Page 13 of Fire Bound

It was one of Sterling and Kaius’s favorite dumping grounds for the experiments that went wrong. The bodies they leave on the side of dark roads or in run-down buildings draw too much attention and because of that, they try to avoid it. Ideally, if they have the time and opportunity, they’d bring them here.

What better place to hide the bodies of their experiments than at a crematorium? No one would look twice at a body brought here, especially if they came with falsified documents. It also helps that this specific chain of crematories is owned by one of Sterling’s confidants.

It’s a little on the nose that Kaius would own a business that revolves around dead people, but it’s benefited both him and Sterling immensely over the years. This specific one in Connecticut was their go-to location. It’s far enough away from Sterling’s breeding facility in New York that no one would draw a connection between the two, but it’s close enough that bodies could be transferred over state lines within a few hours. Kaius and Sterling are fucked in the head, but they’re smart as hell.

Their cleverness is what’s kept us from finding them. Isabeau spent almost a year searching for Kaius and I’ve been trying to get to Sterling since I was eight years old, neither one of us has had much luck.Nicolai did an excellent jobofkeeping me away from Sterling. The last time I was in the same room as my father is when I almost burned him to death.

Every time I think I’m getting close, they’re one step ahead of me.

Like now, I came here searching for clues on Kaius’s whereabouts to find the place burned to the ground. They knew someone would come searching.

Despite everything being a burned mess, I shuffle through the remains. Hoping something survived the flames. I duck under another strand of caution tape left by the fire department, and travel farther into the building. Almost the entire roof is gone, only a few unstable pieces hang from the remaining bits of framework still standing. The moon up above casts soft light into the destruction.

In the room that was once an office, is a tape outline of a body, left by the arson investigator. It’s no surprise Kaius set this place ablaze with people still inside. The man’s psychopathic tendencies make it so he doesn’t think twice about taking a life.

The kind of dark magic Kaius uses to bring people back from the dead has a price. Each time he uses his necromancy powers, he burns away a piece of his soul—his empathy.Kaius’s soul is long gone.

The metal file cabinet in the corner has already been emptied, the drawers hang open like someone ransacked them in a rush. Same with the desk. Whatever paperwork that once sat on top of it is nothing but black ash now.

Stepping over the structural beams that had fallen, I make my way further back. There’s a staircase that leads to the basement where the bodies were kept and ultimately cremated.

For the past six months, if I wasn’t secretly watching over Remington, this is what I’ve been doing. I’ve searched through location after location, following any lead I can think of to get an advantage on Sterling. We know he’s coming for us, but I want to stop him before he even has a chance to step foot in Montana. The bloodshed and death he’s bringing can be avoided if I eliminate him first. And the best way to do that is finding Kaius.It wouldn’t matter if we killed Sterling if Kaius is still out there somewhere. The necromancer would just keep bringing him back from the dead.

I’m just about to go down the damaged stairwell when I hear the scurrying noise come from below. Freezing in place, I close my eyes and listen hard. I can’t pick up any scents, the lingering smell of char overpowers everything else. Just when I’m ready to chalk the whole thing up to a rat or raccoon, my beast awakens and emits a warning growl.

Whatever is down there, he doesn’t like.

My eyes snap open as my guard goes up. There’s another rustling sound followed by slow, lazy footsteps. Whoever it is has no idea I’m here, or they wouldn’t be making so much noise.

I should have brought Isabeau with me for backup, but it would have slowed me down if I had to wait for her to fly or drive all the way to Connecticut. It’s much easier and more fun to work alone. Plus, my wolf isn’t a fan of sharing his kills.

Excitement fills me as I prepare for a fight. My wolf howls and bites at his confines to be let out so he can enjoy the fun, but I force him back down. There’re very few places I allow him out and in the middle of a city isn’t one of them. There are too many people around to allow that.

Summoning my hellfire, I disappear into smoke and reappear in the basement. The figure has their back to me, their head turned into the dark shadows. Their clothes are ragged, hanging off their thin body in dirty shreds. For a second, I consider the possibility they’re a transient person, using the condemned building as shelter, but when they turn eerily slow in my direction, that thought vanishes.

His head tilts as he observes me with empty, non-blinking eyes. I haven’t encountered that many people like this, but I can recognize Kaius’s work anywhere. Whoever this poor man in front of me is, he’d been dead but was recently brought back. He was probably soundly at peace in his grave, but the necromancer came along and resurrected him. Based on the dated style of suit he wears, he’s been dead a while which means whatever humanity he had is long gone. The longer a person is dead, the more fucked up they are when they’re brought back. They come back angry, volatile,monsters.

If they’re brought back within minutes of dying, there’s little to no evidence they were ever dead. That’s why Sterling doesn’t appear like the man in front of me.

This guy should be nothing but bones, but Kaius’s dark magic can also restore the body. The only tells that he was once dead are his grayish skin color and his eyes, they’re pale blue and cloudy.Dead.

“Shit.”

He grins at me wickedly with decayed teeth. “He said you’d come. He said I just had to wait, and you’d show up.”

It all clicks; this guy was resurrected to be Kaius’s watchdog. How many more has Kaius made just like this one?

“Kaius talks about me?” I clutch my chest melodramatically. “Well, you go ahead and tell him I’m flattered he went through all this trouble for little old me, but it really wasn’t necessary.”

“He also said you were a little shit,” he sneers.

I nod my head in agreement. “That’s probably a fair statement.”

He reaches for a soot-covered metal pipe to his left. It makes a loud scratching sound as he drags it off the metal table that survived the fire. “I grew quite bored waiting for you.”

My face scrunches in confusion. “Why? You got a hot date or something waiting for you? Hate to break it to you, bud, but chances are, all your friends are dead.Like you should be.”

He runs the metal pipe along the concrete floors as he moves in my direction. “You really are annoying.”

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