The Secrets of Lore Seymour

33. No Better Options

"Don't you feel bad leaving your child there all alone for days on end?" I ask, causing Lore to chuckle.

"You saw the art room, then?" He hums, waving his hand dismissively. "Draven is nearly a century old. I think he is quite alright on his own."

Ah, I had no idea, although a century is nothing in the face of a vampire's longevity. Gold eyed vampires, the strongest of them, can live between four to five thousand years. Draven has orange eyes so he's more likely to hit the three thousand age range. Lore... I'm not so sure. Dhampir are all over the place based on their own power. They usually outlive our strongest seraphics, but sometimes pass on before their vampire counterparts.

"As I was saying, Draven has sent me an update concerning what he has seen thus far. While there were a few visitors at Ikehn's estate, Draven considers his movements to be far more suspicious," Lore explains. "Most of the visitors and those he conversed with outside of the office are not clients of the law firm, but instead those of high society."

"In other words, big money?" I ask around a scowl. It's always the rich and powerful, likely royals or branches off from the aristocracy.

"Very big, although we can assume they may want to hire Ikehn to get them out of whatever mess they are definitely in, but Draven noticed Ikehn completely disappearing without a trace."

"So he lost him?"

"Not exactly." Lore smirks and that's enough to give me an answer.

"This is more proof that Ikehn is a mage, managing to disappear somewhere he shouldn't."

"Yes, and he's clearly not registered with the church, so also another illegal activity."

More often than not, it is the unregistered mages who cause trouble. Any who possess divinity are meant to report to the church immediately, if they aren't found by surveyors in the meantime. Being registered means they can be kept an eye on to ensure no one uses their divinity to commit heinous acts. Ikehn could have had a late awakening or a minor enough one that no one noticed.

"Did Draven say if there were any particular times or places Ikehn would disappear?" I ask.

"Mostly in the evenings and to a particular club that caught his attention. Apparently, Ikehn visited frequently alongside his suspicious pals. If something is going on, it's likely happening there."

Couldn't agree more, especially after one of our suspects spoke of the dhampir brothel. A club is another common and easily workable ruse for other establishments, especially one of high class. They have the money to hire their own security, to work around any officers sniffing around. They could offer other services too, which Lore has no doubt considered.

"I'd like for us to take a look at this place ourselves, but we can't risk anyone discovering we're searching for Mr. Marshalls' killer since they may be among them," I say, looking at Lore for what he has to say. Out of the two of us, he does have more experience, particularly in this. The crimes I've worked on consisted of vampires and dhampir killing or harming mortals, not hidden drug rings or the abuse of money and power.

"Agreed. We can't risk parading his picture around the club, hoping one of them will admit to the crime. The last thing we want is for anyone there to suspect an investigation. Ikehn will likely hear of it and be scared off, regardless of whether he's the culprit we're searching for. He's clearly at least up to something."

"Right, but now the question is how we go about infiltrating without causing any trouble," I hum more to myself than Lore.

Lore claps his hands excitedly to announce; "I propose we go undercover!"