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"IS THIS IT?" Colton enquired, rubbing his bare arms to warm them up in the cover of inky night. The building situated in front of the quartet was squat, paint peeling from the plaster walls. The neon blue sign flickered, white door securely locked. The bright letters read 'Brad's' in bold, leaving lines in Tia's eyes as soon as she dared to close them.

Tia studied the image of the van. An identical one was situated in the parking lot beside the drab building. For a small company located on the outskirts of the city, the business was lucky to be able to afford two vans.

"Yep," the brunette replied, stepping forward from the road and onto the sidewalk next to the bland yellowing building. A light breached the window above her head to the left.

Tia knocked on the door, and huffed when no one answered. Frustrated, she wracked her fist lightly against the wood once more.

"I know you're in there!" She yelled after a minute of silence. The crickets momentarily stopped chirping in the long grass at Connor, Colton, and Jared's feet.

Colton stalked up to Tia, placing an arm on her elbow. "Come on, Ti. We can always try tomorrow."

The she-wolf shrugged off Colton's feather touch. She hadn't driven half an hour through traffic to come back empty handed. Without a second thought, her leg reared up and kicked down the door. The hinges automatically have way, the door caving in and slamming against the matching floor on the inside of the property.

Darkness swallowed the corridor before her. The lights hanging dangerously on the fresh white walls were switched off, the only glimmer of light protruding from the top of the wooden stairs and under the slat of the second door on the right. Unlike the outlook of the rest of the building, the inside was much cleaner and well kept than the grotty outside. The white was so perfect, it reminded Tia of a hospital.

The girl took a step inside, her eyes adjusting to the dark and the stretching shadows.

"Tia," Connor warned as the three men gathered around her, teething to get past her.

Eretria didn't hear the man's voice: she had locked away her hearing, concentrating on the buzz of electricity surging through the walls like a torrent, and the thumping of the human heart echoing through the chasm of plaster walls. She already knew what she'd find as her hand fastened on the doorknob directly to her right.

She twisted the glacial metal with force, the door flying open and booming against the wall opposite it. The hinges screeched, making all four supernaturals cower, scrunching their eyebrows in hope the verbal pain would end.

White light intruded Tia's pupils as it flooded from the room, rearing up and engulfing her like a wave. The quartet blinked furiously, Colton raising a hand above his forehead to stop the penetrating white entering his hazel eyes.

Eretria had expected an office, or at least a desk to be situated in the room. Instead, multiple cooking stoves were arranged in a rectangle, metal utensils hanging from the walls, suspended but a metal bar. Surprisingly, the pots and pans were clean, as were the work surfaces. However, dark patches of grease and burnt oil clung to the stoves like blemishes on human skin. Something on the ground stuck to Tia's boots as she wandered into the room, the buzzing growing frantic in her fluctuating mind.

But the room wasn't the surprise. Nor was the cleanliness of it.

Sat in the far corner, with a newspaper held up to his face, was a man. His hands were old and shrivelled like raisins, but the black hair poking over the top of the paper was enough to indicate that he was middle aged. His clothes were rugged, and flopped on his fragile frame; a skeleton in uniform.

Tia coughed purposefully.

The male before her reacted instantly, rushing to put his paper down to reveal a foreign face and tanned skin. Multiple moles were adorned by his skin, in such a way that they resembled a scattering of freckles more than they resembled the blemishes. His neck was taut, gathering at the base of his chin like folds of clothes. A chain hung loosely around his neck, the gold pendant hidden by his greasy white top, overall laid delicately in his lap. Greying hair pierced his scalp, the cropped black tresses weaved with silver.

"What are you doing in here?" The man yelled as his hands scrambled for something in his pocket. Tia warily drifted her own fingers towards her knife strapped to her leg in anticipation, but relaxed when the man pulled on a pair of black framed glasses. He used a wrinkled finger to push them further up the bridge of his nose. "This is private property! Get out before I call the police!"

Connor ran his fingers along the tiled wall, before peeling them from the teal. He studied the dirt adorning his fingerprints, crinkling his nose and sighing. The movement heaved his whole body.

"I don't think that that's necessary," the man spoke slyly, trudging forwards confidently. Tia scowled as he passed her. He abused his power; he thought he was better than everyone else in the room. It was a quality Tia hated in men - in fact, it was a quality she hated in general.

