- 39 -

Once again, an insufferable man acted as a roadblock for Pandora. It seemed to be a recurring theme throughout her life. In fairness, Pandora reckoned she would find women equally unbearable if society ever decided to grant them any kind of power. There were so few people that she liked after first meeting them. Most just plucked her nerves and got in her way. It happened so often she should have grown accustomed to it, but she never has. Perhaps she was immune to immersion therapy.

"And why can't I go past?" she asked.

The man stood directly in front of the open doorway, arms crossed like some kind of bouncer. Was it an attempt at intimidation? It wouldn't work. He looked more like the spoiled heir to an oil baron than someone who's seen a fight in their life, let alone been in one. His clothes gave it away. Instead of a uniform, he wore a suit that would have cost more than a year's wage for a grunt security guard.

"Passengers are meant to stay in their rooms at the moment. But even if you were free to roam the ship, the morgue has always been staff only."

Pandora rolled her eyes and lifted her key chain, the badge Allister gave her hanging in front. She had been looking for him for a few hours without luck. She was sure she'd find him inside, once the guard checked her credentials and let her through. She would rather meet with him under better circumstances, but he was sure to be examining the body already and time was running short. The morgue would overflow at this rate; they needed to end the hunt soon.

"What? You need me to tell you which room is yours."

Pandora stared at the man, then down at the badge. "Are you fucking stupid or something?"

"What?! How dare—"

"Is there a problem?" Another man rushed out of the morgue to calm the situation. His uniform would have given him away as a security officer, but Pandora already recognized him anyway. He was the suck-up that Allister had been patrolling with a few nights prior, though she couldn't even guess at his name.

"Yes," Pandora answered. "While your guard dog is barking at me, people are dying."

The suck-up looked at the door guard and sighed. "Come with me. I'll show you to the body," he said, then turned his attention toward the man. "You see anyone else with that badge, let them do whatever they want. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

The guard dropped his head as Pandora walked past. Just like a yapping dog to put his tail between his legs once the master yells. He needed it though. Discipline comes from training, and it was clear he had zero of either.

"Pandora, right? I'm sorry about him. Allister informed us about you, but we've had to start pulling passengers to help with certain tasks."

"That explains the location of his head relative to his ass. So, it's gotten that bad? How many men has your crew lost?"

"Only the four from the smoking room incident, but this whole situation has grown out of hand. Now that there's a second youkai on the loose we're overwhelmed." The officer continued forward a few steps before he turned back and noticed Pandora had stopped dead.

"Are you sure?" she muttered.

"No direct sighting yet, but the attacker was identified as a succubus."

Lily, you wouldn't. You're not that kind of person. No, there's some other explanation.

He crossed the remaining space to the mortuary cabinets and swung one of the doors open. The air filled with the chill of the refrigerated storage, but Pandora's blood had long since frozen over.

"Allister confirmed it?"

Pandora's voice came out so weak she wasn't sure the officer had heard her until he answered back, "I've been trying to reach him, but he hasn't answered his radio. I'm guessing his went up. The salt water wreaks havoc on these things. Though, I admit I was worried when a body was found—" The man grunted as he dragged the sliding drawer out into the room. "But as you can see, it's not him."

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That much was true. The body was skinny and pale as milk, the opposite of Allister's mountainous form.

"Who made the identification then?"

"One of the passengers. I think the name was Gamal. Apparently, he was tracking a succubus in Coventry a few days before the ship left. He believes it snuck aboard as a passenger."

Pandora was careful to keep her expression neutral. She knew for a fact that succubus had made it onto the ship, and she wanted that to stay secret. Lilith didn't do this. Pandora refused to believe she did. Knowing that gorilla, he probably attributed the body to the first thing he could think of without any evidence.

Turning her attention to the corpse, Pandora attempted to find any other explanation for the cause of death. At first glance, it showed no sign of physical trauma. That made it unlikely the kotengu was involved. It would have torn the man to shreds, or worse.

