Page 8 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

"So, do you guys think you’re briefed enough about the case?” Sasha asked.

While Nathan simply nodded, Jim reached between the front seats of the car for the notes Sasha had given them.

“Last victim, Miranda Jensen, twenty-five, waitress,” Jim listed off, continuing with the description of how she had been found and then reading further into the police report’s details.

“As victim number five, Jensen continued the pattern of recent killings by her age, profession, and coloring, brunette with blue eyes. Hmm…all the victims were waitresses with dark hair and blue eyes. Does an incubus usually have an MO like that?”

“Sometimes,” Sasha said, “but this sounds more like a serial killer. If it is an incubus, he’s got an agenda. Wouldn’t be killing otherwise.”

“What do you mean?” Nathan asked. “I’ve met plenty of dark fae who kill without reason.”

"An incubus is not a dark fae."

"They're not?" Jim asked, turning to look at Sasha in the back.

Nathan glanced up at the rearview mirror. It was strange seeing Sasha there in place of Walter.

"Iron is the best weapon against them, like any fae,” Sasha said, “but an incubus or succubus is different from either side alone.

They're both. Part light fae, part dark—the only fae I know of that are like that.

Most of the time they're harmless. They can feed from having sex with someone without anyone getting hurt, but get a cruel one and they take so much energy from a person that it kills them. "

One thing Nathan could be grateful for having a seal in their company was that Sasha was clearly more knowledgeable about fae than either him or his brother. The thought of there being a type of fae that was both light and dark, however, was a little unnerving. Especially one that fed on sex.

Sasha continued, "I think our best bet is going to be to focus on finding the next victim instead of the killer. I've narrowed down a search area downtown for where she's most likely to come from.”

“Wait,” Jim interrupted. “So the plan is to scour a bunch of businesses downtown for brunette waitresses with blue eyes?”

“Not blindly.” Sasha reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a device that looked like a homemade scanner out of some sci-fi TV movie.

“When an incubus or succubus marks a victim they leave behind traces of pheromones that are usually invisible. With a little spellwork and alchemy, I got this set up to detect them.”

“But that could still take us forever,” Jim said.

"Why do you think I've been having such a hard time solving this?

" Sasha's smile remained, but his eyes betrayed how strongly his failure was affecting him.

"This is the best bet we've got. At least with the two of you helping, we can cover more ground.

I know we have a long day ahead of us, but if we don't find the next victim before tonight. ..someone is going to die."

Sasha was the only one of them with a device for scanning pheromones, so any businesses Nathan investigated with a waitress fitting the MO had to be marked down to be checked again later.

If there were no such waitresses in sight, Nathan simply asked, “Hey, I was trying to remember the name of the girl who helped me the last time I was in here. Cute. Dark hair and blue eyes. Know who I mean?”

It was late afternoon when Nathan went to meet up with the others at their rendezvous point.

Peavy Plaza rested in the shadow of the Hyatt Regency hotel not quite at the center of their search area, and had a large fountain made of what looked like small staircases beneath a stone slab.

There would have been a cascading waterfall from the top of the slab if the water wasn't turned off due to the colder weather.

Nathan was enjoying a moment of quiet reflection beside the fountain when he turned to find Walter sitting close beside him. Even after twelve years he was still startled whenever Walter suddenly appeared like that.

“Dude, we’re in public,” Nathan hissed, keeping his lips tight so that passing people wouldn’t see him talking to himself. “Can whatever it is wait until later?”

Walter had his hands clasped tightly in front of him. He stared at Nathan intently, unblinking. “You should not have given those goggles to Leslie Schuester,” he said. “He saw something in your brother while he was wearing them that may be of more use to you. You need to get them back.”

The muscles along Nathan's back tensed further at the mention of Schuester, reminding him of how spooked their friend had looked when they were leaving his apartment. “I thought you could see through glamours,” Nathan said. “What do I need goggles for?”

“I cannot see everything, Nathan. Not any more than Jim can. You may regret not being better prepared when—”

“When what ?”

Nathan realized he had spoken rather loudly and glanced around. No one seemed to have noticed, or at least didn’t care, but the sight of Sasha heading toward him made it only too easy to ignore Walter.

