Page 18 of Hellfire

Gable shrugged, backtracking to the kitchen to pour Castor a coffee. “He’s human, doing his god’s bidding, and gets access to all his patron’s power.”

I guess that clarified what the enforcer was then.

The gold faded and restored the amber in Castor’s eyes. “Found it,” he said before I got any more answers.

No one hacked that quickly. I imagined having that kind of talent, being able to solve problems, and I made a note to befriend this guy, get his help again in future.

“What did you do?” I wanted to know how fucked I was and how I would explain this when the Guild’s system detected a breach.

“Don’t worry about your system. I left no trace, and won’t abuse it… if you don’t give me reason to.” The twist of his ring said he could fuck up the Guild’s security if we gave him trouble. “I sent you a secure folder with files stored on a private and unhackable server.”

My phone beeped with a message, and I blinked, taking it out.

Castor flicked a finger my way. “The folder’s got copies of texts and calls made from burner phones that ping from thephone tower to the Academy’s location and others that I’ve tracked back to staff or students.”

“Thanks, man,” I got out, clicking on the link leading to a private server hosting a series of about twenty folders.

The enforcer nodded at the mug Gable handed him. “Unfortunately, I can’t solve your dead camera issue and identify your suspect.” My hope slid to my feet as he grabbed another two cookies. “But I got some good images of persons of interests before the network went dead.”

Gable settled back on the armrest, rubbing his sister’s ankle. “Told you he was good.”

Blown away with his talent, I flicked through the folders. This information would take me days to weeks to review, time I didn’t have with the new semester commencing tomorrow and the rollout of new security protocol to prevent anymore “Nelle” type situations.

I thanked him again like a fucking chump, and he clasped my hand and slapped his other down on top of it. I was too stunned to get much more out. My team and I ran into so many dead ends, and this guy gave me my smoking gun within a minute, making our searches look like child’s play. This was someone I wanted on our side if need be.

“The folder has voice recordings of your traitor, so you can narrow it down,” Castor advised. “I’ll keep looking into who he’s been calling as the data leads to a cesspit.”

The suspect was a “he” just like Nelle indicated. What was her role in all of this? Plant and not the culprit? I needed clarity like I needed air.

The enforcer hooked his fingers in his belt loops. “This is bigger than you know. A network of factions working in tandem.”

I met his eyes. “You knew about it?”

“I ran into it last year.” He frowned and sipped his coffee. “I’ve only been with the Jackals a few years. Before then, I didn’t know about the Guild.”

I scraped a hand over my wavy hair. “Why didn’t you tell us? We could have stopped this.”

He tilted his head. “The Guild’s been slaughtering our kind for years.”

His kind. Shifters. Half-breed offspring between humans and gantii. Werewolves were the most prevalent, some fox shifters, vampires, among others. They scattered when they caught wind that our hunters were after them. They went dark after that, using complicated spells overlaid in a grid, and the Guild invested their time in fighting the Brotherhood first, then they’d come after the illegal gantii residing on Earth.

A hypocritical attitude of the Guild, really, when we brought stone gargoyles to life, and they were technically magical beings. In essence, so was I. Luna and Gable, as well. I couldn’t let this extermination continue when it threatened to take away the woman I loved and the man I came to recognize as a friend.

Problems for another day. One thing at a time.

Castor’s arms crossed over his broad chest. “Why would we pair up with you when we haven’t exactly seen eye to eye?”

Fair point. Every reaction had a consequence, and through the Guild’s arrogance and supremacy, they earned powerful enemies who could have helped but stayed neutral to protect their kind.

We really could have used their help to deal with our Brotherhood problem, considering they enslaved gantii to abuse their power, slaughter them, and use their body parts for spells or auction them off to collectors worldwide, willing to pay top dollar.

I scrubbed my hands inwards from my cheeks to the corners of my mouth. “Maybe you can put a stop to this. Make a treaty with the shifters?”

The enforcer’s thumb tapped the top of his mug. “That sort of agreement goes above my authority.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “The information’s a start. A token of my goodwill. If your Guild is willing to cooperate, I’d be happy to supply more.”

I barked out a laugh. “That’s probably above my pay grade, but I can certainly take it to the table.”

Castor jerked his chin in Gable’s direction. “Our debt’s square, warlock?”

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