“Exactly,” Trask confirmed. “Now, you want to tell me about it?”
“Naw, not really,” Lamar said, shaking his head. “He took off right after you left last night and wouldn’t even let me kiss him. Maybe I was taking this too seriously and spooked him.”
In the silence that followed, Lamar imagined he could see his partner nodding in agreement. “Anyway, you called for a reason. What is it?”
“Oh, right.” Trask redirected. “I set a meeting with Chad Skolar – the professor at the college – to review the DNA results. You want to come with? Three this afternoon.”
“Yeah,” Lamar agreed immediately. “I do.”
“Great,” Trask responded before muttering something to someone in the background. “Christian sends his love. Meet me at the science hall at two forty-five.”
“Love him back,” Lamar said automatically, his mind flitting back to Aeren’s odd behavior the night before. “I’ll see you then.”
Sitting in the professor’s stuffy office a few hours later, Lamar listened intently as Skolar lectured on the types of shifters that existed, the similarities that bound them and the differences that divided them.
Only when Lamar’s notepad was full of scratched notes did the professor sit in his weathered black leather chair and take a pretend-puff from his unlit pipe. “Now, if you’d like to fill me in on your situation,” Skolar suggested, “I’d be honored to attempt to assist.”
Never one to refuse qualified help, Lamar jumped in and began to tell the story. When he arrived at the copycat’s invasion of the precinct the day before, both Skolar and Trask’s eyes widened.
“Your email suggested an incubus?” Skolar murmured to Trask.
Trask shrugged. “Sorry, Prof. This is the first I’ve heard of these manifestations,” he responded, raising a brow toward Lamar. “Isn’t it, Coop?”
“Huh?” Lamar winced inwardly. “Crap. Yes, it is. When we got started on the autopsy results last night, I spaced telling you about it. Sorry.”
Skolar’s brow twitched almost imperceivably. “Well, then. That certainly casts a new light on the situation.”
“It does?” Lamar swallowed a sigh. “Why?”
“An incubus wouldn’t be going to these extremes to cover their tracks,” Trask explained. “When they attack, it's for one of two purposes – feeding or breeding. Survival needs. They’re typically low-functioning, intellectually.”
“What if it is crossed with something else?” Lamar questioned. “Part human, for example.”
Skolar clicked his tongue and Trask shook his head in response. “We’ve really got to get additional training for the department.” Turning back to Lamar, he shook his head again. “An incubus or succubus is a result of a demon breeding with a human. When they reproduce, it results in a non-shifting being called a Cambion.”
“So the killer can’t be an incubus mixed with anything else.” Lamar’s brow scrunched up. “So that means we are back to step one.” He groaned. “And right now I have Genov scrubbing the security video looking for an incubus.” He pulled out his phone and tapped out a quick text as Trask and Skolar discussed the DNA results.
“Coop?” Trask’s smooth voice pulled him into their conversation.
“Yes?”
“We may be onto something.”
His attention caught, Lamar leaned forward.
“Remember when I said there was this one sequence that wasn’t making sense?”
Lamar nodded and hovered his finger over the section in question. “Here, right?”
“Yes,” Skolar agreed. “I believe that the reason that that strand seems off is because it’s doubled up.” When Lamar just stared, he sighed. “Think of it like a bed. When you place a blanket on top of a sheet, it distorts your ability to see the sheet, but it’s still there, correct?”
When Lamar nodded, he continued. “This strand identifies the being as a shifter. I suspect that the reason it is doubled up is because one type of shapeshifter is masquerading as another.”
Lamar’s eyes widened. “So the reason we thought it was an incubus is that a different type of shifter is taking the form of one?”
“Precisely,” Skolar agreed approvingly. “If I can access a sample of the biological evidence, I may be able to pull you more specific results.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lamar agreed. Following Trask’s lead, he rose to his feet and shaking the professor’s hand. “Thank you so much for your help.”
