Page 30 of Mage Massacres

As soon as we rounded the corner, Sloane pegged Miller with an expression that I didn’t quite comprehend. My sister straightened immediately.

“Where did you come out of the portal at?”

“Across the hall from Amelia’s office. What’s going on?” Miller bounced her gaze from one person to the next.

I wanted to say it was the same shit, just a different day, but Sloane’s downturn lips made me stop myself.

It wasn’t the same shit.

“Franklin just called. He stopped by the guild to get the records for Alric Moore, and he said the whole building is a wreck. He didn’t step out of the Void, but he saw at least three bodies and thinks they’re the night guards.”

Her brows creased with concern as she tugged her long, silver waves up, tying her hair back.

“So there could be someone else there?” Murphy inquired, blinking rapidly when a pile of weapons landed on the kitchen counter.

Sloane nodded. “I’m betting there is. We need to get the records before anyone gets through the wards around the top floor. Then we need to reinforce them or destroy the portals. There’s one that leads here and one that goes straight to the House of Vampyre.”

7

Sloane

Tuesday, June 9th

Late Night

Once we had all made it through the Void, I curiously glanced around the guild headquarters’ top floor. I hadn’t been here since it was built, but it was still just as striking as it was the first time I’d walked through it.

I had an office up here somewhere. A mostly empty one that I wasn't concerned with right now. I’d not needed to be here in the flesh, so I’d never bothered with putting anything in it.

I quietly asked York and Briggs to stay in the Void as they checked out the rest of the building. If there were other people in here, then we needed to know. That didn’t mean I wanted anyone to know we were here, though.

The top floor of the guild was warded, so no one should be able to get through without the right magic words. But I didn’t trust it. The wards around our estate in Nashville were stronger, yet they were still compromised repeatedly.

And Murphy had been able to mimic Palmer’s voice, speak his name just like my mage did to bypass the restricted access to the elevator.

That didn’t bode well for us.

If Murphy could do that, then I was positive someone somewhere had created a spell that could copy other people’s voices. That felt like common knowledge. The Lynch brothers sounded alike, but that oversight had been a failure on the ward’s creator. It should have been able to tell them apart.

I glared at the elevator before shaking my head to clear my mind.

Focus, bitch.

To the right of the elevator was a password-protected metal door. Behind that door were the records for all the mages registered with the guild. The system had been put into place more than three centuries ago. It was archaic now, but with time and effort, we’d have everything switched to digital filing.

That was not going to be part of my job description.

Palmer beelined for the records room, with Millie right behind him. Murphy dragged his feet as he followed, clearly not happy about sorting through paperwork. Not that I could blame him.

Novak and Vaughn ventured off together, starting on the left side of the hall. The first office door they opened appeared to be my dad’s office. It held Charlie’s flare for a more rustic look. Nate liked his gaudy Victorian furniture. Sam liked sleek, modern pieces and black. It was easy to tell the difference between my parents’ assigned spaces.

Two of the three were unused; it wasn’t just mine.

On the opposite side of the hall, Amelia’s office was at the very end. There were two offices before hers; one for Palmer and the other was mine.

Stone and I started with the offices on the right side of the hall, searching for anything that might be related to Alric Moore and his quest for… uhm, supernatural domination? My death? It was hard to pinpoint exactly what his motives were.

I knew they involved me to some extent, but why?