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The sun glared in at Tessa, rousing her from a deep sleep. She was made acutely aware that there was a pounding pain in both her head and shoulder. Groaning, she dragged herself out of bed and tiptoed around Lee, who was fast asleep half naked on the couch. Tessa silently crept into the kitchen to put the kettle on.
Dumping willow bark, skullcap and feverfew into a teapot, she yawned and drummed her fingers on the table, before it occurred to her to check her phone. With all the excitement of removing festering zombie pieces from her flesh, Tessa had forgotten that such things existed. Given the events of last night, she wasn't surprised that she had slept in till 11:30am, but the 5 missed calls was unusual. All were from Damien, and she was about to check her message bank when someone started rapping frantically on her door, keeping time with the pounding in her head.
Tessa cursed loudly as they continued to hammer at the termite weakened wood until she called out, her voice a strained croak. Lee had thrown himself into action and was warily standing to the blind side of the door. She nodded to him conspiratorially before cracking the door open just enough to see out, ready to glare them down. Damien poked a worried face through the gap, making Tessa jump back in surprise. The door hit the length of safety chain and rebounded into Damien's flushed face.
'You're a'ight, ye 'live, aye, bin scared all this'n talk about ye, n heard bad went down on ye 'n all.' He said, the words coming out in a tumble in his haste, making his rough accent worse than ever.
'Wait, slow down, what?' asked Tessa, thoroughly confused about what this garbled mess was trying to communicate. She unlatched the door chain and let him in. Before Tessa could fathom what was happening, Damien had scooped up her hands into his sweaty mitts, almost crushing them with his sheer size.
'Tessie, I just got done talkin' in town, ‘n sommen' toll' me there been a girl got dead las’ night. Then I hears ye done been attacked an' there blood all over wherein ye park ye car n I thought... wait who is THAT?' Damien stopped suddenly, catching sight of Lee. The demon had come out of his protective hiding spot and was looking decidedly partially naked in the middle of Tessa's living room. It did not look good in any situation, let alone this exact one.
'Uhhh Dame, meet Lee. He is...' Tessa began to say before being stopped short by an explosive outburst by Damien, accompanied by spit and sweat. His face was now a pulsating mess of veins, his usually carefully coiffed hair now flopping into fury burnt eyes.
'Oh, I see what'n all 'bout. Ye gimme the stiff las' night, ya all not ready n all an' I get all worried over ye, thinkin' ye dead. I thinkin' on I love ye and givin' ye time, but ye jus' wanna be playin' house with this asshole.Ye kin keep on with this creep.' With that, Damien glared at the both of them, turned on his heel and stalked angrily away. Tessa went to follow, but he was too fast, stride too long, and was gone by the time she even reached the main door of her apartment block.
Tessa cursed and returned to the apartment, both sad that Damien felt so hurt and peeved that he hadn't just let her explain. He hadn't trusted her, and that bit Tessa to the core.
There was no time to sit and worry about it however, from Damien's garbled words it sounded like there had been another death. Tessa pulled on some cute rolled up jeans and a bowling shirt before grabbing her bag and keys. Ready, she nodded to Lee. He had somehow manifested some new clothes and was waiting wordlessly by the door for her. The usefulness of demons was endless. This time he had donned a black collared shirt and blue jeans. Sensible, sleek clothes for inspecting a fresh corpse. Together they rushed out, and desperately begged the cantankerous old car to start. They both cheered as it turned over with a grumble and a screech. It was time to cruise through the filthy back alleys of Bayton, looking for a murder.
Even without Damien's help the murder scene was not hard to find. Despite being in blood soaked Bayton, every murder still drew a curious crowd. Especially bizarre ritual murders. They loved those, and news quickly spread. This time it was on the very edge of Bayton East, in what was actually a rather nice, calmly suburban area. There were little bits of green poking out here and there rather than the usual brown and grey monotony of the squalor in Bayton central. This was indicative of small gardens, public space care and money.
None the less there were still alleyways, and more to the point, murders to happen down them. Tessa had to elbow her way through the gathered people to see clearly. What was revealed had her immediately wishing she didn't.
The pools of blood were congealed and still, manifesting gory halos around the body, testament to the intense trauma that had occurred. Again, many of the injuries were done before death, but there were many post-mortem cuts that seemed to be more like mutilation than crafted sigils of any worth. Random slashes and stabs dotted the body, which did not occur in the previous murders. These cuts were deep, hacked and feral. The burns were through to muscle and bone, an impressive feat to accomplish.
This murder felt different. What had previously been precise care and attention to detail was now clear frustration. It was too messy. Oddly enough, this time the body had been merely dumped in the street, strewn aside like so much trash. There was no posing, and the right hand was merely hacked up rather than being cleanly removed. Tessa chewed her lip, pondering the lack of care. She threw out feelers for magick, and swiftly got her answer.
'Lee! It's because she died! That's why she was just thrown away like this,' she said, flapping her hands wildly in the excitement of her morbid revelation. Lee however, stared back blankly. He had been quietly standing by, subtly preventing the crowd from impeding Tessa's process.
