“What the hell is going on?” Hale demanded as he stepped out of the convertible and strode toward them. “Trevor and I were at a club in the middle of talking to a cocktail waitress who’s sure she saw Ramiro Cordova Sunday before last, then we got your text telling us to meet you here ASAP.”
“Sorry about that,” Connor said, still focused on the laptop sitting on the hood of Trey’s Jeep. “But STAT sent me a link for a Skype meeting. Said it was urgent.”
“I hope so,” Trevor said, coming over to join them. “The waitress was going to talk to the manager about letting us see some of the club’s video footage. She’s pretty sure that soul-sucker woman was in the club around the same time as Cordova.”
Around lunch, STAT had finally come through with the identity of the desiccated body they’d found at the McCommas Bluff Landfill. Ramiro Cordova worked in the financial district as an investment analyst. Unlike the previous two victims, Cordova had only lived in the Dallas area for about a month or so. Trey guessed that was why it had taken STAT so long to come up with a name for the guy.
The four of them had spent most of the evening driving around the uptown club district, trying to find someone who might have seen Cordova. Trey and Connor had struck out, but it seemed that Trevor and Hale might have gotten lucky.
Since Connor was still busy setting up the Skype connection, Trey pulled out his phone to send a quick message to Samantha. He wanted to let her know that he was probably going to be late tonight and that it might be best if he met her at her place. Even if they didn’t do anything more than fall asleep in each other’s arms, that would be fine with him.
Trey immediately disregarded the handful of sports and news updates, homing in on the phone message from Samantha. The music in the last club they’d been in had been so loud he hadn’t even noticed his phone buzzing. He could only assume she’d called to say she finished up at the institute and was heading out.
He didn’t bother moving off to the side to play the message, since his pack mates would hear it anyway. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything to hide. One sniff at the preserve last night and all three of his teammates had known he and Samantha had slept together.
Trey listened as Samantha’s soft tones filled his ear, once again a little stunned at how his body reacted to the mere sound of her voice. But then he forced himself to focus on her words, a little worried when she started talking about stumbling onto something big that she needed to talk to him about. The fact that she asked him to call the minute he got a chance had his heart rate spiking.
But when he called her back, the phone ended up going to her voicemail. “I got your message, but I guess you’re busy with something.” he said after the beep, telling himself there was nothing to worry about. If Samantha had been in trouble, she would have said so in the message. “I have no idea when I’m getting done tonight, so I was thinking about heading to your apartment later. I know we talked about you coming to my place instead, but that might have to wait. Call or text me to let me know you got this and that you’re cool with me dropping by, even if it’s late.”
He almost screwed up and said the L-word right there at the end but bit his tongue in time. Samantha hadn’t said it, so he needed to chill out and let this thing develop in its own time. She might feel the soul-mate connection happening, but he couldn’t expect her to understand the feeling yet.
Shoving his phone back in his pocket, Trey turned his attention to Connor’s laptop to see a woman with long, blue hair on the screen. Okay, that wasn’t a look he expected from a covert federal organization.
“My name is Davina De Merci. I’m a consultant for STAT,” she was saying. “Sorry for the short-notice call, but we finally got a hit on the creature that has been leaving those desiccated bodies out there and thought you’d want to know right away.”
Trey almost laughed. “Having personally gotten my ass handed to me by this thing, I think I can answer for everyone when I say that yes, we’d like to know what we’re up against.”
Davina smiled. “If it helps, it was your accurate description of the creature that finally helped us identify her. If not for that, we’d still be looking.”
“Well, since I can’t help but see the creature’s face every time I close my eyes, it’s not like I’ll ever be able to forget what she looks like,” he said dryly. “So, what is this thing we’re dealing with?”
“The creature is called a vita lamia, which in Latin is roughly translated as life vampire.” Davina said, leaning in closer to her laptop camera. “They’re believed to be even older than their traditional vampire cousins who survive on blood. They are also extremely rare, which is part of the reason it took me a bit to figure out what you’re dealing with. A lot of smart people out there insist the vita lamia are nothing more than fairy tales.”
When Trey and the other members of his pack stood there staring at the screen, Davina apparently figured out she was rambling and pulled up with an embarrassed expression.
“So, right…vita lamia,” she picked up again. “As the name implies, they survive on the life force of other living entities. It doesn’t necessarily have to be human life, but apparently, we taste the best and provide the most nutrients.”
“Yay for humans, I guess,” Connor said. “If these things suck the life out of their victims, why haven’t we found more desiccated corpses like these last three?”
Davina shrugged. “Well, like I mentioned, these creatures are extremely rare. There are likely no more than two or three in the entire northern hemisphere. For another, according to the material I was able to find, most vitas survive by taking tiny amounts of life force through casual contact, like a handshake, a hug, or a kiss, even a light touch on the arm is enough. It’s not dangerous, and the person being fed on never realizes it. In fact, they don’t feel anything beyond a slight bit of exhaustion.”
Trevor frowned. “If these creatures normally nibble instead of gorge themselves as a way to avoid detection, why is this one draining people dry? Is she trying to get herself noticed?”
“All I can assume is that this woman is either newly created or untrained,” Davina said. “And before you ask, I don’t know a thing about either of those subjects when it comes to a vita. It’s also possible she’s simply become addicted to the life force she consumes. This happens with regular vampires sometimes. They develop a bloodlust and can’t stop themselves anymore.”
“Okay, let’s assume we’re dealing with a vita with impulse control issues,” Trey said. “How do we take her down? When I fought her, the wounds healed almost instantly. If vitas are related to traditional vampires, does that mean they have the same weakness? Will our werewolf life force be like acid to them?”