Free Omega by Susannah Sandlin Page B

this had to work. He had to find out what Matthias was doing and figure out a way to give Aidan the upper hand.
    “No problem, Shelton. I’m sure Matthias appreciates your thoroughness. Shall we see him, then?”
    Shelton bobbed his head and started walking in the same direction from which Cage had come. “Matthias has taken the office at the old clinic. Part of it was damaged in an explosion, but the office is still usable and has electricity.”
    Cage knew he had to not appear too well informed, especially of the last few days’ events. “I noticed a lot of damage around town. Fire damage, rubble. What happened?”
    Shelton shook his head. “Might not want to ask Mr. Ludlam that. We almost had all of them, with some careful planning, the bombs, the fires. A lot of ’em died, but some managed to get away. Not only Murphy, but Kincaid—you heard of the Slayer?”
    “I’d heard Mirren Kincaid had joined forces with Murphy, yes.” Cage looked ahead, avoiding eye contact with Shelton lest he start laughing at Will’s description of how frightened the man had gotten in his only close encounter with Mirren. Now that he’d met Shelton, he could visualize it. “I also hear Kincaid is quite a swordsman, that he still has his original battle sword, in fact.” A downtown battle against a small army of starving vampires, who had been led to Penton by Matthias’s people, had already become the stuff of legend among the Penton residents. Some said Mirren took off twenty heads; some said forty.
    “He fucking lops heads off with that sword of his—you’ve never seen anything like it.” Shelton practically shivered. “He’s a monster.”
    Given what Will had told him about Shelton—he’d at least hinted that Shelton had tried to sexually molest him—this son of a bitch was a bigger monster than Mirren Kincaid could ever hope to be.
    If Cage’s long life had taught him anything, it was that
monster
wasn’t measured in size or physical strength, but in blackness of heart and soul.
    Cage remained quiet the rest of the walk to the clinic, while Shelton chattered more than any second-in-command should. As a result, Cage now realized Matthias knew the Penton scathe and their humans had escaped into something called Omega, that he knew it was underground and accessed beneath the church, and that Shelton was virtually living in the church sanctuary in case any of them tried to come out. In other words, Matthias was too damned close to finding them all, just as they’d feared. He hoped Mirren would get the exit plugged before that happened.
    They reached the clinic entrance, and Cage followed Shelton into the brightly lit lobby. He understood why Matthias had picked it for his headquarters—it was one of the few buildings in town that still seemed to have electricity and be mostly intact. The overhead fluorescents shot their painful glare into his dark-adjusted retinas, and he squinted against the light.
    At the end of the long central hallway, Shelton stopped and knocked on a door to his left. He waited a few seconds, then tentatively opened it. “Matthias? We have a visitor from the Tribunal.”
    Matthias came into view through the doorway, his face compressed in a frown and mouth open, probably to give Shelton a good tongue-lashing. He recovered quickly upon spotting Cage, however, and his face smoothed into a practiced smile. A politician’s face, whose pleasant expression never reached the shrewd brown eyes peering cautiously from beneath dark brows and salt-and-pepper hair.
    So this is the boogeyman.
“Cage Reynolds.” He stuck a hand out for Matthias to shake, which he did after a second’s pause. “Edward Simmons sends his regards—and he sends me, his most trusted lieutenant, if I might say so myself, to be of service. He’s most sympathetic with your cause and wishes to support your efforts to eliminate the Penton rogues in any way he can.”
    Matthias stared at him a moment, and Cage remained still while