Chapter 25 Elijah #2
I took a moment to mull over everything Buzz had told me.
He’d all but confirmed my theory that my mother was not killed by a mugger.
It was too close to the deaths of my fathers.
The weapon was too showy. Her killer had stolen her purse, but that was an easy ruse.
And even though she was latent and her wound would’ve been fatal to a human, there was no reason for her body to be resistant to the magical healing that should’ve saved her life.
The shifter medical examiner theorized it had to do with the fact that she’d lost her bonded mates so recently.
She may have given up. Let go, body and soul, to return to them.
As I grew older, I knew that couldn’t be true either.
My mother had risked her life to save me, her two-year-old son, while her mates were torn apart under a lunar eclipse by a half-dozen high-powered wraiths, including an Apex.
My dads managed to kill most of them, but they’d died doing it.
They’d died to save my mother and me, and Mom wouldn’t have let that sacrifice be in vain.
She wouldn’t have just given up.
Someone rich and powerful within the Prime shifter community had wanted my mother dead, and they’d hired the Low Country Kings—a group with whom no one among our richest and most powerful would be caught dead associating with—to kill her.
I just had no fucking idea why.
I rose from my chair and patted Buzz lightly on the cheek. “Thank you, my friend. You’ve been most helpful. I can see your wrists are pretty blistered, and I apologize for that. They should heal right up after I unlock the chains.”
He scowled in silence.
“Right. Your cell phone’s in your pocket if you want to call for a ride after I’ve gone.
And of course, I’d appreciate your discretion about our little talk.
The other two members of your club I’ve interviewed were kind enough not to mention it.
I’d hate to have to come back for a much more uncomfortable chat, yeah? ”
He winced. “I won’t say anything.”
I believed him. Not only was he terrified of my beast, but like the others, he’d never want to admit to his club of criminals that he’d been nabbed by a college student, chained to a chair, and then sang like a canary.
After stashing the dagger carefully back in my backpack, I slipped my work gloves on and unlocked Buzz’s silver chains. He sat still as a statue, and I licked the cloying taste of his apprehension from my lips as I worked. I stashed the chains away as well, then slipped off my gloves.
“Karma’s a persistent bitch, Buzz. I’d suggest the Low Country Kings be on their best behavior for the foreseeable future.” I gave him one last salute as I headed for the exit.
I slammed the metal door behind me, and then I was on my way home.
My aunt, Katerina, and uncle, Horatio, were saints of the highest order.
Horatio was my father Cassius’s younger brother.
My fathers had all been Prime felines from long lines of Prime felines, but Horatio had drawn the genetic short straw and never manifested a beast. He and his wife had only just returned from their honeymoon when they’d taken my mother and me into their home in the wake of our terrible tragedy.
They were both accountants, and they lived in a suburban neighborhood in Lion Valley, a quiet middle-class town tucked snugly in the center of the North Georgia shifter community.
It was on a bustling street in the Lion Valley town center, where my mother had been perusing the local farmer’s market, intent on buying something nice to contribute to our new home, that she was murdered.
I’d been home with Aunt Kat, taking a nap.
After that, my aunt and uncle had a toddler to raise, which they did with enthusiasm and love.
When that toddler became a preteen and manifested not as a Prime feline but a rare mythical basilisk, they rolled with it.
My parents’ estate had provided me with a small nest egg, and it was enough to send me to the best shifter boarding school in the South for budding Prime males.
There I met Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden, and the rest was history.
It was to my uncle and aunt’s same quiet suburban home that I returned after my meeting with Buzz. The late-afternoon sun had just begun to sink low on the horizon, the chill in the air hardening into a more oppressive cold as I let myself in the back door.
A few minutes later, Horatio eyed me over the frames of his reading glasses, his laptop in front of him on the kitchen table. “You think members of this motorcycle club were hired by mysterious rich Primes to kill your mother.” A statement, not a question.
“Yes.”
Aunt Kat set a glass of sweet tea in front of me and ruffled my hair fondly before she pulled up a chair next to her husband.
She’d braided her long black hair over her shoulder, which she did every evening when she returned home from work.
“We’ve always suspected, Hor. What happened to Amara could not have been just some random mugging. ”
“But why?” Horatio crossed his arms over his broad chest, his biceps bulging under his dress shirt.
My uncle had the body of a Prime, just not the beast to match.
“Who could’ve wanted her dead so badly that they resorted to this?
Back-alley deals with bikers, fancy knives, unknown magic that interferes with healing?
She was a grieving young widow, and no one back then had any reason to suspect that her son’s beast would manifest as one of the most dangerous classes of mythic alive. She wasn’t a threat to anyone.”
I sipped my tea. Peach, my favorite. “I’m going to find out, Uncle. And when I do, what my mother went through will seem like a day at the spa compared to what will happen to those responsible.”
Aunt Kat gave me a fond smile. “That’s right, baby. No mercy. You just let us know if you need anything.”
Horatio tapped his chin. “Do you know if either the deceased President or Vice President left behind a wife?”
“I think they call them old ladies,” Kat said, nudging Horatio with a grin.
I shook my head. “I can find out, though.”
Horatio waved a hand. “No, let me take this one. The firm has some forensic accountants and investigators on staff. I can get one of them to discreetly look into it.”
Perfect. “Thank you, Uncle.”
“Are you caught up on your schoolwork?” he asked, and just like that, we were back to the mundane things. “Not that your aunt and I don’t enjoy having you around, Elijah, but you are paying tuition to that very fine institution.”
“I’m on top of everything, do not worry.” My professors were only too happy to email my assignments, and I did take my degree seriously. “I’ll head back in a few days. I’m feeling pretty settled now.”
My uncle studied me. “Good. You’re too hard on yourself, son.
It takes most mythics several decades to gain true control over their beasts, bonded or not.
And with your chosen career path, you’re turning the bloodlust and the unpredictability into something productive.
You’ll be saving lives. I’m proud of you. ”
Kat beamed at me. “We both are.”
See? Saints.
I hadn’t mentioned the particular struggle my beast and I were having over luscious Avery. Kat and Horatio put on brave faces, but they did worry about me, and I didn’t want to add to the pile.
Plus, I had a plan.
I’ll be seeing you soon, Dove.