Blood & Magic

The table shook as Hillier slapped her hand in the middle of the table between two pints of beer. Flattened out was a pair of ripped Calvin Klein panties. A dark dried stain could be seen in the center.

"What the hell is that doing here?" Lauren asked as she grabbed her pint to hold it away. "And why do you have it?"

"That's what I found from the warehouse where Delaney made that arrest. Or rather, where Alan made the arrest because she was too busy losing her clothes again."

"And you took her panties...why?"

"Because!" Hillier snapped as she held the panties up. "The report says the two men stripped Delaney. Well then why were they wet?"

Lauren sipped her beer and then placed both hands on the table. "Detective Hillier, I respect your devotion to finding what you feel is the truth to the Matthew Varnes case I must also share with you my professional opinion and say that your obsession with Detective Delaney is on the brink of being pathological. What do ripped panties have to do with Kirstin? So what if she might have been turned on?"

"Then why would Alan lie about it?"

"He's her partner, he's supposed to protect her." Lauren said, resting her elbow on the table. "What are you trying to get at with this anyway?"

"It's fucking ridiculous to think that every time Delaney pursues a criminal she loses her clothes." Hillier leaned closer, "I have...well had a picture of her out on the streets in her underwear."

"You do realize you were also spotted in your underwear at a bar right?" Lauren asked as she folded her arms.

Hillier's face turned red, "Yeah well I remember you being seen on your knees in front of Helena's lawyer about to-that's not the point!" she banged the table, "The point is I should be the one leading murder cases, not some idiot lesbian cop who can't keep her pants on. If she's lying about it so much that tells me she's hiding something major and I am going to find out!"

"Will you lower your voice?" Lauren whispered, her face turning a light shade of pink. "Okay I get it. But you aren't going to make any changes if ripped stained panties are your only evidence. What else do you have?"

"I'm going to follow Delaney when she pursues leads, chances are she's always bound to lose something in the process."

"Don't you have your own work to do in Narcotics?"

Hillier gripped her pint glass tight, her nostrils flaring as she took a big sip. "I'm still on desk duty. My team doesn't want me to go out after I-after that woman embarrassed me."

"The mysterious unseen woman?" Lauren asked, goosebumps forming on her arms.

"Yes. The one who told me to back off of Kirstin. Someone is protecting Delaney, and I'm going to find out who."

*****

Kirstin stared lazily at her computer, zoning out on the information she had on Candace. It was of no surprise that there was little information gained from the records on her. No prior encounters with law enforcement, not even a speeding ticket.

Kirstins' reason for being so groggy was due to the fact that she and Sakeena spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the traces of the hunter's fight with Melissa. This was after Kirstin let Sakeena strip her nude, mocking her panties, white Hanes-her-way briefs with purple flowers. In her primal lust, Sakeena couldn't resist dragging her nails across Kirstin's body, down her back and across her backside. Sakeena scratched so hard that sitting down in Kirstin's leather seat stung.

Kirstin was beginning to find more cons to knowing about the supernatural world. Investigation at the mortal level was boring and was insignificant to what really happened at night. She dropped off the brassier and the button up shirt to forensics and knew it was just a matter of waiting before they would notify her of anything.

Despite her boredom, Kirstin was thankful she was not Alan, who was tasked with interviewing Candace's parents who came up from Indiana. Kirstin saw them in passing, a nice looking couple in their late 50s, the blonde color still in the mother's hair and the father a tall slightly heavyset man who kept his arm around her as Alan led them to his desk. Kirstin watched as the mother buried her head in her hands while the father leaned over Alan's desk. Alan maintained his composure, taking his time to give the DeRands moments to process the fear of losing their daughter before asking a question again.

It was when Kirstin saw Alan shake their hands that she rubbed her eyes and sat up straight before Alan returned.

"That didn't look like a pleasant conversation." She said.

"They just wanted to ask about what we knew and I told them we didn't know anything at the moment." Alan collapsed in his chair and ran a hand over his face, "Poor folks. They're staying in a hotel until they find out more. It's going to cost them a fortune. At least you were able to find something on her clothes."

"Yeah but who knows how long it will take before we find out anything." Kirstin said. "In the meantime, have you heard of any other disappearances?"

