Now, Michigan

Cal scoured the waterfront.

The cold dark waters of Lake Michigan roiled with concealed creatures of great ferocity and size. They would’ve surge out to rend and tear had he not been actively hiding his presence from their minds.

He was relieved to find no sign of fishmen or the Deep Azure.

The only problem was that he wasn’t finding anything in his search.

The note the murderer had affixed to the dead Nando’s forehead— the poor man— had instructed them to go to the lake if they wanted to find Sadiiq and Bailey.

He started on the buildings farthest from the waters. Then worked his way closer until he was left with a lakefront restaurant near one of the largest docks.

The structure was a partially collapsed husk that was empty to all of his senses.

Not that he could trust them.

After all, he hadn’t detected the murderer killing Nando and taking the other two from the grocery store despite being only a few miles away in Min’s office waiting with John.

The murder site had been just as blank as the dance studio.

Five people dead, yet no imprints of their violent ends.

He descended through the gaping hole in the roof and into the huge dining area. Broken tables and chairs littered the space.

He spotted the large box immediately.

A plain cardboard box from the grocery store was his first guess.

If the murderer was playing games then he was the wrong person.

The box held no surprises for him.

He knew what was inside as soon as he laid eyes on it.

Three dark robes. Covered with slashes and stab holes. Stained in blood.

At least he had an answer on what happened to the cabal members that had tried to recruit John.

He floated the box behind him as he flew back into the dark night sky.

A moment later, he landed in front of Min and a small contingent of fighters stationed at an intersection a few blocks away. They hadn’t been willing to get closer to the water.

He laid the box down in front of Min.

The man cursed. “This better not be some seven shit!”

“Nope, but there’s a note.”

Min opened the box and pulled out the slip of paper placed on top of the robes. “What the hell is this?” he snapped.

Find them before it’s too late.

“That’s not a clue.” Min crushed the note in a meaty fist. “You can fly. That means you can cover a lot of ground. Can you find them?”

Cal stared up at the moon.

How late was it?

He had picked up John at dinner time.

The messenger had gone to Min at the grocery store immediately after he had brought John to the office.

Min had left Nando, Sadiiq and Bailey with four bodyguards just as quickly.

They had spent the next few hours forcing John to go over his story repeatedly looking for any clues into the cabal and the murderer.

Were there links?

Min had felt that there had to be some connection if the cultists had disappeared at around the same time that the first murder was discovered.

Cal could tell that the man blamed himself for thinking that monsters or mutant animals had been the responsible parties for many months.

They had noticed that Nando was overdue at roughly the same time that someone from the not-Mayor’s office arrived.

Sadiiq and Bailey had failed to show up for a meeting with some sort of festival committee.

From then they rushed to the grocery store only to find the carnage in the warehouse.

He couldn’t tell them that he had already scanned the settlement and found no sign of Sadiiq and Bailey. “I’ll try.”

“Take Carlos with you. I want you to search every place. He’ll get you inside,” Min said.

“Um… what do I tell people?” Carlos said.

“Official business. You have my authorization to not take ‘no’ for an answer,” Min addressed the latter portion to Cal.

“Listen, there was a similar situation I went through a while back.” He told them about Flo. About a killer disguised. It wasn’t a pleasant memory, but lives were at stake. “Is there anyone that might fit?”

Min mulled it over for a long moment before shaking his head. “People that can turn into monsters? No. Nothing like that.”

“Well, start thinking out of the box. Meanwhile, we’ll start our search,” he turned to Carlos. The chubby young man eyed him warily. “Best clench those cheeks.”

“Wha—”

The scream echoed into the night as he flew up into the sky with Carlos in tow.

Nila woke to the little guy bouncing around on the bed.

Cal? she thought.

Their last conversation had been close to midnight. He had telepathically informed her about what had happened while she and the little guy had been watching the circus go through their practice. That he was going to have to search the city the old fashioned way since his telepathic scans had kept coming up empty.

Which was concerning to the both of them.

Yeah, Love.

