DARK ORIGINS (Scarlett of the wolves, Book 4)

18.

Morning dawned on a still starry sky. The rain had stopped falling for several hours already and the sound of the breaking waves had given way to a peaceful rocking.

I straightened up, blinked, and sat down. I felt like I had only slept a few minutes during which I had dreamed of Elgin, but I couldn’t remember what. Even my dreams escaped me… I was exhausted, emptied, an iron point anchored in my chest. One more day… one more day without him. I was going to go crazy eventually.

I took my cell phone from the nightstand and checked the time: half-past eight. 

I had little time left to prepare and go to college. I yawned, rubbed my eyes, and got out of bed promptly. It took me less than ten minutes to shower and get dressed. I sat in front of the mirror, untangled my hair energetically and began to comb it. My hands were shaking. My stomach was tight.

Was Detective Forbes right about John? 

I wasn’t ready to discover a betrayal of such magnitude. From the start, I wasn’t ready for anything.

Stop! 

I sighed in despair. I refused to launch myself once again into broad reflections. I finished braiding my hair and left the bedroom. On the way down, I passed Gwen who was coming up the stairs.

“Oh, I was going to wake you up,” she said. “The boys are waiting for you about the body.”

The body… obviously. I was sincerely beginning to hate my life.

At nine o’clock, the day would have risen enough to verify whether or not the Moroi was still there. In the meantime, I decided to make myself a cup of tea, I couldn’t swallow anything else.

In a bad mood, my fists clenched, I joined everyone in the living room.

“What did Forbes want from you?” Rucker attacked at the outset. 

Without saying anything, I walked to the kitchen and filled a kettle with water and set it on the fire, Rucker following my steps.

“Scarlett?” 

I took the time to wash my hands, dry them, and turned to look at him.

“He offered to help me find Elgin.”

He nodded silently.

“He has a lead,” I clarified.

At these words, Grigore, Gwen, Pitt and Rufus joined us.

I suddenly felt like I was about to have an agoraphobia fit. All these people around me, all the time... I was suffocating. If I could have gone into exile in the depths of Scotland, I would have. To be alone with myself, to think, to regain my strength, all that would be strictly forbidden to me until this whole thing was over. But would I come back more peaceful? I doubted it. The more the months passed, the more I trembled with fear for the future.

“He thinks the pack might be involved in his disappearance,” I explained.

“The pack?” repeated Rucker. 

Grigore was staring me straight in the eye. He understood faster than everyone else.

“John?” 

I nodded.

Although he didn’t particularly like him, Rucker was sceptical. He half sat down on the edge of the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

“And where did this brilliant idea come from?” 

“Some connection with John’s father.”

I filled my cup and brewed a sachet. Then, rather than being bombarded with questions, I told them what was said the day before.

“We’ll meet at noon to question him,” I finished.

“Tss, tss,” said Pitt, with a flicker of contempt. “And afterwards, we’ll be told that a wolf is still loyal to its clan. Nonsense!” 

I darted an intense black look at him, as Rucker stood in front of the cliff window to gaze up at the sky.

“We’ll resolve this situation, and quickly. Scarlett, don’t hide anything from us,” he added as if he was afraid that I would leave them out.

I shook my head as he didn’t even look at me.

“It’s enough daylight, let’s go see if we need to clean up,” he decided.

I quickly washed my mug, put it on the rack and followed them. Grigore stopped me as I walked through the kitchen door. 

“Nothing else?” 

“What, nothing else?” 

“Your conversation with Forbes.”

I narrowed my eyes as I considered him, surprised.

I didn’t feel like hiding anything about this story, but I didn’t see fit to talk about it, that was all. It was unimportant, unfounded, and completely unnecessary for what would happen next.

“You’re not saying everything,” he insisted in a soft, warm voice. “I see it.”

The blood in my head began to boil. Grigore read me like an open book. He was terrifying. What was going on between us terrified me.

I took a quiet breath and tried to hide my condition as best I could.

“Later. Rucker and Pitt are waiting for us.”

I turned on my heels, he grabbed me by the shoulder again, forcing me to look at him. There, I read the words that floated in the grey of his eyes: You can run away, but I assure you that eventually, we will speak.  

I swallowed and pulled away to join the others, as I felt Grigore’s burning gaze on the back of my neck.

They all stood before what was left of the Moroi, which was nothing. Nothing more than a few traces of darker dust that the wind had already mostly blown away. Pitt had been right. 

“It has disintegrated,” I informed them impassively.

No one said a word. But what could they have said? 

The creature was dead, we still had a night or two of respite.

