The Alphas Game - Complete Set (7 page)

Chapter2

His body was missing. His head was the only thing that arrived. Tobias was a little bit of a creepy guy, but he was someone that I could have always counted on. Now he was dead, there was nothing that I could do. None of us knew where he was and once I calmed down a little bit I was able to ask these questions. The investigators checked out the box and took it away, but I was sure that they weren’t going to find anything. Still we could hope that this Ysella, or whoever was behind this, would have made some kind of mistake. Maybe this person left some kind of clue, but I didn’t think that she would. So far, any mistakes that had been made were done on purpose as some sort of trap.

The detective couldn’t help but jump a little at the jangling of the phone. Grey and Kevin were just removing the head from her apartment. She fumbled with the phone as she picked it up off the table. It was Hope’s number. Her picture was on the screen, golden blonde, smiling, beautiful. “Did you call her?” She accused Grey.

“I swear I didn’t.” He promised, making a cross over his heart with his left forefinger.

When Rosie answered she was met with terrified screams. It was the sound of terror, a sound that belonged more in a horror movie than in her life. It was the secretary, but she was beyond frightened, unable to pull herself together. Rosie’s mind immediately went to the worst possibilities. She was convinced that the woman was seriously injured and just hoped that she could find her and quickly. “Calm down. What’s going on? Where are you?” She repeated it several times before she realized that the woman wasn’t going to be able to answer.

Grey poked at his ear like he was in pain. “What’s going on, is she OK?”

“I don’t know. She’s hysterical, something is wrong.” She slipped her feet into her flip flops that she kept by the door and reached for her keys and wallet, slipping the cool leather into her back pocket.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. She might be at the office. Take me there. Kevin, go to her house. See if she’s there.” She stayed  on the phone while Grey drove, trying to get more information out of her friend and secretary. It didn’t work.

Hope was at the office, her car was outside and they could see the blood splattered all over the door. From her distance Rosie couldn’t tell much about it, except that  Hope was standing in front of it, continuously screaming into the phone, crying for help. She hoped that someone nearby had already called the police, gotten someone there to help her, but it looked like the city temperament of uncaring idiocy might just have allowed someone else to die. Rosie jumped out of the car before Grey had a chance to come to a complete stop and rushed over to her crying friend.

There was so much blood; it didn’t seem possible that it all came from that body, just one body on the doorstep. The headless body was wearing a white man’s undershirt with black suspenders over it. The dark purple pants were just a little too loose to be acceptable in high class society. Everything was stained with a gentle splatter of blood; the majority of the red potion of life was spread specifically all over the walls and door, making it impossible to enter the building without disturbing the crime scene and the body. All of these things helped Rosie to immediately identify the headless man laying across the step, in front of her door, but the dead giveaway was the green stains on his knuckles from the fake gold rings that he wore. “It’s the body, his body. Tobias.” She whispered the words. She could picture the head attached to the body that was stretched out on the doorstep with his hand reaching up toward the handle, as if he was trying to get inside. She fought off the shock in order to keep herself together, but she found that it was getting easier as time went by.

In his other hand, he clutched another piece of paper. Grey tried unsuccessfully to stop her from touching the body as Rosie reached down and picked up the bloody paper. “Don’t touch the body!” The warning came too late however; she already had it in her hand. She had to know what the paper said, even if it was going to lead her into a trap. They had gone too far this time, possibly scarring her secretary for life and killing her most dependable informant. To be honest, she wasn’t sure which one she was more upset about. Written on the back of an envelope were three words that left more questions than they answered. The message wasn’t finished. All it said was ‘
stay away from’
in Tobias’s handwriting.

“Stay away from what?” It was a silly question, she was pretty sure that she knew who it was referring to, but still no answer came out of thin air.

“Do you think that this is related to the case we’re working on?” Grey asked the question. He had already gotten a hold of the other agent to let him know where they were and that the problem was located at the door of the office.

“I don’t know. I think so, but why would they do this to me? Why would they target me like this?”

