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  “I was sitting at those coordinates.”

  “I see.” He paused a few moments. “How will you proceed?”

  “I installed a bug outside his window. I told Brent to monitor for anything suspicious. Haven’t heard back so I’m assuming we’ve scared them. I want eyes on Menon, but I’ll have my own people on it.”

  “I can send backup.”

  “It’ll be a waste of time. They won’t see anything.”

  Rossi paused. “Is this the glamor thing you told me about?”

  “Not really. More like intra-dimensional travel.” Vee had decided that filtering information to Rossi had to be done smartly. A little at a time, rather than shocking the man’s system into complete denial.

  “Meaning?”

  “The ability to move between dimensions. It isn’t teleportation, per se. It’s more using a different travel route that overlaps our dimension, just one that cannot be seen.”

  “Interesting.”

  It was how gods and demons traveled from one plane to the next. The Heavens were really located in the skies, just not within the earthly dimension. Otherwise, commercial airlines would have a terrible time finding a clear flight path from one city to the next.

  Or so Vee had heard.

  Rossi rang off with a promise to update Vee as soon as the tech guys had hidden the coroner’s report.

  Now, she debated telling Monroe about the professor, then considered that they’d find out soon enough. She didn’t believe for a second that Monroe’s team would continue to keep their hands off the evidence. They’d have an eye on the professor already.

  Vee dialed Nivaan. He picked up on the first ring.

  “Hey,” he said. A woman’s voice echoed in the background and a baby’s soft whimpers could be heard. Vee’s stomach twinged as she wondered if they were his family. She hadn’t even thought to ask if he was married.

  And to think he’d kissed her?

  Hold your horses, woman. A crying kid and female voice do not a wife and baby make.

  She shook her head. She was turning into a paranoid psycho.

  “Hey. If you have a couple people to spare, could you have someone keep a discreet eye on our professor?”

  A short silence, then a chuckle followed by a baby’s gurgle. “Already on it. Krish is out there with Ben.”

  “Tell them not to use their glamor.” Supernaturals were quite capable of identifying the glamors of super of their own kind. Beyond the natural ability to detect one’s own kind, most supernaturals could only see another supe when their glamor was down. Cross-species detection was a little more difficult, but the glamor let off a low vibration that was likely to alert someone old and powerful, with honed abilities. Hence a supernatural had to be careful at all times.

  Another pause, then a grunt of approval. “Makes sense. I’ll tell them as soon as I put the phone down.”

  “Oh, and tell them to check if the cops are staking the place out.”

  “Will do.”

  “And Nivaan?”

  “Yes, Vee?” A smile echoed in his tone.

  “Thanks.”

  “What for?” He sounded genuinely curious.

  “For helping me. I know it wasn’t easy considering the possibility of implicating yourself.” And considering he was likely married.

  “I do what I must for my people,” he said softly.

  Vee cleared her throat. “Ok. I gotta go. Text me if you have any news.”

  Nivaan rang off, the background sound of mother and baby now silent.

  Vee refused to ponder the meaning.

  Chapter 36

  Vee came up with a plan to get her two security guys to work better together. She dragged them both over to the gym and insisted on going through some routines.

  Syama’s fighting style was similar to Kalari, and they’d sparred together before. Vee didn’t need to concentrate on her too much. Akil on the other hand—despite his elegant appearance—was a completely uncoordinated mess.

  “How is this so hard for you?” Syama’s tone was almost a whine as she glared at Akil, who lay on the floor, his skin flushed, holding his knuckles after having them rapped thrice by the flat of Vee’s sword-blade.

  Akil struggled for breath and got to his feet, cradling his swollen fingers. “I don’t do hand-to-hand combat.”

  Syama gave the glistening silver dagger in his hand a pointed look. “And that’s just for show?”

  Akil shook his head. “It’s . . . magical. They both work together.” He glanced at the second dagger of the set and bent to retrieve it from the floor at his feet. “When I use them together they work to protect me from attack.”

  “Meaning?” Vee asked, curious now.