"None at the moment. It's hard to tell, they usually don't happen until a day or so after they are gone." Alan added. "I wish there was a pattern of places we could identify. But they all seem random, hotel, boating dock."

"What about Necto?" Kirstin blurted, remembering that it was mentioned to be Melissa's favorite spot.

"Necto? That would make sense." Alan said, rifling through his notes, "I don't have anything recent about anyone disappearing from there."

"What about." Kirstin trailed off as she calculated her words, "People showing up later mysteriously or looking like they'd been harmed?"

"We'd have to check for reports but again, nothing recent. It would have popped up if there was red flag. You think it's likely that might be another spot?"

Records she could check and if she did find anything out of the norm it might give her reason to scope it out. Doing so without Melissa spotting her was another matter. "It's one of the most popular spots for people in Ann Arbor to hook up. It's also the perfect place to lure someone away, it's crowded, dark, and everyone's drunk so who would notice a mysterious man leaving with somebody?"

"You want to scope it out?"

"Hmm. Let me check what we have on file first before we go looking. I do want to have some reason to go in the event we do find someone, this way we have some evidence to back it up."

"Okay but, can you call me if you plan on going?" Alan asked as he leaned closer, "I don't feel comfortable with you walking in there at risk of bumping into a suspect."

"Alan it's fine, you know I won't-" she saw him raise an eyebrow and her face felt warm. "I'm not...doing anything like that in public."

"Okay. I just want to make sure you don't put yourself in any worse danger than is already there."

"I'll be fine." Kirstin said, rising from her seat and walking away, although she realized as she walked out of the office that she had no goal or destination to get to apart from getting away from Alan's gaze staring at her, fulfilling a fantasy that she had to live for the rest of her career.

The remainder of the day was spent in looking at previous missing case records at Necto. It was a club located off of East Liberty street that brought in hundreds of patrons each night due to the fact that the minimum age was 18. Kirstin did find some cases of people missing, but often times they were later solved, either with the person being found stranded somewhere after wandering from the club with a high blood alcohol level or on one occasion, a dead body. There were no instances of missing persons and yet, Kirstin could not shake the hunters' warning out of her mind.

Just because no missing persons' cases had come up didn't mean Melissa was absolved from luring mortals to their deaths. Kirstin had seen Melissa stand by to let the Sheriff named Amos kill Jacob Varnes and she even assisted Dominic in covering it up. The police would never know what really happened to Jacob Varnes and Kirstin wondered if she would ever know how many unsuspecting women had been led to their deaths only to be erased from investigations. Slumping on her desk, Kirstin could see the sun level with the skyscrapers outside. She grabbed her jacket and headed to her car, knowing she had hours to prepare for nightfall.

****

No matter how much she didn't want to admit that her age bothered her, Kirstin knew she would have to come to grips with the fact that she was at least ten years older than the major demographic at Necto. She scattered clothes all over her bedroom trying to find something that wouldn't make her stand out as a woman whose youth remained in the late 80s. Many patrons to Necto were millenials, college students who more than likely were going out on a Thursday evening for "Gay Night" an evening dedicated to the LGBTQ community. Just another social staple in Ann Arbor that she missed out on in her youth.

Kirstin left her apartment dressed in black jeans and a Nirvana shirt that she cut the sleeves off. She threw on a leather jacket, knowing that she'd probably leave it in the car once she entered the club. It was her trademark clothing and in a hot club with crowds of sweaty people, Kirstin would stick out like a sore thumb, especially to Melissa. Kirstin parked her car in a garage a block away and used the walk to try and calm the butterflies in her stomach.

Because of Melissa's talent in hiding from plain sight, Kirstin knew she'd need to make extra steps in concealing her appearance. The club would notice someone walking in with a hooded sweatshirt. With this in mind Kirstin threw on a wool cap that rested just above her eyes. The line was extended around the corner, men and women hugging themselves in the chilly night air. Women wore spaghetti strapped dressed that extended down to their knees while the men wore tight jeans and t-shits.

