The Burning Bush (4 page)

I pulled my wrist away from him. “I figured you would leave me alone after you received fame and a promotion over last month’s serial murder case, which
I
solved.”

“I’ve called you over fifty times, and you didn’t answer.” He took a thin glass tablet out of his coat pocket.

“Like I said, I’ve been busy.” I stared at the sheet of glass with light blinking on it.

“Yes, you sure have been busy. See, when you didn’t call me back, I decided to track your movements with a brand monitor.” Rivera pressed a green dot on the glass. A new screen lit up, displaying an electronic map of the habitat.

That is what branding all Supes made possible. All our lives, the brand tracked our information—social security number, blood type, banking account numbers, births, abortions, and criminal records—and included a tracking device with each Supe’s unique code and an inch-long device that transmitted data to a main computer server in Washington, D.C.

“Now that I’m a second lieutenant”—Rivera held the brand tracking device like it was a sacred object—“I have the authorization to access any Santeria Supernatural’s brand code. I’ve been recording your and Zulu’s movements all month.”

“You clearly need to get a hobby or a lady.” I shifted my weight to my left foot. A nervous shiver ran through me.
What did he track?

“Do you know someone stole records from the Shango District Property Department?” He raised his gray-and-black eyebrows. “I ask because you were there that day.”

“Stealing is wrong. That’s why I don’t steal.” I shrugged.

“I’ve asked around and heard otherwise.”

“Now you decide to actually be a detective?” I snorted, praying it disguised my fear. If the habbie had discovered enough to get us in trouble, then Zulu or Nona would kill him. Jail was not a good option for any Supe. As soon as the cells became overcrowded, habbies randomly executed the prisoners. I might have to kill him myself.

“Even more fascinating is tonight’s tracking report.” Rivera showed me the screen.

A large box with the word
Linderman’s
displayed on it. Red dots moved within it. My name was under one dot. I spotted Zulu’s, Nona’s, and two names I didn’t recognize, Croy and Troy. Those were probably the real names of the Fairy bomb-makers, Clay and Tyson.

“This recorded tracking is fifteen minutes before the explosion,” Rivera said. “You were in Linderman’s Blood Factory before it exploded.”

“And?” I asked. “I just started working there. Check the factory’s records. Oh wait a minute, they might be destroyed.”

I searched around for witnesses. We were completely surrounded by Supes. Even in this smoky red haze, someone would see me set Rivera on fire or at least know I was around when a Human official was burned alive.

“A lot of money was lost tonight. Many powerful Humans’ investments will be ruined,” Rivera said. “Not to mention shipping businesses, retail stores, and all their employees will be out of jobs until this is replaced.”

“And less Supe blood will be exploited.” I glared at him. “Fewer Mixie mothers will find their kids dead in the street and drained of their blood.”

“Regardless, I have proof that can get you, Zulu, and several Rebels imprisoned.”

I tapped my foot on the sidewalk. “What the fuck do you want?”

“I need your investigative skills on some murders.”

I opened my mouth in confusion. “Come again?”

“I was assigned a really difficult case.” Rivera put the tablet back in his pocket. “It’s why I’ve been calling you.”

I considered his request for a minute as the fire truck arrived. The siren continued to blare. Fire Witches jumped off the big truck in orange uniforms and raced to the burning building.

“Why do you all of a sudden want to solve cases?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

Rivera stared at me for several seconds as if unsure whether he should answer, and then shrugged. “I’ve discovered that higher rank within the habitat police gets me more men and a bigger portion of the pot when it comes to side deals.”

That makes sense.

“I’ll have to wait for Zulu. I’m supposed to meet him in twenty minutes over there.” I pointed to Shango Botanica at the end of the block.

“We go now, or I hand this tracker over to the nearest news van. In fact. . .” He took a few steps toward a reporter. “This may give me rank faster.”

“Stop.” I clasped my hand around his arm. “You made your point, asshole, although the authorities might question why you tracked us in the first place. I’m a Mixie, but I do have some rights.”

“Maybe the authorities would question it or maybe they wouldn’t. After catching that killer last month, I’m a hero.” He smiled, displaying brown-stained teeth. “It would definitely be a gamble, don’t you think?”

I scanned my surroundings and didn’t see Nona or Zulu, which was probably best. Zulu would rip Rivera’s heart out of his chest just for standing so close to me. Nona would chomp off his head with her canines as soon as she found out Rivera was trying to blackmail us. I didn’t want either to happen. At least keeping a habbie happy might help us in the future, versus having a federal official’s death on our hands. Basically, Rivera had picked the right person to blackmail. Good old, soft Lanore.

You’re not that dumb after all, are you, habbie?
I wiped more blood from my forehead. “Where’s your car?”

I stood in the habitat police station’s containment room with Rivera, studying the dead girl tied to a four-foot-high burning bush a few feet in front of us. Raging orange and yellow flames surrounded her, but she didn’t burn, and neither did the leaves. The bush and girl remained intact within the fire’s glow. I tried to call the fire to me and received no answer. The nonresponsive flames stayed glued to the bush and girl. When I ordered them again to come to me, they didn’t even lean in my direction.

This isn’t regular fire. It must be some sort of elemental magic.

