Chapter 10: Lights Out

The doctor did come it felt like I had slept only for a few minutes but apparently it was another six hours. It was time we didn’t have. He checked my bandages and gave me medication for the pain and the whole time Markham and Lonnie were nowhere to be seen.

After giving me the okay, he told me that Markham had wanted me to meet him at an apartment complex in the upper east side. I had been worried about meeting him in my blood crusted and torn clothes. I told myself it was because whoever we were meeting needed to see me as a professional, and I pushed any other thoughts down to be dealt with later. I didn’t have the time I didn’t have many more days to either prove his innocence or hand him over to his uncle. My stomach began to roll at the thought.

Around 8 o’clock I came bounding up the subway steps a block away from where I was supposed to meet him. I moved quickly as I could while still babying my injuries, they had given me a healing solve for the gashes in my ankle which was now almost completely healed so I could walk normally. However, my chest was a different story I frowned as the wind whipped pushing my hair into my eyes and cutting into my body as if I was paper. As I stabbed that shifter, and he raked his claws down my chest he got some of my breast, underneath it, along my ribs and stomach and had really dug in. It hurt if I shifted the wrong way. I had done all the rest that I could, it was time to work.

I rounded the corner, and I could see Wade from down the block. He was standing towards the apartment building with his back to the street and just staring up at the building. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of the jeans he was wearing. The jeans were nice denim, and he was in black loafers and perfectly fitting black button down. Suddenly I felt under dressed in my usual leather jacket and steel toe boot combo. As I neared him, I noted he was frowning as he stood there, he hadn’t noticed me yet and it looked like the weight of everything sat on his shoulders.

I shook my head to clear it, I was sure with being framed for murder (supposedly) would make anyone look a little worse for wear. I took a deep somewhat painful breath and moved closer to him, and he finally looked up.

A playful grin erupted on his face the melancholy dissipating, I couldn’t tell if it was real or not. “Right on time.” Hsaid clearing his throat as I came to stand beside him. I looked up at him and his face became a plain mask. We hadn’t spoken since I had first woken up.

“Yeah well. Are we heading up?” I asked, shifting my feet forward and looking around to make sure no one was watching us.

Wade nodded “Yes. I called Emery to let him know that we would be coming but he didn’t answer. No matter. He is going to have to take this house call.” He started to walk forward, and I followed quickly.

“What if he isn’t home?” I said as we walked up to the huge apartment building, this building made my building like crap Legos you get out of a dollar store or bodega.

Wade shook his head and I looked at the deep-set frown “If he isn’t home, we will wait. Emery is the best liaison I know. He will know if we have anything to worry about. “

I nodded as we walked up the perfect stone steps, there was a doorman who seemed human, but it was a little too dark to tell. He opened the door for us without question and let us through, nodding to Wade as we walked.

“Do you come here a lot?” I asked, trying to make conversation as we walked through into a brightly lit white marble hallway. Hanging sconces with perfectly shined lightbulbs lit your way to golden elevators.

“Yes, Emery is also, an old friend. Clan politics tend to be messy. It is hard to find allies, and you keep them close when you do.” He said softly and then pressed the button for the elevator. I stood next to him and looked around, it was quiet no one at the front desk. It seemed like a nice place to live, but unease was pooling in my belly, and I didn’t like it, so I tried to change the subject.

“You know you never told me how you’ve been able to elude your uncle and his men. He says you’ve been disappearing right under their noses.”

Wade smiled again and I smiled with him despite myself as we walked into the elevator. He looked around as we got inside, Wolves didn’t like to be in these tight spaces but if he was uncomfortable, he was holding his composure. “I know I have never told you.” He said keeping his smile and folding his arms in front of him, his wild hair was kept but one strand fell forward in front of his face, and he pushed it away.

“Are you going to tell me?” I said leaning back against the wall of the elevator door and looking up at the ceiling so I could look anywhere else but at him.

He looked at me and I felt it, tilting my head down to take in his joyous expression as he said “Nope” and walked out of the elevator as it dinged.

