Page 15 of Huntress and the Splintered Court
I didn’t ask if he was sure, because I could tell he wasn’t. “Thank you,” I whispered. Standing up on my toes I placed a gentle kiss on his jaw. He was rigid and didn’t move to meet my lips. I think if he shifted a muscle it might be to prevent me from entering.
Opening the door, a sliver, I slipped inside doing my best to keep Gideon from seeing Eric, worried it might snap his resolve.
“Isabel.” Eric was standing in the corner behind the door, managing to keep himself out of sight. He was prepared to pounce before he noticed it was me. “What is going on here?”
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” I asked taking a seat at the table carefully avoiding his question. The room was made of cinderblocks painted white. A steel rectangular table with two chairs, one at each end, was the only furniture in the small space and they were mounted to the floor. The scent of cleaning agents hung heavy in the air and I didn’t want to know why the scent was so strong and recent. This was an interrogation room. There was a camera in the corner just above Eric’s head, which explained his position more than just preparing for a fight.
“I’m fine. Are you okay? I have too many thoughts racing through my head and I need to know if you’re being treated withrespect?” The way he emphasized the last word made me aware that he was asking, more subtly, if anything was happening against my wishes.
“Eric,” I sighed rubbing out the furrow in my brow. How did I explain that I found my soul mate, but he happened to be the embodiment of everything I was told I should never want? “I’m being treated extremely well. You know if anything unsavory were happening I’d have mentioned it somehow.”
“Then please explain to me what I just saw. The Alpha of the pack stood down for you. Explain?” He took the seat across from me tucking in for my report.
“I can’t.”
“You don’t know?”
I scoffed nervously. “No. I know, but I can’t explain it.”
“Youwon’texplain.” He leaned back in his chair crossing his arms over his chest, his tone full of accusation.
“That too. But in all honesty, do you truly want to know? Once you have the information you can’t just file it away. You know that. You’ll have to do something with it. Is that something you’re prepared to do?” If I told Eric, he’d be forced to reveal it to the Order or risk breaking his oath.
He opened and closed his mouth several times as if rethinking his words then changing his mind over and over. Finally, he exhaled heavily surrendering his curiosity. “This wasn’t forced on you, was it?” it was as vague a question he could ask without coming out demanding details.
“No.”
“Okay then. I’ll leave it alone. As long as you’re safe I have no quarrel with what you do. That is none of my business.”
“Thank you, Eric.”
“Now we need to discuss why I’m here.”
* * *
“The Hunter Orderwill be arriving in the morning with vampire representatives,” I explained. Trey and Adam had both been woken up the moment I finished my conversation with Eric. With the sun preventing the vampires from coming themselves, they’d be sending human servants, beings that were linked to the immortals that were tucked away from danger. The servants would speak for their masters like a receiver and through them the vampires would hear what the human heard. It wasn’t ideal but given the circumstances…
“They’re claiming the wolves unjustly entered their territory and the death of their troop was unwarranted. They are aware that a hunter accompanied the wolves, which makes the matter more political, but as long as we explain that the missing werewolves were my only pursuit and that led us to the blood den, then everything should be tactful.”
“We need to pull everything, every piece of evidence you followed that led to there,” Gideon explained. “Adam, I want you to gather the wolves that were a part of the investigation. I want them available for questioning by the Order. They’ve already given me their account and it matches Isabel’s so that shouldn’t be an issue. Trey, I’d like for you to bring all the data you had on the missing wolves. When we learned they vanished, how we determined they were at the bar. Isabel’s investigation started there because of your information.”
We disbanded and I went up to the bedroom where my computer sat. I opened the app and began retracing my steps.
“Shit,” I hissed.
“What?” Gideon asked coming to stand over my shoulder. I hadn’t realized he followed me.
“It’s gone.” I clicked around trying to pull up everything, but all the information was changed. The license plate no longer led to the den. Even the surveillance footage was altered.
“I swear it was all different.”
“I believe you, Isabel. Shouldn’t the computer have some kind of saved history though? Maybe it has the old information. If it does, we might be able to prove its been tampered with. Somebody has our wolves and we were just following the evidence. Now it appears like we were just aimlessly guessing.”
Opening a different app, I called Eric. He was still in his car when he answered, probably finishing his patrol.
“Isabel?” His eyes flicked over my shoulder, but he said nothing at the sight of the Alpha. I’d completely forgotten Gideon was there so used to having him near. Gideon straightened then stepped out of the way of the camera giving Eric the semblance of privacy.
Explaining to Eric what had happened didn’t surprise him.
