Opening the front door, I saw my sister resting her head against the steering wheel, her dark brown hair disheveled, trying to control her breathing like she was on the verge of having a panic attack. Her blue car was parked at the edge of the long gravel driveway, in its usual spot next to my silver one.
Tall trees lined each side of the drive, including all around the house, giving us a sense of privacy since we were about a tenth of a mile off the road. Even though we lived on three acres of land, I only had to mow roughly half an acre in total, including the two strips of grass along the driveway.
Not wanting to startle her, I tried to be noisy as I walked over and then gently tapped on the window, rather than just opening it. However, despite her not looking up at me, I knew she’d heard me. Keeping her forehead on the steering wheel, she moved her hand to unlock the door, only to open it up herself. The moment I was able to, I knelt down and reached out to pull her into a hug.
Serenity immediately accepted the offered gesture, returning my embrace as she began to sob.
“Can you tell me about it?” I whispered after about a minute of her crying on my shoulder.
She immediately shook her head no, before answering. “Not officially…” She then told me anyway. “It’s a s-serial killer case, Kai. And it looks like h-he targets only women.” She sighed heavily, trying to speak clearly despite her sobbing. “And what he d-does to them is…horrible.”
“How many?” I wondered, already considering intervening, since this predator had made my older sister so upset. This was by far the worst I’d seen her.
She tried sucking in a deep breath. “T-Technically, he’s only killed two so far. But a new girl was just kidnapped…” Her voice trailed off as a whine escaped her throat, a sob then erupting from her chest as she began falling apart again. Her face was twisted in anguish. “And if w-we don’t find her soon…”
“What’s the timeline?” I asked, speaking in a way I knew would help her mind shift into detective-mode.
It worked — not perfectly, but it worked.
My sister took a shaky breath and began speaking more clearly, as if a switch had flipped in her brain. “If his two victims are indication of a pattern, then she’ll be dead by midnight. He leaves a spray paint symbol, along with a token from his previous victim — that’s how we know who kidnapped her. Previous evidence suggests that the first two were tortured in the most inhumane ways possible, before he killed them while sexually assaulting them in the woods.”
“The woods?” I repeated in surprise, feeling that was odd if it was really the pattern.
“Yes…” She pulled away to look at me then, her deep brown eyes hesitant, knowing she shouldn’t be sharing information about this, but deciding to do it anyway. “We think he enjoys the chase. He wants them to run, probably so they have a sense of hope — that they might find freedom after being tormented.” She paused. “Only for him to catch them and finish it off horribly.” A pained expression crossed her face again as she barely managed to maintain her composure.
Suddenly, I realized I’d missed a fundamental question — something to explain why my sister was upset to this extreme. Because her reaction was far beyond what I’d ever seen before.
“Serenity…do you know her? The girl he took?”
Her composure broke, and she lost it again.
I waited patiently for her to gather herself, not wanting to seem too pushy. After all, I could never let my older sister find out I might get involved in this situation. She could never know my secret.
While I waited, my mind began going through the people she knew, wondering who it might be. Honestly, my sister didn’t have very many friends — the only close friend she had was a girl named Gabriella who she met only a few months ago. Serenity also had a few coworkers who she was friendly with, including Jessica and Abby, but otherwise the list was pretty short.
Granted, it could also just be a random acquaintance from high school or the police academy. Simply knowing the person could make a case feel a lot more personal. All it would take was just seeing a familiar face, coupled with knowing what might happen to the girl if they didn’t catch the guy in time.
After a few minutes of holding onto my sister, I was about to prompt her again, but then she finally responded to my question on her own.
“Kai,” she said in a strained voice. “It’s my friend. It’s Gabriella.” She sobbed again, her words coming out in a whine. “And they removed me from the case when they realized my connection.”
Fuck.
Suddenly, I found myself holding my breath. Because it wasn’t just someone she knew more casually. It was the worst person it could possibly be. And not just for her.
For me, too.
Gabriella was twenty, only three years younger than my sister, and when they’d both noticed they frequented the same coffee shop regularly, they struck up a conversation over a book that quickly turned into a friendship. It also helped that Serenity occasionally had lunch at the Chinese restaurant next to the nail salon where Gabriella worked, giving them an easy way to hang out almost daily.
