Chapter One-Hundred-and-Seventy-Three
Even though they had eliminated almost all bloodfiends in Moonport, finding the Golden Nail by his melody was like searching for a needle in a stack of needles, and the compass just kept pointing them back towards the house where Cassius Bello had died.
The fundamental difference inherent to the melodies of bloodfiends meant that they were easy to locate, but for Adam’s search of the serial killer, he was essentially just searching for the set of emotions he had noticed. And though melodies had some unique flavour to them that he could distinguish, it was proving harder than he had initially assumed.
Perhaps if the city had been overrun by ghouls and lesser bloodfiends it would have been easy enough, but we’ve ensured the survival of many of the city’s people, which has the unfortunate side-effect of obscuring the Golden Nail’s presence from my power.
By the time Adam had swept the Pleasure, Cloth, Market, and Wine districts, it had become dark. He’d been flying through the air while focusing his blood sense on a small area so that he could pick up everything in one pass. But it wasn’t enough.
Kat had returned to the crime scene to alert the guards of the new victim they’d found, as well as to ask Cassius Bello’s girlfriend more in-depth about his habits, to try and figure out when he’d witnessed the Golden Nail.
Adam landed atop one of the shops on the bridge to the Wine district where Kat was waiting for him. She hadn’t yet turned into a bloodfiend beast, but it would be any moment now.
“I think I know when Cassius spotted the Golden Nail,” Kat said. “According to the girlfriend, he always went out just before it got dark. She thought it was to catch the sunset, but I find that hard to believe. It is possible the Golden Nail always strikes around dusk, perhaps to minimise the risk of encountering anyone, but it seems doubtful that he would stay out until the bloodfiends start to roam.”
Adam was glad she’d at least found some kind of clue, since he’d come up empty-handed. He hadn’t even found any new bloodfiends during his search.
“Maybe he will be more bold with less of them around,” Adam remarked.