'Uh, not to rain on your parade, but didn't they all die?' he said, one thick eyebrow crooked in confusion.
'No, she died too soon...' Tessa became acutely aware of her intently interested audience and lowered her voice, 'they must need the victims to stay alive to complete the spell and get their skills, that's why she is all mauled up but not with sigils. They got pissed off and just dumped her here. It's why there is so much blood here and so little magick. I can't trace it because it's just not there. The spell wasn't finishe... OW HOLY HEL.' Tessa stopped gesturing wildly towards the victim when her shoulder made an odd popping sound and began to hurt fiercely. The bandages on the wound rapidly filled with blood, staining her shirt. Lee resisted the urge to smack himself in the face over her silliness. This little witch was certainly passionate. To a fault.
'You do recall you got bitten, yes? Slip your mind a little? It will keep popping open until we can get some iron water onto it.' Tessa looked at him dubiously, wondering what on earth Mars water had to do with it.
'Yer whut?' she asked. Lee looked dumbfounded, shocked that she did not know this simple old remedy. He sighed before beginning his explanation.
'When a zombie bites it transfers a kind of hex that aims to kill you by bleeding out. Iron breaks most hexes and curses. Therefore, short of sticking an iron rod in your wound, you need to use iron water. Did they not teach you this before? This Agency of yours? The Witches Council? Anyone?' he asked while she looked at him quizzically. It seemed a total oversight to him that she had not been taught the simplest treatments for magickal mishaps. She did not even seem to understand the connection between iron and hexes.
'Uh it's not like you expect too many zombies running around downtown Bayton. It was only the basics, and even then, it was more about the necromancer. Well, how to track and kill them really. We certainly didn't cover zombie bites any more than the concept of don't get bitten. That and if you do get bitten, you won't turn into a zombie. Raising them as hitmen? No. I mean who even does that?' scowled Tessa, pressing yet another scarf to the wound and wishing she had packed some tissues at least. Lee sighed dramatically, wondering what exactly they were teaching the witches at the Agency academy now. He was slightly humoured by the clear brattiness of this formerly rich witch.
'Yes poppet, in the big wide world outside of this shit hole there is plenty of ghoulies and ghosties for everyone. Each with a different Achilles heel and a myriad of different ways to kill you. Better get born kid,' he said, ruffling her hair and making Tessa scowl even more ferociously.
'Isn't this what you demons are supposed to be for? The big protector and magickal consultant? Why bother summoning you otherwise?' she whined. Lee smirked at her words. Her freckles and upturned nose made this little temper tantrum even more endearing.
'Isn't this your job, baby witch?'
'Well, I suppose I will be all up on it when I am as OLD as you are,' she snapped, disliking how easily he could get a rise out of her. Of course, she couldn't help but feel snippy on a day where everything seemed to be going wrong.
'Ooh ouch, doll's got the devil in her today,' he said, glancing over as the crowd began to watch them more intently again, rather than gawking at the body. Whether it was a brutal murder or lover's tiff, it was all cheap entertainment in Bayton. They loved anything that broke the monotony of concrete and a daily struggle to live.
'They also didn't tell me how much of a pain in the ass demons were,' Tessa grumbled, turning back to the body before Lee could make some kind of comeback. She stalked around the mess of a human being some more in a huff, trying to pretend she was focusing on her work.
Finally, she was forced to concede that there was no more information to be derived from this poor, pathetic remnant of life. Her biggest hope of finding a victim with the magickal link intact was dashed with this woman's death. A quick survey of the gathered crowd revealed that no one had borne witness to the crime, and while the victim had been 'seen around,' no one really knew who she was.
After notifying those who would dispose of the body and inform the Agency, Tessa finally admitted defeat and headed to lunch as soon as the scene was signed over to the crime scene crew. They ate silently and voraciously, both starving from the missed breakfast, despite having just investigated the mutilated body. There was no way an investigator would survive if they could be put off their food by a dead body. The job was both disgusting and strenuous, so a good meal could rarely be missed. They learnt that pretty early in the academy.
'So, we know she died too soon, so there has to be at least one more body. Unfortunately, we live in one of the most populated areas for this part of the country. There is no way to determine who could be attacked next, nor somehow protect an entire city of people.' Tessa pondered aloud to Lee while still chewing her burger. She had hoped to have some kind of revelation, however it was Lee's face that lit up instead.
'Well, we know one thing, the necromancy is the key. We know the killer is using the powers, we know at least two of the victims had the skills. Is there some way we can scry for necromancers?' he asked.
'Forget scrying, the Agency keeps files on all the teenagers who are tested and have some kind of magickal skill. We can just search the database for anyone in Bayton who has those skills.' Tessa crowed with joy at the idea of narrowing down their search.
Pulling out her phone, she quickly called through to the Agency to request the search be done for anyone registered for necromantic powers. After she cut off the call, she high fived Lee in the dorkiest celebration. He couldn't help but smile at her antics. But the moment could not last, and as soon as lunch was done, they had to get on with their day.