“You didn’t notice any liquid at all in it? If this is a wizard potion, it would have to be in the cup before you poured the coffee,” Drystan insisted.
“If there was, I didn’t see it.”
“You’re a dragon, you didn’t notice any kind of strange smell? I’m struggling with the idea that a potion strong enough to trap Ellery into dragon form was undetectable.”
Ellery decided he didn’t particularly like Drystan’s implication. He rose up from where he was cuddled close to Chrysander and knocked down the Reverent Knight with one small push of his head. There was no way he was going to tolerate anyone blaming Zane. Once Ellery was sure his message was received, he returned to the protective circle of Chrysander’s big dragon body.
As Drystan’s other half helped him stand, both Reverent Knights broke into laughter. “Hey Ellery, I know Zane didn’t do anything. I was able to pick up a memory of the scene from the break room, but it’s weak. All he did was pour coffee. I’m just wondering if he picked up any other clues that he might not be aware of,” Drystan explained once he was on his feet. He gave his attention back to Zane. “Are you sure you didn’t smell anything strange that you didn’t correlate to getting his drink?”
Zane shook his head. “No, there was nothing. I keep wracking my brain to relive the moments in the break room, but nothing of importance happened. It was just like any other afternoon where I help Ellery with his caffeine fix. No smell. Nothing in the cup. No mark on the cup or anything else strange. I want to help, but I can’t. I gave Elf a mug of poison, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.”
“No one is blaming you, dammit,” Damian growled. “You think any of us thought for one fucking minute you were any part of this? It never happened.”
“It’s my fucking duty to see to his safety. What the fuck kind of duke am I that I didn’t notice I was giving him a wizard potion?”
“One that isn’t magickind and couldn’t have—”
Drystan never got to finish his sentence. The door to the office building burst open, and men and one woman started flowing out of it. There wasn’t a happy face in the crowd.
“Fucking hell,” Dra’Kaedan exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” Damian demanded.
“There’s nothing in the damn cup besides coffee,” the Grand Warlock’s familiar, Renny, supplied.
“What does that mean?” Costas asked.
“That we don’t even know if this is a wizard potion,” Vadimas replied. “We’re going to examine his blood, but it will take a little time. Grigori is in his lab with Delaney and Idris. They’ll analyze it as quickly as they can.”
Vampyr Lord Grigori Volkov-D’Vaire was Delaney’s mate and a genius in his own right. At the age of fourteen, he’d created a nearly synthetic version of blood to help his fellow vampires. If anyone was going to get to the bottom of this mystery, Ellery was positive Grigori could come through.
“If we had the potion in the cup, we could get started on an antidote right away,” Saura complained.
“If it was a wizard potion, it’s already evaporated. It must have taken very little of it to force Ellery into shifting,” T’Eirick added. “I fail to see the point of forcing Ellery into his dragon form.”
“So, if it evaporated quickly does that mean it wasn’t very strong?” Damian asked. “Any idea how soon we can expect Elf back?”
“If it was a strong wizard, he wouldn’t need much to reach his goal, so I can give you no idea how long we can expect Ellery to get control of his beast again,” Vadimas informed them.
Ellery let out a large sigh. All he’d been aiming for was to have a nice, quiet evening with his man. Lying against him in dragon form for an untold number of hours was not what he pictured. Chrysander pushed a little closer to him, and he closed his eyes to enjoy the touch of his other half. Even if it was not an ideal way to cuddle, he’d take it.
“All we can do is wait until they’ve had a chance to analyze Ellery’s blood, so we can see what we’re up against,” Aleksander said. He turned to Ellery. “You already have to supplement your protein with powder because of your elven diet. Your body isn’t going to tolerate being shifted for a lengthy period of time if we don’t get some more protein into you. Can I convince you to eat meat while in dragon form?”
For his entire life Ellery had stuck to fruit, vegetables, and most recently, bread. It was what all elves ate, but it would affect him negatively if he got low on protein. Dragons burned through it due to their large body mass. Being a hybrid, he was a small beast, but he doubted that was going to matter much if he couldn’t get back to his normal self. With no other way to communicate, Ellery did a slow nodding of his head, which drew a smile from the frowning leader of the D’Vaires.
Aleksander strode over and patted the scales between his eyes. “I’m going to get Dravyn to fire up the grill and we’ll smother it with your powder, so you don’t have to eat a ton of it.”
“While we’re waiting for blood results, I suggest we hit the Spectra Wizardry library and do a search on all the shifter texts we can find. I don’t believe we’ve ever created a potion to force someone to shift,” Vadimas said. He glanced over at the Reverent Knights. “If this was one of my own, I will do everything to make sure this wizard pays for harming His Majesty. Let me know if I can assist in any avenue to discovering his or her identity.”
“We’ll keep you posted on the investigation. Meanwhile, we have the entire Emperor’s office staff to interview,” Conley assured him.
“Visitors have to pass through the security guard to get onto the floor with Their Majesties. No one gets up there randomly. It has to be someone who can stroll into the breakroom undetected,” Costas said.
Damian’s eyes narrowed. “It’s staff only. The security dukes have their own separate break room at the end of the long hallway closer to their office. Since Chrys and Elf reduced the number of their staff several weeks ago, it doesn’t leave more than about two dozen suspects. Someone we hired…someone wetrusteddid this. I want to know who, and I want to know why.”
“Once Drys and I were murdered in our bedroom because of our own dukes in Castle Draconis. It was Chrys and the rest of you that made sure they faced justice. I never wanted the opportunity to return the favor but since I got it anyway, you can rest assured we’ll find who did this and they will pay,” Conley growled.
“We’re going to head back to the scene. I’m assuming you’re going to stay here at D’Vaire until we get Ellery to return?” Drystan asked.