The Lightning Prophecy (The Lightning Witch Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

“Who knows where it is kept? And who has access to it?” They were not going to like what I was about to say.

“Again, only the inner circle knows where it is kept and has access to it.”

I said nothing but met each one of their eyes. I was looking for something, some show of guilt. Some show that they knew something more than they did. I saw nothing. Either they were all good actors, which I highly doubted, or they did not know how the information got out.

“Well, the logic says there is a leak.” There were soft murmurs around the table. I heard several denials and how this whole thing was outrageous.

“We have nothing to hide at this point. Tell us what you need and we will give it to you. Registered or not, we cannot afford to lose any more sisters.” This time it was the lightly Creole voice of Monique Thomas. She genuinely appeared to care and seemed to be the most affected about everything I said.

“I am assuming you have the area where the prophecy is being held under surveillance? I want everything for the year before the first killing. I also will need a room to stay, as I want to be able to be here. We have four days until the next full moon. We have little time to waste,” I said, meeting Monique’s dark eyes.

She nodded and said, “Done. You haven’t found her, have you?”

I knew the “her” she meant. I looked at her and pushed every bit of resolve in the word I said next: “No.”

THE INNER CIRCLE
stuck me in the smallest room possible. The bed was a twin size and my feet hung off about eight inches. I think they did it just to make me suffer.
Let’s stuff the big guy in a closet with a tiny-ass bed and laugh at him.
I had a stack of twenty-four DVDs to sift through. It would take me forever to find something, but I knew I would. I honestly had no other option but to find something.

Two days I spent cooped up in that tiny room and found nothing. The year before the killing, there had only been a handful of inner circle members who went by to look at the damned case the prophecy was kept in, but none took it out. I had forty-eight hours until the full moon rose and was no closer to finding this guy. I had three disks left to look at and there had to be something there.

I left my small room on the second sublevel in desperate need of caffeine. I walked down the hallway scenting the air for some hint of … Ah, there it was, just down the hall two doors down on the right. I found a stack of paper cups next to the freshly brewed liquid and poured myself a cup. The scent of Earth grew stronger and was mixed with lavender.

“Hello, Monique,” I said just as she rounded the corner.

“How did, ah yes, werewolf,” she said, smiling. It was a genuine smile that pinched her eyes at the corners. Monique was tall for a woman. She stood over five feet ten inches and was the type of woman who wore heels on top of her height. She was thirty-two according to her profile and was relatively new to the circle. She had beautiful, rich brown skin and impossibly large dark eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a bun, showing her slender neck.

“So how is the search going?” Her accent was tinged with a bit of that Creole I’d heard in Louisiana.

“Nothing yet. I will find something, I know it,” I said, sipping my coffee.

“I hope so. I hate to see any more of our sisters dead. I wanted to tell you from the beginning. I was the new girl and was out voted.” This did not surprise me. Monique seemed sweet, but also seemed as though she had a mind of her own and formed her own opinions based on experience, not hearsay. I poured her a cup of coffee and handed it to her.

“You found her, didn’t you?” She had lowered her voice to a mere whisper.

The words hung in the air as if they were caught in a spider's web. My eyes flew to hers.
Shit
. She gave me a weak smile.
Do the others know? Fuck me!

“The others don’t know. I just know the way you looked when I asked.”

“How did I look?” I couldn’t hide now, damnit.

“Like a male wolf protecting his female,” she said, still in that low whisper.

“What now? Are you going to tell the rest?” I was a steel rod on the outside, but on the inside I was shaking.
They cannot find out about Delaney
. I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying desperately to get my rage under control. It was way too close to the full moon to lose it.

“I was in love with a wolf once. About two years ago. He broke my heart.” She looked down at her hands for a heartbeat. Meeting my eyes, she asked, “Do you love her?”

Without hesitation I said, “Yes.” I hadn’t even thought about the word until it left my lips. I did love her and I would do anything to keep her safe. Now, I just had to make it back to her and pull my head out of my ass and tell her.

“I won’t tell. Just don’t break her heart.” She looked like she was fighting tears. I hated to see a woman upset.

“I’m sorry he hurt you.” What else could I say? This woman held all the cards. She was the outlier that could make or break the future I had with Delaney.
I’m such a moron. All I could say was I was sorry?

“You're sweet. It’s in the past. He did have stunning eyes and rich black hair. His hair reminded me of burnt wood. But, I digress.”

              Beautiful eyes and black hair. I stood there with the coffee cup an inch away from my lips. I replayed the last thing she said for a good two minutes. Why did it bother me? Why did this description hit me? Delaney said when she spoke to Sierra, Sierra said the guy she met had…

My eyes flew to hers. “Monique, what was his name?” I tried to curb my excitement. She had unbeknownst to her given me a clue.

“Uh, Michael Smith. Why?” Her tone was weary. I had to calm down. The last thing I needed was a hysterical woman.

Who the hell was that? Had to be a fake name. Or some player I didn’t know. Well, that would make sense, considering I didn’t know who this ass was.

“When did you break up?” Please say January or February, two years ago. Those were the months I had left to review.

She looked frantic. I put my hands on her upper arms to calm her down.

