by A. D. Ryan
“Okay…”
“Like us, they have enemies as well as others like them who don’t follow their rules. In exchange for their barrier spells, we’ve often been used as their executioners.”
Hearing this shocked me. While I now accepted what we had to do for our own survival, it was jarring to hear that we might be asked to take the life of another just to pay back a debt. I looked around the room at my Pack, remembering the look of fear on both Marcus and Miranda’s cold, pale faces, and I came to a decision. Even if it sacrificed my comfort and morals.
“Do what you have to do,” I ordered before turning to Nick. “I want to head back to the manor and look around the library some more. I don’t know what I expect to find now that the cops have trampled through there, but I have to try and see if I can find anything that might tell us where Cordelia is.”
“I want to help.” My father surprised me by volunteering his services. I hadn’t expected him to jump into this investigation. “I just think that two detectives might be better than one.”
Smiling, I reached out and gripped his hand. “Thank you,” I told him. “I’d really appreciate that.”
While Vince and Layla stayed behind to contact the Shaman, Nick and I, along with my father, headed for the Manor. My mom wasn’t feeling well, so she found a quiet place to lie down. It didn’t surprise me that she wasn’t feeling well; she had to be overwhelmed by everything she had found out. Jackson assured me he’d keep a close eye on her, which made me feel better about leaving. I escorted her up to Layla’s room upon Vince’s insistence, and then we left for the manor.
The door creaked as we pushed it open, something I’d never noticed before now. The manor was usually so busy and full of noise and life that little sounds like that never really registered. I led the way to the library, still picking up traces of blood.
When I pulled the yellow crime scene tape from the doorway and crossed the threshold, I was surprised to find the scent almost as strong. Most of the blood had been cleaned, save for the massive stain on the carpet that Marcus had been found on. The white walls were still stained with streaks of blood from when Cordelia had likely tried to fight being taken.
While I surveyed the room from the center, absorbing everything I possibly could before taking a closer look at the finer details, my dad headed straight for the walls.
“Small finger trails.”
“Marcus and Miranda’s teenage daughter was here with them when the attack happened,” I explained almost robotically as I scanned the library, comparing it with my memory of that day. “There was a disturbance in the blood pool, indicating she’d likely happened upon her father after he’d died and kneeled next to him.”
“There are scratches in the blood trails,” Dad continued, leaning forward and inspecting them further.
I hummed my agreement. “She probably tried to use her claws to stop them from taking her.” Dad made a sound that said he wasn’t so sure, and that got my undivided attention. “What is it?”
He was silent for a minute, probably going over his theory once more to be sure he was right. “I’m not sure…” I watched as he lifted his hand and ran his finger over the slight tear in the drywall. “Hypothetically, if you were…what you are—”
“A werewolf,” I interjected, reminding me of one of the first conversations I had with Nick months ago.
“Right. Well, if you were taken and were trying to stop that from happening, wouldn’t the gouges in the wall be a little more…I don’t know…desperate?”
Stunned into momentary silence, I rushed to his side and looked at the claw marks. Not only were they shallow and thin, they were one long trail. I tried to put myself in her shoes, because my dad was right: something just didn’t add up.
Chapter32 | doubt
“Maybe they’re not hers,” my dad offered, but I shook my head.
“It’s her. I can smell traces of her in the drywall left behind from her fingers and claws.” I continued to rearrange the puzzle I thought I’d almost solved, biting my lower lip as I concentrated. “And there’s virtually no trace of the coven anywhere here. Their scent was faint that day, and it’s almost non-existent now.”
Nick stood beside me, his hand brushing the small of my back. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. None of it makes sense. Whoever was here took them all by surprise and took Cordelia again.”
“Perhaps watching her parents get murdered made her give up,” Nick suggested carefully, looking pained. “I seem to recall you didn’t put up much of a fight when I had to drag you away from Bobby after the cops arrived that night.”
What he said made a little bit of sense, but there were still behavioral inconsistencies to what happened here, and there was only one person who could fill in the blanks. There had to be an explanation to it all, but we wouldn’t get any concrete answers until we found Cordelia.
With even more questions and no answers, the three of us headed back to Vince and Layla’s place where we gathered the Pack in the living room and discussed our options. After talking it through, we all decided that the best course of action would be to head back to the compound for answers, and hope to God we found some information that would lead us to Cordelia.
“How can we be sure it’s safe?” Colby asked nervously.
“They won’t be there now that we know where it is. As far as we know, Bobby plans to build an army. I’m not sure how they intend to do this, but we won’t ever know unless I can get my hands on their research.”
“That’s assuming it’s still there,” Corbin spoke up, skepticism thick in his tone.
“Well, we need to at least try. We can’t just sit around here, waiting for one of them to strike. I doubt they’ll strike during the day while outnumbered, so this might be our only chance. Bobby has to know we’ve started to piece it all together by now.”
