A Time to Rise by Bauer Tal

Author:Bauer Tal [Tal, Bauer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Lotario’s phone rang as he and Alain were thundering down the steps of the Apostolic Palace, heading back for the Swiss Guard garrison offices. It was Angelo.

“You on the way?” Lotario pulled a cigarette out of his pack with his lips and lit it one-handed, all while he spoke.

“Something’s come up.”

Alain jogged close to Lotario’s side as Angelo’s voice grunted out of Lotario’s speaker. “What’s going on?” he said, speaking over Lotario’s shoulder.

“Just got a call routed from the emergency line. Someone in the Campo called in a murder. The description fits the profile of an incubus.”

Lotario rolled his eyes as Alain groaned. “An incubus? Now? Seriously?” Lotario sucked down his cigarette after speaking. “I swear; there’s too much going on right now. This has to be from the crazed vampire.”

“The hell are you talking about?” Angelo snapped at Lotario through the phone.

“We’ll fill you in later.” Alain grabbed the phone from Lotario and jerked his head toward the car park behind the Swiss Guard barracks and Lotario’s haphazardly parked Bug. Three other cars had parked around him, nearly blocking in the rusted yellow monstrosity. Lotario cursed. “We talked to Nuzzi. He’s clueless. We’ll need to get a look at that flash drive and see what she stole. Then go from there. We think we have a lead on what’s been happening recently.”

They slipped into Lotario’s Bug, doors slamming on rusted, creaking hinges.

“Fucking Vatican gendarmerie,” Lotario fumed. “Can’t control the fucking parking around here. Can’t trust them with fucking anything.”

Alain threw Lotario a dark glare as Angelo kept speaking. “I’ll give you the drive when you get here. Head for the Campo. We gotta get this incubus first.”

Lotario nodded, sucking down his cigarette as he started up his car, wound his way around a Lexus and a Mercedes, and then rumbled out of the Vatican.

“What happened?”

A heavy sigh over the phone and the crackle of a polizia radio. “We got a call routed to us about ten minutes ago. Some barfly went out to the back alley behind the Siam Hookabar and found a desiccated corpse. Young male, late twenties. He was still warm when the medics showed up, but drained dry.”

Lotario swerved through Rome’s ever-present traffic. The sun had set, dusk settling on the city like damp silk, and plum light bled into shadows that painted the capital in shades of onyx and midnight. Traffic lights winked on, glittering over the streets. “How do we know it wasn’t a vampire?” Smoke breathed from Lotario’s mouth with every word.

“No fangs marks. The corpse wasn’t bled out. It was desiccated. All fluids gone, not just the blood. Eyes, lungs, muscles, everything dried and destroyed. Looked like a piece of jerky. A dried up husk. There was also anal penetration, but no semen. No condom on the ground, either. Beyond that…even I could tell the soul had been ripped out.”

Alain shared a long look with Lotario. “How could you tell that?” Lotario grunted around the cigarette bouncing on his lips.

“Just could. You know, I do listen to your weirdness.

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