Blood Bane Tower Read online

  Blood Bane Tower

  An Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Book 3

  John P. Logsdon

  Christopher P. Young

  Chapter 1

  I used to despise going to see Dr. Vernon, the psychiatrist for the Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department (PPD), but that changed today.

  As I was lying back on the couch going over the details of the last mission, describing how that old fart, Shitfaced Fred, had built up an army of zombies bent on attacking the Strip, a shadow fell over me.

  I looked up and saw Dr. Vernon’s amethyst eyes staring down at me hungrily.

  She’d taken off her glasses and her hair hung along the sides of her dark-skinned cheeks. She was unbuttoning her blouse, which caused me to stop telling her about the mission.

  “Don’t stop,” she said in a sultry way. “Tell me more.”

  “Telling you about zombies is turning you on?”

  She paused and squinted at me. “No. Hearing about how you take matters into your own hands does.”

  “Oh,” I said as thoughts of You should probably leave right about now ran through my head. Unfortunately, thoughts of You’re not going anywhere, flyboy ran through that piece of anatomy that often controlled my patterns of thought. “The Admiral” seemed to do most of my thinking, after all. And, yes, that was the pet name I used for my junk, which was—interestingly—a name given to it by my partner on the force, Rachel Cress. This was before I was chief, of course.

  “Tell me how you used your gun,” Dr. Vernon whispered as she lowered herself onto my chest.

  “Whoa,” I said, pushing her away. “Couldn’t you lose your license for this?”

  She tilted her head. “Nope, but I appreciate your concern.”

  “Really? I thought that—”

  “You’re a supernatural, Ian. I’m a normal. My license only prohibits me from having relations with patients who are normals.” She traced my face with her index finger. “My uncle is a friend of one of the Directors, which is why I work with the PPD. I do it as a favor. Well, that, and to collect a nice chunk of change on the side.”

  “So you can bone anyone on the PPD, even though you know our deepest, darkest secrets?” I was perplexed by this. “Don’t you see that as a problem?”

  “With most of your crew, yes. With you? No. You’re never going to change your horndog status, and it’s frankly not my job to try and help you change it either.” She stopped her seductive play and pulled away slightly. “Unless you want me to help you change?”

  “Not even a little bit.”

  “There you go.” She nestled back into place. “I’m here to make sure you and your crew remain fit for duty. That’s it. I’ll help you resolve any internal issues in order to keep you ready for duty, too, of course, but I’m not trying to fix anything else.”

  “This is kind of...fantastic.” I gave her a quick look. “We still have that doctor-patient confidentiality deal, though, right?”

  “Probably.”

  “Good enough for me!”

  We started getting busy, when another thought struck. I pushed her away again.

  “Wait, which Director is your uncle’s friend?”

  “EQK,” she replied.

  “He has friends?” I started, but her kissing interrupted my train of thought.

  The Admiral had taken over and things were progressing quite nicely, when the word “time” came to mind.

  It was the word that Gabe had said to me at the Three Angry Wives Pub. I remembered because he said it in a way that made it impossible for me to forget. This was the same thing he’d done to me with the word “flashes,” where I ended up seeing a bunch of information about Shitfaced Fred. Turned out to have helped a lot when we’d reached our showdown, but the side effects of that Flashes thing rocked me to my core.

  But why was I suddenly thinking about the Time word that he’d shared?

  Even more pressing, why was I thinking about Gabe at all right now?

  That was a question I’m sure Dr. Vernon would love to dig into further during one of our normal sessions.

  Anyway, what did Time have to do with my current…

  I smiled.

  “What?” said the ravenous doctor as she continued her rhythmic motion.

  I wasn’t sure what Time was going to do, but I had a feeling it would either stop time or slow time. I hoped for the latter. There wasn’t much I could think of that’d be sweeter than a one-hour orgasm, after all. Well, not in realtime, obviously. That would be horrible.

  Time.

  I thought the word in such a way that it clicked. I can’t really describe it, other than to say it felt right when I thought it. Of course, Dr. Vernon had clearly been building up to a release, so not much felt wrong at the moment.

  Everything slowed drastically.

  I felt I could sit outside of the event I was currently in, acting at real speed while the world around me crawled at a snail’s pace. But I wasn’t interested in that at the moment. Instead, I allowed myself to wallow in intense pleasure for what seemed like eternity.

  The look on Dr. Vernon’s face was incredible. A mixture of desire and excitement. It was quite the turn on, but I managed to maintain my resolve.

  The entire event likely only lasted about forty-five seconds, but it’d felt like fifteen minutes.

  This Time thing was definitely going to be in the top-3 of my bedroom tricks going forward.

  And that’s when time resumed its normal pace, bringing us both back to the present. I didn’t feel any ill effects from this Time thing, which was great considering what Flashes had done to me.

  “That was amazing,” she said, nearly breathless as she collapsed on my chest.

  Moments later she resumed her ride-em-cowboy act with vigor.

  Oh, yeah, going to see the shrink wasn’t going to be nearly the chore anymore.

  “Ian, honey,” said Lydia, our Artificial Intelligence dispatcher, interrupting my fun time, “we have a problem.”

