Page 20 of Death Bringer

“Here you are.” Vadim put a cup of coffee in front of her.

“Thanks.” She smiled at him and then noticed Liz was staring at them with a knowing look. “About time, too.”

He merely raised his eyebrows and looked away. Liz nudged her. “He is so hot, Ella, I don’t know how you can stand not jumping his bones.”

She felt her cheeks heat. “Whisper that a bit louder, Liz. I don’t think Morosov got it all.”

“Oh, I heard.” His low, amused voice held a hint of sex that sent little shivers up and down her spine. “For the record, I don’t know how she resists me either, Liz.”

Feehan picked up a pen and headed for the whiteboard.

“Now that we’re all here, let’s talk about the new case.” He wrote Brad Dailey’s name on the board, followed by the name of the bar and all the other details Ella and Vadim had given him. “What else do we know?”

Liz put up her hand. “I’ve been searching the Fae-Web for other cases like this, and as I was telling Ella, it’s really hard to find anything concrete, because the victims tend to go mad or die fairly quickly.”

“That’s not good.” Feehan frowned. “Can you share what you have anyway?”

Liz handed out some sheets of paper to the team. “I typed this out really fast, so excuse any errors. The Fae-Web refused to connect with our internet. I’m still waiting for some photographs of the victims.”

Ella scanned the pages. “Have you come across any mention of a man called Adam?”

“Specifically?” Liz’s silver Fae-Web unfurled over her head and started to shimmer. “Not that name, although from the fragments we have, most of the victims claim they did meet up with a helpful stranger just before their faces disappeared.”

“A helpful stranger.” Feehan wrote a question mark on the board. “Are we assuming that we’re dealing with something from Otherworld?”

Ella nodded. “Both Morosov and I felt some residual magic clinging to Brad Dailey, so we assume that’s the case.”

She glanced at Vadim for confirmation, but he appeared to be lost in thought. She kicked his shin under the table and he jumped.

“Yes, after some discussion, Ms. Walsh and I came to the conclusion that magic was involved in some way. It would be easier if Mr. Dailey had left his face alone, so that we could’ve seen what he looked like.”

“You mean we’d know if he’d been surgically interfered with rather than bespelled?” Feehan asked, his pen poised over the whiteboard.

“It’s a faint possibility. Brad is a medical student, after all, so he and his friends have access to surgical equipment.”

“But unlikely.” Feehan noted Ella’s nod. “So we’re fairly sure this is Otherworld.”

“Yes.” She tried to catch Vadim’s eye, but he was sipping his coffee and reading through Liz’s report. Why was he so reluctant to agree that the perp was from his old stomping ground? “What is interesting is that none of the people who met Adam can describe him very well, so it’s not as if he switches his identity with his victims.”

Sam raised his hand. “It says here that last year, three people in the Bay Area were taken into medical care claiming to have lost their identities. All three of them committed suicide.”

“That’s terrible,” Ella said.

“Maybe it’s one of those legendary hunters from Otherworld—you know, like their dark-angel dude who brings justice and death to the wicked.”

“In Otherworld, Sam, not here.”

“But what if he was here?” Sam looked around, his eyes wide. “What if that bloodthirsty dude was in our world?”

“We have no way of knowing whether such a creature exists, or why he would murder innocent humans.” Vadim cut across what Ella had been about to say, his tone cold. “I suggest we at least try and ground this discussion in reality.”

“Sorry, Vad.” Sam closed his mouth and hunched down in his seat. “I just thought I’d throw it out there. Otherworld has the scariest shit around.”

“Then let’s do our best to make sure we keep Brad Dailey alive and able to answer our questions.” Feehan surveyed the team. “What can we do to find this man ‘Adam’?”

“I’m going to check local conference records and hotels and see if anyone called Adamdidregister and attend anything in the city this week.” Ella leaned back in her chair. “It’s highly likely he used a false name when he met Brad, but you never know. If he’s been successfully stealing faces for years, he might not be that careful.”

“Okay, what else can we do?”

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