Inhuman Heritage (26 page)

I shut the door on her and quickly went over to Simian to help him support the dead weight of the unconscious Mister Durrant.

“Where do we take him?” I asked as we started down the corridor going the opposite way from where I’d come in.

“There is a room for this sort of thing further below. It has not been used for some time so some of the implements may be rusty.”

“Implements?” I must have looked as shocked as I sounded but before Simian could answer me there came a groan from between us. “Looks like Rip Van Winkle’s forty winks are up.”

“Let’s get him downstairs before he wakes up enough to struggle.”

I agreed and we increased our pace heading to the lighted area in front of the main chamber. The torches on the wall flickered in a turf war with the shadows across the walls.

“Who lit up the place?”

“I did coming in behind you, I took the route I thought you would have known best but you were too far ahead of me.”

“Oh man,” moaned Phillip waking up further. We made it into the middle of the room when the lights around us were all doused without warning.

“Hey what happened?” I felt a bump to the bodies on my right and Phillip’s weight became a lot more. “Simian?” I couldn’t see anything in the sudden darkness. A blow to my gut sent me spinning towards the floor. I hit it with a bump slightly scraping my face.

“Simian?” I called but got no answer. I pulled my magic to me. “Lights!”

The torches on the wall exploded back in flame but there was no sign of our attacker. Simian was groaning on the ground near the stairs holding his head. I’d been pushed back towards the corridor we’d just exited and lying between us with his throat ripped out was Phillip’s lifeless body. His eyes were glassy as the blood began to pool on the floor under his chin and his silence was complete.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Simian lay on a cot nursing his head. The medic had said he was going to be fine but I was worried by the blood gushing from his temple where he’d bashed it against the stone stairs. I sat on a stool next to him trying to ignore the medic fussing over my arm that was barely injured.

“Did you see anything? Smell anything?” I asked him in a low voice. Simian opened one eye to look at me, started shaking his head and then groaned closing his eyes.

“No, it was too fast. But it seems clear what their goal was.”

“Yes. They must have had someone watching for him and when you brought in chains and the medic…”

“They knew he’d failed and that we’d make him talk,” he said interrupting me. The medic finished with my arm and I pulled it in to wrap over my stomach, the new bandages brushing the old.

“He’s not going to be talking now.” I looked across the room, just past where the unconscious guard lay, to another cot with a blanket over the dead body of Phillip Durrant.

“This is getting very serious, Cassandra.” Simian was looking at me now, both eyes open and filled with concern.

“I never thought it wasn’t but whoever they are they’re getting desperate now. The ceremony is in the morning.” Simian tried to sit up but I put my hand on his chest forcing him back down on the cot. “You lie still. You might have a concussion or something. I want you to rest.”

“Cassandra, you can’t go after these people on your own. DJ is gone and now I am out, who does that leave to protect you?” I smiled down at him, I didn’t want to insult my friend by telling him how little I needed to be protected. I was quite capable of taking care of myself.

“Of course I won’t. Now you get some rest or I’m going to have to call Sophie.” He cocked an eyebrow at me.

“You wouldn’t?”

“Try me.”

He closed his eyes and gave in. Simian didn’t fear his wife until someone was sick. She’d panic and fuss and drive him completely insane. Werewolves didn’t get sick often and when they did it was usually very serious which would only make her worse. I could imagine why Sophie would get like that. I watched his breathing fall into a constant rhythm and his eyes fluttered under their lids as he nodded off. I stood slowly nodding to the medic as I went out the door back into the corridor.

No one had cleaned the blood off the floor yet. It lay pooled in the middle of the large hall in front of the main chamber. I stood at the edge of the floor leaning against the wall looking at the shimmering dark red stain. I felt sorry for Phillip Durrant. He’d had no time to repent, he died when he didn’t have to and now he would be buried as a traitor. I didn’t know what they did with the bodies of enemies and I had the feeling it wasn’t something I wanted to know. But it made one thing certain in my mind; whoever was in charge of this coup was ruthless-I suppose that’s why they thought it okay to go after a kid.

Standing there in that corridor looking across the way something struck a chord in my memory. Phillip Durrant’s face had seemed very familiar to me, his eyes especially striking. I had seen him before, just the day before in fact, in this same corridor arguing with another man. A man with dark colored hair and a face that had screamed bad to the bone. He’d been talking to Seth Brogan, the other security person for the candidates. The only other person who would have known all the details of our arrangement, where we were going and when. He was also a turned Were not a pure blood. I had to know more about Seth Brogan, he was the most likely suspect I’d had all night. I considered waking Simian but he needed his rest and I didn’t want him to get knocked around anymore tonight, he had a family that couldn’t do without him. It was best to just leave him where he was but I was still going to need his help. I started back towards the infirmary past which was several offices, one of which belonged to Simian. Simian worked in PR which in his case stood for both Press Relations and Personal Relations. He handled dealings with the outside world as well as internal dealings such as new comers, sponsors and housing. His office door was simple wood with a frosted glass window and a small gold nameplate underneath that stated who the office belonged to. Across from his door was another that belonged to Brie and adjacent to it was an office for the king. I had a feeling that they adjoined.

