Page 1 of Reaper
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You take me to the nicest places, sweetheart,” I said as I pulled the hood of my raincoat over my head.One of the benefits to growing up in the earlier parts of the twentieth century, I actually own a raincoat designed to keep water off me, not just a hoodie that gets soaked in the lightest drizzle.This one was a weatherbeaten old London Fog trench with a hood that I’d picked up in a thrift shop because it reminded me of one I had back in World War II, before my life imploded and I went batshit crazy.Admittedly, what I was looking at on the streets of Charlotte wasn’t any less nuts than some of the things I saw in mid-century Europe.
I was standing on the edge of a sand trap next to a pond on an exclusive golf club in south Charlotte, looking at a naked dead guy curled up in the fetal position.A blue folding tent kept the rain from washing away any evidence that might have remained, but it felt an awful lot like a losing proposition.It was closer to sunup than sundown, and the body had been discovered by a pair of amorous teenagers several hours before.The ground was soaked, and the sand trap was more mud trap than anything, thanks to the rain rolling in mid-afternoon.According to the weather app on my phone, it wasn’t letting up for another day at least.Any physical evidence would have to be under the body to be of any use.“Who is it, and why are we here?This looks a lot more like a CMPD thing than ours.”
“It would be, if this was the first body to be discovered like this.And if there was any obvious cause of death.Look at him, Harker, he’s in perfect condition.Too perfect.”The lean Black woman crouching by the body was Department of Homeland Security Deputy Director Rebecca Gail Flynn, who also happened to be my fiancée.Or girlfriend, depending on how annoyed she was with me about not setting a date for our wedding on any given day.
“So he’s healthy.Except for the being dead part,” I said.“What makes this ours?”
Becks looked at me like I was being intentionally obtuse, which I certainly wasn’t.I can be obtuse without even trying, like tonight.“This is the fourth mysterious corpse to appear in the last six weeks.Every one of the victims has been in peak physical condition.In the other cases, no cause of death could be determined, even with an autopsy.That doesn’t seem weird to you?Four men in perfect health found naked and dead scattered around one city?”
Okay, thatwaspretty odd.I opened my Sight to get a look at things in the supernatural spectrum, and everything became perfectly clear.And completely opaque at the same time.I knew why this guy looked like there was nothing wrong with him, and it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume the other victims were similar.But that spawned a larger question.Who was murdering lycanthropes and leaving their bodies out in the open for anyone to find?
* * *
An hour and a half later, we were in dry clothes sitting in the living room of our apartment, my Uncle Luke relaxing in an armchair with my cat purring in his lap.“Quincy, are you certain this man was a werewolf?”
“He was a were-something,” I replied, pouring a healthy slug of bourbon into a glass.It wouldn’t get me drunk, my metabolism is too supercharged for that, but the burn helped dash away the last of the night’s chill.“I can’t promise what type, but he was definitely a lycanthrope.”
“You can see if someone’s a shifter with your Sight?”Becks asked, coming out of the bedroom with a sleep kerchief tied around her hair.She looked adorable in flannel pajamas, but her expression was definitely one that brooked no nonsense.She petted Nameless, the cat, and perched on the arm of one of my sofas.
“Yeah, and if the other victims were lycanthropes, it explains why there were no visible injuries.Weres heal when they shift, even if they’re dead.So if he was killed as a wolf, or whatever he could turn into, and he shifted back, he’d look perfectly healthy.Assuming he wasn’t shot in the head or dismembered,” I said.“Some shit even magic can’t fix.”
“If we can get the other bodies, would you be able to tell if they were shifters, too?”Becks asked, holding out her hand for my glass.I handed it over and made myself another.
“Probably,” I said.“How long have they been dead?I’ve never looked at a were’s corpse with my Sight that’s been dead any significant amount of time, so I don’t know how long they retain their magic after death.”
“My source inside CMPD says this has been going on for about six weeks, but she didn’t feel comfortable calling me until this one.”
“You still have connections inside the police department?”Luke asked.I swear to God seeing him stroke the cat’s gray fur put me in the mind of Dr.Evil, and I kept waiting for him to hold a pinky up to his mouth and ask for a million dollars.Of course, he already had a million dollars, and way more, but that’s what happens when you live for centuries.
Oh yeah.Luke, or Lucas Card as he went by lately, was more famously known as Count Vlad Tepes, or just Dracula.My family tree is weird.I turned to see Becks’ response, since I’d been wondering the same thing.She left the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on less-than-favorable terms after actions the cops took during the protests in the summer of 2020, and I was as surprised as Luke that she had an inside source.
“There are some women within the department, younger officers of color that I mentored when I was there.A few keep their ears to the ground for me and give me a heads up when something spooky comes across their radar.”
I raised an eyebrow.We worked for the Department of Homeland Security’s Paranormal Division, but that Division didn’t exist, as far as the public knew.
“Look, Harker, everybody in the department knew I was dealing with some weird shit before I left.So now if one of my ladies hears something that would have probably landed on my desk when I was there, they make sure I know about it.”She downed her purloined bourbon and rattled the ice cubes at me.
I took the glass and freshened up both our drinks, like the good bartender/boyfriend/magician I am.“Six weeks?Are the bodies still on ice?”I asked, handing Becks her glass and sitting at the far end of the sofa so I could face both Luke and her.
“One is.One was claimed by relatives, and the other was disposed of after it was unclaimed for thirty days,” she replied.
“Do we know where exactly it was buried?”Luke asked.
“We are not robbing graves,” I said, my voice hard.“I still get twitchy around shovels after that night outside Constantinople.”
“Istanbul,” Becks corrected.
“Not Constantinople?”I asked, the corner of my mouth twitching up.
“Don’t start,” she said.
“Quincy, you do not get ‘twitchy’ as you say, around shovels because of that unfortunate incident in Turkey.You get twitchy because you are afraid someone will ask you to perform manual labor,” Luke said.
He wasn’t wrong, exactly.But the whole Istanbul thingsucked.Luke had been hiding in a coffin in a small family cemetery on account of us being out too close to sunrise and not having time to get to a light-tight room.I was digging him up when a farmer thought I was there to do unspeakable things to his dead granny’s corpse.It took me the better part of four hours to pick all the birdshot out of my ass.Admittedly, I got off easier than the farmer.I think it took him six weeks for his arms to heal enough so he could wipe his own ass again.
“No matter the reason for Harker’s twitchiness, there’s no body to dig up.The remains were cremated and put into storage.Nothing to see there,” Becks said.
