Sword of Inquest (La Patron's Sword Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter 2

Greggor’s thoughts had been accurate. Asia had waited to catch the newest employee of Lancaster Castle, Tate Whiner, on his way home from the market. Each day she kept a twenty four hour vigil on his flat only to discover he had been out of town until last night. Tired from a lack of sleep she almost missed when he left for work.
She ran down an opposite street and caught him two blocks before he entered the road leading to the castle. Asia bumped into him, knocking him down and offering heartfelt apologies, exchanged bodies.

Rushed, she left him leaning against a wall.
Not the smoothest transition she had ever done. After she took over his body she learned he would move into the dorm that day and not leave again for a month. Unless she came up with a plan, the bowels of Lord Boris’ castle would be home for a while. That was unacceptable to her.

“Tate,
you’re late, it’s crazy in here today. I need help feeding the inmates in section B, we’re shorthanded again,” Chuck said pointing to a full cart with half cooked steaks and raw vegetables.

Asia strode across the room
fully aware she appeared as an average height, unassuming white male. Unremarkable and easy to forget. “Okay, want me to take these?” Standing behind the cart, she counted the platters and placed the water jugs on top.

“Just a sec, almost done.” Chuck
squeezed three more large plates onto the cart and another basket of hard rolls. The hard bread would be difficult to eat, but being the new guy she followed instructions rather than offered suggestions.

“Go ahead
take it and come back for the food for your sector. I should have it ready by then. Later I need you to take his Majesty his meal. If we are lucky, he’ll take it easy on you because you are new.”

Tate nodded, having no idea what Chuck meant and didn’t care. The past few days
she’d spent every free moment seeking clues about Gunnolf’s location and came up empty. As the lowest on the employee seniority pole she had no access above ground and had searched everywhere on this level. Other than asking questions, or leaving a body trail, she didn’t know which direction to take next.

Asia
placed her palm on the security scan for sector B, the door slid open. No one looked at her as she rolled the food cart to the end of the row. One by one, she slid open the small door at the front of the cage. If a plate was on the drawer she placed steak, vegetables and a roll on it. No plate, no food. Each cage had a funnel for water. Using the jugs, she refilled everyone’s supply in silence without meeting their gazes.

“
You’re different,” an older female said, staring at her.

“
He’s new. They’re all the same,” another woman said in a dismissive tone.

Asia didn’t hang around for the discussion. By the time
she returned, Chuck had finished her cart and had taken a cart to his sector. She exchanged carts and headed to her area while scanning for Gunnolf.

Ready to finish
her chores so she could decide her next move, she pushed the food cart into her sector. After a few days she’d become accustomed to the derision in the gazes of the test wolves. The desire to rip her apart lay just beneath the surface of their skin. These guys hated their captivity and each day it became harder to face them. Either she found Gunnolf here, or she’d leave this place.

Angus,
La Patron’s litter-mate, or as Jasmine would say, his brother, had given her a chameleon bracelet which allowed her to hide and change her appearance at will. It saved her life more than once since the rest of her team returned to the states. She glanced at her wrist, unable to see the bracelet, but felt its weight. Good, she may need to morph into one of her co-workers to search the upstairs.

Asia had remained in this country for one reason. To
set Gunnolf free in the hopes his knowledge would in turn set her free. As the lead experiment specimen for decades, her memories were dotty and missing. He had answers to her questions about her past, her family and most importantly how she’d entered servitude to the Liege. Asia had to find him.

She
placed her palm on the keypad and the door opened. Inside every cage were men, women, and teens. All full-bloods. Snarls and snapping sounds rose in her breast from her wolf at the captivity of the animals.

“
You’re late,” an older man snapped when she entered the room. The guy had never spoken to her before and his attitude did nothing to gain a response from her. She repeated the dinner ritual, serving each person and then refilled their water.

“What happened to the other one? The one before
you?” the old man asked again.

Asia looked at
him and shrugged.

Evening meal complete,
she returned to sector B, grabbed the hose and washed everything down, including the people, their waste and their plates. How anyone could be treated in this manner? None of it made sense to her. The lab in Pennsylvania had rooms with separate bathing areas and as much as she’d hated it then, she realized it was a penthouse compared to this caged existence.

