A gasp nearly brought me from my hiding place, and I felt a hand on my wrist, warning me to stay.
“Just remember whose side you’re on, love,” the voice said. “And what you’re risking.”
“I have never given you reason to doubt my loyalty.” She sounded like she spoke through clenched teeth, and I imagined his hairy thumb and fingers digging into her arm, marking her pale skin with bruises. I nearly shook with the effort to not jump to her rescue.
“You know better than to do that.” Now his tone was low and sinister. “What do you remember about the scene? Or did you manage to get any kind of impression before you allowed them to strong arm you out of the way?”
She described it as I remembered it with one exception. “The wounds at Otto’s wrists were puncture marks, and the skin was raised around them, like something sharp had been inserted and pulled out.”
I would have to check that once the good detective had processed the body for autopsy.
“So it seems he lost some blood before he lost some blood, but let us not say any more about it here. I’ve heard rumors that members of the Lycanthrope Council hang out here. Buggers have crazy sharp hearing.”
“Well, Crickets is closed for renovation, and I couldn’t go farther out. I need to be at Lonna’s by six. The least you could do is buy me a drink.”
I raised both eyebrows. Yes, I would definitely have to talk to Selene again and in more depth. I opened my eyes and looked to see who had grabbed my wrist. The sensation disappeared. No one stood with me, but cold air swirled around me before disappearing. With a look to make sure Selene and her companion wouldn’t see me, I exited my hiding place and returned to David’s and my booth.
5
The mirror showed me Selene and her companion, a lanky-looking guy with a scar on one cheek, walking to the bar. She didn’t look comfortable in the role of co-conspirator. Nor did she look like she enjoyed his company, and I wondered what she had gotten herself into.
“Learn anything?” David asked.
“Only that Selene might have seen our victim before I discovered him.” I remembered the wrists had been torn, not punctured. “Or there’s another reason she remembers it differently than from what I saw. I hope to the gods she didn’t tell the detective that.”
David popped the last of his egg in his mouth, and I looked at the rest of mine.
“Do you want this?” I asked. “I’m not feeling up to it.”
He switched our plates. “Got no wife currently,” he mumbled with his mouth full. “This is going to be dinner.”
“I don’t either, but I’ve learned to cook.”
We chatted about the advantages and disadvantages of marriage versus hiring someone to cook and clean, but I kept one eye on the mirror to see when Selene and the bloke she was with left.
“Would you mind it if we tailed the guy?” I asked David once we paid up and sat ready to go. “I want to find out who he’s working for, or at least where he lives.” I didn’t mention that apparently he’d been at the crime scene or at least around the Institute when it happened. I wanted to get him alone and question him.
“Fair enough. It’s been a long time since I played spy.”
Selene and her companion moved toward the exit, and we slid out of our booth, careful to stay as out of sight as possible. The pub had gotten crowded with the after work regulars, so our primary difficulty was with evading others’ attempts at conversation. Some—our fellow lycanthropes—knew who and what we were. Others – the regular humans – thought we were friendly bureaucrats who worked for some government project at Castle Lycan.
Once we exited the pub, I looked around for Selene’s red hair and saw a flash of it in the white car down the row she and her colleague had spoken in earlier. I ducked back into the doorway and peered around for her companion. A dark-haired figure disappeared down the sidewalk.
I handed my keys to David. “Start the car and drive slowly behind me, keeping me in sight, but try not to draw attention to yourself.”
“When I was playing this game, it was with horses and carriages,” he said with a grin. “It’s harder to be subtle when you’re clopping.”
I clapped him on the arm and walked quickly down the sidewalk toward where I thought Selene’s companion had disappeared. The urge to chase down and vanquish my prey blossomed in my chest, and I had to suppress it so I wouldn’t change and ruin my clothing. My hearing remained extra sharp, although not wolf sharp, and I followed the sound of the man’s footsteps.
He crossed at a light, and I darted after him, keeping to the late afternoon shadows. He looked over his shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of the red line running down his cheek. The tone of his rhythmic stride changed when he entered the old part of town and concrete transitioned to cobblestone. I glanced over my shoulder—it would be harder for David to follow us quietly. He stopped just short of the west port gate, and I nodded to him.
My quarry’s steps quickened, so mine did as well, and I followed him into an alley beside the West Port Inn. He turned, and it occurred to me that cornering a suspicious person in an alley might not be the smartest idea just before a strong arm collared my neck. I clutched at it instinctively. It tightened, and spots swam in front of my eyes.
“Think you’re so clever, don’t you?” the Englishman asked. “I knew you were behind me the whole time.”
“Congratulations, you caught me,” I told him. “Now get your ogre to let me go, and we’ll talk.”
“Consider this a warning, mate. Leave us alone, and we’ll do the same for you. But if you keep poking your nose into our business, then next time it won’t end so well for you.”
“But I don’t even know who you are.”
“Good.”
A sharp pain blossomed on the back of my head, and everything went black.
I woke to a bright light in my eyes and shoved it away. It turned out to be David shining the torch app on his cell phone in my face.