"He's nude. Is that the way he was found?"

"No, ma'am. He was dressed when discovered, though the clothes were pulled away from his pelvis."

It would have been better to examine the body in the state it was found in, but they had already undressed it and there was no going back now. All they left it was a folded sheet covering its manhood. Pandora gripped the corner of the cloth and ripped it free. A grimace grew on her face.

Seems I was wrong about no sign of physical trauma.

Deep purple and blue patches covered the skin around the man's penis. "I'm guessing this was his evidence for a succubus attack," Pandora said.

"I would think so."

"Let me ask you a question, kid."

"My name is Stanley." The man's voice held thinly veiled irritation. She had clearly struck a nerve. Not her first time and not her last.

"All right then. Stanley, you ever have a woman ride your dick so hard it bruised your whole pelvis?"

Despite the cold, his face glowed like molten steel. That was more or less the reaction Pandora had expected. From their first meeting, she had guessed he was the uptight, rules matter sort. It only followed that he would be prudish as well; all the more fun to tease.

"No need to be shy. I wouldn't say no to letting a beautiful woman have her way with me either, but I don't think that's what happened here. The blue patches almost look like they were done with a fist."

Pandora ran her finger along the man's hip, dragging it over the discolored flesh. She pulled her hand away and examined her fingertip before showing it to Stanley. "And the purple patches seem to spread."

His eyes went wide, then after a moment of hesitation, he swiped his pointer finger across the skin. When he pulled it away, he rubbed it against his thumb, transferring the purple hue across his fingertips.

"Makeup?"

"I don't think so. It feels more like a dye. Could even be crushed berries or some sort. But it doesn't really matter."

The important part was that someone wanted it to look like a bruise. They would have wanted the skin to appear pale and dry as well. Pandora's eye scoured the body for the method behind that trick. Finding nothing unusual, she circled the table to examine the other side.

"What's that there?" she asked. "At the base of his neck."

A brown strip of fabric peaked out from his back where the trapezius muscle sloped down into the shoulder blade. The officer cocked his head to the side, then leaned in for a closer look.

"I think it's an adhesive bandage," he said.

"No one noticed that when you were undressing him?"

"Or they didn't think it was important."

Pandora reached out and ripped the cloth strip free revealing a long thin gash in the skin. She pressed her pinky finger against the wound, then slid it inside. The digit sunk into his flesh until it was buried to her palm. Flexing, she was able to press a lump up through the corpse's neck.

The officer's hand slowly rose into place over his mouth. "It leads right to his carotid artery. That's why the body was pale."

"It was drained of blood, not semen." Pandora knew he understood already, but couldn't resist elaborating. She enjoyed the way he was beginning to take the same color as the corpse.

"I don't think a youkai killed this man at all. Who found the body?"

The officer took a moment to compose himself. Pandora had seen the look in his eyes many times before. Disbelief. Too many hunters take for granted that a youkai can kill but act shocked when a human commits the same sin.

"Two women," he finally answered. "A member of the kitchen staff who was out delivering lunches and a passenger who was staying in the closest room."

"Which room?"

"B twenty seven"

Fuck.

Pandora knew the room instantly. She pressed a hand into her pocket and gripped her key, not needing to pull it out to confirm the number etched into the tag. B-27 was her room.

Lilith's room.

Pandora pulled her finger from the corpse's neck and turned to the officer, nodding at him. "Thank you for your help, Stanford. I'm afraid I need to take my leave now."

She started for the door when a shout called from behind her.

"Wait!"

"I'll be sure to let Allister know how helpful you've been when I see him next."

There was no time to wait. Lilith had been the one to find that body. The one meant to look like the victim of a succubus. That wasn't a coincidence. It was targeted.

She must be terrified; sure someone's coming to hunt her down. Probably thinking it will be me.

The thought made Pandora sick, but how she felt didn't matter. Not until she was sure that Lilith was safe.