Titus glared at him. “Stay out of my head.”
“Then stop projecting, you’re making my beast anxious.” He checked the knife strapped to his thigh. “I’m not going to pretend to understand, but she wouldn’t still be there if she wasn’t committed.”
“You guys finished being all romantic? Because I must say, we look positively terrifying,” Lucy commented, pulling at the tight black material on his stomach. “Yet incredibly sexy.”
“I can’t believe you’re allowed to come hunting with us,” Jax muttered, but his lips curved into a shadow of a smile.
Lucifer rolled his shoulders, knives crisscrossing his chest, just as a guy crossed the street with his dog. “We’re going to get the cops called on us,” he said, winking at the man.
Titus began to move. “Then we better make this quick.” They’d parked on a different street, but there wasn’t much they could do considering it was a built-up residential area in the middle of the day.
The house was like every other suburban home, detached with sky blue painted cladding on the first floor. A white picket fence surrounded it, the bushes overgrown, but still reasonably neat for the street.
The door opened without any resistance, the latch broken. “Fuck.” The stench escaped quickly, the air thick, musky.
“Smells like something died,” Lucifer said, face creasing when he stepped inside. “Shit, something did die.”
The Vector lay on the floor in the centre of the living room, his mouth gaping open, tongue black and eyes misted in death. He was pale, much paler than he was the night before, his skin mottled blue. Blood splattered around him in a perfect circle, yet he had no open wound.
“Lawrence Wallace,” Lucifer mused, kicking the dead guy in the side. “Looks like he’s been a naughty boy.”
“You think this was a possession?” Jax asked, bending down. The left side of Lawrence’s face was crushed to the carpet, his right arm bent back at an impossible angle. He still wore the robe he’d worn the previous night, the pale fabric covered in dirt.
“He shouldn’t be this decayed,” Titus commented.
Lucifer shrugged. “Can depend on how long he was possessed for, and whether it was forced, or welcomed.” Reaching for Lawrence’s arm, he pulled him onto his back, the bones clicking as he moved, broken. “You see, this is why I never practiced this shit. It’s disgusting.”
“Didn’t you used to eat people?” Jax asked.
Lucifer hmphed, placing his hands on his hips. “Look, do you blame lions for eating gazelles?”
“Yes, because that’s the same.”
Titus frowned. “There’s been an impact at the back of his head.” Lawrence’s eyes were bulging, the left almost out of its socket. A cut sliced his left cheek, the surrounding area red and puffy. Likely infected. “He didn’t look like this last night. How long do you think he was possessed?” he asked Lucy.
“How the fuck am I supposed to know? It’s not like I can ask him now, can I?” Lucifer sighed. “He looks like shit, it’s possible he’s been frequently possessed on and off for some time, he may have not even known.”
“Horrifying thought,” Jax muttered. “We usually notice the longer the Daemon controlled them, the more they start to deteriorate.”
Lucy kneeled, a frown pinching his brow. Tugging at the robe, he tore it straight down the middle, exposing Lawrence’s chest.
“What the fuck are you…” Jax began, cutting off when the bloody marks were revealed. Lawrence’s chest was a mess of runes, both old, scarred, and some fresh. A few bulges were shown beneath his skin, and Lucy whistled happily as he cut one of them out.
“Charms,” he said, holding up the blooded disk, a simple wooden circle with a slight dome. “I would say he’s been a passenger in his own body for a few months, at least. The charms would’ve hidden the deterioration.”
Titus grunted, crossing his arms. “Plenty of time to infiltrate the Order, and –”
“Use the Councilman’s details to hire a hitman,” Jax finished for him. “Bishop’s trying to put a wedge between us and the Order.”
“I don’t think you guys need the help,” Lucy snorted. “What?” he asked when they both turned to him. “The Councilman’s a prick, and clearly dislikes you all.”
Titus grunted. “We’re causing a problem for them, so they’re trying to get us cut off.”
Jax leaned against the wall, his shoulders shifting beneath the black leather. “But what they don’t know, is that we’re not reliant on the Order.”
“Which we could use to our advantage.” Titus nudged Lawrence. “Is there any way to track Bishop?” He knew the answer before Lucifer even answered.
“Not without his summoning name, no.”
