Aziza was sitting behind the counter at the Nightshade Inc. store as Diamond was dealing with a customer, a vampire who was needing to refill some real magical items. They had got to the store around eleven o’clock in the morning and Ophelia had left the two run the store to run some errands.
The vampire that Diamond was dealing with came out of the backroom with Diamond tailing behind, “Have a nice evening,” Aziza said as the vampire walked towards the door. The vampire nodded before leaving and Diamond tapped Aziza’s side to move.
Aziza moved out of the way of Diamond to allow Diamond to open the register and put some money in it. “So did you pick what we are having for supper tonight?” Diamond asked as she closed the register drawer.
“Burgers and fries.” Aziza said as she handed Diamond flier for burger joint. “I haven’t tried those yet.”
“Sounds like you are listing foods you haven’t tried,” Ophelia's voice said and both looked to the door to see Ophelia there. “Hope everything was fine while I was out.”
“Very slow and simple shift this time.” Diamond said and Ophelia smiled hearing that as walked to the counter. She pulled a set of keys out of her jacket pocket and held them to Aziza.
“What are these for?” Aziza asked as she took keys to look them over and noticed a keychain with a number on it. “Number Thirty-two?”
“With Wild Hunt active for members of ‘Son of Sand’, I figured it was time for you to get your own apartment.” Ophelia said and gnced at Diamond. “Also I think the pull out bed isn’t that comfortable and Diamond would love to have her couch back.”
“It would be nice to have my cave back to being a single person occupied.” Diamond said as she gnced at the keys. “Though she’s not moving too far, I thought that room already had people living in it.”
“They did but I offered a bigger apartment to a different area.” Ophelia expined. “I was helping them move out and they needed a bigger apartment due to the little one on the way.”
“Ophelia owns more than just the Nightshade Inc. shop, I also own a few apartment buildings.” Diamond said as she noticed Aziza’s mind turning with questions.
“Why can’t I just go back to the dorms if Wild Hunt is active?” Aziza asked. “Also I don’t own any furniture to fill the apartment.”
“The apartments I own are furnished apartments,” Ophelia said and smirked, “Don’t worry I got some fresh furniture from storage for your apartment.”
“Staying in the dorms is a bad idea in case you accidentally shift in your sleep again.” Diamond said as she pulled out her phone. “I can call up Quinn to help you get the rest of your stuff from your dorm.”
“That can be done tomorrow, and time for closing is happening.” Ophelia said with cpping her hands. “Aziza, restock the shelves, and Diamond, start mopping, while I take money to the safe.”
Diamond stood up while putting her phone away and Aziza grabbed the clipboard with what was sold today. The two went to the back room where Aziza grabbed a cart and Diamond grabbed the mop and bucket on wheels.
“Diamond, there is something, actually a few things have been on my mind.” Aziza said as started to pick items she needed.
“I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.” Diamond said as she rolled the bucket to a sillcock faucet above a drain.
“Why do you need to stay away from the police apartment? Besides from not breaking that guy over your knee.” Aziza said as opened a box to grab fresh items.
“Actually with him being tied to a big case he’s being shipped to the CSIS moonflower division and that takes at least three days on good days.” Diamond said as she turned on the faucet to fill the bucket. “At worst a week and legal reasons I need to stay away until the CSIS has him back in their base.” Diamond stopped the water. “Also if he ends up dead beforehand then I can’t be bmed.”
“That makes sense,” Aziza said as she finished putting items on the cart. “Also, when should I tell Lay about me being a werejackal?”
“Nope,” Diamond said and Aziza tilted her head. “I’m not the one giving love advice, that is Ophelia's question.”
“What question should I answer?” Ophelia asked as the two rolled back onto the store floor. Ophelia was kneeling behind the counter and was closing the small safe there.
“When should I tell Lay about me being a werejackal?” Aziza repeated her question and Ophelia tilted her head. “Lay is a human that has been dating for three years and my best friend for fourteen years.”
“Can’t help you, sweetie, I’ve only dated vampires and werebeast,” Ophelia said as stood up and walked over to Aziza. “And Diamond is going to be more useless in the love department.”
“Ya, I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked her.” Aziza said as she started stocking the shelves. “Next one, has a Wild Hunt been called on Diamond?”
There was very loud silence falling on everyone before Ophelia cleared her throat. “Yes, when she was fourteen years old, and the reason why there are only four big gangs in this city instead of twelve.”
