Chapter 6 - Fear the Reaper

The next morning, Julian found himself awake too early in the morning, leaning back against the Cutlass as he sipped on a coffee. The sky was still lightening, a burst of gold in the east casting daylight down upon Los Angeles, meaning all the vampires were tucked in bed by now. Or hanging from the rafters or something, whatever caught their fancy. Understandably, Julian's thoughts had been with the vampires a lot in the hours since his meeting with the Highsire. An experience like that was a unique one, even for a werewolf, so he'd been a bit on edge.

It was nice to know he was fully safe in the daylight though. Not a single vampire could touch him until the sun went down, so he could relax and have a nice, enjoyable day. Or at least, he'd been thinking that an hour ago ago, before he got the call he'd been dreading. Number six. Julian had hastily dressed, pulling on the clothes nearest to him, and raced out the door. He'd driven here like a bat out of hell, and now here he stood, looking out over the water of Santa Monica Beach. Out on the sand, dropped there at some point in the night, lay a body, Julian knew. He hadn't actually walked out there yet, as he was waiting for the occupant of the silver Honda Accord that was just now pulling up.

Julian knew he probably looked a mess, haphazardly dressed, scruffy, hair a mess, but he didn't expect the almighty Detective Abigail Richards to climb out of her car looking just as ruffled. Her blonde hair was loose and looked like she'd ran a brush through it maybe one time before letting it be. Her gray blouse was half untucked from her sensible pants, and she wore dark shades, looking miserable. Ah, a hangover then.

"Good morning." Julian said to her as she stalked past him without a word. Julian winced. He'd worried she'd be pissed about last night, and she didn't even know the half of what he'd done. With a sigh, Julian followed after Abigail, crossing the sands with her out to the body. It hadn't even been twenty four hours since the last gruesome murder, and Julian saw that many of the people from last night's crime scene were present for this one as well. Everyone had been putting in some serious hours recently, it had been a hectic few weeks ever since this serial killer started up.

"Same MO?" Abigail asked the forensic scientist who stood up to greet the approaching detectives.

"Exact same, Detective." he nodded. "The same sign of strangulation across the neck. No other wounds anywhere on the body, no other clues, no evidence. Just the body."

Abigail groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, as Julian stepped past the two of them to glance at the body. The body, a dark-skinned woman in her late twenties or early thirties, was laid out like the others were, flat on their back with the palms facing the sky. It made it real damn easy to see the runes drawn in blood, glowing faintly with magical energy. As to what the woman was, supernaturally speaking, Julian had no clue. Some species didn't have obvious tells, and this must be one of them, unless somehow, the pattern had finally broken. Julian examined the body carefully, looking over the runes in particular, but he had known from the first glance that they were the same runes that had been on every body.

Left hand rune of harvest, right hand rune of gift or repayment. Romero had never quite landed on an exact translation, but he'd done the best he could. Julian thought it was odd that the runes on the hands were so diametrically opposed, and he wondered if that meant something, but both he and the staff of Arcana Augurum hadn't been able to come up with an answer there. The left hand was harvesting something, taking something, or supposed to be anyway. And then the right hand was gifting something, or repaying something. And how the gifting or repaying tied in with the killings, Julian had no idea. The harvest was obvious, the killer was harvesting bodies or lives or souls or whatever they wanted to call it.

Meg's prevailing theory so far was the killer was gaining something from the killings, but what that might be was anybody's guess. It wasn't necromancy, Romero had been confident there. Necromantic runes were apparently very different, so that ruled out spells that required a life for a life. There was also always the possibility the runes were doing nothing, as it was a made up language after all. Romero insisted that was the case, but Julian had been just as insistent that the runes had to be doing something, or why even draw them.

He'd gone over the calling card theory in his head plenty of times, but just like every other time he'd looked over this case, he'd been going in circles. They needed some kind of break, some kind of clue, something that would-

"Amaya!" a near scream interrupted Julian's thoughts, and he turned quickly to see a curvaceous woman standing there, hands over her mouth. She was a dark-skinned woman in her mid twenties, with long flowing dark waves of hair. She wore a sky blue bikini top that her soft, round breasts looked like they were about to spill out of, and her toned, lean stomach was on full display as well. She wore white shorts with a low waistline that clung tightly to her wide voluptuous hips, a hint of sky blue bikini bottoms poking out from the top of them. She looked vaguely familiar, but Julian couldn't place her, and he thought he'd remember someone like that. He thought so, anyway.

