Griffen was waiting for me in the basement, the nicer term for what this was. We had another holding cell outside the packhouse, but I liked to know where my prisoners were.
“Where’s Holden?” I asked, taking off my suit and changing into a white shirt and pants. I found it helped when the prisoners could see how much blood and gore they were spilling on me.
“Glaring at the prisoner,” He shook his head, “He’s been guarded, but Holden won’t take his eyes off him, he didn’t even go up to see Cali and Loreli. I think he’s worried if he looks away, the guy will disappear.”
“Cali did say that he just appeared out of nowhere,” I mentioned.
“Doesn’t change the fact that Holden staring at him could stop him if he was some kind of warlock,”
“I don’t want to hear you judging anyone for being overprotective,” I gave him a look, “Also, Nora is up with Cali and Willa at my place. Warriors are in and outside.”
His jaw tensed, “Thanks,”
“So let’s just focus on him.” He nodded once, “What do you have?”
“Not from this pack. We sent a photo to anyone nearby, but none returned with a positive identification. The footage from around the city doesn’t fill in too many holes. We don’t have many eyes on that side of town,” I figured that much. I would have to change that, human or not. I needed to know what was going on in this city.
“No sign of how they broke into either place and the scents don’t match. The one in Willa’s and Cali’s is completely different. The guy we have is a werewolf, but the scent at Willa’s, no one could identify it completely.”
I paused, that was weird, “Was it masked?”
“Potentially, but then why not mask the werewolf scent?”
“Maybe they weren’t working together.”
“That would be one h.ell of a coincidence.”
“You’re right.” I was trying to think of all the angles, “Well, we have him now, so we can get whatever we can from him while we wait to see if anyone claims this piece of s**t or if they’re found on other footage.” “Let’s do it,” A smile spread across his face.
Holden was waiting outside the holding cell window. I put my hand on his shoulder, “Ready?”
“I thought you would never ask,” His voice was ice, all traces of his usually carefree attitude gone. He cracked his neck, let his Gamma aura expand, and walked into the room.
I nodded to the warriors to leave us, but I knew they would be watching.
I didn’t say anything for a few moments, letting my aura expand. I rarely did that. It was enough when I was trying to withhold it. Even Griffen and Holden flinched a bit, but they were good at faking it at this point.
I studied him, his hands were tied above him, chained in silver, and his feet were barely on the ground. Atlas was getting riled up by the scent of his fear. He didn’t look like anything special, a normal werewolf. No discernable scars, at least not visible. His swollen face and the bruises Holden gave him were already healing. He smelled like a werewolf, nothing else.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked him.
His jaw clenched, and he stared me down.
I pulled my lips back, “You can’t hide your fear. I don’t care how you’ve been trained, how much you’ve endured. You have seen nothing compared to me.” I circled him.
Usually, Holden would come into my mind right now about how I sounded like Batman or something, but he was stoic, trying to control his rage. Griffen took out my tools, making a show of it. He made sure to put everything on the metal table louder and slower than necessary.
The prisoner shook his head, but it seemed more out of fear. I could play the long game, but I needed answers. Now.
If something was in motion, if there was a hit out for Emmett, I needed to stop it before it got any further and end everyone that thought about being a part of it in the process.
“Let’s start easy,” I stopped in front of him, crossing my arms, “What’s your name?”
He swallowed.
I held out my hand, and Griffen put something in it. I looked down at a wrench. Interesting choice to start with, but I could make it work.
I grabbed part of his finger, a bit awkward with his hands tied up. I tightened the wrench until I heard the crunching of bone. The man squirmed and bit down on a groan. I made sure the wrench was tight and wouldn’t budge before I snapped it the opposite direction. The snap of his bone was satisfying.
He let out a muffled sound, and I stepped away, leaving the wrench hanging from his finger. He was trying not to scream. His face turned red with the effort.
“I’m going to ask you one more time, and I don’t give second chances. So consider this your lucky day. What is your name?”
“Brady,”
“I don’t believe you, but I don’t care what your mother called you as you crawled into this world as a waste of space. I don’t care where you’ve come from.” I turned my back to him, walking to choose my next tool.
I made a show of my deliberation, holding up a knife, hammer, and ax pretending to weigh my best options. But it didn’t matter. I could do enough damage to him with a thumb tac.
“Start the fire,” I nodded to Holden, who reluctantly tore his gaze from the prisoner, fake Brady, and knocked once to be let out of the room.
I had an idea it would be a bet, but one that I was willing to take, “Get me the witches’ poker,” I said to Griffen.
What?
A brand, anything that looks mystical.
Griffen nodded once and left the room. I grabbed a knife and twirled it in my hand before turning back to him.
“The only thing I care about is why you came after my son.”
His eyes went wide. His fear was almost stifling.
“Good, so now you understand the situation.” I took a slow step forward.
“H- he will kill me. I swear I didn’t know.” He tried to back up, but the chains held fast.
“Who will?”
His mouth clamped down.
“Let’s get one thing straight. I will kill you. You are going to die here. I will be the last thing that you see. What I’m going to do to you will haunt you well into the afterworld.” I was inches away from his face; he shut his eyes and tried to turn away.
I flipped the knife in my hand and ran it up his shirt, deep enough to cut it open and leave a shallow cut, droplets of blood pooled in its wake.
“But, I am feeling generous today, so you get to decide. You can either die today, or we can drag it out for months, maybe years if we’re bored. It’s your choice,” I ripped open the rest of his shirt, there were a few scars there, and it took a lot for us to be scarred unless it was pure silver.
“Who are you working for?”
“He didn’t tell me his name, I swear. I have never known it.”
“What do you refer to him by then?”
“The Blade.” Why did that name tug on my memory?
Griffen came in and laid something on the table, followed by Holden, who went to work on heating up the furnace he wheeled in.
The Silent Assassin
My eyes narrowed. It was one of his aliases. He took a blood pact with me not to take any contracts from or against Crescent Moon’s pack members. I wanted to take a live-and-let-live approach with him, but apparently, that wasn’t working anymore. Suppose he broke the pact, though. I would have felt it. There was no way he should have been able to break it. I would deal with that later.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.