Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Indeed.” Dietrich nodded at me. “Thank you for the door, Riviana. It was the fastest way to get back here.”
“No worries, Dietrich. Go on, have a seat. We have a meeting to start.”鈥?/p>
Without saying another word, Shawn and Dietrich went to sit with the rest of the group. Now the entire party was here. These were all the people that I trusted the most. The people that I needed the most to help me solve this. They were the ones that I was going to make sure that they understood all the evidence and hopefully, put an end to these murders.
I took a deep breath as I looked at all of their faces. Shawn, Dietrich, Shane, David, Vincent, Gabriel, Riley, Landon, Jackson, Rawlynne, Juniper, Paul, Cedar, Carter, Noah, Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m貌r, Mom, Dad, Lila, Grandfather. All of the people that I loved as part of my family as well as those that were truly part of my family. Not to mention some of the most brilliant minds among us.
“Alright, let me get back to what Joaquin was saying before.” I eyed them all solemnly. “There has been a development in the case. Some of you know this and some of you don’t, but the murders have spread.”
“Spread?” Landon sounded confused. His green feline eyes narrowed as his head tilted to the side like a kitten.
“Yes, Landon.” Joaquin nodded at him. “Before they were only murdering in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Well, they have moved on to a new continent recently. Yesterday morning Riviana and I went to investigate the murders that were in the new location.”
“And where did these murders take place?” Grandfather asked him, his face back to that unreadable and grumpy looking mask that I remembered from my childhood.
“California.” I told him, answering the question in just one word. It was enough though. They all knew what the implications of that one word were. The murders, and therefore the murderers, were much closer to home now. The threat to us, to our families, to the communities that we knew and loved, it was much stronger now than it was when the murders were happening elsewhere. I know that it sounds bad, but they probably hadn’t thought about the lives that were being lost because the carnage was not right in front of them. They were sheltered by the distance that was between them and the horrors that I have seen.
Now though, the horrors were at their doorsteps. The horrors were knocking at the door. The horrors were here, and that made them all that more real. They didn’t have that cushiony little bubble that offered them a semblance of peace and normality. That happiness that they had just recently was about to be ripped away from them like a band-aid that was covering a festering wound. They were able to ignore the trouble in the world because they couldn’t see it happening. Well, they were about to see it. They were about to explore the depths of that horror and understand just what has been going on around the world. Whether they liked it or not.
In a way, I felt bad doing this to them all, but they needed to know. They all needed to know so that we could work together and stop these crimes from spreading even more. We had to stop anyone else from being killed.
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Riviana
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There were looks of horror and fear. There were looks of anger and rage. And there were looks of worry and sorrow. So many different faces with so many different expressions. And as I looked at them all, I tried to take a note of how they all responded to that news.
“How many?” Mom’s voice was steady, but I could tell that it was thick with fear and other emotions. “How many murders were there in California?”
“Five. All along the coast. We investigated four of them yesterday and one of them today.” Joaquin explained to her. “One of the killers has escalated in the process. I don’t know if he was one of the killers from the other continents or not, but he did something that none of the others have.”
“I don’t even know what the others have done.” Dad said. “This wasn’t something that you had shared with us before you left. We knew that there were murders, but not the nature of them. And we still don’t quite know why you felt the need to take our granddaughter in the middle of the night so that she was traveling with you all over the world.”
…..
“There was a reason for that, Dad.” I told him with a growing ache in my chest. “Let me explain to you what has been happening.”
“I think that would be the best place to start.” Grandfather nodded at me, his authoritative tone taking over. “We all need to be on the same page.”
“Fine. I will start with all that we knew before we left. Then I will explain what happened while we were in Europe. And lastly, I will explain what happened in California.” I told them the timeline that they were going to get from me. “This will include graphic details of murders and other incidents that have occurred. I just ask that you stay as calm as you can until I am done.”
“Yeah, we can do that.” Trevor nodded at me. “Go ahead, Riviana. Tell us what we need to know.” He was as strong looking as ever, that giant mountain of a man that hid the truly soft teddy bear that was inside of him.
I told them about the information that had been brought to us before we left. How there had been murders happening every five days since the beginning of July. I told them how they were killed. The runes being applied, the throat being cut, the heart being removed. That was all that we had learned before we had left. That was how they were all killed. Nothing had changed in all those murders. But the murders were happing in different countries at the same time, so we knew that we were dealing with more than one killer. Right from the beginning we knew that there were several people that we were looking for.
