She would have known that seeing her again would be a shock that brought up painful memories. He’d dealt her an emotional blow as well when he told her he had believed she was dead. But he hadn’t questioned the story they’d spun that she’d died. That was on him. It hurt that she had been right when she’d said that, in a way, he had been relieved. The reason he’d accepted the assignment that took him from her was that he needed the distance. He knew that if she had asked him to stay and give up working for the Talons and the Grey Council, he would have. At the time, that scenario scared him worse than facing a swarm of angry, half-human, half-bird Harpies.
Rowan slid his glasses down to rub the bridge of his nose. He had been young and dumb. Not one of his finer moments. His cell phone vibrated and he grabbed it from his inside coat pocket. “What?”
The voice on the other end laughed. “It’s Lyons. Catch you at a bad time?”
“Understatement.” Rowan glanced over toward Morgan. The Mona Lisa smile told him she might have read his thoughts. The possibility used to annoy him. Now he could see the advantages. He had never been good with words. “Do you have a lead?”
“Another dead body. Better come quick if you want to see it before its bagged and tagged.”
“On my way.” Rowan replaced his cell and focused on Morgan. “I have a lot of dead bodies and no clear answers asto how they died. I’ve heard female Wizards can determine the cause of death. Any truth to the rumor?”
“If I do this for you, will you help me solve the question of why my sisters were murdered?”
So that was what she was after. Had he hoped for something else? He gritted his teeth and pushed the thought out of his mind. She’d confirmed what he and his brother had suspected. Three female Wizards had died on the first night of Bealtaine. Rowan had a bad feeling that finding the killer was going to be easier than ferreting out the motive. He looked out over the flow of traffic. Everything appeared back to normal—normal gridlock, that is. Once he agreed to help Morgan, he was honor bound. There was nothing casual about a conversation with a female Wizard.
“To be clear about the ground rules, you’ll come with me, tell me how the Wizard was killed, and I’ll help you find your sisters’ murderer.” When she nodded, he continued. “I’ll also need the location of the young Wizardlings you and your sister Wizards kidnapped.”
“Rescued,” she corrected. Morgan cinched the belt of her raincoat tighter. “You’re delusional if you think I’ll turn over that information.”
“Was that a yes or a no?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “For the last few centuries, we have placed the care of our Wizardlings in the hands of the Grey Council and the Talons, with mixed results. Turning them over to you is not a consideration. In fact, if all male Wizards, you included, disappeared into a dark abyss of never-ending pain and torment, I would not shed a single tear. How is that for an answer?”
“Crystal clear.” Rowan hailed a cab. “But a simple yes or no would have worked just as well. I’m assuming you set up thiswhole traffic chaos scene as a test to see if I’d save a human. The dog was a nice touch.”
“Wiz is a shapeshifter friend of mine. We were divided on whether you’d risk defying the rules of the magical community and save a human. But if you did, it was Wiz’s idea that we confirm that you still had a heart.”
The cab pulled to the curb, and as though on cue, Wiz trotted over to Morgan and nuzzled her hand. She reached down and whispered something in his ear before climbing with him into the back seat.
Rowan climbed into the cab after her and Wiz and gave the driver an address. As the taxi merged into traffic, Rowan glanced toward the dog, who sat between Rowan and Morgan. “Why is it coming with us?”
“He,” she said, emphasizing the word, “is someone I can trust.”
Chapter Nineteen
A short time later, the taxi parked at the edge of Gas Works Park on the north shore of Lake Union. During the ride, Rowan kept his thoughts cloaked from Morgan, and his mouth shut. If Wiz was a shapeshifter, that meant he was also unpredictable. Black Labs might look all cuddly and calm on the outside, but, like all dogs, they were descended from wolves and had strong protective instincts.
Rowan was the first to exit the taxi, and after paying the driver, he headed to the crime scene while Morgan and Wiz took off in the opposite direction. He thought about asking them where they were going, but they disappeared before he had a chance. An annoying habit Morgan had, disappearing without a word. He’d told her once that she should tell him where she was going. Her simple reply was, “Why?”
Gas Works Park was the site of an iron structure that could fit into any apocalyptic movie with ease. Remnants of an industrial era, a world-renowned architect had arranged the towers, tanks and pipes as a monument to a different time.
According to Lyons, it was also the scene of another murder.
The irony that the murder had taken place in a popular tourist area was not lost on Rowan. The killer had sent a message. No place was safe.
The sun was setting over Seattle’s skyline in ribbons of crimson and grey as members of the University of Washington crew team rowed past. A few broke their concentration and stared toward the crime scene.
Detectives and medical personnel swarmed over the park like locusts. Yellow police tape cordoned off the shore as they worked the dead body and surrounding area for clues. Someone took pictures, while media crews jostled for space around the iron sculpture. Even with the distraction, the rowing team didn’tbreak their stride. The expression “life goes on” played over and over in Rowan’s mind, but it didn’t bring him any comfort.
A serial killer with a taste for Wizard blood was on the loose.
Although Rowan didn’t recognize the victim, he knew two things. The victim was a Wizard who’d suffered the same fate as the male Wizard on the island. And second, the killer knew the best way to neutralize a Wizard was to remove the eyes. But how had the murderer been able to get close enough in the first place?
There were tattoos visible on the dead Wizard’s neck and arms that chronicled the events in his life and told the story that the victim was a high-level Fire Wizard. Which meant the killer would have needed help on a supernatural level to get close enough to murder the victim. Yet, aside from the missing eyes, there were no signs of a struggle.
The medics said the body hadn’t been in Lake Washington long, which would help make their identification easier, or so they thought. They were wasting their time. Wizards didn’t have dental or medical records. To add to what was sure to become a media circus, someone had dubbed the serial killer The Eye Doctor. The headline would get a lot of media attention, but the curiosity would turn to panic in both the world of humans and the magical community if the murders started to escalate. And he had no doubt they would. He needed to solve this case, and fast.
He sensed that Morgan had returned without Wiz and glanced in her direction. She was down by the shore, standing over the body. Lyons had secured the necessary security clearance. Medics and junior detectives were everywhere. They ignored her and the victim as though they were invisible.