In a show of support, Nick moved to my side, like any Alpha’s mate would. “She’s right.” He turned to Layla and Vince. “Where are we at with that Shaman about the barrier spell? I want one around this place and the manor before we go anywhere.”
“He’s on his way,” Layla announced. “He should be here in a little under an hour.”
“Good,” I announced. “We’ll leave after that.”
Layla tried to convince me that we could all leave and that she would stay behind and wait for the Shaman to arrive, but I ordered against it. “It’s too dangerous. With Bobby able to walk in the day, he could be out there, just waiting for us to separate again. I won’t jeopardize another member of this pack.” That was the last I’d heard of it.
Just as promised, the Shaman showed within the hour. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t for him to look like a regular guy.
I’d seen so many movies and television shows that portrayed Sorcerers and Shamans as otherworldly, eyes glowing, skin of an unnatural shade of grey, and sometimes they moved as if levitating above ground after materializing out of nowhere.
This guy, though? He showed up, knocked on the door like a gentleman, and when I answered, I took note of his professional appearance. He wore a pair of jeans, a dress shirt, and a brown blazer, carried a briefcase, and his dark brown hair was combed neatly to the side. There was a scar running down the left side of his face, and his grey eyes practically shimmered behind a stylish pair of glasses as he stared down at me from a height of around five-ten. I shook his hand, introducing myself as the one in charge.
When he saw the rest of the Pack, he offered his condolences for our loss. “The news travelled fast amongst us all,” he informed the room before turning to Colby and Corbin. “Your parents were great leaders, and highly revered. They will be missed, and we will do whatever we can to help—over and above this barrier spell.”
Vince stepped forward and shook his hand. “Thank you, Alistair. You have no idea what it means to us.”
“It’s our pleasure, old friend. After all, Marcus has been very good to us.”
Curiosity prodded me to ask for the specifics, but I figured now was not the time, and I let Vince show Alistair around so he could get started on the barrier. As he moved around the house, chanting some kind of spell at every possible entry point, I watched, wondering how we would know if someone breached our fortress.
When the house was done, Alistair went outside, offering to cast a perimeter spell as well. My eyes remained on him as he stood in the backyard, his back to the house, and I gasped when I saw a strange wave of blue energy expand away from his body like a blast.
A blast of warmth moved through me, making my skin hum and my body tingle. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that his spell had been a success, and as I looked around the room, I noticed that the rest of the Pack had experienced the same thing.
Alistair ascended the stairs of the back deck and let himself back inside. “Everything is in place,” he announced.
“How will we know it works?” I finally inquired.
“Should a vampire try to cross the barrier beyond the house, it will stop them momentarily. Eventually, they will be able to pass, but not without struggling and sounding an alarm that only you will hear. It will be a high-pitched frequency that only canine hearing will pick up. They won’t be alerted, but it will give you enough time to prepare yourselves. I wish it could do more.”
Regardless, I was impressed so far. “And the windows and doors?”
“Should they make it through any one of the entrances, their lack of body temperature will activate a UV simulation, burning them and slowing them down.”
“It won’t kill them?”
Alistair shook his head. “Even burning them goes against our beliefs. Killing them would have me tried and executed amongst my people.”
While this sounded perfect, there was one that could make it past this particular spell. “And if a vampire had somehow managed to splice its genes with a werewolf, making it able to walk in the day?”
Alistair’s eyes widened in shock. “No such creature exists,” he proclaimed, sounding absolutely certain. “Such a monster would be an abomination.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Which is why we need to find a way to stop it.”
Chapter33 | Confirmation
“The way the stories go—and that’s all they’ve ever been; stories—a vampire-werewolf hybrid might be virtually unstoppable.” Alistair stood in the living room, educating us on everything he knew about hybrid lore. I wasn’t discounting anything he might say, knowing that anything could be possible.
“Nothing is unstoppable,” I argued. “Harder to slow down, maybe. But not unstoppable.”
“They’ll be impervious to both sunlight and silver,” Alistair continued. “There have been no documented cases of a successful procedure, but there are plenty of theories on how one could make it happen.”
“Which are?” Nick spoke up.
Alistair regarded him before answering. “It’s said that the cycle the moon is in—whether it be new or full—will determine a higher concentration of either vampire or wolf. A new moon would mean the vampire DNA would be more dominant, whereas, naturally, a full moon would allow the wolf to be.”
I let this sink in for a minute, trying to wonder if that really was the case, or if it was just some debunked theory that Bobby and Gianna had already failed at.
“It should be said that a bite from one species to the other is eventually fatal, there’s no way to actually accomplish this. It’s foolish to think someone could.”
I met his gaze, hands clasped tightly in front of me as I leaned on my thighs. “Bobby feels pretty certain he found a way…and the fact that I watched him saunter out in broad daylight is a pretty good indication that he might actually have succeeded.”
This confession caught Alistair off guard. “You…you actually witnessed this?”
“We both did,” Nick replied. “As did Brooke’s parents.”
