Chapter Eighteen

Nyko stood with his backjammed against the wall outside of Toni's office, his hands thrust into the pockets of his black cargo pants. He sullenly eyed one of the waiting room chairs. He could maybe fit one thigh into that thing.

His abnormal size was never cause for celebration, but his recent encounter with the Teague twins had his grumpiness about the whole issue up a few hundred points.

It had happened about an hour ago. He'd been on his way downstairs to the mansion's dining room for breakfast, the sisters had been going in the same direction, and, Hello—they'd all ended up standing on the grand staircase together. He'd skidded to a stop, and managed to get his senses unboggled enough—dang, they smelled good—to offer them a smile. Not a grin wide enough to show his fangs. Gosh, no. The Teagues knew what he was, of course, but they were still getting all snug as a bug with the whole Varcolac idea, so why push it? Besides, he didn't need to dial up his own menace by showing off the sharper parts of himself.

Little good his precautions had done him. Not any good, in fact, at least where it counted…with Faith.

He liked both of the sisters; they seemed equally nice. Considering they'd been drugged and kidnapped—and, ugh, no one in the community felt happy about doing that again—and also considering their lives had taken a really bizarre turn in the last few days, it was a testament to their good manners that they were trying to be polite. They were both super pretty, too, with swanlike bodies and eye-catching grace, and they smelled like cookies. Not literally, but rather the idea was they smelled like his favorite thing in the world.

He loved every kind of cookie there was: peanut butter, lemon cream, cinnamon applesauce raisin, sugar cookies, chocolate chip. But his all-time favorite were oatmeal butterscotch. One of the best parts about babysitting for Maggie and Luken was that Maggie always made him a batch of her World Famous Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies whenever he came over. Well, besides the main best part of being able to spend time with their two-year-old daughter, Amabel, his little cutie-pie baby with curly blonde hair like her momma.

He adored kids, and had let it be known around town that he was available for babysitting anytime—no cookies required. He didn't get as many gigs as he would've liked, though. Not because of how scary-looking he was. Nah, kids always saw beneath the surface of a person's outer appearance to the real personality beneath, and all kids loved him. It was because there were still so few offspring in ??ran?—only ten—so he had to share babysitting duty with half the community. There were lots of single gals with loads of maternal love to give while they waited for more Dragon males to be brought in so they could start their own families.

Anyway, while Kacie Teague could best be compared to chocolate chip cookies—yummy, for sure—Faith drugged up his senses with one-hundred-percent-pure oatmeal butterscotch. The Best Scent in Creation. She smelled like a mate. Which meant that she was his, but how in heck he'd ever convince her of that was a complete mystery.

When the three of them had been grouped on the grand staircase, Kacie had managed to dredge up a return smile for him. It'd been strained and had come after some extended wide-eyed gawping, but she'd done it.

Faith had let out a horrified yelp, stumbled back from him, and stayed far away. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings; they were both well-brought-up ladies, as he already knew. She'd just been too appalled by him to do anything else. And could he blame her? Besides his looks, she'd seen him punch a woman's face off yesterday.

He'd been at an utter loss about how to smooth over the situation. He knew as much about flirting as he did about ballet. Another mark against him, he supposed, that he didn't know jack diddly squat about his future mate's passion. So he'd ended up mumbling something about forgetting his wallet, then clambered back up the stairs. My vow of celibacy is good, yes it is. He'd do himself a favor by keeping that sentence at the forefront of his mind.

Donree, Toni's assistant, rescued him from any more morose thoughts by leading the group of them—team members Dev, Thomal, and Gábor, plus Jacken and Alex—into Toni's office.

Toni was seated behind her desk, a newspaper open in front of her. "Where's Sedge?" she asked, glancing at Nyko.

Yep, once again Nyko was today's insert-substitute-warrior-here.

"In hibernation," Jacken answered.

Toni's face brightened. "Oh, that's great."

A Varcolac male went into a three-day hibernation state after he'd exhausted himself with the grueling process of Varcolac baby-making.

"I knew Sedge and Kimberly were planning to start a family soon," Toni continued. "I just didn't think it would happen this fast."