To ease her conscience she
spent a little more time on the baths of anyone who tried to clean themselves. When she turned off the water a few of them thanked her. Surprised, she nodded and then headed to her sector to repeat the process.

“
Great, thanks man, you took care of cleaning sector B,” Chuck said. “I’ll take sector D. After you finish clean-up in your sector, the tray for Hawke is ready. Press in your code in the lift and it’ll take you below. He’s the only door down there, just walk straight ahead out the lift. Promise you won’t miss it. Try not to take too long, he gets’ uber cranky when his food is too late.”

Nodding
, she headed to her sector. “Where are you from?” the older man asked when she entered her area.

Test wolves
weren’t supposed to talk to her. They never talked. She stared at him and turned on the water.

“Could
you clean my mate first?” he pointed to the female in the cage next to him. “She had a rough day today.”

Asia washed the
woman down, spending a fair amount of time on her until the older female waved she’d had enough. It took longer than the other sector because there were more people. When finished, she grabbed the tray and headed down to the lab. Strange, she hadn’t heard a word from him since she entered the castle four days ago. Before that he called out to her every day. What happened to him? Where could he be? She had no idea but each hour she grew confident it was not on this level with all the others.

Prickles of unease ran through
her.

She
scanned the area for Gunnolf. No luck. As she strode down the hall her wolf became agitated. Agitated may not be the right word, excited was more precise.

She
placed her palm on the security pad, after a few beeps the door slid open and she stepped into the darkened lab. Dread swept up her back. Flashbacks of her captivity swamped her. The taste of antiseptic hit the back of her tongue. Chloroform and other noxious odors filled her nostrils. The clicking of equipment replayed in her ear. She slammed the door on those debilitating memories and refocused.

“If
you insist on standing in the doorway, do so from the other side.” The rude comment snapped her out of it.

“Dinner.”

“I can see that. Place it on the lift and leave.” He turned his back on her and sat at the keyboard.

Asia
looked around the large sterile room while walking to the lift, and then placed the tray on the built-in ledge.

Shit. This lab made the one
they destroyed in Pennsylvania look like pre-kindergarten. What kind of experiments did they run here? The metal on the table restraints looked familiar. A bone-deep chill raced through her at the enormity of this place. No wonder they sacrificed the other lab, it couldn’t compare to this one. She hadn’t seen this many computers and robotic equipment in any of the other labs.

“Get out.”
He didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t need to, his words held a cutting edge that made her hackles rise.

“Yes,
your majesty.”

“
I heard that.”

She
smiled and walked toward the door.

“Wait.”
She stopped and looked over her shoulder.

“
Your name?”

His
scent hit her and her wolf went ballistic. Shock immobilized her. The hunk of man was a full-blood wolf. Full-bloods did not make good lab specimens because their wolves would not obey humans and yet she stared at proof this could happen. Scars criss-crossed his arms, his back and from what she could see, the top of his chest. Someone had performed numerous surgeries on this wolf. Overhead light beams danced across his shoulder, highlighting his shaggy jet black hair. She frowned, the color struck a chord, where had she seen it before? How much wolf remained in the man, or had the Liege found a way to neutralize the beast altogether. La Patron would want to know the answer to that question.

“
Your name?”

Asia
cleared her throat. “Tate.”

Did
he run this lab? She knew better than most the kind of experiments the Liege performed. The notion that a full-blood ran tests on other wolves for the Liege blind-sided her. It just didn’t happen. As a full-blood, she’d done dirty deeds on behalf of the Liege for decades but it took constant reprogramming and she had scars to prove it. Her wolf always looked for opportunities to break the hold they had on her. One thing for sure, they never left her alone in a room full of equipment. Never.

A low throb beat at the base of
her neck. Her beast whined pushing her to shift.

“Which sector are
you working?”

“Sector C and B today.”

He nodded and turned. “Next time bring my food on time, Tate.”

She
threw him the finger as she left.

“
I saw that,” he said as the door closed behind her.

Chapter 3

Asia lay on the pallet in the main area between both of
her sectors. Although assigned a bunk and locker in the dorms, she’d never used them. Short staffed, she and the others remained below working rotating shifts. She had used every free minute to seek her mentor. Not finding him with the other test wolves wore on her nerves.

