Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) (18 page)

Lieber Logan Hunt,

Deine Bemühungen um die Vampire bringen nun
Früchte. Unter Berücksichtigung der strengen Regeln, die Stephen Yocum seinem
Hexenzirkel auferlegt hat, ist der Hexerrat bereit, eine Schlichtung zu
verhandeln. Ich glaube, dass, sobald der Hexerrat die Vampire als mögliche
Verbündete erkennt, auch die Feen und Formwandler weitaus willkommender
auftreten werden.

Dieses Abkommen wird es, in den Augen des Rates,
Stephen Yocum ermöglichen, alle Angelegenheiten der Vampire zu verwalten. Und
so wird Hexern nicht mehr erlaubt sein, Vampire zu jagen und/oder zu töten. Ich
sehe vielerlei Probleme vor uns liegen, aber ich glaube auch, dass dies der
einzige und entscheidende Weg zum Frieden innerhalb der paranormalen
Gemeinschaft ist.

Leider verzögert Ihr Berater jegliche Entwicklung
hin zu einem Abkommen. Angeblich sucht er Beweise zusammen, die die Vampire auf
unbestimmte Zeit verurteilen würden. Es ist daher meine Absicht, diese Beweise
abzufangen, bevor er sie veröffentlichen kann. Allerdings habe ich bislang
keine solchen Beweise gefunden.

Mein Rat an Dich ist daher, Deine Schule gegenüber
dem Rat so weit wie möglich auf Distanz zu halten. Halte alle Informationen
über das, was hinter Deinen Türen passiert fern vom Rat, vor allem in Bezug auf
die Morde. Alles, was er nutzen könnte, um Vampire anzuklagen, kann alle
Fortschritte, die Du in Richtung Frieden gemacht hast, rückgängig machen. Vor
allem aber solltest Du Devon Sanders aus dem Spiel nehmen.

Dein Freund,

V. K. Knight

“That’s German,” Darwin said, studying it over my
shoulder.

I turned and handed it to him, careful to avoid skin
contact. “Can you read it?”

“Yeah, but it’s very wordy.” He read it carefully
before starting at the top. “It’s addressed to Logan Hunt. It says that the
wizard council is backing off of the vampires because of the strict rules that
Stephen Yocum holds his people to. However,
he
— it doesn’t give a name—
is holding them up until something is found. He’s waiting for evidence of
something that would condemn the vampires. The writer says that Logan needs to
keep his information away from the council and… and keep Devon Sanders out of
the way. Signed, V. K. Knight.”

“That sounds dubious,” I said.

“He is referring to keeping your powers a secret from
the council,” Hunt said, suddenly behind me. Darwin shrieked, but I managed to
withhold my unmanly yelp.

“Who is Vincent Knight?” I asked.

He sighed. “Your priority right now should be
uncovering the murderer and finding Remy. You and Vincent will cross paths in
the near future and he will tell you what you need to know when you need to
know it.”

Always the helpful wizard.
“I don’t like
secrets being kept from me.”

“V. K. Knight is Vincent Knight?” Darwin asked. “Are
you talking about the Vincent Knight who is on the wizard council?”

“The identities of the council members are kept
secret for a reason, Mr. Mason,” Hunt said gravely. “I do not want to know how
you got that information. You may someday be a great scientist or inventor, but
only if you can stay off the council’s hit lists.”

“Oh, I know how it works. I need to be more valuable
alive than dead. I can keep my mouth shut and my nose down, but while I do
that, I’m going to be gathering dirt on my enemies.”

Good thing I wasn’t his enemy
. “I need to see
the bodies of those who were killed. Do you have access to the morgue where
they were taken?”

“I do. Follow me.” Darwin and I followed him out to the
hallway.

Instead of leading us outside to the SUV, he led us
further into the castle and down several flights of stairs. Finally, we came to
a door in the deepest, darkest part of the castle.

“Welcome to the morgue.”

He opened the door to reveal a dimly lit room. As he
stepped inside, it grew brighter, but where the light was coming from I didn’t
know. The room had a metal floor, white walls, and a white ceiling. Three metal
tables were spaced evenly in the center of the room. On the wall beside the
door was a glass cabinet full of medical equipment and chemicals. Against the
far wall was row after row of metal, two-foot wide cabinet doors.

