Chapter Three
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ARCHIE HAD THOUGHT he’d get a break in the case after talking to Petra’s neighbor and Jasper. When Jasper had told him that he’d found the symbol in an old picture, Archie had been sure that Daniel’s case was connected to the hunters.
He still was. He just hadn’t been able to prove it or to find any other information about Daniel’s death.
He’d reached out to anyone he could think of to ask about the symbol. He’d sent emails with pictures, contacting people he’d never talked to before. He’d even reached out to people in the city where the other hunter had been killed.
No one knew anything more than Archie already did.
The man had died, and whoever had killed him had left that symbol on the wall of his apartment.
The police had investigated, but they hadn’t put a lot of effort into it because apparently, the man had been a monster sympathizer.
It wasn’t just that he was dating a monster, but also that, for some reason, people seemed to believe he’d become part of a monster gang.
Archie didn’t know if that was true, but he did know that the police thought it was, and that was enough for them.
They’d dropped the case, and it had gone cold.
Archie didn’t know if he’d be able to solve this case, too. No one was paying him to look into it, but there was no way it wasn’t connected to Daniel’s case. Both men had been hunters before leaving the organization. Both men had been connected to monsters.
It left Archie uneasy because the same could be said for Jasper. The only difference was that Jasper was part monster, but whoever was behind these murders might not know it. If they did know it, it might be another reason for them to hurt Jasper, and there was nothing Archie could do about it.
He glared at his computer screen. He’d opened his notes again to go over them, hoping to find something new, but the information on his screen was still the same.
Daniel and Ben, the other hunter who’d been killed, were dead.
They’d both been stabbed, and the killer had left the symbol on the wall of the place where they’d killed the two men.
There were many similarities between the two, but also differences.
None of it mattered. Archie was sure that the reason for their deaths was connected to them being hunters. The problem was that even his contacts within the organization weren’t helping him.
His phone pinged with an email. Since he was on his computer, he opened a browser to check it there. It might be a nice distraction, or it might be someone reaching out with information.
It was the second one. Archie blinked at the screen, trying to remember when he’d emailed this person. The name didn’t tell him anything. He didn’t recognize it, and he was pretty sure he didn’t know anyone called Alisa Campbell.
But she’d written to him, so he opened the email. It only took him a few sentences to finally remember her.
She was a historian. Before he’d realized that the symbol linked Daniel’s death to the hunters, he’d asked people if they’d ever seen it.
No one but Jasper had recognized it, so Archie had decided to reach out to someone who studied monsters’ history and their past. He might be sure that this was related to the hunters, but both Daniel and Ben had been dating monsters, so there was a chance that it was connected, too.
In turn, that meant that a monster historian might have answers for him.
It seemed like she did.
Archie quickly went over what she’d written.
Apparently, the symbol belonged to a monster lineage that had been very powerful and respected in the past. She mentioned that they’d been hunted to extinction, both by monsters and hunters.
Archie wasn’t surprised. He’d read dozens of stories like this, of families and clans of monsters decimated just because people wanted more power, territory, or were afraid.
He didn’t understand what the symbol meant in this context, unfortunately.
Why was it connected to Daniel and Ben? Was the reason it involved the hunters that the hunters had decimated this family?
Archie would have to hack into the hunters’ archives again to get answers.
That didn’t help much, but at the same time, it told Archie what he needed to know. Whoever had killed Daniel and Ben seemed to be connected to the two men, both through the hunters and monsters. Archie just had to find that connection.
He snorted at his reflection in his computer screen. That was easier said than done, but he’d never been one to give up easily.
* * * *
JASPER’S HEART JUMPED when his phone rang and he saw the name on the screen.
He and Sarah had been talking on and off, but they had a complicated relationship.
To her, he was just a guy who’d one day popped up claiming that he was the long-lost son of people she loved.
He had no proof and no memories of the sanctuary or of his parents, so it was understandable that she was wary and took time to trust him.
