Chapter 34 Shadow of the Moon #2
Bracken nodded, accepting the non-answer as he always did.
He moved to the bedroom window, staring out at the lightning sky.
"The first victim was a college student.
Second was a night watchman at one of the downtown office buildings.
Now Mira. There are no connections between them that we can find.
Their ages range from low twenties to mid-thirties.
And they come from different neighborhoods and social circles. "
"Tell me about the symbols. Are they the exact same at each site?
" I pulled out the demonic activity crystal and was relieved when it stayed clear. The magical detection stone was vibrating in my pocket, so I didn’t need to pull that out to see the blue glow.
That jacket had magical residue all over it.
"It was identical in all three scenes. Always near a doorway and drawn in the same animal blood." He pulled out his phone and showed me photos of the other scenes. "There are no foreign fingerprints or DNA. It's like a ghost did this."
"Not a ghost," I muttered before I could stop myself.
"What?"
"Nothing." I quickly redirected. "How long before your team arrives?"
He checked his watch. "Twenty minutes, give or take."
"Show me the other evidence you've collected."
Bracken led me to the kitchen table where he'd organized his case notes. As he walked me through the details, I breathed deeply, searching for any trace of that unsettling scent elsewhere in the apartment. It was strongest on the jacket. I caught faint traces near the window. It wasn’t the one Bracken was examining earlier.
It was near the smaller one in the adjoining bathroom.
"Has anything else disappeared along with the victims?" I asked. "Personal items? Clothing?"
"Nothing we can confirm. Family members and friends haven't noticed anything obviously missing." He hesitated, then added, "The night watchman's daughter mentioned his lucky coin was gone. It's a silver dollar he always carried. But that could be a coincidence."
Silver. My mind clicked through possibilities. "Any other silver items potentially missing?"
Bracken looked surprised. "Not that I know of. Why? Is that significant?"
"Just gathering information," I deflected. "What about surveillance in the other locations?"
"The college student lived in a dorm with cameras in the hallway.
Same story as here. She went in and never came out.
The night watchman's case is the strangest. The building has comprehensive security.
There are cameras everywhere. The footage shows him doing his normal rounds and then entering a storage room.
He never exits. The room was locked from the inside when they found it empty. "
My unease grew as I absorbed this information. "I need to make a call."
Stepping onto the small balcony, I pulled out my phone and dialed Victor.
I had debated reaching out to him for all of two seconds.
Yeah, he was the chief of the Supernatural Investigations Division and technically my boss, but whatever.
The case needed his resources, and that was the only reason my heart rate kicked up a notch when I hit his name in my contacts.
Anyone who said different was getting their ass kicked.
Looking over my shoulder to make sure Bracken wasn't hovering nearby with his detective ears, I waited through three rings before Victor's deep voice rumbled through the phone, sounding way too sexy for ass-crack o'clock in the morning.
"Thornwood," he rumbled as he answered. He sounded half asleep but still made my stomach do that stupid little flip thing just by saying his last name in that gravelly morning voice.
Focus, Aurora. Focus. I pushed my reaction aside.
"Victor, it's Aurora. I'm at a scene with Detective Bracken.
According to him there have been three disappearances in ten days with an identical MO.
There have been no signs of forced entry.
Victims are vanishing from locked rooms. Each scene has a hieroglyphic symbol drawn in animal blood. "
I heard the rustle of movement and imagined him sitting up in bed. The sheet likely fell away, leaving his bare chest on full display. That wasn’t helping me stay on track.
"What makes you think it's supernatural?" His voice was careful, measured.
"There's a scent here that doesn't belong. It’s ancient. There was also a silver dollar taken from at least one victim." I lowered my voice further. "This isn't just missing persons, Victor. I know it. Something took these people."
A pause, then. "Text me the address. I'll have a team ready but keep them back until the mundanes clear out. You'll lead the investigation."
"Understood." I would hold off on calling my friends. I wasn’t sure where this was going yet, and it was still early.
"Aurora." His tone softened slightly. "Be careful. If you've picked up a scent that concerns you, trust your instincts."
"Always do."
