“Beneath the bodies?” Sir Rodney whispered, clearly revolted.
Rupert nodded. “Chaos magick is afoot, milord.”
“Our clan elder, a shaman, went on a spirit walk and discovered how they went after each person’s spirit with doppelgangers… That’s how they got the spell fused with each person’s etheric body,” Sasha said, spinning around and talking to the others in the group. “Each person’s weakness, they’ve exploited; each person’s natural gift or defense mechanism, they’ve tainted. That’s why we can’t go into the shadows or call our wolf.”
“This is important information, milord,” Rupert said, wringing his hands. “But we need to know how they’ve black-charmed an entire fortress and castle… or even Ethan McGregor’s bar.”
“They’ve blocked ye from the shadows, lassie?” Sir Rodney said, clearly appalled, and only focused on what Sasha had said.
“We were in a flreflght back there, ambushed by the Buchanan clan, and could not use the shadows or call our wolf.” Hunter received nods of assent from his men, but Sir Rodney frowned.
“What, for the love of God, would send you into that low-life brothel-tell me it was for the moonshine, man!” Sir Rodney walked back and forth for a moment. “I don’t understand. It was a clear ambush, or am I daft?”
Every man found a point on the castle wall to stare at, but no one spoke.
“I was following a scent,” Hunter said carefully. “The same feral trace that I picked up at the scene of the first crime, then at the young woman’s trailer.”
“That’s no doubt why Shogun went there, too,” Sasha said, trying to help Shogun save face.
“Vampires and some type of Were scent?” Sir Rodney said, his gaze narrowing. “How so? Can you be sure?”
“Vampires attacked Winters, the youngest, most vulnerable member of my human team, when he was running across the street to get help. Bradley had the old Dugan B &B fortified against Vampire attacks, since that’s where my team was making base camp. But they showed their hand by going after the kid… just like they’d gone after him before. Doc incinerated one of them, but the other got away.”
“Good for your da… I’ll have to remember he’s a man of action and a solid shot.” Sir Rodney smiled a smile that wasn’t wholly appropriate for the occasion. “Why don’t we go inside, eat, have some ale, and then figure out an anti-charm, shall we?”
“We only promised you access to them in a vulnerable state,” Kiagehul sneered, showing his pointed demon- like teeth and standing quickly. “You come into my hidden bayou coven battered, snarling, and reeking of canine sweat and then assail me with charges of reneging on a deal? I am offended! You knew what you were supposed to get out of this bargain. The trade was fair-I was to remove the wolves as a threat; you were to receive, in exchange, the revenge you seek against them. End of discussion.”
“The Bayou House is no more!” one Werewolf yelled, pounding his fist against his palm. “Our still, obliterated; our working girls, dead.”
“Butch is dead,” another argued, growling. “We demand recompense.”
A low growl filled the throat of Buchanan’s injured nephew. “This was not the outcome we paid for in the spell… Something went wrong and you need to pay for it!”
Several Unseelie Gnome bouncers circled the small group of Werewolves, causing a mild stir amongst the cauldrons. Kiagehul moved in closer to the disgruntled Werewolves only after the show of force was in place.
“Nothing went wrong with my spell,” he said, his eyes narrowing as his glamour faded. “Dark mist can show them the chain of events; we will use the war board and go back in time.
“Escort these disgruntled clients to my private chambers. Let us review the facts before we damage our delicate treaty or someone loses their head.”
Kiagehul nodded to his bouncers as he spun on his heels in an elegant turn and strode forward, his head held high with an aristocratic sniff of disdain while pulling on his midnight-blue sorcerer’s robe. Although haughty, he kept a cautious eye on the distance the Werewolves were from the security guards.
Opening his private chamber with a flourish, Kiagehul waved his hand at the available Louis XVI settees, Queen Anne chairs, and the lushly embroidered sofa, but the Werewolves declined. Suits of armor guarded the windows and an array of weaponry hung on the walls. The Werewolves glanced around, snarled, and remained standing. Kiagehul nodded as the bouncers parted and closed the door.
“Suit yourselves,” Kiagehul said, going over to a walk-in black granite fireplace. “Let us trace the past… We always place a trace on the black magick spells and dark deals we do or subcontract out, just for instances of buyer’s remorse like this.”
He waved his hand and an eerie black and blue fire roared up from nothing in an instant, the living flames licking the edges of the mantel until the black wax candles on it melted, popped, and sizzled.
Kiagehul smiled. “Give me a moment to tune to the right channel.” He waved his hand with a bored sigh. “The Bayou House, earlier this evening. Start when one of the wolves under our influence entered.”
The Werewolf retinue moved forward, their eyes fixed on the blaze.
“How do we know this isn’t more of your dark magick to trick us?” the leader said.
“You don’t,” Kiagehul said through his teeth. “But this is the only record of the events any of us has… You can go back to your broken pack and corroborate it with any eyewitnesses that are left.”
He snapped his fingers and the inside of the Bayou House appeared. All wolves fell silent.
“Seems the alpha leader of the Southeast Asian Werewolf Clan entered disoriented and in quite a state,” Kiagehul said with a smile. “His men are completely distracted, true?”
“True.” Buchanan’s nephew rubbed his neck and paced down the line of Werewolves that were in attendance. “Is that what you saw when he got there?”
“Yeah, boss. definitely,” one wolf henchman confirmed.
“And they each got picked off one by one, separated,” Kiagehul said, watching events play out. “The alpha is
Kiagehul chuckled when two of the wolves swallowed hard while watching the carnal act unfold across the flames. “But in the interest of time, because it does appear the man has prowess, let us fast-forward to where things began to go wrong.”
“Yeah, let’s do that!” the Buchanan clan leader said in a low rumble, gaining sharp barks from his men.
A snap of Kiagehul’s fingers and the images shifted. “You let the second alpha in… making the assumption that he came in with a weapon drawn to kill the first alpha?”
“Yes, but your magick backfired!”
Kiagehul held up his hand and then slowly strolled in front of the flames with his hands now gracefully clasped behind his back. “To assume makes an ass out of you and me.” He let out a breath and snapped his fingers. “Before you call foul and blame my subcontractor for wrongdoing, let’s be clear about the facts. You let Hunter go upstairs. He went to the door. The prostitute was supposed to kill Shogun in his sleep, if the Shadow Wolf didn’t find him first. Her weapon of choice was to be a Lady Derringer, point-blank range, aimed at his skull when he did what all men do when they finish-went to sleep. Her out would have been that he got insanely aggressive, threatened her life, and it was a matter of self-defense… A rogue Were alpha male that had already had infection issues well-documented by the UCE.”
“Right-but he didn’t go to sleep before Hunter came,” another Werewolf argued. “Our man went up in the false wall and waited. Once Hunter blew Shogun away, we were gonna do Hunter… Then we’d be able to say that we did what we had to do, we stopped a murderer. No blood on our hands at the United Council of Entities, if it went to an investigation.”
Kiagehul nervously cleared his throat and glanced at his security guards. “Yes,” he added, coolly recovering. “But your man rushed the process-didn’t allow the two big dogs to be in the same space long enough to fight.”
“Look at your own recounting, man!” Buchanan’s nephew shouted, pointing at the flames. “Hunter was warning his brother of a setup! He was trying to get him out of there, told him to bring his men out, pronto! Our man heard that bullshit while hidden in the wall-we have better hearing as wolves, just like we can smell a deal gone bad!”
