Chapter 47
Hotch studied the shapeshifter in front of him. He was pretty sure he was telling the truth, but he needed to be more than pretty sure; he needed to be certain.
"You can compel me!" Schewel put in. "Compel me to tell the truth! Vampires can do that, right?" he asked as he looked at the team. Then he looked back at Hotch. "Sorry, but you all are my first vampires."
"And you're our first shifter, so we have something in common." He took a deep breath. If he was willing to do that, then there wasn't a reason to compel him.
"Are you willing to let Hotch talk to your niece, too?" JJ asked him. Just because he wasn't the killer someone else in his family could be.
Schewel looked at the team again and then back to Hotch. "You're the only vamp? Wow, I've never heard of a vamp living with a bunch of humans."
"Is there a problem with that?" Hotch asked him as his stare bore into him.
He held up his hands. "No! Not at all! It's just that. . . well. . . Sorry. I meant no offense. You're the first vampire I have met personally. We normally don't get them in this part of the world."
"You didn't answer the question," Rossi interrupted.
The officer wilted a little. "You could, but I don't know how much good it will do. She's going through the change."
"The change?" Reid asked as his interest peaked.
Schewel frowned. "You said you knew about the ritual."
"We do, but maybe since you are a real shapeshifter, you could explain it to us even better," Rossi countered not wanting to let the man know how little they actually knew.
The man nodded. "My Uncle George owns a funeral home and talks most of his customers into donating the organs that are removed for the embalming to medical schools. Whenever we need a heart for the ritual, he keeps it. It's mostly legal and it doesn't hurt anyone! I swear! There hasn't been a human killed for the ritual in my family for over six generations. We are peaceful!"
"So you've said," Mack put in. "But that doesn't explain why we can't talk to Heather."
He wilted. "While the ritual actually takes place on the sixteenth birthday, it can take several days for the change to fully happen. It varies from person to person, and she's having a rough time." He took a deep breath and ran a hand down his face. "It's a very painful experience as our whole body goes through the metamorphosis. Being able to change human form is hard on us, and the changing is like living through hell. She's hasn't even been coherent these last two days."
Hotch studied him. "If it's so horrible, why do you do it?"
"A lot of us don't, but she wanted to. We let the young chose."
"I'd love to see it," Reid put in and then cringed at how enthusiastic he sounded. "Sorry, I only mean that from a scientific point of view. I find all of this very fascinating."
Schewel looked him over and then shook his head. "We keep ourselves secret to avoid human's studying us."
Morgan elbowed Reid in the side, and Reid held up his hands. "I mean no disrespect, and I would never tell anyone about you all. We protect Hotch and his secret with our lives. We would never divulge your secret either."
The shifter took a deep breath and looked at Hotch. "If it is the only way for you to believe that we are innocent of this, then so be it. I will take you to her myself," he told him and started to turn.
"Now just a minute. I think we might need to talk about this for a second," Rossi issued as he fixed Hotch with a serious look.
"Of course," Schewel offered with a grin. "Take all the time you need."
"Watch him," Hotch told the rest of the team and then proceeded to follow Rossi away from the group.
"Do you trust him?" Rossi asked in a hushed tone.
"I don't know. I do think he is telling the truth, though."
"And you're planning on going there with him alone, aren't you?"
"You heard what Sebastian said, Dave. You all wouldn't stand a chance against them, but I. . ."
"He said you'd be fine in a one on one, Aaron. I took that to mean you might have some trouble with a group of them. You even said you couldn't tell how many there were behind those walls. You are not going alone!" he insisted.
Hotch could tell by his tone that he meant it, but he couldn't risk his team on a hunch. "Dave. . ."
Rossi took out his phone. "You want me to call Kahlan and get her opinion on this?"
Hotch's brows shot up. "You wouldn't."
Rossi started going through his contacts. "Watch me."
"David Michael," Hotch started.
As soon as Rossi looked at him, he quickly turned his head away. "And don't even try that shit on me, Aaron!" he demanded knowing full well that Hotch was about ready to compel him to put his phone away. He turned back to him as he stood up tall. "We are a team and we will stay together as a team!"
"That's right!" Morgan put in as he walked up on them. "Respect your elders, Hotch," he told him with a grin as he put his arm around Rossi's shoulders.
Hotch sighed and looked at his whole team. "Fine, but if I tell you to leave, you have to promise to do it without questioning," he ordered in his Unit Chief Tone.
