Page 38 of Grave Beginnings

While I agreed, I hoped he didn’t see me as a liability. “I’ll need to get used to it eventually, right?”

“Sure. But if you were new to homicide, it’s not like we’d dump you in the morgue all alone to examine bodies. Having a learning curve isn’t bad. But I’d rather you not keep silent whenyou experience something you don’t understand. Ask questions, or tell me.”

“Like the handprints and giggles?” And the shadow beast that made me shudder in lingering fear.

“Exactly.”

“I thought someone was messing with me.”

“Is that something that would happen at your old department?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“If anyone pulls shit here, I want you to let me know. Like Victor’s bullshit.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I said, annoyed. I might be new, but I wasn’t a kid, and had handled a lot of crap thrown at me in my life.

“We are a team,” Angel said. “It’s not lip service. Wade and I already agreed to keep the NHVs away from you. The entire mood of the fucking building changed when you walked in. Like they all sensed you and want a piece. Which is dangerous and pisses me off. I plan to talk to Hanna about it. I need you focused on cases, not trying to survive the games of supernatural creatures who think humans are little more than cockroaches to be squashed.”

“Brutal.” What the hell kind of nightmare job was I stuck in? “And not at all reassuring.”

“I’d rather you be prepared and cautious than walk blindly into their bullshit.”

And for that, at least, I was grateful.

13

I packedup for the day, taking my laptop and a special keycard that linked my variant chip to my office computer for security, and drove Angel to his car.

“You okay?” Angel asked before getting out.

“Yeah, fine. Headache is gone.”

He studied me for a long minute, head tilted as if he could see all the things I wasn’t saying. But he reached over, patted me on the shoulder, then got out. “Call if you need me.”

“I don’t have your number,” I said.

“I programmed it into your phone when you were in the bathroom.”

“Uh… It was locked?”

He snorted and walked to his car with a swagger I thought was far too sexy for a man I’d just met.

Whatever I’d met across the Veil made my skin prickle with fear each time I thought about that laugh. What if it followed me? But asking my brand-new work partner to come home with me probably wasn’t the best way to start the new job. Even if my brain conjured up wild fantasies about him putting me up against a wall.

I longed to go straight home, but the activity of the day caused an unspoken wave of anxiety that made me take the long route. Okay, it was nowhere close to home, but I drove by my folks’ house to check on Ivan. Since he hadn’t texted me back—and with all I’d learned in one day about the Veil, variants, and the way the world treated us, my worry over him escalated. The kid needed someone solid, and while I didn’t think that was always me, I knew my parents weren’t that either.

Rounding the corner to his street, I saw the flashing lights before I could turn, fear of them at my parent’s place brought to life in an instant. “Shit,” I cursed, pulling up behind the cars and wall of uniforms.

I slammed the car into park and leapt out.

One of the uniforms held up a hand to stop me.

“I’m SED,” I said, showing my new badge as I would have my old one, and latched it on my belt. “And this is my parents’ house.”

The man blinked at me and said something into his mic, but I ignored him, heading for the front door. Thankfully, I recognized none of them. It also meant there wasn’t a murder as I knew every homicide detective in the metro.

“You’re SED?” One of the cops near the door asked.