“You have a morgue in the basement of your school?”

“This is a paranormal school, Mr. Sanders. If a human
did an autopsy on a shifter or fae, the results could be catastrophic.
Furthermore, if a wizard was killed by magic that a human could detect, it
would be equally condemning.”

I stepped inside and turned back when Darwin didn’t
follow. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head and blanched. “I don’t do well with
death. I have a wolf shifter’s sense of smell, and I can’t stand the smell of
decaying bodies. Go in without me; I’ll wait out here.”

Hunt shut the door, probably for my roommate’s peace
of mind. “I only have the bodies of Professor Hans and the students who died
here. The students who were killed before the start of the semester were picked
up by human authorities.”

He opened one of the drawers and pulled out the bed
tray. The woman was pretty, petite, and young. Her hair was white-blond and
long. Her face had that ageless appearance of someone who would look like a
teenager until they were well past middle-aged. She was covered in a clean
white sheet.

“No blood?”

“It was already cleaned. This is Megan Thompson,
Circle Three shifter. Twenty years old, three sisters, two brothers, loving
parents. Loving pack, really. She was always writing papers on peace between
the paranormal factions.”

“Where was she last seen?”

“Alive? In her room, right before her roommates left
for class. She was found in the women’s bathroom.”

“I would like to question her roommates. We’re going
to have to pick up speed on this investigation. Did anyone do an autopsy?”

“No. They do not do autopsies when the suspected
cause of death is a vampire attack. This could not have been a more obvious
vampire attack. You did say two vampires made it through my wards.”

“Yeah, and I want to interrogate Mrs. Ashcraft.” He
didn’t say anything as I picked up the woman’s arm. I wasn’t a doctor, but I
knew enough about vampires. “No defensive wounds.” I checked her neck and chin
around the fang marks. “No bruising except on the actual wound.” The vampire
must have been ridiculously gentle with her.

“Vampires can enthrall their victims.”

“Blood. How much blood was missing?”

He sighed. “Not a lot.”

“This is the fourth body since school started. Why
were the five bodies drained of blood before school started, yet none of the
four since have been?”

“Maybe the killer did not have time. This is a busy
school.”

“No, that doesn’t feel right. Maybe it’s not the same
killer. Maybe it’s a copycat killer, or an apprentice.” I opened another
cabinet and pulled out another bed. Professor Hans. No defensive wounds, no signs
of violence, no bruising.

Another girl; the first victim at the school. The
same lack of any signs of trauma. Finally, I pulled out Heather’s slab and
studied her again. With closer examination, I found that all their fang bites
were different; different depth, different spacing, and different sized
punctures.

I checked their mouths and found they all had foam in
their mouths and slight discoloration on their lips. I wasn’t a cop or a
doctor, but I wasn’t an idiot, either.

“I need a sample of their blood.”

Hunt got supplies out of the glass cabinet and
started taking blood samples. I labeled them and was secretly thankful I didn’t
have to take the blood myself.

“I’m going to take this to Dr. Martin.”

“You are a peculiar man, Mr. Sanders.”

“I only have an idea of what happened to this people,
but what I do know for sure is that this is not a vampire attack, which means
that the vampires were framed.”

*          *          *

Hunt said he was going to check with Vincent to see
if there was any news on Remy. Even knowing Darwin didn’t want to go into the
morgue, I was worried when he wasn’t at the door. This level of the castle was
perfect for vampires and other dubious characters. Although vampires didn’t
attack the students, it was a vampire that attacked me in the courtyard.

Of course, I also had no evidence for the wizard
council to prove that vampires didn’t kill the students, only my word.

Most of this floor of the castle was hollowed out
rock tunnels. Besides the fact that there were no windows, I could tell it was
far underground. I used my penlight, but there were some tunnels that split
into numerous paths, and I didn’t want to get lost in a maze. I heard a sound
when I was passing a door and hesitated.

I had two options; I could keep going and hope to run
into my missing roommate, or I could open the door and see if he was in there.
With an internal groan, I opened the door. The first thing my light landed on
was the skeleton of a rat. Only, the rat had to have been at least as tall as a
horse to have a skeleton that size. I shut the door.

