by Steve McHugh
“We’ll be there,” Tommy said. “Don’t worry about that. If the assassin turns up, we’ll be prepared.”
Logan and Beth both nodded, but I got the impression neither were particularly in the party mood. I couldn’t even imagine the stress it was placing on them both, not to mention the fear of further attacks on the people they loved.
I said goodbye and headed out of the courtyard and into the village, stopping outside of the medical hut where Victoria was recovering. There were two huge guards outside, both of whom worked for Tommy, and they nodded as I stepped inside to find a large room with half a dozen beds. Runes adorned the walls, mostly to help with healing and stop any supernatural powers from raging out of control. At the far end of the room, Victoria lay in bed either asleep or unconscious, it was hard to tell.
Sat at her bedside was a woman who appeared to be in her early forties and looked like someone who fought for a living—her bare arms were hard muscle and held more than a few scars. Her chestnut hair was platted with several colored bows.
She looked up at me and got to her feet. She was about my height, and held herself with at the air of someone who knew how to break you in half. She reminded me a lot of Diana.
“Mister Garrett?” she asked; her accent was Nordic, but I couldn’t have placed it better than that.
“Alexandra,” I said. “Or is it Lex? I hear you prefer the latter.”
“Lex is fine,” she said. “My friend will be okay.”
“I hope so. I’m here to talk to her, if we can wake her up.”
“The runes keep her asleep, I can break them, but she might not be too pleased when she’s awake,” Lex said, looking over at Victoria.
“We need answers, she has them,” I said. “I’ll take the anger directed at me if I need to.”
“It will take a few minutes,” Lex said as the door burst open, and a much healthier looking Sky walked in.
“We need to talk,” Sky said.
“Sky, Lex,” I said, introducing the two.
“You’re the werelion helping out,” Sky said.
“I am,” Lex admitted.
“Great,” Sky said. “Nate, my brain is less jumbled now.”
“You want to go talk?” I asked her.
Sky nodded, and we exited the hut together.
“So, what did you get?” I asked her once we were a short distance away, and I had scanned the area to ensure no one was near.
“The assassin remembered nothing,” she told me. “His spirit was a mess, it’s why I ended up acting like I was drunk. It was done by a telepath, a powerful one. Whoever it was scrubbed his mind clean of them.”
“No telepath I’ve ever met can remotely blow up someone’s head like that,” I said.
“No, he was killed some other way,” she agreed. “But he’d worked with them for a long time, and this had been planned for a long time too.”
“What about the three victims?” I asked.
“That’s the thing. Two of them, the males, they knew one another. Varol worked for Vlad the Impaler as a spy, and Kozma worked for the Hungarians, and he was passing along intel to Varol for Vlad.”
I sighed; I’d met Vlad once. It had not been fun. “You think they were the target?”
“They met up shortly after arriving here, they needed to get their stories straight about how they’d met,” Sky said. “Why would anyone care how two spies met hundreds of years ago?”
“Someone who holds a grudge would care,” I said.
Chapter Six
Remy and Diana arrived while Sky and I were talking about what she’d discovered, but before either of them could say anything, Lex stuck her head out of the medical hut and beckoned me over.
“You can’t all come in,” Lex said.
“We’ll wait out here then,” Remy said.
“I think the fresh air is probably best for me at the moment,” Sky admitted.
Diana said nothing but crossed her arms over her chest while staring at Lex.
“He’s safe,” Lex said, understanding the not too subtle threat.
“I know,” Diana said, her tone hard.
“Your friend doesn’t like me,” Lex said once I entered the hut.
“She’s a werebear,” I told her. “I think it’s hard to like a species who in the past have actively hunted her kind for sport.”
Lex stopped and turned back to me. “We don’t do that in my pride.” Her voice suggested the topic was off-limits.
“Maybe not,” I said, completely ignoring her tone. “But it was pretty widespread during the war between lions and wolves. And Diana is old. Really old.”
Lex held my gaze for a heartbeat. “All sides did horrible things during the war.”
“That’s what people say when they don’t want to think about the horrible things their side did.”
Lex smiled, although there was no warmth in it. “Yeah, maybe. I’ve spent centuries trying to make sure we never go back to that point. Some people think they were simpler days.”
“Some people are idiots,” I said.
“You don’t mince your words, do you?”
“I’m not exactly known for keeping my opinions to myself, no,” I said. I left off just how much that had gotten me into trouble over the centuries, she didn’t need to know.
“Are you going to talk to me, or do I just lie here?” Victoria asked from her bed.
I sat in the chair beside the bed. “I need to know what you can remember.”
“You’re Nate Garrett, yes?” Victoria asked. “You killed the dragon in London.”
“Tiamet,” I said. “And I have to keep telling people I didn’t do it alone.”
“You still killed her,” Victoria said. “You stood against Hera. For that, I can trust you.”
“You don’t like Hera?” I asked.
“I don’t like anyone who uses their power to subjugate their own people,” Victoria said. “It is stupid and pointless. I’m not a fan of pointless things, Mister Garrett.”
