18

362 46 4
                                    

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian followed the other suspect that they found to a very busy mall, where they chose to sit in a cafe having brunch, while Wei Wuxian logged into the mall's security feed and programmed her phone with a facial recog program that would find wherever the suspect went.

"So, what Sebastian called you for?" Wei Wuxian sipped her caffe latte, while monitoring the feed from her phone.

"He needs my expertise on a case, a strange one at that."

"Oh? Now you're making me curious, do tell me please."

"To be honest, it's about some kind of a maybe-cult. So there were people, nerds, outcasts, unwanted people, they were all missing for about a week, then they came back changed."

"Changed how?"

"I don't know how to say it but just look at the before-after photos here." Lan Wangji showed Wei Wuxian his phone, and she looked at the photos.

"Wow, all these people just took a week to change like this? What is it? Some kind of a cult? But why is Sebastian concerned about this? Aren't these people changed for the better?" Wei Wuxian scrolled down to see the photos, and they were shocking. The outcasts, nerds, and the unwanted, all became beautiful in a week. Slim, beautiful, handsome, supermodel standards.

"True, they changed their outer shells for the better, but there's something wrong with their personalities."

"Oh?" Wei Wuxian lifted her brow in question.

"The first thing they did after they went back was moving out of whatever places that they were staying, into the same building that did not allow visitors other than the occupants in. The building can only be accessed by the biometrics of the occupants, and not even security could enter the elevator that accessed the living quarters."

"That sounds like a high-tech cult there. So, what's the problem? Anyone dead?"

"Well, a couple of the girls were caught on photos as the high-end escorts for some important political figures. Then the next day they were involved with unrecoverable scandals and there were signs of data theft."

"So, Sebastian suspects Sparrows?"

"And Ravens."

"But they're usually government trained right? You think that someone other than the government is training sex spies to collect information to blackmail important political figures?"

"I do think that this has the same methods as the Kingpin's whorehouse. The exclusive building, the impenetrable security, added the new biometric access for the new place, I think it fits, or at least it needs to be investigated. What do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea to investigate it, but it will have to wait since the person that our corporate spy meets is here, and you're not gonna believe who that is." Wei Wuxian showed Lan Wangji her phone.






Noah woke up with a jolt, and that's when he found his bed was empty. He thought if last night was just a dream, when he saw the few drops of blood on his bedsheet. Feng Yue's blood. So, it was not a dream after all. But where was she?

He got out of bed and wore his jeans without buttoning them up then he walked out to the kitchen, where he smelled coffee. The first thing he saw was Alex, eating the leftover ravioli and reading something in a folder that suspiciously looked like a case file.

"You're alone? Have you seen Feng Yue?"

"Is that the girl you brought back yesterday? If so, she left after Father Ben dropped her things off." Alex polished off the ravioli and then drank the coffee.

"Ben? What things? What are you reading?" 

"The things, her things, the backpack that was left in the fridge yesterday. Father Ben brought it back for her." Alex shrugged and continued to read the case file. "This is a request for investigation of a missing person from someone whose daughter was leaving home a month ago to study in the university, and her credit cards and atms were still active until yesterday. The father was concerned since she was supposed to come back home from her school yesterday, and when he called the school, she never attended her classes there."

Noah was still thinking about Feng Yue. Where did she go? Why didn't she say anything? But when he read the case file, he remembered something from a couple months ago.

"I remember we had a similar request a couple months ago, I think. Did she say anything to you? About where she's going?" He was still thinking about her.

"Who? The girl? She didn't say anything, but she read the case file. I thought you're going to make her leave anyway? Why bother looking for her?" Alex looked at Noah with confusion on his face. "And yeah, I brought the case files from three other girls that's also missing around a month before their family found out."

"She read all the case files?" Now it's Noah's turn to get confused. "What else did she do?"

"Uh, she said thanks to Father Ben for giving her back her backpack, then she read the case files, then she borrowed your laptop to browse something before she left. She said to tell you thanks for everything."

That was… odd. Noah knew he should be happy he did not have to drag the girl out kicking and screaming like the others, and yet he felt disappointed. Why didn't she say something to him? Was their connection that meaningless? And here he thought that they had something special… 

He opened his laptop to search for the browser's history and found some listings for high-end apartment renting near the university, trendy hangout places for young and rich people and the homepage of the Phi Beta Kappa sorority house. Which sounded familiar. 

Noah realized it the next second as he grabbed the case files and compared the data on the missing girls. They were all from rich families, and they had their own apartment, the exact same one that Feng Yue was looking for on the internet, and they were all part of the Phi Beta Kappa sorority.

"Jesus fucking christ!" He slammed the laptop and threw the case files off the table.

"What? What happened?" Alex was confused with the sudden volatile mood from Noah, who almost never showed his Italian temper unless it's about something that pissed him off so much.

"We need to get to this Phi Beta Kappa sorority as soon as possible, and also we need to check all the places where the rich and young people hang out. And this apartment too." Noah quickly buttoned his jeans and took a white t-shirt and a leather jacket, then he opened a secret compartment under the couch. It contained weapons, all kinds of weapons that you would need to fight all kinds of monsters and demons.

Noah took a silver knife and a vial of holy water, then he threw a pack of salt to Alex. Alex caught it and he kept the salt inside his backpack where he put his hunting knives. Then Noah opened the hidden compartment inside the secret one, and took his specialized weapon, a pair of fifty caliber Desert Eagle, engraved with special glowing runes, and even the bullet was made out of pure silver and engraved by the same runes. It could kill any monster, demon, or even gods. Hell, if an ordinary human was shot by the gun, their heads would explode and leave nothing behind, runes or no runes. It only suited that the name of the guns were God Killers.

"Whoa, you took out the big guns? What's the occasion? I thought we were just going to investigate first, like we usually did?" Alex was gobsmacked by the sight of the beautiful but deadly guns. The recoil itself was able to dislocate the arm of those who weren't strong enough to wield it. But Noah handled both of them like child's play.

"I don't think we have enough time before the perpetrator–I suspect shapeshifter or skinwalker–takes another victim." His heart was beating faster, because he knew what Feng Yue was doing. "And we have to hurry to catch the bastard." 

Because someone whom he started to care about was going to offer herself as bait.





of prey and predator 🔞(Angel Devourers #3) WangXian FF & OCWhere stories live. Discover now