FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE BIG HOUSE, CAME A PAINED WHINE.
Stella's head snapped up instantly, her eyes narrowing with caution. "Did you hear that?"
Surprisingly, no one else at the dining table seemed concerned.
Corban turned the page of his newspaper as if he hadn't heard her at all.
Bea continued to tap her phone with furrowed eyebrows.
Gale sat with his eyes focused on the computer screen.
And Axel... well Axel seemed to be looking for something in his bowl of cereal.
"Yeah," he responded absent-mindedly, "Don't worry, she's just being dramatic."
"She?" Stella's eyebrows furrowed, as another whine sounded, much closer than before. Accompanying the whine, was the light pitter-patter of clawed feet- the sound of an animal drawing closer.
Stella's hand instantly goes to the daggers concealed near her hip, as the sound of the clawed feet draws closer-
-but a blur of golden fur has her pausing.
The dog pauses in front of her, just as confused- only for a second, as it tilts its head at her, before it lets out another happy yip, bounding towards her excitedly.
"Oh, hello there," Stella smiles just as happily, abandoning any pursuit of a weapon, as she leans down- only to be knocked over completely.
"Oomph!"
"Down, Marli," Axel says sternly, to which the dog retreats immediately, wagging her tail, even as Stella sits up with a laugh.
"I'm alright," she says with another laugh, reaching forward to run a hand through the dog's golden fur. "Marlowe is a beautiful name for a dog."
Bea and Corban instantly look up at her, making Stella raise an eyebrow at them.
"What?" she says defensively, "Her name's on the collar, why are you looking at me like that?"
They exchange glances before they look back at her again, making Stella frown.
It wasn't even that suspicious. It's almost like humans didn't notice the most trivial details, and thought anyone who did was suspicious.
Before she can say something else about it however, someone knocks on the door.
Corban drags his narrow-eyed gaze away from her. "Come in."
A tall, lanky man makes his way into the room, holding a computer in his hand. His gaze flits across the different people in the room, before he clears his throat awkwardly.
"Morning Boss," he greets with a cordial nod, "You called for me?"
"Ah yes, Elijah," Corban straightens, "thank you for coming."
The man nods once more, holding up his computer. "I did as you asked about tracing the algorithm and security."
"Perfect," Corban nods approvingly. "You're going to be assisting Gale with something similar."
"Wait what?!" for the first time Gale looks up from his computer. "What- why? And why wasn't I informed of this?"
Corban gives him a cool look. "I did mention that I'd assign someone to work with you if you were having trouble accessing information."
"Exactly, you said if," Gale frowns up at Corban, "Why, you don't think I'm capable of doing it on my own?"
Corban's cool look doesn't waver. "Well? What progress have you made then?"
Gale clenches his jaw, breathing in sharply. When he makes eye contact with Corban again, his eyes are narrowed.
"I haven't made progress," he says through gritted teeth.
"You haven't," Corban says in agreement, "and you're one of my best computer analysts here. If you're having trouble tracking the issue, then this is clearly going to be harder than what we anticipated. You're going to need all the help you can get."
"Just because I haven't made progress yet, doesn't mean I won't," Gale's voice goes a notch higher, "This is supposed to be a secret investigation. Why are you trying to get more people involved?"
Corban narrows his eyes at Gale, crossing his arms across his chest. For a second, it almost seems like the temperature in the room drops because of the tension.
"Why do you have a problem with it?" he retorts, "At the end of the day, our mission is the same- why don't you want people helping you?"
"Because I can do it by myself!" Gale stands up with a deep, surprisingly angry scowl on his face, "Getting more people involved won't get us any closer to discovering Red Eyes- because this investigation is supposed to be a secret!"
Silence fills the room.
The staredown between the two men turns tenser as moments pass, until-
"Red Eyes?"
Stella looks between the two men as they turn to her, a suspicious frown on her face.
The anger in Gale's face retreats, as he looks away from her.
"Red Eyes?" Stella repeats, her tone sharp. "What did you mean by Red Eyes?"
