Chapter 75 - A witch's hawk

**Callums pov**

The reunion between James and Joe was touching to witness, they walked in to another room to get reacquainted with each other. The rest of us continued with our breakfast in silence. About a quarter of an hour later we hear cars at the front of the house and soon after Reece arrives with Mike and Chad. Once inside, he takes off the blindfolds. I rise and walk over to meet them.
“ Callum! Its good to see you,” Mike reach out his hand, and I take it, I then shake Chads hand as well and show them into the livingroom.
“ I guess Reece filled you in?” I ask as Greta serve our guests coffee.
“ He did, but if you have some more information it would help” Chad answers.
I tell them everything I’ve learned from Hope and the more I speak the paler they get.
“This is no ordinary hunter phalanx..they are extremists. One of the oldest phalanxes if not the very first. They have the means to do anything, they have scientists and engineers on their payrolls, not to mention all the ex-military. They are dangerous.” Mike says. I rub my face as their words sink in.
“Do you know where they stay? Do you recognize the description of the building?”
“They own dozens of buildings, factories, mansions...the fact that it’s made of brick can sort some of them out. But we have never come close to visiting them. Other hunters stay away from them..Membership is reached through family ties or close confidants only and the entrance exams are supposed to be monstrous.” Chad reach down his bag and take out a book. Its old by the look of it.
“This contains stories about the various hunting phalanxes up to the the nineteenth century. After that, many were disbanded.” Chad opens the book and flips a few pages before finding what he’s looking for. He looks up a picture of a coat of arms. At first glance, it looks like two crossed swords in a laurel wreath. But when I look closer, I see that the wreath is made of veins and drops of blood. It was the crest Hope described.
“Do you know of any way to get close to them?” I ask
“ No..sorry..I really don’t..I think the only way to have a chance is to find the building they are keeping her in.” Chad answers and Mike nods in agreement.
“But we will keep our ears and eyes open for you. We visit the club this Tina spoke of, Diverse..apparently some of them use it as a hunting ground.” Mike said.
After talking for a while more, I arranged for the guys to be driven back. They received a fat check for the trouble and for continuing to be helpful. I also persuaded them to leave the book and promised to take good care of it until they got it back.
Its already past lunch and I hear Greta is setting the table in the diningroom. I stand up and walk over to the window..from this window I see the forest..the forest me and Hope ran through during her heat..a shiver of panic goes through me..what if I cant get to her in time? what if i can’t save her?..
“Excuse me..Alpha Callum..may I have a word?” Jesse comes in the room.
“You don’t need to address me like that..I am not your Alpha.” I give him a weak smile and return to the couch, motioning for him to sit as well.
“I know what happened in general..but no details..can you give me some?”
I sigh and once again repeated everything that had happened. Everything Hope had told me, Tina, Mike and Chad as well. I showed him the book with the picture of the crest. When I was done we sat quiet for a few minutes.
“ Do you have a map?” Jesse asked
“ A map?”
“ Yes..When I went rogue, I stuck to the wilderness for quite a while before deciding to try life in the city. If we assume that they traveled by car, which I think we can do, it wasn’t many hours from the time Hope was taken to the time she linked you. If we work out how far they might have traveled in that time, in all directions, we have an area to search. With the help of today’s satellite pictures online and my knowledge of nature, we should be able to get pretty close..”
“ I can help as well..” Zandra comes in to the room.
“ Jesse, you met Zandra at the ceremony right?” I ask to see if they need to be introduced.
“ We met long before that, when he and Kevin came to our pack twelve years ago” Zandra says with a warm smile, patting Jesses shoulder as she pass him.
“ Its good that you are here Zandra.” I say and feel a bit nervous about what I am going to ask her.
“ Hope wants you to do something..it will not be easy..”
“ I know..she wants me to get in contact with Ambrogio..and I will.” She answers before I can say anything.
“ Ambrogio?..As in the Vampire king? Jesse ask
“ He is no king..never was and never will be..but yes, that Ambrogio” Zandra snaps at him.
