I looked back and studied the morgue's exterior entrance. “Now what? We could try and get into the morgue through the hospital entrance, but we'd have to go through who knows how many doctors and administrators. Or I guess I could just punch this fucking clerk out and go in the back myself … but if he reports the assault later that might cause a problem.”
Lyanne looked like she was on board for the punching idea. “I doubt he will even remember your conversation later, much less what you look like.”
“Still, best to not risk it.” I walked around the side of the morgue until I found a window that led to the room behind the clerk. “Or I could just sneak in. I'm stealthy enough to sneak up on Succubi, so I doubt a blazed desk clerk is going to hear me.”
“I suppose. Or you could do the punching. Either one.”
I peeked in the window and took a quick glance around. The room was empty, best I could tell. Just to be safe, I focused on my instincts to see if I detected anything supernatural nearby. It was clear.
“Stand watch. I'll be back in a minute.” I raised the window silently and slipped inside.
My senses were assaulted by the competing scents of sterility and death. I heard the clerk laughing along with the laugh track of some sitcom he was watching on his phone. The only other sound was the hum of the electric lights overhead.
I crept around, looking for something that would give me an idea of where to find the specific bodies I was looking for. After a couple minutes of searching, I found a clipboard with a list of bodies taken in and where they were all being stored. Only two of three names I was looking for were listed, but they were being stored in adjoining fridge drawers.
The fridge I was looking for was in the very back and was covered in fridge magnet letters that had been arranged to spell “DR FENZIE HAS A SMALL WIENER” across multiple drawers. According to the clipboard, drawers number four and five should have the bodies I was looking for.
The body stored in drawer four, who had gone by the name Peter Shill in life, was deformed due to its time floating in the river, but there were some other things that were immediately noticeable about it. Namely, there were giant gaps missing, as if someone had carved out chunks of the chest, stomach, and thighs. My mind went to the bag of bloody meat and I nearly lost my lunch.
I forced that all down to more carefully examine the body. After turning the body onto its side, I noticed strange markings on its back and legs. The damage done to the body from the water made the exact patterns hard to make out, but the lines still seemed more deliberate than random. I took out my phone and snapped a couple pictures. Maybe one of the girls would know something about this.
The second body in drawer five, once Martin Patters, was much the same as the first: large chunks of the body carved out, strange markings on the back and legs. I had a sneaking suspicion that wherever the third body was, it was in much the same shape.
There is definitely a pattern here. But what is the connection?
As I was standing over Mr. Patters' body and contemplating what I knew, I heard a door slam open and footsteps rapidly approaching. I had no time to close the drawer, and that would have made a lot of noise, so I just left it open as I ducked behind a nearby shelf.
“Is this really necessary, Dr. Fenzie?” asked a female voice.
A male voice replied, “Yes, it is. That family wants to sue me for malpractice! I need to make sure that the idiots who work down here haven't written anything that might be misconstrued and used as evidence against me.”
A man in a doctor's coat and a woman in nurse's scrubs quickly came into the room. The doctor's attention quickly fell on the open drawer and the exposed body. “Why is this out?” He tuned and quickly scanned the room, and I slunk further back into the shadows behind the shelf.
Dr. Fenzie's eyes narrowed, and for a moment I thought he had caught me. “Hector!”
The incredibly stoned clerk from the front desk came rushing into the back. “Oh, hey, Dr. Fenzie. What's up? The way you yelled, I thought there was another fire back here.”
I started to shift away from the shelves and toward the windows while all the attention was on the clerk.
The doctor pointed at the body on the open fridge shelf. “Did you leave the fridge open again?”
“What? I mean, I grabbed a soda earlier … oh! You mean the body fridges. I don't think so … I don't remember.”
“You're high again, aren't you?”
I eased the window back open and pulled myself up as the clerk hesitated and ending with a “Maybe.”
The doctor sighed, before asking, “Well, do you at least have any more?”
I left behind this scathing indictment to our healthcare system and rejoined Lyanne in the street. “Next time I'm injured, please take me to any hospital but than this one.”
She arched her eyebrow at me. “Noted. Did you find anything?”
I nodded, my eyes drifting back to the window I had just crawled out of. “There's definitely something going on. Both the bodies had chunks of meat torn off them and strange markings on their back. We’ve got to do something soon, or I have a feeling the bodies are going to start piling up on this one.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Maura didn't have time talk last time I visited The Dispensary, but she mentioned she might be able to ask around 'for a price.' It might be our only shot at a lead.”
Lyanne sighed but didn't argue. “Very well. But this time, I'm going with you.”
4
The Dispensary was much less crowded today than the last few times I had been there. A couple of people who my instincts told me were something other than human sat at a table in the corner, and a few, what I assumed were mortal, patrons sat at the table closest to the door, deep in the drinks and nearly falling from their chairs from intoxication.
And of course, there was Maura. She stood behind the bar, casually chatting with the bartender. When I stepped inside, she looked over and nodded at me.
