Chapter 80

He said nothing as he headed to the door. The door closed softly behind him, and while I knew I had won that argument, it didn’t feel like a victory.

I stood and went to the balcony. I watched him get into the jeep. He didn’t even stop to look up. The jeep sped off and away. I tilted my head and went to grab my laptop to pick up my work on tracing Claire’s call. The scent of pastries faded into the background as I set my jaw and tried to find where the call could have come from.

It was at least an hour later before my stomach demanded more food, and my mood felt so low that I made myself a cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. I spent hours trying everything I could to find out what I could from the call, but there was nothing. Whatever phone she used was a temporary one. Wherever she’d made, the call had no ambient noise I could use to identify it. It was as silent as the grave.

My gut told me that she was with Francium, but that meant nothing as the investigation by the Interpack Authorities was going nowhere, and he hadn’t appeared anywhere there was a surveillance camera. Even the investigation I had started through Moon Shadow seemed to be at a dead stop.

I hadn’t even been able to pick up any clues using voice recognition. I didn’t know if that meant he was just somewhere without cell service or if his voice had changed. Maybe he was being completely silent. I didn’t know.

The sun sank into the distance, and I got out of the tub, hoping, more than anything, that something would come to me. My mind wandered to Armageddon.

Was he treating the woman he’d fallen in love with the way Candido treated me? He didn’t seem like the type to be condescending, but what did I know? Was Armageddon’s personality the same in and out of the mask?

There was no real way to tell.

Thinking about Candido was starting to irritate me. I couldn’t say if I was more upset about him trying to brush me off or still not getting a basic apology, but neither of the ideas were helping.

I sunk into the bathtub with a soft sigh hoping to soak away some of my troubles and let my mind relax. Running through the caves, the beast, and everything else that had happened had taken its toll on me. I couldn’t even be sure that I had fully recovered from the attack on the mall.

I frowned, thinking about it. Maybe these swings of anger that kept coming and going was the result of that substance. Based on the way everyone else was exposed, it didn’t seem like I was supposed to be submerged in it. I was just supposed to breathe it in.

Who knew how much longer it was going to last in my system?

Maybe it was me who owed Candido an apology, but I pulled back from those thoughts. Maybe I shouldn’t have snapped at him, but he definitely shouldn’t have tried to brush me off or make me think that I was dreaming it.

I sighed, leaning back. If Claire were here… If Claire were still alive, she’d tell me that I should cut him some slack and try to talk to him, or just be a little bolder with how I talked to him. It wasn’t as if Candido was going to order me to be quiet, alpha king or not, he only did that to people who deserved it.

We were closer than that. Maybe even too close.

I shook my head. Being with Candido these past few years has given me so much. I wouldn’t trade it for anything even if it was to get out of the grief and pain I’d gone through recently.

My apartment turned quiet. Then, I felt someone in the apartment with me. I couldn’t say how I knew they were there, just that they were. I waited for someone from Team Gamma-2 to call out, but nothing came. I sat up in the tub and waited, listening as the footsteps grew closer. I slid to the other side of the tub and slipped out of the tub as quietly as possible, crossing the room to slip behind the door as the door opened, looking into the bathroom. I held my breath waiting for the intruder to show themselves. He turned sharply towards me, and I rammed into him with a battle cry.

He cursed and tumbled into the bathtub. Water splashed up and everywhere. I pulled the curved curtain bar down and out of the wall and swung at the person coming in behind him.

“Wait!” Someone called a woman’s voice.

The man who lunged at me darted back out of the path of my swing before the man that fell into the tub rolled out, sputtering and coughing.

“Fuck,” he growled.

“Stand down,” the woman said again. “And get up. You’ve set off the alarm. We don’t have a lot of time.”

I aimed the bar at them, obscuring my body with the length of the shower curtain. Fear pulsed in my veins. My thoughts jumped back to the attack in the locker room. I tried to pull my thoughts away, but I felt more and more on edge.

The door opened wider and there were four people there. One of them stepped forward.

“Out,” she said. Her eyes were the same green that Candido’s were, but I couldn’t see the rest of her face. “Buy us some time for an escape. We have to be quick about this.”

The others retreated and closed the door behind them.

“Agent Pandora,” she said stiffly. “Consider this a private mission.”

I frowned and gasped as I saw the crest on her shoulder. It was a simple set of twin moons. One was blue. The other was white. I thought of the panel on the ceiling of the library and met her eyes.

“Blue Moon…”

“Always in the moon’s shadow,” she replied. “I’ve been watching you… in and out of the mask. You do good work. You’re smart and discreet. Typically, I wouldn’t deliver a message like this, but time is of the essence, and you are the only one that has any hope to get to the bottom of this. You’re close enough to the situation to have the right insight.”

I winced. “That sounds… a lot like what Candido said about Francium’s father.”

She chuckled. “Was he wrong?”

“I suppose you are right…Who are you?” I asked. “Couldn’t you have just…” Sent me a message through the mainframe? Called me like a normal person or left a message somehow? I shook my head. “I guess not with the mole in the organization.”

“Precisely. That is a different, less urgent matter, given your quick acting. I think you will agree when you find out what it is.” She chuckled. “As to who I am, you can consider me your boss if it makes it easier. While I am not the founder of Moon Shadow, I am the current leader.”

I sat on the edge of the tub. “And… Armageddon?”

She chuckled. “More than a front man, but don’t tell him that.”

I laughed, unable to help myself. Did Armageddon think he was in charge or was this some sort of inside joke?

“I’m elevating your access to the Moon Shadow and Blue Moon library. You’ll have about the same access as Armageddon starting tonight.”

I stared at her. “Meaning?”

“Well, you won’t have to lug this around,” she said lifting the Moon Goddess book. “Impressive that you managed to find a copy.”

I shook my head. “It was… in the library.”

“And this?” She asked lifting the book on vampires.

I sighed, “Also… in the library.”

She hummed, “No worries, dear. They’ll both be taken back to the Moon Shadow library, and you’ll have access to it all. I suggest you get some rest, however. I’m sure crashing a wedding, surviving a terrorist attack, and still managing to deal with Armageddon on a mission has worn you out.”

She handed me a folder. I opened it and frowned. There were documents, but also photos. One was of Claire, but she was different. She was pale and looked nervous. The next photo wasn’t what I expected. It was Francium. He looked different. Paler, sure, but changed in some way. His eyes were different. They were in the photo together. He was fighting her it looked like. The next photo was of him hefting her over his shoulder. She looked like she was trying to fight him, but she didn’t look afraid.

She might have been crying.

The next photo was her in his arms, seemingly sobbing into his chest. Why was she clinging to him still? He killed her!

Or… he pretended to kill her. I don’t know. Either way, I had a chance to save her the way I hadn’t been able to before. Francium had Claire. I could only hope that this folder had everything I needed to figure it out.

“Where is this?”

“These photos were taken several days ago,” she said. “At the edge of the Red Moon territory. The information about where they seemed to have been going next is in the folder. I imagine the call you received from her today was taken from their current location or on the road.”

“Why does she look different?” I asked. “She looks sick. Is she sick?”