  Akil nodded, raised the daggers and held them in front of him and took a shuddering breath. “Attack me with your sword.”

  Vee lifted an eyebrow then raised her sword, swiping it half-heartedly at Akil’s loosely-crossed blades. The sound of the impact rang around the room, slicing into Vee’s ears.

  Syama winced too, but Vee barely registered it as she stared at her sword in shock. Her blade had impacted Akil’s pair of daggers, then continued on its path, slicing through them and cutting Akil in half. The lack of solidity to his body only offered a small measure of relief.

  Vee straightened and inhaled. “So it makes you non-corporeal.”

  Akil tilted his head in a short bow.

  But Vee was shaking her head. “It’s the easy way out.”

  “Why?” The boy’s eyebrows were twisted into a frown. Over his shoulder, Syama gave Vee a look to which she responded with a nod and a grin.

  Syama stepped forward, giving Akil’s left fist a rap while Vee did the same on the other hand.

  Without a weapon, the boy was defenseless as Syama came up behind him, put one blade to his neck and the other to the back of his ribs. Vee placed her sword at his throat.

  “Akil shish-kabob?”

  The sirin merely grinned.

  He shimmered, his image wavering and losing solidity. Then he shattered into a cloud of silver-tinged white feathers.

  Vee blinked as her sword now pointed at nothing. Grinning, she tracked the cloud of feathers as it surged into the air, transformed smoothly into an owl which glided around to the room and came to a perfect landing on the handlebars of the exercycle.

  “Nice,” Vee grinned as Syama nodded in agreement. “But, you still need to be familiar with the way Syama and I fight. That way you can predict our movements and know how to act in concert with us.”

  The owl swooped down, transforming into a boy as his feet touched the floor. Akil bent to pick up his daggers. Straightening, he smiled. “I see what you mean. I will practice with you. Your take on things is refreshing as well as educational.”

  Vee wasn’t sure what to say in response to Akil’s strange comment. Instead, she nodded and instructed the two to begin an intense sparring session. Akil was a fast learner and Vee was beginning to get used to the idea of having the boy around.

  Guess Narasimha knew what he was doing when he’d sent the sirin to Vee.

  Chapter 37

  Vee had just showered and changed when her phone began to vibrate. The low growl of the device was amplified as it skidded across the surface of her dresser, and she lunged for it as it danced over the edge.

  “Vee?”

  “Brent.” Vee hoped the tech nerd had something worthwhile for her. And considering the excited lilt to his voice, she suspected he did. “What do you have?”

  “I was listening to the feed on that bug you put at the professor’s house. We got a mention of a factory.”

  A factory? “That’s a probable location for a murder, or for cult activity. If it’s a cult.” Vee spoke almost to herself.

  Brent cleared his throat. “Agreed. I’ll keep listening. I’ll ring if I hear anything else.”

  “Okay. Anything from the GPS on the victim’s phone?”

  The clacking of keys that filtered through t
he phone confirmed that Brent was processing the tracking, having forgotten to respond with a yes or a no.

  Vee hid a grin. The guy’s mind was always in a different world, or off on a different tangent than the rest of the normal people around him.

  “Right, I’ve got it moving south toward the old Nevin’s Industrial Park.”

  Vee frowned and ignored him. “The place is mostly abandoned now.”

  “Yeah. A number of buildings are on the list for demolition.”

  “Would make it difficult to hide out there.”

  “Exactly. Areas like Nevins are dangerous in that demolitions go off intermittently as the lawyers continue to rescind leases and level the buildings. Parker Nevins lost millions using that land. It hadn’t belonged to him, but he’d gone ahead and developed it anyway. Leased plots in his fancy new industrial zone with state-of-the-art security and maintenance facilities. Right now, the homeless and the drug-peddlers have moved in, making the place a nightmare to keep secure.”

  Sometimes Brent was heartwarmingly informative. “Not going to be easy for me to enter the zone to investigate.”

  Brent chuckled. “Not unless you own the place. Or at least know the owner.”

