---

We arrived at the house fifteen minutes later.

Cole, in his police uniform, was waiting for us outside.

“I think it was the same demon, man,” he said as we approached. “I haven’t reported it yet because I thought you would want to take a look.”

I clasped his shoulder. “Thanks.”

I started walking past him, but he put his arm in the way. “Man, the scene … it isn’t pretty,” he whispered. He jerked his chin to Tessa, who was only a few feet behind me. “Are you sure she can stomach it?”

“Are you two talking about me?” I turned around and found Tessa with her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips. “Whatever it is, I’m a big girl and can take it. Spill it.”

Cole shook his head.

“Some of the cases can be gory,” I explained. “The way this demon kills, it’s not easy to see.”

She lifted her chin high. Defiant. Stubborn. “I can take it.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’ll find out in a few moments, won’t we?”

Cole sighed. “You’ve been warned,” he said to her, then turned to me. “I’ll give you thirty minutes. Then I need to call this in.”

“That should be plenty. Thanks.” I patted his shoulder again and resumed my walk to the house’s front door.

I pushed the door open, and the scent of rot filled my nose. I turned my face away and inhaled through my mouth. Whatever was in here wouldn’t be pretty. And Tessa would see it. Shit. I turned to her and placed my hands up.

“Okay, I’m taking Cole’s side. Maybe you shouldn’t see this.”

Her brows tilted down. “Why? You haven’t gone in yet. How do you know it’s that bad?”

I lifted one finger. “One, Cole is saying it’s bad. Two, the smell. I know because of the smell.”

“What smell?”

I grabbed her elbows and took a step back, taking her with me. She was under the threshold, but I made sure to keep the door half closed, so she wouldn’t be able to see anything.

“This smell.”

She took a deep breath and started coughing. She gave three steps back and coughed some more. Her coughing fit lasted for almost thirty seconds; I was about to go slap her back, when she stopped.

“That was horrible.” She took another deep breath, her hand on her chest. “But I can take it.”

“Tessa, if the smell is that bad, putting a visual to it will only make it worse.”

She stomped to me and glared at me, as if she could scare me with her impressive height. “Stop babying me. Just get inside already!”

All right. If this was the way she wanted to do it, so be it. I fished two pairs of latex gloves from my pocket and handed one to her. “Here. So we don’t leave prints for the cops.”

Nodding, she took the gloves and put them on.

Then we went in.

The dining room to the right looked normal, the small home office to the left too. I climbed two steps on the stairs leading up and sniffed the air, but the scent of death wasn’t as strong here. So, I went down and turned toward the short hallway leading to the kitchen.

Judging by the kitchen, someone had been cooking. There were pots on the range, which Cole probably turned off, spices and milk on the counter, plates and half-filled glasses out on the small table in the center.

“Oh …”

I turned toward Tessa’s voice. She had gone farther than me and was now standing under the archway leading to the family room. The back of a big couch was turned to us. From behind it, two pairs of feet peeked out.

I walked around Tessa and past the couch.

I inhaled sharply, taking in the scene.

The lady fit our demon’s MO. She was in the exact same state as the other two victims we had found—white, parched skin, sizzled hair, dark circles around her eyes and mouth. I knelt beside her and pulled down on the neck of her blouse. A dark mark on her chest too.

“Those look like burn marks,” Tessa said, her voice low.

“They are burn marks.” Even though nothing else was burned.

“What about him?” Tessa pointed her foot to the man lying on the other side of the coffee table. I glanced at her just as she closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her mouth and the other to her stomach.

The man didn’t fit the demon’s MO. His hair and skin were also dry and pale, but he had no dark marks. He had a deep wound in his chest and a pool of blood around him. A trail of blood stained his mouth, nose, and ears.

Tessa turned around, clearly affected by the scene.

“You can leave, if you want.”

“I just …” She inhaled deeply, and then coughed. “Damn.”

“Open the back door and breathe in some fresh air,” I suggested. “You’ll be fine.”

I searched for more wounds but found nothing.

“Shouldn’t we look for identification? To know their names?”

I stood and turned to her. “I know their names.”

Tessa, standing under the open door, cocked an eyebrow at me. “Really?”

“Small town, remember? I might not know everyone, but I know these two. Derrick and Josie Brown. He worked at one of the local accountant offices, and she was a middle school teacher.” I paused. “Though I could find out their birthday and ages with their IDs.” I looked around. There was a purse on the kitchen counter and a man’s jacket draped over a chair at the table. “Check her purse for a wallet.” Tessa moved fast, as if having a purpose made her able to fight the nausea. While she rummaged the woman’s purse, I searched the pockets of the jacket. I found a wallet and his driver’s license and work ID. “Thirty-six.”

