25. The Tattoo

Chapter twenty-five

The Tattoo

*MEG*

O pal… I mean Annette, has been quiet for the last couple of days. Night lets me look after her because the last thing he needs or wants, as he claims, is an annoying little leech to constantly cry and brat around. It's better this way. I know how he can be when he is angry.

We had one teenager with us once, and he got so mad at her for being scared and crying that he beat her until she couldn't move anymore. The next day, she was gone, and I never saw her again.

Opal is safer when she is with me. I will make sure she doesn't make any noise and will keep her safe. He can't hurt Opal.

That's not her name.

I shouldn't call her that. I should remember that she is Annette.

Just like I am… I am Meg. Meg.

"Azurite." Junior approaches me. "The boss demands your presence."

I nod, patting Opal's head when I get up. "I will be back soon," I tell her.

She nods, hiding in the corner between her bed and the wall when I follow Junior. He doesn't spare her a look, though. Junior doesn't give a shit about any of us; he ignores us and prefers not to work with us.

He hands me a box. "Take that to Night," he says.

I don't need to ask him where Night is. I know what's in the box and what he is doing with it. The walk through the corridor feels endless. To this day I don't know where we are. There is a small garden here, surrounded by the thick walls of the building we live in. I am barely allowed outside. I've only seen the garden five or six times since I came here. But I don't know what's beyond the thick walls of the building. The windows leading outside are barricaded with wood or iron.

I drag my feet along, the pit in my stomach broadening the closer I get to the white doors. I'm scared that one day the darkness will swallow everything from me and not leave anything behind. Day by day it's getting stronger. Sometimes I can't quite remember the before anymore. Before Night took me. Sometimes, I dream of Paris and a kind older man who kept watching over me and other kids. He was always so nice.

Night is never nice.

I used to remember his name, but recently it keeps slipping away.

What else will the darkness swallow?

I knock at the door. "Come in," Night says, his voice cold and distant as usual.

I step inside, trying to ignore the three new gems cowering against the wall. I think they are the same ones I saw last time, but I can't quite remember. PJ is here, too, leaning against the door and waiting for his orders.

Night is sitting on a chair, patting his leg now, so I follow his silent orders and sit on his lap. One of his hands closes around my waist. "Look at the new gems," he mutters, his breath brushing against my neck. "Aren't they pretty? They have the perfect blood. One of them is a beta, though, very unfortunate. But his pack is far in the mountains. He won't be missed soon."

"I staged a rogue attack," PJ says.

"Good," Night mutters, his other hand brushing against my leg before moving below my long skirt. He touches my inner thighs now, and I try not to tense. He doesn't like it when I tense.

"Begin," he orders PJ.

PJ steps closer and grabs the box. There is a tattoo set inside. It's always the same procedure. They get their looks altered, their hair colored mostly, and most importantly, they receive the tattoo on their wrists. He starts with the woman. She struggles slightly but, in the end, is too scared to fight him. She is wearing a silver collar similar to mine while the two men are tied up.

"What do we call her?" Night muses. "How about Ruby. Her hair is red, like her blood."

PJ grabs the book, looking up the rune for ruby, before going to work, and tattooing it to the woman's wrist. She flinches and winces in pain but fortunately stays quiet. They make it worse when someone is fussy. Night keeps stroking me while he is watching, having reached the region between my legs now.

I try to remain unfazed, like I don't mind, like I enjoy it.

I feel so gross.

"Azurite," he mutters.

Azurite, that's my name, isn't it? Azure , sometimes he calls me Azure. But it was Meg. Meg and something else.

Why am I even fighting? If this is my life, maybe I should finally give in. Maybe it would stop hurting.

*ARDEN*

Emilien and I came home late this evening. We both wanted to make sure that Gustave felt alright. None of us considered how traumatizing it might be to come face-to-face with a body like that. We went for a brief dinner and just talked about our findings, to help him find a more constructive approach to his fear.

Aurelia is already asleep when I get to my room, but it is nice getting into my bed with my mate already in it and feeling her proximity. With her next to me I sleep so much better, so much more peacefully.

The next morning, I wake up with her head on my arm and her hand on my chest. It's surreal that this is my life now. Once Aurelia is up, I fill her in on what happened yesterday. The worry is instantly written all over her face. Throughout our breakfast, all we do is discuss our theories so that we are prepared for the new day of work.