He was still trying to place her when tears welled up in her eyes and they flicked a silvery-blue color that Julian did recognize immediately. He'd seen her in the Glade, the night of the last murder. He'd gone there looking for answers, and she had been there, hanging out at the club. Her name escaped him, but she was a jengu, an African mermaid. He remembered that because of how unique her eyes had been.

"Ma'am, please, step away." one of the officers said, stepping up, but Julian waved him off.

"Do you know her?" Abigail asked gently, stepping up to the woman as Julian joined them. He put his hands on his hips, looking over the grieving woman.

"I... she's my sister." the jengu said miserably, and she buried her face in her hands. To hide her eyes?

"OK, and you said her name was Amaya?" Abigail asked, waving at a nearby officer.

"Amaya Lake." she nodded. "And I'm Asha Lake."

The last name sounded fake, which Julian supposed wasn't surprising for a pair of mermaids. They'd probably made one up for themselves when they came ashore for the first time. Asha lifted her head from her hands, her eyes a normal brown color now.

"Alright, thank you, Asha." Abigail said with a nod at the buxom woman. "How did you know your sister was here?"

"I tracked her phone, she never came home last night, which I mean, not the craziest thing in the world for her, but I felt like something was off so when morning came and she still wasn't there, I went looking." Asha explained.

Abigail glanced at Julian, who looked back at her. "Detective Anderson, can you take care of Ms. Lake? I'll do another sweep of the scene and we can discuss back at the precinct."

Her voice was clipped and mild, which Julian took to mean if she wasn't professional, she'd yell at him. Something fun to look forward to, he supposed.

"Of course. Ms. Lake, right this way." Julian said, taking a hand off his hip to gesture a little ways away from the crime scene. Asha moved in the direction he indicated, and Julian followed her.

"I saw you in the Glade." Julian said as a conversation starter, and Asha startled in surprise, looking at him more intently as the brown color fled from her eyes, quickly replaced by her natural silvery-blue.

"You were there last week sometime." Asha recalled, a bit of a quaver to her voice still. "Said you were on business or something like that."

"Yeah, and unfortunately, I didn't get the answers I was looking for." Julian sighed. "Look, there's no easy way to say this, but long story short, someone out there is murdering supernaturals in the exact same way every time. They leave behind no clues, no evidence, not a trace of who they are. They just keep leaving bodies behind in random spots for us to clean up."

"Amaya was killed by a serial killer?" Asha demanded, eyes wide and horrified.

"I'm afraid so." Julian sighed. "Look, none of the other cops know about the supernatural part of this, they just think the victims have been chosen randomly."

Asha wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, and Julian was surprised by the ferocity in her eyes. "What do you need from me?"

"Just tell me everything you can remember about the last time you saw your sister. Where she was going, what time, et cetera." Julian said.

Asha thought for a long moment, and she clearly took that moment to compose herself. "I last saw her early last night, like 5 or 6 PM. She was headed out for work, like always. Usually she gets in at like 2 or 3 AM, so I wasn't too worried when she wasn't home when I went to bed. But then I woke up and she still wasn't there, and I dunno, I got nervous."

"So you traced her phone." Julian supplied.

"Yup." Asha nodded.

"I don't suppose you happened to glance at her location sometime last night?"

"Nope." Asha shook her head. "I knew where she was. Or at least, I thought I did."

"Which is..?" Julian raised an eyebrow.

"The Petal and Thorn." Asha admitted.

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" Julian wondered, and Asha gave a small half-smile, though it still looked touched with grief.

"I had thought you would. It's a brothel, owned by the Santa Monica vampire clan." Asha explained. "It's a veiled place, so you can't bring your cop friends."

"Alright, fine. I'll check it out tonight." Julian sighed. One more lead he'd have to hide from Abigail.

"Let me come with you." Asha said at once. "I want to help you catch this guy."

"Look, that's not how this works." Julian sighed. "I'm a cop, I can't just let you tag along."

