Chapter 17 - Inquisitor

For four days, Julian's life was pretty damn peaceful.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

He went back to work at the precinct, and he was much happier for it now that he and Abigail could work together properly. She had indeed demanded his notes first thing Thursday morning, and so Julian had taken Abigail to his apartment, where they'd spent most of the day reviewing everything supernatural about the serial killer case. Abigail was intent on learning everything she could about the supernatural world as quickly as humanly possible, and she asked him about a million questions about everything. Julian explained in detail what each of the victims were, everything he knew about them, and every clue he'd ran down since first realizing what was happening with the victims.

Julian had spent most of those days just poring over everything with Abigail. She was endlessly curious, and much more meticulous in her note-taking than Julian was. She made him go over everything multiple times until she had notes that she was satisfied with. Julian also got the impression that she was inhaling everything she could about supernatural creatures whenever she wasn't with him, because every day started with her asking new questions about random supernatural things.

During these days, Julian also explained his other investigations into the things that weren't directly connected to the serial killer. These were loose threads like Corinne's kidnappers, the whitethorn ashes, the Grimoire, the whole mess with Amaya, Miguel, and Isla, along with the whole long story about the Inglewood werewolf pack. Abigail took all of that in with her typical all-consuming curiosity, and Julian was a little worried what finding out about the supernatural had done to her work ethic. Where did she even find the time to sleep?

Despite how tedious some of the review work could be, Julian knew this was what he needed. He and Abigail had always shored up each other's weak points, and working this case largely without Abigail had been hurting his chances of success. He'd known this, but prior to Jesse Beckett's intervention, he hadn't been able to fix the problem. Now though, he had his partner back, for real, and she was extremely focused on helping.

Of course, those four days of peace had to come to an end. And end it did Monday morning when Julian got the call.

Victim number seven.

The body had been found at Hollenbeck Park, in eastern LA. Julian had gotten straight in his car and driven down to the park. He arrived to a whole mess of cop cars, which was no surprise. The presence at these crime scenes kept getting bigger and bigger with each new death, and the death toll reaching 7 meant there were quite a few cops trying to get a look at this crime scene. Julian showed his badge to the police officers set up at the perimeter, and they ushered him through, where he saw Abigail standing over the body already, peering down at it critically.

Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a button-up white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of khaki slacks. Wasn't the sexiest outfit in the world, but even her conservative work pants couldn't mask the swell of her ass. By contrast, Julian looked a lot less put together, showing up in a long sleeve gray shirt and jeans. He sorely missed his leather jacket, the real casualty of the fight with the Inglewood pack, but he'd continue on bravely anyhow.

"Good morning." Julian said, handing Abigail a cup of coffee, identical to the one in his hand. Looking surprised, she took it.

"Why, thank you." Abigail smiled. Julian smiled back, but the reason he'd bought the coffee for her was a little more than just being a good partner. Ever since her abduction, he hadn't seen her with coffee from her favorite coffee place, which was weird, because she loved it. She'd drank plenty from the precinct coffee pot, but Julian had a sneaking suspicion that she was afraid of going back to that coffee shop considering what had happened last time. He wasn't even sure it was conscious on her part, but four days of Abigail not visiting her favorite coffee shop was shocking. The baristas probably thought she'd died or something.

So, Julian had gone himself. It was on his way anyway.

"Are their...?" Abigail whispered, lifting her free hand and wiggling it. Julian looked down at the palms of the body, and he nodded. Red runes, alright, the same ones as all the other bodies, 'harvest' and something akin to 'gift'. Looking around, Julian was amazed at the audacity of these killers. They'd laid the body out right on the dark gray concrete walking path beside the park's water feature. Right in the open. There hadn't even been an attempt to hide the body this time. These guys didn't give a shit about people finding the body. Hell, they wanted the bodies to be found.

"Who is she?" Julian asked, looking to Abigail.

The woman laying out on the concrete looked to be about thirty, with long glossy black hair and tanned skin. She wore a party dress like she'd been grabbed on a night out, and the angry gash across her throat where she'd been strangled stood out starkly against her fun-loving look. She could have been any gorgeous woman out having a great night, but instead, here she was dead. Julian hated these two killers. He hated them so much. Seven people dead now because of them.

