Chapter 36 #2
I shudder just remembering it.
The house has only one bedroom upstairs and a mezzanine space that that jerk Benny said he would turn into his office.
The room smells of sweat, of bedding that hasn't been changed in a long time. There's a photo album on the unmade bed, with a huge pair of scissors next to it, and scattered everywhere, both on the sheets and on the floor, are snippets of photographs.
They're photos of their wedding, I realise.
Mark and Viklaus look in cupboards, drawers, under the bed, but find nothing of interest. So we move on, quickly passing through the bathroom, which also holds nothing important, then we go to the mezzanine, empty except for an office desk that looks like it has been assembled but has not yet been used, it doesn't even have a chair.
"Maybe he died before he finished setting up the office," I murmur to myself.
"It seems so," Mark mutters before turning his face to the ceiling, as if sniffing something. "I smell something coming from there... the smell of humans..."
I look up and only now realise there is an entrance to the attic.
"Whoever it is, they're dead..." Viklaus says.
I swallow hard and watch as Mark opens the hatch, pulling out the ladder so we can climb up.
He pauses for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Shit, my barrier won't last long, let's go while I still have essence."
He goes up first, followed by Viklaus, and I follow behind, taking care not to stray more than three steps away. As soon as I reach the attic, a shiver runs down my spine.
What we find there is chilling.
"What the hell is this..." Mark curses, his eyes narrowing as he examines the place.
There are black candles around a pentagram drawn on the floor, in the middle of the symbol is a rectangular table and on it what looks like pieces of skin and hair, nails and human teeth as if they had been torn out...
And a lot of blood...
Something horrible happened there, a heinous crime.
I suppress the urge to vomit by controlling my breathing, and pull a strand of my clean, shampoo-scented hair to my nose so I don't smell the place.
We walk around the table, further into the room, and behind it, scattered on the floor...
Torn and bloodstained clothes. Handbags. Shoes.
Various belongings of the victims.
Mark stops walking and lifts his foot, as if he had stepped on something. When I look, I see that it is an identity card. I glance ahead and find others, discarded there like pieces of a macabre puzzle.
"Ted, I need you to check some names," Mark asks, using his headset to relay the information from the IDs we found.
The silence on the other end of the line is heavy, almost unbearable.
Then Ted's voice cuts through the silence, tense and cold.
"All of these people have been reported missing in the last few days."
My stomach churns again, panic begins to rise, but Mark, with relentless focus, notices something in the back of the attic and approaches it.
Viklaus and I follow him, keeping within three steps of him to stay inside his protective barrier.
The yellow lamp's light doesn't reach that far, so I hadn't paid much attention to it before.
But on the back wall is a macabre board filled with photos, mostly of women.
Each face is marked with a red X, and dirty words like "slut" and "whore" are scrawled on them.
There are two men as well, with the word "accomplice" written on them.
A feeling of terror grows in me as I look at the photos, connected by red lines, all of them gathered around a photo in the centre of the frame.
When I strain my eyes, my stomach knots up.
It's him. Benny. Her husband, the man who died.
Above his photo is written "traitor".
"By the stars..." I murmur behind my palm, trying to control the nausea rising in my throat.
I gasp and a feeling of dread envelops me like a heavy cloud when, in the middle of the photos, I find my face.
I move closer and realise it is a photo taken from a distance, at a moment when I was leaving the tavern after a night's work, oblivious to those watching me.
There is no X marked on it, but there is something even worse, the word "next".
"That's not going to happen," Mark pulls me from behind, his protective arms sheltering me and his lips pressing a firm kiss on top of my head. "She can't hurt you anymore, I won't allow it."
I try to control my tremors, try to breathe, but the putrid smell only makes me worse.
Then Viklaus's voice catches our attention.
"Mark, look at this," he points to one of the images.
I follow the direction of his pale finger and see a photo of the facade of Mark's company, with the words: "They know too much."
I feel his arms tighten around me, his whole body stiffening behind me.
"Damn it, I knew it," Mark growls.
"It's her..." I whisper, reality hitting me hard.
He kisses my head again before letting go of me, walking around the basement as if looking for something, and Viklaus does the same.
"It's not here," the vampire says dryly, but his shoulders relax slightly as if relieved.
"She must have hidden the grimoire somewhere else, or cast a concealment spell."
"Now what?" I ask quietly, hugging myself.
Mark stares at me, his wolfish eyes shining gold.
"Now I'm going to make her suffer," he says grimly. "But not before forcing her to break her curse."