Witch's Sorrow: A Witch Detective Urban Fantasy (Alice Skye Series Book 1)

by Taylor Aston White

  Exhaling, she scanned the crowd again, finally spotting Rex’s head. “Why are you over here?” she asked as she walked over, watching him straighten up at her approach.

  “I had to get out the way for Tyler to catch the scent.”

  “Where is Tyler?” She still hadn’t seen him in the crowd.

  “He’s gone. Good call to get someone over to sniff the body. I was waiting for you before we catch up with him. He mentioned the scent is strong, he isn’t far.” He tilted his head to look at her. “What did the ursine want?”

  Ursine? Oh. “Bear?” she asked, confused.

  “The Bouncer.”

  She quickly relayed what the Bouncer told her. Rex’s face had been unreadable the whole time, like his face was carved from granite. “The Becoming mean anything…”

  “No, never heard of it,” Rex said before she even finished the question.

  “He didn’t really talk much about it, just the fact he was recruiting people…”

  “Alice we better be going.” He started to move away.

  “But it’s a good place to start.”

  “A better place would be to track down that rogue wolf. Are you coming or not?”

  Alice gritted her teeth. “Fine.”

  Chapter 10

  The walk to Tyler took less time than she thought it would, the general busyness that was London calmer than usual. They found him pacing in front of a large abandoned warehouse, the door and windows covered up half-heartedly with wooden planks, decorated in various multicoloured graffiti.

  “What is this place?” she asked, staring up at the huge double storey building.

  The front was boarded up, something about a male’s large appendage in neon pink graffiti sprawled artistically across it. Alice looked up at the drab building, two sizable windows placed beside the door, both closed off and decorated with similar artistry. Four more windows spotted along the upper storey with two more circular windows at the top. They had no boards, just shadowed over with dust and grime. Several broken shards stuck out, an impenetrable blackness oozing out from the holes. Something moved in her peripheral vision, a shape running across a window.

  “It’s creepy.”

  “Must have been an old factory,” Rex stated.

  No shit Sherlock.

  Brushing her hand across the wooden panel she tried to find somewhere weak, something easy enough to pull off. A loud screech as Rex pulled off a board effortlessly, long rusted nails sticking from the wood.

  “Move please.” Tyler budged past her, grabbing another board and pulling it off. Alice moved back, surprised by his deep bass voice. Tyler ignored her, his attention on the removing of the boards quickly and efficiently.

  Bloody hell, he does speak.

  Once the hole was large enough Alice nudged past them, turning at an angle so she could fit.

  “Alice wait…” Rex said as her sleeve got caught on a nail sticking out. “It might be dangerous, let one of us go first.”

  She tugged her sleeve free, groaning when she noticed the massive hole in the cotton. “Fuck.”

  “Are you alright?” Rex came up next to her, his hand roaming across her arm as he looked for any damage.

  “I just caught my sleeve.” She scowled at her shirt before taking in the building surrounding her. It was huge, even bigger than she initially thought. “This must once have been an old textile factory,” she muttered to herself, walking behind them into the dark, dusty room.

  Around a dozen tables were lined up neatly in rows of four, all evenly spaced. Piles of fabrics and papers sprawled carelessly over the table tops. Mannequins and tailors dummies lined the walls, all seemingly frozen into place, backs stiff, some with arms and heads, and some without. Eyes seemed to follow her every movement, seeing nothing yet seeing everything.

  As she walked further into the room the mannequins became more grotesque, more non-human. Porcelain and fabric creatures once resembling humans warped into faceless monsters, bodies burnt and deformed, eyes having been scratched off their once pretty faces, mutilated. The spray can artists had somehow gotten in there too, offensive words and images painted onto the pale flesh.

  Alice felt disturbed, almost repulsed at the sight, not quite wanting to turn her back to the army of dolls. A bird squawked, making her glance up as a black shadow flew out through one of the cracks in the windows, the large room having no second floor.