After that, I told them about how we had gone to Wales and saw the words that were hidden on the wall, and how those words were at almost all of the crime scenes, they were just hidden. They were a message for someone like me. Someone that could use magic to see them.
I looked at Dietrich when I started the next part. When I told them about the souls being trapped in their bodies and how that struck a chord with him. He knew someone who used to do that, but that person has been dead for a very long time. I also told them that Talia, with her link to the underworld and souls, was the only one that could get the trapped souls from their bodies. She needed to release them, so they stopped suffering in their bodies. Everyone in the room was horrified and disgusted about the fact that the souls could feel the pain of things like the autopsies. Even those that knew about it before were angered by it all over again.
I went through all the details that we had learned before we left and while we were traveling. I told them about going back to Germany to search for the home of Dietrich’s old friend. However, that home had been hidden and needed us to break down their defenses. We were planning that for the day after we got the call about California. That was when we split with Shawn and Dietrich.
Now it was time to explain California to them. The five different murders there. The rape of the victim in Waterton. The words on the rocks as a warning. The psychic that was working in the medical examiner’s office. And the man that was captured and interviewed. They were again angered when they learned that he had been watching us, the words that he said, and the fact that he used a rune on his neck to take his own life.
Needless to say, everyone in the room was stunned and silent after what I had to say. Even those that had been in California with us. They were hearing all of this put together in a timeline of events from start to finish, and that just helped to make this all that much more real.
“Well, now that I have told you all that I have to say, I think we should hear from Shawn and Dietrich. They seem to have found something as well.”
“Thank you, Riviana.” Shawn nodded at me, his voice thick and filled with angry sorrow. He hadn’t known what had happened in California, so he was learning all of that now.
The two of them stepped in front of the group while Joaquin and I sat at my desk. I only had one desk chair, but that was fine. I was sitting on Joaquin’s lap in the oversized chair. It was bought just for moments like this. When we were sitting together for whatever reason. It’s fine though, I liked the way that it felt to have his arms around me like this. It was comforting and helped to make me feel safe. Like none of this was real for a moment, even though I knew better.
“I am glad that I could make it back in time for this meeting.” Shawn nodded at the group as he stood next to Dietrich. “This was a lucky coincidence for us.” Thinking about the time difference, they had to have gotten up before four in the morning to be here right now. That or they never slept.
“Shawn and I were tasked with investigating the home of a man that I used to know.” Dietrich started. “When I was a much younger man, I was with a group of my friends that helped the world.” He was explaining things from the beginning. “We hunted people. Bad people. That might sound wrong to some of you, but we only killed those that were a threat to the secrecy that we are all expected to keep, or those that were murdering people, including humans. We sought vampires, shifters, and magic folk. At that time, there were far less Fae in the world of humans, and those that were, knew how to keep a secret better than most. I know this makes me and my friends sound like monsters, but we were eliminating the true monsters. The ones that the stories and legends are all about.”
“I understand.” Shane, for once, spoke seriously and nodded at him. “If your group hadn’t been there, the secret could have gotten out much sooner.”
“Exactly.” Dietrich nodded at him. “With those friends of mine, we used runes to help us. Some of those runes are being used by this group of people. Like the trapping of the souls. Alaric did that in the beginning, and then cleansed the soul with fire. However, he had too much heart to do that again. He didn’t want to cause them more pain and suffering than he already was.”
“While Dietrich and I searched his friend’s home, we found some things that were very enlightening.” Shawn explained. “They knew that Dietrich and I were the ones coming, but the house was empty. No one was there. We found journals, a family tree, a computer that we need to have to be searched by an expert, and a clue that led us to an orphanage. Only this wasn’t really an orphanage.” This was the first time that Shawn made a reference to the boxes that he and Dietrich had carried through the door. “These files are about the children that had lived in that orphanage. They weren’t orphans, but children from that same family. They were being raised there as warriors. And their mission is to destroy us.”
Shawn and Dietrich both put the boxes on the table that I had in the middle of the room. Along with that was a book, two journals, a roll of parchment, a laptop and several flyers.