She sighed with relief.

Did you find them?

Still searching. What’re you guys going to do today?

The festival starts at lunch time so I was going to take the little guy to that. Eat fair food. Deep-fried Snickers and Twinkies. That sort of thing. Maybe play some carnival games… but things are getting dangerous. It’s probably safer if we stay inside the RV.

I can’t imagine this murderer is a huge threat to you. Especially in your armor… but it’s different for the little guy. I’d say you’re probably safer out in the open surrounded by lots of people. All the murders have been of isolated people. Maybe wear your armor just in case.

Hmm… don’t know if drawing attention would be a good thing for him. Might be better to be under the radar. I could park the RV close to the fairgrounds. That way I can just run back and get into my armor quickly if there’s trouble.

That’s a good idea. Just call for me if you need me.

Okay. Be careful, Love.

You too.

I hope you find the murderer.

Thanks.

“What do you want for breakfast?” she smiled up at the bouncing toddler.

“Pancakes!”

A fun-filled day followed breakfast. Terrible, but tasty food filled their bellies. The little guy wanted to try everything, which was fine with Nila cause so did she and she had the appetite to make sure nothing was wasted.

They rode age appropriate rides.

Pet some baby farm animals.

Wasted cash on rigged carnival games. Even though Nila’s superhuman physical abilities countered some of the cheating.

Their minder, Tia, stuck to them without once lightening up despite Nila’s best efforts.

“You’re going to want to watch the show aren’t you,” Tia grumbled as they strolled through the bustling fairgrounds. The giant stuffed giraffe she had to carry wasn’t improving her mood.

Nila regarded the young woman over the giant stuffed bear in one arm and the toddler in the other. “I told you… you don’t have to follow us around. Do you really think we’re going to do anything bad?”

“It’s also for your protection. There’s a murderer out there if you forget.”

“You’re in more danger than me.”

“I doubt that… can I at least put this back in your RV or something? Dropping it in case we get attacked will cost me valuable seconds.”

“Sure. The circus isn’t supposed to start for another twenty minutes.” Nila eyed the orange and red streaks in the darkening sky. The cool fall air was going to be cold soon. “He’ll need some warmer clothing anyways.”

A long walk. A quick change. A dumping of prizes.

They were back at the main circus tent in time for the start of the show.

The little guy loved it. As did Nila. It reminded her of normalcy. No monsters. No fighting. For a few hours she could just enjoy the show and the little guy’s reactions to all the acrobats, non-mutant animals and other attractions.

“I don’t remember it being this amazing,” she whispered as one of the acrobats, a short, compact young woman, did a twisting, quintuple back flip from the back of one running horse to another.

“Skills,” Tia snorted.

“They were holding back in practice,” she nodded.

A knife thrower came out and flung blades with hands that almost blurred to Nila’s superior perceptions. The steel caught the lights like twinkling stars as they curved impossibly through the air, through spinning hops and into the target, which was another performer standing on one leg while holding up wooden disks. One in each hand, one with a foot and another with their mouth.

“She’s wasting her time in the circus,” Tia gestured at the dark-skinned woman. “Kamila should be fighting with us full-time.”

“She looks like she’s having fun.”

The smile on the young knife-throwing woman’s face looked genuine to Nila.

When the ringmaster closed the show and the performers came out for one final applause Tia bolted to her feet.

“We’re done, right? It’s probably bedtime or something for him?” she pointed at the little guy.

For his part, he was clapping along with everyone else. No signs of slowing.

“Actually, yeah, after one last thing,” Nila said.

Tia groaned.

Was she a bodyguard or an angry teenager?

Nila was struck by the thought.

Tia did look rather young once you got past the armor, weapons and deadly glare.

“It’ll be quick. I just want to talk to that fortune teller, Holly? I think that was her name.”

“That’s right,” Tia regarded her with narrowed eyes. “Why?”

“Cal didn’t get anywhere with her. I think a friendlier face is worth a shot.”

