Chapter Thirty-Three
Vincent’s eyes and his thick, dark hair were the only part of him that resembled the cool businessman who’d first shown up at Miskatonic Prep. Papery skin sagged over his bones, his back hunched and his fingers curled and struggled to grip. Black patches marred the skin on his neck and hands – the remnants of a flame I’d never regret. I read in one of Zehra’s updates that he’d been having extensive plastic surgery to rebuild his physique after a mysterious fire at his residence. Apparently, they hadn’t got to his face yet because he still had the visage of a hideous old man. His outer appearance was beginning to mirror the monster within.
“That weapon can’t kill me.” Trey kept his voice placid, even, concealing the rage beneath it.
“No, but it will mess up that pretty face of yours for graduation. And you can’t say the same for your little girlfriend.”
The guy in front of Trey waved the gun just over his shoulder. “Back up, boys,” he said to Quinn and Ayaz. I heard them shuffling behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around.
“You had to know I’d discover your secret.” Vincent shifted aside, and I saw Deborah – her hands tied to the bed, her mouth gagged with a dog toy, her eyes wide and terrified. Sitting between her legs was the open duffel bag filled with the students’ money.
Vincent lifted out a stack of bills and waved them in Trey’s face. “You must think I’m an idiot. I’ve had an alert set on your credit card ever since you entered that school. Last quarter it pinged for the first time in twenty years – at an ice cream store some forty miles from Arkham. I assumed Hazel Waite stole the card during her escape. By the time my team arrived at the shop, they could find no trace of her, or you. Imagine my surprise when it pinged again, only this time to withdraw a large sum of money. I thought to myself, who would be stupid enough to continue to use that card? My son, of course.”
Vincent nodded at Damon, who reached across and nudged Trey’s backpack off his shoulders. The sigil made a loud clunk as it hit the floor. Damon used his foot to slide it toward the bed.
“When the bank showed me the security footage, I admit you gave me a shock. I could tell it was you even through your pitiful disguise. I figured you’d sent Hazel to take the money, but imagine my surprise to see my son and his friends outside of the school walls. How had you done it? Luckily, Damon and I happened to remember a strange thing that happened to our friend Senator Hyde-Jones the other week. A drunk teenager rushed him as he was coming out of a meeting, swinging his arms wildly and yelling that he was the Senator’s son. Of course, security jumped on him. They removed a backpack containing a large rock with a strange symbol carved into it. As soon as they moved the rock away from the teen, his body disintegrated into dust.”
So John’s gone.I couldn’t say I felt much of anything over his death. But I was anxious that Vincent knew about the sigils.
“Ever since, Damon and I have been staying nearby, watching the school for any more little field trips. Damon has a lot of time for spying on students, now that he’s no longer practicing law. We saw you sneak in here yesterday, and this woman left soon after you. We decided to have a chat with her when she returned. Tell me, son, and maybe I’ll let your whore live – what are you doing with my money?” Vincent held up a handful of cash. “Who do you have sabotaging our businesses?”
“The money in my account is inmyname,” Trey hissed. “What I do with it is none of your concern. And as for sabotage, I don’t know anything about it. It can’t possibly be us. We’ve trapped up at the school at your behest. We don’t even have internet, so how are we masterminding any attacks? The Eldritch Club has been doing illegal and unethical things for decades – maybe you just got caught.”
“You little punk. Howdareyou? Everything you’ve been given has come from me.” Vincent’s smile turned my heart to ice. “For your insolence, Hazel dies slowly and painfully. I’m going to enjoy removing each of her dainty fingers one at a time. Grab them.”
While Trey tried to wrestle the other gunman, Damon grabbed my arm and yanked me into the room. He pinned me against the wall, leaning in close to press the barrel to my temple.
An arrow pierced him through the eye.
Chapter Thirty-Four
At first, I thought I’d imagined it. One moment Damon loomed over me, whisky breath staining my skin. The next moment, an arrow extended through his skull, pinning his head to the wall. He screamed, but the sound was a whoosh of air as his body jerked beneath me.
“What the fuck?” Vincent whirled to face the window just as a figure ducked below view. “Get them!”
The second gunman turned toward Damon, the gun wobbling in his hand. Trey swung out and punched the guy in the nose. He went down like a sack of potatoes just as a secondwhooshof air penetrated the room and another arrow embedded itself into the wall where his head had previously been.
Greg. Loretta. Where are they?
I dived for the window over the bedside as the three Kings rushed the room. They pinned Vincent’s arms and wrestled them behind his back. Trey grabbed a handful of his dad’s thick, dark hair, only to have it come off in his hands.He’s wearing a toupee. I’d have laughed if there weren’t still guns in the room.
Trey dug his nails into the thinning grey hair and fragile skin on Vincent’s scalp and jerked his head right back to expose his neck and more burns. Loretta leaned through the window, the string of her bow pulled back toward her shoulder, an eerily placid expression on her face.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you bleed,” she whispered.
“Trey, son,” Vincent blubbered. “You don’t want to do this. The Eldritch Club is planning something for your graduation. I can tell you—”
“Shut up.” Trey’s ice eyes focused on Loretta. “Lower the bow.”
“You joking, Bloomberg?” I demanded.
Loretta didn’t move an inch. Her fingers on the bowstring remained frozen in place.
“I’m not going to force you to do this,” Trey said, not looking at anyone except Loretta. “If you take his life, we don’t get a chance to break the cycle. Plus, we need him alive.”
Tension crackled between us, filling the room with electric energy. Loretta’s arm jerked. She shot Trey a look that would’ve burned a lesser man alive, lowered her bow, and turned away in disgust.
“Thank you, son,” Vincent blubbered. “I knew you wouldn’t be so stupid. You still had it in you to be great, to take over the business. I know that’s what you always wanted. I could disinherit Wilhem and—”