Diamond was quiet with her back to them and started to mop the floors. “The hunt was set off after a very young and angry Diamond ‘interrogated’ a gang leader to death.” Ophelia started to help Aziza with stocking the shelves while Diamond stayed quiet. “That week to the public was called ‘Bloody Week’.”
“I remember that week being taught in school.” Aziza said and looked at Diamond's back. “A lot of gang members were found dead and cops couldn’t pinpoint who was doing it.”
“In our history, that week has a different name,” Ophelia said as she looked at Diamond. “The Warpath of the White Beast.” Diamond looked over her shoulder finally and her gaze was cold.
“At the end of that week the st four gang leaders were marked by me.” Diamond said with a cold and sharper tone. “And they called off the Wild Hunt.”
“Why did you…”Aziza’s words trailed off as the answer clicked in her mind. It must have been about Kek and any trail she could dig up on them. Diamond huffed before turning back to mopping the floor and there was uncomfortable silence in store.
The front door opened and Diamond was about to say the store was closing but stopped in seeing it was Chris. “Ah, hey Quinn, what brings you here this te?” Diamond asked.
“I came to talk to Aziza,” Chris said as he carefully walked around where Diamond was already cleaned. “Hey Aziza, I came to tell you we found Henry’s murder already.”
“That was fast, who was it?” Aziza asked with her eyes locking on Chris’ eyes.
“Do you know Cleo Jones?” Chris asked. “She confessed when her alibi fell apart quickly and her state fell apart even faster.”
“Yes, she was an old friend of mine and Lay but we had fallen out when we entered college.” Aziza said. “Why did she do it?”
“She was tired of Henry’s cheating and thought she could get away with bming another person.” Chris sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. “Unfortunately she bmed the wrong person.”
“Who did she try to frame?” Ophelia asked and Diamond had stopped mopping to listen as well.
“She said she saw Lay fighting with him and cimed she was one of the women he was sleeping with.” Chris said and Diamond let out snicker. Everyone looked over to her from snicker. “Anyways that would be impossible as Lay was with you and Nix.”
“Guess she broke down the moment you mention that.” Aziza sighed and Chris blinked. “Cleo has always been bad when confronted with her lies. One of the reasons for falling out between us.”
“She was confused when I hinted that you and Lay were dating,” Chris said as pulled out his wallet to pull out a ten dolr bill. Diamond spun around to take the bill when Chris held it out to her and Ophelia chuckled from that.
“Makes sense, we’ve been keeping it on down low.” Aziza sighed. “It’s due to her parents. They are…not up to the times, and Lay is still staying with them while in college.”
“Understood,” Chris said and Aziza noticed Diamond leaning on the mop and tapping her chin. “So don't worry about this case with Cleo confessing and arrested.”
“Hey Aziza, why don’t you let Lay move in with you.” Diamond said, making everyone look at her. “You’ve seen size of my apartment and one you going be move in is bit bigger.”
Everyone was quiet for a second before Ophelia cleared her throat, “That's a good idea and Chris would you be a dear and help Aziza move from Dorms to her apartment?” Ophelia asked.
“Sure, but I will have to stop at my home to switch out of my uniform.” Chris said. “It would be best not to make everyone worry if I show up in my uniform.”
“Good, that gives me and Diamond time to move her stuff from Diamond’s apartment to her apartment.” Ophelia said as she finished stocking the shelves. “Sounds like we have a pn, let’s do this!”
Diamond was ying on her couch with an old book resting on her face and soft and peaceful Scottish music pyed in the background. Diamond had fallen asleep while reading an old book that she borrowed from her family library but she opened her eyes when she heard knocking at her door.
Diamond sat up to toss the book on the coffee table in front of the couch and grabbed the remote to turn off the music. She got up to answer the door and there loud popping from her bones. Diamond opened the door to see Chris, “We got a case apparently.” Chris said.
“Apparently?” Diamond asked as she grabbed her trench coat and slipped on shoes. “It’s been a month and you came to me with an ‘apparently’.”
“Nix was examining a body and deemed it to be a moonflower case and it was kicked me.” Chris said and Diamond grabbed her keys before exiting her apartment. “She said to bring you in and she’s waiting for us.”
“Well if Nix says we have a case, we have a case then.” Diamond grumbled as she locked her door.
“Did I wake you up?” Chris asked as noted her hair was slightly messy. “I thought you weren’t affected by winter.”
