Page 9 of Sins of the Fathers

The first thing he saw when he opened the box was an old photo album. He hadn’t even remembered that it was there, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to look at the pictures inside, but they might reveal something, if not about Daniel, then about Jasper’s past.

He didn’t have many childhood pictures—and in hindsight, knowing what he did now, it made sense—so he’d always cherished the ones he did have. They were all in this small album, and the first thing he saw when he opened it was a picture of him and his mother. He had to be around five, and he was beaming at her, but her expression was tight.

Jasper continued flipping through the album. Usually, the pictures were with his mother. He didn’t have a lot of pictures with his father, which he wasn’t surprised by. Most of the pictures were taken at the hunters’ headquarters since that was where they’d lived for most of Jasper’s childhood. Having the hunters live there made it easier for them to be ready to move when they had to. It meant they were always available when they had to fight the monsters. They all had private apartments, but it still felt like growing up in a big community, and Jasper had enjoyed it. He hadn’t enjoyed much of his time with the hunters.

He paused at one of the pictures taken in his father’s office. Jasper was in his father’s chair, grinning, but his father was standing next to him, looking down at him with a frown. That was the way Leroy usually looked at Jasper, so Jasper wasn’t offended or worried. It wasn’t even what caught his attention. No, that was the symbol on a piece of paper hanging behind Jasper.

He picked up the album and squinted at the picture. He vaguely remembered the setup of his father’s office back then. He’d had a whiteboard behind his desk where he wrote down information and put up documents and reports. He’d clearly been working on a case, but of course, Jasper didn’t remember. His father wouldn’t have talked about it to him, anyway. Jasper had been just a child.

But he recognized the symbol. He wasn’t sure why it was in his father’s office, but it was there, which meant that Daniel’s death was probably connected to the hunters.

That wasn’t a surprise. Daniel was an ex-hunter, so of course everything was related.

Jasper wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Technically, he wasn’t the one investigating the case. That was Archie, which meant it would be Archie who’d have to deal with the hunters. The problem was that they wouldn’t give him anything. They certainly wouldn’t help him solve Daniel’s case. Hell, they were probably happy that Daniel was dead. That way, he couldn’t talk about what he’d seen in his time as a hunter.

This was information Archie needed to know. He’d have to be able to decide for himself if he wanted to keep digging or to contact Petra. Jasper was pretty sure that he’d continue to dig, though. Now that they knew that Daniel’s death was related to the hunters, possibly to Jasper, he wouldn’t let it go until they knew what was going on. He’d do it for Jasper because he loved him and wanted to take care of him. Poor Daniel would go to the back burner, but that didn’t mean that Archie would forget about him or stop trying to solve his case.

He wouldn’t. He’d just focus on making sure that Jasper was safe first. Unfortunately, Jasper had no idea if he was or not.

Chapter Three

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ARCHIE HAD THOUGHT he’d get a break in the case after talking to Petra’s neighbor and Jasper. When Jasper had told him that he’d found the symbol in an old picture, Archie had been sure that Daniel’s case was connected to the hunters.

He still was. He just hadn’t been able to prove it or to find any other information about Daniel’s death.

He’d reached out to anyone he could think of to ask about the symbol. He’d sent emails with pictures, contacting people he’d never talked to before. He’d even reached out to people in the city where the other hunter had been killed.

No one knew anything more than Archie already did. The man had died, and whoever had killed him had left that symbol on the wall of his apartment. The police had investigated, but they hadn’t put a lot of effort into it because apparently, the man had been a monster sympathizer. It wasn’t just that he was dating a monster, but also that, for some reason, people seemed to believe he’d become part of a monster gang. Archie didn’t know if that was true, but he did know that the police thought it was, and that was enough for them. They’d dropped the case, and it had gone cold.

Archie didn’t know if he’d be able to solve this case, too. No one was paying him to look into it, but there was no way it wasn’t connected to Daniel’s case. Both men had been hunters before leaving the organization. Both men had been connected to monsters.

It left Archie uneasy because the same could be said for Jasper. The only difference was that Jasper was part monster, but whoever was behind these murders might not know it. If they did know it, it might be another reason for them to hurt Jasper, and there was nothing Archie could do about it.

He glared at his computer screen. He’d opened his notes again to go over them, hoping to find something new, but the information on his screen was still the same. Daniel and Ben, the other hunter who’d been killed, were dead. They’d both been stabbed, and the killer had left the symbol on the wall of the place where they’d killed the two men. There were many similarities between the two, but also differences.

None of it mattered. Archie was sure that the reason for their deaths was connected to them being hunters. The problem was that even his contacts within the organization weren’t helping him.

His phone pinged with an email. Since he was on his computer, he opened a browser to check it there. It might be a nice distraction, or it might be someone reaching out with information.

It was the second one. Archie blinked at the screen, trying to remember when he’d emailed this person. The name didn’t tell him anything. He didn’t recognize it, and he was pretty sure he didn’t know anyone called Alisa Campbell.

But she’d written to him, so he opened the email. It only took him a few sentences to finally remember her.

She was a historian. Before he’d realized that the symbol linked Daniel’s death to the hunters, he’d asked people if they’d ever seen it. No one but Jasper had recognized it, so Archie had decided to reach out to someone who studied monsters’ history and their past. He might be sure that this was related to the hunters, but both Daniel and Ben had been dating monsters, so there was a chance that it was connected, too. In turn, that meant that a monster historian might have answers for him.

It seemed like she did.

Archie quickly went over what she’d written. Apparently, the symbol belonged to a monster lineage that had been very powerful and respected in the past. She mentioned that they’d been hunted to extinction, both by monsters and hunters. Archie wasn’t surprised. He’d read dozens of stories like this, of families and clans of monsters decimated just because people wanted more power, territory, or were afraid. He didn’t understand what the symbol meant in this context, unfortunately. Why was it connected to Daniel and Ben? Was the reason it involved the hunters that the hunters had decimated this family? Archie would have to hack into the hunters’ archives again to get answers.

That didn’t help much, but at the same time, it told Archie what he needed to know. Whoever had killed Daniel and Ben seemed to be connected to the two men, both through the hunters and monsters. Archie just had to find that connection.

He snorted at his reflection in his computer screen. That was easier said than done, but he’d never been one to give up easily.

* * * *

JASPER’S HEART JUMPED when his phone rang and he saw the name on the screen. He and Sarah had been talking on and off, but they had a complicated relationship. To her, he was just a guy who’d one day popped up claiming that he was the long-lost son of people she loved. He had no proof and no memories of the sanctuary or of his parents, so it was understandable that she was wary and took time to trust him. They hadn’t met yet, but they’d talked on the phone several times, and Jasper was pretty sure she was softening toward him. Maybe eventually, she would believe they shared a past, although some days, he had trouble believing it himself.