The Blood Moon

Impatience

"Could Ryan have compelled anyone else to murder his father?" I asked, looking at the three powerful beings surrounding me. "We are assuming that Ryan is at least the instigator of his father's death, right?"

"Yes," answered everyone in unison. Then, Armand took it upon himself to elaborate.

"I know that Ryan and Heather were working together to frame you for his father's murder. As usual, he acted hastily. He saw an opportunity and he went for it, which means his intent to push this on you was full of holes."

"Like motive for example," said Hen. "What were they hoping to do? Claim she was upset about the ritual?"

"Heather stated," answered Kyra, "that Alpha Zachary felt pity for Ms. Cross and because he believed that Ms. Cross would be the bonded mate of Whisper Valley's alpha..."

"Excuse me?" I interjected as my heart leapt into my throat. "What do you mean by that?"

"I believe Everett already covered his attachment to you earlier," stated the vampire, "I don't see the point and going over that again."

She then turned back to look at Hen as if I hadn't just learned the full extent of Everett's earlier confession.

"Ryan and Heather claimed that Alpha Zachary wished to ensure strong political ties between the packs, so he decided to speak with Ms. Cross to explain the situation and see to it that she bore no ill will towards his daughter and future grandchild. It wouldn't be the first time a bonded mate lashed out at a political pairing. It isn't that much of a stretch to think that Alpha Zachary might want to arrange a private meeting with Ms. Cross."

"And they banked on me somehow stumbling across the ritual?" I asked, my voice shrill due to my exhaustion, frustration, and volatile emotions towards a certain werewolf. "They just crossed their fingers and hoped that I'd have this chance encounter so I would then have a reason to meet with the Alpha? This is absurd."

"It is," answered Armand like this was a rather mundane occurrence. "Like I said, Ryan is an impatient, egotistical hot head. Someone offered him knowledge and access to you, and he did everything he could to make sure you found your way to the ritual. Which was made easier since his contact also informed him that Lord Antonov shared his desire to get you to the ritual."

"What?" I asked as a migraine threatened to tear open my head.

"What to which part?" asked Armand with a cock of his head.

"Well," said Hen, the word drawn out with hesitation, "if you're wondering why Dragan would want to do that, I can answer your question and I haven't done any real investigating in this other than walking through your memories. Dragan was clearly looking to shift the scales so Rett would fall out of favor with you and would be more likely to come crawling to him."

I heaved a sigh before responding. "Yeah, that seems on brand with him."

"As for how Ryan attempted to increase the chances of you finding the ritual," continued Armand, "he, and myself for that matter, overheard Dean's conversation with Garrett about wanting to know where the location of the ritual would be. Ryan followed up with Dean shortly after that to tell him the details and then, just to make sure he dotted his i's and crossed his t's, he staged that little confrontation you had after work. It also bought him some credibility on how he was looking out for you and totally didn't want you to die or anything."

As silence permeated the stale air of the station, I chewed on all that had been presented before me. I placed pieces of the puzzle together and found that they were starting to fit in place. However, a large chunk of the picture was still missing and part of it had to do with how Armand's claims didn't all add up.

"How can you say all this with such certainty?" I asked, my voice low and tired. "I get that you take lots of notes, but you act as if Ryan and Heather just spilled out everything in front of you."

"Yeah, no, Ryan definitely didn't," he said with a light chuckle. "I had to work quickly when he arrived to meet Heather. It wouldn't take long for him to notice something was off. No, once I got the silver net on him, I only had enough time to inject liquid silver directly in his blood stream before he'd free himself and then tear my esophagus out."

He shivered while I wondered if the few bites of lunch I had would manage to stay inside my knotted stomach.

"No, there was no hope in asking Ryan directly. However, Heather was an open book since I had her under my spell. Unfortunately, Ryan kept her out of the loop when it came to his contact in Whisper Valley."

"Wait, you cursed her too?" groaned Hen.

"It's what I do," replied the bounty hunter with a shrug.

"And where is Heather now?" I asked. "Did you kill her?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "Despite her crimes, her punishment is for the pack to decide. I came here to fulfill a contract on Ryan Thorn's life and I did that. As for Heather, I left her chainned with silver to a tree. Then, I came here to ask for sanctuary."

"After he told me everything," continued Kyra, "I sent Lucinda to inform Everett. At this point, Heather is likely in the care of Claire and Garrett. Whenever the next eldest of Alpha Zachary's offspring arrives, he or she will take ownership of the pack and will decide Heather's fate."

"So, where does that leave me?" I asked, recalling how not too long ago I was the one up on the chopping block for Alpha Zachary's death.

"You're free of all charges," answered the vampire with no fanfare in her proclamation.

"So, I can go home?" I asked.

"Not until we remove that curse," answered Hen with an agitated growl.

"You know," said Armand, "I can lift that now, no need to go walking through her memories at this point."

"Not a chance," she replied. "You may very well be telling the truth in all this, but that doesn't change the fact that you have spent the last couple of weeks lying to the entire town instead of just coming to our Archmage for help."

"Yeah," said the bounty hunter with a snort of laughter, "I wasn't about to rely on an old codger that can't accept the fate of his clan."

I looked to Hen, and though her eyes narrowed with disdain, she didn't rise up in defense of her father.

"Del," she said, her gaze hard and sharp upon Armand, "if you're ready, I'd like to return to our steps to remove the curse. I'll believe him when I see it with my own eyes."

I looked from her to the bounty hunter, who sat with casual calm on the bench in his jail cell.

"Okay," I replied. "Let's finish this."

***

Armand offers several pieces to help complete the puzzle around the night of the Blood Moon, but there are still some missing pieces.  Who was the one that suggested Ryan use Del as a scapegoat?  And if Armand, Ryan, and Heather, weren't Zachary's murderer, then who was?

This is a short chapter, but if feels longer because it's such an info dump...  I'm not a fan of doing that, but I felt it was important to kind of remind everyone of some of the facts around the murder that were stated earlier in the book.  This, however, should be the last exposition heavy chapter.  The next chapter will finish Del's memories, after that it will be a race to the finish line.  I can't say for certain, but if I were to guess, I think there are about 5 chapters left...