By the time Sasha joined him, Walter was gone.

Sasha had an equally long list for them to check over despite having been able to count out several young women who hadn’t registered on his scanner. “Pretty awesome place Schu lives in, huh?" Sasha said as they waited for Jim.

“No kidding. What does he do again?”

“Computer networking or something?”

“Or something.” Nathan chuckled.

He was trying to stay relaxed, but after recent events he was only willing to give Jim another five minutes before he started to worry.

There were a good many people walking the streets and taking transfers on the city buses, but Nathan and Sasha were the only ones sitting by the arid fountain. Across the street from them was the Minnesota Orchestra Hall with walls of brightly colored tiles like a geometric rainbow.

"I never quite got how Schu ended up fae trading," Sasha said. "I know he's a big fantasy and sci-fi geek and all that, but usually those are the least likely people to know anything about the true Veil. He doesn't seem the type."

Nathan turned to Sasha with a gape. "You mean you don't know? And here I was thinking you must know Schu better than we do."

Sasha looked back at Nathan earnestly, not understanding.

"Schu got into all this because of his wife. She was from a carrier family like me and Jim, so she'd known about the Veil her whole life. I only met her a few times before she was killed.”

“Killed?” Sasha repeated. "I knew she died, but...Schu never told me how it happened. Was she murdered by dark fae?"

Nathan looked out at the street and the turning leaves on the large trees in front of Orchestra Hall.

“We were coming to see Schu the day it happened," he said.

"Avery was dead when we got there. Kitty was still so little then, barely walking, and Avery, she…

she was just lying on the floor in Schu's arms. A changeling killed her.”

"A changeling?”

If Nathan closed his eyes he could picture it all like he was right there again, as vividly as he could remember the murders of his parents.

So he kept his eyes open.

"Schu's a good man. He came to his senses. Pulled himself together. But sometimes I wonder...if he's just waiting for Jim to turn out the same way."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because..." Nathan blinked, and he could see that other changeling's face, twisted and cruel in his corruption, "...the changeling that killed Schu's wife was her brother."

For a moment there were no other people in the plaza or on the streets. It was just Nathan sitting there, barely even feeling the presence of Sasha solid and warm beside him.

"Sorry," Nathan said, glancing aside at Sasha with a quick smile.

"Didn't mean to get all sharing and caring there. Just figured you should know. Avery’s brother got taken out by seals not long after, but I know it doesn’t make things any easier on Schu.

Might not be the best topic of conversation to bring up the next time you see him either. "

Sasha snorted. "Yeah, probably not."

"Hey!”

Nathan looked over and saw that Jim had finally caught up to them. When he glanced back, Sasha was smiling somberly as if to say thank you for Nathan’s honesty. Nathan wasn’t really sure how to take that.

"So what’s next?" Jim asked once he had joined them at the fountain.

"I know it might seem like we haven't narrowed things down all that much,” Sasha said, “but at least we have a better idea of the places around the area we'll need to watch. I guess the best we can do now is grid ourselves out to cover the most ground and hope that the right girl comes along.”

The right girl did not come along, at least not at any of the downtown restaurants and coffee houses that Nathan and the others frequented throughout the day. By the time they were pining for a late dinner, they still had no idea who they were supposed to be protecting.

“It's getting late. How can you two even eat right now?” Jim asked, picking at his food disinterestedly.

Nathan made a point of reaching over to steal one of his brother’s French fries. “We won’t be of any use to anyone starving ourselves,” he said, and tossed the fry into his mouth. “I hate this needle in a haystack crap as much as you do, Jim, okay? Every girl I look at has dark hair and blue eyes.”

In the restaurant they had settled at on Nicollet Avenue there were several girls fitting that description, but Sasha’s scanner hadn’t responded to any of them.

“Of course you’re a girl with black hair and blue eyes,” Nathan added. “We could always try using you as bait.”

“Very funny,” Jim said. He swatted at Nathan’s hand when he reached for another fry.

Sasha chuckled at the brothers’ antics, managing an impressive amount of levity and patience. “Next shift should start soon,” he said. “Once we’ve checked out the girls for that rotation, we can head out again. We’ll find her.”