“I’m not, but a dry reading from an old book I took from the family library.” Diamond said as she turned and the two started to walk to the elevator. “I’m thinking I’m getting a story of a brave pirate but instead it was a sckjaw captain just compining about his crew.”
“Ah ya, that tracks, I get sleepy when I read dry reports.” Chris said and entered the elevator with Diamond. Diamond undid her low ponytail to fix it and put estic in her mouth. “Which is often rare in this job, it is more likely to twist my stomach.”
“Good.” Diamond said as she finished fixing her hair. “The moment it starts to stop feeling that way, you should start to worry.”
“Do you still get a twist in your guts from this job?” Chris asked and Diamond paused for a second.
“Some cases but most times it fres up my rage.” Diamond said and Chris nodded.
Chris and Diamond enter the morgue to see a body of a woman on a table and Nix standing beside it with a folder in hand. “So why is this one of the moonflower cases?” Chris asked as the two walked up to the body.
Diamond noticed the skin of the body had odd paleness to it and Nix handed the folder to Chris. “Trust me when I say this needs moonflower division on it.” Nix said.
Diamond noticed a needle mark on the right side of the body’s neck and on her left arm simir needle mark. “This Kelly Dellwood, she was a B-positive human blood type but the blood you pulled from her veins was AB-negative vampire blood.” Chris said and Diamond perked up to look at body’s face.
“Her eyes, what color are her eyes?” Diamond asked and Nix moved the body’s eyelids to reveal her eyes. One eye was pure bck and the other was a mix of red and blue. “Dealing with a mad man.”
“A very cruel and sick mad man.” Nix hissed and Chris looked confused as he raised his hand. “This young dy was slowly drained of her blood while being pumped with vampire blood, to try to make her a vampire.”
“As you know vampires and werebeast are only born,” Diamond said and Chris nodded. “Well in the past some mad men tried different methods to transform a human into one of the other races.”
“These practices were outwed in the first century,” Nix said as she closed the eyelids of the body. “But it didn’t always stop the sick and cruel mad men.”
“All failed, all but one…” Diamond trailed off. “In World War Two, a vampire used the war as cover to do his experiments and he was able to change a human into a vampire.”
“Peter Braun's b was raided, he wasn’t there but his notes were missing and only his one success was still there.” Nix said as rubbed her temple. “Willow Levy was rescued, taken to London, and a week ter she took her own life.”
“So we are looking for Peter Braun then?” Chris asked and Nix sighed with announce. “Or not because he’s dead, isn’t he?”
“He was hunted down and killed by the Moonlight coven, but his notes are still missing.” Diamond said as gritted her teeth. “Some theorized his notes are still out there and others hope he burnt them to hide better.”
“Well be it his notes being found or a hidden partner, I know one thing.” Chris said and Diamond looked at him. “We have gone back to the body dumpsite as we have better context on the case.”
“It was Bckgroove Cemetery, there are pictures where the body was found.” Nix said and Chris closed the folder. “I hope you find them before I get another body on this table.”
Diamond and Chris walked down a pathway in Bckgroove Cemetery and Diamond slowly rotated as they walked to survey the ndscape. Chris kept walking in a straight line to the dumpsite and once there Diamond stopped rotating.
“Anything out of pce with those special eyes of yours?” Chris asked as he looked into the shallow grave that the body was found. “She was barely covered, as if he couldn’t be bothered.”
“Because he didn’t care, she was a failed experiment.” Diamond said and her back was to the grave. “He did this at night or people would see him in this wide open area.”
The cemetery had little tree coverage and the tallest grave was barely three feet tall. There weren't many lights around the area and would make it easier to sneak around at night rather than in daylight.
“Makes sense,” Chris said as he bent down to look closer at the grave. “Is that sensitive nose of yours picking up an odd scent?”
Diamond looked over her shoulder before looking back forward, “There were a few faint vampire scents but most of them didn’t come this way.” Diamond said and took a deep inhale through her nose. “Sewer and vampire strongest around the grave.”
“Which way does it lead to?” Chris asked as he stood up and Diamond turned to her right. “Lead the way and I will follow.”
Diamond started to follow the scent she picked up with light trot and Chris trailed behind. Diamond stopped at the east side of the cemetery steel bar fence. “Go limp.” Diamond said.
