by Cara Wylde
The old Inari spread his arms to his sides and shrugged, showing them he was just as confused. “I have no idea. I thought that too.” Seth and Blake knew him well enough to notice he was not being entirely honest. “Let’s just calm down for now. We don’t know enough to reach any conclusions. Jane will call the next time she has a chance.”
Sebastian shook his head. “There’s something rotten here.”
“There’s something rotten, all right,” thought Roman. “And it has been for a while…” He had started talking to Jane more often in the past month, after he found out about the battle at Alma Venus and about Redfur’s increased interest in what the werewolves had done, and not in how the werefoxes had broken the peace treaty for no apparent reason. When Jonathan began avoiding his calls, Roman thought about the councilor’s two advisers and eventually turned to Jane. He remembered her as a young, level-headed vixen who had supported the idea of a peace treaty between humans and shape-shifters even before the war was over. As it turned out, Jane was more than eager to share her thoughts with him and even ask for his advice. Soon, she started telling him how she didn’t always agree with the fox councilor’s choices. Roman advised her to listen to Jonathan and do as he said. Antagonizing him would have landed her into trouble, or even out of the Council’s circle of advisers, and Roman needed her there.
As they waited patiently for Jane’s next call, Blake pulled Amelia out of the room. She needed some fresh air, as the close presence of her uncles made her uncomfortable. Seth chose to stay with Roman and keep an eye on the old Inari. The Alpha had days when he could barely get out of bed, and his Beta was afraid this whole thing would take too much of a toll on his health. It didn’t help that his brothers almost made it too clear they weren’t on his side.
“Jane sounds like a good adviser,” said Amelia. They were on the porch watching the sky turn gray. It would rain soon.
“Maybe,” answered Blake. “On one hand, I’d like to keep her when I take Redfur’s place, but on the other hand, the fact that she’s technically betraying the councilor now doesn’t speak very highly of her.”
“You’re not serious, are you? She is clearly on our side.”
“She is. But what if she doesn’t agree with my decisions one day?” Blake turned to Amelia, her purple eyes challenging her to come up with a single, valid argument. When Amelia didn’t say anything, the vixen smiled. “You do see my point, right?”
“Yeah… I guess.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to choose my other adviser wisely.”
When they turned back to Roman’s room, Julian greeted them with a smile. “Sneaked out for a quickie? Cheers to you!” He drank the last drops of his whiskey, then reached for the bottle.
Amelia blushed up to the tips of her ears, but Blake kept her cool.
“Is it that hard to mind your own business, uncle?”
Julian didn’t feel offended in the least. “Oh, come on! I know what young love is like.”
Blake rolled her eyes and dragged Amelia back to the armchair they shared. It wasn’t very comfortable, but the sofa was occupied by Sebastian and Julian. Luckily, the phone rang, silencing any other rude comments.
“Jane,” said Roman instead of “hello”.
“Mr. Sylfur. We just took a break, but this is going to be such a long session.”
“What’s new?”
“The story is the same. Avelyn Blackmane hasn’t been called to the stand yet, but it’s obvious she will say the same things as the other clan members. The victims who were bitten and turned into werewolves say much of what happened while they were under the rogue she-wolf’s influence is a blur. Regarding Jason Woodtail’s motivation for teaming up with the she-wolf, they said it was something personal. It seems that Jason and Sabine Miller were having an affair.”
Roman released a breath of relief. “So, there was nothing political about it… He had no intention of challenging the peace treaty.”
“No, apparently not. Of course, we still have to hear his testimony.”
“Hear his testimony?” The edge in Blake’s voice showed how much Jane’s words had shocked her. “So, you did find him.”
Jane took a deep breath before finally giving in and telling them everything she knew. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this earlier, Mr. Sylfur, but you have to understand that it would’ve been completely against Jonathan’s will. The moment they heard about the battle, the Council didn’t only summon Clan Blackmane and Viggo of Clan Drekinn for a meeting, but they also started looking for Jason Woodtail. What they didn’t know was that Jonathan had gotten to him first. He found him the same day the newly turned wolf came to Councilor Voinom and told him about the battle. It wasn’t difficult for him, so when the Blackmanes came to London the first time, Jonathan already had Jason and the remaining members of his two earths in his custody. He didn’t tell anyone, and he asked me and his other adviser to keep it a secret until he figured out a solution which worked best for our faction.”
“And… did he find one?” By now, Roman’s voice had lost a lot of its initial determination. Things were worse than he had imagined.
“I… I don’t know what to say. He kept me away from Woodtail and his foxes, but from what I gathered, Jonathan wasn’t very pleased with the rogue Inari. I think the councilor expected something else from him. Anyway, Woodtail will testify after the break. He’ll be the last one to be called to the stand. The Blackmanes don’t even know he’s here.”
“If Jonathan turned Jason Woodtail in, then it means everything is fine. The councilor hasn’t done anything wrong,” concluded Sebastian.
“When did he turn him in, Jane?” asked Roman.
