“Open up,” I yelled.
The door swung open, Yuri standing there, his chest heaving as he glared at me.
“What do you want?” he spat.
Gripping his collar, I forced him back, away from the doorway, and barged into their apartment. I pushed him against the wall, pinning him there by his collar.
“Stop accusing Claudia of whatever it is you think she’s done,” I growled.
Yuri’s eyes narrowed on me as he struggled against my grip. I held him there fast.
“Get off me!”
“Not until you listen to me.”
He kneed me in the stomach, loosening my grip on him enough for him to scramble away from me. He rushed for the front door, but I got there before him, slamming it shut before he could exit. He exhaled in frustration, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
“Listen to me, goddamn it!” I hissed. “You need to stop yelling at your wife before you sorely regret it. Something strange is going on around this island—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Yuri lurched for one of the tall windows either side of the front door and smashed through it. Shards of glass fell everywhere. I tried to chase after him, but he slammed the elevator shut before I could reach it. I glared at him as he descended to the ground.
I walked back into the apartment toward the kitchen where Claudia was slumped in a chair, still sobbing uncontrollably. As I put an arm around her, trying to comfort her, I couldn’t help but wonder.
Who’s next?
Chapter 22: Sofia
Derek and I were in our kitchen, about to pour ourselves a glass or two of blood for dinner when I heard our elevator creaking. I looked out of the window to see Abby hurrying toward our front door. I left the kitchen and opened it before she had a chance to knock.
Her palms were sweaty as she clutched my hands and pulled me out of the penthouse.
“What’s wrong, Abby?”
“There’s been another one,” she panted.
“Another what?” Derek had appeared at the door behind us.
“A killing.”
My heart sank to my stomach.
“Who? Where?” Derek demanded. His face was stony as he grabbed his cloak and locked the front door behind us.
“Just… just come.”
Derek had no patience for elevators, and neither did I. The three of us jumped off the balcony into a nearby tree and leapt from branch to branch down to the ground. Abby led us away from the Residences, toward the Vale. As we began winding through the streets toward the town square, I prayed that it wasn’t Anna and Kyle this time. Whatever predator this was had struck just next door to them last time.
I was relieved when Abby led us straight past their house. We sped down several more streets before finally stopping in a cul-de-sac. She pointed to a house at the end of it where a crowd had gathered.
The crowd parted for Derek and me as soon as they noticed us. I looked around at the humans as we passed. Their faces were grim, their eyes filled with panic.
We entered the house, passing by more humans in the corridor and on the staircase. I held my breath as Derek and I entered the bedroom at the top of the stairs.
It was a scene that belonged in a horror movie, much like the last incident. Clearly, this was the same predator. The sheets were soaked with blood and fragments of organs were sprayed about the room. As much as blood was delicious to me, even I found myself retching at this sight.
Again, there were no bodies.
Derek and I scanned the room and the ensuite bathroom. Derek turned to Abby, who had followed us upstairs.
“The whole house has been searched for remains?” he asked.
She nodded, swallowing hard. “What you see in this room is all we’ve found.”
My husband and I stared at each other.
“How could there be no skeleton at least?” I breathed.
He clenched his jaw. “Either this predator is swallowing them whole, or we aren’t looking hard enough for the remains.”
“Then we need to double our efforts in searching this island,” I said.
Derek nodded, running a hand through his hair as he took in the ghastly sight once more before heading toward the exit. “And from this moment on, a vampire must be appointed to guard each human residence,” he said while we descended the stairs. “No human home can be left unprotected until we get to the bottom of this.”
As we walked out the front door, back onto the street, the crowd assailed us with question after question. Derek looked in my direction. I nodded, indicating that he should leave to make emergency arrangements while I remained to try to pacify our people.
I looked around at all the terrified and confused faces. I did my best to answer their questions. Most of all, they just wanted to be reassured that their children would be able to sleep safely at night.
“Derek has just left to make sure this place is swarming with vampire guards. They will camp out here and will not leave until we have found the killer.”
“But what if it’s a vampire who’s the killer?” a high-pitched voice called out.
I looked toward the source of the voice, a young boy with jet-black hair. Cal was his name, if I remembered correctly. The youngest of the Anderson family. I walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, bending down to his level so I could look him in the eye.
“No guard has touched a human on this island for almost twenty years, honey. Do you really think that one of them would have done this?”
He shrugged.
I looked around at the crowd again. Everyone surrounding me was also looking at me questioningly. It shocked me that this doubt could have entered so quickly into their hearts after we’d lived together in harmony on this island for so many years.
“What if it’s Shadow?” a high-school student named Emily asked.
“Adelle has already confirmed that he was locked up in Eli’s apartment during the time of the first attack. And both of these attacks were clearly carried out by the same killer. Besides, Shadow has been trained by Eli to be of no harm to humans. Like the other vampires, he hasn’t touched a human in recent history.”
