“You guys said this is the third victim, right?” I ask.
Maliah and Alastair sidle up next to me, but the former gags and runs off, retching into the bushes on the opposite side of the courtyard.
“Thank you for taking that elsewhere,” I say.
Alastair shifts on his feet. “To answer your question, yes, this is the third victim. They’ve all been found in courtyards with claw marks across their cheeks and mouths, but this is tame compared to the last one.”
“How so?” I ask, thinking I may already know the answer.
“The monster nearly ripped the abdomens of the others in two, and their organs were almost all gone,” Alastair explains.
“I think I’m going to be sick again,” Maliah whines as she gags.
“Interesting,” I muse. Then Maliah retches again. “You ought to get your friend out of here. She clearly doesn’t have thestomach for this work. And on your way home—or wherever you’re going—could you contact someone so we can get this body out of here? I don’t have any contacts nearby.”
Alastair hastily steps back. “I’ll get in contact with S.I.R.E.N. They should have the other bodies as well. Good luck finding this… thing that’s killing these girls.”
For fuck’s sake, we have a lot of acronyms. S.I.R.E.N.—Supernatural Incident Response and Enforcement Network—is akin to a homicide unit in the human world, but they usually stick to the bigger cities. Given that this city isn’t particularly big, I wasn’t sure if they’d have a team to cover this area.
“Thanks,” I say without looking up from the body.
As they walk away, I mumble to myself, “They sure don’t make agents for any of the organizations like they used to—even some of the recent hunters I’ve met have been lackluster. They’re all so sensitive and squeamish nowadays.”
I spend a few more minutes looking over the body before I stand to look around the courtyard. It’s not big—about the size of a two-bedroom apartment—with a tall tree in the center. I approach the trunk and look up, wondering if the killer could’ve escaped up it. Since it’s likely a supe that’s been killing these women, it could’ve climbed high enough up so it could jump onto one of the roofs. But with the fact I’d been on the roof, I would’ve seen something because, let’s face it, the supe ripped into a woman’s abdomen. It had to have left some sort of blood trail when it took off.
Not finding anything suspicious in the tree, I return to the body and look for stray blood droplets in the vicinity. It doesn’t take me long to pick up on a minuscule trail—this thing was far cleaner than I expected after what it had done—that leads to the entry of the courtyard. With my head down, following the trail, I run directly into someone. I look up and start to apologize, but immediately stop when I’m met with a face I know all too well,one I’d hoped never to see again. She’s still as gorgeous as ever, and it pisses me off.
“Well, well, well. What a pleasant surprise,” she says in her sickeningly sweet voice.
Schooling my features to seem indifferent, I say, “Hello, Adrestia. I’d say it’s nice to see you too, but that’d be a blatant lie.”
She sticks out her bottom lip and attempts to soften her eyes. “You wound me with your words. And by calling me by my full first name. What happened to Addie? I quite miss your calling me that. Actually, I miss a lot about you, Avie.”
“You have no right to call me Avie. Not after what you allowed your family to do,” I hiss.
She takes a step toward me and drops her glamour, letting her griffin form take over. For whatever reason, she thinks she can intimidate me with how massive she is, but she can’t. I’ve faced off with supes far bigger and scarier than her. I stand my ground, and she growls. The rumble vibrates through my chest, only fueling my intolerance of her.
The timbre of her voice drops several octaves when she speaks again. “You don’t know the whole story.”
“Nor do I want to. It’s in the past; let’s leave it there.”
Her nostrils flare. “Fine. What are you doing here, Avyanna?”
“I could ask you the same question,” I say, gritting my teeth.
Adrestia huffs. “What’s with this fucking attitude? Have you not gotten fucked in a while? I can always help you with that.”
“You deserve every ounce of attitude I’m giving you right now. I willneverforgive you, so leave me the fuck alone and—not so kindly—go fuck yourself.”
A dry laugh escapes Adrestia’s lips as she brings her human glamour back up. “I forgot how dramatic you can be.”
“I sure as fuck didn’t forget how much of a bitchyoucan be.”
“Whatever. Back to the matter at hand. A newer agency by the name of B.I.T.E. hired me to track down whatever has been terrorizing the area, so this is my case. With that being said, your help isn’t needed, and you can leave,” Adrestia says, flicking her golden hair over her shoulder.
Throwing my hands up, I back away and almost trip over a Jack-o’-lantern in the process. The stupid things litter the entire courtyard. “By all means, be my guest. I’m only here because I happened across the body, and the T.I.T.S. agents asked me to look over things until the responding agency showed up. But you’ve got this, so I won’t bother you with my observations or anything.” Then, I turn to leave and flash her both my middle fingers.
Chapter two
