I took a slow breath, knowing by Ivys widening pupils that she was feeling it, too. Nina was getting better at channeling her undead master. Either that, or new hormones were being turned on the longer the master was inside her brain. I was betting it was the latter, and probably part of the perks of putting up with someone being inside you.
A faint yelp from the parking lot turned me around, and I wasnt surprised to see Wayde jogging up the sidewalk, the I.S. officer from the van limping behind him. Nina made a small noise when he ran right over that patch of holy ground, clearly not pleased.
I thought you were staying in the car! I shouted as Nina sourly gestured to the surrounding I.S. officers to let him pass.
Giving them space warily, Wayde slowed as he approached, his eyes widening as he glanced at the body, then did a double take. You yelled, he explained, then looked again and swore under his breath. I came. Thats my job. What the hell is that?
Someones mistake, I said. They asked me out here because they thought I did it. I got mad.
Sir, Nina started, and I wondered why he/she used any term of respect at all.
Hes my bodyguard, I said tightly. You know that. I dont trust you. I should walk away from this, but Im here, and Im going to take a look. He stays. Got a problem, take it up with my mom.
Jenks laughed as the undead vampire looked through Ninas eyes, assessed the situation, then nodded, Ninas stance taking on a faint swagger at odds with her slim figure. He may stay if his talents include keeping his mouth shut.
Wayde exhaled, seeming to lose body mass and tension, but it all came back when he glanced at the body again. Uh, sorry it took me so long to get here, he said to me. I had to get around limp dick there.
I looked behind Wayde to the retreating I.S. officer. He had his hand on his nose, and I think he was bleeding if Ninas sharp eyes on him meant anything. Fresh blood and the scent of a fight were like champagne to the undead, and my estimation of Wayde wavered. A good bodyguard could have gotten by the I.S. officer without drawing blood.
Dont worry about it, I said as I glanced at Ivy and she shrugged almost imperceptibly. I appreciate it. And despite my doubts, I did. Regardless of having broken the cops nose, hed clearly been doing his job if the I.S. had been shadowing me and all Id gotten was a faint feeling of unease. I wasnt helpless, but another pair of eyes and fists usually kept incidents from ever happening. The best bodyguard was one who didnt have to do anything but be there.
Jenkss wings clattered as he took off from my shoulder, clearly struggling from the weight of his extra clothes. November was the cusp for pixies. Most were hibernating by now, but Jenks and his family would winter in the church, and if the day was warm enough, Jenks would brave the cold.
We gonna watch walkie-talkie vamp have a blood orgy, or are we going to look at someone elses? he said snidely, and Nina gestured to the pair of I.S. officers who had been nervously lurking nearby. The better-dressed one jogged forward with the printout and handed it to Nina before backing up. Id be cautious, too, if my superior had been lusting after someones nosebleed.
Ive sent a copy to your church of the information weve already gathered, Nina said as she handed it in turn to Ivy. I want this back. Its my copy.
Ivy took it, her lips tight with repressed anger. Something was bothering her, something more than the body. I looked past Nina to the body again, repulsed and yet riveted. My God, the man had only one hand left. It was thick and malformed, bending in as if cramped, with a thick, horny, inflexible skin. The fingers looked as if they were made of dough and just stuck on. The other hand and both his feet were perfect cloven hooves. If anything, he looked like a faun, only everything was perverted and disproportionate. There were no such things as fauns, never had been, but perhaps mutilations such as this were where the fable had gotten started.
Feeling ill, I looked away, noticing that the blood-drawn pentagram under him was one made to gather power from an external source. Jeez, I hoped this had nothing to do with me. The man looked as if hed been in his midtwenties, fit apart from the half-goat thing.
How many have there been? I asked. They might only have asked me out here to see if I had done it, but now that I was here, I was going to find out who had. Ivy, too, was studiously looking through the packet of information, clearly eager to take the run. There were a lot of papers. The I.S. wasnt known for being meticulous about data gathering, meaning this had been going on for a while. They should have come to me sooner.
Spinning gracefully, Nina turned to the body, looking at it as if it were a painting on a wall. This is the third incident. His name was Thomas Siskton, and he was a university student, missing since last week.
Jenks whistled by rubbing his wings together, and then he darted to the railing, standing on it and facing the body. There hasnt been anything in the news. Youd think a hoofed university student with horns would make the papers.
Jenks whistled by rubbing his wings together, and then he darted to the railing, standing on it and facing the body. There hasnt been anything in the news. Youd think a hoofed university student with horns would make the papers.
