Rain beats against the windows with a vengeance as I lay in my bed, empty chocolate wrappers scattered around my messy sheets. The lights are off, lightning casting ragged shadows on my bleak walls.

It's been three weeks, a small voice from somewhere in my head reminds me. I bury my face deeper in my pillow, not wanting to move. Classes close in two days. I can't bring myself to care.

The doorbell rings loudly through the quiet thunder and tittering rain drops and I jolt up, chest heaving as I clutch my pillow close. Just as I begin to think it's my imagination, it rings again. Then again, more impatiently. I roll my eyes, flopping back onto my bed. Seven more rings. Twelve more. Fifteen. Eighteen. Twenty.

Heaving an enormous sigh of frustration, I fling my pillow aside, stomping hard enough for my bare feet to slap loudly against the wooden floors. I levitate myself to look out the peep hole once I get to the door and see my old friend, Detective Jordan Trafford.

I sink back to the ground and unlock the door, yanking it open.

"What," I mutter sourly.

"Get out of your rut, I've got a case," He says briskly.

"No." I move to slam the door.

He stops it. "Yvani, you're literally the only necromancer in our precinct_"

"I don't want to."

"Your brother would have_"

"My brother isn't here. Nor will he be again. Now leave me alone before I call another cop. Harassment is still illegal; even for you."

"This case will interest you."

"Doubt it."

"So you wouldn't be interested in a thousand-year-old murder uncovered near the sacred dragon sign?"

"What part of 'no'...wait."

He hands me a file, displaying a dead body perfectly preserved by the magic runes it's encased in. He arches an eyebrow at me.

"Fine. But you have to buy me tacos, chocolate, and a soda. Like, a huge soda. With lots of caffeine. Let me change."

"I thought so."

"Don't gloat, you cheated. Also. Do not sit on my suede couch. I don't want it getting wet. You can sit in the arm chair." I slam my door behind me, using the time it takes me to get dressed to mentally prepare myself for the first case since my brother's murder.