“So, someone else found out about the venom and used it to hurt her,” I mused out loud. “But who? Roommate?”
Indra shook her head. “Elise was Aria’s roommate, remember? So even if Elise knew, she wouldn’t have used it to kill herself.”
I took one of the vials from the box and held it up to the light. It looked almost like water. Transparent, innocent. But one drop of this could kill you and…
My gaze fell on the last three bottles in the box. Sitting down, I hadn’t noticed, but standing up, I could see that, while the other bottles were filled with liquid, these three vials were empty.
“Indra.” I grabbed her sleeve and shook it to get her attention.
“What?” She turned toward me.
“Three vials missing venom. Three.” I stared straight into her eyes. “And we only have two victims.”
My jaguar howled in fear and shock.
Indra’s gaze clouded over. “So far.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Armed with the box of venom vials and along with Roxanne, Indra and I made our way to our room first where we hid the box of vials, and then we all headed downstairs.
The whole student body of Waynard Academy was gathered outside the building. People were crying everywhere around us. Stephanie Decker in particular was sobbing so loud it just about broke my heart. Seeing all the sadness around me reminded me of Amaranth’s funeral and of how my aunt had cried her eyes out. How broken she had seemed, how utterly gutted over what had happened. I’d been powerless to help her, the same way I had been powerless to help Amaranth.
Roxanne excused herself and went over to Wyatt. She hugged him, and he hugged her back tightly, clinging to her for support.
“Everyone’s been informed,” Indra said as we tried to mingle into the group. “Two deaths in four days. The Conclave can’t keep this quiet forever. It’ll be out by nightfall.”
“The Gathering of the Clans starts tomorrow.” I shook my head. “If this news gets out by then, it’ll be disastrous. You’re sure the Conclave is informed that, no matter what it looks like, the murders weren’t committed by a jaguar?”
“The Conclave, yes,” Indra said. “But not the media. You should read this.”
She pushed her cell phone into my hand. It showed an article stating, “Second Jaguar Murder in Four Days.”
Pressure weighed me down. I’d been sent here by the Conclave to solve the crime, but my mother was also counting on me to clear our name, and if the media still published this, then I’d failed miserably.
“It’s the human newspapers, and they blame an animal. The official story is that a jaguar escaped from the local zoo and sneaked into the school, and is now surviving somewhere off that disgusting kitchen food or something. Either way, if human media states it this way…”
She took the cell phone back, swiped at the screen for a minute, and then handed it back to me.
It was an official clan email sent out to all registered members and leaders of the snake clan. Of course Indra, being one of the leading members due to her being part of the Conclave, had received it.
“You don’t have to read it all. It’s sent by Rollins. The condensed version is that he says although the Conclave’s official position is that nothing is certain yet, Rollins himself is convinced the attacker is a jaguar,” she summarized. “He makes this weird point about how a jaguar claw is used, as if that claw suddenly has a brain and a mind of its own. Either way, he also says that even if jaguars aren’t directly responsible, the weak leadership of the jaguar clan has caused these atrocities to occur. Especially now, considering a second murder has been committed.”
I sighed and resisted the urge to throw the cell phone as far away as I could. “Aria Forbes’ body isn’t cold yet, and Rollins is already using this to his advantage. Remind me why I don’t like snakes?”
Indra looked at me impatiently. “We’re not all the same, and I’ve already told you that. Anyway, I thought you should know. Your mother will have a tough time at the clan gathering tomorrow.”
“I wish I could be there to help her.” The thought of my mother having to face all this bad news on her own made me sick to my stomach. She’d always been there for me, and rather than helping her by wrapping up this case quickly, I’d let things get a million times more complicated. I shook my head. “At this point, literally anyone could’ve grabbed that venom and stabbed Elise and Aria with it…” I stopped midsentence as something dawned on me. “The claw. Anyone could’ve taken the venom, but not just anyone could’ve taken that claw.”
My eyes lit up as my mind worked in overdrive.
The claw was the answer. And since he was the only missing jaguar shifter that claw could come from, that meant Roan Black was the answer.
Finally, I could unlock that door in my mind and focus on Roan, the person who had been haunting my subconscious since I’d found out he was missing.
My jaguar wailed in agony at the thought of Roan being hurt.
I grabbed Indra’s arm and squeezed it. “We have to find out what happened to Roan Black.”
Chapter Thirty
In the crowd, Indra and I couldn’t do much, which made me feel even worse. I was on the verge of freaking out, and my jaguar kept on wailing, growling, clawing at the door I’d locked her behind, making the wood crack and groan. I was afraid that somehow, she would be able to escape; she’d never been this agitated before.
About an hour later the police let us back into the academy. Police officers were posted on every floor, so sneaking out after-hours would be near impossible now. If this would stop another potential murder now that a third vial had been taken, too, I wasn’t sure, but at least it couldn’t hurt.
Indra opened up her laptop, and we accessed the Conclave’s online records. They didn’t keep sensitive information online, but police reports, such as the one made about Roan Black vanishing from Waynard Academy, were in their records. Any police report made by the human police officers involving shifters was added there.
