The Samantha Rain Mysteries

Chapter 4

4

There were plenty of reasons why most people chose to be safe inside their beds at five to midnight. The dark, tiredness, personal preference. All valid reasons, Samantha thought. Another, and maybe a more obscure reason, was that it kept humans safe from the crazy Nox. And as much as she enjoyed getting to know this secret race of Fae, crazy was really the only way to describe them.

She slammed the car door firmly shut and stepped out on the slightly muddy path. The gravel crackled under her shoes and as the wind tugged on her trench coat, Sam shivered. “Where are we exactly?”

“Near the Gravitas border. Doesn’t really matter,” Lilith replied as she walked into the dark field.

Sam looked back at the car, already missing when the headlights were on and everything wasn’t as eerie.

“I didn’t know you drove,” she said, hurrying after Lilith. Between being abandoned with a car in the middle of nowhere or following the other woman into more nowhere, it wasn’t a hard choice. It wasn’t a fun choice, but it wasn’t hard. Sam chose Lilith.

The other woman chuckled, her laughter faint in the wind. “Of course, I drive. How do you think I get around?”

“I don’t know. Is it even safe to drive in those heels?” Sam placed her foot in a puddle and groaned. The splash of water immediately filled her shoe and soaked her sock. “Ewwww.”

“What?”

“I stepped into a puddle.”

Lilith clicked her tongue dismissively. “You should avoid them.”

“I would if I could see them!” Sam countered.

“What? Oh, right. Human eyes.” With a sigh, Lilith flicked her hand and conjured three balls of light. “There. Isn’t that better? Just follow the lights.”

The hovering glow cast strange shadows over the field that played with Sam’s imagination, but she was grateful for it anyway. She’d already been kidnapped by the Nox and persuaded into a life of servitude. The woman she was willingly working with was a magical being with questionable morals and a hint of psychopathy. What was there left to be scared of?

“Right…” she muttered, mostly to herself. “Follow the lights. That never got anyone killed.”

Lilith looked back over her shoulder and paused. “What?”

“You know people write stories about being lured to their death by dancing lights in swamps and forests and stuff, right?”

“Stories?”

“Yes. Myths. Legends about the Will-O-Wisp. You know, made-up stories. They’re made-up, aren’t they?” A shiver ran down Sam’s spine as she stared in the luminescent eyes of the other woman. “Aren’t they?”

Lilith remained silent for a moment before she turned around, ignoring Sam altogether. “Come on, the murder scene isn’t too far away.”

“As long as I don’t become the murder scene, it’s all good.”

The two women walked along the gravelly path, the glowing orbs circling Lilith like planets drawn to the sun. It was a mesmerising spectacle of light and shadows, and Sam understood why people were drawn to them. Beyond being beautiful, they were… natural. Like a pulse or a heartbeat, they felt alive. Something artificial light never was and never could be.

Just when she was sure Lilith had brought her out in the wild to be slaughtered, lights in the distance appeared. It was just bright enough that Sam could make out a small crime scene. A couple of cones, a bit of police tape, and two people with flashlights around a body-shaped heap.

Lilith approached one of the men, her voice stronger and more decisive than before. “Lynt.”

“Miss Lilith. Surprised to see you here,” the man replied, his disdain thinly veiled as he said her name. He pulled up his nose and gestured to Sam. “Who is this?”

“Samantha Rain, my new Warden,” Lilith introduced.

“Warden, huh?” Lynt studied Sam thoroughly, his frown lifting slightly as he turned back to Lilith. “Finally got someone to stick around, did ya?”

Lilith pulled a face. “Of course, what did you expect? Sam, this is Lynt. He’s been a Warden to our clan for… about fifty years.”

“Can’t believe I’m not dead yet.” The man pointed at Sam, his voice rough. “So what’s wrong with you?”

“M-Me?” Sam spluttered, a little taken aback. “Nothing?”

“Hah? Then why did you become a Warden for this crazy lady?” Lynt grumbled as he fumbled with his clipboard. “Nevermind. Just follow me.”

Samantha hurried after the two, trying to work out the relationship between them. Lynt seemed hostile and friendly at the same time, a combination she’d seen plenty of times in the force. Respect and dislike often went hand in hand.