The dead girl was naked. The bush’s olive-green leaves outlined her body. A black rope wrapped around her arms and waist, and held her to russet-brown branches. Three copper charms dangled from a bracelet on her ankle: a moon, flower, and a diamond heart. She appeared to be my age or maybe a little bit older. Her blond hair wavered with the flames’ movements like molten gold. The blaze gave her skin an amber shine. She had a crescent moon brand in her forehead, identifying her as a Shapeshifter. I wondered what animal she shifted into as I nervously tapped my right foot against the gray floor.

The containment room was a dull gray and reeked of that habbie odor, old cooking oil left out for days, maybe even fried meat. I just couldn’t put my finger on the exact smell.

“This is insane,” I said under my breath.

The burning bush could have been some magical illusion or an optical spell to alter the viewer’s sight and make it appear as if something was there when it wasn’t—if not for the eyes. Her haunting eyes were open, exposing bronze pupils. She stared at me without blinking. Her expression fixed in an emotionless gaze. Yet the eyes said something had been there—life, spirit, or a breathing being. Her pupils resembled a carved out shell, the exact way all Supes’ eyes appeared when they died.

“And you said someone just put this bush with the dead woman in front of the police station two weeks ago?” I asked Rivera.

“Yep.” Rivera’s head bobbed up and down. “Fucked up poker night.”

“Wow. Messed up your poker night?” I dropped my mouth open in mock horror and widened my eyes. “That may be the worst part of this whole situation. Were you Humans able to recover and start a new game?”

“Just look at the corpse before my boss gets back.” Rivera spat out the words around the toothpick he was gnawing. “The fire hasn’t stopped either. This is just like how we found it.”

I walked around the bush, struggling to discover some sort of clue.
What am I even doing here? This is insane. A real investigator should be here.
I groaned and kneeled half a foot in front of her. I’d seen a lot of dead people in the past month, horrid things that gave me nightmares, but this was something else. In some sort of sick and psychotic way, this was beautiful, if death could be beautiful. I leaned in closer and sniffed, catching a hint of a burnt toast scent floating from the bonfire. I inhaled the air near the spell again. There was no stench of death like decaying flesh or blood, just that aroma of burnt toast.
Could be the spell’s fragrance.

Rivera took off his blood spattered jacket and slung it over the chair in the corner. “This is the second burning bush with a girl tied to it.”

“Two bush victims.” I shook my head. “And why doesn’t the public know about this?”

“The first victim was just a female Mixbreed. A poor one.” He sat down, pulled out several files on the table in front of him, and opened them. “This victim is a Shapeshifter from a prominent family.”

I ignored his disrespect for my species, strolled over to the table, and picked up a few photos. “Is this the Shifter on the bush right here?”

“Yep.”

She had a light bronze complexion, blond hair, and blue eyes. Diamonds hung from her ears. She smiled at the camera, draped in a rainbow graduation cap and gown. It was my school’s gown, Maya Luna University.

“So she went to the university?” I asked.

“Yep. Graduated last year as an art major. She was also Homecoming Queen last spring. I’m surprised you don’t recognize her. She’s Shelly Winters.”

I’m surprised you do.

“I’m not the social type.” I picked up a file and sat on the gray, cracked floor. “I don’t follow the who’s who of the habitat.”

I browsed through Shelly’s school transcript and information, noting she was a Beta Gamma Beta. It was the only all Shifter sorority on campus and very hard to get into unless the Shifter was extremely popular or had money. MeShack was in the Kappa Sigma Que fraternity, the brother fraternity to Shelly’s sorority. I would have to ask MeShack if he knew Shelly Winters and maybe see if he had any information on her.

“I follow all the Supernatural beauty pageants around the habitat,” Rivera said. “Miss Santeria is a big one for me. Miss Habitat is the best one. I love to see the different chicks from all of the other habitats dressed in their tight gowns.”

I peeked up from the files I’d been reading and offered Rivera a weird look. “You like beauty pageants? Really?”

“Some of you female Supernaturals aren’t too bad to look at, and it tends to get lonely in this caged city. At times I like to—”

I threw up my hand to stop him. “I’m pretty sure what you’re going to say next will either make me vomit or give me more insight into your life than I want. Let’s not forget you’re blackmailing me into being here.”

“What else do you need to know?” He twisted the toothpick in his mouth.

“Both girls were delivered to the station?” I asked.

“Yes. No one saw who dropped them off.”

“Obviously,” I muttered.

“I had some notes I wrote down about that night, but I can’t find them.” Rivera leaned back in his chair.

I sucked my teeth. Rivera had no detective skills whatsoever. He was just playing the role of a cop. Once he was done with his probation, he would be back in the Human cities. I wondered how many more years I would have to deal with his blackmail.

“So exactly how rich was she?” I asked.

“She’s Chief Justice Winters’s granddaughter,” Rivera said.

Motherpounder.
He was the head of the Santeria Habitat’s tribunal judges. All of our habitat law went through him first for approval. He’d been a U.S. Supreme Court Justice in the prehabitat years. Once the government had discovered Supes existed, by secretly observing members of the Black Panther Party shift into various Were-cats, the government began conducting secret probes. The President at the time announced the Centers for Disease Control would be testing the entire population for a new illness called Y-Positive. He claimed the tests were preventive—to catch the illness before there was an outbreak.

The only problem was there wasn’t any such thing as Y-Positive. It was all a cover-up mission to find Supes. The probes started with government employees and school children. No one knew how the government was able to test the people and figure out who was Human and who was Supe, but by the time the government’s true intentions were revealed, tens of thousands of Supe adults and children had been discovered and caged. Justice Winters was one of the famous ones.