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“Incident?” Aaron asked.

“A-Actually…an accident.”

Evan’s eyebrow twitched, patience fraying. “Elaborate.”

Mr. Greene blinked at Evan’s dry tone, and Aaron cleared his throat before offering them a pleasant smile. “We must know the situation in order to deal with it. So, could you please tell us more about this accident?”

When Mr. Greene simply opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to utter a word, his wife blew out a breath and stepped forward.

“One of the workers died,” she grimaced.

Aaron sucked in an audible gasp, the smile plastered on his face and wide eyes haunting Evan’s periphery. He looked like one of those theatrical masks, wearing an eerie, hollow smile with just as eerie, hollow eyes.

“Death is more common than rare. Why is that so strange?” Evan asked, briefly glancing at their driver, who was standing like a taut rubber band behind them. The man was close to combusting from the way his shoulders tensed and veins surfaced on his neck. He glanced at Evan and then quickly shrank back into himself.

“It was not…natural,” Mrs. Greene said, hunting for the last word.

And? What’s with the dramatic pause?How many times do I have to ask before you tell me everything?

Evan shot one impatient glance at Aaron, and he dipped his chin in understanding, urging the couple before Evan exploded, “Please go on. Tell us what exactly happened.”

The Greene couple glanced at each other, then at Evan, before Mrs. Greene gingerly explained, “Two days back we hired some people to tidy up the place. The same day, we got a call saying one of the workers had gone missing. We later found his body on the top floor, but it was…” She swallowed. “There was no b-blood in him. Or flesh.”

“Only a thin layer of skin over his skeleton,” Mr. Greene added, dazed. “If not for his uniform and name tag, we would’ve never identified the body.”

A body sucked dry of blood and flesh.

“Hm,” Evan squinted up at the mansion. “Absorption.”

Mrs. Greene shifted behind Evan, peeking at the mansion over his shoulder. “What is that?”

“When a ghost, demon, or dark entity absorbs spiritual energy from a living human body,” Evan dug into his backpack, fiddling with the contents inside as he casually explained, “It can be done by different methods. The quickest and most efficient is draining the spiritual energy directly through blood and flesh.”

Someone gagged behind them, sounding too much like Mr. Greene.

Thud.

Everyone turned around at the sound. The spot where the driver once stood was empty. Now he lay perfectly still on the ground, face-down in the dirt.

The poor driver had tried to be brave and stand his ground, but then the gory details of the worker’s death and then Evan’sconfirmation that it was caused by something inhuman had snapped the last thread holding him upright.

“So, there are less cruel methods?” Mrs. Greene prodded, ignoring her driver as she scooted closer to Evan, and Aaron rushed to help the unconscious man.

Evan sighed. “There are. But hungry spirits aren’t exactly patient,” he fished out two black threads—each containing thirteen knots from one end to another—and handed them to the couple. “Tie these around your wrists anddon’ttake them off unless I say so.”

“For your safety,” Aaron quickly added as he returned after stuffing the driver into the car.

The couple glanced at the threads, and the wife was the first to quirk a skeptical brow. “Does this really work?”

Evan’s eyes snapped shut, a vein throbbing in his temple.

That fucking question... Sometimes people really proved how much theydidn’tdeserve to be helped, and Evan was contemplating whether these loose-tongued airheads were any different.

They weren’t.

Noticing the steam emanating from Evan’s ears, Aaron cleared his throat, patting himsoftlyon the back. Pulling up the cuff of his blazer and shirt, Aaron flashed the identical black thread on his wrist. “It’s a protection talisman dipped in the water of the sacred Del. Every knot on the thread is tied by a spell. You should wear it inside—”

“Unless you’d rather end up like that worker,” Evan finished.