then,” Hasan commented nonchalantly. “Kaliya, is there anything else you want me to know right now?”
“All I have are suspicions, and those won’t help you. Let me get concrete evidence.” I wasn’t ready to tell him about the attack in the prison, and I had a strong gut feeling no one at the prison would mention it to the Tribunal. It would make the Wardens look even worse, and they wouldn’t want that after such a major breach. I didn’t trust much in the world or my fellow supernaturals, but I damn sure trusted the lengths they would go to for self-preservation. No supernatural let go of power easily or painted themselves in the wrong without a fight.
“Okay. Keep your phone close. We’ll have news on Levi’s location any minute now.”
“Amazing.” I hung up on him, no longer needing to keep the line open. I drove for a minute in silence before speaking up to the man beside me.
“Thanks for watching my back. I have to be careful what I give the Tribunal until I have everything that could possibly sway the way this turns out. Normally, Investigators like Cassius don’t call in with checkups. They finish their entire case file then present their findings. If I send too much back too quickly, they’ll want to press me to go into a certain direction without all the facts.”
“I get it. Like I told him, you’re the expert. I’m just along for the ride. The muscle. So, now we get Levi, then we get back to the investigation.”
“Yeah, and thankfully, Levi should be the easy part.”
“Really?” Raphael straightened up. “Why do you say he’s the easy part?”
“Well, finding him was the hardest thing. He won’t be much of a fight when we’re right on top of him. Most of his kills were stealth attacks on people much less capable than me and less powerful than you. If we get the jump on him, he’s a witch, just as fragile and mortal as any human.” I shrugged. “Fact of the matter is, killing him is the easy part.”
“That’s…good to know,” he said, chuckling softly.
I was surprised. I didn’t know if he was becoming desensitized, or if he was just going off the deep end, but it was certainly not the reaction I expected. Before I had the chance to ask him about it or if he was okay, he continued, not missing a beat.
“So, I’ve been thinking. What’s Levi’s game? You’re pretty certain he called in this storm. Why? What is he supposed to do after that?”
“I would think when the storm is at its worst, and the roads start closing, he’ll start hunting. He has the rain on us now, but when he makes his attacks, his tornados and storms will do a lot of damage to the area. When it was over, people would be missing or dead. This might not be big enough yet, which makes it all the more important to find him before he begins hunting.”
“Do you think he’ll see us coming?”
“No. He’s always been an overconfident son of a bitch. He wasn’t found by other witches originally. It was Stan, a Tribunal Investigator, werewolf. He’s good at sniffing out people.”
“Stan? A guy named Stan does the same job as Cassius?” Raphael started to laugh, and I didn’t really understand. I wondered what had snapped in my poor roommate as the laughter died off.
“Really, what is wrong with you right now?”
“Kaliya, Cassius, Sorcha, Sinclair, and now you’re telling me there’s a werewolf named Stan. It just seems so…normal.” He leaned back, shaking his head. I looked at his face for a moment, seeing the light in eyes, the humor. He was entertained by this.
“Yeah. He’s a white guy from Maryland. He’s like eighty years old, very intelligent, but a rogue wolf. Never really fit in with a pack, so they put his talents elsewhere as an Investigator. He’s a tough guy, but I’ve never heard about him getting into many fights, which I take as something that makes him suited for the work of a pack Enforcer.”
“Good to know,” Raphael said, waving his hands around like he didn’t know what to do with them.
“Okay…” I was still a little lost. I grew up hearing and seeing all sorts of things about the supernatural world, so it took me the next few minutes to really piece together what had just happened. Raphael was still learning, and so far, I’d dumped him in the deep end of the supernatural