Lyanne's lips quirked up in a playful smile. “Oh, that's her? You didn't tell me she was such a looker.”
I tried to pretend I hadn't noticed. “Oh, is she?”
“Have you put the moves on her yet?”
“No, not yet.” I left the possibility in the air.
“I'm sure you will.”
We took seats at the bar and Maura came over to serve us herself. She didn’t wait to take our orders before pouring us each a glass of something that smelled like very powerful liquor. “Hello again, Kurt. And who is this?”
I took a testing sip from my glass and was immediately greeted by a strong, but not necessarily unpleasant, burning sensation. “This is Lyanne. She works alongside me.”
Lyanne swirled a finger around the glass but did not drink. “And sometimes on top of him … when the situation calls for it.”
Maura rested her elbows on the bar so she could lean in closer. “So you're Lyanne, the Succubus. Or former Succubus, I should say.”
Lyanne gave Maura a suspicious look. “You know about that, huh. Kurt tell you?”
“No, it's just my job to know these things. And I wouldn't be very good at my job if I didn't know the identity of one of the most powerful Succubi in the state. Though those days are over, aren't they.”
The former Succubus gave the bartender a wicked smile. “Try and test me and we'll see just how over those days are.”
I had always known that Lyanne was more than just a normal Succubus. Curing her of her curse had been an intense act, one that I probably wouldn't have been able to accomplish without her cooperation. But one of the most powerful in all New York? I had no idea she had given up so much just for the chance at being mortal again.
Maura, for her part, did not seem concerned with Lyanne's threats. She leaned back away from the counter and turned her attention back to me. “So, Kurt. I assume you are back to finish the discussion we started the other day.”
I took another sip of the fiery liquor before re
sponding. “Yeah. There’ve been at least three victims so far, and there's a good chance there are more that just haven't been discovered yet. The bodies are always found floating downriver with chunks of meat torn off and strange markings on their backs. It's the kind of thing you'd expect the police to publicly hunt, like they do for serial killers, but the newspapers are leaving almost all the important details out. Actually, the articles are practically written the exact same way for each victim.”
She nodded as she took in this information, then paused, looking thoughtful while tapping her fingers on the top of the bar. “I may have something for you. I did do a little digging since the last time you came in here, and for a price, I can tell you everything I know about these bodies found in unusual states.”
Lyanne was already reaching for the pocket she kept all her money in. As far as I knew, she never traveled with less than a thousand dollars in cash, plus several charge cards that allowed her to spend with no practical limit. “How much?”
Maura gestured for her to put her money away. “Not cash. Not in this case, anyway. There's something I need Kurt to do for me.”
This was not doing much for Lyanne's trust issues, judging by the fire in her eye. “If you want to get into his bed, you should be aware there's an almost nightly queue.”
“No, nothing like that.” She turned her attention back to me. “I assume you remember Darcy?”
“The delivery girl?” I asked, trying to act like I hadn't been disappointed not to see her here today.
“Yes. I have a suspicion that she is more than she appears. Something other than human, which I am sure you know something about. I want you to follow her and see if you can confirm my suspicions.”
That sparked my interest. Darcy had been nice enough, though that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't immortal, but my experiences with immortals showed that most of them were assholes. Also, my instincts hadn't reacted at all to Darcy's presence, though it was possible her presence was weak enough that it had been masked by the much stronger auras around her.
It was clear Darcy had known more about the world of the supernatural than she had let on. She had been pressing me for information, plus I didn’t think it was a coincidence she hung around a bar frequented by immortals. “What do you think she is?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn't need you. She always seems to suspiciously turn up in supernatural communities, offering her services for procuring items that most delivery services wouldn't touch. I could be wrong, and it may just be coincidence, but I have a feeling she's hiding something, and it impacts my ability to do my job that I don't know what.”
Her insistence made me wonder if she behind the other stalking attempts on Darcy. If she really was just a human than this would be a massive invasion of privacy. But if she wasn’t…
“Alright. I'll look into it.”
Maura reaction suggested that she had always known the conversation would go this way. “Thank you, Kurt. I'll go confirm some information with my source, and when you return with something concrete about Darcy's true nature, I'll share it with you.”
“Source?” Lyanne asked.
I looked over and noticed that somehow Lyanne had drained her entire glass when I wasn't looking. Feeling competitive, I started to force more of the burning liquid down my throat, and discovered that drinking, like breathing, is a skill you never really lose.
Maura refilled Lyanne's cup without breaking eye contact with her. “Don't worry about it.”
Lyanne raised the glass back up to her lips. “How trustworthy is your source?”
“As trustworthy as they come.”
I set my own glass back down, looking somewhat defeated at the small pool of liquid that still made its home at the bottom of the cup. “I think we're going to need more than that, Maura, if I'm going to be working on promises alone.”
Maura sighed, set the bottle down, and pulled out a third glass for herself. “You're going to press the matter, aren't you? Fine, but I'll have you know that if you go chasing down my sources yourself, I won't work with you again in the future. His name is Voortmann, and he works with the dead.”