He'd let the Parker twins on his investigations, and look how that turned out. Getting people too involved in this would never end well.

"Oh? And you're gonna find the place on your own?" Asha demanded, folding her arms beneath her bust.

"I'm sure I can ask around." Julian said with a shrug.

"Detective, please." Asha said urgently. "That's my- it's my sister lying over there. I have to do this, I can't just sit around and wait for news. Amaya wouldn't sit and wait if it was me, and I sure as hell won't sit around for her. We're all each other have, or... had. I need to do this."

Julian grimaced. "Fine. Text me the address and we'll meet there tonight. What time would be best?"

"Earlier, before they get busy. 7?" Asha suggested.

"Alright, I'll meet you there then." Julian said, handing over one of his cards. Asha took it, glancing down at it.

"What are you going to tell them I said?" Asha wondered, tipping her head towards the police.

"I don't know." Julian shook his head with a groan. "My excuses apparently aren't cutting it anymore, so I don't think it matters what I say."

"Just tell them I said Amaya was out partying or something. Everyone knows she was a partier." Asha shrugged.

"Works for me." Julian said. "Thanks for the help."

"Anything else you need from me, tell me immediately." Asha said firmly, grabbing him by the arm as he went to step back towards the crime scene. "I'm going to help you catch this bitch, you hear me?"

"I hear you." Julian said, and Asha's silvery-blue eyes peered at him intently, before she finally let go of his arm with a nod.

"Thanks." Asha mumbled.

"No problem." Julian nodded his head. "Don't leave town."

"Trust me, Detective, I'm not going anywhere." Asha murmured as Julian walked back towards Abigail.

"Anything?" Abigail asked curtly.

"Last saw her sister early last night, 5 or 6 PM." Julian answered. "Amaya's a partier, apparently, so Asha wasn't too worried about her not coming back. When she wasn't back in the morning, Asha went looking."

"So we've got about a twelve hour window she could've been taken and killed in." Abigail mused. "Any word on where Amaya was at?"

"Asha didn't know." Julian shook his head.

"Fine. Anything you're not telling me?" Abigail asked, tilting her head.

"There's a dead woman ten feet from us, can we table this argument?" Julian asked tiredly. "It's not even 8AM."

"The dead woman is why we're having this argument." Abigail snapped, stepping forwards. "I told you, Julian, I told you, don't go anywhere last night. Then you just vanished. Not a word to anyone. Where do you go? Why do you go? I needed your help with that murder and you just ran off!"

Julian felt the sudden itch to tell Abigail everything, to tell her he's a werewolf detective who sometimes went vigilante, running down supernatural suspects and doing what he had to do when he couldn't bring them in. He wanted to tell her how he'd teamed up with a vampire to go hunt down another vampire who had broken a law, and how he'd then been party to that vampire's execution. Yet, he knew he couldn't, so he just shrugged. He didn't even have the energy to come up with something, words seemed beyond him right now.

"A shrug. Cool, cool. Great talking to you, Detective Anderson." Abigail muttered, and she walked off. Julian's fists clenched as he felt anger boiling up in him. Not at Abigail, but at the parts of his life he had to hide. It was killing him, now more than ever, that he couldn't bring Abigail in on this. She was the only person in his life who didn't know core truths about who he was, and he just couldn't tell her, despite him spending more time with her on the daily than just about anyone. It was damn infuriating.

Julian walked off in the other direction, back towards the Cutlass. If these damn supernatural leads were going to push Abigail away, he'd make damn sure they turned up something useful.

———

Julian sat at his desk in the police precinct, looking carefully across the bullpen, being extremely thorough with his looking to verify that Abigail was indeed not here. He could take questions from anyone in this building, other than her. She was really the only one who knew him well enough to know for sure he was lying, and he hated lying to her, despite it seeming to be more and more of a habit these days.

Confirming swiftly that Abigail was indeed not here, Julian rose to his feet and walked casually past the desks of his coworkers. He nodded at the pair of detectives who sat beside his and Abigail's desks, and they both nodded back in a friendly sort of way. Maybe friendly was stretching it, a... coworker-ly type of way? He strolled past their desks, crossing the large, open room where most of the police in the precinct sat.

