The war room had become their unofficial headquarters for the investigation—that windowless space in the Academy's administrative complex where privacy wards guaranteed conversations couldn't be monitored externally. Raven stood at the tactical table, reviewing forensic reports on Marcus Vael's death with expression that mixed professional focus and personal concern.
"Third victim," she said, her golden eyes tracking the data with analytical precision her mother had trained into her. "Same technique signature as the first two. Blood Echo, complete life force extraction, accelerated aging. But..." she highlighted a specific data cluster, "...the bloodline extraction is incomplete. Like the killer was interrupted or the technique failed mid-process."
