Chapter 8 #2
The employee didn’t seem nearly as spooked as the rest of them, nodding at his boss before exiting the room.
“I don’t know,” Ryker admitted to Rue, almost as if Cosima hadn’t spoken, “but he’s worried. And if Uriel is concerned…” His gaze latched onto the fog, brow furrowing, then he stepped toward Eulalie. “My father?”
“He went fishing with Vance and Izan,” she replied. “They left before dawn.”
“When are they expected back?”
“Around lunch time.”
Ryker considered that information and motioned to the unconscious employee.
“Is there somewhere we can put him? A place he can’t get out of?
Even if this type of weather is common, there’s no way they’re driving through this.
We need to put him somewhere until the fog clears and the authorities can make it. ”
“My office locks from the outside,” Cosima offered.
“Perfect. Bring him there. Penn, Hollis, help move him.”
Rue watched as the other guys got to work without argument. Then again, that’s how the Harts operated. They gave orders and people listened.
The other employee who’d been on guard duty knew where the office was, and the three of them carried the unconscious man from the room.
Darae suddenly broke out in a sob, shaking Delta’s shoulders. “She’s not breathing!”
“Uriel,” Ryker called to his friend, “let’s get the bodies out of here.”
“You can’t do that,” Cosima said. “It’s evidence.”
Oh. Guess she hadn’t gotten the memo about the Harts being Imperial.
“Do you suggest we seal off the area and leave them here to rot? It’ll be a lot harder to clean.” Ryker quirked a brow, and when she went silent, curled his fingers at Uriel again. “U.”
Uriel didn’t appear to have heard him.
Ryker frowned, but didn’t call him again, waiting instead.
He wasn’t exactly known for his patience, so the fact he was willing to give his friend a moment to…
do whatever the hell Uriel was currently doing, made Rue’s nerves fry even worse.
Having witnessed the aftermath of a brutal murder, that deep, unsettling feeling was to be expected.
But even if he’d been shielded from violence of this nature before, he wasn’t na?ve.
Having grown up around several Black Harts and their families, he knew they were well acquainted with bloodshed.
Aside from wanting to handle the mess, Ryker appeared mostly unaffected, and Uriel was more interested in the fog than anything else.
Because of this, any shift in character seemed extreme, and the attention he was giving Uriel, and his warnings, were making Rue uncomfortable on top of being sick to his stomach.
“There’s something out there,” Uriel repeated suddenly, a hush falling over the room. He shifted on his feet and leaned in a little bit closer. “It’s moving.”
All eyes turned to the window, but after a lengthy moment, when nothing happened, Esti let out a nervous laugh.
“Very funny, U—”
A scream cut her off, and then Tod appeared from the fog, slamming against the window. He beat against it, eyes locked on Uriel, begging for help.
His palms were bloody.
“Let me in!” his voice was muffled through the glass, but the words could still be made out with how loudly he must have been yelling them. “Good Light! Please—”
A large black thing, moving too quickly to be seen as more than a blur, came up behind Tod a second before the man was yanked backwards in one swift motion.
He vanished, the only signs he’d been there at all were the crimson smears on the window.
There weren’t even any accompanying screams.
The fog settled back into place.
“What the hell was that?” Esti whispered, she and everyone else in the room frozen.
“It…” Cosima cleared her throat, still trying to take control of the situation despite how she was shaking, “looked like a bear. We have them up here. Animal control will also have to be contacted—”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Esti turned on her. “That guy went out there because we can’t call anyone, and now you’re telling us there’s also a bear on the loose?!”
Uriel grunted. “That wasn’t a bear.”
“It was,” Cosima insisted, glaring at his back.
“Absolutely not.” Darae got to her feet.
“What kind of establishment are you running here? First your employee goes on a murderous rampage, and now you’re saying there are wild animals out there?
No. I refuse to stay here a moment longer.
” She snapped her fingers at Esti, then moved to the end of the couch and grabbed her daughter’s wrist. “Go pack your things. We’re leaving. ”
Esti looked like she wanted to argue, but then glanced back at all the carnage and ended up agreeing instead.
“The bus is in the lot,” Darae reminded Eulalie as her daughter left. “Do you know what room the driver is staying in? We should all go.”
“You can’t see through this fog,” Cosima reminded, interjecting. “It isn’t safe—”
“It isn’t safe here!” she sneered, stabbing a finger against the center of the coordinator’s chest. “You better believe you will be hearing from my lawyers about all of this. If the Harts don’t, I will ensure this place is shut down.”
“I saw the driver leave on a hike early this morning when I saw Rhys off,” Eulalie said. “I don’t know if he’s returned yet, but the keys to the bus were left with the front desk.”
“Gather your things,” Darae told her, then repeated it to the rest of them.
“We can’t leave without the others,” Eulalie insisted.
“Of course,” she nodded, though it was clear it upset her having to wait. “We’ll wait until noon. That’s when you said he’d be back, correct?”
“Hey,” Ellery walked in then. “There’s no one in the dining hall. Wasn’t breakfast supposed to start at seven?”
“That can’t be right.” Cosima frowned and left without another word, clearly going to check.
“Yo,” Ellery slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced between Ryker and Uriel, “what’s going on in here?”
“Didn’t you hear the screaming?” Rue couldn’t help but ask.
Ellery shrugged. “Figured it was nothing.” He took in the dead bodies. “Guess I was wrong.”
“I have to go find my friends.” Rue moved for the door, but Ryker caught his arm, preventing him from getting very far.
“Don’t go outside,” the Black Hart said, and for a moment it was like Rue was looking at the old Ryker, the one who cared about him.
The second Ryker let him go, the moment ended.
Rue nodded anyway.
“You don’t have to look far,” Ellery said then. “They were both in the dining hall when I got there. Think they’re still waiting.”
“Thanks.” This trip had gotten weird so fast. He needed to find Bowie and Lenore and tell them to pack.
Rue was in agreement that staying here any longer was a bad idea.