Page 36 of Vengeance and Vipers
We glance at each other, wondering if our clan’s leader has finally cracked up. He never loses his shit. Who the hell is he talking to?
I sniff the air. It smells like Krase, but it would in here. This was where he spent a lot of his time tying up his affairs towards the end.
‘I’m glad Jayce isn’t here to see this,’ I murmur, and Axel nods.
He sniffs the air as well, and his brow creases.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ Daemon growls as he enters the room behind us. ‘What the hell is he doing?’
‘Maddox,’ Axel calls.
Our leader turns at the sound of his name. ‘What?’
‘Why are you tearing Krase’s room apart?’
He hesitates before he answers. Whatever he’s going to say next will be a lie. I try not to let my suspicion show. I know Julian well, and I can tell when he’s spin-doctoring, though he is very good at it.
‘I just … I miss him,’ he growls. ‘Fuck him for not being here!’
I watch Axel and Daemon swallow the bullshit, and I pretend to as well.
But Julian Maddox, our leader, is hiding something. The others somehow don’t see the worried look he gives the room, but I do.
‘We all feel the same,’ Daemon says quietly, and I glance at him.
He’s looking away. Are those tears in his eyes? I grit my teeth. I’ve been hard on him since he came back. I didn’t think he’d feel Krase’s loss as keenly as us, but maybe that was unfair of me. He was clan … heisclan.
I give him a commiserating look, which he returns. Then, I go to Julian, putting my hand on his shoulder.
‘Jayce will be in here in a minute,’ I say. ‘He can’t find you doing this.’
Maddox gives me the barest of nods, donning his glamor and leaving the room. The others go with him, probably to the library to share a strong drink, but I hang back.
I pick up the chair that Maddox threw and set it back by the wall where it was. It looks like he got to a vase before we arrived. I grab the largest shards, surveying the room as I do. It looks exactly like it did when Krase was alive, which doesn’t seem right when he’s no longer here living in it.
I step into the bathroom to throw the pieces of pot away, and I freeze. Someone’s showered in here recently. The air is still damp. Who would do that? We all have our own bathrooms …
I go back out into the bedroom and look again. The bed. The covers are rucked up a little. The bureau. The drawer isn’t closed. The rug. It’s askew. Maddox may be responsible for one or two of these things, but not all. Someone’s been messing around in here. Fergus and Tabitha, the new help, maybe?
But why would they? They’ve only just arrived. What would they be poking around in a dead demon’s room for? And they have their newly renovated cottage. They don’t need to use the main house’s amenities.
I try to focus to see if there’s some conjure working in here, but there’s so much magick lingering from Krase’s faetoysthat there’s no way of pinpointing anything specific.
Julian has had plenty of time to lose it over Krase. Why now? The longer I think about it, the more I’m sure there’s something else going on, and Maddox is hiding it. This wouldn’t be the first time he made decisions for the clan without talking to us. He’s the leader. Technically, it’s his right, but we usually tend to be a little more democratic. If Julian is deciding things unilaterally, he’s doing it for a reason he thinks is valid.
But I don’t like it.
I leave the room, closing the door behind me and taking a deep breath in through my nose. I halt and sniff again, wondering what I can smell. It’s faint, like the remnants of a rose that’s no longer in bloom. It’s gone as soon as I smell it, and I put it from my mind as I go down the grand staircase slowly, deciding to see how the land lies with the clan before I do anything else.
When I go into the library, all of them are in there. Maddox, Jayce, and Axel each have a snifter of port. Daemon has a whiskey. The mood is somber because, of course, it is. I grab one of the decanters. I don’t even bother to look at which one as I pour myself a decent amount of whatever expensive liquor is sloshing around inside the crystal vessel. I knock it back, letting it burn its way down, not even tasting it.
I need to figure out what Julian is hiding, I think as I watch him. He’s staring out the window. His face is blank, but he’s worked up. The others might not notice, but I’m his lieutenant. It’s my job to see him when the others don’t.
‘How’s the new help?’ I ask.
He glances at me. ‘They seem to be settling in well. As a matter of fact, Tabitha has cooked a dinner for tonight. It’ll be served in the dining room in a few minutes. It would be good if you could all be there. We have some things to discuss.’
I see Axel and Jayce share a look. I know they wanted me to try again to bring down the conjure that’s keeping us in, and I will as soon as I can. But they have to be realistic. What are the odds that Jules is still alive? Suffering by Dante’s hand for this long, would they evenwanther to be at this point?
