Crimson Flame ~ Book 1 - The Royal Blood Collection

Chapter 19

"Where are we going?"

"To our bedroom."

"We're not staying in the guest room anymore? I thought that you wanted to have complete ownership first."

"We are, for a little while longer. I just wanted to show it to you. As for having complete ownership, it was only because I didn't want to get attached to anything or find something and become sentimental. This room used to belong to my parents."

We walked up the large staircase, it was grand but it was a little run down. Hendrick had let this place go, it worried me that it would fall down and we wouldn't have any money to repair this place.

"How much is in the budget to repair this place?"

"Not a lot. We will have to go room by room and figure out what is important and what can wait. I haven't been in any of them yet, Hendrick stated that I was not permitted until my claim had been accepted."

We'd reached the end of the wide corridor, passing several closed doors on our path here. Pulling a key from his pocket, Alaric unlocked and opened the door. He turned to me with a wide smile and then leaned down. I yelped when he lifted me into his arms, my legs draped over one arm. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I frowned hard.

"Warning would be nice."

"There's no fun in that."

Stepping forward, Alaric turned and used his back to push open the doors. As he turned, I saw the smile drop from his face. The room was vast, decorated with a rich green brocade wallpaper and that's it. This large room was empty.

"Is it meant to be empty?"

"No."

Carefully Alaric put my feet on the ground and looked around. Alaric looked around, disheartened. Hearing footsteps, I turned and saw Silas and Nisha walking toward us, Ilsen a few steps behind.

"All the doors are locked." Silas grumped. "But I would imagine that they are exactly the same."

"It is, I'm afraid."

Everyone turned to Ilsen, he offered a sheepish smile.

"All unnecessary objects were removed as ordered by Hendrick. They were sold and the money," He shrugged uneasily.

"Where did Hendrick rest of a day?"

"A room on the first level. I have not been in it as yet but I can show it to you if you like."

"Very much so," Alaric grumped.

We followed Ilsen down the stairs and through the corridors. Next to the office where Ilsen had been creating many fake documents to get Alaric through tonight, there was a room.

"This is it. Did anyone search Hendrick's body before he was dumped?"

"I did," Silas said. "You'd be looking for keys. I kept them for my search tomorrow."

Silas held up the large ring with a lot of keys on it, Ilsen took it and searched through them.

"The one with the star scratched into it." He said, showing it to us. "It's the only one that is noticeably different from the others."

Turning, he unlocked the door and pushed it open, handing the keys back to Silas. Alaric stepped in, followed by Nisha and Silas. I walked in after them, standing at the threshold. Ilsen was beside me, glancing briefly, showing his own distaste.

The room was simple. One window, completely covered. Coffin to the side and desk and computer on the other side. Ilsen walked into the room, sitting down and turned on the computer. While the computer started up, Alaric opened the only drawer in the desk and looked in it. He pulled out a little black notebook, flicking through the pages.