Ch. 4 . Mortal Thoughts

The room, almost round in size except for the bar at the far end, had a high ceiling. Metal rafters and coulombs helped support it. Perfect for a bunker, I thought looking around. The whole club area as I called it was dark, windows were painted black and as were the walls.

"Who would hang out in this dump," Mike grunted.

"I would if it didn't look so contaminated," I shook my head.

"Yeah," the cop said walking up next to me, "a lot of these places are pretty rough looking but you'd be surprised how popular they are." she shrugged. "I guess as long as you have a good time you're gonna want to come back, but I'll tell you this, when I was in college me and my friend would have never hung out in a place like this."

I looked towards the bar. Liquor bottles and glasses were shattered to pieces laying in glass fragments on the counter and in front of it, who knew how much was behind the counter.

"They sure had there way with this place didn't they," I said to myself more than anyone else. I bent down picking up a bullet off the ground, I studied it for a moment but couldn't figure what type of gun it had come from. Most definitely an automatic weapon I decided. The cop suddenly tapped me on the shoulder, motioning to left of where I was.

"The body's this way." I visibly shivered as I stood up and not from the cold. I handed Mike the bullet and he grabbed a small baggie from his pocket, carefully putting the bullet in it and tucking it back in his pocket before we continued.

We went all the way to the back of the club and through a door that led to a hallway with rooms lining each side. The doorways were covered with only thin strips of clear plastic tarp. As we walked past them I could see metal examination tables in each one. Some had more of those torture looking devices lined up neatly on them.

"What the hell…," I whispered. We turned a corner and went down another hallway. Large tears had been made through the sides of the walls almost to were you could see outside. The hall expanded at the end were exit doors were placed. Crumpled on the ground in front of the doors was our guy. A slight tingling sensation went through my whole body and I tried to swallow but my throat was dry. Turning away for a moment I took three deep breaths.

"You ready," Rodney was staring at me with his intense dark eyes.

Slowly tuning back I nodded. The mans back was to us and his red-blond hair glistened in the light from moisture. One of his hands lay at a funny angle behind his back, blood dripped from it.

"There you go detectives. He's all yours," the cop turned sideways and extended her hand as if motioning for us to enter a grand ball room. We walked towards the body slowly. Rodney pulled out a pair of surgical gloves from his pocket and handed them to me as we approached the limp form, bending down in front of it.

"Alright turn him over slowly. Be careful," Mike said gently laying his hands on the corpses shoulder.

"Shit." I said once we got him on his back. "It's just as she described him." I removed a few tresses of hair that was sticking to the mans face. The left side of the face looked like it had been beaten with a bat. Blood still flowed freely from the wound.

"Are you sure it's him." Rodney asked.

"Yeah." I moved his head to one side then the other. On the left side of his neck there was a wound I had never seen before. It looked cross between a hicky and a bite. I gently let my pointer and index fingers glide over it and two neat puncture wounds could be seen in the middle of the red an irritated area.

"What do you make of theses," I asked leaning forward and squinting my eyes for a closer look.

Mike raised his shoulders once up and once down. "It looks like someone bite him,"

"Was there any marks or strange wounds like this on the other body," Rodney asked the cop who seemed to be staring into space. She blinked a few times before answering.

"I don't know. They had taken the other body almost as soon as they got here."

"They take him to the VCC lab," I asked. The cop nodded.

"I wonder why the would do that," I whispered. I leaned even closer lightly touching his face. He felt strangely warm and his skin had an almost peachy glow from sweat on his forehead and upper brow. Dead guys didn't sweat, and they were usually a grey color because all their blood pulles and rigor mortis sets in. My eyes widened in realization. He isn't dead. Suddenly a hand clasped around my throat and the man sprang up with a snarl. Cold blue eyes stared into my fear filled ones.

Rodney, Mike, and the female cop were on the supposedly dead man within seconds, grabbing his arms. I got my foot up enough to were I could kick the man off me. He fell backwards onto the others and they quickly secured him in cuffs. Rodney had his knee planted in the mans lower back and had his head pressed to the floor, holding the mans hands with his free one. The cop had her gun pointed about head level.

"What the hell happened. I thought we were here for a dead guy. Not one who attacks one of my detectives!" Mike said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry sir," the cop said re-houlstering her gun, "This has never happened before." Her wide eyes stayed on the struggling man on the ground.

"I bet," Rodney replied, sarcasm in his voice.

I massaged my neck, coughing slightly. I looked down at the man and he seemed to sense this, his eyes looked up at me from underneath his eyebrows.

"Rodney loosen up on him, let him stand up," I said now glaring at the red headed man despite the strange familiarity I saw in his eyes.

"Who are you," I asked as the man slowly got to his knees. Rodney still had his hand on him, ready to take action in case he tried anything.

"Tell me who you are," I repeated more forcefully.

The man looked at us, his eyes were glowing brightly now.

"Priest," he breathed. His voice was thick with an Irish accent. He looked to me again, his chest heaving with each breath he took. I stared back at him and a strange familiarity washed over me, the same one from when we had locked eyes earlier. It made my pulse quicken and I could explain why. I just met this guy. Right?

A.N. Hmmmmm interesting, I must say. And for that bit of smart medical information I am going to have to thank my mom, who is a paramedic. Thanks mom!