I met Kai in the garage next to the long line of black range rovers, shuffling through the bunch of keys, we randomly selected one.
"Ready to go?" he asked me as we stuffed our bags in the boot.
"Yep you're driving and I'm going to catch up on some sleep" I threw him the keys and he caught them effortlessly.
As we were rounding the car, another came in squealing the tyres as they parked up.
"Well, well what do we have hear Cassandra and Kai you two are partnered up? what a surprise" I could the sarcasm in Kyle's voice as he steps out of the car. Kyle was tall with chestnut brown hair that he spikes up, brown eyes and he carries most of his muscle in his upper body making him slow.
He never got over the fact that Kai beat him in combat class and so he held a grudge, I only receive his sarcasm and his pointless threats as I am Kai's friend.
I groaned in annoyance at the interruption and turned around to greet them plastering a fake smile on my face.
" Chloe and Kyle it's so nice to see you on second thought no it isn't." using much-needed sarcasm of my own. Chloe was a blonde bimbo that needed saving all the time, she became a hunter because her father was on the board of higher up, that help run the place, she always wears inappropriate clothing to go out on missions and her voice grates on your nerves.
She has a problem with me because I'm Kai's friend and she's harboured a crush on him for a while so she sees me as a rival for his attention.
As Kai and Kyle sized each other up me and Chloe did the same.
They thought we were competition for being the best Hunters, although considering what we do I don't think it warrants a competition, it's too dangerous the work we do, but none the less they carry it on while me and Kai, for the most part, ignore them.
"So they partnered up you two huh? what job did you get?"Chloe asked in her to sweet voice.
"Yes, Simms insisted that we were partnered up obviously he has a good eye." Kai grinned putting emphasis on insisted.
I saw Kyle narrow his eyes in anger at Kai's obvious bait and I can see this turning into a fist fight and we had to go.
"Kai, let's go and stop wasting our time with these two morons" I commanded, getting irritated from the lack of sleep.
"How dare you call us that!" Chloe yelled out her face a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
I saw Kai going to the driver's side and starting the engine.
"Oh, I dare I've not had a lot of sleep so I'm very irritable so be careful with your next words if I were you." Seeing the threat in my eyes she shut her mouth and stepped away.
"Good choice" I answered coldly, I got in the car and we were off.
A couple of hours passed and I felt better for getting some sleep in the car, we pulled up to a motel called Moonlight.
"Do want to grab a bite to eat before we get stuck in?" I asked Kai on the way to the reception area.
"Sure thing it's lunch time and I could eat a burger" he grinned.
Kai was an attractive man with shaggy brown hair that had layers, emerald green eyes and his body was in shape, Not as bulky as Kyle's but just the right amount of muscle.
"Don't you ever eat healthily?" I asked him, I don't understand how he looks the way he does with the body he has when he constantly eats burgers, steak and any other type of meat known to man.
" Hey, I'm a guy and a guy needs meat," he said, Shaking my head with a smile on my face.
Opening the door to the reception area a kind looking old lady sat behind a nice looking oak desk.
"Excuse me ma'am, but do you have any rooms available?" I enquired.
"Why yes we do, a room for a lovely couple like you we have just the thing"
I blushed and Kai coughed.
"But we're not-"
"Oh don't be shy it's completely obvious" she interrupted me handing me a key for a room.
"But like I said we're---" trying to give her back the key.
"Now don't you worry I've seen and heard it all before so don't be ashamed my dear" again I was cut off and given the key back.
I looked to Kai my eyes pleading for him to help me, but he shrugged looking amused and I narrowed my eyes at him, 'what an ass.'
The old lady was still going on and on about it's ok to share a room if you're a couple and that there is no shame in it blah blah blah.
My annoyance was flaring because this old woman wouldn't listen still droning on.
"...... Oh and make sure you use protection you're still young and having a baby at a young age is a lot of work."
My eyes widened when she started to give us 'The Talk' at our age's heat crept into my cheeks with embarrassment and I heard Kai started to cough.
" Will you please shut up and listen to me, lady!" I shouted it was the only way to get her to listen otherwise we would not be getting anywhere.
"Look, lady, first we are NOT a couple, second WE are in our mid-twenties and don't need 'The Talk' and third we want a room with TWO single beds or a room next to each other." I snapped.
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five minutes later the old lady gave us a room so it looks like we will be sharing since all the rooms were taken apparently.
Getting our stuff from the car we were in room 301 on the second floor, it had two single beds, a bathroom, and a table to work at, the wallpaper looked like it had seen better days.
" I'll go and get some food, what do you want?" Kai asked me setting his bag down on his designated bed.
"Jacket potato with cheese and a side salad, after we've eaten we need to get to work," I replied.
"Ok I'll be quick don't want you getting any more irritable than you already are" he teased.
I narrowed my eyes at him and folded my arms, "what does that mean?"
With a smirk on his face, he said: "it means whenever you're tired or hungry you have this tendency to snap at people."
"Oh shut up and get my food."
"See irritable" he started to laugh and I grabbed the closest thing to me which was a bible and threw it at him and he quickly ran out the door still laughing.
A few hours later we were at the police station dressed in suits, I had a pantsuit on the colour navy blue with a white blouse and my hair tied back in a ponytail, Kai basically had the same with a white dress shirt, we always had to have one on hand when going out on an assignment encase we had to go the police to see the reports or they had to fill us in on the investigation.
We walked in and went to the front desk, the phones were ringing off the hook, there was a man handcuffed to the chair to my right wearing a black AC/DC t-shirt black jeans and boots.