They hadn’t met yet, but they’d talked on the phone several times, and Jasper was pretty sure she was softening toward him.
Maybe eventually, she would believe they shared a past, although some days, he had trouble believing it himself.
He didn’t remember his parents. He wasn’t sure he ever would, and sometimes, that was a complicated feeling to deal with.
Maybe if he had more information about them and what happened to them, it would be easier, but he wasn’t going to get anything from Leroy or the hunters, and so for now, Sarah was his only hope.
Which was why he was happy she was calling. Whatever she wanted, he’d probably be able to glean some information from it. Maybe he’d find out about his mother’s favorite color, or maybe about his grandparents. There was no way to know.
“Sarah,” he said when he answered.
There was a pause, almost as if she hadn’t expected him to answer. He waited.
“I need to talk to you,” Sarah said.
Her tone immediately got Jasper’s attention. She sounded almost scared, which didn’t make sense. “What’s going on?”
“You know, you look like her. Your mother.”
This conversation was giving Jasper whiplash already, and it’d just begun. “How can you know that? We haven’t met yet.”
“You were a somewhat famous hunter, Jasper. It was easy to find information about you when you contacted me, claiming you were the son of two of my friends. I was sure you were a liar until I saw your picture.”
“And you don’t think so anymore?”
“I think it would be a weird coincidence if you looked like your mother but weren’t her son. Besides, I don’t think I have a choice. I need to tell you about them in case something happens to me.”
That didn’t sound good. Jasper might not be a hunter anymore, but it didn’t mean his instincts had vanished. “What’s going on? If you need help, Archie and I can come to you.”
“I’m probably being overly dramatic, and I can’t ask that of you.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”
“I’m offering to talk to you about your parents. Is it still something you want?”
“Of course it is.” Jasper straightened on the couch. “Look, Sarah, whatever’s going on, I’m sure Archie and I can help. You sound scared, and I don’t like that.”
Sarah sighed. When she next spoke, she didn’t sound as spooked as she had before. “Look, I’ll be fine.”
“You didn’t think you would be just a few minutes ago.”
“It’s just that I’ve heard about those dead hunters.”
Yeah, this conversation definitely was giving Jasper whiplash.
“You’re not a former hunter. Why would you be involved in that?
” There was an easy answer there, unfortunately.
She wasn’t a hunter, but she’d been involved in the sanctuary, just like Daniel and apparently, so had the other hunter who’d died.
Archie had found that bit of information a few days ago, which meant the murders were definitely related, but it was the only thing they could find in common between the two men for now.
Being involved with the sanctuary was something Sarah also had in common with them, but that was where things stopped.
There was no way the killer, whoever they were, would come after Sarah, right? Why would they?
“That’s what I meant when I said I was being overly dramatic. I’m not involved in it. I was never a hunter.” She snorted. “Can you imagine?”
Jasper couldn’t because she was right. She could never have been a hunter. She was a monster. Of course, Jasper was one, too, but he was ready to bet that, unlike him, she wouldn’t be able to hide what she was. The main reason he could was that one of his parents had been human.
“All right, but just remember that if you need anything, you just have to contact us. I’ll come and help however I can.”
“That’s something your parents would say. They’d be proud of you.”
“Even though I became a hunter?” Jasper had told Sarah everything when he’d first contacted her.
He hadn’t wanted her to think he was hiding things, and he hadn’t wanted to hide them, anyway.
He might not be proud of having been a hunter, but he wasn’t anymore, and he hadn’t been in a while.
He also felt like he hadn’t really had a choice.
With Leroy taking him in, everyone had expected him to be a hunter, and it was what he’d been raised to be. He hadn’t been given a choice.
But he’d made that choice anyway, and now, he was free of the organization. He wasn’t sure he would ever be free of Leroy, but he hoped so. Unfortunately for him, part of him still viewed the man as his father. It would probably take a while for him to stop feeling that way, if he ever could.
“Your mother was my friend,” Sarah said. “Well, she was friends with everyone. It was just the kind of person she was.”