Mr. Bach paced in front of the large windows in his house.
"We had our suspicions. We’ve heard about what happened in New York. We thought— "
"The High Priest is scared. When we heard about Miss Merkerson’s tragic death, he immediately thought of the rumored witch hunter." The High Priest’s wife Grace uttered. "Please understand. We didn’t mean to hide things from you. It’s just that... we weren’t sure. We just found the body. We were scared and confused."
"Scared?" Jude looked at the agent who was standing next to Ava. It was a bald man who was a shifter. His name was Rene. His witch partner was still on the morgue examining the body. "What do they mean by scared?"
"I— There have been reports of a witch hunter."
Jude looked at Ava. "A witch... hunter?"
"Yes. But we could not confirm it. Two witches died in New York. The other was raped while the other woman was burned to death."
"As you can see Mr. Caro this incident has caused an uproar inside the witch’s community. We were scared that the Salem hunt would happen again." Grace said.
"In the past, witches have always been killed by burning them," the High Priestess said. "It is something that the witch hunters love to do to make sure that no one would be able to revive the witch."
"I know." Jude sighed. He couldn’t help but stare at the calm Ava. "I’ve talked to the High Priest from New York. But two dead witches who were killed with fire wasn’t enough to alert all the witches in the US. We cannot confirm if what happened was really an accident. We don’t even know if this was suicide. After all, a capital punishment is definitely more painful than death."
The High Priest stared at Jude. "So..."
"I will alert the council and the elders. For now, we need to investigate more about the case. I am leaving both Rene and Janine here. Then I am sending two more witches to investigate the case. I will send two more witches to New York just to cover everything."
Jude got up.
"This is the only thing that I can do for now."
"That’s it?" Grace asked. "With all due respect Mr. Caro, a witch hunter can withstand magick. There is a reason why the Lycans used them to get rid of us in the past. We are weak against a witch hunter."
"You also have to understand that two cases doesn’t mean anything. Witches die all the time all around the world. If I send more people just to investigate the death of every witch, Trillium would be very... very busy."
"Then what would happen if there was no evidence found?" the High Priest asked. "We are just going to move on?"
"We can’t just guess Mr. Bach." Again, Jude looked at Ava. "We can’t always trust our instincts. We can’t rely on our gut everytime. There needs to be order."
"So you need more bodies," the High Priest looked at him, his eyes full of disappointment. "You mean more dead witches."
Jude turned silent. He let out a sigh. "We need to investigate before coming up with something. Don’t worry, I will let you know if we find out something."
With that Jude started walking out of the room. Ava followed behind him.
When they were seated inside the car, Jude immediately glared at Ava.
"Don’t let anyone hear us..." Jude said. Ava nodded. Then she created a protected shield around them.
"What?"
"I don’t know why are you doing this..."Jude said. "Are you looking for ways to create trouble for Trillium?"
"Now, why the hell would I do that?"
"I don’t know! Maybe to try and take our attention away from the experiments?"
Ava sighed. "I told you something was wrong. But you didn’t believe me."
"You didn’t explain."
"I couldn’t very well explain everything to you in public."
"Then what made you think that it was done by a witch hunter?"
"It wasn’t." Ava shrugged.
"What do you mean it wasn’t? You just said it wasn’t a local case!? Are you— "
"I said it just to gain a reaction from them. I had suspicions that they were scared of that too."
"So you wanted them to panic?"
"If they panic that isn’t my fault." Ava said. "Look... the world around us is cruel. Everything boils down to our reaction. It’s not like we can control the world."
"You— "
"You see? This is the problem with someone who only used his connections to get the position. You need more experience Jude."
"Investigating things isn’t my strongest suit."
"I know." Ava said. "And I also know that whoever killed the witch wanted to stop the binding."
"So, this wasn’t a serial killer?"
Ava shook her head. "The one from New York wasn’t burned that badly. I read the file." Ava smirked.
"Then why... why the hell did you tell them this is a witch hunter?"
"I didn’t." Ava said. "They assumed it was a witch hunter. There’s a difference."
"You— I am losing my mind. You are creating more work for us!"
"Trillium is already here. They should investigate what happened. The copycat should be around here somewhere. Whoever it is, they wanted us to think that the one who killed the witch is a witch hunter. But not everyone knew about this rumored witch hunter in New York. So... whoever did it, must have known about the witch hunter rumor and they must be closely working with a High Priest."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because... the timing was perfect with our arrival. Do you think it was a coincidence that we arrived minutes after they pulled out the body? They knew we are busy and they assumed that we would just leave them and let them use the witch hunter as a suspect. The person who did that must be closely watching us."
"You— " Jude sighed. "I think I am going to have a headache."
Ava snorted. Then she looked outside of the window.
"We should leave."
"Right... It’s the weekend. I am going somewhere."
"I don’t rest on weekends, V."
"But I do?" Ava said.
"You just started working for me."
"Right." Ava nodded. "But weekends off is part of my contract, no?"
"You— "
"If you want to work? Then you go ahead and work! You have no social life or a girlfriend so you can do that." Ava looked outside of the window. She was already looking forward to her weekend with Matthew.
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