The Silver Dagger

The Barn

He'd never been sick, and certainly not old, but he felt as weak as a centenarian with the flu trying to keep up with everyone else as they walked toward the old barn nearest the house Saturday morning. 

Aiyana turned and caught him trying to catch his breath. "Are you sure you want to come Cliff? I promise I'll tell you what happens."

"I'm fine. Go ahead. I'll catch up." Talking cost him even more air. Stupid silver. His immune system was still going haywire.

She dropped back beside him. "There's no rush. The prisoners aren't going anywhere."

Easy for her to say. She wasn't the person making two alphas and a luna crawl across the yard like snails. Nate, of course, took her hand. The wolf inside his head growled. Nate seemed like a nice guy, but there was something about him he didn't like, probably because Aiyana liked him.

Inside the barn, dust danced in the rays of sunlight coming through cracks in the boards and turned the bits of straw scattered across the floor into thick strands of gold. Alpha Miguel led them across the scarred wooden floor to a set of steps in the back corner.

"My grandfather used to raise pigs in the lower part of the barn," he said as he led them down the narrow steps. "My mother didn't like the smell, so now we just use it for storage, and ... other things."

The barn** had been built on a hill to allow the pigs to exit out the back to a lower field. Where the pig pens had once been was filled with different bits and pieces of farming and gardening equipment including two riding lawn mowers and a rototiller. Behind the pens toward the upper part of the hill was a rough stone wall that looked like part of the foundation although it was probably under the middle of the main floor of the barn above. To the far left, the first three feet of the wall was made of wooden slats, but it didn't look like it would move. Alpha Miguel walked over to the wooden section and pulled the part along the wall toward him, revealing it was actually a door. 

"This way."

The door led to a narrow space behind the foundation wall formed by the wall they'd just passed through on the right and what looked like an older foundation wall on the left. Except for a metal panel about half-way along the hallway wall, it was all stone. Alpha Miguel took off his sandal and stuck his foot into a hole on one side of the metal panel. The panel slid open revealing a large room with six metal cages.

"A lever?" Alpha Wayne asked.

"Foot scanner," Alpha Miguel grinned.

"Alpha," one of the two guards inside said.

"Mark. Anything to report?"

"No sir."

"Good. Cliff, why don't you take a seat. Aiyana, ask your questions."

Cliff dropped into one of the folding chairs next to an old, square card table in the middle of the room. It was still warm from whichever guard had been sitting in it when the door opened but he wasn't about to get back up. He wasn't sure he could. Aiyana headed for the center cage where a youngish man with a dark head of hair stood glaring. As soon as she stepped close though, the man's head lowered, although it didn't look like he wanted it to.

"Hi Colum. I'm Aiyana."

"Ah ken who ye are."

"Your father wants my letter opener back, but I would like to understand how it came into my possession before I give it to him. Can you tell me more about it?"

"Yer faither stole it."

"Why though? My dad was not a thief. He was an archaeologist."

"He was a thief."