Primalcraft: Crimes of the Father (Book 3)

Chapter 23

Elliott stared for a second at the scene but soon had to handle the situation because Kai had a hard time holding Jaxon back who was ready to rip Raine's throat out. Alex, on the other hand, was staring at Blake.

"Stand down, Raine. He is being controlled," Elliott said, glancing between the two. Raine didn't say anything, his eyes never leaving Blake who didn't say anything either.

Blake was controlled? That was impossible. His father would have to go through Ahriman to get him, not to mention that all the other victims had been gone for 24 hours. That suggests that it takes time to go through the ceremony that allowed someone to control another. For Blake to be gone for 24 hours without no one noticing is impossible. It made sense for Hadrien, who came and went as he wanted, but not Blake. Too many were looking out for him.

Something was seriously off. Sniffing the air, Alex frowned. He smelled like Blake. Then what... Alex saw it then. Red marks on Blake's neck, burned there by Ahriman to show his true nature.

"Hello, father." The silence was finally broken by Alex's words. For a second, the room seem to hold its breath before Frank, in the shape of Blake, rolled his eyes.

"The marks are bloody inconvenient," Frank touched one of his rings, and the shape of Blake fell off. "I thought Blake's appearance would be perfect, I even ordered your French mutt to get a hair sample, but the damn marks never vanished."

"I'm surprised you would come here by yourself," Alex admitted. Everyone was now circling Frank, who just smirked. Not looking the least worried by being trapped in a room filled with shifters who wanted to rip his throat out.

"I thought my control spell would do the trick but it turns out the puppets are far less useful than I had hoped," Frank said, his shape slowly turning back into his true form. "Well, it matters little now. We have already won."

"Oh, how is that?" Alex asked, noticing that Raine seemed to ready himself to attack. He had no intention of letting Frank go.

"You stole the khadga," Frank said, scratching his unshaven chin. "It never occurred to you that was exactly what we wanted."

"Leon..." Alex went silent and let out a groan.

"Yes, Leon is one of my puppets. He was an easy target when he was locked up by his mother. She never cared enough to check on him. I have saved him for a special occasion, and the theft of the khadga was just the moment I was waiting for."

Elliott had paled, slowly getting what Frank was hinting at. "The witches were about to use it."

"Not as close as you might have thought. Nemain really pushed it but the old witch had some decency left, or maybe she knew that she didn't have the power to open the box," Frank shrugged. "Not that it mattered. I just let Leon go to you and tell you that they were going to use the khadga and then let him help you steal it. Nemain was waiting, practically giving it to you and helping you escape."

"Leon's cousin," Alex groaned at the remembrance of the random witch who was willing to help them.

"Yes, I was quite disappointed that you did not even consider the option of it being a trap in some form," Frank suddenly let out a burst of chuckles. "Nemain had been worried when Ahriman suddenly showed up but it seems that he was right."

"What do you mean?"

"Ahriman has lost most of his powers. Sixteen years ago, his purpose changed. He is no longer an archon of strife, which means that he has a whole set of new powers. Powers he has no idea how to use. His old self would have been able to see through any lies as they were in his realm, but now he can only guess. He might be unique in that he is the only archon whose purpose has changed but he has become useless."