“Not your smartest moment,” he told me and helped me sit up.
My stomach heaved, but all that came up was acid. It took me a moment to find the right words to tell him, “I think I have a concussion.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Someone managed to rattle the brain inside that thick skull o’yours?” He helped me stand, and I leaned on him.
“Trust me, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t have rushed in, but at least I got a good close look at the guy. At least I think I did. It’s fuzzy now.”
“Right, then. We should get you back to your flat. Or to a doctor.”
“No.” I tried to shake my head, but pain lanced through my brain. “Okay, maybe, but not the hospital.”
“There aren’t any clinics open this time of night. I could call the NHS nurse line. See what I should look for or do for you.”
“Take me to the home of Maximilian and Lonna Marconi-Fortuna,” I said. “Max is a physician. Do you mind driving my car? I’ll pay for your cab ride home.”
“I’ll figure out a way back to Laird Hall. Don’t worry.”
He helped me to the car, and every little bump over the cobblestones jarred my brain. I felt like sleeping when we got to the smooth pavement but remembered something about that not being a good idea, so I told David, “Keep me awake until we get there.”
“I canna hit you while I’m driving. I’d put this prissy German car of yours into a tree.”
I laughed. “No, just talk to me about something interesting.”
He snorted. “Like what?”
I hadn’t felt whatever it was—my father, a ghost, something else—since the pub, and as much as it had perturbed me, I wished it would return. Maybe it would have kept me from following the scarred Englishman into the alley. No, I couldn’t blame some phantasmal force for my own mistake.
“Tell me about my father. I was only a boy when he was killed and don’t remember a lot about him.”
In the waning light—the sun set so very late during the summer, which alw
ays threw me off when I returned from my travels—I saw his hands tighten and relax on the steering wheel. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything.” I closed my eyes against the perceived movement of the road and trees outside but then opened them again when I got dizzier. “Whatever you remember.”
“He could hold more Scotch than any other lycanthrope I knew,” he said. “He had a laugh that boomed throughout any pub, no matter how small or large. That’s how he and your mum got together—she was a university professor, one of the few female ones, and she was at Marley’s one night with a group of colleagues.”
“I know her story,” I grumbled. “Get back to his.”
“Well, he was also grumpy when he lost a fight,” he said with a smirk. “Couldn’t stand it. Not that it happened often.”
“They caught me from behind.”
He laughed outright then. “He’d take responsibility for his mistakes. That’s how he usually lost the fights—something stupid or showing off. He could never resist an audience.”
“How long did you know him?” We were almost to the house Lonna and Max rented, and I almost asked David to circle around so I could continue to take advantage of his talkative mood.
“I met him in 1800 when he came on as the Council Investigator. I’d just come out of hiding myself. The Order had shifted its attention to the American Colonies and their conflict and got stretched too thin to keep after us effectively.”
“The Order? I remember something about them in Council records, but it’s been a long time.”
I couldn’t tell with certainty, but he seemed to shudder. “And here we are, then. I’ll just leave your car here so you’re not blocking anyone in.”
“Thanks.” I made a mental note, addled as it may have been, to ask him about the Order later. We’d always maintained a cordial tone with our Council dealings, but this was the first day he’d decided to open up, and he’d only whetted my appetite for information.
We got out of the car, and he held me steady with one hand as we made our way up the front walk.
“Be careful,” he said. “You remind me more and more of him as you get older.” With that comment, which could have been a warning or compliment, he disappeared into the night.
I rang the bell and leaned against a post. Lonna opened the door.
“Gabriel?” Her eyes widened when she saw my face. “Come in. Max!”
I stumbled forward, and she and Max caught me and brought me to a sofa. The house smelled of Italian comfort food—lasagna, garlic bread, and the clean scent of salad with vinaigrette along with them. I guessed there was a chocolate cake somewhere. And of course, alcohol.
Selene walked out of the kitchen, and I bit back a snarl. Her friend had done this to me. She stepped back when she saw my expression, so I tried to make it more neutral. My head throbbed, and I grimaced instead.
“What happened?” Lonna asked. “You look awful.”
“I did something stupid and got whacked on the head,” I told her. “I may have a concussion.”
Max, a medical doctor, came in with an old-fashioned doctor’s bag. “I knew this would come in handy sometime.” He took out a light and shone it in my eyes, then felt around my head. “For bone fragments,” he explained, “although it’s definitely possible to get a concussion without any damage to the skull.”
I hissed when his fingers found a very tender spot.
“It’s just a bump, but no fracture,” he said. “Happens all the time in sports—poor kids’ brains just get rattled around. Did you lose consciousness?”
“For a few minutes.”
He continued through a long list of questions and finished with, “I think you’ll be fine, but I want to get a CT to make sure there’s not any fluid buildup. We’ve got one at the Institute.”
“I’m aware of that,” I said. “Bloody expensive machines.”
Selene had been watching, and I couldn’t read her expression. Did she suspect I’d had a run-in with her friends? I wanted to tell her not to go anywhere, I needed to talk to her, but I didn’t want to spook her into going into hiding. I didn’t have enough to arrest her, so I’d just have to be patient and corner her later. Once I got rid of this damned headache.
