Born of Hatred

Everyone glanced at Sara. 'I've already seen her dead, not going to get a lot worse than that.'

'That's probably not a theory you'll want to stick with if you stay around here,' Doctor Grayson said, and pulled the sheet down to Amber’s waist, exposing her naked and brutalised torso.

'Fucking hell,' Tommy whispered when the mass of purple that used to be Amber's ribcage was exposed.

'Yes, this is quite bad,' Doctor Grayson said in the same tone as you would ask someone if they wanted milk in their coffee. 'The throat was slit from ear to ear, that was the killing stroke, so to speak, but she had a multitude of injuries sustained before that.'

'We'll start from the head.' Doctor Grayson reached into his blue lab coat, also adorned with red runes, and removed a small metallic pointer, extending it. He rested the tip of the pointer against the ear closest to us. 'The skull was fractured, just above the ear, and her ear drum was burst. Not done at the same time, in fact the ear drum rupture was probably two months old.'

He moved the pointer. 'She had a broken nose. It had been broken twice, one several months ago, and again a few weeks ago. Three teeth knocked out, and a broken jaw that was several months old.'

'What about recent injuries?' Olivia asked, a slight nervousness to her voice.

'Okay,' Doctor Grayson said without any hint of irritation at being hurried along. 'Within the last month, her sternum was broken, along with eight ribs, and her collarbone. The last time I saw an injury like this, they'd been hit by a truck. The pain must have been immense.” The doctor pulled back the sheet completely, exposing all of Amber's naked body. 'Her left femur was snapped, as was her left ankle. She was also raped. Repeatedly.'

Sara darted from the room.

'I'm sorry, should I stop?'

Olivia shook her head as Tommy left the room to check on Sara.

'Anyway, that's the last of the injuries. Any questions?'

'I have one,' I said. 'Any evidence of runes either applied or removed from her body?'

Doctor Grayson appeared taken aback. 'How did-'

'Educated guess.'

'You probably want to see this for yourself.' The doctor switched off the room's lights and ignited a dark light.

I couldn't help but gasp. 'Fuck,' I said softly.

Amber's body was covered, from her neck to her knees, in runes, only visible under UV light. Despite the fact that the rune used appeared to be the same one each time, the runes covered so much of her body and were invisible to the naked eye meant that the power used must have been immense. It explained why I’d felt so much magic back at the farmhouse.

'What do they do?' Olivia asked.

The doctor shrugged. 'No idea, we've never seen anything like it before.'

'Any idea how old they are?' I asked.

'Four weeks, almost to the day,' Doctor Grayson said. 'We have an enchanter on staff who did the time measurements.'

'Did the enchanter know what these runes meant?' Olivia asked.

'It's an old Celtic word. It means safe,' I said before Grayson could speak, to Olivia's obvious shock. 'Amber wasn't in any pain during all of this, because Vicki etched runes into her girlfriend's skin with enough power to ensure she would feel nothing for the horrific things that were happening to her.'

'How do you know that?' Doctor Grayson asked.

'When I was young, the Celts were the enemy for a long time. I was taught their language in case I needed it. Vicki had to listen to Amber scream in pain or whimper in some drug crazed stupor until the runes could be finished. This took more effort and work than I've ever seen from an enchanter.'

'You still think Amber was the first victim?'

'The first taken, yes. She was taken to prove a point, probably to Vicki.'

'I still don't think Vicki did this,' Olivia told me.

'Doctor, can you give us a minute?' I asked.

Grayson walked away, leaving Olivia and me alone. 'The truth,' I said. 'You know about those old injuries. Where did they come from?'

'No idea what-'

I slammed my hand onto the metal table, causing Olivia to look down at Amber's body. 'If you want my help, then you'd better be damn honest with me.'

'Vicki had a temper. About five months ago, she punched Amber in the mouth, busting her jaw and breaking her nose. I forced Vicki to take counselling and they seemed to be back on track.'

'So Amber's girlfriend, Vicki, was violent and she's nowhere to be found. Not exactly the best impression. But I agree with you, I don't think she did this. There’s no reason why she take the time and effort to do the enchantments if she wanted to inflict pain on her. And if someone else had put the runes there, Vicki would have known.'

'Which means Vicki is still out there, somewhere.'

'Were the subsequent victims raped?'

Olivia shook her head. 'No sexual injuries, nor did they have the level of torture used here.'

I was silent for a moment as thoughts and ideas bubbled away inside me.

'You care to share?' Olivia asked.

'This was personal,' I said. 'Amber was targeted for a reason and, as Vicki is still missing, I'm almost certain that it has something to do with her. Did those other victims have a link with Amber?'

'We're looking into that now.'

'Okay, I'll leave that to you all. You got anyone at Vicki's place?'

Olivia shook her head. 'We've had no need.'

'Then that's my next port of call. I'll wait for you upstairs.'

I thanked the doctor on my way out, passing Tommy as he re-entered the room. 'Sara's waiting upstairs,' he said.

'I think it'd be best to keep her out of it from now on.'

'I've already told her to go back to the office,” Tommy said. “Where you off to?'

'I'll check on Sara, and then I'm going to take a look at Vicki's place.'

'Wait for me, I'll join you. I'm certain that some of Olivia's people won't want me hanging around.'

I told him I would and left to go back to the ground floor. I was glad that Tommy had offered his help. A bad feeling about where everything was going had begun to settle in my mind, but for the life of me I couldn't dig it free.

Chapter 12

'How're you feeling?' I asked Sara who was stood outside the LOA headquarters drinking a coke.

'I was fine until he started talking about what had been done to her,' Sara said and took a long swig of her drink. 'That fucked with my head a little.'

'Can't say I blame you,' I said, and sat on the low wall beside her, staring down the drive to the heavily guarded entrance.

'Your world is amazing,' she said after a few heartbeats of silence. 'The magic, the wonder and awe I feel just knowing that I'm in the company of a sorcerer and a werewolf. That King Arthur, Merlin and the Olympians are all real is something I don't think my brain has quite managed to process. But alongside all of that, I've seen and heard of violence that I'd never been subjected to before I started working for Tommy.'

'It's a violent world,' I said. 'You get enough species with enough power, a lot of whom consider humans to be little more than a nuisance at best, and at worst prey, and bad things are bound to start happening. Power corrupts.'

'It hasn't corrupted you.'