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It will wait, I thought stubbornly. I felt as if I hadn’t had a peaceful moment to myself in months. There was always something that had to be done, somewhere I needed to go. I needed to get into Tessa’s library, I needed to learn more about wards and arcane and essence, I needed to solve these murders.
I needed to relax and take time for myself. Even if it was for only a few minutes.
My phone rang again, followed by another voice-mail chime. I tightened my grip on the coffee mug, feeling my shoulders hunch up and my lip curl into a pout. Not fair. This was my time. I wasn’t on call.
Then I sighed. There were very few people who would call me for even boring mundane matters. And what if it was someone calling about Tessa from a different number?
I unfolded my legs and made my way back inside, oddly annoyed to see that the calls were from Ryan. Nothing to do with Tessa, after all. Not that I was annoyed to have Ryan calling me, but I realized that my worry about my aunt was increasing daily. I knew that I was pinning too many hopes on this ritual that Rhyzkahl gave me. I knew that I needed to face the reality that it might not work. Rhyzkahl had even said that the chances were slim. So I’m stubborn. Screw it.
I dialed my voice mail as I dumped the rest of my coffee out and rinsed my mug.
“Kara, call me.”
I rolled my eyes and pressed the delete button. Thanks for the details, Ryan.
The second message was even more informative. “Kara. Call me. It’s important.”
Great. I started to dial his number but was interrupted as the phone rang, with the caller ID showing—surprise, surprise—Ryan.
“I was calling you,” I said as I answered.
“I need you to come to North Highland Street in Gallardo,” he said without any preamble. “Murder—suicide. Supposedly.”
Gallardo was a small town just east of Beaulac, not large enough to have its own police force, which meant that the sheriff’s office handled any issues. “That’s outside my jurisdiction,” I informed him.
“I’m not asking you to do any work. But you need to come look at something. You know where North Highland is?”
“No, but that’s why I have GPS. Is this related to what I’ve been working on?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I want you to come out here,” he retorted, a touch of asperity in his voice.
“Smart-ass. Fine. I’m on my way.”
I was tempted to dawdle to get back at him for his unwillingness to part with information, but my curiosity won out. About forty-five minutes later I pulled onto a road running through a neighborhood that could only be described as “seedy.” Or perhaps “every other house a crack house,” if you wanted to get specific. There were a number of sheriff’s-office vehicles there, marked and unmarked. I parked my Taurus behind Ryan’s dark-blue Crown Victoria, then walked up to where the most sheriff’s deputies were clustered. I could see now why Ryan hadn’t bothered to give me a specific address. There was only one house on the street that bothered to have a house number displayed—and it was simply spray-painted on the black tarpaper that comprised the exterior. I gave nods and smiles to the deputies and detectives I recognized, then picked Ryan out of the crowd near the street and made my way over to him.
“So? What’s the deal?” I asked.
He jerked his head toward the house we stood in front of. It wasn’t the one with the spray-painted number on it, but that was about the only difference. The exterior was tarpaper, the roof was patched with a faded and tattered blue plastic tarp, and more than half the windows were broken. “Come and see.” He ducked under the crime-scene tape and I followed, after scrawling my name onto the scene log. He led me up to a porch of dubious stability, then we entered a gloomy interior. Ryan flicked on a halogen lamp that had been set up in the corner, giving me my first look at what he wanted me to see.
My first reaction was, Okay, two bodies shot in the head, both white, man and a woman, on the far side of middle age. Then recognition hit me. Shit—it’s the Galloways. Dismay filled me as I looked down at the couple.
The sense of wrongness slammed into me without warning. I pressed my hand to my stomach before realizing I’d done so, coffee in my belly abruptly feeling like roiling acid.
“They’re gone … but worse than the others,” I said as soon as I could work moisture back into my mouth.
Ryan nodded gravely. “Zack thought it felt … off. I’m not as sensitive as you, but even I can feel that there’s something bad going on here.”
Probably anyone with arcane sensitivity would be able to feel it. They wouldn’t know specifically what was wrong, but they’d have a lingering sense of unease about the two bodies. I made myself move closer, cautious of where I was stepping, not only to avoid contaminating evidence—though I was fairly confident that the scene had been recorded and swept already—but also because I didn’t trust the floor to support my weight.
I crouched beside Sam Galloway. He’d been shot in the side of the head, and I could see stippling and scorch marks near his temple. I glanced over at Sara. “What’s the explanation? That he shot her and then himself?”
Ryan nodded. “Gun’s already been recovered. In his hand.”
“I can’t say that’s not what happened,” I said slowly as I shifted into othersight to deepen my assessment, “but I don’t think that’s the truth.” I stood, shifting back to normal vision, unable to keep the shudder from crawling over my skin. “I … think that someone else killed them by pulling their essence away, and then made it look like a murder—suicide. They might have still been breathing when they were shot, but they weren’t alive anymore.” I put a hand to my stomach, sick. “Ryan, this means that some person, either with the ability to consume essence or controlling a creature with the ability, is using it as a weapon.”
“Fucking shit,” Ryan said, nearly growling the words. “You said this was worse than the others. What did you mean?”
I swallowed harshly. “The essence was … ripped out, before they died.” An icy shiver rippled down my back. “I don’t know much about what could be doing this, but I can’t help but think it had to be insanely powerful to be able to rip it out before death, before the body had loosened its hold.” I shuddered, then looked at him. “What were they doing here?”
