It didn’t take me long and fortunately, both Scott and Yuri were there, watching TV in the living room. They looked up in surprise as I ran in.

“Where have you been all morning?” Yuri asked, munching on some chocolate bar.

“I have an idea!” I said a bit breathlessly. “Let’s go back to the mines,” I said, earning myself some raised eyebrows. “I mean Baltazar never allowed the pack to go see them after the attack and gods know if he even inspected them himself. Maybe there’s some evidence.”

“I guess that makes sense. But the last time we sneaked into the vampire territory it didn’t end well,” Yuri pointed out.

“I’m quite aware,” I said with a grimace. “But we have no other leads.”

“We’ll shift and just beeline for it,” Scott suggested. “We know where it is and there should hopefully be no more mercenaries.”

“What if the vampires are guarding it?” Yuri asked.

That was a problem… “Well if they do it means there is something in there, we take them down, we get it. We’re not Ghealach pack, so it won’t start a war, we’ll just be number one undesired in Silver Springs,” I said.

“Aren’t we already?” Yuri scoffed. Yeah, probably. We grabbed some daggers and then drove to the edge of the vampire territory. Once again we went while it was day, so there was a slightly lower possibility of running into someone. Yuri and Scott then shifted in the car while I grabbed our daggers. I gave a silent prayer that we wouldn’t meet any vampires.

“Ready?” I asked once the two wolves, one gray and one brown jumped out of the car. They wagged their tails at me and nuzzled my legs, then they sneezed as an answer. I petted them, then locked the car.

I once again led my pack into the dangers of the vampire forest. This time I would protect them better. I swore that to myself. We didn’t drag our feet this time. We practically sprinted through the territory. There was no point in stealth. Vampires were much better at that than us. They would eventually find out we were here thanks to our tracks, but hopefully, we would be long gone by then.

For once we didn’t get attacked. It seemed the gods had taken pity on me. The mine entrance came into view. No guards, at least on the outside. The lock was still broken so we simply jumped the pathetic fence around it and I carefully pushed the door open.

We stayed low to the ground as we walked into the darkness. It didn’t smell of wolfsbane anymore, it did smell of ammonia and sulfur though. The scent of cadracs. It was faint though, nothing recent. It didn’t seem anyone was here recently…

“So Baltazar didn’t even investigate here?” I whispered quietly, still, it carried through the dark tunnel. Both Scott and Yuri put their noses low to the ground, then growled. They smelled no one either. “That’s even more suspicious… I mean if I was suspected of something like this it would be the logical thing to come back and see if anything was left here right?”

We carefully pushed onward, peeking behind every corner expecting to see a vampire. There was no one here…

Finally, we arrived at the bigger dark room where I was kept when the witch got me. There were still the remains of the spell circle that kept me in place. There was also a table with many withered plants. Yuri sniffed the spell circle and growled running his claws through it.

“It’s already broken,” I assured him, petting him between the ears. I turned to the table and looked around it. Some rusty knives, bowls, a mortar and pestle. There were remnants of a smaller spell circle on the table also. But nothing that could be counted as a lead. Damn it… This was a total waste of time then. “Damn it.” I hit the table, feeling more frustrated than before.

Scott gave a bark, calling me over to him. Feeling hopeful I followed him to the other side of the room where he stared at something on the ground. I crouched next to him and saw that there was a little piece of paper. It sat in a little pile of ash and it was blackened and yellowed. I felt my heart speed up as I carefully took the paper in my hands. There was something written there.

“...sure he will take the bait. D.,” I read out loud. Well, that could mean almost anything. Yuri gave a whine but I shook my head when he prepared to shift. “We’ll talk back home.”

We combed through the rest of the room but found nothing else. Eventually, we had to give up and get back up. We walked back in a berth to avoid our own tracks in case someone found them and was following them. Once in the car, I drove us home while Scott and Yuri shifted.

“You know what this means,” Yuri said once he shifted his eyes practically sparkling with excitement.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, frowning at the road ahead.

“The person who wrote that signed as D. It must be Daniel!” Yuri exclaimed.

I shook my head, parking the car in front of Scott’s house. “Now you’re just jumping to conclusions. Stupid conclusions.” We got out of the car and got inside the house. I put the paper on the table and sat down on the couch. “This could mean anything. The witch could be named Davina or something and I’m sure there are more vampires whose name starts with D,” I rationalized. There was no way it was Daniel. That was a ridiculous thought. Why would he help us so much if it was him?

“I think---” Scott started but a knock on the door stopped him. Hiding the paper back in my jacket I opened it. It was Colwyn.

“Hey, I thought you said we would train some other time,” I said but moved and let him in.

“Yeah I know, that’s not why I’m here,” he said, a bit nervous. He stopped in the middle of the room and regarded us all with his eyes. We exchanged a look with Yuri.

“You alright?” Scott asked.

“About an hour ago Baltazar met with Alpha again,” he said instead of answering. Met with him? So soon after our visit? “There are three vampires that share Baltazar’s ability in the Clan and could’ve possibly started all this. David Anderson, Mabel Dane, and Daniel Reilly.”

I didn’t know Daniel shared Baltazar’s ability. Though I was too surprised by Cowlyn to think about that right now. Both Yuri and Scott were also staring at him in shock. “Why are you telling me this? Most would see this as a betrayal to the Ghealach pack,” I pointed out.

“Both our packs have the same goal,” he said steadily, his jaw tight, but there was a hard look on his face. Ah, a nice little display of confidence and dominance. “Bran was a good guy. Everyone loved him. Let’s end this and truly lay him to rest.” I nodded, smiling gratefully at him. In the end, he even gave me their addresses. I thanked him then he left.