Blue Moon Rising (The Patroness) Read Online Free Page A

“How much do you need this time?”
    I looked over the bodies. “Hmm, actually a lot, maybe some liters will do.”
    “Wha...What? What did you do?”
    “Me? I didn’t do anything. I just stumbled over five dead shapeshifters during my patrol. I need you ASAP. Passage Main d’Or.” I hung up.
    Mathieu would only need a couple of minutes to find me since he was living nearby. I crouched down again to take a good look at the wounds. Broken limbs. What looked like to be red bruises tinged with gray; silver poisoning. And some deep wounds, probably caused by a very sharp tool; how strange. Their heads were cut off, to ensure they’d really stay dead.
    Then, for the first t ime, after I rolled a body over I noticed that it had an intriguing symbol burned onto the chest. What the hell? Checking the others I came up with five different symbols showing a wolf, a cross, wings, a cat and a shape looking rather like a Halloween ghost costume. Exa mining all of them very closely I knew this one was big trouble.
    As I took the la st pictures Mathieu came running up the street. He was tall, blond and started to lose his boyish looks. And he was followed by a shadow – a ghost, who also happened to be his best friend. When Mathieu had moved into his new apartment to be closer to the Uni versity he soon found out that he shared it with a ghost, whose body or what was left of it was stuck in our realm and with his mind somewhere in the sixties. The ghost was barefoot, wearing a worn out jeans and a colorfully died shirt emblazoned with a peace symbol across his chest – a life-size d cliché. His name was Philippe. H e was eighteen years old and had shoulder-length, brown hair. Right from the start Philippe had de cided to be Mathieu’s bodyguard, although how he wanted to do that without a body of his own I didn’t know. But it still relieved me given the fact that if ever something happened, Philippe was able to come to me in a nanosecond thanks to travelling ghost-style.
    Mathieu stopped dead in his tracks, as did Philippe, when they saw the bodies. Getting up I said in a hard voice, “Oh no, you don’t. Take a deep breath Mathieu!”
    And with a look at Philippe’s transpar ent but nevertheless green face I added, “You, too, Philippe. Although – are ghosts actually able to vomit?”
    Mathieu did as I had told him and came towards me holding a big plastic canister filled with acid. Philippe just scowled at me.
    I shrugged. “I’m just curious. Are you alright?”
    Philippe gave me a thumbs-up, apparently too afraid to open his mouth.
    Mathieu looked at me. “Hi. And yeah, we’re fine.” Then he jerked his thum b over his shoulder at Philippe. “Although he has a crush on this new chick. Of cour se, she doesn’t even notice him and so he’s just a big pain in the ass .”
    The ghost in question couldn’t leave it at that. “Well, if I could smoke a little pot I would stop wailin g. But that’s just not possible and it is even illegal in this age. ” He threw up his arms in desperation. “God, everything we’ ve once fought for...love, freedom. You all...”
    “Oh, not again!” Mathieu groaned.
    “I miss the sixties! I’d like to see you running around as a ghost in a time that is so self-centered and superficial like this one.”
    Geez, these two acted like an old couple.
    It was just a matter of time until the police would notice that t here was something going on here so I took the canister out of Mathieu’s still slightly trembling hands and poured the acid over the dead. Mathieu couldn’t hold it and threw up in the shadows of the street.
    After everything was cleaned up we walked down the alley, and as a light evening breeze provided us some fre sh air Mathieu looked up at the night s ky, his lips crooked in a smile. “You know, I always want to see myself as Viktor. You know from ‘Nikita’? B ut he sure as hell never threw up.”
    I smiled at him. “I think it is better this way or otherwise