The Horror and the Wild

II. Dance With the Devil

The body beneath the glowing symbol had thankfully been removed, but the pool of slowly coagulating blood remained. Owen involuntarily gagged at the smell and had to turn away, trying to cover his nose and mouth as best he could without suffocating himself.

But Cillian, who didn't seem particularly bothered, sighed and sarcastically said, "Ahhh. Putrefaction."

There was suddenly a black handkerchief with a green letter 'C' embroidered on one corner in Owen's free hand, and then Cillian was crouching down in front of the blood puddle. Owen gratefully held the fabric to his face, the smell of the perfume overpowering anything else in the area. It smelled like gardenias and a trace of burnt sugar, which was to say that it smelled like everything else about Cillian. It was probably magic, given that the strong fragrance somehow wasn't so much that he couldn't breathe clearly. He filed it away with a million other questions to interrogate Cillian with later.

At the moment, Cillian was using a small knife to scoop up the blood and contain it in an equally small jar that he corked once it was about three-quarters full. Owen used his shoe to nudge Cillian's ankle, wanting the witch's attention. He was very careful not to get too close to the half-congealed pool lest he get any on his shoes. Cillian looked up at him and arched an eyebrow, the silent question mark hanging in the air between them.

"Why on Earth do you want that?" Owen asked from behind the handkerchief, gesturing vaguely to the tiny jar of blood as Cillian cleaned his knife.

"It's like a forensic sample," Cillian replied, somehow not making Owen feel stupid despite the relatively obvious answer. "Data, data, data. You cannae make bricks without clay and all that." Then he passed Owen a sleek black card with metallic green lettering. "Give this tae that officer. Ask him tae contact us once the body has been identified."

Owen studied the glossy black card as he dutifully walked it over to the police officer that Cillian had talked into allowing them onto the crime scene. One side had a simple design of moon phases and a bouquet of plants in the same metallic green as Cillian's contact information on the back. Owen thought the design rather suited the strange witch.

Owen approached the cop, studying the man for a moment. He was taller than Owen, but not by very much and his hair was bleached a dusty blond. He was Asian, but Owen couldn't have guessed at anything more specific than that. Overall, he wasn't terribly intimidating, so Owen had no idea why he was so nervous.

He hesitantly passed the card off to the police officer, remembering at the last minute what Cillian had said about them being colleagues. "My associate and I would... Um... We'd appreciate it if you could contact us when the body is identified."

The policeman smiled at him and took the card. "Your 'associate' is a bit of a troublemaker. It's good to see someone trying to turn all that energy down a better path. Though, trying is about all you can do with that one."