Page 53 of Mystic Justice
‘It’s been known to happen,’ Volderiss said absently. ‘Five? No survivors, I assume.’
‘No. Sorry. As I said, I can take care of such things myself.’
Volderiss grimaced, then arched his eyebrows at Voltaire. Voltaire shook his head and the vampyr lord’s grimace deepened. ‘What?’ I asked sharply. ‘I shared my information, now you share yours.’
The silence hung, heavy and oppressive as they debated their options. From behind me, Krieg spoke into the tense silence. ‘I strongly encourage you to share nicely with Inspector Wise, gentlemen.’
Volderiss looked at Krieg. ‘Your Excellence,’ he said carefully. ‘What a pleasure to see you here. I’d heard you’d relocated to Chester.’
‘I was unaware you cared about my current location. Shall I send you hourly updates?’ Krieg replied drily.
‘That won’t be necessary.’ Volderiss cleared his throat again but this time he sounded nervous rather than authoritative. ‘What is your interest in this matter?’
Krieg smiled unpleasantly. ‘I couldn’t give less of a shit.’
That was a lie; he did care. I’d seen it when he’d looked at the bodies in the morgue, the flicker of regret that said he thought ita waste to have their bodies on those tables. He cared, perhaps more than he admitted to himself.
‘I’m here for Wise,’ Krieg continued.
‘Yes,’ Voltaire snarked, ‘we can see that. Why you’d choose an Inspector to warm your bed is—’
His words were cut off as Krieg exploded into movement. For a huge man, his speed was startling: one moment he was behind me, the next he had Voltaire by the throat and had slammed him against the brickwork again. If I’d gone out on a limb, I’d have said that Volty was having a bad day.
When he spoke, Krieg’s voice was deceptively mild. ‘You will speak to Inspector Wise with respect.’ Then his voice hardened. ‘Or you will not speak again. Ever.’
I could fight my own battles and did so frequently, but there was something arousing about watching Krieg fight for me. I suspected I knew now why he’d simply sat back and watched while Elvira and I had battled with the possessed vampyrs.
‘Apologise to Inspector Wise,’ he growled.
Voltaire’s fangs were out and down but he begrudgingly spat out, ‘No disrespect was intended.’
‘We all know that’s not true,’ Krieg said darkly. He tightened his right hand around Voltaire’s neck until the vampyr looked completely panicked. Krieg had a reputation for ripping off heads. ‘Say sorry.’
‘Sorry!’ Voltaire squeaked.
Krieg released his grip and the vampyr fell to the floor in a heap.
‘You know, an apology means less when it’s forced,’ I said conversationally.
‘Did you want another one?’ Krieg asked earnestly. ‘I can get one and I promise he’ll sound more sincere.’Or elsehung in the air.
I smiled. ‘No, that’s okay. I think we’ve made our point.’ I glared at Volderiss. ‘So what aren’t you telling me?’
Volderiss’s jaw was rigid but finally, reluctantly, he spoke. ‘We haven’t lost any vampyrs lately.’
I frowned. ‘Spell it out for me.’
‘Those vampyrs you fought weren’t clan. We didn’t turn them.’
‘Then who did turn them?’
‘We don’t know. They’re unregistered, unauthorised. We think they were turned by a vampyr specifically to be used as a dark witch’s henchmen. It makes it harder for us to track the witches if they’re not pulling people from our ranks.’
Voltaire joined in. ‘When a black witch kidnaps one of us, we have a starting point, a trail to follow.’
‘But some missing Common realmers, newly turned… ’ I mused aloud.
‘Exactly. All the witch needs to do is target some adults and fake some plans for them to take a foreign trip, maybe post on social media that the Common realmer is planning to start over somewhere new. It doesn’t take much to make the cops think a disappearance is voluntary, especially if the humans liked to travel. Case closed before it even opens, missing person no longer missing.’
