Page 77 of The Fire Went Wild

My mouth goes dry. I can’t look away from him. He’s serious about it. About protecting me.

I just nod, and Jaxon releases me slowly and turns back to the fence. I sink down to sit cross-legged in the grass and swipe his phone open. He doesn’t bother keeping it locked.

I pull up the CrimeSolvers forum, my heart fluttering inside my chest. It feels bizarre to be looking at it again. The last time I was on here, all I wanted was to find Edie. Now, it seems she’s living with the murderer who nearly killed her fifteen years ago, and I actuallyama murderer.

Still, I scroll through the posts. I skip over the dedicated Scott Hensner thread even though there are a dozen new comments, my hands shaking a little as I swipe down.

Then I see it:

Another occult-related murder in Houston.

I stop and stare at it for a few seconds before tapping on the link, every atom in my body vibrating. Jaxon’s pretending towork on the fence, but I can tell he’s listening to me, or sensing me. Whatever it is he does.

The post takes a few seconds to load.

ajhollendar78:Hey, CrimeSolvers! I hadn’t seen this posted yet and thought it might be worth diving into, especially since there’s a very likely connection toanother case.

A link here, although I don’t bother clicking on it.

I copied the article over from the Houston Chronicle.

Memorial Death Likely Homicide, Police Say

Oliver Raffia, 58, was found dead in his Memorial home this past Thursday in a suspected homicide.

“Oliver Raffia.” I roll the name around on my tongue and look up to find Jaxon has paused his work, although he’s not quite looking at me. “His name was Oliver Raffia.”

“Does that make you feel better?” Jaxon asks quietly.

I scowl at him and go back to reading the article.

Police have no leads for the death of Raffia, who was discovered by an acquaintance on Thursday afternoon. However, Houston Police Chief Eric Ramirez says that the department is putting its full efforts into locating the perpetrator.

“This was an unusually violent crime,” Ramirez said in a recent press conference. “Rest assured that we will see the killer brought to justice.”

Me,I think numbly.He’s talking about me.

For twenty years, Raffia was the owner of the Midnight Roux micro chain of all-night seafood restaurants, which currently has five locationsthroughout the Houston metro. He sold the chain two years ago and has been living in retirement since.

“He kept to himself,” says Raffia’s long-time neighbor, Allison Millner. “I can’t imagine why anyone would do this to him.”

For a long time, all I can do is stare down at the phone, at that last quote.I can’t imagine why anyone would do this to him.

Why did I do that to him? Sitting in the Louisiana grass, the sun warming my shoulders, it feels like it all happened to someone else. Like it can’t be real. But in the moment, it just feltright. An urge that needed to be satiated.

It still feels right, if I’m being honest.

“You okay over there?” Jaxon stretches another wire across the gap in the fence, hemming us in.

“Fine.” I hate that my voice comes out strangled. “I just—” I scroll down on Jaxon’s phone, skimming the rest of the post on CrimeSolvers. And then two words jump out at me:

Eclipse Brotherhood.

I’ve heard that before. One of the men who cut the hole in the fence said it to me, how they thought Jaxon had been working for some group with that name when he killed their—boss, or whoever it was. I scroll back up and start reading from the beginning.

ajhollendar78:So I’ve been following this story since they first found Raffia’s body since I’ve got some connections at HPD. This case would be interesting in and of itself, of course, but what really gets me—and what the papers aren’t talking about—is that Raffia, the victim here, has ties to the Occult Underground. I’m talking groups like the Eclipse Brotherhood and Promethean Fire. It’s an open secret inHouston that Midnight Roux was connected to the ULS before it got sold, and I’ve heard from my contacts that Raffia is heavily involved in their leadership. This is likely an OU killing, and I personally think it’s connected to Dennis Randall’s death a month or so ago. Remember, with theweird sigils?

My throat gets all tight and restricted as I click on that last link, and I’m not surprised at all when I see the same post that brought me to Jaxon in the first place.

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