"It doesn't matter," she hears him mutter, even though his face is turned away from her.
"You never mentioned Red Eyes," Stella says almost accusingly, as the suspicion in her mind grows, "You cannot dismiss details like that, so I ask again. What did you mean by Red Eyes?"
It's quiet once again, and none of them meet her eyes.
Axel can feel her eyes bore accusingly into his skull, as he stares at his empty bowl.
A part of him no longer thinks that the Red Eyes were a figment of his imagination. He had thought she was an Angel- and a figment of his imagination- but here she was standing in front of him, seemingly human.
What's to say the Red Eyes were something he saw and assumed to be something else, just the way he did to her?
What if it was an important clue?
"When I got shot," he begins slowly, when no one else speaks up, "I thought I saw a pair of Red Eyes glowing in the dark. I thought I saw them looking at me."
Stella's blood runs cold.
She was never one to panic, but this revelation has a tiny blip of dread running through her spine.
Oh, stars no, exactly how bad was this situation?
Only one kind of creature had eyes that were red.
Demons.
If anything, Stella could feel herself pale even more. If demons were involved, the investigation was going to be much deeper since it extended into the supernatural world and creatures.
With four humans and one angel who barely had her powers on Earth, they'd be fighting a losing battle.
Why were Demons even after these humans?
There must have been something in her expression because Axel instantly hurries to correct himself.
"It doesn't matter," he says quickly, repeating Gale's words. "It's probably nothing, and I probably imagined it."
You thought you imagined me too.
Stella doesn't say that, however, instead she masks her expression with a nod.
The other man in the room, Elijah, stands frozen in his spot, awkwardly glancing around. "Um, am I still needed...?"
"You are," Corban says firmly, and this time Gale says nothing in opposition. "He'll brief you on the case, and you can get started. Get him to sign a copy of the non-disclosure agreement as well."
"Sure," Gale says tightly, as he sits back down in front of his laptop.
"Yeah, so um," Bea clears her throat, and it's clear from her expression that she doesn't want tense silence to settle once more. "You guys should probably get going. You were going to scout the scene for more clues, weren't you?"
"We were," Axel jumps at the chance to change the topic as he stands, checking his holster for his gun. "Shall we?"
The suspicion and slight distress in Stella's mind refuse to die down, but she nods once more. There was nothing she could do all by herself about creatures like demons, especially during a descent.
She would have to make her own plan, if they were to ever encounter Demons.
"Oh, and here," Bea reaches into her pockets, emptying out its contents onto the table, just as Stella moves to walk past her.
Among the odd assortment of trinkets, there are two devices that resemble a phone, and she tosses one of them to Stella.
"That's a burner phone," she says, when Stella raises an eyebrow in question, "You need to be able to contact us."
"Alright," Stella lets a smile slip onto her lips, "Thank you for this."
Bea furrows her eyebrows at Stella's smile, tilting her head. "Wait- why are you smiling like that?"
Stella looks up from the device, at the dark-haired woman.
"You've placed a tracking device somewhere in this, haven't you?"
Both Corban and Bea pause again.
Axel himself pauses, unaware of that piece of information. He sends a glare to both of them, but they only ignore his look. Seriously?
"No worries," Stella lets the easy smile rest on her face, "I suspected that you didn't trust me enough, yet. I wouldn't be surprised if you've bugged my resting quarters as well."
The glint of suspicion returns in Corban's eyes and Stella knows she's right about it.
She doesn't question it, however.
She only pats the dog near her feet, that's excitedly wagging her tail and biting at her shoes, before following after Axel.
"It rained here."
"It did," Axel says, as his feet slightly sink into the wet soil.
He hadn't returned to his spot ever since the incident, and it didn't look any different.
Maybe a few more scattered flowers and tumbling creepers- but it still looked like a spooky space among the trees.
That doesn't stop him from surveying the tiny clearing before him with extra vigilance. His fingers twitch over his gun, even though there's no sign of another person around.
The eeriness of it had never creeped him out before, but there's a sudden chill that snaked across his skin, causing goosebumps to rise.
