Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,83

tried to stop me or, worse, tried to join me. This was a one way mission and I was going solo. I changed my clothes, slapped on some lotion and then carefully cleaned and bound the bite marks on my arm. Tom’s reaction times must be improving to have latched on so quickly, I thought idly. He’d make a strong pack warrior one day, assuming of course that the Brethren didn’t vanish him away first. I supposed I’d never know now which way he’d decide to jump.

Once I was safely dehumanized, I went out in search of Alex. I didn’t know which room Julia would have put him into, especially with the Brethren already occupying all the guest rooms on the floor above. However there were a few spare rooms on my dorm’s floor, such as the one that Tom and I ‘shared’, so I wandered along in the dim corridor light, swinging open a few doors as I went. All the rooms were bare and unslept in apart from one on the far side, facing north. As the door squeaked open and I peered around, I noticed there were a few bags dumped on the floor by the window and some odd chalk marks on the floor. Probably some kind of paranoid mage runes, the equivalent of a teenager’s Stay The Hell Out sign. I reached into my bag and pulled out a scrap of paper and a pencil and scribbled him a note, sticking it to the inside of the door, and telling him to come and find me, either in the office or outside the keep, as a matter of urgency. Hopefully he’d come back soon and read it. In the meantime, I’d have to keep my fingers crossed that the silver dirk would be able to break through John’s magic.

Vaguely remembering an old war film I’d watched years ago, where the British spy in enemy territory had commented that you had to look as if you belonged and knew where you were going and what you were doing to evade capture, I strode out of the dorm and down into the office, trying to make it appear as if I definitely wasn’t skulking and was still working on Corrigan’s ‘repair the keep’ orders. I needn’t have worried. I passed a few pack members, and a few Brethren too, but they were all lost in their own thoughts and own grief and paid me little attention. Ally gave me a ghost of a smile as I tripped again on the hole in the carpet going down the stairs, but didn’t say anything. It had seemed that everyone had forced themselves to bounce back quickly after John, but with the threat of more imminent attacks, and the shocking events of just a couple of hours ago, it felt as if the will and the spirit of the keep had been stripped away. The feeling was almost as depressing as thinking of Julia upstairs fighting for her life. And it also gave me reason enough to keep going with my plan.

I had a couple of ready made excuses prepared in my head, in case anyone, especially Corrigan, was inside the office, but I was in luck and it was empty. Someone had already started to tidy up some of the devastation that the invaders had caused, but whoever it was had left a few tidy piles of papers and then disappeared. It suited me perfectly. I carefully twisted the knob on the door to John’s study and stepped inside, flicking on the light switch.

It was exactly the same as it had been when I’d last been in, breaking into his computer. I ignored the machine this time around, however and bent down to the bottom drawer of the old desk. There was a tiny brass keyhole fashioned into the wood, where I guessed the source of the magic ward would be. I could feel it pulsating even from where I was, broadcasting to keep out and stay away. Sorry, not this time. I pushed my index finger towards it, experimentally, and felt the cold burn of the barrier. I drew back quickly and tried the sides, knocking the lower edges of the wood that encased all the drawers. The buzz of the ward was there too, although a bit fainter. I tried reaching underneath, to the bottom of the drawer, but jolted back with a hiss as again I met painful resistance. Then I pulled out the drawer above,