Dhampirs of Sgiach

9. Kieran

Kieran hadn’t said anything to Kage since he asked about Lacey and the ride home was tense. He didn’t want to be touched, but his motorcycle didn’t leave many options for Kage. He ignored the hurt look on the incubus’s face when Kieran shook his hand off him as they went up to the apartment.

The human male that lived with Echo was screaming at her in the hall when they got off the elevator. She was trying to walk away but the asshole had her by the arm and a bruise was blossoming on her cheek. Kieran snarled and both Echo and Kage screamed as he grabbed her other arm. At the same time, his fist collided with the side of the asshole’s face.

When the human’s hand released Echo’s arm, Kieran fluidly swung her to Kage, who instinctively grabbed her. Kieran had the male pinned to the wall and his fangs plunged into his neck.

He could taste the poison in the male’s blood as he fed. Kieran was livid and this gangbanger deserved to be knocked down on his ass. When Kieran released him, he slammed him against the wall a couple of times before he snarled in his face. “You come near Echo again, I’ll kill you.”

Kieran left the human in the hall as he opened the door and herded Kage and Echo inside. “Go to your room,” he ordered them both as he went to his own and slammed the door behind him. He pulled Lacey’s suitcase from the closet and started to pull her clothes out and shove them into the suitcase.

Kieran: I need boxes.

Rand: Why?

Kieran: Lacey’s a cheating b***h.

Rand: Adam is on his way. One of us needs to make it to work.

Kieran threw his phone on the bed, then frowned at it. He put his phone on his side table before he ripped the sheets from the bed and tossed them in the trash, followed by the two other sets in the closet and the pillows.

By the time Adam arrived, all of Lacey’s crap was in the living room and Kieran grabbed the boxes and started to throw items in them angrily.

“Kieran?”

Kieran looked over to Kage where he stood and plucked at the shirt he was wearing. One of Kieran’s and it looked huge on his thin frame. “What?”

“Um… are you mad at me?” he asked in a tiny voice.

“He’s not mad at you,” Adam quickly said and shot Kieran a look that clearly said ‘Don’t f**k this up.’

“Go with Adam for a while,” Kieran said as he continued to pack up Lacey’s things. “And take Echo with you.”

“Echo? Who’s Echo?” Adam asked, then raised his hands in an attempt to push away Kieran’s angry glare. “Come on Kage, retrieve the other stray kitten and we’ll go to the Dancing Pig. My mom makes some amazing pancakes.”

When they were all gone, Kieran sat on the window seat and looked out at the city below him. That’s where he was when Lacey came home.

“What’s all this?” she asked.

“We learned what sin Kage feeds on,” Kieran said.

“Oh,” she said softly. “Does that mean he will be leaving soon?”

She screamed when Kieran suddenly pinned her to the wall and sniffed along her skin. There, faintly, under her scent and the scent of her perfume. The scent of a wererat.

Kieran growled as he pushed away from her. “Take your s**t and get out.”

“W-what?” she stuttered. Then she started to get angry. “What do you mean? Take my s**t and get out?”

“Exactly that,” Kieran snarled as he stalked to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “I can smell the wererat on you.”

“You’re the one who brought home an incubus! Don’t even try to deny that you’ve been f*****g him!” Lacey screeched at him.

“You really think I would take advantage of Kage? You saw him the first night he was here!” Kieran yelled right back at her. “You’ve been pulling away from me for almost six months! So, when did you start f*****g the rat?”

“At least he doesn’t want to munch on me when he f***s me!”

“Well you didn’t like it when my magic covered us in shadows!”

They went back and forth like that for a while as Kieran moved around the apartment and threw her things in the boxes. At the same time, Lacey removed them and attempted to put his things in the boxes. That had Kieran seeing red and his fangs extended.

“Nope. You’re the one leaving!” he snarled at her.

“The hell I am!”

“You’re the one always bitching about how we can’t go anywhere else because I’m a dhampir!”

A banging at the door silenced them both.

“Police! Open up!”

Kieran sat across the table from two detectives, both of whom were human. The chain that connected the cuffs on his wrists to the table was barely long enough for him to sip the coffee they had given him. The only things he had said since the police officers had cuffed him and dragged him to the station was a request to call his parents and for no cream or sugar in his coffee. Other than that, he had said nothing. The room was entirely too bright and everything in there was flame resistant. Even the detectives wore special suits to deal with anyone with fire magic.

They know I’m Furian, but don’t know which spark I have, Kieran mused to himself.

When he was booked, measurements of his fangs had been taken, blood had been drawn, and a small cut made on his arm with the time it was made written on the skin next to it. Standard procedure when booking a dhampir. No one had told Kieran why he was under arrest but he had seen Mr. John Wilson among a group of plainclothes detectives. Wonder if this is about the mugging…

“We just want to know where you were today from the time you woke up until you were collected by the police,” The older of the two detectives said. He had introduced himself as Detective Reynolds.

