Chapter 25: Vigilante

JED

Raphael slammed his claws down onto the cold metal table and scratched them across the surface, making me cringe.

My hands and feet were shackled, and I was still covered in blood.

“What the hell happened, Jed? Because when one of my Millennium Wolves is found in a hotel room with the walls painted in pixie guts…I need a really fucking good explanation.”

“I…I don’t remember,” I stammered, answering truthfully. The last thing that I remembered was one of the girls forcing pixie dust up my nose. When I woke up, Eve and Reyna were standing over me, and the girls were torn to pieces.

“Not good enough!” Raphael growled. “This is serious, Jed. We’re talking about murder!”

“I was their victim, not the other way around!” I said, trying desperately to piece everything together. “They had me there against my will!”

“You expect me to believe that you entered a motel room with two beautiful girls against your will?” he asked skeptically.

“Well, I didn’t ~enter~ against my will, but they wouldn’t let me leave. They kept making me do more pixie dust, and…”

“Yeah, let’s talk about the amount of drugs and alcohol in your system,” Raphael snarled. “My Delta went on a bender, and now he’s a suspect in a double homicide case. What were you even doing in that situation in the first place?”

“I…I was going through some personal issues,” I responded, thinking of Reyna.

“And you decided to take them out on a couple of pixies?” Raphael asked, leaning in close and growling.

“No! Of course not!” I shouted. “I’d ~never~ do to ~anyone~ what I saw in that room. I’m being framed for this!”

“By who?” Raphael asked, pacing the room. “Who would want to frame you? And who would want to harm those girls?”

“I…I don’t know,” I said, crestfallen. I was completely at a loss.

“Well you’d better figure it out,” Raphael growled. “Or you’ll be taking the fall.”

REYNA

There was no way.

There was no ~fucking~ way.

Jed would never have anything to do with something so violent and gruesome.

I knew him better than almost anyone. He didn’t have that kind of wickedness in him.

He had a good heart, and I refused to believe that he was responsible for those pixies' deaths.

But why was he with them in the first place?

It made me sick to think that Jed had willingly gone with those girls to their motel room to…

Well, to do God knows what.

I knew that Jed wasn’t a virgin like me, but it still upset me to think of him having sex, even if it was irrational.

I wished that Raphael would let me talk to Jed, but he was adamant that only he would conduct the interrogation. He’s not exactly known for being level-headed and had seemed furious when he’d found out what had happened.

Jed had some serious answers to come up with, but how was he supposed to do that when he was locked up with Raphael?

I needed to get those answers for him.

Which was why I was back at the ~Lumen Inn.~ It made my stomach churn to think about re-entering that grisly motel room, but I had to do it…for Jed’s sake.

As I entered the room and surveyed the bloody carnage, I tried to keep from vomiting. The bodies had been removed, but the remnants were still very much there.

I felt a squishy object beneath my shoe and when I lifted it, I found a pointed ear. I quickly kicked it aside, feeling sick.

The walls were covered in claw marks, likely from a werewolf, but it was hard to be certain. They were pretty huge.

That definitely didn’t bode well for Jed, considering that he was the only werewolf in the room, but something about it didn’t feel right.

I knelt down next to the bed and peered underneath it. There was a thick layer of dust. This room likely hadn’t received a thorough cleaning in ages.

But there was something else under the bed…

A patch of fur.

Mangy and matted.

Black and grey.

It wasn’t Jed’s.

***

Eve

Kimbringe, it’s me again

Eve

I know you’re doing your Deity thing but…

Eve

Can a girl get a text back?

Eve

We could REALLY use your help right now

Eve

Lumen is absolute chaos

Eve

We don’t even know who can be trusted anymore

Eve

Those all seeing eyes would be great

Eve

And also…

Eve

I could use your guidance about Snow

Eve

I’m failing her as a mother, Kimbringe

Eve

This is way harder than I thought it would be

Eve

Just get back here soon, okay?

EVE

As Killian and I walked through the back alleys of Lumen, he struggled to keep up with my long strides.

“Where are we going again?” he asked, eyeing the decrepit buildings warily.

“To see my friend, Ruben,” I replied without slowing down. “He’s my main R21 supplier.”

“So, we’re going to see your…drug dealer?” Killian asked, finally catching up to me. There was a hint of judgment in his tone.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be a square, Killian. Ruben is completely harmless. He also happens to be Lumen’s resident pixie dust supplier. If anyone knows something about those pixies, it will be him.”

“Okay, so at least we have a lead. Because there’s no way that Jed is responsible. Right?” Killian sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

In truth, we couldn’t rule Jed out. All signs pointed to him. But it definitely didn’t add up.

If we could find out more about those pixies, then maybe we could find out who might want to harm them. The incident hadn’t been a random attack: it was definitely targeted.

And if Jed was intentionally being framed, then we needed to act fast. Raphael would never let a stain like this one go unbleached when it came to his Millennium Wolves.

And I needed to keep Jed from being wiped out.

“When we get to the black market, be cool,” I said to Killian. “Don’t stare too closely at anyone. Don’t touch anything that you’re not buying. And especially don’t piss off the Dark Wolves.”

“Who are the Dark Wolves?” he asked nervously.

“They’re the ones who maintain the order of the black market. You’ll recognize them from their black cloaks and masks. They constantly patrol the place, making sure no one steps out of line.”

“Does Raphael know that you frequent this place?” Killian asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No, and if you tell him I’ll beat the shit out of you,” I said warningly. “I don’t care if you’re my ward.”

“Fine, fine!” he said, holding his hands up. “Your secret is safe with me.”

We came to a brick wall at the end of an alley. I placed my hand against the wall, and it rippled like a puddle of water.

“Cloaked by magic? Impressive,” Killian said. I motioned for him to follow me.

We emerged on the other side, and his jaw dropped open.

Many magical and supernatural creatures scurried about between immense rows of stalls, where they could get their hands on just about anything they desired.

Lumen was a werewolf city, but the black market attracted all types.

The Dark Wolves eyed us suspiciously as we joined the crowd.

“They’ll be watching us, so don’t do anything stupid,” I hissed at Killian. “Neither of us are werewolves, so we’ll be scrutinized much harder.”

“What is Ruben exactly?” he asked as we pushed through the dense crowd.

“He’s a vampyre. Not like you or I, of course. It wasn’t in his bloodline; he was turned.”

We moved through several winding corridors until we reached a hut covered by dark red curtains. This was Ruben’s ~blood palace~ as he liked to call it.

It would actually be good to see him. It had been a while, and sometimes being surrounded by werewolves got suffocating.

Ruben was at least close to my own kind.

I pulled back the curtain and entered the hut, but my blood ran cold when I saw Ruben’s body lying on the floor.

His legs and arms had been ripped off and thrown across the room. His torso and head were intact, but his last expression was etched permanently on his face.

It was a look of pure horror.

“Holy shit,” Killian said as he looked around the room. “This is fucked.”

I took a moment to compose myself. Despite his questionable profession, Ruben was a friend. He didn’t deserve this.

Killian looked at me, defeated. “There goes our one lead.”

“And this doesn’t even clear Jed,” I said, feeling the same sense of defeat. “He looks like he’s been dead for hours, maybe even a day.”

First the pixies.

And now a vampyre.

It looked like someone or something was targeting supernatural creatures, and not the other way around.

Creatures that could’ve been potential threats, even if they hadn’t specifically threatened anyone yet.

“I think someone is taking matters into their own hands,” I said, taking one last look at Ruben’s maimed body. “A vigilante.”

“Vigilante? You think this person is murdering for…justice?” Killian asked.

“Yes,” I responded. “And I think it’s someone close to us.”