by K. N. Banet
“Can we get an interview room ready?” I asked, breaking the heavy silence. “I’m going to talk to some of the inmates. All of them, if I can.”
“Yes ma’am,” Cael said, jumping into action. He snapped his fingers, and two other guards, both witches, jumped up and ran out of the room. “Follow me, Executioner.”
“Thank you.”
I did as he asked, glad that Raphael fell into step right behind me. If we continued to show a united front, we were less likely to find trouble. Not that I really expected trouble in the prison, but that was what got me into trouble only the evening prior. I had forgotten to stay paranoid. Paranoia kept me alive.
“Stay here,” I said to my quasi-partner once we reached the door to an interview room. “These are going to be simple conversations. No need to scare these guys. I can do that well enough.”
“I’ll be watching.” He pointed to another door, and I was impressed that he had guessed it led to the viewing area. He went inside while I stood at the door.
Taking a deep breath, I waved Cael away, and the fae backed off. I heard shuffling on the other side and knew the first inmate was there. As an Executioner, interviews weren’t part of my job description. Generally, I was the last person who asked questions. I just killed them at the end.
It was a different set of skills that prepared me for walking into that room. When Hisao trained me, he taught me everything. From interviews to torture, he taught me how to work people.
I was never very good at them. Let’s hope I don’t embarrass him today.
There was a formality about an interrogation room I hadn’t been prepared for. When I walked in, the prisoner in the chair paled. He yanked at the chains holding his wrists to the table. I heard the long chains between his feet skid across the concrete floor. This wasn’t like getting pissy with Korey or casually talking to the guards.
This man thought I was there to kill him, or at least looking for a reason to.
“Good morning,” I greeted, taking a seat across from him. “I’m Executioner Sahni.”
“Yeah, I know who you are,” he said anxiously, shifting around in his seat. I could smell the human in him, touched with magic—a witch but a weak one. Whatever he was in for was probably something stupid. The witches used the prison more than most, trying to uphold human laws as well as supernatural with their kind. “What do you want?”
“I want to ask about yesterday’s breach.”
“I didn’t know anything about it.” His eyes flicked around the room, unable to meet my gaze. It wasn’t because my snake eyes were out. I was too controlled over my magic for that, unlike many other animalistic supernaturals. My eyes were a nice, very dark, warm brown. There should be no reason he couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Please don’t lie to me,” I said, trying to keep my patience. I was beginning to feel like everyone was developing that bad habit, and I needed to nip it in the bud. “Lying to a representative of the Tribunal is a good way to get killed, usually by pissing off the person being lied to.” I was getting really antsy after the long night and morning I’d had.
“Look.” He leaned forward, his eyes now locking with mine. “I’m not lying to you. I had no idea anything was happening. The bomb went off, our doors opened. Other than that, it was a normal fucking night with you walking through like you own the place. I mean, you kind of do, huh? I’ve only been here a year, ya know? I’ve never seen you around, but others have. They made their jokes, and I bet they pissed you off, but I’m only in here for a five-year sentence. That’s it. I just wanted to do my time. Didn’t they tell you? I never even left my cell. I didn’t want to get fucking killed. I don’t want to get killed now.”
“If you haven’t done anything wrong, why would I kill you? I do have a set of standards, you know.” I leaned back, giving him a hard look.
He shrugged. “Everyone says you’ll kill anyone who looks at you funny. Even the guards say, ‘Don’t talk to the Executioner or she’ll kill you.’” He was sweating now, his eyes flicking around again. His palms seemed sweaty, too, as he rubbed his hands together. His feet moved more.
“It’s not illegal to talk to me,” I said softly, letting that sink in. “Who told you that? Specifically?”
He shrugged again. “I’ve heard it a few times from different people. I never really…paid attention.”
“Okay, well, I’m going to send you out of here. Thanks for talking to me.” I didn’t need to say anymore. The two witches came in and lifted the inmate to his feet, unsecured him—
I wasn’t ready for what happened next.
He reached out, breaking out of their hold, his chained hands outstretched. Before I realized what was happening, he was over the table. I tried to get out of my chair and put some distance between us, ending up on my stomach on the concrete floor. The chain between his wrists was on my neck, and he started pulling, cutting off my air. On the ground, I reached for my thigh dagger. He seemed to possess inhuman strength, and it was a futile exercise to try to stop him from choking me out by going for the chain.
Once I had my dagger, I stabbed back, hitting something. He grunted, but nothing changed.
“GET HIM!” Raphael roared, muffled by the glass. The guards near me jumped into action, trying to pull him off me. Black spots danced in my vision as I stabbed backward relentlessly. Warm liquid was hitting my back and ass now. The chain yanked on my throat as the witch was being pulled away.
One of them finally realized what they were doing and lowered the inmate just enough for me to get out of the chain and roll away. I gasped for air, blinking several times as I saw them pull the blank-eyed witch away—not dead, just not all there.
He’d been a mild-mannered inmate doing his time. Now, he was a cold-blooded, unfeeling killer.
Raphael burst into the room as I got my feet.
“You sure you don’t need me in there? I thought you could protect yourself,” he snarled at me, invading my personal space.
