My eyes focussed in on one perfectly manicured hand that lay in the grass just inches from where my boots were. The second my brain allowed me to see the hand, everything else snapped into focus and I spun away. Stumbling back toward the church, I made it to a run off drain that sank into the ground before the contents of my stomach decided to make a violent reappearance.
Vomit burned the back of my nose and throat, my eyes watering with the pressure as I continued to retch. Every time I struggled to take a breath deep enough to clear my senses, I got another whiff of the scene spread out behind my back and it only sent my stomach spasming once more.
A bottle of water appeared next to my head and I grabbed it gratefully, rinsing my mouth out in a desperate attempt to regain control. A tissue appeared next, and I used it to scrub my face and the cold clammy sweat that covered my forehead.
Straightening up, I expected to see Graham; instead, Jason stared down at me, his expression a mixture of pity and curiosity.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re not the first to lose your lunch here. I’ve never seen anything like it before myself,” he said, his tone almost friendly as he glanced at something just behind me.
“Let me guess, you weren’t one of the weak stomached idiots?” I said, silently berating myself. The one thing you were never supposed to do was vomit on top of the crime scene. At all costs, that should have been avoided, and if I’d allowed my brain to keep me in ignorance, I’d have managed it….
He gave me a tight-lipped smile and stalked over to Graham and Nic who still stood staring out at the mangled mess of bodies. Swallowing back some of the water, I did my best to compose myself before turning back to face the scene. I’d made enough of a fool of myself; I didn’t need to do it again.
The scene hadn’t changed. It still looked as though someone had run a crowd of people through the propeller of a plane. Making my way slowly back over to Graham, Nic, and Jason, I tried not to focus on the details, but I couldn’t shake the memory of the manicured hand from my head.
“What did this?” I asked, finally controlling my roiling stomach long enough to ask a question.
Graham shook his head and continued to stare out at the scene, but the unaffected expression he wore was simply a cleverly created mask. The slight flinching around his eyes gave away the fact that he was just as bothered by the scene as everyone else.
The sound of someone else vomiting had me closing my eyes and fighting to control my own physical reactions. My senses were still raw and the least little thing could set me off. But it at least made me feel a little better to know I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t control such a violent bodily reaction.
“Your guess now is as good as mine,” Graham answered. “It has all the hallmarks of an animal attack, but what kind of animal do you know that would do something like this?”
“Rogue shifters maybe?” Nervously, I scrubbed my hands against the side of my dress. I could still remember the feel of the shifters blood on my hand. The moment they’d attacked me, I’d blacked out, but snippets were slowly coming back to me. I’d enjoyed killing them all, and as much as I tried to pretend it was all the fault of the demon mark, part of me just didn’t buy it.
Graham nodded but I could tell he was lost in contemplation. “True, but shifters don’t do things like that,” he said, turning and pointing at the back of the church.
Gratefully, I turned away from the gruesome scene and stared up at the huge magical symbol burned into the back wall of the church. From the corner of my eye, I could make out a slight cobweb of glittering magic that still clung to the runic mark—or at least that was what my brain decided it was. Despite resembling a rune, it was like none I’d ever seen before.
“Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what it means?” Graham asked.
I shook my head; this was so far outside my area of expertise. I wasn’t even sure where to begin to figure out what it meant.
“It’s Fae,” Jason said, the control in his voice causing me to shoot a sideways glance in his direction.
“How do you know?” Nic said, staring up at the symbol with the same level of morbid curiosity I knew my expression resembled.
“I’ve seen one like it before. Only pictures—drawings, actually. The Vatican has an extensive library not available to the general public. Some of the things you can learn about…. Well, it’s eye-opening,” he said, catching my eye.
It wasn’t a threat but it certainly wasn’t far off. Whatever he was learning from Lily, he still hadn’t quite worked out what role I played in it all. The moment she wanted to spill my secret, the game would be over….
“What does it mean?” I asked, meeting his hard gaze with one of my own.
“No idea; no one knows where or what it means, just that every time it’s appeared, there’s always a trail of bodies following it.”
I didn’t answer him; there wasn’t any point, we all knew about the trail of bodies. There was certainly enough of them spread across the old cemetery behind us. But without a translation for the symbol, we were working blind, and that was never a good thing, especially if we really were dealing with the Fae.
“I thought they stayed on their side of the Veil?” Graham asked.
“Not all of them,” I blurted out before I could catch myself.
The three men standing next to me turned to give me a curious glance. “Well it’s true; Faeries find it hard to conceal their true natures, but they’re not the only species of Fae. Plenty of others have far more powerful glamour.”
It wasn’t a lie—after all, Victoria’s glamour was extremely powerful to conceal what she was. But, as she’d explained to me, a changeling’s ability to blend in relied on glamour; Faeries were far too vain and egotistical to try to pass for human.
“Where’s Victoria? If this is Fae, then she should be here; she could probably tell us what the symbol means….”
Graham coughed awkwardly and glanced to the side, and from the hardening of Jason’s expression, I could tell they’d “forgotten” to contact her.