“Yeah, I get you, like a good cop thing. Some of the older folks mentioned that. Okay, not my problem,” Tia shrugged. “I mean. I don’t care if you piss off the other carnies. Let’s go.”

Tia led them to the performer’s living area. “Official business,” she puffed up her chest to the man at the entrance. “She needs to talk to Holly,” she jerked a thumb at Nila.

Nila smiled.

A petite woman with a toddler in her arms should’ve disarmed all but the most misanthropic or dedicated to their jobs people.

The man was neither. “Whatever,” he waved them through.

“Worst gate guard ever,” Tia muttered under her breath after they were far enough away.

Holly’s yurt was surrounded by several others.

Indeed, it appeared to be in the center of the camp.

“They prioritize her safety.”

“What? Yeah, I guess… she’s like their precious baby or something. Even if she’s the most useless,” Tia said. “Not that it’s her fault,” she added hastily.

Holly’s yurt stood silent.

Nila strained her ears but couldn’t pick up any movement from the inside. “Maybe she’s out doing her fortune telling.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure she only works during the day. Like I said, she’s the baby. Probably sleeps super early like one. Tough luck for you though. Let’s go. Your baby looks like he’s tired.”

“Not tired,” the little guy yawned.

“Yeah, bro, no. You’re about to pass out,” Tia said.

Nila turned to leave until she caught something in the breeze.

She sniffed then turned back toward the yurt.

There was a faint hint of iron in the air.

“Do you smell it too?” Tia whispered.

“Maybe…”

“I know what blood smells like… shit!” Tia said. “Alright, we’re going to get you and the baby out of here and come back with more guys.”

“She might be hurt.”

“Or she’s already dead and the murderer is waiting to stab us in the face.”

Nila weighed her options.

Keeping the little guy safe was always the priority.

However, could she ignore the possibility that Holly was bleeding out inside?

Sure she couldn’t hear anything, but that could’ve been the result of a Skill or spell or simply because the girl was unconscious.

“Here, keep him safe at all costs,” she placed the little guy in the protesting Tia’s arms.

Nila moved quickly. Faster than Tia could react to.

She burst through the yurt’s flap ready for anything.

Except she found nothing.

No sounds.

No presences in the dark interior.

“What the fuck is going on?” a booming voice shattered the silence.

She carefully backed out of the yurt not taking her eyes off the dark interior as she moved to stand near Tia and the little guy. Only then did she half turn to regard the speaker.

A big, strong young man loomed over her. His face was red.

She recognized the strongman from the circus by the costume he was still wearing.

“I said—”

“Holly isn’t in her yurt. I need a light. If you can smell it there’s a hint of blood in the air.” She took control.

Someone came running with a lantern, which she snatched out of the man’s hand before anyone could react.

She strode back into the yurt while the strongman and a few others shouted demands for an explanation.

The light filled the large interior.

It was comparable in size to a living room. Slightly smaller than a studio apartment.

There wasn’t much in the way of decorations or anything that would mark it as a girl’s home, at least to Nila’s eyes.

“Stop ignoring me, you—”

“Think carefully on your words. In fact, instead of complaining why don’t you guys help. I smelled blood, but I don’t see anything.” She shined the light on the well-made bed. The covers were perfect. “Is it typical for Holly to be absent at this time?” She moved to the desk. It didn’t appear to see much use based on the dust that came away on her finger.

“No—” the strongman blinked. “She doesn’t like the cold and the dark scares her.”

“It doesn’t look like there was a struggle. Everything is in place. Nothing broken.” She couldn’t find the blood that she smelled. “You do smell that?”

“Yeah, shit… start looking!” the strongman snapped at the others.

They poured over the place for what felt like an eternity until one of them, the acrobat, Nila realized, called for the lantern.

She passed it to the young woman, who was crouched next to the bed.

“Oh man,” the acrobat’s voice was a horrified whisper.

“What did you find?” the strongman practically dived to the floor next to the acrobat.

“It looks like blood stains,” the acrobat said.

Nila moved the big man out of the way so that she could take a look.

