‘That demon does not need weapons, in fact, he spurns them completely. You certainly don't need to worry about that aspect. He is a weapon. He likes to simply crush his opponents. Plus, have some logic darling, he is a part of this world as much as you or I, he can get his own weapons.’ Lee comforted her with his rational words.

  Tessa had known that, but somehow having it said to her made all the difference. Finally, she felt her heart rate began to slow and her hysteria decreased for the first time since the attack. She took the opportunity to stay in his arms and get some well needed attention. It helped her ignore the world for a little while. In those arms there were no gruesome murders awaiting her, nor were there blood lusting, head crushing demons. Lee held her as long as she wanted, and it was rather late by the time they decided to go to bed.

  The next morning dawned bright and early, sunlight glaring into Tessa's eyes and forcing her to wake. Usually her curtains were tightly closed, Tessa abhorred the sunlight in the morning. As she struggled to see she wondered if she had been that tired that she had forgotten to draw the curtains. The realisation that she had never opened them hit her like a bullet train. She sat bolt upright, her eyes darting around the room.

  Scarred into the wall was a threat that made Tessa’s heart stop. Scrawled on the wall in front of her was simply the words 'FOUND YOU! PEEKABOO!' Stabbed into the wall was her knife, with blood still coating the hilt. She hit Lee to wake him up, still paralysed from fear. He roused with a shout, then fell into a horrified silence as Tessa pointed out the bloody graffiti.

  Lee jumped out of bed and ran through the apartment, searching every hiding place to see if Berserk was waiting to jump out and slaughter them both. When Lee was satisfied that Berserk had left, he returned to the bedroom to check on Tessa. She was sitting clutching Seti to her chest, and to the cat's credit, he was taking it. His eyes were pulled wide open from her frantically petting hand. Her eyes hadn't moved from the blood, and she rocked on the spot slightly.

  Quietly Lee fetched a wash cloth and began to scrub off the blood, the coppery scent confirming its origin. Unfortunately the message itself was still carved into the wall, courtesy of her knife. When the wall was as clean as he could make it, he sat down beside her and took her into his arms. They sat in a shocked silence, all three of them, until Tessa finally broke it.

  ‘Why didn't he just do it then and there? Why play with us like this?’ She begged Lee for a logic that did not exist.

  ‘Because he is utterly sick and I am sure he is loving being free from Hel for a while. He likes to play with his prey and make them suffer for his enjoyment. It's why he hasn't made a major attack, he wants to give us time to make some plan to defeat him, then he will have a challenge,’ Lee replied, his voice twisted with wry bitterness. They were dealing with twisted mind in charge of a weapon of a body. He was of a mind to turn himself in to save Tessa, but she quickly put a stop to that idea as soon as he voiced it.

  ‘Don't you dare! I love you and I am here to fight this one with you. We need to take a serious look at that book. It must have a way to defeat him.’ She was starting to feel her fight coming back and she was downright pissed off now that he had dared to enter and defile her home. She looked at him earnestly, her green eyes boring into his with all of her love and stubbornness shining forth. Lee felt himself giving in, unable to resist her earnest nature.

  ‘Deal, but we stay at a motel or something until we are done with it all ok?’ Tessa nodded back at him, seeing the sense in such a request.

  Now that the message was almost gone and the house checked over, Tessa finally felt confident enough to take a shower and get ready for the day. She had to run the poppet and letter over to the forensic department at the Agency, and wanted to do so as soon as she could. She had also contacted Susan to say she had found the ring, and the girl was keen to collect it. Lee had wanted to accompany and protect her, but Tessa insisted that he stay home and research how to deal with Berserk. She even gave him access to her computer in case the Internet had something to offer.

  The drive over to the Agency was short and uneventful, just the way Tessa liked it. As soon as she entered the building she was reminded of her ghostly interaction of the night before. In all the terror of the previous night and morning, she had completely forgotten about it, now she couldn't help but be reminded. The sun was blazing in and Tessa could feel very little around her on the magickal spectrum, so she confidently walked the halls.

