Chapter 4 #2
“Soul-stealer, yes. Soul-eater, hell no. Pun intended. My father makes it a source of pride to take every soul he can from the Creator. But to destroy one…that pisses off everyone. It’s absolutely senseless to waste a perfectly good soul, even an evil one.
They all have their uses. And that use isn’t for food or destruction. ”
In a weird way, that made sense.
Helly joined them. She was eating a large ice cream cone. “Are we done?”
“No,” they said in unison.
She let out a long, exasperated breath. “Fine. I’m going to sit in the AC while you sweat in the heat. Unlike Luke, I hate being hot.” She flounced off toward the car.
Which made Sorcha realize something. She was sweating. Horribly. Luke on the other hand…
“Aren’t you hot in that coat? It’s nine thousand degrees out here.”
He smirked at her. “From Hell? Remember? This is the arctic tundra to me. Why do you think I was in a boiling hot tub in the sun? Since they kicked me out of my home, I freeze all the time. It’s miserable. You’re lucky I’m not in a parka on the equator.”
“Is it really that hot in Hell?”
“I’m not sweating, am I? Because I’m used to a lot hotter than this. I cannot say this enough. Hell is hot and I like it like that.”
Terrified by what he described so casually, Sorcha drifted toward the bagged body that was being lifted onto a Gurney by the coroner. The regular LEOs—law enforcement officers—were finally clearing the scene.
Even though she could no longer see the girl, she kept her gaze averted. It was the kind of death that lingered.
In an effort to divert her thoughts, she started on the obvious. “There’s not enough blood here, given the severity of her injuries. She was obviously killed elsewhere.”
“Agreed.”
Sorcha glanced around the cemetery that was similar to the one across the street from their offices. There was a school nearby, and a lot of homes.
Granted there were trees to block some line of sight, still… “This is a very public place to dump a body.”
“Again, agreed. And while it’s nowhere near as popular a tourist attraction as Bonaventure or Colonial Cemetery, it still gets its share of looky-loos.”
Frowning, Sorcha glanced at the road not that far away. “So how did they do it without being seen?” It made no sense to her. A passing car could easily see suspicious activity and report it.
Luke shrugged. “For one of my kind, easy. Teleportation. Portaling. Hell, we could drop a body and just mind fuck anyone who saw it. Burn out the cameras. The real question is, could a human do it and not be seen?”
She turned around, looking at everything.
“I don’t see how. Unless they were really lucky.
But there are so many cameras nowadays, it’s getting harder and harder to commit a crime and not be seen.
I can’t tell you how many crimes we solved in New Orleans with a simple Ring camera on someone’s door. What other creatures are you thinking?”
“Demons don’t usually kill their victims. Defeats the purpose of what they’re after. But if they did, they could open a portal. Jump in and out. Never be seen.”
That was a good start. “Aside from demons, who else uses portals?”
He gave her an arch stare.
“Okay. Apparently, it’s a long list. I’m just trying to understand it.” Because portals weren’t that common in her world, even as bizarre as it was.
Sighing, Sorcha went toward the grave where the body had been placed.
“Hagan lot… Patrick and Mary. Died 1912 and 1921 respectively. Along with Prince the dog—he loved his master.” Extremely weird, as was the fact that the entire lot was one giant marble slab and fenced in with some impressive coping and decorations that included a very large, ornate cross, towering over the graves.
“You think the dog or Hagans have anything to do with it?”
“No.”
“That your evil powers speaking?”
Luke scratched at his ear, looking less than pleased.
“Don’t need my powers here. Can’t imagine anyone trying to bring back someone from that long ago.
Unless it was a writer for a term paper of some kind.
Anyone else would know it was pointless…
and gross to try and raise a body that old. Zombie bokors go for the recent dead.”
“You’re not funny.”
“You say that, but I know the kids who go to school here. You’d be amazed what some of them have done or will do to get what they want…especially when it’s an A for a test or paper they don’t want to write or study for. There’s only so much AI can do.”
She would deny it, but there had been a time or two when she’d been willing to sacrifice the proverbial goat while in college.
And when it came to her roommate…
Maureen was very lucky Sorcha hadn’t sacrificed that boyfriend-stealing-bitch to the goddess of sanity. Had Maureen not stolen her boyfriend, Sorcha wouldn’t have ended up with Bert.
Still…
Reyes walked over to them. “Any insights?”