"They have something on their wrists," Aurelia mutters when we meet with the others to go through what Emilien, Gustave, and I found out. "What is this? A tattoo?"

"Yes, it's definitely a tattoo," I say. "I read the autopsy report, and it mentions ink there, typical ink used by tattoo artists."

"If we only had the whole thing," Emilien mutters. "But they removed that part of the skin."

"It has to be important," Leila says. "Or they wouldn't have removed it." She keeps looking at the photo, taking it into her hands to stare at it, then she closes her eyes, opens them, and closes them again. She looks concentrated and focused, and none of us dares to say something.

She groans in frustration.

"Don't pressure yourself," Aurelia says quietly.

"She is right," Emilien says gently. "Just take a few breaths, try to free your mind, and if it doesn't work, don't force it."

We remain silent, watching as Leila keeps staring holes into the picture. She is about to put the picture down when her eyes flash over, turning almost white. She trembles, the picture in her hand shaking. Within a minute, she is back to normal.

"It's a rune," she pants. "They are putting it on their wrists. But I don't know what it says. I just saw them do it!"

Aurelia shoves a paper towards her. "Can you—"

"Yes," Leila says, grabbing a pen and scribbling as if she is scared to forget it again. Once she is done, she turns the paper to us. A single rune is written on it.

"Do you know what this means, Arden?" Emilien asks.

"No, I would need to check the books we have," I say. "I can do it now."

"No, wait," Gustave says. "I think this is something one of us can do. Now we know that they might kill their victims, I feel like it would be important to find another body. There are too many possible victims and even more unidentified bodies that we found during our research—endless possibilities. We need your help, Arden."

"He isn't wrong," Nox says. "You have a photographic memory. You are going to be much faster skimming through the reports."

"Alright, you all have a point," I agree. "Here, Gustave, you search for the rune. You are good with that kind of stuff."

"Got you," he says, grabbing his tablet. "I have a few programs I like to use when deciphering codes. I think I could use them to figure out what type of rune it is and narrow down the search. And I will talk to the witches that work for the Council."

It feels like everything has changed ever since our talk yesterday; everything is so much more relaxed around us. I nod at him. Meanwhile, Zoé has stayed quiet. She wasn't able to look at the photos of Claire and instead kept researching on the net. "What are you looking for?" I ask.

"I'm roaming the dark net," she says. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm searching for, but I thought it worth a try."

"Good." With our tasks all set, I join the main group that's sitting at the table, with all the pamphlets with our potential victims in front of us. Gustave was right; there are dozens of police reports.

"I'll call Liam and tell him to check for a tattoo on the wrist of the victim that was found a year ago," Aurelia says before stepping out to call her brother.

For the next couple of hours, we work in silence. I have our potential victims' faces memorized and go through police reports now, skimming through them while my eyes are glued on the attached pictures.

In my mind it's like a whirlwind of images that put themselves together, to be compared before separating again.

No… no… maybe, have to see it again… no… no…

Yes?

I pause, closing my eyes and opening them again, staring at the police report of the body of a 25-year-old man they only found last week. He has a scar on his chin, an old one. I reach out into my mind, digging through the pictures again. No one is like Meg. Meg is special. I believe they have kept her for years, but the others? No, I doubt it. They are not being kept for ages, mostly for months. A scar like that is too old to have been from his kidnappers.

I reach out towards the victim I have in mind, his name popping up in my mind. "Louis," I say. "Louis Auclair. Where is his folder?"

"Here." Aurelia hands me his folder, and I open the first page, putting my tablet with the opened police report next to it. Louis was eighteen when he was reported missing.

Everyone's heads bend over the two files. "They have the same scar," Aurelia says, her sharp eyes easily catching the most important characteristic. She is incredible.

"He is skinnier and paler than he was when he got abducted," Emilien says. "But that's definitely the same person."

"You're right," Leila agrees. "They are altering their looks, though. Look, he was blond when he disappeared, and here he has brown hair."

"Why are they doing that?" Zoé asks. "If they alter their looks, there must be a reason for it. If they abduct these wolves just to keep them, why change how they look? Why tattoo them?"

"Maybe to alter them to their preference?" Emilien offers. "Isn't that what a lot of culprits do?"

