"Hmm, it reeks," I complained before walking off in the other direction without waiting to see if anyone followed me. The evening air was chilling, but manageable. The sunset was now vibrant shades of orange and red with a cloudless sky.
It was chilling how beautiful it was outside in the face of a tragedy. The world around us had not stopped because of the tragedy inside. I think that was one of the things that bothered me the most the day my parents had been brutally murdered, outside the sun had been shining, welcoming. It had pissed me off even at five.
"Planning on killing the sun?" Ryder asked keeping up with me easily with his long gait.
I stopped and removed the booties on the porch and held out my hands for new ones slipping them on just as quickly before I stepped onto the porch and looked through the window. "The glass is outside," I remarked.
"Yeah, they broke the window to get in." Dristan said quietly from behind me.
"No, she let her killer inside. If they had gone through the window, the glass would be on the inside from being broken into."
"Smart, so the killer broke it on their way out?" Ryder asked narrowing his eyes on the glass at our feet.
I nodded keeping my eyes on the figure slumped in the small wooden chair in her kitchen. Ropes held her in place and she was missing part of her face, there were also holes in her shoulders from either being stabbed or pinned by something. Bile rose in my throat but I pushed it back down shaking my head.
"It's bad inside,' Ryder said in a low voice.
"You don’t investigate things like this normally?" I asked trying to dispel the image of my father that filtered briefly through my mind. I pulled my eyes away from the body to look up into his eyes.
"No, it's not often we find our own dead," he growled moving to open the door.
I followed slowly, the stench of death overwhelming as the door was thrown open wide. I scanned the room briefly. Two tea cups with green tea sat on a breakfast nook, along with knives that I was betting had not been part of tea time. The carpets were once white, now were splattered with blood from the brutality which the murder occurred with.
I tilted my head looking at the eyeless face that was facing the floor. If not for the slashes against the shallow cheeks of the blonde petite Fairy she would have appeared to be sleeping. Blood had been used to write scribe marks across the wall in the language of the dead.
"She knew her killer, enough that she made tea and sat down with her to talk," I said narrowing my eyes on the symbols on the wall. "Can you read the message?" I asked carefully.
"It's a warning and a draining glyph. Myrsa didn't have much power though. She was after all a simple earth Fairy. Good at growing, but otherwise not powerful by any means."
"No, but she was beautiful. Maybe this killer isn't just sucking out power, but beauty as well," I mumbled tilting my head to better look at the missing skin of the poor woman's fingers. "She is missing her eyes, her fingertips and—oh wow," I swallowed violently against the nausea rising once more.
The white pants were open and her woman parts were completely missing, including her womb. "Was she—" I stopped clearing my voice again as I took an involuntary step backwards, "Was she breeding?"
Ryder hissed with anger, his eyes doing his glowing thing again filled with his outrage. "No, she was in waiting. She was to be married to a Water Sprite next week. She chose this house because of the portal one block over that leads to the main garden inside Faery."
"That makes no sense, why would someone steal her organs? Eyes can be used for certain spells—"
I switched into second sight and took in the scene around us. I instantly felt the air crackle and the room went deathly silent. As if everyone knew what was coming but couldn't do anything about it. The air was charged and everything felt as if it was moving in slow motion. The Fae looked at us, as we looked at them. Horror filled the small room as I turned and looked at the body of the deceased. My hand began to itch painfully.
Adam and Larissa's hands sought my shoulders as they pushed their own powers into me. The moment the connection and circle was made, I brought my hands out wide mimicking them in a circle before my palms slapped together—and the room exploded.
Wood from the roof splintered and hit the protection field I'd created, violently sending spasms through my body. It was a part of me. I was consuming the damage so that the others could be protected. The Fae might have been able to live through the blast, but my friends wouldn’t have.
I turned, looking over at the Fae who still stared at us, Ryder's eyes narrowing as he took in the pinched strain on my face. Blood was pumping loudly inside my ears making impossible to hear what he was saying. Sweat broke out on my brow as Adam and Larissa kept their hands touching my flesh, feeding me power to keep the protective barrier up.