“Nate,” I said. “And I’d really like it if we could get on with you telling me what I need to know. People have died.”
“The three who were with me,” she said. “I remember Kozma being attacked first, I remember him getting two arrows in the back. He turned around then got two more in the chest. I rolled to the side, trying to get to the trees, and then I woke up here. I don’t remember anything else. I remember screams though. I’m not sure if they were mine or not.”
“Why would someone want those three dead?” I asked. “Did you know them well?”
“I knew Kozma,” Victoria said. “We had been together for some time. I knew Varol well enough, and Mona was a sweet woman, kind.” Victoria got a faraway look in her eyes before she continued. “I assume you’re aware that we were having…fun.”
“Was that the first time you were all together?” I asked.
Victoria shook her head. “No. We had been together regularly for the last six months. We all enjoyed each other’s company a great deal.”
“Would anyone have had a problem with that?” I asked. “Any ex-partners who might take umbrage to your gatherings?”
Victoria laughed. “Gatherings? I haven’t heard that one before.”
“You’d prefer I said orgy?”
Victoria shook her head. “No, orgy has unpleasant connotations in my mind. Too many people associate it with things that we were not a part of. We were all consenting adults who enjoyed being together. No one was forced, no one was hurt, everyone enjoyed themselves.”
“Ever bring in new people?”
“No, not ever,” Victoria said firmly.
“I don’t care about your sex life,” I assured her. “I care that the four of you were together, and that only you survived. I think because you were meant to. I believe one of the other three was the target. Maybe all three of them.”
Victoria stared at me for several seconds. She moved into a sitting position, although she remained in bed. “You think I
was allowed to survive?”
I nodded. “Yes. The murders were carried out by a professional. There were no tracks, no scents to follow after a period of time, and they used basilisk-tooth-blade-tipped arrows. Yours was apparently coated in manticore venom, which brings a host of new questions. I fought one of the assassins today, he could make clones of himself, and several of them used basilisk-tooth daggers. Whoever is behind this has money and isn’t afraid to spend it on the best. If they’d wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
Victoria exhaled sharply and put her head in her hands, her shoulders sagging. “Why leave me alive?” she asked, looking up at me, tears in her eyes.
“I think it’s possibly because they needed someone to spread the fear of what had happened. But I think it’s more likely you were too important to kill. The mother of the bride, a werewolf with considerable power and clout in the world. They kill you, and maybe Avalon gets involved, maybe your pack tears this realm apart. You daughter has already told me they’re being hard to control.”
“She’s a strong woman,” Victoria said, pride beaming from her. “She will ensure our pack behaves themselves.”
“So, you can’t remember anything about what happened?” I asked, not wanting the conversation to be steered off topic for too long.
“No,” she said. “I heard nothing until Kozma cried out. I saw the arrows sticking out of him. I saw…” Victoria paused and closed her eyes.
“They were in the trees,” I said. “Who knew you were going to the clearing? Anyone? You weren’t at the dinner.” I turned to Lex, who stood, cross-armed, leaning up against the wall. “Neither of you.”
“I decided not to go,” Lex said. “I was with Melody.”
“Melody is?”
“Viktor’s wife,” Lex said. “And no, we weren’t doing anything. She just hates him, is afraid of him. I don’t see her often; her pride is different to my own.”
“Where is Viktor now?” I asked.
“Pretending he’s important,” Lex said. “He’s having a conversation with Sven, last I heard.”
“Did Viktor have a problem with any of the victims?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Victoria said. “I can’t tell you.”
“You think Viktor did this?” Lex asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know him. I don’t know why he’d even want to do this. But I heard he thinks you’re sleeping with his wife, so maybe he got the wrong people? He hired them to kill you and Lex, and they screwed up.”
“That would be quite the stretch,” Lex said.
I nodded. “Probably. There’s a lot we don’t know.” I thought about how Kozma had been hit more than anyone else. How the assassins had cut their throats just to ensure their prey was dead, even though they’d used the basilisk-tooth-bladed arrows to kill them. If Viktor had ordered it, the assassin would surely know what Lex and Melody looked like. No one would be so good as to go to all the effort to stay hidden yet be so incompetent as to murder the wrong people.
“You look lost in thought,” Lex said to me.
“I need to go check something. Don’t leave the realm.”
“Are you commanding that I stay?” Victoria asked with a slight chuckle, and I spotted the smile on Lex’s lips.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not involved,” I said. “But I can tell you this, if I have to find you and you’ve left this realm, I don’t think you’ll enjoy me looking for you.”
Both women’s expressions changed. Neither were happy with the way I’d spoken, but they’d both have to accept it. I wasn’t here to make friends; I was here to find a murderer.
“I’ve been told over the years that you are a fair man,” Victoria said as I reached the door.
I turned back to her and nodded. “I’d like to think so.”
“I will trust you to do the right thing,” she said. “No matter the outcome.”
“I don’t care about your politics,” I said. “I only care about the truth, and getting justice for those whose lives have been taken.”
“I hope that’s true,” Lex said.
“I can’t make you believe me,” I told her.
