Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

And the scene of a murder.

There were other reapers who could have done a walkthrough of the house and examined it, but Levi needed to do this. Needed to see and sense for himself what happened here.

The person who took Diem’s life couldn’t be the same man who killed Levi’s aunt. Not unless Levi had been wrong in believing that person was dead. Levi hoped to fuck he hadn’t been wrong, because it otherwise meant that the bastard had been out there all this time. Alive. Free. Unpunished. And heaven only knew what he’d been up to.

Levi had been two years old when his aunt, Moira, was killed. She and his mother had been stray demons, and Moira had cared for him after his mother died in childbirth. He had no memories of anything that occurred in those two years, let alone of Moira’s death.

But as an adult, he’d looked into his past. By all accounts, Moira had been a bitter, self-centered woman. There had been little evidence to suggest that she’d been an attentive guardian. He’d often been left with neighbors or home alone, even as a baby. Still, she’d kept him when she could have dumped him elsewhere.

As a reaper, he could pick up left-over emotional vibes from death scenes. But by the time he’d been old enough to return to his childhood home, any emotional echoes had long since faded. And if her soul had lingered a while, it had passed on way before then.

He’d looked into her death, determined to unearth what happened. There hadn’t been much to go on, though. It was a time before forensics and CCTV. Moira’s neighbors had reported seeing a man enter the house—something that apparently wasn’t uncommon—but none were able to give a good description of him.

As Levi had been so well taken care of before being left at the orphanage, the police had suspected the killer could be one of his other relatives. But there had been no way to interview any of them, because no one seemed to know if Moira had any family or who his father was.

Levi might have considered that the police’s theory was correct, but he’d discovered that three other women had died in similar circumstances before his aunt. It seemed more likely that they had all been targeted by the same killer with a weird-as-fuck MO. But as time went on and no other similar cases cropped up, Levi assumed the killer had somehow died. After all, the world of demons was brutal, and deaths weren’t uncommon. Plus, the culprit could even be a breed of preternatural that didn’t have longevity like most demons.

Levi snapped out of his memories when he sensed movement behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he found Tanner coming toward him, his expression grim.

“I figured you’d want to examine the scene,” said the hellhound, sidling up to him. “But I was kind of hoping you’d leave others to handle it.”

Hearing grass rustle, Levi looked to see one of the neighbors—who was also a member of his lair—and her partner standing on the edge of her lawn.

“Please tell me you know who hurt Diem,” said Janelle, clearly distraught.

“You were friends with her?” Tanner asked.

“Not close friends, but we’d talk sometimes over coffee. She was a sweet woman. Real quiet and private, but talkative once she got going.” Janelle briefly peered up at her partner and said, “Clyde and I watched over little Toby a few times while she went here or there.”

“Is he all right?” Clyde asked, scratching at his sideburns. “We heard he’d been taken to the foster home.”

“You heard right,” Tanner told him. “He’s fine. His grandparents are traveling down from Germany, he’ll be going home with them.”

“Do you know if she had a boyfriend?” Levi asked the couple.

“When I last spoke to her just over a week ago, she was single, and happy to be,” said Janelle. “If she’d met anyone within that small timeframe, she wouldn’t have brought him home. Not so soon. She didn’t introduce her partners to Toby until she was positive the relationship was serious. She put her boy first.”

“Did you notice anyone come or go at any point over the past five days?” asked Tanner.

Janelle’s brow pinched. “No. No one at all.”

Clyde pursed his lips and shook his head. “Not that I saw. But then, I don’t live with Janelle, so I’m not here every day.”

“Did either of you hear any noises?” asked Levi. “See any cars parked outside?”

Again, the couple answered in the negative.

“Whoever took her from Toby needs to pay for it,” said Janelle, her eyes welling up. “I-I—” She promptly burst into tears.

Clyde held her close as he led her back into her house.

Tanner’s gold eyes drifted over Levi’s face. “You sure you want to do this?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” said Levi. He followed Tanner into the hallway, where two of the lair’s Force, Enzo and Dez, stood holding a stretcher on which a long, black body bag lay. A bag that clearly wasn’t empty.

Both Force members nodded at Levi and Tanner.

“Knox is waiting for you in the living room,” Enzo told them. “He asked us to wait here so Levi could examine the body.”

