Nocturnal: A Novel

caverns and let other people go fight. I’ll fight with them. I’ll lead like a real king. But that means Savior might get me, or the cops might or someone else. I’ve decided who will rule if anything should happen to me. I name Sly as my successor.”

Rex heard applause. Not as much as he would have thought, though. Didn’t everyone like Sly?

“Sly is also a fighter,” Rex shouted. “If he and I both get killed, then Hillary will be our ruler.” He hadn’t seen Hillary around, but she was probably somewhere up on that ledge.

Rex knew it was a good decision. Firstborn hated Sly, so maybe he’d try to kill both Sly and Rex. But Firstborn had saved Hillary once — would he kill her as well? Was his need for power that great?

The announcement was done.

That meant no more stalling — Rex had to go into that cabin and be with Mommy.

A smell tickled Rex’s nose. He sniffed lightly, then deeper. What was that?

He turned toward Mommy’s cabin. He sniffed some more. His face suddenly felt hot. Another step, and he stumbled a little on a loose board. He managed to catch his balance before he fell — wouldn’t that be embarrassing? To fall in front of everyone?

Rex stopped. He looked down. He had the boner of all boners. Wow, did his face feel hot.

And then a deep voice came from inside the cabin. Mommy’s voice.

“Venez ah mwah mon rwah.”

He didn’t understand her words. He didn’t care what she said, didn’t care about anything anymore but that smell in his nose and what waited for him there in the darkness.

Rex walked through the cabin door.

Bryan & Pookie Meet Aggie James

They weren’t officially back on the force yet, but a lead was a lead. Bryan wasn’t going to let a little thing like being fired get in the way of pursuing it.

They’d heard the call come in. A bum had been picked up at Civic Center; a bum carrying a baby. The bum had been injured. Paramedics had brought the bum and baby both to SFGH. When the arresting officer called it in, he described the baby’s blanket as being covered with circles and slashes, occult kind of stuff.

A bum with a baby. Just like Mike Clauser had described.

Most of the cops at SFGH were preoccupied with Erickson’s security. That — combined with the flurry of activity that had blown up surrounding this new Handyman Killer, and with Zou not being around to direct traffic — meant Bryan and Pookie weren’t really on anyone’s radar at the moment.

They stepped off the elevator onto the second floor of the hospital’s main building, far away from the mental health wing. The injured bum was on this floor.

Bryan looked down the hall. It wasn’t hard to spot the right room, because a uniformed officer sat on a chair outside of it.

“Shit,” Bryan said. “Think you can talk your way past this one, Pooks, or is the Force no longer strong with this one?”

A dismissive huff escaped Pookie’s lips. “Nigga, please. Don’t you recognize him? It’s Stuart Hood.”

Bryan did recognize Hood: he was the guy who’d first interviewed Tiffany Hine after Jay Parlar’s death.

“Come on,” Pookie said. “I’ll talk my way in there. Let’s see if Daddy really has lost his touch, or if the SWAT boys were just a fluke.”

They started walking. Bryan hadn’t made it ten steps before he slowed, then stopped — a new smell. A strong yet faint scent, cut with the normal hospital odors of medicine and disinfectant.

He knew that smell … it was a lot like the odor from Rex Deprovdechuk’s house. Similar, yet subtly unique. The baby or the bum, or both, were Zeds.

“Bryan,” Pookie said. “You okay? You’re stumbling a little.”

Bryan blinked, shook his head. “Yeah, fine.” He’d have to learn to control this stuff. What if he ran into one of those basement critters and they had some stink that made him lose focus? Losing focus against something like that bear creature could get him killed.

Pookie put his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. “You sure?”

Bryan took a breath, gave his head and shoulders a quick shake. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He followed Pookie to the room.

“Stuart Hood!” Pookie said. “Good to see you again.”

Hood looked up and gave Pookie a wide smile. “Inspector Chang.”

“Hell, call me Pookie. Hey, did you hear that Zou reinstated us?”

Hood looked from Pookie to Bryan, then back again. “No, I hadn’t heard that. That’s great news, congrats.”

“Gracias,” Pookie said. “And we’re back on a case that’s related to what Tiffany Hine saw. You remember her?”

“The werewolf lady?”

Pookie snapped his fingers. “That’s the one.” He tilted his head toward the door. “We got an ID on the bum who had the baby?”

Hood nodded. “Prints came back already. The guy’s name is Aggie James. A few minor drug possession charges but he doesn’t have any priors of note. No permanent address. Witnesses said he came out of the subway tunnels. I heard the docs say he has a concussion, but it doesn’t sound like anything major.”

“What about the baby,” Bryan said. “Is it his?”

Hood shrugged. “No idea. No ID on the baby yet. Kid’s in the maternity ward.”

Pookie pulled out his notepad, sketched out the same triangle-and-circle symbol Bryan had first drawn, then held it up so Hood could see.

“Was this the symbol on the blanket?”

Stuart looked, then nodded. “Yeah. The blanket’s in there with him. Ambulance brought him right here, so his personal effects haven’t been processed yet. I was told this might be a kidnapping, so someone has to watch him.”

“We need in that room,” Pookie said. “Just a few minutes. You mind?”

Stuart shook his head, then stood and opened the door to let Bryan and Pookie enter. Inside, a black man lay in a hospital bed. Blankets covered him up to his chest. He had a white bandage wrapped around his head. Handcuffs kept his left hand locked to the bed’s frame.

Bryan waited for the fluttery sensation in his chest, but it didn’t come. The man in the bed was just that — a man.

There was a cart against the wall. Pookie walked to it and picked up a clear evidence bag holding a blanket. “Symbols all over it,” he said. “Take a look at this.” He tossed it to Bryan.

Bryan caught it. Even wrapped in the plastic, the smell was nearly overwhelming. The scent seemed to fill up his brain. Just like at Rex’s house, the odor made him want to do something — except now that urge was a hundred times more powerful, maybe a thousand times. Bryan handed the blanket back to Pookie.

The smell wasn’t just coming from the blanket. Bryan checked out the cart. On it were bags containing the bum’s clothes and one holding some kind of knit purse. They all had that powerful odor.

Bryan walked to the hospital bed and leaned in. The bum had the scent on him as well, but not as strong.

The man seemed to sense their presence. His eyelids fluttered open and he slowly turned his head to look at them. “You … cops?”

Pookie sighed. “I gotta remember to turn off that neon sign above my head. Hello, Mister James. I’m Inspector Chang. This is Inspector Clauser.”

Bryan nodded once. “How you feeling, Mister James?”

The man blinked slowly, as if it hurt to move even his eyelids. “I’m alive,” he said. “Where’s my baby?”

“Here in the hospital,” Pookie said. “He’s fine. You claim he’s your baby?”

Aggie stared first at Pookie, then at Bryan.