Demon’s Quest (High Demon #4)(32)
Author: Connie Suttle

Edness was bitterly cold. Everything looked gray, too. From the clouds and the stone of the buildings that lined the street to the street itself. All gray. More than glad I’d brought the hat and scarf, I slipped both on and followed Lok, who hunched into his coat and forged his way down the street. Few were out—not only from the cold but because it was Eight-Day on Edness and early, in addition to that.

"This is where they were taken," Lok pulled gloves on before holding his comp-vid out to me—the dot on the electronic map was steady, showing we’d reached our destination.

Edness was the first place that had a witness, and the woman had reported seeing three children instead of the two who’d been taken.

"Was there any description given of the extra child?" My breath frosted out before me as I looked around for any evidence left behind.

"Dressed in a coat and hat—she didn’t see the face and since they were bundled up with leggings on, she couldn’t determine the sex." Lok’s mouth was set, but his lips were full and sensual, below a beautiful, straight nose. I realized then that I hadn’t even seen his tattoos—he’d always worn a shirt around me. It didn’t matter, he found me inadequate. Shaking myself, I went back to looking for clues.

The stones of this building were set so well and so closely together, there was barely a seam between, leaving no rough places to catch fibers or anything else. The concrete beneath our feet was hard, gray and frozen, but no snow or sleet had fallen to betray footprints. I leaned back and stared up at the walls of the building—there were no windows on our level, but there were windows running in neat rows two stories up and higher. I remembered that two of the girls on Tulgalan had seemed to disappear, as if snatched from the air.

"Can we get into this building?" I asked Lok. "I want to see the rooms overlooking this spot." Lok now was looking upward, frowning. Probably wondering what I hoped to find there. He tapped Lendill’s code into the comp-vid and waited for an answer.

"Reah wants to see the rooms inside the building overlooking the kidnapping site," Lok explained.

"I’ll clear it with the authorities; give me a tick or two." Lendill terminated the call. Lok and I both huddled against the building in an attempt to block the wind—any exposed skin was freezing. I turned my back to it; that part was better shielded than my front. After what seemed a click, Lendill contacted us.

"The building manager will meet you outside those rooms—units 224 and 225. Don’t waste his time and remember to say thank you."

"We will," Lok promised and shut off the call. I was more than thankful to go inside the building and ride the elevator up to the second floor. We waited outside unit 224 as instructed. I wondered what the manager might say if I asked to see 324 and 325.

The building manager showed up half a click later, key chip in hand. "We rent some units out to businessmen and such who come for short stays," he said, slipping the chip into the reader. "We have three staying in this unit, but they didn’t answer when I rang them and the comp-unit inside says that there’s no life source there right now. That’s the only reason I gave permission to your supervisor." I had no idea how Lendill had identified himself—maybe he didn’t want to frighten the man by saying he was Vice-Director Lendill Schaff.

"Oh, my. This was not in our agreement," the man said as we walked inside. The stench nearly knocked me down. Inside one of the bedrooms, we found the source of the smell. Andree Wirth’s decomposing body lay face-down on the bed, the coverlet bunched up around her. I wanted to gag. Lok gripped my arm—hard—telling me to breathe through my mouth. The building manager didn’t have as much success—he was vomiting in the hallway outside after running through the door to get away from the girl’s body.

"Vice-Director, we have a situation here," Lok said the moment Lendill answered the call. He and Norian were there beside us in ticks.

"This is the first girl taken from Tulgalan," I said, my gag reflex still trying to kick in. Norian was on his comp-vid, asking for local agents and a forensics team to come right away. Lendill went to speak with the building manager, who was still heaving at times, although the contents of his stomach had been emptied long ago.

"So, we need to check the rooms above where she was taken," Lok jerked his head toward Andree’s body. Andree, the other two on Tulgalan, the three on Edness and one boy from Farrahn were the only ones that we knew of who’d had been taken next to a building.

"Why did they not consume her?" Lendill asked softly. He’d come back to stand beside me. Norian was now talking to the building manager.

"Perhaps they weren’t hungry, or she died too soon?" I asked. "Did she have a medical condition, Lok?"

"It says here that she had an eye defect—partially blind in one eye, but it didn’t interfere with much as far as her schoolwork went," Lendill beat Lok to the punch.

"So, nothing really to make her a bad candidate for the soul-shift or for the Ra’Ak’s dinner," I said. "Norian, will you make sure they do a rape check?" I turned to him when he walked inside the bedroom.

"Reah, we always do that. But you just frightened me, I think."

I was frightening myself with my thoughts. If the soul-shifting warlock had been an adult male once, there was nothing to prevent him from entertaining or acting upon any of his more prurient thoughts. Andree had been a pretty girl, with long, dark hair and blue eyes.

The forensics team came in while we speculated, and we were moved to the sitting room while the ASD operatives did their job. The other agents were busily searching through the building manager’s comp-vid, recording information regarding the three men the suite had been rented to. I didn’t think they were going to find anything except a dead end on that idea. Ra’Ak were powerful and could construct aliases that looked legitimate just as well as the ASD could. They were power-wielders in their own right, and only the Saa Thalarr and the Larentii might be more adept.

"The probe confirms se**n samples," a forensics specialist came out to talk with Norian and Lendill. "The DNA matches that of one of the boys taken from Dindre. There may be more, but it’s degenerated."

"I think we have the information we wanted," Norian nodded at the man, who went back to the bedroom.

"Can we get into the rooms over the street in Tulgalan? Not where Andree was taken—the other two." I turned to Norian. Andree had been snatched for sexual purposes, nothing more, and her boyfriend, who’d been there with her, had been bitten, probably because he tried to defend her. They’d fought long enough to leave physical evidence behind, along with Andree’s boyfriend. After he’d been left behind, he’d bitten others. Therefore, the standoff with the spawn in the schoolyard had occurred. I’d said all that aloud, without really meaning to.