AN: Okay, last chance fore the gore warning. It’ll be in effect for the rest of the book, btw.
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With the kid’s door shut, the hall turned dark. It wasn’t much of an issue for me, though. My eyes rapidly adjusted to the dark, and the world melted into fuzzy tones of gray, blue, and yellow.
The scent of blood wafted up and down the hall… it seemed our Skullker hadn’t bothered with going in the back ways when it made its move. Ego? Or confidence. The only thing worst than a monster was a confident one.
I sniffed around a bit more, but couldn’t quite place any scent except blood and the missing trail from the alley. My nose wasn’t quite as good as a true wolf’s, and the sharp bloody scent covered things way too well.
I moved away down toward the basement. I half-expected to find Quinn waiting for me at the top of the stairs, but she surprisingly went down to start investigating ahead of me.
The basement had been converted into a laundry room by the landowner. Laundry baskets were scattered and tipped over all around the place, and eight people lay where they were slain.
Quinn had set up a light with one of her water balls, so the entire room was well-lit despite the power outage. Several machines were still half-full of water from where the power had been cut mid-cycle to help deal with the Electrick.
Quinn stood crouched over the closest corpse to the door with a handkerchief pulled up over her nose. Her halo was tipped forward ever so slightly. I stepped slightly heavier on the final step of the stairs, and she shot up to face me with hand half-outstretched. “Pyre, Reyna… you scared the fire out of me.”
”Sorry.” At least I made a sound. She might’ve smoked me otherwise.
”Your eyes are just as terrifying as usual, by the way.” She shifted her hand up to her rub at her head. “That ghostly blood-red thing is seriously intimidating."
I lifted a hand to my eyes. Eyeshine… it was common in Apexes, but mine was a particular kind of unsettling. Red eyes made my eyeshine an ominous dark red instead of a natural ghastly-green like my sister’s.
I glanced around the laundry room. The stench was almost unbearable. At least the alley could air out by the time we arrived. “Eight dead?”
”Yeah.” She dropped her hand, and motioned to the corpse with her foot. “I think I found our rabbit. He looks like one of the gangers up in the alley.”
The man she referred to was indeed a rabbit-apex. Although his most noticeable features, his ears, had been ripped off alongside his head, there was no denying it. Even with his tail half-hidden by how he’d collapsed, the scent was unmistakable. Rabbit Apexes had a certain musk to them. White Rabbit was the predominant Apex Totem in the area, so I was very familiar with it.
I moved past Quinn to check his corpse. Just like the lady, his spine was missing. He had on the same clothes as the gang, which meant I needed to rearrange the timeline. The gang didn’t come here to bag the calamity. They were likely here for some other reason, and got ambushed. Then, the Skullker got a new body via this rabbit Apex, and moved down here to go on another killing spree for a new disguise.
“Surprised you're down here.” I stood up, and moved around the room to check on the rest of the corpses. “Figured you’d wait for me at the door.”
”Please, I’m not a coward.” She grimaced, and pressed her handkerchief tighter. Quinn couldn’t stand the scent of blood. “Can’t expect you to do all the work, can I?”
“This is all I’m good for, anyway,” I muttered, and crouched beside another dead man. Tracking things down was my one true strength. Once we found the bastard, it’d all be up to her.
“Reyna—“ Quinn started, though stopped with a sigh. “I’ll quit drinking if you quit lying to yourself.”
“Then go ahead and quit.” I shot a look back to her. “I never lie to myself.”
“Right, ‘course you don’t.” She muttered, “and I don’t have a drinking problem.”
I moved around and checked another four, but they were much the same. My tail curled around and lightly brushed patterns against my arm. This was a tragedy. These people were just moving around their daily lives, and now they were desecrated corpses. Bitterness welled up in my chest.
Quinn moved up beside me, and shared a moment of solemnity with me. As always, the silence was very much appreciated. “How was the kid?”
”Safely tucked into his apartment.” The last thing I wanted was for him to be out and about if things hit the fan. “Tommy’s a brave one. He’ll be alright.”
Guardian Tidebreak nodded. If anyone understood bravery, it was her. Hell, that was why she was chattering like this. It’d been a while since we left the academy, but she was still much the same. ”That’s his name? Tommy?”
“Yeah… he liked the Tidebreak action figure quite a bit. Hugged it to his chest as soon as I gave it to him.” I smirked up at her. “Told you those were a good idea.”
She scratched at her cheek and avoided my gaze. ”They’re way too embarrassing. Still can’t believe command accepted your proposal to make them.”
“I sent that in half as a joke.” We got in a spat back then, and I’d been off an inhibitor for a couple days. Wasn’t exactly in my right mind when I sent in that form. “You’d like him.”
“I love all my adoring fans.” Her usual lazy expression collapsed into a soft smile. It took on a slightly stressed edge. “Just not the merch. Some college kid asked me to step on him at a signing last week, Reyna. How far is too far?”
“I wish I could’ve seen that.” But no, I had to go on a stupid expedition for Hades instead. My mirth faded away.
“You would.” Her eyes darted around, and the smile faded away like a sweet dream. “Any luck with this fiasco?”
I sighed, and shook my head. “Not yet. Something’ll turn up soon.”
My ears twitched toward the door, and my tail straightened out behind me. A few moments later, Sergeant Helms returned to us. He slicked his hair back, and leaned against the door. "Perimeter's sealed. Nothing’s getting in or out.”