“Um, January, a few years ago.” She was shaking. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

“Did you tell him anything about the prophecy? I mean, anything at all?” I did everything in my power not to shake her.

She closed her eyes. I was sure she was playing back almost every conversation she could remember having with him. She stood there for a good ten minutes just squeezing her eyes shut. I was going to explode.

“No. I told him about our history. That we split from the Druids. He seemed to know that though. I never said anything about it, though him knowing that was strange.” She seemed to sag in defeat or relief. Then suddenly her eyes met mine in horror. “Oh my God. He could have overheard me on the phone with Bernard. This was three months before our split. But, he never said anything. I had forgotten about it.”

There it was.

“What did you say on the phone? Do you remember?”

I moved her to a metal chair sitting at a table. I took her coffee from her shaking hand and placed it on the table.

Tears were streaming down her face. I moved a chair and sat down facing her. Her head was in her hands and she was sobbing. I put my hand on her knee and she flinched at my touch. Maybe touching her now was a bad idea.

“I-I-I didn’t say much.” She took in a breath and blew it out. She did this six or seven times before continuing. “There was a Coven member about twenty some years ago who left the inner circle. She gave no notice, nothing. Then she disappeared. Bernard insisted she was hiding a child. And that we needed to dedicate more resources to finding her. I told him the prophecy could be wrong. That the wolves didn’t even know about it.”  She sobbed once more and gave a small hiccup. “I hung up after that and Michael was watching TV. With your hearing he could have heard me, couldn’t he?” She hung her head in defeat.

“Monique, you did not do this. I think this guy was casing you and the whole inner circle. I need to go look at that video. You’re welcome to come along, but I don’t have much time. My friend and partner, Mitch, is looking over Delaney, but I have to get back to her.”

I got up and all but ran to my closet of a room. Everything in this dank tiny room smelled of Earth and mold. I raced to the small bedside table and sifted through the DVDs until I found the one marked,
Jan 1-15
. My hands we shaking as I put the disc in the laptop. I increased the speed so that each day took about three minutes.
Nothing, dammit
. I grabbed the next DVD that read,
Jan 16-31.
I switched the DVDs and pressed play. Nothing!
How the actual fuck is that possible?
I was so sure there would be something here and nothing! I threw the jewel case across the room.

“Look at January eighteenth through the twenty-first again.” I looked up to see Monique standing in the doorway. I moved the video bar to the beginning of the eighteenth. I slowed the speed down to where each day was six minutes. Nothing on the eighteenth. Nothing on the nineteenth. My heart rate would have been enough to get a normal man admitted to the hospital. Nothing on the twentieth.

“Wait! Go back to 23:13,” Monique said. Her hand rested on my shoulder and she was trembling about as badly as I was. I moved the video bar back to 23:13.

“There!” she shouted. I paused the video. In the still frame was a picture of the gold gilded case the old parchment was encased in. The case seemed to stand about three-and-a-half feet tall, but it was hard to tell from this video. There was nothing around the case. Wait. I leaned in closer, trying to make out a fly sitting happily on the case. I slowed the video down and zoomed in on the insect. The fly disappeared. I don’t mean it flew away; I mean the damned bug was there one second gone the next.
Shit
.

“Someone looped this video,” I said, closing the laptop. “How did you know to have me look at those days?” I was sweating. My heart rate was only increasing with every moment that passed.

“Michael broke up with me on the twenty-first. I had a feeling if it were him, that it had to be sometime before then. I did this. I caused all of those deaths,” she said, sitting on the bed.

“Listen, this is not your fault, but we don’t have much time. Do you have any photos? Anything of his?”
Please say yes.

“No, I got rid of everything.”

Shit, I just needed something, so … new idea. Could he have touched the glass? Fingerprints? That was possible, but I doubted it. Something, anything. I sat there trying to think of something.
Holy fucking shit.

“You want to help, say, one person?”

She nodded.

“When was the last time that case was opened?” It was getting difficult to hear with the boom-boom, boom-boom thundering in my ears.

“It is only opened when a new inner circle member comes into the fold.”

“I would put money down that says he bypassed whatever alert you have on that case and opened it. It’s airtight, correct?”

“Yes.”

I gave her a smile with all teeth. “Good. Get me down there and open it.”

I got up and walked to the door. This was such a gamble, but I had nothing else.

“Wait, I can’t. I mean, I have to call the inner circle. And there is no way they would let you touch it.” Her voice was frantic, but honestly I didn't care. I didn't have time for politics.

“Look, I don’t want to touch it. I want to smell it.” I walked out the door to the elevator and pressed the down arrow. The doors slid open and I stepped in, hearing Monique’s footsteps behind me.

“Smell it? Why?” She was slightly out of breath.

“The better to smell him with, my dear.” It was the only thing I could think of. This guy had somehow masked his scent from Mitch and me this whole time, but I doubted he would have thought to do so with this.

Monique called several people and had several heated arguments. I really didn’t care. I would put my fist through that glass and rip the prophecy to shreds if I had to. In the end, Monique got the okay from Bernard, who was on his way. He told her I was not allowed to touch it. I could not give two shits about what that man wanted.