The killer was a monstrosity that much was certain. The only mage deranged enough to devour his victims on Avalon was in overseer custody and had been for the last few years. While there was a possibility that the killer was chimera he sincerely doubted that was the case. Most chimera were too human in their mindset to fully embrace a lifestyle as a cannibalistic killer.

  "Blood...dripping...whisper..."

  The daily prophecy on the radio was strange. Normally he would've assumed that it related to the killer somehow, but it felt far too vague for him to make any assumptions about it. For all he knew the prophecy could have been about Ken since he had so little to go on.

  "Well it's not much, but it's definitely a lot of string." he chuckled to himself as he finished connecting all of his clues on the bulletin board in front of him.

  It had been awful carrying it out of storage and up to his apartment, but it was invaluable when it came to establishing connections. It was probably something Gabriella had seen countless times during her time as a secret agent. The thought really made him wonder if the prophecy had been wrong because he hadn't seen any sign of her returning in his recent predictions.

  He leaned back in the beaten old leather couch and stared at the web of string connecting all the information he had acquired so far. While the files Lola had given him had been useful, it hadn't been nearly enough to get a clear picture of the perpetrator. It just confirmed what he had already confirmed through physical evidence and the recent omens. The killer wasn't human, but that was hardly a difficult observation to make.

  Four quick knocks on the door shook him out of his thoughts, "It's open, but be aware so you don't trip!"

  Ken stepped through the door and looked down at the clutter littering the floor around the door. With careful steps he narrowly avoided tripping on the countless items strewn about on the floor as he approached the couch. It was almost scary how lithe and agile his movements were. A benefit of his vampiric nature no doubt.

  "Sorry I'm late," Ken said as he took a seat next to him, "It was really hot outside and I got so exhausted that I ended up missing my train."

  The kid was wearing a white shirt and a pair of dress pants. His pale skin was turning slightly reddish and there were dark bags underneath his eyes. Harry had looked up some information about the kid and had quickly reached the conclusion that he was adopted. Both of Ken's parents were blonde and had blue eyes while Ken had brown eyes and dark hair. It lead him to assume they were either mages or that they were completely unaware of their son's true nature. Could still be both, but that seemed a bit silly in his head.

  "Right! I almost forgot," he said as he reached for a bottle of sunscreen and threw it over to Ken, "That's going to help with the sunburn in the future, but do try to avoid going outside when the sun is up or you'll get really sick."

  "SPF one hundred? You do know it's only marginally more effective than fifty right?" Ken said as he started applying the sunscreen.

  "I asked around and apparently vampire chimera are really susceptible to sunlight," he paused for a moment while he reached for his notepad, "Even a cloudy day can give others like you melanoma apparently, and while it can't kill you it's supposedly real painful when your body tries to remove it."

  "Let me guess, next you'll tell me that I'm slowly going to become nocturnal?"

  "Actually dhampir appear to be crepuscular, whatever that means," he muttered as he looked over his notes one more time.

  It had taken some doing, but he had managed to convince Lola to give some blood samples from the victims. He would just have to feed them to Ken, which would establish if the killer had a preference of some sort that wasn't readily apparent. The notepad had all the relevant information on their blood types, sex, and any other distinguishing features that could be used to make a profile.

  With a loud yawn he got up and walked over to the fridge and retrieved the samples. Being awake all night had been hell, but if Ken could shine some light on the reason why certain people are targeted over others it would all be worth it. The coffee table rattled a bit as put down the small box containing the plastic vials on it. It was already straining under the countless other knick knacks cluttering it, but a little box and some blood wouldn't be the straw that broke the coffee table's back.

  "You've got to be kidding me..."

  "I am most certainly not, Ken, what you see before you is your current task!" he said as he opened the box and handed Ken the first vial that spoke to him.

  "Harry there's like twenty of them! Do you really expect me to drink all of them?" Ken said as he stared at the open vial in his hand.

  "No, I'm expecting you drink all of them as well as the control samples that are currently cooling down in the fridge."

  Ken shrugged and threw back the first vial, "Ugh it's cold and tastes kind of like raspberries, but it has this awful acrid and kind of bitter aftertaste."

  "Okay I'll write it down, and then we'll move on to the next one!"

  Every sample had a unique flavor according to Ken. Everything from coffee to exotic fruit, but all of them carried the same off-putting aftertaste that the first had. It could be that Ken just disliked cold blood or maybe that he had a very unique personal preference, yet there would be no way of knowing until they got to the control samples. Once Ken was finally done tasting every sample he retrieved the control from the fridge and handed it to him.

  "Harry, why is the control in an old soda can of all things?" Ken asked him as he took the sample.

  "I was out of vials and I only realized we would need a control at the very last minute," he chuckled as he showed off the bandages covering his arm.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Ken sipped the control sample cautiously and then quirked an eyebrow, "It tastes kind of like energy drinks, but it doesn't have the weird aftertaste that the others had."

  "They were all weirdly acrid and bitter right?" he asked Ken while he reached for his phone and started dialing Lola's number.

  "Yeah they were almost tannic..."

  He raised his voice the moment Lola answered the phone, "Hey, Lola! Could you maybe contact a toxicologist and have them take a look at the bodies?"

  She let out a long and deep sigh before speaking up, "Harry, explain..."

  "So I got myself someone to test all the samples you gave me, but his palate might have detected the presence of poison in all of the blood samples," he chuckled only for Ken's eyes to go wide as he processed the words.

  "Did you fucking poison me, Harry?!" Ken exclaimed nervously as he stood up.

  "Bye, Lola!" he shouted as he ended the call, "There was always a slight chance the perpretator might have poisoned or envenomated their victims in some way, but I'm sure your vampiric constitution can handle it with ease!"

