Chapter 9

I felt betterafter a night's rest—and a battery-generated orgasm. The morning shower was even more amazing. By the time I'd dressed, Cinder buzzed me to say she was waiting downstairs.

I emerged to find her crouched on the sidewalk, talking to the asphalt. Not all that strange if you knew Cinder.

"Who you chatting with?" I questioned.

Cinder glanced at me over her shoulder and waved a hand. "Talking to the sewer rat."

I peered over her to see the tip of a pink nose. "And what's the rat saying?"

"A lot but I can't understand it. I think it's speaking German."

A strange rat in the wrong place? It reminded me of the incident the other night. "Could the Grimm Effect have relocated them?"

Cinder got pensive. "I mean it's possible. Its magic can do unpredictable things. But why would it move rats?"

"We've seen heroes and other main characters in curses travel great distances."

"Travel yes, but teleported from one place to another?" Cinder pursed her lips. "That would be new."

"We did talk about how the curse might be evolving."

"I think it's time to stop talking about and admit it is. I'll file a report about the rat. If the curse is starting to migrate players, then our job just got more difficult."

As we got into her car—the tiny death trap with its little engine, which most likely had a single hamster running in a wheel—I asked, "Anything new come in overnight?" I knew social media buzzed after the press conference. Citizens freaking out, "Why aren't the police protecting us?" "Why is the bureau not handling this?" "OMG, I think I'm next." "I have to wear red, it makes my tits look great."

"No. People must have actually listened. No new victims."

"That we know of." My ominous addition, which proved to be prophetic.

We entered the bureau to see Belle standing with the boss, hands gesturing wildly. When they beckoned me and Cinder, we hightailed it.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We have a new crime scene." Hilda's expression couldn't have been grimmer. "Two victims this time. A grandmother and her granddaughter."

"Two?" Cinder squeaked.

"Where?" I asked.

"Inside their home." Belle flashed a printed sheet at me. "The mother of the girl, one Nora Lennin, who is the daughter of the older woman, found them when she came off her nursing shift."

"How bad is it?" I readied myself and a good thing because the images hit hard. Like the bakery, the bodies had been posed. Grandmother killed in her bed, which didn't sound so strange until you added the fact she'd been dressed in a voluminous nightgown with matching cap and little spectacles perched on the tip of her nose. Not her usual attire or even something she owned according to the daughter's statement. As for the kid, only nineteen, she'd been dressed postmortem in a red hooded romper, had her hair dyed a brilliant crimson, and was posed with another goodie-filled basket.

Sick. Very sick. But odd too. Why pose them? In the story, the wolf swallowed grandma and Red Cap whole, forcing the huntsman to cut it open to rescue them. I'd thought the posed girl in the bakery might be a message to me, but I still hadn't come up with an explanation for why the killer had piled bodies in the hut. Perhaps we shouldn't blame the curse. Could be someone obsessed with the tale. I wouldn't know until I started investigating the new site.

"Where's the crime scene?" I asked. "I'll head over for a look."

Hilda shook her head. "Patterson said to not bother as they've already moved the bodies and are trying to keep it quiet to forestall any panic."

"Maybe people should panic," I muttered.

"Tell her the rest," Belle urged.

I didn't think Hilda could look grimmer. She proved me wrong. "Forensics came back from the bakery victim. Her throat was slashed by a claw. They also found a few strands of hair, canine in origin."

"Meaning it's definitely a wolf." I kind of figured, but having the evidence to back it up always helped. There went any hope of it being some kind of psycho deranged fan.

"It appears so."

"DNA is good. What name popped up when they ran it against the database?" With everyone on file, it should be—

"Unfortunately, the strands didn't have the necessary follicle for a proper test." Cinder pointed to her tablet, where she read the report as Hilda briefed us.

"That's bullshit," I exclaimed.

"Hopefully the new crime scene will have better evidence. Until we have a name, and given the way the perp is now murdering every night, the bureau sent a special team."

I arched a brow. "To do what? We're already working the case."

"You'll still be working it. This team is to track the wolf."

"Wait, are you talking about the Grimm Knights?" I'd heard of them but never had to deal with any. Like some in our office—such as Luanne—these were people caught by the curse, but in a good, not bad way. It turned them into heroes, the kind that thrived on tracking, hunting, and saving the world. Only used in situations where extreme force was deemed necessary.

"Given the violence of the crimes, we need all the bodies we can muster to capture the perpetrator."

"You mean kill," Cinder amended because the Knights only rarely brought their targets in alive.

"As if it deserves anything less," Belle huffed.

"I agree, but at the same time, we need to figure out how it strayed so hard from the story," Cinder interjected. "The wolf in Little Red Cap only threatened the girl and her family. There were no other victims. The fact this one not only murdered indiscriminately but so abundantly deserves to be studied."

"That, and why they moved and hoarded the corpses in the hut, and then started posing the victims' bodies after they lost the hut," I said, revealing the thoughts that had been running through my mind.

"Eliminating the wolf wouldn't allow us to study the behavior and figure out what's going on with the curse. How else can we ensure it won't happen again?" Cinder finished with emphasis, and we stared at her.

"I'm not sure we can," I stated sadly. "Not everything is because of the curse. Some people are just fucked. And could be, this time, the curse affected someone with preexisting sociopath tendencies, and morphed a serial killer into a wolf." I wasn't about to give this monster an excuse.

