Page 62 of Insidious Monsters
“The way this day is going, I’ll take all the help I can get.”
* * *
A woman saton a sofa staring back at me. Okay, so there was a two-way mirror between us, but still. It was unnerving the way her gaze was fixed on the exact spot where I was standing. I took her in quickly. She would have been pretty in her youth, stunning even. But now her long dark hair was listless and streaked with gray and her dark, almond-shaped eyes were dull.
“Miranda Bass, lives outside of the city. Her mother says she came to the city for a concert a month ago and never made it home. There is a missing person report with the human PD, which is why we didn’t look into it. You see Miranda’s parents don’t know she’s more than human. In fact, we ran some tests and Miranda is a New Blood. A powerful one.”
“And a hip one too, it seems,” Archie said. “You don’t see many older people hitting the concerts.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing. Miranda’s only twenty-two.”
“Whoa. Someone did not age well,” Archie said.
Because she hadn’t aged naturally. “The Holy did this to her, didn’t he?”
Devyn nodded. “Whatever he did aged her, drained her power and took her mind. The lights are on but nobody’s home. Same with the other two. Except we haven’t been able to ID them yet.” She glanced at me. “So, is there a tag-along in the room with her?”
I shook my head. “Not that I can see. Can I go inside?”
“Sure.” She indicated the door to my left.
I stepped into the room. “Hello, Miranda.”
The woman slow-blinked, her attention still on the mirror.
“Is anyone else here? If so, please show yourself; saves me having to step onto the spirit plane.”
The temperature in the room dropped and a figure appeared beside Miranda. Petite and curvy with long dark hair and almond-shaped eyes, she could have been Miranda’s daughter.
Wait a second.
“Miranda?”
The specter smiled. “You see me?”
“Yes, I see you. What…How did this happen. You’re not dead.”
“Hiding.” Her voice was a soft whisper. “He wants all of me. I can’t let him have me. So I hide.”
“You and the others?”
She shook her head. “I tried to teach them how to do it, but not all of them could hold out. Not like I can. He’s hungry. Always hungry. But I’m the strongest of them so he feeds on me slow. Savoring me. I was his first. The others died quick. He took their memories. He took everything, but I hid. I resisted.”
The faceless mystics made sense now. He’d taken their identities, leaving only rage and vengeance toward him. Her New Blood status probably gave her an edge.
“What can you tell me about him, Miranda? What does he look like? Anything else you might have noticed that can help us catch him.”
Her image flickered. “Catch him?”
“Yes, we need to catch him so he can’t hurt anyone else.”
Her eyes went wide. “You don’t understand. You—”
She vanished.
Her body sagged and tipped to the side, settling on the sofa with a soft sigh followed by a snore.
“Shit. Miranda? Hello?”
