Bite Bound

Second Chapter

“What the f**k is she doing on my crime scene?” shouted a voice on my left. I got up and faced the upcoming angry guy.

The most handsome angry guy I had ever met in my 27 years of life.

“MINE” screamed my leopard in my head.

Oh S**t, more complications.

POV Elina

I stood as straight as I could. I was 5’8”, which is not small for a woman, but the grumpy as****e was towering at 6’5” and properly dwarfing me. And the fact that he was standing so close to me, did not help. Damn, ever heard of personal space?

His eyes caught mine, could not help but notice that his were mismatched, one green and one blue. I gasped at the sight of his beast getting close and both eyes turned into big bright cat green slit eyes and I felt my feline purr.

Great.

I took a step back hoping he didn’t feel my feline, by the look he was still giving me there was close to none chance of that. A girl can still dream.

“My name is Elina Estevez, I am an elemental sorceress, I was invited by Sergeant Hernandez to take a look at the crime scene.”

He flinched when I said that I was a sorceress but did not say anything, Smart Cookie. He extended his hand while introducing himself “Lieutenant Cyrian Vernier, sorry to have spooked you. I don’t usually react so violently, my beast is a little bit of an asocial.” As I grabbed his hand, his beast surfaced again in his eyes. And it took all the strength of the world to keep mine under control.

The guy in uniform finally got back with gloves and some recording device. I thanked him (and God internally) and got to work. I wanted to finish this quickly and go home, away from this crime scene and this alluring shifter. I mean this whole problem.

POV Cyrian

 I followed her movements as she crouched next to the body. Her examination of the remains was clinical, and soon her beautiful face was tensed by a frown. Her eyes, unlike any other feline I knew, were a vivid blue. She had survived an attack, that was the only explanation, she was a hybrid.

 According to scientists, the Red Plague vaccine reminiscence fought off the bacteria responsible for transforming humans into weres, resulting in either sorcerer remaining the way they were or, most of the time, resulting dead. But she had survived, and she had seemed surprise that I could sense her beast.

My panther was acting erratically since I had lain my eyes on her from afar. Blocking all my other senses, I focused solely on her scent. Under the coffee and brown sugar, her scent was woody and fresh. Like a fire during a clear summer night. Very tempting.

Then it hit me. The reason why my feline was acting like that.

I cursed under my breath and shifted uncomfortably to readjust my pants.

I raised my head and finally noticed that she had been talking to me.

“Sorry, I was lost in thoughts” I apologized promptly, clearing my throat “What did you find?”

She c****d one of her eyebrows before glancing back at the body “I think we can both agree that she was just dumped here. Multiple stabs wounds, I think they are staged. Looks like they were made with claws then covered up with a blade.”

I got closer to the macroscopic indentation she was showing me close to the sternum. She was right, and we had missed it.

“I also think that she may have been a sorceress, not a very powerful one. It’s your second victims isn’t it?

-Yes, the first was found around two weeks ago…” I muttered. We discussed a few more thing then got up. Her lips were still moving, yet I had the hardest time focusing on what she was saying. Her lips were just so attractive, full, pink and bare of any makeup.

“… penguin can actually fly, if you throw them hard enough. Just like children” …What?

 “or lieutenants that don’t actually listen to me.”

I sensed myself tense, what an i***t I was. I dramatically pinched the bridge of my nose. “Sorry, have not had much sleep those past few days.

-No problem, inspector. I was saying that it may be worth it to check for shifter DNA and check any big animal that could have done that. Bears, Tigers or any big feline really. But it’s probably a rogue. ”

I nodded; more leads always helped.

I send my card over to her cellphone. She looked at me confused - she could clearly see that it was my personal number, because the indicative for special obs was different. I suddenly felt uneasy, if she was latent, I would really pass for a fool.

“You might need me, soon. Well, you might need a feline shifter soon” I said trying to keep my tone uninterested, but my beast decided to add it’s little grain of salt, I could feel my eyes turning back to a full green, my voice dropping a few octaves becoming quite husky. “Very soon”.

She opened her mouth but the Sergeant, who had been on the phone, approached so she glared at me before smiling courteously to the sergeant, giving him the recording and explaining her findings. The sergeants thanked her, and she nodded in my direction before taking off with Aidan.

 Now all I could do was wait for her to call.

Elina POV

Like I was ever going to call him, this stupid ogling stupid a*****e. Handsome one, ok but still. How arrogant could you be!

I took the longest shower, noticing that I had not felt cold once since I had met him. Stupid feline, stupid adrenaline. I put myself in bed and the images of the crime came back to haunt me. Taking me back five years in the past. Classic.

Lyra was smiling, she always was. Her bright blue eyes and her fiery red hair flowing with the wind. We were sitting in a parc, drinking some Champagne, celebrating her internship in some big a** company and the fact that I was graduating top of my class. Happy days.

 We decided to walk back to the family appartement. As we walked through an alley a growl had attracted our attention, but not quite fast enough. I had woken up a few days later in a private room in my father’s hospital. My sister had disappeared and my transition into a leopard was complete.

 One week after her a*******n, they had found her. And it had not been pretty. She had been stabbed multiples time, her torso opened, her organs harvested. I had asked to be of assistance because I could not bear to do nothing. But the cycle had stopped with my sister. A few years later he had reappeared, striking five times again. All sorceress, from lesser to greater.

And the cycle was back.

I exhaled greatly, there was no way I could sleep.

I grabbed my laptop and booted it up, looking the registry of shifter in the vicinity of the city who could have done that. There were three families of bear shifters, one of jaguars, and one tiger only. Most shifters still lived in packs outside of the city. And I guess most would not even declare if they were in the city anyway. I sighed and took the file from the previous cases from my cabinet, lining up the victims on my coffee table.

Why could I not find the link between all of them. Age did not seem to matter, the younger had been 17 years old, the oldest 102. He seemed to strike randomly around the city, dumping the bodies at night. I opened a new word processor document and laid down my usual questions.

Who, what, why, where, when, how? Crazy how I could not answer precisely any of them.

Where was it abducting them? Where was it taking them? How did it avoid all the cameras? How did it choose its victims?

After a good hour of brainstorming I felt the beginning of a migraine creeping out on me, so I took a tall glass of water and forced myself to sleep a few hours before going to the shop.