Dane's a Decrypter down on his luck -- after accidentally dispatching the wrong creature, he's sent to a small town where the cryptids he hunts are sparse. Crypt Coffee becomes his business front, but instead of a thrilling new mission on the side, he's stuck sending ghosts back to where they came from. Dane can annoy customers, at least, and tries to scare off Professor Sean Sanderson when he starts poking around too much.<br><br>But Sean isn’t about to stay away. Not when he hears about the murder of a former student, and definitely not if young, exciting Dane has information about it. But the more he allows himself to get dragged into this supernatural world of monsters and ghosts, the more the danger escalates. And if Sean and Dane aren’t careful, tracking down a murderer who can use magic might just get them killed.

Bad Seed

Dane slid into the seat across from John and leaned back.


“Hah! You are here,” said John, looking up briefly from where he was feeding the owl. An empty coffee cup sat in front of him. “Good to see you again, Dane.”


“You, too. It’s been a while. Over a year.”


“I saw you seven months ago,” said John, then paused as he calculated and realized Dane wasn’t talking about the last time they’d gone after a rat king. He grinned and rolled his eyes. “You’re a horny bastard. Is this your way of asking me to spend the night at your place?”


“When have you ever spent the night?”


The owl hopped toward the end of the table and peered around at the customers, who gawped. Dane couldn’t remember what its name was, but he knew it was doing more than being cute. It was searching for threats, information, whatever it could get.


Chapter 18