Chapter Eleven: A Leak or Two

~ Marie ~

She didn’t want to admit it but Adrian was right. This was taking too long. There was just too much she still didn’t know. If only she could get in touch with Bel Meade. Their Master had been killed so she assumed they would have tried to talk to her again but nothing. Staying quiet for this long was a bad sign. It meant they were probably getting ready to do something big. At this point, it might be worth it to use Mark as bait but with what happened yesterday, there was no chance of Adrian agreeing to that. But it was also another reason she needed something drastic.

No, what she needed was something she could use to bargain with him. She did have the information she got from Connor. Marie shook her head and went back to pouring herself coffee. That wasn’t enough. It was better to go back and find another script then spend time thinking about this.

She put another book on the pile of books she’d already read. Marie reached across the table for another book when it slipped from her hand and fell...right into her other pile knocking it over. A sigh escaped her lips as she knelt down. She stared at each of the books to make sure she was putting the right books to the side. This room really needed to be clean. Right after she was done with this case, she should really try to straighten this room out. It was starting to look like her mentor’s study. She looked around. The last book was opened, faced down, making a little tent. She hooked her finger in the opening and flipped it over.

Marie froze as the book closed on her finger. She quickly opened it up and scanned the page before standing up. She slammed the book on the table and searched through the papers. Her mind didn’t even register the fact that she toppled the pile over again in her haste to get to the table. Where was it? The paper had to be here somewhere. Marie shuffled more papers around, dropping several of them but she was too focused on her task. Here! She pulled the sheet out and placed it on the book to compare. Yes! This was it! Her excitement faded just as quickly as it had risen. She sat heavily in the chair and sighed again. The character was a modifier.

Based on the position of the script in the circle, its purpose would have been to adjust the script for powerless. Making it utterly useless. The summoner was a fool. They probably thought they could limit the amount of power the demon had so that he would only use the minimum to grant their wish, whatever it was, but what person in their right mind would believe a demon would go along with something like that. Any demon would take one look at the script and twist the truth so much that they would get their full power back. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought the summoner was dead. Or worse. But that clearly didn’t happen. More things to puzzle over.

Now there were only two script left to decipher. She studied the script she’d just found. Another sigh worked its way out of her mouth as she stared at it. They clearly went to a lot of trouble to summon this demon. The only question was why? Why would a vampire summon a demon? A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought. Marie went to the front door but didn’t see anyone. It was too early for the vampires. There was no one in the immediate vicinity, according to the protections on the house. She opened the door and peeked around the corner. A white envelope was taped to the front door. Marie pulled it off and went back inside. She leaned against the door and read the whole thing before putting the letter back in the envelope. This only reinforced some ideas she had. Adrian would not like this.

Marie spent the rest of her time reading. There was no sense wasting her time just waiting for him. Time passed by as she went through another two books. When she felt a presence at her back door, she stopped what she was doing to go check. Marie opened the door to find Adrian standing there.

"We need to talk." His eyebrows shot up in surprise but otherwise his face was neutral. She led him to the study and sat down. He took the chair opposite her.

"What is it?" She handed him the letter in response and waited while he read it. "Where did this come from?"

"It was taped to my front door."

"And you believe it?"

"That you now control the blood supply? Or that you killed another Master and you're using Mark as a scapegoat?" The letter detailed how Adrian made a deal with most of the hospitals within the city to buy their blood. Anyone who wanted blood packs would either need to go outside the city, find the few hospitals that were not connected to him or purchase from Adrian. At the end, the writer stated that they believed that Adrian killed the Master of Bel Meade because they were competing for the remaining hospitals.

"I would never use Mark as a scapegoat." He crushed the note in his hand.

"And the rest?" He went back to being expressionless as he studied her.

"You believe I killed Noah?"

"Not that part. I'm talking about the blood supply. Is that part true?"

"Yes. The contracts were signed a little more than a week ago." Could this really have been the reason a demon was summoned? A vampire’s use of blood packs was mostly done for secrecy. Having an alternate source of food was good when they were unable to find fresher sources but it wasn't their only source of food. It shouldn't affect someone so much that they would rather talk to a demon.

