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“So far.” Kris paused, putting two and two together. “You think they’re all Nessie?”
“Some say there are a herd of them.” Now he paused, doing some addition of his own. “Of course, they could take turns, which would help avoid detection.”
“How so?”
“If someone comes too close to identifying one shape-shifter, that shifter merely allows himself or herself to be seen at a time when Nessie—another shifter entirely—is seen as well. And the theory falls apart. I’ve also known tattoos to be used with guardian cults.”
“Say what?” All she needed, on top of everything else, was a cult.
“Imagine living in a hut, or on a hill, eking out an existence. You hunt. You gather. Yet barely you survive. Then a being comes along that is stronger, faster, it has powers that defy logic, and it rarely, if ever, dies. What would you think?”
“God.”
Mandenauer inclined his head. “At first, paranormal creatures were worshiped. As time went on, and the demands for human sacrifice became excessive—”
“Wait a second,” Kris interrupted, remembering what she’d learned about Obeah. “Could the killings be some sort of sacrifice to a god?”
The old man’s eyes narrowed. “I have never heard of the Loch Ness Monster being considered a god.” He lifted his thin shoulders, then lowered them. “But who knows? Do you have a suspect?”
Kris hesitated. If she told him about Jamaica, would he send one of his agents to interrogate her? Would they kill her? Should Kris stop them? If Jamaica was sacrificing people to the great god Nessie, something had to be done.
So Kris told Edward what she knew.
“Sacrifices involve blood,” he said. “There is power in it. These drownings…” He shook his head. “Not very bloody. There is also a ceremony. Tossing bodies into the water or leaving them on the shore with no ring of fire or midnight chant is not sacrificial. Still, you should keep an eye on her.”
“All right. What happened when the guardians decided the requests of the god became too demanding?”
“A few humans went searching for methods that would kill the unkillable. Their adventures added to the legends. Stories were told. Information passed down.”
“And hunters were born.”
“Yes. But there were some places where the god, the creature, bonded with its subjects. Perhaps it began to prey on their enemies instead of them. Perhaps it saved them from another monster.”
Kris had a thought, one she didn’t like but had to address. “Considering the dark side of human nature, maybe some of them enjoyed the murders; they wanted the mayhem.”
“There are guardian cults that guard horrible things. In the past I have had to fight my way through humans to reach the monsters.” He shoulder-twitched in lieu of a shrug. “Whether the creature be evil or reformed, some did not want their god dead; they did not want it gone and began to guard it from every harm.”
Kris lifted her gaze from the computer to the window where the sun had finally come out and burned away the last trace of mist. Had that happened here?
“Many of these guardian cults employ some type of code—like a tattoo—so they know who is with them, who is one of them.”
“You think there’s a guardian cult for Nessie?”
“Yes,” Edward said simply.
“I’ll talk to them.”
“Unless you wear the mark, no one will tell you a thing. And remember—they may not be protecting the monster; they may be the monster. Asking the wrong question of the right person would be a good way to find yourself at the bottom of the loch.”
Kris had nearly found herself at the bottom of the loch once already. She didn’t relish a repeat performance.
Besides, there was someone else she could talk to. When Liam got done guarding the—
Ah, hell.
“What is the matter?” Edward asked. “You look like you’ve seen a—”
“Gotta go,” Kris said, and shut the computer, ignoring calls of: “Kristin! Come back here this minute!” while she considered where she’d look for Liam. She wasn’t going to tell Edward anything until she knew for sure what she had to tell.
