A Ferry of Bones & Gold (Soulbound Book 1) by Turner Hailey

Author:Turner, Hailey [Turner, Hailey]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2018-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

12

“How do the sacrifices work?” Jono asked as they hurried down the street.

Their Uber driver had let them off a block away from the crime scene due to the police presence. An open street where anyone could hear them really wasn’t the place to talk about casework. “No fucking idea.”

But Patrick could guess, and in the end, it wouldn’t be pretty.

Chinatown was a densely packed neighborhood in Lower Manhattan full of locals, immigrants, and tourists alike. Middle of the day on Sunday, the markets were crowded with shoppers looking for fresh produce, seafood, and meat on offer, jockeying for the best prices and choicest cuts.

A police officer was redirecting traffic past Mott Street, but the street itself wasn’t roped off to pedestrians yet. More police officers were huddled together halfway down the block. A storefront produce market and the stores on either side of it had been cordoned off while police dealt with the body in one of the apartments above. A crowd of curious onlookers and elderly Chinese shoppers were being held back by several officers. Patrick didn’t see the ME’s van yet, but CSU was on-site.

The first thing Patrick noticed as they closed in on the building was the hellish taint from black magic seeping into the street. The recognition burned against Patrick’s weakened magic, the feel of the taint stronger than he remembered it being at the last two crime scenes.

Patrick frowned, dodging around a dolly someone had left unmanned on the sidewalk near a delivery van. “It’s not contained in the apartment.”

“What isn’t?” Jono asked.

“The taint residue from the attack. It was only present where the bodies were for the last two murders. Now it’s spread out across the street.”

“I take it that’s a bit out of the ordinary?”

“It’s different. Means the MO has changed, and that’s not good.”

“Or maybe the cops were notified of the body earlier?”

Patrick shook his head. “What’s been left of the spell doesn’t work that way.”

He dug out his badge as they approached the police line, flipping the thin wallet open to show the policeman on watch duty. They ducked under the police tape once the officer cleared them and headed for the apartment building.

Allison stepped through the entrance as they approached, squinting at them. “Glad to see you made it. We got a mess up there.”

“You got a mess out here,” Patrick told her. “The taint has spread to the street. You’ll need to quarantine the area and get someone to scrub everyone’s souls.”

Allison gave him a surprised look. “The magic at the prior crime scenes has never done that before.”

The taint had always been contained to the apartments where the sacrifices had died. This was more than fading residue or a spell gone wrong, because someone was still dead up there.

This, Patrick knew with grim certainty, was a distraction. One that still needed to be dealt with.

Patrick drew out his magic, wincing a little at the way it made his nerves burn. A tiny mageglobe spun into existence against the palm of his hand, the dull blue glow mostly hidden from sight.

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