CHAPTER ONE: THE TRUTH ABOUT CEDRIC

The early morning spring sun dangled overhead, its rays spilling into the house—as if in a strange contest of might. Kevin came and stood at the entrance. He rested his hand on the rough paintwork that coated the door and pushed.

The room, partially illuminated, was warm, and the warmth found his face. Far across, away from the reach of the sunlight, on a leather couch next to the curtained door, sat Cedric. His attention was fixed wholly on a magazine that he held.

Kevin walked into the room and shut the door, sealing off every trace of sunlight. It became dark in the room. He walked past Cedric without so much as a glance.

“Where have you been?” Cedric demanded, eyes still fixed on the magazine.

He stopped in his path, turned to look at him and said nothing.

“You didn’t come home last night,” he finally took his eyes off the magazine and fixed them on him. “Why?”

“There was something I needed to take care of.”

“You mean this?” He threw the magazine on the table in front of him.

The slaughter of Pittsburgh gang still under investigation, the headline read in bold letters.

Kevin glanced over it, his eyes widening at the headline. His expression became numb.

“Why did you do it?” His voice was calm and controlled.

“Those guys are maniacs, sex predators and drug addicts.”

“That’s why we have the police.”

“Do you know how many women have fallen prey to these assholes?”

“Doesn’t matter. Let the cops do their job!”

It turned into an intense argument.       

“I couldn’t let this one go. Those assholes messed with someone I care about. And besides, I did the cops a favour—ridding them of those vermin.”

“Did you stop for a moment to think what your actions could do to us?” he mused, before raising his voice. “Because of this, they will intensify effort to hunt us down and put an end to all our kind here in this city.” Cedric stood up and walked to him. “Do you really want to be burnt alive if you are discovered?”

After a long silence between them, Kevin said, “One of them already knows.”

“What?” he exclaimed. “How could you let that happen?”

“His name’s Derik, and he works with TCU.”

“Then we need to do what must be done before it’s too late.” Cedric, ill at ease, spat.

“No!” he immediately rebuked him. “We will not kill him. That’s not what we are. We do not kill people! Right now I need him by my side if I’m going to put down T-Murek, and he’s promised to help.”

“You asked for his help?” Cedric barked.

He let out a self-depreciating chuckle and said, “Would you rather I kill him?”

He stifled a groan. “You are willing to risk your neck by trusting this Derik?”

Kevin said nothing. He knew if this conversation continued, it would erupt into a more intense argument, and he was not about to let that happen.

“There is something I need to tell you,” he deviated from the subject. “And promise me your absolute discretion.”

A line appeared between his brows. “What is it?”

“Just promise you won’t tell a soul about it.”

 Cedric stifled a groan and made a gesture with his fingers. “It’s a promise.”

In the silence that followed, he said, “There is a secret shifter society I asked Derik to investigate. They call themselves Beocraft. I believe T-Murek is also a member.”

Cedric recoiled in shock, eyes widening. “Beocraft?” he mouthed, voice deepening. “How did you find out about that? Have you been sneaking into my room?” he snarled at him. Eyes grew fierce and his mood became foul.

Kevin, puzzled by Cedric’s sudden outburst, bristled at the accusation. “No!” he denied, momentarily confused.

Cedric’s hardened face gave no clue of the cause of his rage. “How then did you find out about Beocraft?” he squeezed his shirt, dragging him close, voice getting louder. “Who told you about it!?” he fumed, feeling nettled by Kevin’s snoopiness.

Kevin, taken aback by this rage, saw how pissed he was and became vulnerable in his awkwardness. “Leonard,” he immediately answered out of fear of what Cedric might do to him. “His name’s Leonard. He was the detective assigned to Loretta's case.”

Cedric, only just realizing that he was overreacting, let go of him, his rage subsiding, then he walked away from him, struggling to calm his rapidly heaving chest.

Kevin, dumbfounded, stared with confused eyes, his breathing apace. He still couldn’t understand what had just happened. What had caused him to react in that way?

“You know Beocraft?”

His question was met with a blank stare.

Suddenly his stomach knotted with dread, and Kevin blinked in surprise when he finally figured it out. “You are one of them, aren’t you?”

Cedric said nothing.

Oh my God.

His body stiffened as he sucked back a deep, quick breath. An icy shiver raced down his spine. “You are a member of Beocraft,” he said it this time with absolute certainty.

Cedric turned to look at him coldly, without uttering a word. He held his gaze for a moment. The silence grew overwhelming.

Kevin, panic-stricken, shuffled away from him. “Are you going to kill me?” he asked in a quivering voice.

Cedric took a seat, and after a long silence, he finally spoke. “If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you a long time ago.”

He swallowed hard at the response.

“Tell me, what do you already know about us?” His words were calm and harmless—made Kevin feel he had nothing to fear from him.

“Leonard said Beocraft is a community of dangerous, high-profiled shifters who keep their activities secret from the public. But I'd like to believe they are more than that. Why do you belong to such a dangerous organization, anyway?”

 “We are not dangerous; we are something far from that. We are visionaries,” he started off.

They killed Murphy, he reminded himself, but hesitated to say it aloud.

Cedric went on. “Beocraft is a community of high profiled male and female shifters who have distinguished themselves in the society as icons. By this I mean famous and wealthy individuals such as doctors, mayors, professors as well as those vested with political or military power.”

“I’ve never known you to be a man of high profile. How is it you are a member of this organisation?”

“There is a lot you still do not know about me,” he cast a momentary glance at him, then turned away. “Long time ago, before I met you, I served as a provost marshal general in Fallout’s military force, but now I’m retired.”

Kevin was shocked. “How is it that I never knew of this?” he wanted to say, but then another thought formed in his restless mind. “Wait a minute… is Mayor Ramsey also a member?” It would make perfect sense if Ramsey was also a part of this organisation since he seats at the peak of power in Burnout.

Cedric waved a smile at his ignorance. “Only a shifter can become a part of us, and the mayor just isn’t a shifter.”

###

Kevin quickly took out his laptop and placed it open in front of him. He surfed the internet with ‘Beocraft’ as his search word. The search result showed nothing related to what he was looking for. It only made him frustrated and kept his curiosity growing.

Kevin knew there was something Cedric wasn’t telling him. The way Cedric had reacted earlier made him feel even more suspicious of him. He closed the laptop and reminisced over his earlier conversation with Cedric—particularly about the way he’d reacted when he had wrongly accused him of sneaking into his room.

There was no doubt Cedric was hiding something in his room, but what? Whatever it was, it had to be huge—something he did not want him to know about. His empty hand thrummed nervously over his laptop. He knew he wouldn’t get any peace of mind until he figured out what it was he was hiding in his room.

Cedric’s words rattled in his mind.

There is a lot you still do not know about me.

Then he realized he’d never been to Cedric’s room. Not once. Cedric never allow him enter his room, and he wondered why?

No kidding—there is still a lot I do not know about him.