[late January]

It had taken Tamara more than two month since that November night to find the house of the female victim 'hel', which they finally had been able to identify as Helen Kelly. The apartments of the two men, which they could identify too, had already been cleaned out for new tenants by the time she found them and therefor where dead ends. The landlords had just believed their tenants vanished like it often happened - and since they apparently didn't have any family no one looked twice.

But the house, which belonged to the single shifter women, stood empty. As far as Tamara researched, Helen had inherited this house from her mother last year. She had no more relatives so the house had been unclaimed yet.

Tamara made short work of the lock and went in, shoving away the multiple letters piling up behind the door. Mostly it was advertisement, bills and a letter from HOA complaining about her lawn. Tamara let the letters lie on the floor and went further into the small two story house. The ground floor was made of a large Livingroom/kitchen combination and a small bathroom with only a toilette. Upstairs consisted of two bedrooms plus a nice bathroom.

Tamara always had wished to live in a home like that - back when she was with Juliet and thought she had a future with her. Juliet. She still saw her and Ben kissing in front of the club. They didn't even deny it - only Ben claiming he didn't know it was her girlfriend. As if. He was a shifter. He should have smelled her on Juliet. But that was Ben for you. Never caring and never more than meaningless one night stands - ruining relationships.

She wiped the tears, which started to run down her face, off and found herself in the master bedroom. It looked like it hadn't been used by Helen. She couldn't pinpoint it but it didn't felt used. Maybe it was because it seemed tidy in contrast to the rest of the house.

She went on to the second Bedroom and was proven right. The bed was unmade, various items lying around. She looked around, picked up random items in order to find something which could help her to find her murderer.

Finally, on the small desk, lay a small purple notebook. When she opened the book it turned out to be a diary. She skimmed through some pages until she found 'ALONE' written all over the page. The date was the same day the mother had died. The next few entries - not consecutively days - drew the picture of a woman unable to cope with the death of her mother. Who felt alone and suicidal. The latter was prevented by her Beasts pleading. But Helen wasn't sure how long she could go on.

Finally Tamara found something interesting.

I met this guy a while ago. He calls himself Beastlord. First I thought he was a weird creep but actually he is quite nice. My beast likes him and I think he can help me… us.

And then there was the last entry:

My beast and I decided we will let him test his theory of flipping the balance on me. Best case my beast will go on and live my life… its life - and I can rest. Worst case we die and I couldn't care less.

Tamara was in shock. With shaking hands she fumbled out her phone and called Cian. "Tamara, hello…" he greeted her because he always made use of caller ID's.
"We are looking for a Shifter not a human. Someone, who can touch beasts like at the awakening." Tamara blurted out, her voice shaking.

"Are you sure?" Cian stiffened audible.

"Yes. I found her diary. She writes about the man we caught on CCTV. She calls him Beastlord and she agreed to let him try flipping her balance." She still stared on the pages of the diary "Cian whoever this is he wants to destroy a shifters balance to bring the beast in control. This will end in a rampage!"

"I agree. Without the human soul in control they will kill anyone coming close." Cian admitted "Any hints on what he plans?" Cian wanted to know but Tamara shook her head "No." she voiced because Cian couldn't see her.

"He killed the shifters... " he mused "Something must have gone so horrible wrong that they were unable to exist. Otherwise he would have just tried it again." Cian let this stand on its own "Aaron and you… you need to find him. Before he succeeds."

"We will, Cian." She said determined "We are dangerous enough as it is… we don't need a lunatic setting the beast free." She added and her tattoo churned angry with what Tamara had said.

Cian paused "What do you mean?" he wanted to know wary.

"You know what I mean." Tamara grumbled "The awakenings… how many have you seen go wrong Cian?"

"Many…" Cian admitted finally "But if a balance was formed we are safe…" he argued.

"Yes. Until now." Tamara sighed "Because no one ever tried to flip a balance." She reminded and Cian grunted.

"Let's hope we don't find out." He said finally "Bye Tamara. Keep me in the loop."

"Will do." Tamara promised and hung up. She had a last look around the room before she pocketed the diary, left the house and went home. Maybe she found something more in it.

Buried in thick volumes of books and papers, the Beastlord grew desperate. He had found out what had gone wrong with Helen and the two others. When the balance had been flipped, they hadn't been able to hold onto the human souls and lost them. And without the human souls, there was no anchor. The same would have happened if the beast would drown out in the balancing process - the human would go insane.

What he was looking for now was a way to prevent the human souls from drowning but he was stuck. Frustrated he whipped all the books and papers from the table with a snarl. One of the books landed on the floor with a page opened – a page he hadn't read yet. It was all about a special herb. It was said it calmed the spirits, make them sleep. He went on reading, new hope flared.