“Wh-” Chris was cut off when Diamond put him in a fireman's carry before using her super strength to leap over the fence. When she nded on the other side she put him back on his feet. “Okay…thank you for the warning.”
“I didn’t forget.” Diamond said as she waited for Chris to get his legs back. Once Chris got his legs Diamond continued to follow the scent and Chris followed Diamond closely.
The scent led them to an old abandoned underground sewer tunnel drainage and Diamond covered her nose as she winced. “It leads to the old sewer tunnels.” Diamond said. “Makes sense he works in those tunnels.”
“Can you keep following the scent?” Chris asked and Diamond took a step back shaking her head no. “Going in there without a map or trail we would get lost for sure.”
“Bastard probably thought to use the smell of the old sewer smell to hide his trail from a cleaner like me.” Diamond said and she knew if she had trouble other cleaners would be lost. “Also a homeless vampire won’t question seeing another homeless vampire traveling through these tunnels.”
“A lot of homeless vampires use old subway tunnels as home bases, maybe he is doing something like for his b.” Chris said and started to back up as the smell was getting to him. “Those two tunnels tend to connect from walls breaking down.”
“We should get maps of old subways and sewer tunnels.” Diamond said and grabbed Chris’ coat to gently pull him away from drainage. Chris didn’t fight it and his phone went off.
Chris pulled it out his cell phone and put it to his ear. “Office Quinn,” Chris said and paused before turning pale. “Understood, we’re on our way.”
Chris and Diamond drove up to an alleyway that was taped up with police tape and the two got out of Chris’ truck. There were other police cars there and Diamond saw Nix’s van as well.
Chris fshed his badge to get past the tape with Diamond and the two walked towards Nix, who was over a dead body. Nix looked to them, “Her name was Alex Cornwood.” Nix said and handed Chris a driver license.
“She’s barely twenty years old.” Chris said as he looked at the driver license before handing it back to Nix. “Diamond c-”
“Very fresh, this way.” Diamond interrupted Chris and started to follow the scent from before with a fast trot. Chris took after her without question and led to another abandoned sewer tunnel drainage opening under an overpass. “Get your gun ready.”
“Alright, lead the way,” Chris said as he took out his pistol and a fshlight. Diamond turned to the drainage and walked into it with Chris behind her.
The smell of the sewer was strong to Chris and it would have been strong to Diamond but she had a strong grip on the vampire scent that was on the newest victim’s body. It allowed her to block out the smell of sewer and Chris heard bone cracking as she shifted only her forearms.
The scent led them through several twisted turns and it felt like hours of walking only to lead them to incave blockage. “A deadend?” Chris whispered as slowly moved his light to see if he could spot an opening.
“No,” Diamond said as she pointed to a rge piece of rubble to the right of them. Chris used his light to look at him then pointed it to the bottom of rubble and saw drag marks on the ground. “Cover me.”
As Diamond walked to the rubble Chris pointed his gun to the rubble and kept an eye out for any vampire movement. Diamond easily slid the rubble to the side and once done moving, there was silence for a few seconds from the hole behind it.
“Tougher than steel warrior first.” Chris said and Diamond made a small smirk before returning to a serious face. She looked down the hole to smell stale air that didn’t smell like sewer.
“Abandoned subway is my bet.” Diamond whispered as she walked through the hole and Chris followed right behind her. In seconds they were in an abandoned subway that had few subway carts in it. “Stay alert.”
Chris slowly moved his light but stopped on the wall as he noticed some writing on the wall. At first he thought it was bad graffiti but he started to notice it was names connected with lines. “A family tree…” Chris whispered as it dawned on what was written. Chris put his light in his mouth and took out his phone to take quick pictures.
Diamond slowly moved into carts in the station and noted a lot of papers scattered on the benches. One bench was cleared with a bnket and a pillow, “This is where he sleeps and writes his notes.” Diamond whispered.
“He has a family tree written on the wall, I saw the girls’ name on it.” Chris said as he entered the carts and looked around the cart. His eyes locked on a small booklet and he picked it up. “So this is his office.”
“His b may be close to here.” Diamond said and her ear twitched as she heard a click and her nose finally picked up C4. Diamond acted as she tackled Chris out of the cart and closer to where they came in from as there was a loud boom.
Chris' ears were ringing and dust that flew up from the explosion made him unable to see. He felt something grab her shirt and started to drag him, his reaction was to grab what grabbed him only to feel fur. “Diamond?!” He yelled and the smell of sewer hit his nose.