The day Gunnolf reached
out to her seemed like a dream, perhaps it had been. She’d been ready to board the plane to take her to London along with Tyrese, Angus, Leon, Brix and Danielle, Tyrese’s mate when Gunnolf called her name.

“
Isa… Isa, child is that you? What has taken you so long to return? Are you well?
” From that point on, she’d changed plans and remained in Krajdn, seeking information to rescue him. At first she had been full of hope and excitement. Gunnolf knew her as a child, knew her parents, her history. He’d shared bits and pieces with her but not near enough. Starved for knowledge she set out to rescue him.

Jasmine
offered to send help, but Asia had refused. This was a personal mission and if it made a wrong turn she alone would suffer. After a long heated discussion, her Mistress agreed to allow her to remain alone if she promised to use the chameleon bracelet as a main weapon. With a bounty of five million on her head, Lord Boris wanted her dead for killing another Liege Lord; Asia had been quick to agree. The Liege could not know she was in the country let alone in one of their holdings.

She ha
d spent days seeking answers about the castle and the inhabitants from the local towns people. Sketchy and conflicting information slowed her progress but everyone agreed Lord Boris Lancaster was not in residence. In fact he seldom visited the place and left his nephew in charge. All the other ramblings of ghosts, mass killings, and Frankenstein experiments she filed in the local folklore column. Angus said her former mentor had been a great man, but no one heard from him in decades.

Strange
r still, she hadn’t heard a word from Gunnolf since she entered the castle four days ago. Before that he called out to her every day. What happened to him? Where could he be? Frustrated, each hour she grew confident he was not with the other test wolves. Based on what she had learned so far, if Gunnolf were alive, he would be on this level.

“Mistress?”
She called Jasmine through their link. After her accident and brush with death in an old lab in Pennsylvania, all of Asia’s links quit working, except Jasmine’s and within the past two weeks, Gunnolf.

Thoughts of the explosion that shut down the computer chip in
her brain, compliments of the Liege, sent chills rippling across her body. The price paid to be free of those men had indeed been high.

“
Asia, I’m glad to hear you. Are you okay
?”

The warm concern from
her Mistress’ voice eased the tension knotting in her shoulders. She tipped her head from side to side to release more pressure. Unaccustomed to pack, Asia was learning to accept the care of others in slow degrees. In her flawed memory of her upbringing she had been devoid of emotional bonding. Jasmine decided to change all of that. With every connection, and every discussion the woman reminded Asia, either in word or actions, that she had a family who stood behind her. Although thousands of miles and an ocean separated them, Asia wasn’t alone.

“
I’m okay. Still in the castle
.”

“
Did y
ou find out any more information
?”

“
No,
I still have not located Gunnolf.”

“
You’ve been there almost a week. Is there a problem?”

“Yes.
I don’t think he’s here
.” She told Jasmine everything that had happened to that point. Seeking out Lord Boris nephew, chasing him until he caught her, taking information, exchanging places with the new hire Tate and her subsequent search of the castle.

“
Sound like you’ve done all you can. You haven’t heard from him since you entered the castle
?”

“
No, Ma’am. That link is dead. I don’t know what happened
.” She had a few ideas, but nothing concrete.

“
What now?”

“
I’m ready to come home, but...”

“
But?”

And then she
told Jasmine about the test wolves, and their living conditions.

“
You can’t get involved. Silas forbids it. It was one thing to remove Gunnolf, he’s an old and revered friend. But you’re a guest on another Alpha’s turf. He’s turned a blind eye as a courtesy to Silas, but he has no allegiance to us. He’d probably side with the Liege if things went wrong.”

The truth left a bitter taste on
her tongue. “
The Liege corrupted a full-blood, he runs their lab. If they can do that… we are all at risk.”
She tried to sound unaffected by the man in the lab but she could not. Despite the little she knew of him, something about him called to her.

“What?”
Jasmine shouted. “
A full-blood? Hold on a sec, I need to tell Silas
.”

Asia filtered through the sounds in the lower area. Chuck snored. Henry worked the other side with
his friend, Armand.

“
Are you sure he ran the lab?”

“Yes,
he’s a bit of an ass, everyone caters to him. But I am certain of the wolf.”
She yawned and pulled the cover to her chin. “
I’ll let you know when I figure a way to get out of here and come home.”

“Okay,
I’m sorry things didn’t work out the way you planned.”