"Elena Smith." Abigail told him. "She's 29, lives over in Belvedere Gardens. Not married, no kids, doesn't seem like she had any family in LA."

Julian nodded, squatting and peering down at her. "Smith's probably not her real last name, if I had to guess. A lot of... us fake that, especially the more exotic of us."

Abigail nodded eagerly. "And what... is she?"

"Give me a second." Julian muttered. Whatever she was wasn't immediately identifiable, but he slowed down and really looked over her, but he couldn't figure it out. Her face looked normal, arms looked normal, no weird gills or fins anywhere, no weird discoloration. No claws or deformities to her hands, some sparkly golden nail polish, but nothing that would indicate what kind of supernatural she was.

"Did she have anything on her?" Julian asked, looking up to Abigail.

"Yeah, she had a little clutch on her. Normal stuff, mostly, though there was this really fancy golden comb." Abigail said, checking over her notepad. "Is that something?"

"Maybe." Julian shrugged, standing back up. "Whatever she is, it's not something identifiable by sight, I don't think."

"Or could she be human?" Abigail wondered.

"Strongly doubt they'd break the pattern on number 7." Julian shook his head. "We can talk to Romero, see if he's heard of anything."

"Excuse me, Detective?" a voice asked, and Julian turned to see one of the officers who'd been watching the perimeter standing there, looking apologetic.

"What is it?" Julian asked curiously.

"There are two people asking for you, by name." Officer Jones explained. "Them, over there."

He pointed the two people out to Julian, and Julian followed the direction of his finger to a pair of people standing there at the edge of the crime scene waiting, a man and a woman. Neither were familiar to Julian.

He glanced towards Abigail, then back to Jones. "Alright, thank you. I'll go talk to them in just a minute."

Officer Jones nodded, and he went back to relay that message.

"Who are they?" Abigail whispered once Jones had left.

"Not a clue." Julian shook his head, looking back over at them. "They won't do anything crazy at a crime scene, even if they are something supernatural. I'll be fine."

"Fine. But wave me over if it's something important." Abigail huffed, and Julian nodded.

"Will do. Oh, uh... see if you can check her eyes." Julian said, patting Abigail on the shoulder as he walked off.

"What?" she called after him, but Julian was already walking away, heading for the two strangers. As he approached, he could see they were wearing matching red jackets. They looked like leather jackets at first glance, but they seemed more rigid somehow, more armored.

"Detective Anderson." the woman said with a smile. She was in her mid to late thirties, Julian estimated, with auburn hair and brown eyes. She was a tall woman, with large breasts and a toned, attractive physique shown off by the black tank top and the leggings she wore beneath her armored red jacket. As for her companion, he looked a bit older than her, maybe early forties, with salt and pepper hair and a full beard. He wore his red jacket over a button up black shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Do I know you?" Julian asked curiously, glancing back and forth between them.

"Not yet, but we'd like a moment of your time, please. It relates to your serial killer case." the woman said, nodding towards Elena Smith's body.

"Sure, we can talk over here." Julian said, and he led them a little ways down the wide gray concrete walking path. They were still in full view of the crime scene, but they were well out of earshot now.

"So... what's this about?" Julian asked, looking between them.

"We're Inquisitors." the man said gruffly. Julian reacted with alarm, taking a surprised step back, but the woman held up a hand.

"Don't worry, we're not here for you." she assured him. "Contrary to popular belief among your people, we aren't mindless killers."

"We only kill the naughty ones." the man agreed with a smirk, making the woman sigh.

"Alright, let's start over. I'm Athena Harrison." the woman introduced herself. "This bastard is Mateo Ross."

"Pleasure." the man grunted.

"Yeah, sure." Julian nodded. "What do you two want with me?"

"We're trying to see how close you are to solving this." Athena explained. "We don't typically get involved in supernatural affairs, we're not a police force, but this one is gaining some huge attention from humans. Enough attention to garner the Inquisition's interest."