“I think that they believe that you’re the weakest link. They’re trying to get you off the case because you have the ability to stop them.”

“I can probably find out something from this note, and I am not the weakest link.”

“You shouldn’t have touched the note. You messed up the evidence.”

“It must have been meant for me, but they should have just put a stamp on it and sent it in the mail. There were better ways to send this.” It bothered her that she was starting to feel a little numb, looking over these sights. So much had happened in such short amount of time that her pulse was starting to slow a little and she didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed.   It  was that classic symptom of desensitization that people blame on video games. She tried to figure out why this didn’t bother her so much,  but couldn’t figure out her own emotions. Instead, she pulled Hope in, holding the woman close and trying to comfort her. She felt sorry for Hope; this must have been much more overwhelming to her. Rosie had seen great violence before, but this was the first time for the secretary to be confronted with the kind of bloody mess that was sitting at the door of the office with its brand new glass windows. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.” She comforted the woman, knowing from experience that the sight would never leave her.

“Crime scene is showing up, we should get her out of here. I’ll make the explanations.” Grey suggested as the flashing lights appeared in the parking lot.

“Where can we take her?” Rosie’s mind raced over possibilities. It was the middle of the day, so there were a lot of places open that would keep her safe and in public.

“Let’s go get her some coffee until we decide what to do.”

“There’s a diner about a block away.” She pointed down the street and Grey noticed that there were several cars pulling into the parking lot of some building that he couldn’t identify from this distance.

“Take her that way and I’ll let them know where we’re going.” He moved over to the investigators and started to speak to them, gesturing at the women.

Rosie nodded and led the way. She was worried. This was bad and something had to be done, but the FBI agents were going to insist on doing the right thing. They would stop her from doing what needed to be done to stop the killing, the explosions, and the kidnappings. “We’ve got to take them down before they kill someone else.” She was talking to herself, knowing that Hope couldn’t understand what she meant in that moment.

Hope sniffled, ignoring Rosie’s vowed revenge. “Tobias, she killed Tobias. That bitch killed Tobias.”

“I know.” It was all that could be said. The death was painfully close, way too close for any sort of comfort. “Whoever this is, they’re playing with us, playing with our lives. I don’t like it, and I’m going to do something about it.”

“What can we do?”

“I’m going to use my abilities.”

“They hurt you through them.” Hope was panicking; she didn’t want to see her friend die. “They won’t let you do that again.” She pulled away from the psychic witch and looked at her in the face. “They might kill you this time. They’ve tried already.”

“I don’t think that we have much choice. Whoever is behind this is starting to kill people.” Rosie tried to keep the danger out of her mind.

Hope didn’t know how to respond to her friend as they walked into the small diner. They were regulars there so they immediately walked over to their usual seat and the waitress filled up cups  of coffee. “Something going on?”

Rosie put on an unfazed face, but Hope wasn’t as skilled an actress. It was obvious that they were lying. “I haven’t seen anything.”

The waitress knew that they were lying; it was obvious from the specks of blood on their clothes and their puffy eyes.  She chose not to push it,  however. She shrugged as well, knowing that they would tell her if they wanted her to know. She had served these two women  too many times to think that she could get any information from anything other than overhearing as much as she could. “The usual, girls?”

“That will be fine.” Rosie nodded the server away.

Hope looked at Rosie. “I’m not hungry.” The food just seemed unappetizing to her.

“You should try to eat, it may not work, but at least we can have some food in front of you. It’s going to be hard at first, but it will get easier. We can get you into counseling if you need it.” The words let Hope know that her boss wasn’t going to push the issue. She remembered that Rosie’s family had been brutally murdered and she had been the one  to discover the bodies, so if there was anyone who  could help the blonde  woman out of this mess, it was the detective.

“How did you handle it?”

It had caught Rosie by surprise. “Handle what? Finding the head?”

Hope looked at her. “You found the head?” The woman had obviously been surprised by the revelation, not knowing that the missing part of the body had been located already.

“What were you talking about?” Rosie wanted to change the subject so that Hope could get to thinking about something else.

