Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was only through years of careful practice that he managed to control his expression, fixing his face into hardened neutrality.
Beserkir had no such inhibitions. On the far side of the room, he leant against one of the most ostentatious desks Keeran had ever seen, smiling like a spider that had just caught something in its web.
As ridiculous as it was, the desk wasn’t out of place in the room.
One quick sweep of his eye was enough for Keeran to realise what Beserkir lacked in taste, he made up for with money.
After ascertaining that the guards behind stood between him and the only exit in the room, Keeran finally slid his attention to the man who so clearly wanted to be the centre of it.
Beserkir had cleaned himself up from the incident in the warehouse, changing into a well-cut suit that highlighted the broad sweep of his shoulders, but the grazes on his face belied his less-than-savoury day job.
Irrespective of the marks Aelia had left on him, Beserkir was as impressive in the study as he had been before the backdrop of his burning victims in Callodosis.
He had the air of a man who was used to being the most imposing person in the room.
“My old friend,” Beserkir started, his voice as slippery ever. “I’m sorry to have dragged you here so unceremoniously, but patience has always been a virtue I’ve struggled with.”
Keeran remained silent, giving him nothing.
“I would offer you a drink, but I’m told you can’t be trusted to behave. Rather an animal, apparently.” Beserkir tilted his head to peer at Keeran down his nose.
“The country really has gone to the dogs if one of its Elders is too much of a coward to give a man in chains a drink,” Keeran said, raising one dark brow.
One of the guards pushed him hard enough that he fell to his knees. Pain lanced through them as the bone slammed into the hard marble.
“That won’t be necessary, but thank you,” Beserkir cautioned, shooting the guard a disparaging glance.
He pushed himself off the table and took several slow, deliberate steps closer, stopping just out of Keeran’s reach.
“Now, I think you’re confusing cowardice with practicality.
It took me far too long to get free of all the dirt after my run-in with your little friend, and I have somewhere I need to be.
So, for now, we must keep this civil.” He slipped his hands into his trouser pockets. “Funny you should mention dogs though…”
Beserkir jerked his head and Keeran heard a door open behind him, followed by the gentle click of claws on marble as a Guard Dog padded across the room to stand beside his master.
“This fine young man tracked you all the way from the abandoned corpses of the soldiers you and your friend saw fit to murder.”
Keeran’s mind reeled. They’d been tracking them this whole time.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, keeping his voice calm.
“Oh, sure you do.” Beserkir crouched closer. “By the lakes. My soldiers all murdered, the humans released and only two other scents mingled into the mix. Yours was one of them, of that I’m sure. My Dogs don’t make mistakes.”
“I hate to ruin their track record, but it would seem they’re not as infallible as you want to believe.
” Keeran let a little of the cruelty in him shine in his eyes.
“I insist you give credit where credit’s due.
It was me who killed your little soldiers, each and every one of them, and trust me, I didn’t need any help. ”
Beserkir’s smile widened. “Oh, bravo. I had hoped you two were close. I was rather depending on it actually, so thank you for confirming my suspicions. We know she was there, there’s no point in lying.
What we didn’t know, is what she was.” Beserkir tilted his head, searching Keeran’s face. “Do you?”
Keeran couldn’t help the muscle that twitched in his jaw.
It was all he could do to stop from ripping free of the manacles and tearing Beserkir’s head right off his smarmy body—but he had to play along to give Aelia time to escape.
For the hundredth time, he strained into the space where the pair bond sometimes was, but he was met with nothing but silence.
Beserkir laughed and Keeran’s lip curled as the sound scraped down his spine.
“Maybe you do, but from what I saw earlier, I suspect she doesn’t.
Am I right?” Beserkir opened his hands expectantly, before grinning at whatever truth he read in Keeran’s expression.
“I thought as much. The trouble I have now is that my friends in the North, the ones who are so very grateful for our two-legged contributions, would pay more than you could possibly comprehend to get their hands on her.
“Now, catching you is still a win. You are the lesser prize, admittedly, but you did still murder my men, and that can’t go unpunished.
Usually, such a crime would warrant a public execution, which our prisoners usually end up begging for after a little time with some of our more creative prison guards, but today I am feeling unusually magnanimous.
I will offer you your freedom, right here, right now.
All you need to do is tell me where the girl is. ”
The beast inside him crouched low, seething quietly with a predator’s patience, a spring coiled and ready for the moment it was safe to pounce.
A slow smile revealed the sharp points of Keeran’s canines as he relinquished a little control, letting a hint of the beast show.
The Dog beside Beserkir whined softly and backed up a step, leaving its master to face the brunt of Keeran’s focus.
“If you touch her, I’ll finish what she started and crush every bone in your body. One at a time.” The calm in his voice was laced with violence, every word spoken by that darkest part of him.
“Oh, I plan to do far more than touch her. Revenge is a dish best served in many courses, and I have had plenty of time to plan all the ways I’ll make her suffer.
” A little colour had drained from Beserkir’s face as Keeran had spoken, but otherwise his cockiness remained unscathed.
He waved at someone behind Keeran, and he heard the door open once more. Three more Guard Dogs entered the room.
“Her scent has already been found in the Outer City, and I have no doubt that my most experienced…”
Beserkir was cut off as one of the Dogs, one with grey around its muzzle, Shifted the moment it reached his side.
“Sir.” The guard jerked his head, requesting a private audience. Beserkir leant closer to hear the whispered message, clearly unimpressed at the interruption. Keeran strained to hear, every sinew in him ready to react at the slightest provocation.
Beserkir was still for a few long moments after the guard pulled back, his face tilted away from Keeran, but when he turned, that smile was back in place.
“Well, get out and see to that at once. Now.” Beserkir shooed the four Guard Dogs out with bored impatience. Only when the door swung shut behind them did he allow his eyes to settle back onto Keeran. He sighed, a slow, exaggerated thing.
“It appears I won’t be making it to my function after all.
” He turned and bowled his way to a cabinet on the far side of the room.
Crouching low, he rummaged in its depths before standing once more, whatever he was doing concealed by his broad back.
“I think I will risk having a drink with you. Perhaps it’ll soften that temper of yours. ”
“You know as well as I do I won’t be drinking that.” Keeran raised an eyebrow at Beserkir as he crossed the room with a crystal glass in each hand.
“Oh, my friend, what would be the sense in poisoning you? You have information I need.” Beserkir didn’t hesitate as he came within arm’s reach of Keeran, a glass held out for him to take. Keeran didn’t so much as glance at it.
Beserkir stared at him expectantly, so close that he could see a droplet of blood at the edge of one of the deeper cuts on Beserkir’s forehead, so close that Keeran only just had time to block the glass that came flying at his head.
The guards were on him a fraction of a second later, pinning him as Beserkir’s sleeve covered his mouth.
Keeran roared and flung himself backwards, loosening the guard's grip enough for him to send his chained fists up into Beserkir’s abdomen.
The Elder grunted but held his ground, keeping his sleeve firmly pressed over Keeran’s mouth.
The room started to spin, colours leaking where they shouldn’t as lines blurred in and out of focus.
“Besides, I don’t need you to drink anything for me to drug you,” Beserkir managed to say as Keeran flung one last blow his way. He couldn’t tell if it made contact, he couldn’t tell if his arms even moved. He fought whatever drug was coursing through his system, fought it with everything he had.
He was unconscious before he even hit the floor.