-Ruarc Brennan-

I was being driven insane.

Not only was my best friend in jail, but my other friends wouldn't even look at me because they thought that I should've fought harder to ensure that Harlen didn't end up in jail. They thought that it was part of my plan, after getting my job at the police station, it would make it easier to ensure that Harlen was behind bars. Nobody listened when I denied this profusely,

Going grocery shopping with Quan was the first hint of normal that I received in a long time. I was able to talk to him about the food on the shelves, and discuss different recipes. I wasn't forced to follow him from a distance, grabbing whatever I recognised on my way past. I didn't need to consider looking like a stalker as I told him the dates on the food he was staring at.

I had almost convinced myself that this was my new normal, food shopping with a blind investigator after work, which seemed pretty normal.

My reality was crushed at three in the morning when I got a call from Quan.

I knew that he was awake, moving around his room, for around ten minutes before I got the call. I had just hoped that he was getting up for a drink, but the vibrations of my phone told me otherwise.

"Hello?" I asked. My throat was dry and croaky, as I'd been resting with my mouth ajar for the past few hours, listening to my favourite CD.

"We got called in," Quan stated. He sounded incredibly grumpy. "I do not like being woken up."

I suppose I had said my thoughts aloud. I coughed awkwardly and nodded, despite him not being able to see me. "I can understand that."

There was a moment of silence before he sighed. "I'll be at yours in ten." He then hung up on me.

I stared at my phone for a moment before throwing it on the bed beside me and looking up at the cracks in the ceiling.

What had gone wrong now? What could be so important that they called Quan in the middle of the night? Quan wasn't really on call. He was just an investigator; he didn't have anything to do with the arresting portion of the police force. He probably hadn't been on site of a crime scene whilst the crime was being committed.

I didn't have long to wait for my answers. Quan arrived at my door exactly ten minutes after he said he would. He had a scowl on his face, but his eyes met mine as soon as I opened the door.

"Kill me," he said before I could open my mouth.

I snorted. "Not a morning person?" My eyes trailed down to his hand which wasn't holding his cane. "I see you already got an energy boost though."

Quan hummed and had a sip of his coffee. "Your denial to kill me is prolonging my suffering."

I shook my head and locked my front door. "My apologies, but killing you is also against my term of contract."

"Worth a shot," Quan muttered. He turned away from me and began to walk down the street. "So, three am murder. How exciting is this?" He did not sound excited.

"Terrifying and worrying actually," I corrected. "How often do you get called in?"

He hummed in thought, his cane bashing the brick wall beside us as we went. Something which I assumed was out of annoyance rather than necessity. "This is the first time."

A shiver went down my spine. This must mean that something pretty serious happened, I didn't want to focus on the worst-case scenarios which were flooding my mind, but some of them were difficult to ignore. The last time Quan was personally sought out was when he was kidnapped. Candice had urged Quan to do his magic trick on the police station and then he went missing. I didn't want anything like that happening again.

I subconsciously took Quan's arm, the one which was holding his cup of coffee. He glanced at me briefly but then turned back to staring at the floor.

"Where is it this time?" I asked, I prayed that it wasn't my old street.

"Kingspave," he answered.

I hummed. I didn't know many people in Kingspave, if anyone at all. I couldn't even be sure that they used to live there. It was looking promising that I didn't know this person.

It took around half an hour of walking to get to Kingspave, which would've been alright had it been daytime. I felt like there was a person lurking within every shadow that we passed, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting victim. Of course, that was alright, since I was here with Quan. But ever since our journey into the woods, I couldn't help but imagine what Quan would be facing if I wasn't here,

The flashing of police lights indicated that we were nearing the scene of the crime. I almost felt sorry for those surrounding us, as the lights must have been flashing for quite some time.

"There you are," Jade said with a sigh. "We've been waiting forever."

"If you had forever, you could've called a taxi," Quan muttered. He pulled out of my grasp and pushed past the officers. I could've used my car, had I been told it was this far away.

The crime scene had an aura of familiarity which I didn't appreciate. I didn't appreciate any part of any crime scene, but this one made my fingers curl into fists. This was eerily familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Who is it?" Quan asked hurriedly.

"Sybil Sinclair, 43, love witch." Kenji creeped up behind me with his clipboard in hand. His hair was a bird's nest, and his glasses were crooked. I supposed he would want to be anywhere else but here.

"Love witch?" I repeated with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't those rare?"

Quan inhaled. "Not really, they're just more secret than others. Or they're very public and people say that they're faking."

