Page 35 of Soulmarked

“Keep digging,” I said finally. “But carefully. Focus on paper trails, financial records, anything that can't be traced back to your searches. I need to check something else out.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You're going to one of these sites, aren't you?”

“Better you don't know,” I replied, already planning how to get Sean involved without raising Alana's suspicions. “Just keep this between us for now. I'll explain everything when I can.”

Alana didn't look happy, but she nodded. “Fine. But be careful, Cross. Whatever Phoenix is doing, it's not normal.”

My phone buzzed, and for a moment I thought it might be Sean with more cryptic warnings about ancient evils. But the name that flashed across my screen was even more surprising: Kai.

Call me. Urgent.

Kai never texted unless something was seriously wrong. And given what we'd just uncovered about Phoenix's extracurricular activities, “wrong” could mean anything from corporate conspiracy to literal hell breaking loose.

I grabbed my jacket, mind already moving to what Kai might have discovered. If he was reaching out now, after everything that had happened at the church...

Behind me, the map on Alana's tablet pulsed with five points of light. And somewhere in the city, in one of those locations, answers waited.

I just had to stay alive long enough to find them.

The elevator doors closed on the sight of Alana already back at work, her fingers flying across multiple screens as she dug deeper into Phoenix's secrets. In her own way, she was as much a hunter as Sean, tracking patterns, following trails of data instead of blood.

The Bell TowerDiner hadn't changed since we were kids, same cracked vinyl booths, same ancient coffee machines hissing steam, same flickering neon sign that made the whole place feel like a scene from an old noir film. It was our spot, had been since high school, when two scared kids needed somewhere safe to process the things they'd seen.

Back then, Kai had been the first person I trusted with my secrets, and he'd trusted me with his, including coming out as trans our junior year. We'd protected each other, fought each other's battles, faced down both human and supernatural monsters together.

Kai was already holding court in our usual corner booth, his pride flag pin catching the fluorescent light as he typed one-handed on his phone. Being one of the few openly trans consultants in private security hadn't slowed him down. Empty coffee cups suggested he'd been there a while. He looked up as I approached, and his usual easy smile faltered.

Twenty years of friendship gave him the right to that concerned look. We'd been inseparable since my grandparents took me in after my parents' deaths, two misfit kids finding solace in each other's company. Back then, before Kai's transition, we'd stay up late in Leo’s basement, surrounded by weapons neither of us understood. I didn't know why his father always carried silver knives or why their home was filled with strange books and artifacts. It wasn't until years later that Leo revealed himself as a hunter and began training us both. As Kai transitioned from female to male in his late teens, Leo had stood firmly behind his son, the monster-hunting knowledge passing from father to son as seamlessly as the family name Kai had always been meant to carry. Through Kai's hormone treatments, surgeries, and the rebuilding of his identity, he'd remained my steadfast ally, and I'd been his. He'd been my rock through everything, the nightmares, the training, my first hunt. He knew my demons better than anyone.

“Jesus, you look worse than usual,” he said by way of greeting, pushing a fresh mug toward me. “Though I guess that's what happens when you spend your nights chasing monsters.”

I slid into the booth, letting the familiar atmosphere wash over me. Here, surrounded by the smell of coffee and grilledcheese, it was almost possible to pretend the world was normal. That I hadn't spent last night fighting creatures that turned to ash when they died.

“Long night,” was all I said, but Kai knew me too well to let it go at that.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he refilled my coffee without being asked. I knew that look, he'd heard something. Kai's network of vampire informants kept him plugged into the city's supernatural pulse better than any police scanner. Whatever went down last night hadn't stayed quiet in certain circles.

He leaned forward, voice dropping low enough that the morning crowd of truckers and early shift workers couldn't hear. “Tell me you're not still chasing Phoenix.”

My silence was answer enough. The way his shoulders tensed told me he'd been hoping, probably praying, I'd have better sense.

“Christ, Cade.” He ran a hand down his face, a gesture so familiar it hurt. We'd been through too much together for him to sugar-coat his concern. “This isn't just some back-alley case you can solve with a badge and good intentions. You're stepping into deep water, and you don't even know what's swimming under the surface.”

I studied him over the rim of my coffee mug, noting the shadows under his eyes, the tension in his jaw. Kai didn't scare easily, hadn't since that night when we were kids, when we both learned the hard way that monsters were real. “You've heard something.”

He hesitated, glancing around the diner like he expected shadows to be listening. Maybe they were. Finally, he sighed, shoulders slumping slightly. “Yeah. Some of my contacts, the ones who deal in real bad shit? They're saying Phoenix isn't just dealing with one entity. They've got ties to multiple supernatural factions, some of which don't play by any rules we understand.”

It wasn't new information, but hearing it from Kai made it more real somehow. He'd always been my reality check, the voice of reason when I started diving too deep into cases that could get me killed.

“I get it, okay?” His voice softened, carrying the weight of shared history. “You want answers. After everything that happened... hell, I want them too. But don't let this consume you.” He paused, and I could hear the echo of old grief in his next words. “You already lost too much, Cade.”

Neither of us needed to say the name, but it hung in the air between us. Emma. Our third musketeer since middle school, the one who'd followed us into that abandoned factory five years ago, armed with nothing but a flashlight and unwavering loyalty. We'd been tracking what we thought was a single ghoul. We were wrong. I still heard her screams in my nightmares, still saw her face in the split second before she was pulled into the darkness. Three experienced hunters had gone in that night, but only two came out. Some nights I wondered if part of me was still in that factory too, trapped with her in the shadows.

I stared down at my coffee, watching steam curl upward like lost spirits. “If I walk away, more people die.”

“And if you don't?” Kai's voice carried an edge of desperate frustration. “What happens when whatever Phoenix is playing with decides you're asking too many questions? You think a badge will protect you from things that can tear reality apart?”

I met his gaze steadily. “Then I find the truth before it finds me.”

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