When the search engine found Roan’s records, a picture of him along with some basic information, such as date of birth, profession (student), and nationality (British) popped up. The picture showed Roan just as I’d last seen him, when he’d stood up for me at the Conclave. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I had to ball my hands into fists to stop myself from crying.
Roan’s intense green eyes stared at me from the picture, accusing me for not looking for him sooner, for not realizing what had happened to him months ago.
My jaguar hollered in response, her guilt mimicking my own.
“So apparently,” Indra read out loud, interrupting my thoughts, “he vanished from the academy right before the summer holiday. The academy contacted police officers. His parents even travelled here to look into his disappearance. He was missing for four whole days. Then, his parents went back home and apparently found him there, safe and sound. They dropped the missing person’s report.”
I frowned, rereading the lines she’d just read out loud. “That’s…” My voice came out strained. “That’s weird.”
“More than weird, if you ask me. Also, at the start of this semester, Roan didn’t return to school. In fact, nobody has seen him ever since he went missing—besides his parents who are adamant he’s home.”
“The plot thickens.” I couldn’t squeeze out more than that short sentence.
“I’ll call the Conclave,” Indra said. “See if they have any other intel on Roan Black.”
I nodded as she got up and grabbed her cell phone.
Thoughts of Roan swarmed my mind. Now that I was allowing myself to think about him, I nearly drowned in worry. Best case scenario, he wasn’t missing at all. He was home, safe and sound, with his parents, and just avoiding me the way I thought he’d been. While I clung on to some hope for this possible outcome, I realized the other outcomes were far more likely, and far more dire. He could’ve been kidnapped and then been declawed, which must’ve hurt like hell. Or
even worse…
He could be dead.
The thought was too much for my jaguar. She laid down and curled up, unwilling to move, hiding her head under her large paws.
I wanted to do that too, just hide and disappear, but I couldn’t let my emotions get the best of me. If I didn’t rely on my logical skills now, then Roan, provided he was still alive, could die.
Before I could even begin to fathom that thought, Indra sank down next to me. I hadn’t even heard her make the call—that’s how lost I’d been in my own mind.
“And?” I asked.
“No other intel, but they put me through to a Conclave member, Justus Deyett, who is friends with Roan’s father, Cornelius Black. Justus said that he hasn’t seen Roan since he supposedly went missing, and he hasn’t heard much from Cornelius, either. Thinks something is definitely up, but since Cornelius insists his son is fine, the Conclave can’t start an official investigation.”
“If Roan’s missing, I’m sure whoever is behind Elise’s murder kidnapped him and declawed him,” I said, relieved my voice didn’t waver as I spoke my thoughts out loud.
“Declawing someone. Who would do that? It’s basically like pulling a human’s fingernails out, except maybe worse.” Indra flinched visibly.
My jaguar flinched, too, but she didn’t move otherwise and kept hiding her head, sadness surrounding her like a mist.
“Anyway, I don’t believe in coincidences like this one,” Indra said. “If Roan Black disappeared here two months before all this crazy stuff went down and never came back to school, then somebody used his claws to attack Elise and Aria. You can’t have that many coincidences without someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
“I agree. Yet, we don’t know anything else about who might’ve wanted to kidnap Roan, or why. Did he have any enemies? Friends?” I paused as I asked my next question. “Girlfriends?” To me, my voice came out like a squeak, but Indra didn’t seem to notice, or at least she didn’t comment on it.
“He looks hot enough for a girlfriend anyway.” Indra got up from the bed and dug her cell phone out of her pocket. “You look into the girlfriend angle. I’ll ring Cornelius Black, say it’s official Conclave business and that he needs to come clean. If Roan’s still missing, why aren’t they reporting it? What kind of parent would do that?”
I thought about declawing someone, about how callous and cruel you’d have to be to steal someone’s claws. “Maybe whoever did it sent them something from Roan. A” —I swallowed hard— “souvenir, a warning that they should stop looking for him, or he’ll be killed.” My voice broke over the last word, and my jaguar started making soft, whiny sounds, almost like sobs.
“You mean like, they cut off something else besides his claws, too?” Indra gagged. “I’m going to be sick. Whoever is behind this, they’re more insane and cruel than I thought anyone could be.”
She started calling, typing in the digits from the number the Conclave had sent us. Meanwhile, I struggled to push my jaguar and her overwhelming emotions away, to lock her up, and go back into Sherlock Mode. It took all my strength to do that, but if I didn’t, then Roan didn’t stand a chance. He needed me right now. He needed me to be strong, to be logical.
Finally able to slip back into Sherlock Mode, I did a Facebook search for Roan’s profile. It was weird, but I had never friended him on Facebook.
Back when we first met, he didn’t have a Facebook yet, and later, it just seemed weird. I didn’t even have a proper Facebook account, didn’t have the time or patience for social media, and making one just so I could befriend the handful of friends I had seemed stupid.
