Page 31 of Grave Beginnings

He chuffed twice.

“Hmm. No manual? Is it like romance novels? Lots of pain and you can’t turn back for hours or until you mate the desperate omega?”

He didn’t answer, but since I found a set of glowing handprints near the biblical section of books, it was okay.

“Wade?” I called.

He and Bobby appeared around the edge of the bookcase a few seconds later, specialized scanner in hand. I pointed to a journal designed to look like a goth grimoire. The handprints on it weren’t child-sized and the bent spine of the book made me wonder if they’d stuffed something inside. “Do you have gloves on you?” I couldn’t remember when I’d lost mine. Maybe over the Veil. I couldn’t imagine a ghost needing my gloves. Had I stripped them off trying to run away?

He pulled a spare pair out of his pocket as he scanned the shelf. “Detailed enough for prints. Let me see if I can zoom in to catch each finger.”

“Handy machine,” I said, waiting until he moved to the second print before flipping the pages of the book where it sat on the shelf. The pages were coated in scribbles. “Can I pick it up?”

“Be careful of prints, but yeah, we’ll bag it,” Bobby said as he waved Victor’s group over.

I picked up the journal. Why did the symbols look familiar? I flipped through a half dozen pages before Angel clamped down on my wrist and pulled.

“What the hell?” I shouted as I scrambled to catch the book. Victor snatched it from me and stuffed it in a bag.

“There are runes in this book,” Victor said. “We’ll have to have one of our witch consultants analyze it.”

Angel let go of my wrist and licked it.

“Did he hurt you?” Wade asked.

“No.” I showed him my wrist. “No broken skin or anything.”

Wade glared at Angel, and Angel glared back.

“Witch consultants? SED doesn’t hire witches?”

“No,” Wade said, his gaze darting from Angel. “The power corrupts.”

Did he mean they’d had witches in the past and they used therunes for things? I recalled the many tattoos on Angel’s skin and how he said it had been SVs who’d used him. Maybe not only SVs.

Angel lapped at my wrist again with his rough tongue.

“Apology accepted,” I said. “I need to look at the rest of the stacks. It’s what I’m here for, right? Supernatural handprint detector. It’s good to be useful.” I didn’t wait for an answer, but instead wandered to the next aisle searching for anything unusual. How long would my control last? Each new thing made my panic rise. A lot of the anxiety had to do with the change, standing in a sea of people used to being different, and uncertainty.

“Focus on the mystery, right?” I said to the big cat next to me. “I love mystery. Could live without the pulsing headache and vibration of anxiety growing in my gut, but I’ve worked through worse.”

Angel remained at my side, pressed against my hip like a fuzzy blanket, grounding me.

“Nothing else,” I told him.

We walked the entire store again. I made a mental note about the direction of the prints, the arterial spray, and the escape of whatever it had been. Only one casualty meant either it had aimed for him or had been interrupted.

“Seems very targeted, right? Or am I overthinking?” I said to Angel. Joe had encouraged me to go with my instinct as it was rarely wrong.

I found a stack of clothes abandoned by the back door and picked them up when Angel pawed at them. “The getting naked part is true?” I asked. “That must suck in the winter.” I scooped up his stuff. “Giant shoes,” I grumbled, balancing them. “Docs? Nice quality, even if I’d hesitate to wear them to crime scenes. Too many messed up shoes from all the blood and gore.”

Victor’s crew loaded up the body and the rest of the clean-up crew stood by.

If Angel had been human, I’d have asked if we could leave, but didn’t know who to ask instead. He could understand me in this form, right? “Can we head back to the office? Normally I’d interview witnesses, but you said Ezra’s doing that.”

He chuffed.

“I’m going to take that as a yes.” I had to dig the keys out of his empty pants pocket, waving to Wade and Bobby. I unlocked the passenger side door, wondering if Angel wanted to sit in the back, but he waited beside it for me to lift the handle.