  Dr. Vernon couldn’t hear Lydia because the voice came through my connector, a communications device implanted into the brains of all PPD officers. But I could hear the voice and that made things trying.

  “I can’t really talk right now,” I replied without saying a word as Dr. Vernon kept going like a woman possessed. “We made some, uh, headway in this session, and now Dr. Vernon is really riding the point home.”

  “I know you’re at your appointment, sugar plum, but we have a normal who is being held captive by a group of supers.”

  “Shit,” I said aloud.

  “What’s the matter?” Dr. Vernon said, stopping her motion.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I was just talking to Lydia through my connector.”

  The good doctor winked. “That’s kinky.”

  It was my turn to squint.

  “Right, well, it seems that we have a normal in trouble,” I said as she slowed down. “I might have to go.”

  “You’re going to leave me like this?”

  “Well, uh…” I gulped. “Lydia, are the other officers on their way?”

  “Yes, sweetums.”

  “Great,” I replied, all smiles, knowing that my team was more than equipped to handle any situation. “Tell them that I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m in the middle of someone…erm, something right now.”

  “Is everything okay, puddin’?” Lydia asked. “You sound distressed.”

  “Everything will be fine in about five more minutes,” I answered.

  Dr. Vernon’s eyebrows shot up. “Only five?”

  “Make that fifteen, Lydia.”

  Chapter 2

  “Glad you could join us,” said Rachel as I stepped out of my r
ed Aston Martin. She then studied me for a second and shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

  “What?”

  “You know what,” she replied with much disdain.

  I grinned uncontrollably. Of course I knew what she was talking about. She had the ability to spot whenever I’d gotten lucky. I don’t know how she did this, but it was uncanny.

  It was clear she did not approve, but she knew the depths of the side effects I dealt with from being an amalgamite with enhanced genetics. I was the horniest guy on the planet. At least that was the theory, seeing that I was the only known amalgamite on the planet, and definitely the only one who was also a PPD officer. And since I was in the PPD, my genetics were enhanced even further. Each tick in the plus column included one horniness point. That gave me a lot of horniness points.

  “You did it with the doctor?”

  I shrugged. “We had a breakthrough, in a manner of speaking.”

  “Ugh.”

  She looked away.

  Rachel and I used to get busy with each other all the time. Honestly, she was everything a guy could hope for in a woman: beautiful, smart, snarky, amazing in the sack, and loyal. But that was the past. Ever since becoming her boss, our relationship became off-limits. Not that there was a ton of depth to our relationship before, but there could have been.

  I sighed at the thought.

  “Anyway, what’s going on here?”

  She pointed at a building that was a block away. It was small and dimly lit, which kind of fit in with this area of town. There looked to be armed goons walking around.

  “Guards?”

  “More like sentries,” Rachel said. “Griff and Chuck are on the other side.”

  “Felicia and Jasmine?”

  “Rooftop.” She pointed again. “They’ve got Warren with them.”

  “Why?”

  “I guess in case we need a wizard, Ian.” It was said deadpan.

  I could see why we’d want to have the mages onboard. Rachel, Griff, and Jasmine worked well together and they could get spells flying fast. But wizards were notoriously slow. By the time Warren got a jolt of naughtiness flying through the air, the battle would be over…assuming there was a battle forthcoming. Another glance at the sentries signaled that was a strong possibility.

  “Griff,” I said through the connector, “what’s the status on your side?”

  “We have ascertained the complement of sentries surrounding the building,” he replied in his posh voice. “There are eleven in total. Four are werewolves, five are vampires, and two are djinn.”

  “Swell.”

  “Charles and I believe there to be more on the interior of the building, however.”

  “Griff’s right,” Felecia chimed in. “Jasmine and I have spotted three already.”

  “Even better,” I said with a sigh.

  “Jasmine’s working with Warren to cast a blinding spell at the dudes around the front,” Felicia added. “Should only be another couple of minutes.”

  I gave Rachel a surprised look.

  “That was fast,” I said directly to her.

  “You were late, remember?”

  I cleared my throat.

  It was often difficult to know if Rachel was annoyed at me or just playing the part of my conscience.

  “What can I say?” I said. “The doctor had a prescription that I needed to…fill.”

  “I think I’m going to gag.”

  “That’s what she said.”

  Her eyes iced over. “I don’t doubt it.”

  “Nice.” I sighed. “You’re no fun anymore, you know that?”

  There was no response.

  “I thought you were all happy after spending time with those guys from the Little Rock Paranormal Police Department?” I scratched my chin for a second. “Cletus and Merle, right?”

  She gave me a sidelong glare.

  “No good?” I pressed.

  “They were fine,” she answered. “Can we keep our minds on the case, please?”

  Touchy.

  Well, there was no point in pushing the topic any further. Obviously things hadn’t worked out the way Rachel had planned. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’d been a bit jealous of Cletus and Merle at first. Again, my partner on the force was beyond hot. But things were what they were, so I allowed myself to be okay with it.

  Rachel, though, clearly wasn’t.

