Red Ivy

her in th

sacrifice be

Journalist. Obsessive. To

was a cr

ng through ivy leaves and the occasional hiss of steam from the generator powering the flo

o the bone and still sweating under his coat. Smoke curled from the en

angled. Some mutilated. One that had be

th

was

t had always been strange the plant didn't match anything native, didn't behave like any

corpse bloo

enough to suggest tension before death. Her nails were chipped and crack

rried. There were no drag marks, but faint indentations in the ivy where someon

The scent mingled with the copper stench of blood and th

been sharp, probably surgical. Her eyes were open. Blue. Glazed over but still glassy, catch

writing that st

ach letter deliberate, shallow enough not to sever arteries

THEM WHAT

swollen, inflamed. Fresh. Whoeve

Jenna Rourke's voice

ising slightly with the curve of rigored ribs. At the black feathers tucked

illed here,"

arterial spray. No blood pool. Whoever did this

ody. Dirt under her fingernails. A cracked thumbnail.

A

loves and gent

pin. Bent open.

defend herself

," Rourke added.

lose to something sh

s?" Vex

rapped in a silver emergency blanket, rocking slightly, his e

hen he found the body. Bella Grange. He ran. She did

sharply.

into the woods. Gone

s Chr

eadied himself, then

er crimson. Vex had never believed in curses. He didn't belie

ut Black Vale had

it ten y

e someone wa

Vex. His wife. Her

the last six months tryin

dead. Just

e f

e i

ge, carved

cigarette into the mud, and looked

Lena?" he whispered. "And