Callie growled for the third time, feeling her wolf badly wanting to emerge. She wanted to let it, find Shadow and bite his stubborn ass for him. Instead she took a deep breath, grabbing her cup of coffee and taking a sip of the caffeine laden murky brew. Setting it down, she picked up the next pile of pictures that Shadow had paper clipped together, spreading them out on the table and studying each one minutely.
He'd been young, not much older than eighteen. If he'd been wolf, they'd have thought him no more than a pup. He'd have been watched, cared for, mothered, taught to take care of himself. But the humans, she shook her head. As a human, he was considered adult. How could someone that age care for themselves.
He'd been searching. Callie could see it in his eyes. Glancing at the yellow post it, she found his name in Shadow's broad scrawl. Rudolph Brosnick, nineteen years old and full of promise. He'd been found in a back alley behind his home. He'd been torn apart, his promise ripped from him.
Carefully, she picked up the pictures, starting at the top of the board and affixing them in order, fussily straightening each one. Under them, she wrote the pertinent facts of name, age, dob, and date of death. She gave time of death and a quick run down of what their coroner, Dr. Gams, had listed as cause of death and important wounds.
She looked around the room, gazing at each of the seven boards she'd already set up, leaving spaces under the facts for any additional information that might come in. Death boards, each one told a story, not of life but of death. What they told was important. It was necessary if they were to find the killers.
Something caught her eye in one of the pictures and she stepped closer, staring not at the body in the picture but off to the side. "Shit," she whispered. Pulling it off the board, she looked around the room then headed for the door. Daniels had to see this.
* * *
"Angel!" Marcus grabbed her as she started to fall, her eyes, even as they looked up at him were wide with surprised pain. "No baby," he crooned, lifting her into his arms.
Another shot came from the darkness of the study, clipping Marcus in the arm, though he acted as if he hadn't felt it. Turning, he laid her on the floor out of range of the bullets. Grabbing a table cloth, he tore it off the side table, uncaring of the items upon it. "Angel, you've got to stay conscious. I need you to keep pressure on this," he ordered her, seeing her biting her lip. "Come on, baby, stay awake." He watched as she pressed down on the folded up fabric.
Then he turned and headed back to where Shadow was trying to return fire. Concentrating, he held out his hand and a sound like thunder filled the room. When it was done, a sword almost as tall as Angel was in his hand. "I'm going in. Angel's wounded."
"Marcus, you can't..." Shadow found himself staring at the ancient warrior's back. "You goddamn fool!" He got up, ducking as another volley of shots came from the darkened doorway. He saw Marcus stagger back before recovering and rushing into the room.
Shadow saw glints of fire and then heard the swish of Marcus's broad sword. He ducked inside, taking aim at a vamp who was trying to sneak up behind Marcus. The bullet sped true and took the vamp in the back. He burst into a quick ball of flames. "Marcus, leave one alive," he yelled just as Marcus was about to decapitate the last of them.
He stayed his hand, barely. Lifting the Vamp in one iron fist, he slammed him back against the wall, hearing his head crack against the wall. Letting him fall from his hand, he watched for a second as the man slowly slid to the floor, his ass against the wall, his head hanging down. "He's still alive," Marcus said. Then he turned and raced out to where he'd left Angel.
She was conscious, but barely, her blood sluggishly pouring out the hole in her stomach. "What do you need to heal baby?" he asked her.
"B-blood," she whispered.
Ignoring his own wounds, he picked up his sword and, after wiping the vampire blood off of it, he let it cut deep into his wrist, lifting her head so that she could drink from him. "Take it, Angel," he ordered when she tried to turn her head away.
"Y-you're h-hurt," she argued weakly.
Marcus's eyes narrowed. "Quit being so fucking stubborn and do as you're told." He held his wrist to her mouth, the first few drops of his warrior blood dripping onto her lips. She licked them once, her eyes going wild at the taste. Her mouth opened and fastened upon his wrist and he could feel her suckling on the wound.
Shadow stood behind them, watching as Angel fed off of Marcus, seeing the frenzy of concern and anger on Marcus's face. His green eyes were hard, full of concern for Angel.
"Did you see Rand in there?" Shadow asked quietly, putting his hand on Marcus's shoulder.
"No, he wasn't there, just his henchmen. You can mark three off of the tally as well as the one I left alive."
"Your wounds?" Shadow asked, knowing that Angel would be fine as long as she got blood. Marcus was an unknown. He was supposedly immortal.
"What wounds?" Marcus asked. Looking down, he saw the pink flesh of the healing bullet wounds, drying blood trailing down to thicken in the waistband of his leather pants. "I'm healed, don't worry about me."
"I'm going to call this in." He walked back into Armand Rand's study, drawing out a couple of zip ties and hog tying the last of the vampires. Then he pulled his communicator. "Shadow to ASP," he said, waiting a few seconds before repeating himself.
"Go ahead, Shadow," a woman's voice said.
"We were jumped at Minstrels. We have one prisoner to bring in."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"Not permanently," Shadow replied. "I want to close this place down. Armand Rand is an unknown entity."
"Sending three units. Return to base with prisoner."
Shadow could hear noise behind the steady voice of the female operator. Then a male voice came on the line. "Daniels to Shadow."
"Go," he said shortly.
"Raven found something you need to see. Return to base as soon as possible."
"On our way." He pushed the communicator back into his pocket and grabbed the Vamp by the arms, dragging him behind him. Angel was sitting up, wrapping a ripped piece of fabric around Marcus's wrist.
"You okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Fine. Wings here has some super blood. It makes me kind of feel punch drunk."
"Good, when we get back, go get checked out at the med unit. Raven found something that we all need to see."
"Wait, Shadow," Angel got up with a grimace and a little help from Marcus. "My father? Marcus said he wasn't in there. Do you know where he is?"
"No, we don't. I'm having the club shut down and we're going to bring some of his employees into ASP to question them. If you want to be in on that, head down to the med unit as soon as we get back to the house."