I rolled my eyes and followed him out before knocking right into him. I frowned. He was barely out of the elevator.

“What are you doing?” I said to him, trying to move past his body which seemed rooted to the spot. “What’s wrong?” I said again, the unease in my stomach growing.

I finally made my way around him and looked at his face, his eyes were searching, glowing like emeralds that had just been buffed.

“What’s wrong?” I said again, I looked around and saw the same calm that was going on downstairs.

“Something feel’s off.” He said finally before looking left and right, then frowning “Arm yourself.” He said softly, before cracking his neck from side to side and walking down the hallway. He was no longer limping, and I was grateful. If something was happening here, we both were going to have to fight.

We walked down to the apartment, and I took a deep breath before pulling out a stake from my jacket and keeping it close to my body as we moved slowly. Wade walked to the door and knocked on it in three distinct motions. I waited with him, trying to keep myself calm as I watched his face grow with concern. He touched the doorknob and I watched, he turned, and it opened.

We burst inside, Wade to the right of me, claws sprouting from his hands but nothing else, just his eyes glowing. I held my stake high and looked around. I wasn’t expecting what I saw. It looked like this might have been a nice apartment but not anymore. The couch and chairs were ripped apart, stuffing everywhere and red stains on white fabric. The silver gray carpet was now black with blood spots and the curtains were shredded. The piano off to the side of the room destroyed and a body in the middle of it all with the fireplace crackling in the background.

Wade ran over to the bottle and his hands went back to normal in the blink of an eye, I would ask him about that later. It was extremely difficult for Lycans to hold any sort of partial shift. Someone was more powerful than he was letting on.

I walked over and kneeled beside him and took in the full view of the body. This had to be Emery, I looked at Wade and saw his jaw twitch before I looked back the body to assess the damage. His skull was cracked in the back entirely, brain matter was seeping into the carpet along with blood. His eyes were wide open, and they were dark brown, in life they might have been warm, but they were now lifeless and cold. His fingers were all broken and there several different stab wounds on different parts of the body.

I looked at Wade and he was staring down at the body, his eyes were becoming Dark, and I wanted to reach out and put my hand on his again, but something was holding me back.

“Let’s search the apartment. There are a lot of rooms. Be careful.” He didn’t look at me or up as he spoke, he stood up and walked to the left of the apartment slowly I frowned and stood and walked the other way. ‘This is crazy’ I thought as I walked forward down the hallway to what looked like a separate sitting room. I put my stake back in my jacket and pulled out my gun with silver bullets. Whoever did this to Wade’s friend was a monster, and I was going to treat him like one.

I looked around the sitting room noting how it was much like the first room all the furniture had been destroyed. Clearly, they were looking for something, but what?

I looked around and walked toward the back shelves where pictures were destroyed. I picked up a broken frame and saw it was a picture of a much more alive Emery, his brown eyes warm like glowing chocolate. He was standing next to a laughing and very young Markham and an even younger looking Lonnie. I frowned thinking of Lonnie’s bright grin dimmed by this news.

“Val!!” I heard Wade yell and I ran back out to the other room.

“What is it?” I said as I ran back in, holding my gun at the ready. He didn’t say anything. He was looking down at the floor and I looked too, noting the problem before I could think about the thrill that went through me at him saying my name. Emery’s body was gone.

My stomach dropped and I looked at Wade and he held up a finger to his mouth. I nodded and moved to where he was, and he started to look around.

All the internal alarms in my body were going off and I didn’t know what to do. Where was the body? Someone had to still be here.

I held my gun up still and watched as Wade walked towards where I had been, and I shook my head at him because the room had been clear. He shrugged and walked into that other room anyway.

I sighed and looked at the blood stain on the carpet when a shadow moved over mine.

“Move and it’s over.” A hand closed around my mouth, a cloth in it. A sickly-sweet smell enveloped my nose before the darkness took my vision over. I felt the dizziness and tried to call out to Wade, but all I could see black as the chemical took over and sent me into sleep.