Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

walked out the door. He felt confident if the woman were to discover how much her smile turned him on she would bolt in a heartbeat. He dropped the films off in the darkroom and immediately walked out to the front office to find Marshall.
    “Erica is in the medical room. Can you see to it she is left alone while I am in the darkroom?” he requested of his second-in-command.
    “Sure, Tim and Alec are the only ones here right now. I have Joshua and Victor scouting around her house as we speak. We are just waiting for him to come back home,” Marshall replied quietly.
    “Good, just let me get her back out of here before anything else is said. You know if it goes down, I want a call. That demon isn’t going to live when I get finished with him.” Kevin walked over to Marshall’s desk and lowered his voice so only Marshall would hear. “I think things have been worse than even I suspected. Judging by the scars on her arms, he has been using her for his supply for quite some time now. I never came across that one in her memory banks, but the scars speak for themselves. She also has bruises on both of the insides of her thighs. I managed to get a few pictures without her knowing it. She just thought I was shooting X-rays.” Kevin pulled out a small stack of Polaroid pictures and handed them to Marshall. “Add these to her file. We may need them for evidence.”
    Marshall took a quick look at the photos with a frown on his face. “I’ll take care of it.” He glanced up to his boss for just a second, and then added, “You know we will get him, one way or the other. It is just a matter of catching up with him.”
    Kevin nodded and started heading towards the darkroom. He slowed halfway and called over his shoulder, “By the way, I’ve got my bike at the house.”
    “What, you didn’t offer her a romantic drive on the Harley? I’m shocked!” Marshall snickered.
    “Yeah, a ride on a bike is just what someone with broken ribs would want.” Kevin snickered in return.
    One of the reasons Kevin was so close to his second-in-command is that both men felt strongly against their kind preying on human women. Not only was it against their law, but both men were in total agreement that women were to be cherished, be they human or vampire, although it was a well-known fact that female vampires could take care of themselves most of the time. Even in light of this, in their little vampire community, males outnumbered females almost three to one. When Charles and the founding fathers originally drew up the bylaws for their community, it was clearly stated that the females were to be protected at all costs.
    Marshall had helped Kevin with part of the surveillance work months ago when Kevin first started noticing the bruises on Erica. This was about the same time she had first started confiding in Kevin as a friend. Marshall was just as anxious to see justice prevail as Kevin was.
    Shawn’s behavior was not only unnecessary and totally against the law, it also put each of them in danger of being discovered. One of the top laws in their society was not to harm humans. Their community consisted of a large population of vampires, most intermingled with mortals on an everyday basis. The police force that Kevin headed up was the VCTF aka, Vampire Crime Task Force. For subterfuge, the human population knew them as the “Victim Crime Task Force.”
    The VCTF was responsible for quietly taking care of any situation that involved vampires. Their society had been set up to have its own judicial system as well as punishment system. They had vampires in all necessary professions, from doctors to attorneys, plumbers to accountants, so that in the event the need arose, it could be taken care of quietly without drawing undue attention to their kind. To have one of their own routinely beat and abuse their human mate, just because they were stronger, put the entire vampire society at risk.
    As Kevin started developing the films, he reflected on his earlier conversation with Charles and Rosetta. Yes, sooner or later he was going to have to break down and tell Erica that both his family and he were vampires. He was also going to have to tell her that she was his mate. He could only pray that when the time came, Erica would give him enough time to explain, and that he would have the chance to win her trust before that situation had to be dealt with.
    After the films were developed, Kevin stepped back into the X-ray room. He strolled over