“I’m going to stay with Victoria,” Lex said. “I know I’m meant to be aiding the investigation, but I assume you don’t need my help right now. I think it would be better for independent people to be involved.”
“Even though Tommy is a werewolf?” I asked. “And Gordon and Matthew helping?”
“More so,” Lex said. “I don’t want to believe the lions are involved in this. I will talk to my people and catch up with Gordon and Matthew. I trust them both to be fair. And they trust you.”
“I’ll let you know what we find,” I told her.
I left them to it, and when I walked out of the medical hut, I found Tommy leaning up against the wall.
“You find out anything useful?” he asked.
“Are you wearing a cowboy hat?”
He flicked the brim of his hat. “My head kept getting snowed on, and this is the only hat they have.”
“You’re going to start swaggering, aren’t you?”
“You going to answer my question?” He asked, putting on a slight Southern American accent.
I shook my head and walked past him, Tommy catching up a moment later. “Nate,” he said.
“I don’t want to discuss it here,” I said. “Let’s go back to the murder scene.”
“Why?”
“I have a theory I want to check.”
As we headed out of the village, we were joined by Sky, Diana, and Remy.
“If I’d have known there would be so much walking involved, I’d have said no when you asked if I wanted to help,” Remy said as we walked through the forest toward the clearing.
“It’s not the murders you’re concerned about?” Diana asked. “It’s the walking.”
“I have much smaller legs than you,” Remy said.
“So, what did you find out?” Sky asked me, ignoring Diana and Remy as they playfully taunted each other.
“Victoria and Lex are innocent,” I said. “I can’t imagine either of them being involved in what happened here. Sounds like Melody—Viktor’s wife—can’t stand him.”
“Viktor is trying to weasel his way into the investigation,” Tommy said. “It sounds like just Lex was asked to be involved, and Viktor sort of inserted himself into it.”
“Lex seems more concerned about her friend,” I said. “She didn’t seem too bothered about actually doing the investigative part. I got the impression she said she’d involve herself just to make sure no one else did.”
“I can imagine that’s the case,” Tommy said. “So, did you find out anything useful?”
As we walked through the forest, I relayed the entire conversation I’d had with Lex and Victoria. Sky went through her own findings again, and by the time we reached the clearing, everyone was caught up.
“So, why are we here?” Remy asked.
“You didn’t need to come,” I told him. “But as you’re here, I want three of you to play victims.”
Remy narrowed his eyes. “I am not pretending to be in an orgy.”
“No one, and I can’t stress this enough, no one is asking you to,” I told him.
“You want us to play out where they were when the arrows started flying?” Diana asked.
“I’ve seen Gordon’s preliminary report,” Tommy said. “I’m pretty sure we figured out where everyone was when it started.”
“And the spirits gave me a pretty good idea of where people were,” Sky added. “Also, the longer I’m here, the more the spirits’ memories become clearer. Looks like they were still a jumbled mess, and I didn’t even realize. Being horrifically murdered really does a number on your spirit, especially when it’s several people at once.”
The four of them got into their positions, although thankfully even Remy kept his remarks to a minimum.
“So, Tommy is Kozma,” I said. “Sky is Victoria, Remy is Varol, and Diana is Mo
na.”
I walked around the four of them as they stood or sat roughly in the spots where the group had been attacked. It wasn’t a hundred percent accurate, but then it didn’t need to be.
“Right,” I said. “Kozma was hit from above twice in the back. Victoria said that he was hit first, she said she remembered the arrows.”
“We know the tree where the attack took place,” Tommy said, pointing to a large, fifty-foot tree with a thick canopy of leaves.
“We sure?” I asked.
“Yes,” Tommy said. “I had my people go up to sniff around. At least one person was sat up there. They used scent blockers, but that still leaves a smell, it just dissipates faster. You remember that sniper in the forest in Germany?”
“The witch?” I asked. “You think magic was used?”
“Runes are carved into the tree,” Tommy said. “Not powerful, but they’re enough.”
“Okay,” I said. “Stay where you are.” I ran over to the tree, and with my air magic, climbed it without trouble. Finding the branch that had been used by the assassin wasn’t hard; the rune carved into the trunk of the tree was dim, the power almost completely gone.
I sat on the branch and looked down at my friends. Tommy was the easiest to see, but beyond that, his bulk blocked the other three from anything close to a good shot. I could make out Remy and Mona, but only their limbs, and Sky was sat in front of Tommy, so she was out too.
“Tommy,” I shouted, using air magic to carry my words. “Turn to the left so that Sky can see your back.”
Tommy did as I asked, and right there I knew that Victoria hadn’t been the intended target. After Tommy moved, Sky had been an open shot.
“Move like Kozma did,” I said.
Tommy moved around to the side, a few feet away from where his friends were, and exactly where his body had fallen.
“Sky, you’re up,” I said.
Sky, as Victoria, rolled to the side, over to Kozma, who had already started to fall, two more arrows in him. Sky reacted like she’d been hit in the shoulder and tried to get to the tree line.
“She wasn’t meant to get hit,” I said to myself. “Kozma turned too quickly.”
