C.O.P.S.
Love Hurts
Do you know how low a seven-foot man can go? Not very. My sister ducked effortlessly under the crime scene tape then waited. I couldn't go over, it was crossed all over the top half of the doorway and under was about 2 feet high of clearance. She raised her eyebrows with a smirk so I just walked straight through. She snorted as I apologized to the other cops and re-taped the crime scene banners at a height I could go under.
"Love hurts." She said gesturing to the couple in their bed. The smell of blood excited the red court instinct in me. My markings stood out on my pallid complexion and my wide black eyes goggled around surveying the room.
One little pistol was clutched in the woman's hand and a clean entry wound was on that side of her head while a messy exit wound was on the opposite of the man's head. They were in the act when they died, but once dead the bodies did all those unromantic things dead bodies do.
I was creeped out by the way I related to the victims. They liked Queen, old vinyl instead of CDs, and they had left the lights on during the act. I could tell because all the lamps were on; CPD doesn't bother turning on all the lamps, they flip switches. I flicked the light off. It was the kind of atmosphere I'd romance a girl with. I flicked it back on and shrugged off Karen's quirked eyebrow. One wall was covered with pictures from a carnival, museums, and all the usual tourist hotspots. It seemed they went on the same date every day for a week. Have you ever been so enamored with someone that you take every opportunity to take a photo of them: Sleeping, eating, cleaning, cooking, playing with animals, or reading on the couch? There were lots of those kinds of pictures in the room as well. I had lots of those kinds of pictures too. Not as many but I have an adorable person I've spent the majority of my life with. Those photographs were accumulated over years these seemed to have been collected inside a week.
"Matching t-shirts? Creepy!" I said to Karen.
"It gets better." She said trying to joke but failing to cover her sickened face.
"What were their names?" I asked examining the framed pictures; an elderly couple flanking the couple from the bed, a picture of the couple as late teens on a tropical beach with the older couple.
"Greg and Cindy Bardalacki." She answered. I looked around for wedding pictures then to the couple for any sign of rings.
"Oh hell's bells… Jesus Murph they weren't a married couple, they were siblings."
"Married, no." she said with a grimace. She eyed the body then sighed tiredly. "Couple, yes."
"Well that explains it. Uh, lets get out of here before it spreads…" I said hurrying my own sister out of the room. She chuckled a little then followed me out.
"What can you tell me?" she asked, nodding for forensics to go on in. we walked to the stairs where no one could hear us. No one who cared noticed my tiger stripes because I'd taken to wearing hoodies and a beard. I looked like the uni-bomber but at least I didn't look like a one of John Carpenter's nightmares.
"No sign of magic on the scene so they weren't forced to do any of this as of today, but I'm sure you don't think these are really suicides either."
"I know they killed themselves, I just don't think they would have without a nudge." Karen looked vulnerable. Every time we went toe to toe with a white court vampire she was fed on. The memory of something crawling around in her head, and thinking someone else was being put through the same made her look fragile and scared. It smelled absolutely delicious. I dared not offer her any comfort. She didn't like being frail or needing a man to comfort her. Perhaps she had become desensitized to it but I growled and she didn't react at all.
"Yeah, I'm thinking I know what that nudge is. Love. But you figured it too, huh?" I said drying my palms on my pants.
"It's what makes sense. Three couples commit suicide in 4 days?" she brushed her red hair out of her face. Once I was off the force she stopped dying her hair my hair color and experimented with other colors like black and copper. This time she had rich auburn hair with lowlights of a brown of the same brightness but lacking red. Most of the old colors were chopped off in favor of her punkie wedge haircut.
"Sure but none of them were quite this crazy." I snarled feeling the red court features go back to my normal face.
"They knew it was wrong but couldn't help how they felt." Karen said holding her arms as if the apartment was cold. "They knew their relationship would never be accepted so they went somewhere it didn't matter." She shrugged.
"New Jersey? Sweden? France? I'm just saying they had options." I scoffed.
"Why do you even?" she trailed off shaking her head. "I'm looking into a common denominator; with three victims it'll be a lot easier. You ask Luccio if the council found any black magic in the area." She pointed at me. Normally she would have poked me or punched me. I rolled my eyes at the mention of my ex. A while back the Captain of the wardens, Anastacia Luccio got freaky-Friday-ed permanently with some cute little necromancer. With a brand new libido and me able to tap into my soul for power, we stood a mutual gain to uh… screw like bonobos. That aside, I fell for her, then she dumped me.
