Chapter 53
Hamish stormed into his room and tried not to punch one of Trajan”s perfect walls. The room was clean and exactly the way he had left it two years ago. He pulled on a T-shirt and boots and opened his gun cabinet. He had missed these particular weapons when he was back in Australia. He had left Europe on a drunken whim last time but knew one day he would come back for them.
Hamish put on his gun belt and holstered his pearl-handled revolvers before reaching for his Winchester rifles. He slung leather holsters on his back and slid them in position. They were long rifles, but Hamish was tall enough that they fit snugly between his shoulder blades.
Pulling on his Driza-Bone coat, he started to swear long and inarticulately. Bloody Belle was alive to screw him over all over again. Be damned if he would let her get the better of him. The top of his left butt cheek started to ache where he wore the scar of a bullet she had put in him.
”How are you holding up, Hamish?” Trajan appeared in the doorway. He was dressed in a black trench coat, his face twitching slightly from holding in his anger.
”Tip fucking top, mate,” Hamish snapped, his accent getting thicker the angrier he got. ”I”m more concerned about your mental wellbeing. You can”t hide it from me. I know you”re fucking fuming. Best keep it in check before that pretty human coating you are wearing goes to shit.”
Trajan ran a hand over his face. ”I”m doing my best. I still can”t believe that Isabelle was the girl that messed you up.”
”Yeah, I thought she was dead. I swear she was human when I knew her,” Hamish said through his teeth. ”I watched her building blow up minutes after she walked into it. Christ, I found her bloody clothes.” His hands curled into tight fists to stop them from shaking. He had tried to kill himself more than once after that, and Trajan had managed to pull him back from the darkness. He owed Trajan his life, and that was a debt that meant something.
Trajan”s hand rested on his shoulder. ”I”m sure she had a reason for doing what she did. You have a chance to finally find out, and it can stop haunting you.”
”I don”t even care anymore,” Hamish lied and shoved Trajan”s hand away. ”Let”s go find your girl.”
In the 18th arrondissement of the city, a tall man in a navy leather trench coat watched as a team of Illumination investigators combed through the ashes of a destroyed building. Fire, deliberately lit, had been the overall cause, but that was not what he was there to investigate.
”Excuse me, General, sir?” a nervous, sweating young man pulled him out of his thoughts.
”What is it?” Aramis asked.
”The team has uncovered some peculiar remains that could confirm this building was used by the Darkness.”
”Show me.” Stepping carefully over fallen beams and piles of ash, they came to a neatly pegged area.
”You see, sir, that”s definitely a humanoid skeleton, but see this section here? Well, that”s a wing.”
Aramis leaned down for a closer look. One pale finger touched the fan of bones. Images bombarded him, and he pulled his hand back quickly liked he”d been burned.
”It was a site used by the Darkness. This was a failed experiment. Were there any other bodies?” he asked.
”Three human and another messed-up experiment with bird features. Beak with human teeth.”
Aramis fought back a shudder. ”Sounds horrific. Can you find out if it”s been mixed with bird DNA or if it was some kind of transmutation?”
”I won”t be able to give you full details until we are back in the lab, sir.”
”Very well. Organize the remains to be shipped for examination.” Aramis pulled his vibrating cell phone from his pocket and answered it.
”Aramis, we have a problem,” a curt male voice said at the end of the line. ”I”ve just received information about a powerful witch in Paris.”
”Is she one of ours?”
”She”s neutral at this stage, but she has the potential to wreak havoc if we don”t find her. The Darkness is already onto her, so be careful.”
”Not a problem, sir. I”ll organize a team to search her out and arrange a meeting.”
”Oh, and Aramis? There is something else about the girl that you should know.”
”Yes?”
”She is a Ven?l?inen, and of Yanka”s bloodline, not by marriage. That won”t be an issue for you, will it?”
”No, sir.” Aramis hung up the phone quickly and tried not to drop it as he put it in his coat. His hands shook as he tried to maintain a calm, professional fa?ade. Yanka”s blood. He had to find the witch and fast.