"Well, I have a question for you before we do this." Julian scowled. "Was your group behind the kidnapping of a vampire girl about two weeks ago?"

Athena and Mateo exchanged looks of confusion.

"We're not in the kidnapping business, son." Mateo huffed. "If we take action against someone, it's final."

Julian looked to Athena, who shook her head.

"It wasn't us." the woman affirmed. "Were they in Inquisitor jackets like ours?"

"No, but they had crossbows, and I heard from a source I trust that she suspected Inquisition involvement." Julian explained.

"Your source is wrong." Mateo said with finality. "If your vampire girl is still walking and talking, it wasn't us."

Julian nodded slowly. "Alright. Well, in that case, I think I'm close. Not as close as I'd like to be, but I have some idea of who we're looking for."

"Care to share?" Mateo grunted.

"We want the killer dead too." Athena assured him, clearly angling for more information as well. "They're causing far too much fuss, and our organization's whole goal these days is keeping your people as far from ours as possible."

"You're not hunting supernaturals these days?" Julian asked wryly.

"Like I said, only if they've been naughty." Mateo snorted. "We aren't on some holy mission sworn to eradicate supernaturals anymore, but if they start hurting humans, we kill and burn them."

"Our primary goal is ensuring humanity stays ignorant of what goes bump in the night." Athena explained. "Part of that is chasing down the monsters."

Julian looked between the two Inquisitors, studying them carefully. They both seemed to be telling the truth, and they'd not made any threats so far.

"How'd you know what I was?" Julian asked.

"We keep records on supernaturals the Inquisition deems important." Athena answered. "A werewolf amongst the LAPD definitely qualified, even before you basically massacred a werewolf pack."

"They started it." Julian grumbled, looking out towards the water.

"Like I said, not our place to police your kind." Athena shrugged. "This serial killer business is a special circumstance. Now, are you going to help us, or are we going to have to investigate ourselves?"

"I don't know a ton. I know they have some kind of magical trap they used on one of the victims, I know there's at least two of them, one who wears a donkey mask and one who wears a pig mask. I'm pretty sure this all part of some ritual, but the runes on the victims' hands are essentially nonsense, which is weird." Julian explained. "And I'm pretty sure that the ritual is going to take place on the Harvest Moon, but I'm not positive on that one either. It's just a guess because one of the hand runes means 'harvest.'"

Athena and Mateo looked at each other.

"What runes?" Mateo asked with a frown.

"Oh, right. Humans." Julian realized. "Yeah, they have magically glowing red runes on their hands that humans can't see. They mean 'harvest' and 'gift' we're pretty sure, but they're in a made-up language, it doesn't really do anything."

"If they're made up, why can't we see them?" Athena wondered.

"It's the ink." Julian explained. "You could write anything in the ink they use and it'd have the same glowing magical effect."

"I was hoping more for... name and address?" Mateo scowled.

"Trust me, if I had that, I'd have already dealt with the problem." Julian said sourly.

"Fair enough." Athena said, elbowing Mateo in the ribs. "Is there anything else important?"

"Nothing I have definitive proof is tied to the serial killers." Julian shrugged. "That's all I've got. These guys are real damn good at keeping their crime scenes clear."

"We know something about that, getting rid of evidence is like Inquisitor 101." Athena mentioned. "Maybe we could take a look?"

"Be my guest." Julian sighed. "It's not like the LAPD will find anything."

"Not even you with your werewolf senses?" Mateo said, sniffing pointedly.

"Nope." Julian scowled. "I hate how good they are."

The pair of Inquisitors exchanged glances. "It might not be that they're good, just that they're clever." Athena cleared her throat.

"What do you mean?" Julian asked, frowning.

"Have you ever heard of wolfsbane? Or aconite?" Athena asked him.

"The plant? Yeah, but they're not harmful to me if that's what you're considering." Julian said wryly.

"No, we're not trying to hurt you." Athena sighed. "Wolfsbane, or aconite, is a potent anti-supernatural tool. It can be used to deceive supernatural senses, such as a werewolf's sense of smell."

