When his will had pulled completely out of the wolf, the animal was sitting very obediently waiting for his command. Its eyes were dull, with none of the sharpness that it once had, but there was still a fierceness there that he had used before and would use again.
“Eat, dog,” he commanded sternly.
The wolf dipped its head down and ate quickly. Kenneth smiled and left the pen.
A sudden wave of weariness passed through him and he had to grab the enclosure exit to keep himself from falling. It had been like this after he had enthralled the other three as well.
The animals had a strong will, much stronger than any human he had ever encountered, and some vampires as well. The act of pushing through the stages of the wolf’s mind and then deeper into the heart and soul of the beast was always taxing. He needed to feed and even then, it would take a day or two before he fully recovered.
Alessandro hadn’t called him to his Tower in the city. There hadn’t been any reports of any other vampire structures or hub being blown up. Maybe he had dodged Alessandro’s possible scrutiny.
He would be a fool if he believed that. Alessandro hadn’t survived over three hundred years by not catching plots, or even supposed plots, against him and being able to counter them. Perhaps politics would be enough to earn him the right over his old Master. He needed the werewolves destroyed. It was the fastest, best possible way to ensure the support of the other Houses.
He looked around the Zoo and nodded. He now had four wolves as his thralls and three more candidates as well. He would come back tomorrow or the next night to add to his army.
“What in the Hell Happened?!” Kenneth asked a guardsman as he stepped from his car into the front of his house.
Michael had been forced to park outside the house as a massive police line had been drawn around the smashed gate of his compound. The flashing blue and red lights everywhere was the last thing he expected to see when he drove back from the Zoo.
“Sir, we were attacked by two unknown assailants and a third from the rear entrance,” the guardsman said quickly. “They drove their car through the gate and attacked us with automatic weapons. We were able to hold the gate and repel their attack, Sir!”
Kenneth leaned in very close to the guardsman, “Why are all these police officers here, then?” he hissed.
“Sir, they showed up without our request,” the guardsman was looking very uncomfortable as he reported this to Kenneth. “We barely had time to…shroud our things…before they got out of their vehicles and started combing the place. We asked them what they were doing and who had called, they said it was ‘an anonymous call’ and now that gun fire has been confirmed it falls within their jurisdiction. Peters confirmed that, of course, and so we had no choice, Sir.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Kenneth looked calmly over the damage that had been done to his compound. The gate was completely wrecked and would need to be replaced. Through the police lights he could see into his yard and saw that the landscaping was in fact torn up to hell. It would cost a decent amount of money to replant all his landscaping and to repair all the damages done. He glared silently at the gate. Who in their right mind would attack a vampire compound? He would hunt who was responsible for this. Whether it was a rival, or just fools wanting to make a name for themselves, he would teach them what it meant to anger a vampire and why no one dared to do it.
He pushed past the police tape and got a hand on his chest from a blue uniformed woman. “I’m sorry, no one is allowed in.”
He rolled his eyes at the woman, “I live here!”
She looked at him, “You got any ID?”
Kenneth dropped his shoulders and cocked his head to the side, silently saying, are you really pulling this crap with me, right now? He slowly pulled his money clip from his pocket. He pulled out his ID card and showed it to the woman.
She looked carefully at the card then back at Kenneth. She read the card and turned around to look back at the house. She then turned back to face Kenneth and gave him back his ID. “Thank you, Sir. We have already done a walkthrough of your house and it’s safe to go inside. We will knock on the door if we need anything.”
Kenneth took back his ID, shoved it into his pocket, and stalked toward his front door.
He opened the front door calmly and walked in, gently closing the door behind him. He found Natalia standing in the foyer waiting for him. He stalked towards her, “WHAT the HELL happened here tonight, Natalia?” His eyes bore into hers.
She didn’t shy away from the glance, “I…I don’t know, baby.”
“What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’?” Kenneth asked.
“I heard gunfire outside; I was on my way to help when…”
“When what?” asked Kenneth sharply.
“I don’t know…I…I can’t remember. All I know is that I was on my way from the stairs to the front of the house. Then all I can remember is being found by Ty standing in the hallway.” She looked away from Kenneth then, “I tried to remember what happened, but I can’t.”
Kenneth leaned towards her and inhaled deeply. He gripped her chin and forced her eyes upwards to meet his. There were no words spoken between them. Kenneth pushed past her consciousness, as he had done with the wolf earlier. He searched her recent memories. It was exactly had she had said. She was on the stairs going toward the front door, then standing in the hallway. There was nothing in between those two moments, no fog, and no haze, there was literally nothing there. But something had to have happened in that time.
He let go of her and walked into his office. He sat down and leaned on top of the desk. There was something going on, something that he had missed, or not considered yet. Could the attack on his house tonight have anything to do with the other hits that had been carried out against House Himura? Could this have been an inside job from one of Alessandro’s agents? Both were equally possible.
He pulled his key out and went to unlock his drawer, only to find that the lock had been destroyed and the drawer itself hung ajar.