"Yes, a lot of sexually motivated culprits see one certain person in their victims, but in this case..." I pause. "I'm with Zoé. Our victims vary in looks, age, even gender. There is no way to make them look like the same person."

"You have a point," Nox agrees.

"He was found last week," I say.

"You're kidding?" Emilien gapes. "This means we can actually take a look at the body! We can compare him and Claire," he pauses. "I apologize. Sounding excited in such a moment is truly irreverent."

"We get it," Leila reassures him. "We are all excited that we found something. We know you aren't happy that someone died."

"I found something too," Zoé says all of a sudden, turning to us with her eyes wide. "And… I think I might know why they alter their looks. Wasn't there a young teenage girl that only disappeared two weeks ago?"

"Yes." Nox roams through the pamphlets. "I just looked at hers. Here. Annette Renaud. Our reports say she is a young omega girl, not an orphan. Her father is a single dad and instantly reported her missing."

"She comes from a pack further into the country, a small one hidden in a forest," Emilien says. "Their alpha is a good guy and immediately went to search for the girl."

"Good that he did," Zoé says, "because look."

We all step closer to her, looking at her screen. There is Annette's face looking at us, scared and her eyes swollen. She has red hair in it, not brown like she had when she disappeared. Next to her is a countdown and a number that's changing.

"What is that?" Leila asks breathlessly.

"An auction," Zoé says quietly, pointing at the number. "That's the amount of money the bidders are bidding."

"That's why they are changing their looks," I mutter. "It makes it harder to detect them. Are there more?"

"Yes, this is a special chatroom," she explains, showing us her interaction with someone named bloodlust57. She's named herself bl00dy7. "All bidders have names connected to blood. That's how I found them. There is only Annette being auctioned and this man." She shows us the picture of a young man, looking rugged and beaten up.

"They tried to hide it, but he was beaten up recently," I say. "He can't have disappeared for long."

"Can you zoom in?" Emilien asks. When Zoé does so, he points at the guy's eyes. "One of his eyes is partly green."

"Heterochromia," I exclaim.

"Could that be contact lenses?"

"No," I say. "It's just a spot that's green. That would be hard to fake."

Behind us, the door opens slightly, and Eric steps in. "Emilien linked me," he says when we look at him in surprise. "He told me you had two major finds."

"One new body that was found last week," Leila mutters. "And then this," she adds, pointing at the screen.

Eric stares at the two pictures while Zoé explains her find to him and also who Annette is. "Goddess," Eric mutters. "I know the guy. His name is Denis."

"What!?" Emilien exclaims.

"I only remember because it was last month and because of his eyes. He is a warrior, a beta."

"So, our theory is correct," Aurelia says. "They are starting to abduct betas as well now."

"Why wasn't he reported missing?" I ask.

Eric's eyes flash in anger. "Because," he says, grabbing his phone, "the alpha reported a rogue attack yesterday. Two of his warriors fell, or so he believes. They were dismembered beyond recognition. Guess who was believed to be one of the fallen warriors?"

"Denis," I mutter.

"Exactly," Eric frowns. "Alright, what are your next steps?"

"We need to see the unidentified body to compare it to Claire," Emilien says.

"And Nox and I need to break into the hospital next to the orphanage, the one with the biggest blood bank," Aurelia says.

"How much longer do you need to prepare for it?" Eric asks.

"We are prepared," Aurelia says.

"Tomorrow?"

She nods. "Yes, we can strike anytime. We have a plan."

"Alright, I will lead you to our IT team. I assume you need the surveillance cameras hacked."

She nods. "That, and Zoé will need to come with us tomorrow, but she won't be in danger." She pauses. "And do you happen to have a fancy white coat? And we would need to know if one of the current doctors or nurses is currently on vacation or sick."

Eric looks amused. "I see what you are plotting. My IT team will help you." He turns to Zoé. "Zoé, stay in the chatroom and continue to observe it. I want you to bid on Annette and Denis if possible."

She nods. "The auctions are up for 72 hours. I will make my bid closer to the end."

Nox and Aurelia grab their things to follow Eric, while the rest of us hurry to prepare for our tasks. Gustave continues his research on the runes and will act as backup for Zoé, while Emilien and I will go to see the unidentified body.