At the far end of the room was his destination, the evidence locker. When Julian had first broached his plan to Romero, Meg, and Inara, he'd been worried it would involve a much trickier thing to acquire, but Romero had assured him there was no need for him to visit the morgue. A relieved Julian had agreed to try his hand at swiping evidence instead. Romero had given him a near perfect copy of his mark, so hopefully he'd be able to smoothly swap and get out of there without incident.

Julian walked up to the evidence counter, and the officer on duty gave him a friendly smile.

"Morning, Detective Anderson!" she said brightly.

"Yeah, good morning." Julian said, trying for a smile. People were always more trusting of people who had been friendly to them, right?

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Well, Officer Hammond, I am looking to review the evidence in Jenna Downey's murder. Specifically, personal effects." Julian said.

"Oh, that poor girl." Officer Hammond clicked her tongue sadly. "Just hers? Or did you wanna look over the other victims too?"

Julian made a split second decision. "Hers and the Russell couple's."

"Can do, just fill out the forms." Officer Hammond said, and she spun around in her chair and stood up to go walk back into the evidence locker room.

"Thank you. I'll be in the review room." Julian said, and entered into a side door after signing his name and marking down the date and time. It led into a small, camera-observed room where there was a little window against the far wall where evidence could be passed across. Julian waited in the review room for just a few minutes before Officer Hammond came up to the window, handing over three baggies of items. Julian thanked her again, and then took the three baggies to the table at the center of the small room. He verified they'd all been tested by forensics and were safe to touch, and then he laid out three neat piles of the items, wondering how the hell he was going to make this work.

Every angle of the room was watched by a camera, everything recorded and monitored live by the officers working the evidence room. In the inner pocket of Julian's leather jacket was a djed amulet, a near identical copy of the one worn by Jenna Downey when she was murdered, courtesies of Romero. All he needed to do was figure out how to get his djed into evidence and her djed safely into his pocket. As long as nobody actively saw him swap the amulets, nobody should ever know the difference.

While he tried to come up with some kind of plan, Julian did carefully review the personal effects of the werewolf couple, Robert and Anna Russell. They, unfortunately, had no interesting potentially magical items, or at least not any that Julian recognized as such. Wallet, keys, phones... pretty simple stuff. Julian flipped open Robert Russell's wallet, looking idly through his cards. Nothing stuck out as unusual, and both phones were dead by now. He then moved to Jenna Downey's items. Hers were a bit more eccentric, perhaps due to the difference in what they were.

In addition to the djed amulet he felt like he kept stealing glances at, Jenna had a phone, a vape, and a whole collection of rings, seven all put together, each winking with a small gemstone. Julian had no idea what those did, if anything, so he left them well enough alone. Jenna, from what he'd learned, had always liked that gothic, Wiccan aesthetic, and she'd dressed and accessorized accordingly. She had more jewelry in her personal effects than the other four victims combined. Five now, he reminded himself with a pang. Another body, another failure.

Julian scowled to himself and got up to go to the evidence window. "Hey, Officer Hammond?"

"Everything alright, Detective?" she asked, turning away from the monitor that had a couple of security feeds on it.

"Could I get Miguel Ortiz's effects too?" Julian asked hopefully, and she smiled.

"Sure thing."

Officer Hammond got up to go into the evidence locker, and Julian moseyed back over to the small table in the center of the room. He reached into his inner pocket to pull out his phone, which he'd put there specifically for this, with the silver djed stuck to the back of it by his fingers. He dropped it onto the table with his left hand, and doing as best he could to look casual, reached out with the same hand, caught up the real djed, and stuck both phone and necklace into the pocket of his jeans.

No alarm bells went off, and Julian was idly looking through Anna Russell's purse when Officer Hammond returned to the evidence window.

"Oh, thank you for this." Julian said, taking that bag too.

"Of course." she smiled. "I hope this helps."

"Me too." Julian mumbled. "Me too.

He set down the baggie of Miguel Ortiz's personal effects and decided to tidy up the other three first. He put everything back into its' proper bags, then set all three bags at one end of the table and emptied out Miguel's items onto the other end. It was part a pretense to not up and run as soon as he swapped the djeds, but he also didn't think he'd ever actually reviewed the items in Miguel's possession when he died. Sure, he'd looked over the list of them, but he should have come and looked personally, when it came to matters of the supernatural, some things needed to be done in person.

