Dhampirs of Sgiach

11. Kage

The detectives wouldn’t let Kieran or Rand sit with Echo and Kage as they questioned them. The two sat on one of the couches in the TV room together with Mrs. Squawkle. Kage had his arms around Echo and did his best to imitate Kieran’s mean look when he would deal with bad people.

His fangs were extended and he focused that stare on the younger of the detectives. At his last appointment with Dr. Ebonwings, she had taught him how to sense people’s desires. The younger detective had a deep desire to rid the world of dhampirs. The older one had a desire for the truth.

“What do you remember from the day Mr. Henderson died, Kage?” Detective Reynolds asked.

Kage plucked at Mrs. Squawkle’s ear as he rested his chin on the top of Echo’s head. “Kieran woke me up early and made frozen waffles for us. Lacey skipped breakfast and said she had to go to work. But it was a lie.”

“How do you know she lied?” Detective Johnston asked. His tone was harsh and both Kage and Echo flinched from it.

“She smelled of chocolate…” Kage said softly. He growled at the detective then. “Dr. Ebonwings says s****l betrayal smells like chocolate to me,” he said firmly, and sat up a bit straighter.

“Take us back to when she said she was going to work,” Detective Reynolds said with an odd look at his partner. “Was there anything strange about her interactions with Kieran?”

Kage liked detective Reynolds. “No. He tried to kiss her but she dodged the kiss. He was a bit sad after that, but then we had to go to the medical center. That cheered him up.”

“Why did your appointment cheer Kieran up?”

“I gained sixteen pounds since my first appointment with Dr. Baker,” Kage said, and couldn’t help the pride that was in his voice at that. “Kieran said he would take me out to see a movie to celebrate after my appointment with Dr. Ebonwings…”

“How did that appointment go?”

“Scary, like my first appointment with Dr. Baker. She had a plate of cupcakes and told me to choose my favorite. But Kieran had to wait in the other room and I was scared…” Kage said softly and curled tighter around Echo, who clung to him.

“Was Kieran alone in the other room?”

Kage shook his head. “There was two other people there with him. Sasha and Koda. Sasha is a succubus and Koda is a werecobra. He shifted so I could see his animal form while we waited.”

“Do you know if Kieran remained in the waiting room?” Detective Reynolds asked as he leaned forward with his arms on his legs.

“When I wouldn’t speak, Dr. Ebonwings let Kieran sit with me. He took the chocolate cupcake. But I wanted that one so I took it from him,” Kage said.

“Did he get angry when you took the cupcake?”

“No.”

“What happened after that?”

“Dr. Ebonwings asked me questions.”

“And that’s how you determined the type of sin you feed on?”

Kage nodded. “Kieran got mad when I said Lacey smelled like chocolate sometimes when she said she was going to work or out with friends.” His voice had gone small again. Kieran’s desires had been going back and forth since that day. Sometimes when he thought no one was looking, Kage saw him just stare off at nothing. His desire for Lacey almost all-consuming in its pain.

“What happened when you arrived back at the apartment?”

“Echo and Steve were in the hallway. Echo had a bruise on her face and she was trying to get away from Steve. Kieran hit him and bit him to get him off Echo. Then we left him in the hall and went into our apartment. Kieran sent us to my room and we could hear him in his room as he packed Lacey’s things. Then Adam arrived with boxes before he took me and Echo to the Dancing Pig. When we heard that Kieran had been arrested, Kieran’s mom took us here.”

“She was scary,” Echo added softly.

Detective Reynolds smiled at them. “Yeah. Female werebears may look petite and docile, but when you mess with their cubs, they’re terrifying. Did you know that when fully shifted, female werebears are larger than the males?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“It’s true. This lodge is probably the safest place in the county. What do you remember from that day, Ms. Luna?”

Echo clung tighter to Kage. “Steve was made at me because I hadn’t made enough mira the night before and someone was coming. I was trying to leave when Kieran and Kage came.”

“Who was coming?”

“I don’t know,” Echo said softly.

They moved on to asking about what happened the night Kage met Kieran.

Detective Reynolds

Reynolds looked back up at the lodge as Johnston and him opened their car doors. “What’s up?” Johnston asked.

