Page 32 of Hell’s Weapon

“Don’t beat yourself up too much, I’m as perplexed as you are.”

“But this shouldn’t have happened.”

He releases a long breath. “No, it shouldn’t but we shall deal with it. In fact, that’s why I’m still here. There is something I need to tell you.”

I take a step towards him, curious at the look that crosses his features. I’m about to open my mouth to get him to continue when the doors to the gym burst open.

Zafihra, one of the female officers, storms in looking shaken. She’s the only dragon shifter on the team and it takes a lot to unnerve her.

“Sir,” she addresses me, and then notices Hades lounging a few meters away. “My Lord, there’s been another murder.”

Fuck. My. Life.

“What? Who?” I force through clenched teeth.

“Number Twenty-One, sir. She was found in her room by her roommate. They’d been in the shower but when they’d returned to the bedroom, she was lying on the floor with her throat cut.”

My brain flits through all the files I have memorised. Twenty-One was a paid assassin for some rich governments. She’d held no loyalties and eventually got caught up with some public relations that had broken down between two of the major presidents. She’d been jailed as a spy in the crossfire.

“When was this?” Hades asks, standing to attention.

“Just now, my Lord. Her roommate, number Forty-Three, came out of the dormitories screaming for a guard. Teddy and I were patrolling around their building as she ran out of it. He’s outside with her now.”

“Fuck. We need to secure the entire floor. And I need a look at that body.” I walk over to the bench where I’d left my towel and quickly dry the sweat off my forehead and neck.

“I’m going straight to Charon. Hopefully, I can beat the soul this time. Go and see if there are any clues on the body, and alert whoever is monitoring the cameras right now.” Hades barks the orders and then he’s gone, vanishing into nothing with a swirl of black smoke.

“Thank you, Zafihra. I think Dravos is on duty in the Surveillance Room, can you go see if he spotted anything untoward tonight? And get another set of eyes on those cameras in case the murderer is still loose. He could be watching them sneak back to their own room right now.”

She nods before marching off to carry out my orders. I’m hot on her heels but continue up the stairs to the ground floor as she darts left into the room we have set up with all the monitors.

Two murders in less than twenty-four hours. This is bad, really fucking bad. How the fuck are they getting away with it?

My initial thought was that it was the roommate of the first victim. But they’d had a tight alibi, and it was able to be backed up with the camera footage. They’d been in the outdoor rec area all afternoon. The leading theory I’d had this evening was that it was someone in the same building, probably housed on the same floor. But Twenty-One was in the other residence to the victim from earlier today.

Stomping across the entryway, I’m marching towards the front door when I’m stopped by Tarron.

“Garrick, I have a problem,” he says a bit sheepishly.

“Not now,” I growl at my second. “It’ll have to wait.”

“This can’t. I’ve fucked up.” He swallows and the nervous look in his eyes has me pausing.

“Tarron, this better be really damn important because there’s been another killing and I’ve just about had all I can take with this day.”

He visibly shrinks from me. “I…”

“Spit it out.”

“I’ve lost my pass.”

My jaw audibly cracks as the bones fight the shift. I want to sink my canines into my second’s throat. “What did you just say?”

“My pass, it’s gone.”

“Are you fucking joking right now!?” I bellow so loud at him that I hear a few crashing cups and plates in the kitchen down the hall from us.

“I’m sorry. I had it this afternoon, I swear. I didn’t use it to get back in here this evening as I came in with Zamboss and Mikelson so I don’t know if I’ve lost it in here, or whether I dropped it in all the chaos this afternoon.”