I checked my phone at a quarter past nine. Classes started in forty-five minutes. As coldly as if I had witnessed the evaporation of a puddle of water in the middle of summer, I turned around and retrieved my wallet and my car keys. Repairing the hood was going to cost me a lot, but luckily that wouldn’t stop it from working.

Without loosening my teeth, I nodded to everyone and left.

At five past twelve, Detective Forbes was waiting for me sitting on a bench in the clock courtyard.

As I walked towards him, my gaze slid across the lawn. The wind and the cold had crystallized the grass which would resuscitate next spring. My morale was low, but it wouldn’t always be so. Soon, the clouds would give way to the long-awaited spring. I was sure of it.

I took a brisk, determined step forward. Keith Forbes stood up and nodded to greet me.

“They’re in a downtown pub,” I informed him.

Arriving this morning, I had asked Anneas where I could find John. He would be in the usual place, the very one where he had decided to replace Elgin. Anneas had first tried to understand why, then seeing that it would be pointless to insist, he ended up telling me without asking any further questions. Wasn’t it better to know exactly what was going on before I alerted them to the situation? None of them was even aware of what I had been through this weekend, that we had gone to Romania to retrieve Rucker, that a member of the Circle had died and that the Moroi operating in St Andrews had been neutralized. They didn’t know anything. When the time comes, I’ll tell them everything. Because they would be there for Elgin, because they were loyal to him, and because I was counting on them. 

“They?” repeated the detective. 

“The five who make up the new pack.”

He nodded, not without showing his disapproval. I knew what he was thinking: we weren’t wild animals controlled by their primitive instinct, a pack didn’t divide. Only the member plagued by the desire for power had to leave, the others remained attached to their clan, to their leader. But the reality was quite different. The pack as I knew it had never been a clan and Elgin had never been a leader. He was a friend, a friend who needed others, a friend they all trusted. 

I readjusted the collar of my coat and motioned for him to follow me.

We walked through the cold, cobblestone streets of St Andrews pushing into the wind. Passers-by, although used to gusts, were cold. They took refuge behind long coats and thick scarves, hiding their bodies and half of their faces. I watched them walk, go through the course of their lives, ignoring what was going on around them. Unaware that stronger, older creatures were fighting to save their peace and existence.

“Stop making that face,” the detective suddenly told me.

As I walked forward, I swivelled to look at him in amazement.

“You aren’t twenty-five and you seem to be ten years older. Looks like the sky has fallen on your head. Stop frowning like that.”

I shrugged my shoulders and continued to walk.

“It fell on my head, detective.”

“Not yet.”

Cynically, I laugh through my nose.

“Your encouragement goes straight to my heart!” 

“Don’t barricade yourself behind walls,” he growled. “Don’t pretend nothing is possible! It’s hope that drives us forward, everything else is a lie. The pity, the whining, the tears. It’s of no use.” 

If I refrained from telling him that I wasn’t particularly willing to receive his moral lessons, it was because I knew full well that he was right. 

“Do you have children?” I asked suddenly. 

I heard him mumble under his breath.

“No.”

“You should. You have the job profile,” I said sarcastically.

“We don’t choose!” 

His remark was so bitter that it put me on the alert.

“Did you love Elgin’s mother?” 

“Everyone loved her,” he replied a little too quickly.

“But you, a little more than the others...”

I felt he was holding his breath. His features were strained with anger, and his eyes shone with an enraged glow. He stopped in the middle of the street and gave me a look as cold as the surrounding air.

“Miss Rittel. If I have agreed to help you, it’s not to reveal to you some sordid snatches of my student life. Rose was an exceptional woman, in love with an exceptional man, and together they gave birth to a boy exceptional enough that you wanted to risk your skin to get him out of the mess he’s in. Consider that I’m indebted to you since that was the plan you set for yourself. I’m a man of honour, so let’s focus on this mission and leave me alone with my past, understand?” 

Dumbfounded, I nodded without saying another word.

I buried my hands in my pockets and walked straight ahead.

I noticed John’s scent long before we reached the pub. My skin crackled with impatience as much as it dreaded what I was about to learn.

When we pushed open the door, we spotted him immediately. Feeling us, John, Tony, Jeff, Mario, and Eddy turned to study us in amazement.

“He’s here,” I whispered.

Keith Forbes’ eyes narrowed until they formed only slits.

“I see him. He looks a lot like his father.”

With his elbows on the table, John gave me a look he wanted to be intimidating. The presence of the lupus next to me wasn’t chance, as was our presence here, he knew. That’s why he stood up when we took a step in his direction.

Our eyes met for a moment, then he slowly slid his own towards the detective.

