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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Please follow me on Twitter<\/a> for updates on where you can find it! In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt from the new edition: <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n As clouds rolled in over the city and my left arm started to\nthrob, I thought back on that night. Honestly, I probably think back on it a\nlittle too often. Sometimes, I still hear the sounds from when that gun went\noff and tore through those rooftop solar panels. Somehow everyone else had just\nseemed to forget it. I wasn\u2019t sure what bothered me most about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was something to figure out on another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this cold winter evening, getting my first call and\ndriving into the sunset, I passed under those rolling clouds as they threatened\nto choke off the last remnants of light from the horizon. The Seattle PD sent\nout a request for one of our agents just as I got in my car and started my\nshift for the night. It was at least a mile north of my usual patrols, but it\nwasn\u2019t often the SPD called for a hand. So before I could finish my \u201cmorning\u201d\ncoffee I was driving through the center of downtown Seattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Alter woman, a Vampire from what we\u2019d heard on the call,\nhad been found lying in an alley by tourists walking from Olympic Sculpture\nPark to the Seattle Center. She\u2019d managed to go unseen for hours somehow,\ncrumpled over in the shadow of a high-rise, obscured by a dumpster. It was an\nimpressive trick in one of the busiest parts of town, the Space Needle looming\nin my rear view as I came to the scene. It lit up in the twilight hours,\nputting on a friendly face, hiding the fact someone was dead only about a\nquarter mile away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SPD and a couple ACTF investigators were on the scene,\nmaking sure it was taped off and keeping anyone from contaminating the place.\nThough, seeing the clouds above, I figured nature was going to take care of\nthat for us soon enough. With night setting in, I put on my shades and let my\nvisor\u2019s night-vision light the alley. The police\u2019s biometrics made their auras\nlight up more than humans usually do with colors in their spectrum that told me\nthey were way more agitated than they should have been even around a dead body.\nUnfortunately, I knew it probably wasn’t something they’d be too open about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I did what I could to ignore them for the time being and\nturned my attention to the investigators. A pair of Elves, wearing a uniform\nsimilar to mine but sporting patches for the science division, hovered over the\nwoman\u2019s body in a hurried pace. Their slim figures and bladed ears told me who\nthey were even from behind, recognizing Dulaf’s \u201cminions\u201d: Philip and Xander.\nThey were younger than her, their ears short enough to almost pass as a pair of\noverzealous Trekkies. But their lean figures and the way they moved easily gave\naway their identities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a bit strange they were here first \u2013 field agents\nusually call in the investigators after taking a quick look around. Either I\nwas late or they were early on this one. It was still fortunate, given the\nweather. The longer she sat outside, the more time there was for us to lose\neverything that could be of use. With the weather rolling in, I was more than\nsure the important details were going to be washed away soon. Documenting\nthings now was vital and we were running out of time. Even my first look at her\nrevealed that nature had done some of that work already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her clothes were tattered and stained – office attire\nshredded and soaked in her own blood like something had pounced on her. Beyond\nthe clothes she was covered in burns and open sores. Her face wasn\u2019t\nrecognizable, a pained expression frozen in what was left past the burns,\ncracks and blisters. She\u2019d turned towards the wall and dumpster before the end,\npossibly trying to hide in what little shade she found. Our victim had been\ncaught out in the sun while she was still alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before she died her body started to destroy itself, reacting\nto the UV radiation in a violent outburst of blisters and ulcers. The old myth\nthat they burst into flame was more of a translation error – she’d sun-burned\nto death. The third degree burns might have been what did her in, but the\ncondition of her clothes told me she wasn\u2019t left in the sun by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kneeling by her carefully and taking a few shots of the\nscene myself, I muttered quietly, \u201cHate crime?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Elves tensed at the words, their sharp ears being the\nonly ones to pick up what I\u2019d said but still worried about the other \u201cnormal\u201d\npeople in the alley. Philip shot me a look with bright blue eyes that shined\nslightly in the shadows and whispered back, leaning close to make up for my\nwoefully un-pointed ears, \u201cSomeone definitely left her to die out here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xander\u2019s ears folded down and back as his partner spoke,\ngreen eyes shining through a lock of over-styled platinum blonde hair as he\nlooked our way. \u201cIf it was a person at all \u2013 she\u2019s covered in slash marks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was right, even if his hair was silly; she\u2019d definitely\nbeen gashed in several places before the sun rose over her. The bloodstains\nwere too large for ulcers and her position was awkward. It hurt to curl up the\nway she had, cradling an arm before she died. The question was: what could have\npossibly attacked her in this part of town? It’s not like people were torn\napart on the streets of Seattle often, not even around the Werewolf heavy areas\nnorthwest of Fangtown. You didn’t just find people mauled and left to die.\nMaybe, I thought, that was what was causing the police to look so agitated\nthrough my visor. Then again, it was too soon to tell anything. In fact, I\nrealized at that moment that I didn’t even know who she was yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Did you two manage to ID the victim?” I asked,\nglancing between Philip and Xander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They both shook their heads with a solemn look on their\nfaces and ears folded down. Her face was beyond what our hand-links would\nrecognize. The Oracle system, height of technology and biology it was, wouldn’t\nbe able to identify someone through the horrible burns. Even dental records\nwere going to be something of a stretch with Vampires being able to grow new\nteeth like a shark. We were going to have to get DNA identification if we\ncouldn’t find something on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The air started to feel moist, the smell of a strong sea\nbreeze blowing in from the water front, a chilling wind squeezed through the\nalley and washing over us. I glanced up at the clouds now fully covering the\nsky above and took a deep breath of the moist air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Is she ready to move yet? We’re running out of time\nhere.