"That's what worries me."
I could hear the smile in his voice, and fought one of my own. "I'll update you once I've done a proper search."
"Do that," he said, and hung up.
I slid my phone back into my pocket and turned to head inside, only to slam right into a solid body that hadn't been there a second ago. "Shit!" I jumped back, hand automatically reaching for one of Eve's charms before I recognized who was standing there. "Nishi! What the hell?"
Nishi leaned in the doorway of the balcony with her arms crossed over her chest and a knowing smirk playing on her lips. I hadn't heard her arrive, which was annoying. For someone with my enhanced senses, I didn’t usually miss something that big, but my attention was elsewhere.
"Well, well," she drawled. "You called Thornwood before calling us?"
"What are you doing here?" I asked, ignoring her insinuation.
"Faith sent me. She said you told her Bracken called you out about some disappearances." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "I can see you don’t need us. You called your main squeeze instead."
I glared at her. "Don't you have something to stab?"
"Nothing as interesting as whatever you're investigating." She pushed off from the doorframe. "Tell me about these three disappearances. Fill me in."
The sliding door to the balcony opened, and Bracken stepped out, tensing slightly at the sight of Nishi. He'd encountered her before and never quite seemed comfortable with her particular brand of intensity. "Miss Kazuko," he greeted stiffly. "I didn't realize Aurora was bringing company."
"She didn't," Nishi replied cheerfully. "I'm the backup she didn't know she needed."
Bracken looked at me questioningly, and I nodded reluctantly. "She's with me. When can we have the scene to ourselves?"
He checked his watch. "My team will be here any minute. I'll clear it with my lieutenant. Give me a few hours to get the official investigation moving, then I'll create a window for you." He glanced between us. "I should go wait for them downstairs. Don't touch anything until I get back."
"Call me when they're gone," I said. "And Bracken? Keep this between us for now."
He nodded grimly. "Always do."
As Bracken disappeared down the hallway, Nishi turned to me with a serious expression. All traces of her earlier humor had vanished. "What's got the mundane detective calling for supernatural backup at the crack of dawn?"
We spent the next few hours camped out in my car, watching the parade of uniforms and crime scene techs filter in and out of the building.
Nishi dozed in the passenger seat while I sipped terrible gas station coffee and sorted through what little I knew.
When my phone finally buzzed with Bracken's all-clear text, I nudged Nishi awake and we headed back up.
We silently slipped under the crime scene tape and into the house. Bracken had left the door unlocked for us. The apartment felt different now. Emptier somehow, but the lingering scent that had caught my attention earlier was still there.
"Something is definitely off here." Nishi wrinkled her nose as she pulled out a slender knife from her boot. "It feels like... death. But not like Mira was just killed or anything."
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." I moved systematically through the apartment, pulling out Eve's residual magic detector from my pouch. The obsidian disk pulsed with a faint blue glow, growing stronger as I approached the bathroom. "Something's off in here."
Nishi followed and scanned the doorway of the bedroom. "The symbol by the door looks like something I've seen in one of Eve's books. I wish I knew more about magic."
I knelt by the bathroom drain. The obsidian disk was now glowing brightly enough to cast shadows. "There's definitely magic here." I peered closer, noticing something caught in the drain cover. "Hand me those tweezers from my kit."
Nishi passed them over and leaned to see what I'd found. I carefully extracted several strands of silver fur from the drain and then held them up to the light. "What the hell is that?" she asked as she held out a plastic baggie.
"It’s silver fur. And it's..." I hesitated, sensing something off. My wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin, recognizing a threat. "It's not natural."
Nishi reached out a finger to touch it, then dropped her hand with a grimace. "Ugh. That feels cursed or something." She shook her hand and flexed her fingers. "I’m not usually sensitive to things like this, but it feels like touching ice that burns."
I carefully placed the silver strands in the evidence bag and sealed it tightly. "Whatever took these people left this behind. And my wolf doesn't like it one bit."
"Your wolf and I are in complete agreement for once," Nishi muttered, still rubbing her fingers. "That's old magic, Aurora. Older than anything I've felt before. And it reeks of malice."