Miguel's phone yielded no results, he didn't have any car keys (not surprising, fey didn't often carry a lot of metals with them), and the only other item he'd had on him was his wallet. Julian opened it up, glancing through the items in it, but it was pretty ordinary. Twenty bucks in cash, a driver's license, a credit card, and a couple of business cards. Julian flipped through them idly, but he froze when he saw one of them, a black card with a stylized line of brambles around the perimeter, red roses speckled along the thorns. In big gold letters across the top was three words: PETAL AND THORN, and below it, an address and their opening hours, which was most of the night.

It was the same place Asha had mentioned that her sister Amaya worked at, which meant for the first time, there was a connection between two victims other than just them being supernatural. Julian flipped the card over, and his heart picked up speed seeing the words written on the back in silver Sharpie. Call Amaya: the diamond is in danger

This was a clue, this was an honest to God clue, something he'd found without supernatural intervention. Of course, it was on a business card to a place that didn't technically exist, but this was proof that Miguel and Amaya knew each other, and they were close enough to have a secret of some kind. Julian checked all of the other business cards in Miguel's wallet, looking for more notes, and stumbled upon just one other note, on the back of a business card for a local pizza joint. This note seemed much less helpful to the case, as it just read Get a large drink here, they use small cups.

Julian snapped a photo of both sides of the Petal and Thorn business card, and to his surprise, the photo of the front of the business card looked very different to what it actually said. In the photo, it had the same address, but had daytime opening hours and it was for a place called Rosebud Lounge. Did they have a front business for humans? That was an oddity for a veiled business, but he supposed if one operated only at night, they could rake in more money by having a daytime business.

He texted both of the photos to Abigail, and wrote her a quick little caption about where he'd found it. She responded to the text almost instantly.

Julian hesitated. He'd obviously gained some goodwill back with Abigail by sharing his lead for once, but he had to go do this thing with Romero urgently. And besides, the real answers wouldn't be at the Rosebud, they'd be at the Petal and Thorn, which he was checking out tonight with Asha.

Julian sighed and tucked his phone back into his pocket. He tucked Miguel's items away, then returned all four baggies of evidence to Officer Hammond. He walked out of the precinct ten minutes later with the stolen djed, and then he got in the Cutlass and drove off, heading for the Arcana Augurum.

———

When Julian walked into the touristy magic shop with a CLOSED sign on the front door, he was surprised to see a dryad girl standing by the herbs display with her eyes closed. She was small and petite, wearing a flowy white sundress with flowers weaved through her yellow hair. Her hair was the near exact shade that leaves turn in the autumn, so it wasn't quite an ordinary blonde. Like most dryads, she was green-tinged, but not enough to make her really stand out. You had to be looking carefully to pick up on it.

"Oh, good, you made it, yay." Inara said in a bored voice. "We closed the whole shop for this, so you better be grateful."

"Who's that, then?" Julian asked, gesturing over at the dryad.

"Hm? Oh, fuck. Aspen, babe, you gotta get out of here, we're closed." Inara huffed. "I didn't see you over there."

"Oh, I am sorry, Inara." the petite dryad said, opening her eyes and bowing formally. "I was unaware."

"You're fine. Just come back in an hour or so." Inara assured the dryad, Aspen.

"I will, thank you." she said dreamily, and left the shop cheerfully.

"Does she just come here and stare at herbs?" Julian wondered after the door closed behind her.

"Yeah, basically." Inara shrugged. "Nature spirits are weird. You get what we needed?"

"I did." Julian said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the silver djed amulet. Inara peered at it intently, stroking her chin thoughtfully.

"Well, for all I know, that could be the one we gave you." Inara pointed out.

"It's not." Julian huffed. "Where's the guy who actually knows something about this?"

"Rude." Inara sniffed, but she led the way into Romero's workshop in the back.

Romero and Meg were clustered around a central circular table that had been set up specifically for this, it seemed. There were several small glass bowls set up in a circle, filled with various things that Julian didn't even have a guess what they might be. Could've been eye of newt and toe of frog for all he knew.

