CHAPTER ELEVEN: TOO MANY QUESTIONS

~ Marie ~

She leaned against the island as she watched him cut up garlic. As soon as they arrived, he’d gone into the kitchen and put water to boil. Marie tried to figure out what he was making based on what he was doing but she had no idea. She didn’t have much experience with cooking so her knowledge was limited.

Adrian had convinced her to head to Leon’s house in the end. Now she was waiting for him to finish cooking. Food wasn’t the deciding factor. What decided it for her was the fact that Leon wasn’t at home. He had left on business and wouldn’t return until the last day of September. The day the Rite of Accord would happen.

With Leon gone, it didn’t matter where they talked. Both places had various protections on them so she didn’t need to worry about attacks or eavesdropping. Leon’s fence also added another layer of protection since it was unlikely the sorcerer would test their luck going through it and anyone else would be turned away. Adrian switched to chopping some kind of green herb. Marie mentally sighed. She should read instead of staring. If she started reading, he wouldn’t ask her questions. Unfortunately, she’d left the books in the living room so they wouldn’t get dirty.

He started boiling pasta before he turned to a cabinet and pulled out several bottles of spices. Adrian walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bowl. She caught a glimpse of a bag but didn’t see what was in it. He put it on the counter before he went back to the spices.

“Am I that interesting?”

“You said that you wanted to talk.”

“I do but seeing how I’m preoccupied, I think it would be better to talk about something else until I’m done.” Marie would rather stay quiet than try to make small talk. What would she even talk about? “How about we take turns asking each other questions? We can stop when dinner’s done.” His back was towards her as he prepped something on the counter.

“Fine.” If it wasn’t related to the investigation then she didn’t care.

“I’ll go first then.” He turned towards the sink and washed his hands. Adrian dried his hands on a towel as he turned around and leaned against the counter. “Have you ever taken the Eximius Potion?”

“No.” His eyebrows went up for a moment before coming back down. Adrian gave her a lopsided smile before turning around and reaching for spices. It was her turn but she wasn’t interested in this game. There was nothing about him that she wanted to know. Or was there? “How long does the blood link last?”

“Two weeks.” He gave her a smug smile. That meant it was still active. She frowned. That’s how he was finding her so quickly. “Why did you call me your escort?” Tsk. Someone must have said something to him.

“It’s the easiest way to get you into places.” He was able to enter Noah’s house because of it. “For this case, the wolves were uneasy about your presence—”

“And calling me your escort helped calm their fears.” Being a Guardian might not mean much to him but to others it meant something. She remembered her initial welcome. Well, to some it did. Adrian returned to choosing spices. Did she want to know anything else?

“What did you do with my roses?” He froze in the middle of shaking one of the bottles. Adrian glanced over his shoulder with a chuckle.

“I thought Guardians didn’t accept presents.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“I sent them along to a hospital. I was told they used them to brighten several hospital rooms.”

“And the card?” He turned towards her fully.

“That’s another question. If I answer, you have to answer the next one I ask. Are you ok with that?” She didn’t like the way he was smiling at her. “You can wait until it’s your turn again but I’m almost done with dinner.” Did it matter if she knew where the card went? She still wouldn’t know the number. Tsk. Was there anything that he could ask her that would cause a problem? No. Not that she knew of. She had been careful with her secrets. He might have seen her eyes in the cavern but that wasn’t a big problem. As long as he didn’t find anything else out then it should be fine.

“Yes.”

“I threw it away but I put the number in my phone. If you ask for it, I’ll give it to you.” But that would be another question. Marie frowned. Still she didn’t need to have bad relations with Bel Meade. She, at least, wanted to find out what Noah wanted. Dammit! Marie was just falling for his trap. “Well? You only have a couple of minutes.” She glared at him as he stirred something in a pan on the stove. The smell of garlic and butter filled the kitchen.

“I want the number.” He gave her a smug smile as he continued to stir. Her frown deepened. Now it was his turn to ask.

“Dinner is ready.” Huh? He placed a plate in front of her and sat down across from her with his own plate.

“Your questions?”

“I didn’t say we had to stop when dinner was ready.” That’s— . Tsk. Based on his smug expression, he was probably telling the truth. Did he do this to make sure she answered his questions? Marie looked away. Nothing she could do about it now. She agreed to it. Marie examined the food he served her. It looked like shrimp pasta with bits of green leaves on top. Marie picked up her fork and tried a bite. It was good. She had expected it to be but the taste was still something of a surprise. She didn’t order anything she couldn’t eat quickly, which limited her to things like sandwiches or burgers.

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“I met someone before I found you.” It had to be a wolf since they were the only ones out here. Adrian stood up before he turned towards the cabinet and pulled out a bag of coffee. A few moments later, coffee was brewing. He leaned against the counter as he continued. “His name was Peter and he seemed to think I knew who he was.” If he was waiting for an explanation then he would have to keep waiting. She was not going to say anything unless he asked a question. That way she’d only need to worry about one more question. “He mentioned the upcoming wedding.”

The coffee maker chimed softly and he turned towards it. Adrian served her a cup before sitting down with one himself. Marie felt like he was still messing with her. He was taking too long. Adrian took a sip of coffee. She tried to ignore his smirk as she continued to eat.