“He came…too fast,” I said softly, rubbing my neck. “Without warning. There was nothing to indicate he would attack.” I tried to steady my breathing. “Nothing at all. He was nervous, which is expected considering our roles. He’s a criminal, I kill criminals, but he didn’t seem uncooperative or dangerous…” I knew magic was involved, but saying that now was a stupid thing to do.
Cael came in after Raphael, but I had missed him until Raphael started to stomp around the room, not looking at me anymore.
“Is there anything we can do?” the fae asked, his eyes wide. “He’s normally very good…I thought he would be a good start because he had been well behaved during the breach…” The fae seemed lost for words.
“There’s nothing,” I said, eyeing him. Was it an act? “Just leave me alone for a minute with my partner.”
Cael nodded and walked out of the room but left the door open. I looked at Raphael, hoping he understood what I was thinking, hoping he was able to put the pieces together.
Someone had spelled the inmate to attack me. Someone had asked Nakul, then manipulated his memory. Wesley was spelled to track and attack me. There were dangerous criminals on the loose with the idea that killing me would get them a new life and identity.
This was an ugly situation the moment the explosion happened and only getting uglier by the hour.
17
Chapter Seventeen
An hour later and I hadn’t gotten anywhere with the inmates. After the first one, no chances were taken. I left the room as the inmates were switched, waiting for the new one to be secured before I walked back in for another short conversation.
With the time I wasted going nowhere with the southern cell block inmates, I was able to think about other things.
Keep putting the pieces together. Keep finding the connections. That’s how you find answers. Exhaust every possibility.
I drummed my fingers on the table as the most recent inmate pleaded about his innocence. He knew nothing. My phone buzzed in my pocket
, making me sigh. The only positive of my phone going off was the prison had their communications back up.
“We’re done here,” I finally said. “Take him back to his cell.” I stood up and walked out of the room before the guards got to the inmate. The door auto locked once it closed behind me, and I stood in the hall, sighing heavily. This was tedious work, but it gave me time to think.
The prison doesn’t allow visitors, yet there has obviously been someone visiting. Someone asked Nakul to kill me, someone was messing with the inmates. The prison didn’t come with something as simple as a sign-in sheet or anything because of normal protocol, which was definitely being broken.
I needed to figure out the connection. Who was visiting and tied a witch inmate in the southern block to Nakul, Wesley, and the hit on me?
I had a shortlist of who would know of any visitors in and out of the prison, but getting anyone on the shortlist to talk was the problem. Korey was openly hostile. Eliphas was a witch and could easily evade with a bit of magic to get me to forget my train of thought while I tried to interview him.
I could offer him Kartane, but who knows if that’ll fucking work. I’m already under orders from the witches on the Tribunal to kill his second. The best thing I could get are Eliphas’ eyes back if that’s even possible.
“Are you okay?” Raphael asked, stepping up next to me. “You’ve seemed tired in the last couple of interviews.”
“I’m fine, thanks. How’re you?”
“Good…Well, not good, but not as pissed as I was.”
I chuckled. He checked on me between every interview since the first guy was able to get the jump on me. I waved Cael closer.
“We’re done for today,” I said as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Hopefully, it was news to help handle another one of the numerous problems on my list. Cael nodded while I watched him jog away, probably to tell the others not to bring anyone else for interviewing. I checked the text with one hand while rubbing my temple with another.
“News?” My roommate was now hovering over my shoulder. I tilted the screen so he could read too. “Ah, fuck.”
“Pretty much.” I sighed, rereading the text over and over.
Hasan: Pack lost Wesley’s trail. They smelled another naga in your condo, so be careful of Nakul roaming Phoenix. Coven is close to finding Levi. Another hour, max. Start heading back to the city if you haven’t yet. Vampires report no incidents. Executioners and Investigators worldwide report no strange activity.
Hasan: And call me back if there’s anything we need to know about the investigation.
It was essentially news about nothing, but at least Hasan had a timetable.
“He’s right,” I said. “If they’re close to Levi, we need to get back and be ready to jump into action when it’s time. I hate this, jumping back and forth on two different fronts, but there’s nothing else to do.”
“We’ll clean this up,” Raphael said confidently. “Obviously, the big guys think you have this under control.”
“Yeah, their confidence is appreciated,” I muttered, half believing it. I led the way toward the exit to the parking lot, unsurprised to see Korey when we got there. I had wanted her and Eliphas to visit me after being attacked, but they never came, which didn’t look good for them. It was a blatant disregard for the safety of people in the prison. It also meant they wouldn’t care what I had to tell them.
“We’re heading out to handle things in Phoenix, but we’ll be back.” I wanted to make sure she knew this wasn’t the end of the investigation. Truthfully, it was only the beginning when it came to the problems in the prison. I was certain she knew something that could come down on her head, but it was more pressing to stop the immediate danger now that I had a timetable.
“Of course. How are your injuries? I heard you were attacked by an inmate at the end of an interview.” She seemed calmer now, her body language more professional and less tense with anxious energy. It was her eyes that gave away her still hostile nature to my poking around.
