was it?” I asked, shoving what had just happened aside.
His jaw was hard as he said, “Morgan. He transferred to our clan a year ago.” His hand clenched something he was holding as he let out a low rumble of a growl that I really hoped no one around us heard. “New to the area, but well trained and more than capable of handling himself. Dez is taking him back to the compound.”
A huge, terrible part of me was relieved to learn that it hadn’t been Dez up there, but the relief was short-lived. I knew nothing of Morgan. He could have a family—a significant other and children. Even if he didn’t, I knew there were others who would miss him, mourn him.
“I’m sorry.” I swallowed hard as I lifted my gaze to Zayne’s. “I’m so sorry.”
He nodded and then stepped closer, lifting his hand. “This was what was used to impale him to the church.”
Zayne opened his hand. Resting against his palm were two long, narrow spikes, definitely not of the normal garden variety. These glowed a faint luminous gold. I wasn’t aware of any type of metal or stone that glowed like that.
“What are they?” I started to reach for them, but Zayne closed his hand around them.
“I have no idea,” he answered, chest rising with a deep breath. “I’ve never seen anything like them before in my life.”
* * *
I stood in one corner of Nicolai’s office, trying to stay out of the way of the Wardens filing in and out. Several sent curious or suspicious glances in my direction once they realized I was there, tucked away like someone who didn’t belong. Seeing a virtual stranger in the heart of the DC compound while they dealt with the loss of yet another Warden had to be disconcerting.
I’d learned from Jasmine, Dez’s wife, that the Warden Morgan had been mated but had lost his wife in childbirth shortly before his transfer to the DC compound.
My gaze trailed to the spikes, resting in the center of Nicolai’s desk, glowing softly. Now that was not something you saw every day.
“Whatever this metal is, it was able to kill Morgan with one puncture to the back of the head,” Zayne was saying. “When we pulled it out, we could tell that it severed the brain stem internally.”
I cringed. That had to have been...messy, and it was definitely shocking. Other than the claws and teeth of demons and Hellfire, I wasn’t aware of any weapons that could easily puncture a Warden’s skull.
“It has some kind of writing on it. I have no idea what language it is,” Gideon said as he knelt eye level with the desk.
I’d seen Gideon briefly the night we’d returned here from the senator’s house, but we’d never been officially introduced. I did know that he was the Wardens’ resident tech and security specialist. Apparently he was also a scholar of sorts, because Zayne and Nicolai were staring at Gideon as if he’d admitted to collecting creepy porcelain dolls.
“What?” Gideon demanded, lifting the thicker end of the spike with a set of kitchen tongs. “I don’t know every language in the world.”
“That’s a shocker,” Zayne replied dryly. “I thought you knew everything.”
“Well, this will be one for the record books.” Gideon shook his head as he stared at the spike. “It seems similar to ancient Aramaic, but it’s not the same.”
My brows lifted. Ancient Aramaic? That was from one of the earliest known periods of written language and wasn’t something one heard referenced often.
Nicolai, who was the youngest clan leader I’d ever heard about, dragged his thumb over the growth of russet-colored hair at his chin. For the first time since we’d showed up, he looked at me. Unlike the other Wardens, there was no suspicion in his gaze, but there was a wariness.
“I’m assuming you haven’t seen a weapon like this?” Nicolai asked.
I shook my head. “Never.”
He refocused on Gideon, finger still at his chin. “You think you can figure out what it says and where it possibly came from?”
Gideon nodded his dark head as he placed the spike back on the white cloth. “Might take a couple of days, but I should be able to.”
“Good.” Nicolai dropped his hand and crossed his arms. “Because I would sure like to know what kind of metal glows.”
“Same,” Zayne murmured. He cleared his throat. “I’m thinking Morgan was killed elsewhere and then transported to the church to be displayed. Just like Greene.”