I had decided to just go dormant and rest while Kat was at the club, which was my normal thing anyway.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea of the club, but whenever I’d tried going, the idea of having so many people around who might touch me and not wash their hands first, or having to touch things without cleaning them first, well, it just made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t do it.  Kat had made me go a couple of times and let me watch from her office, which was kind of fun, but we’d both figured out pretty quickly that it was not my happy place, so she’d stopped.  With her in front, though, I could kind of enjoy it more, because I didn’t have to be worried about the germs and being bumped and all.  I could just enjoy the atmosphere.

Or I could sleep.  Technically, a chimera could basically never fully sleep if the dormant one slept while the other was active.  We didn’t always do that – sometimes I did sleep in the actual bed, but I also suspected one of the reasons Goose fought me for the bed was he was now used to sleeping in it while Kat was busy at the club, so why should he have to share it with me?

But anyway, I had decided to sleep and was comfortably doing so, pretty much able to block out Kat’s conversations with her staff and the patrons until I heard some words which jolted me back into reality.

“Hey, Croc, can I have a word?”

It wasn’t even that significant of a sentence, but I knew what she wanted to talk to Croc about and I was suddenly wide awake, interested in hearing whatever was about to go down.

Croc grunted and followed Kat to her office, where Kat sat on her desk instead of behind it.

“I know a gargoyle,” Kat began without preamble, “who’s connected to the head of the supernatural patrol here in Lyndale.”

“Okay.”  Croc seemed a tad puzzled.  Croc herself was human, but she had a protection mark and knew about supernaturals.

“My gargoyle friend said they were recently alerted to the possibility of a serial killer, but they’re not sure if it’s human or supernatural.”  Kat eyed Croc.  “The deaths so far have all been within the Gallo family.”

Croc stilled.

Kat continued as if she wasn’t aware that Croc was now invested.  “Apparently, several members of the Gallo family died recently and were sent to Avenglade to be buried, but they have a necromancer there who keeps an eye on restless dead and realized that several of the deaths were similar.  I don’t know the details of the deaths,” she conceded, “but I can try to find out if it would be helpful.  The point is, I think the Gallo family should be aware – if they’re not – that someone could be targeting them.”

Croc rubbed the back of her head, her fingertips brushing through the pattern in her short hair.  “If someone’s targeting the family, you’re right.  They’d want to know.  Thing is, they won’t listen to me.  When you leave the family, you can’t just walk back in, even if it’s to warn them about a danger.  You cut ties, almost entirely.  I can talk to my parents, that’s about it.  But my parents are low-level and not likely to get an audience, to be likely.  They had one daughter who left and another who got arrested, so you can imagine they’re not super popular with the high-ups.  I don’t have anyone else I can talk to who would actually listen to me.”

Kat frowned a bit.  “What about the ones that come in here?”

“They don’t officially acknowledge me,” Croc explained.  “To be honest, I think they come in here either in spite of me, to show me they can’t be scared off, or to keep an eye on me – whether intended to be friendly or not.  They never look directly at me or anything.  If I tried to approach one, I can guarantee they’d get angry and they’d report back to the boss if any of them tried to actually listen for a minute.”

Well, this is unfortunate, Kat grumbled.  I thought she’d have more connections.  I didn’t realize they aren’t really friendly despite coming in here.  I just figured they came to keep in touch with her.

I considered the problem.  Maybe she knows someone who would talk to you, if they wouldn’t talk to her?  You run a club, it’s reasonable you could hear rumors about something that might affect them.  You can just say you’re trying to look out for your patrons, or for Croc’s old family, whatever you want.  Only if you’re comfortable with the potential danger, I added.  Clearly, I would not have been, but Kat had never seemed to be afraid of anything.  I wasn’t sure if it was just because she was a supernatural or because she wanted to be strong for me, but she’d always been a tough person.

Good idea.

 Kat rested back on her hands, her long skirt swishing as she crossed her legs.  “Would any of them talk to me?”  She smirked a bit at Croc’s surprise.  “Just to give them a warning about what’s up.  If they won’t talk to you, maybe they’d talk to someone unconnected to the family.”

Croc thought about it for way longer than I’d have thought necessary, but Kat just waited patiently.

