5132
I was waiting in the adoption center.
The waiting room looked like something straight out of a shady business place. The walls were white with strain all around them, the room was stuffy and not to mention I didn't need to hide my face because it seemed like no one even looked up from their work to see who was sitting there. Though the blonde woman at the reception gave me a look of disgust until I stared at her, not willing to break it. She was incredibly lucky that my stomach was already full of souls of our neighbors.
On second thought, she'd make a terrible dinner.
"What year did you say it was?" The woman beside me asked, startling me.
"1997, Roth and David Gill." I read aloud, fixing my gaze at the paper I found in mom's car. That woman was keeping it in her car, driving it around for God knew how many years. If that wasn't paranoia, I didn't know what it was.
"Yes, a Gill family adopted a child that time. I can give you her address-"
You got to be kidding me.
"The child just didn't drop from the sky, of course, I already know a Gill family adopted that child. What I asked is where that child came from. All I know is that a woman dropped her off. Perhaps someone named Keisha Dehsayes?"
"It was a closed adoption, I don't know anything else." Fuck.
With a mixture of irritation and shock, I called 5133. "Your witchy magic didn't work. She doesn't even know anything about a Deshayes. You sure I'm not just running a fool's errand?"
From the corner of my eyes, I noticed the woman started to stammer. "W-Witch-"
"Yes, a witch is on my payroll, that's yesterday's news. Keep up."
"A-Are you a witch?" She asked, trying to stagger back. Ouch. Talk about rubbing salt in wounds.
"Do I even look like a witch?" I blinked several times, smacking my forehead. "Why does everyone keeps reminding me of that?"
5133 spoke up from the other side, all chirpy. "It worked just perfectly fine. You sure you didn't scare her off?"
Me?
"I didn't scare her off. Did I scare you off?" I asked, impatiently waiting for the woman to answer. She gulped, shaking her head.
"N-No."
"See?" Humming, I smiled. "Now, how do I know where my egg donor is?"
"Fine. Give the phone to whoever that's near you."
Fine by me. Letting the woman handle the call, I looked at blonde again to see she had her eyes on us again, this time not even hiding her curiosity. Just to have some fun, I smiled, showing her my completely black eyes only to hear a loud yelp.
That's what you get for not minding your own business.
"S-She wants to talk to you." The woman spoke, almost throwing the phone on the floor. Glaring at her, I picked it up again.
"Yes?"
Wherever 5133 was, it definitely wasn't human-friendly. Even I had to listen carefully to understand what she was talking about. "She was from the Red clan. If you want answers, start with that place."
That's it?
"Even I knew that." I released a deep breath, not wanting to trigger any more murderous thoughts. "You made me run in two places only to tell me what I already knew?"
I heard what could have been laughter. That bitch. "If I didn't, you wouldn't have believed me. Now that you have the paper as proof that you are adopted and your mom knew, get your ass over here. We're flying out tonight."
Groaning, I felt the headache coming. "I hate flying."
"Good thing you're not an angel then."
Bitch.
***
VERMON
"Motives, start."
"Torture, identity thief, pills, hallucination?" Aaron started counting one by one with a frown. "Still one thing doesn't make sense. This 5132, according to you, she's dead. But I think she has just replaced her identity with the nurse. Maybe she had the patients take something that made them hallucinate her as the nurse. You said Byron used to come to her room and she couldn't remember what happened. Maybe she did remember one day and took things in her hands."
I almost smiled. "Good points but still there's something missing. Byron is alive, Aaron. I had Tim do some works for me. The body we found didn't match with Byron's. What makes you think he wasn't the one who did this? I hate to say this but Valentine doesn't like him that much. What if he was tired of being the second-best? What if he was losing his powers over everyone? That can make him snap."
"So we have two suspects," Aaron smirked, noting it down. "One is a psychopath and another takes care of that psychopath. We always get the golden cases."
"At least it isn't like the Verona case, how's that going?" Between this one and the murder of a rich heiress, we really didn't have time to think about anything else. I was running on insulin, he was running on caffeine and this precinct was running over by the media.
"Did you see the number of cameras out there?" He shuddered in disgust, bloody actor. He loved being the face of the press.
"Don't act shy now. You're always ready for a press conference. The camera loves you."
There was a smug smile on his face. "Because one: I actually wear something else other than always dark suits; two: that red hair doesn't suit you, I'd page you as more of someone with light-colored hair that matches those blue eyes; and three: my ma gave me an impeccable gene to die for."
"Very funny." However, before I could ask more about the Verona case, my phone started to ring. Without seeing who it was, I picked it up. "Hello?"
"I mulled over something recently." The familiar soft voice of the caller had me grip my desk in shock. "I have given you freedom, I never asked anything but I need this favor."
Staring out of the window, I swallowed hard. "W-What favor?"
"Just come home, son. I miss you, she misses you."
Fuck, it wasn't the time to have emotional baggage. "I can't-"
"You promised." Her tone changed, now stern. Shit, she wasn't messing around. "She doesn't come home anymore. Most of the time I find her drunk in bars. It's ruining her. Please, Vermon."
"I'll be there," I promised before throwing the phone in my pocket. Fuck, it wasn't supposed to happen. I thought she was getting better. I thought...I turned to look at Aaron who was looking at me with questions in his eyes.
"Plans changed. I need to go back home." I knew the answer surprised Aaron as he opened and closed his mouth in shock. It's not like I enjoyed hiding things from him but telling him the truth would open a flood gate I didn't know how to close.
"Wait, what? What Happened?"
"It's an emergency." That's the only way I could stop him from asking questions. "I'll let Chief know that you'll handle things or I'll work from home. But I need to go."
He looked at me in disbelief. "Just emergency? Oh, come on, man! You flinch at the name of home like I flinch at the mention of me in the gang. You haven't gotten home in eight years and now you tell me, it's just emergency?"
"It's something we don't talk about, remember? We just pretend that I'm not from there. Can you blame me for not telling you?" I shrugged, making Aaron's face fall. We both knew Aaron would never understand why Natchitoches was a sore subject.
"Don't bullshit me, I'm not stupid, Hernandez." His jaw stiffened by the way he was trying to hide his anger. "Something happened today. I have never seen you that rattled when you got this call. Not even when you took a bullet for me."
Damn it, why did he have to bring that up now?
"It's not that-"
He didn't let me finish. "Why the hell are you going back then? I thought you left home for good, man. Like there was nothing left for you to go back. You told me so."
He wasn't wrong, I left when I was getting a promotion. It was either I left for Memphis or stay in Natchitoches. I chose Memphis in a snap, leaving my complicated family behind.
"I thought so too." I sighed, thinking of what I was going back to. "You're right. There are things happening that I can't tell you, explain it without sounding like a lunatic myself. But I need to see my family, man and I can't do that until I know you'll trust me completely..."
Even Aaron could detect the shakiness in my voice.
"Fine. I'm coming with you then."
What? That was the exact opposite of what I wanted.
"No, you can't-"
"I got a text when you were talking. Looks like you were right. Someone found Byron's prints in Natchitoches. A little too much of a coincidence but it doesn't hurt to cover the area and see where he's been." He gave me a pointed stare before wandering over to get his suitcase. "Vermon Hernandez. You do not get to call the shots alone anymore. We're partners, we solve everything together. Besides, I think it's time I finally meet your deranged family."