"Something's changing," Cinder insisted. "We need to figure out what it is and how to counter it."

"I plan to counter it by ridding the world of a psychopath." I ended that line of discussion by turning back to Hilda and asking, "When does the team arrive?"

"They're here." The boss pointed to the floor. "They're downstairs in the lunchroom going over the files. I take it you're feeling better?" Hilda aimed the latter part at me.

"Yeah."

"Good, because the leader is very interested in your offer to act as bait."

"Really?" I perked up. At least I wouldn't be shunted to the side.

"Yes really, meaning, Hood, you'll be working with them. Belle, you're going to canvas the latest neighborhood to find out if anyone saw anything."

She grimaced. "Aren't the cops already doing that?"

"They're stretched thin with this many crime scenes, and we both know you're better at this type of thing." Belle had a way of getting people to spill things they didn't mean to.

"What about me?" Cinder asked.

"Patterson is sending over everything they've got from the double homicide. I want you to do your magic and yank a rabbit out of those notes."

"On it!" Cinder practically ran to her desk to start, whereas Belle sighed. "Guess I'm off to do the grunt work."

"Would you rather prance around, tempting a wolf?" I offered sweetly. Not that I wanted to swap jobs.

She scowled. "You can have the beast." Then more softly. "Be careful."

"Me?" I laughed. I still grinned as I walked into the lunchroom and beheld the assembled team. To my surprise, not all men. Female heroes tended to be rather rare. Blame the misogyny of the original tales.

A large man—and I mean massive, his shoulders practically burst the seams of his shirt—glanced over at me.

"You must be Agent Hood," he stated in a low timbre.

"I am."

"I'm Levi, and these are my team. Sully and Pike." A dark-skinned man waved, as did the blond fellow beside him. "As well as Hannah and Gerome." Then before I could ask, he added, "Yes, they're from the Hansel and Gretel curse, and they defeated their witch. Now they're hunters."

"Wasn't there a movie about that years ago?"

"I wouldn't know," Levi muttered. "I don't do television or movies."

"Is this your whole team?"

"The others are recovering from our last mission. But five of us against a single target should be more than ample."

"Don't you mean six?" I pointedly asked. "Boss says you want to dangle me as bait since the wolf seems to have fixated on Red Cap."

"Only if you're okay with it. We don't need someone who will have hysterics and make the task more difficult."

I snorted. "I'm good. I already planned to use myself as the carrot."

"It will be dangerous," Levi warned.

"No shit. This fucker needs to be stopped."

"Glad to hear it. From what we've gleaned, the wolf seems to hit mostly at night. But the locations are varied." He indicated a map on the wall with pins showing the sites of the murders and also the home addresses of the victims we'd been able to identify, with strings to show the path the victims most likely took. No pattern emerged.

Hannah came close and cocked her head. "Seems most are a crime of circumstance. Wrong place, wrong color clothes."

"Except for the most recent one," Levi commented, jabbing his finger on a spot on the map. "The pair weren't wandering around outside."

"That we know of. The report wasn't clear on whether or not the perp broke in to assault them. Could be he followed the granddaughter home." It was only as Levi removed his digit that I frowned and leaned closer. "That's only a few blocks from my place." Which I noticed also had a pin.

"Could be he lurked hoping to see you."

"He should have knocked. I would have welcomed him with some lead."

Levi chuckled. "I can see why your director volunteered you. But if all goes well, you'll never shoot a single bullet. Taking down the wolf is our job."

"What's the plan?"

"Quite simply, you're going to make yourself look vulnerable and, of course, wear red."

"Me, vulnerable?" I snickered.

"How about making yourself available? You're going to pop out to run an errand tonight on foot." He tapped my pin on the map then slid his finger. "You'll walk to the corner store while we shadow you."

"And if the perp doesn't take the bait?"

"Then we keep sending you out until he does. At the same time, we'll be surveying the area. If the killer is stalking you, we'll spot him."

"You said he. I thought we didn't have a suspect."

"We don't, however, historically, it's almost always male," Levi informed me. "Now on the off chance he decides to break into your apartment and wait for your return, he'll have a nasty surprise. Hannah will be stationed inside for the duration of the ops."

I grimaced. "I'm not the roommate type."

Levi crossed his arms. "It's for your safety."

"Can't we just put in cameras and motion detectors?"

"We could, but if the Grimm Effect is abetting the killer, then they will fail," Levi flatly stated.

I blinked at him. "Wait, has that been happening?"

"Yes. Modern technology is no match for a determined curse."

"Well shit."

"Yup."

The discussion afterwards devolved into what I should and shouldn't do.

I shouldn't tell anyone about the team.

Obviously.

I shouldn't go anywhere without notifying them.

Annoying.

Do, wear red and be visible.

I would keep to a normal schedule, AKA go to work then home. The only difference would be my evening jaunts to draw the killer out.

"For how long?" I asked after Levi finished ticking off his demands.

"Until he's caught."

Please let it be quick. I hated sharing my space.

I drove my bike home midafternoon, all too aware of the generic white car following me. Hannah had been dispatched earlier so that she could stealth her way inside.

Which explained why I arrived and found her holding Aidan at dagger point.