Shadows of Fate (Shadow Born) (6 page)

“I want to believe you, but I don’t even know you.”

A light shone in his eyes. “Then let’s get to know each other. We have all night.”

Day dawned far too early. Lately, her dreams about Dunham were coming more frequently. Not only did they disturb her sleep, but she woke filled with acute loss. Not a great way to start the day.

Brenna stumbled into the kitchen, following the smell of strong coffee and the orange rolls Marissa always prepared. At the first sip of java, the haze began to clear. Despite the time of day, the kitchen remained dark. Electricity was still at a premium until the new power plant went online next year, so candles had been placed strategically throughout the room to compensate. They didn’t provide much light, but most of them didn’t need it anyway.

She dropped like a rock onto a hard wooden chair at the chipped and battered dining room table. Sam and Marissa were already there and Gray sat across from her, his long frame crammed into one of the chairs. Looking at him made her back knot up with tension. He seemed at ease, however, his legs covered in worn jeans matched with a thick black sweater. His black duster lay draped across the chair at his side. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, holding the twin to her coffee cup. Both read, “Bloodsuckers Rock.”

Staring down into the thick black syrup Marissa generously called coffee, Brenna tried to gather her words.

Gray saved her the trouble. “What’s on the agenda today, partner?” Startled by the sound of his voice, she looked up. Humor danced in his violet eyes, as if he knew he did nothing but frustrate her. Cursing him under her breath, she looked around to see who else had heard.

“He’s Taskforce to boot? Bloody hell.” Mira slipped into the room. She winced when Marissa slammed a wooden spoon against the ceramic stove. “I suppose it’s too late to kill him.”

“Of course he’s IRT. He’s a freaking Shadow Bearer. The powers that be would never let him out without a leash.” Sam rose from his perch on the window seat. “I don’t see that it matters, as long as he’s loyal to us.”

Brenna stared at him in amazement. Sam hated rules, regulations and curfews. Most of all he hated cops, especially supernatural ones. She was the exception of course. She liked to think it was her charm, but more likely it was her substantial breasts, which he tended to stare at a great deal.

As Brenna stood, puzzled by Sam’s easy acceptance of Gray, Hilda coalesced in the middle of the room. Brenna imagined she had overheard everything.

“Another cop?” Hilda said with glee in her eyes. “Hope you’re as hardcore as Brenna. I love field trips.” She let her feet touch the floor and walked to the counter.

Brenna watched her stuff a whole sweet roll in her mouth. For a dead girl she could eat a hell of a lot.

Mira grabbed the plate before Hilda could take another. Sticking her tongue out, Hilda disappeared again.

Mira sat the plate back down only to have it hover above the counter then disappear, along with everything on it. “That ghost is a menace. She’s an overgrown child.” She took a long sip of her drink. “So are we killing Gray or aren’t we? I have places to be.”

“I gave him a key,” Marissa said from the stove. “If you kill him, be sure to get it back.”

“I say he stays,” said Sam. “Anyone oppose?”

If indifference were applause, the roar would have been deafening. It appeared Gray was staying.

Brenna reached into the side pocket of her duster and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She slid it toward him.

“Two demons, then several stacks of paperwork,” she said as he scanned the assignments. “The first is a manticore. That could be a bitch to exorcise.”

He chuckled then pushed the paper back. “I think we can handle it.”

She drained the rest of her coffee. “Let’s roll.” She blew a kiss to Sam who had settled back down in the window seat. He flipped her off.

Out in the vehicle she kept parked behind the house for emergencies, Brenna tried to ignore the pounding in her head from the sunlight. She was about to ask Gray how he was holding up when her phone broke in like a fog horn.

“How do you stand that?” Gray glared at the offending piece of metal as she handed it to him. “And when did we get cell phone towers working out here?”

“We didn’t. The witches in the Arcana Techna lab found a way to imprint a magic user’s personal signature on phones and use them like they do out east. All the Taskforce agents do it. Better than radios, better range. She grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Seraph will give you one.”

“I hope not. It’s annoying.”

“Answer and it will stop. I’m driving.” Brenna started the engine and pulled out onto the broken road.

He frowned, but took the phone. “Yeah?” Maybe it was something in the carriage of his body, or the look in his eyes, but she knew it was not good news. Dread settled in her stomach as he set the phone down.

“We need to get to headquarters.” He didn’t look at her. “Something’s happened.”

Her hands tightened around the wheel. Silent she kept driving, unwilling to ask, her gut warning her it was bad.

“Xavier’s dead.”

A wall of ice erected around her heart. Brenna went numb. For a moment she lost touch with reality. Xavier was her partner. They had been together for years. She had misheard. She had to have. The wounds the demon had given him weren’t fatal. Yes, they had weakened him, but that’s all.

No. Xavier had a sick sense of humor. He was probably pissed at her for changing partners and this was his payback. Once they were at the station, he’d be there and everything would be fine. Then she’d knock his teeth out.

Her hands shook on the steering wheel. She barely felt Gray’s hand on her arm. “Pull over and let me drive. I’ll tell you the rest on the way.”

She kept driving. If she pulled over that would make it real. It wasn’t real. Couldn’t be.

“Brenna, pull over before you wreck.” His tone brokered no argument.

The vehicle coasted to a stop at the side of the road. Brenna slipped from the driver’s seat then fell back against the door. She couldn’t move. Gray came around and stood in front of her.

“Get yourself together.” His words were like a slap in the face. “You can’t help Xavier, but you can find the bastard who killed him.”

That pulled Brenna up short. “He was murdered?”

Gray nodded. “Seraph said Xavier was the latest victim of the Kenaz killer.”

“Oh God.” Anger scorched her blood. He would have died horribly, his body barely recognizable. “Where did they find him?”

