Who's to judge?

Chapter XVIII

I could no longer move, so bound was I by the lifeless eyes of the head. Gripped by panic, Talon grabbed my wrist, turned me around, and pressed my face to his chest.

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed. We took a few steps backward, I could hear Talon's heart racing. As gently as I could, I freed myself from his grip. I had to see it.

As I went to the head, Talon didn't stop me, instead he went to wake the other two. I knelt down. In front of me was a severed head of a female vampire. Her yellow eyes were wide open. They were filled with fear, which was apparently the last thing she had felt before being decapitated. She had black hair that she had tied in a loose bun. Shiny earrings hung from her ears. The fading smell of lemon brought back a memory.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let the scent of the vampire pass through my nose. A silhouette of a figure formed in front of me. Female, she stood in front of us, Talon's silhouette standing next to me. She was trying to get past us.

I widened my eyes as it occurred to me who she was. Footsteps behind me, told me that Talon had gotten the other two.

"Cazzo..." I heard the fullblood's startled voice. A loud intake of breath came from Leroy. I slowly stood up, turned to the men and said the following, "I know this lady, I also know where we saw her. Back when we were at the doctor's office, we ran into her."

But what slightly unsettled me about the whole thing was the cause of death. This time it was decapitation, which was completely off the pattern. Everyone else died peacefully, as if they wanted it, she didn't. She was afraid. Is that why she was beheaded? Talon came closer and knelt down.

"You're right, she looks familiar to me too." He said thoughtfully.

Suddenly Leroy came, took his head gently in his hands, looked like he was about to throw up, but quickly ran into the house. We followed him.

"I'd rather we continue talking inside," he said as he set the severed head down on a table in the morgue.

"You're right about that, talking to a head on the porch is not exactly what I would describe as a quiet night." Talon said in passing as we looked at the head.

I looked at it closely again. I shifted her bangs, but didn't find what I was looking for. There was nothing on the rest of the face. Could it have been someone else this time? Were we dealing with a copycat?

But then it occurred to me where I hadn't looked yet. "Talon, would you be a dear and hold the head for a moment?" I asked him. He scrunched up his face. "Hate to, but okay."

He took it in his hand and held it in front of me.

"What are you doing?" The fullblood asked me.

"I'm looking for something." I answered him and opened the mouth of the head. The muscles weren't stiff yet, which meant she hadn't been dead long. Her mouth opened and, with all those disgusted eyes on me, I pulled out her tongue. A smile grew on my lips as I finally found it.

"I don't want to spoil your fun, kitten, but that smile worries me." Said Talon.

""Genesis 32:35" I read aloud.

In seconds I had Leroy next to me, staring intently at his tongue. "Vale, please go get the Bible." He said quickly. Without grumbling, his Vigor left and returned quite quickly. He quickly flipped through the book and then read aloud, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay. In his time her foot shall slide; for the time of her calamity is at hand, and her future hasteth on.""

Vengeance. So this time it was about revenge. My suspicion was that the perpetrator knew the victims well enough to dedicate a different verse to each. If I was right, they were all connected. And that, in turn, meant I absolutely needed Derrick's timeline.