Crimson Flame ~ Book 1 - The Royal Blood Collection

Chapter 16

Alaric turned and stopped in his tracks, looking at the dead bodies around me. I pointed to the one that was in fact, not dead.

"He wants to be the one that lives to tell the tale."

"That's not an option," Alaric growled as he walked closer to me.

"Yes, it is. You need someone to go running into the night, telling the world that he saw you and your group of only four take down what had to be upwards of fifty men that belonged to three drug lords. It sends word to the people that you are not prepared to accept this kind of criminal activity in your land. There's something else that he needs to tell them that he saw."

"What?"

Pulling him down by his shirt, I kissed Alaric hard. When his arms wrapped around me, I took a sneaky glance at the man that had risen from the ground. He'd seen the kiss and was now running for the trees. Silas was yelling that one was getting away, Alaric pulled out of the kiss and watched.

"You let him get away?"

"A strategic move."

"Well, you could have at least made him help us clean this damned mess."

Silas stomped off, moving to Nisha and Ilsen to help them move the bodies. Alaric turned back to me, his mood unreadable.

"We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do," I grumbled. "But the bodies need to be dealt with first."

I walked away, feeling his burning stare on my back. So many things could be said, I could spit them out in hatred or in sadness. Either way, it wouldn't be good. We'd come so close to getting there and in one moment, the truth had ruined it.

A tear slid free, I wiped it away before anyone could see it. Silas stood, huffing as he stretched his back.

"What's the plan?"

"Well, we can't just leave them in the woods."

"What's beyond the woods?"

"There's a farm beyond the woods. A river runs through the woods but unfortunately, it's not deep enough for this amount."

"So, why can't we just leave them in the woods?"

Silas shrugged, his face twitched with a vague look.

"Too close to home."

"Do you fear the police?"

He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"What police? The humans, pfft."

"Then why do you care about the location?"

It took a second for Silas but the smile broke out when he realized.

"Yep, sounds good."

Nisha cleared a path to a good location that was deep into the wooded area. Alaric and Ilsen brought the bodies over while I checked them for anything worthwhile. Silas removed their weapons, making a pile of them to one side.

When the path was set, we began dragging the bodies away. It took a good couple of hours and by the time we were done, the sun was starting to rise.

I wanted to fall into bed so that I could sleep for days but that was never going to happen. Aside from tonight, there was the burden of that conversation with Alaric.

Emerging from the bathroom, I frowned at the room. A secondary curtain had been put up, it covered the windows and the temporary effort of bedsheets was removed.