Jade moved out of the way, and for the first time I was able to see the witch in question. She had red hair which was in two braids either side of her head and her eyes were shut. Her skin was pale, with all the colour and life drained. She wore a purple silk robe, a white nightie, and there were brown slippers with fur inside. I didn't want to focus on the gashes that were all across her chest. It was partly because it felt improper, and partly because the sight made me a little dizzy.

You wouldn't think that a vampire would be so queasy, but at three in the morning, seeing a woman lying dead in the middle of the street made me disregard logic.

"Was she found out here? How long was she here?" Quan asked.

"Yes, and around forty-five minutes," William grumbled as he checked his watch. "We were all called straight here."

"We can't say for certain how long she's been here yet," Jade corrected. "But it's definitely not been long."

Quan clicked his tongue. "Right, love-witch. There are far too many people who want to kill these kinds of people. That would make investigations extremely difficult. Does she live around here?"

Kenji nodded and pointed in the direction of a house which had flower baskets hanging on either side of the door. The living room light was on, and the multicoloured blur of a television light was visible.

"She was in the living room when she died?" I asked. It was simply my thoughts escaping my lips without any consent, so I didn't feel too embarrassed when Quan turned to me.

"Not necessarily. She could've just kept those on as she went elsewhere, but it's a good possibility." He got to his feet and grabbed my arm, dragging me towards the house. "No offence to her but getting called in at three in the morning-" he stopped talking abruptly. His hand had just touched the door handle, it lingered there for five seconds before he flinched backwards.

"What did you find?" I asked curiously.

His hand tightened around my arm, becoming almost painful. "She was definitely a love witch." He then groaned and closed his eyes. "I will not unsee any of this."

My face warmed and I coughed to fill any awkward silences which could potentially linger. "I'd rather not hear about that." Once again, it was my thoughts leaving my lips without my consent. "Are you going inside?"

Quan inhaled deeply before nodding. Yet, he made no move to enter.

"Quan?" I asked. I was getting concerned. He hadn't reacted like this to any other crime scene, except at the office.

"Sorry, yes." He opened the door and stepped inside.

The decorations assaulted my eyes and made me want to step back out.

The entire house was decorated with bright red fabrics, with accents of pink and white. I didn't know how someone could live in a place so red and bright. Surely, someone who lived here would see nothing but red for the rest of their life.

Quan inhaled deeply again, before coughing. I'd assume the very strong scents of rose and oregano had clogged his throat just as they had done mine.

"You know, if I wasn't told she was a love witch, I would've been able to tell immediately." Quan muttered, touching the wall by the door. "Anyone who enters here wants to wear hazmat suits."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence," I muttered. It was only then I realised that the coffee cup that Quan once held, had disappeared. "Where's your-"

"-you were right about the living room," Quan said.

The living room was just as bad as the hallway and kitchen when it came to both redness and strength of scent. There were so many objects in the room I didn't know where to look.

Quan did though. He immediately walked over to a pink sphere which stood precariously on the mantle. His hand moved to my wrist, his fingers circling around it almost perfectly.

"She was a lunatic," he muttered under his breath. "A powerful lunatic, but a lunatic."

I refrained from making any comment, as I didn't know what Quan now knew. "So, do you know why anyone would want to do it?"

Quan turned to me, his eyes becoming blurrier the more he used his powers. "I thought of a thousand reasons why anyone would want to kill her when I found out that she was a love witch. Now I know she was an unfaithful, conning, blackmailing, biased love-witch, I have a million."

I groaned. "So, that would make it tricker to figure out who killed her." When I first came here, I had been disgusted and annoyed about the fact that my personal time had been interrupted. But I couldn't help being interested. I wanted to learn more about how the police investigated things. I wanted to know more about Quan's powers and thought process.

I was pulled out of my own thoughts as Quan pulled me towards an armchair. His tongue peeked through his lips as he examined it. "I don't want to touch it," he admitted.

"Surely the bottom is clean?" I asked through a laugh.

"I'd hope so, that would be interesting if not." Quan moved to his knees and touched the bottom of the chair, closing his eyes. His face contorted in disgust. "Yeah, she was killed in the living room."

"But by the look on your face, I don't want to know?"

Quan had become almost green. He shook his head and then straightened up, yanking me away from the chair. "We're done in here," he exclaimed. "Whoever enters needs serious protection. I need to go to a car wash."

"You don't have a car," William pointed out.

"I never said I did."

This was extremely humorous to me. I hadn't seen Quan react like this to anything, and I didn't seem to be the only one. The other police officers were looking at him strangely, as though he had grown another head.

