He didn’t say anything. I touched my brother’s shoulder lightly, then left. And the feeling that I’d just tempted fate sat like a weight in my stomach.
The top floor of the parking lot had been cordoned off with yellow tape and watchful cops. Blood rode the wind, thick and fresh, and somewhere ahead Kade was speaking, his rich tones bringing a smile to my lips.
A smile that wasn’t likely to stay there given the apparent extent of the blood. This was going to be nasty.
I flashed my badge at the officer guarding the top-floor entrance, then ducked under the tape and walked up the ramp. One of Cole’s men—the bird-shifter—was bagging something that looked suspiciously like a chunk of meat, and I paused.
“Is that what I think it is?”
He glanced up, his expression neutral but his brown eyes afire with anger. “Yeah.”
So it was an arm. Or what remained of it, anyway. The bakeneko was definitely getting more violent with every kill.
“Stop this thing, will you?” he continued, zipping the bag up with more force than necessary. “I don’t want to see what it does next.”
“Neither do I.” My voice was grim. I glanced up the ramp as Cole’s voice rode the air, then glanced back at the bird-shifter. “Do you actually have a name?”
“People call me Dobbs.”
“First name, or last name?”
“Friends don’t use my first name.”
And neither would his enemies, if that tone was anything to go by. “Thanks, Dobbs.”
He nodded and got back to the gruesome task of collecting the smaller bits of flesh and fat globules that were still scattered about.
The wind hit me full force as I entered the top floor, blowing me back a step before I realized it. I shivered and collected the flyaway ends of my coat, quickly zipping it up. Thank God I’d had the chance to change—my blood-soaked dress would have left me frozen.
Kade and Cole were squatting near the rear of a blue Toyota four-wheel drive. Even from this distance, it was evident that neither man was happy.
I walked across, my boot heels clicking briefly against the concrete before the sound was rushed away by the wind. Neither man looked around, though both would have been aware of my presence.
“What’s up?” I stopped behind Cole and bent to peer under the car. Something that resembled a bloody mess of flesh lay about halfway down.
Not the torso that matched the arm. That arm had been male. This mess was female.
Although I could really only tell that by the pretty gold charm bracelet that was somehow still attached to her visible arm.
“Two victims?” I said, hoping to God I was wrong.
“Two victims,” Cole confirmed, rising and stripping off bloody gloves. “We think this one is unrelated.”
I straightened and met the icy blue of his gaze. “As in wrong place, wrong time?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“That’s uncharacteristic, isn’t it? I mean, she had witnesses when she did the shoe seller in the window, and she made no move against them.”
“Given we are not dealing with anything remotely human, who’s to say what is, and isn’t, characteristic?” Cole motioned me to follow him.
I glanced at Kade, who was still studying the body intently, then spun and followed the wolf-shifter. I saw the second body long before we reached it. His torso was sprawled across the trunk of the sports car and there was a look of pure terror frozen on his face. Or what remained of it.
That expression said that this was a man who’d experienced the depths of hell in the midst of one of life’s greatest pleasures.
I stopped and silently cataloged his injuries. The blood loss from the scratches alone would have been deadly enough, but she’d also ripped him apart limb by limb, leaving only his torso and head on top of the car’s trunk.
I closed my eyes and fought the bile that rose up my throat. It wasn’t as if I’d never seen bodies pulled apart like this before. I had, but that didn’t mean seeing it again now made it any easier. I doubted it ever would.
“God,” I said, voice thick.
“Yeah,” Cole said. “I think she must have taken cat form to get out of here, because she would have been covered in blood after all this.”
I dragged my gaze away from the body and looked around. “There would have to have been screams from both the victims. Surely someone heard them?”
Cole’s expression was grim. “The local boys are interviewing the shopkeepers and the patrons. I doubt we’re going to get anything.”
“Then how was the body discovered?”
“A bit of the woman was flung over the side of the building. It hit a kitchen hand from the restaurant next door as he was dumping bags into the trash.”
“Anyone talked to him yet?”
“I think he’s been sedated.” Cole grimaced. “He’ll probably have nightmares for weeks, poor kid.”
“He’s not the only one.” I rubbed my arms lightly, then stopped as power began to caress the air and an odd tingle raced across my skin.
Excitement surged. It wasn’t just the escalation of the violence that was different with this crime scene.
“What?” Cole said softly.
“There’s a soul here.” My gaze darted around the parking lot, but I couldn’t see anything that resembled the wispy smoke of a soul. Of course, the wind might be tearing any manifestation apart before it was fully formed.
“Whose soul?”
“I don’t know.” I spun around and took several steps toward the rear wall. The wind was less frantic here, and just for an instant, a wisp of smoke stirred in the shadows holding court in the corner.
Who are you? I asked. I’d learned not so long ago that my ability to sense and hear souls had stretched into being able to converse with them telepathically, as well. Not that there was ever anything resembling whole conversations between us. The ability to talk from beyond the grave seemed to take a lot of strength, and many souls did little more than speak a word or two before their presence disintegrated and they moved on.
But maybe this time, one word might be all we needed to stop other innocents getting mauled by the bakeneko.
I took another step forward, and the chill in the air suddenly increased. Whoever it was, they were close by. Had to be. The presence of a soul in this world always seemed to drag me too close to the fierce cold of the underworld.
Again, smoke stirred in the shadows. Just a wisp, a bare outline—nothing that would even be defined as ghostlike. But it was there. The power of it spun all around me.
Who are you? I asked again.
For a moment, there was no response, but the energy in the air increased, until it felt like fireflies dancing across my skin.
Why? came the reply. So soft. So confused. And very definitely female.
No one knows why this creature is so destructive, I said, hating that I had to talk to her, hating that I had to feel her pain like this. Yet in some odd way, it was probably helping her. She’d have no answers at all if I wasn’t here. You weren’t its intended victim. You were just in the way.
The chill in the air increased, and with it came a sense of anger. It was not my time.
She mightn’t have thought so, but fate always had other ideas on such things. Can you tell me anything about the creature?
She was fast. The sense of energy increased, until the tingling on my skin felt like fire. Very briefly, a wispy face formed in the shadows—a thin pretty face with wide lost eyes. She took my bag. My phone. My car keys.
She took your life, too, but I kept that thought to myself. I had no idea if souls could feel shock, but this one showed every sign of going through that right now. I didn’t need to make it any worse for her.