Page 10 of Forty Deaths Till Us Part

I frowned. “Who is Thorin and what clan does he belong to?”

“Thorin is our oldest weapons master. He trained Sergei and is as good with a sword as Constantine, but prefers to create rather than fight. He is a member of Shadow Phantom, buthe has a skilled apprentice in his home clan and has been in Moscow for the last forty years, training another apprentice.”

Cass led us to the man lying on the floor by the forge. The blacksmith, a figure that seemed to belong to another era, was frozen in a moment of vulnerability and strength. His stone skin was similar to the very walls he was entombed in, and I hated the end that had befallen the diligent craftsman. The air was heavy, as if time itself had conspired to cast a veil over the grisly scene.

His form was sprawled out amidst the tools and debris of the forge, like an unlikely tableau. His brown leather clothes and apron bore the smudges of labor, and his hands were calloused and scarred. They spoke of a life lived through the heat of the flames and the rhythm of the hammer’s dance. One that had endured since his time as a human. Vampires did not display such symptoms of hard labor unless they occurred prior to transition. His face was serene despite the circumstances, as if he had given his all to the craft that he loved.

The forge seemed to be watching over him. Its fiery heart having been the source of both his creations and his victories. The hearth was cooling but still bore the marks of its fiery dance. The tools that surrounded him, each meticulously cared for and imbued with history, spoke of a devotion that went beyond mere craftsmanship. A monument to man and his art.

“This is a travesty,” Quinn whispered.

I glanced at the array of weapons on the shelves and hung on the walls. “He made all the weapons in the training facility, didn’t he?”

Cass nodded. “We also have an armory, but it is locked down unless we are at war. The silver spears utilized by the seniors were before Sergei’s time, but he made the rest.”

I looked for a velvet pouch, but there was nothing on any of the tables near the body. “How was he infected?”

We all moved to various shelves and weapons, but none of us could find any hint of the deadly compound that turned the vampires to stone.

Cass stood with a cell phone she picked up from underneath one of the shelves. It looked completely out of place in the room, but then so did we. “He dropped his phone. Maybe he was trying to...” She opened the screen and hissed.

“What is it?” Quinn asked.

“Traitor in the woods. That’s what he typed before he dropped the phone.”

Quinn knelt down beside Cass. “If he saw who it was, he would’ve told us. He’s an older vampire. Perhaps he was infected outside, and that’s why we can’t find a velvet pouch. He made it back to the forge before he died. Sergei hated technology, so the phone would’ve been inside if he were checking the surrounding area.”

Cass stood. “Let’s check the woods. If he was infected outside, he didn’t have a lot of time to make it back here. The source of the attack has to be close.”

We exited the smithy in silence. Rene pointed in several directions. “Raven will stay with me. Fan out and search the surrounding area. There are multiple sets of tracks, but Sergei liked to walk the woods when a new weapon was cooling.”

We each chose a set of tracks leading from the forge, though once inside the dense woods, I couldn’t see any sign of anyone wandering through the foliage.

Rene appeared to see something that I did not, as he pulled me along as he passed several young trees, reaching for the heavens. Pine needles rushed against my clothes and the earthy scent of the breeze was refreshingly soothing.

Quinn shouted and Rene turned toward the sound, leading me through the forest as if he did daily treks in the overgrown area.

I was expecting to find a scuffle or some other signs of a fight when we exited the brush, but Cass stood beside her death dealer, looking down at the strange garden that shouldn’t exist in the forest.

Rene glanced at the manicured foliage. “What is this?”

Cass shrugged. “I have no idea. If this were a human property, I would say it’s a grow op but I don’t recognize the plants.”

I released Rene’s hand to walk around the garden. Several plants were familiar and hardly rare, but one was the complete opposite. “That is Star Canyon. The seeds are extremely rare. The high priestess had me growing them for the coven when I was human. Well, when I was still an owner of Powerful Petals.”

“Why would it be here? What does this plant do?”

My eyes roamed over the area full of plants. Individually they were harmless, but as my mind added each ingredient together, my hand went to my mouth. “Oh, no.”

Rene moved, so he was next to me. “What is it? What do these plants do when combined?”

My eyes met his. “I think we are looking at the ingredients for the compound that turns vampires to stone.”

Rene’s eyes flickered with red. “A traitor in our clan is growing the necessary ingredients on our property?”

I nodded. “The other plants are common, but Star Canyon is extremely difficult to source. Honestly, I thought that you needed to be a member of the coven to get seeds in this quantity.”

“You suspect Ursula?” Rene asked.