The Vampire's Requiem [malexmale]

Chapter Twenty-One

"Hunter is idiot!" Starling blurted, then looked at me eagerly waiting for approval. I smirked.

"Close enough. Good job, Starling." I told him. Starling beamed. I swear, he reminded me of a puppy. I was just waiting for him to sprout ears and a wagging tail.

"Well, what do you want us to do next, your Royal Pain in the Ass?" Hunter asked me. I ignored his jab as I got out of my seat, stretching for a moment before looking at him.

"You go and interview Drake. He should be giving out orders to his patrols. Xed will watch Starling and I'll go talk to Vini. After that, we'll regroup here and discuss anything new." I explained. Hunter nodded and left the cabin. Xed looked reluctant to babysit again as he watched Starling bend spoons. He looked at me and I raised an eyebrow, folding my arms over my chest.

"You seemed awfully fond of him when he was laughing at me. You should have no problem babysitting him now." I informed him sternly. Xed grimaced, but only nodded as he looked back at Starling, who had twisted a fork into an odd design and bent the prongs. He beamed at his work and handed it to Xed, who looked uncomfortable at the display of affection.

"He's giving you a gift, Xed," I said, voice light and taunting, "You might want to take it or he'll cry and ruin another table." Xed stiffened at that, but eventually took the fork from Starling, who clapped excitedly. I smirked, then made my way to the stairs that went to the second floor of the cabin.

I hadn't been up here for very long before, I thought with a frown, but there was only one room here and it was the master room that was spread out through the entire floor. A large bed covered in heavy blankets designed with wolves and full moons sat in front of the large domed window that looked out onto the village. A door went to the bathroom that was also rather large with an expensive looking bathtub, the one we'd used for Xed.

Vini wasn't up here, however. I scanned the room, just to make sure. Took a few whiffs of the air, then decided I was alone. I walked into the room and went straight to the dresser. I pulled open the first few drawers, seeing as the last one was much higher over my head, but there were only clothes inside.

I stood on my toes, trying hard to peer onto the top of the dresser, but there didn't seem to be anything suspicious there. I frowned, backing away before heading to the other side of the bed where a small nightstand sat. On the nightstand was Tony's necklace. I frowned, reaching out and lifting it up to study it in the light that reflected off the gold chain and intricate artwork of the pendent hanging on it.

It was a beautiful necklace and I had no doubt that the pendent was Native American. The way it was designed was awfully familiar. I'd run into plenty of tribes that worshipped wolves, and a few others that feared them. It was interesting.

I studied the way the wolf was engraved into the stone, head tilted back toward the moon that was carved in just in front of it. It would definitely be expensive, judging from the exquisite work and the gem it was carved into.

I played the necklace back down and opened the drawer in the nightstand, frowning. Just a few papers and jewelry. I flipped through the papers, but most of them were bills and even a state letter telling the pack that they couldn't reside where they were. A pity. Humans didn't understand the werewolf's need to move constantly. I was about to place everything back in the nightstand when I hit the drawer with my elbow and the bottom of the nightstand clattered. I raised an eyebrow and placed everything on the bed beside me. I reached into the drawer and ran my fingernails along the sides.

A false bottom, I realized. How cliche, but it worked. I fumbled trying to lift the bottom out, then settled on taking the entire drawer out. I held it upside down and the bottom came loose, falling to the floor. Out came a couple pieces of paper and... a finger? Disgusted, I thought grimacing.