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Chapter One

"What do we got, Aggie?"

The detective pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped at the sweat beaded on the top of his bald head Soht have assumed his reaction was nerves, but I knew it had to be hot in the house he’d just walked out of Detective Joe Agrusa had been on the job for nearly twenty-five years, and only Mrs Agrusa could ot is a body A weird one," he said

"No shit? Here I was thinking you called rinned, revealing a set of crooked but stain-free teeth "You wish, freak hunter"

Aggie was huht I was usually the shortest woman in the room, which made the detective pretty damned short for a man I looked down at him and snorted "Fill me in"

He raised an eyebrow at ht, just barely "Don’t make me scream it out of you"

"Shit, Mac All the yearsme and you think I’m not ih bubbled out of ie, of all the normals I worked with, would joke about my half-banshee status so easily He realized what most cops didn’t--that it didn’t erous than theiven a lot of tierous than a perp with a gun Most of the nor urge to laugh

"Don’t got any info for you, Mac Not a crazed lycanthrope or goblin or anything like that This one’s downright creepy You’re gonna have to see for yourself"

I stifled a sigh Aggie wasn’t on the "freak squad," the affectionate terave the paranorh to knohen to hand off a case to us The fact that he was at a loss on this one didn’t bode well There wasn’t lanced at a red Camry parked across the street "Looks like Aet your ass ed up to the front door It stood ajar, held open with a cinderblock A couple of unifor One pointed down the hall when he saw nored me Some cops did their best to pretend the freak squad didn’t exist, figuring the paranorain, most of us were freaks--and not by association

A dark-haired A the body fros very seriously: her job, her witchcraft, and her bodybuilding All of which reat partner We shared our hair color and penchant to exercise, but that’s where our reseenerally pulled back out of my face, and Amanda towered over my five foot three inch frame

The crime scene was in a standard master bedroom, nicely decorated if you didn’t mind all surfaces covered in some sort of flora or fauna, both actual plants and plants printed on every available fabric in the roo indicated a struggle Only a slight scent of so, then

I sidestepped to avoid a young guy carrying an evidence bag in one hand and a hard, metal specimen collection case in the other A wole on the bed, hands above her head, naked and wide-eyed Her wrists were covered in purple and brown bruises, and her long, red hair fanned the pillow under her head Other than the bruising, there were no obvious injuries

"Vampire?" I asked The bite marks from a vampire could be hidden, fros, behind a knee, on the back of her neck, or otherwise concealed under her body

Aainst her palm "Medical Exa on her thighs, , and on the wrists No other et her back to the "

I frowned If A to find "Are you thinking rape?"

"Well, it looks like she had sex before she died Rape’s a strong possibility considering the bruising But the dead part--no clear explanation on that"

"Could be natural Maybe a stroke or souy--if he was still here when it happened--took off because he was scared"

Aree with you, if this was the first one"

I flipped open the file A woman’s photo had been paper-clipped in front of the police report She was brown-haired with glasses, and rather plain-looking by her picture, at least co redhead on the bed

"Why didn’t we hear about this?"

"Normals called it death by natural causes They didn’t have any reason not to Just like this, noon that one too, so they didn’t see a reason to call us in ME says both show signs of sex shortly before death"

"Hes of the file and skile, no kids Found dead of apparent natural causes, nude withon her wrists

"What do you think?" she asked