The Delta's Daughter Chapter 375

LYRIC

We pulled up outside of Miko's bar. The first thing I noticed is the lack of noise and lights. Yet several vehicles and bikes are parked outside. Some I recognize as being regulars and others that belong to Miko's men.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

Note stirs and I feel her uneasiness mingle with mine. Something wasn't right. I grasp the handle to the car and am about to swing the door open when Mikes large hand latches onto my wrist pulling back. "Wait." He commands me and I sit back frowning. "Is it always this… desolate?"

"No." I shake my head in reply. "Somethings not right. It's too quiet."

"Duke feels uneasy. I know you know this place but let's air on the side of caution. Keep your mind link open." He's not looking at me but out the window on my side of the car. His eyes scanning the area, jaw tight. His wolf alert and peeking through, just like Note - on alert. Attentive to our surroundings.

Mike gets out of the car and walks around opening my door. Once I step out his hand rests on my elbow securely. We both scent the air, trying to sense something unusual. The absence of shifter scents registers and has my stomach coiling.

Usually, music could be heard from outside blaring, Gus or another male would be sitting at the front entrance letting people in or stopping them from entering the club. But there was no one there. And no music. The sign above the door was dark, not illuminated in bright blue as it usually was. Even when they were closed the light for the sign stayed on.

We walk to the door side by side, casting wary glances around and brief reassuring ones at each other. I pull at the door that's locked. I tried again hoping it was just stuck. Nope it was locked up tight.

I scratch my head and run my fingers through my long ponytail. "Let's go around the back," I suggest.

Once around the back, I try the back door. That too is locked. I chew my cheek with frustration and confusion as to why the club would be locked up, before pulling out a small zipper pouch from my back pocket.

I pluck two tools out and crouch down so I'm eye level with the lock. Using the tiny thin tools, I manage to make quick work of the lock and hear it unlatch from the other side.

"I'll go in first," Mike tells me once I began to pull the door open. He moves me behind him and opens the door all the way.

The back hall is shrouded in darkness, my wolf's eyes kick in and the dark hallways give way to shadows allowing me to see better. I run my hand on the wall until I find a switch and flip it. The bright light momentarily blinds me before my eyes adjust. It doesn't seem to affect Mike though as we keep moving down the back passage.

We are only a few feet in when Mike halts, making me run into his back. "What the…" That's when I catch a whiff of stale blood. A lot of stale blood. Making me gag.

"Does it always smell this bad in here?"

"No," I reply feeling worried as the scent of blood becomes stronger.

We reached Miko's office, and I grabbed Mike Bicep making him stop. I have a bad feeling and I don't want to know what is behind the door.

"It's okay," he tells me. Uncurling the tight grip I have on him and threading his fingers through mine instead.

He pushes the door open, the light from the passage floods into Miko's office and I gasp as the copious amount of blood registers. Fly's fill the room and I gag at the stench of rotting flesh and caked blood that stains the floor.

There's a body lying on the ground next to Miko's desk and I step into the room, even though I really just wanted to shut the door and walk away.

But I had to see.

"Fuck!" I groan with sickness as I study the body. "There's no head."

I can't tear my eyes away from the gross scene, yet from the corner of my eye I see Mike looking around.

"What are you looking for?" I whisper. No idea why I'm whispering but it just seems right.

"The head." He deadpans. "Is this Miko?" He asks, looking under the desk.

I look at the headless figure heaped on the floor. I gag again. "I can't tell. It looks like one of his suits but…" A rat covered in blood suddenly runs across my feet. I jump and squeal like a frightened child, not expecting something to move.

Mike is by my side in seconds. "Just a rat. Surprised me is all." I tell him and pinch my nose to block out the rancid smell.

We leave the room and make our way into the main part of the club. I freeze as we get closer to the double doors that lead into the bar area. I can smell more blood and more rotting flesh.

I close my eyes and breath in through my mouth.

"Are you okay Lyric?" Mike asks in concern. "You don't have to go in there if you don't want to." He says and I feel his large hand come up and rub my back.

"I really do," I state knowing I need to see what has happened. I need to know if Miko is amongst the dead bodies.

I blow out my breath, open my eyes, and tentatively place my hand on one of the double doors. We push the doors open together.

My eyes focus on the dark room, and I really wish they hadn't. It takes me a moment to acknowledge just what I'm looking at. Then without warning I turn and puke. And puke some more.

"Holy shit!" Mike gasps in shock, "What the fuck happened here. This is sick!" He's not really asking me; I get that he is just as astonished by the horrific scene as I am.

I pull my shirt up over my nose after sorting myself out and finish vomiting. Images of my pack being massacred flash behind my eyes, the gory scene bringing back memories as I cast my eyes around the open room and the bodies that litter the floor.

All their heads had been removed and spiked on pool cues or bar stool legs.

