The fire fight out front was still going on. She hoped that Alexander and Hagen could stall Kenneth’s guards for a few more minutes. She opened the bag and quickly redressed herself. The clothes that Alexander had bought had not been treated by a Sage. When she had shifted, the clothes she had been wearing were ripped to shreds.
Once done, she hurried to the side of the house. No one had seen her yet and gunfire was still heard from the front, it hadn’t lessoned in any way since they began firing. That was good. Ansuya edged her way along the house to the back French double doors and tried the handle. The door was locked. She plowed her elbow through the glass, reached through, and unlocked the door.
She found herself in a very well-remembered setting. The house was strangely empty. The gunfire could still be heard, but it was muted. Ansuya rushed through the hallway into Kenneth’s office.
She hurried behind the desk and felt for the locked drawer. She found it. Using a letter opener she jimmied the lock, not being delicate or subtle, and forced the drawer open. She pulled out his two log books and two stacks of receipts and invoices. She shoved the invoices aside and opened both books.
She looked at both books, the entries were similar, same dates, times, and locations. But one showed a lot higher values in the money column. She studied the two books. Kenneth would only be doing this to hide something. The question was what, or maybe who? Could Kenneth be trying to hide his operations from his Head of House, Alessandro himself? Ansuya knew that Kenneth was ambitious. Was Kenneth strong enough to go after House Dukart?
“Looking for something?”
Ansuya had been so engrossed in comparing the two books, she hadn’t noticed the figure materialize in the doorway. Ansuya looked up to see a thin, attractive, blue-eyed, black-haired woman standing in the doorway. Ansuya recognized her immediately.
“Hello, Natalia,” she replied calmly, returning her gaze to the books on the desk. Ansuya had been pushing her pheromones since she stepped into the room. Now that she had a target and a subject she refined those biochemicals to attack what she knew of Natalia specifically.
The woman took a step into the office, looking at the books and papers strewn about Kenneth’s desk. “I had a feeling that when Kenneth shipped you out of here it wouldn’t be the last that I would see of you. But I never expected to see you this soon, and back here in the place of your long incarceration.” She smiled wickedly at the Shape shifter behind the desk, “Do you miss our hospitality or is it the drug that you need?”
“Neither,” replied Ansuya absently. Natalia’s steps faltered just enough to be detected out of Ansuya’s periphery. “What do you want, Natalia?” Ansuya asked, not taking her eyes from the documents in front of her.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I want you to stop what you’re doing and look at me, dog!” Natalia’s voice cracked on the last word.
Ansuya placed her hands on the desk and raised herself from her seated position. She slowly raised her eyes to meet those of the vampire in front of her. “You will never call me ‘dog’ again, Natalia. Am I understood?”
The vampire faltered and her eyes wildly looked in all directions. She didn’t know what was happening and was suddenly very off balance. “How dare you speak to me like that? I should kill you where you…”
“Stand?” asked Ansuya calmly. “Yes, an excellent idea. Stand right where you are, Natalia and don’t move a muscle.” The vampire looked ill as her body responded to Ansuya’s commands. Natalia’s eyes rolled back and forth showing the whites around her irises. “Stop looking like that, Natalia. You look like a panic-stricken horse.” Natalia’s eyes stopped moving and looked forward without another movement.
Ansuya walked toward the immobile vampire. Holding her gaze with her eyes she said in a calm, deep, voice, “You will answer my questions, Natalia and you won’t try to withhold any information from me.” She whispered into the other woman’s ear, “You want to help me, don’t you?” The vampire slowly nodded her head.
Ansuya had been bathing the woman in pheromones since she had appeared in the doorway. But Natalia had been down in the basement cells with her many times before now. The subtle chemicals that Ansuya had been able to push out from her weakened, imprisoned state had primed the susceptible vampire perfectly.
“Where is Kenneth?” Ansuya asked looking the vampire in the eyes once more.
“He isn’t here, Ansuya,” Natalia replied in a dreamy voice.
Ansuya stepped closer to the enraptured woman, “Don’t try to hide anything from me, Natalia. Where is Kenneth?” she asked with a bit more steel in her voice.
“He isn’t here,” Natalia replied again with a pained look on her face.
“You don’t know where he is, do you?” Natalia shook her head slowly. “Why wouldn’t he tell you where he was going?” Ansuya asked already knowing the answer.
“He doesn’t trust anyone, not even his mate,” she said with a single unshed tear collecting in her eye.
This was not lost on Ansuya, “He has hurt you, hasn’t he?”
“It was for my own good,” Natalia replied quickly. “He only does it when I deserve to be punished.”
Ansuya immediately felt sorry for the girl. Under her influence Natalia could not lie, she really did believe that Kenneth’s abuse was a necessary lesson.
The gunfire outside was becoming more sporadic, she was running out of time. “Natalia, what is Kenneth planning? Why are their two bank books here?”
“He’s hiding things from Alessandro, where he gets his money and how much.”
There had to be more than that. Ansuya glanced toward the front doors of the house, “What is he planning, Natalia?”
The vampire stood there perfectly still. Her eyes were locked onto Ansuya but she didn’t say anything. Ansuya pushed more pheromones out towards her. There was a small shift in her stance. “He wants… House, Dukart,” Natalia replied haltingly.
“Where might Kenneth be, Natalia,” Ansuya asked soothingly.
“He might be at one of his clubs, or a farm. He may be at the Zoo,” Natalia replied. Her eye lids were hanging halfway closed. Her body was swaying gently and minutely back and forth. Natalia had no will left to contest the Shape Shifter. She stood where she had been told to stand.
A last gunshot was heard outside, and then silence met Ansuya’s ears. She had run out of time. She grabbed the vampire by the shoulders, “Where is this Zoo, Natalia? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Kenneth never told me.”
Ansuya knew that she had scant seconds before the front door would open, “What is the Zoo?”