Page 25 of Grave Beginnings

“Do you want my cucumbers, too?” I asked. “I’m not a fan.”

“You like pickles but not cucumbers? They are technically the same thing.”

“They don’t taste the same.”

“There’s a dick joke there somewhere, right?”

I laughed. “Yeah, probably.” I held them up. “Want them?”

“Sure. Put them in my box.” He one-handed another triangle, devouring it in two bites and crunching chips in between as he steered us up to the highway. He glanced my way. “You may want to close up your box until we get through the Veil, since the elevator made you queasy.”

I closed my sandwich box and stared out the window as we approached the overrun section of the highway. A thousand times, I’d driven through it, holding my breath, and never once gotten off to enter the Necropolis on the other side. Angel drove us three exits down before leaving the freeway and entering into the cloud-covered darkness. I gripped the door handle, heart pounding as I thought of a dozen stories I’d heard about people getting lost and never returning after entering the Veil.

The streets bore an eerie resemblance to what I remembered before the split, though the buildings had morphed into shapes not possible in human architecture, windows looking like eyes and doors like gaping mouths.

“Fuck,” Angel cursed, and slammed on the brakes. He’d only started to roll through a four-way stop when a woman crossed in front of us. I wondered if she was okay. There was no crosswalk or flashing lights to give her a go-ahead, but we were also the only vehicle I’d seen.

The SUV stopped a few inches from her and she kept walking, though she turned her head to stare at us and snarled, face contorting and mouth opening impossibly wide. Angel hit a button and the lights came on, flashing blue and red. She snapped her mouth shut and hurried across the street.

“La Llorona,” Angel said, clarifying. “A bit like banshees. Creepy as fuck, but mostly harmless to anyone over the age of five.”

“Uh…” I was lost for words as he continued on, unfazed.

We passed the daycare on the way to the new scene. The entire block was darkened with haze and shadow; abandoned, as often happened when the Veil took over. Caution tape was left up outside as if to warn of its impending doom.

I sat with my food in my lap, watching the world shifting and wriggling as though it were a living thing until we exited the Veil into a sunshine-filled day and parked in a line with other cop cars. Only then did I take a deep breath.

Two other cars were marked SED. The rest were MPD, likely there to hand the scene over as soon as they got confirmation the DB was variant related. I’d seen a handful in my time. As we were rarely the first on the scene, cases got moved before we got a glimpse of some of the worst. Though, I’d had one that haunted me for a while. We’d thought it was a serial killer. Turned out, it was some sort of cryptid, and SED took it off our desk in a hurry after the fifth victim.

“You wanna eat first?” Angel asked. “The DB isn’t going anywhere. Recon is already working on interviews.” He had devoured his food on the way, obviously unbothered by the gut-shifting nausea that came from entering and leaving the Veil.

“Nah,” I said, and placed the box on the floor at my feet. How bad was this one going to be? “Let’s get this done.”

He shrugged and got out. I followed close behind, grimacing as I realized Cassidy stood at the door like a handsome brick wall. His gaze slid over me as though he were trying to relive our handful of private encounters together. I ignored him as Angel swept by without fanfare, entering the small bookstore. Beside Angel, Cassidy looked ordinary.

“Holt,” Cassidy said. He leaned in, too close for coworkers, and I couldn’t help my flinch at having him in my personal space. “It’s brutal.”

“I’ve probably seen worse,” I said, ducking out from his lean and through the door. Angel frowned at me, but I let the door close behind me.

“Friend of yours?” he asked.

“Nah,” I said. “Just a bag of dicks.”

His expression changed in a heartbeat to realization and then humor. “Is that right?”

I shrugged as we followed the uniforms to the back. “What can I say? They are everywhere. Recon does all the interviews?”

“Preliminary, yeah. Ezra is good. We’ll get a full transcript with everything from body language to scent.” Angel tapped the side of his nose. “Ezra’s a wolf.”

“Really? I’m used to doing my own interviews, but I look forward to his info.”

“We’ll have full video upload of each one before we finish reviewing the body. And if we need to talk to one in particular, we take care of that ourselves. When it was just me, I’d take Ezra with me to second interviews. I’ve never met anyone better atreading body language and the subtle scent changes people go through when they lie.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “Good to know. Ezra has a super sniffer.”

“If you feel he’s not getting the right info during the initial questionings, we can either add questions or put the two of you together for interviews. I’m flexible, but Ezra’s strength is reading people.” He studied me for half a heartbeat. “I don’t know your strengths yet. Other than solving cases.”

“I guess we’ll be learning together then.”