Read Online The Dark Side by M. J. Scott - Free Book Online

reports say it was a guy. I don’t want to take any chances.”
    * * *
    I hadn’t reached Jase by the time we got downtown, and every time his phone went through to voicemail the knot of fear in my stomach pulled tighter. The uniforms waved us through when Dan flashed his badge. I tried not to let myself think for one second it might be Jase who’d gone up in flames. He was fine. He had no reason to commit suicide—choosing the sunrise the vamps called it—he was
fine
.
    Despite what I was telling myself, my fingernails were cutting into my palms as we approached the car. It was blocking the street, parked at a wonky angle across the middle of the road.
    From the rear it looked pretty new. Recent tags and lovingly polished metallic red paintwork. But after the cops let us through the crowd and past the yellow and black tape cordoning off the car, we got close enough to see the driver’s side. The door was open, window shattered, the leather of the seat and lining the door smoking and charred black. Vamps burn hot. And they don’t leave much behind. The paint on this side had scorched and blistered, like a giant had smeared something black and acidic along the panels. The road was scorched too, bubbled with heat and covered with fine gray ash. The air smelled like burned tarmac and oil and a greasy throat clogging acrid smell.
    “It’s not Jase’s car,” I said, speaking a little too loudly so I could hear myself over the pounding of my heart. My throat tightened, making me cough. Mistake. I just breathed in more of the stinking air with each splutter.
    “Does it look familiar at all?” Dan asked.
    I studied the car, then the plates. Nothing jogged in my memory. The windows shone with the bluish purple gleam that said they’d been UV treated and were thereforesafe for a vamp to drive but I didn’t think I’d seen the car before. But it was hard to think between the fumes and the fear. “No.”
    “Have you run the plates?” Dan asked the bored-looking uniformed cop nearest us.
    The cop nodded. “It was reported stolen two days ago. The owner’s from Bellevue, but he’s in D.C. for a business trip. Reported the car missing right before he left. He sounded pretty pissed.”
    “You ask if he knew any vampires?”
    The cop shook his head.
    A muscle tightened in Dan’s jaw. “Then I suggest you contact him and ask. Is anyone else from the Taskforce here?”
    That got a headshake. The cop pulled out his phone and walked away, leaving us alone with the ruined car. Dan started circling the car, skirting the burned areas of pavement, studying the vehicle intently.
    I didn’t know what he was looking for. I wasn’t an FBI agent or an ex-cop. I wasn’t used to standing next to the spot where someone had burned alive. Or had been burned. The unwelcome thought popped into my head. It seemed stupid; how would you force a vampire to climb out of a car into daylight but I had to ask. “How do you know it was a suicide?”
    “Witness saw the vamp get out of the car. And didn’t see anyone else nearby.”
    So much for that.
    Feeling helpless, if somewhat relieved, I reached for my cell to dial Jase again. I willed him to answer. Where the hell was he? I stared at the car and the ash coating everything, trying to tell myself the tears stinging my eyes were from the fumes as I listened to the sound of nobody picking up. Jase was fine, I told myself firmly.
    But looking at the wreckage I couldn’t dispel my fear. I’d never seen the aftermath of a vamp hitting the sunlight before; I’d killed Tate under moonlight using good old-fashioned teeth and claws. The burned acid stench in the air suddenly reminded me of the taste of Tate’s blood and I realized that was what I smelled.
    Incinerated vamp blood.
    Bile rose in my throat and I stepped backward automatically, not wanting any of the ash to touch me. I didn’t need any more death. Didn’t want to know the scent of torched vampire. Hopefully this would be the