“How did you handle finding your family?”

“It was tough at first and I still never stop thinking about it, but I just do my best to be the best that I can be. I’m the last member of my family left, so I have to keep myself going. It’s the reason I do what I do. I want to stop people from going through what I went through.” It was a mass of words that came flowing out in a barely understandable format. It was a strange explanation that sounded much more like tired old clichés but the truth was that Rosie didn’t know how she handled it.

“Does it ever get easier to live with?” Hope hiccuped from her sobs as she asked the question.

“It takes a while, but it does get easier. The next month or so is going to be the hardest part of your life until the memories fade a little.” This was the truth, or as close to the truth as the detective could vocalize. It was still hard to talk about.

“I don’t think that I’ll ever forget this.”

“You won’t, but the shock will fade. I promise.”

“Did you find the head?” Hope brought the conversation back around, and this time Rosie was glad. She didn’t like to talk about finding her family’s dead bodies on the floor of their home.

“It was shipped to the house.” She didn’t want to go into more details.

“They hit both places.” Grey’s voice echoed over their table as he slid in next to Hope. He was serious. “How are you doing?” Kevin was with him and he seemed to have already claimed the place next to the detective, further complicating their already almost impossible relationship.

“This is insane. Why would anyone do that?” Hope was trying to hold back the tears. She didn’t like to be the weakest one at the table.

Rosie blatantly ignored the fact that Kevin was sitting next to her after she scooted all the way to the wall. She reached over to comfort her friend and started to plan. She knew that she had to do something; she had to stop whoever was behind this, because whoever they wanted out of that prison was probably much worse. She couldn’t help but shudder with the pain. Kevin cleared his throat. “Give me the note. I have to give it to crime scene.”

“I don’t have the note.”

“Grey said you brought it with you. You need to hand it over.” Kevin was insistent. He reached his hand out to the woman and she pushed it away.

“I know you took it.” Grey looked at her like she was a terrible liar, his head cocked and his hand stretched toward her.

“It could be a clue.” Rosie insisted. She didn’t want to give up the piece of paper.  “I could find something out from it.”

“It could be, but we need to check it out first. It might have fingerprints.” Kevin and Grey had her cornered and she felt her heart begin to race. “Give it to us, we’ll have it checked out and then we’ll get it back to you. You’ll be able to see what you can find.”

“I should do it now because they’ll still be close.”

“You can wait.” Grey insisted. “It’ll be fine.”

The argument went on for almost half an hour before she finally, reluctantly,  handed them the note. Kevin put it in a bag and stepped outside of the building to hand it to the technicians before rejoining them at the table. Nobody felt like eating however, so no food was touched the entire time they sat there in silence.

Chapter3

It took me almost three days to have access to that note again. I kept trying every time I got the chance, but I just kept getting turned down. The entire time I felt like I was pacing, but in reality I spent most of my time by Hope’s side, trying to get her mind back together. I can’t say that I wasn’t afraid because of this. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Hope blamed me, if she thought that if she wasn’t around me she would be happier. I didn’t want to lose my closest friend, a woman that I considered the only family that I had, but I didn’t see that I could stop it, especially if my presence triggered the memories for her. I did my best to make it better, but I couldn’t do much, other than let her know that she wasn’t alone. I was there; it was the best place for me to be in that moment. Hope needed to find some hope, some goodness in the world and the strength to move on. I knew from experience how hard that could be. I had been conditioned to violence because of my past and I knew that the first time being confronted by the agonizing pain would be the worst.

Grey arrived at Hope’s place. He looked harried, his dark eyes darting from side to side. He looked paranoid as he knocked on the door. The detective answered and he noticed that the blonde  secretary was sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped over her shoulders. The woman looked like she had been crying for the past three days. Rosie had been staying there because everyone thought that she wouldn’t be safe at her  place. They shared their code words of the day, something that would allow them to identify each other before saying anything. Then Grey said “I’ve got the note for you.” He held the plastic covered paper up for Rosie to see.