“Good. It was resolved. I haven’t heard if the inmate made it. I stabbed him a few times, but I don’t know what I hit. I never even got his name.”
“He was taken to the infirmary for care,” she answered, not telling me his status or his name. I didn’t need to know, but I wanted to know. I wished I had Cassius, knowing this would have been easier with him on the case. His prestige would have put the entire prison in line. I had a deadly reputation, but not many respected the leader of a dying people. Cassius was royalty of a major species with vast numbers and power.
They would have given him the world.
“That’s good. I hope he makes it.” I crossed my arms, watching her eyes narrow. She probably hadn’t been expecting that from me, which was fine. Most didn’t know me well enough to know I had a problem with killing people not in their right mind or who did something against their will. The clear example was Wesley versus someone like Sinclair. Wesley was obviously under magic, and it had to be against his will. Sinclair did something dangerous and went crazy with the intent to kill us that night.
One deserved to die, one didn’t.
“Is there anything you need before you leave?” Korey asked, still blocking the door.
“Was there anything strange or off-protocol going on here at the prison before the breach? And I don’t mean yesterday. I mean in the last several months or years if that gets me an answer.”
Korey’s mouth pursed tight, her lips thinning in anger.
“No, nothing was going on,” she said with a bite.
“What about the team that helped with Wesley? Can you tell me about them?”
“He’s not an inmate, therefore not your—”
“Korey, I’m trying to keep more people from dying,” I snapped, stepping up to her. We were a similar height, making staring her down easy. “I understand you are a new Alpha, and your instincts are telling you to no longer allow anyone to order you around, but this hostility has to stop. I need to know everything.”
“Then give me something,” she growled back. “You’ve walked in here and told us nothing. No one here believes you’ve told the Tribunal everything.”
“Wesley was spelled. Did they tell you that I suspect that? That they believed me? Who the fuck could get to Wesley and spell him, Korey? Who? And for that matter, the inmate who attacked me? He was clearly under some sort of magic. His eyes were blank while he tried to kill me. I know what that means. Now, someone has come into your prison and spelled your inmates to kill me. Either cooperate or get the fuck out of my way.”
She stepped back, her eyes wide. She seemed shell-shocked, her mouth working for a moment before she formed a proper sentence.
“I didn’t…They…They didn’t tell me about Wesley.”
“Now you know. They’re still looking for him.” I searched the werewolf’s face, hoping I finally had her. I was glad none of her wolves or Eliphas had come with her to meet me. Getting her alone like this was better. There was no one for her to try to impress.
“Tarak and Eliphas picked the private research team who helped Wesley,” she finally said, looking away. “I didn’t know anything about them, and I never got their names, but it wasn’t the same group the Tribunal initially had working on Wesley’s case. They would meet Eliphas and Tarak outside and come in with them.”
I wanted to groan.
“Mygi?” I asked, trying not to sound pissed off.
“No, no. More private than that. Tarak didn’t want some big corporation coming in. He doesn’t like them. This was like a single healer and his team or something. A guy who works on lost cause type of things? That’s all I know, but I can ask Eliphas about it. I’ll also try to learn why they didn’t use the team the Tribunal originally hired. I think it was because that team made no progress, but…”
“Please do and send me whatever you find. Now, I need to get out of here. There’s a witch trying to drown Phoenix, and the local coven might have his location soon.”
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“Good luck with the Leviathan,” Korey said, stepping out of my way.
“His name is fucking Levi,” I muttered, walking past her.
Deeper into the mystery I go. Now there’s an unnamed healing team, hired and brought in by two of the Wardens. If that’s not fucking suspicious, what is? And Tarak didn’t bring his second in on it? What kind of Alpha does that?
“Kaliya?” Raphael was speaking softly as we walked back to the BMW. “Are there private healing teams and stuff, or was she blowing smoke up your ass?”
“There are,” I said, sighing. “Makes everything harder. Mygi is the only big name in supernatural healing. The pharmaceutical company is the research side, and they have a hospital under different management, which is considered a neutral zone for supernaturals. They’re the same company but not run by the same people and they haven’t worked together in a long time, becoming more their own entities then branches of a single one. Beyond that, there are no other hospitals that cater to supernaturals. If people want professional care without having to travel, they have to hire concierge doctors and their teams. A witch, fae, or whatever other things that have a healing ability. There are a lot of groups like that. The coven in Phoenix caters to some healing needs of the city. For the most part, we make do or fly someone in.” I got into my car and leaned on the steering wheel.
“What if she was lied to? What if it was Mygi?”
“We’d know if it was Mygi,” I mumbled, shaking my head, which amounted to rolling it over the steering wheel. “She’d know, anyway. Mygi doesn’t do anything without slapping their logo on it for PR purposes. Look at their attempts to recapture you.”
“Kaliya…I didn’t know it was them by name until after I got out of the lab,” he pointed out. I hadn’t known that, but it didn’t really change much.
“Still, they would have rolled up to the prison in branded vans, Raph.” I was suddenly exhausted. I didn’t lift my head from the steering wheel, wondering how I found myself in these positions. I hadn’t faced a situation this bad in years.
