Page 85 of Blood Code

“What is he trying to distract you from?” Dmitri asked, taking a seat. “Or is the Ghost hunting him too, and he wants you to find her before she finds him?”

“That would make sense,” Nika said. “He knows enough about the Order to obtain that footage. And if the organization is as secretive as it seems, he might be a member.”

“Right.” I set down my glass for a moment. “So which do we hunt first?”

“Why can’t it be both?” Mikhail asked, perching on the edge of a desk. “You still have Keira digging into the mole, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then let her. We can investigate the Ghost and the Order. Didn’t you have something to share about the ghost, Nika?”

“Yes.”

Her attention moved from my brother to me, then around the room, as if she were deciding whom to trust. But everyone here was either family or one of my trusted men.

She twisted her fingers together before connecting her laptop to the TV.

“I’ve been researching paranormal creatures, and I found several that might fit our Ghost.”

Nika opened her presentation. The first slide showed an illustration of a screaming woman dressed in white.

“First, the banshee. A female spirit from Irish folklore, often depicted with white hair, whose wailing warns of approaching death. A harbinger, rather than its cause. That fits our girl in some ways, but not in others, so I kept looking.”

She tapped the spacebar. The next slide showed another pale woman in white, haunting a medieval castle.

“Then there are the White Ladies. They're said to be ghosts of women who were betrayed, murdered, or died tragically, haunting particular places like castles and roads. Some legends describe them as harbingers of death, dressed in white with pale hair. Others portray them as protective, mournful, or vengeful. Our girl could be one, but the Valkyries seemed worth considering too.”

Another tap of the spacebar brought up three armored warrior women riding horses.

“They’re immortal creatures in Norse mythology known for being warriors and protectors. They felt closer to our girl but not right, and then I landed on the next two supernatural beings: the Revenants and the Furies.”

The next slide was split between a translucent man and three silver-haired women in ancient Greek robes.

“These two interested me most because both are associated with vengeance and punishment, though in different ways. Revenants are the dead returning to the physical world because of unfinished business. Furies, on the other hand, are goddesses who hunt terrible men and punish grave wrongdoings.”

She clicked the slide forward again to more images of white-haired ghosts.

“From there, I dug deeper into myths, sightings, and ghost stories about Revenants and Furies. And what I found was fascinating.”

The screen filled with images of white-haired female spirits, supposedly captured by security cameras or lurking in the backgrounds of photographs.

“Stories of white-haired women appear across different nations, cultures, and centuries. I focused on more recent accounts and found tales of vengeful female spirits hunting men who'd harmed them. Some witnesses described them as revenants, while others described them as Furies or banshees. Different names, different cultures, but strikingly similar stories, and they persist across many, many groups.”

Nika cleared her throat. “We already know our Ghost is real. But after looking into these accounts, I’m starting to wonder how many more creatures like her exist.”

“Did you find anything about their abilities?” Mikhail asked, leaning forward.

“Not much. Most accounts describe them as ghosts, and I couldn't find anything reliable about their weaknesses. The bleeding and fainting are new to me.”

Maks nodded. “I guess it’s somewhat good news that they have some weakness because what we just watched was horrifying. She killed thirty men who had no chance to fight back.”

“Thirty evil men,” I corrected. “I don’t feel remotely bad for them.”

“Me neither.” Nika crossed her arms and glanced back at the screen, still paused on Damon’s message. “They deserved what they got.”

“Now, we’re empathizing with the woman killing our men?” I adjusted my cufflinks and settled deeper into my chair. “That’s probably not a good thing.”

“Maybe they deserved it,” Nika said, voicing what we were all thinking.