Kieran turned his eyes to detective Reynolds. The man had greying hair and a clean-shaven face but was still fit enough that he could probably keep up with Kieran on the track. They want to know where I was this morning? If that was all they wanted to know, he could tell them and his alibi for whatever they thought he had done would be solid. Especially if they have something made with phoenix string.

“The sooner you tell us, the sooner we can get you out of here,” the younger one, Detective Johnston, added.

Kieran took an awkward sip of coffee and squirmed into a more comfortable position in the hard chair and just stared at them pleasantly. A muscle in the younger one’s jaw twitched. Someone needs to learn patience.

Just then, there was a sound at the door and another man in a fire suit entered the room. “My name is Mr. Arias and if you have not told my client what he has been arrested for, you cannot hold him. So, either charge him or let him go.”

Kieran had never seen the man in his life.

“We were called to a domestic dispute at Kieran’s…”

“Mr. Ursine,” Kieran interrupted detective Reynolds with a level stair.

“…Mr. Ursine’s apartment that he shares with Ms. Lacey Matheson,” Reynolds finished.

“Ms. Matheson and I had a disagreement about when she would be moving out. She has expressed a desire to move out for quite some time now and I merely suggested that now would be the perfect time for her to leave.” The thought of Lacey had anger smoldering within Kieran’s chest and he felt his fangs extend.

“Why now?” Detective Reynolds asked.

Kieran glanced at the lawyer. The man was human and not the family lawyer he was used to. The only other person besides his family that would have an interest in keeping Kieran out of jail would be Lucifer. And that was only if he was right and the ancient incubus was behind his recent tailing job for the sole purpose of putting Kage in Kieran’s care. Here’s hoping I’m not about to shoot myself in the foot.

He explained that he had taken Kage in off the streets recently and today they had gone to the Nephilim Medical Center for a follow-up check-up with Dr. Michael Baker before going to Dr. Lamia Ebonwings’s offices for a sin evaluation on Kage to determine the s****l sin he feeds on specifically.

“Kage feeds on the sin of s****l betrayal. It was at the evaluation that it came to light that Ms. Matheson has been cheating on me. It angered me and, since she is not on my lease, I felt that it would be prudent for her to move out sooner rather than later,” Kieran finished. “She disagreed and felt that I should leave the apartment.”

“Where was Mr. Frostfang when Ms. Matheson arrived home?” Detective Johnston asked.

“Kage is easily frightened and my younger brother, Adam Ursine, took him and my neighbor across the hall, Echo, to the Dancing Pig for pancakes," Kieran answered.

Even through the face masks of the fire suits, Kieran saw their faces pale. The Dancing Pig was a known shifter hangout in neutral ground and shifters dealt with criminals in their territories in their own way. And they also dealt harshly with anyone that attempted to remove someone from their protection. Kage and Echo were perfectly safe there.

“It seems that my client has a solid alibi for his activities for the day. If you’re not going to charge him with anything, then you must release him," Mr. Arias said firmly.

“He still has a good hour that he was home alone,” Detective Johnston pointed out. “He has also recently fed on human blood.”

“That hour fits with the time of death of Mr. Steve Henderson. The man who lives across from Mr. Ursine with Ms. Echo Luna,” Detective Reynolds added. “The fang marks on Mr. Henderson match with Mr. Ursine’s fangs and were made recently. Ms. Matheson has stated that Mr. Ursine has had problems with Mr. Henderson in the path.”

Kieran raised an eyebrow at that. This is way too soon for them to have me in custody.

Another hour of the interrogation and Kieran remained silent. When they finally released him, his mother was in the waiting room. A wide circle clear around her.

She went to him and Kieran had to endure her motherly need to check over him. “Are you OK?” she demanded.

“Yes, mother,” Kieran answered.

“Then why are your fangs extended?”

“I just found out my girlfriend has been cheating on me and I’m a suspect in the murder of a known gangbanger for the wereracoons,” he pointed out dryly as they walked down the steps of the police station. “Are Kage and Echo fine?”

“They’re both fine. Though Kage has been hiding in a cupboard since we got the news you were arrested,” his mother said.

“I must ask, did you bite Mr. Henderson?” Mr. Arias asked quietly when they were all out of earshot of anyone else.

“I did, after he hit Echo. I also bit a Mr. John Wilson after he raped Kage. Dr. Baker performed a rape kit on Kage the next day and the results are in Kage’s file. I saw Mr. Wilson in the police station with other detectives,” Kieran said, and walked away with his mother.