Free Inner Demon by Jocelynn Drake Page A

think?” Gideon asked skeptically, following me down the stairs.
    â€œI’m telling your wife you said that. Humans are pretty damn resourceful and you know it.”
    â€œTrue,” he conceded, sounding more tired with each passing minute. This investigation was wearing us both down.
    â€œI really doubt that we’ll be able to track the magic user, but the woman chose this place. Serah might be able to pull some info out of the cops that would allow us to track down the other killer.”
    â€œAgreed.”
    Gideon went quickly around the house and into the backyard, wiping away any evidence that we had been there, while I stepped outside under a cloaking spell to call 911 to report screams and a strange man at this address. The second call was to Serah to tell her the whole story.
    As I pulled up her number in my cell phone, I hesitated. She’d been warned away from this case. If she kept pushing, she would lose her job. And yet, I still completed the call, because she wasn’t the type to walk away. I’d met few ­people more determined or tenacious than she. Serah was not going to stop until the killer was caught and dragged in front of a judge.
    With the scene reset to look as if we hadn’t been mucking about the place, Gideon disappeared. I could only assume that the warlock was heading to one of the Ivory Towers to report to the council. I dreaded the idea of more witches and warlocks getting involved in this hunt for a madman, but Gideon and I were a step behind and outgunned when it came to taking these assholes down. We needed help, but I was afraid that we were getting the wrong kind. I wanted someone to act with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel, not a five-­year-­old with a chainsaw and too much sugar.
    I hesitated, trying to decide where to go. It was with some disgust that I found myself standing in what had been Simon’s rooms within the Dresden Tower. I at least had the excuse of wanting to pick up my coat, but as I stood there holding it in my fists, I knew that the truth was that I didn’t want to go back to Asylum. There was too much unsettled business between Trixie and me, but I didn’t have any new answers for her.
    Throwing the jacket down, I slumped in a chair with my head in my hands. Zyrus danced around me, excited by the scent of death clinging to me like a second skin. In my desperation, I even tried asking the demon if it knew what I was up against, but Zyrus was unable to help. It recognized the magic as Death Magic, but it didn’t know who had cast the spell or even why.
    Shoving myself out of the chair in frustration, I paced over to the bookshelf on the far wall, but I didn’t pull anything down. What creature existed now that might be old enough to know what Death Magic was? What creature would be powerful enough to use it as well as have a vendetta against the Towers? The Dark Elves? Definitely, but that man didn’t look anything like a dark elf. His hair made him similar to the Winter Court, but that was the only similarity between them. The stranger’s features had been softer, more rounded than the Winter Court elves.
    My mind kept going back to the first trip Gideon and I took to investigate the magical disturbance. The magic we had sensed there had been different. Extremely different. Something I had never encountered before. It wasn’t fey and it wasn’t shifter, despite the man’s ability to easily change forms.
    Could Gideon be right in that this creature, this man, was one of the Lost Ones? They certainly had a bone to pick with the Towers, since it was believed that all of their kind had been wiped from the Earth centuries ago. There were a few species out there that were on the cusp of being categorized as Lost Ones, but the only groups who had truly earned the title were dragons and unicorns. Had I just seen one of those?
    I shook my head. Couldn’t be. I wouldn’t have