"Ugh, maybe I'll ask McCoy instead." I nodded at the stairway so she would go down the stairs with me.
"Trouble in paradise?" she scoffed.
"Paradise was just a hologram. She was mindboinked into dating me."
"How relevant." Karen said looking back at the apartment's closed door. "If it makes you feel any better, Jared and I broke it off."
"What happened?"
"When I saw him and Ivy I realized I wanted that; a husband and a kid. He wants strictly casual so I broke it off."
"Not quite being dumped but it'll do." I laughed feebly. She snorted.
Two days later Karen told me to take her to the carnival. I wasn't busy or anything so I agreed skeptically. I should have dressed better. I wore a t-shirt that spelled fiction out of religious symbols and jeans with a flannel button up and sneakers, she wore a short yellow sundress with lace shoulders, back, and sleeves with black belt and black sunhat with black convers high tops. I rolled the window down and shouted to her as she locked her door.
"The door is jammed, you'll have to Luke Duke it." She eyed me and the door then grabbed the top of the doorframe and swung in through the window effortlessly and with all the poise of a ninja action hero. "Black panties too. Is this a date?" I laughed as she buckled her seatbelt.
"Kind of. I found the common denominator. Hey, click it or ticket!" She said as I headed toward the interstate. I buckled my seatbelt rolling my eyes.
When we got there we slowly swept the entire grounds: nothing. I suggested we kill some time waiting for the sun to go down so we got some tickets and went on any ride that promised to make me puke. Next we stopped to eat and I felt it. The sun set electrified me as a wizard and as a vampire, I felt it to the 10th power. I felt stronger, bader. Karen shivered.
"Cold?" I asked ready to strip my button up off and offer it.
"No, just creeped out a little." She said looking a certain direction. I extended my senses that way and felt it too.
"Good job sis." She didn't have powers but she had instincts. Growing up around wizards ghosts ghouls and goblins will do that to anyone. We followed it by a tunnel of terror then backtracked and figured the black magic must be within. We paid our tickets and went on in. I found seatbelts in the ride and lifted an eyebrow. "Click it or ticket."
She snagged the belt and fastened it then crossed her arms defiantly. We went through the ride and felt dumb for being scared by such a dumb ride. Toward the end we decided to get out and sweep it properly, with flashlights and stuff. We did and found nothing, no magic spells or sorcerers behind curtains. The ride operator was a bit upset that we got out the car but he drew an unnecessary conclusion I didn't care to straighten out. We checked the outside and around the general area.
"Tunnel of terror, we are so cool!" she started laughing.
"Hey we were only keyed up because we thought real monsters were gonna jump at us." I laughed.
"That makes it so much worse." She laughed even harder. Once she got her breath she made an angry noise. "I really thought this was it." Karen said kicking a cup toward the overstuffed trash bin.
"Hey we'll solve this, I promise. This was just a bum lead, it's not the end." I said holding her hand. She pretended to smile at me then we walked hand in hand to one of the games where I won her a big stuffed Doberman in a fake spiked collar. She snorted and accepted it and cotton candy, looking adorable compared to the over sized offerings. She was almost trampled by some little kids running in a herd. I pulled her close to me but didn't let go right away. She cleared her throat and let me lead her through the crowd by the hand until we got to the car.
I opened her door for her and she blew out a sudden puff of angry breath. "The door worked?"
"Ha-ha. Sorry." She shook her head and sat primly in the passenger seat letting me see the scolding expression on her face.
"Harry, why don't we do things like this more often? We use to be so close."
I shrugged. "I can't risk being around you any more. When I took on the winter mantle I lost what little self control I had left. I don't want to hurt you like that again." I got into the driver seat remembering the dozens of times she'd had to subdue me from biting her or after biting her, and got my belt on. "We changed. Things changed."
"A lot of things…" she said "why had we never…" she trailed off and blushed. It was so cute on her. My heart was trying to break out of my rib cage.
