by Alexx Andria
“That would be information for the detective,” I replied with a short but pointed smile. I was beyond niceties at this point. My grief was my shield and I was plenty done with waiting for justice.
“I’ll see if one’s available to take your statement,” the woman said, clearly not happy with me but I didn’t care. I was probably interrupting her Solitaire game. I mean, nothing really terrible exciting happened in Diablo Falls. Before this situation, the place was practically Mayberry.
Of course, Rachel’s death threw that idea out the window. Now I felt danger lurked in every darkened shadow and behind every closed door. I couldn’t trust what I thought I knew and that was a real bitch.
A slim man dressed in plain clothes appeared and introduced himself, “I’m detective Yuri Hawks. You have some information to share?”
I nodded and he gestured for me to follow. We went into a private room with a camera in the corner and he took a seat opposite me. He got right to business, no messing around, which I appreciated. “What’s this about a murder?”
“My friend, Rachel McCormick, I don’t believe she was attacked by a wild animal. I think she was murdered.”
“That was the 18-year-old girl who was found in the woods beneath Blackwater Mountain?”
I nodded. “Look, I know how it appeared but I can tell you with great certainty that Rachel would never voluntarily hike anywhere. She hated nature.”
“Sometimes we don’t know people as well as we think.”
“No, we were very close. Like soul sisters. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten. We were getting ready to go to college together.”
“What makes you think she was murdered, aside from your belief that she hated nature?”
When he put it that way, I sounded like an idiot but I persisted. “A gut feeling.”
He sighed as if he’d heard this before and it was still annoying. “Look, I understand that you’re grieving and trying to make sense of something that is hard to wrap your brain around but the forensics support that a large animal attacked your friend. I don’t know why she was out at night or why it happened but I do know, it wasn’t murder. I’m sorry.”
He wasn’t trying to be a dick, just honest. However, my eyes welled with tears and I wanted to punch him in his handsome face. It was so frustrating to know something in your heart and soul was true and no one would believe you.
“What if someone deliberately made it look like an animal attack to cover their tracks?”
“That would be pretty difficult to do. The bite wounds and lacerations match the canines and claws of a large wolf.”
I couldn’t refute forensics. My conviction deflated like a punctured balloon. “But why was she out in the middle of the night? Maybe an animal did kill her but there’s a reason she was out wandering the forest and that’s not been answered.”
“I can’t argue that fact. We don’t know why she was out, we only know it was an animal.” His voice turned kind. “Can I offer a suggestion? Get some grief counseling. There’s no shame in seeking help. Sometimes we all need a few extra hands to carry a heavy burden.”
Very Dr. Phil of him, I thought bitterly. Was he right? Was it simply grief that prevented me from accepting the facts? How could I reconcile the realization that Rachel would never again give me crap about my fashion choices or make me listen to her constant fear that she was missing out on all the cool things life has to offer?
I blinked back tears and gathered my purse. “Thank you for listening,” I said stiffly. “Sorry to have wasted your time.”
“It’s not a waste if it helps you move on. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you. You’ll get past this terrible moment and it’ll be a painful but distant chapter in your story.”
“I guess so.” I followed Detective Hawks out to the lobby and with a half-hearted wave, I let myself out.
That was a humiliating bust.
Now all there was left to do was go home and bawl my eyes out.
I could only hold back my grief for so long — and the dam was about to break.
Beckham
“Lyric Johnson has no idea who or what she is,” I grumbled into the phone to my superior Roswald West once I was settled into my motel room — coyly named The Lucky Devil Motel, I might add.
As an operative with the Paranormal Crimes Agency, I went wherever supernatural shit was hitting the fan. The latest trail had lead me here to Diablo Falls but I didn’t know how I was going to find a rogue supernatural in a town filled with them.
For Christ’s sake my skin was prickling off my bones with all the signals I was picking up and yet the humans didn’t seem to have a clue they were surrounded by the things that went bump in the night.
“I could tell she didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about. I don’t know how it’s possible, honestly. The ley lines in this place make Diablo Falls practically vibrate with supernatural energy.”
“So you think she’s never shifted before?”
“No but I sense something about her, something that feels urgent, like her latent ability is trying to break free but something is binding her.”
“Why?”
Roswald’s blunt question mirrored my own. Even though I wasn’t here to solve the mystery of Lyric Johnson but to find the supernatural killer going after innocent humans, I was intrigued by the girl who was blind to her own nature.
“Her eyes are an unusual shade of green. Really striking. I’ve never seen that color before.”
“I’ll have the seer look into the Johnson girl and see what she can find out. In the meantime, try to get close to her. She might have information you can use.”
“I tried that. I might’ve bungled that attempt,” I admitted, feeling like an awkward tool at the memory of how badly I’d fucked up first contact. “I’m not sure she’s going to be down to chill with me at the local pizza joint.”
“Find a way to fix it,” Roswald insisted, unsympathetic to my situation. “If anyone knows who the victim was close to, it will be the friend. And if we know that, so will the killer. Lyric might be his or her next target before moving to another town.”