"What?" Julian demanded. "How do you know that? And why don't I?"

"It's a pretty well-kept secret." Mateo grunted. "The purple flowers are easy to stash, or you can grind them up and scatter some basically unnoticeable dust around and the supernatural will never be able to tell."

"We don't use it a lot, specifically to keep supernaturals from finding out about it." Athena sighed. "Telling you is probably a breach of some kind of protocol, but we want these killers caught before they stir up any more trouble."

"So your theory is that they've been using aconite powder to stop me from tracking them." Julian scowled.

"You or anyone else interested in them." Athena shrugged. "It works on almost all of you, not just werewolves."

"Fucks with magical tracking, too." Mateo points out. "They're probably always carrying wolfsbane on their persons, too."

Julian furrowed his brows, then sniffed the air thoughtfully.

Mateo grinned. "Hard to notice there's things you can't smell, isn't it? No one ever complains about a lack of smell."

"You have aconite on you right now?" Julian checked, and both Inquisitors nodded.

"So they've been ducking supernatural detection as well as forensic detection and I never noticed." Julian said angrily. "Bastards. How do they even know about this stuff? The killers aren't Inquisitors, are they?"

"No, we can promise you that. Zealotry has been all too common among the Inquisition throughout the centuries, our Inquisitors are closely monitored to ensure that doesn't happen." Athena said firmly.

"Well, that's something, at least." Julian huffed. "So, I'm not sure how this helps, but it's nice to know there's a reason they've been so hard to sniff out."

"Literally?" Mateo smirked, earning another elbow to the ribs from Athena.

"We appreciate your help, Detective." Athena said politely with a glare at Mateo. "We'll check over your crime scene if you'd kindly get those cops out of the way."

"Just tell them you're federal." Julian shrugged. "Works in the movies."

"FBI?" Mateo checked, and Athena nodded with a sigh.

"I hate doing this." she muttered as the trio started back towards the crime scene.

"It'll be fine." Mateo waved a hand. "And we even have a detective vouching for our identities."

Julian led the pair of Inquisitors over to the perimeter, where he nodded at Officer Jones. "They're feds, here to examine the crime scene."

"They have ID?" Officer Jones asked, looking surprised.

"It's in my other pants." Mateo said with a shrug.

"C'mon, Jones. Don't be a hardass." Julian shook his head.

"Fine, fine." Jones sighed, stepping out of their way.

"Thank you." Athena said politely to Officer Jones after Mateo just breezed right by him.

"Of course, ma'am." Jones nodded back.

Julian led the duo right up to Abigail and the dead body on the ground.

"You brought them into the crime scene?" Abigail asked in surprise. "Who are they?"

"Who's this?" Athena asked curiously, tilting her head a bit.

"My partner, Detective Richards." Julian explained with a sigh. "Abigail... meet the Inquisitors."

"The..." Abigail asked, stunned with her eyes wide.

"Yeah." Julian nodded. "They say they're here to help."

"The group who were burning people at the stake and torturing them?" Abigail hissed.

"Hey, we don't do that anymore." Mateo protested. "Not unless they've been real naughty, and I'm not talking spankings naughty."

Abigail grabbed Julian's arm and yanked him aside. "This feels like you should've brought me into the conversation!" she glared at him.

"To be completely honest... I forgot I can do that now." Julian winced. "It won't happen again."

Abigail hmmphed, but she nodded. "It's not like you said you would bring me in or anything."

"Exactly." Julian winked. He led a grouchy Abigail back over to the body, where Athena and Mateo were looking over her.

"She's a rare one." Athena nodded.

"You know what she is?" Julian asked in surprise.

"You don't?" Mateo chuckled.

Athena glared at her partner before turning back to Julian. "She's a moura encantada, a Portuguese guardian spirit."

"How do you know that?" Julian asked incredulously.

"The golden paint on her nails isn't paint, her nails are just naturally that color." Athena pointed out. "I'm guessing you found her with some kind of fancy comb? Probably gold?"

"We... did." Abigail nodded, looking impressed.