"That won't do us any good," Stella frowns, mulling over the fact. A part of him is even impressed that she doesn't seem the slightest bit spooked. "The rain probably washed away everything there was, that could have helped."
"They found a scrap of cloth," Axel murmurs, surveying the clearing once more. "Where'd they say they found it, again?"
"The bark of one of the trees," Stella closes her eyes thinking back to the day she had found him.
Betrayal lingered in the air. Strong, unnaturally strong betrayal- surrounding her like fog. Darkness hid in the corners, but quickly fled as she came closer-
She frowned, trying to sense its direction, from memory.
It doesn't work- because there's something, almost like a blockade- obstructing her from remembering the exact details of each of her senses.
The descent, she realizes, as she lets out a frustrated huff, opening her eyes. This was the descent dulling her senses further and further, as her time on earth passed.
"Axel," she calls, "Where were you standing?"
"Huh?" Axel turns from where he was examining the soil, "Oh, somewhereâright about here, I think, and I'm- I'm pretty certain I was facing this way-"
Stella turns to face him, as he warily looks around again, standing over the fading 'X' that had been marked over where his body was found.
She can see small traces of dark, blackening crimson around the spot, and it causes another twinge of pain to flare in her chest, but she brushes it away, forcing herself to focus on the scene.
Her eyes move across the expanse of the clearing once more, darting across the yellow 'crime-scene' tapes that had been hung up-
-until they stop at a point, exactly opposite to where Axel was standing.
Her eyes widen.
One end of one of the tapes that were supposed to be handing off one of the lower branches of the tree was drooping down- with a clear big smear of mud on top of it.
"Axel," Stella says quietly, as her eyes flit across the surroundings once more, her hand going to her daggers. She can't see him, but she knows that he stiffens at her tone.
"I think someone else was here."
She can hear the light click of his gun from behind her, as she takes cautious steps towards it.
The closer she gets, the better she can see that someone clearly stepped on the tape. Whether it was an accident or not, she didn't know.
"This is recent," she whispers when she's right in front of it. She can see about a quarter of a footprint on the tape, that looks very recent.
"No one from the unit had been here, for at least two days," Axel murmurs from over her shoulder, as he leans over to look at it, "There were strict orders not to come here."
That didn't sound good.
Besides, the person who was here had been smart.
There was a big clump of grass surrounding the area, and while it was evident that someone had been here because some of the grass was slightly crushed, there were no clear footprints.
Except for the quarter on the tape.
They both knew that it was too small to be of much help.
Her eyes flit around the spot once more, searching and looking for something that the person might have left behind. Some low-hanging branches of the trees were broken, another indication of someone ravaging through the trees- and as Stella continues to let her eyes wander across for any trace of the person that might still be lurking around-
-in the pale rays of the sun that had crept between the foliage something glowed.
Stella straightened, squinting in its direction.
She couldn't see what it was, but it was something pale and white, glowing in its spot.
Her eyebrows furrow in confusion as she squints at it harder.
Was it some sort of jewelry? Or a weapon, perhaps, that the person left behind?
It was half-hidden, so she could barely see it apart from its color- no matter how hard she squinted at it.
It was a clue nonetheless, and as Stella goes to take another step closer, a tiny crunch resounds in the air.
They both freeze.
Her grip on the hilt of her daggers tightens as she draws them out, holding them to her sides.
"That wasn't me," she tells him quietly.
She can feel Axel draw his gun over her shoulder and point it at the space in front of them.
"I know."
Just as his fingers tense over the trigger, a knife comes sailing in the air, straight towards them.
Thank you for reading, do vote and comment!
I'll try to get a couple more updates for this out soon too! I'm going to revert back to ending every chapter with a cliffhanger lolol.
IMPORTANT: so, I'm trying to include more representation of characters in this book, and I'm aware that certain descriptions of people of particular ethnicities are considered offensive. English isn't my first language, so there's a huge probability that I will make mistakes and say wrong things, so please guide me through what words I can use to describe characters better :)