“I’m really sorry, but I need to go,” Selene said. “Gabriel, I hope you feel better.” In what seemed like a flash, she left.
“Interesting,” was Lonna’s comment. “Y’all go ahead. I’ll stay here and clean up.”
Max drove me to the Institute. Once we cleared the woods around the drive, I couldn’t help but think it looked like a sinister castle looming above the lawn, its stone walls lit with yellow semicircles from the spotlights. Dim lights shone from within the building. I noticed the difference between when I’d approached it earlier and now, both with regard to how it looked and how I felt. This morning, I had been confident, a little impatient, and curious on my official visit as the Council member who had advocated for it and wanted to make sure it was, indeed, almost ready to start its mission. I thought I had the backing of my peers. Now I felt wobbly and uncertain, both physically and with regard to the politics around it. I would say meeting Selene was a bright spot, but not since her friend had bashed me on the head. At least David had demonstrated a crack in his armor, and the shadowy figure who had been my father took on more definition in my foggy memory.
“Here we are,” Max said and pulled into one of the Co-Director parking spots.
Steadier than before, I got out of the car on my own this time. “I’m getting better.”
“Let’s take a look just to make sure.”
He opened the side door with a key and flipped on the lights. We both squinted against the glare. The blood scent still lingered, although not as strongly.
A bump from upstairs drew our gazes to the ceiling.
“Someone’s in Lonna’s office,” Max whispered.
“Are you sure?”
He nodded, and we moved toward a door marked Stairs. “We’re directly below the office, and as I recall, we left her at home. There’s no reason for the security guards to be in there.”
“Do you have a cleaning crew?” I followed him to the door.
“We told the cleaners not to come tonight. I’ll check it out. Stay here.”
“I’m fine,” I said. Adrenaline and that extra push from the dopamine that activated when we were about to change cleared the fog in my head. “I’m going to change.”
He put a hand on my arm. “Not until I can scan you. Rearranging yourself may cause further damage.”
“I’m still coming with you.”
He nodded. “There’s a second stairwell at the other end of the hall. I’ll take that one.”
The darkness in the stairwell seemed total as my eyes adjusted from being in the light. With my hearing attuned for any sound that might indicate someone coming down, I felt my way up the railing. The stairwell itself smelled like paint, new rubber and cleaning agents, which blocked out the blood.
By the time I emerged onto the second floor, my eyes had adjusted back to the darkness.
Max came out of the stairwell on the other end of the hall, and we both closed in on Lonna’s office. I listened for the faintest sound, but the only noise in my ears was my own heartbeat and Max’s breathing.
“Anything?” he mouthed.
“No.”
The door stood slightly ajar, which indicated someone had been there, and he nudged it completely open. Light from the waxing moon poured through the windows and over Lonna’s desk. As with LeConte’s office, paper was strewn everywhere, but thankfully, no body lay on the desk.
Max indicated he would go around the desk and look underneath. I stayed by the door in case the intruder hid elsewhere and decided to make a break for it. He shone his cell phone torch app under the desk, and I saw its light flicker in the little space between the bottom of the desk and the floor.
“Nothing,” he said out loud.
I walked around and checked o
ther possible nooks and crannies, even checking the wingback chairs to make sure no one sat curled up in them.
“Is there another way out beside the hallway and stairwells?” I asked.
“Only the windows, but there’s nowhere to go once you’re out, not even a ledge.”
“No secret passages?”
He gave me a doubtful look. “It’s a new building.”
“Hey, it’s Scotland,” I said, but then my attention returned to the mess. “Can you tell if anything’s missing?”
“No, only Lonna would be able to.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose we should call her. And Garou. And find the security guards.”
“I’ll have the detective post twenty-four hour surveillance on the place,” I said. “Twice in one day is twice too many. Damn, I wish I could figure out where the perp went.”
“What if no one was actually here?” Max asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You know about Wolf-Lonna and my abilities to create an astral projection.”
I arched an eyebrow. “True, but you’ve set up wards around the place to ensure none but you and she could get through, right?”
“Yes, but those are not always foolproof.”
He walked to the door, and I followed him into the hallway. He locked the door behind him.
“It will take me some time to test them and see if I can determine whether they’ve been breached,” he told me. “Meanwhile, let’s get you scanned to make sure you don’t have any edema from your head injury.”
I felt the back of my head where they’d hit me. The tender bump had decreased in size and painfulness.
“I’m healing. We should find the security guards first and make sure they’re not hurt.”
He led me into the stairwell, down the stairs, and to a vacuum-sealed door. “If there was a breach, they’re likely downstairs.”
“Why?” I asked.
“We keep the most important and expensive equipment in the basement,” he told me. “It seems excessive, but in case of some sort of chemical or biological warfare, it’s also someplace we can hide if necessary. The ventilation system has its own generators, and there are emergency provisions down here.”
Lycanthropy Files Box Set: Books 1-3 Plus Novella Page 58
