Magically Bound

     There isn’t anything like the smell of blood that calls home to you. Well, at least that is what it signifies for me. I have never felt safer than when in the presence of death. Not that I would allow anyone to know my infatuation to all the darkness. My partner and our whole precinct thinks I am aberrant. As a homicide detective, I have to be comfortable with the scenes I witness. My partner, Taylor, on the other hand, prefers to linger on the outside. I don’t know why, but I know when death is near. The aroma of blood coursing through the air, Pulling at all my senses. Beseeching for me to find it and lather in it. “Hello! Sullivan, you coming?” I turned to see Taylor staring at me with a brush of mystification on his face. “Where?” I asked, just as confounded. “We got a case. We gotta go,” Taylor said, rushing out the swinging doors. I grabbed my coat off the back of my chair as I fled after him. I knew there was a case I could smell the horror.            The victim wouldn’t be within the proximity, but I knew it would be a female. We’ve had a string of killings, but no one thinks they are connected. I have tried to convince my partner for months. Everyone tells me that I am just reaching. Endeavoring to see things that aren’t there. I knew they were linked because the killer was calling to me. Leaving his calling card on each victim, but it was different every time. That’s why no one could tell that this perp has violated all these women. I will find him, though! The only thing that scares me is what I will do once I find him. He’s been romancing me for months, playing towards my deepest desires. Will his blackness call towards the tenebrosity within? “I have a feeling, Sullivan. This is gonna be a bad one!” Taylor said in that southern drawl. “Aren’t they all bad, Jones?” I asked, being drawn out of my decrepit noetic conceptions. Taylor ceased the car without answering me. I stepped out, realizing that we were miles outside of our jurisdiction.            I didn’t know what the hell Taylor was thinking. We could lose our jobs if the captain caught us. Cops didn’t purloin cases from other cops! Especially outside of their own jurisdiction. “What the hell Jones. This isn’t even our territory! We need to leave,” I cut off when a smell enveloped my nose. I knew the scent well. I didn’t have to ask where the body was. I furrowed my brows as another peculiar scent crossed past. “Wait!” I whisper yelled. Taylor ran right into my back before he had the chance to stop. “What the f**k, Sullivan?” Taylor asked as he rested a hand on my shoulder. “Somethings wrong,” I paused as I gradually turned my head. Taking in the smells around us, “can you smell that?” “Yeah, it’s called death.” Taylor scoffed. He brushed past me and started to head in the direction I was initially going. I was frozen, unaware of what I was sensing. This wasn’t the typical scene for a murder. If it were cognate to my guy, we would be in our part of town.            We were bated. I could feel it deep in the depths of my soul. Instead of following Taylor, I decided to follow the incipient scent. It reeked of death, but there was something else. Something that caused a yearning between my legs. I trailed lightly through the open field, till the scent became more assertive. I looked down to see yellow flower petals composing a walking path. I smelled the blood before I saw it, drizzled all over those petals. I walked to the side of the path, following the denotements that were left for me. “Ruby.” I whipped around as I heard my name whispered behind me. There was nothing there. I turned around and pulled my gun from its holster.            I wanted to pull out my flashlight, but noticed it wasn’t compulsory. My eyes were adjusting aberrantly well, it was as if I had my own night vision all of a sudden! I lightly walked the direction I was lead. I was looking around sharply, allowing my nose to guide me. I froze when the yellow petals ceased, and I was in a clearing. I looked around as I stood center of a flower meadow. I couldn’t see blood anywhere, but the smell was everywhere. I was being engulfed with the smell of metallic iron. “Ruby,” my name was hissed out, remotely audible. I knew the voice was behind me. I just couldn’t bring myself to turn and look. He was here, and he had me precisely where he wanted me. I felt something on my hand. I looked down and realized that I was crouching to the ground. My hand gliding over the petals in the meadow. I lifted my hand, but there was nothing there.            I just knew there was blood here! I couldn’t see it, and that was starting to piss me off! “Taste it,” the voice whispered. I didn’t comply with what he wanted. I couldn’t bring myself to move, as my heart began to race. I felt something brush my shoulder, “I can tell you crave it. Taste it, my sweet,” the voice whispered in my ear. I stared at my hand like it was a foreign object. Watching as it rose to my mouth, my fingers gradually gliding across my bottom lip. I felt my breath coming too quickly, feeling the seduction coursing through my body, enthralling me. As if I were pinned against a wall with hands gliding all over my body.            