  At one point she could have sworn she smelled the eau d'Schimpf, but hurried footsteps in the other direction had left the adjoining passageway empty. It seemed he had gone from hassling her to avoiding her.

  Forensics dubiously took the poppet and letter, dusting it then and there so Tessa could see there were no fingerprints. She left them to process the rest as she had a burning question to ask Lady Kirk.

  Her rooms were as sweet smelling as ever, however the Lady herself was crankily scolding another hunter over a screwed up order. Tessa took one look at the anger on her face and decided to give it a miss. Instead she headed over to talk to Sir McAdams in his office. He looked simply delighted to see her.

  ‘Lady Bale, what good timing. I had just sent you the latest collection of press reports on the 'Soul Collector'. The director has requested that we do a press junket together to put this idea to rest. While I say requested, we both know what it really means. We have been given until tomorrow morning to collect our information, then we go in front of the pack from 10:30am. Now, you are definitely sure this is non magickal?’ It was more of a demand than a question, his face becoming a blotchy red as he spoke. Tessa nodded in reply.

  ‘Yep, there is no magick attached at all to any of the victims, and that poppet was a generic one and inactivated.’ Sir McAdams raised an eyebrow at her words.

  ‘Poppet?’ he questioned flatly. The man was stressed.

  ‘Uh the one received yesterday evening... with the soul collecting powers apparently.’ Tessa was beginning to feel very awkward about this turn of conversation. As her supervisor, Sir McAdams should have been the first to know.

  ‘I don't know about any of this, I thought the media was just stirring things up again. What?’

  ‘Well this poppet with the hair of Clair O'Neal sewn onto it was sent to the Bayton Daily, along with this utterly nutbag letter saying that this idiot would collect souls and destroy all the 'humans' eventually. It was pathetic, but clearly people went for it. I was called in by Sir Gian, who-’

  ‘That prick? Thats why I didn't get told about any of this. I am surprised he even told you given his grudge against me. He tends to include those who work for me in his stupid vendetta. Useless ars... uh well that explains that then.’ Sir McAdams was now huffing and puffing in his efforts to stay calm. This was the first time Tessa had heard about any rivalry between them and was rather curious. She didn't speak, trying to encourage him to continue. ‘So apparently they now think he is legitimately collecting souls? Jeez, this is going to be a fun press hustle. No wonder they are loving the story. Did you know that there is already a local political party lobbying for a registry of magickal practitioners and sequestration of the populations? Oh, and there is a great big stinking ‘Save the Humans’ protest. Whatever this asshole wants, he is doing it well,’ grumbled Sir McAdams, as Tessa numbed out in shock.

  While there had always been the little jibes and occasional bigot, this was a full-scale attack. There was something so organised about it all that made Tessa’s intuition shudder. This was hatred and fear mongering, to end in what? A genocide? Various scenarios ticked through Tessa's mind as she continued to stare at Sir McAdams, utterly dumbfounded.

  ‘Well, I hope you don't just sit and stare like that tomorrow. It's all a scary idea, but this is why we need to get out there and talk about it tomorrow. We have to try and talk these idiots down. Are we any closer to an answer on who it is yet?’ The question was surprisingly patiently presented. Given that he was back to constantly trying to get a glimpse down Tessa's top, she wasn't too surprised that he was being accommodating.

  ‘It's a male, blonde hair with a kink to it, diabetic, stinky. An all-round great chap. Apparently only targets women. The letter stated he killed Stacia Sing because she helped 'humans' and the rest were just because they were mundanes. He definitely seems intent in stirring up some hatred and bigotry by essentially framing magickal types as murderous power freaks. I was running a search for male diabetics with a criminal record, but so far nothing promising has popped up. Most are in jail, have left Bayton or aren't blonde. Oh and a few are dead it seems.’ Tessa ticked each point off on her fingers as she spoke. Sir McAdams snorted slightly at the description.

