Accidental Surrogate

Sinclair

I growl down at the man before me, who is younger than I thought he would be, for one with

such power. He has thick black hair and a day’s worth of stubble on his thin cheeks. The man

glares up at me with dark, angry eyes and opens his mouth to speak but before he can, I slap him

– hard with an open palm.

–

The man gasps with surprise and pain, his eyes going wide as he stares down at the floor, and I

smirk. I doubt this man has been slapped anytime recently, if ever. He has the smug look of

someone used to being in charge.

But he’s in my house now.

“You’ll speak when we tell you to speak,” I growl, and then I turn to the head of my

–

reconnaissance team, who is standing against the wall, his hands on his knees, panting a little.

Craig isn’t a small man to see him so undone by the efforts suggests that this diminutive priest

is, indeed, powerful in other ways.

“How did you catch him?” I snap. Craig looks up at me and does his best to straighten up.

“We followed the leads, sir,” he replies, looking me in the eyes, “that we gleaned from the

conversation with the other priest, who wished to remain anonymous. They were…fruitful. We

found this one’s lair, for lack of a better word. It was actually in a sewer -in an abandoned

maintenance room. He was living there doing…” Craig hesitates and then shrugs. “Forgive me, Sir,

for the dramatic language, but ‘arcane magics‘ are the only words coming to my mind now. Lizard

skins…and and snail shells, in jars – he had a cauldron –”

“Thank you,” I say, interrupting and nodding towards the head of my investigative team. “You.

will give your details to Alastair, as soon as you can. For now, though I want everyone here for

the interrogation.” I lean forward towards the priest, who watches me with wary eyes and a

clenched jaw.

I continue, lowering my voice and

if need

his teeth at me in a little

faulter. And then I step away, secretly grateful for it,

muscles are tensed, ready to rip this man’s head off. Roger steps in to take my

he looks down

people want with my

a too–wide expression that shows all of his

at him blandly for a moment and then shifts his eyes

standing behind the priest who

swiftly against the priest’s

body, making him shriek and twist in pain, but my

quickly. The priest goes a little slack

Roger says, kicking the leg of the chair to get the priest’s

with my

up at Roger again and

doesn’t matter,” the priest says, shaking his

smile growing on his face. “You are

really, truly laugh, as a crash of glass sounds and a scream erupts

upstairs –

heart stops as I recognize it,

Ella

here, tense, in my rocking chair by Rafe’s basinet, one hand on the edge of it –

is – shushing him quietly

–

sound at the glass of his window –

it curiously, expecting a little bird – maybe a

black–masked face calmly tapping on

as I froze, as he quietly pointed to the basinet

coming for him.”

–

to go so fast – the man pulled back his arm,

window –

don’t know how he did it – it should have broken his hand

hole

window cracking

–

hit the floor, only half an instant later, my instincts came back to me, and I

basinet behind me and

chair away and back into the corner now, Rafe

the foot of the window. As he

–

–

are more more men behind him, working their way

fast

his feet now, grinning at me, starting to prowl towards