Blood From a Silver Cross (Kat Redding) (20 page)

B
odies lay scattered around the room like debris. Blood covered just about every inch of the floor, causing my hunger to stir. The flickering candlelight gave the illusion of movement to the corpses lying in various poses. And that’s all it was—an illusion. Everyone was dead.

Bile ripped its way up my throat and I spun to the corner. I fell to my knees and my latest meal spewed against the wall, adding to the liquid mess. I leaned my forehead on a bare patch of wall and breathed in and out slowly, trying to regain some semblance of composure.

Killing had never hit me this hard before—it was mostly that I’d blown my chance of taking out the Left Hand leader and not the actual deaths that had me so upset. I should have killed the two men while the girl was willing to talk. She’d still be alive and I’d have the information that I needed.

Thoughts of Aubrey made my stomach churn. She might have been a member of the Left Hand, but in the short time I’d talked to her, I’d felt something from her, a detachment that separated her from the others. She could have been saved, I was sure. If only I’d been smarter, faster.

I rose to my feet and wiped my arm across my mouth. I was covered in blood and smelled like a slaughterhouse. I wanted a shower in the worst way, but I couldn’t leave just yet. There might be something around the hideout that could point me in the direction of the Left Hand leader, Gabriel.

It took me a moment to fully push away my anger and frustration so I could go about checking the bodies. I looked through pockets and bags, places where personal items should have been but were lacking. Instead, there were more syringes and knives. The closest I came to finding anything was a pack of cigarettes stuffed in one young man’s back pocket. Otherwise, nothing.

I scanned the room. There were five candles placed around the room, still lit. Two had been on the counter, but had been knocked over during the fight. The wax had already hardened. In the dim light, it looked like blood.

I turned away and made for the back room. It had once been a kitchen, but was now an empty room filled with cots and blankets. There were nearly two dozen of them, telling me I hadn’t killed them all. I wasn’t sure how many of these cots had lain empty for more than a few days. I knew for a fact a few Left Hand members had died before tonight’s slaughter.

It was dismal work, but I began sifting through the sheets and dirty clothes lying beneath many of the beds in bags. There was little of value anywhere in the room. It appeared the Left Hand took things of value from their members, leaving them with clothing, a few pieces of jewelry, and that was about it. I didn’t find a single piece of ID, new or old.

I was just about to give up when I heard a crinkle of paper as I set a pillow down. I opened the side of the pillowcase, found a tattered piece of paper, removed it from its hiding place and opened it. I could tell by how thin the paper felt that it had been well read. The writing in some places was smudged, as if someone had run their finger over the words a few dozen times.

A sudden fear stabbed through me. Could the short note be from someone in the Den? The writing was definitely feminine. Could it be from Keira?

I had no proof that the note had anything to do with Jonathan or the Luna Cult, but a part of me was certain of it. Keira had been the one to suggest letting the Left Hand woman go. Had she also planned the fake attack? The fight had looked real enough. The werewolves who’d joined the Cult with her had been the ones who’d attacked.

I bolted, dropping the letter without thinking. Jonathan could be lying dead in front of the garage even now. The Cult could have been destroyed while I’d been following the woman. I might return to nothing but blood.

My head pounded as I ran. Maybe the Cult had won the fight. Jonathan had some serious fight in him. Maybe he’d only sustained a few injuries and taken care of the problem. Everything had to be okay.

I leapt over an overturned bench and bolted across the empty campus. I could feel eyes on me and prayed that whoever was out there, they were on my side. If the escape had indeed been a setup, it could be Keira, waiting for my return so she could finish me off.

I reached the garage and a wave of relief passed over me when I saw the emptiness. There were no bodies. The car Pablo had driven was gone.

Still, there was blood on the ground. It didn’t look like much, but that didn’t mean anything. If the fight had been real, the wolves could have fed, drinking most of the blood and then cleaning up after themselves so as not to alarm anyone else who might come along.

