Chapter 83 Leo
The veil breach hummed with the wrong frequency. It sounded like breathing, like something alive on the other side was pressing against the barrier between worlds. I didn't like it. Had never liked the sound of active breaches, but this one felt different. Hungrier.
I crossed the barrier line where Edward had set up the perimeter. He was standing over two shapes covered with tarps, his shoulders rigid with tension. Other Bloodhounds moved around the scene, taking readings and documenting evidence, but they gave the bodies a wide berth.
"Show me," I said.
Edward pulled back the first tarp without a word.
Marcus. Twenty-three years old. He'd been a Bloodhound for two years, eager and competent. Now he was pale, his eyes still open and frozen in shock. Whatever had killed him, he'd seen it coming and hadn't been able to stop it.
Was a Bloodhound. Past tense.
I knelt beside the body, scanning for obvious injuries. "What am I looking at?"
Edward pointed to the left side of Marcus's neck. A single puncture wound, small and clean and precise. No tearing. No signs of a struggle. Just one perfect hole.
"That's it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"That's it."
I pulled back the second tarp. The other Bloodhound, a woman named Sarah who'd been with us for five years. Same thing. Single puncture wound in the exact same location on her neck.
Not a fight. An execution.
"What happened exactly?" I stood up, looking around the scene. No signs of struggle. No damage to the surrounding area. No indication that either of them had even tried to defend themselves.
Edward rubbed his face, and I could see the guilt written all over him. "Alarm went off at 2:47 AM. Breach detection picked up the signature immediately."
I looked around the scene, taking in the lack of evidence. "And?"
"I was three minutes out. Got here at 2:50." His jaw tightened. "They were already dead."
Three minutes. Whatever had done this had crossed the veil, killed two trained Bloodhounds, and disappeared in less than three minutes.
"Whatever did this, it was fast," Edward said quietly.
Too fast. My hands curled into fists at my sides.
"Witnesses?"
"Three. All human. They saw it from a distance, called it in."
"And they described it as silver."
"Yeah." Edward stepped closer and lowered his voice, even though we were surrounded by our own people. "What do you know about Silver Gargoyles, Leo?"
I was quiet for a moment. Jacob's voice echoed in my head, a conversation we'd had years ago over drinks. He'd been unusually serious that night, telling me about things he'd seen in the other realm during his younger days.
If you ever see a Silver Gargoyle, you run. You don't fight. You don't negotiate. You run.
"Not much," I said.
Edward's eyes narrowed. "Bullshit."
"I know they don't attack randomly." I met his gaze and held it. "They're not like the others. They don't just cross the veil looking for prey or territory."
"Then what do they do?"
My voice came out flat. "They hunt with purpose."
Edward started pacing, the way he always did when he was processing a threat. "Can they shapeshift?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. I've never seen one."
"But?"
I looked at the bodies again. At the clean, precise kills. At how easy it had been for this thing to take out two trained fighters.
"But at this point, it's safe to assume all kinds of gargoyles can shapeshift."
Fuck.
Edward ran a hand through his hair, agitation clear in every movement. "So it could be anywhere. Look like anyone."
"Yeah."
"How do we track it?"
I turned to face him fully. "You said you've been studying its path?"
"Since last night. Been tracking the energy signatures it leaves behind." Edward pulled out a tablet and started swiping through data. "The rush of energy when it crossed the veil, it leaves a trail. Faint, but traceable if you know what to look for."
He pulled up a map of the city. "Here. Look."
I took the tablet from him. The screen showed a street map covered in red dots, each one connected by thin lines showing the path of movement.
"These are all the places it stopped?"
"Yeah. Starting here at the breach site." Edward pointed to the first dot, then traced his finger along the path. "Then it moved north. Stopped here for four minutes."
An abandoned warehouse in the industrial district.
"Then here." A residential area on the east side.
"Then here." Back to industrial, closer to downtown.
My eyes followed the pattern. North. East. North again. The stops weren't random. This thing was methodical.
"It's searching for something," I said.
"That's what I thought too." Edward zoomed in on the map, and more dots appeared. Smaller stops, shorter durations. "The stops got shorter as it went. Like it was narrowing down its search."
My stomach tightened. Whatever this gargoyle was looking for, it was getting closer to finding it.
"Show me the last location."
Edward swiped to expand the most recent section of the map. The red dots clustered together, then converged on one final point.
There.
My blood went cold.
"It's clearly headed somewhere," Edward said, watching my face. "The pattern suggests it knows where it's going now."
I nodded slowly, my mind racing through the implications. "Yes."
My voice barely came out above a whisper. "I know where it's going."
Edward looked up sharply. "Where?"
"Sentinel Park." I handed the tablet back to him and started moving toward where I'd parked my bike.
Edward's eyes widened. "Why Sentinel Park? What's there?"
I swung onto my bike, my hands gripping the handlebars. The engine roared to life beneath me.
"There are a lot of people at that park on a day like this," I said. "And it won't stop killing until it gets what it wants."
Edward stepped forward. "What does it want?"
Good question.
I didn't answer. Just started the engine and let it roar.
"Get backup to Sentinel Park. Now."
"Leo..."
"Now, Edward."
I kicked the bike into gear and prepared to leave, my jaw tight with tension. Silver Gargoyles hunted with purpose. They came for specific targets. And this one had systematically searched the entire city until it found what it was looking for.
Whatever was at Sentinel Park, it was worth killing for.
And I needed to get there before more bodies started piling up.