BLOOD AND BONE | rewritten

12

The source of bloodshed was not difficult to uncover. They trekked along the chamber-which appeared to be a forgotten basement from traditional times-under the gleaming blue light of Finn's fingertips for only moments before they saw it.

The second body of their stay at the House.

This corpse was a petite woman wearing the white uniform of the staff, particularly one from the kitchens, given the apron and hairnet she also sported. Her tan skin was leached of any color and there was a red gash across her throat. Slit open wide enough to reveal the gleaming white bones of her spine.

Jaxon assumed the killer wished to minimize witnesses and this woman was the one most likely to run her mouth. But as Finn held his flame higher to peer further down the passage, he gave a sound of lament in the back of his throat. For he had shed light on two more corpses dumped carelessly on the stone, spilling puddles of blood.

So the murderer killed the people within the kitchens after getting them to deliver the poisoned drink. It was clean, but not clean enough. Considering himself something of a mass murderer himself, Jaxon could spot the loose ends with ease. First, the Minister's elderly servant must have seen something odd within the kitchens, even if he hadn't realized its strangeness in the moment. Second, there were only so many places to hide three bodies in such a short span. It was only a matter of time before someone put the pieces together.

It was strange that an international terrorist who had evaded several different law enforcement offices was not more careful.

Unless there was something beside the obvious going on.

Gigi, who walked before Jaxon, barely held back her disgust at the sight. Rainey's lip curled in dislike. Though her face was calm, Delphinium's hands balled just tightly enough for her knuckles to be white. None of the others had any reaction.

Arlo caressed the nearest corpse's face. "Fresh. Warm. Maybe...fifteen minutes they've been dead."

"The blade marks are varied," said Delphinium in a low voice. "A thin one for quick, efficient kills and a serrated one to make it hurt." Her eyes stayed on the woman's blank face. "Though no sign of a struggle."

"And unlike the Minister's assistant, these bodies are hidden." That was Finn, his nose, eyelids, and cheekbones set aglow. "The first was clearly a taunt, a confirmation of our target's existence. But they cared to hide these."

"Or," Kane said, the rasp of his voice grating on the walls, "they are trying to lure us in."

They all felt the weight of that thought as they peered into the darkness threatening to close in on them. Anything could be hiding within those depths. Anyone.

Jaxon started down the passageway again. "Then we give them what they want." The moment he glimpsed anything threatening, he would slip from view, steal one of the bastard's blades, and use it to stab him through the stomach. That ought to down him.