“No more doors,” I said out loud. I remembered the
history book Darwin found on the traps that Heinrich Baldauf designed when he
build the castle.

About five minutes later, an odd sound started as a
light growl and grew into a deep roar that vibrated throughout the tunnel. I
aimed my light down one end of the tunnel and down the other, not sure which
way the sound came from.

“Darwin?” I called. I sensed movement ahead and aimed
my light. Darwin ran towards me.

“Run!”

I didn’t hesitate or ask questions. He was a really
fast runner, but when I heard something huge gaining on us, I found I was able
to keep up just fine. We ran for about ten minutes until we reached the
staircase that led up to the main floor of the castle. At the top was a door,
which we slammed shut once we were through.

Darwin put his hands on his knees and I leaned
against the door, hoping we lost whatever was chasing us. “What the hell was
that?” I asked. We were both panting.

“I… I don’t know. It was big… had big damn teeth…”

“Why did you run off?”

“Had to go to the bathroom.”

*          *          *

I sent Darwin to listen for any odd rumors that might
be going around. Focusing on Dr. Martin, I stumbled upon his lab almost
accidentally. And I nearly missed it.

Glass bottles were smashed on the floor, books were
torn to bits, and herbs littered the floor like brown and green snow. Dr.
Martin sat in a chair in the middle of the room with his mangy cat.

“Spring cleaning?” I asked.

He looked up at me and smiled vacantly. “Hello,
Devon. No; I was robbed. Someone took the poison and the water. And something
else. I can’t remember.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No. Before I was trapped by the syrus, I was working
on something. It was really important. When you stopped the syrus, my project
was gone.”

“So someone trapped you in order to steal it from
you. Now someone stole the water?”

“And the aconite. It was my aconite that was taken
and used to poison the lake. Something made it more potent, which is why it
affected you so quickly.”

“Can you still test something for poison?”

“Yes, I think I can scrounge up enough ingredients.”

I held up a ziplock bag of blood-filled test tubes.
“Test all of these you can. I’ll be back soon.”

I ran straight back to my room and sighed with relief
to find Henry at his desk.

“I need you. Quick, right now!” I barked when he just
stared at me.

“Um, bro, it’s not his time of the month,” Darwin
said from his bed.

“Oh, shut up. I thought I sent you to find out what
the other students are saying. Henry, do you have as good a sense of smell as a
wolf shifter?”

“In my jaguar form, yes.”

“Then I need you to shift and track down a scent.”

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Nobody
gets into this school because they’re normal, Devon. I never shift unless I
have no other choice. You need to find someone else for this.”

“Scaredy cat,” Darwin jumped down from his bed.
“Henry’s just grouchy because he hasn’t been sleeping. I think he’s having
nightmares about his fiancé finding him.”

“It’s not her, it’s the damn spiders.”

“I haven’t seen any spiders. I’ll go spy on people
and send Zhang Wei your way.” He glared at Henry and left the room.

The jaguar shifter sighed and turned back to his work.
Only then did it occur to me that he might have acted so high and mighty
because he had as much trouble fitting in as Darwin and me.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Wei and I were looking for
Dr. Martin’s room. It took a long, frustrating twenty minutes before we finally
found it, only to find that Dr. Martin wasn’t there. His cat sat glaring at us
on the chair, which was still in the middle of the room. The debris, however,
was completely gone. In fact, all of the bottle, books, and ingredients were
right back on their shelves… as if the room had never been vandalized in the
first place.

“Can you smell anything?”

In answer, Zhang Wei pulled his shirt over his head.
“I will shift and track the most potent scent,” he said, stripping his pants
and boxers off. It dawned on me that anyone could have walked in any moment,
but he didn’t seem to mind.

The cat stared at him suspiciously.

When Zhang Wei shifted into a fully grown tiger, the
cat continued to stare… suspiciously.

The tiger sniffed around the room for a moment before
he headed out the door. He was not in a hurry; he took time to sniff at
doorways and meandered down the halls and stairways like a tiger in a zoo paced
his cage. Eventually, he stopped at a doorway, sat on his hunches, and roared.