Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 9

Hi!

Another weekend (almost) over. I hope you had a great one! The motto of this chapter is clearly: trouble behind, trouble ahead.  :-)

I hope you like it. Let me know!

Lara

_____________________________________________________

Chapter 9

The apartment was quiet and felt alien to me. Naked walls and simple furniture. No familiarity. Nothing I could call 'home.'

Brown made me move into one of the apartments the Circle kept for out-of-town visitors - members of the Force and experts that were called in from somewhere else. Not something I agreed to readily. It was hard enough to convince my boss that it wasn't necessary to put me through the whole witness-protection-thing after what happened with the rogue witches, I couldn't flat out say no to that one.

Maybe I should have stood my ground and declined. It was in times like these that the loneliness set in. These were the moments in which I longed for my apartment - sitting down for a coffee with Laura, chatting, or maybe even having a small fight with Ryan. Not that they would have been in the apartment. Luckily, they were out of town. Somehow their parents got wind of what Ryan did, and the siblings had been summoned to their hometown. They were still staying with their pack and pretty much occupied with calming the waves.

It was only a matter of time until that was going to change. Occupied as they were, they were still demanding answers, answers I couldn't give. The day would come when I wouldn't be able to stop them from finding out what really happened. I knew that, and it scared the hell out of me.

I shook my head and went back to staring at the screen in front of me. I'd checked my mails first thing I woke up. The information I e-mailed to myself the night before was there, and the amount of data was stunning. Either the half-witches didn't know how much they handed over, or we had been played and all they gave us was down-to-earth-nonsense mixed with a few breadcrumbs of what looked like valuable information.

I frowned. I didn't see them manipulating the information in such a short time. Whatever they handed over, as far as I could see it was real.

Even though Chris Hayes quit working for the Circle a few years ago, the half-witches claimed that she still had contacts in the Forces. So far, I hadn't seen any proof of that. I went through e-mail conversations she had with important members of the human world - businessmen and big names among the rich and powerful. The more conversations I followed, the more I got the feeling she had been canvassing. The whole thing looked like one huge call for donations and support to me - all under the pretext of making society safer, from vamps mind you.

It wasn't until I opened documentation about Chris' finances and belongings that I got a greater insight into just what Hayes had been doing. It looked like in truth the Bloody Warden was far from being the only business venture Chris owned. Oh, and she had been careful, using aliases so that her name wouldn't be traceable. There were almost a dozen bars or restaurants the ex-Circle member secretly owned, or at least held a part-ownership in. And a majority of them were frequented by shape shifters.

I closed the lid of my laptop and stared out the window for a long moment. I had no idea what this all meant. I needed to take a look at the rest of the information, and for that I needed more time. I checked my watch. Time I didn't have.

I swore under my breath and headed out of my room. Sadly the half-witches weren't my only problem. There were other things that needed investigating.