Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2)(20)

There had been a cop out there earlier, and then a few photographers lurking around to get a shot, but now that dusk had given way to dark, the scene had emptied out. Not much to see with the body carted off and the business closed.

Kate abandoned the crossword and stepped out into the night, fitting the wireless bud into her ear. She tapped her phone and silence gave way to voices talking over each other.

“Not what I’m saying—”

“—strike you as weird?”

“Mercury in retrograde or something—”

Kate cleared her throat. “Hey guys,” she said, “reporting for duty.”

She was met by a swell of “hey” and “what’s up?” and “it sounds cool when she says it.”

“Any updates?” she asked, setting off down the block.

“No new leads,” said Teo over the continuous tap of fingers on a keyboard.

Kate crossed the street, heading toward the crime-scene tape. “Square one, then,” she said, ducking under the yellow line. She skirted the markers, trying to recreate the scene in her mind. Where had the monster come from? Where would it go next?

“You think it’ll come back?” asked Liam.

Kate crouched, fingers hovering over the shadow of a bloodstain. “These monsters aren’t all that bright. This one found a meal. No reason it won’t come back looking for another.”

She pulled a UV light from her back pocket. As she switched it on, the bloodstain beneath her turned vivid blue against the pavement. So did a trail. It led away like bread crumbs, clusters of dry drops where the blood had dripped from the monster’s taloned hands. Kate straightened, following the trail down the alley.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she whispered. “Nice juicy human heart.”

“Not funny, Kate,” said Riley.

But the blue dots had already vanished, the trail gone cold. Kate sighed and pocketed the light. It had taken her two weeks to find the last pair of monsters, with three bodies to go on. But the night was young, and she had to start somewhere.

“Time to widen the net,” she said.

“Already on it,” answered Bea as the furious sound of typing filled Kate’s earpiece and the Wardens did what the Wardens did best: hack street cameras across the city.

“Let’s start with a quarter-mile radius.”

“I’ve got eyes on First through Third over to Clement.”

“Fourth through Ninth as high as Bradley.”

“Hey, little lady.”

The voice came from behind her, its edges slurred. Kate rolled her eyes and turned to find a man leering, his eyes glassy as they roved across her. Because of course, monsters weren’t the only thing she had to worry about. “Excuse me?”

“Kick his ass,” offered Bea.

“Kate,” warned Riley.

“Shouldn’t be out all alone.” The man swayed a little. “Not safe.”

Kate arched a brow, fingers drifting toward the taser at her belt. “That so?”

He took another step toward her. “Think of all the bad things that could happen.”

“You planning to protect me?”

The man gave a weak chuckle and licked his lips. “No.”

He lunged for her arm, and when Kate took a single swift step back, he stumbled, losing his balance. She caught him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. He slid down the bricks with a groan, but there was no time to celebrate.

Because just then, someone screamed.

The sound hit Kate in the stomach and she spun, already moving toward the source as a second voice joined in, and a third.

She sprinted down the block and skidded around the corner, expecting to find a Heart Eater amid a crowd of people. But the street was empty, and the screams were coming from inside a restaurant. Kate slammed to a stop as a line of blood streaked across the front window. The door hung open and someone was crawling forward on hands and knees, while others slumped on tables. At the back of the room she saw a man, holding what looked like a pair of kitchen knives. The knives were slick with blood, and his eyes shone strangely, and he was smiling—not a deranged grin, but something calm, almost peaceful, which made the whole scene so much worse.

Kate touched her ear. “Call the police.”

“What?” asked Teo. “What’s going—”

Her voice was shaking. “One Sixteen South Marks.”

A body tumbled back into the glass, leaving a red streak in its wake. The man with the knives vanished into the kitchen.

“Kate, are you—”

“Now.”

The air smelled like blood and panic as she forced herself toward the restaurant, toward the massacre, toward the chaos.

And there, in the middle of it all, so still she almost didn’t see it, stood a monster.

Not a Heart Eater, but something else, something shaped more or less like a person, at least around the edges, but made entirely of shadow. It stood, watching the scene unfold with a serenity that matched the killer’s, and as it watched, it seemed to grow more solid, more real, details etching themselves across the blank canvas of its skin.

“Hey!” she called out.

The monster twitched at the sound of her voice and turned toward her, revealing the edge of a silver eye just as sirens came blaring down the street. Kate spun around as the red-and-blue strobes of police cars swung around the corner, barreling past her toward the restaurant, where the screams had given way to horrible, blanketing silence.