gloved hand turns his head slightly and shines a flashlight on his face and neck. "Oh shit." He says seemingly to himself. If not for werewolves' enhanced hearing, I may not have heard him.
"'Oh shit' is right" Bree tells him as Detective Doug then kneels down across the body from where Scott it.
"Is that…?" he asks as he looks back up at Scott and then at me. And then back and Scott. And then back at me as though he's playing an invisible type of ping pong that will somehow result in us telling him that the human's wounds cannot possibly be from a vampire.
"Vampire bite?" I say before the detective dislocates his own head, turning back and forth between myself and Scott. "That's what we're suspecting. Between scents around our pack lands—which to us smell sickeningly sweet—to the way they just sort of evaporate into thin air, combined with this poor guy's wounds and the fact that he's just so…pale, vampires seem like the only explanation. My parents, who still live on our pack lands, also confirmed that they think it's also vampires. They were around years ago, the last time we did battle against the vampires." I explain.
"When was that?" Scott asks, standing up, while keeping his eyes on the deceased human, a sad look on his face.
"Over 20 years ago." I tell him. "I have some vague memories of that time, but I was too young to really remember much of it."
"Have there been any issues with vampires in the years since then?" Detective Doug asks.
Everyone shakes their heads.
"Not around here, at least." I confirm. "I don't know about other parts of the country, but I feel confident that we would've heard about it if there had been." Werewolves don't have many known predators, so word of vampire attacks would have spread even if they were isolated to only a small area on the other side of the continent.
"We're not on pack lands." Scott says as though he's just realized for the first time since getting here that he's in the no man's land between Crimson Snow and Midnight River. "What were your patrols doing this far outside your own pack lands?"
It's now Tasha's turn to chime in. "Ever since the earlier patrols picked up the scents, all the patrols have been extra attentive—Alpha's orders" she says, nodding in my direction. "And we—meaning the trackers like me and Channing—were told to be on ready alert in case the scents were picked up again, so we could hopefully follow them. When we got the alert, Channing and I just took off, following the scent. At first, we didn't even realize that we had left our pack lands, it was only when we realized that we were getting close to Midnight River did it dawn on us. But, we also knew that Alpha would want us tracking the scent no matter where it took us, so we just kept going until we lost the scent." She says, looking to me for confirmation.
I nod in agreement. If it meant catching these parasites, I'd have let Tasha and Channing run as far as their wolf legs would carry them.
"After we lost the scent and stopped, I decided to continue on further down that way" Channing says pointing in the direction of where he found the human's body. "to see if maybe I could pick it back up again. That's when I found him. In hindsight, I shouldn't have moved him, I know that – but like Tasha said, the fact that we weren't on pack lands didn't really cross our minds."
"I understand. It's okay. I think right now it matters more that when you did realize it, you called us." Scott says reassuringly to Channing. Given that a human victim is involved, we would have had to call the local PD even if this had occurred on pack lands. That's one of the understandings that the werewolves have with the humans – if a human is involved, the human authorities have to be notified, even if that means allowing them onto pack lands. "Can you take me to where you found him?" Scott asks Channing.
Channing simply nods and turns, walking in the direction of where the human presumably met a very unfortunate end, with Scott following him.
"Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions, Alpha?" Detective Doug asks me.
Chapter 14 coming soon