“Nothing,” Reynolds said. “Just that the incubus seems very loyal to Mr. Ursine.”

“They’re both dhampirs. If Ursine didn’t kill Steve, then Frostfang did,” Johnston said dismissively as he got in the car,

Reynolds frowned as he got behind the wheel. He didn’t think Mr. Ursine had done it. “Mr. Ursine doesn’t seem like the type to get caught that fast. And I’ve never known a Sgiach’rin’Furian to date anyone without some sort of fire magic. Ms. Matheson is practically a magical null. Then there is Kage’s case.”

“He’s a dhampir hooker, he asked for that.”

“He’s 100lbs soaking wet and was proud to have gained sixteen pounds in one week. Let’s go pay a visit to Dr. Lamia Ebonwings,” Reynolds said and took the exit that would take them to the succubus’s therapy offices.

Johnston wanted to go speak to another lead and Reynolds dropped him off at his car before he continued on his way to Dr. Ebonwings’s office.

He sat on a lush couch in a comfortable room that had an entire wall dedicated to a large bookshelf. On the coffee table in front of Reynolds was a plate of five cupcakes. One chocolate with chocolate icing and colorful sprinkles, a vanilla with vanilla icing and colorful sprinkles, an apple with caramel icing, a strawberry shortcake cupcake, and a coffee toffee crunch cupcake. Along with the plate of cupcakes was a glass of cream soda.

“Thank you for your time, Dr. Ebonwings,” Reynolds said as the succubus sat across from him gracefully.

“I’m always happy to help the police,” she said in a musically pleasant voice,

“I would like to talk to you about one of your patients. Mr. Kage Frostfang.”

“Ah, Kage. Is this about the r**e?” Dr. Ebonwings asked.

“In part, yes.”

Dr. Ebonwings tapped her chin with a delicate manicured finger. “All I can tell you is that I do believe Kage. And that the man was in a committed relationship. It was not details of the person who assaulted Kage that I was interested in. It was the feel of his lust and Kage’s thoughts on that lust. The first part to helping Kage is learning what sin he feeds on so we can teach him to safely feed with minimal risk to himself. Once that has been achieved, we can move on to helping him through his traumas.”

“How do you determine what sin a s*x Nephilim feeds on?”

“Choose a cupcake,” Dr. Ebonwings said and indicated the plate of cupcakes between them.

Reynolds smiled and picked up the caramel apple cupcake. He loved autumn. The harvest festivals, the colors, drinking hard cider around the bonfire at the family apple orchard. Canoodling with his wife by the fireplace after the kids had gone to bed.

“That cupcake invokes a strong desire in you,” Dr. Ebonwings said with a smile.

“Autumn has always been my favorite season,” he said and returned her smile. “Now that I have chosen a cupcake, what next?”

“If you were an incubai, I would ask about that strong desire. How it smells to you, your feelings about it. From there, we would move onto others to find the s****l lust that smells of apples to you.”

“And Kage chose the chocolate cupcake?”

“He did not choose any until Kieran entered the room. His eyes were drawn to the chocolate cupcake but he made no move to take it until Kieran picked up the cupcake.” She smiled to herself. “When I asked Kieran to come into the room, I told him about the cupcakes and asked him to choose one. The fact he chose the one Kage wanted and wasn’t angry when Kage snatched it from him told me he knew which cupcake Kage had chosen.”

“Anything else about their interactions?”

“When Kage showed distress about speaking of the r**e, Kieran became protective of Kage.”

“When he learned that Ms. Matheson had been cheating on him?”

Dr. Ebonwings frowned in thought and drummed her hands on the arm of her chair. “It was honestly very strange. I could see him sitting right where you are but every other sense told me nothing was there. I couldn’t even read his desires in that moment, even when he spoke to ask if Ms. Matheson had smelled of chocolate that morning. The only other time I have witnessed such a thing was when I met Rex Kieran Obsidian two thousand years ago.”

To be able to hide like that in plain sight means that Mr. Ursine has the Shadow Spark, not the Flame Spark. The more Reynolds learned about Kieran, the more it didn’t make sense for him to be a suspect. Even with the fact he bit Mr. Henderson just before he died.