Stormrage Read Online Free PDF Page A

Raven picked through the outfits, looking for one that had been worn, but not yet laundered. Her sensitive nose picked up the sour scent of sweat, cigarette smoke and booze coming from a leather number that consisted of a belt that was probably supposed to be a skirt, a shelf bra and a choker with a D ring at the front. She picked it up and sniffed gently, but detected nothing new beyond the subtle scent of a woman; she had a hunch the girl had danced at one of the clubs in Chicago. A girl had to make ends meet and sometimes that was all you could do.
    Raven put the outfit back on the shelf and left the master bedroom to find Levac leaning into the bathroom.
    "Find anything in the other bedroom?" Raven asked, walking toward him.
    Levac shook his head. "Not really. Looks like it was being used by a guy, my guess would be Shevlin, but there was nothing in there to prove it," he said in a dead voice.
    Raven looked at her partner and then turned to follow his gaze . The bathroom was pristine with a new white vanity, black and white tile and a new-looking claw foot tub. A young blonde woman lay in the tub, her hair plastered to her skull, one hand trailing in a pool of red on the tile floor. She stared accusingly at the two detectives with blank, white eyes.
    "Shit," Raven said softly.
    Levac nodded.
    "I think we found Christina," he said. "Looks like a suicide to me."
    "I don't think so," Raven said, pushing past Levac. "I don't smell any blood, do you?"
    She stooped and ran a finger through the red pool. It was thin and grainy, full of red particles like the ones in her evidence bag.
    "Thirst," Raven said, holding up one red-coated finger.
    Thirst? What's that?"
    "A drug," Raven said. "An expensive designer drug I came across when I worked in Narc. I thought we'd gotten it off the streets, but I guess not. Think of it a sort of predecessor to Bath Salts."
    Levac frowned at his partner. "You mean that stuff that made that guy eat someone's face off down in Miami?"
    "The very same," Raven said. "Only this shit is one thousand times worse."
    "Why are her eyes all white like that?" Levac asked, leaning over Christina.
    "It is the l ast stage of Thirst addiction," Raven said, her voice tight. "In most people it causes a type of madness and thirst for blood, hence the name. In others, complete blindness. You end up in your own private little hell. And if there is no one to feed your addiction, you die as your organs shut down one at a time. It’s a horrible way to croak."
    "Did you see a lot of this in Narc?" Levac asked, putting away his pistol and laying a hand on his partner's shoulder.
    Raven flinched , but didn't move away. "Yes. It's why I got suspended and why I transferred to homicide. I beat a Thirst dealer to death with my bare hands. When I realized what was happening, there was nothing left of his face, but meat and bone. I was acquitted for 'extenuating circumstances' but something like that sticks with you for the rest of your life."
    She shook her head and turned away. As she entered the hallway she called to Levac, "Rupe, can you call Aspen and have her get her team down here? Maybe we can get a firm ID on the girl and some clues as to what Thirst has to do with Shevlin. I need some air."
    "You got it, partner," Levac replied. Raven felt his eyes on her as she walked down the stairs, the railing creaking in her grip.
     
    * * *
     
    The noonday sun was high overhead, burning the morning chill away into a bright afternoon. Raven leaned on the hood of her Shelby sipping black coffee and watching the crime scene technicians come and go from the house through her aviator sunglasses. Aspen came out at the end of the parade with her kit and a disgusted-looking Levac. The young woman stopped next to Raven and started to set her kit on the hood of the Shelby. Raven lowered her sunglasses and glared at the younger woman. Aspen pulled her kit away as if the car was on fire and held the case to her like it was her favorite