  Vee had assumed as much. “Look into that for me, okay?”

  “Already on it.”

  “Thanks. I’ll do a physical search, but right now I’m limited on manpower and we can’t show our hand throwing FBI agents at the place.”

  “Yeah. Let me know if you come up with any ideas on that.”

  Vee smiled. “I most certainly will.” Then she paused. “Oh, I need a detailed report on the owner of that phone you sent. Name, address, date of purchase are fine but I need recent activity. As in current movements, app syncs, data downloads et cetera.”

  “You got it. I’ll email that to you in a couple minutes.” Tapping again. “What are you thinking?”

  “The watch syncs with the phone, right?”

  “As long as the owner has the sync set up, yes.”

  “Okay, if it’s all working fine, won’t some of the activity on the phone show on the watch?” When Brent grunted an affirmative, Vee said, “So if this phone belongs to the victim and it’s been stolen by the killer, then it's possible that the phone will transmit some of that data to the watch right?”

  “Yup.” Brent already sounded distracted.

  Vee exhaled. “I need to look at the watch.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, don’t some mobile phone users sync files to other cloud devices? What you have so far are the basics. What if the victim saved photos to a different cloud, and documents somewhere else?”

  Vee heard a slapping sound and her eyes widened. “What was that?”

  “It’s called a face-palm…”

  Vee grinned. She wasn’t surprised that he was berating himself. That was something he should have been onto already.

  “Mmhh. Okay.”

  “You’ll have to speak to Monroe about the watch, though.”

  “I thought you had it?”

  “Nope. We requested it. All they sent over was the serial number and a digital copy of the sim.”

  Vee snorted. Trust Monroe to attempt to make things a little more complicated than they needed it to be.

  Either that or the woman was just being overly careful.

  “Great.” Vee suppressed a groan. “I’ll have to get to the station to take a look at the watch.”

  “Yeah. Good luck,” the techie said. Vee snorted. “Oh, and can you fingerprint it for me? I need a second set for comparison.”

  “Yes, sir,” Vee said, before signing off.

  Chapter 38

  Vee drove to the police station with the sirin in the back seat and Syama at her side, sitting there in total silence.

  Yet, for the first time Vee felt the girl’s quiet reflection was nothing more than just that. It had been a while since she’d felt any true anger or negativity from the hellhound, and that felt good.

  Vee and Syama got out of the car while Akil took flight and used his glamor to turn himself invisible, flying over the top of the building.

  Neither girl paid much attention as they both knew there was little chance of getting rid of him. He took his job seriously.

  Vee entered the building and Syama hung back, loitering in the waiting area. Vee headed inside, walking through the closely-packed desks. Monroe and her team had their own small office to the left, and Vee came to a stop on the threshold, knocking lightly on the glass of the door.

  Monroe looked up from her computer, frowning at the sight of Vee, unannounced in her doorway.

  “Agent Shankar?” Monroe got to her feet. “What can I do for you?”

  Vee stepped inside, glancing around at the officers at their desks, heads down but eyes flicking toward her. Vee figured they were waiting to see Monroe chew her out.

  Vee approached the desk and sat in the single chair in front of Monroe’s desk. “I need to have a look at the evidence from the jogger’s murder scene.”

  The detective studied Vee for a moment, first suspicion then irritation flitting across her features. “What’s going on?”

  Vee shook her head. “Nothing that I know of. I just need to look at the evidence. I want to check that watch again.”

  She paused wondering why she should have to justify her reasons to look at evidence that should be shared, especially since the FBI had jurisdiction.

  When she met Monroe’s eyes she had a suspicion that the detective had come to the same conclusion. Whatever game she’d wanted to play, she must have accepted that there were lines she ought not to cross.

  Monroe got to her feet. “Fine, come along. We’ve been going over the evidence. It’s all in the boardroom.” Without a word Monroe walked off, and Vee scrambled to follow.

  Monroe led her down the hall to a large boardroom, a table with ten chairs and three giant whiteboards along the long wall. One was dedicated to the killing of the girl in the alley, the second to the jogger, and the third to extraneous info.