I changed course, this time heading straight for the Den. I’d get answers there.

The old library came into view and I ran even faster despite the nagging pain in my shoulder. I knew I wouldn’t see any lights from the outside, yet the bleakness of the building sent a new spike of fear coursing through me. As far as I knew, everyone was already dead inside. The bodies could be piled up like cordwood.

Or worse—crucified.

It was a comforting thought, but not enough to slow my pace. He might still be hurt, dying. The glamour could flicker out like a sputtering candle at any moment.

I burst through the Den doors, not even bothering to shield my eyes against the bright light I knew was to come. I had my sword and gun in hand and didn’t even remember drawing them. It took only seconds for my vision to clear and I found Keira standing at the bottom of the stairs, talking to a Cultist I didn’t know.

“Where is he?” I demanded, stalking forward. I had my gun up and aimed right between her eyes.

“Who?” Keira said, motioning for the Cultist to leave. She tried to keep her face calm and composed, but her eyes gave her away. There was anger there. Anger and a flare of yellow telling me her wolf had awakened.

“Jonathan,” I said through clenched teeth. Just let her shift on me. It would give me an excuse. “Is he alive?”

Keira gave me an odd look. “Of course he is. Why wouldn’t he be?”

“Then where is he?”

She looked suddenly uncomfortable. She glanced to the side as she spoke. “He’s out.”

“Out where?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What about Nathan? Did he finally decide to make an appearance?”

“He’s not here either,” she said. “He’s with Jon.”

My teeth felt as if they might break, I clenched them so hard. “Where have they gone?”

“They have business to take care of,” she said. “I don’t know much else. I was told to assist you upon your return.” She glanced at me and her eyes flared for an instant before she turned away.

I took a step closer to her. My arm was trembling from holding up my gun. “He wouldn’t leave now,” I said. “This is too important. Why would he leave you here when he knew I’d be back with information on where the Left Hand woman had gone?”

I had to admit, Keira was holding up well to my threatening tone and posture. Not everyone could keep from lashing out or cowering when they had a gun pointed at their head. She faced me down, the anger simmering in her gaze, but didn’t make an aggressive move.

“I don’t know why he had to go,” she said. “He told me to wait for you. He said he knew you would take care of it on your own and when you’re back, get what I could out of you.”

Somehow, that sounded like Jonathan. He wasn’t stupid. He had to have known I wouldn’t hold back when I found the Left Hand hideout.

“So,” she went on, licking her lips and swallowing like her throat had gone dry. “What did you learn?”

“I’m not telling you a thing.” The urge just to shoot her was so strong, I was forced to drop my aim. I kept my gun pointed in her general direction and I still had my sword in hand, just in case she made any sudden moves. I didn’t want there to be any accidents.

I took a step closer to her, seriously invading her space. If she started shifting, I could ram the blade through her gut before she so much as sprouted fur. She might be quick, but I was just as fast.

“Back up,” she said, her voice deepening to a near growl. She might have been able to handle me threatening her from a few steps back. She wasn’t doing such a good job of it with me up under her nose.

“Not until you tell me what I want to know.”

Her nostrils flared and her eyes shifted into full wolf. “You smell like blood,” she growled. “Back up if you don’t want me to lose control.”

Okay, she had a point there. I felt as if I’d bathed in blood and while I’d partially sated my hunger during the fight, I had no idea when Keira had last fed.

I took a couple of steps back. I kept my eyes on her. If she so much as flinched, I wasn’t going to hesitate to shoot her. I wouldn’t kill her—not yet anyway—but I could wound her. The silver would drop her without me having to hit anything vital.

“I don’t like this,” I said, almost to myself. “Jonathan should be here.”

“I’m sorry, Kat,” Keira said. She was leaning against the banister, panting. The smell of blood had really gotten to her. Chances were good, she was still struggling with the urge to attack, but at least now I wasn’t shoving it up her nose.

“For?”