“Someone shipped him to Taskforce headquarters.”

IRT Headquarters was one place a hunter’s safety was assured. A refuge the outside world had been unable to touch. Until now.

Brenna made her way through the maze of tunnels. She felt bereft, not just at Xavier’s death, but because her sanctuary had been compromised by it. Someone had invaded their haven and marked it with the corpse of one of their own.

She stopped just shy of the reception area. The icy shell that sheltered her heart threatened to crack and overwhelm her, but she held steady, taking deep breaths, shutting her emotions down.

She had been through worse. Had lost more. Suffered more. She would get through this. Gray waited until she was ready.

It was quiet as they stepped from the tunnels into the front hall. Lucy slipped from her glass cave. The gargoyle was a Jill of all trades. She had spent twenty years passing as a human coroner. Now she played the dual roles of receptionist and medical examiner for the IRT. She didn’t mind the extra workload. Gargoyles didn’t need much sleep.

Lucy waved for them to follow. She puttered down a white tile passageway away from Brenna’s office. Brenna could already smell the latex from the investigator’s protective gear. It made things far too real.

One foot in front of the other
, she told herself as she followed Gray and Lucy down the winding corridor. She wasn’t a fan of murder scenes. They brought back memories better left stuffed behind years of repression. The desire to flee always came back with suffocating force.

But this was Xavier. Her friend. Her partner.

Seraph had said his test results were concerning, but she had just done a job with him and he had been more than capable. Whatever had taken him down was more powerful than they had imagined.

A murmur of voices trickled through the hall, Seraph’s above the rest. She was perhaps the only one there who knew him well enough to recognize the pain in his tone. This was difficult for him. Xavier had been like a son.

They arrived at the mail room. Lucy left them, taking a different exit. The small square space was filled to the brim with men and women dressed like overstuffed pillows, the latex of their suits mixing with the strong scent of blood and ash. They circled around a box, approximately three feet tall and wide, covered with shiny gold and black wrapping paper. The lid lay to the left, a large black bow plastered to the top.

What kind of sick bastard wrapped up a body like a present?

Brenna stumbled over the piles of mail strewn across the floor. Seraph grabbed her arm and she froze, realizing she had almost contaminated the scene.

“What happened?” she asked him. “The last time I saw Xavier he was taking a victim to rehab.” She swallowed hard as blood now spilled onto the tile from the bottom of the box like an overturned bottle of Cabernet. Gray squeezed her arm in support.

“There’s no way his body could fit in there,” she said, half to herself.

Seraph frowned. “No body. Just blood and ash. A damn soup.”

“How do you know it was Xavier?”

“There was no mistake. Trust me.” Seraph paused, closing his eyes. “They sent his head in a different box. It turned into ash when we touched it. What’s left is in the lab.”

Gray cut in. “You said you thought the Kenaz killer did this?”

“He left his calling card. You can see it as soon as it gets analyzed.”

“Does that mean we’re on the case?” Brenna asked. A single look at those files could save her days of research.

Seraph studied her. She already knew his answer. “No. You’re too close.” He crossed his arms. “I need you and Gray to go over the evidence with Lucy. They used non-terran magic that needs to be catalogued. Might be Shadow Bearer. But under no circumstances are you to go after Xavier’s killer. I’ve put the best I have on it.”

Brenna glared at the overhead light, a frustrated breath rattling in her throat. Once Seraph made up his mind, he didn’t change it. She wanted to scream in frustration, but it was pointless.

“At least assign someone competent,” she said. “The death toll is rising.”

He slipped off his gray suit jacket and draped it over his arm, ignoring her. “Let’s go see Lucy.”

They followed him down to the forensics lab, just down the hall past enchantment research. Lucy was already there, her white lab coat glowing in the florescent lights. She leaned over a metal stretcher custom built for her height. A tub of blood sat atop the flat surface, a box of ash at its side.

As Brenna stepped inside the air seemed to curl and thicken into a dirty mist of sediment. It burned her eyes, stuck to the back of her throat. Coughing, she stumbled back. “Poison,” she gasped.

She grabbed her throat as it constricted from lack of oxygen and fled back into the hall, Gray beside her. It was a feeling she had experienced once before. “Poison,” she said again. Drawing in several jerky breaths, she turned to Seraph. “Why didn’t you warn us?”

Seraph shook his head, obviously concerned. “I didn’t know. Readings were negative. It didn’t affect anyone else.” He grabbed two gas masks from the lab and handed one to her, the other to Gray, before they went back inside. “What is it?”

“It’s called Quietus. It’s made from the ash of demons.” Gray’s eyes were blood shot, tears streaming from their corners. “In its purest form it would be fatal to either of us on contact. But it should only be fatal to others if they ingested it. This has to be some kind of milder derivative, but still dangerous.”

They moved deeper into the lab. “Can the toxin be grown on this plane?” Seraph asked.

Gray shook his head. “No. The plants involved are indigenous to our world. They would have had to smuggle it out. There are several portals that connect Earth to our plane, but you’d have to be extremely powerful or have the help of the Council to use them. Our people have been moving between the planes for centuries, but it’s been tightly controlled in this world since the Fall.”

Brenna looked at Gray. She would bet her life he hadn’t been on this plane long. If he had passed through one of the portals with the help of the Council, he was here for a purpose, not a visit. She would be surprised if that purpose didn’t lead straight to her.

She tried to read Seraph, but his stoic expression gave away nothing. “You can’t think I had something to do with this?” She paused, sucking down the bile in her throat. “Is that why you won’t let me be part of the investigation?”

“You always think the worst of me.” Seraph shook his head. “I trust you, Brenna. Never doubt that.” He sighed. “Do you have any enemies who may have followed you here? Is there anyone who hates you enough to do this?”