"Then yup. Moura encantada." Athena affirmed. "She likely has some kind of treasure stored nearby. It's a surprise she'd wander off from it, but not completely unheard of."

"You know your stuff." Abigail nodded.

"It seems like you know more than you should, too." Athena replied with a wink. "Maybe we can set you up with an internship."

"Me?" Abigail blinked, looking stunned.

"Well, we sure weren't asking Teen Wolf." Mateo jerked his chin towards Julian. "He's not exactly what we're looking for."

"I'm 28." Julian protested.

"Feel free to give us a call." Athena said, extending a matte red business card to Abigail.

Abigail took it, but she was frowning. "I just learned about all of this, I don't think I want to start killing people."

"That's only a portion of what we do." Athena assured her. "Give me a call, I'll explain everything."

Abigail glanced towards Julian, then back to Athena and Mateo. "I'll think about it, I guess. Don't expect much."

"We're in a job field that's hard to recruit for." Athena shrugged. "I never miss an opportunity."

"Ah, by the way." Mateo mentioned. "Definitely aconite powder on her. Not much, but she and the area around her got a light dusting, enough to mask any scents without being noticed by forensics."

"Aconite? Isn't that also called wolfsbane?" Abigail frowned, putting her hands on her hips.

"It is, and it's an extremely effective tool to mask your presence from supernaturals." Athena nodded.

"You didn't tell me that." Abigail glared at Julian.

"I just found out." he shrugged.

"Those in the know have a vested interest in keeping it secret." Athena admitted.

"What other tricks do you have up your sleeves?" Julian frowned.

"None relevant to your case." Mateo smirked.

Julian scowled, but Athena held up a hand to interrupt.

"We got a lot of information from this, so thank you, Detective. We'll do our own looking around, but as you might imagine, we don't have access to lots of the contacts you might." Athena nodded at Julian. "Your partner has my number, so if you need any help taking care of this, do feel free to call."

"I think we'll manage, but thanks." Julian nodded back.

"And let us know how it goes if you do take care of this." Mateo chimed in.

"Sure." Julian shrugged.

"Hopefully it makes the news." Abigail pointed out. "I'd like an actual arrest here."

Julian exchanged glances with the Inquisitors. Abigail was too new to this world, but supernatural fights very, very rarely ended with an arrest. More often, it was just a mess of bodies.

The Inquisitors left with some formal goodbyes, and Julian turned to Abigail.

"What now?" Abigail asked. "Where do you go first after a new body drops?"

Julian shrugged. "I think it's time you visit the Arcana Augurum."

———

"I can see it." Abigail pointed out the store as she got out of her car, which she'd parked right alongside the Cutlass. "I thought you said I wouldn't be able to?"

"What?" Julian blinked. "Oh, no, that's just veiled places. This isn't a veiled place, this is a tourist trap."

"Oh." Abigail frowned. "Then why are we here?"

"Because the owners are actually magic, despite the funky little shop they own." Julian chuckled. He and Abigail crossed the street, and Julian opened the door for Abigail to walk in. The little bell dinged, and the pair of detectives entered.

The shop was more full than usual today, and Inara was leaned on her elbows at the side of the front counter while Freya stood behind it, helping a customer check out. Inara straightened up when she spotted Julian, shaking her head.

"Four days of peace. You ruined my streak." Inara scowled, putting her hands on her hips. The djinn was looking a little goth today, wearing black lipstick with her black hair falling down her shoulders like a waterfall of pitch. She wore a dark purple leather crop top with a wide laced up cleavage showing how much her cinnamon-toned tits were pressed together by the top. She had on her usual black leather jacket, along with black mini-shorts and black fishnets and black combat boots. She always favored black leather, but the black lipstick and her sultry make-up just really made her look goth today.

"Just couldn't stay away." Julian grinned.

"Hi, Julian! Hi, person I don't know!" Freya said brightly. The blue-haired witch had her hair up in a big messy bun today with two black chopsticks stuck into it. Some strands of blue had escaped containment, and they framed her pale pretty face nicely. She wore an oversized baggy shirt like always, today's featuring a design of a pink and yellow tiger stalking up towards her neck.

