Page 109 of Grave Beginnings

Had Cassidy meant to kill me?

I paused mid-step as something caught my eye. The trio stopped behind me, waiting. Was that a tooth? I carefully lowered my raised foot and crouched. It could be a rock, but I hadn’t brought gloves.

“What?” Knight asked.

“Is that a tooth? Or a rock?” I asked, pointing toward the tiny bump of dirt in the squashed grass.

“Nothing but dirt,” Knight said.

I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was seeing things and wishing I’d grabbed gloves. One of the other two, the woman whose badge said Hanes, knelt and prodded the dirt with her gloved hand.

“Jaw bone,” I murmured a few seconds later as Hanes hissed and the two others stepped back.

“Connected,” Hanes said after a moment of carefully brushing back the dirt. “We’ve got another body,” she called back toward the road.

“That was nothing but dirt,” Knight growled.

“Mark it,” Hanna commanded. “Finish walking. We’ll come back to it.”

I met Angel’s gaze. Had I used some sort of power and didn’t realize it? He scratched his nose and pointed lightly at his eyes. Fuck. My eyes were red, weren’t they?

He said not to fear this power, as it was part of me. Okay. I could do that, right? Be useful? These people needed justice. Who knew how long they’d been here, and why.

I studied the lot around us. How did this sight thing work? Automatically on? Prodded to work? Last night, it hadn’t felt that way. More like something bursting out of me. But as I studied thelot, I could see a handful of other spots, little more than small patches of dirt, but my gut said it was more. Instinct, or the variance?

“Sergeant Hanna?”

“Yes, Holt?”

“I think I’m seeing four other spots?”

She cursed, and everyone began to move, flooding the lot as she made me point out each one I saw, until we could mark them all and dig. That was a lot of bodies in one tiny field. The team made their way around as I waited for each section, finding remains in each, some further gone than others. This had been someone’s dumping ground for a while.

Angel made his way carefully to my side, stepping around the body and studying the ground. He crouched low, pulling a pair of gloves out of his pocket. I needed to start carrying those everywhere again.

“Do they all have candle wax around them?” Angel asked Hanes, his gaze turning to the other markers near us.

“Yes. That’s one of the first things we found.”

“Do gold and red mean something?” I asked as I squatted beside Angel. While I hadn’t paid much attention as I’d passed the other markers, the wax, now that I knew what the color splotches were, added consistency. Not a dump site, then? Something else?

“Gold is for dominance,” Hanes said. “Male energy. Red is strength and determination.”

“The colors are commonly used for summoning,” Angel said. “By witches.”

“So, it’s a party filled with murderous cops and homicidal witches. I think I preferred when my cases were gang hits. Less paperwork.”

37

Angel tuggedme out of the field and onto the side of the road as another three crews arrived, blocking off the street. Our team was the last to arrive. Wade and Ezra got out of a black van and headed our way. Ezra looked pissed.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

Angel took a step forward as if to meet Ezra head-on, but I tugged him back, willing to take whatever the guy had to throw at me. It couldn’t be worse than having my ass kicked last night.

“Not even a week,” Ezra growled.

Was he talking about the bond? I glanced from him to Angel. Did Ezra have a thing for Angel? “Did I step into something between you two?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down.