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So why return and tear him apart?
Was it, perhaps, some sort of retribution—a life for a life? One of the elder’s offspring had been killed, after all, and while Vita had been responsible for that rather than Byron, maybe the elder simply didn’t care.
Was this, perhaps, a macabre warning? A bloody and violent form of a ‘kill one of mine, and I’ll kill one of yours’ note?
Trepidation stirred even as chills ran down my spine. While we were all at risk if vengeance was her intent, I couldn’t help the sudden notion that I’d somehow made the top of her hit list. Which made no sense and was probably more my tendency to expect the worse than anything else. But still…
I quickly looked around, senses on high alert. But the night remained absent of anything other than the scent of blood and death. The Empusae—and any other evil or magic, even the wild kind—were nowhere near this area.
As Aiden began to unroll the crime scene tape around the entire area, the sound of sirens finally cut across the silence. Minutes later, four SUVs pulled up behind Aiden’s truck; Ciara, Luke, Ashworth and—surprisingly—Eli were in the first one. Tala, Mac, and Jaz were in the others.
“Maggie and Duke are on their way,” Tala said as she exited her SUV. Then her gaze ran past us and she stopped in shock. “Oh God—”
“I need two teams to deal with all this,” Aiden cut in. “Eli, thanks for coming along. We’re not sure if the Empusae remain in the area, so between the two of you, will you be able to set up some sort of protective circle or magic repellant to protect everyone?”
Ashworth nodded. “Although we might have to set up two separate circles and merge them at a set point to allow movement between the two if the kill zone is large.”
“It is,” I said.
“Ah. Then perhaps it’d be better if the three of us—”
“I need Liz’s help up at the compound.” Aiden’s tone suggested he’d brook no arguments on that. “We’re going to interview our survivor—Jeni—to see if she witnessed anything that might help us track these things. Tala, you’re in control here. I want two separate teams on this. Ciara, we’ll need an ID on the first victim ASAP.”
“As has been noted before, we’ll do our best but we can’t work miracles, Aiden.”
“I know. Just do what you can.” He glanced at me. “Ready?”
I nodded. Anything was better than remaining here amongst the utter destruction.
We climbed into his truck and he carefully reversed out. Tension, anger, and sorrow radiated from Aiden’s body, and his aura was a turbulent, unreadable mix. But that was understandable—he was head ranger, and a werewolf besides. They didn’t like losing and, right now, with this case, that’s all we seemed to be doing.
We reached the boundary for the O’Connor compound and were quickly waved through the checkpoint. The truck’s engine growled loudly as we climbed the steep incline. Trees closed in, shutting out the fading light of the moon and leaving nothing but inky blackness either side of the twin headlight beams.
We continued to wind our way up the mountain, and eventually the trees receded, revealing sheer mountain walls. We were entering the mouth of a canyon. Above us, dawn painted the sky with flags of red and gold.
We reached another checkpoint. Aiden slowed, but a wolf appeared and we were once again waved on. The growing daylight caught the quartz reefs running through the canyon’s walls, making it appear as if ribbons of stars surrounded us. Of course, given that much of the gold found in the area surrounding the compound had been found in quartz reefs, some of that glitter might have been very precious indeed.
Buildings appeared—some large, some small, but all of them resembling longhouses of old—and, thanks to the stone they were made of, were absolutely beautiful. Every building shone, and all of them had earthen rooftops filled with masses of different grasses and wildflowers. There was same proliferation of green technologies here as there had been in the Marin compound, though, with every house having a combination of solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage.
The farther we moved into the encampment, the more the canyon widened out, and the larger and grander the longhouses became. Eventually, we entered what looked to be the remnants of an old crater. The canyon walls soared high above us, unadorned by trees, but nevertheless beautiful thanks to the quartz reefs and the proliferation of wildflowers.
Aiden slowed as we rounded a corner. Up ahead, in a wide clearing, was a grand hall. Unlike the Marin one—which resembled a relic of medieval times—this hall was circular with an angular earthen roof pitching up to the chimney in the center of the structure.
Around the perimeter of the clearing were three two-story longhouses, each one separated from the next by a path that ran back into the forest. While these buildings were also made of stone, the reefs that ran through them looked to be pure gold, because they gleamed like fire under the red skies of the morning.
Aiden’s statement that the O’Connors were wealthy was something of a misnomer. They would never be merely ‘wealthy’—not with the amount of gold on show here. The three packs might be plowing all tourism profits back into the day-to-day operation of the reservation, but the O’Connors, at the very least, would never be left wanting for money, no matter what happened.
It could also be another reason why no humans were allowed up here. It wasn’t just about privacy, but rather the wealth on show and the greed it often sparked in humans.
Aiden stopped the truck in a parking area on the right edge of the clearing and then glanced at me. “Ready?”
“No.” I took a deep breath and tried to calm the nerves. “But let’s get it over with.”
We climbed out of the truck. A wolf appeared out of the trees to my left; if not for the fact he was much younger than Aiden, I could have been staring at his twin. Same eyes, same facial features.
Aiden walked around the rear of the truck and pressed a hand against my spine, lightly pushing me forward. “Liz, meet my brother, Dillon.”
Dillon had to be at least fifteen years younger than Aiden, but he’d nevertheless mastered the art of giving nothing away with either his eyes or his expression. “Nice to meet you, Liz.” His gaze flicked to Aiden. “They’re waiting for you both in the infirmary.”