"Ah, Julian!" Romero greeted him with a grandfatherly smile. Romero was dressed very similarly to the last time Julian saw him, but the color of his clothes and the pattern of his vest were both different, which could only mean that Romero had multiple versions of this outfit. All the clothes in the world, and he picked those. Truly bizarre.

"Hey, Romero." Julian greeted, holding up the djed. "I got what you needed."

"Excellent! Let's see if our young witch truly was doing resurrection magic." Romero said delightedly. He hustled over to Julian, and Julian passed him the amulet. Romero held the chain of the amulet in one hand, closing his eyes and holding his other palm up in the space beside the gently swaying amulet. Julian took the time to wave to Meg, who waved back cheerily.

"Find any fallen angels yet?" Inara wondered, brushing past Julian on her way to a table across the room. She turned around so her back was to it, and with a little hop, jumped up so she was sitting on the table.

"Not even one." Julian scowled, and the djinn gave an amused smirk.

Romero opened his eyes, interrupting the conversation. "The amulet definitely was used for its' intended purpose."

"So this is going to work?" Julian asked, hopeful.

"We shall see. I'm not a witch, but I made do with what I could." Romero said, bringing the djed to his prepared table and setting it in the center.

The djed amulet, as a symbol of resurrection, was something that could be used to store part of a person's essence, in the case of their death. In the times of ancient Egypt, the djed was used for full-scale necromancy, but necromancy was heavily outlawed in this day and age, so it was something of a lost art. By some stroke of luck though, Jenna Downey had been into Egyptian mythological symbols, and whether intentionally or not, part of her had been saved by the djed. A part that hopefully would remember what had happened to her.

Romero waved his hand over the djed, and it began to glow a vivid purple. The purple glow spread across the chalk lines drawn on the surface of the table, straight rays of glimmering purple that connected the djed to each of the little bowls that had been prepared. "Here we go..."

"I hope this works." Meg murmured, and Julian made a noise of agreement. From her spot perched on the table, Inara leaned in intently, her eyes fixed on the djed, which began to levitate. It lifted about five feet off the table, righting itself in mid-air until it hung suspended in the manner it was most likely worn. And then, with a bright purple flash, there was a spectral figure standing on the table, the djed hanging around its' neck. The spectral figure was none other than Jenna Downey, the eighteen year old witch. She was also decidedly naked. Her glowing purple-hued body was partly see-through, and which parts that was fluctuated like the shimmering of light.

"What... where am I?" Jenna asked, looking dazed.

"This is a magic shop called the Arcana Augurum." Meg said kindly.

"What happened?" Jenna asked, blinking rapidly.

"Jenna, my name is Detective Julian Anderson." Julian said, stepping forwards and trying to ignore Jenna's ridiculously perky breasts. "I don't know how much you remember, but I'm here investigating your murder."

"My..." Jenna gaped at him, and she swallowed hard. "Ohmigod..."

"Take a moment, dear, collect yourself." Meg implored. "It's a lot to take in."

Julian decided to let Meg take the lead for the moment, she seemed the ideal choice to help someone through realizing they were dead. Jenna only had thirty minutes of ghostliness available according to Romero, which meant they didn't have long, but they could afford to let her settle down first.

This was something insane to Julian, preparing to interview a murder victim. He knew magic like this existed, but to actually see it in use, to benefit from it like this... it was just unfathomable.

Meg helped Jenna down off the table, though Meg couldn't actually touch Jenna, so it must have been more of an emotional support thing.

"Who are the rest of you?" Jenna asked, rubbing her forehead.

"I'm Meg Scott, I own this shop with my husband, Romero." Meg explained, gesturing to Romero, who wiggled his fingers in a wave. He seemed excited that this whole thing had worked.

"And I'm Inara, I work here." Inara said with a nod.

"And you already met Detective Anderson." Meg said with a gesture towards Julian. Jenna nodded shakily, and let out a breath.

"What about my parents?" Jenna asked, and Julian froze. He had not considered that aspect of this. Would it be better to let her say goodbye to her parents? Or would that be needlessly cruel to a grieving couple?

"I have some questions for you first, Jenna." Julian said gently. "But if you want to talk to your parents after that, I don't see a problem with it. I have to warn you though, you only have thirty minutes as a ghost like this. So, talking to them... you need to make sure they realize they don't have their daughter back."

