Page 42 of Enticing Monsters

I shrug her off of me and stalk towards the far end of the room. I don’t want to hear false promises or reassurances. Right now, I’m not sure if we’llevercatch this killer. He’s smarter than us. I don’t know how he always manages to stay one step ahead of us, but he does. This was supposed to be our big lead, and what did we find? A dead body. Like always, we were too late. Too goddamn late.

Dammit, Devyn! If you were a better agent, you could’ve captured this bastard.

I place my hands on the cold metal operating table, squeeze my eyelids shut, and try to breathe. Just breathe. Why does it feel as if I’m inhaling razor blades? Angry tears prick the backs of my eyes, burning like I’ve been struck by hot pokers.

With a roar, I toss the table to the side, watching as it careens off the wall.

What if that woman had been Sera?

I need to find this bastard!

I curl my hands into fists and close my eyes again, trying my best to modulate my breathing. But it’s hard with emotions from my team barraging me from all directions, everything amplified.

Anger.

Hopelessness.

Fury.

Sadness.

“Devyn? Are you okay?” Angelica takes a tentative step forward, and with my defenses lowered the way they are, her own emotions slice at my skin like the dull edge of a blade.

Worry.

Fear.

Anger.

“I’m fine,” I manage to say through gritted teeth. “Continue searching the premises. Instruct Brenda to check the security cameras nearby. Maybe they picked something up. Have Dustin scan the room for fingerprints. Tell Lacroix to study the magical signatures and see if anything sticks out.”

“But sir?—”

“That’s an order, Angelica,” I snap, my self-control incinerating as anger takes over.

The older woman dips her chin once and then hurries to oblige, joining the half dozen other agents already present.

I remain where I am, breathing heavily, my own emotions too tumultuous to comprehend. I want… No, IneedSera. I need to hold her and know that she’s safe, that she hasn’t been harmed, that she isn’t the dead body staring up at me with dull blue eyes, the color turning a murky gray in death.

But I can’t.

Not yet.

I have a job to do, and I can’t afford any distractions, not with lives on the line.

Inhaling shakily, I straighten and pivot on my heel. I immediately stalk towards a small gathering of agents, all of them hovered around what appears to be a diagram.

“What did you find?” I demand, and one of them steps aside for me to see. A huge meteorite crashes in my chest, raining the wreckage into my stomach. “What is this?”

The paper looks as if it was hastily torn out of a book and then crumpled into a ball. My guess is it was supposed to land in the empty garbage bin nearby but hit the floor instead and went unnoticed when the building was evacuated.

“It looks to be the anatomy of a fae,” Lacroix murmurs, his frown deepening.

“Not just any fae,” another agent says, her tone subdued.

I can’t pull my gaze off of the crude drawing before me to acknowledge her.

She’s right. It’s not just any fae.

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