Rose

It was strange waking up by myself, no Dimitri beside me, no Aly calling for me, needing me to make her breakfast. Dimitri couldn't stay long before he had to rush off to St Vladimir's. True to his word, Dimitri called me in the morning as I was getting ready for my first day of my internship. Aly was excited about starting a new school and making new friends – I had to smile at her. I missed her so much my chest ached.

I put on the skirt suit, made breakfast and left the house to be at work by eight am. When I walked in, there were multiple people rushing around, papers flying coffee spilling. I walked to the reception, checked in and waited for induction to get my pass. It was twelve when I called Lissa after feeling the darkness well up inside her. I took as much as I could take when I went into the lunch room and sat at a table by myself. I talked to my friends for a while, asked about Aly, before saying goodbye and hanging up, fighting back the tears.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Asked a human guy as he pulled a chair out and sat down. I looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah. It's my daughters first day at a new school." He gave me a smile. "She's with her dad while I'm here." He nodded and took out his lunch.

"Bad breakup?" He asked sounding hopeful. I looked at him and shook my head.

"No - it's complicated." He gave me a smile but didn't push for any more. He looked at me and took a bite of his apple.

"Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I'm interning here for my uni credits." He leaned back in his chair.

"Interesting. You don't look old enough – to have a kid and be in university I mean."

"Yeah, Aly was unexpected alright." I laughed.

"Kids are hard, at least you had the father around." I gave him a smile. He seemed to catch my discomfort and swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"I now, it's okay. Like I said – it's complicated." He smiled.

"Sorry, we don't get a lot of pretty interns in here these days. Especially not females in a criminal law firm."

"Honestly? I was un-majored – I just did prelaw, dabbled in all types of law but didn't know which to major in. I got an amazing job offer but I needed Criminal Law."

"That's interesting – Can I asked where?" I shook my head. "Top secret. I like that." He laughed. I looked up at the clock.

"I better go." He gave me a smile as I walked by him.

"Hathaway!" I turned when I heard my name being called by my boss. "Come in here, we need some fresh eyes." I swallowed and walked into the office with glass walls. There were pictures scattered around the table, two white boards filled with messy writing. Beside them there were boards with pictures hung up. I looked around the room and saw three frustrated men all leaning back in their chairs.

"Great! Why not bring in the intern?" One exclaimed, leaning forwards and burying his head in his hands. I fought the urge to talk back and roll my eyes.

"We've been trying to piece these together. The MO seems to be the same, the time frames match and logically if any of our theories are correct that means were dealing with multiple killers."

I looked at the pictures, went through the documents that were handed to me for what felt as a long time, until I looked up.

"Well yeah. I mean – you don't have multiple killers, you have two - a partnership." Everyone in the room looked at me. You have two killers who take turns being the dominant one in random partners. That's why the evidence and murders seem to be random – they're too random to not be connected." I continued and went over to the pictures. "See here? That the first killers' signature, a small symbol tucked behind the ear but then you have this here-" I pointed towards the hands being clasped over the heart of the victim. "It shows who was the dominate. Killer two was dominate in these ones while the other was in these." I pointed to the last picture. "That's why this one is different - two dominants can't stay civil for very long. They argued about who got to kill this one, leaving no symbols –tells if you will."

I stood in silence. I looked around the room and pushed my hair off my shoulder.

"I mean or not-"

"No, that's good." My boss – Mr. Kelly said, pointing a finger at me as he walked toward the boards. "You do have a very keen eye." I gave him an awkward smile and turned to leave, my pony tail swaying as I did so until it wrapped around my shoulder.

"Rose?" I turned my head towards my boss. "Do you know these victims?" I looked back at the pictures then towards my boss. I shook my head.

"No, sir, why?"

"They have tattoos similar to you on their neck too." He pushed a folder towards me. I walked to the table and opened it. They did. They all did. I closed the folder and dropped it on the table.

"It must be common – I thought it was unique." I left the room.

Someone was killing female Dhampirs.