Page 126 of Alpha Power

Thaddeus shook his head. "No. Na-uh. No way. Ophelia wouldnevergo against Luther like that. Never."

"I saw her, Thaddeus," Zamorra said sternly, her eyes hardening. "What other reason could she possibly have for meeting up with this kid?"

"I don't know. But what Idoknow is that she'd never betray Luther. She can't go against her maker like that."

"Maybe she found some way around it? With half the shit you can do, it ain't that big of a stretch."

Thaddeus slammed his brows down angrily. "Possibly," he grumbled. "Best way to know for sure is to question him, find out what he knows. I'll take him back to my place and see what's going on."

"Shouldn't you take him to Luther's?" Zamorra questioned. Luther would definitely want to have a few words with him. It was his magic mixed in with all that vampire blood after all.

"As much as I adore Luthy and his torturous ways, he's vicious and ruthless when it comes to his interrogations. There's usually very little left over after he's done." Thaddeus looked down at the mage with sympathy. "He's just a child."

"So you're just gonna cut and run?"

"I want to talk to him first, get his side of the story. It's clear he's the power here, which means someone else is the brains."

"Yeah. Ophelia." Void scoffed.

"If itisher then all the more reason to question him before Luthy. The connection between maker and sired is as delicate as a Mate Bond. Ophelia will use that to her advantage and pin all of it on this kid and Luther will believe her. If we can talk to him first, get some evidence, Luther will have no choice but to side with us."

He makes a good point,her werewolf cut in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. It's the better option. The fair one.

"Alright, fine. We'll do it your way. You take him back to your place and get his side. I'm gonna try and get some answers outta Red."

"No!" Thaddeus burst out. "Don't do that. She's smart. You start poking around and asking questions, she's going to get suspicious. Just wait for me to talk with the child, okay?"

Zamorra growled. "Argh, fine. I hate that you're making so much sense right now. It's incredibly annoying."

Thaddeus smirked and gave a wink. "I'll try to tone that down for you."

He waved a hand and the unconscious mage at his feet levitated, hovering a few metres above the ground with a faint red aura surrounding his body. A transportation portal appeared and Thaddeus floated the mage through.

"I'll be in touch after I get some answers. If you head back now, you might catch the end of the meeting." With a quick salute, Thaddeus stepped through and disappeared.

Zamorra turned and frowned. Where did-

"Yoohoooooo. Down here."

She looked down and to the left and there was Void. "Goddamn it. I keep forgetting about your...situation."

"I wish I could fucking forget it," he grumbled. "Come on, let's go. If we're lucky we can still catch Barnabas."

Barnabas. At the mention of his name, pain, rage and fear hit her all at once with enough force to knock the breath out of her and she clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth together. All this crap with the mage had made her completely forget the real reason why she was here.

"Yeah, let's hustle. I'm not missing him."

* * *

Zamorra and Void snuck back into the meeting, making sure to stick to the back of the room instead of going to their old seats. No way was she going back to that front row. She didn't want or need the attention that would bring.

Luther's dark eyes flicked to her the moment she walked back in and narrowed. He gave her a once over and then focused back on the two bickering supernatural’s standing before him.

Zamorra was too far behind to try and catch exactly what was going on between the raging vampire and demon arguing at the front of the room so she just zoned out until the Regents gave their verdict. After several more cases and four more gruesome executions, Luther finally announced the person she'd been waiting for.

"Final case of the night - Barnabas Baxter, step forward," he commanded.

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