Chris’ eyes adjusted to darkness as they entered the sewers and could see Diamond’s shadowy silhouette in the dark. He had dropped his fshlight but he fumbled to take his phone out to use its light.
“Can you stand?” Diamond’s voice was slightly muffled to Chris as he turned on the light. Diamond flinched from the light in her eyes and Chris looked to his legs with the light.
“No broken bones or blood.” He said loudly as he shifted to stand up and he did grab Diamond’s shoulder for a second. “Bastard booby trap his own home.”
“Ya, lucky I smelt the C4 and heard him trigger it.” Diamond said and Chris noticed a bit of blood on Diamond’s forehead. “Sorry about not warning you when I tackled you.”
“No problem, you got some blood on your forehead.” Chris said and Diamond just shrugged it off. “What about me?”
“A little bit but nothing bad, just one that tends to bleed a lot.” Diamond said and grabbed Chris’ wrist. “Let’s get back to the surface.” Chris nodded with thumbs up as Diamond gently guided Chris out of the sewers.
“Stop moving,” Nix snarled as was trying to patch Chris’ cut just about his brow. “Or do I have to strap you down?”
“Sorry, I’m just trying to read this family tree.” Chris said as she leaned back in his desk chair and stopped moving for Nix. “Can you read that book I got?”
“No, it looks like svic of some sort.” Diamond said as sat on the window sill looking at the booklet that Chris had picked up. Diamond gnced at Nix and she shook her head no as to knowing svic.
“Svic, makes sense why the top names of this family tree are hard to read.” Chris said. “While the lower down on the tree are more modern names.”
“Wait, go back to that top name.” Nix said and Chris went back to the top name and noticed a red like cross beside the name. “That's a vampire ankh, it’s used on vampire family trees with human offspring.”
“Of course, he is aiming for humans with vampire ancestors,” Diamond said as she stood up from the window sill. “Ya, look at this here, this vampire had children with a human and all of them must have been human.”
“That’s strange, why would all of them be humans though.” Chris asked. “I mean shouldn’t it be a fifty fifty chance of being one or the other no matter which parent is the vampire?”
“In the werebeast, yes but in vampires it depends on the gender.” Nix said. “For example if you and I have a child and the child was born male then it would be human.”
“Looking closer at these pictures it’s clear the vampire was female,” Diamond said as point to the name beside the vampire name. “The children share the same surname as the human parent.”
“So all they had were human children and the rest of this tree are humans.” Chris said and paused as he looked at more modern names. “Wait…wait if he’s targeting females of this blood because their vampire ancestor was female.”
“Maybe he thinks the vampire gene works best in the females of this family for his experiments.” Nix said and Diamond started to look at names. “We should try to find these dies.”
Diamond froze up as she read the most modern names and rushed to pull out her cell phone but tossed it onto Chris’ desk. Her phone screen was broken to hell from the explosion, “Shit!” Diamond said and started to run full speed to the stairwell door.
“Diamond, where's the fire?!” Chris yelled out before looking back at the image, “What did she see?”
Diamond was running up the stairwell of her apartment building and once on her floor she rushed down the hallway. She stopped in front of apartment thirty-two and banged on the door, “AZIZA!” Diamond yelled loudly and kept hitting the door.
The door swung open by Aziza and Diamond rushed into the apartment. “Diamond, what’s wrong?” Aziza asked as Diamond was scanning the room.
“Where’s Lay?” Diamond asked and noticed Lay’s shoes were missing. “Start calling her and tell her to come back to the apartment.”
Aziza pulled out her phone and called Lay’s number. “She’s not picking up.” Aziza said after it Lay didn’t answer. “She was just heading to the store to get some things for supper.”
“Keep trying and follow me.” Diamond said as rushed out of the apartment. Aziza slipped on her shoes and followed Diamond out of the apartment while trying to get hold of Lay.
The two rushed down to the streets and Aziza started to panic before noticing something, “Lay’s car is still here.” Aziza pointed out. Diamond and Aziza rushed to her car and didn’t see any broken gss.
Diamond’s ear twitched on hearing a phone going off in the alleyway and the two rushed over to the sound. Diamond spotted an over the shoulder purse, keys, and set of keys. Diamond could smell Lay’s scent on purse and the vampire’s scent was lingering in the area. Diamond’s blood turned cold as she knew Lay was kidnapped by that mad man.
