Silver Rain

Chapter 6

Felix crouched down in the tiny one-room apartment of Olivia Grace. The space felt even smaller now, with the window shattered and the door hanging off its hinges. Debris littered the floor, and Olivia's belongings were scattered about, a chaotic mess that mirrored the turmoil in Felix's mind.

He ran a hand through his hair, his fingers brushing against the rough stubble that had grown in over the past few days. His gaze lingered on the ashes scattered across the floor, remnants of the intruder who had dared to threaten the safety in his territory.  It sent a predatory growl to ripple through his throat.

They're dead, his wolf's voice echoed in his ears.

Yea, yea, Felix said to Erebus in response. I know, Fido.

Despite his best efforts, Felix couldn't shake off the lingering sense of frustration and unease that gnawed at him. He replayed the events of the previous night in his mind, searching for any sign that he might have missed, any clue that could lead him to the identity of the intruder.

It had been a close call, too close for comfort. Calvin and he had been sitting in the car outside Olivia's loft, vigilant and ready to intervene at the first sign of trouble. But despite their heightened senses as werewolves, neither of them had detected any unusual activity. There had been no scent of an intruder, no sound of someone climbing the building, and no sight of anyone breaking into Olivia's apartment.  It wasn't until they heard Olivia's scream that sent them flying up the stairs.

It made him uneasy knowing that she lived in a poor part of town in such a crude place to call home.  Thieves, drunks, and murderers often lurked in the shadows of alleys.  Had she ever encountered one of them?  Had the intruder been one of them?

To Felix, it was as if the intruder had appeared out of thin air, a ghost haunting the shadows of the night. And that thought filled Felix with a sense of dread, a nagging fear that there might be more to this threat than they had initially realized.

"It could be wizardry," Calvin said, inspecting the break in the window.  "Maybe the Coven knows something."

The other deaths didn't resemble witchcraft as Felix's mind drifted back to that fateful night months ago when the border patrol had discovered the first death. He remembered arriving at the scene, the air thick with tension and foreboding as they surveyed the aftermath of the attack.  The smell of blood and an otherworldly sour smell coated his nose.

The girl, likely the same age as Olivia, had laid lifeless on the forest floor, her body torn and mangled beyond recognition, platinum blonde hair mixed with her blood spilled underneath her. The claws across her stomach were deep and guttural, spilling the contents that lay inside.  Felix could still see the horror etched on her face, frozen in a silent scream of terror. He later discovered she attended Brookside University as a publication major.  Her name was Morgan Shire.

Months leading up to last night, a similar scene was painted before Felix on several occasions.  All women of the same features had laid dead before him.  He was too late to their deaths, but not to Olivia's.

He couldn't help but wonder if there was a detail he missed between those incidents and the recent intrusion into Olivia's apartment. Felix knew that they couldn't afford to overlook any potential leads in their investigation.

His brow furrowed as he thought about Calvin's suggestion, his mind racing with the implications. The idea of wizardry, of magic being involved in the intrusion, made his mouth dry. It was a realm of uncertainty, one that he had little experience with and even less understanding of.  But desperate times called for desperate measures, and if there was even a chance that the Coven might have answers, Felix knew they couldn't afford to ignore it. They needed to exhaust every possible avenue, to leave no stone unturned in their search for the truth.