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“Have you had long enough in there?” I ask, and then add because I know Jax so well, “Be honest.”
Jax smiles as he nods, “Yeah, I’m feeling amazing. Let’s get you guys on your run.”
He dries himself as he walks out of the lake so that by the time he’s standing next to me with a massive grin on his face, he’s dry, even his hair. He must sense that we’re still feeling a bit apprehensive since he really worried us because his smile drops and his expression becomes serious.
“Seriously guys, I’m okay. I just took too long to come back to the water. It’s my own fault, and I won't let it happen again,” he tells us sincerely.
I nod, “Okay, make sure that you don’t, or I’m going to make good on my words before.”
Jax laughs and nods, “Got it. Bet I can beat you back.”
With that, he takes off further into the woods, following the path that we usually take and moving with so as fluidly as water itself. It's pretty fucking mesmerizing to watch, that is, until he turns the corner, and I realise I’m still standing staring after him.
Within a couple of seconds, Nate, Kyle and I are back in our shifted forms and racing after Jax. We catch up, but it takes us running our fastest to do so. That hour in the water has seriously rejuvenated Jax. Nate and Kyle launch themselves into the air, where they’re fastest as they soar above us. Thankfully, this area of the woods has a wide path, and the trees are so tall that the two griffins can fly easily above Jax and me.
I howl with happiness, as Jax throws his head back and laughs, I have to admit that I certainly haven’t felt this free for far too long, and it's an amazing feeling and one that I have missed. Eventually, the two griffins decide to run again and land, racing after Jax and me, and we spend a while trying to see if we can out-race each other.
It's incredible until something tickles my nose, a scent that is familiar and screams danger. I immediately stop with a low growl, warning the others and making them come to a stop too, as I shift back, and so do they.
“What’s wrong?” Jax asks, his expression concerned.
“I can smell something that smells suspiciously like something dead,” I explain, on high alert, and lifting my nose to the air to see if I can locate the exact location it's coming from. I turn to Nate and Kyle, “Can you guys not smell it?”
They both shake their heads as Nate replies, “No, but your sense of smell is on a level far above ours.”
“Dead?” Jax questions, “That’s really not good.”
“Come on, it’s this way,” I say as I head further up the path that we were already traveling on.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we’re going to check it out. We can’t just leave whatever it is out here. I have a fair idea of what it is, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong.
“Shit,” Jax curses.
As we round a corner and find a supe spread out on the floor in much the same way as the teacher was pinned to the wall, even down to the stakes through his eyes and one in his stomach. The way that he’s been killed tells me two things. The first thing is it was done by the same people who killed the teacher, and we know that the Order did that. The other thing that it tells me is that the way he and the teacher were killed might not necessarily be for dramatic effect as we thought with the teacher, but possibly had something to do with a spell of some kind, an incredibly dark one.
It's something that I need to bring up with the others once we’ve cleared the area.
“Spread out and check the area, but do not go out of each other's sight at the moment, we can’t risk that,” I order and the others all nod, going into work mode, all of us were agents before the supernatural thing happened, and that’s how we all work best. It’s where we feel most comfortable.
Everyone does what I’ve suggested, and we all start to comb the area, trying to find any clues that could lead us to exactly who did it. There is clearly someone willing to kill for the Order here and I don’t know whether the object has that kind of power although we do know that it's ridiculously powerful, so I suppose it’s possible. Either way, though, we still need to find out exactly who is committing these murders so that we can bring them to justice.
We work by spreading out as far as we can while still staying in each other's eyesight and then slowly working our way in and toward the body. When we do finally reach him, having found nothing in our thorough search, I study the supe closely, trying to see if I recognize him from somewhere.
“Do any of you recognize him?” I ask the others when I come up blank.
Nate shakes his head, “No, I don’t remember seeing him around.”
“He doesn’t even look vaguely familiar to me,” Kyle says with a frown as he crouches down next to the body to get a closer look.
“I don’t either, but then it’s not really that surprising that none of us recognize him. We don’t hang out with the other students; we don’t even eat lunch with them and haven’t for a long time. It’s unlikely that we’d recognize someone.” Jax replies.
“Yeah, that’s a really good point,” I reply.
“Guys, I think I’ve found something,” Kyle says and I watch curiously as he picks up a nearby stick and moves the guy's shirt away from his neck and down slightly; sure enough, just visible on his chest is a tattoo of sorts. It’s not an Imprint Tattoo; at least, I’d be surprised if it was, but it's certainly unique.
“Is that the mark of the Order?” Nate asks surprise in his tone.
I nod, “Certainly looks like it. Although I have no idea why they’d be killing their own now.”