The seer had sent me to Diablo Falls but my luck had definitely been on the shitty end. So far I’d struck out with the local police department as well as Lyric and I was feeling like a rookie “Peeko” or Paranormal Crimes Operative.
“The local detective is definitely a wolf shifter but he didn’t appreciate me sniffing around. There’s no courtesy for a fellow bro, apparently.”
“Don’t make too many waves,” Roswald warned. “But I’ll see if I’ve got some contacts in that area who can help massage the relationship so he’s not in your way too much.”
Roswald had contacts all around the world but it’d been a long time since he’d been in the field. Shit rolled downhill. If Roswald started putting the pressure on the detective to back off, it would only make things worse. “Don’t worry about the local brass, I can handle him. Just get me some more intel on Lyric. There’s something about that girl that won’t leave me alone.”
“Careful,” Roswalk said. “Don’t get twisted up with your snout in her hindquarters. I need you focused.”
“I am focused,” I said, insulted. “I don’t have any feelings one way or another toward her.”
“I’d feel a lot more secure if you had a mate at home with a few pups to keep you grounded.”
“Hold up, boss. This ain’t the Middle Ages. Solitary wolves like to roam for a reason. Besides, it works in your favor that I don’t have a pack. Makes me an easy choice to send out in the field.”
He couldn’t argue my fact. His grumpy silence was victory enough for me. I respected Roswald like the father I never had but we’d never agree on the whole ‘Fated Mate’ angle that he swore was just our biology and it was going to happen to me someday.
I shook out a pill and popped up. “The hell it would,” I muttered. I had my own little concoction created by a powerful witch who helped suppress that little biological
mechanism so even if my Fated Mate twitched her wolfy hindquarters right in my face, I’d be able to keep walking.
I had more plans in my life than shacking up in a cozy den with a woman.
Besides, what I did was useful and important. I’d rather find my value in service to my supernatural community than in my ability to create progeny.
There were enough of us already.
I clicked off and tossed my phone to the bed before going to grab my notes from previous cases.
As far as I could tell Diablo Falls was the first place to have strong supernatural connections to the ley lines traversing the ground beneath the community’s feet. This place vibrated with energy. The minute I stepped into the quadrant, my skin prickled and danced, my ears rang with a sudden twang that made me wince and my teeth ached as I fought the urge to shift.
I’d never been in a place like this before. I couldn’t imagine how Lyric had been able to resist the First Awakening. It should’ve happened around puberty, like most shifters going through the transformation.
But somehow Lyric had managed to evade her own biology and even more curious, no one else seemed to realize that she was supernatural either.
If I hadn’t been pointed in the direction of Diablo Falls, I wouldn’t have stumbled on it organically.
I also found it interesting that the PCA didn’t have a file on Diablo either. We had operatives in every place with strong supernatural conduits but this place had escaped our notice. Well, I guess that ended today because I was going to do some recon while I was here. I wasn’t a historian but I could snap some pictures for the archive and round up as much historical data as I could.
There had to be some supernatural willing to talk. I just had to find one.
My stomach growled. Guess it was time to find out what the locals enjoyed eating around here.
Hopefully, it wasn’t the people.
Beckham
The following morning, I rose for a run before the sun came up, using the opportunity to get a finger on the pulse of the town before it woke up. You could learn a lot about a place by the hours people kept.
To the untrained eye, I was just a guy going for a run but I was watching everything and everyone. My ears pricked as my skin rose with goosebumps as various supernaturals passed by. I attracted the same kind of looks, curious and wary, supernaturals by their nature weren’t exactly welcoming.
In the primal sense, you were either prey or predator. In the old days, there were wars amongst the species but some sense of civility and self-preservation had tempered the most wild of dispositions.
Now we all existed in our own little groups and for the most part, stayed out of each other’s way.
But not everyone had the same respect for life or the rule of law but they did have a taste for human flesh.
The PCA operated beneath the layer of human knowledge — we didn’t draw attention to ourselves, we tried to keep our interactions minimal but our justice was swift and lethal.
There’s no holding cell of bad supernaturals, awaiting trial or appeal of their sentence. If the PCA was on your tail, your sentence was final.
It might seem harsh by human standards but supernaturals were vicious by nature, especially when cornered. There was no choice but to put them down like rabid animals.
I never lost any sleep at night, to be honest. The things I’ve seen…hell, humans would never close their eyes again if they knew what walked past them at the supermarket or lived next door.
Supernaturals had the evolutionary advantage over the weaker species but there were more humans than there were nonhumans. If supernaturals got out of hand with their primal urges, it would be a return to ancient times, which wasn’t good for anyone.
It’s not in the modern history books but supernaturals were the real cause of the Black Plague’s supposed decimation of most of Europe. It was easier to blame the rat flea than out the countless number of scary things out there that liked to eat “long pig.”
A pact was made and through various incarnations, the PCA was born to keep the peace.
