Chapter 40
The first recording and recall went quickly.
In the small office, Wade set up a computer to record.
Bobby appeared with his equipment, and Angel kept to my side as I closed my eyes and focused on the memory, giving them every detail Roan had shared.
Roan’s final moments surged through me—his breath came in ragged gasps, his heartbeat a wild staccato.
The chanting drummed against his skull, each syllable a nail pinning his soul in place.
Overhead, the symbol bled into the night like a wound torn into the fabric of existence.
I described the sensation of his soul lingering, trapped by the ritual, and the relief I felt when he finally let go.
Angel listened intently, his hand resting on my shoulder, while Wade took notes and occasionally asked clarifying questions that stirred up a few other memories —scents, sounds, and sensations, not all of them pleasant.
By the time I finished, my voice was hoarse, and my head throbbed with the beginnings of a migraine.
Angel handed me a bottle of water and a small packet of ibuprofen, which I gratefully accepted.
I didn’t realize how relaxed I’d become until I sensed someone approach the door and my magic perked up, reaching out as if to swat at whoever stood outside, making me whip around to face the door.
My magic bristled, snapping like a startled cat, though I knew who stood on the other side of the door before it opened. Victor.
He looked annoyed, but the vampire firmly shoved my energy away like he was batting at a fly.
My stomach twisted—a reflex, or the memory of his mind pressing against mine from before?
He handed a stack of food boxes over to Angel.
“We’ve got the viewing room ready for the next set of remains once you’re ready.
Going from newest to oldest as far as we can determine from scent and forensic notes. ”
“Thanks for the food,” Angel said, taking the boxes from him. “We’ll be over in a few minutes.”
Victor glared at me, but I refused to meet his gaze, fearing he’d do the mind thing again.
I couldn’t sense his magic messing with me this time, and my magic was more in tune and aware.
Finally, he left, closing the door behind him and giving us quiet as Angel unpacked the boxes and handed out food.
Angel pushed a sandwich into my hands. “Protein first.” He had several wrapped packages of snack cakes which he kept to himself. “You can have one after you finish your sandwich.”
I grumbled at him.
“You’re running on fumes already, and we’ve only done one interview.
This is a lot for any SV. Or any variance in general.
Think of it in shifter terms. Each time you use your power, it’s like us changing, back and forth.
That uses a lot of energy, even if yours isn’t manifesting as a physical transition.
” Angel nudged the bottle of water in front of me. “Drink, eat, refuel.”
“Fine,” I said, taking a big bite of the sandwich, unable to taste anything more than cardboard for a few seconds as my taste buds seemed detached from my senses.
After three swallows, the flavor of spicy cheese, and chicken with onions and peppers awakened my tongue, and I choked as the spice hit full force, tongue burning.
I gulped down an entire bottle of water.
Angel looked completely unrepentant as he handed me another.
“Oh, was it extra hot?” he asked. “Wonder how that happened?”
Wade laughed, and Bobby grinned as he typed out something on his laptop.
I ate every bite, happy to be rewarded with sweet treats as they cooled the heat, and dreading the next body. “I think this is a case of getting what you asked for,” I murmured, staring at the empty food containers.
Angel raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
I exhaled slowly. “A thousand times, I looked over a body and thought, 'Tell me who hurt you.' Now they can.” I swallowed hard. “And it’s not pleasant.”
A beat of silence stretched between us.
“Murder never is,” Bobby finally said.
I rubbed a hand over my face. “It’s not just seeing it. It’s being there. It’s drowning in it.”
“Maybe it’s control,” Wade suggested. “You’re new to this. You might need more practice to separate yourself.”
Bobby tapped his keyboard. “And since Angel’s bound to you, maybe he can help.”
I glanced at Angel. He didn’t flinch from the weight of it.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said simply.
And somehow, I believed him.
I downed two snack cakes, the sugar, meds, and time giving my head a break.
“Ready for the next one?” Angel asked.
“Sure.” What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like the next one can be more dead, I thought, immediately regretting the jinx.
“We’ll have to establish a limit for him,” Wade said, adding a few more notes to his file. “Better to know how far is too far before we push him.”
“I’m okay,” I promised. The first body had been mostly intact with its spirit still semi-attached. Would the next one? I really hoped I didn’t upchuck lunch.
Angel got up and took my hand, his grip warm and grounding as he led me to the door. “We’ll figure it out,” he murmured. “If it’s overwhelming a second time, we stop. You’re already fighting a migraine.”
