Chapter Thirty-One

The end of the call left us scrambling, taking pictures of the Mygi lead we had and more that Niko had set aside since he had the ability to speed-read multiple languages. He certainly got more done than I did, but neither of my brothers gave me a hard time for not being the greatest help. Davor also started plugging in the phones to his computer, hit a few buttons, and a few minutes later, unplugged them.

"I downloaded everything I could off them," he explained as he tucked them deep in the largest box, hidden by papers and the big computer. "They'll figure out that I did it, but I didn't delete anything off the phones. If I get in trouble, it won't be harsh."

"You sure?" I didn't like the idea of him getting in trouble.

"Positive. Father will counter anyone on the Tribunal by saying something about how they shouldn't feel bad that I had intel that he would have had to give me later anyway, and it would be improper to try to withhold it since we're all investigating the same things." Davor closed his case. "He's done it for me before for smaller things. Most of the time, some Tribunal Investigator gets fussy but doesn't say anything because they all know it's a lost cause."

"He really does back us up," Niko said, chuckling. "And that includes you, Jacky."

"Yup," I said, not attempting to hide how those words made me feel.

Right on time, as we swept dirt off our pants, the door into the cabin near us opened. Like all good royalty, Callahan and Corissa had some of their werewolves exit the Tribunal first. There were four to start, and they were alert, taking us in, smelling everything until one nodded back toward the open door. Callahan and Corissa exited, moving to the side, then it was Hasan and Subira. Subira didn't close the door, though. She and Hasan moved to the side and another four werewolves exited. I did a quick count, seeing three men and five women out of the security force for the Alphas.

"The Tribunal will provide transportation home for all those involved," Hasan declared. "Good work."

"Find the bodies," Corissa ordered to the closet werewolf near her. "Don't take the bodies into the Tribunal yet. Lay them out so we can inspect them for any evidence of magic done on them. We'll be remaining here to investigate."

"Yes, Alpha," the woman replied, nodding. She pointed to three werewolves, and they fell in with her. Then she turned to my brothers and me. "You fought them in the area but not here, correct?"

"Head west into the tree line, follow my scent or Davor's scent, and you'll find the bodies."

The female werewolf looked at me, then back at Niko, a silent question clear.

"She found them while searching for evidence of the werecat, and her scent is in the entire tree line from our assault on the cabin," Niko explained.

The werewolf nodded and walked away. Even in human form, the group of werewolves had the energy of a hunting pack, but since I didn't know them, it put me on edge when the pack at home never did.

"This is a disaster," Callahan pointed out, arms crossed as he inspected the area. "Why do I smell so much fuel?"

"I see evidence of vehicles," Hasan said, his voice a detached professional tone. He was also looking around now. "A plane was mentioned as well."

"Correct. As we arrived, some of the witches were loading into a small bush plane. We stopped who we saw, but some still got in the air. They mentioned needing to take multiple trips to get everything here, and I don't believe it would be a stretch to think they initially used multiple planes. I saw their generator on the side of the building over there, as well." Davor was pointing in the direction of the generator as he explained. "Their exit was not planned, that much is certain, which is why they could keep more from us."

"Is this everything you found inside?" Corissa asked, her politeness not false in any way as she stepped closer and looked at the boxes of documents we had cleared.

"No. When we cleared the home while Davor contacted family, Niko and I didn't want to disturb the basement any more than we initially had, so there might be more there," I explained, feeling a touch more comfortable with the female werewolf.

"You want me to see it," Subira said softly.

"We do," I confirmed.

"Show me." She stepped forward, then looked at the Tribunal Members, a group she was not a part of, thanks to the werewolves with us, but there were no hard feelings apparent on her face or in her scent. "Follow me. We should all see this, but don't disturb anything, please."

With the nodding approval of all three members of the Tribunal, Subira waved for me to head inside.

"Niko, Davor, please help these werewolves with what else you've found inside," she ordered as I started to lead her inside, halting them from following us.

Once inside, I went to the basement door and gave a soft sigh as I pulled it open and started downstairs.

"Everything smells like death, but down there…" Subira made a face.

"Some of these witches died before we arrived and cleared the building," I explained as I walked down. "Based on the smell, they died at the same time as the werewolves."

"I see. I understand," she said softly.

Once we were all at the bottom, I went into debriefing the situation we found in this ominous basement.

"Chronologically, those four died first." I pointed them out. "On initial inspection, the cause of death wasn't apparent, but thanks to the next death, I could look for the correct signs for these. Five of these witches died from extreme bleeding in the brain. The fifth here…" I pointed to the one with all the offending signs of the cause of their death. "This one gave me those important clues. The others had been cleaned up, probably a sign of respect from the survivors. The last two, nearest to the stairs, and you… They were the last two witches alive in the cabin. Within seconds of killing the werecat, we heard a scream that cut off abruptly. Then we heard two gunshots." I was going in such a roundabout way of describing how they died, but I couldn't help it.