Besides, what Roan and I had… The letters we wrote… It was much more personal than communicating through Facebook or any other social media.
But if he had a girlfriend at some point, it would be on there. That might’ve been another reason why I’d never bothered creating a Facebook account. In the world of letter writing, there was just Roan and me, no room or need for anyone else. In the real world, he might’ve had dozens of friends, dozens of ex-girlfriends I knew nothing of.
And that would hurt me. Even though it shouldn’t, even though I wasn’t sure why, it would hurt me.
Roan’s handsome profile picture popped up. He was winking in the picture, and if I hadn’t thought about the horrible things he might have gone through or how he might be dead already, a rotting corpse somewhere in a hidden basement, the picture would’ve probably put a smile on my face.
As it was, it only made me feel sad.
My jaguar let out a long, sorrowful wail, and then went back to hiding her head beneath her paws.
“Good evening. My name is Indra Marraux, and I work for the Conclave.” Indra’s tone told the person on the other end of the line she meant business. “Am I speaking to Cornelius Black?”
Roan’s relationship status was single, so that didn’t help much, although it made me feel oddly relieved. Although we’d been friends since forever, Roan and I were very different in some regards. He was gregarious, socially active, involved. Even his Facebook profile, with over 200 friends, proved that. Mine, if it had existed, would have maybe 10 friends—and that was stretching it.
Because I hadn’t dared to. Because I didn’t want to share him, and because I knew that if I saw he was dating someone, it would hurt me. I would feel betrayed.
Why would I feel that way, though? Because he hadn’t told me?
Or because it wasn’t me?
I shook my head, trying to push those thoughts to the back of my mind. Roan was in danger, so I just had to gather all my courage and scroll down through his pictures to see if those could maybe give me any clues.
His most recent picture was posted three months ago, before his disappearance. Social media silence usually wasn’t a good sign, either.
The picture showed him and a group of friends at Waynard Academy. I recognized Aria, Elise, and Reyna to the left, playing volleyball. Roan had his arms around Wyatt, and the two of them seemed happy and carefree.
A pang of jealousy went through me. I wanted to be there, too. Be a normal kid, or a normal shifter kid even, go to school and make friends. Be normal…with Roan.
Stay focused, Marisol.
Was Wyatt close friends with Roan? Wyatt hadn’t let it on when he’d mentioned Roan the other day. From the way he talked about Roan, the two of them had just been acquaintances.
“I need to speak to you about your son, Mr. Black,” Indra said. “We know he’s missing, and this time, I’m not going to let you deny it.”
I couldn’t hear what was said on the other end of the phone, but from the way Indra’s eyes were spitting fire, I was guessing Mr. Black denied it again.
This infuriated me. I didn’t know Mr. Black that well, but if Roan was actually missing and his father was denying it… No way he would’ve done that unless someone had threatened him or had threatened Roan’s life.
I balled my hands into fists and took a deep breath. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you, Marisol.
“Fine, then, if he’s not missing, put him on the phone. Let me speak to him.”
The picture below the first showed Roan with his dad and stepmother at a fancy party where everyone wore ball gowns and suits. Here, he looked happy, too, and his parents looked very proud. My heart broke a little more.
“Of course, you can’t because he is missing.” Indra practically shouted the words through the phone. “Listen up, Mr. Black. I think you haven’t seen your son in months, and that someone threatened you that if you told anyone, especially the police or the Conclave about what happened to him, they would kill him. The person doing the threatening probably showed you something gruesome, something to show they were serious. Am I correct?”
I scrolled down more. Roan often shared songs he liked or books he enjoyed reading. Back in May, he gave a stellar review to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a book I considered one of my personal favorites. I already knew Roan and I had simila
r tastes in books, as we’d often talked about our recent reads and even recommended books to each other.
He hadn’t mentioned reading this one, though, although he knew it was my favorite. But he’d started it after he told me he needed time away from me…
“I understand how horrible that must’ve been, Mr. Black. And I’m about to tell you something worse, I’m afraid. We believe his claws have been used in attacks at Waynard Academy. We think someone tied them up to some kind of glove, and then dipped them in snake venom.”
Another picture popped up, and my mouth dropped open.
I sat there, frozen, as my heart turned to ice in my chest.
In the picture, Roan was kissing a girl right on her mouth. She looked as happy as he did, with a beautiful sunset behind them as they kissed in the picture. The picture was taken just a few days before Roan finished his review for Lewis Carroll’s bestseller, according to the Facebook date.
His girlfriend. Roan had a girlfriend he’d never told me about.
Of course he hadn’t told me about her. They’d only started dating after Roan stopped talking to me.
Still…it hurt. Hurt so much I couldn’t breathe, could simply stare at the picture, hoping it would evaporate as if it never existed at all.
My jaguar was still curled up, away in her own world, going through her own emotions. If she wasn’t this sad, I was pretty sure she would’ve lashed out by now, but it seemed as if all the will to live had left her. I hadn’t seen her this sad since my dad had passed away.
A Study In Shifters Page 20