  “Tyler can you smell that?” Rex kept his voice low.

  Tyler lifted his nose to the air, but didn’t confirm or deny. He started to pace the room, his face scrunched up in concentration before storming over to the back end of the abandoned building.

  Alice followed quickly behind, almost slamming into the back of Tyler when she followed his eyesight, her eyes unable to make out what he was watching until sunlight finally shone through a broken window.

  Hung from a beam was the wolf they were tracking, Tom. His once black eyes misted over in death. Rope was knotted around each of his arms, anchored to the wooden beams running parallel along the ceiling.

  Alice felt bile rise up her throat, the creak of the rope against the wood too much. The room was full of old dusty fabrics, rolls of cotton, linen and organza piled high against the walls, dark blue paint peeling off the brick. Dust hovered in the air, creating bursts of sparkle as they reflected off the rays of light from the cracked windows high above. A couple of industrial sewing machines had been pushed to the far corners of the derelict room. The once working machines had rusted with age, their needles dulled.

  Blood dripped to the floor, leaving a red splash across the concrete. Looking back at the body Alice hesitantly walked forward, feeling the urge to check for a pulse, to check for any sense of life. A stupid notion considering his intestines were on show, hanging precariously by his feet, the blood dripping off in an irritating patter.

  “Alice,” warned Rex, as she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

  “Let me do my job.” She shrugged him off.

  Tom’s head was slumped down, chin to chest, his hair covering his barely recognisable face. Pale skin decorated in bursts of blue, purple and yellow.

  “He has broken ribs,” she mumbled to herself, hovering her hand over the patterns decorating his chest, next to the large lacerations so deep she could see muscle. Black moved underneath his skin, veins and arteries continuing to leak through his various wounds. The ropes creaked again, the body swaying slightly in the non-existent breeze.

  The guys hadn’t spoken a word, their attention on the swaying corpse. Concerned, she looked at them, their faces pale as they continued to stare at the body.

  “Hey, are you both okay?” They didn’t even look at her, their eyes trained on Tom’s chest. Taking a step back her breath caught at the back of her throat, blood turning to ice in her veins.

  The phrase ‘Time’s up’ was carved neatly into his flesh.

  “Rex?” she asked. “What does that mean?”

  He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, his eyes never leaving the body before he turned to her, his eyes bright, the wolf prowling behind his irises. “A warning. A threat.”

  “From who? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “I don’t know.” He moved towards Tyler, starting a low conversation between them. She couldn’t even tell Tyler was speaking but for the gentle vibrations of his throat, his mouth barely moving. He seemed angry, his movements agitated. His eyes connected with hers when he noticed her staring, they flared wolf, a bright yellow before he turned his back to her.

  “I’ll call the forensics in.”

  “We don’t need them.” Rex stormed across the floor towards her, his stride powerful and irritated. Even his face was surprisingly angry. “I’ll call in my wolves.”

  “No, that’s not how this works.” She stood her ground as he glowered over her. “We need to run blood work and look into what carved that warning in his chest. Your wolves are not trained…”

  “I said no,” he growled
.

  “It’s part of the package. When you hired me…”

  “I hired you to listen to me.”

  “You hired me for my experience and advice.” She felt her own irritation ignite, could feel an intense heat low in her stomach. Her fingers twitched, fire prickling her skin.

  “Let her contact them.” Tyler intervened. “We could find something out that benefits us.” Rex turned to Tyler, full wolf in his eyes. Tyler dropped the eye contact instantly, his throat tilted to the side in submission.

  “Rex, it makes sense.” He didn’t want to listen, his ice eyes bright in the dark room. She could feel the power behind them, could feel the authority that was bred into all Alphas.

  She lifted a hand to his chest as he stepped into her, his skin hot beneath his shirt. “Stop it.” He pushed against her hand, the wolf in his eyes excited. She released her pent-up energy, allowing a thin wall of flame to line her either side. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she wasn’t one of his sheep to manipulate and control.