“What’s going on?” 

“Detective Forbes, we’d like to talk to you, Mr Gordon.”

John raised an eyebrow and assumed a haughty look.

“Is it official?” 

Forbes wasn’t impressed by the formality of his question. He wrinkled his forehead and pursed his lips.

“It can become.”

Then he turned to the rest of the pack and examined the members one by one.

“Go,” he said simply.

Tony looked shocked as the other three understood that now was not the time to resist.

“I’ll not allow you!” John said indignantly. 

“But you have nothing to allow me, my boy. There are two solutions for you: we talk here, alone, without your friends, or you follow me to the station. Your choice will be mine.” 

He ended his tirade with an eloquent raising of his eyebrows.

John looked at his friends and nodded to them.

Mario, Tony, Jeff, and Eddy got up and pushed their chairs back. They gave me a snowdrift glare and left.

John waited until Detective Forbes and I were seated before sitting down. He grabbed his glass of beer and took a long sip before putting it down sharply.

“What do you want?” 

My heart was pounding, so much so that I was almost convinced they could both realize it. I bit my lip, wedged my hands between my thighs and waited.

“I would like to talk to you about the disappearance of Elgin Sutherland.”

John c****d his head to the side, frowning.

“His disappearance?” 

“Exactly.”

He looked at me, looked at the detective, then back to me...

“What’s this guy saying? Elgin is at home in Wick.”   

He looked surprised and for a moment, very sincere. Despite my satisfaction at deducing that John hadn’t betrayed Elgin, I was stunned by an even greater disappointment: my last hope had just collapsed like a house of cards. Surely, he had no idea where Elgin was. 

“I haven’t heard from him for a week, John. He never visited his uncle and aunt as planned. No one knows where he is.”

John looked genuinely confused.

As if I hadn’t already done it myself, he picked up his cell phone and dialled Elgin’s number. It went to his voice mail.

“Damn it! What’s going on?” he asked.  

Detective Forbes leaned quietly against his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. One of his favourite positions, obviously.

“I was wondering if you had something to do with it.”

“You are completely off!” he immediately cried in a growling voice. 

“His disappearance has served your takeover particularly well, Mr Gordon, don’t you think?” 

John didn’t just sound like he was mad with anger, he was. All the power of his lupus energy radiated and gave off a threatening aura. I couldn’t remember seeing him in such a state before, not even the time the pack was about to fight the Circle on the Eden Estuary.

“What do you dare to imply? That I set a trap for him to take his place?”  

He gave me a demented look.

“Is that what you think too?” he said between gritted teeth. 

I shook my head without being able to say a word.

“I’m not implying anything, I’m asking you a question, Mr Gordon: did you set a trap for him to take his place?”  

John squeezed his fingers as if to hold back and blasted Detective Forbes with his eyes.

“I’m going to put my fist in your face,” he threatened.

His irises were burning with that glow that precedes a transformation, he was beside himself.

“Elgin Sutherland, despite our deep disagreement over the stewardship of the pack, is a sincere friend. Never, never, by the Spirit, would I do him the slightest harm, much less to serve my so-called thirst for power! There are values ​​that lupus cannot violate, detective!”  

“Really? Not even your father?”  

John went immediately silent.

“I have the feeling that we understand each other…,” Keith Forbes added with a bad smile.

The air that had been charged with electric particles the moment before immediately returned to normal.

“Now answer this question, Mr Gordon. Did your father insist that you take Elgin Sutherland’s place?” 

John opened his mouth and closed it without making a sound.

“Very good. Do you think he could be responsible for Elgin’s disappearance?” 

“No!” he cried like twelve voices united. 

A great silence was forged around us, leading me to smile stupidly as if to apologize. The eyes of the customers slipped on us for a moment before returning to the bottom of their glass.

I focused again on John and Detective Forbes; they hadn’t taken their eyes off each other for a moment.

John swallowed hard as if he had just swallowed a spoon of pins. With one hand, he rubbed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose for a few seconds.

“My father has been insisting for months that I claim the place of pack leader. He found Elgin’s repeated absences intolerable, unworthy of his rank, and I… According to him, I’m the most qualified for this role.”

“Why is that?” I asked a little sharply. 

“Because I’m a descendant of Aonghas. I come from a family older than his.”

I frowned and tried to put the pieces of my memory together.

