I pushed up from my desk and headed for the breakroom to grab some caffeine. The precinct was quiet for the most part aside from shuffling papers and the whispered chatter. I glanced across the bullpen, frowning when I caught Merchant at his desk. It confused me why he had never grabbed an office. He was the chief’s pet for the most part.
My thoughts changed once I found out that he did much of his work at his estate, in an office that I was sure was as big as this entire office. Still, he looked out of place there. I took a step toward him when the front doors swung open, a familiar face entering the precinct.
“Alex?” I said. “What are you doing here?”
He shifted, his eyes darting around the bullpen. “Can we talk?”
I nodded and gestured to my office, leading him down the hallway before pointing to a seat. He quickly took it as I rounded my desk and placed my coffee on the surface. Alex nervously shifted a few times before speaking. “I wasn’t sure this should be said over a phone call, so I came in,” he said, glancing at the doorlike someone might burst in. “Uh, I think Killian might have some of the information you need.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
Alex shifted, his eyes darting to the board behind me, pinned with photos of everything I had found over the last several days. “I don’t know how much you know, but he’s been a bit of an oddball for a little while, and death seems to follow him. Another employee of mine, Nyla, ended up dead after going out with him. Reports say she got into a cab and went home, but…”
I knew that—Nyla’s body was found in an alley, the cab receipt placing her with Killian hours before. I had gone down all those leads almost a week ago before I was officially put on the case. However, none of that added up, either. It was strange that Samael and Killian had been in the same place, several witnesses mentioning that it wasn’t their first time there. However, between those two, Ryker and Phoenix, having kinky sex in strange places wasn’t a crime.
“I’ve catalogued that, yes. Have you noticed anything else?”
Alex leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “He’s started talking to himself, switching between voices and personalities, but I know that’s just the mind thing he has. I just think someone should look into him more.”
If Alex had come to me a few weeks ago, I might have thought I hit the jackpot. As of now, though, Runo was no longer my concern. Well, not mymainone. “I’ll definitely do that. Is he at work today?”
Alex shook his head, his fingers twisting together in his lap. When I had entered The Revival a few days ago, he had been bold, walking around like he owned the building. Now, he seemed almost frail in comparison. Scared, if that was the right word. “No, he took a few days off. He’s never sick, though, so I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“Appreciate you coming in, Alex. This helps.”
Alex hurriedly nodded and slipped out of my office, my door shutting behind him. Runo’s instability fed into the main theory I had. If the chief was involved in these murders at all whatsoever, he could very well be hiding behind his son’s disorder. The question was… how involved was the chief?
RUNO
I rolled over in bed, groaning as my entire body screamed from digging up a fucking grave and then watching Aeron and Slash drag Dr. Harley out of the ground while Samael jerked me off. If we weren’t going to hell before, we definitely were now.
It wasn’t the best idea I had had, but fuck, I hadn’t been so deliciously taken care of in a while, the pleasure mingling with the sting of my cuts, a sensual chaos that left me dizzy. I let out another groan as I rolled to the left, directly into Aeron’s chest, my loveable cannibal grinning down at me like he had been awake hours longer than I had.
“That was one hell of a date,” Aeron teased.
I blinked, my head foggy because I couldn’t remember much of anything after we got in the car. I sat up a little and then frowned, the sheets sliding off my bare skin. “Hey, wait, you dyed your hair. Pink! Why pink?”
Aeron shrugged, his grin widening. “Needed something a little different. Killian digged the blue so I thought you might be more of a pink guy.”
My alters laughed at me but I brushed them off, enjoying the way his silky strands fell over my fingers as I ran them through his hair. Aeron hummed and leaned in to kiss me, a soft, sweet embrace, his lips tasting faintly of last night’s dinner.
Killian: You don’t even remember last night, do you?
Daemon: Focus, idiot.
I pulled away from Aeron, scrunching up my nose as Killian started telling me something that I couldn’t quite make out. Aeron just laughed. “I need to get food in you, but first, what are you doing with that?”
I frowned, my head still spinning. “Doing what with what?”
He turned me around, my breath catching in my throat as I saw Dr. Harley’s body in the bed, his pale, stiff form half-covered by the sheets. My stomach lurched, the sight jarring against the warmth of Aeron’s touch.
“You dragged him up here and in the bed after the other two left,” Aeron said, “mumbling something about him getting cold. Please tell me you know he’s dead.”
I tensed, my mind blank as the voices tried to fill in the gaps, but none of them remembered last night once we got home. “Yeah, uh… we need to prep him.”
I quickly rolled Dr. Harley’s body off the bed, the stiff weight hitting the floor with a loud thud that echoed in the quiet of Samael’s house. Sounds down the hall stole my attention as Slash stepped into the entryway, laughing at my predicament, his bare torso glistening from a fresh shower.
“God, I wish I could have sex with those abs.”
