“Where’s the guy?” Talon asked.
Nathan thumped the trunk, and Andrew hollered again.
Talon barked out a laugh. “Nice. We could bring him back to the Rink, question him there.”
Nathan shook his head. “I’d rather take him to HQ, honestly. We have a jail that can hold him, and I need him to prove to Sloan that the pills are the real culprit behind the possessions.”
Talon inclined his head. “Fair enough, I guess. I’m fine with washing our hands of this mess and letting the guild handle it.”
“As long as the killing stops, I don’t care who questions the guy,” Alex agreed.
Nathan feared that was too optimistic, but he couldn’t deny he hoped for the same. There was a very good chance that Andrew Weston was just one of many dealers on campus, and they may not be done rooting out the problem. He just wanted to put this danger behind them once and for all. Then, and only then, would he feel they were all safe enough to focus on his personal wants. It wouldn’t feel right to leave the guild while it was still in danger.
* * *
To saythat Sloan was displeased would’ve been an understatement—one Nathan admitted he hadn’t foreseen.
“Youkidnappeda man from the university, drove him here in the trunk of your car and locked him up in the dungeon before you saw fit to inform me about any of it?”
The clock on the wall behind Sloan’s head ticked in the silence. He didn’t really want Nathan to answer. The last two times he’d tried, Sloan had ordered him to shut up. It was probably best to just let him run out of steam at this point. Nathan would calmly make his case when Sloan was finished with his tirade.
“What if you were seen? What if you were pulled over? You could’ve gotten arrested—you still could be, if someone saw you and reported it!”
Nathan calmly picked up Weston’s backpack. He’d planned to wait until Sloan was finished yelling, but it appeared that might be a while.
“What—what are you doing?” Sloan asked.
Nathan opened up the backpack and tugged the secret compartment open, laying it on Sloan’s desk and shaking dozens of baggies of black pills out onto his desk. Sloan raised his hands as though to avoid touching them, his anger giving way to shock.
“He’s distributing these on campus. People are dying because of him,” Nathan said. “He recognized my ring right away, called me a paladin. He knows who we are, he knows what these pills do, and he’s selling them anyway. He’s helping to kill people in the most horrific way I’ve ever seen, Commander. As far as I’m concerned, he’s no better than the monsters themselves. All we need to do is find out why he’s helping the demons with this and find out where he’s getting them.” He carded his hands through his hair. It’d been a long day already, and it was only going to be longer. “He knew better than to struggle, because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself while he was carrying these. He walked with us off the campus and to my car. Yeah, I gave him a little push into the trunk, but I parked far away and there was no one around. Hawk took Weston’s cell phone with him to see if he could crack the passcode. He’ll let me know if he’s successful.”
Sloan’s gaze sharpened at Alex’s name. “You don’t think we could’ve done that?” he asked.
“Yes, but I figured if anyone were tracking the phone, you’d rather they find Hawk’s people and not the guild.” His lies to Sloan were piling up these days. He’d actually delegated that role to Zachary because the kid seemed the most tech-savvy. He didn’t think mentioning Zachary or his sister would do anyone any favors. The last thing they needed was Sloan thinking the Rink team was actively recruiting. He might start to see them as a more immediate threat if he thought their numbers were growing.
Sloan nodded, leaning back in his chair. He leveled a pensive look at the pills strewn across his desk, then met Nathan’s eyes. “Your methods aside, you’ve rooted out a serious problem and made great strides in this case. We’ve never held a civilian here in our dungeon, and frankly we don’thavea protocol to follow for this. I’ll send word to the council. I’d like their input on how we proceed. The good news is that we reinforced our wards after the incident with Hawk and Morgan’s demons showing up outside our gate. We’re effectively hidden from all supernatural creatures. As long as Weston is behind our walls, he’ll be hidden from whoever he’s working with, if they’re a demon themselves.”
“I have reason to believe that is the case, sir, yes. The outcasts’ demons said they’ve been asking around in their circles and heard rumors of a demon rallying the possessors. We have to assume that’s the one making and distributing these pills.” Another white lie, but telling Sloan he’d gone to In Extremis without express permission would only get him in more trouble.
Sloan nodded. “Yes, agreed.” He picked up his desk phone. “I’ll assemble the council. In the meantime, I want you down at the dungeon. Keep an eye on him. I don’t want him finding a way out like the prophet did.”
That was unlikely, given that someone hadletIra out, but he wasn’t dumb enough to say as much out loud. He gave Sloan a crisp nod and turned away.
It was edging toward evening already, and he doubted the council would come to a decision about Weston any time soon. His odds of getting home at a decent hour were looking slim. With a sigh, he took his phone out as he made his way down the long hall toward the stairs at the back of the building.
Looks like I’m going to be here a while. We’ve got a prisoner.
Storm
I heard. The group chat has been blowing up.
Group chat?
Storm
Hang on, I’ll add you.
Nathan looked away as he went down the stairs and out into the warm afternoon sun. He waved at a couple of students jogging past in workout clothes, and when he made it to the isolated dungeon—a lonely brick building set well away from the rest of the compound—his phone was repeatedly chiming with incoming messages.