I tried the handle to find the door was locked for the evening as it should be. I had no problem with that. With a smile I placed my hand over the lock, unleashed a little thread of power and heard it click open. I turned the handle and stepped inside the dark office. I could make out a desk in front of the window at the far end and some bookcases and filing cabinets lined an entire wall. I skirted around the desk slowly as not to trip on any wires or anything and snapped on the desk light. A dim glow illuminated the desk and chased the shadows up the wall above the filing cabinets. I didn’t know where to start. There were applications sitting on his desk for new wolves who wanted to move into the community. It was one of the few safe places for werewolves to live without fear of constant persecution. They couldn’t take everyone of course, so Simian had to sort through looking for people who had skills that could really benefit them. Seth however was not new, he had to have been in the community for a while to have worked his way up being big in community security, probably how he had gotten to the turned gate guard-Sphynx boy. However, as Seth was not a pureblood he would not have been born in the community so at some point he too would have had to apply for a house, so there would be paperwork with his address on it. I tilted the lamp to shine it on the filing cabinets scanning the labels. The third one in was listed as housing applications. I set the lamp back up straight and jimmied the draw open flipping through the alphabet looking for Brogan.

“Ah,” I said pulling out his form. He lived in the bottom half of a maisonette not far from where I was now along the back wall. I could walk there in ten minutes, have a poke around and be back before Simian even knew I was gone. I filed the papers back properly after noting down the address on a memo pad I snatched off the desk and quietly used my power to relock the door after me.

The maisonette was dark and looked quiet. The upstairs windows were open slightly and I could hear snoring floating out from the tenant above sleeping his night away. The bottom floor windows were closed but the blinds and curtains weren’t drawn so I peered through the glass. One looked right into the bedroom and it was empty, the covers thrown aside like whoever had climbed out of it had done so in a hurry and hadn’t come back to even pull the covers straight.

I walked around to the entrance way, there was a flower box along the side of the house that was filled with dead plants and the paint was flaking on the door. It looked like Seth wasn’t particularly house-proud. The door was locked but rather than use magic I did as Simian had at DJ’s; I looked for the spare key. It was buried in an inch of dirt just under the dead plants which I supposed was the only reason he’d kept the plant box around. The dirt got under my nails as I brushed the mud out from between the grooves of the key so I could slide it into the lock. It clicked quietly and I pushed the door open carefully. I stopped in the hallway and listened. There was no sound and no movement from inside. I flicked on a flashlight I grabbed from a broom closet on my way out of the community building and shined it along the hall. Men’s work boots sat in a row along the side of the wall and various coats and jackets hung on pegs above them. I was surprised to see a gun holster hanging from one. I didn’t know the community security forces were armed. That was slightly unnerving.

A changed wolf had to get close up and personal to kill you, a gun could take you out from a distance. I would have to be extra careful. I slid through the doorway to my left into a living room that was arranged like there had been some sort of meeting there in the last few days. Chairs had been brought in from another room making space for ten to fourteen people in there. Since one had died out there on the road and Phillip had died before he could talk, that left about twelve possible people in on the plot.

There were some papers on the table, schematics of the community building but these could have been issued to him as part of his security job when they were expecting a foreign dignitary. I turned the flashlight on the far wall. There were two doors on either side of a corner, and one I knew had to lead into the bedroom.

I had no interest in going into this guy’s bedroom so I went for the other door, it led into a kitchen which was unusually clean. I mean it was immaculate which was unusual to say the least considering a man lived here. I would have expected some dirty dishes at least. Curious, I couldn’t help but look in the fridge. It was neat too, full of Tupperware containers of leftovers, fresh vegetables and fruit. Maybe Seth was very health conscious. The strangest thing was the freezer shelf at the top, it was full of ice trays, and what could he need that much ice for? Was he planning a margarita night?

I closed the fridge swinging the light around the kitchen to find there was another door at the back which had several padlocks down the side of it to stop nosy visitors looking inside. I was not deterred however. I ran my finger down the catches using my power like a jack knife watching the locks flip off and the latches fly loose. One thing I knew about people who had locked doors in their home meant they had something to hide. I carefully pulled open the door; it looked like some sort of workshop. There was a work bench that had a bowl of slightly melting ice on it, something that looked like pipes and some large chemical bottles. I moved in closer to take a look.

“Hydrogen peroxide and paint thinner.” I pulled my phone out. I’d gone for one of those smart phones with the Internet connection and stuck them into a Google search engine. I flipped the bottle of paint thinner so I could look at the ingredients-acetone. Hadn’t I seen something like this on
CSI
? My phone beeped and I looked at the results. Acetone peroxide when cooled took the form of white crystals and was highly explosive. Perhaps enough to blow a car off the road. It was all the makings of a homemade bomb. I let the torch sweep the floor, there were traces of the white powder on the floor, and each step in here could be deadly. I started back stepping carefully making sure not to touch anything else, sliding my phone into my pocket and making for the door. It was clear in my mind that Seth had created the bomb that had blown the truck off the road and I was pretty sure that his voice was the one that he’d badly tried to conceal from me at the barn. I thought he might just have been involved but now I was pretty sure he was the ringleader.

I stepped back over the threshold letting go of the breath I had been holding and pulled the door shut behind me. Everything had to be exactly as I found it, no tipping him off before we could move on him. I had to get back to Simian and fill him in.

I was snapping the locks back into place, trying to leave everything as I’d found it. My only warning that there was someone behind me was a sharp intake of breath before a solid object met with the back of my skull. I had no time to turn or to call out for help as I crumpled to the ground and the blackness fell over me.

Chapter Twenty-Three

My head was pounding when I woke to a chorus of voices around me. I didn’t open my eyes for a few while I did a mental checklist. I was sat sort of slumped against something, a cold metal bar ran along the edge of it and I was on the floor. My wrists were bound behind my back with rope and were attached to the bar was well. My feet were unbound but from the floor I’d have no purchase for a kick that would do any damage to whoever was holding me. I picked up the sound of chains clinking to my left. Slowly I opened my left eye to get a better look. I was momentarily blinded by the bright florescent light above me but my vision cleared after a minute. The chains were silver and they were securing DJ and Farir to a wooden post that supported the ceiling.