Chapter Thirty

The order was as impossible as it could get. Cole wanted to punch the man in the face for asking someone that was supposed to be grieving to keep it together. It sounded preposterous when he said it. "I'm trying sir…" Katie said. This was a reaction the werewolves did not expect. It came as illogical to them for someone to ask something so heartless when they were faced with such hardship and Katie's reply was all the more peculiar.

"That won't cut it, Chase," he yelled louder at her. Cole started to get angry at the sight of him. This, however, changed when he saw what Katie did next.

Katie closed her eyes and took in three deep breaths allowing her mind to settle, bottling up all thoughts of the death and emotions like a trained hunter was supposed to be capable of. The effects of the anger started to leave her body. The white wolf retreated into the back of her mind clearing the fog that had plagued her since she got the news of the death.

When Katie opened her eyes, they were as clear as they had been that morning before the tragedy. "Yes, sir…" she said once again. Her voice was confident this time and she looked the man in the eye with a newfound determination. The formerly shaky voice and trembling that plagued her body were gone in an instant.

"It's that easy?" Cole asked her. What they were doing was simply trash to him and he did not approve of it.

Katie glanced his way, a small smile showing up on her face, "Yes, Cole, it's that easy," she said before walking out of the room carrying herself as calmly as someone who didn't care one bit about the person that had just been murdered in front of her.

Some of the hunters got to investigating the crime scene while others handled crowd control in the school, trying to heal the commotion that was constantly rising in the vicinity. Sandra got to the ground, slamming her fist onto the ground in an effort to seize her nerves. The director of the Hunters' Agency stayed seated on a desk watching the hunters at work. He noticed Sandra's gesture and smiled a bit, "Keep at it, Cadet. You'll get there."

"Do you lose your humanity when you become a pro hunter?" Cole asked.

The man huffed at the question, "Is that what it looks like to you? Well, the short answer would be yes, but the long one wouldn't be as simple."

"That doesn't make sense," he said. He could only keep his palms balled into fists to help him contain the storm within him and yet Katie was already calm like nothing had happened.

"Well, to put in the easiest and shortest explanation, not everyone has the luxury of giving in to their emotions. The person that I would say is most affected by this tragedy is Katie, but that's just my opinion. After this, the title of safest school will surely move on to the next school in line. If things get even more out of hand when this information spreads, the school will then be shut down for further investigation. Death is death… a murder is a murder… there is no way to justify that. The common report was that werewolf casualties in this school were more than the human casualties. It is also known that this also happened when Katie showed up.

Something that only meant that the hunters here were good at restraining the werewolves was giving the school prestige, but that can easily be flipped into a story much darker… and Katie is at the centre of it. The only way Katie can get out of this is if she finds the truth behind this death, otherwise, she is looking at spending time in the most secure hunter detainment facilities. Her reputation in the hunter society as the one hunter that was granted both gifts stands untarnished, but you can't tell that to the general public now, can you? She will do everything she can to get to the bottom of this… and emotions are merely standing in the way of that," he finished his explanation.

Cole had not thought that far ahead about her situation and neither had Caden and Jason. Sandra, on the other hand, was angry about something completely unrelated. "How can I be so far behind?"

"Calm down, Cadet. That's no way to catch up to your master," Anthony said, lowering his voice for the first time.

"Don't you think I know that? I've been telling myself that for the past thirty minutes, but nothing I'm trying is working. How does someone avoid…"

"By going through the procedures that one is taught without fail. Discipline, Sandra and persistence… Do not falter in your determination…" Sandra struck the ground one more time with her fist, this time drawing blood, an internal battle that was clear to everyone in the room raged on in the junior hunter.

"I will catch up to you, Katie. No matter how far you go," she said before standing up, her anger dissipating all at once.

"That's more like it… You really want to catch up to her that bad, huh?" the director asked.

"We grew up together, training hard. She progressed extraordinarily fast. While I asked her to try and relax, she was driven and determined to get stronger. I couldn't tell where she got her determination from, but it was clear that she was leaving me behind. By the time I even tried to keep up, she was advancing at such a high speed, it was unbelievable. She graduated not long after, we were only fourteen when she graduated with both Prometheus gifts in her possession, something that was almost unheard of."

"Almost?" Cole asked.

"Yes, almost… It's been done before… the head of the Chase family, for example, has both Prometheus gifts. The founder of the Hunter Agency also had both gifts. Hunters with such power strike fear into werewolves just by standing in their presence. The culprit of this crime could not have dared to do this if Katie was nearby. As you must have noticed, she got here before the ambulances even did. She, no doubt ran all the way at astounding speed," Sandra said.

"Your assumption is correct. When she was told of the incident, the steel door of the detainment centre was ripped off its hinges from the sheer force of her pushing it to go through. She was a blur after that… leapt over the gate to avoid the hustle of opening it. All that is possible with the Prometheus gifts though," the director explained, confirming Sandra's story before the hunters came back to him.

He turned his attention to them, "Report."

"There was a lot of wolfsbane mixed in with the blood of the werewolf that was killed and based on what we could trace, you won't believe what it is we found…" he said.

"You know that I don't like being kept in the dark," Anthony said.

"The wolfsbane that we tested from the blood came from a batch that was issued to the last hunter that you would expect," he said.

"Let me take a wild guess…" Anthony facepalmed, "Katie Chase."

"Y-yes, sir," this struck fear into all those that heard the information. The hunters could account for Katie's whereabouts at the time of the murder, but there was no saying what had happened for sure.

"Chase, what did you get yourself into this time?" the man said partially to himself and for the first time since the man had arrived, the students saw his face turn to that of worry.

"So it was one of her blades that were used to kill Ash…" Cole spoke up.

"Seems so… situation is not looking good for her," Anthony said, "someone who would have access to her weapons, I would presume if she was more careful with who she gave her jacket."

"I agree it isn't hard for someone to get their hands on the bag that contains her jacket, but again, there isn't that big a list of people that would dare to touch it," Sandra said.

"Yes, but still, be it as it may, someone can still choose to send someone else or could simply pay someone to take it from her. There is also the issue of the time they had to take it from her. In the end, there are just too many suspects and there would be panic if we chose to point fingers," the issues that kept this case difficult to investigate seemed to be many. "However, if there are rules that must be set aside in order to solve this mystery, we shall do it."

This breathed some new hope into the quiet werewolves. For the three of them, there was nothing that they could really do when their comrade had only been killed. For werewolves, the time of death was not the same as the time to pick yourself up. The alpha was nearly incapacitated by the feeling of loss and the rest of those in the pack had to stay with him during the time of grief. This, however, didn't mean that they were unable to take revenge on the culprit. In fact, aside from the grieving, the only other thing they could do in this state was to kill the murderer of their comrade.

"Where has she gone now?" Cole asked.

"I have no idea where she…"

"Director Anthony, I found something…" he was cut off by the same person that they had just asked for.

"Speak of the devil."

"You guys were talking about me?" she asked on hearing that.

"The Royal was just trying to know what it is that you were doing at the time at least," he said, "What is it that you said you found?"

Katie put her hand into her pockets and from it she procured a sharp tool, a dagger. The werewolves covered their noses in an effort to block the stench of wolfsbane that ravaged their nostrils… the acrid sickening smell from the dagger was thicker than the one that came from the cut on Ash's neck was. "Nice job… where did you find it?"

"A few feet from the classroom window out there," she said pointing out the windows of the classroom that looked to the forest and away from the school. "The murderer did not want to be detected by the werewolves so they ditched the dagger."