~~
Reece
~~
We left the clearing as a group. Trinity was walking with Talia and Alexio. I was sort of in a bad mood at the moment. Alexio had deliberately ignored Trinity. He had let Talia come into the woods and follow after us.
Then again, Trinity was not actually his queen. Still, he had worked for us for eleven years now. He had been a model employee and an exemplary guard. I don't know what came over him to make him start acting differently. Well, I guess it could have been Talia. Maybe she had more clout with him than my Little Bunny did.
No matter what the issue was that caused Alexio to disobey Trinity's orders, he needed to be reprimanded about it. I needed to make sure that this didn't happen again. We couldn't risk having Alexio with us to protect Talia, if he wasn't going to actually do as he was told.
As I was thinking about this, and about what I might say to the man, we walked back to the Alpha's home. There was a little more work to be done here, but my Little Bunny and I were leaving a lot of that up to the others. Shawn, Shane, David, Vincent, and Gabriel were able to investigate for us. And Dietrich, after he talked with Trinity, would be able to assist them.
.....
Sometimes, like right now, it paid to be in charge. Delegating things in situations when there was way too much work for one person was a very good option to have. And likewise, having multiple people to dictate too was even better.
The guards were interviewing everyone here, getting all the information that we needed. There was no body to see, and the crime scene yielded nothing new. All in all, that work wouldn't take too long. We would be out of here before too much longer.
When we got back to the house, I called Alexio over to have a talk with him. Trinity seemed to be doing the same with Talia. I had a feeling this was going to be when she reprimanded her for her actions like I was about to do with Alexio.
“Hey, Alexio, come talk to me for a moment.” My voice was calm, but I knew that my expression was firm and annoyed. That didn't seem to faze the demon at all though. He just walked over like it was nothing at all.
“Yes, King Reece?” He still addressed me properly, so that was a plus. He hadn't just suddenly abandoned all of the respect that he had for us.
“What happened earlier? Trinity told you to keep Talia out of the woods.” I got right to the point. No reason to beat around the bush.
“Hahh.” He sighed and looked at the floor. Sometimes, I found it annoying to talk to this man. He was like a foot taller than me. Dammit! I was the king. I was the Alpha. He should not be that much bigger than me. It was such bullshit that it pissed me off. “Alright. I know that. I know what Queen Trinity said. And I reminded Talia of that as well. But, well, Talia is going to be my queen. She will be the goddess of the underworld. And that actually outranks Queen Trinity, to me anyway. I am not a wolf. And that means that when the time comes, I need to follow the leader of my people, of my world.” I had a feeling it was something like that.
“Did Talia tell you that?” I glared at him. “Did she remind you of her future position and rank to make you listen to her?” The anger was bubbling inside of me. I just didn't know if it was at this man or at my daughter.
“Yes. She did.” He was looking right at me, and I could see that he knew what was going on. He messed up. He shouldn't have done that.
“You played right into her hands, Alexio. You let her manipulate you. Yeah, OK, she will be your queen. But she isn't right now. She is just a fifteen year old girl that is training to be a goddess and queen. She won't rule your people for a long time. And because she wanted to disobey her parents, she manipulated you.” I had to beat this into his head.
“I know.” Wow, he wasn't going to deny it.
“If things like this are going to keep happening, Alexio, then I can't trust you to guard my daughter anymore. You need to stay strong. You need to be tough and firm with her. It's for her own good. She doesn't yet know what is and isn't safe for her. She needs you to help her there.” I swear the man paled instantly. And that was saying something. The man was already pale to begin with.
“I swear to you. I will keep her safe. I will not let her persuade me like this again. I will make sure that she stays away from things that she needs to be kept away from. However-.” He was on a roll there for a moment, before he added that last word. That was when I interrupted him.
“However?” I spat the word back at him. “What could you possibly have to bargain with here?”
“I would like you and Queen Trinity to think about Talia here. She is training to take over the underworld. That means that she is going to see the worst that the world has to offer. She will know death. She will know pain. She will know suffering. And I personally do not think that you are doing her any favors by hiding it all with her. Yes. I know. When I learned about the things that she had heard from the souls she freed, I was horrified. Like you, King Reece, my first thought was to protect her. But I was wrong.”
“Wrong?” My tone was questioning. That one word of mine was asking him to explain further. I needed to hear it from him.
“It is best if she sees it now. To learn it now with others around to comfort her and help her. I thought this when Lucifer told her about the pain that the others felt. She was hurt, but her mother was there to comfort her. Trinity will not be there in the underworld with her. Her mother will not hold her hand when she is a goddess. She needs to be prepared now or she will suffer more later.”
I had to admit that he had a point. I hadn't thought about it before, but protecting Talia for as long as we could, would only end up hurting her in the long run. It would make her start in the underworld that much more painful.
At that moment, from across the large room that we were in, I heard raised voices. It was my Little Bunny snapping at Talia.
“I do not care! I told you to stay put. Being curious is not a good enough excuse.”
“Will you tell Queen Trinity what I said?” Alexio wasn't looking at me, he was watching the scene across the room. He was waiting for the moment that Talia would storm away in anger and frustration. He knew her well enough to know that it would happen. And sure enough, right after he asked that, Talia stomped toward the door. Both Alexio and Rudy followed after her. They were very attentive guards.
“Yeah. I will tell her.” He was walking away already, but I knew that he heard me.
I was about to walk over to Trinity. I was about to tell my Little Bunny what it was that Alexio had said. And that I agreed with him. However, I was stopped even before I took the first step. My phone began to ring, and the sound was loud in the now silent room.
“What do you have for me, Rawlynne?” I answered in a slightly curt manner. I had seen the caller ID and I knew that this was not going to be good news.
“Four more.” That was all she said. Nothing else. And that was fine, because I knew exactly what she meant.
“Where are they?” I asked her, my heart already aching.
“Scotland, a village called Carrush. Ireland, a village called Hunter's Cross. In England, a village in the southern part of Surrey called Wolfhamm. And finally, in Australia, on the outskirts of Sydney.”
“All were villages except for the last one. I know that they have been known to hit larger cities before, but it is more rare. I believe that they like to stay away from people as much as possible. Why risk the big city like that?” I was talking more to myself than to Rawlynne, but she still felt compelled to answer me.
“I think that they are getting more and more bold. The longer that we go without finding them, the more they will attack and the more people that will be killed. They may move up their kill schedules or they may kill more at a time. The more populated areas will give them more targets to choose from.”
“Yeah. And that is something that we simply cannot allow. Dammit. Now I need to decide which location we are going to next. I want to visit them all as soon as possible. We need to contact them all as well. Take care of that for me. Tell them to not cremate the bodies. They are to wait for us. The souls are still in the bodies and they are tortured during the cremation. Stop more people from being hurt, Rawlynne. Call all the people that you have to and tell them to wait for us.”
“Y..yes. I will.” I could tell that she was feeling a little upset about what she heard, but she would take care of it without any issues.
“I need to go now. I have to talk to Trinity and figure things out.”
“Yes, I understand. I will call the others immediately. Let me know when you have something.” She hung up then, heading off to do the work that I gave her. Trinity and I would definitely need to hold a meeting soon. We needed to tell the others back home what was going on. And not to mention, we needed to tell the rest of the guards about what was going on. Not all of them even knew about the words that were left at the scenes.
Hahh. There had been so much that had happened so far. So much in such a short amount of time. I just wish that we would catch these guys soon. To save more people from dying.
