chapter one

Cassandra ’s pov

“This is getting more ritualistic by the day.” I said aloud as I walked out the morgue.

This was the third death in two days and there were reports about missing persons.

“I doubt there is anything too serious about it, we have no motive yet, the deaths so far seem to happen at the bars.”

I halted in my tracks as I looked up to Lewis,my partner who made that comment.

“Sure, should we ignore the symbol carved into the victims?” I said.

“What symbols?” He asked.

“What do you mean what symbols, each of them had something carved into them right on their collarbone, if I knew better I would say it was a sigil.”

“Well,” Lewis said as he shrugged his shoulders, “they might have been new recruits into gangs, I mean we have these cases almost everyday.”

“It does not mean that it is something serious, it's one of those murders that happen when drunk people collide.” He said as he walked away to his car.

“Sure…” I sighed, “write off my opinion and observations as extra”

Being a woman did not really come with many advantages in my line of work.

I had hoped moving to blueboard city would help but no.

It was almost the same thing as Seattle.

And this partner, he was not helping matters at all.

But I was certain of what I saw, there was a symbol carved into each and every one of those victims that we've dealt with these past few days.

Asides that, I could have said that everything else seemed normal.

“Cassandra …”Lewis called out to me, pulling me out of my deep thoughts.

“You need a ride back to the station?” He asked as he pulled his car to a halt in front of me.

“Give me a minute, I just need to get some things in order here…” I said.

That was in fact an excuse to make it back to the corpse, there was something about that craved symbol on his body that just made me dread.

“Well hurry it up, we need to head back to the Precinct and make reports back to the chief.”

I rolled my eyes as I made my way back to the corpse.

“I need a minute with the corpse,” I said to the officers there as I flashed my badge to them.

“Sure thing ma'am.”

There it was, the odd symbol, carved neatly and deep in his body, just there on the collarbone.

I picked up the report file that was provided and read through it.

“What the…” I half cursed, there was nothing there about the carving on his collarbone .

I grabbed a glove and slipped into them just so I could feel.

“You see it too, don't you?” A voice came from behind me.

That startled me and the result was the clattering sound of the tray that fell to the floor.

“What are you doing here, you should not be here…” I said to him as I placed my hands on the gun on my hostler

“You seem to be new here…”

I did not know why it took me that long to figure it out but the man who stood before me was like one of statues you'd find in a greek museum, except he was well clothed and he was way hotter.

The sleek hair, the stubble chin, the broad chest and chiseled jawline made me gulp.

“And you are yet to get the hell out of this place, this is a crime scene,you are not supposed to be here,leave this instant.”

“You see the craving too don't you?”

I felt my defenses fail me the moment he made mention of the carved symbol.

“What carved symbol?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Come on,not you too” he said as he picked up a laser pointer from the table and pointed to the craving.

“This symbol?” He said, raising his brows inquisitively.

“I know that you can see it, I've been watching you, and it has been,well…” he shrugged his shoulders, “way too much for you.”

His aura.

It felt so familiar and distant at the same time.

I opened my mouth to ask questions when the curtains moved.

“Cassandra ?”

I turned around to see who it was and saw Lewis standing behind me with a startled expression on his face.

“Lewis I can explain,he was about leaving when…”

“Good morning sir.”

“Sir?!” I thought, “what was he on about?”

“Like she said, I was about to leave,” the man said as he walked out.

He halted a few metres from me, “it was nice meeting you Cassandra ..” and with that he was gone from my sight.

Without mincing words or even enquiring what or who the man was, Lewis passed his message, “the chief is quite busy, the report will be tomorrow, you may go home now!” He said.

“Sure, I Just need a few more minutes here,” I said.

“You and that corpse, why do I always get the creeps as partners?”

I ignored that comment and stared at the symbol on the victim's collarbone .

I got tired when all I got was the vague feeling of being familiar with that symbol.

I made my way to the garage when certain movements caught my attention.

“Hello?” I called out, “is anyone there?”

A paw slapped me across the face and I found myself flying a few meters back.

“You should have stayed away when you had the chance”. A low growling voice said to me from the cover of darkness.

I tried to scream for help but I was too dizzy to even arrange my thoughts together.

I gave in to the darkness.

…….

“Cassandra …”

I opened my eyes to behold the same guy from the morgue.

“Thank God you're alright.” He said as he helped me up.

“Take me to my car..” I protested.

“Not in this condition, I'll be taking you home.”

“What happened?” I asked, “the last thing that I remembered was that…”

“That doesn't matter, you're safe and we need to keep it that way.” He said as he took me to his car and drove me home.

“Here's my card…” he said as he handed me his card, “the name is Nikolas , feel free to give me a call, we have a lot to talk about”