Page 46 of Destined for Dreams
Caius knitted his brows. “Did you see the demon himself?”
“Once in passing.” Eduard sighed. “He didn’t appear to be anything more than an old man by the way he moved. I sensed nothing about him to indicate he was anything other than human, except for his red eyes. At the time, I’d thought it was a trick of the light since there was a flashing sign nearby, but now I wish I’d paid closer attention. It wasn’t until I conducted an investigation afterward that I realized the demon was the same person.”
“He was still quite weak then,” Bartol said, meeting the vampire’s frustrated gaze. “It’s doubtful you could have known.”
“If a sensor or nerou had been here, they would have noticed,” Tormod pointed out.
Eduard lifted a brow. “You are one of the infamous nerou, are you not?”
“Yes and no,” Caius answered for him. “He is Yerik’s son.”
“The daimoun? My God, I had no idea he even had a son.” The vampire turned interested eyes on Tormod. “I can see why they brought you if you have both angel and demon blood running through your veins.”
The hybrid tensed. “I have other uses.”
“He is also smart and highly astute,” Bartol defended his student. “He is well on his way to becoming an excellent tracker.”
And with Tormod’s abilities, he’d eventually surpass any supernatural in existence.
“Then I’m glad to have this opportunity to meet you,” Eduard said. No doubt the vampire was already seeing the advantages such an ally could bring him, but he spoke in a friendly tone that hid his more ambitious personality traits.
Bartol just knew him better than most.
Tormod relaxed a fraction in his seat. Since he was the odd one out among the nerou, his demon blood was a sensitive topic. No matter what he did—even if it might have been normal for a human teenager to do—all of his bad behavior was blamed on his lineage.
“Thank you,” Tormod replied, dipping his chin.
“Returning to the subject of the demon,” Bartol drew their attention back to him. “Were you able to retrace the demon’s steps after the fact? Such as where he stayed, what he did, whether he ate or not—any information could be useful to us.”
“In fact, I did.” The vampire took a folder from the coffee table next to him and opened it. “This is a list of places he visited.”
Bartol took a sheet of paper Eduard handed him. The demon had rented a hotel room, eaten at restaurants, and even visited a bookstore. There was also a set of coordinates.
“What’s this?” Bartol asked, pointing at the paper.
Eduard leaned closer. “Once we had a scent we could use, I had one of the local werewolves track the demon’s movements. We discovered our visitor’s scent was strongest in the woods not far from town. We believe he might have worked his magic there so as to not draw attention to himself, though we didn’t find much of anything disturbed.”
Bartol passed the paper over to Caius. “Did the victims have anything in common?”
“They attended the same church.”
“Is that what made you first look into the matter?”
“It was, along with the way the flu sickened people,” Eduard said. “The priest was the first to die at the end of a Sunday service. He’d only had a slight sniffle at the start, according to witnesses, but by the time he finished his sermon, he was convulsing and foaming at the mouth—with black lips. Eleven more parishioners who were present that day became sick shortly after arriving home and died in a similar manner. But that wasn’t what was most odd.”
“What do you mean?”
The vampire got up and headed for the bar to refill his drink. “This flu didn’t spread any farther and only affected a dozen people. It also had a one-hundred percent kill rate. That simply isn’t the way human diseases work to be so specific like that, especially since there were others in the congregation that day who did not fall ill. Also, the medical examiners were baffled by the unusual strain. It was the flu, but corrupted in a way they’d never seen before.”
“Did it target any particular age group?” Caius asked, handing the list of the demon’s movements over to Tormod.
“None. The youngest was five, and the oldest was seventy.”
They asked a few more questions before thanking the vampire for his help.
“Let me know if there is anything more I can do.” Eduard led them out of the office. “I have heard from sources beyond my territory that the demon troubles are growing worse as he moves along and could become catastrophic if he’s not stopped.”
Bartol halted in the foyer and turned. “If we need anything, we’ll let you know.”
