Chapter 1
"Briefing Room. Now," Hotch called down to the team as he walked around the edge of the Bullpen, already on his way with a file tucked under his arm. The team needed no words as they stood and made their way after him. They were all still rather sleepy after their late night; the jet had brought them back sometime past midnight from their last case, which meant that this next case was likely very high priority to have them working it so soon.
JJ passed out files as they all arrived, her customary serious expression on her face same as every new case they receive. Garcia hurried in a few seconds after everyone else, having to come the farthest from her office of omniscience. Morgan leans back and smiles at her as she seats herself beside him. They exchange a few quiet words of greeting and endearments before turning back to the front where Hotch and JJ wait for their attention.
"This case is odd," Hotch began, "local law enforcement officers in Frankfort, Kentucky recently connected the torture and death of one of it's citizens to similar cases across the Eastern US occurring over the last 15 years."
"Fifteen years?" Reid interrupted, "Why has no one made the connection before this?"
Here, JJ began to explain. "There were no more than two or three of these murders a year and they were never in the same state more often than every three years and they were never in the same city."
"Also," Hotch continued, "the victims were men from varying social classes who only had one thing in common: their appearances." As he said this, JJ put the photos of the men up on the screen where the team could easily see how they were similar.
"I see what you mean," Morgan said, leaning forwards slightly. "They all have dark, curly hair and green eyes."
"As well as being under 5' 9''," Hotch agreed. "They were all abducted from public places, and for the ones which we have missing person reports for, they were held for 24 hours before being dumped in a forest or a group of trees. There was no sign of sexual assault on the victims, but they had been tortured with a knife and all had the word mudblood carved somewhere into their skin along with a cut on their forehead in the same place on every victim." Here, he showed a picture on the screen of one of the dead men with a bloody cut that looked vaguely like a lightening bolt cut into their heads. "The strangest thing was that all of the coroners put the cause of death as blood loss but noted that the cuts, while numerous, didn't appear to have been severe enough to have caused them to bleed to death. None of them had any other theories, and they said that the bodies didn't have anything wrong with them other than being a little cut up, and of course, dead."
Garcia had hidden her eyes at the sight of death, and so she missed Morgan's reaction, but Prentiss couldn't help but notice how he went slightly ashy as he learned the last bits of information. She looked at him bemusedly for a second before asking what it was.
Morgan didn't respond to the question, just took a deep breath and let it out before appearing to steel himself and began to speak. "I think that I might have an idea of whats going on, but I'll need to make a call." He looked toward Hotch for permission and Hotch nodded, looking at him curiously.
Morgan stood up and walked to the other side of the room to lean against the wall as he dialed a number into his cell. He stood there for a few moments before someone apparently picked up as he cracked a reluctant smile and said, "Hey Dray."
Draco Malfoy had been having a rather good day. His boyfriend had come home rather late the night before, but he was just happy to have him there at all. Both of their jobs were rather demanding and they often both returned home bone tired, but Draco knew it was harder on Derek. While he was able to travel instantaneously (albeit uncomfortably), Derek had no such advantage and was forced to spend hours in those horrid muggle cars and planes in order to keep up appearances of not knowing about magic. Draco had offered on multiple occasions to give Derek side-along lifts on the way to work, but he almost always refused. Working closely with incredibly intelligent profilers made relying on magic a bad idea, though Draco insisted that muggles would never be able to figure magic out on their own; he had had to tell Derek, after all, and he had been rooming with him at the time.
Still, it was nice to know that his lover would be there when he got home that evening, as they usually had a few days respite between cases, and they would be able to do normal couple things, like watch a movie on the couch after diner. And some other couple things on the couch Draco thought with a smirk. Derek had been willing to rather explicitly plan out their evening that morning, and Draco couldn't wait to get home, despite it being only 10:00 a.m.
The sudden sound of his phone ringing made Draco jump. He still wasn't quite used to the AMBI (The American Magical Bureau of Investigation) issued technology (obnoxious muggle device he still called it when it woke him in the middle of the night) but he relaxed as he recognized the first familiar strains of the muggle song Derek had programed in as his personal ring tone. He flipped open the cell and began to speak without any preamble.
"I hope that you have called to elaborate what it was you planned to do to me when I get home and not because you have a new case and are leaving for Podunk, Texas."
Derek smiled at his lover's statement. "Hey Dray," he began, "it is a new case, unfortunately, but I think this one might be your kind of thing."