"Thirty minutes..." Jenna whispered, looking at her ghostly purple hands.

"I'll try to make the questions quick, so you can talk to your parents for as long as you can." Julian offered, and Jenna turned towards him attentively.

"Alright, question one then... who killed you?" Julian asked.

Jenna closed her eyes, brow furrowing. "I... it was all a blur, I'm sorry. My memories are sharper the further back they go, but the recent stuff, it's fuzzier."

"Those memories would have had less time to imprint on the djed." Romero agreed. "Not that they're not there, they just aren't as heavily imbued in this form's memories."

"Does she only remember things that happened while she wore the necklace?" Inara wondered, tilting her head curiously.

"Perhaps so!" Romero exclaimed, looking thoughtful.

"OK, let's focus up." Julian said with a shake of his head. "It's OK if you can't remember, Jenna, but anything you can tell me about that last day could help me out a ton."

"I was out at the mall, I think." Jenna said, rubbing her forehead. "The Grove, you know it?"

"I know it." Julian nodded, opening his notes app on his phone. "Was that where you were taken from?"

"Not at the mall." Jenna shook her head. "After I left. I... I never made it home."

Julian saw Meg wipe a tear from the corner of his eye, and he had to agree. This was a devastating story, but Julian had to hear this. He had to know.

"And what day was this?" Julian asked curiously.

"Um... it was Saturday." Jenna said, and Julian nodded. She was found on a Sunday, so there hadn't been long before her kidnapping and her death. That was consistent with Amaya, too, the only other victim who they had a timeline for. The Russells' kidnapping hadn't even been noticed until the bodies turned up, Marina Davis had been a hermit without any close friends to notice, and so far, nobody they had found knew Miguel Ortiz.

"Do you remember getting taken?" Julian asked, and Jenna nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I do. It was kind of late afternoon, past dinner time. I was walking home, and... I felt myself freeze up." Jenna recalled.

"Freeze up, like you were scared? Or magically frozen?" Julian asked, looking at Jenna curiously.

"Magically frozen." Jenna affirmed. "I had on my protection charms and herbs, but none of them did anything."

"Those would have blocked most spells being thrown." Romero cut in thoughtfully. "They don't work as well against more solid effects though."

"Huh?" Julian asked, confused.

"Most protection charms are kind of flimsy magic, they only really do any good at warding off spells being thrown at you. Those are typically weaker than prepared effects like rituals, sigils, incantations, that sort of thing." Romero explained. "If your protection charms didn't help you, this was something prepared ahead of time. Maybe a trap on the ground or on the wall you didn't see."

"So you're saying this was pre-meditated." Julian checked, and Romero shrugged.

"It seems likely, yes. Protection herbs and charms should have deflected anything done on the fly." Romero confirmed.

Well, that was definitely some interesting information. Had the killer specifically chosen the victims? Or set traps in convenient spots just waiting for supernaturals?

"Alright, and then what about after that?" Julian asked, looking back to Jenna.

"I was dragged into an alley after being frozen. I still couldn't move, so I couldn't do anything as a bag was pulled over my head." Jenna recounted. A bag over the head of someone they planned to kill? This really was somebody cautious.

"How long was the bag on your head?" Julian asked.

"I have no idea. Next time it came off, I was in a weird room. It looked kind of like a doctor's office, but it was wrong." Jenna shook her head. "Um, the place was... it wasn't real."

"Illusion magic?" Romero asked curiously.

"No, the place I was at was real, it was... the doctor's office wasn't real." Jenna struggled to explain, looking frustrated at herself. Must be the fuzziness from her memories.

"OK, we'll move on from that. Did you ever see anything of the person who... killed you?" Julian asked.

"I heard voices a couple times. Talking, you know? I don't remember what they said, I was terrified and the voices were muffled." Jenna said, brows furrowed.

"Multiple people, then." Julian nodded encouragingly.

"I was struggling, but I was strapped down onto like a surgery bed." Jenna continued. "I was stuck. Tried doing magic, but nothing was working."

"They blocked your magic?" Romero asked in surprise.

"Something like that, yeah." Jenna nodded. "I was powerless."