“He didn’t, actually. He convinced Woodtail to turn himself in. No one knows Jonathan had him in his custody. After three weeks of negotiating, Jonathan promised him he’ll make sure his two earths will be fine and he would protect them as long as he turned himself in and told no one they had ever met. That’s why I didn’t tell you anything, Mr. Sylfur…” Her voice, barely a whisper now, trembled. “I don’t know what they talked about, I don’t know what Jonathan asked of him or what his plan was… All I know is that Jason Woodtail didn’t respond as Jonathan expected and chose to go to the Council himself and suffer the consequences as long as his fox-shifters were fine.”
“This is strange…” said Roman.
Sebastian shifted in his seat. Julian poured himself another glass, while Charles simply stared out the window. Amelia tried to adjust her position next to Blake. The armchair, too small for the both of them, was getting really uncomfortable.
“Thank you, Jane,” continued Roman. “Don’t worry, this stays between us. Jonathan will never find out.”
There was a deep sigh at the end of the line. “I should go now.”
“Call us when it’s over.”
“I will, although I already know what Woodtail is going to say.”
“What?”
“That he followed Sabine Miller and fought the Blackmanes by her side because he was in love with her.”
“And is that the truth?”
“I think it is. Jason Woodtail… I don’t know how to say this… he’s not entirely… well… present. He barely eats, he doesn’t talk, and he doesn’t show any interest in what’s happening around him. I do believe his actions had nothing to do with politics, or even with the old hatred between werewolves and werefoxes.”
“So… he was of no use to Jonathan…” concluded Roman, looking straight into Blake’s eyes. Blake nodded in approval. Yes, they were on the same page. Father and son… or, well, daughter.
“I…” Jane’s voice cracked. “… maybe. I don’t know.”
“Thank you, Jane. Take care.”
The line went dead and the Sylfurs were left to make sense of what they had just found out. However, no one spoke. A lot was going on in Roman’s mind, and Blake could barely keep her mouth shut. The context wasn’t the best one. They had to wait until Sebastian,
Julian, and Charles left so they could talk about it in peace and start making a plan to throw Jonathan Redfur out of the Council. It was clear his intentions were fishy, to put it mildly. Of course, the moment Blake became the main Inari of Clan Sylfur, Redfur would be forced to step down as per his agreement with her father, but… would he? They weren’t so sure now. He had a secret agenda, they could tell.
CHAPTER FOUR
Demons from the Past
Seth closed his smartphone and threw it across the room, then plopped on the bed and covered his face with his hands.
“Shit!”
His thoughts were a mess, running in circles, trying to make sense of the conversation he had just had with the retired detective, but his lips could only produce one word over and over. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” He had had to dig deeper, hadn’t he? He had simply had to think out of the box and approach the case from a different angle. Well, now he finally had some answers. Not the ones he had expected, but answers nonetheless. And he hated them.
“How am I supposed to tell Amelia?” He rubbed his eyes and ran his hands through his blond hair. “But she needs to know…”
She needed to know who killed her parents, even though it might make her hate him. She needed to know there was no way Milla was her biological mother, because Milla couldn’t have children. Even if it threw her whole life off its axis, Amelia had to know the truth. Or… part of the truth. Seth didn’t have the whole picture yet, but he was getting there. As much as it hurt, he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Just after he told her he had hit a dead end with the investigation and promised her he’d try everything, an idea struck him: there was no perfect murder unless… it was committed by someone who was not entirely human. He couldn’t believe he had wasted the whole month of August looking for two humans who had killed her parents. Of course he couldn’t find a damn thing. They weren’t humans. No clues left behind… In and out without alarming anyone, not even the two victims sleeping in their bed… Only shape-shifters could move so fast and so silently, work so perfectly. There had been two detectives working on the case, and Seth had only managed to speak to one of them. The old man had agreed to help him and had answered most of his questions, but when Seth had finally come with the crucial one - “Is it possible that the two murderers were not humans, but shape-shifters?” - the detective had fallen silent. Then, he had given Seth his former partner’s phone number.
As it turned out, his partner was a long time retired detective who was also a… bear-shifter. Now, he lived in Norway, in an isolated house by a small lake. He was far from old, as bear-shifters usually lived for around 300 years, but he had gotten tired of chasing down low-life criminals and scumbags, and decided it was time to take his wife and three children and live peacefully somewhere far away from the bustle of London. At first, he had been reluctant towards Seth.
“How do you know about this case?” he had asked him.
“Their daughter, Amelia Bennett, is still alive and she is trying to find out the truth about her parents’ death. She has gone through so much… She deserves to know.”
“And what is her relationship with her, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Seth had hesitated. “She’s recently married into Clan Sylfur. She’s the Alpha bride of Blake Sylfur, my future Alpha.” Bear-shifters had a whole different ranking system, so it was easier to use the terms Alpha and Beta. Even though they sometimes organized into sleuths and even clans, werebears tended to be solitary and live far away from each other even when they were blood-related. The only time when they recognized an Alpha was when their species was threatened and they were forced to team up to protect themselves.
“I see…”
Seth had identified something similar to melancholy in the bear-shifter’s voice.