Hope shuddered at the sight of the blood-stained  paper. It brought back painful memories, ones that she had been trying desperately to forget. She saw the body in her dreams, and it taunted her. A part of her realized that the man was a creep, but he was a standard in her life and she would actually miss having him come around and hit on her. It was a strange feeling, to say the least. Grey noticed and moved the paper back to his pocket. Rosie spoke next. “We’ll do that someplace else.” She was worried about her secretary. “I’ll meet you later, her grandfather is supposed to come by later to sit with her.”

“OK, where do you want to meet?” He asked, realizing how much of a mistake that he had just made. He had obviously upset Hope. The FBI agent cursed himself for lacking the instinct to be a little gentler around the woman who had just discovered the dead body that was clutching the note.

“I’ll call you later.” Rosie desperately wanted to check it out now, but she knew that Hope was more important. They hadn’t left her alone since her ordeal, and her family had stepped in to help out as well. Rosie looked around Grey and noticed that the old man’s car was pulling into the drive. “I swear that man has got the most amazing timing. Never mind,  Grey, can you wait a few minutes for me?”

“Sure.” He stepped out of the house and went to wait by his car.

Rosie greeted the older man, Hope’s grandfather. He was in his older form that day, wanting to look like a concerned grandfather, but she knew that the full-blooded fairy could look as young as he wanted to; the age was just an illusion. Fairies were ageless beings, creatures that could modify their forms as needed and often they had a fascination with humans, occasionally joining into their families. That was Hope’s story and what made her so special. Unlike most fey-blooded people, her fairy grandfather was a part of her life. Rosie nodded at him, said goodbye to her friend and went out into the parking lot to meet up with Grey. “Where can we do this?”

“We should do it someplace that you’re the most comfortable.”

Considering the previous attacks she still didn’t feel safe in her office or her home. She hadn’t been home in days and had felt the safest she had been since this case started. “I don’t know.” She chewed on her lip carefully considering whether or not she should admit that.

Grey had just finished being embarrassed by his lack of concern for Hope’s recent trauma, so he was being extra observant. He noticed Rosie’s nervousness, so he wanted to make a suggestion. “We could go to the office, what do you think?”

“That just doesn’t seem right. I like having a bed and some privacy.”

“How about my place?”

She didn’t like that idea very much either, Grey’s place had been the center of the first meeting with their mysterious enemy. She had been held hostage in that place trying to use her abilities, and didn’t want to go back there any time soon. “I don’t know.”

“I’ve moved; it’s a new place. That old apartment bothered me.” He frowned, the embarrassing memories showing brightly on his face.

“That might be a good idea. Do you have food there? I get hungry a lot after my visions.”

“I’ll order something.” He promised her and she followed him over to his house in her car, knowing that she wanted to be able to leave as soon as possible.

When they arrived, Grey’s new apartment was as sparse and clean as the previous incarnation. The furniture hadn’t changed, but the layout had. It wasn’t the same place, and that made her feel a little more anonymous, more comfortable. “I think that I can work here.” She nodded her approval and Grey smiled before trying to figure out if there was anything else he could do.

“Do you need anything to get started?”

“Just a place that I can lay down. I’m going to appear to be sleeping, but it’s important that you don’t wake me up.”

“Would you rather use the couch or the guest bedroom?”

She thought about it for a long moment. “The bedroom would probably be best. I’ll be a little more comfortable.”

“What do you need on it?”

“Nothing special, anything will be fine. I just need to lie down.” She looked down at the note, flattened out and wrapped in a plastic cover. “I’m going to have to pull it out.”

“They know that. It’s been cleared.” He made her feel a little better about it, positive that she didn’t know the truth. “How long should it take?”

“If I’m out for over an hour, you need to call for help.”

“Who should I call?”

The detective frowned, she had no idea who to call. The only person who knew as much about her ability as she did was Hope, but Hope wasn’t in a place where she could help at this time. “I’d say Hope, but this wouldn’t be a good time to bother her, so just use your best judgment.”

“Is there anything that I should know?”

“I’ll tell you everything after I’m done.”