I returned to my motel room, showered and headed for the local breakfast place. Diablo Falls was surprisingly quaint for its relative anonymity on the map. I found a mom and pop diner and walked in, ready to eat my weight in protein when I saw Lyric sitting in a booth, sipping a coffee, reading on her phone and mostly ignoring her breakfast.
I decided to be bold as fuck and just take my chances. I didn’t have the luxury of subtlety at this point. I walked to her booth and gestured, “Is this seat taken?”
She looked up in surprise then scowled in irritation. “Are you officially stalking me or something? Don’t you have better things to do?”
“I’m new in town and you’re the only mostly friendly face I’ve encountered.”
Her brow furrowed and exhaled in annoyance when I didn’t take her rebuff to heart and slink off with my tail between my legs. Tenacity was my middle name. I had a job to do and nothing stood in my way of seeing it done. “C’mon, we got off on the wrong foot but if you’re open to listening, I have a few things you might find interesting.”
“You sound like a pervert. An old pervert at that.”
I shook my head. “Now you’re just being mean. I’m not that old.”
“You look pretty damn old to me.”
“How old do you think I am?”
“I don’t know, like thirty or something?”
I tried not to grind my teeth. I’d never really thought of my age as something that would be used against me but this girl, who had no idea what she truly was, was giving me the side-eye like I was some slavering perv trying to get into her panties. I admitted with a slight growl, “Okay, so I’m thirty-two but that hardly makes me old.”
Especially when our species was particularly long-living and never looked our age.
She shrugged. “See? Pretty damn old to me.”
I wasn’t going to win this argument so I didn’t even try. Instead, I switched subjects. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Knock yourself out.”
“I think your friend was murdered but the local cops don’t agree with me. I’ve been tracking a serial killer across the United States and the trail lead me here. I handled our meeting badly. I should’ve been more sensitive to your grief and I’m sorry.”
At the mention of her friend, the light in her eyes dimmed as the weight of true sorrow pressed down. She swallowed, allowing the briefest moment of raw heartache show through and for a split second I felt punched in the chest.
As if I could feel the sharp stab of her pain in my own body. The shock took my breath away.
I couldn’t explain my reaction. I narrowed my gaze, trying to figure out where it’d come from. I knew she was a shifter. I could sense the wolf inside her, pacing, waiting, frustrated by its mortal cage, and yet she hadn’t a clue what lurked beneath her skin.
Quick as it came, a wall came crashing down and Lyric was back to the same smart-mouthed, acerbic pain-in-the-ass mystery as she was when I met her yesterday.
“Yeah, well, I guess I was wrong. I talked to the detective on the case yesterday and he told me the forensics show claw and teeth marks on Rachel’s body. As much as I want to believe I’m right, forensics don’t lie.”
“But there’s something still there that has you questioning the evidence,” I surmised by the troubled gaze she tried shifting away. “Follow your instincts. You knew her best. What about the case doesn’t seem right?”
She was wavering. Having someone who believed in what you’re saying was a powerful motivator. I could tell she wanted to share details but the logical part of her brain was censoring her. “I mean, okay, maybe a wild animal got her but why was she out in the middle of the night in the first place? Rachel hated the outdoors. She never would’ve gone hiking, much less hiking in the middle of the night.”
“And you told the detective this?”
She nodded. “He didn’t seem to find it all that
strange. He just said maybe Rachel had secrets that I didn’t know about.”
I watched her keenly. “Do you believe that?”
She shook her head. “Rachel was an over-sharer. Even if I didn’t want to know something, she would tell me anyway. She couldn’t help herself. Diarrhea of the mouth was Rachel’s specialty.” Even at the disparaging remark of her friend, Lyric smiled warmly. “She said because we were both only children, we were each other’s siblings and we had to put up with each other’s bullshit.”
Lyric blinked as if she were holding back a wash of tears and that pressure in the center of my chest happened again. This place was off the charts with the magical energy. It had to be creating some havoc in my body since I wasn’t accustomed to it like the locals. I had to power through whatever it was and stay focused.
“I’m really sorry for your loss,” I said, resisting the urge to reach out to comfort her. Then, I noticed her untouched plate of food. My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d originally come for breakfast. I signaled the waitress. “You’re not hungry?”
“Not really. I haven’t been for a few days. I think I’m coming down with something,” she answered but I wasn’t sure if she really thought that or if she was just saying it because she couldn’t explain why her appetite had waned.
How long was I going to play this game where I didn’t know what she was? At a certain point, I’d need to push that narrative but now didn’t seem the time. I needed to gain her trust or I’d just freak her out.
But first, I needed to find out why she hadn’t gone through the Awakening yet. I’d heard of cases of stunted transformations but it was usually because there was something structurally wrong with the subject. To my own untrained eyeballs, she looked fine.
“Do you have scoliosis?” I asked, fishing. She glanced up at me, questioning. “It was a strange question, I know. I promise you my questions have a purpose.”
She shook her head, more confused than offended. “Does it look like I have scoliosis?”
“Nope but sometimes a minor curvature of the spine can be hidden.”
