One Broken Legacy

Chapter 13: Dawn Discussions

I woke up in a pile of pale hair, the warm body next to me drawing the covers off my shivering body. The bell kept ringing, eight o'clock. I was late for school, but I wasn't going. There was no reason to as long as Nick wasn't in danger.

I would have to check in with him later. For now, I had work to do.

Careful not to disturb the sleeping girl next to me, I climbed out of bed and changed into warmer clothes.

My work phone had measures in place to keep people from tracking it or recording any data on it, so I figured it was safe enough to log into Officer Reese's work page. I only needed a few minutes to poke around.

It loaded unbelievably slow, but the files eventually popped up. They were in chronological order and had thankfully been updated last night. There wasn't much info, just the basic facts about the location and time of the attack and the one eyewitness: Mrs. May Potter.

Kiri groaned, her eyelids fluttering. I watched for a moment as she rolled over, her hair covering her own face now.

Against my better judgment, I scrolled to the crime scene photos. It was early and my empty stomach rolled at the gore.

The victim's belly had been sliced open, chinks of flesh hanging off the body. Jane Doe was an older woman in her late fifties, greying hair dyed in blood where her head had bashed into the pavement.

The autopsy revealed two more cuts on her arms that were hard to identify in photos. She died almost instantly from the head wound, but someone had gone through the trouble of mutilating her corpse.

"What are you looking at this early?" Kiri's thick voice startled me, and I spun around to look at her. "Jeez, you're as pale as a ghost."

"It's nothing." I moved to put my phone away. She didn't need this weighing on her.

"Lexi, you promised we were in this together." Kiri held out her hand. "What has you spooked."

I surrendered the phone after a moment, the screen unlocked to the horrors of last night.

"You don't have to look deep. It's pretty gruesome."

Kiri, to my surprise, scrolled through quickly. She made no sound except for the click of her nails on the glass and an occasional grunt.

"Looks like someone was trying to send a message. Maybe a warning? Pods do that to fish and leave them for rivals to find if they're getting too close to their territory."

I laughed. "You still surprise me, Kiri."

"You underestimate me. What's it from?"

"Crime scene last night. I hacked into one of the cop's files and found the report." Kiri arched an eyebrow but said nothing. "The Alpha of the area—Daniel—warned me about these attacks, but this is the first death. I'm in over my head with this."

"Human or Coth?"

"No one knows. I don't know any Coth who kills this way if they would. There is a human organization that cruises the streets, The Children of Man. No proof though."

"There is a witness. You're going to interrogate her later, right?"

"Tomorrow. Today I need to stick by Nick. He's going to feel like hell. It's likely he'll shift this evening, and I want to make sure he's in the woods in time."

"Do you want me to poke around town and see if anyone knows anything about the attacks? They'll open up to me."

Sirens were renowned for their cruelty and malicious nature. How untrue it was for Kiri.