"Killed themselves, so we couldn't get answers. Whatever cause they serve, they were loyal to it," Callahan muttered, shaking his head in disappointment and frustration.

"My theory is the ones who died of bleeding in their brains were the witches controlling the moon cursed, and once the moon cursed died, somehow it killed them as well," I said, looking at Subira, ignoring the others. Her opinion was the one that mattered.

She stepped forward, going to the closest body of a witch that had been cleaned up. She reached out, touching the deceased's cheek.

"You're right," she whispered, her voice seeming far away. "They were doing great magic, and they couldn't do it properly, so it had consequences they couldn't survive."

"Do you have a theory about how they did this?" Hasan asked, staring at his mate and the body she was gazing at, almost with sadness. The smell of death made it difficult to judge how she was feeling through my nose, so I was trying to decipher her unreadable expression.

"I'll do you one better. Jacky, why do you think they were in the basement?"

"They had to be kept safe, so they had two guards. While we were fighting, magic was also reinforcing all the external doors. After they d6ied, that magic ended. So, they were in defense mode for the other witches."

"Exactly, because they needed to be defended. They were utterly helpless. Life is magic. Magic is life. A weak witch will kill a plant to light a candle. Immortality doesn't change the amount of magic someone can do, though. We all have magic in us, but it takes a certain amount to manipulate it and even more to do great things with it. Controlling spells like this… If you don't have the magic or skill, you have to put more into it. These witches tied as much of themselves as they safely could, then added the life of others to it, probably their targets. If you killed these witches, it would have killed the one they controlled. Beyond that, they are so inexperienced with needing to focus so heavily on a spell that they were probably unable to do much for themselves except for basic life functions. They probably slept when their target slept, just to give their minds a break…" Subira finally looked up, her eyes still surprisingly human. "But it's worse for them than that. The death of their thralls didn't kill them. That's something they would have made sure to avoid. Every witch learns that lesson young."

"Then what killed them?" Corissa asked, unbelieving.

I couldn't say anything because I also found it hard to believe.

"When you are doing magic like this, something that needs to be maintained and held onto… well, you get backlash when something goes wrong." Subira smiled viciously. "Jacky, Niko, and Davor killed the second pillar for each spell, and the power of the spell was sent back to them. Theoretically, a witch can let go of the spell in time to stop it from hurting them, but no one is that fast. No one. They focused on it, and in the fraction of a second after the thrall died, they were hit by the full force of the magic they had been controlling. It very literally destroyed their brains and probably stopped their hearts at the same time." The smile was ferocious as she leaned down to the dead's face. "And they deserved it."

"You're the magic expert here, but I would like to understand how you know this," Corissa said with a note of caution. She was the most dominant werewolf in the world, and she was rightfully afraid of Subira. I respected her for not hiding from that or attempting to play it off in any other way.

"I've heard of a far more powerful witch using this spell to much better effect and was able to investigate it later," Subira answered, standing up quickly. "She lost control of the werecat she had tried to steal from his home, but she could manage the magic. Killing her, though, caused a backlash on the werecat instead, who only survived, thanks to his own expertise of surviving magical attacks and how to Change quickly to heal."

I knew the story, and that surprised me. I also knew I couldn't say anything, not in front of the werewolves. Thousands of years ago, Subira was pregnant with the twins. Hasan was abducted by a witch who wanted to use a werecat as a personal slave and protector. He killed her. On his way home to the family, the son of said witch tried to avenge his mother, not knowing the entire situation. He hated his mother, but she was still his mother. Hasan killed him, too. He didn't stay dead. He was part of the family now.

I guess Kushim won in the end. He's probably the only person I think came out of that with a positive. He has a child with Zuri, and he's a true Immortal.

There was one new bit to the story that I felt was the only way anyone would identify the werecat as Hasan. Only one werecat was probably routinely attacked by magic. I had seen Subira lose her patience with him and her temper flare when he tried to do anything at that moment. He had seemed so unfazed but considering they had been together for five thousand years… it made sense he was so adjusted to it.

"Is this the same spell?" Hasan asked, frowning deeply as he had been since she started telling his story to the room.

"I'm certain of it." Subira waved him away. "Go upstairs. Jacky and I will continue an investigation down here and report everything once we're upstairs and you can catch us up on what you've discovered."

"We'll get out of the way." Hasan bowed his head to his mate, then began back up the stairs, Corissa and Callahan behind him.