Chapter 9


Bo

She didn't know where she was or what time it was, let alone what day it was. Bo opened her eyes and took in the unfamiliar surroundings. She was lying on a large lumpy mattress and the musky smelling room was essentially empty except for the broken television and barren nightstand.

Once she was conscious enough to really absorb her surroundings she realized she knew this kind of place all too well. She'd spent years living out of them; she was in yet another dumpy flea bag motel. She sat up on the bed and just stared at the hideous cigarette smoke stained wallpaper, trying to summon up memories on how or why she was there.

When her mind could pull no memories, she rose from the bed and wandered into the bathroom. Her mind was in such a daze she hardly recognized what she saw looking back at her in the mirror. She knew she should have felt scared, worried, panicked, something or anything but she didn't. She felt empty; hollow.

She had just woken up in a motel with no recollection of how she got there and only when she looked at herself in the mirror did she notice that she was covered in blood with what looked like a bullet hole in her shoulder. Despite what she saw she just couldn't muster the feelings or reactions she normally would have had. She felt void of anything, and even that should have scared her.

Somewhere in her mind, Bo knew exactly how she should be feeling but those emotions never rose to the surface; the buoy that usually brought them to the surface at full force didn't seem to be doing that right now. She tried to feel angry for not knowing what was happening but she couldn't. She felt like a shell of herself, only able to process the cold hard facts of everything that was happening.

Bo stared at herself in the mirror waiting for something to wake her from this nightmare but nothing happened. All she saw was Bo.

She closed her eyes and let the thoughts of what she needed to do flood through her mind. She knew she needed to clean up so the first thing she did was take a shower and wash the dry blood from her hair and skin. As she showered her mind wandered. She thought about how well she functioned without her anxiety or fear clouding her mind, she thought about what she might have done to end up covered in blood, and she thought about what she would do when she got back home.

Surely people would notice this change in her. Even she could see the change when she looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes had lost that fierce glow they once held and now they were dull, cold, empty brown orbs.

She sighed and left the shower and redressed in her tattered and bloody outfit. She didn't care about the wound to her shoulder and she didn't care about how her ensemble looked. She picked up all her belongings and made it so there was no trace of her being there before she walked out the door.

Bo looked around and tried to gather her bearings. She knew she was still in the city but she wouldn't know exactly where until she found an intersection or a familiar building. She was about to start walking home when she saw her bike parked next to some bushes and walked over to it.

She noticed a dent on the side but didn't want to take too much time to inspect it. She hopped on and drove towards where she suspected home was.

When she finally got to the crackshack she snuck into the house hoping to avoid seeing Kenzi, which luckily was the case. The house was empty despite it being around noon which meant Kenzi was probably passed out in her bed from excessive drinking.

Bo rushed up the stairs and changed out of her clothes and tried to figure out how to retrace her steps. She had no idea what she'd done or how she ended up at a motel and certainly had no clue as to why she couldn't remember doing anything.

Bo couldn't really comprehend where or how she was going to find out what had happened to her but she knew standing around her home wasn't going to be of any help. She needed to take action and see if she could piece things together. First thing she needed to do was get a new phone because hers was nowhere to be found. She grabbed her keys and glasses and rushed out the door again, hoping to avoid a nosy Kenzi.

After a rather lengthy encounter with the salesperson at the phone place, Bo finally had a new phone set up with all her contacts and messages. She scrolled through the text messages and was not surprised to see most of them were from Kenzi, though they seemed more like drunken texts rather than serious ones so she just deleted them. She had two voicemail messages from Lauren which she just skipped and a message from Dyson.

She deep sighed as she listened to the message; 'Bo, its Dyson. I have a case I need your help on. Call me back so I can fill you in.' She checked the time; the message was from only 20 minutes ago, so she called him back.

"Bo, about time you called me back." His voice was gruff and it sounded like he was on edge, as usual.

"I've been busy. What's up?"

"I have a case I need you to assist on. A Light Fae was murdered sometime last night."