  On the table were five evidence boxes. Monroe waved at them, and Vee didn’t waste a moment. She hurried over, found the box containing the evidence from the jogger’s murder, and rifled through the bags.

  When she pulled out the bag marked “Watch,” she let out a shocked breath, turned and stared at Monroe, holding up the empty plastic envelope.

  Monroe’s eyes widened, her skin flushing with shock. She hurried to the box, grabbed the bag from Vee’s hand and studied it hard.

  “What the hell?”

  Vee turned to look at Monroe, fury in her eyes. “I thought the evidence was supposed to be secure?” Vee wanted to be angry with the detective, but it was enough to see the look in her eyes to know that Monroe had had nothing to do with the disappearance.

  Monroe growled and slammed her palm onto the table. “This room is secure. This should not have happened.” She glanced around the room, a cold desperation in her eyes.

  Vee stiffened. Evidence was stolen. For whatever reason, someone had stolen only one piece of the evidence. Would they stop at one item?

  What else would they want to take?

  Vee and Monroe both turned to look at each other, spun on their heels and raced out of the room. They headed for the elevators and Monroe punched the button three times, growled, and then ran for the stairwell door.

  Monroe slammed it open and Vee followed.

  A flat clicking, and the rush of feathers on air kept pace with Vee and a glance over her shoulder confirmed that both Syama and Akil were on her tail.

  They sped down the three flights to the autopsy room, the hollow sounds of heels echoing the empty fear in Vee’s heart.

  The closer they got to Max’s lab, the harder Vee’s heart raced. Vee tugged her Glock from her holster and held it out, thumb near the safety just in case. They reached the autopsy room doors which were usually sealed and needed a passcode.

  Vee and Monroe came to a stop, the detective’s breat
hing steady even after the sprin down the stairs.

  Syama drew up at Vee’s side, her nose rising up to sniff the narrow space between the doors, while the white owl floated down the corridor at their left, completing a cursory inspection.

  The two women exchanged a worried look after staring hard at the doors. Doors that should have been sealed, but were now standing ajar.

  Vee pulled one door open and rushed inside, aiming her weapon as she spun around and scanning the lab. The hellhound’s claws clicked on the tiles as she hurried around and sniffed the room for intruders.

  Metal gurneys glinted in the harsh fluorescent light and the bite of the chemicals made Vee’s stomach turn.

  She shifted her sight to study the aural patterns around the room. Traces of Jo’s aura patterned the lab, back and forth, crisscrossing over and over with Max’s remnants from today, leading up to a few days in the past.

  But Jo had left the lab hours ago, leaving Max alone for a while until someone else entered. Someone who’d propped the door open with a long thin object.

  Someone who’d held a gun in his hand, who’d aimed it at a figure walking out of the inner refrigeration room.

  Akil swooped past Vee, curving around to land at the other end of the lab. He settled on the edge of the last autopsy table and stared wide-eyed at the freezer door. Syama’s low growl filled the lab, and the hair on the back of Vee’s neck stood on end.

  Vee rushed past Monroe, brushing into the detective’s shoulder so sharply that she received a dirty—though curious—look. Vee ignored it and moved past her, eyes on the narrow space between the last two autopsy tables. The auras also led her toward the closed refrigerator door, where Syama now waited under the watchful eye of the white owl, both giving Vee expectant looks.

  “Max?” Vee ran to the door, pulled it open and came face-to-face with a very frozen Max. His skin was gray, lips blue and his eyebrows and hair were covered in a layer of frost. The coroner—who had been hugging himself tightly and pacing the floor of the icy freezer—came to a sudden stop when Vee almost barreled right into him.

  “Max,” Vee gasped, rushing toward him. She threw her arms around him, ignoring the prickling of ice on her skin, and pulled him out of the freezing room and into the lab, scattering dog and bird alike. Monroe paused mid-speech, a phone to her ear, her eyes wide, staring at Max as if she’d seen a ghost.