Aonghas was the Were who had taken over governance long after Lyka, the father of all species. He had wanted to create a tight-knit community and had established strict rules for it to survive, such as marking the face of every child born of a human and a Were to persuade species to procreate only among themselves. It was with them that it all began. Because Angus, another leader, then decided to tighten them even more, permanently forbidding werewolves to mate with humans. The affected human was executed, as Elgin’s mother had been. This is where Filan Sutherland, Elgin’s ancestor, came in. He had sparked a rebellion that ended up splitting the community in two: the Sutherland community and the Free community. The first always followed the rules imposed by Aonghas and Angus, the other lived as it saw fit. 

Then something bothered me.

“Aonghas was a crinos, You’re lupus. How is it possible that Aonghas is your ancestor?” 

The five species could not procreate among themselves. It was certain.

Keith Forbes suddenly burst out laughing.

“Aonghas, like all hypocrites of his kind, was fond of beautiful women, human or not! If you believe that giving orders prevented him from indulging himself, it’s because you’re even more naive than you appear! A crinos sleeps with a human. From this relationship is born a human child. This, in turn, encounters lupus and conceives lupus, etc., etc.”   

“Our family tree is accurate,” John added. “The men and women of my family suffered repression, like the others. All the more so because they didn’t follow the rules when they should have been the first to do so.”

“But your father supports the Sutherland community, my boy.”

John looked more dejected than ever. I knew he didn’t share those ideas. He had many faults, but this wasn’t one of them.

Then I suddenly stopped breathing, gasping for air. I looked up at John and felt the fire take hold of my face. I was understanding. Everything was lighting up. Why hadn’t I thought of it earlier? 

“We broke them all. The three rules...” I said.

Keith Forbes narrowed his eyelids at me, then stared at John. As soon as I told him about John, the detective understood. Right from the start.

“Does your father have connections with the Sutherland community?” he asked as it was obvious he knew the answer. 

“No!” John cried immediately. “He could never have done this!”  

“Does he have any?” 

John bowed his head, more overwhelmed than ever.

“Yes.”

The detective stood up calmly and pushed his chair back.

“We’ll talk to him.”

“He would never have done such a thing…” John repeated in a faint voice, clutching his head in his hands.

Everything about his devastated demeanour showed how almost certain he was. I felt sorry for him. Really. The man who had seen him grow up was a traitor, a liar, an opportunist, a manipulator.

“Sorry, boy. I believe you are in good faith, but your father can never say the same.”

He patted him gently on the shoulder and invited me to follow him. Then he turned around towards the exit.

I stood staring at John for a few moments, alone with himself, then I placed my hand gently on his arm.

“I’m sorry…”

Abruptly, he locked my fingers in his and lifted his head to stare at me intently, his eyes shining with a painful glow that could have finished me off.

“I didn’t want this… I didn’t want this. You have to believe me.”

“I believe you,” I whispered. “I believe you, John.”

He released the pressure of his hand. With one last look at him, I joined Detective Forbes.

Dageus Gordon lived in a sumptuous house on the outskirts of town, heading south. It was hidden in lush greenery, surrounded by undergrowth and fields, without a single neighbour around. Keith Forbes was sure we would find him at home. Mr Gordon owned several businesses, so he managed most of them from his home. The detective parked in the yard and cut the engine.

“Are you sure he’s guilty?” I asked him. 

He unfastened his seat belt and turned to me; his eyes determined.

“I’m not here to make sure, it’s nobody but him. Despite his presence in St Andrews, Dageus Gordon has always been a strong supporter of the principles of the Sutherland community.”

“Then why waste our time here, if you know it’s him? You want to understand why he did it, right?”  

“No, Scarlett, why, I already know.”

“So what?” 

He looked at me in astonishment.

“Do you have any idea of ​​the extent of the followers of the Sutherland community? Of their presence in the world?”  

I shook my head.

“They’re everywhere, so your boyfriend can be anywhere on the planet.”

I frowned.

“You exaggerate.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Not at all. Only Gordon knows where he is, so let’s go.”

He got out of the 4x4 and slammed the door. I followed him with a staggering step, fearing as much the reception which would be reserved for us, as the revelations that Dageus Gordon was going to be able to give us. What had happened to Elgin? What had they done to him? I knew the tyranny of our kind towards people like him, like us… My heart was powerfully compressed by anguish and revolt. I dreaded knowing. Forbes knew what he was doing, I had to trust him.  

We walked along the path of flat stones and rang the doorbell. A lady in her sixties, a human servant, opened the door to us.

“Yes?” 

“Hello, ma’am,” Forbes began, pulling a police badge out of his jacket, “Detective Keith Forbes. We would like to speak to Mr Dageus Gordon, please.”

The woman frowned and asked us to wait.

We waited just two minutes before a man the same age as Keith Forbes introduced himself. Tall, salt and pepper hair, with the impressive build of a judoka, and yet, I would have gouged out his eyes without warning.