Kirstin kept her head down, pretending to text on her phone as she waited. Her eyes would shift left to right as she wondered if she'd spot Melissa. With a tilt of her head, Kirstin scanned the crowd in front of her, waiting for heads to turn to get a look at their side profile. Three people in front of her, Kirstin saw the rear of a woman's head, her long black hair flowing over her backless dress. She appeared to be taller than the people closest in proximity and her dark skin reminded her of Sakeena, who also enjoyed wearing her hair down on night like this. Kirstin didn't think to give her a second thought as she knew her partner wouldn't be anywhere near a place like this.

When the woman's head turned to the side, Kirstin felt her stomach go sour and her vision getting cloudy as she saw Sakeena's face, lips painted blood red and her eyes decorated with eyeliner. Kirstin ducked behind the man in front of her and covered her mouth to choke back a scream. The body of the woman behind Kirstin nearly sent her forward and she balled her fist.

"Watch it." the woman said.

"Sorry." Kirstin muttered, her eyes pointed towards the ground as she waited. Sweat built up under her jacket as her mind ran through scenarios, like a slideshow. Sakeena in the club, Sakeena at the bar, Sakeena out on the dance floor, her sensuous body lit up , sweat giving her a shining image as her hair whipped around.

To have to sit through that just to wait and see who Sakeena would leave the club with had Kirstin's hands shaking. She wanted to break out of line and face Sakeena, but then her initial plans reminded Kirstin of one important factor, Melissa needed to be followed because it was never clear where she would go, Sakeena had only one way to leave and that was her car. Stepping out of line, Kirstin ran back to the parking garage, ignoring the befuddled look of the woman standing behind her.

Sakeena's office was only several blocks away, Kirstin knew that parking was too much to waste by using the garage nearby. Kirstin circled around the block and parked on the street that was adjacent to Sakeena's office. Kirstin recognized Sakeena's car was parked nearby a meter. Kirstin wanted to wait by Sakeena's driver side door, to disarm her with the surprise in being there so she could give Kirstin an explanation.

Sakeena with another woman was only at the surface of the issue, the real question was why. Sakeena never mentioned attending Necto, nor did she indicate plans to go out late at night. For a mortal, infidelity was the worst that could come from such secrecy. For a ghoul, a servant to a vampire who treated humans like cattle, the stakes were higher.

Concern for the life of unsuspecting mortals was what led Kirstin to come to Necto tonight, Sakeena's faith to her as a partner was what motivated her to sit in her car for hours, waiting to see Sakeena lead some unsuspecting woman to her car. Imagining the sight was enough to make Kirstin's pulse rise, but not the thought of an innocents' death. She blamed Sakeena for her moment of selfishness, and the flood of thoughts made Kirstin's eyes tear up. She made her seat recline and wiped her nose, counting to sixty before she would rise and check Sakeena's car.

Kirstin's ritual helped an hour pass by without notice, she rose from her seat just in time to see Sakeena appear from across the street. Kirstin fell back down and reset her counting, waiting until thirty seconds before sitting up. Sakeena made it to her car, along with a companion.

Her high heels clicked along the road as she approached the passenger side door. The light glared off of her large hooped ear rings. She wore a a high rise crop top that wrapped around her neck. Her black shorts were high enough to cover her naval, giving her copper colored abdomen an even more toned appearance. she flashed Sakeena a smile as she stepped into the car, whipping her black hair back as she ducked under the roof.

Kirstin dug her nails into the steering wheel, pinching the keys in the ignition. She closed her eyes to resist the impulse to start her car, waiting for Sakeena to start hers. Kirstin watched as Sakeena drove into the center lane before turning left onto Washington Avenue. Kirstin started her car and cut someone off to follow.

Kirstin remained three cars behind Sakeena, relying on the busy traffic in downtown to keep her hidden. It was when they traveled so far that East Liberty St turned into West that Kirstin got anxious, leaving downtown for the dark, unlit neighborhoods. Kirstin decelerated, driving ten miles below the speed limit to grant more distance from Sakeena.

The further from the city they traveled, the more Kirstin's heart raced, her knuckles turning whiter the harder she gripped the steering wheel. Knowing that Sakeena didn't act on this alone, that she was in servitude to Melissa, Kirstin wondered just how much the duo was up to when they weren't investigating a murder.

