Chapter 25

Acacia was going through Trick's liquor collections behind the counter when Tamsin and Bo arrived at the Dal the next morning. No one else was in the bar because it was way too early for drinking.

" Emmm... I'm pretty sure my grandfather has some rules about no first shelf or something..." Bo said to Acacia as she watched her taking down bottles of alcohol from the top shelf and making herself some cocktails Bo had never seen before.

Acacia huffed out a laugh, staring at Bo with a bottle in her hand. " I think I can handle a blood king." She threw a bottle and a glass to Tamsin without even looking at the younger Valkyrie. Tamsin sat down and started to drink.

" So I take it you talked with my grandfather?" Bo asked as she sat down beside the blonde.

" Yeah, yeah, we've talked. He seemed concerned about the bond." Acacia took a swig from her cocktail she just made, " Relax, that thing between you two, is strictly your business."

Tamsin choked on her drink when she heard Acacia's comment about her and Bo. Bo cleared her throat hard, and took a deep breath. " We...emmm...we have some questions for you."

" Shoot." Acacia offered Bo a drink. Bo took it from her hand and sat down next to Tamsin. The blonde was enjoying her drink without looking at anyone.

" How exactly is this bonding thing going to affect our ability?" Bo asked.

Acacia raised her eyebrows, staring at Bo. " Do I look like I know everything, bitch?" She asked.

" Well, how about you tell us everything you do know about the bond then?" Bo asked. Surprisingly, Acacia's attitude felt so familiar, that Bo was totally used to it.

" Alright, since I'm clearly bored right now, and I have nothing better to do." Acacia put down the glass in her hand on the counter, " First thing I can tell you is, there is absolutely no handbooks or pamphlets titled in what-does-a-valkyries-bond-do, so everything I'm going to tell you is purely hearsay, rumors, maybe even legends."

Bo turned to Tamsin, as if she was asking the blonde whether Acacia was telling the truth. Tamsin nodded to her. " Ok, do continue then."

Acacia shook her head. " Well, what I've heard is the bond affects every pair differently, depends on what the real bond is between the pair."

" The real bond?" Bo asked. Then she heard Tamsin clearing her throat, as if the blonde was trying to stop her from asking.

" The real relationship between the pair, dumbass." Acacia said, " Remember it takes a falling Valkyrie to bond?"

" Oh." Bo suddenly felt the awkwardness in the air. She and Tamsin had not really talked about their feelings yet. She wasn't expecting that Acacia would say that out bluntly in front of them.

Acacia studied the looks on Bo and Tamsin's face. She rolled her eyes and said, " Anyway, for each pair the relationship is a little bit different. There are lovers, master and slave, friends, partners, some are even related by blood. So it's really hard to say how exactly the bond will affect your abilities. But, one thing for sure, the closer you are, the stronger the bond influences."

" You mean physically?"

" Both physically and emotionally. The emotions will eventually become the dominant part, so if the emotional connection is very strong, the physical distance won't matter that much anymore." Acacia said, " Then everyone has different abilities, and they are all enhanced in different ways. Some people say it is related to the personality and life experiences too."

" Complicated, huh?" Bo murmured.

" Yes, very complicated. " Acacia nodded.

" You think maybe there is a Valkyrie who has bonded with someone, so we can talk to her or something?"

" Good luck with that." Acacia raised the glass in her hand and then downed it. " I've never known anyone in person who has ever done the bonding, except you two dumbasses."

" No one?"

" Well, there are always some rumors about some Valkyrie bonded with some warrior thousands of years ago and blah blah blah all that shit." Acacia said, " But, I've never known anyone in person, nor have I ever known anyone who knew any of them in person. So... no first hand experience."

" Wow..." Bo murmured, "I thought there would be more bonded Valkyries out there, because a lot of people would be excited to have enhanced power, right?" Bo said.

" You would think so, but Valkyries don't fall for someone that easily in the first place." Acacia said, " Then you know once the bond is formed, one dies, the other dies too, which means not only are you risking your own life for the other person, also, the other person has to completely trust you with his or her life. You think it's easy to find someone like that? Even if you did find one, you would probably choose not to form the bond because you don't want to put him or her in danger whenever you are in danger." The elder Valkyrie paused for a long time. She just kept drinking without saying a word. Then she continued, " So, yeah, sounds great, but... well, let me put it this way. Only people as stupid as you two would do such a thing."

" Well, under the circumstance, I had to..." Bo said. She suddenly understood why Tamsin was so angry with her when she found out that they bonded, and why she kept telling her that she shouldn't have done it. The Valkyrie had already chosen Bo's life over her own, and she didn't want Bo to be in any danger. Bo sighed. She wanted to hug the blonde, but Acacia was staring at them, so instead she just held the blonde's hand in hers tightly. Tamsin was startled, but she didn't pull her hand away.

" So, I guess that something related to the bond happened, and that's why you two kids are asking me about it?" Acacia asked Bo.

" Well... I guess you could say that...I sort of...emmm...charmed an entire room of people here last night... "

" Not bad, succubus, not bad at all." Acacia looked at her. She looked impressed. " You said it like it was a bad thing."

" Yeah, because I don't even know how it happened. What if I just randomly charm people and I can't stop it?"

Acacia narrowed her eyes. She stared at Bo for a while, then she said, " You mean you didn't intentionally do that?"

" No! I was just sitting here, drinking. Then I felt this energy stream in the air. The next thing I knew everyone was charmed."

Acacia went quiet for a while. She was thinking about something. Then she said, " I am not an expert of the bond thing, but my guess is that you are probably still adjusting to the bond, because it has just been formed, and your ability is still fluctuating. You might want to try to control it."