“What if it’s a werewolf?” Hector, an elderly man, spoke up. “Would you sentence it to death or banish it from the island?”
It. I winced at the way he referred our new residents.
I looked Hector right in the eye. “Whoever it is—werewolf, vampire, or something else—will be thrown off the island, never to return.”
The werewolves were dear to Mona, but if one was proven to be a killer I was sure that even she would agree that he ought to be expelled.
“Will Benjamin be thrown out for murdering Yasmine then?”
My eyes shot toward the thirty-something brunette to my left, dressed in black. Angelica, Yasmine’s aunt.
My voice caught in my throat. Several awkward moments of silence passed before I found my voice again.
“Angelica, the incident with Yasmine was a tragic accident,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “As you know, Benjamin had just come to after being turned and Yasmine showed up right on his doorstep—”
“So you blame Yasmine?”
I stared at her, horrified at the way she was twisting my words. “That’s not what I said. I said that it was an accident. Yasmine was excited to see my son, who was not in control of himself. The deaths of Caroline and Thomas, and now Lucinda and Izmael, are clearly in a league of their own. They were no accident. They were cold-blooded murders.”
“So if Ben was indeed found to be responsible for Caroline, Thomas, Lucinda and Izmael’s deaths, you would classify him as a cold-blooded murderer?” Angelica shot back. She looked around at the crowd. “Remember our queen’s words, people. We have this from her own mouth.”
“My son did not kill them,” I said through gritted teeth.
Angelica looked like she was about to throw another bitter retort, but, apparently satisfied that she’d done enough d
amage, she pursed her lips and began walking in the opposite direction.
“When will the guards arrive?” Hector asked after a pause.
“Within half an hour,” I replied, relieved for the change of subject. “My husband is seeing to it as we speak.”
The crowd mumbled among themselves and after answering the rest of their questions, I took my leave.
As I exited the Vale, my mouth was dry. The encounter with Angelica had shaken me, and I still hadn’t recovered from it.
Ben couldn’t have done this… could he?
I stopped in my tracks, shocked to realize that her words had instilled even the slightest bit of doubt in me about my son.
If even his own mother can’t have complete conviction in his innocence, where does that leave The Shade’s prince?
I shook the thought away, trying to dismiss all doubt that it could have been my son. I had almost reached the Residences when Patricia appeared out of thin air in front of me.
“We’ve found the killer.”
My mouth dropped open. “Who?”
“The ogre.”
Chapter 23: Sofia
“Brett?” I gasped, staring at Patricia in disbelief. “How would he even fit in those small human houses? He’s far too big. It would have been imposs—”
“The evidence is quite conclusive,” she said, looking at me sternly. “Just come with me.”
She touched my shoulder and we vanished. We reappeared a few seconds later, standing on a flat boulder directly outside Brett’s cave.
I was shocked to see that there was already a crowd of humans surrounding the area. How they had gotten wind of this before even I had was bewildering. The last thing I wanted was people to start doubting Brett before I’d even seen the evidence.
“Why are there so many people here already?” I demanded.
Patricia looked around at the crowd before turning back to me.
“The humans haven’t been content with leaving the search to the witches. We were in the process of scouring the sea within the borders of the island when a group of humans called our attention to this…”
Gripping my arm, she pulled me over toward a gap in the rocks, about ten feet away. I looked down to see a mess of mangled limbs.
“Four bodies, all piled up and squashed into the same place,” Patricia said, grimacing as she looked over the corpses.
“They were found in this spot exactly?”
“Yes,” she said, looking back at Brett’s cave. “Less than ten feet away from the ogre’s home. The humans rolled a boulder away from them to gain a better view of them, but other than that they have not been touched. Assuming the humans aren’t lying, of course. But I doubt that. It’s more in their interest than ours to find the killer.”
My insides writhed to see how slashed and squished the corpses were. They were unrecognizable. I could barely make out the start of one body and the end of the next. I covered my nose with the sleeve of my blouse, trying to block out the rotting stench.
“And where is Brett now?” I asked, casting my eyes toward the dark entrance of the cave.
“Sleeping.”
I looked at the humans surrounding us again. They were all staring at us expectantly. From the looks on their faces, I was sure that they felt like storming the ogre’s home with pitchforks already.
“Patricia,” I said, turning my back on them to face her again, “you said you had conclusive evidence. Where is it?”
She raised a brow and nodded down toward the bodies.
I exhaled impatiently. “This is not conclusive evidence. Someone could have framed Brett, for all we know. Besides, you still haven’t answered how he could have even gotten to those humans in the first place.”
She heaved a sigh and bit her lip, shrugging. “Well, it’s the most conclusive we’ve found so far.”
I brushed past her and looked down once again at the mangled bodies.
“At least we’ve found the corpses now,” I muttered. “We have to hope that they are not too mashed up for us to examine. But in the meantime, nobody is to lay a hand on Brett. Not unless you or someone else can explain how he could have fit that elephantine body of his into those small homes—”
Barely had I spoken the words when a groan emanated from the cave. I whirled around and stared in horror as humans clambered up the rocks and began rushing inside.
