Page 73 of Darkness

Underfed? “Good point.” Though even a gut-shot traveler had put up one hell of a fight. “How do I know you don’t have friends waiting for me outside?”

Jessa snorted, a sound made even more inelegant coming from the delicate body she wore. “Hasn’t your partner taught you anything? My kind are extremely competitive. We work alone unless forced to gang up on a pimp. It’s also in my best interest to keep you safe. Now. Let’s go talk.”

Did she mean it was in her interest now and maybe not later?

Morrisey paid for his latest drink, slammed back the whiskey, and allowed Jessa to lead him outside and down the street to a shiny Mini Cooper. She got in on the driver’s side. Morrisey origami'd himself into the passenger seat. The smell of a new car assaulted his nose. He’d never liked the smell, which worked out since he’d never owned a new car.

"I understand that you responded to the recent murder of two of my kind," Jessa began, glittering eyes meeting Morrisey's in the darkness. Another face swam over the one she wore, gone in an instant.

“Whose body do you currently wear? Did she volunteer?”

“She’s a friend of the dead women and wants to see justice for them. She had no idea that they were demons—”

“Travelers,” Morrisey corrected. What? When had he gotten hung up on what to call the otherworldly immigrants?

Jessa’s lip twitched. “Okay. Travelers. She wasn't aware they were travelers, and since she met them after they took possession of human bodies, she didn't recognize them before. I knew them as travelers. They were on my missing list.”

“Do you have any more information for me?” He’d given up a night of sitting on the couch pining for Farren to be here.

“The guy who killed them was a dem… occisor. He was a gentle soul back in my realm, though I wouldn’t have called him a person. I think drone sums it up."

“Who was the drone serving? Who gave him orders?”

Jessa chewed her host’s bottom lip, not doing any favors to the delicate skin. “I don’t know. I wish I did.” The too-quick response, plus her averted gaze, encouraged doubt. “But I’ve heard whispers of a powerful traveler, using the influence of his past life enhanced by human cunning. He's been in Terra for quite some time, which gives him a distinct advantage over us new arrivals.”

Morrisey didn’t have time for Jessa’s personal history now. Maybe later. “Any idea what he wants?”

"Most of us just want survival, but there are those in any society who aren’t satisfied with simply getting by," she said, shaking her head. “They have to be superior and lord their superiority over others.”

Yes, Morrisey knew the sort. Put many of them in prison, too. “Is the same man behind all the recent murders? Are they carried out by the same travelers?”

Jessa shook out her host’s luxurious mane of hair. “No.”

“You know who I work for. Who I am.”

“When I first met you, you were an ordinary Magestra. Or this world’s Magestra. Now you know all about my kind and are a different kind of cop.”

Magestra. Like Farren. “But you trust me.” No one competent should.

Jessa met Morrisey's hard stare with her own, completely unfazed by his authority or position. “More than I do my own kind or other humans, Tenebris.”

Morrisey struck his hand on the dashboard. “Why the hell do people keep calling me that?”

“Because it sums up the essence of your being. If my kind are considered evil, and humans considered good, you lurk in the shadows. I am clueless about what you are, but you fit in with neither group. Tenebris are unknowns and can go either way.”

Morrisey made a decision. “Let me introduce you to my partner.”

“No.” Jessa pulled her heavily glossed lips into a frown. “He’s a bit too by-the-book and would tell others in his organization about me. Some don’t approve of my inhabiting healthy bodies and would cast me out into nothingness, which hurts not only me, but my hosts. Christine”—Jessa waved a hand toward her current body—“willingly hosts me to avenge her friends.”

“And the other women you possessed?”

The slight smile softened Jessa's features. “Not only did one get back her family heirlooms, but with my help, she’s taking out a restraining order, suing the abusive asshole for divorce, and requesting half of their marital properties.” She laughed. “And because I know things, I recovered the assets he tried to hide. So, she benefitted from our association. I’ll keep an eye on her. I consider her mine now, but not in a possessive way. More like a valued friend. After all, we know so much about each other, and I… I don’t have many friends. Friends are nice, I’m discovering.”

“How did you find out about the husband’s dealings?” Such knowledge might come in handy.

“A former host works in a brokerage firm.” Jessa showed a mouthful of no-doubt bleached teeth in a brilliant smile. “Like I said, friends are nice.”

“Former host. You keep in touch?”

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