Having an affinity for the dead, Levi didn’t need to open the bag and take a look at Diem to know how she died. He rested his hand on her head, and instantly he simply knew the cause of death and exactly how long she’d been gone. Dropping his hand, he glanced from Enzo to Dez. “You can take her now.”

Enzo slid his gaze toward the living room. “I don’t need to tell you to brace yourself, because it’s not like your typical scene. There’s no mess at all. There are no traces of blood. Nothing’s been broken—”

“Other than her neck,” said Levi, surprised by the flatness of his tone.

Enzo winced. “Yeah, other than that.” He and Dez then left the house.

Levi walked into the living area … where he came to an abrupt halt as emotions slammed into him so hard they almost stole his breath. The dominant one was terror. So much paralyzing, gut-wrenching, heart-twisting terror. It permeated and pulsed through the air in waves.

More, snatches of a woman’s disembodied voice reached him.

… Toby, where are …

… answer me …

… don’t hide from …

In the center of the room, Knox looked his way. “I’d ask if you’re all right, but that would be a stupid question.”

Refusing to think about his aunt and if she’d been wracked by that same debilitating fear, Levi forced himself to box up his past so he could concentrate on the present. Diem and Toby needed that from him. “Diem’s soul is still here, but she doesn’t seem to see us. She’s only concerned for Toby. She’s searching for him.”

Knox’s brows dipped. “She doesn’t know she’s dead?”

“She knows, but she’s refusing to acknowledge it.” Levi had found that it often happened that way with parents. They didn’t want to accept that they’d been forced to leave their children behind, and so they simply didn’t face it.

Still, Levi repeatedly tried snaring Diem’s attention by psychically reaching out to her. It would be difficult to have an actual conversation with her—souls didn’t usually answer or even pose questions. They yelled or whined or cried, battering you with information in the hope of getting justice, but properly converse? Have a clear, two-way psychic conversation with you? That hardly ever happened.

However, he could get some information from Diem if only she’d yell details at him or something … except she refused to acknowledge his presence. He sighed. “I can’t make her see us.”

“Did you touch her body?” asked Knox.

“Yes. The break to her neck killed her. She’s been dead just over five days, much like the Force members estimated.”

“What are your reaper senses picking up?”

“Blind terror. Helplessness. Fury. Despair.” The emotions all held a feminine vibe, which meant … “They were Diem’s emotions.”

“And whoever killed her?”

Levi frowned. “It’s strange. There’s satisfaction. Not a bloodthirsty kind. It’s more like genuine contentment. But other emotions override it. A building frustration. Disappointment. Anger. And then a sort of bleakness. Loneliness, even.”

Tanner’s brow furrowed. “So … it’s as if everything was fine at first. At least for him, anyway, since you don’t sense any contentment coming from Diem. I’m guessing it was a ‘him’?”

Levi nodded. “The emotions have a masculine feel to them. And something made him increasingly irritated until—finally—he felt ‘done’ with Diem and killed her. But then he felt lonely.”

“Essentially,” began Knox, “he was pleased with his chosen victim but it didn’t last and so he killed her.”

Levi nodded. “That’s how it seems.” He scraped his hand over his jaw. “There are no echoes of physical pain. She was terrified, but I don’t think he physically harmed her. At least not until he killed her.”

“She didn’t appear to have suffered any wounds other than the broken neck and the X on her forehead,” said Knox. “It’s true demons heal relatively fast, so I didn’t rule out that he might have hurt her. You really don’t think he did?”

“No. Pain, fear, and anger are always the most dominant and easiest to sense emotions. There’s no pain. She went through emotional agony—there’s no doubt about that. Not physical agony, though. The mark was carved into her forehead after death.”

As they walked through the house, searching each room for clues, Levi repeatedly tried connecting with Diem. His every attempt failed. He simply couldn’t reach her.

Frustrated, he flexed his fingers. “Diem’s lost to us.” He had enough experience with these situations to know when he was fighting a losing battle.

Knox looked from Levi to Tanner. “Speak with the neighbors. See if they have anything to say that can help.”

Most of the nearby residents were stood in their front yards, so it was simple enough to question each of them. Only one claimed to have seen anyone enter Diem’s property.

“It was about four or five days ago,” Edith told them. “It was a man, but I didn’t get a good look at him.”

“What do you remember about him?” Levi asked her.

“Not much,” she replied. “Nothing about him stood out to me, I suppose.”