I blinked at him. Had he sensed my pain?
He tapped his nose. “I can smell it.”
“Me too,” Wade muttered, shutting down his computer before opening the door for us. Victor stood in the hallway outside the viewing room, arms crossed, posture stiff. He looked like a statue, his aura radiating ‘fuck off’ in a way I’d never felt before. A shiver ran down my spine.
I hesitated.
Victor’s gaze flicked toward me, then he stepped aside, his power receding as if he had stuffed it into a box. “Keeping the norms out,” he said without preamble. Then, his eyes locked on mine. “Not much left of this one. Fragments.”
Fragments. Of bones, memories, or both? I was about to find out.
Bobby opened the door and headed to the corner to set up a camera. Wade took his place by the viewing window, and Angel guided me to the front. Inside, someone from the ME’s office stood near the gurney, wrapped in PPE gear, hovering over the remains.
The body—what was left of it—lay beneath a cloth, but there wasn’t even an outline. Just a barely-there shape. That meant there wasn’t much left at all.
“Does he need to see it?” The person behind the glass asked. “It’s pretty gruesome, and our ME hasn’t had a chance to process it yet.”
Wade turned to me, silent, waiting for my answer.
I shrugged. No? Maybe? “Let me try this way.” Swallowing my unease, I moved close to the glass, closing my eyes and reaching out.
The room pulsed with energy.
The shifters around me burned like beacons; bright, sharp, snapping, biting.
Victor, behind the door; a cool, creeping darkness.
Angel at my back; solid, steady, anchoring me.
Through the glass, I could sense the ME’s assistant wasn’t human but some variant of something. I couldn’t tell what. And the body?
A void.
A complete absence of everything.
It wasn’t like Roan. Roan had felt like ice and pain, lingering with shades of memory. But this was nothing. No trace of who this person had been. No energy, no static, no imprint even from beyond the Veil. The body had been hollowed out and drained.
How was that possible? Was this what true death felt like?
I pressed harder against the void, reaching deeper. Cold wind lashed against my skin. My breath hitched. It wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real.
Angel’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me close, steadying me against the tremor that wracked my body.
“There’s nothing left,” I whispered, my eyes squeezing shut as I strained for even a flicker of something, anything.
“What do you mean?” Bobby asked. “I can feel your power working. Feels like someone just walked over my grave.”
How did I explain what I didn’t understand?
“It’s… a void. The remains, I mean. Is that normal?
” My pulse pounded in my ears. “Like, when someone dies, shouldn’t there still be something?
” I’d raised the dead. I knew what death felt like.
Even the coldest of spirits left an imprint.
Roan had still been Roan; even in the end, his tie to the mortal realm was cut.
But this? This was like staring into a hollowed-out husk.
“There’s nothing left,” I whispered. “Not like the first victim. It’s like whatever he was has been drained completely. He might as well be a rock. A piece of dirt.”
A realization hit me.
I turned to Angel, my breath catching. “I didn’t raise this one.”
Angel’s brow furrowed. “What?”
Victor had said this was one of the newest bodies, but—
“How does Victor know it’s the newest?” I asked.
“The candles and the disruption in the soil,” Bobby answered. “And likely, as a vampire, he can smell it. This one was badly burned. We’re talking bone fragments, like, near cremation levels.”
“Which is impossible,” Wade interjected.
“Why?” I asked.
“It takes over 1400 degrees to cremate a body,” he said.
“And several hours. Someone would have noticed a fire like that. Even with as little overnight traffic as that field gets, someone would have called in a fire of that magnitude—the smell, the smoke, something off in the field. It had to be fast and hot, or someone would have noticed.”
“Oh.” My stomach knotted as I sank further into Angel’s warmth. The chill was fading, but the unease remained. “Maybe that was part of the ritual?” I asked. “This god, draining him of power?”
“Or the witches,” Angel murmured. “Probably the witches. They’d need sacrifices to power them up if their god isn’t on this side yet. Likely more than one.”
“I suspect a couple more of our bodies will feel a void like this to Jude,” Wade said.
Bobby tilted his head toward me. “You willing to try a few more?”
I hesitated, glancing at Angel, at Victor, and at the void beyond the glass.
What if they were all blank?
What if we were already too late?
I swallowed hard, and nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”
Even if I didn’t know what good it would do.