“She’s thirty-four.” Her eyes widened. “How about kids?”

I shook my head. “Unless they hid them from the entire town, they had no kids. But it wasn’t a secret that they’ve been trying for years.”

“You sound like one of those ladies who stays in the town square all day and gossips.”

I swallowed a laugh. Only Tessa could make me laugh at a crime scene.

She looked around. “What else?”

I walked around the living room and kitchen. There was no common demon marks, no smell of sulfur, no hidden hex bags, no hidden witch symbols, nothing unusual.

So far, I had a bag of nothing.

I sighed. “I guess there’s nothing more for us here.”

---

---

Nobody ever stopped at this house. I had been here for three days, and I had only seen everyone together at my father’s funeral. Even then, some of the members had been away working on cases across the country.

Early morning, as I had my first cup of coffee of the day, I counted nine hunters coming and going, grabbing coffee or a quick piece of toast or even leftover piece of pizza from the fridge and leaving after a quickly uttered, “Morning.”

Landon, Nathan, and Amber had been the only ones to cook a meal, sit down at the island with me, and take their time eating.

“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked as I poured my second cup of coffee. I still wasn’t awake enough for food.

Amber stood from her stool and took her plate to the sink. “I have errands to run.” She shuddered. “Take my car for a checkup, stop by the post office, and grocery shopping for all these gorillas.”

“Hey!” Nathan protested. “This gorilla is going grocery shopping too.”

I frowned. “You two always go?”

“Oh, hell no,” Amber said, opening a drawer and picking up what looked like a planner. “We have a list of chores and who has to do them and when. Unfortunately, it’s our turn to hit the store.” She flipped through the pages, showing me the most mundane things.

I smiled. It seems she hated grocery shopping as much as I did.

“How about cleaning?” I asked, genuinely curious. I couldn’t imagine any of these badass hunters scrubbing the floors on their knees.

Amber’s lips widened in a playful grin. “A witch comes over once a week and works her magic.”

My jaw hit the floor. “You’re kidding?”

Nathan chuckled. “I know it sounds absurd, but it’s true.”

“She just needs to cast a quick spell in each room, and bang!” Amber clapped her hands together right in my face, startling me. “All dust is gone.”

I turned to Landon, who was furiously scribbling on his journal beside us. “Are they shitting me?”

He lifted his gaze from his journal to me. “Nope. It’s true.”

“Oh, man …” I sighed. “How much does she charge? Because I could use her services at my dorm?” It was a joke because I was broke. However, it would be nice.

After a bit more teasing and revelations, the conversation went back to serious topics.

“What about you two?” Nathan asked. “Any new leads?”

Landon raised his eyes to him. “Not yet.” He looked at me. “Until then, we’ll be training.”

I groaned.

Nathan offered me a grin. “Planning on joining our ranks, huh?”

Landon went rigid; his eyes bulged in what looked like a mix of shock and rage. “Hell no!”

“But—”

Landon stood and towered over his friend. “I said no.”

He dropped his plate and mug in the sink, swiped his journal from the island, and then fled the kitchen as if it were on fire.

“What the hell was that?” Nathan asked.

Amber shrugged. “Who knows?” She tapped Nathan shoulder. “Let’s go or we’ll be late.”

Nathan stood. “Late for what?”

Amber rolled her eyes. “For the car service.”

“Why would I care? I’m only going to the grocery store with you.” He followed her from the kitchen through the doorway that led to the underground garage. Their voices and argument faded the farther they went.

I glanced at the other door near the front of the manor, where Landon had disappeared a minute ago. Without really thinking about it, I went after him.

As I expected, he was in my father’s office, seated in the high chair and writing in his journal.

He didn’t look up from his journal, or stop writing, as he said, “Meet me in the training room in twenty minutes.”

I wanted to scream at him. There was the fact that he was being a jerk and telling me what to do, and he was trying to decide for me whether I should become a hunter. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it until Nathan had mentioned it. I had no idea how I felt about it.

Finally, Landon stopped writing and looked up at me. “What?”

I crossed my arms, decided not to let his hard gaze intimate me. “I’m starting to wonder if working on this case with you was a good idea.”

He pointed his chin to the door behind me. “Feel free to leave.”

Ugh, sometimes this man got on my last nerves. I knew what he was trying to do. He thought I was slowing him down, that because of my inexperience, I would only get in the way and make things worse.

I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me quit. “See you in twenty minutes.”