"Just like that? No more dynamic duo, no more Murphy twins? Just US?" I blinked. She fidgeted, struggling over some line of thought, then cupped my face and pulled me into a kiss. It was slow, shy, and sweet, but didn't lack passion. It let it build. Her Chap Stick tasted like berries, her breath was sweet from cotton candy. She was so cute. I lunged onto her, or tried but the stupid belt stopped me. I fumbled with our belts, and hit myself with the damn thing but didn't let it affect me. I was on a mission to kiss Karen until I could assimilate her into me. Latch on like an anglerfish. Make her a part of me somehow. I wanted to swallow her hole. I could. I felt my skin grow hot and saw the tattoos on my hand as I watched my hands explore her hair, neck and body.
Karen laughed softly into the kiss. "I like this."
"Me too."
"What took us so long?"
"Taboos, upbringing, other people… forget all that. Were here now."
"We are." Karen said euphorically, pulling me into another kiss. I slithered between the seats to the back of the Blue Beetle and pulled her onto my lap. We kissed, exploring all we could reach, getting bolder with every breath. I reached under her dress and massaged her womanhood through the black panties. She began to pant into my mouth, such a hot desperate feeling. I moved her into a sidesaddle position so I could remove the aggravating article; she helped then straddled me again. My thumb found a good spot that made her flinch and jerk and make cute little noises in the back of her throat. She let out a moan then assaulted my face with a quite passionate kiss.
My spit isn't as powerful as a full vampire's but kissing me too long does still do things to people. I could feel Karen slipping I cut off the kiss and pushed her shoulders to the back of the front seats. She touched herself all over, feeling my narcotic spit like static all over her body, while I struggled with my pants then when I was ready she used my shoulders as leverage to position herself onto me. I watched her eyes lull back in her head and felt her swivel and rock her hips. I moved slowly at first then to her frantic pulling and moaning I increased speed. She made an odd happy sound like a moan and a laugh put together then leaned in for another kiss. I cut it off early so she kissed and licked my ear and neck.
My eyes rolled. This was so good. Too good. She rocked faster, dug her hips deeper, then found her footing and sort of bounced on me. Oh it felt great when she did all three. She twisted in the seat with a look of pure mischief on her face and used the front passenger seat to hold herself up. My fangs parted my lips, I felt my eyes grow, and I licked the drool off the bottom of my chin with my long vampire tong.
She crawled around then stood on her knees on the back seat, straddling me facing the other direction and moved atop me like a belly dancer. I could comfortably cup her breasts now so I did, with one hand and tucked the other under her dress again. Oh no, this felt so good. So right, so amazing… until I sank my fangs into the meat where the neck meets the torso.
Her body went rigid and tightened, her head whipped back and she let out an amazing noise. I was thrilled into climax as well and pulled her tight to me. My eyes went suddenly dry, and I didn't care about what happened I needed to kiss her. No I needed to taste her.
NO.
I stopped myself from biting her neck again then turned her face to kiss. She sat sidesaddle again, and clung to me like I was floating away.
"Toward the end there something occurred to me." She said pensively with a hint of torture. "This seems too good to be true."
"I was thinking about the same thing." I admitted. "You think we got whammied?" I asked after a long pause just leaning my face into her throat. She giggled. Oh it was so cute on her, I had to pull her into another kiss. When I had to break it off she gave a grousing bedroom giggle again
"I don't see when. I never felt a thing. We ate different things… a ride maybe? Stars and stones, It sucks to think this wasn't real." She said holding my hand to her chest with both of hers, kissing the knuckles.
"Damn it. I would like for once to be happy without it being an evil plot against me." I said clinging onto Karen as if we could make it real; make it not a spell. I eyed the puckered bite on her neck with a little shame in myself. Oh god we realized it and just kept going didn't we? That was wrong all by its self. We went back into the carnival and went back for the tunnel of terror. As we figured it, this was where the malevolent feeling stemmed from, and it was one of the only rides that we were really close to each other in.
The old carnie saw us and looked like he was going to say something snappy about the ride but I went all vampire looking and leapt 7 feet to land face-to-face with him, snarling.
"Oh, god, you're one of them!" he cried out before trying to run. I grabbed him and flicked some switches to light up the ride while Karen caught up to us.
"Where's the bolt hole?" Karen asked. He asked what she meant blearily. "Trap door, hidey hole, crawl space!" she jerked him.
"I can't she'll kill me!"
"She won't have enough left if you don't pipe up pipsqueak!" I snarled. He pointed shakily and I looked down right under the curtain. "Here." I growled, opening it. "No wonder we didn't notice." I dropped down, and Karen took the ladder, but once we were at the bottom we got into usual position; me front and center, shield at the ready, her a step back and to the right, her 1911 at the ready.
