"What's up, T-Rex?"
Acheron grimaced at the nickname, but didn't comment. He inclined his head toward the body that had been draped with a body bag, but not yet sealed up. "That woman died barely an hour ago. Tell me what you feel."
"Nothing." As soon as the word left his lips, Talon understood. Whenever someone died, their soul lingered for a brief time before it moved on. There was only one exception to that-when the soul was captured and trapped by someone else. "It was a Daimon kill?"
Acheron shook his head no.
"Is she a new Dark-Hunter?"
Again the no shake. "Someone fed on her until they drained the life out of her and could steal her departing soul. Then they ripped her apart with something like a claw. The police are trying to convince themselves that it's an animal, but the depth and precision of her wounds are too precise."
Talon went cold. "Claws like the ones Zarek wears?"
Acheron turned his head to stare straight at him. All Talon could see was himself in the dark lenses. "What do you think?"
Talon ran his hand along the edge of his jaw as he watched the police work over the area. This was disturbing.
"Look, T-Rex, I know you have a soft spot for Zarek, but I have to tell you that I found him having lunch a few minutes ago outside of a club. It looked like he was enjoying himself a little too much, if you know what I mean."
"So you think he killed this woman?"
Talon hesitated as he remembered what Zarek had said when he had caught him with the woman in the alley. I didn't hurt her. Was that an admission he had hurt someone else or was it a statement that he never hurt the women he fed on?
"I don't know," Talon answered honestly. "If you're asking me if he's capable, I'd definitely say yes. But I sure would hate to consign a man to Shadedom without more evidence."
Shadedom was the hellish existence that came to any Dark-Hunter who died without a soul. Since they no longer had a real body or a soul, their essence suffered eternity trapped between this plane of existence and the next. It was said to be the most grueling torture imaginable.
"So what do you think?" Talon asked. "Do you believe he did it?"
A slow smile slid across Acheron's face, but he didn't answer the question. The hair on the back of Talon's neck rose. Something about all this just didn't seem right.
For that matter, something about Acheron didn't seem quite right either.
Acheron took a step away from him. "I'll go talk to my good buddy Zarek, and see what he says."
Talon frowned. This definitely wasn't right. Acheron never referred to anyone as his "buddy."
"By the way," Acheron said. "How are you doing? You seem tense. Uneasy."
He was. It was like someone had opened a floodgate on his hormones and emotions, and he wasn't sure how to close it again.
But he didn't intend to burden Acheron with that. He could control himself.
"I'm fine."
Talon glanced away from Acheron for a second to watch the arrival of the coroner. "By the way, T-Rex, what happened to your nose stud and..." His voice trailed off as he turned back and saw nothing but empty space.
Talon looked about.
Acheron was gone. The only trace of his presence was two bloody shoe prints that marked the concrete where he'd stood a second ago.
What the hell?
Acheron had never done that before. Man, this night was getting stranger by the hour.
"... there's a disturbance on Canal Street. At Club Running wolf's..."
Talon's heart stopped at the words he overheard from a police scanner.