Milly was a short stick of dynamite with a strict grey bob.Her oversized glasses often slid down her nose, and although she stood straight, the slight hunch of her back suggested osteoporosis.Relics were near genetic matches to humans, making them susceptible to the same diseases, illnesses, and other health conditions.Their one gift was the ability to fuse knowledge to their DNA and pass it on to their offspring, which made them invaluable to the Breed community.Sometimes I felt a little sad that she lived out here alone.
Milly led us to a back room with a steel door.When she opened it, the smell hit me.“That’s putrefaction,” she said.“Should’ve brought him to me sooner.”
Marcus was lying on a table with a sheet draped over his groin.His face looked like someone had used it for a punching bag and made him barely recognizable.
I walked up and frowned at his chest.“Did you shave him?”
“He was too hairy,” she pointed out.“If I’m looking for external marks, I need to remove body hair.You see the red marks on his torso?”
I craned my neck.“What’s that from?”
“It looks like an energy burn—and a powerful one.”
“But he’s a Mage.They absorb energy, so a blast wouldn’t do anything.”
She stood on the other side of the table.“Curious, isn’t it?They’re burn marks nevertheless.Did the perpetrator have any weapons?”
“Just a tire iron.”
Milly lifted his arm and studied his hand and fingers.“Cutting him open isn’t necessary, but I sampled his blood, especially around the bite wound.”She set his hand down and then turned Marcus’s head to the side, which revealed four puncture marks.“Now, I’m no expert in bite-mark forensics, but I appreciate your giving me a mold of the Chitah’s teeth with his fangs out.”
It was one of the first things Milly requested, and after Montana picked up the materials and left them with Peter, we had Lucian bite into a tray to leave an impression.
She pulled out a top set of teeth and smiled at them.“Not bad.I was able to take measurements and do comparisons this morning, but there’s almost no need.”She held the teeth against the neck, and we all hovered to look.“See that?They don’t line up.Not even close.The fangs are wider apart on the victim.But guess what else I noticed?The bottom holes pierced downward.Catch my drift?”
I leaned back.“No, I don’t think I do.”
She set the upper teeth on a table and picked up Lucian’s lower teeth.“When a Chitah has all four fangs out, the holes mimic the direction of the teeth.I didn’t notice it at first, but the lower bite marks on the victim go downward, not upward.”She turned the bottom teeth upside down, showing how the fangs had gone into the body in the wrong direction.“Not only that, but you can see the marks left behind by the incisors.The bottom ones match the top, so he was bitten twice with the upper teeth.But not these teeth.”
I gave it some thought.“Maybe our suspect’s a defect who only has top fangs.”
“It gets better,” she added.“The blood analysis didn’t reveal any Chitah venom.Not a single trace.It would’ve had to circulate through his entire body to kill him, which usually takes about a minute.Even faster if the heart is racing.It not only causes violent pain, seizures, foaming at the mouth, and even blindness, but that venom instantly seeks out the nearest vein and makes a trip all around until it goes through the heart and brain.It’s powerful stuff.”
Montana crossed his arms.“So you’re saying another Chitah bit him without venom?And what about the burn marks?”
She shook her head.“What I’m saying is, I don’t think that impression was from a Chitah.Is it possible a Chitah without venom bit him twice?Sure, but what would be the point, especially if it meant getting dangerously close?If he died from venom, everyone within a one-mile radius would have heard him screaming in agony.”
I stared at the body.It was difficult to kill a Mage.Usually they died from beheadings, Chitah venom, or bleeding out after their core energy was drained.Aside from the physical marks on his face and chest, he looked fine.
“What do you think happened?”I asked.
She set down the teeth and untied her blue gown.“I think those wounds on his chest are from a Stealer.You ever seen what they can do?I’m sure you know that every Mage has one or two rare gifts.Stealers can pull core light from a Mage.Not regular light like with juicing.You can juice a Mage all the way and still never tap into the core light.That’s what makes them immortal, and it’s fused to them in some kind of way.But a Stealer can pull that light out, making them human again.Once they’re mortal, they can be killed.”
I stared at the body.“Then how did he die?”
She adjusted her glasses.“There’s no sign of head trauma, which under certain circumstances could potentially kill a Mage.He has petechiae marks and a fracture to the laryngeal skeleton that suggest he was strangled.A Mage can’t die that way, but a human can.And the only one who can make a Mage mortal again is a Stealer.Usually they do it through the hands, but maybe your killer pulled it from his chest to hide the evidence.People don’t usually run autopsies on Breed.That’s my unofficial opinion.”
“I appreciate it.We’ll be sure to compensate you for your trouble.”
“A Mage’s weapons are his hands, so I don’t see how a Chitah could’ve strangled him without getting blasted to hell.A Chitah’s first and only instinct is to pin their opponent’s wrists.”Milly took off her glasses and used her shirt to clean the lenses.“Even if the killer strangled the victim unconscious, that’s not how a Mage dies.They’re damn hard to kill, especially without any Chitah venom.Is it possible a Chitahanda Mage were both involved?You bet.But in my professional opinion, this guy was killed by a Mage.”
“Is that enough to free our suspect?”
She shook her head.“Like I said before, I’m not an expert with bite marks.It’s possible they could belong to your suspect and the struggle caused the inconsistent pattern, but that’s not my opinion.”She put her glasses back on.“I don’t do DNA testing.Even so, that wouldn’t rule out your suspect since he was found lying on top of the body with his face in the man’s neck.It doesn’t get more damning than that.”She flicked the sheet over the body, covering the Mage’s face.“That’s all I’ve got.Did you hire a Vampire to question the Chitah to see if he was with anyone?”
“I’m afraid that’s confidential.We can’t discuss all the details of the case, especially without a final ruling.”
She shrugged.“Is someone going to scoop this guy out of here before he stinks up my whole house?”