"And this involves me, why?" She was in no mood to really snoop around for answers on a dead Light Fae member considering she had her own problems to worry about.

"We need you to go in and ask around the Dark Fae and see if they know anything. We got a tip that she'd been talking to someone from the Dark for awhile. Hey, are you alright? Usually you jump at the chance to work a case?"

Bo closed her eyes and listened to his voice change from tired and frustrated to one of sincere concern, "I'm just going through a lot of stuff. Just give me an address and I'll meet you there."

It only took ten minutes to get to the crime scene but what she saw there sent a shiver down her spine. Before she could try and absorb what was in front of her she was approached by Dyson. "Hey Bo." She dragged her eyes from the dead woman on the ground and turned to face the shifter. "Hey Dyson. What's the deal with her?" She poked a thumb in the direction of the dead body, even though she knew who it was. It was Kara, the woman who usually worked with Lauren in the lab. 'Shit!' She cursed to herself.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize her. Her name is Kara Corrigan, she spends most of her time working in the labs as an assistant but sometimes we use her as a gopher for the Ash. We don't know if it was a Fae kill or not but whoever it was beat her half to death then shot her in the heart."

Bo walked around the body, looking for any clues. Kara's red hair was spread wildly around her, half covering the glazed over blue eyes that stared blankly at the sky. Her mouth was hanging open like she'd been in the middle of a scream when her life was snatched away. Her body was littered with cuts and bruises and puddle of blood had pooled around the left side of her chest. Bo took a deep breath and backed away from the body. She was starting to turn back towards Dyson when something glistening in the distance caught her eye.

She cursed inwardly as she started to make her way towards the dumpsters where she saw the metal object glistening. She had hoped Dyson would get pulled into a conversation so she could confirm what she already knew that object was. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side.

Dyson trotted up beside her before she could make it to the dumpster so she placed herself between the reflective object and the shifter. "So, listen, Bo. Uh, I know we've got this case to work but I was wondering if you and me could grab a drink later and talk. I've got some…" Bo watched with curiosity as Dyson ran a nervous hand through his hair, "I've got some important stuff to tell you. A lot has happened since you left."

Bo had no idea what this conversation could be about and if she were honest, she didn't really want to know. She had too much on her plate as it is with the dead Fae that she was pretty sure she'd killed and the fact that she had no recollection of anything else she might have done, but seeing as how she needed Dyson to go somewhere else while she stole key evidence from the scene she slapped on a smile and agreed. "Sure Dyson, how about we meet at the Dal at 7 tonight?" Her fingers were tapping nervously against her thigh as she waited for the shifter to agree.

"Yeah, 7 sounds good. I'll see you then." Once Dyson had wandered off to talk to his partner Bo discreetly reached under the dumpster and pulled out the metal object. Just like she'd thought, it was her phone. 'Shit! I was here last night' she cursed to herself. Looking over her phone she saw the screen was completely busted and a bullet was lodged in the screen.

She slipped the phone into her pocket and continued to survey the crime scene, hoping to catch any more damning evidence before the others could. As she walked the primarily empty lot surrounding the body, she couldn't help but feel torn. Part of her believed that Kara got what she deserved; it's common knowledge that when you betray your own kind, regardless of which side you're on it usually warrants a death sentence, but another part of her felt dirty. Looking down at her own hands, Bo could still see her hands covered in blood and it sent an unwelcome shiver down her spine.

She shook the thoughts from her mind and continued her canvas of the scene. Seeing Dyson coming back towards her Bo scanned the last of the lot and quickened her pace back to her bike. Normally, she would have stopped to discuss whatever she'd seen or what hunches she might have had about the scene with him but knowing that she might have been the murderer made her paranoid.

Bo slid onto her bike and headed towards a random bar. All these thoughts kept swirling around her brain, and the thoughts were deafening. She just wanted to pick up a stranger, heal the now less painful bullet wound in her shoulder, and then go to the Dal and find out if anyone knew what happened with Kara. She was, by no means, looking forward the rest of this day.