“For him not being here,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of him taking off like this any more than you, but from what I can tell, it was important enough he was willing to risk missing you. You know him; he wouldn’t go unless he felt he had to.”

I nodded. That definitely sounded like Jonathan.

Still, I didn’t like it.

“I take it you took care of the Left Hand?” she asked, eyeing me up and down. The hunger was clear in her eyes.

“Most of them,” I said. “They weren’t happy to see me.”

The adrenaline from my panicked flight to the Den must have worn off then, because pain from the wound in my shoulder hit me like a truck. I groaned and leaned against the wall, feeling tired enough to sleep for a month.

A flash of concern passed over Keira’s gaze, but she didn’t make a move toward me. “Do you think it’s over with?”

I shook my head, wincing at the pain it caused. “No,” I said. “I was given the name of their leader. Something tells me he’s not the kind of guy who’ll walk away.”

“Really?”

I looked into Keira’s eyes, wanting to gauge her reaction when I told her the name. If I so much as suspected she knew it, I’d put her down right then and there.

“His name is Gabriel.”

She didn’t flinch, but instead, looked thoughtful. “Was there a last name? Something we could use to pinpoint him?”

I really wanted to blame Keira for the Left Hand, but I was really starting to wonder. She wasn’t one who had control of her beast. I seriously doubted she could pull this off so casually without letting something slip.

“No,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I’m not even sure they meant to let his name slip.” I noted the strange look on Keira’s face and my suspicions came roaring back. “Why?”

“It’s nothing,” she said with a slight shake of her head. “The name Gabriel and the Left Hand go so well together, it makes me wonder if it’s an assumed name.” She shrugged. “It’s something I learned from church when I was little. I don’t think it really has any bearing on whether or not we find him.”

I sighed. Of course the name might be bogus. If I was going to run a group who went around killing monsters who were far stronger and far faster than we were, I wouldn’t want them to be able to give me up either. Why couldn’t anything about this be easy?

“There was something else there,” I said. “I’m not sure it means anything, though.”

“Oh?” Keira’s eyes had bled back to their natural brown. She was taking shallow breaths and wouldn’t look directly at me, but I could tell she was gaining some semblance of control over her wolf.

“A note,” I said. “It didn’t have a name and it didn’t really say much, but it made me think that perhaps the staged fight outside the garage wasn’t so staged after all.” I paused. “I thought I saw blood before I followed the woman.”

Keira gave a grim smile. “We set that up,” she said. “We had some blood donated so that we could use it to make the fight seem more realistic. We wanted her to panic and blood has a tendency to do that.”

It made sense. “I don’t know. The note could be nothing.”

“What did it say?”

I told her, once more watching her carefully for any sort of reaction.
Everything is set. Just waiting for the right moment. I love you.
Keira listened, frowned, and then shrugged.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it does sound like something has been planned. Maybe it has to do with Philip’s crucifixion.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Or maybe it has nothing to do with us at all.”

“Maybe.” Keira ran her fingers through her hair. “Look, Kat,” she said, “I’m sorry about whatever it was I did to cause you to distrust me. I would never do anything to harm Jon or the Cult. I’m here because I want to be, not because I want to hurt someone.”

I really wanted to believe her, but just couldn’t. Whether it was my doubts about her motives, or simply the fact that she’d grown so close to him so fast, I didn’t know. I just knew I didn’t want her here.

“Make sure Jonathan knows about the note and the leader’s name,” I said. I sheathed my sword, but kept my gun in my hand. “And we’ll want to make sure someone is waiting at the hideout when the sun comes up. I heard them talking about how she shouldn’t have returned until the morning, meaning others might arrive.”

“I’ll see to it,” she said.

“Make sure whoever goes knows the Cult well. Make it someone Jonathan would trust with his life.” I grimaced. “Pablo would be a good choice. If the mole shows up, then perhaps we’ll have our man.”

She nodded. “Do you have the note?”