Whoever did this was a sick fuck. The whole bar had been murdered. I don't think they even saw it coming. There were no signs of a fight or struggle. Just headless bodies splayed around the bar.

One lone head sat on the pool table and I tiptoed through the corpses toward it. I made the mistake of looking down just to see maggots crawling over the rotting flesh of the neck of one male. The bodies had decomposed and decayed.

Luckily, it was cold. I could only imagine how much more awful the stench of decay would be if it was summer. By the looks of it, they had died some time ago.

"Miko," I murmured sadly when I was closer to the head. The flesh had dried and gone a grey color, but I could clearly make out Miko's face. "He's dead!" I yelled out to Mike and was startled when I heard his voice right next to my ear.

"They've been dead for some time. I'm surprised the bodies aren't worse than this." He pulls me away from the pool table, "I did find something interesting," He says and leads me over to a body.

I look down where he points to, "See these markings?" He asks glancing up to make sure I'm looking. I really don't want to, but I do. "They are similar to the ones Jonda has on her."

"You think this is Shadow's work?" Chills break over me at the mention of his name and I shiver at the thought of someone doing this.

"Yeah, I do." He says earnestly. "There are slashes on the necks of some of the bodies and teeth marks." He shows me a row of heads spiked on the broken leg of a bar stool.

He pulls out his phone and starts to take pictures.

I rear back in surprise and can't hide my disgust, "Because seeing them with your own eyes isn't enough?" I balk.

"Because I want evidence of what happened here. It needs to be documented and Kellen will want to see what we found when we come back with no answers." He tells me.

"Oh right. Good idea." I forgot the Beta is an investigator. Not just a handsome face and strong. This was his job.

It doesn't take Mike long to snap a few pictures, then he's pulling me back through the bar and out of there. "Do you think Miko would have had any information on Senko?" He asks before we get to the back door.

I shake my head even though he can't see me as he has his back to me. "I don't know." I find my voice. "There's a safe behind a painting, behind his desk," I inform him.

Mike swings around and pulls me back into that awful office. He makes a beeline for the painting uncovering the safe. "You think you can open it?"

I shuffled over to him. It takes me a good few moments to open it, even though it's a simple dial lock. I'm nervous. So, it takes me a little longer than it normally would. Once unlocked, I swing the door open only to find the safe empty. Not even the stacks of money Miko kept were in there.

"Another dead end," Mike grumbles.

"Can we please get the fuck out of here before I hurl again?" I sigh. Trying not to taste the nasty foul odor of dead flesh and stale blood.

How could it not affect him? Spilling blood on a battlefield was one thing. But this? This was just unnecessary, putrid, and disgusting. Yet he seemed so unaffected. Wasn't his wolf going crazy because Note was hissing and growling in my mind. The smells were driving her nuts and making us both sick.

As soon as we are clear of the building, I bend over grabbing my knees, heaving in gulps of fresh air. The cold temperature outside is welcomed and I suck in the iciness, clearing my senses of the stench that clung to me.

Mike comes up to me, rubbing my back again. His touch is comforting and soothing, pushing down the bile that threatened to spew from my mouth again. "Let's get back." He gently says. "I already informed the others this was a dead end."

I couldn't help but wonder, If this was the work of Shadow or his men, what did Miko tell them? Is this how he knew about my boy? Did Miko have no choice but to spill my secret?

The people in that club may not have been upstanding citizens, unsavory at best, but… I knew them and they were all gone. Murdered in the most horrific way and then displayed like trophies.

"Swift? Is that you?" My head snaps up at the familiar voice and Mike lets out a low warning growl to the unknown female.

"Ginny?" I exclaim, not believing my ears. What was she doing here? The bodies inside were so decomposed they were almost unrecognizable, but I could tell none of them were female.

Ginny was one of Miko's girls. A prostitute. From what I understood, she had lost her wolf many years ago after she killed her mate and his mistress. It sent her crazy and she turned to a life of substance abuse and selling her body. The female was only in her mid-thirties, but she looked more like an old haggard woman now.

"Ginny what are you doing here?" I straighten myself and walk over to her, wrapping my arms around her.

"I don't have anywhere else to go." She sobs.

"Do you know what happened here?" I ask hopefully.

She brushes her dirty brown hair from her face. She is shaking from the cold. Only wearing a tiny skirt and a tank top. I take my jacket off and drape it around her shoulders.

"I was late that day." She hiccups through a sob. "I drank too much again and when I got to the bar, they were shoving the other girls in a van. I hid and after they left, I went in and saw what they had done." She sobs louder. "It was awful Swift. They killed them all."

"When was this? Who killed them?" Mike butts in all beta and intimidating demanding an answer.

Ginny shrinks back at the stranger, "It's okay Ginny, he is with me. He's a good one I promise."