Rossi shared a look with Morgan and then nodded. "Deal."
"Then let's go," Hotch told them and moved towards the shifter.
Once they got to the vehicles, Rossi let Schewel ride up front with Hotch, and he secretly held his pistol on the shifter from the back seat. Sebastian said silver had to be used to kill it, but that doesn't mean a bullet to the spine wouldn't slow it down. He mentally huffed. It won't hurt to try if something goes wrong. They had made Mack ride in the other vehicle just in case something did go wrong.
Hotch looked at the officer. "Do you all get any nonfamily members visiting the area?"
Schewel sighed. "I don't know who is doing this! We know it's a shifter because only a shifter would rip a heart out like that, but we don't know who it is. We've been searching for it since the first body showed up."
"I didn't say that. I want to know if shifters visit here regularly."
He nodded. "Yes. News of our peaceful colony has traveled through the shifting world. A lot of them vacation here knowing that its normally safe for them, but not all of them make it a point to let us know they are here, if that's what you are wondering."
"Can you tell if a person is a shifter?" Rossi asked from the back.
The officer turned and nodded. "Of course."
"How?"
He half shrugged. "I don't really know how to explain it; we just know." He gestured to Hotch. "I guess it's like him knowing other vampires. One species can sense their own."
Hotch glanced at Rossi in the rearview mirror. The only other vampire he'd had the opportunity to sense had been Willie, and he wasn't even sure how he'd done it, but he wasn't going to share that with the man. He licked his lips. "Have you all ever turned another shifter away?"
Schewel frowned at him. "You mean like ran them out of town?"
Hotch smirked. "Maybe one you all didn't like for whatever reason."
Schewel shook his head and then ran a hand through his hair. "You think this is a revenge thing against my family?"
"Makes sense. You thought we were hunters, so maybe one is here doing this to expose your family," Rossi agreed as he followed Hotch's train of thought.
"Maybe he or she wants the hunters to come here and find your family," Hotch pushed.
Schewel sank down into his seat. "Then it's worked because they're already here."
Rossi sat forward. "You know this for sure?" he asked him as his eyes locked with Hotch's in the mirror, and when he saw Hotch's hands tighten around the steering wheel, he mentally cringed.
"Yes. I saw two of them hanging around the scene of the second victim. I got the hell out of there, but I know they were hunters."
"How could you tell?" Hotch asked him.
"Because I caught a glimpse of what was in their trunk. Only hunters would have that kind of arsenal. I think they were posing as press, but I was too scared to hang around long enough to find out. Two hunters against one shifter is not the kind of odds I like." He shrugged. "I've never faced any personally, but I had heard stories from our elders."
As Hotch pulled off the road and stopped in front of the estate gate, he frowned as he looked at him. "And yet you attacked three of my team thinking they were hunters."
Schewel smirked. "I wasn't alone in that building. I'm not suicidal."
Hotch glanced at Rossi; he hadn't heard any other shifters around, and to think that they might have been outnumbered without him even knowing made his stomach tighten.
"We didn't see anyone else," Rossi put in picking up on Hotch's uneasiness.
Schewel turned in his seat and looked at the older man. "No one can sense us when we are in animal form."
"And yet they didn't come out to help you," Rossi added with his usual Rossi sass.
Schewel shrugged. "I told you, we don't get vampires down in this part of the world. None us knew what would happen once he exposed himself."
"So they just abandoned you?" Hotch asked him.
The officer smiled again and then gestured out the window beside him. "Not at all," is all he said.
Rossi and Hotch both looked out the window and Hotch shook his head, but Rossi frowned. "You mean those birds in that tree?"
Schewel chuckled. "Yep. Twelve members of my family made up of some of my brothers, cousins, nieces, and nephews have been with me the whole time."
Hotch ran his fingers across his forehead. "What's the co. . ." he started to ask as he rolled down his window to access the gate's control panel but he paused when the gate opened.
Schewel chuckled again. "My family knows we're here."
Hotch looked back at Rossi.
"Rest easy, Agent. I have brought you and your team here to prove our innocence. We are peaceful, and we would never harm any of you," Schewel told him and then turned in his seat to look at Rossi. "And that pistol you have pointed at my back isn't necessary."
Rossi shrugged as he put his pistol back in its holster. "You can't blame a man for being cautious."
Schewel smiled as his eyes trailed to the tree for a second. "No, you can't."
Hotch took a deep breath and hit the gas to take them beyond the walls and into the world of the shifters.