" How? I didn't even know how it happened." Bo said.

" How do you control your succubus power? Like how much charm you send, how much Chi you take, and stuff like that."

" Oh..." Bo murmured. Then she went quiet.

" It's the same thing. You control how the energy flows, how much it radiates from you, and how much you take it from other people. Your power is solely about the energy." Acacia said, " I'm not a succubus trainer, I can't tell you how to do it, kid. You need to figure it out yourself. It's the price to pay for the enhanced power."

" Ok..." Bo rolled her eyes, " Then how does the bond affect Tamsin?"

" How the hell do I know? Explore, experiment, figure it out!" Acacia said, " Now if you two will excuse me, I have some personal business to take care of."

The elder Valkyrie stood up and left the bar. She also left some half empty bottles on the counter.

" Geez, what is it with you Valkyries and the alcohol?" Bo asked Tamsin.

" Because it's great? It helps you to forget stuff." Tamsin raised her eyebrows, " Plus it warms you up at night."

Bo sighed. She held Tamsin in her arms since they were the only two people in the Dal. " Hey, you have me now." She said.

" That's another fucking reason I need it." Tamsin frowned. She would never admit to Bo that how much she enjoyed being held in the succubus' arms.

Bo stared at the blonde. She inched forward, slowly pressing her lips on hers. Right before their lips met, she heard someone walking through the door.

They immediately broke off. Tamsin turned away so fast that she almost dropped her glass on the floor. Bo stood up and turned around. " Dyson!" She smiled to the wolf who just walked in, hoping that he wouldn't have noticed anything.

" Drinking so early?" Dyson frowned at Tamsin. Tamsin just shot a glare at him without saying anything.

" Yeah, we were...emmm...talking...about something." Bo almost bit her tongue.

" Ok..." Dyson nodded hard. He looked at the two girls, then he shook his head, as if he didn't want to get involved in whatever it was between them. " Anyway, I was looking for you guys everywhere. And why hasn't either one of you answered your phones?"

Bo reached into her pocket. Then she realized that she left her phone at Tamsin's place.

" Bad reception?" Tamsin smirked at Dyson, " What is it you want, wolfboy?"

" The Kitsune killer's case." Dyson waved the file folder in his hand.

" Something popped up?" Bo asked as she sat down.

" Well, when you two were gone for Tamsin's...personal business, we've managed to ID the other two victims. Both of them were Kitsunes, and they were both from that prophet family. We've interviewed all the witnesses, friends, family members. Yesterday I found a lead. Two different victim's friend or family member mentioned that a blonde visited the victims a week or so before they disappeared."

" Wait a minute..." Bo said. Something occurred to her, " Hailey, the one that Mei asked me to find, her roommate mentioned a blonde who visited Hailey a week before she disappeared... I wonder if it's the same blonde..."

" You tell me." Dyson said. He took out a few pages from the folder and showed them to Bo and Tamsin. " I called in a favor from a sketch artist. He did a few pictures from the different descriptions I gathered from the witnesses. And here are the results."

Bo took a glance at the pictures, and she was too shock to continue. Tamsin looked through every one of them, but she was as shock as Bo. " Shit!" She cursed.

" That's Lauren!" Bo said after a long pause. " Lauren was the blonde who visited them?"

" I'm afraid so." Dyson said, " Three eye witnesses related to different victims gave the descriptions of her."

" Why would Lauren visit them?" Bo frowned, " I mean, the more important question is, Why would she come out to get involved in this high profile case after she convinced everyone that she died in the raid?"

" Her visits were before the disappearance of the victims. Maybe she was not involved in it at all." Dyson said.

" No, it can't be a coincidence. There is no way she visited more than one of the victims but not involved." Bo said, " Maybe she's looking for the killer too, just like us."

" But how could she have known who was going to disappear?" Dyson said. He paused for a while, as if he was not sure what to say next. " You don't think Lauren did this, do you?" He asked Bo hesitantly.

Bo opened her eyes wide. Before she said anything, Tamsin rolled her eyes at Dyson and said, " The doc? Torture? Come on, Dyson."

" Yeah, you know her, Dyson. She would never torture people like that."

" I'm not saying that she did this. It's just...what's she up to? Has she contacted you lately?" Dyson said.

" No. I have no idea where she is or what she's doing." Bo said.

Dyson nodded. He sat there, thinking.

" Who else knows about this?" Tamsin asked Dyson.

" Just me. The sketch artist doesn't know Lauren, neither did any of the eyewitnesses." Dyson said, " No one can know about this, because everyone else thinks that she's dead."

" Well, it better stay that way then." Tamsin said as she downed a drink.

" Speaking of which, what about the other members of the Kitsune family? I thought Mei said the killer was targeting them." Bo asked.

" The situation is delicate right now." Dyson sighed, " We offered protective custody for potential victims, but the Kitsunes don't want anyone to know who are the members of that family, so there is nothing we can do right now. However, they agreed to contact us immediately if anyone else goes missing."

" No other victims right?"

" So far, only those four." Dyson said, " The killer is probably spooked. He's either laying low somewhere right now. Or...worse, he could have already gotten the information he needed."

" Then how the hell are we going to catch him? We are not going to close this case until we catch him, right?" Bo frowned.

" Yeah, we'll catch him. We'll have to go through the crime scenes, the case files, and everything else we have right now, hopefully we can find some more clues." Dyson said, " I'm gonna go to the coroner's office right now. You two want to come with me?"

" Of course." Bo said, " We haven't really examined the body when we found them. I'd like to take a closer look."

" Whatever." Tamsin rolled her eyes, but she put down the glass and stood up, getting ready to go.

" I guess I'll drive." Dyson said as he glanced at the bottles on the counter.