  “Look,” I said gently, “it’s none of my business what went on between you two…erm…three.” I coughed. “Anyway, I’m still your partner and that means I’ve got your back. So if you want to talk, I’ll be nonjudgmental about it.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “For real?”

  “Of course,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “That’s what partners do, Rachel.”

  She stared into my eyes in such a way that I had the sense she was judging my true intentions. I had nothing nefarious up my sleeve, but I could understand why she may have thought that. The fact was that I was known to be somewhat of a douche from time to time.

  “I couldn’t do it,” she admitted, looking away.

  “Couldn’t do what?” I asked.

  “It.”

  “The movie?”

  “What?” She furrowed her brow. “No, not the movie, you idiot. I’m talking about Cletus and Merle. I didn’t hook up with them.”

  “Oh.” That was odd. I thought for sure she was ready to go to town with them both. At least it sure seemed that way when we were out wiping up zombies. “But I thought you—”

  “So did I,” she interrupted. “So did I.”

  “Then what happened?”

  She shut her eyes and groaned, but before she could say a word, Felicia cut in.

  “Warren’s ready,” she said. “Cover your eyes. The flash is going off in five seconds.”

  I pulled out my Desert Eagle .50 caliber that I lovingly called “Boomy” and got ready for action.

  “We’ll talk about this later,” I said, shutting my eyes before the flash of light ensued.

  “Or not,” Rachel replied.

  Chapter 3

  The sentries yelled out as the flash hit the area. I couldn’t blame them, seeing as though it felt like I got an instant tan from it—and I was down the street.

  We rushed down and separated them from their weapons.

  The mages hung back at this point, not wanting to waste any of their magical energy. Not that the bad guys had a chance, seeing as how the light had blinded them. That thought set me off singing “Blinded by the Light” and then I couldn’t get the lyrics out of my head. Everyone else on the team gave me glares that said it was now locked in their train of thought as well.

  I’m sure it’s stuck in yours now, too.

  Sorry.

  “All tied up, Chief,” said Chuck, Griff’s partner and life-partner.

  The two men looked like polar opposites. Where Griff was middle-aged, well-dressed, of average height and build, and somewhat snobbish, Chuck was younger, tall, lanky, had longer hair, and wore long black trench coats. Plus, Chuck was a vampire and Griff was a mage. Not exactly a common combination. Honestly, I couldn’t place the chemistry between the two. They came from totally different worlds. Of course, maybe that’s where the allure was for both of them.

  “I’ll put them in stasis,” declared Warren as he set about drawing up runes.

  When I’d first met Warren, I was expecting him to look like Gandalf or Dumbledore. You can imagine how let down I was to instead find a scrawny dude who looked like a flower child from the seventies. Regardless, I’d found him to be quite capable in the realm of wizardry. Yes, he was slower than a sloth, but that was a common theme for wizards.

  “Actually,” I said, interrupting him before he could get started, “we may need you to disable runes in the house.”

  “Good point,” he agreed.

  Jasmine, the dark-haired beauty, who was one of my three mages, stepped up and set her hands to glowing. While all the mages, including Griff, wore
leathers as their standard garb, Jasmine had gone with a black ensemble this evening. With the glow of her hands radiating against her pale, white skin, the image was mesmerizing.

  Everyone stepped back so as to avoid being caught in whatever web it was that she was unleashing. Everyone except for Felicia, that is. Felicia was Jasmine’s partner. Not life-partner. They were both into dudes…though there was mention of Jasmine and Rachel hooking up at one point during a stakeout.

  I warmed at the thought.

  Felicia had a set of gorgeous brown eyes that were nestled perfectly in her dark-skinned face. She and I had quite a history together, back when I was still allowed to play with the crew. Felicia was seriously hot, but when she started moving into werewolf mode, she got even more smokin’. Her eyes would go from brown to red. Now, when she was fully wolf…well, no. But when she was still human but starting to turn…well, yeah.

  A stream of light jettisoned from Jasmine’s fingertips and struck skull after skull of the bad guys. They all flopped forward, knocked out.

  “They’ll be asleep for at least an hour,” Jasmine said, looking as though the energy required to cast the spell was minimal. “I didn’t want to overdo it.”

  “Good thinking,” I replied. Then I called back to base. “Lydia, could you send Harvey and a pick-up crew to arrest some folks down here?”

  Harvey was new to the team. He was part of the invasion force set up by Shitfaced Fred. But Harvey had only participated because his wife, Matilda, was helping Fred at the time, and Harvey was admittedly a bit whipped. That all changed for Harvey, though, and since he’d made a turnaround to help us fight against Fred, he was pardoned of his transgressions. His wife was slated to pay for her crimes by serving a few years in the pen. Anyway, due to Harvey’s friendship with Portman, and the way he’d spun himself around to the right side of the law, I ended up getting him a job on our security team. He was now tasked with loading up the guys we arrested in the paddy wagon and bringing them back to the cells.

  “You got it, sugar. Do you need Mr. Portman, too?”

  Portman was the man in charge at the supernatural morgue in town. He was a werebear. Strong, fast, loyal, and just an all-around good guy. He was also good friends with Harvey, which played in to my giving Harvey the job with pick-up.