  ‘You have the medical records, yes? There was certainly enough clogging up my office. What about checking for those with a psych history, perhaps something to do with a traumatic event involving magick or the like. Classic weird shit. Sounds like this little idiot doesn't get out much. Especially with that weird movie shit.’

  ‘I forgot about that. Need to look into that too. It was a terrible film. What a waste of celluloid,’ Tessa quipped, making Sir McAdams snort and then burst into laughter. Tessa was starting to appreciate working with the Sir, finding this an almost pleasant conversation. As tears began to run down his face, his laughter subsided, and he could eventually speak in a wheeze.

  ‘Ok well it sounds like you have plenty to go on. Please research as much as possible before tomorrow. I will meet you here at say... 10? Then we can prepare a bit before we get thrown to the wolves. I will see you then,’ he finished, giving her a good solid leer followed by a long look up and down her body as Tessa stood up. Scratch that, he was clearly still a complete pervert, thought Tessa bitterly as she caught the look.

  As Tessa rose to leave Sir McAdams' phone shrilled loudly and she heard him answer. She was just shouldering her bag when he covered the receiver.

  ‘Wait!’ he snapped as he went back to listening to someone who spoke a mile a minute. He scribbled something onto the corner of a piece of paper which he tore off and pushed across the table. On the scrap was an address, a park in North Bayton which was popular for weddings and drug deals if Tessa remembered correctly. Sir McAdams was nodding and giving a curt yes every now and then.

  As Tessa sat there she clicked her immaculate nails, waiting for him to finish. She was speculating wildly as to what was being said, ranging from a new murder to some kind of place to investigate. Judging by the look on Sir McAdams' face, it was another murder. She made a stabby-stabby motion in the air. He nodded in response, pointing to the address. Whoever was on the other end of the phone was clearly still in full swing so Sir McAdams waved her out, indicating that he would message her the details. Tessa nodded, rolled her eyes and grabbed the slip of paper.

  While driving over to the park she called Lee to update him about where she was going. Tessa's stomach roiled angrily, nerves about such a public murder made her feel positively nauseated. The beep of her phone when the promised message came in made her jump. Nikita Rouse had already been identified as the victim which was fast but not surprising given that she had a famous stage show as Nikita LaRouge. She was a burlesque dancer and model, good enough to be able to make it a full-time gig. Now Tessa understood why her body was left in such a public place.

  With Nikita being a local celebrity the news would travel like wild fire and there was no way the Agency could quash it. The bastard was getting brash.

  Susan’s ring would have to wait.

  Chapter Fourteen

  There was the usual cluster of gawkers in the park, all jostling to get the best view of the body. Tessa parked as close as she could without running over the people in the group who all refused to move. The mundane police officers who were charged with minding the body stood shivering in the public glare. They were clearly unhappy to be left alone with the body and a curious crowd, and Tessa could see why. Nikita had always been small, but now her body looked utterly frail and broken.

  Her limbs stuck out at odd angles and her famous natural auburn hair was matted with blood. Her deep blue eyes glared out of her face; the lids cut away viciously. Her pale skin was bruised and cut up, a multitude of cuts criss-crossing her face in a series of Xs. Her body had all the usual symbols carved into it, the eyes, pentagrams and arcane runes. He had really outdone himself this time however, using her blood to paint a huge tetragrammaton underneath her body. The crowd oohed as each detail was noted, photographed and recorded. When she began to closely inspect the details of Nikita Rouse, Tessa noticed an odd bruising around her mouth along with an abnormal shape of her lips. She parted them gently, retching loudly at what she saw.

  The poor girl had undergone yet another torture, each of her teeth had been pulled out or broken in the process. Given the amount of bruising and blood in her mouth Tessa could safely guess that they had been pulled before she had died. Feeling a lump in her throat, Tessa fought to not cry, her empathy for what Nikita had undergone beginning to overwhelm her. As she paused, she heard the whispered comments from her dirty little audience. Titters about the evils of magick and banning witches were filtering into her ears, distracting her from the work to be done. Tessa looked up sharply, but none would meet her gaze. She looked at each and every person gathered until everyone fell silent, except for one insidious voice.