Raking both hands through his thick dark hair, Luke shrugged. “I didn’t do it. I’m innocent. Don’t believe what the dog tells you. Everyone knows Prince is a liar.”
The captain rolled her eyes. “What about you?” she asked Sorcha.
“I didn’t do it, either,” she couldn’t resist saying before she shook her head. “I got nothing except a possible headache.” She glanced toward Luke. “Maybe fleas.”
Reyes laughed.
There was a glint in his eyes that said Luke might be amused, but if that was true, then he needed to tell it to the rest of his face. Even so, the smirk on his lips was adorable. “Anyway, we are in accord in that we have no idea what happened.”
Reyes nodded slowly. “Can you find out? That is, after all, why I’m paying you the little bucks.”
Putting his hands in his pockets, Luke shrugged. “I’ll ask my deems and see what they say.”
“All right. They’re wrapping up the evidence.” Reyes clapped Sorcha gently on the shoulder. “It’s been a long day. I’ll get the reports from the police as soon as they’re filed. Why don’t you head home, and we’ll see you in the morning.”
Sorcha stifled a yawn. She was rather beat. Reyes was right, it’d been a long day. “Thanks.”
Luke dug his keys from his pocket. “I’ll take you back to the office.”
As they headed for his car, she realized that Helly wasn’t waiting for them. “Don’t you need your imp?”
Making a face, he shook his head. “She’ll get back when she’s ready.”
Should Helly be out on her own? Sorcha wasn’t sure it was a good idea to leave a Hell imp on the streets unattended. “You leave her often?”
“She’s a grown imp. Much older than I am. And she doesn’t need a car to travel.”
Sorcha opened the door and glanced back toward the area where the student had been placed so unceremoniously. “Don’t you worry about her?”
“Not at all. And you shouldn’t either. It’s the humans who should be afraid.”
Great. That was even worse. “Will she hurt them?”
“Only if they try to hurt her first and then…payback’s a pissed off imp and if we’re lucky, we can film it and make big bucks on TikTok.”
And with that she was definitely afraid as he turned on the car and its huge engine roared to life.
Helly was out on the loose and so was an unknown killer who could be some preternatural predator, or a psycho hunting students.
Her head really hurting now, Sorcha pulled out her pad to jot down a few notes as Luke drove.
Neither of them spoke as he returned her to her car that was parked across the street from their office.
Sorcha got out and hesitated. “Guess I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I’ll be here. Even though I hate mornings with the burning passion of a thousand suns…or the heat of my father’s deepest pit.” After winking at her, he drove off toward the garage.
She stood there for a moment, looking back at the building where her day had started. Infernal Affairs. Had she made a mistake by coming here?
In one day, she’d investigated a Dire Wolf sighting, met a shapeshifter, an angel, several ghosts and had ended up with a slaughtered college student whose image would haunt her for eternity.
And met the son of the devil and his Hell imp.
Heck of a first day.
“Terrified of tomorrow.” But a weird part of her couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. It’d been a long time since she felt this stirring of excitement. Since she’d actually looked forward to something.
I am definitely not right in the head.
Yet as she opened her car door and glanced up at the window in the front room of their offices, she caught sight of the ghost she’d seen earlier that day.
The ghost waved at her and smiled.
Before she could stop herself, Sorcha waved back. Then she quickly got in, hoping no one had seen her do that, and went home.
Luke parked the car in the IA garage and turned off the engine. He should probably complain about the fact that he lived where he worked, but it made it highly convenient to live over the garage of their offices.
It made his morning commute tolerable.
“You like your new partner.” It was a flat statement, not a question.
He pulled the keys out and glared at the dash of his car. “Did I ask for your commentary, Delilah?”
A shadow rose away from the radio to manifest in the seat beside him.
Slowly, she became the sultry vixen who’d damned Samson.
Her dark, wavy hair fell to the middle of her back.
In spite of the fact she was thousands of years old, she appeared in the form of a stunningly beautiful woman in her mid-twenties.
One whose beauty was such that Samson hadn’t stood a chance.
Thankfully, Luke wasn’t Samson. Even though Delilah had been after him since he’d hit puberty, she wasn’t his type, and he found her constant stalking annoying. “Why are you pulling out of the car, D? Spying for my father?”
“Never. He doesn’t need me to do such. He has spies aplenty. I’m bringing you a message from Sorath.”
That sounded off. “And that is?”
“He has a theory on who did this to you.”
Then why would he send her to tell him and not come himself? Something wasn’t adding up. “Theory or fact?”