Page 12 of Immortal Unveiled

Grayson shrugged. “Fine. But what are we gonna do once we find it?”

“Just do as I say. You take her bedroom. Ryder, there’s a guest room upstairs where she stores a lot of stuff. I’ll search the living room. Bring me every single photo in which Nancy wears a bracelet.”

Both hybrids sauntered up the stairs.

Manus heard their footfalls on the landing when they reached the second floor. The old wooden floors creaked. Downstairs in the living room, the demon attacking Nancy would have heard Kim coming, giving him ample time to cast a vortex and disappear. The fact that he’d left it to the last second to make his exit meant that Nancy hadn’t just been a convenient meal. He’d risked detection in order to get whatever he’d come for.

Manus looked around the living room. In a glass hutch, a display of antique dolls shared space with a collection of carved wooden toys. Nancy’s interest in anything old was evident. As a curator for the Museum of Antiquities in Baltimore, she knew her trade. It was one of the reasons the Stealth Guardians had made contact with her and convinced her to work for them. With her knowledge of and access to antiquities, she was extremely useful when it came to assessing whether something was of value to the Stealth Guardians or the Demons of Fear.

Systematically, Manus started going through the various drawers in the hutch, then moved on to the piece of furniture that housed the TV. The shelves were filled with books and DVDs of TV shows and movies. Some DVDs didn’t carry labels but were marked with a Sharpie, indicating they held photos and videos of recent trips. Nothing out of the ordinary. Manus leafed through a stack of old magazines and newspaper clippings. Again, nothing stuck out.

He turned and looked around. His gaze caught on the spot where Nancy’s body had lain. He’d seen the police photos and recognized the signs of a demon kill. A visit to the morgue had confirmed his suspicion at the time. He shook off the memory. It wasn’t the first time an emissarius had died, and it wasn’t going to be the last. Nancy had known about the risks, nevertheless she’d agreed to help them.

“Got something,” Grayson said from the entry to the hallway.

Manus lifted his head and marched toward the young hybrid. Grayson handed him a bunch of photos.

Ryder was coming down the stairs at the same time. “I found stuff too.”

Manus looked through the photos. In some of them, the bracelet Nancy was wearing was obstructed, in others it was too far away to make out any details. But two of them showed the piece of jewelry much closer. He kept those two, then handed the others back to Grayson. “You can put those back.” Then he addressed Ryder, “Show me what you’ve got.”

Ryder produced a photo as well as a piece of paper. Manus looked at the photo first. It wasn’t any better than the two he already had. “Too far away. What’s that?” He pointed to the paper, and Ryder turned it so Manus could see it.

“A receipt for it.” He grinned. “Together with an exact description of the bracelet and sketches of the front, back, and sides.”

“Perfect!” Manus snatched the piece of paper. “Excellent work. We’re done here.”

“I still don’t know how that’s going to help us convince Kim that the vortex wasn’t anything supernatural,” Grayson said.

Manus chuckled to himself. “That’s why you’re an intern and I get paid the big bucks.” He shoved the two photos and the receipt into the inside pocket of his jacket and motioned toward the kitchen. “Let’s get out of here. We need to get a rush order in with a goldsmith.”

“A goldsmith?” Ryder asked.

Manus nodded. “And I know just the guy who can get this done in less than twenty-four hours.”

And then Kim would have to believe that a burglar had killed her mother, and the vortex had nothing to do with it.