Which meant whoever killed him had been strong and powerful, able to resist his vampire compulsion. Not to mention crazy-as-hell, judging by the scene we were seeing. Which was a scary concept.
“No blood and no bite marks.” Braxton was sidling closer for a better look. “This is not the kill scene. He was moved.” He lowered his head close to my ear. “Do you scent anything strange?”
I closed my eyes and tried to focus my nose on the scene, filtering out all of the scents which had nothing to do with the murder. The most demanding smell was still that of death. It was a recent kill so there wasn’t an overpowering smell of decay and excrement, but it was still there. I wrinkled my nose, moving past that to anything else strange. Forest smells and … coconut.
“I smell coconut oil and something flowery,” I murmured as I opened my eyes.
Braxton nodded, “Yes, coconut and lavender.”
He was right, they were was the underlying scents.
Why was that ringing with some familiarity in my head? That combination was something I’d smelled before. I turned and saw Tyson. “Didn’t one of the spells you used – to find the prison – use those two ingredients?”
“Yes,” Tyson bit out. “And it’s a spell I created. The scented oil was designed as a trail marker to take us to the prison.”
I twisted my head back to the morbid scene. “Does that mean someone has left us a trail to lead to the killer? Or are they trying to implicate Ty as the killer?”
“Fuck!” Braxton clenched his fists. “Those marks on the tree, do they look like claw marks from a rather large animal?”
I’d been so focused on the head speared to the tree I hadn’t noticed there were two large gashes out of the bark. I examined them, and they were definitely a familiar shape and size. I didn’t need to be an evidence magic user to know those claw marks would probably line up perfectly to Braxton’s dragon. There was no reason for the Compasses to have killed Markus. Note I did not say they weren’t capable, they were more than capable, but they would need a reason. Someone was staging this scene to implicate them.
At the moment of that realization, arms grabbed around me, tightening across my chest and yanking me backwards. I was dragged ten feet away before the boys realized I was gone. They spun as one, coming at me, but in unison stopped when they saw who held me. I hadn’t scented him at all, he’d cloaked himself so he could take me unawares. But the large ring on his middle finger was familiar enough that already my skin was starting to crawl. Kristoff.
The sorcerer had one hand wrapped around my throat. “We left this scene here to draw you Compasses into public. The four of you need to come quietly.” He almost sounded gleeful. “I will keep a hold of Jessa until you allow the council guards to cuff you.”
Where the hell was my father? My eyes darted around the crowd but none of my family were here.
When Jonathon found out about this he was going to be pissed. He would not appreciate the council using me as leverage to arrest the boys. I noticed Jerad off to the side, but the way he spun his head and walked away spoke volumes. Spineless dickwad. I was so well rid of him.
I didn’t struggle against Kristoff, I could feel the strength of the spell under his hands. He would only have to let it loose and I would most probably lose my head.
“You can’t kill her.” Maximus sounded confident but he wasn’t stepping closer. “If you kill an innocent, then you’re a murderer and will lose your leadership and freedom. Right after I torture you for life,” he added, no change in tone but the fires of hell in his eyes.
Kristoff laughed. “The five of you are implicated in the murder of Markus. Jessa would simply be killed resisting arrest.” He waved his hand at the scene. “I’ve been examining it for hours. All the evidence points to your group.”
Shit, there must be even more than we’d noticed, and Kristoff was a master at deception and manipulation. It would not be hard for him to convince everyone of his word. Our standoff was starting to draw a crowd.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for you to make a mistake.” The magic leader’s lips curled into a sneer. “You think you’re untouchable, all powerful, you show no respect, not even to the council members. But you made an error in not cleaning up your kill site.”
“Come on, Kristoff, doesn’t this seem a little convenient,” someone shouted from the back of the crowd. It sounded a lot like Torag, the demi-fey council leader. “No one would be this stupid, and we know the Compasses have the power to hide anything they want.”
Kristoff growled. “That’s up to the investigators and the trial. For now the men need to be held in our cells at the prison.” He straightened. “As an added incentive, I’ll wipe Jessa as a suspect if you promise to go quietly and behave in Vanguard.”
I wanted to shake my head at them, but I couldn’t move. I had to keep fighting my wolf, she wanted to rip Kristoff’s face off. But attacking a council member would be a very bad move. Even if he’d started it.
All four pairs of Compass eyes were locked on me, and one by one they placed their arms behind their backs. From the crowd, ten wizards emerged, as if they’d been lying in wait for this movement from the quads. I recognized the red bands they wore around their right biceps. These were our magic users skilled in offensive powers, like supernatural police. It took no more than ten seconds for the unbreakable magic cuffs to be slipped around the Compass’ wrists. They were threaded with silver and gold links, and then infused with spells that cut off our access to the energy inside, rendering the boys as close to human as we could ever get.