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Trinity
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Our one good lead to this entire case, the only person that we had captured and arrested that might be able to tell us what was going on here, the one person that might lead us to some sort of breakthrough in the case, was dead. He killed himself so that we wouldn't be able to get anything out of him. I didn't even know if he was one of the killers or just some asshole sent to watch us. I was so pissed off at him that I didn't even want Talia to call up Lucifer to get his soul brought back to us. It would be Talia that needed to talk to him anyway, and I wasn't going to put her through that.
“Queen Trinity?” The officer, Chris, jumped in fear when I slammed the door open and sent it flying into the wall. I heard it break the wall, oops. I didn't mean that. I would pay for it to be fixed. I didn't want to destroy Star and Artem's house.
“He's dead.” I snarled at him. “He activated a sacrifice rune and killed himself. His body needs to be dealt with, but I want him examined. I need to know if he was the one that raped the girl in Waterton. And I need to check his DNA against the others that we have on file as well. I need to know if he was a scout, or one of the perpetrators of these acts. I need to know what his role in all of this was. Take saliva, blood, hair, skin from under his nails, everything that you can think of, take it.”
Jackson and Rawlynne must have heard me from down the hall since they were running over toward me as Reece came out of the room. He looked as pissed off as I felt.
.....
“I have the DNA from the rape being checked by my people in the FBI. I will send them this guy's DNA as well. We will have it all soon. They are working on the first set as we speak.”
“Thank you, Rawlynne.” I thanked her and started to move toward the stairs.
“Where are you going now?” Reece asked me as he followed after me.
“We have those rocks. We need to figure out what they say. And we need to dust them for prints after that. Find me something that will narrow them down. And find that man's name in a database somewhere. Whoever he is, he has to have existed somewhere. Birth records, school records, social media, I don't care where you look, but I expect you to find something.” I knew that I was being a little demanding and that I sounded a little pissed off. Well, that was probably because I was more than a little pissed off. I was raging fucking mad right now, and I wanted answers.
“Yes, Queen Trinity, we will find you something.” Rawlynne, who usually greeted me and spoke to me like a friend, was starting to act more formal and submissive towards me. I knew it was in response to my tone, but I couldn't help the way that I was feeling right now. These people were killing more and more of my citizens, and I couldn't allow that to keep happening.
I am going to find Artem. I need to get those rocks that he brought back. Who will be helping me to assemble them?” I looked around the hall at the people that were around me. I could see that most of them, namely Jackson, Rawlynne, and Chris, were too scared to do anything but look awkwardly at each other and stand there silently.
“I will, Trinity. And I know that Star and Artem will. So, there is no need to worry. We will get this done as soon as possible.” At that, Reece took my hand and started to pull me away from the others. “All of you get back to work on your respective tasks.” Reece called behind us to order the others as he pulled me away.
After we were far enough away that I was sure that the others wouldn't hear me, I growled at Reece for what he had just done.
“Why did you do that? I could have handled the situation. I was capable of telling them to get to work and walking here on my own. Why did you drag me away?”
“I know you were capable of it, Little Bunny. That wasn't the issue. The reason that I dragged you away was so that the others didn't feel so uncomfortable. You were losing your cool so much back there that you started to ice over.” He was pointing at my hands and clothes as he said that.
“Huh?” I looked down in confusion and saw that he was indeed telling the truth. “When the hell did that happen?”
Both of my hands, wrists, forearms, and elbows were covered in a thin bluish layer of ice. My shirt, which was a thin, white, button up blouse that was professional enough to work with the police but was also comfortable enough to withstand the late summer heat, had started to freeze solid. There were little crystals of ice all over the sleeves, but the front of it was nearly solid as an ice cube.
“I..I hadn't even noticed.” I blushed a little when I looked up from seeing the ice all over me. “I am sorry, Reece.” I felt ashamed. I was letting myself lose control. I wasn't able to keep in the emotions that were raging through me.
“I know that you didn't notice it. And I know that you didn't mean it. You are more pissed off about what happened in that room just now than you are letting on. You may be able to hide it with your words and face right now, but your tone of voice and your magic are giving you away. It's OK to be pissed off, Little Bunny. It's to be expected. But I wanted to get you away from the others before you exploded. I am not sure if you will explode or not, but it is better to be safe than sorry.”
I wanted to be angry. I wanted to be pissed off, but I couldn't. He was right. I needed to get away from them. I needed to be distracted. And as my mate, my king, and my wonderful husband, he knew exactly what to do and took care of it without needing to be told.
“Thank you, Reece.” I leaned into him and hugged him around the waist. I held him as close as I could, squeezing him firmly as I took comfort from his warm touch.
I often forgot about this, since it wasn't something that I thought about consciously, but Reece was made of fire. He was the fire to my ice. And when I needed to be melted, or to have my soul warmed up in some way, he was always there for me. Just knowing that, knowing that he would be there for me for all of eternity, was enough to make me smile and my heart sing.
“Feeling better?” He asked me when I finally pulled away from the hug.
“Yes. Thank you.” I gave him a loving look and took his hand. “Now, let's go find Star and Artem. I think they can help us to solve the puzzle of the rocks.”
“Well, it might not be too hard. It looked like they were numbered.”
“Well, isn't that convenient.” I didn't know if this was a good thing or not. Maybe the numbers meant something else. I guess we wouldn't know until we assembled them.
Reece and I went to the parlor that Star and Artem typically used for their own personal time. They, like Reece and I, had been together for a long time. And over the years, they had gotten to the point of just being content to be near each other. After so long together, you don't need to be actively doing something together to enjoy yourself with your partner. You just needed to be around them in a positive manner.
When we found Star and Artem though, they weren't just sitting around. They weren't reading, watching a movie, or just talking about life. They were hard at work as they leaned over a very large table that wasn't usually there.
“Hey Star, hey Artem.” I tried to sound calm as I walked into the room. “What's going on?”
“We're working on the rocks.” Artem stood up. “I knew that you wanted to handle the interviews, so I wanted to help out in any way that we could.”
“Thanks, Artem.” I smiled as I walked closer to him. “How is it coming along?”
“Well, the rocks all have a number, and I am sure that this was meant to help us put them in order. The highest number is one hundred and fifty-two.”
“And, of course, there are one hundred and fifty-two rocks.” Star added. “We're about halfway through assembling the message.” I could see the look on her face as she said that.
“And how is the message so far?” I asked as I walked closer to the table.
“I stopped paying attention to the words. I..I didn't like what they were saying.” Star looked scared and unnerved. She was a sensitive soul, so I wasn't surprised that she would be physically and emotionally upset by this. “I..I actually turned them all over so that we only saw the numbers.”
“I think that is better anyway. That way we know that we are getting them into the right order.” I nodded at her and let her know that there was nothing at all wrong with what she had done.
“Let us help.” Reece said as he came up behind me. “The more hands on it, the sooner we should get it all done.”
“Thank you, Reece.” Artem looked at him solemnly. “I want to get this done and over with as soon as I can. I feel like the sooner that we see this message in its entirety, the sooner we can start looking for these people.”
“I agree.” I nodded at him. “Also, we need to dust these rocks for fingerprints.” I looked at both Star and Artem and sighed in relief. “Thank you, both of you, for wearing gloves while doing this.”
“Of course.” Artem looked like what I had just said was not necessary.
“Yeah, we've seen enough crime shows to know that we need to wear gloves when handling evidence.” Star tried to smile but I could tell that it was forced and not at all genuine. I hated putting her and the others through this, but it was something that was affecting all of us. All of our people. And we all needed to band together to figure this out.