Tia bravely stepped forward to interrupt the alpha, giving him a side glance. "We just wanted to ask some questions."

The man waved a hand. "Opening hours are nine to five, Monday to Saturday. Come back then."

No one moved. The wolves refused to budge, feet plastered to the worn flooring.

Tia prowled towards the Asian man with the light footfalls of a wolf. Without any warning, she shoved the crinkled paper onto the male's lap before he could continue reading. He jumped, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose once more.

"I'm sorry, but we really don't have that kind of time," Tia remarked bitterly. As her eyes pried into the worker's skin, she noticed the blue strung across his hollow cheeks and the scar above his lip, pale in contrast to the rest of his face. "You see, some of my friends were killed, and we think you might be able to help."

The man reacted under Eretria's gaze, biting down hard on his lip until it no longer resembled the red hue. His face drained of colour within seconds. "W- why have you come to me? Please tell me you called the police."

"The victims ate food catered by your company that day," Connor stated, hands shoved inelegantly into his oversized pockets. Jared watched the scene unfold, his lips fastened shut. "We have reason to believe it was poisoned, whether you realised it or not."

The man attempted to stand up, only for Tia to shove him back down into the chair with all the strength she could muster. Alarmingly, she couldn't help but realise the human was almost as strong as her. She shook her head, clearing the disconcerting thoughts. She was more powerful than anyone knew. Deep down, a storm was brewing like an impenetrable fortress within her mind.

"Don't you dare fucking move. I'm not very happy right now, and I wouldn't recommend getting on my bad side." She raised her lip, a half snarl appearing on her face. "We can't go to the police, anyway," she retorted when Connor's remark only gained a scared whimper.

The man cowered in his seat, fearless façade shattering into a billion blinding shards. "I can't help you." His feet thumped against the floor. Eretria cringed at the sudden burst of noise. She wouldn't be able to control her wolf for much longer.

Hands scrunched into fists, Connor strode until he was aligned with Tia. His alpha dominance had called out to him. Why had he let a female take control of the situation?

"I've had it," he grumbled, words snaking out of his mouth. The dim lights flickered, broadening the darkness. "What do you know about wolf's bane?"

"Connor." Jared warned.

Connor responded with a slam of his hand on the metal surface of a food preparation area. "I asked a question, and I suggest you answer it."

Surprisingly, the man appeared unfazed. His petrified demeanour had snapped in half, splitting open until all of the fear had evaporated from his body. He abruptly seemed unafraid of the four threats stood right in front of him. Eretria took a step back.

"What do you know?" Connor yelled. The male didn't blink, pupils dilated.

Tia tugged at the alpha's arm. It was surprisingly warm, even with his suit on. "Connor," she breathed, but her warning wasn't quick enough. "Something's wrong."

The man before them stood up without hesitation, reaching for the nearest sharp object - a stainless steel knife with a white plastic handle - and pulled it across his throat.

Blood dripped down onto the man's uniform, a river of crimson blemishing his clothes as he spluttered out for air. Droplets of blood flew from his mouth, touching the air.

Tia gasped. She couldn't count the amount of times she had witnessed death in her life, but this was far from the norm. She had witnessed blood by the tonne, and enough screaming for it to become wired into her internal system. Red had stained her vision for as long as she could remember. Violence had been a part of her life since birth, even when she was still residing in Mexico.

Colton was the first to whine, nose scrunched in utter disgust. He no longer looked handsome. "Ew. What the hell?"

The worker stilled before their eyes, and Connor used his perfectly polished brogues to prod the corpse. It didn't stir.

Tia gripped something chilling and metal behind her. The warmth drained from her fingers, as her only lead faded into the fathomless chasm of death. "I- I don't understand."

The room remained silent, all four pairs of eyes transfixed on the food company worker with his throat torn open. Scarlet had already forked onto the rough flooring, trailing across the ground in a stream; thick enough to drown in.

Connor clenched and unclenched his jaw. Transfixed, Eretria watched him to take her mind off their failure.

"Compulsion," a voice spoke out when the silence became too endearing to endure.

Tia turned so sharply on her heel, the skin began to throb. Jared glared through his dark eyelashes. "It was compulsion."

Confused, the she-wolf folded her eyebrows. "What? What does that mean?"

Tia could've sworn she saw the hint of a smirk, hidden by flustered cheeks. "Vampires."