Levi kept his tone patient as he asked, “Was he tall? Short? Thin? Bulky?”

“I truly can’t recall, I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right,” Tanner assured her. “Can you remember what he was wearing?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “White cap. Blue jeans. Black jacket … or maybe gray … It could have even been tank green, come to think of it.” She tutted, opening her eyes. “I wish I’d paid more attention, but I didn’t think much of it. Plus, it was raining and I was trying to hurry to get inside the house.”

Disappointment simmered in Levi’s gut as he and Tanner returned to Diem’s living area and reported the information to their Prime.

“Only a few of the neighbors have CCTV cameras,” Levi added. “And none of those cameras have a good view of this house. In other words, we have no idea who could have done this.”

Knox twisted his mouth. “I know you don’t want to believe it’s the same person who killed your aunt and those other women many years ago, because then it would mean we were all wrong in assuming the killer was dead—meaning he not only escaped justice and you weren’t able to avenge Moira, but that he could have killed many other women since. But this isn’t what anyone would call a typical MO. All victims were single mothers—or, in your aunt’s case, a single guardian. All had their necks snapped. All had an X carved into their forehead. And all the children were left at a safe location.

“More, those children weren’t immediately dumped somewhere. The mothers, much like your aunt, were deceased for days before the children appeared outside children’s homes … as if the sick bastard essentially parented them alone for a short while.”

“It’s either the same person, or a copycat,” said Tanner. “Whatever the case, this has to be linked to you, Levi. The killer is either someone who thought it’d be fun to fuck with your head by replicating your aunt’s death—though they’d have had to search real deeply into your past to unearth any of this information—or they’re the person who killed her, they know who you are, and they want you to know they’re around. It’d be a hell of a coincidence for them to otherwise do this to someone in your lair.”

Levi frowned. “So, what, you think this person has kept track of the kids they dumped at orphanages and foster homes?”

Tanner shrugged his broad shoulders. “Maybe. Or maybe they found you accidentally. It could be that they somehow recognized you—or your aura or energy signature or something. Look, we know this person is fucked up. Might they be pleased to run into a kid they once ‘parented’ for a few days? Possibly. Might they want to announce their presence in a really messed up way of saying hi? Again, maybe.”

His heart beating a little too fast, Levi scrubbed a hand down his face. “If he’s not dead, if he’s been free as a goddamn bird all these years, then I fucked up majorly.”

“We all concluded that he was dead,” Knox reminded him. “Serial killers don’t just stop. It seemed reasonable to assume that he died. I don’t know why else he would have stopped, but we have to consider that he isn’t buried six feet under after all.”

Levi ground his back teeth. “If it is him, he made a huge fucking mistake by letting me know he was alive. Because I’ll make it my personal mission to ensure he doesn’t stay alive for long.”

Scanning the many contents of her fridge, Piper hummed to herself. She liked to cook. It relaxed her. But as ideas for various meals sprang to her mind, none gripped her. She was in one of those weird moods where she was hungry but didn’t feel like eating any of the meals she usually favored. Ugh.

She closed the refrigerator and began browsing through her cupboards, hoping inspiration would strike her. That turned out to be a pointless hope.

A knock came at the front door.

Piper felt her brows flit together. It would be fair to say she wasn’t the most social of beings, so there weren’t a lot of people who’d generally stop by.

Suspecting it might be Levi, she puffed out a long breath as she strode down the hallway, totally ignoring the fluttering in her stomach. She glanced through the door’s peephole. Her face hardened. Not Levi. Not anyone she’d want to see.

Piper pulled open the door. “This seemed like a good idea to you? Honestly?” Did he want her to throw another hellfire orb at him? Because she wouldn’t be opposed to that.

Kelvin flapped his arms. “I didn’t know what else to do. You wouldn’t take my calls. You wouldn’t reply to my texts. I don’t know if you’ve even listened to any of my voicemails. At least hear me out, Piper.”

She itched to slam the door in his face, but that would be awarding him the sort of emotional reaction he simply wasn’t worthy of. Plus, indifference would piss him off far more anyway. So she gave a bored shrug and said, “Fine. Say what you want to say and then go.”

The corners of his eyes tightened at her dismissive tone. “We’re really going to do this? Throw away our friendship?”

