Blood Work Ch 02

Bloody Beginnings

Chapter 1-2

Georgia's POV

Exiting the club I was hit with a chill that hadn't been present throughout the day. I tugged the thin denim jacket closer to me hoping to ward off some of the chill and immediately regretted the short dress Rory had convinced me to wear. Noting a group of smokers huddled under an electric heater I moved over leaning against the brick exterior and decided to put up with the acrid smell of smoke for the small amount of heat, a fair trade.

I sent Rory a quick apology and prayer to God that the vampire would actually get him home. A small part of me knew it was naive to put so much faith in her, but oddly my gut told me I could trust her. Thinking back on the vampire I'd left with blue fangs almost made me feel bad, she hadn't been pushy or grabby, and yet she still got me into that booth. Shaking my head to dry and dispel the image of her crimson eyes as she leaned in close I kept my eyes on the road waiting to spot my ride to the scene.

After ten minutes I was close to going back inside, the smokers had left, leaving me alone on the pavement, and while the extra heat was lovely, being alone at two in the morning was decidedly not. Thankfully I saw the silver sedan pull into the car park and roll slowly before me, the number plate matching the one Chief Phillips had text me. Walking to the curb the window slowly unrolled and inside was a slightly older stockier man than I'd expected from the brief description Phillips gave me. I had to admit as he gave me a puzzled look, I was almost jealous of the thick overcoat and jeans he had on.

"Your detective Stoffat, right?" He asked slowly, disbelief evident in his tone.

I gave him a quick smile, one I've had to master for all the interviews it took to get this job."Just Georgia and yeah, your Rami, Khartri? Right?"

He nodded. "Chief Phillips asked me to pick you up."

"Thanks, we got a taxi here so it would have been ages if I'd had to go home first. Can I?" I pointed to the door and with a quick burst of realisation Rami unlocked the door apologising.

"Don't worry, I just didn't want anyone to get the wrong impression." I cut his apology off with a laugh, his eyes going wide as he realised the implication.

Getting into the car the seat warmed beneath me immediately and turning a grateful grin to Rami he gave a small nod before pulling away from the curb and heading to harehills, the sight of my first supernatural murder.

"So anything fun?" Rami asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"Just out celebrating, there were a few of us but only two left by the time I got the call."

"What's the occasion.?" Rami asked, his eyes never leaving the road. I couldn't tell if he was nervous or just didn't want to be here, at this time of morning I could forgive the latter.

"The promotion, Phillips only told me I'd be in the division this morning. Quick turn around though, you've moved from London, right?" I asked. As I finished I looked down to see my phone pinging with Rory's location. I could see him heading south towards his house and silently thanked the ginger vampire.

"Yeah, we only got settled on Monday. I was looking forward to a full week off before we began at least, but such is life."

"Well at least it's not quiet, we'd be out of a job then." I responded with a small laugh. The sound dying in my throat as Rami looked away from the road for the first time since he'd picked me up, the look of revulsion on his face was clear.

"Someone's died, maybe don't sound too excited."

I felt my cheeks blaze with a blush as he looked back to the road, the admonition made, I let the car fall back into silence and wished I could somehow have made a better impression on my future partner.

Pulling onto the road a crowd of people seemed to be dotted at the edge of a wrought iron fence which blocked off the crime scene, police tape and a single office stood at the entrance. Rami cut the engine and got out of the car without a word so I followed suit, the cold air once again hitting me hard, I tried to put it to the back of my mind and Rami began pushing his way through the chattering crowd. Tensions seemed high as those gathered demanded answers. The stone-faced office at the gate stayed blank only looking over as we approached Rami holding his badge high enough to be spotted. As we reached the front Rami spoke first.

"Officer, it's detective Khartri, and Stoffat of SAD, chief Phillips called us in."

The office looked over Rami briefly before his eyes fell on me, his eyes lingered on my legs, a brow rising silent in challenge.

"We start tomorrow, I was called in out of hours, if you'd mind?" I nodded to the tape with a fake smile on my face. He stayed silent for a moment before lifting the tape and nodding us past, as he let the tape drop behind us the crowd continued again pelting him with questions to which he'd never answer.

Approaching the crowd of people swarming a lone tree, Phillips noticed us and separated from the crowd coming towards us. The large grey man is intimidating even in a plain shirt and jeans. He approached Rami first, his hand out.

"Khartri, good to finally meet you. I see you've already met your new partner." The pair shook hands as Phillips spoke.

"Yeah I found her fine. What have we got?" Khartri responded to the forensics agents currently pawing over the scene and blocking it from our view.