Small splatters of red stained the beige rug. She reached out and touched one. “It’s still wet-ish. I’m not an expert, but that means it’s not that old.” She jumped to her feet.

“Fuck! Ash,” the strongman said to the acrobat, “go tell Val we need one of the dogs. The rest of you go spread the word. Holly’s missing and it might be that killer. Search the entire fairgrounds. I’ll wait for Val.” He glared at Nila. “You stay. Until I know you aren’t a part of this—”

“Fine,” she waved dismissively.

Safety in numbers.

The little guy was safer surrounded by a large number of people. Even if they weren’t exactly friendly.

She strode out of the yurt and took him back from Tia before explaining what they had found inside.

“Shit!” Tia said. “I need to report this.”

“Then go. We’ll be fine.”

“I’m not supposed to leave you.”

Nila shrugged. Cal… something might’ve happened to Holly. I found a small blood splatter in her yurt. She’s missing, she thought.

No response.

Cal?

“Waste of time, huh?” Carlos chuckled nervously.

“Never. Not when lives are at stake,” Cal replied.

They had searched all day.

The entire inhabited portion of the city and the newer construction.

Any place that people lived in and all the other structures.

Then he had tried the abandoned areas.

He had wasted no time.

He had found nothing.

“What now?” Carlos ventured.

“I’ll try the surrounding areas outside the city. You get to go back to your office. I don’t need you anymore.”

“Cool, cool, cool… I’m useless, I get it.”

“You hung in there and you got me into people’s houses.”

“Yeah… nope… I’m pretty sure you didn’t need anyone’s permission. I’ve got a ton of questions by the way. Like, what’s your class?”

“Another time.”

Cal dragged Carlos back to the office only to find it mostly empty.

He scanned the building.

A handful of minds.

The receptionist, Charlotte, sat at the front desk.

John was in one of the offices they had converted to serve as a holding cell, where he had been since Cal had brought him in.

A few fighters were scattered around.

“Where is everyone?” Carlos said to the woman guarding the front doors.

“You just missed them,” she replied. “Something happened at the festival. I didn’t catch what, but Min took most everyone.”

Cal blinked.

He hadn’t noticed that.

Blank.

All of that had been a blind spot in his thoughts.

Nila? he thought.

Silence.

He spun on his heel.

The lights went out.

“What the fuck—” Carlos said.

Cal was already moving.

A gust of wind knocked the others back.

He blew through the doors and into the stairs. He tracked the other minds inside the building. They were all still there.

John was the priority.

Just as he reached the floor John’s mind disappeared.

Nothing.

One moment there. The next gone.

Like a blank wall.

A person’s death should’ve been one of the most powerful and unpleasant things a telepath could pick up.

He punched through the locked door.

John’s limp body was hanging from the electrical cables and wires pulled down from the ceiling.

The man had a second smile across his throat. Red and gaping.

A scream from the first floor was accompanied by another mind vanishing.

He made it just in time only for another mind to disappear.

He pulled Charlotte to him just as a dark shape seemed to flow over the front desk.

He reached out to grab the shape with his telekinesis only to realize that it was gone.

The sobbing young woman clutched at the back of his shirt as he strained all his senses, physical and otherwise, to be ready for it to reappear.

At the same time he kept an eye on the other minds still in the building as they made their way toward him.

“Careful,” he warned as the handful of fighters entered the front area. “It might still be in here. Watch her,” he gently pushed Charlotte toward the fighters.

He moved toward the front doors.

The woman that he had never been introduced to stared up into the darkness. She was armored in thick plate, but that had done nothing to protect her. Blood flowed from the stab wound to her heart.

Carlos was a more gruesome sight.

His face had been flayed. Eyes pushed in.

Cal took the old flag hanging on a pole next to the door and draped it over the young man.

Nila, are you okay? The murderer just attacked the main office.

Silence.

“What the fuck happened?” one of the fighters said.

The group had formed up in a circle with Charlotte in the center.

“The murderer killed John and these two.”