Alistair began pacing in front of us, removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t understand,” he said beneath his breath. “How is this possible? The exchange of saliva or blood would be fatal.”
“Unless that blood or saliva shared similar genetic markers,” I interjected firmly, gaining Alistair’s complete attention. I could see the confusion in his eyes, likely wondering how I’d even come to that conclusion. “I spent a little time as their prized guinea pig. I learned a few things.”
The room fell silent as Alistair absorbed this new theory. He began pacing again, mumbling to himself and working out the probability of that happening based on things he’d read or heard over the years. I picked up bits and pieces of his outward monologue, but understood very little as it sounded very scientific and theoretic.
“You mentioned something about the moon playing a part in which species tends to dominate,” Roxanne spoke up, and Alistair became almost flustered when their eyes met. “Does that mean that if a wolf was changed, that their soul might remain intact?”
“I suppose anything is likely in this unusual case,” Alistair said, even though he didn’t sound too sure. “But I think it might be best to expect the worst. It’s not uncommon knowledge that when the vampire virus infects the host, it basically eradicates any traces of humanity.” He dropped his eyes from hers and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. I was picking up the slightest hint of attraction between them.
If I wasn’t so worried about finding Cordelia, I might have time to think it was adorable.
“Just because your DNA is part animal doesn’t make you any less human. Your species typically feels more empathy for others, so long as they follow your laws and don’t intrude in your affairs.
“I have to admit, the idea of a hybrid intrigues me,” Alistair continued, looking almost excited by the possibility.
“You seem like an intelligent man,” I told him. “Everything you’ve told us has helped us understand a little better. We’re planning to raid their compound again to look for more information and irrefutable proof. I don’t expect to understand any of it, and your talents might come in handy to hold them off should they show up. I’d be eternally grateful if you’d accompany us. You might be able to make more sense of what we find down there.”
Alistair’s grey eyes brightened with the prospect of learning more about this, and his smile widened for a second before he remembered the gravity of the situation and recomposed himself. “I would gladly offer my assistance with your investigation.”
Before he could say anything else, I remembered what Vince had said about the price sometimes being too high.
I briefly contemplated taking back my request, but before I could, Alistair spoke again. “Normally, in these situations, there’s an exchange of…services, if you will.” I nodded, looking nervous as I waited for him to state his terms. “While I’m sure the others won’t be happy by what I am about to do, I’d be willing to help you, and the only thing I request in exchange is access to this information. My people, we’re always trying to learn and study the happenings of our world. We use this information to our advantage.”
“You mean you trade it with those who require it in exchange for…whatever services you might be in need of,” I assumed confidently.
Alistair nodded. “That’s a fairly accurate assessment. We have archives containing information on our world hidden deep within the catacombs beneath the city, and we only access them when we’re asked to.”
“So, you’ll join us and offer up additional protection, and the only thing you want in return is information on the hybrids?” I asked, unable to keep the skepticism from my voice. It seemed too good to be true, based on what Vince told me about them.
“That’s correct.”
“Good enough for me,” I said, pushing myself to my feet and looking around the room at the rest of the Pack, and then at my parents. “I need a few of you to stay here with my parents, and the rest will be coming to the compound.”
“Brooke?” I turned toward my father. “I
realize I have no right to voice my opinion, but I don’t think this is the best course of action.”
“We have to find out what we’re up against. If they succeeded—”
“I know,” he interrupted. “But you can’t split everyone up. Not now. What if you all take off and we’re ambushed. Will you be able to make it back in time? Or vice versa. What if you’re all walking into a trap?”
“So I should take my entire pack in there?” I questioned a little too harshly. “You and Mom? You guys are willing to walk into the compound? See the cage where Bobby kept me prisoner? The room where he tortured me? Forced me to change into an animal so he could study me?”
A hand on my shoulder distracted me, and calm rippled through me as I looked up to see Nick. “Easy,” he told me calmly. “His fears are valid, considering everything they’ve been through and learned.”
“Are you suggesting we take them with us? They could get hurt…or worse.”
Turning me to face him entirely, Nick placed his hands on my upper arms. “Not at all.” He took a deep breath. “There’s a panic room beneath the house. It’s impenetrable.”
“To hybrids?” I shot back at him with arched eyebrows of disbelief.
I could sense the exasperation rolling off of Nick as he rolled his eyes. “I can’t be sure, but it’s well-hidden and requires—”
“If I may,” Alistair interjected, gaining everyone’s attention. “Once they’re concealed, I can use a cloaking spell to throw off anyone who might make it past the barrier spells. It will affect the heightened senses of both vampire and werewolf alike, making it impossible to detect anyone who might be hiding somewhere within the house—or beneath it, as it were.”
“I’ll stay behind with them,” Colby offered. The idea made me uneasy; she wasn’t exactly in the best place emotionally to keep my parents safe.
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Zach spoke up, sounding nervous, “I’d like to stay, also. I think safety in numbers would be ideal.”