“You sound like your old man, Xariana.” The sheriff finished his drink and stood. “I’m going to head out. Keep the pictures. I made you a file so that you could help me with this one.”
“Tell your staff and the media that the children were taken into protective custody. Have Brodie send me a full autopsy report from all the victims. We will be back at the compound tomorrow.” I stood to walk him to the gate, and the others rose with us, following me to the edge of the property line. “If anything else turns up, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Will do, but you sure you want me to leave you with these guys? They look upset about something,” he asked seriously, glancing at my team and then at the men standing guard outside the fence.
“I can handle them,” I said, waving at Kieran’s men as they stared me down. They weren’t leaving, and I had a sinking suspicion that the moment I left the property, they fully intended to take me to their leader. “As for my team? They probably just heard about me threatening to blow up a club.” I shrugged when his brows shot up in surprise. “It’s okay. It wouldn’t have made a ruckus, or much of one, anyway.”
“Alrighty, then.” Jeffery waved and was no sooner in his car when Noah rounded on me.
“You want to explain what the fuck you were thinking this morning?” He demanded, forcing me to dismiss the intense stares of the others to answer him.
“Axton put a hit out on us, so I took a play from my father’s handbook. He needed to feel the fear of the gods, even if for only a moment. I was not about to allow that one to slide, and I didn’t. I walked in with an iron bomb strapped to my chest and told him exactly how it would go down if he ever did something like that again.”
“Well, then, that’s perfectly fine,” Onyx groaned sarcastically.
“See, handled,” I snorted, starting back toward the estate. “We have bigger issues to worry about right now, other than to focus on what could have occurred. I wasn’t hurt, and while I have a feeling that’s still up in the air until Kieran decides how best to punish me, we have to figure out if ghosts are resurfacing. I am beginning to doubt past events that my father said happened, and we have a house to search through for clues. If Sandra didn’t really die, and my dad hid secrets, we need to know.”
“Back the fuck up,” Noah hissed. “He intends to punish you?”
“I kicked a vampire through the door at the club, used my power to reach Axton, and held a gun to his and one of Kieran’s men’s heads. He apparently cannot kill me because Enzo called in a debt, and that, too, is an issue. I’m starting to wonder if that wasn’t the plan to begin with. I think Kieran let me reach Axton, because he’s very powerful and could have stopped me. I believe he knew I was coming, adding another piece to the puzzle.”
“It would really be nice to get answers instead of more fucking questions for once,” Micah snapped, sliding his gaze toward the men outside the gates. “That explains those assholes.”
“Yeah, that’s also a problem. We have limited amount of time before the hex bags I placed around the property expire, and no one can be here when they do. No one,” I whispered, stepping into the house I’d been born in, yet never been beyond my bedroom or the main rooms.
Chapter Eighteen
Inside the house, I was forced to explain my actions of that morning. I’d given my team the play-by-play and endured their disapproval of going to the club alone. I didn’t blame them for being upset, but it needed to be done. Noah was the most vocal about it, and we’d agreed to disagree on the subject.
An hour had passed since the sheriff left the property, and in that time, we’d barely scratched the surface, searching the house, when I discovered a huge office that I’d never known existed. My father came up here a lot, but I’d always assumed it was to get away from the pressure the hunter guild placed on him.
Walking to the desk, I opened a drawer, withdrawing several photos of him and my mother together, yellowed with age. In one, he was holding her on his lap with his hands around her pregnant belly. Behind them sat my aunt, looking at them with a sadness that tugged at my heartstrings. I frowned, seeing dark circles beneath her puffy eyes.
She must have been crying before the picture was taken. Her green eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, and her hair was a mess of braids, some tied together to prevent them from falling into her face. Baggy clothing hung on her slender frame, and her expression was unguarded.
Sandra had wanted what my parents had; that much was obvious. It wasn’t uncommon for hunters to push their needs away to do what we did. It was part of the reason why I’d agreed to marry Micah. I craved the family we could have created, but I had also been terrified of it as well. I’d even doubled up on my birth control agent to prevent myself from becoming pregnant. Had Sandra been like me? Was she driven by her desire to prove she belonged here, forcing the things she might have wanted in life to the background and second to the cause?
Flipping through the pictures, I found another of her with my father. He was laughing at something, causing her face to light up in response. I wish they were here to ask what had been said, to know what had brought her so much joy. In a different photo, all three of them were seated in front of the house, and my mother was staring at my aunt with an expression that made ice slither through my spine.
My father seemed uncomfortable, not looking at either of the women in his life, but then I’d known him to close down when there was discord. I’d been on the end of that look a lot growing up. I often asked him about my mother, only for him to shake my questions off and change the subject. I had pegged it as grief and a difficult topic for him to discuss with me.
Putting the photographs back, I ran my hand through the drawer, pausing as my fingertips touched something metal. Pulling it out, I stared at a skeleton key that looked as if it had been plucked from another era. My gaze slid around the room, but there was nothing that the key would fit.
Closing the drawer, I opened the next one below it, withdrawing an old ammo box. Undoing the clasp, I peered inside, glowering at more keys. The man had probably kept every key he’d ever discovered in his lifetime. Placing it back in the drawer, I heard it hit against metal. Slowly, I pulled the tin case out and stared down at the remaining contents.
Getting up from my chair, I crouched, running my hands along the inside. The drawer was a lot deeper than it appeared to be. Pulling out the few scraps of paper, I gazed at the locking mechanism I found, and chuckled. I grabbed the skeleton key off the top of the desk and pushed it into the lock, watching as it sprang open.
Humming started within the office, causing the hair on my neck to rise as the light went out. The room shifted to reveal a hidden wall of books. One of the larger volumes on the shelves moved, exposing a door. Looking around, I stood and walked over to it with the key still in my hand.
A tremor of apprehension slithered into the pit of my stomach. I pushed the skeleton key into the lock, hearing it click as it opened, sending a thick layer of dust into the air. Fanning the particles from my face, I peered into a dark room, brushing my hand along the wall in search of a light switch, finding none.
I went back to my father’s desk and retrieved a flashlight, and entered the room. Shining the light inside, I paused, seeing two cribs. One was covered in plastic, while the other had pink blankets coated in a fine layer of dust. Glancing at the wall, I swallowed down the urge to sneeze, taking in the images of children that covered it.