Page 44 of Rafe

“We all just watched the wolf disappear back here. No, something is off. They’re hiding.” Rafe stopped in his tracks, the dark magick swirling around him. “Glamour.”

“It’s playing in our faces.” Xavier commented. “No windows. No doors.”

“Weakened wolves don’t disappear behind concrete walls,” Rafe noted.

“Tricksters.” Greyson sniffed the air. “Sulfur.”

“Black magick.” Rafe extended the tentacles of his power. Dark energy crawled over his skin, and he instinctively recognized its origin. “Demonic. I can feel it.”

“I don’t sense full on demons,” Greyson commented. “It’s something but I don’t know.”

“Witches? Any creature who likes to play in the dark realm really could create an illusion.” Rafe held his hands to the wall once again and moved down the hallway. Cool energy appeared to dissipate underneath his fingertips.

He wrapped his knuckles along the wall. Thud. Thud. Thud. “Solid.”

Once again he moved his palms over the cool concrete. As he worked down the hall, heat tingled his skin, the air drenched with the stench of death. His fingertips glossed over a seam that ran from the ceiling to the floor.

“Something’s behind here. Stand back.” Rafe took a deep breath, focused on the wall, rapping his fingers onto it. Bang. Bang. Bang. A hollow sound reverberated back to him.

“What are you doing?” Greyson asked.

Rafe didn’t second-guess his instinct. He backed up and ran full speed at the wall, lunging his shoulder into the wall. A loud crack reverberated through the hallway. The wolf backed up again and kicked at the wall until his foot broke through to the other side.

“Sometimes you have to break the illusion and do things the old-fashioned way. Smash that shit.”

“Nicely done, wolf.” Kenji bent over to peer through the hole in the hidden door. “Looks like…maybe a kitchen?”

“Do they serve food here?” Skylar asked.

“No, no they don’t. This is strictly a blood club,” Rafe punched his fist through the drywall, continuing to rip apart the debris.

Logic warned him the vampires weren’t baking a cake. A fresh rush of putrid air escaped the room as the opening expanded, and his suspicions were confirmed that something much more nefarious was cooking.

“Jesus, that reeks. Yeah, tonight we are truly inside what you’d class as the underbelly of blood clubs.” Rafe tugged another piece of drywall free and tossed it aside.

“Could be worse.” Greyson noted.

“It’s pretty bad,” Xavier weighed in.

“The smell of death.” Kenji removed another piece of wall. “That’s definitely a dead body.”

“More than one. Let’s get this open.” Greyson tugged at a two by four and tossed it down the hallway.

“That shit is nasty. Fucking lying fae.” Rafe brushed the dust off his hands, angry the tip had turned out to be nothing more than another lie. He turned to Skylar, his expression serious. “I want you to stay behind me. Kenji look out for her.”

“I’ll be okay.” She nodded.

“Kenji?”

“No worries,” he assured Rafe.

“Don’t get all sappy on me, wolf. She’ll be fine.” Greyson gestured to the hole. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Beauty before age.” Rafe pressed through the small opening and took in his surroundings. A rack of sharpened kitchen knives adhered to a metal strip lined the far wall. Stainless steel cabinets and countertops without a single smudge appeared unused. Yet as he approached the sink, the familiar stench of rotting flesh slapped him.

“What the fuck?” Rafe shook his head as he caught sight of a severed foot lying over its drain.

“What is it?” Greyson scrunched his nose and waved a hand at him. “Well. I can see we have a problem here.”