A Knight's Purpose (Book 1) ✔️

Chapter 22 - The Captain's Captain

"Eve! Let's go!" Camden sticks his head out the door to yell at me.

"Yeah, coming." I shake my head and jog after him. Security, sitting at a desk underneath the portrait, gives us a strange look but lets me pass since I'm clearly with Camden.

We catch up to April and Sereya waiting at a small bank of elevators just down the hall. I stay quiet on the journey up, still caught by seeing that portrait.

Luckily, back then they didn't have cameras. We were still in the era of the paintbrush which meant that fine details weren't as well conserved and this one was pretty obviously a copy and not the original. The original had a bit more detail around my face, not to mention that I look a bit different now than I did back then.

The portrait had me sitting beside my brother with my hair loose and wavy, just the top pulled back in contrast to the constant french braid I wore now. I sat in a long grey, corseted gown with my hands folded demurely in my lap. Most historians thought that there were only seven founders and that the woman pictured was the secretary and historian of the group. They'd be wrong, but it's not like I could say that to anyone.

I pull out of my daze as we step out of the elevator. Camden grabs Sereya's hand and leads her to an office. He drops his bag there.

"Be back soon," He kisses her head and walks out. April waits in the hall for him, having put her bag in a different room, and they go down to a glass door to what I can assume is a conference room. This part of the building is fairly empty except for a few officers at desks across the room.

Putting my bag in the same room with Sereya, I move to stand quietly in the open area. I could get into soooo much trouble here. I grin as I sidle over to one of the empty officer's desk.

It's set up where all the officers, organized by species, sit in the middle of the office and the leadership have offices all around the edge. My guess is that there's only two species represented here - Lynx, what I assume would be a small division, and Wolf, which I'm sure takes up the majority of the space. The other species would be on the remaining floors of the building or down some hall or another.

Just as I'm reaching a hand out to open a drawer, Camden pops his head out of the conference room. I lazily move my hand back, not doing it fast enough to attract attention.

"Eve, come in here."

"Yes, sir," I snap a mock salute and move to meet him.

I walk into the room and freeze. First of all, the conference room is much larger than I thought. Second, the floor wasn't empty, just the desk area. There have to be at least sixty people in here and I'm sure this isn't all of them. Third, they're all glaring at me. I can practically feel the hate rising off of them. What the hell have I ever done to them?

"Alright everyone, this is Eve. She'll be keeping an eye on Sereya while I'm gone. They'll be here everyday and April is going to help out at home," Camden nods to me and motions me to a seat in the corner.

Ah, this is so they all know who to keep an eye on.

Camden cedes the floor and an older black man takes his place. "Alright everyone. We've got a busy week this week so I don't want anyone distracted." All eyes snap to him from where they were still resting on me.

He's clearly in charge of everyone, even Camden and April. The Captain's Captain if you would. He commands the space easily.

"Now, we've got three territory complaints to deal with and four arrests to make for inappropriate exposure. And that's just today." He elicits a small chuckle from the officers. "Now that Camden has made the arrangements, the sting group will be leaving tomorrow. That means we'll be down to half staff so you all need to step up."