“I’m glad to hear she is well. Even now I find myself thinking about her, wondering what had become of Amelia Bennett. Years after we failed to solve that case I checked up on her to make sure she was all right. I couldn’t be happier when I found out Monique Delacroix had bought her for her boarding school. I wish I could have done more for her, found the ones who had turned her into an orphan and bring them to justice.”
“They were shape-shifters. That’s why you were assigned the case.” Seth had decided to attack the issue head on.
“Yes. Did my former partner tell you that? He shouldn’t have… That is classified information.”
“I figured it out myself. And why is it classified?”
“Oh, what the hell? So many years have passed… And if you have a better shot at it, why not?” The bear-shifter had taken a deep breath and held it in for a couple of seconds before releasing it with a sigh. “It’s classified because they weren’t just any shape-shifters, they were fox-shifters.”
“I don’t… I don’t get it. Why does that matter?”
“It matters a lot. Even though we were never able to prove it, my partner and I had come to the conclusion that they must have belonged to the Tricksters.”
“The assassins’ guild?” Seth had had to sit down. The not-so-small detail had been a blow to his head.
“Yes, the fox-shifters’ assassins’ guild.” Mentioning that was unnecessary, as they both knew none of the other shifter factions had such a guild hidden in the underbelly of the rebel groups that still thought the peace treaty was a mistake. Yes, there were enough wolf-shifters and a few bear-shifters who believed the war should have only ended when the humans would’ve been defeated, but none of these factions had taken their cause as far as to form an assassins’ guild and actually give it a name. In this respect, the fox-shifters had proved to be quite resourceful. And illegal.
“So you covered most of it up.”
“I had to. The Tricksters have always made things difficult for us. First, they form their guild after the war and the signing of the peace treaty, right after the shape-shifters promised the humans they would never cause them any trouble again. Then, the fox-shifters tell the other factions they will deal with them, but the more they try to put an end to their schemes, the more the Tricksters retreat in the shadows. So, every time they come out of their lair and mess things up, we, shape-shifters, try to catch them, but at the same time cover them from the humans. Of course, there are humans in high positions in the Council and the police force who know about their existence, but we’re still trying to keep the Tricksters hidden from the masses, least we’d cause a panic.”
Seth hadn’t been in the mood for a history lesson, so he had cut things short. He knew very well about the Tricksters. His own parents had been, or still were part of the guild. “If there was no proof the killers were Tricksters, then how did you reach that conclusion? I’m sorry, but it seems far-fetched.”
“Yeah… you see, it’s not that far-fetched when you realize one of the victims was a fox-shifter herself and wasn’t actually killed in her sleep. Her husband, yes, but she struggled.”
“A fox-shifter… herself… What are you talking about?” His palms had started sweating, and he had trapped his smartphone between his ear and his shoulder so he could wipe them on his jeans.
“Tricksters would never assassinate two simple, harmless humans. But a vixen and her human husband? Well, that’s a different story.”
“Milla… Milla Bennett was a werefox?”
“Her name wasn’t Bennett. She and Stephen Bennett weren’t married, at least not legally.”
“Then what was her name? What clan did she belong to?”
“That, my son, remains a mystery. We found nothing in their house, no documents that could have told us who she was and where she came from. The house was new, by the way. They had moved in just a month before they were murdered. My partner and I speculated that they must have traveled a lot, moved from one place to another… maybe they had been running from something or someone. But most of our hypotheses were just guesses. With no evidence to support them, we were forced to accept defeat and move on.”
�
��All right. All right. Just wait a second.” Seth had taken a couple of deep breaths and put his thoughts in order. “If you are to follow your instinct even now, then you’d say that the two murderers were fox-shifters, even better, Tricksters.”
“Yes, that’s right. No human could have performed such a perfect murder and leave no trace behind. The only humans I smelled in that house were Amelia Bennett and Stephen Bennett’s dead body. So, the killers were shape-shifters. Given that Milla was a fox-shifter, then we concluded the ones who killed her must have belonged to the same faction. If she was, indeed, running from someone, then she might have been running from the Tricksters.”
“Holy shit. I… I did not expect this. What… what am I supposed to do with all this information?”
The bear-shifter had had no suggestions. He had promised he would send Seth the few documents and letters he had found in Stephen Bennett’s house if he gave him a postal address, then wished him luck.
That was ten minutes ago. Seth still didn’t know if he should wait for those documents or tell Amelia right away. For the time being, maybe it was better to tell Blake and Roman first. He cringed at the thought, but stood up and headed for the door nonetheless. He didn’t like the idea that Amelia would once again be the last to find out something which was strongly related to her, but he needed his Inaris’ wise advice. He didn’t know what to do with the information the bear-shifter detective had just given him, but Roman and Blake would.
***
“Come in!” Blake didn’t even bother to look Seth’s way when he entered the room. She was typing away on her laptop, two heavy books open on her desk. She figured he was probably there to see Amelia, anyway.
“Hey!”
“Hey there…” Amelia was lying on the bed, clutching her stomach. She managed a smile and tried to get up when she saw Seth, but her hand immediately flew to her mouth.
“Are you okay?” Seth took a couple of steps towards her, but Amelia had already jumped off the bed and sprinted towards the bathroom.