Romero looked off thoughtfully at his bookshelf, while Jenna continued. "I was there for a while, I don't know how long, it was pitch black outside the whole time I laid there. And then... they came in."

"You saw them?" Julian asked eagerly.

"They were wearing masks, but there were two of them." Jenna said apologetically. "The masks were really horrifying, too, there was a guy in a donkey mask and a guy in a pig mask. They were freaky and realistic"

"But they were both men?" Julian asked Jenna.

"Both men." Jenna confirmed. "They were pretty average height, I guess, but the masks made it hard to tell specific heights."

"And that's when they killed you?" Julian checked. Jenna swallowed hard, but she nodded.

"The pig started drawing something on my hands, and the donkey took this bright silver wire and stepped around behind me. I remember him pulling the wire tight around my throat and then... I was here." Jenna shuddered.

Meg leaned in to console the girl, whispering something to her, and Julian let out a breath. He ran a hand through his hair, and shook his head. Inara hopped off the table and came towards him, tilting her head curiously.

"You get what you need, Julian?" she asked, and Julian shrugged.

"Maybe. I got a lot more than I had, which was nothing, but I'm not sure it's enough to help much." Julian told her quietly.

Inara nodded, looking at him with her gold-flecked brown eyes. "Don't let the girl call her parents." Inara murmured in a whisper. "Just break the spell. It's not even her, it's just the memories stored in the amulet."

Julian looked to Romero, who was watching him and Inara already. The enchanter looked pointedly to the amulet on the table, and raised a questioning brow.

"Think of the parents. They get a call from their dead daughter, and only get like twenty minutes to talk to her before she's gone again forever?" Inara shrugged. "That's not closure, that's cruelty."

Julian looked to Romero, and with a sigh, he gave a nod. Inara was right, this wasn't Jenna, Jenna was long dead. It was just the part of her that had been saved by the amulet, a collection of her memories. Memories didn't need closure, but they could very easily tear at the wounds her parents were still nursing. Romero stepped forwards, waving a hand over the table. The purple glow of the chalk lines vanished, fading back into ordinary white chalk. In an instant, the glowing purple spectral form of Jenna Downey vanished and the silver djed fell to the couch cushion, startling Meg.

"I thought she was going to call her parents." Meg blinked, wiping away a tear from her eyes.

"We thought it'd be for the best we don't torture her parents like that." Julian explained, despite feeling like shit himself about it. It may not have been Jenna, but it seemed close enough to hurt.

"That wasn't Jenna, and her parents have enough grief, I'm sure." Inara said in a rare moment of compassion. Julian must have been looking at her in surprise, because she swiftly punched his arm.

"Ow!" he protested, putting a hand to his arm as he backed away from the now glaring djinn.

"I deal in dream magic plenty, there's nothing worse than false hope." Inara glared.

"Did you get what you needed, Detective?" Romero asked, and Julian sighed.

"I got a lot more than I had before. Of course, I can't share this with my partner or anybody else because I can't exactly explain I interviewed one of the victims' ghosts." Julian shrugged.

"The part about where she got taken from could be shared, surely." Romero mused.

"Maybe that part, but anything past that is yet another secret I have to keep." Julian frowned.

"Just tell her you're a mutt." Inara shrugged. "She probably already thinks you smell, you may as well explain why."

Despite the general unpleasantness of her words, at least it was familiar. Julian hadn't quite known how to react to Inara being compassionate and thoughtful.

"Hilarious as ever, Inara." Julian shook his head. "Thanks for all the help, you guys. I hate to, uh... ritual and run, but-"

"Please, feel free to go." Meg said with a smile. "You're working hard to catch the serial killers, it's to be expected."

"And if you need anything else, please, let us know." Romero agreed. "We'll keep our ears out for any information regarding this, too, but I wouldn't expect much."

"Can't you go to Magic-R-Us or something?" Inara grouched. "Why is he always bothering us at our shop?"

"Well, it's not the cashier's customer service quality." Julian shot back.

"I am not just the cashier, furball." Inara snapped back.

"You should just go, Julian." Meg said with a laugh.

"I'll see you guys later." Julian said with one more glare at Inara over his shoulder, and the buxom djinn flipped him off as he walked out through the velvet curtain.