Gábor plopped down on the sofa. "Nature called," he drawled.

Jacken strode up to Toni's desk. "So what's your security issue?"

Toni spun around the newspaper in front of her, showing Jacken the bold headline: THE SYMBOL KILLER STIKES AGAIN. "Have you seen this?"

Jacken nodded. "Yeah, we've all been reading about this maniac."

The Symbol Killer had earned his, or her, moniker by cutting a strange symbol into the right side of all the victims' foreheads. Four people had been murdered in San Diego county in the past ten days.

"How does the Symbol Killer affect ??ran?'s security?" Jacken asked.

"He may not," Toni admitted. "But Alex had a vision about who the killer is, and it's somebody way out of the SDPD's league. I thought we might want to help."

Now that Alex was a Soothsayer, he could read the Str?vechi Caiet, the ancient text of the Varcolac…although read wasn't the most accurate description. Alex saw certain future possibilities, or answers to questions, or law interpretations through visions. Unfortunately, Alex didn't have any control over visions of the future. They came when they pleased.

Jacken crossed his arms. "Which Om R?u is it?"

That hadn't taken a huge leap.

Alex set his briefcase on the desk. "Videon."

Thomal leaned against the back of the couch. "Oh, goodie."

Thomal, Dev, and Gábor had all had confrontations with the malicious Topside Om R?u, whereas Nyko had never encountered this noteworthy bad guy. It would've been fine by him to have kept it that way, too. Insane, strong, and cruel didn't make a man Nyko ever wanted to meet.

"I hacked into the San Diego Police Department's database," Alex said, grabbing a stack of files out of his briefcase. "And I was able to snag some information and photographs about the case." He passed the files around.

Toni opened hers. A dead guy's empty eyes stared at her from an 8x10 glossy photo. "Yuk."

Even though Toni was a medical doctor, she hated gory stuff. Funny.

Nyko opened his own file, finding the same photo on top. He studied the intricate swirling design carved into the bloody forehead. "Any idea what the symbol is?"

"It's a Celtic knot," Alex answered. "Called a Quaternary. It's based on the number four. See how it sort of has four quadrants? This indicates the four seasons, or the four directions—north, south, east, west—or the four elements—earth, fire, water, air—or something four."

"Which?" Toni asked.

"It depends on what Videon is trying to accomplish, I suppose."

"Any visions about that?" Jacken asked Alex.

"Not a one."

Jacken flipped through more pages in his file. Stopping on one, he read off the surnames of the men killed, "O'Connolly, Fleming, Eagan, Dowdall…these names sound Irish."

"They are," Alex confirmed.

Toni stood up. "There's probably a connection between that and the fact that the symbol is Celtic." She headed for her office door. "Let's dig into it."

Alex's eyebrows peaked. "Are we done?"

"No. I just need to go barf."

Jacken leapt forward. "Toni—"

Toni waved him off. "It's not the pictures, only the pregnancy hormones." She made a face. "I guess the pictures didn't help. I'll be back in a second." She shut the door quickly.

There was a pause, then Alex asked Jacken, "Are you okay?"

Jacken scrubbed a hand across his brow. "Sure."

'Course, it was a lie. Most days Jacken didn't know whether to wind the cat or put out the clock, he was so worried about his wife and unborn child.

Dev made a thoughtful noise. "This pregnancy talk has got me thinking about the last time we were in Toni's office. It was ten days ago, the same day Marissa and I got our crib delivered and Thomal and Arc went topside, where they had a run-in with Videon at Ria Mendoza's house. So we know for sure Videon was involved in that kidnapping. Doesn't it seem coincidental that the first murder occurred"—Dev checked a paper in his file—"only one day after the abduction of Elsa Mendoza? I'd bet my right nut that Elsa's kidnapping and these serial murders are somehow related."

Jacken nodded. "Sounds reasonable with Videon being a part of both." He swept the group of them with a questioning look. "Any suggestions about the connection?"

The question was answered with empty shrugs. Apparently, no one had the foggiest idea.

Gábor stretched out on the couch, ankles crossed in front of him, his hands linked behind his head. "You guys just tell me who I need to shoot."