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Cops loitered, giving us cursory nods of acknowledgement. Well, Ryder anyway. I was still the new face on the block and largely ignored.
    Detective Coleman didn’t look pleased to see me when he stopped us outside number 52b. He raked his gaze over me, measuring me for any sign that I was about to run screaming from the premises. Apparently satisfied, he slid his gaze to Ryder. Coleman was probably still angry because I was a) not entirely human and b) not telling him the truth.
    “I need to warn you. It’s not pretty.” Coleman’s voice held an abrasive edge as though he’d been up all night.
    “Forensics finished?” Ryder asked, as if not caring in the least for Coleman’s warning.
    “Yeah. We’re just waiting for you to take a look.” He looked down at me, clearly not trusting that I could handle any of this. I grinned brightly. “Perhaps Miss Henderson should sit this one out?”
    Ryder shoved my shoulder in a macho display of affection. “She’s good.”
    I tried to plaster something resembling professionalism on my face but failed at hiding my smile. Coleman pressed his lips together, biting back whatever he might have next, and opened the door.
    A stench like pennies and sewers wafted over us. I coughed and covered my mouth and nose with the crook of my arm. Whether it was the size of the room or the heat, I wasn’t sure, but the carnage appeared ten times worse than the previous murder. The victim, or what was left of her, sat slumped against the bed. Much of her skin had been peeled from her muscles in methodical strips. Those strips had dried and coiled where they’d been arranged in orderly rows beside her. She’d been butchered—sliced up like a piece of meat.
    My stomach lurched. I resisted my gag reflex and briefly closed my eyes. A flurry of guilt and fear crowded my thoughts.
    Ryder hesitated ahead of me, unsure where to step. He glanced back, covering his mouth and nose in the same way I had. “Watch your footing.”
    I looked down and stepped gingerly around the shriveled pieces of flesh. “Jesus...” My vision wobbled. Tears blurred the vivid shades of claret and burgundy into a crimson river. The woman in the file, the bright young woman, didn’t resemble the slumped body. My brain struggled to put the two of them together and in doing so, reminded me I could have prevented this.
    My throat clogged. I staggered and reached for the wall. I tried to breathe, but an intangible weight crushed my chest. I turned and shoved past Coleman. Only outside the room could I breathe again. I didn’t need to read the chain to know what she’d been through. He’d cut into her, probably with his claws. I remembered how sharp they were. He’d meticulously removed her skin, piece by piece. I could only pray she’d died quickly.
    Coleman and Ryder followed a few minutes later. Ryder wiped beads of perspiration from his face. He sucked in a few fresh breaths through gritted teeth and then looked me over.
    Coleman held out a plastic bag, the sides stretched by the weight of the chain inside. I snatched it from him and dumped it on the floor at my feet. Perspiration tickled down the back of my neck. I dabbed at my forehead with a cool hand, not bothering to hide my tremors.
    “It’ll be a marine chain,” Coleman said. “Likely from the nearby docks. We found traces of salt on the previous one, along with demon DNA. This looks identical. Might even be cut from the same length. We’ll know more once forensics is finished with it.”
    I made the usual cut and covered my fingers in blood before wrapping them around the chain. No amount of mental preparation could have shielded me from the horror I witnessed when the metal memories flooded my thoughts. She’d died quickly, but not nearly quick enough. He’d made sure of that. He had a knack for keeping human bodies alive against the odds. Over and over, he’d brought me back from the precipice of death.
    I released the chain and stumbled back