“You knew it was Fae before I got here, didn’t you?” I said, unable to keep the angry accusation from my voice as I turned on Graham. The demon mark tingled and burned against my shoulder as though feeding on the anger that bubbled in my veins.
“Jason might have mentioned it,” he said, refusing to meet my challenge.
“And you thought it a good idea to leave the one Fae expert you’ve got working for you out of all of this?”
“I thought it was a good idea…. We don’t truly know what changelings are capable of,” Jason answered instead. I fought the urge to whirl on him and wipe the smug look from his face.
“Graham, why didn’t you call her?” I demanded, clenching my hands into fists.
“Because I don’t trust her … yet,” he added quickly, and glanced in my direction. Graham’s expression softened and I could see the guilt in his eyes.
How could I blame him for not trusting Victoria? Hell, I wasn’t even fully sure just how much I could trust her, and here I was holding it against Graham for having the same thoughts. Hypocritical didn’t even begin to cut it.
And even that wasn’t fair; she’d more than proven herself. Not trusting her wasn’t right; she deserved to be here, to be just as involved in what was happening as the rest of us. Maybe even more so, if it truly was the Fae we were dealing with.
“Call her, Graham,” I said letting my anger go.
Jason started, “I don’t want….”
Finally, I turned on Jason and shot him a dirty look. “What you want in this doesn’t really matter. This isn’t your case; you have no say over what happens here.”
“I am Saga Venatione, this is just as much my case as it is yours….”
Sighing, I pushed my hand back through my hair. The wind was beginning to pick up, whipping the stray red strands around my face, causing the smell of my strawberry shampoo to mingle with the smell of death that pervaded the air.
“No, it is
n’t. You’ve got jurisdiction when it comes to witches and you’ve got the witch you were after—she’s in custody. This is an Elite case through and through.”
I wasn’t entirely sure if I was right or not, but I needed to say something to slow him down; he was far too determined to butt into everything. That made him dangerous, and I really didn’t need a witch hunter watching over my shoulder at every move I made on the case.
“She’s right, Jason. This isn’t your case, it’s mine.” Graham said, his sudden support catching me by surprise.
Jason didn’t say anything, but I could tell from the way his lips thinned and the little vein his temple pulsed that he was seriously pissed. He’d probably find a way to make this his case, but until then, at least we had control, and that was all that mattered.
“I’ll call Victoria,” Graham said, turning away and crossing the small pathway at the back of the church, leaving me alone with Nic and his brother.
“You’re in way over your head on this one,” Jason said softly.
“What makes you think that?” I asked, doing my damnedest to keep the eagerness from my voice.
“The Fae are dangerous; if this is them and they’ve decided to come out of the woodwork, then we’d all better hope and pray that they send someone else to clean up this mess….”
If I didn’t know better, I might have thought there was a hint of fear in Jason’s voice. But he was a Saga Venatione, and from everything I’d ever read about them, they didn’t get frightened. Hell, they were the ones to fear; Shadow Sorcerers had cowered before their power, allowing themselves to be completely wiped out. And Jason frightened me; the thought that there might be something out there that he was afraid of … well, it didn’t exactly fill me with joy.
“Will they send someone to clean it up?” I asked.
Jason shrugged and turned his full attention on me, his eyes probing mine, searching for something only he knew to look for. I felt him, felt what he was calling out to my magic, but the demon mark was far more powerful now and unlike before, Jason’s abilities had no sway over my Shadow Sorcerer side.
He took a step toward me and my heart rate picked up speed as he reached out to me. Before he could touch me, Nic was there, his body blocking Jason.
There was no time to react; Nic planted his hands into the centre of his brother’s chest and shoved him backwards with enough force to send the taller brother stumbling backwards.
“Back off, Jason. This isn’t the time or the place.” Nic’s voice was little more than a growl, his words filled with a fury I wouldn’t have expected from him, especially over something as stupid as Jason trying to touch my face. And anyway, it wasn’t as though I couldn’t have protected myself.
Jason laughed, the sound void of any happiness, and it hurt my ears. “It’s always the right time, little brother; don’t you forget it,” Jason said before stalking away towards the entrance to the church.
“What was that about?” I said, catching Nic’s hand in my own.
“Forget about it, he’s an asshole,” Nic said, but I could tell from the anger in his eyes as he stared at his brother’s retreating back that there was more to it than he was telling me.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” I said.
“He likes you,” Nic said.
“Not possible—he’s suspicious of me.”
“He’s that, too, but he likes you, can’t quite put his finger on what it is about you….” Nic trailed off and I stared at him waiting for him to continue.
“And?”
“It’s his nature, as a witch hunter; his attraction to you is borne of his desire to own you, to destroy what you are…. Over time, it becomes an obsession.”
Laughter bubbled past my lips and Nic shot me a surprised look as I bent over and let my giggles escape me, the sound verging on hysteria.
“This is funny why?” he asked.
“Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?” I said, wiping my hands across my eyes and swearing silently as my mascara smudged across the back of my hand.
