Page 129 of Interion

“It’s a long story, but I think you need rest right now. Go change and I’ll take you home,” he said, pointing to the locker room next door.

“Is Zion around?”

Lorenzo clicked his tongue, like he’d just remembered something.

“Where’s my head? Zion notified the hospital that he was heading to the attacked medical base. He and the 1st squadron are searching for the animals that carried out the attack.”

Animals attacking—that was unusual. They couldn’t be any normal type.

“Could they be chimeras? Has anyone heard anything?”

“Nothing yet, but a forensic team was sent out. They’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon, so we should have something more concrete then.”

I nodded on autopilot, and we walked to the locker room while Lorenzo ran through all the surgeries they’d done that day. I changed quickly and was ready to go in ten minutes.

Ready, exhausted, and curious to learn more about Kaori Yamamoto.

Chapter 32

The general was tired. He’d slept only two hours the night before and spent the entire day tracking the animals that had wreaked havoc on the medical base. After twelve hours of searching, all his efforts proved futile. They found nothing but claw marks everywhere and strange footprints that vanished within a kilometer.

Now Zion stood in front of the medical facility, waiting for the final reports he’d asked his men to compile. Restless, he ran his fingers over the claw marks gouged into a tree trunk. Four grooves scored the bark, as if sharp blades had done the damage, and they were so deep that when the general placed his fingers inside them, his nails disappeared from view.

Minutes later, the shadows shifted around him, signaling someone approaching from behind.

“Sir, the gorgons in the squad have confirmed the attack wasn’t the work of lamias. They don’t waste blood like this, and we haven’t seen them in this territory for a long time,” reported Captain Marcel of the 1st squad, a man Zion held in high regard. “We searched the entire area for clues, but the footprints disappeared to the east, at the edge of the Colorful River.”

“Just like all the other footprints.” Zion rubbed his forehead, lost in thought. “I believe they really are chimeras, and they must have wings—or they escaped by swimming. Did the sanguines find anything?”

“They managed to track the dead doctors’ scent to the river, but the trail ends there. The blood was diluted in the water, and since the sanguines couldn’t identify the animals’ scent, they can’t help.”

Zion was aware of this problem. The attackers’ blood was completely unknown—the sanguines didn’t recognize the genetic pattern—but he’d hoped they might still be able to track the victims’ scent.

He looked once more at the grooved tree. That mark was far from normal, and he thought the claws that had caused such damage could certainly slice a faerie to pieces. Zion believed chimeras were behind the attacks, but if so, they had to be a different type from Kiara—she wouldn’t be able to gouge a tree like that. He rubbed his neck, distressed. He didn’t know what was attacking them, so the best course of action was to speak with the king about security measures. Ideally, they’d bring the squads back inside the borders until they knew what they were dealing with. He was determined to study the case, but first he needed to capture one of the creatures and learn its weaknesses. It wasn’t safe to leave his men vulnerable with a threat hovering over them.

“Sir, we also detected by smell that all the lakes in this perimeter are contaminated with toxic algae. The toxicity levels are dangerously high. It could just be a vegetation imbalance, but we thought it important to report.”

Zion narrowed his eyes at this new information. Outside the walls, many of the lakes were contaminated with toxic algae that caused hallucinations, but normally the levels were low. If Marcel said they’d noticed it just by the smell, something was very wrong.

“Collect samples and take them to the Yamamoto laboratory. Perhaps it’s some imbalance the chimeras caused, like the camera shutdown.”

“It will be done, sir,” the captain responded immediately.

“Did the Vinturian team get any images from the cameras?”

“No, general. All the cameras were deactivated two minutes before the slaughter,” Marcel responded, maintaining a rigid posture.

“Send all the files to my email. Everything from two hours before the incident to two hours after.”

“The IT team will handle that,” the captain said automatically.

“The forensic team should arrive tomorrow. Be prepared to provide support.”

“Do you need an escort for them?”

“Prepare a team of five gorgons. There are no lamias in the war zone, but they can be attracted by the smell of blood, so it would be wise to protect the area. Don’t let anyone wander too close—the fewer people touching things in there, the better. I don’t want anyone damaging the evidence before it’s been photographed and DNA samples have been collected. Just camp around this base and stay alert. At any sign of danger, call me.”

The man saluted.