“Maybe,” Croc finally allowed, but her tone was doubtful.  “They’d likely know you’re connected to me, and an outsider interfering isn’t usually welcome, but you’re offering helpful information, so there’s a chance you could talk to them.”  She hesitated.  “But you might have to be prepared to defend yourself.  There’s also a chance it could get violent.”

Kat shrugged casually.  “I can deal with that.”

Croc shook her head.  “I get that you’re a supernatural and you’ve seen some stuff, but this isn’t the same thing.  These are professional killers.  They know how to handle all sorts of people – Enzo hired a former Hunter to train people, who gets some Hunter weapons.  They also hire ex-police and ex-military to train their people.  They know how to deal with both humans and supernaturals, all types of backgrounds.  You can’t just brute force it.”

 I could feel Kat’s confidence falter a bit.  She’d never been formally trained for fighting, all she really knew is the amount of fire magic she had and that chimera magic tended to be deadly to most supernaturals.  But she’d never been in an actual fight and with Croc’s warnings, I was scared about what might happen.

Please don’t do anything to dangerous, I pleaded.  I know it was my idea, but I didn’t realize you might be in so much danger.  Maybe we should see if Lani’s aunt can handle it?

Kat tapped her fingers against her desk, thinking.  “Okay, is there anyone they would listen to?  Someone I can talk to and have them bring the message?”

Croc hesitated.  “Maybe,” she said after another long pause.  “I – I can check.  I’ll try to feel them out.  They’re not likely to listen to anything I say, and they might be suspicious of you since you’re connected to me, but they’re respected enough they might listen.  Maybe.”

Worth a shot?  Kat asked.  It doesn’t sound as dangerous.

I was all for not putting Kat in imminent danger.  Yeah.  You really think they’ll be able to handle the whole issue if you alert the right people?

Kat did actually seem pretty sure about it.  Yeah.  I mean, normally they’d handle stuff like this on their own, right?  The downside is if this is authorized killings by the higher-ups.  Then they won’t be happy about it.  But if an enemy is taking them out or someone within the family is taking matters into their own hands, then they’re likely to want to – and be able to – handle things in house.  That’ll be faster than the police and gargoyles just trying to watch and see, right?

I had to agree with that.  Elanius’s family could only watch and wait and hope to catch someone in the act, or see enough to realize who it was.  And the police probably weren’t going to be able to get close enough, given the family’s tight bonds, so Kat was right.  Getting the family involved was probably the best option, as long as it wasn’t them authorizing this.  Then they might want to silence everyone who knew.  Which would be a problem.

“What are the chances they already know and are okay with it?”  Kat asked softly, apparently on the same page.

Croc grimaced.  “Not high.  They’re not likely to take out their own, not like that.  Maybe if the people were a problem that needed to be handled, but if so, if it was the official enforcer, I think I’d still have heard some rumors from my parents.  I suppose it’s possible, but not likely.  Plus,” she paused, “the only people I’ve heard about dying lately are some of the elders,” she said slowly.  “It wouldn’t be a power struggle thing, because they already handed off power to the current generation.  My parents seemed to think their deaths were just old age or heart attacks, normal stuff.  If it turns out they were actually murdered, then, well…that’s not something the current power would do.  It would run the risk of alienating a lot of long-time members if it got out.  No, I can’t see them doing that, even if there was a breakdown in loyalty or arguments over who knows what.  Killing the elders would be worse.”

Who does it benefit, though?  I asked.  I wasn’t normally deep into crime stuff, though Elanius talked about it routinely due to their own family’s connections.  I was kind of on board with helping Elanius’s family figure this out since it meant they wouldn’t be in danger, and, well, there was a serial killer.  That seemed bad.

Good question.

Kat repeated this question to Croc.  “If the ones in power wouldn’t benefit from the deaths of the elders, who would?”