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n They exchanged looks and Xander gave the go-ahead nod. The\ntwo of them stood and quickly unrolled a body bag to get her out of this place.\nEven if the rain hadn’t been on the way we owed her some dignity. Someone who’d\nsuffered like this, frozen in her agony as she burned away in the sun, didn’t\ndeserve to be left in an alley overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figuring we needed to identify her at the very least, I\nreached for her arm and carefully started to turn her away from the wall. Her\nbody was stiff, her skin cracking as her limbs were moved. Her face scraped the\nwall for a moment before I could wedge my hand between them. Slowly, I pulled\nher out of the position she’d died in and laid her as gently as possible across\nthe ground. Though, as her body leaned away from the wall, we all got a glimpse\nof something that couldn’t be seen before. My Elf friends hesitated with the\nbag and the few police that could see for themselves were sickened by the\nsight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With her arm cradled and turned to the wall we couldn’t see\nit before, but exposed finally we realized the full extent of how much harm had\nbeen done to the poor woman. Her hand was missing, wrist and all, cut away from\nmidway up her forearm as a ragged stump. The wall she covered was soaked in her\nblood. Her left side, the one she’d been concealing before, was stained almost\nentirely red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police murmured among themselves, reeling back, their\nauras showing confusion and even heavier agitation than before. Meanwhile,\nPhilip and Xander grew pale while standing with the bag and looking on with\ndisgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “An animal,” Xander muttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philip shook his head and swallowed, taking a deep breath\nand opening the bag for her. “Focus, we don’t have time to get squeamish\nabout it.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n I nodded to Xander, starting to feel a little sick myself\nwhile examining the bloody arm, seeing shattered bone jutting from the end.\nUntil I turned her away, it was a fairly standard scene for a hate crime or\nsome other crime of passion. Now, I knew this was a lot more than the ordinary.\nIt was one of those times you\u2019d normally hesitate, but we had to push on and do\nwhat we were meant to do. I calmed the feeling of disgust, took a couple shots\nof her with my hand-link and started to carefully search her for ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I managed to find a small wallet tucked away inside what was\nleft of her coat. The money was all there, the credit cards untouched and not a\nsign anyone even tried to open it. Though the outside was covered in blood,\neverything inside was clean. I found her photo ID, seeing what she looked like\nbefore. Her raven hair and alabaster skin were a stark contrast to each other\nthat made her soft features stand out. She was a beautiful girl before this had\nbeen done to her, practically a child by Vampire terms. She was 22, only a Vampire\nfor the last two years of her life. Bright hazel eyes with flecks of gold in\nthem stared back at me from the ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her name was Alice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philip walked over and took shots of her condition himself.\nI handed him the wallet and lifted the ID in the other hand. “Alice\nWinchester,” I said solemnly, looking up at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “She looks young,” he replied, putting the wallet\naway in a baggy and writing her name across it. “Do you think whoever or\nwhatever did this to her knew who she was?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I swiped my hand-link over the card, the information from it\nbeing transferred to my screen, a high definition photo of her replacing the\nsmall, blurry photo from her card. Seeing her gently smile, a rarity for a\nyoung Vampire in front of a camera, it seemed hard to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’m not sure,” I said with a growing edge to my\nvoice, standing and offering the card to Philip. “But we’ll figure it\nout.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xander walked around me and kneeled by her feet, preparing\nto move her into the bag. “The police over there aren’t too happy about\nthis.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philip nodded, kneeling by her head. “Yeah, I was\nhearing that too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I peered over my shoulder at the police, starting to pack it\nup and leave the alley without a word said to me, likely getting the standard\nconversation out of the way with the Elves on the scene. As they left they were\nstill whispering, shaking their heads and exchanging concerned glances. As one\nclimbed into his car he stopped for a minute to look back at us in stunned\nsilence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What were they saying?” I asked the\ninvestigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xander looked back over his shoulder while Philip zipped\nAlice’s bag closed. Frowning, he watched the last car leaving before looking\nback to me and saying in a hushed tone, “I don’t know about Philip, but I\nkept hearing the same phrase over and over again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watched the bag close and Alice’s face disappear from\nview. “What phrase was that?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xander’s ears dipped while he helped Philip lift the bag,\nglancing across to his partner. Philip cleared his throat and nodded along.\nFinally, with a bit of a bass I didn’t expect from someone who looked like part\nof a boy band, Philip replied in a steadier voice than his friend could manage,\n\u201cYeah, I heard it too. Over and over, they kept saying, ‘it’s another\none\u2019.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The phrase hit me hard as it left his mouth, almost tangible\nin the way it pressed on me. I couldn\u2019t say anything, only silently step out of\nthe alley and watch the police cars roll away. The rain finally started to fall\nover us as Philip and Xander loaded Alice\u2019s body into their van. My old\nparanoia flared again, thinking back on that unnoticed change and realizing the\nlocal police weren\u2019t being entirely honest with us about something. Watching\ntheir lights disappear past the bend, I reached up and absently rubbed my arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was hurting again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continued in\u00a0<\/a>A Patchwork Soul<\/a>, available now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n(Follow the author on Twitter for future updates!<\/a>)\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When they revealed themselves to the world, they changed everything. Creatures of legend that were thought to be little more than myth and superstition came out of hiding to found a new nation for their kind and those who would be willing to live with them. The Republic of Argyre, founded on an artificial island … Continue reading A Patchwork Soul Returns<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/patch-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
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