Sakeena led Kirstin twenty miles northeast of downtown, out near a small town called Chelsea. However, it wasn't the downtown area Sakeena headed. Instead, she drove towards a nearby wooded area, surrounded by several large lakes. With no street lights or other cars nearby, Kirstin had to give Sakeena several hundred feet of distance just to avoid being seen, relying on the hills to hide behind. Sakeena drove off a road adjacent to a lake that was surrounded by a vast forest, providing more darkness than scenic nature. She parked her car on a small flat patch of grass sandwiched between several trees.

Kirstin had no choice but to drive past them. Anxious not to lose Sakeena, Kirstin accelerated, watching the trees melt into blurs as she circled around. She made it back to Sakeena's car and parked inches away from her bumper, blocking her from getting out.

Ducking her head to avoid moving branches, Kirstin tiptoed into the woods, eyes on the ground to avoid crunching leaves under her shoes. She kept her hand in front of her face, using it to touch branches that would have otherwise hit her. Crickets echoed through the night, Kirstin tried blocking them out to hear signs of movement.

A crack startled Kirstin into ducking low, looking to her left to the source of the noise, realizing it had to have been a twig. In the distance she could see the outline of Sakeena's young friend, her bare shoulders shining like a candle in the night, following Sakeena over a collapsed tree trunk and deeper into the woods. The laughter belonged to Sakeena, cutting through Kirstin like a knife.

Kirstin followed them for another mile, the soft, moist ground building up under her shoes as they traveled over streams and steep hills. The farther they walked, the more insecure Kirstin felt in the college students' safety, wondering what purpose the woods served to Sakeena, a servant to Melissa.

She followed them down another steep hill and once she reached the bottom she had to pause and adjust her eyes to the darkness. Panic set in when she couldn't hear footsteps anymore. It was the chorus of laughter heard in the distance that led Kirstin to see a small orange glow emanating in the distance. Sakeena and her companion walked towards the light, Sakeena grabbing her friends' hand. Kirstin gripped the trunk of a nearby tree and pressed her weight into her right leg, resisting the urge to sprint forward.

Tip toeing the rest of the way, Kirstin could understand the conversations happening around the corner, seeming to be a small gathering around a fire.

"Everyone this is Maile." Sakeena said.

Kirstin estimated about a half dozen voices responding with a greeting to Maile and Sakeena, all women. Kirstin circled around the trees, keeping herself several feet away behind Sakeena. A small camp ground was set up nearby a large rock that jutted out from a steep hill towering over them. The surface was flat, like a balcony to stand on but the six other women who Sakeena joined were all seated in a circle around the fire.

To Sakeena's right sat two women huddled together. One of them had bright fiery red hair, styled into a boy-cut. Despite the large black hooded sweatshirt she wore, Kirstin could tell she was slender given the sight of her skinny jeans that hugged her legs. Her head was nestled against the shoulder of a woman wearing a brown leather jacket. Her long brown hair was tied in a ponytail.

The couple next to them had fewer boundaries, a blonde woman sat against a tree with her legs straightened out while her partner's legs draped over them. Even without makeup, wearing a grey hooded sweater with Eastern Michigan University printed on it, the blonde looked air-brushed to Kirstin. Her smile revealed bright white teeth. Her blonde locks were straightened and judging from the length of her legs, she appeared to be at least six feet tall. Her partner was of darker complexion, appearing to have a curvier build that showed under her tight windbreaker. Her ears and nose had multiple piercings, two golden hooped earrings and one silver stud on her right nostril..

The last duo sat next to each other, one a woman whose hair was in a long braided ponytail, wearing a multi-colored beaded necklace over a white turtleneck sweater. next to her was a park ranger, a black woman who appeared to be in her late 20s. She was dressed in her uniform, dark green pants and brown button up long sleeve shirt. She hugged her legs against her chest while her partner rubbed her shoulders.

The redhead grabbed two beers out of a 24 pack and handed them to Sakeena and Maile. "Here take these and relax." the redhead spoke in a monotone voice, the sternness in it making the others laugh. "I'm Cherry. This is Karyn." she grabbed Karyn's wrist and squeezed it. Karyn politely waved and then the others chimed in.

"I'm Emma" the woman with piercings said.

"I'm Jamie." said the airbrushed blonde.

"My name's Anita." the woman in the sweater turned to the park ranger, "And this is Michelle, the person who is being awesome and letting us hang out here tonight."