"A few weeks ago, maybe more. I don't know some of them." She shakes her head, sniffling up the snot from her nose. "But I know some of Garrisons men were with the grey ones."

"The grey ones?" Mike questions.

Ginny nods, "They had strange colored skin," She tells us.

"Like Twenty-Nine," I tell Mike over my shoulder.

This only confirms that Shadow was behind it. But Garrison's men were with them too. Garrison was the Underground lord who controlled the drug scene. The same man who operated out the building we were breaking into tomorrow.

If Garrison was working with Shadow, then shit just got more complicated.

"Mike, you got any money?" I turn to him; he's looking at Ginny skeptically. Not judging but not in a good way either.

He steps closer pulling out his wallet and opening it. He pulls a few notes from it, but I reach over and snatched it out of his hand pulling out a wad of cash and handing it to Ginny. "Find somewhere warm to sleep and get some food in you," I tell her noticing that she is a lot skinner than before. The bags under her eyes showed she had been taking care of herself less than normal. "And no turning tricks," I say forcefully.

I give her another quick hug then turn back to Mike, tugging on his jacket sleeve and pulling us back to the front where the car is parked.

"That was all the cash I had." Mike groans once we are seated inside the warmth of his car with the heat on.

"She has nothing Mike. If Miko is dead she can't even work. The club was her life. Her bread and butter." I state. He doesn't get it. He has never had to live in poverty. Never had to survive on the streets of the Boroughs before. He wouldn't understand.

"She's just going to use it for more drugs or whatever." He sighs.

"Maybe," I shake my head at him. "You might think I'm enabling her; the truth is, it's helping her. If she buys drugs or whatever, then she still has enough money to afford to get high in the comfort of warmth."

Mike throws the car into gear, and we head back to my house. I told him to have his warriors stop at a Pizza pie place on the way back so they could get food as I didn't have much in my house. And what I did have, wasn't enough to feed the warriors and us.

An hour later we were back at mine. Minus two warriors who came back with arms piled high with boxes of food.

We spread out between the living room and kitchen, and I watched as they scarfed down food. I had lost my appetite. Images of rotting bodies plagued my mind, and the appeal to eat was nonexistent.

I listen to them talk. They chat about their families or mates, some have girlfriends. They laugh and joke, poke fun at each other and even Mike joins in.

I don't understand how they can be so carefree after what Mike, and I witnessed last night.

I finally leave them to it and head to my room for a nice long hot shower. Not caring if I use up all the hot water and leave none for the rest of them.

I get out and put on a pair of pajama shorts and t-shirt and begin to brush through my long hair, while sitting on the edge of my bed. I was thinking whether I should cut it off or not when my door opened, and I immediately smelled my mate.

"I thought you would be asleep by now." He quietly says leaning against the door once it was closed.

He had shucked his jacket and shoes, leaving him in just his jeans and the long-sleeved grey shirt that hugged every bulging muscle on his body. My mouth watered and my thoughts began to run amuck again.

"Mind if I take a shower in here?" He asks.

"Towels are on the rack," I smile.

'Go with him!' Note encourages like the horny wolf she is.

'I just had a shower.' I mentally roll my eyes at her.

'Take another with mate.' I physically feel her shudder with desire, and it ripples through my body.

I shake the feeling off and mentally scold Note, shoving her back down and ignoring her protests.

Mike leaves the room to shower, and I crawl into bed, curling up under the soft sheets. My eyes are just closing when I hear the shower shut off. A few minutes later the door opens, illuminating the bedroom with the light from the bathroom.

I shift my head and eyes to see Mike standing in the door frame, filling it with his bulky frame. Shirtless with only a pair of boxers on. He walks into the room using the towel to dry his short hair.

He tosses the towel on the rocker and usually that would play on my nerves, but I say nothing letting it go. Mike moves from my line of sight, then I feel the bed dip with his weight.

My heart rate accelerates, and my breathing becomes slightly labored at the prospect of what he was doing. "What are you doing?" I asked with a shaky voice.

"Sleeping next to my mate." He says huskily and that tone goes straight to my core.

"No," I say sitting up a little. "You said you were going to sleep on the floor."

"You said I was going to sleep on the floor. I said nothing of the sort." He chuckles.

Then his face becomes serious, the joking smile wiped off. "I won't touch you, Lyric. Not unless you ask me to. But I am sleeping next to you." He quite seriously says.

He then reaches over and places a pillow in the middle of the bed. I frown at what he's doing.

"So, we don't cross the invisible line." He tells me with a smirk and a wink.

I flop onto my back and groan. He was going to be the death of me. If I didn't kill him first. Either he was severely testing my will or he was testing his own.

He climbs in and I turn my back to him because I daren't face him. I didn't know what would happen. So I lay there ramrod straight until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.