Keep your mouth shut, Ivy said, knowing how hard it was for the pixy to keep a secret.
Nina looked between me and Wayde, clearly not happy with the Were being here. She probably didnt know Jenks was the higher risk for blabbing despite pixies being noncitizens. Weve kept it quiet. It needs to stay that way.
Dont worry about me, Wayde said, dropping back and putting a hand in the air as he looked down submissively. Im a professional.
I grimaced, hearing what the undead vampire was saying. You dont just keep something like this quiet without illegal memory charms. Great. I hated memory charms.
Nina saw my understanding and smiled with her new, confident, sexy eyes and turned to Ivy, a hand out as if to escort her up the stairs. The site is open for your inspection, she said as she walked over the blood-painted word of Latin as if it meant nothing. Weve already gathered what we need.
Good. Ivy casually sidestepped Ninas guiding hand and walked up the stairs by herself. Ill let you know what you missed.
Her attitude was surprisingly belligerent, and I wondered why she was letting her emotions show like this. She knew it would attract the undeads attention all the more, and clearly she didnt like him. Concerned, I went to follow Ivy up, and Wayde touched my elbow. Hey, uh, Ill stay here if you dont mind, he said, his face pale as he looked up at the body.
Jenks snickered, which I thought totally unfair, following it up with a Not used to the blood, wolfman?
Waydes expression sharpened on the pixy. Hes half turned into something. You know how many nightmares Ive had about that?
Yes, I suppose being able to turn into a wolf, painfully, might give one a new kind of nightmare, and I smiled as I gave his arm a squeeze, feeling the hard muscle under his shirt. You can wait at the car if you want. Ill be fine.
No, Ill stay. Just not up there, Wayde said, and Nina cleared her throat for me to hurry up, even as Wayde looked past me to the body and shivered.
Rache . . . Jenks complained, and I headed up the stairs, hands in my pockets and giving the Latin a wide berth, reminded of how Nina had skirted the dead child under the ground.
This is the third, Nina said, and I blanched as I now had nothing else to look at other than the blood-soaked, softly pelted, cloven-hoofed, disfigured man before me. Jenks was right; he even had tiny horns, and his skin was gray and softly textured like a gargoyles. What in hell had they done to him? And why?
Please, God, may it have nothing to do with me. But I was the first demon this side of the ley lines, and I was getting a really bad feeling.
We found the oldest one just last week, Nina added, almost as an afterthought, her voice telling me the vampire speaking through her was deep in thought.
You didnt find them in order? Jenks had parked himself upwind of the corpse. It smelled, but the cold had suppressed most of the stench. Actually the body had a distinctive meadow scent under all the decaying blood, and I wondered if that was part of the faun thing that it had going.
Nina gave Jenks a dry look. All the dump sites are similar to this one, but the first involved three teenagers from three different schools, missing since the fourth of November. Two were contorted like this one, the other died from heart failure. Her medical history shows she had heart issues, and we think she died from fright.
I breathed deep, trying to get beyond the atrocity so I could think. The scent of wine and salt tickled a memory. Electricity, ozone, old books: it all added up to demons, except for the fact that there wasnt the faintest hint of burnt amber. Demons stank of it. Jenks had assured me that I didnt smell like the ever-after, but I think he was lying.
Id been born a witch, but my blood kindled demon magic and the way the coven of moral and ethical standards saw it was that if it looked like a demon, did magic like a demon, and could be summoned like a demon, it was a demon. I couldnt find fault with them. It had been a shock when I realized my blood didnt invoke every witch charm, failing at the most complex because of the demon enzymes in it. Al, my demon teacher, was the same. I was a demon, like it or not. The first of a new generation thanks to Trents father. How nice was that?
The soft sound of pixy wings pulled me from my sour musings, and Jenks landed on my shoulder, his wings tinted blue from the cold. He knew where my thoughts had gone just by looking at me. I dont smell any burnt amber, I said, and Nina nodded. Her canny gaze looked wrong on someone so young.
It wasnt at any other sites, either, she said. Thats why we thought of you.
Ivy cleared her throat in reproach, and Nina broke eye contact with me to stare at her for a long, slow moment, the smaller woman quietly asserting her dominance until Ivy looked away. All the victims had a large quantity of their blood drained from them, as you see here, Nina said, turning back to the body. The first victims showed evidence of being held against their wills: split fingernails, bondage marks, bruises, cuts, contusions. They resisted their capture and restraint. Evidence points to one to six days worth of torture. The moulage was old, but were fairly confident that none of the victims was killed where we found them.