Yeah, she could, but right now she didn't want to think about that part of herself She wanted her life back the way it'd been before Xypher had changed it. Most of all, she wanted to be free of the pain lacerating her heart.
It didn't take her long to reach the crime scene. The police lights were glaring in the darkness.
She got out and headed for Tate, who was standing alone, staling at the covered body. "Don't you ever take a day off?"
"Not when the kill is this freaky." He looked past her shoulder. "Where's-"
"He's gone. Let's leave it at that, okay?"
By his expression she could tell he was taken aback by the news, but he didn't press it. "Jane Doe. Same exact wounds as Gloria and our guy in the Market who had gas that spontaneously combusted him into flames. Want a closer look?"
"Like a screwdriver through my eye socket. Sure, let's have a look-see."
"Ooo, welcome back, Ms. Snark. I've missed you."
Simone didn't comment as he uncovered the body and she took a look at the poor woman. Tate was right, and as she bent down, an unmistakable trace odor hit her.
Kaiaphas.
The woman's body reeked of the demon.
She closed her eyes as they began to turn and forced herself to calm down. So Xypher's brother had been the killer they were looking for all this time. Surely Xypher had smelled him, too. Why hadn't he told her?
She rose slowly to her feet. "You're going to need the body to spontaneously combust again, Tate."
"Yeah ... I need something better than that."
Simone looked up above them. There was a house with an eave that was loose.
That should do the trick.
She moved Tate back with her arm an instant before she used her powers to dislodge it further.
It came crashing down on the body, decapitating it. "Problem solved."
Tate gaped at her. He held his hand Up. "I don't want to know what you just did. My report is complicated enough."
Simone started to respond, but the sensation of being watched returned to her. It crawled over her skin with a malicious intent.
This time, because of her powers, she could pinpoint it. "You'll be fine, Tate."
She stepped back as the photographer came running to take more pictures. While Tate dealt with him and the police officers, she slipped away into the darkness toward the source of her discomfort.
"Kaiaphas," she called. "I know you're there."
He appeared directly behind her, sniffing her hair. "You smell like cattle and demon. Have you any idea how provocative that is?"
"Great. I have demon pheromone. Just what I've always wanted."
Kaiaphas laughed. "Xypher didn't tell you anything about your family, did he?"
"No."
"Your father, Palackas, was one of the most brutal killers we've ever known. Before he was enslaved, he was known to ravage entire villages, killing women and children and anyone who got in his way."
"You're lying!"
"No I'm not. Why do you think his master was so determined to have him back? He was too dangerous to ever be unleashed."
He was lying and she knew it. "My father wasn't like that. He was a good man."
Kaiaphas grabbed her by the head and whispered something she couldn't understand.
In her mind, she saw her father as a young man. No, not a man. He was a demon. His eyes were red as fire, his teeth tagged and sharp, as he stormed through an ancient village killing everyone he saw.
How could this be?
"I knew Palackas had spawned. I just wasn't sure it was you. You smelled like your mother . . . but there was no scent of Palackas on you."
"How do you know what my mother smelled like?"
"I was there, Simone. Don't you remember?"
She gasped as she went back to that night. She was again in the backseat, looking out the window.
There were two men . . .
No, there was a third. He'd leaned down and snatched her mother's necklace from around her neck. Then he'd turned as if sensing her. Frozen, she couldn't move. All she could do was pray that the headrest on the seat blocked her from his view.
Then the police sirens had pierced the air.
The men in the store had scattered.
No, they had vanished where they stood . . .
Unadulterated rage tore through her. "You bastard!"
He laughed, "Make it look like a human death, my master had said. If Palackas wants to live like one, he can die like one. And so he did. I killed his family knowing he wouldn't live without them. A mighty demon taken down by a single gunshot through his head . . . but you know that, don't you? You found his body."
Shrieking in outrage. Simone tinned on him and blasted him with one of die energy bursts Xypher had shown her.
Kaiaphas dodged it and laughed. "You didn't really think such a puny trick would work on me?" He slapped her hard. "You know why your mother never came to see you after her death? I ate her soul, just as I ate your brother's. And now, I'm going to taste yours,"
"Taste this." She head-butted him in the lips, splitting them open.
He staggered back. Letting the power she'd inherited from her father course through her, she scissor-kicked him, then punched him hard enough in the gut to lift him off his feet.
Kaiaphas's skin started boiling as those serrated fangs came out. He dodged her next punch and lacked her in the side.
Lifting her by the neck, he threw her down on the ground. Out of nothing, he manifested a sword.