Nocturne 040 – Scions 02 - Patrice Michelle - Insurrection Read Online Free Page B

lowered her hand and her eyebrow rose, lips quirking slightly. “Don’t tell me you were just out for a stroll.”
    He didn’t miss her sarcasm, even as he wondered, Why the hell had the killers done it here of all places? He swept his gaze across the burned remains of his brethren. The wind began to pick up, stirring the ashes. Rain’s thick moisture carried heavily in the air. A downpour was imminent.
    Who would be so twisted as to bring both Kaitlyn and him to this very park? His heavy conscience beat a staccato thrum against his skull. The bullet on the chain around his neck seemed to burn, branding his skin.
    “Did you hear the call over the comm?” she prompted, drawing his attention.
    “Yeah, I was near the area.” Lucky break on my excuse for being here. He stared at the ashes. “What do you think? Kids burned some animals or something?”
    Kaitlyn’s auburn eyebrows rose. “Um, more like one something.”
    Landon’s heart jerked. There was no damned way she could tell what had been burned from looking at the ashes. Could she? He kept his expression carefully neutral and gestured to the pile of remains dissipating with each windy gust. “What else could it be? You don’t think this was a person, do you?”
    She shook her head and tucked a thick auburn strand of hair that had fallen from her clip back behind her ear. “No, I—” She paused and glanced down at the remnants, looking perplexed. “I think this was something humanlike but not quite human.”
    He froze. “Humanlike? What are you talking about?”
    She gave him an uncomfortable look. Her teeth snagged her bottom lip and she scouted the edge of the ashes, pointing with her flashlight.
    “The victim was lined up with his…its head facing north. It was at least seven feet tall with elongated jaws, more like a muzzle.” Moving to the opposite side, she pointed to another area. “And its legs and feet were bent at an odd angle, as if…well, as if it walked on the balls of its feet.”
    Every word that came out of her mouth cinched Landon’s chest tighter and tighter. Her accurate description was like a vise screwing closed around his lungs.
    Damn. She’d just accurately described a Lupreda zerker.
    But he couldn’t tell Kaitlyn how right she was. He gave her a hard look and spoke in an even tone. “Halloween’s not for another two weeks, Kaitlyn. I smell burned fur.” He kicked at the ashes, hoping to disturb the image she was seeing. “We’d better make sure this fire is completely out. Whatever the accelerant was, it took care of any bones, but its presence might leave these ashes more likely to flare up again. That concerns me, being so close to these woods.”
    “Wait! Did you just feel a rain drop? There won’t be any evidence left if it rains.” She handed him the flashlight. “Hold this for me.”
    She quickly pulled the clawlike clip out of her hair, then bent to scoop up some of the ash with her hair clip. “I saw some bits of silvery stuff along the edges of the ash where the hands and feet were. I want to have a sample analyzed.”
    “That clip’s like a tainted evidence envelope with holes.” He squatted down to give her the light she requested.
    “Yeah, but it’s the best I’ve got under the circumstances,” she said as he bent close.
    Her gorgeous blue eyes, flecked with swirls of golden brown, peered at him through her auburn hair. The silky-smooth curtain had fallen out of its twist to lie over her right shoulder. When she tucked her hair behind her ear, her action let loose the most appealing smell…woman’s musk and violets.
    Their gazes locked and in that instant he knew. He saw the slight tremble in her hand movements, heard her heart rate kick up and felt her heat level rise as the scent of her arousal flooded her body. She was attracted to him.
    Something about her alluring smell leaped at him, grabbing him by the throat in a tight fist. When the beam of light bounced off her hair, revealing