  His nose flared, his head tilting as his wolf studied her. She was running out of ideas fast, she had never seen him react this way. His wolf was still excited, almost playing with her as he showed her his teeth.

  “Sire.” Tyler whispered beside her. She hadn’t even heard him move.

  Rex let out a deep growl, one that started at the bottom of his chest and erupted out of his mouth. “Contact them.” He pushed away from her, storming out of the warehouse.

  Extinguishing the flames she grabbed her phone, texting the appropriate team. The reply was almost instant.

  Sending out to your coordinates now. Please standby.

  “You shouldn’t challenge him,” Tyler stated.

  “I didn’t,” Alice said, confused. Not intentionally anyway. “What was that even about?” She waited for the reply, not expecting an answer. She knew shifter etiquette, knew that another animal shouldn’t look into a dominants eyes. But surely he knew she wasn’t an animal?

  “No one has ever challenged him.”

  Chapter 11

  Alice had never seen anything like it before, and was happy to never see anything like it again.

  “As you can see, the organs have been moved towards the back, pressed against the spine,” Dr Miko Le’Sanza, Head Pathologist for London Hope Hospital stated as he opened the chest captivity of Tomlin, the wolf they had found hanging crucifix style only a few days earlier. She had pulled as many favours as she could to get the autopsy pushed through, knowing Rex was on a time limit.

  “What does that mean?” Alice asked as she followed Miko around the lab. She was told to meet Tyler at the reception desk, but instead turned up early to have a catch up with her old friend. Although, he was more interested in showing her as many gory details as possible.

  “You will see.” His slightly upturned eyes shone in excitement, a gift from his Asian mother. His father, on the other hand, gave him his dark curly hair and naturally tanned skin. The combination made him beautiful, in a delicate feminine way.

  He moved around the body with a metal cart, full of instruments that would be better suited to a torture chamber than a hospital morgue.

  “If you look here…” Using a sharp knife he sliced a few layers of skin beside several vertebrae, peeling back the skin.

  “What am I looking at?” She walked towards the table.

  “There are unusual patterns along the underside of the ribcage, almost like a spider web.” Grabbing an instrument, Miko pointed to one of the black vein-like tubes that crisscrossed underneath the skin.

  “What are they?” she asked, having no clue what she was looking at. Not that she had the first idea about forensic science.

  “I have no idea. But once your friend turns up, you will learn that this particular cadaver is anything but normal.” He poked one of the black tubes, the spider web seeming to pulsate before settling.

  “That’s disgusting.”

  “Is this a bad time?” a voice asked from behind. She knew who it was immediately, but turned anyway.

  “Oh, hey.” She blinked up at Rex, surprised to see him dressed so casually. He wore a plain white t-shirt with khakis, compared to his usual dress shirts and expensive jeans. He even wore trainers. “Where’s Tyler?”

  “He’s preoccupied.” He looked towards the Doctor, his face cold. “Alice seems to believe you might give something of relevance.”

  “Relevance?” Miko chuckled, grabbing a clipboard from the corner of one of the desks and handing it to Alice. “I’ll have you know I’m always relevant.”

  Alice glanced at the paper before she heard a weird, forced laugh. Surprised, she faced Rex who gave her a quick smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes.

  “What’s that?” Rex asked, pointedly looking at the paper on her clipboard, the fake smile fading from his lips.

  “Oh.” She checked the paperwork again, reading the report a few times over before she understood all the letters and numbers. “This can’t be right.” A frown creased her brow.

  “I’ve run the tests several times just to check, the DNA matches up. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Miko grabbed the report from Alice before handing it to Rex.

  “This is unbelievable.”

  “What are you guys on about?” He read through the paperwork, not understanding the report.

  Miko walked over with a handful of vials and syringes, each already filled with various substances. “What it means is that the blood we extracted is unique and believed to be impossible.”

