He gave me some serious side eye, then turned to stare out the passenger window. He barked at a dog on the sidewalk across the street. The dog was trotting ahead of the owner and pulling her along.
That was when I realized I didn't even have a leash. Gale might get back to me in a few minutes or not until tomorrow. Hugo couldn't go that long without the basics like food!
“We need to go shopping.”
He turned his head and barked, as if agreeing.
“Next stop, a pet store,” I declared. Shopping for Hugo sounded like a lot more fun than dwelling on the dead bodies I'd accidently discovered.
I could only hope I didn't see them in my dreams.
Danzig
Instead of coffee today, I bought an energy drink. That wasn’t the only change to my normal pattern when guarding Bec. I’d also decided to park in the only shady spot in the parking lot. It was in a spot under a tree at the far corner and not a bad spot.
I could tell Bec didn’t see me when she left work early and looked around before going to her car. I wasn’t surprised she’d missed me. The tall bushes at the base of the tree did a good job of hiding my motorcycle. I’d been leaning against the tree so that must’ve been enough for her gaze to pass right by me.
Pulling on my helmet, I followed Bec at a respectful distance. When Bec stopped in this neighborhood, clearly watching a house, I assumed she was on another stakeout. I parked the motorcycle and reached for my phone to DM her, but she’d gotten out of her car and walked right up to the house she was watching.
She wasn’t there long and then she came running back out, holding a dog. They got in the car and rushed away.
I was torn. Clearly something had happened inside the house and there might be some human in there in need of retribution, but I also didn’t want to lose sight of Bec.
After a few seconds of indecision, I decided to investigate the house. I was good at tracking auras and felt confident I’d be able to locate Bec again.
I understood why she'd run from the house the moment I got to the fully open front door.
“That’s interesting,” I mumbled, crouching down next to one of the bodies. They looked like they'd been buried in the desertyears ago, although by the look of their fading auras, they'd been alive only ten minutes earlier.
As I watched, the spell that caused their deaths pulsed, and the dried corpses disintegrated to human-shaped piles of dust. Their auras completely disappeared.
I wished I’d recorded it, but I had no way of knowing that was going to happen. I hadn’t seen that before.
I took a few pictures, making sure not to touch any of the dust. I couldn't see or sense any more magic, so I was sure the spell was finished. However, I wasn’t going to risk accidentally setting off another spell that might be waiting to activate.
After I'd gotten some pictures, I noticed a phone sitting near the feet of one of the corpses. I picked it up; no magic clung to it. I wiped my prints off it and tossed it next to one of the piles of dust.
After closing the door, I wiped any possible fingerprints off the knob and walked back to my bike. I debated about flaring my aura but decided against it. I could already tell that the door camera wasn't working because electronic devices always gave off a slight pulse, but there was nothing here.
There were going to be a lot of questions when the human authorities found them, but that wasn’t my problem.
Jumping back on my bike, I started it up and followed the faint trace of Bec’s aura through the surface streets to a pet store about ten miles away. I found her car, then circled the parking lot until I could tuck myself out of sight next to a truck.
I debated telling Marduk. He should know, but he would also definitely overreact. I didn’t want him doing anything all of us would end up regretting.
He must’ve felt my debate because my phone rang.
“What’s going on?” he mumbled. He'd been asleep, but my strong thoughts and ongoing conundrum must’ve woken him up.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “No one's in danger. I'm sitting in a parking lot while Bec shops.”
He grunted and hung up.
This was probably going to blow up in my face later, but I had hours to figure out how to handle Marduk after I told him.
Chapter 7
Bec
