Chapter 22: Tricked

They made it to Lestrade's office just after lunchtime, Irene being the only other person in the room now. She greeted them as they entered and they both took a seat opposite her and Lestrade.

"Afternoon, Sherlock," Irene said looking to him.

"Afternoon," he replied as he looked at the map that was set before them on the coffee table.

"Is this Stowerling Keep?" John asked as he looked at the blueprints.

"As close as we could get to the modern day look of the inside of the building," Lestrade said.

"We're just going to go over this quickly," Irene said as she leaned forward in her seat.

"This over here is the main entrance," Irene said as she pointed to a place on the map.

"I was explaining to her what you told me. About there being no one in Stowerling. If there is someone operating cloaking charms then he's bound to be powerful to cover that huge an area," Lestrade said.

"I have to say that it's highly likely the Father will be there at the heart of it all," Irene said her gaze looking from John then back to Sherlock.

"I'm still going," John said knowing what her intention was. Irene, like Sherlock, didn't want him to get hurt.

"I wasn't saying anything," she murmured, looking to the blueprints once more, "In the case of a ball they'd be using this room over here," she said indicating a large rectangular area.

"That's on the ground floor, getaways would be easy," Lestrade put in now.

"Provided the Father allows it," Sherlock murmured as he looked at the blueprints now, "He'd most likely have the whole place guarded by his coven if he didn't want anyone leaving before the party's over."

"You could look at it that way…" Lestrade said, Sherlock was always the practical one, always putting a damper on his ideas.

"Will you know how the Father looks like though?" John asked, looking to Irene.

"I've never seen his face before. Like I said, he's working from behind the scenes. This masquerade ball must be a way for him to find Sherlock unnoticed because everyone's going to be hiding behind a mask," she said.

Sherlock paused now, his mind processing the information, "If the Father's holding a masquerade ball to look for me and we're all going to be wearing masks, doesn't that suggest that the Father would know my physique? Or some other quality that only he would know intimately?" he said.

John's eyes widened in realization, "That's true. Then…"

"…he's got to be someone I know…" Sherlock murmured trailing off now, brows furrowed, he felt a chilling sense of familiarity at the scene of this. Masquerades…

"Lestrade, you told me Jim…staked himself right? In his apartment?" Sherlock asked.

"Yes…why?" Lestrade asked.

"Sherlock you're not suggesting…that Jim…is…alive right?" Irene asked, looking quizzically to the other.

"Did you find his ashes there?" Sherlock asked, this was a possibility he didn't want to face.

"No…" Lestrade murmured, "I hadn't heard from Jim in awhile. It was after you went missing that he disappeared as well. So I went to his apartment to check on him, the door wasn't locked and when I got in I found nothing but the stake and the note. I don't remember much else…" Lestrade murmured.

"Maybe the ashes were scattered?" John murmured, he didn't like talking about this vampire in particular.

"Possibly. Vampire ashes are very fine," Sherlock murmured, "We need to check this out, Lestrade, Irene you're both coming with me and John."

So it was that the four of them headed out, headed to Jim's apartment now. To John it was as if Sherlock was blatantly visiting his old lover right in front of him. The hunter struggled to keep those feelings to himself now as they pulled up to the place.

They took the lift up in silence and when it stopped on the thirteenth floor, Sherlock stepped out first taking a turn down the corridor on right now. They continued walking till they reached the very end.

"Here it is," Sherlock said and John noticed a small smile cross the vampire's lips, his heart ached at that small gesture and he wondered just what the two vampires had done here.

The musty scent of the room hit them when Sherlock opened the door, that and the faint whiff of cologne mixed into it.

"Still smells like him…" Sherlock muttered as he entered the room.

"Nothing's changed," Irene said reaching to take one of the picture off the stand and looking at it.

John felt like he was being left out here. Each of them had known this man in one way or another and he didn't even know who the hell he was, let alone even met the man in the flesh. He looked at the picture that Irene held and he could see Sherlock next to a slightly shorter man who was smiling out at him. He looked to be rather nice, but there was something in his eyes that told John otherwise…or maybe it was just his jealousy speaking.

"Where exactly did he…commit suicide?" Sherlock asked as he looked around the living room. Everything seemed to be in order, the windows were closed keeping the room intact and no dust had touched anything.

"The bedroom," Lestrade said leading Sherlock to the room and letting him enter first.

"And the note was on the dresser?"

Sherlock asked as he swiped his finger over the top of the dressing table, coming away with black residue. There were ashes here alright and Sherlock didn't want to think more than that. He lifted his finger to his lips kissing the ashes.

"It's a shame I never got to say goodbye to you," Sherlock whispered, turning back to Lestrade and the rest.

"Well?" Irene asked.

"He's gone," Sherlock murmured his eyes falling to John now who looked just as depressed as he felt now. It must be hard for the hunter to have him here in the house of his previous lover.

"Good, then let's go," John muttered making his way out of the room now. He didn't want Sherlock to know how he was feeling, that or let Sherlock think that he was jealous.

Of course Sherlock could understand what John was going through he was sure that if things were the other way around, he would be feeling just as depressed and jealous as John was feeling right now. As they crowded back into the lift, Sherlock stood beside John now, and as the lift began to descend, he reached to take John's hand at his side, slipping his fingers between John's and intertwining them. The hunter looked up to him with curious eyes and Sherlock smiled back at him, stroking his thumb over the back of John's hand now.

"I'm going to make sure nothing happens to you John, I swear it," Sherlock whispered in John's ear, his lips brushing softly against the hunter's ear now. It was a promise that Sherlock meant to keep because John was now an important part of his life.

From behind the counter of the security desk in the apartment Moran watched as Sherlock and the gang made it out of the apartment. He took out his phone and quickly dialed a number.

"Jim?" he said into the phone, "They took the trick."

"That's good," Jim murmured, smiling at the thought of Sherlock standing in his apartment looking at what were supposed to be his ashes. He'd always known Sherlock to take things at face value when it came to incidents that involved his emotions and the ones he loved, he was easy to trick like that.