  “You’re still not making any sense.”

  “What the report says is that the DNA matches with a shifter, but a couple of unusual strands have appeared in the blood-works.” Miko clapped his hands together excitedly before going over to a cabinet and opening a metal cupboard, cool air floating out before he closed the door again. “So when we opened him up it was very unusual.”

  “Unusual how?” Rex asked. His face stone as he leant carefully on the wall next to the door, his nose turned away from the selection of chemicals and formaldehyde.

  “This.” Miko shook the large jar in his hands, something pink inside hitting the glass wall before settling in the middle.

  “What the fuck is that?” Alice stepped closer, trying to look into the jar with condensation rolling down the glass.

  “This, my dear friends is a heart.”

  “That is not a heart.” Alice eyed the bulbous flesh in the water, the shape similar to a heart but at least twice the size.

  “This is actually the heart of the wolf you brought in. As you can see it is clearly oversized.”

  “Clearly,” Rex said dryly.

  Miko shook the glass again, the water becoming murky before clearing as the heart thudded against the glass. With a few pops, the heart contorted, constricting before releasing, causing bubbles to pop out of several holes and floating to the top.

  “Holy shit did that thing move?” Alice went to touch the jar, snapping her hand back as the heart pumped again.

  “Yes, believe it or not, it is still pumping.” Miko put the jar down. “And it’s not even a delayed muscle spasm, like a chicken who would continue to run around even after losing his head. I’ve been watching it for the last couple days since you brought the body in. It is somehow still living.”

  “Why is it so large?”

  Miko shrugged. “No idea, I can tell it’s deformed, most Breeds, at least humanoid have a heart with four valves. A mitral valve and tricuspid valve, they control the blood flow from the atria to the ventricles. We also have an aortic valve and a pulmonary valve that controls the flow out of the ventricles. Now this heart has eight valves.”

  “Eight? Why would you need eight?”

  “That is the big question isn’t it?” Miko tapped his nail against the glass, the heart continuing to pump every thirty seconds or so.

  “So what does this all mean?” asked Rex, his attention on the pink flesh.

  “I have been researching along with
a couple of specialists,” Miko started to move around the lab, grabbing bits of paper from various work surfaces. “Like I said before, it’s almost impossible.”

  “Doc, what does it mean?”

  “Well, between myself and several of my colleagues we have come to the decision that it could quite possibly be a Daemon transition.”

  “A Daemon?” Alice frowned, trying to remember the last time she had even heard of a Daemon sighting. Something clicked in her head, her nightmares starting to make sense.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. Alice stepped back, facing the wall as her stomach rolled.

  “Technically, there are no records that Daemons exist, they’re not a registered Breed. However, there are medical archives going back hundreds of years depicting such transitions… Alice, are you okay?”

  She sucked in a breath. “I’m fine.” She was closer to knowing, to finding out what happened.

  “Like I was saying, there have been autopsies of creatures that medical professionals at the time have named as Daemons due to their likeliness to the biblical stories, although they are nothing to do with religion.”

  He scanned through sheets of paper, seeming to forget he had company before looking up, surprised.

  “Oh, yeah. There are also newspaper articles and police reports with matching descriptions, but as I said, because Daemons have never been actually classified as an official Breed, no one ever investigated further.”

  “So, in your professional opinion?” Alice asked, needing to confirm. “You believe that to be a Daemon?”

  “I believe that is exactly what he was, or at least would be if the transition was complete.” He pursed his lips.

  “What can we do with this information?” Rex asked, putting the clipboard down on one of the shiny surfaces.

  “Unfortunately not a lot. I’m currently getting my apprentices to look into unusual blood works in autopsy reports over the past year. I’m hoping once I have something to compare my results with I could work out how far the transition is and what actually killed him.”

  “You don’t even know what killed him?” Rex said in his usual arctic tone. “His organs were on the floor.”