Page 3 of Sins of the Fathers

“Since he was human, I’d assume that the human authorities have the case,” Archie pointed out.

“They do, but they don’t care. They’re treating it like a random death, but I’m convinced there’s something more there. There has to be.”

“Because he was a hunter?”

“Because I was the one who found him, and there was a symbol on the wall next to him.” She bit the inside of her cheek and pressed her lips together hard. Her eyes filled with tears, but it was like she refused to let them fall. Instead, she shook her head and took a moment to breathe.

Archie could only imagine how she felt. If she’d been the one who’d found her boyfriend dead, she probably had nightmares. It would be hard for her to forget what she’d seen, including the symbol on the wall.

“I’ve never seen that symbol before,” she eventually said. “But it wasn’t there before Daniel’s death. That’s why I know it has to do with what happened to him.”

“And what did the police say about the symbol?”

“They barely even talked to me. I’m a monster, so they don’t care. They don’t care about Daniel, either, because he was with me.”

Unfortunately, that was probably true. Archie wouldn’t put it past them to stop the investigation before it could really begin just because of who Daniel had been with. If Petra said that the symbol was important, it would be another reason for the police to ignore it. They wouldn’t want her to be right just because of what she was.

Petra took out her phone from her purse and placed it on the desk after unlocking it. “I took a picture because I knew what would happen,” she murmured. She swiped her finger on the screen.

Archie could see a picture of her and a man in his late forties, maybe early fifties. They looked like a nice couple, even though they were physically incredibly different. Petra was tall, and her skin was a deep pink that looked like a bad sunburn. Small tusks poked out from her lip, and her eyes were entirely black. Her black hair was tied back in the picture, and she was smiling and looking down at the man she was hugging. The man had a beard and bright eyes, and he looked back at Petra in a way that made it obvious that he loved her. Hunter or not, Daniel had found love.

Petra found the picture she was looking for quickly and turned her phone toward Archie. Archie leaned forward to take a better look. The symbol had been written on the wall in black, which was a relief because Archie had half expected it to be written in blood.

“Have you ever seen this before?” he asked, even though she’d already said she didn’t know it.

“Never. Daniel never mentioned anything like it, either. I’m thinking it could have something to do with his past as a hunter. Maybe with a case he had to deal with.”

“I know you said that you don’t think you’re in danger, but you should be careful,” Archie told her. “People might not know that you and Daniel were together, but someone might, and they might come after you once the dust settles.”

“They wouldn’t have a reason to come after me.”

“Sometimes, people don’t need reasons. Can you send me this picture?”

“Are you going to look into Daniel’s death?”

This was where Archie had to be careful. “I’ll look into it,” he confirmed. “But I can’t make promises. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find out who killed him. I’ll try, though. That, I can promise.”

“That’s all I’m asking for. I want someone to care about this. I want someone to make Daniel matter.”

Archie wasn’t sure he could do that, but he could look into Daniel’s death. It was his job, but more than that, he was curious, and part of him wasn’t able to look past the similarities between him and Petra. They both loved an ex-hunter, and while Archie had been lucky that Jasper hadn’t been killed even though many times someone had tried to do just that, he knew that he might not always be. If something was to happen to Jasper, he’d want someone to care, too.

* * * *

JASPER PUSHED OPEN the office door. Cullen was at the desk in the entrance and looked up when he heard him, grinning when he saw who it was. He looked at ease here, which was a relief after what had happened to him.

“Jasper. Archie is in his office.”

“Is he alone?”

“He is now. The client he was talking to left about half an hour ago. I haven’t seen him since then, so he’s probably working, but he won’t mind if you go in.”

“As long as I don’t bother anyone.”

“I think that even if you bothered him, he wouldn’t care. You’re the one person he’d want to bother him.”

“And Cullen and I were just leaving to get some lunch,” Braith said as he walked out of his office.

The place was tiny, but it was big enough to have two separate offices and a waiting area that could fit a few people. Luckily, there were no clients waiting to talk to anyone. They wouldn’t all have fit in here otherwise.