The customer Freya was helping, a tall guy with flamboyantly dyed eyebrows, glanced curiously at Julian and Abigail, then jolted back to looking at Freya as she handed over his receipt.

"Thank you for coming! We'll see you in the future!" Freya called as he headed for the door, then she winked at Julian and Abigail. "Little augury joke. I'm Freya!"

"I'm Abigail." Abigail introduced herself. "Julian's partner."

"Ah, the human girl." Freya nodded, looking to Inara, who was glaring at her. "The... human girl that I've heard nothing about. At all."

Abigail glared at Inara. "I'm sure the things you haven't heard have all been good?"

Freya winced. "Weeelllllll..."

"Just shut up." Inara scowled at Freya before looking to Julian. "Boss man's in the back."

"Not joining?" Julian raised an eyebrow at the djinn.

"I can't handle you today, mutt." Inara shook her head. Scoffing, Julian walked past her, leading Abigail behind the counter and through the curtain into Romero's workshop.

To Julian's surprise, there was a stranger in the workshop, a man with curly black hair who was idling over a shelf of Romero's enchanted items.

"Who's this?" the man demanded, gesturing to the pair of detectives.

Julian looked to Romero, who had been sitting at his desk while the man had seemingly been browsing.

"Sorry Mero, I didn't know you were busy." Julian apologized. "Inara didn't say anything!"

He raised his voice for the last part for the benefit of the djinn on the other side of the curtain.

"I am indeed with a customer, but we'll just be a few minutes more." Romero apologized. "Feel free to sit and wait. Have some tea."

"It's normal tea, right?" Abigail whispered to Julian as they sat down.

"What, you think we have magical tea?" Julian asked with an exaggerated scoff.

"Do you?" Abigail hesitated.

Julian sniffed in the direction of the kettle, and he nodded. "We do have magic tea, but that one's normal."

"What does magic tea do?" Abigail inquired as she poured herself a little cup of normal tea.

"I don't know, taste better?" Julian shrugged. "I don't drink tea."

"You are no help, you know that?" Abigail scowled. "I've had several important questions that you don't know the answer to."

"Questions like what?" Julian protested.

"Like whether or not I could enter a veiled place if you led me to the doorway." Abigail said.

"Why would I know that?" Julian threw up his hands.

"Can't they wait outside?" the customer scowled. "Picking a protection charm is a sacred ritual."

Julian went to make a face he and Inara had made to each other many times, the kind of sarcastic 'can you believe this?' look she excelled at, only to realize Inara wasn't in here. He was slightly put out by that, actually. He had been here a lot recently, and she was one of his closest friends, even if she refused to admit that.

"I can't imagine it's that big a deal." Julian rolled his eyes.

"I think you've been spending too much time with Inara." Abigail frowned at him as the customer's mouth fell open.

Romero gave Julian a pained smile. "Would you mind waiting outside?"

"Sure." Julian sighed.

He got up and Abigail made to do the same, but Romero shook his head, indicating with his hand she could stay and sip her tea. Julian, it seems, was the problem.

Julian emerged from the curtain to find Freya and Inara talking quietly, but they stopped when he emerged.

"You get sent outside?" Inara smirked. Julian rolled his eyes at yet another dog joke.

"Yeah, apparently I'm interrupting that guy's sacred ritual of buying a protection charm." Julian huffed, making Inara snicker.

"Don't worry, it's more fun out here." Freya stage whispered. "We've got... dun dun dun, cookies!"

The blue-haired witch held up a tin of what looked like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

"Those are not for him." Inara shook her head. "He can't have chocolate."

"Wait, really?" Freya blinked, lowering the tin uncertainly.

"No, not really. Inara's just an ass." Julian huffed.

"Oh, whew. I felt like a total bitch waggling chocolate in front of you if you couldn't have any." Freya laughed.

Julian laughed, and he took a cookie. He bit into it just as the curtain opened and the man emerged, clutching a gleaming charm bracelet with a star dangling from it.