“ Its a long story..for another time..lets just say that in this war he is not the enemy.” I try to get him to let it go and he does.
“ So, a map and a computer then?..” I rise and leave the room, I take the stairs up to my office two steps at a time and once I get there I close the door behind me and exhale. I take the whiskey bottle from the bar cabinet and fill a glass to the brim and empty it just as quickly, I fill another but just hold it in my hand while I feel the heat from the first take root in my chest. I think about everything I learned the last couple of hours. I don’t care if I have to play buddy with the vampires..I don’t care if Zandra has a hard time about it either. I take a small sip from the glass..all I care about is getting Hope out of there, then I’ll wipe out the hunter phalanx. There is nothing more dangerous than sadistic billionaires..now they also know exactly where we are..they may even know that Cecilia is here and will come back for her too. No, save Hope and raze the phalanx to the ground..those are my goals.
I rummage through some boxes on the bookshelf and finally find a map. I empty my glass and take a few deep breaths before grabbing my laptop from the desk and leaving the office.
About two hours later, we have a limited area to search.
“ Look at this..” Jesse says and point on a small area on the map.
“You said she smelled something that could be a waterfall? Pick up this area on google maps, see if you can get a satellite image. I can swear there is an energy building right there, right next to these waterfalls.” Jesse said to Reece who is the one fastest on the computer.
“ Well, there is something there..but its blurred” Reese say and scratch his head.
“You would have to have a lot of money and a lot of power to succeed in getting satellite images blurred? Right?” I say and feel Beacon get excited.
“ Right..but without a picture we cant be sure..its a long way to go on a maybe..” Reece keep on tapping on the computer, trying to find any other pictures that isn’t blurred.
“ I will take a look then..” Zandra say, rise and walk to the window and opens it. We all look at her a bit confused..even with her magic she can’t see that far. A hawk comes flying and lands on Zandra’s outstretched arm. She takes it in and we who are standing take a step back. She sits down in an armchair, the hawk is still calm not caring about any of us.
“Can someone please give me a needle or something sharp.” She ask, looking at all of us. Maya runs out of the room and is soon back with a needle. She takes the needle and lifts one of the hawk’s wings. It twitches when she pokes it.
“The glass please..”she points to a glass on the table and Jesse gives it to her. She lets the hawk’s blood drip into the glass until she has the amount she is happy with before giving the bird the go-ahead to fly back out the window, which it does. She whispers a few words over the glass, before looking at the map and then on all of us.
“ Salut!” She lifts the glass in a toast and then swallows the entire contents, causing most of us to wrinkle our noses in disapproval. After that her eyes turns completely white and we all stare at her in silence. After nothing happens for a few minutes, we return to the computer and the map to see if there are other interesting targets, I look at her from time to time but she is like frozen. I’ve learned not to doubt what she does, she’s not called a crazy hag for nothing. about forty-five minutes later she starts coughing and rubbing her eyes. Maya runs into the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water. Zandra drinks and calms down, her eyes are red after being open so long.
“ It’s the right location..three buildings..and the crest on one of the walls..” she coughs again and waves her empty glass at Maya. Cecilia comes in, she has been helping Greta and Joe in the kitchen to keep busy and not worry herself to death..she stops and stare at the book on the table.
“ I’ve seen that picture before..” she says with a small sad smile on her face.
“ You have? Where?” I go up to her and put my hands on her shoulders.
“ Try to remember Cecilia, its very important!”
“ Oh, I don’t need to try..how could I forget?..My ex husband, Hopes father had that tattooed all over his back..”

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*Author Note: Thank you for reading!
This is my first book and English is not my native language so please leave a kind comment to point out mistakes. (spelling or grammar)
* Make sure to like and please comment on the chapter if you enjoyed it!