Page 35 of Priest

The streets smelled like ash and a little like magic. The same scent that was all over Oliver’s bookshop. It had blown into the street, knocking out several windows of nearby shops, and though the police were keeping people back, crowds had gathered.

Priest couldn’t help but hear the quiet murmur as he approached. He passed well enough for human, but they still knew.

Demon. Monster. Abomination.

The words slipped past their lips in soft murmurs. They trusted him to save their asses, but none of them would ever shake his hand. His stomach twisted, but he couldn’t let himself give a shit about that now. He never had before, and he wasn’t about to start in the middle of a job.

Jeremiah was off to the side, speaking to the detective that looked like he was leading the investigation, so Priest slid up to Knight and Slate as they surveyed the scene. He took a deep breath, searching for something besides rubble and the faint lingering hint of magic.

“It’s not Fae,” Slate said, his voice a low rumble. He would know. Gargoyles were a distant cousin of the Fae, and being that he was once a prince of the oldest bloodline of Gargoyles, he would recognize it anywhere. “I can’t pinpoint what it is.”

“It’s the same as the scene when Jeremiah was almost killed,” Knight said.

Priest nodded. It was. Magic manipulated by human hands and wielded by… he didn’t know. Not yet.

“I have a gut feeling this is about to get a lot more familiar for me,” Knight said quietly. He had his arms wrapped around his middle, his eyes covered by dark glasses, his face paler than usual.

“Was anyone found alive?” Priest asked.

Knight shook his head. “Two people were in the building, DOA when the cops got here.”

Priest dragged a hand down his face. “Fuck.”

“That’s not all.” Knight stepped closer to him. “We found a scent trail. One of the firefighters is a Dragon. He said this hasn’t been released yet, but a third person has been reported missing.”

“Who?” Priest’s voice was sharp. He was afraid of the answer.

“One of the senior partners at the firm—his son. He’d been hired recently as an intern. There’s no sign of a body.”

Senior partner.

“Zimmerson?”

Knight raised a brow. “How’d you know?”

“I want to talk to him,” Priest said, ignoring the question. Jeremiah would fill in the rest of the team as soon as they had a chance to catch their breath.

Slate nodded. “I’m going to sniff around the other alleys and see if I can find anything. Shout if you need me.”

He broke away, and Priest moved in close to Knight, who looked like he’d been awake for days. “Tell me you’re alright.”

Knight grimaced, his fangs showing. “I’ve been better. You know what this feels like, right?”

Priest did. It wasn’t like he was ever going to forget what his brother had been through before he turned. The torment kept him up at night, kept him from being able to be close to anyone. The only thing Priest wanted to do was pull his friend close, but he knew he couldn’t. Not now.

“Have you been with your moths?”

Knight paused mid-step and barely held back his smile. “Yes. Four of them cocooned yesterday. They’ll be ready for release soon.”

Priest grinned, unable to help it. Part of Knight’s therapy was finding something he could do—something mindless to take the edge off the pain. Priest had no idea how he got into it, but he’d started breeding Death’s head Hawkmoths. Whenever he disappeared, the guys knew exactly where to find him: in his sanctuary beneath his home, sitting in a chair reading with several moths perched on his shoulders.

They spent the next couple of hours examining the scene, talking to witnesses, and conferring with the Bravo Team members who’d come out to help. Any bit of possible evidence was sent back to the analysts at HQ, their search continuing long after the police detectives had headed back to their beds.

There wasn’t much to go on, and the frustration from that ate at Priest, enraging his Demon and making his skin itch.

The head of the Bravo Team—Seven—clapped him on the shoulder just as the city began to rumble with life around them, moving forward despite the devastation happening amidst them. “We’re going to head back to HQ, start sifting through everything from this scene and the bookshop. Try and find a connection.”

Priest laid a hand over Seven’s, feeling a kinship with the Shadow Demon. “Thanks for coming to help. I know you and your team are already covering a lot for us so we can focus on this.”

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