Page 13 of Sins of the Fathers

“And exploded eventually.”

“I can’t give you all the answers you’re seeking. What I can do is talk to you about your parents, though.” Sarah hesitated. “You really never knew about them?”

“I was raised by a hunter. I still don’t know why he and his wife took me in, and I’m not sure I’ll ever know because he won’t talk to me about it. I thought I was fully human until recently, when a monster told me that I wasn’t. It was a shock, and I’ve been looking into my family ever since.”

“Do you like what you found out?”

“I don’t like that my parents are dead, but they seem like they were very good people. I wish I could’ve known them. I wish I could remember them.” But no matter how hard Jasper tried, he couldn’t. He’d only been a child, very young, and there were no memories there for him to remember. The only way he would ever find out anything about his parents was by talking to people like Sarah, and he realized how lucky he was that she’d agreed to it. He might be about to ruin everything, but he needed to know. “What about the symbol?” he asked gently.

Sarah’s small smile disappeared. “What do you know about it?”

“That it represented my father’s bloodline. I know it was very old and that I’m probably the only survivor.”

“All of that is correct.”

“Why would a killer use it, though? Why did you sound afraid on the phone last time we talked?”

Sarah looked away. “Wouldn’t you be scared if you found out that someone is killing people who were at the sanctuary that night?”

“But they’re not killing people. They’re killing hunters.”

“For now.”

There was nothing Jasper could say to that because Sarah was right. For now, they only knew about two ex-hunters getting killed, but how could they find out if there were more victims? How could they find out if the thing that linked these people was that they were ex-hunters and not something else? Jasper had more answers when it came to questions about his past, but he still didn’t know what was going on with Archie’s case, and that worried him. He was pretty sure that the killer wasn’t done yet.

And that they wouldn’t be done for a long time.

* * * *

ARCHIE HAD A LOT OF informants. It was necessary in his line of work, and he always tried to treat them well. That way, he was the first they came to when they had information he couldn’t find anywhere else.

He was ever so glad when he got the message that there had been another murder. He wasn’t sure how his informants had managed to get their hands on the picture of the symbol on the ground next to the victim, but if they hadn’t managed it, Archie never would’ve known it was related. They didn’t have the victim's name, but they knew he was a hunter, so it was fairly easy for Archie to hack into the hunters’ database and find out.

The hunters took people killing their own seriously. They hadn’t investigated Daniel and the other one because they were ex-hunters and had probably left the organization under not great circumstances. This case was different. The symbol was there, but the hunter wasn’t an ex-hunter. He was still working, albeit in a desk job.

Well, he wouldn’t be working anymore since he was dead, but he was still part of the organization, which meant that a hunter had been killed. They were going to investigate, which might make Archie’s life complicated, especially if they connected Daniel’s murder to this. Archie felt like he was running out of time to find out what happened.

He knew for sure now that this had nothing to do with Daniel and the other hunter dating monsters. The new victim had been married to another hunter for twenty years. There were no monsters in his life that Archie could find, which meant that wasn’t the thing that linked all three of them. The only thing that did was the hunters’ organization.

And that was what Archie needed to focus on.

He tapped his fingertips on his desk and stared at his computer screen. A lot of his job was done at his desk, looking into things and making phone calls. This wasn’t any different. He’d gotten all the information he could find on this last hunter in the hunters’ database, and now, he needed to put the information together. That was the only way he would find the killer.

It had to be the sanctuary. That was the only thing that connected all these people, but unfortunately, it didn’t help Archie pinpoint the person responsible. It was clear they were getting revenge, though, so if he had to guess, this person was a monster. They’d probably lost something or someone during the attack on the sanctuary, but why had they waited so long to start killing the people responsible for it? That was what didn’t make sense and what Archie couldn’t find a reason for.

He reread the report he’d copied from the database. The hunters were already investigating, and they were taking this seriously. They had a witness, although that person hadn’t seen much. From what they’d told the hunters, they’d seen a figure move away from the crime scene calmly, as if they hadn’t just killed a man in the middle of the street. That person hadn’t run or seemed afraid. They hadn’t stopped when someone had called for them to. They’d vanished in the darkness, and no one knew who it had been or where they’d gone. That still didn’t tell Archie who was responsible, but it told him that this was very much premeditated. The killer had planned it, and it felt like they were going through a list and checking every item.

How many hunters and ex-hunters were still on that list? Were there monsters there, too? Archie didn’t know exactly what happened at the sanctuary that night. The hunters’ reports had been careful not to mention anything, and the only person he knew for sure was there was Sarah, but he hadn’t talked to her yet. He didn’t want to ruin things for Jasper, but he might have to.

Of course, he didn’t owe Daniel anything. He’d told Petra he’d do his best to solve the case, but he’d also warned her that they might not be able to. She’d paid him knowing that, and he was more than willing to give her money back. The problem with stopping was that he wasn’t sure that Jasper was safe. If the killer was killing hunters because they’d been involved, then Jasper didn’t have anything to do with that, but what if they had another reason? Archie wouldn’t know until he found out who the person was, which meant he couldn’t stop investigating.

He heard the door open and close. From the footsteps, he could tell it was Jasper, who stopped to say hello to Cullen in the entrance. The two of them chatted for a bit, and Archie considered what he was supposed to do. He couldn’t hide this from Jasper. Even if he wasn’t personally involved, he deserved to know. It was somehow linked to his family, and he might be of some help.

“Cullen told me that you’ve been in your office all day,” Jasper said as he walked in. “He said something about a new case?”

“It’s not a new case,” Archie said. “There was another murder.”

“You mean with the symbol?”