"How was your experience here, sir?" Inara asked in a peppy tone that made Julian almost choke on his cookie. "I hope that your time buying a protection charm was as much of a peaceful, sacred ritual as it should be."

"It was not." the guy said with a glare at Julian. He left the shop, still glaring, and Inara burst into laughter.

"How do you not have multiple customer service complaints lodged against you?" Julian shook his head. Inara smirked and lifted her hands to cup her very large breasts, squeezing them demonstratively.

"With tits like these, you don't have to be nice." Inara shrugged. "That's why Freya's so nice, has to make up for how little hers are."

"Hey!" Freya complained, crossing her arms across her chest. "They're cute, like me."

"Keep telling yourself that, Blue." Inara winked, making Freya laugh.

Despite how opposite they seemed, Inara and Freya did seem to genuinely be really good friends. Julian wasn't surprised by that, per se, but he definitely thought they made for an unlikely pair of friends.

"I'm sorry for that, Julian." Romero shook his head, emerging out of the curtain. "Some of my customers are... difficult."

"I can tell." Julian huffed.

"Indeed. Well, I'm available now, come on back." Romero said, ushering Julian in, and this time, Inara did follow him in.

Julian entered the workshop and found Meg had joined Abigail for tea and they were chatting as Julian entered.

"Did something happen?" Romero wondered.

"Well, other than serial killer victim #7, I got a visit from a pair of Inquisitors." Julian revealed.

"What?" Inara demanded. "What did they want?"

"They said they just wanted to help with the serial killer." Julian shrugged. "Apparently it's drawing too much attention. Oh, and they tried to recruit Abigail, too."

"Mm, I could see that." Romero nodded. "Seven dead bodies that humans are up in arms about, of course... the Inquisition won't want too many eyes on this."

"Those killers want to help?" Inara demanded. "They probably just want to get their hands on you, Julian."

"They have a bad reputation among our society." Romero said, mostly for Abigail's benefit. "However, they are no longer slaughterers and torturers. They merely intervene when humans are under threat."

Inara made a skeptical noise, but she said nothing else.

"Oh!" Abigail exclaimed. "Romero, I'm sorry, but do you have a book on the Land of the Young? I was asking Julian about it, but he didn't seem to know all that much."

Julian grumbled about Abigail's words while Inara snickered. Abigail nodded to the collection of books on Romero's wall, and the enchanter stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I do, actually."

He strode over to grab a thick green tome off the shelf, and then he carried it over to Abigail. Julian had half expected him to wave his hand and the book to fly over to her, but he reminded himself that Romero wasn't a warlock, he was an enchanter. Romero just had this air of magic about him, sometimes it was easy to forget his limitations.

"Tír na nÓg..." Abigail sounded out on the cover.

"It's the Irish name for it." Romero explained.

Abigail made a noise of interest, and flipped the yellowed pages open to the introduction.

"Guess she's not interested in our discussion." Inara said pointedly. Abigail didn't respond or even glance up.

"It is interesting that the Inquisition is involving itself, to be sure." Romero continued. "But altogether, I do not think any of us are in danger. Have there been any updates on Niamh's murder?"

"None." Julian sighed. "I feel like I'm failing Ciara, but I haven't been able to turn anything up at all."

"Ciara is the... aos sídhe?" Abigail squinted, trying to remember.

"Yup. Guardians of portals to the Land of the Young." Julian nodded.

"Is she really a fallen angel?" Abigail raised an eyebrow.

Everyone in the room froze.

"What?" Meg asked, breaking the silence.

"This book says here that some of the older fey like aos sídhe are believed to be fallen angels." Abigail said, pointing at the introduction.

"Does it really?" Romero asked in amazement, sweeping over to pick it up.

"Why did you all react like I'd said something weird?" Abigail asked as he did so.

"Did I not tell you about Meg's visions?" Julian frowned.

"Visions?" Abigail repeated. "I definitely did not hear about any visions."

"Shit." Julian muttered. "That one's my bad, then."

"I'm a seer, sweetie." Meg said to Abigail. "I sometimes have prophetic visions, and one of the ones I had recently was that Julian needed to find a fallen angel who was in danger."