I raced after them and, as I neared the back of the cave, gasped to see three humans already circling Brett, brandishing daggers. The ogre was slumped in a corner of his straw bed, grumbling and burying his head in his hands.
This sight alone should have been enough to convince anyone that Brett was not a killer. He could have smashed their skulls against the wall of the cave with a knock of his fist, but instead, he chose to cower in a corner.
The humans lowered their weapons as I stood in front of the ogre and glowered at them, but they still didn’t put them away entirely.
“On what authority have you disturbed Brett?” I demanded.
“What authority do we need, Sofia?” one of the men spat. “Didn’t you just see those bodies outside his cave? He has more than enough strength to mangle them into such a pulp.”
“You need my or my husband’s authority to lay a hand on any resident on this island, however guilty you may deem them to be,” I shot back. “You all know the laws of The Shade, and if you don’t, I suggest you lock yourselves indoors for a day and study them again to refresh your memory.”
“Sofia, our lives are in danger—”
“Yes, but chasing down the wrong person isn’t going to relieve that danger. Those bodies outside his cave prove nothing until we’ve examined them.”
The crowd parted as a werewolf bounded into the cave. Saira. Her eyes blazed as she reached me and turned to face off the humans alongside me.
“Back off, people,” she growled. “Brett has an alibi. Me. I’ve been visiting every night for the past two weeks for bonfires on the beach.”
Although Brett hardly needed an alibi—for the reason I’d already explained to Patricia numerous times—it could only help his case having one.
The men looked like they wanted to protest still—perhaps argue that Saira could be in on it too, since she was a werewolf—but with both Saira and I glaring at them, they sheathed their weapons and backed off.
“Go back to your homes,” I said, ushering them all out of the cave. “If Brett reports any of you coming within a mile of his cave, you will answer to Derek Novak personally.”
That made them pay attention. The blood drained from their faces and they scurried away like rats.
I sighed, looking back at Saira.
“Thank you for defending him, Sofia,” she said. “He’s more gentle a soul than any of those humans can ever hope to be.”
“I guessed as much,” I said.
“He has a phobia of violence. Wouldn’t crack a person’s skull even if you begged him to.” She scowled, shooting a look back at the quivering ogre. “I should know. When we first accepted him as a member of our crew back in the supernatural realm, we thought he’d be useful helping us defend our ship… What did he do the first time a threat came along? He abandoned his post and went squealing below deck. The whole lot of us almost lost our damn lives because of it. After that, we trusted him with nothing but cooking and carving.”
She smiled fondly. Padding over to the ogre, she nuzzled her head against his arm. Still, he refused to raise his head.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” she said. “You can look up now.”
There was a pause.
“Are the meanies gone?” he mumbled.
Saira heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes at me. “Yes, the meanies are gone.”
“They won’t bother you again, Brett,” I reassured him, walking up to him too and patting his heavy shoulder.
Saira remained with the ogre while I bade goodbye to both of them and left the cave. It was time for me to touch base with Derek.
Patricia wa
s waiting outside the entrance as I emerged, still leaning over the bodies. She looked up at me questioningly.
“Take the bodies to the Sanctuary and, with the help of the other witches, start your examination. Report back to me or Derek once you’ve made some progress.”
She nodded and, since she appeared to have no further questions, I took my leave. I ran across the boulders toward the beach and back into the forest. The events of the day replayed in my mind as I traveled.
Well, so far all we’ve done is establish who is not the killer.
But who on earth is?
Chapter 24: Rose
Despite my misgivings about Annora’s motivations, she kept true to her word and stayed out of Caleb’s and my way. She barely exchanged a word with either of us the next day. She went wandering off into the jungle by herself.
Caleb seemed to have his doubts too, but he was acting as though he believed her words. The idea of finally getting rid of Annora, dropping her off in some homeless shelter, leaving Caleb and I free to return to The Shade and discover for ourselves if anything had really happened there or if Hermia’s words had been a lie, made me desperate to find a way off this island.
I sat on Caleb’s bunk, looking around at the thick trees surrounding us. That was when it hit me. Caleb’s trade used to be building ships. His father had been a shipyard owner.
“What if we built a boat?”
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest, looking around at the trees. “Absolutely from scratch,” he muttered. “With not a single tool. I’ve never done anything like that before. But… I guess we’ve no choice but to try.”
“Maybe there will be some parts of the submarine we can still use?” I said. “If we go to the wreck, and you dive down deep, maybe you can find some tools to make the job easier.”
He nodded slowly. “Yes. There was a toolbox in the engine room. If that wasn’t ruined in the blast, that could prove invaluable. Let’s go and see if there’s anything there that’s salvageable.”
Since Annora wasn’t around, we couldn’t warn her where we were heading off to. It would be tough luck if she arrived back and wondered where we’d gone.