Who's to judge?

Chapter XXII

"Shit, shit, shit," Talon cursed as he looked around the room in panic. Something had gone wrong, but I didn't understand what. Valerio stood in the middle of the room, seemingly motionless. He understood as little as I did, but he felt so much more. His vigor had been taken from under his nose, and he wasn't going to let that pass without a fight.

"We have to run." Talon rushed us, standing in the doorway.

I closed my eyes and tried to understand what had happened through the smell.

Instead of seeing the scene before me, a scent caressed my nose that I didn't expect to find here. A red strand swirled in front of my closed eyes and led me to the desk. My eyes flew open and in front of me, between thrown down documents, was a small syringe that still had blood in it. This blood, however, was not Leroy's.

I closed my eyes again and searched for her and Leroy's scent, but was grabbed by the arm and dragged away.

Talon had gotten us both out of the room and was trying to find a way out when the front door opened.

In poured the all too familiar smell of vanilla.

"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Kalma of us, slightly concerned.

"How many are there?" asked a voice behind him, and then we were face to face with the worst cop I had ever met, and he bore my scratch marks on his face. He also recognized me immediately.

"If it isn't the bitch herself..." he said, amused. "They told me they got rid of you, but I guess they were wrong." Now he sounded pleased. Talon growled beside me while small flames danced on Valerio's body.

I smelled electricity. "Guys, none of you are going to attack. They have stun guns." I whispered to them. For the first time they listened to me. They didn't calm down, but Talon stopped growling and Valerio's flames went out.

The policeman grinned.

"Come here, little one, let me cuff you myself." He disgusted me, but I complied. I held out my hands to him and he did his job. Then we were all handcuffed and put in the police car.

I was back in the cell in the basement where I was chained to the wall with a chain wrapped around my neck. The other two had the same fate, I felt Talon's rapid heartbeat and heard Valerio's terrible screaming.

We were so close, I could feel it. That syringe contained blood, but it wasn't human blood, that wouldn't have made sense. She hated vampires, she would never have prepared blood for us. Even more so in a syringe.

If I put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly, this McKenna was an important part of these murders. She possessed that blood and the syringe looked used. From Valerio's reaction, something had happened to Leroy. But where had they gone? I had to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Kalma, I know you can hear me. As soon as the coast is clear, get your butt down here." I knew he could hear me, and I knew he would listen to me, I just had to wait.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard quick footsteps coming down the stairs and Kalma's vanilla smell.

My cell door opened and Kalma stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

"If they find out, they'll kill us all." he whispered as he began to unlock my chains.

"Thank you." His head turned abruptly toward me when he heard the word. He looked as if he had heard it for the first time. Then a pretty smile grew on his face as he nodded slightly. We stepped out together and walked to the other cells. I knocked on one of them. Behind it was Talon, I felt it.