"Jules, prophecies are absolutely something I should have heard about." Abigail glared.

"I forgot!" Julian protested. "There's so much stuff I had to tell you."

"She's right." Romero shook his head. "According to this, it is theorized that some of the ancient fey were angels who fell from heaven but had not committed a great enough sin to deserve hell. It's not true, of course, but it wouldn't be the first time Meg's visions have misled with its' wording."

"Ancient fey like Niamh?" Julian scowled.

"Indeed." Romero nodded.

"Meaning what?" Inara asked, folding her arms.

"That I failed." Julian said quietly. "I didn't save the fallen angel."

"Not necessarily." Inara said, punching his arm. "No time for a pity party, it could be Ciara who you're supposed to save."

"I do wish to remind you that the vision did not have any 'supposed to'. I just saw that a fallen angel was in danger, and Julian might be able to help her." Meg pointed out.

"I could never have found Niamh before she died." Julian shook his head. "Romero didn't even know she was in the city!"

"But you do know about Ciara now." Romero said encouragingly. "It might not be too late."

"You think whoever killed her mom might be going back for her?" Julian mused.

"Hard to say." Romero shrugged. "Worth looking into, though."

"Meg did say the fallen angel has the missing piece though." Julian recalled. "I don't think Ciara has any missing piece."

"Or she doesn't know she has it yet." Meg suggested.

"Missing piece to what? Cracking the case?" Julian asked, mystified.

"The future is hard to read." Meg shook her head. "I couldn't say for sure, but I did see that the fallen angel could help you, if you found her in time."

"So we need to go see this Ciara girl?" Abigail asked, getting to her feet.

"I'm not so sure you should come with me for this." Julian shook his head.

"Yeah, he needs someone more experienced with this world. Like me." Inara chimed in.

"What? You are definitely not going." Julian said, turning to Inara.

"Why not?" Inara demanded.

"This is a woman who is grieving her mother who she thought was going to be around for hundreds more years." Julian explained incredulously. "She does not need your brand of attitude right now."

"That's a very rude thing to say to someone who can give you nightmares whenever they want, isn't it?" Inara scoffed.

"Empty threats, Inara?" Meg asked knowingly, making Inara glare.

"I'm not going to be a bitch to someone who's grieving her mom, Julian." Inara huffed. "I'm not totally inept at social situations, you know."

"Just mostly?" Abigail snapped, and Inara wheeled on her.

"Here we go." Julian muttered.

"I don't know what you think goes on here, human, but we kind of have a little system. Julian and I are the brawn, Romero and Meg are the brains and the magic." Inara huffed. "You don't fit into that. You can't do cool shit like we can, and you're definitely not brains or magic material."

"I could be brains." Julian mumbled, but neither girl listened to him. He glanced over to Romero and Meg, who both looked quite amused at what was going on.

"But who solved the fallen angel thing?" Abigail demanded. "Me."

"Oh, please. You lucked into it." Inara rolled her eyes. "It was literally just sitting there on page one of the book you opened."

Abigail opened her mouth to respond, but Julian groaned.

"OK, enough arguing, jeez." he cut in. "Inara, fine, you can come if you're on your best behavior."

Inara gave Abigail a very smug smirk.

"What happened to being partners again, Julian?" Abigail protested.

"Hey, you already got to meet with Inquisitors who recruited you into their little band of holy butchers." Inara snapped.

"I wouldn't join them, are you serious?" Abigail demanded. "I'm not here to kill supernaturals, I'm here to help figure out who's killing them!"

"OK, mind changed. I'm going alone." Julian shook his head. "I'll see you guys later, I'm gonna go talk to Ciara."

"Excellent choice!" Meg called as Julian stepped through the curtain, shaking his head. The girls were still arguing, he could hear even as he walked off.

"Oh, headed out, Julian?" Freya asked as Julian walked out from behind the counter.

"Yeah, I've got someplace to be." Julian shrugged.

"Have fun!"

"Thanks, Freya." Julian chuckled. "Oh, and thanks for the cookie!"

"Anytime!"