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Chapter Thirteen
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ZARI HAD ONLY BEEN at the park for a few minutes when she heard the sound of footsteps. Deliberate for sure, she thought in amusement, since her Master couldn't be anything but stealthy even if to save his life.
Glancing up, she felt her heart skip a beat as she watched him approach her. Gone were the ill-fitting clothes, and in his all-black ensemble he now looked like the Alexandru of old. Elegant and dangerous all at once, and her heart skipped another beat as she caught the look of smoldering intensity in his brilliantly green gaze.
She turned around, acting like she intended to ignore him, but Alexandru being the personification of arrogance, this didn't bother him at all, and she had a hard time biting back a smile as a pair of strong arms slipped around her waist from behind. You found my note, Master?
While the breathless catch in his pet's voice was always a delight to hear, it was the humor that also underscored her words that had Alexandru fighting back his own smirk. It was not hard at all, guessing what had her so amused.
In the past, he was the one leaving her notes, more often due to having to leave unexpectedly when he had a demon to hunt down. Now, however, the tables had turned, but Alexandru didn't mind at all.
Received some updates about a case I'm secretly working on. Heading to The Battery. Would love some company if you're free. After repeating the exact words of her message, he then drawled, I've never had someone invite me on a date at a crime scene, but I supposed there's a first for everything.
Zari had to choke back a laugh at this, but with her Master already turning her around, this soon turned into a gasp as Alexandru's mouth covered hers in a hot, open-mouthed kiss. At first, she was embarrassed - it didn't feel right, kissing right next to her crime scene, but with her Master's tongue pushing deeper into her mouth, she was soon unable to think. All she could do was kiss him back, her arms tightening around his neck as her toes curled hard inside her boots, and her breasts started to ache—-
"What the fuck?"
The next thing she knew, Alexandru, his powerful body rigid with tension, was shoving her to hide behind his back, and Zari realized all at once that her Master believed they were under attack...but against what?
More than a little worried about the fact that she hadn't sensed anything at all, Zari was already reaching for one of her concealed blades even as she raised herself on her toes to see what they were facing—-
Oh.
Alexandru heard his pet's little mental gasp but didn't dare take his gaze away from the ghost that was once known as Key Moarte's most infamous haunted doll. Care to elaborate on what that 'oh' means?
Ten minutes and minus one ghostly spectator later, and Alexandru was doing his damnedest to come to terms with yet another unexpected aspect of his pet's new life. Apparently, her most recently acquired skill as a soul seer involved turning her visions into a home for ghosts that refused to move on, and in return for this refuge, the ghosts were "contract" bound to protect his pet and follow her every command.
"Basically," Zari ended, "I'm kinda like a Pokémon trainer in disguise—-"
Alexandru stared at his pet in disbelief. Pokémon? Elsa's inability to feel pain made her one of the most frighteningly powerful ghosts in the world, and the best way his pet could describe this was in terms of some game?
"Only I have no choice but to specialize in Pokémon like Gengar, Duskull, Banette—-" Zari's voice trailed off at the sight of her Master's glare. She had rather thought she had done a spectacular job explaining things, but maybe she was wrong?
Alexandru was struggling against the urge to give his pet's forehead a couple of good, hard flicks, just like old times. Just when he thought her mature, she had to say something like that, and he was back to worrying about whether it was even safe to let her out of his sight, much less give her the freedom to act like - Alexandru couldn't keep his lip curling - a Pokémon trainer.
"Master?" Zari's voice was timid. "If you have any questions—-"
"Just give me a moment, pet."
Zari opened her mouth to ask if that moment meant a few seconds or a minute, saw the way Alexandru was glaring at her, and changed her mind. "I'm just gonna be, um, over there," she mumbled with a vague gesture towards the still-unfilled grave.
Seeing how another ghost had literally materialized out of thin air as Zari walked away, Alexandru determinedly tried to convince himself all of this was par for the course. She might still be a magnet for trouble, but Zari was no longer as helpless and clueless as she had once been. In the years he had been gone from her side, his pet had not only successfully kept the fact that she was a soul seer in secret, but she had also managed to turn herself into one of New York's most badass trappers.
That had to count for something, never mind her less-than-ideal choice of terminology.
When her Master returned to her side, Zari was relieved to see that he no longer looked fit to throttle some sense into her. Note to self: Alexandru didn't like Pokémon. That was rather sad, but maybe he was one of those rare beings who preferred Digimon or something?
Alexandru studied the scene before him as he mentally reviewed the details of Zari's case report, which she had emailed to him before leaving the apartment. Twelve dead boys...when there should've been thirteen.
"We've got a guy at the police station sending us regular updates about the case," Zari told him, "and at first, I thought this whole thing was about finding their killer and giving the ghosts justice. This morning, however, the lead investigators on the case had finally finished cross-referencing DNA samples with old records, and as it turns out..." Zari's tone turned thoughtful. "The killer had already turned himself in, right after the twelfth boy went missing, in fact." She took her phone out to show Alexandru the newest set of emails.
Felix Lacson, 23, high school dropout, worked part-time at a junk shop on Staten Island. Described as 'not being in his right mind' by people who knew him and was diagnosed as schizophrenic by the time of his hearing.
"One of the reporters covering his trial described Lacson as a sobbing mess, and that the suspect refused to reveal the boys' whereabouts but kept insisting he didn't kill any of them. He just put them to sleep, like the voice in his head had told him to."
Zari and her Master exchanged looks. Voices in one's head might automatically make one certified in others' books, but in their world, it usually meant exactly that - a voice, typically a demon's, messing with susceptible human minds, which unfortunately were a dime a dozen.
Alexandru considered the timeline. It had been twenty-six years since the murders, and while that only placed their alleged killer in his forties...
"Lacson's dead, is he not?"
"Mysterious heart attack while he was behind bars. If he had lived another day, he would still have died; the jury thought him guilty, and the public wanted him executed."
"And the thirteenth boy?"
"Lacson never once mentioned anything about it. The only reason we know about it is..."
Alexandru turned his attention to the dead little boy who had remained silent but watchful by his pet's side the entire time they had been talking. "Martin, is it not?"
"Yes, sir." Martin's voice had a noticeable quiver, and it said a lot of his courage that he was even able to be coherent in Alexandru's presence. The devil - or in this case, demon - might wear many faces and hide under different guises, but ghosts were one of the rare beings that his kind was incapable of fooling.
"I don't mean you any harm," he said gently. "Anyone who is a friend to my pet is under my protection as well."
After several moments, the boy asked tremulously, "What do you need me to do?"