“Good work, Sergeant.” Quinn moved to lean against one of the washing machines, and wiped at her nose with the handkerchief. Her face was still pale, though she looked a bit better off than when I first came down here.
I moved back over to the two of them, and dodged around a mound of bloodied clothes. As I got near, my nose twitched, and my ears swiveled in the man’s direction. Why’d he smell like fresh blood? He was clean earlier. “Where’s the other two?”
”Settling a case of domestic violence. A kid ran into the hall with her face all bloody.” He shrugged and picked at his ballistic vest. “I came down just as they were caving in the father’s face.”
Heh, good all Peacekeepers. Really, they were more gang-like than actual gangs. Probably traumatized the poor girl even more while they were at it.
Right, Tommy said something about the neighbor’s daughter crying? It could be his neighbor that gave him the candle. I made a mental note to check on her before we left. At the very least, I could send a welfare check request into Harbor.
”Reyna, look at this.” Quinn still held her handkerchief to her nose, and her voice had turned all nasally. She crouched over a dead man on the other side of the laundry room.
This one had half his head still attached. I pulled out a set of gloves, and carefully turned him onto his front so I could get a better look at the back half of his head. His brain half slid out with a sickening shlick, revealing several bite marks spread across it.
It seemed our Skullker had its meal interrupted. By who? Did the Peacekeepers get down here quick enough to scare it into the shadows? No, that wasn’t likely. The calamity must’ve bailed for some other reason. Full, maybe? Or it could’ve bee when the power shut out.
”Weird,” I muttered softly. Unfortunately, the combination of spilled cleaning supplies, blood, and way too many conflicting scents messed with my nose, or I might’ve been able to figure something else out.
”Definitely.” Quinn waved a hand, and water flowed out of a laundry machine to us. It slid down around her hands like a glove, and she turned the man slightly once more to get a better look at the serrations along the skull. “I… think I’m going to puke.”
”Do it somewhere else.” I leaned forward to check what she spotted. The marks along the bone were too clean. The amount of force and sharpness needed to cut through bone without leaving too many fractures wasn’t a small amount.
Quinn gagged, and backed away. “Confirmed tier-three?”
“High chance.” I backed away and pulled out my phone to check the Harbor database. “Give me a second.”
My hands stilled, and my tail twitched in irritation. My phone’s screen was all staticky and impossible to read. Some of the Skullker’s miasma must’ve still been present to scramble the device.
Okay, off the top, then? I had to memorize all known calamities back at the academy, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. T-1 Skullkers were little better than mindless beasts. T-2, they developed hardier bodies and mimicking abilities.
They had a massive qualitative change at T-3. their intelligence and lethality jumped massively, and they gained the ability to absorb memories. Quinn and I had only ever taken on a few tier-three calamities. This was pushing it. Might be fine since Skullkers weren’t combat—
”Did you see the bunny ganger?” Sergeant Helms asked from his spot at the door. “This is a ganger, right? He’s got the same clothes on as those in the alley.”
”We noticed already.” Quinn shuffled around the room as if to get one last look at the scene of the crime… not that it could even be called a crime. Calamities were monsters. That’d be like saying a wolf killing a sheep was a crime.
Sergeant Helms stepped into the room, and crossed his arms. “Think we’ll need to call in reinforcements from Harbor to find this thing?”
“Don’t worry about it. My Canary here’s the best tracker in the city.” Quinn patted my shoulder lightly. “Reyna has one of those hunting Aspects.”
I did not, in fact, have an Aspect. It was just a convenient lie to cover up my true nature as a Psyker. Most Apexes had Aspects anyway, so it wasn’t that weird. It was weirder that I didn’t have one.
”Oh?” Sergeant Helms’ eyes narrowed slightly on me. For the first time since I met the man, he actually seemed to take an interest. “You’ll be able to hunt this beast down?”
”Maybe. It’s nothing super magical.” ‘Sides, Seek didn’t work on most living entities. If I had a fragment of a clue to go off of, it might be fine. Skullkers weren’t ones to leave clues behind.
”How’s that work, anyway?” He casually asked. Then, as if realizing it was a bit of a strange question, he sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head. “I always wondered about your people’s Aspects, Canary. Is it a body thing? Or….”
“It’s different depending on the person.” I didn’t have an aspect, so I literally couldn’t explain it. I read a ton about it, though, for when my little sister unlocked her Aspect. Hopefully, it'd be sometime soon. “Mine hardly works.”
”Oh…” His head dipped down toward one of the corpses. He dropped his hands into his pockets, and kicked at the floor. “Unfortunate.”
”Yeah.” I frowned, and my ears twitched in irritation. Why did I bother to explain that to a human? He wouldn’t understand.
The Sergeant moved deeper into the laundry room, and crouched down beside a corpse. I stood up, and adjusted the strap of my vi-rifle. The gun’s receiver faintly glowed with a soft golden light. Hmm…
“Sergeant Helms.” I stared at the man in heavy ballistic gear, and rolled my shoulders lightly. Quinn looked up, and her eyes dropped to my tail. She smoothly slid back to her feet with sharp eyes.
”Yes, Canary?” The man stood up from where he’d been crouched by the one with half his head still remaining.
Canary. That was only the second time he directly used my title. Heh… I should’ve known. I clicked the safety off. “… where’s Sergeant Helms?”
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AN: This is the point where I say I changed my mind and I’ll keep chapter 10 safely tucked in my documents for a few days…