I bit my lip as my hand glided back down to my side. I stilled waiting for something to transpire. He was close. It felt as if he was directly behind me. I was unable to will my body to get up and defend itself. “Detective?” I heard a man’s voice. “Ruby!” Another man yelled. I felt firm hands as they gripped my upper arms, drawing my attention away from the whimsical embraced I was under. “Are you hurt?” Taylor rushed on, “did someone do something?” Panic lacing his voice. “No, I am fine,” I paused, looking at the ground. “I thought I saw something is all.” Taylor brought me to my feet. I gained the strength to look behind me but didn’t see anything. There was a lingering feeling that I was being watched closely. I could almost feel a pair of eyes racking over my whole body.            I wasn’t sure how long I had been gone, but long enough for my partner to worry when he saw me. Then the realization hit me that our captain was standing in front of me. “Cap, what’s going on?” I asked. I saw confusion cross Taylor’s face, “Yeah, why are we here?” he asked. “Why don’t we get over to the scene. There is something I think you should see.” The captain was looking directly at me when he said that, which meant one of two things. One, we were here to help in the case because it was comparable to another we had. Or the second would be that there was something explicit to me. I would wager on the latter before we even reached the scene.            I started to follow our captain and Taylor, then stopped. I would be able to find this place again without difficulty. No one else would have the same ease to get us back here. I was here for a reason. One that I wasn’t able to ignore. “Wait,” I yelled. “I was guided here. We need to look everything over,” I finished. “I will have a team sent over.” The captain said. I heeded as he yelled for a team to mark off the area in a hundred-foot perimeter. In addition to the border that was already blocked off for the scene itself. Once, he turned to walk back toward the scene. Taylor turned to follow, so I followed along behind them.            I braced myself, not for the victim I was about to see. I was bracing myself for what was left. The one thing that proved all my theories accurately. Then we made it to the scene, and I gasped when Taylor stepped to the side. Rage boiling off of him, I could smell his fury and knew it wouldn’t be good. It was pitch black, and police spotlights lit the scene. Not that I require them to see, I could smell the blood and bile from where I stood. I stepped past my captain and Taylor. I slowly looked around as I canvassed my surrounding. There was vomit next to the victim's head, and fresh blood coated the dirt. This woman hadn’t been dead for more than an hour. Though, that wasn’t what shocked me the most. She had her hands bound behind her back, just like the last victim we discovered. I whipped my head around, realizing I was wrong. There wasn’t a calling card for me! “It’s similar,” I stated. Saw the look cross Taylor’s eyes that he agreed with me. “She was murdered here though, that’s incipient. No one should be sanctioned to enter the scene until it is gone over with a fine-tooth comb.”            I walked over to the captain, making sure they would listen to what I was saying. “Ruby, we don’t know that for sure.” Captain Patterson stated. “Don’t Ruby me! You know it’s true, why else would we be outside our jurisdiction?” I went to walk back toward the body when a hand was at my elbow. “Detective Sullivan, don’t take that tone with me.” The captain quipped. “If you will stop for just a moment, I can show you why we are here.” I took a deep breath, trying to pacify myself. I didn’t need to lose the one job that brought me the most exhilaration. I settled myself and then watched as the captain nodded to a beat cop behind me.            I watched as he meticulously kneeled beside the woman and started to turn her over. The amount of blood pooled beneath her had me hissing. My nose inhaled deeply to soak in the immaculate aroma. It called to me like a drug, and I was hovering over the body without realizing I had even moved. “Detective,” the captain said. I looked down to see the woman lay on her back before me. I wanted to throw a hand over my mouth and gasped at what I saw, but I couldn’t. He was calling me out just like I had believed! Not just a small clue to make someone presumed that it was meant for me. There my name was carved out in this woman’s skin. Not just my first or last name, but the whole thing! He wanted to make sure I was here, but why? Why was this time so unalike compared to all the others?