They approached the bagged heap under a tree and Lynt pulled the plastic sheet back to reveal a strange sight.

“You weren’t lying about the glitter,” Sam said, shielding her eyes from the reflective mess. The body looked fresh, but the parts covered in glitter were decaying much faster. A strange phenomenon that would have stumped the police if they stumbled across it.

Lilith bent down to study the victim. “How many missing teeth?”

“All of them,” Warden Lynt replied.

“Textbook,” she sighed. “I think that’s conclusive. Definitely a Pixie kill.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Sam rushed forward, almost stumbling over her feet. “One look and you’re already making conclusions? That’s a bit premature. Someone could have faked it. Maybe they just wanted it to look like this man was taken out by a Pixie. Maybe there’s another perfectly reasonable explanation why he’s… like that.”

“Well, do you know any other Nox that extracts teeth and leaves glitter on dead bodies?” Lilith countered.

“No, but—”

“Nobody is stupid enough to pretend to be a Pixie. Or leave a fake-Pixie kill, for that matter. They don’t take kindly to it,” Lilith stressed.

“They? Who’s they? Why are you saying it like that?”

“You don’t want to know. This reeks of Pixie.” Warden Lynt interrupted. “You should see the second body.”

“Second body?” Samantha echoed. She glared at Lilith. “You didn’t tell me there was another body.”

The other woman frowned, her dark eyes flickering. “I didn’t know. Lynt, what’s going on?”

The Warden motioned for them to follow and led them further into the field, past the police tape. The grass shrieked under his boots as he flattened it on his way to a shallow grave. “Jurgen noticed it after we called it in.”

The second body wasn’t nearly as shocking to see, but Samantha still winced at the sight of the corpse. Despite the strange sight, she managed to distinguish the features of a woman through the shimmering glitter.

“Two bodies in the same place,” Lilith mused. “Is she also missing her teeth?”

“No, she’s got a full mouth.”

“The Pixie didn’t take any? Unusual…”

“But not unheard of,” Warden Lynt commented. He held out a small clipboard and gestured to the bottom. “Sign here so we can go ahead with the disposal.”

Before Lilith picked up the pen, Sam held out her hands. “Woah, woah. Disposal?”

“Yeah. The Burn Brothers will take care of it,” Lynt grunted. “Can you sign? I’ve got other things to do.”

Sam grabbed hold of Lilith’s arm. “A moment?”

Torn between the two Wardens, Lilith rolled her eyes dramatically. “Fine. Just give us a second, Lynt.”

The two stepped away from the main crime scene, seeking out the privacy of the dark. In an open field, there wasn’t really much choice.

“I know I’m new at this whole Warden and Nox thing, but you can’t possibly deduct who or what killed this without thorough inspection.” Sam whispered. She stared at the first body, trying to process what she was seeing. While some grim scenes would always be carved into her memory, it was usually easy to push them deep into her subconscious. But the sight of a shimmering corpse with a gaping abyss of a mouth, teeth missing and pink gums inflamed… That was going to take a couple of bottles of alcohol to forget. She’d only sleep soundly once the person responsible for this horror was caught though.

Lilith sighed. “Sam… I know this might be hard for you to accept, but this is how we deal with Pixie kills. We pick up the bodies, burn them in the mortuary, and the human world never has to know. The grand scheme of things can be harsh, but needs must.”

“I get that, but you can’t just burn the bodies without investigating or even finding out their identities. Does it not matter who they are? Or who killed them?”

“That’s how we’ve always done it. We don’t meddle in Pixie business. Never meddle in Pixie business.”

“But—”

“This is not a discussion, Sam. This is not the time to start changing things.” Lilith’s expression changed and her eyes hardened. Without waiting for a reply, she strode back to the crime scene and demonstratively signed Lynt’s clipboard.

Samantha balled her hands into fists, the blood in her veins boiling. She got used to this kind of dismissal from her superiors in the force, but she hadn’t expected it to come from Lilith.

With a clenched jaw, Sam could only watch the other two Wardens get to work. The two men trampled over any potential evidence as they zipped the corpses into black body bags. They collected the cones and discarded the police tape without a real regard or care for the surrounding area. It didn’t take long before the scene was completely tainted and destroyed, leaving nothing but traces of what had happened.