Page 86 of Grave Beginnings

I hovered my hand a half foot above the nearest mark, wondering if I could sense anything more. Why couldn’t they detect it? Was this some weird demon energy? Or something else? Angel slipped his arm around my waist.

“I’m not going to touch it,” I promised him.

“Mhmm,” he grumbled, sticking close.

“The door looks weird, like… fuck. I’m not poetic at all. But if I were reading a book about fairy magic, I’d think it was some kind of barrier made of otherworldly ice?” I leaned in to examine a line and a face popped through the door, semitransparent and screaming. I gasped, and jolted backward, Angel catching me as I flailed.

I sucked in air and glared at the door; the face gone. “Please tell me you caught that on camera.”

“Sorry,” Bobby said, taking a few seconds to rewind the recording from his gadget. “I’ve tried every setting I have.”

“What did you see?” Angel asked.

“A face. It came through the door.”

He glanced down the hall and back.

“It went back in.” I waved at the door.

“Your eyes are red now,” Bobby said.

“A ghost?” Wade wondered.

“Maybe?”

“Let me call Ezra and see if he can get the keys. This apartment is supposed to be empty and there’s no history of any deaths in this building,” Wade said. He glanced my way. “Don’t touch anything.”

I stared at him, overwhelmed, and frustration hitting hard. Why was I the only one who could see it?

“Stand next to Bobby, please,” Angel said, giving me a little push as Wade made his way down the hall to make his call.

“Why?” I asked. But as soon as I stood beside Bobby, Angel began to strip. I blinked, unable to tear my gaze away from those ink covered shoulders, arms, and his sculpted torso.

His hands went to his pants, eyes meeting mine as he tilted his head, daring me to watch as he unbuttoned his pants. I turned my head to give him a sense of privacy, heat burning my face. The air filled with a strange, heated tickle, and I expected to hear bones popping or something, but other than a small huff, there was nothing. Then Angel in cat form nuzzled my fingers, seeking pets.

I gave him scratches for a few seconds before he wandered to the door, sniffing low.

“His nose is one of the best in all of SED,” Bobby said. He kept the scanner on the door as he tried a few more settings. “Are you still seeing anything?”

“Just the purple web. Do you and him have one of those talk to each other mind bonds like him and Victor?” I asked.

“No. That’s a regular vampire thing, and as far as I know, Victor is the only one who has it with Angel.”

“Yeah?” I had a lot of questions, but Angel focused on the door, sniffing close along the lines as though he could smell them. “You smell anything?” He stared at me a minute, wandering the length of the hall and back. The elevator dinged, and Ezra stepped out with someone not in an SED uniform. The man hesitated when he saw Angel’s cat form a few feet away.

“That’s one of our agents,” Wade said. “Trying to determine a scent.”

“For something you don’t know how to explain?” The man said, sounding annoyed. “Whatever.” He stomped past us all to the door and unlocked it, shoving it open and standing off to the side. “It’s unoccupied, as I told your other agent.”

Angel darted through the door first and I followed, worried he’d walk into a zombie nightmare. But inside, the place was wide open, bright light shining through the windows, and completely empty. Whatever purple stretched across the walls outside either hadn’t penetrated into the apartment or my power had stopped working.

Wade and Bobby wandered in behind us. Ezra remained at the door with the apartment manager. I followed Angel from room to room, searching for a sign of the magic, or whatever that purple web had been, but found nothing. Fuck.

My gut flipped over with anxiety. Maybe it was all in my head? I caught Angel’s gaze and shook my head. He let out a tiny huff and ushered me toward the door. Bobby scanned everything with the setting he’d used to find the handprints, but if he found something, he didn’t share.

I stepped out of the apartment, glanced back at the wall, and found the purple mesh gone. Angel lifted his snout and sniffed, and I knew he had lost the scent of ozone too. Maybe I had caused this?

“So, to be clear,” I said, gathering Angel’s clothes, “the one time I want a magical crime scene to stick around, it ghosts me. Literally.”