No, it was more of the strange writing.
The lower level had been turned into a family room/entertainment area with a massive sectional couch placed before a large TV. Upon taking over the house, the killer had pushed everything to the far side of the room and ripped all the pictures off the wall, throwing them onto the pile. He then covered three of the walls with more of the writing that was part of the spell this asshole was determined to perfect. It looked even more ghastly and horrifying that he’d written it on top of wallpaper laced with delicate rosebuds.
The meaning of the writing was still lost on me, but I didn’t need to understand it to feel sick when looking at it. Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket, I snapped more pictures of the words, adding them to the ones I had taken at the first apartment. Someone somewhere had to be able to understand this stuff. Though I was beginning to feel like I didn’t want to meet the person who could read this shit.
Footsteps echoed on the stairs as I returned the phone to my pocket. I turned to find Gideon standing on the bottom stair as his eyes skimmed over the writing on the wall. He looked a little paler than when I’d last seen him, but then he’d spent a lot more time with the victims.
“I found the owners,” I said, breaking the silence. “He killed them while they were sleeping. They’ve been dead several days, allowing him time to set up the house as he needed it before doing the spell again.”
Gideon said nothing as he walked over to the nearest wall covered in the cryptic writing, his brow furrowed as he examined every inch of it. I stayed silent as I watched him move from wall to wall, waiting for him to finally make an announcement of how he figured it all out so that we could catch this bastard.
“He’s getting better,” Gideon murmured as he reached the last wall. His voice had been so low that I wasn‘t sure if he was talking to himself or if he was talking to me.
“Less mistakes,” I replied, noting that the killer had marked out fewer sections than at the Florida apartment.
The warlock gave a little grunt of agreement before turning back toward me. “You realize that he chose this house for a reason.”
“Because it was owned by an elderly couple?”
Gideon shook his head. “Whoever this is, he’s strong enough to take out vampires. A pair of humans, regardless of their age, isn’t going to trouble him. No, he wanted this house because it was close to the nest. He used the spell this time to raise the corpses.”
“If the goal was to raise the vampires after he killed them, why didn’t he just do it over at the nest house? Why here?”
The warlock looked back at the wall. He had pulled his wand out and was slowly rolling it between his fingers with both hands in a sort of nervous gesture. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him doing that. Whenever the warlock was thinking deeply or anxious, he preferred to have his wand in his hands, as if it could help him focus his thoughts—or maybe it just gave him a sense of control.
“I think it was a time factor,” Gideon said after a minute. “He needed time to prep. This type of magic isn’t easy to harness and even harder to control, from what I’ve managed to learn. I think he also needed the corpses to be relatively fresh. Vampires don’t keep well after they’ve died. Well . . . died a second and final time.”
“He killed the old couple so he could have the house next to the vampires. Killed the kids to fuel the spell. Killed the vampires . . . to what? Raise the dead?”
“And to send us a message.” Gideon shoved the wand back into the holder up his sleeve. “He knows that we‘re hunting for him.”
“Of course.” I gave an indifferent shrug, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Anyone would be able to guess that if you use magic, you’re going to catch the attention of the Towers.”
“Yes, but you were the first to notice that the dead were trained on anyone using magic. Prior to me casting the spell, they only attacked if you got too close to them, which I think was more of a reflex left from their prior state.”