Something about that named sparked recognition in Lyanne. “I have heard of him. He's … what do they call them …”
“A ghoul,” Maura finished for her. “He's a ghoul, meaning he not only works with the dead, but he also eats them on occasion. But he doesn't bother the living, so for the most part he is left alone. He's also been around for a very long time, and if anyone knows something about corpses turning up around the city, it is him.”
I drained the last of my liquor, then put the glass down with purpose. “If he knows so much, then perhaps it would be better for me to meet him myself, instead of hearing this information secondhand. I’ve got a strong stomach, and a real knack for meeting people, even if they look at corpses as lunch. It’s just one of my gifts.”
“I just said—”
“I won't chase him down, but you can introduce us. Look, it’s an investigation, and sometimes you don't know the follow-up questions you need to ask until you hear the answers to the leading ones. Instead of having you run back and forth, which wastes time and puts people in danger, let me ask them myself so we can get this all over with. Efficiency is king when we’re on an unknown timeline. Unlike your friend, I’m not undead. I’d like to make progress before I get any older.”
Maura considered for a while, using the time to down a glass of the burning liquor in one go. “Fine. But only after you come back with confirmation of Darcy's true nature. Then I’ll arrange a meeting.”
She reached out her hand and I shook it. A deal had been made.
Now all I had to do was find Darcy.
And hope that, whatever she was, I was not forced to put her down.
5
I set out with Lyanne and Eve to tail Darcy. We had Maura order something “Emergency Delivery” to guarantee Darcy would be at The Dispensary early that day. From there we split up, taking different routes and methods for tracking the courier. I learned what became of Lyanne and Eve's efforts after the fact.
Lyanne had taken her car and followed Maura's bike for a few miles, but either Maura caught on because she started weaving her bike in and out of traffic, driving through small gaps between cars that Lyanne's car couldn't fit through. No wonder her stalkers couldn’t keep up. It didn't take long of this for Darcy to slip the former Succubus.
Eve tried to follow her through the air. She had recently acquired a drone, after convincing Lyanne that it would aid in home security, but she normally used it recreationally to take landscape shots of the estate and surrounding woodlands and river in Vermont. Using the drone to fly high over traffic, Eve had kept up with Darcy for miles after Lyanne lost her …
Only for Darcy to park her bike and go down into a subway station. The drone couldn't fly down there without crashing into crowds of people, so Eve had effectively lost the target as well.
That left me. Since the girls were doing the tailing, I took less direct means of moving through the city: taxis, by foot across parks, and even the occasional bus. I got updates from Lyanne and Eve for as long as they were tracking her, and used that information to cut a crisscrossed path through the city to always be moving to intersect Darcy's path.
Because of this, I was only a minute behind getting down into the Subway station as Eve's drone lost track of her. There was a big crowd this time of day, and for a bit I was frustrated that my instincts weren't picking up on anything supernatural. If at the end of this Darcy turned out to be a normal person, I would have some strong words for Maura about invading people's privacy.
Fortunately, if there's one thing being a Hunter hones, it is your perception. I was able to catch a glimpse of Darcy just as she was boarding one of the trains. I fought my way through the crowds to get into the subway car behind hers just as the train was about to depart.
I watched through the windows in the connecting doors between cars. She was seated
by herself, listening to music and generally looking like she hadn't a care in the world. At least it seemed she was unaware she had been tailed. I was actually beginning to feel a little guilty: nothing so far insinuated that she was anything more than human, and she had already given me the story of how often creeps tried to stalk her from Maura's place, which is essentially what I was doing now.
We rode the train like this for about twenty minutes, me silently watching her without being noticed, her just listening to music and not paying attention to her surroundings. She finally got off and I trailed behind her, trying to keep enough of the crowd between us that I wouldn't be noticed. When we hit the streets, I noticed this area was not as packed with people as the rest of the city. Many of the buildings here were boarded up, and the few people out on the streets mostly kept their heads down and didn't make eye contact with each other. This would make it harder for me to trail her without being noticed, so I slowed my walking pace to increase the distance between us.
She walked until she reached the waterfront, and there she entered what appeared to me at first glance to be a shuttered factory, based on the plainness of the walls and the sparsity of windows. I crept up to the sole window on the ground floor and saw that my initial assessment had been correct: the floor was littered with rusted machinery so worn down I couldn't even possibly begin to guess what was produced here. In back I could see Darcy climbing a set of stairs to the second floor, where she disappeared out of my sight.
I cursed and contemplated my next move. Curiosity was getting the best of me now. This wasn't the kind of place 'normal' people hang out, so Maura might have been onto something after all. But observing her was going to be difficult.
There was a possibility that I could sneak inside and use my stalking ability to quietly observe her without being noticed, then sneak out once I had learned what I came here to learn. The problem was a building this old was probably going to creak and groan with every step, and all it would take was one false move to give me away. And then what? There was no way I could explain breaking into this place to stalk her that wouldn't have her yelling and running to the cops.
Succubus Hunter 2 (The Succubus Series) Page 3