Phillips said nothing in response to Khatri, turning to me as he spoke. "Georgia, could you not have changed on the way over?"

"Into what? I hardly take a change of clothes with me when I'm out with my friends." I said in challenge.

"Well maybe Now's the time to start, hardly best practice showing up in a dress to a murder scene." He turned walking towards the scene as the last of the forensics moved revealing paled legs poking out from the side of the tree.

"I'll let you off since you've not officially started Georgia, but you're going to need to be on it if you want to keep up, Khatri here's been a detective for, what is it twelve years now?"

"Fourteen, sir." Came Khatris' clipped response.

"And you've done a lot in those fourteen years, put away a lot of people haven't you?"

"I suppose."

Phillips came to a stop by the side of the tree, his body slightly blocking the one on the floor from my view.

"So you see Georgia, you're in the big leagues now. And with that I'll leave you to it, I need to go see how Price is getting on with taking statements. We have no ID on the victim, so far no witnesses, no one heard anything, and the body's drained of all its blood. I think we all know this is a vampire, but guess I'll leave it to our specialists. Enjoy." Phillips finished with a laugh walking off towards a group of officers who had been interviewing some of the locals. Taking a deep breath I moved round the tree to see the victim.

I was shocked looking at the corpse, she was a small brunette, she looked to be in her late teens and the casual clothes she had on gave nothing away about what she had been doing. Her body, or what was visible was covered in patches of dirt, some slightly redder than others, and her wrists had rings of bruises around them. Her hair sat dishevelled and a part of it towards her neck had clumped together with the blood that must have leaked from the two picture wounds sitting on her neck.

Khatri leaned over the corpse pulling a pen from his pocket to move the hair away from the holes making them seem so much more brutal.

"Definitely a vampire, then. Question is how do we find out which." Khatri mumbled to himself.

"Aren't we supposed to have a vampire working with us? From that council, could they find out?" I responded. From what Phillips had told me to begin with, the department was going to be a lot smaller than the London branch, only two detectives and one consultant. It seemed insignificant for how much of the north they wanted us to cover but hopefully we'd grow as we're needed.

"Phillips said earlier they couldn't get hold of them, guess vampires are allowed to shut off when not at work." khatri responded with a laugh.

I squatted down next to him pointing out the red patch of dirt that had clumped to her elbows. "Any idea what that is?"

He followed my finger looking at the patch, moving his pen to it he brushed the elbow and bits of it flaked off under the touch bringing the pen to his nose he paused for a second.

"Rust, giventhe dirt on her, she could have been killed elsewhere and dumped here if no one's heard anything." Khatri responded by moving to the bottom of the corpse looking at the soles of the shoes. "More rust here."

"So a vampire killed her elsewhere, then dumped the body in a park to be discovered? Did he keep her for any amount of time, or was she already wherever the rust was?" I asked

"Guess we'll have to wait to see if anyone comes forward to ID her." Rising from his squat he looked down at the corpse and sighed. "Not much we can do as of now, wait for forensics to come back, wait to see if anyone ids her, wait to see if this consultant wants to help." He said the last with derision in his voice.

I rose to match his stance. "You not happy with having this vampire help out?"

He gave me a pointed look. "You reckon they actually will? Odds are they come in and just try to throw us off the scent of the killer, especially if it's one of their mates."

The response made me pause. "Do you have an issue with whoever's the consultant? Didn't you work with SAD in London?"

He huffed, turned from the corpse and walked towards the gate so I followed.

"I didn't work in SAD, in London I was PSD."

"PSD, like professional standards, corruption and that?" I asked

He sighed. "Yes, moving here was an unofficial demotion."

"For what?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, no offence. Regardless though no, I've never worked with a supe of any kind and it's not something I'm looking forward to. Do you want a lift home?"

I just blinked at his response, he was going to have an awful time if he truly wanted to avoid supes. Putting his apparent biases to one side I nodded in response eager to get out of the cold. "Please, I'm freezing."

"I can tell, let's go."

We left the park and cutting through the crowd a second time was harder than the first as people demanded answers. Eventually we made it back to Ramis' car and I almost moaned as the heated seat kicked back in.

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Hey all hope everyones been well! sorry for the duch a delay on this im still writing but life took precedance the past few months. I've got wuite a bit of this written already so will be trying to get a few mode chapters up in quick succession.

Ive also been starting planning the second book for Seeds of Corruption and written most of the prologue so I may also have a chapter of that to post soon. Enjoy!