When Darkness Hungers: A Shadow Keepers Novel (Shadow Keepers 5) by J.K. Beck Read Free Book Online

owe the Bureau—an apology.”
    “You don’t,” he said. “There’s not an agent here who wouldn’t be equally preoccupied under similar circumstances. But I need you on your game.”
    “I’m not interested in a transfer, sir. I realize it’s a lot to ask, but could we take that off the table?”
    He regarded her evenly for a moment, then nodded. “Take a few days, get your head straight, and come back refreshed.”
    She’d promised to do just that. Of course, she’d been lying. On her days off, she spent her time doing the same thing she’d done when she’d been active: prowling the streets, searching the subways, talking to the homeless, the vagrants, the lost souls with vacant eyes and hopeless faces. Had Tori been one of them? Alexis was certain that she had, and that reality cut deep into her soul. Because despite the undercurrent of anger and worry that had surged through her ever since Tori’s disappearance, she’d always held on to hope. Hope that Tori had managed to get away. To make a real life for herself. But if this was where she’d ended up—this dark place where cruel eyes watched you and hope was something that moldered in the shadows—then what had been the point? Why had Tori left home—left
her
—if she was only going someplace worse? If she was simply stepping out into the world to meet a new kind of monster, one that wouldn’t just hurt and belittle her, but would actually kill her?
    “Dammit, Alexis,
stop it
.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples and looked away from a filthy homeless woman with missing teeth who was staring at her with pity. She didn’t want the woman’s pity—didn’t need it. She was there to do a job, and it was better for everybody—herself, Tori, the task force, and all the other victims—if she could get her act together and get her head back in the game.
    With renewed determination, she turned back and forced herself to look hard at the homeless woman. When she did, she could see that despite the years of dirt that had settled in her deep facial wrinkles, the woman’s eyes were still sharp. This was her domain, this small corner of a subterranean world, and she watched silently as what passed for living went on in front of her.
    Alexis knelt, bringing her to eye level with the woman. “I’d like to ask you a question. Is that okay?”
    Gums smacked, causing strands of spittle to sparkle in the dim light like perverse gems. “Sounds to me like you already asked.”
    “Fair enough. I’ve got another.”
    The woman blinked. Stared. Waiting. Alexis had the impression that was what she did the most. Waited. She pulled out the picture of Tori. The crime scene photo, because the one in her wallet showed a healthy, vibrant girl. Not a strung-out, fuchsia-haired junkie. “This girl. Do you know her?”
    “Dead,” the woman said. “If you’re looking for her, you’re not gonna find her.” That wide grin. Those strands of spit. “Not unless you’re planning to follow her to hell.”
    “How do you know she’s dead?”
    “Got eyes, don’t I?”
    Alexis’s heart pounded against her rib cage, so hard that she feared she’d crack a rib. “You saw her? You saw her killer?”
    “Saw the cops find her.” The woman raised one bony finger and pointed. “Dump spot. Under some newspapers. Not that she was reading. The dead don’t read.”
    “No,” Alexis said, choking out the words. “They don’t. But you read. You pay attention. You listen and watch. Can you tell me what you saw? What you learned?”
    “Saw nothing. Heard nothing. Just that she was dead. That the girl was dead.” She shrugged. “Not the only one.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “People die, don’t they?”
    They did, Alexis thought. People died, and people like her were left behind, either to mourn them or to stand up for them. Where Tori was concerned, Alexis was trying to do both. “Are you saying there were other bodies?”
    “Down here? Always will be. This is