“Well you shit all over it, so …”

He cringed. “What I did was in poor taste, for sure. Okay, that’s an understatement. But I didn’t purposely set out to have sex with Trinity on your chair. The moment was intense, there was a lot of stumbling and turning, and then suddenly she was sitting on your chair.”

Folding her arms, Piper propped her hip against the doorjamb. “And you didn’t ask her to move?”

His mouth opened and closed. “I was caught up in the moment.”

“Ah, I see.” She skimmed her finger along the underside of her chin. “Tell me, Kelvin. If you’d walked into the studio and found me lying on your chair while a guy drilled his dick into me, how would you have felt?”

He grimaced. “Disrespected. Pissed. Hurt that you’d even think to do that.” He heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry, Piper. Really. I’m not gonna ask you to forgive me any time soon—I know I don’t deserve to be let off with it so easily. But at least come back to work.”

“I’m no longer one of your employees. I quit, remember?”

His face softened slightly. “You didn’t really mean that.” He looked amused that she’d believe he’d think differently. “You only said it because you were angry.”

“Oh, I was angry. I was also completely serious.”

He studied her for a long moment, and then his cheeks began to redden. “Piper, you can’t leave the studio.”

“Sure I can. Already did.”

“You have clients! You’re fully booked for the next few months!”

“Someone else can take them on. Including you.”

He shook his head, a beseeching look on his face. “Piper, don’t do this.”

“It’s done.”

Noting movement in her peripheral vision, she glanced to her left … and her stomach hardened as she noticed Sefton and his brother, Jasper, striding down the sidewalk. Knowing her history with them, Kelvin quieted and watched the two males closely.

As the brothers passed her house, Sefton made a point of not looking at her. Jasper, however, tossed her a vicious snarl. A snarl she’d seen the day he yelled in her face and raised his fist to her after storming into her previous place of work. It was Kelvin who jumped between them, shoved Jasper away from her, and then slammed his fist into Jasper’s nose. See, Kelvin wasn’t a complete asshole, but he was a man she no longer trusted.

Once the siblings were a fair distance away, he turned back to her. “Has Sefton given you any problems?”

She shook her head. “And no, Jasper hasn’t confronted me again, before you ask.”

“Well the last one earned him a broken nose, so maybe that’s why. You know you can call on me if he gives you any more problems.”

“And we both know I won’t.”

He sighed. “We agreed that if our relationship didn’t work out we wouldn’t let it come between us.”

“And we didn’t. But look at the shit you pulled afterward. Within days, you were fucking someone else. A woman who’s a twat to me, no less. And you did it under my nose. Like … I could actually hear you two going at it most of the time.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d care.”

“And if I’d been sneaking off to various rooms within the studio to have sex with one of our colleagues, you’d have been fine with that?”

Kelvin pulled a face. “No. No, I wouldn’t have.” He let out a long breath. “How can I make it up to you? You want Trinity fired? Because I’ll fire her if it’s the only way you’ll feel comfortable coming back to work. She’s replaceable. You’re not.”

“There are plenty of other tattooists.”

“But there’s only one of you, and I don’t want to lose you. You want a raise, I’ll give you a raise. Whatever it takes.”

“I’m not coming back, Kelvin.”

A muscle in his cheek flexed. “I admitted I fucked up, I apologized, I gave you time, I’m—”

“Not the person I thought you were,” she finished. “I don’t think you realize how much respect I lost for you when I saw that, hey, you have absolutely none for me or my feelings. I would never have done what you did. Never. And you know what, I don’t think you were caught up in the damn moment. Not at all. She asked you to fuck her right there, and you did.”

His eyes flickered. Yeah, she was right.

“I’ll bet a part of you even got a kick out of screwing her on your oblivious ex’s chair.”

“Not in a malicious way. I mean, it wasn’t a dig at you personally,” he added, like she therefore shouldn’t be so offended.

“I can just imagine how things would have gone if I hadn’t walked in on you two. I’d have remained oblivious, and you and Trinity would have been exchanging secret little smiles behind my back at work. Hell, you probably would have even made use of my chair again.”

Groaning, he thrust a hand through his hair. “I know I’m an asshole, but don’t make the shop and our clients pay for that.”

“Your clients, Kelvin. I’m out.”

“Come on, Piper, I said I was sorry. It was a fucked up thing to do. Beyond fucked up. I will make it up to you, I swear, just …” He trailed off on hearing a car pull up. “Hey, is that Levi Cutler?”