"What's up with him?" William asked me. I hadn't actually realised that he was talking to me, not until nobody else answered.

I cleared my throat and turned back to the house. "I think she took love witch to another level." That was all I could say, keeping an inch of professionalism. I was then pulled away from the group and down the street.

"Quarter to four in the morning," Quan stated. "I'm going back home and having a bath, until I'm late for work."

'Was it really that bad?" I asked. "Do you control what you see?"

Quan paused and looked at me. I got the feeling that he could tell exactly where I was; his eyes danced around my face. Usually, he would look straight past my shoulder, or stare at my chest. This time, he was looking at my face. "Ruarc." The way he said my name made me want to melt, which was unusual for me. He then held my forearms. I couldn't tell if he was exaggerating, or if he really had been traumatised by all that he had seen. "Nothing was safe there. Absolutely nothing. I saw it all, because that's all the furniture and walls see. The walls literally have eyes for me,"

My cheeks started to heat up, I couldn't look away from his eyes as he spoke so seriously. The subject was making me uncomfortable, but at the same time, I couldn't help but let my mind wander.

"Okay," I said finally, stepping backwards. "I get your point. You are going home to rid yourself of the image." Was the sun rising? Because it was getting extremely hot.

"How are you controlling yourself?" he asked.

"What?" The word slipped from my mouth. I couldn't tell what I was feeling. The question threw me off guard, and I didn't know what he was talking about. If it was related to the previous conversation, then I was certainly losing my mind.

"Around the blood," he clarified. "You've been around several crime scenes, and you don't seem to have much of an issue with it."

That made a lot more sense. Though, I would've much rather preferred it to be related to the previous conversation. That would've filled me with flustered butterflies and scarlet cheeks, but this would just leave me with a sour taste in my mouth.

"I guess I'm used to it."

Quan's arms dropped and he spun on his heels. "I'm not going to ask further." I was glad that he was so straightforward. It also made me feel as though he could sense something was wrong.

I was only used to blood because I had been around many injuries in my time. I wasn't able to feed on any of the injured. That would've been inadvisable, if not a way for me to get killed. Unless clearly specified, we weren't allowed to eat the injured. The very fact that we had to drink blood to survive, made my previous employment easier.

"Why didn't we take a car?" Quan asked after a while. It felt strange for him to begin conversations. It had been my job for several weeks.

"Because we weren't given a car and I'm stupid." It was a very simple answer, but it was the truth. I knew where we were headed, and we probably would've been here in a third of the time if I had the common sense to use my car. It wasn't something that I thought of using often, I barely needed it when I wanted to go places, I only really used it for the human facade. It might have come in useful when driving around with a human.

"I wouldn't call you stupid." That was probably as close to a compliment as I was getting. "But it would've saved time and my poor legs."

"I wouldn't say your legs are poor," I said with a smirk.

Quan scoffed and shook his head, his cane hit the wall every few seconds, even harder when he moved his head. "Well, I think it's your time to pick a date." He switched his cane to his left hand and poked me in the side. "We went to the grocery shop for my go."

I snorted. "That was a date? I should've dressed better for it." I honestly had no idea what I could possibly do for a date. Considering the level is going food shopping, I suppose I couldn't go far wrong.

"Well, I don't really see anything wrong with what you wore. I don't even know if I could remember what you wore if I tried, might not have even seen it."

"Does that get frustrating?" I asked.

"What?"

"Going from being able to see, to not being able to see? Is it like falling asleep?" That was the best guess that I had of what he could possibly be experiencing. I wanted to know if his days got jumbled up, if his life was just a haze.

"It can get a bit frustrating at times. I can overcome that." He sighed. "I've been doing it since I was a child, and even when I had the opportunity to stop, I got too curious. Curiosity really did kill the cat, you could say."

"Has satisfaction revived it yet?" I wondered aloud.

"Not really, well, not yet." He rolled his shoulders and straightened his back ever-so-slightly. "I'm sure that it will. The more I do this, the more satisfaction I get from solving cases, then maybe it will be enough to revive it."

He hesitated before he said 'it'. I wondered if he was going to say 'me'. I didn't know which would've been more concerning. The fact that he covered up his feelings, or the fact that he didn't feel alive.

"Is that why you got the job? The satisfaction of solving crimes?" I asked.

"Part of it, yes. There is also the main reason of helping people. I didn't have the best upbringing, obviously, and I would be able to stop it from happening to others."

That reason was extremely different from my own reason for joining the police force. It made me feel terrible, but I couldn't help my past.