Croc seemed startled with this question.  “Well…Ettore.  Sort of.  Ettore wanted to be the head of the family, but Enzo got it.  Ettore claimed to acknowledge that Enzo won and back down and support him, but my parents have always been doubtful that he meant it.  Ettore didn’t like that the elders supported Enzo.  Thing is, killing them doesn’t actually benefit Ettore beyond revenge.  If they’re gone, then Enzo has ultimate power, to an extent – there’s no older generation to go to and request intervention if Enzo goes too far.  Normally, the older generation is kind of there to call someone out if they’re losing it, though I’m going to say Enzo probably wouldn’t need it.  Since we were kids, Enzo was always in control and planning 10 steps ahead of everyone else.  20 sometimes.  Ettore was much more in the moment, and thought of himself as more ruthless, but Enzo is more of the quiet danger and Ettore was more of a raging bull.  Point is, Enzo was always in control and the elder generation would never have had to worry about him.  If Ettore had won the head position, they’d have no doubt had to reign him in sometimes.  I’m not sure I’d say their deaths benefit Ettore, exactly, but he might have the most to gain.”

Kat thought about this.  “In addition to checking with your contact about talking to me, can you check with your parents and see if they know if anyone else died recently?  The necromancer only knows about people who died and were buried in Avenglade.  We don’t know about anyone else.  I’ll try to get more information from the police here if they were able to connect any other deaths to the same MO and I’ll ask if they have any information about what the necromancer said the MO even was.”

Croc nodded once.  “Sure, I’ll do that.”  She got to her feet, then paused at the door and looked back at Kat.  “Be careful,” she warned.  “The Gallo family won’t take it kindly if they think you’re poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.  Don’t get yourself into more trouble than you can handle.”

Kat nodded, then settled back again her desk again as Croc left us alone.

We need an ally, she decided.  Another supernatural to back me up when I’m going to talk to this person.  The rest of it shouldn’t be so dangerous, but I feel like I’ll need someone for that, just to be safe.

Not Lani, I put in, a little worried.  Elanius had told me they got anxiety attacks when dealing with violence or danger in person, which was why they didn’t often join their family with stationing when asked by their aunt.  Their family was cool about it, but I didn’t want to ask Elanius to do something that would make them uncomfortable.

Not El, Kat agreed, to my relief.  What about Arthur, though?

Arthur?  I was surprised she’d brought up Arthur.  Arthur had been the first person Kat had wanted to date and they’d been really nice.  They were non-binary and gay, though attracted to femme-presenting people.  They’d actually been pretty understanding about the chimera thing but had ultimately decided it wasn’t something they could handle, so they and Kat had mutually agreed to not start dating as a result.  They’d felt really bad about it and apologized a lot to both of us, but it had made sense to me.  Like Leah, they’d been interested in Kat, not me.  So having an additional person involved in the relationship just made it complicated.

I thought Arthur moved away?  I asked hesitantly.

No.  Well, yes, then they moved back, then went on a trip a little while ago, but now they’re back for good.  They texted me, said they would like to catch up sometime.  But since they’re an alchemist and can hum people to death – uh, sort of, just turn them to dust – that would be a good backup without putting them in a lot of danger, right?

I had to agree with that idea, but I still wasn’t sure if bringing Arthur into this was ideal.  Not because I didn’t trust Arthur, but I wasn’t sure they really needed to be spending a lot of time around an ex and I didn’t want to hurt them.

You think it’s okay to do that?

Kat apparently knew what I meant.  We’ve texted some over the past few years, you know.  I think we’re at a friendship point now.  I’d like to try to be friends, at least, because I liked hanging out with them.  I think if we removed the part about dating, they’d probably be a lot like Elanius – able to get along with both of us.

Maybe so.  That would be nice, really, to have more friends that hung out with both of us.  I hoped she was right about Arthur and decided to just go with what she wanted and trust her judgment on this.  Kat knew Arthur better than I did, after all.

That made me think, though, about whether Kat and I were inherently incompatible when it came to romantic partners.  I was gay and Kat claimed to be bi, but all the people she’d tried dating were female or non-binary but female-presenting, like Arthur.  That kind of told me Kat might actually be gay, too, or at least strongly prefer female-presenting partners, who I definitely wasn’t attracted to.

Maybe we’d never find a romantic partner we were both interested in and was interested in both of us.  But maybe it would be fine to just have some great friends like Elanius and possibly Arthur.  That could be enough, really.  Not everyone needed romance, and we could survive without it.