“Someone is leaking information.” Adrian remained quiet. “Someone had enough information on the two clans to put this together. This was planned ahead of time to get the two of you fighting.”

“Are you saying someone betrayed me?” Adrian glared as he stood up and leaned against the table. "That someone in my clan is a traitor?" His posture was stiff as he straightened up and crossed his arms.

“If Mark was a part of any other clan and this came up, what would have happened?”

“What does that have to do with this?” Adrian frowned at her but she waited. He finally sighed before answering. “Any other clan would have paid a small amount of compensation to Bel Meade. All they would have to do is abandon Mark and claim to have no knowledge of his actions. Bel Meade would hand out their form of justice and that would be the end of it.” He walked away from her as he spoke.

“Yet you didn’t do any of that.”

“No, I didn’t. You’re saying that this ‘someone’ knew I wouldn’t do that and is taking advantage.” He leaned against the bookshelf. “And what about you?”

“Me?”

“Not only did you meet with someone at the apartment, without me, but you also met someone after the apartment collapsed.” Tsk. She hadn’t been imagining it then. Someone was spying on her. But since he didn’t know that both times were Connor that meant he didn’t know everything she’d been doing. Hmm.

“Our agreement was for information regarding the circle and the circle only."

“This wasn’t the only reason you wanted to talk to me, was it?” His eyes narrowed as he spoke. “What else did you want to talk to me about?” She hadn’t planned on talking about it yet but the chances of him agreeing were the same no matter how long she waited.

“Do you have a way to contact Bel Meade?” Given their history, it was unlikely but she needed to ask.

“No.”

“Then I need to find a way to make them come to me.” He stared at her for a moment before he straightened up and uncrossed his arms. His fists were clenched at his sides as he glared at her.

“No.”

“This needs to be resolved before Bel Meade starts something.”

“So you’re willing to use him as bait in order to protect the humans? And after you just promised to protect him?”

“I’m using him as bait in order to finish this investigation faster, not to sacrifice him. And I'm not sending him out there without any precautions. I would put a barrier on him and follow after him to make sure he stayed safe. I assumed you would follow him as well.” His fists unclenched as some of the tension left his body.

“Who did you meet with?”

“Is this your condition?”

“This isn’t the only one. I have two others.” Tsk. She knew he wouldn’t just agree.

“Fine and the other two?”

“I want you to answer this question first.” A smirk curled his lips. She didn’t think she would like whatever he was thinking about. “Before you answer, I want you to use your truth spell first.” Tsk. She never should have told him about that. Marie held her hand out and sent magic through the spell. A small golden flame flickered on her palm. He gestured for her to go ahead.

“He’s a specialist that I contacted to come and check out the building to see if he could give me anything regarding the circle. He also purified the room before it collapsed.” Adrian kept his eyes on the flame as she answered. She didn’t need to look to see that the flame was turning blue.

“What’s his name?”

“I’m not going to tell you his personal information.” They stared at each other. This was one thing she was not going to budge on. She was not going to pull Connor into this any deeper than he already was. Adrian frowned but continued asking his questions.

“Did he find anything?”

“No. He only managed to confirm what I already knew. That a demon touched our side but didn’t cross over.”

“What does that mean?”

“When a demon is summoned, they need enough death and energy in order to manifest on our side. Without that, they can’t come through. So it’s possible the demon only manifested a small part of themselves but not their whole body. Something like their voice. Or maybe the demon just used its power without showing themselves at all.”

“And after the building collapsed?”

“It was the same person. He came to see what happened but we didn’t find anything beyond a few faint traces of magic.” She wanted to cross her arms but if she did, it would make it harder to see the flame so she didn’t. “What are the other two conditions?”

“One is to be a part of this investigation. Completely. I want to know everything you know. And the other…” He smiled, showing teeth. She didn’t think anything could be worse than being forced to work with Adrian but apparently she was wrong.