“If I need to wake you up, what do I do?” He was starting to look worried.

“Is something wrong?” The witch was starting to realize that there was something terribly wrong with this situation. She felt her pulse start to race as he started begging for more and more information.

“No, nothing’s wrong.” He didn’t meet her gaze.

“What’s going on? You need to tell me. It’s really early for them to release evidence. Has someone been hurt?”

“No one’s hurt.” That much was true, but he was hiding something else.

“What aren’t you telling me?” She asked him, starting to feel a little defensive. “You should tell me so I know what I’m getting into.”

“It shouldn’t affect your vision.” The wolf’s face started to grow red.

That’s when Rosie realized what was going on. “You took this, didn’t you? You stole evidence.” She could barely believe it, and her voice was breathless and slightly happy.

“You’re not mad?” Grey looked at her. He was in shock and that’s all that he could say. He couldn’t believe that he had done that himself.

“No, I’ve never been one for rules. Good for you!” She patted him on the back and he continued to look at her like the woman had lost her mind. He knew that he had done something terribly wrong, but this woman was congratulating him. She let him sit in silence for a moment before moving on with the conversation. “I want this to end too. They’ve gone too far and I’m ready to see her go to prison.”

“I could kill her.” Grey whispered. He hadn’t really talked about how her control over him had affected the shifter, but he was obviously deeply upset by it.

“I know. She hurt too many people close to me. I’m ready to end this any way I can.” Rosie sat down next to him on the couch and placed her hand on his arm.

“She made me betray everything.” Rosie didn’t respond, instead she let him talk, knowing that he needed to get these things out in the open. “Everything I believed in.”

“That’s got to suck.” She didn’t know what else to say. “I’m sorry; I’m not a counselor or anything. I’m not good at this sort of thing.”

“I know  you’re not. You’ve been amazing in all of this. I don’t know how you do it.”

“I’ve survived a lot worse than this.”

“How?”

“I don’t have those answers.” She noticed how broken he looked. Frowning she leaned over. “It’s going to be OK, we’ll stop her. I promise. You did the right thing. Hand me the note and I can get to work. Let’s do this so you can get it back into evidence. The last thing we need is to get caught.”

“Let me know if you need anything.” He said it again, knowing that she wasn’t going to ask him for anything, but he still wanted to feel useful.

He handed it over and she immediately got to work, eager to find out everything about it that she could. It had a similar trap to the items that they had used before, but she already knew how to handle traps like that. She concentrated intently and soon formed the pebble in her hand once again, casting off the protections and dark enchantments in order to leave the item vulnerable to her abilities. 

It was a dark place, a forested area with a light mist sprinkling off the leaves that were over her body. There was a light in the distance, it flickered and fluttered, obviously some large fire. She didn’t know if it was controlled or not, but it must have some purpose in being there. Her mind traveled to the edge of the light, but she felt her legs move, her body get wrapped up in the wind. She felt the low hung branches brush her arms and face, she felt everything and it was as if she was  there. She was used to the feeling, so it allowed her to remain grounded in reality, but it reminded her of the first time she had used her powers. The first time, back there in that deep darkness of the past, she had been so swept up in her vision that she had trouble finding her way out, back into her body, back into her world.

This time, however,  she was prepared as she slunk into the shadows of the clearing. There were two people standing by the fire, arms outstretched.  Ysella, or the woman that they had come to call that name was there, with Tobias on the other side. He didn’t look good. She cleared her vision, making more of the vision appear in her eyes. The man looked exhausted, almost like Grey did when they had liberated him from Ysella’s control.

It was horrifying as Ysella flew through the air, over the fire, her gossamer gown weaving glowing tendrils in the flame, but it didn’t catch. The sight was beautiful and terrifying at the same time as a blade flickered out of nowhere, removing Tobias’s head in one fell swoop. She couldn’t help but shudder and feel as if she had been led to this.

“Alfi will be back.” The fairy looked at her, staring in her direction as if she knew that the witch was lurking in the shadows of the vision before she thrust the woman back into reality.