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

“No, sorry.” Big Frank seemed genuinely apologetic, like he figured they wanted it only for decent purposes. “Police dropped by a few days ago, very interested in her, too. I gave it to them.”


“The fuck does any of this mean?” asked Dane, pissed. He sat on the floor across from Sean, eating Chinese takeout he was surprised Sean had actually agreed to. Maybe he let himself live a little on Saturdays. “Witches, now a Bigfoot? And why hasn’t the Order said a damn thing to me about either?”


“Well, they both were in the database,” said Sean, annoyingly eating everything with the chopsticks first try. Dane was irritated—he’d assumed the professor wouldn’t be able to handle them. “You justdidn’t look.”


“After we’re done eating.” Sean grabbed the bottle of rice wine Dane had opened and set in the middleof the floor, raised it to his mouth, and took a drink. “This really should be warm.”


Chapter 45