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I nod, grabbing my own jeans as Phoenix finishes tugging her shirt over her head and reaches for the door.
“Wait,” I say, but she’s already out. I grab my shirt and follow her, zipping up my jeans and pulling my shirt on as I run after her. Shit. Get your head back in the game.
She’s moving far faster than normal—she’s usually careful not to show any of her superhuman characteristics when we’re around anyone else who might be able to see. Now that she’s finally told me everything, I wonder what else she might have hidden from me. I’m able to keep up with her only because I never claimed to be human myself. I might not have my wings anymore, but I can still run far faster than anyone from this realm has a right to.
No one’s watching us, though. The limo double parked in an alley close to the building housing the Ancient Religions department so we don’t have to cross much of campus before we’re there.
“Something’s wrong,” I state the obvious as we see students spilling out of the building, some of them screaming. It snaps me back into the present, at least.
Especially when Phoenix starts to cry, “No, no, no!” She tries to shove past the people exiting to get to the double doors, but it’s a mob.
I move in front of her since I have wider shoulders and push through like a battering ram until we have a path to the door. There’s a bottleneck of students trying to get out. I yank several people through, and when more fill up the gap, shove into them and hold them back until Phoenix can follow behind me.
They shout at us, but I ignore them, letting go of the flood only once I feel Phoenix at my back. Together, we thread our way through the panicked, pressing mob.
It doesn’t take us far to figure out what has them fleeing. We’re in the building with the large round atrium and research displays behind glass in the center apex of the building. There was a model display of an early religious temple behind the glass when we visited last time.
Now, there’s a dead body.
Not just any dead body, either. Blood is everywhere, and the body is severed into pieces, arranged outwards symmetrically in a circle from the chest, exactly like the crime scene we saw in the dorm room. I don’t feel like I have to even look to know that the heart is gone.
Phoenix is right. We’re too late.
She runs right up to the atrium, a gasp of horror coming from her throat as her hands slap the glass. But then she backs up, a hand over her mouth. “It’s not him. It’s not John Paul.”
Her head swings to me. “Do you think he’s still in his office? Maybe he’s already gone?” She looks toward the fleeing students.
I nod. “He had to have heard the commotion, right?”
“His class is at nine-fifteen.” She looks down at her phone. “We still have five minutes. He might not have heard all this because sometimes he works with sound-dampening headphones all the way up until his lectures start. He says it helps him get into the right headspace.”
“Where’s his office?” I ask.
“Come on,” Phoenix says over her shoulder, already taking off for the stairs at the edge of the large, circular space. The crowd behind us is finally thinning as students get through the doors. They must have all gotten out of their eight o’clock classes and found the gruesome murder scene. Someone wanted this to be public.
Anyone who could hear would have followed the mass exodus. Which explains why it’s so empty when Phoenix and I get to the second floor. It looks like people got the message and left in a hurry; chairs are askew, computers have been left on, and doors to offices are left open.
But there’s a light coming from under one door that’s still closed at the end of the hallway. Phoenix hurries toward it. She doesn’t knock, just yanks it open.
Right in time to find Professor Rossi on his knees before Ammit.
He looks up at Phoenix. “Help!” he cries.
Ammit turns at the same time, eyes going wide when she sees the two of us. She lifts a hand, and I feel it hit immediately—the churn of lust for Phoenix in my guts.
But, this time, it’s bearable. My cock goes stiff, and I’m distracted by my need for Phoenix, but I’m still satiated by everything we did in the limo on the ride over. I can still actually think and remember what we’re here for.
I see the surprise on Ammit’s face as Phoenix lifts her hand toward Ammit, and she suddenly stops, not moving a muscle. Her whole body becomes paralyzed, and I realize Phoenix is doing her freezing-someone-by-their-blood thing.
“We’ve got to get her out,” I say quickly. “There’s already been enough of a scene here.”
The police will be crawling the building any moment. Everyone downstairs had to have called after they ran out. Yes, Vlad might own the department, but it’s going to get messy if his granddaughter is discovered on the scene when they get here. Especially if she tries to do whatever it is she wants to do to Ammit...
Two magical murders in one place might be hard for even Vlad to keep contained.
Phoenix nods grudgingly. “We’ll have to deal with her elsewhere.”
“What are you doing?” The Professor grabs for his phone. “It’s her! Ammit! She’s the murderer. We need to call the police! She was about to kill me!”