“Where did he go?”

Cal scanned for thoughts. First, in the immediate area, then the entire building, followed by several miles in every direction.

“I don’t know. C’mon,” he beckoned the others over. “Let’s get you guys with the rest of your group. Safety in numbers and all that,” he regarded the two dead a moment before picking them up in a telekinetic bubble.

He flew into the dark sky with the others in tow.

Nila and the little guy were at the festival. So that’s where he went.

“Look, you thick-necked ass! They’re not that kind of dog! How many times do I have to tell you that! They’re for guarding and fighting, not tracking.”

“What difference does it make? They’ve can smell good and you’ve been boosting them with your Skills. Even if they aren’t meant to track then shouldn’t their sense of smell be better than usual?”

Nila listened to the two men arguing in the shadow of Holly’s yurt.

The latter, Quinn, loomed over the slighter man. His features suggested full Vietnamese descent. However, if she had been expecting a more cordial interaction due to their shared Asian background, she was disappointed. He hadn’t tried to disguise the suspicion he held toward her. Which, given the circumstances of their encounter, was understandable.

The former, Val, held two calm dogs on leashes. Extra large mastiff-types. She had seen the same back in California. Skills somehow allowed the animals to surpass their pre-spires size potential without the added drawbacks to things like heart and joint health. In fact they were healthier than they would’ve been otherwise.

The huge dogs weren’t the strangest sight.

It was the grizzly bear that sat next to the young man. The animal was huge as far as she could tell. She hadn’t had much experience with seeing the animals in person pre-spires to judge whether this specimen was larger, smaller or typical in size.

“Just have them sniff the blood and tell them to follow the trail! It’s not that hard!” Quinn, the strongman, huffed.

“They’re smart, but not that smart. It’d be like telling you to go do math!” Val snapped.

Quinn lowered his voice. “Holly’s missing. Every second you waste is her possibly getting closer to death.”

“Fine… I’ll try,” Val took the dogs into the yurt.

Quinn glowered at Nila as two young women approached him.

She recognized the acrobat and the knife thrower from the show that seemed like hours ago.

The two were armed and armored.

“Keep an eye on things. I need to gear up too,” Quinn said.

The big man stomped away.

Tia wore a furrow into the short grass. “They can’t keep me here,” she muttered.

“They did say you could leave.”

“I have orders to keep you in my sight at all times.”

“Then you’re stuck with us.”

“This is your fault,” Tia jabbed a finger in her face. “You just had to go into the tent. Of course they’d think you were a suspect. It’s obviously super suspicious. You should’ve waited like I told you.”

She looked up at the taller, younger woman. “Someone was in danger.”

“Whatever… Min needs to know about all this,” Tia gestured toward rest of the living area. It was awash in activity. People rushed around. Getting armed and getting into assigned positions. Like an anthill kicked open.

Quinn returned in heavy-looking plate and chain with a large round shield and a long-handled axe with a broad head resting on his shoulder.

Val emerged from the tent a few seconds later.

“Well?” Quinn growled.

“It might work,” Val shrugged.

“Then lead on,” Quinn said.

“Wait? What about the team?” Val said.

“Boss said, I can’t take anymore than us four. She wants the camp searched, cleared and protected. Whoever did that,” he gestured at Holly’s yurt, “might still be around.”

“What about them?” Ash, the compact acrobat, said.

Eyes turned to Nila.

“Let me go to my RV to get my gear and I’ll help,” she said.

“No. I don’t know you. All I know is that you’re the one that pointed out the blood,” Quinn regarded her coldly. “You could be in on it.”

“She isn’t!” Tia snapped. “I was with her all day.”

“You could be working together,” Ash said.

“Are you stupid? Why the fuck would we hurt your fortune teller?” Tia sneered.

“They do have a kid with them. It’d be kinda weird to pull a kidnapping with an actual kid,” Kamila, the knife thrower, pointed to the little guy.

“Like I said what’s our fucking motive for doing anything in the first place?” Tia growled. “I’m an official fighter for fuck’s sake.”