“Forbes…,” he blurted out in a cold, dry tone.

Then his gaze slid over me and, for a moment, I saw surprise on his face. He had never met me before, but I was maybe even the only transformed werewolf he had ever seen, which was more than enough for him to know who I was. He had understood in a few seconds that his plotting had been discovered. But it didn’t affect him. The sly expression on his face smacked of arrogance and contempt. He didn’t care if his cunning was revealed.

“You are?” he pretended not to know. 

“Scarlett Rittel, sir. Elgin Sutherland’s companion.”

He remained relentless.

“What can I do for you?” 

Keith Forbes attacked hard.

“You were always a bastard of the worst kind, Dageus, what you failed to do with Jeremiah, you did with his son. Except, luckily for us, your lack of finesse is matched only by the incredible stupidity you’ve shown since you were born. Having him removed by the Sutherland community wasn’t the hardest thing to find. Now you have two options: you tell me precisely where he is and how you went about it. This way I give you a chance to redeem yourself and leave this town to save yourself. Or I swear I’ll snatch a confession from you at the same time I tie your guts in knots.” 

Dageus Gordon burst into laughter. I was sure then that he wasn’t going to try to deny it.

“And you, you’ve always been deeply blinded when it comes to Rose, my poor Keith. It even cost you exile for years! She’s dead and you still haven’t changed. That little brat from Sutherland is no better than his father, you should know!”

I felt my blood boil in my veins, burst into a billion bubbles of murderous energy. The aggressiveness that was taking hold of me was going to explode like so many destructive particles. Fists clenched, I took a step forward and pushed him with all my might with the flat of my hands. He barely staggered.

“So, you want to rub shoulders with me, child?”  

“No,” Keith growled, “but I do!” 

Without warning, he sent him a right hook so powerful that Dageus Gordon crashed into a mirror in the entrance, sending hundreds of shards of glass flying.

“Mr Gordon! Mr Gordon!” cried the servant, throwing herself on her employer to pick him up.  

“Get off!” he screamed at her, mad with rage. 

He pushed her back violently, got up with a supple movement before rushing at Forbes to pin him to the floor. The two rolled out of the house, grunting, and panting like beasts.

“I’ll call the police!” the housekeeper yelled, uttering shrill cries. 

“You won’t!” I threatened as she rushed over to the phone. “If you touch that phone, I’ll flay you alive!”  

She stopped abruptly, paralyzed by what was a, in reality, silly threat, before taking refuge in a corner of the living room.

A fierce growl made me turn around.

“You are responsible for Rose’s death!” yelled Forbes.   

Suddenly, he hit his jaw with all his might. Gordon fell back to the ground and, before he had a chance to get up, the detective crushed him with all his weight.

Gordon lifted the back of his neck and head-butted Forbes’ nose with a loud c***k. Forbes rocked back, giving his opponent enough freedom to stand up and land a punch to his stomach. Forbes hissed, coughed, and found himself curled up on the floor.

Forbes was fierce, unleashing a hatred so palpable that it was suffocating. It was as if he was settling scores he had held for a lifetime. It had nothing to do with Elgin anymore.

With a swollen face and a bursting nose, he scrambled to his feet, gasping for air, to confront Gordon once again. With a smooth and almost invisible movement, he rained a volley of punches on Gordon’s face, which was soon nothing more than a mass of bloody flesh. Forbes seemed like he couldn’t stop hitting, so I was afraid he was going too far. Gordon seemed unable to defend himself further.

“Stop! Stop now!” I yelled, wrapping my arms around Keith Forbes. “He has to talk, stop!”   

The detective let go of Gordon who fell to the ground, then he threw his head back and roared his anger and rage. Fangs fully out, shining with saliva, he was terrifying. And his face… by the Spirit! I couldn’t remember ever seeing someone so damaged in my entire life. His lupus nature would make him heal quickly, but it was no less monstrous. 

I looked down at Gordon, he was moaning in pain. He managed to tip over to the side and looked up at Keith.

“Go to hell, Forbes, it’s surely too late for him, by now!” 

“Where is he?” I yelled, throwing myself on him to grab him by the collar. “Where is he?”  

His mouth filled with blood, he choked on laughter as I shook him.

“Go get him, if you dare! Go look for him in the Bowels of the Earth!”  

I let him fall to the ground.

Forbes walked past me and towered over Gordon to his full height.

“Thanks for the info, old brother!” 

He gave him a final kick in the ribs and turned on his heels.

By the Spirit, the Bowels of the Earth...