Page 104 of Grave Beginnings

Angel hedged, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his sweats as he lingered at the edge of the bed. “One is still moving.”

My gut clenched and flipped over. For a few seconds, I thought I’d have to race to the bathroom and upchuck the coffee. But Angel leaned in and rested his hand on the back of my neck, the warmth seeping an instant sense of calm into me. “How do you do that?”

“It’s part of our bond. Eventually, you’ll be able to do it too. Share your calm.”

“How can you be calm when there’s somedead—” I whispered the last for fear that Ivan might hear. “—walking around because of my magic? Is he stuck? You said only one wasstillmoving; what does that mean? How do I fix it? Did I pull some guy back into his rotting remains? I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than that.”

Angel perched on the edge of the bed. “Ezra says they picked up four sets of remains, mostly bones, indicating they’d been there a while, and one still somewhat…fresh,” Angel said. “He’s tried to requisition another SV, but no one has responded so far, and our DB is not talking. Either it can’t, or it needs an SV’s help to do so.”

“There were four sets of human remains in that lot?”

“Five, if you count our animated DB. And I don’t mean, like, movie animated. It’s up, and somewhat mobile, but has no heartbeat and smells like rot. Or so Wade shared. They are trying to get an ID on him, but he’s decomposed enough that we might need dental records, and that’s a little hard to do if he’s mobile.”

“I never meant to…”

Angel leaned in to rest his forehead on mine. “I understand this is overwhelming. But I need you to think of this as youwould any DB you worked with in homicide. This is a victim who we need to identify and help. Your ability may have led us to them and given us the opportunity to solve their murder. This is not a curse. I don’t know if there is any of who they were before left in there, or if it’s just muscle memory and magic keeping them upright. That’s what we need you for.”

I parsed his words, understanding the point he was trying to make, but also catching, “He’s for sure a murder victim?”

“We don’t have full forensics yet as to cause of death,” Angel said. “But it’s pretty obvious none of them kicked it naturally.”

“You think Cassidy had something to do with it?”

“We don’t know. Right now, he’s in the wind. I sent the non-human part of our team to go pick him up, but they can’t find him.”

I swallowed down the rest of my coffee and slid out of bed. “Let me shower. I’ll be ready in a bit.”

Angel hesitated again.

“What?”

“Sarge wants us to meet her at the lot.”

I flinched. “Why?”

“To see if you can detect any other remains.”

“Wouldn’t I have pulled them?”

“Jude…” Angel let a long moment pass as he seemed to decide what to say. “You shouldn’t have the power to pull what you did. Five at once is unheard of since the war. And for a new variance, not possible.”

“I didn’t do this on purpose.”

“I don’t think you did. But it means that a lot of people are going to be watching you, and I don’t like it.”

“Does Hanna think I’ve been hiding my power?”

“No. Hanna is old fae and too smart to be fooled like that. I am willing to wager that she knows exactly what you can do, and that’s why you’re on her team. But as powerful as she and therest of the fae are, they can only do so much if the military comes asking questions.”

“Avoid the military. Good to know. I never enlisted for a reason,” I said. “I’m one hundred percent anti-war. That’s why I chose homicide, getting a degree instead of working my way up. I am about helping people, not throwing them in jail.”

Angel nodded but still looked worried.

“Should I try to hide my power? Would that be better?”

“Could you? You don’t even know how you did what you did last night.”

“Desperation and fear for my little brother.”