"Excuse me I need to talk to officer Cortez about the investigation on Mr and Mrs Jones."
The woman on desk duty looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but answering the phones.
"Yes I just need to know who is asking?" the women although polite but wary since we looked quite young, but she was shocked when we provided our badges.
"I'm agent Amanda Halls and this is my Partner Alex Roberts" I informed the woman she quickly got on the phone to get officer Cortez down to reception.
Whenever we go out on an assignment we never under any circumstances use our real names, because technically we don't exist even the name we gave the old women at the hotel was fake, the whole reason was to keep our secret society well a secret.
Officer Cortex was a short balding man who thinks he could keep his youth by having a mustache which only emphasized his balding head and a potbelly courtesy of a lot of doughnuts I assume.
" I didn't think the FBI would send someone like you two for a homicide case?" He asked raising a brow.
"Well there has been other case's across the country like this and it's better if we deal with it no offense," Kai told him in an authoritative voice.
" None taken although the case is weird like super weird, there didn't seem to be any indication of forced entry the locks were perfectly fine and haven't been tampered with the only thing out place was the fact that there bedroom door handle was missing and the window in their room was shattered and the glass was everywhere weather or not that was due to the storm it's something to look into,the only reason we found out about them was the fact the brother was dropping off his niece and he found them like that, also they found a substance on the floor which we are running through the database at the moment"
"Did the little girl see anything?" I asked I couldn't possibly think what that little girl was going through if she saw what happened to her parents knowing her parents were dead was bad enough but to see what happened to them, poor girl will need therapy for years.
"Thankfully no, she just went straight to her room, when her uncle saw what happened to her parents he got her out of there and called the police." He sighed with relief.
We walked through a couple of doors to get to an office I'm guessing it was Officer Cortez's.
He showed us the file and the box of what little evidence they could collect.
" Did both victims suffer the exact same thing with the slice's?" I asked him, he was at his desk going through and cataloging everything.
" Yes, they did both were cut up and down the body in all the soft places to maximise the pain and blood loss,I figured they were cut using a knife and not from the shards of glass that were scattered all over the place, although the autopsy reports say that there were tiny fragments of glass in both victims it wouldn't cause the amount of blood loss that they received."
" And have there been any other incidents like this in that house?" I enquired.
" Not to my knowledge"
I looked at Kai and nodded my head to signal that we should look into past occupants on that house.
"I'm sorry to ask this Officer Cortez but would you mind getting us some coffee we've been driving for hours?" Kai asked, Whenever we weren't on an assignment he would be easy and relaxed but when we get to work he's all business.
"Sure thing." When he left I turned back to Kai knowing he asked the Officer to leave for a reason.
" What is it? What did you find?"
" That substance they want to get analyzed is sulfur, they left it in the box or I'm guessing they took some to get analyzed but there doesn't seem to be a lot of it and have you noticed that the slices on the victim's body are identical I think we're dealing with a violent ghost here."
I checked the pictures and saw that he was right they were identical.
"So we need to take that into consideration when we're trying to figure out who that ghost is and add it to the things we need to search on."
Packing away the file and the evidence we were about to leave when Officer Cortez came back with our coffee's.
"Thank you, Officer Cortez, for helping our investigation. Unfortunately, we do have to head off but we'll take the coffee with us. Thank you again for your cooperation." I smiled at him and grabbed my coffee Kai shook the man's hand and grabbed his cup.
When we got outside I relaxed a little pretending to be FBI agents always was an adrenalin rush but if anyone ever wanted to confirm we were who we said we were we simply give them a card with the director's number on it and he confirms it.
"So we need to figure out who this ghost is, and look into the past occupants on that house am I right?" Kai asked me going round to the driver's door.
" Yep, I want to know as much as possible before we go into that house."
" Don't tell me we're going to have to do an all nighter?" He groaned.
"If that's what it take's, how do you handle things when you and Riley go out on assignments?"
He smiled "How do you think we handle it? we're guys we're more for the action than sitting at a computer."
I sighed it's any wonder they both are still alive, although I'm friends with both it would hurt me more if Kai ever got killed being childhood friends and all that.
"Your an idiot and I am going to kick both your's and Riley asses when we get back to the institute there a reason why we follow the rules you know."
We pulled up the motel and got out of the car, I went to the vending machine to grab a bottle or Dr Pepper.
"Hey just because you do things your way doesn't mean everyone else has too, besides you say that you can kick my ass I know you've always bested me growing up in combat class but it's been a while and I think I can kick yours" He teased me his eyes lit up with a challenge and I returned it.
" Fine since we're going to be partners for a while why don't we do things my way and I'll challenge you to a sparring match when we get back home, deal?" I suggested.
leaning against the vending machine with his arms crossed and his muscles stretching the white fabric that was his shirt he contemplated my request.
" Ok, I accept your challenge any chance I have to hand you your cute little ass is a must" He smirked at me.
' Cute little ass' I blushed at his comment not realizing that he stepped closer waiting for me to confirm our deal.
" Fine then it's a deal" his eyes had a sparkle in them with an emotion that passed quickly because he turned away and told me he'd meet me upstairs, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and tried not to analyse my racing heartbeat at his nearness moments ago and the comment he made.
I needed to focus on the case apparently I was known back at the institute as the best in my generation from all the others that were in my class, cool, precise and don't let the emotions get in the way of work, but so far all I've done is let emotions get to me, was it the fact that a little girl lost her parents or the fact that I was working with Kai and he made it so easy for me to lose control and feel things that I've never felt before.