As we crept through the lab fashioned out of a buried train car, we came to a well lit car with computers and more lab equipment. A mid sized woman channeling the sexy nerd/librarian/mad scientist look was talking to a militant type and looked up at us as we opened the car door. Murphy knelt and held her weapon aimed at the militant dressed man. His BDU pants and combat boots were mismatched with a Knob Creek Gun Show shirt.
"Mr. Murphy." She said. I noted my name sounded so much cooler in a British accent. "I am Baroness LeBlanc, it is a pleasure." I got a slithering sensation over my forhead and snarled, shaking off the mental invasion. Karen fixed her eyes on the woman's knees. She knew not to look anything from the nevernever in the eyes. "You are trespassing on my territory, Mr. Murphy. I would be completely within the accords to have you and your mortal dispatched with haste." She said as a matter of fact. "If you do not leave with equal haste, I shall consider it a declaration of war."
"You're breaking the laws of magic. To enforce the laws and protect these mortals, I'l gladly kick off another war."
"That's irrational, completely—"
"Thaaaats Harry!" Karen interrupted her.
"My work here has no malicious intent. Honestly you should be supporting my efforts."
"To drive people insane with passion until they off themselves?"
"well… there are side effects."
"You're kidding me!"
"I'm creating love!"
"But it isn't real." Murphy said.
"You think this is love? You're warping people into feeling things that they don't want to feel." I said at the same time.
"Do you love this woman?"
"Yeah, but this isn't anything new."
"But it does feel new, doesn't it? New yet entirely indistinguishable from your genuine emotions." she said excitedly. Note to self, make Karen use English accent.
"What's the point?" Karen asked.
"Population!" she licked her lips.
"Bull! You're muscling out the competition. If everyone in the world id in love, the White court will die out."
LeBlanc smiled. "Indeed that may be a side effect, but isn't it worth it to be rid of one demographic of predator and at the same time enjoy perfect bliss?"
"While you can build up your own numbers and renew your war against the Wizards?" she scoffed.
"Oh but you are so noble and pure?" LeBlanc cried out angrily.
"The Red King has a special cage just for you, Mr. Murphy. Its lined with blades so if you fall asleep you'll be gouged back awake. The bottom is a bowl so you'll stand in your own waste."
"Shut your mouth!" Karen warned her.
"But don't worry about your pet. We'll put her in with you. You'll both starve until you inevitably feed on her and become ours completely." She smiled brightly.
"I said shut your mouth!"
"and we'll have spears to poke you in your tiny cage, and flay you-"
"SHUT UP!" Karen cried training her gun on the Vamp.
"Karen no!" I cried out. Knob Creek drew on us so I put up my shield and deflected the bullets. Hilariously, one bullet bounced off my shield into his shin. He dropped but LeBlanc charged us. I threw out my right hand and frigid gales met her mid leap. Desks, computers, and miscellaneous lab equipment flew down the space to pile up against the wall while she struggled against it, turning black and batty.
The vampire's flabby form became rigid then frosted over, glazed over, and finaly began to crumble while the glass around her shattered.
We found a few ride belts and figured they were past attempts at the juju so we burned them all, and burned the belt from the ride. The two humans were safe from LeBlanc and me. Though BDU guy might have had some frost bite for his troubles. With the belts gone the spell was broken. I looked at Karen and offered my hand to her. She didn't want to hold it. Instead she made a queezy expression and held her stomach.
"We went… too far." She whispered in the car once we left the parking pot. "Too.." she broke off.
"It's just like you said before." I agreed, not exactly feeling too ashamed of myself.
I dropped Karen off at her home and went back to my apartment and sat on the couch in the dark, letting my giant gray Tibetan Mastiff, Mouse whine for attention. Going over the thoughts and feelings in my head I leaned back on the couch and realized whammy or no whammy, I really was in love with Karen! I enjoyed being madly in love with her, touching her, being closer to her. A couple months later she stopped by to say she quit the force and was moving out of town. She wouldn't say where but she seemed malnourished, tired, depressed. I didn't fight it. I said I'd be here if she needed me. She smiled, kissed my cheek awkwardly, and then left. The woman I loved vanished from my life once again; first Susan now Karen.
Love hurts…