The Partner

Chapter 20

Ignatius teleports to the new meeting spot. It's located in the hotel room of a two-star hotel in a very small town in Maine. With all that has happened, they could not risk being watched or followed, but they had to meet. Too much has gone wrong. Ignatius is the first of the three to arrive in the hotel room. He waits patiently until the door opens to reveal Karawan. Dammit. He does not want to be alone with him in a hotel room. He was hoping the dog showed first so he could kick his ass. He looks worn out and tired. His tie is out of place, his white shirt untucked, and his hair is messy. He either just had sex or is freaking out. With Karawan, it could be either. "Karawan." He greets civilly from across the room.

Karawan closes the door and takes a step into the room. "Ignatius. You look well."

"Better than you." He observes.

He gives him his dashing, crooked smile. "I was in the middle of something when everything went to shit. Alistair still not here?"

Ignatius fists his hands at the name. He still remembers the last time he was in a room with that monster. He was hoping to avoid seeing him again and let Karawan deal with him. Now he has no choice. "That dog better show. He fucked up everything."

On cue, the door reopens to Alistair. He has not aged a day since that time he saw him centuries ago. His hair still wild and goatee still full and feet still bare, Alistair enters the room silently. Ignatius leaps on him viciously. "What the fuck did you do?"

"Calm down!" The dog yells back.

Ignatius punches him, sending the dog to the ground. "You idiot! You were supposed to destroy her and make her look like a mistake! You were supposed to fix it so no one questioned my authority! Now look. Kyra Faulkner is the amazing rookie who escaped the big bad clutches of the fucking first alpha of the First Pack! I look like an idiot for still regretting her admittance and now I had to admit another qualified applicant! Why did you not kill her, dog?"

Ignatius lets him up and Alistair wipes blood from his lip with a grin. "I could not kill her, Ignatius. If someone told me she wore a Cetorp necklace, maybe I could have worked around it in the time frame I had."

"A Cetorp necklace?" Karawan asks in puzzlement.

"It's a necklace that protects the wearer from any harm caused by werewolves." Ignatius answers him without taking his eyes off the were. "True, but maybe if someone was not too proud to let someone else kill her, maybe we would not be in this mess."

"Maybe if I was not ambushed by the fucking Guild I would have had enough time to kill her. But I did not, Ignatius." He argues back.

Ignatius snorts. "Whatever, dog."

Karawan runs his hands through his lush, silky hair. "Fuck, guys. Now things are so much worse."

Alistair turns on the other vampire. "Maybe if you picked a better reaper, that part of the plan would still be in motion."

"He was a good reaper. He just picked the wrong one to frame." Karawan starts to pace and think while the other two glower at each other. "Okay, we can fix this. Forget about Kyra Faulkner and the applicants already in the Guild. If we touch that again, Ignatius, you could be suspected."

Ignatius shrugs and crosses his arms. "I probably already am. I know for a fact Kristofferson Boccard no longer trusts my judgment, and quite possibly Dredfil Wraith also."

Karawan waves the comment away. "Don't worry about Boccard or Dredfil. We could kill the were at any time and I can always smooth things over with Dredfil. You need to stay under the radar, Ignatius. If anyone suspects the Guild being connected to this, we will all go down." He looks to the dog and sighs deeply. "Alistair, now we need to figure out a new way to eliminate the other government officials and old ones. We have to stop plans again, wait, and figure something out. This will put things behind schedule."