“It’s true; I read about it in one of his books. The Saga believed it was a last-ditch attempt by the Shadow Sorcerers to protect themselves from the witch hunters, a way to hide what they were in plain sight and prevent their destruction. How could the Saga kill something they love more dearly than their own lives?”
Nic’s words sent a sobering shiver down my spine.
“How do I stop it?” I said, searching my memory for any mention of such a spell in the grimoire I’d found at Nic’s.
“You don’t. There were rumours of it causing the Sorcerers to fall in love, too.” The pain in Nic’s voice caused an ache in my chest that threatened to cleave my heart in two.
“That won’t happen,” I said, but Nic was already shaking his head, his expression hardening as he mentally distanced himself from me.
Clearly, he’d already decided on how it would go, and as far as I was concerned, that was nothing but crap. I was my own woman; I would fall in love with whoever I wanted, not because of something he’d read about in a book….
“What about Lily? Won’t he fall in love with her, too?”
Nic shrugged. “I don’t know, but from everything I’ve read, he already knew what she was before he met her. It voids the magic.”
I didn’t answer him; he seemed far too certain of what was going to happen and, well, I couldn’t see into the past—it wasn’t as though I could say if it was true or not. All I did know was that I had no feelings toward Jason….
“There has to be a way to stop it,” I said, refusing to believe that my path was not my own. Hell, until recently, I hadn’t even known what I truly was. I’d come a long way, but that didn’t mean I had to become what the Shadow Sorcerers of old had.
Nic nodded, his smile forced. “I love your optimism,” he said, cupping my face.
“Not optimism, it’s the truth.”
It was his turn to fall silent, the kiss he pressed to my forehead feeling far too much like goodbye. Anger boiled in my veins but before I could open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, he was gone, jogging across the church courtyard in the same direction as his brother.
Sighing, I turned back to the scene in front of me. My stomach rolled uncomfortably, but there was nothing left in there for me to purge. It was all so complicated and if there was one thing I hated, it was complications.
Drinking in the sight laid out on ground, I allowed it to sear itself into my brain. It was a bad start when a crime scene as gruesome as this one was simpler to navigate than the dating world.
Chapter 4
“He didn’t look too pleased,” Graham said, his sudden proximity making me jump.
“Stop with the sneaking up on me, all right?” I said grumpily.
Graham raised his hands in mock surrender and grinned. “I didn’t think I was sneaking, but it’s nice to know I’ve still got stealth on my side.”
It was his way of trying to pull me out of the misery I was rapidly sliding into, but it was already too late. The combination of a failed date and the crime scene spread around us was enough to drive anyone to drink.
“Have the forensics picked up on anything else?” I asked, forcing myself to concentrate on the scene in front of me.
Graham shook his head and stared ahead. I couldn’t tell if he was looking out at the mess or if he was simply too lost in thought.
“Did you call Victoria?” I asked.
He nodded almost absentmindedly but didn’t speak, and my impatience got the the better of me.
“And she said…?” I prompted.
“Nothing. I had to leave a message. No answer from her cell phone,” he said, finally snapping out of his own dark thoughts. “Do you think this is Fae?” he asked, glancing in my direction.
“I don’t know. I suppose until someone walks the scene, we won’t know…” I answered truthfully.
How something could do so much damage…. I knew Victoria was pow
erful, but something like this would be beyond even her capabilities. But that didn’t mean there weren’t other types of Fae that could create this much carnage.
“Are you ready?” he asked, his question snapping me out of my reverie.
“Ready?”
My heart sank; I didn’t really need to ask him what he meant, I already knew the answer. There were plenty of others from the Elite who could walk the scene, but none so easily as me and definitely no one who would get as clear a picture as I would.
“I’m going to need a pair of….” Before I could even get the words out, Graham thrust a pair of coveralls in my direction and I snapped them from his grip.
Evidently, he’d thought of everything….
Unrolling the coveralls, I stepped into them, one booted foot at a time. The legs were wide enough that I didn’t need to worry about getting caught inside them and my dress barely rode up as I jerked them up over my torso.
Once I was in the coveralls, Graham held a pair of plastic boot covers out toward me and I groaned. There was no way to avoid getting up close and personal with the human soup spread everywhere, but staring at the boot covers made it more real.
Dragging them on, I let Graham balance me before I sucked in a deep breath, the stench causing my nose to wrinkle in disgust. It was becoming more and more important that we find out just how long the bodies had been out here for. I wasn’t a shifter, but my nose was pretty sensitive, and despite it being night, the bodies were already on the turn, the smell of raw meat slowly ebbing to be replaced by the stench of rot.
Heading to the grass verge, I paused and stared down. Rolling my shoulders back, I stepped out into the scene, ignoring the wet squelch of the grass beneath my plastic covered boots.
Magic rushed over my skin, causing the hairs on my body to stand on end. The second I felt it, I knew my mistake. There was no way I should be out here. The magic clawed at me, searching for way in, a weakness in my armour, and I fought it back, power pulsing in my veins and in my head as I struggled to draw in a deep breath.
The world spun and it took every ounce of my willpower just to stay on my feet, but the second I felt it inside my head, my body stopped fighting.
Wild Hunt Page 2