Even when my sister wasn’t in the mood for Chinese, she went anyway to socialize, and before long they were having lunch together every day at one of the many restaurants in the area.
From what I understood about Gabriella, she was extremely kind, although somewhat shy. She didn’t have many friends of her own, largely because she wasn’t interested in the stuff most of her peers liked to do, like partying. Instead, Gabriella loved to read, with the book she’d been carrying being what prompted Serenity to talk to her.
I’d only met her once briefly when she visited the house a few weeks ago, but I quickly excused myself after being around her for only a minute, because I’d never reacted to anyone like I was reacting to her. And it threatened to expose my secret.
Gabriella had red hair, green eyes, and was exceptionally attractive. However, unlike other redheads I’d known, her hair was so red that it almost looked dyed, and she kept it fairly short at just a couple of inches above her shoulders. She was about four inches shorter than me, two inches shorter than my sister, and had a massive wrack large enough to make any guy’s head turn and most girls jealous.
But the biggest attraction was actually her scent. Everything about her aroused me, but her natural smell was nearly overwhelming. I had no idea what caused it, wondering if the fact she was vegetarian, which I’d learned by eavesdropping, was the reason.
Technically, it wasn’t dangerous for me to be fully aroused, and it was actually something I allowed to happen on a regular basis when I was alone in my room…sometimes in my sister’s room, when she wasn’t home. But the problem was I couldn’t avoid revealing the fact that I wasn’t human.
I’d learned at a very young age that strong emotions and desires caused my body to begin uncontrollably transforming into my more devilish form, my hair turning white, my skin turning dark gray, my irises transitioning to a glowing gold while my sclera turned pitch-black. At the very least, if I hadn’t run upstairs when I did, then I doubted Gabriella would have ever returned, never mind my sister’s reaction.
I was sincerely afraid of Serenity’s rejection, in particular. She was the only family I had, and honestly my only friend. I couldn’t afford to lose her. I couldn’t take that risk.
However, the attraction I felt toward Gabriella was so strong that just thinking about her was making me aroused now. And pissed, when combined with the knowledge that she was probably being tortured at that very moment. Between the two emotions, I could feel my body threatening to turn gray underneath my clothing, my chest definitely darker now, as well as the back of my neck and the skin along my spine.
I took a deep breath in an effort to clear my mind, knowing there was nothing I could do right away, without Serenity suspecting something was wrong.
Yet, I didn’t want Gabriella to suffer either. While I’d never been tortured myself, I knew that even minutes of something unpleasant could feel like hours, depending on the severity of the situation.
Taking another deep breath, I sighed heavily and spoke up again. “Let’s go inside, sis.”
She nodded in agreement, her hands and legs trembling as she grabbed her purse and attempted to stand up. I offered my support, since it was obvious she was struggling on her own, helping her walk up to the house.
The front porch was only about five feet wide and two feet deep, from door to stairs, the overhanging roof just big enough to allow someone to be comfortably out of the rain if they were waiting outside. The window on the right side of the door peeked into the kitchen, whereas the left one looked into the living room.
Granted, the front windows had sheer white curtains hanging over them, preventing anyone from seeing inside during the day, and allowing them to only see shadows at night. The only other way to see into the house from the front was through the door, which had a decorative half-circle window near the top.
I carefully escorted my sister into the house, keeping my thoughts controlled, and helped her sit down at the kitchen table. Realizing from the scent that the soup was beginning to burn slightly, I went ahead and turned off the stove entirely, glancing at the clock as I did so.
It was just after 7 PM, which meant it would be dark soon, given the time of the year.
In a way, I was almost glad the victim was Gabriella…Or rather, I was thankful I’d been given the opportunity to meet her at least once. It could be difficult for me to help in a situation when I didn’t have much to go on, but coming into close proximity to her allowed me to nail down the most important thing that would help me find her.
Her scent.
Just thinking about it was enough to almost expose me again. I could feel the base of my hairs rise slightly, being well familiar with the sensation, knowing my hair would begin rapidly turning white if I wasn’t careful with my thoughts.
Also in this series:
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 04 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil's Harem Taboo Ch. 02 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 03 - by KaizerWolf