Those words meant more to her than they should, and she quickly turned her mind away from how incredibly sexy he looked, and to their case. “The fairy star on the wall…what are you thinking?”
“My first thought was a leannán sídhe.”
“Bless you.”
Sighing at her joke, he rubbed at his eyebrow, then explained. “They’re fey in origin, similar to a Greek muse. They find an artist and inspire them.”
Made sense given that both students were art students. “Do they normally tear someone apart?”
“Yeah, they do. It’s kind of their thing. They suck what they need out of their target and kill them violently. They’re also shapeshifters.”
“Let me guess. They like taking the form of a fox?”
He nodded. “Sometimes.”
“Do they take souls?”
“They can.” But there was a note in his voice that said he wasn’t buying it.
“And?”
“New information makes me think it might be a message from the Brotherhood of Shadows…an elite group of the sídhe aristocracy.”
“Why would they want to kill college students?” she asked.
“Normally, they wouldn’t care. But something about this bothers me.”
She snorted. “There’s a lot about this that bothers me.”
Using his hand instead of the remote she needed, he swiped through the files on her screen. When he got to the one of the bloodstain, he made it larger so that she could see it better.
Her jaw went slack as she saw writing in the center of it. Impossible to see unless it was blown up. “What is that?”
“Xynzara.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It’s my birth name.”
Chapter
Twelve
Sorcha took a step back and ran into the edge of her desk. Which was good as she needed that extra stability. “Why is your name written inside the blood splatter of our victim?”
“Wish I knew.”
Her mind reeled. “How did the student know your name?”
“There’s no way she could. That’s not for public consumption. Only a tiny number of creatures know my real name. And I’m thinking whoever did that wanted to get my explicit attention.”
“Why?”
“No idea.” He stood up and moved closer to the screen. “It’s in English and with your alphabet. Whoever did it wanted humans to be able to read it, too.”
“Your alphabet?”
He nodded. “We have a different script in Hell that we use. Same for witches and other groups.”
