Treasured Secrets by Kendall Talbot

Author:Kendall Talbot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd
Published: 2015-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Brother Nox stepped into his bedroom, shut the door and slid the bolt into place. Within seconds, Shadow was weaving his way around Nox’s ankles. The silver-grey Chartreux had an uncanny way of knowing exactly when Nox would walk through his bedroom door. ‘I’ll get to you in a moment, Shadow.’ Nox resisted the urge to pick the cat up.

A sliver of sun penetrated the split in the curtain, creating a line that ran across the stone floor and up the wall. The beam crossed over a large glass tank, dividing it in half. The vision wasn’t lost on him. He already kept the mushroom-filled tank divided.

Half of the mushrooms were known for their hallucinogenic properties. The other half was as deadly as poison. To the untrained eye the mushrooms looked identical: small, brown and sticky. The wood-rotting funguses preferred decaying conifers, and over the years he had perfected their germination by maintaining his room as a dark, humid space. The rotten smell almost masked his body odour. Almost. It also ensured nobody ventured into his room. Exactly how he liked it.

He closed his eyes and reached into the tank to pluck two mushrooms at random, one from each end. Then he tossed them around in his hands before dropping them onto his desk. It was a little game he performed almost daily. A test. Mushroom Russian roulette. If he chose correctly he would experience mild hallucinations for an hour or so. But if he chose poorly, he would most likely spend the afternoon in the bathroom with diarrhoea and vomiting. One mushroom would only cause mild symptoms, good or bad, but he resisted the urge to have more today. He needed to maintain control.

Of course, after years of experience he could usually tell the almost identical mushrooms apart, but he was still caught out on the odd occasion. With the decision made, he flicked one of the mushrooms across the table and tossed the other into his mouth. He chewed on the meaty fungus with tingling anticipation, then followed it with half a glass of red wine. A few drops trickled down the glass stem as he placed it back upon the table. The drip stain would add to all the others dotted over the dark wood.

He turned towards his bed and gently shoved the cat aside to tug on his mattress. When it was half off the frame, he removed a few planks of wood and reached into the void. He fingered a dozen or so metal boxes until he located the one he wanted, removed it and carried it to the table.

The brass latches were no longer the shiny metal that had caught his eye several decades ago. After unclipping them, he lifted the lid and smirked at his creative foresight. Finally it looked like his years of meticulous planning were going to pay off. The box contained a small notebook, much like the ones sold in all the tourist shops at the Vatican City. The pope smiled up at him from the cover.

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