“Maybe you think Holly’s responsible for the killings. She’s the one that warned you. It makes sense on your part, even if you’re wrong, that she’d be a suspect,” Ash said.

“We’re wasting time,” Val said.

“You can leave your kid here. I can promise that he’ll be protected,” Quinn said.

Nila didn’t even give it a second’s thought. “He stays with me.”

“Fine, but his safety is on your head. And no getting armed. I don’t trust you with a weapon.”

She considered objecting.

She was quick and fast beyond normal human limits.

35 mph in a sprint with the stamina to keep it up for a long time.

Problem was those dogs and the bear were probably just as fast if not faster when accounting for Val’s Skills.

She didn’t want to hurt any of them.

Cal? she thought.

Nothing.

“Okay. I don’t want to fight here… but my lack of gear will mean I will be less effective because I’ll have to be more conservative to keep my little guy safe. Which means that you’ll be at greater risk.”

“Right, whatever, we’ll try to keep you safe, but you’re not a high priority. It’ll be Holly and us, followed by the kid and Tia,” Quinn snorted.

Nila kept Tia to her left and slightly in front. She held the little guy in her left and she intended to use the young woman as a shield for him.

Val’s dogs led the way, straining on their leashes. While the bear walked closely on the man’s left, between him and the open street.

The man’s lantern light swept from one side to the other to illuminate the darkness.

They had traveled several blocks away from the fairgrounds and had found nothing but silence.

They crossed railroad tracks and moved from an empty commercial area and into an inhabited residential area judging by the lights in windows of the homes.

Nila heard the faint rustling of leaves in the massive oak tree as she walked underneath.

The reds and yellows of the fall foliage had been nice to look at during the day. One didn’t really get true seasons back in Southern California. The north of the state was a bit better for that but she hadn’t lived there in over two years.

“Did you hear that?” Tia whispered.

“Quiet!” Quinn snapped.

Tia shot him the finger. “You don’t ignore sounds in the dark. If you were a real fighter you’d know that.”

Nila placed her hand over the little guy’s beanie-covered head. He had fallen asleep on her shoulder. Undoubtedly drooling on her jacket.

Quinn grumbled, but he pulled a flashlight from his belt and shined it up into the tree. He played the bright, white beam back and forth. “See… nothing—”

“Wait—” Ash began.

The dogs started barking and the bear growled.

Nila tightened up as she peered into the thick knot of twisted branches.

A few leaves drifted into Quinn’s beam.

Movement.

The dogs reacted a hair quicker than Nila.

They tore free from Val’s grip, nearly pulling him off his feat as they lunged toward her.

She jumped back a dozen feet.

A dark shape slashed through her spot a split-second later.

The dogs lunged with snapping jaws.

She caught a glint of steel in the light.

The dogs yelped in pain before they crashed to the floor.

“No!” Val screamed.

Curses filled the once quiet night air.

The shape looked like a pool of night on the sidewalk until it stood to its full height.

Nila frowned.

It was a small person in a black cloak. They appeared smaller than her and she wasn’t a big person by any metric.

And yet, the kitchen knife dripped red down to the concrete while two gigantic brutes of dogs lay unmoving behind them.

“It’s the killer!” Tia fumbled at the blade on her belt.

“Get ‘im!” Val roared.

The bear echoed as it charged faster than almost everyone else could react.

The cloaked figure moved surprisingly quick as they kicked one of the dead dogs into the bear’s face. They turned and charged toward Nila.

She responded by sprinting in the other direction.

She’d keep the little guy safe while drawing the murderer away from the others.

She sprinted down the street.

When she heard nothing behind her she chanced a glance back. Only to find the cloaked figure a few arm length’s behind. Their face was obscured in a hooded void of pure black.

Nila used a rusted car to leap up to the top of a single-story building.

The jostling woke the little guy, who started crying.

Another glance.

The cloaked figure was gone.

She would’ve kept running had she not heard the roars and gunshots from a few blocks away.