  "Harry I might have just consumed multiple times the fatal amount of some unknown fucking substance!" Ken cried out in exasperation, "For all we know it might kill me just as dead as it would a human!"

  The door swung open as Gabriella walked into the apartment. At the same time Ken raised a hand to cover his mouth as his face started turning green. There was no time to explain and he would have to act quickly if he didn't want his walls or Gabriella painted red with the contents of Ken's stomach.

  "Gabriella, there's no time to explain, but you have to throw me the bucket next to you!" he shouted as Ken struggled to keep himself from vomiting.

  Gabriella stared at him with an expression of utter confusion on her face. She was too stunned to act so he would have to save the walls of his apartment himself. He channeled the power inside of him into his spell and invoked it.

  "Trace lines to ten!" he declared as he unleashed the magic within.

  Time seemingly stopped around him as he saw ten different Harry's tackling the problem at hand from multiple different angles within his mind's eye. Most of them were failing spectacularly and most versions of his apartment ended up painted red, but there was still one line of probability that looked promising.

  "Line locked, trace actions!"

  Time resumed and his body effortlessly followed the afterimages of the Harry that had walked that future before him. He dove over the coffee table and kicked the bucket into Gabriella's hands before knocking her off balance with a glide tackle. Before she could regain her balance he jumped to his feet and gave her a light push towards Ken's direction.

  The bucket ended up in front of Ken's face just as the nigh unending wave of crimson spewed forth from his mouth. Only when Ken had finally stopped throwing up did she look down at the bucket in her hand. She screamed out in terror as she saw the viscous red liquid sloshing around inside it. The panic made her grip on the bucket loosen. He threw himself towards it and managed to catch it the very moment before it hit the ground.

  With a sigh of relief he stood up and walked over to the kitchen so he could pour the contents of the bucket down the drain. It had been a close call, but it had all worked out in the end. The trial had all but confirmed that the samples had been contaminated with some kind of toxic substance, which meant their killer most likely didn't belong to any of the common types of predatory monstrosities. Although the fact it lended some credence to the unknown monstrosity angle didn't bode well in his mind.

  Ken wiped the blood from his mouth the moment that he recovered from the last of the nausea, "That was awful..."

  "Harry, you need to call a doctor!" Gabriella cried out in panic, "He just threw up so much fucking blood!"

  "He's fine, and it's not like calling a hospital would do anything," he said whilst humming to himself as he walked back into the living room, "It was just a very literal case of food poisoning."

  "I hate that I'm agreeing with him, but I'm actually feeling a lot better," Ken said calmly before sitting back down in the couch.

  "Hello, reality speaking! You just threw up more blood than I've seen in my entire fucking life!"

  "Well he was the one that drank it..."

  "Well I was the one that drank it..."

  They had ended up saying it in unison whilst looking at each other, which while comical was probably not helping their case overall. He kind of wanted to say jinx, but he doubted Gabriella would appreciate the comedy in that. She was somewhat no nonsense and therefore it would probably be for the best if he explained everything to her as clearly and accurately as possible.

  "So Ken here is a half vampire and he was helping me figure out if the killer I'm investigating had any specific preference in victims by tasting blood samples from all the past victims," he said as clearly and unambiguously as he could, "But it turns out that they probably don't and that our culprit may or may not be either poisonous or venomous, which I'd say was a pretty worthwhile clue that we just discovered."

  "Yet again, I hate to admit it but that's pretty much what just went down," Ken muttered as he leaned back in the couch.

  "I still do not know what really happened yesterday," Gabriella muttered in irritation, "But I'm not just going to blindly accept something as ridiculous as vampires being real!"

  "Ken! Do the glowy eye thing that you sometimes do!" he shouted as Gabriella turned to leave.

  Ken sighed and got up, "I could just stop her you know?"

  He burst into motion in an instant as Gabriella approached the door. A blur flew across the room only for the door to slam shut right in front of her as Ken appeared standing next to her. The kid was insanely fast, but what was even more surprising was that he could control that speed despite most only having been emerged for a few days at most. Clearly using his speed had been quite exciting because his eyes were glowing bright red.

  "Get away from me!" she cried out as she tried to step back only to end up tripping and slamming into the floor with heavy thud.

  "Maybe I shouldn't have done that," Ken said awkwardly before his expression turned into one of panic, "Harry her heart is beating really fast, but I can't tune it out for some reason!"

  "Oh that's completely normal!" he chuckled as he helped Gabriella get up, "Your hunting instincts just kicked in because of the adrenaline most likely."

  "I hate it, why can't I stop hearing it?!" Ken exclaimed as he paced back and forth nervously.

  "I'm sure it's fine! I mean you're going to have to get used to it anyways so consider this your first challenge to overcome."

  "Harry, his eyes are glowing, I think I saw fangs, and I think he's losing it," Gabriella whispered to him frantically.

  "Don't worry, Gabriella, if he doesn't find you attractive then he's practically harmless," he said while stretching his stiff body, "Just try not to make him feel cornered and everything will be alright."

  Ken hadn't displayed any obvious signs of having any attraction towards her even if she had that powerful femme fatale vibe going for her, but even if he did they weren't in all that much danger. The kid had a good head on his shoulders and seemed to value the safety of others above his own. Plus Gabriella could probably use whatever kung fu moves they taught all secret agents to subdue Ken if he did end up losing to his instincts.

  "Harry, I'm only going to tell you this once, but you better explain what the hell is going on right now!" she screamed at him causing him to immediately recoil from the noise.

  "Lower your voice please..."

  The sudden emotional outburst of hers was very uncomfortable for him, but he did still owe her some form of explanation if she was going to be his future assistant. He breathed out slowly as the crawling sensation her outburst had caused finally left his skin.

  "I'll try to explain it as best I can, but do interrupt me if you have any questions..."