“But seeing as how it would be during the day I wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony. He did say that he would add a chair to our table for the reception.” Marie had hoped to have one night without him but it didn’t look like she would be getting her wish.

He went back to eating after that. She preferred the silence to him acting smug but she wanted to know when he was going to ask his questions. Was he going to save them for another time? She glanced up at him and he smirked. Marie stared down at her food and went back to eating as well. It didn’t take her long to finish what she had. He was surprised when she didn’t ask for seconds. The food was good but she’d barely managed to finish what he’d served her. In fact, this was one of the few times she’d overeaten. When he got up to put the food away, Marie helped clean up the dishes with magic.

Afterwards, they took fresh cups of coffee to the living room. Adrian chose a chair across from her as she set up the books on the coffee table. The best way to go about this would be to start from the notebooks. Marie pulled out the notebook and flipped it over to the last written page. He picked up the notebook and scanned over the information.

“What’s this?” If only she could count this as a question but she’d already agreed to him being part of the investigation. Marie frowned. She should stop thinking about it. If she was lucky, he would forget.

“I think this is a list of all the werewolves here. I only know the identifying marks for four of the wolves but they match up with what’s written.”

“There are prices next to them.” Adrian’s body was tense as he glared at the notebook. “They mean to sell them.”

“It looks that way.” He flipped back and forth through the pages, looking at the rest.

“This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Each of these are in a different state.” That confirmed her earlier thoughts. “And the check marks?” She took the bottle of blood out of her pocket and placed it on the table as well. Marie reached over to the other book she had brought and opened it up to where she had bookmarked. She turned the book towards Adrian so he could read if he wanted to.

“I believe those are the wolves that are already under their control.” She tapped the top of the bottle. “This was probably used in a blood ritual in order to confer authority. Mind control, essentially.” Adrian leaned over and skimmed the page. The book explained the uses of agapanthus and came with a full color photo of the plant. He looked from the page to the bottle before looking back at her.

“How is this different from the animals we’ve been running across?”

“That is also mind control but the spell is different. Animals don’t need a complicated spell to control them.”

“So you can’t dispel it?” She could dispel it but that wouldn’t solve the problem. He frowned. “You won’t do it. Why?”

“I need the original bottle.” Marie tapped the bottle in front of her. “This one was used to strengthen their hold. So dispelling this one won't do anything. If I have the original, I can cancel the spell on everyone at once.”

“I see now. You don’t want to go one by one, in case, the sorcerer takes whoever they still have under their spell and runs.” He put the notebook down on his lap and crossed his arms. “Even if we caught up, they would have hostages that would willingly follow them anywhere.” Marie nodded. That wasn't the worst of it. They could force the wolves to harm themselves or even their own family while under this spell. “Dammit.” He ran one hand through his hair before speaking. “Did you find anything among the wreckage?”

“It looked like someone had been searching for something. There were signs that things had been moved around.”

“The medal. At least they don’t seem to be in a hurry to run.” Adrian leaned back as he frowned. Marie checked her watch. There were other things she wanted to do. “Going back?” She looked back at him.

“No. I wanted to check the area again.” He nodded and stood up.

I’ll come with you then. There’s just one thing that needs to be done before we go.”

*~*~*~*~*

[Do you usually work alone?] Adrian strolled along on her right side while she struggled not to trip. He had asked for her communication spell before they left so they could talk. Adrian told her that it would be better if they couldn’t be heard by the sorcerer. It made sense if she wasn’t using her light spell to see. In an area with few lights, her light spell could be seen from far away.

[Is this one of your questions?] Adrian smirked.

[No. Just making small talk.] Marie frowned as she scanned the area. She should stop bringing up his questions and just answer what she wanted. If she refused to answer and he forgot to bring up his questions then that would be better for her.

[Yes, I usually work alone.]

[Can you only work with escorts or are there other people you can work with?] Why did he care? It wasn’t like they were going to keep doing this. Marie moved a branch out of the way.

[Why does this matter?]

[Curious.] Marie stretched her senses out but didn’t sense any magic. There was a small group of wolves sitting underneath a tree. They had been lying down but one by one the wolves sat up and watched them as they passed. Her view was blocked by Adrian as he walked beside her. When did he switch sides?

[Besides flowers, what are we looking for?] There wasn’t much else they could look for besides flowers. Their whole magic revolved around plants. She thought over everything she’d seen and tried to think of anything else they could look for.

[If you spot any hills, we can check those. That’s where the sorcerer was placing traps to put people to sleep.] Adrian nodded as he scanned the area. With his knowledge of the area, he was able to lead them to several hills. On the last one, they were able to find a trap. [Stay here.] Adrian only gave her his polite smile as he followed her to the top. Marie forced herself to focus on the talisman in front of her. She did the same thing as last time by allowing the talisman to go off inside a barrier but again nothing happened. The magic was too far away for them to reach in time and that was only if the sorcerer stayed in place until they got there.

Why wasn’t the sorcerer checking the trap that went off? There was nothing in the spell to alert them to their presence. Were they on to them? Marie glanced at the vampire standing next to her. If any animal or person was nearby, Adrian should have sensed it but he didn’t look like he’d sensed anyone.

Marie made sure to carefully dispose of the air inside the barrier since Adrian was still right next to her. Only a small amount of smoke escaped. She stood up and looked around. Marie wished there was a better way to find them but what else could she do?