  A male voice over the back of the crowd whispered about vigilante justice and destruction of the freaks, but Tessa could not place who it was. She indicated for the people in front of her to move, but the voice stopped when they shuffled aside. She searched the dirty faces before her until she saw something she barely believed. Her heart leapt when she saw a pale face and blonde frizzy hair on a man in sunglasses and a long coat, but he was already turning and running away.

  Tessa pushed through the remaining people as she pulled her phone out of her bag, hitting the speed dial to Sir McAdams' office. She thanked her lucky stars that she had chosen to wear her boots today as she broke into a full run. Luckily she was yet to dismiss the other police officers present, and she hoped they would control the scene.

  ‘Tessa, what have you found?’ Drawled Sir McAdams, sounding as if he had all day, although that was probably only because Tessa was in such a hurry.

  ‘Sir, I have spotted a suspect who ran from me. He matches the description and is running down Dunnear Ramble. I might need some help here.’ Tessa shouted into the phone, only slightly beginning to pant from the exertion. For whole seconds there was silence down the line as the Sir realised the importance of what Tessa was saying.

  ‘Right Lady Bale, I will run a call out, hold on...’ The phone was muffled as Sir McAdams made the call on his mobile. The man with the kinky hair turned left, Tessa making the corner not long after. The smelly diabetic must have also been unfit as she was gaining on him rapidly.

  ‘Tessa, we have another Agent a minute away, keep calling the streets and I will pass them on. I am also...’

  ‘We have turned onto Bourke Avenue Sir.’ More muffled noises passed her message along as the man turned another corner, slamming his shoulder into a pole as he went. A sickening crack rang out, but he kept running, further into the industrial area of North Bayton.

  ‘I think it said Darwin Street Sir!’ Tessa became more breathy as she was beginning to tire. The man was close enough that Tessa could smell the distinct stench of the unwashed, with that acrid fruity tang of keto acidosis. The fact that he was sweating certainly didn't help, making the odour almost overwhelming as Tessa gulped for air.

  ‘I am also mobilising a tactical unit to enter the area and attempt to surround him, they will arrive in four minutes. Miles should be there in seconds in an Agency vehicle.’ The man ahead disappeared around another corner, this time entering a small alley off Darwin Street. Tessa launched herself around it after him in time to see the ends of his coat trailing around another turn.

  ‘Sir, we have entered an alley, it’s a maze here Sir. We are still travelling roughly north east. Suspect is wearing a black trench coat.’ She was gasping by now, entering the next alley only to see a warehouse door fluttering on the breeze. She pushed it open carefully while whispering her location into the phone, digging another knife out of her back pocket as she did. She stole into the room, eyes straining against the dark of the indoor area. Every small window was covered in grime, making the inside of the warehouse almost pitch black.

  As the sun spots began to fade, she realised she was alone in the huge expanse of the warehouse. There was no movement at all aside from the dust flurries that were beginning to settle.

  In the distance she heard the familiar bleep siren of the Agency emergency vehicles, echoing around the tin building. Tessa looked all around the floor and walls, even pulling out a torch to search for any kind of trail. She jumped when an odd voice shouted at her until Tessa realised that she was still on the call to Sir McAdams.

  ‘Goddamn it Bale, what is going on? Are you ok?’ Screamed the speaker, shattering the silence within the warehouse. Tessa flinched as she put the phone to her ear.

  ‘Yes Sir, sorry Sir. I entered a warehouse off the alley, but he was gone. He knew the area well; I think he must have a bolt hole nearby as there is no sign of him. Where was that search team?’ Tessa asked, hoping he wouldn't be too angry with her for losing the suspect. He huffed and puffed, clearly out of breath from the exertion of shouting and raising the cavalry from the comfort of his own desk.

  ‘They are on Darwin Street, apparently it has many alleyways. Damned fools aren't game to look down each of them until you come out and show them the way. Can you find your way back?’ His voice was a monotone drone when he finally caught his breath. Tessa took another look around the warehouse and shrugged.

 

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