Chapter 121: interrogation

In the parlor, on the ground floor of the mansion where the clients resided, the sun illuminated the room and graced everyone there with its warmth. Amongst everyone there that had been knocked out by the time Alex arrived in the mansion last night, only the clients and Camron were repositioned to a comfortable posture.

Alex walked back into the room after he had just retrieved a slice of bread and a cup of tea from the kitchen. He looked at the maids that he knocked out last night.

The two of them that he left to live were now tied to a chair, still unconscious. He made sure to gag their mouths properly.

He looked at the slice of bread in his hand then looked at the maids once more.

"Should I wake them up now?" He wondered.

The only reason that Alex didn't wake them up last night after he had recused his clients, was because he was too lazy to do so.

['Just do it, I don't think that they would wake up anytime soon. Whatever that was used on them is very efficient.'] Al said.

"Hmmm,"

He nodded his head and drank his tea. He dropped his cup on top of a little table by his side and walked to where Camron was with the slice of bread in his hand.

Alex made sure to finish eating the bread in his hand first.

['Xander, would you do the honor of waking them up? But with a little less voltage.'] Alex asked.

['Fine by me, and don't worry since our cultivation increased, my control over lightning has increased. I was also going to ask for the opportunity to torture the maids too.'] Xander mentioned.

['Hmmm, okay then.']

-Switch.

As soon as Xander was in control, a little streak of rose gold lightning flashed by the sides of his eyes. He gently spread his fingers apart and several needle-like streaks of lightning shot out of his fingers and landed on everyone but the maids. The one's that he shot at the clients had less voltage of electricity than the ones he shot at the rest.

-Zznn.

Although it was only for a moment, the shock from the lightning, caused the hairs on everyone that got hit by it, to stand. They were jolted back into consciousness.

"What happened?" Tammy woke up and tried to recall what happened, she sat up and placed two fingers on her temples then proceeded to massage her head.

"Goddamn it, this sensation. Alex, did you electrocute me while I was asleep?" Drake mentioned as soon as he noticed the difference in his hair.

Xander stared at him with a neutral expression on his face and said in a nonchalant tone; "The real question is why you would be asleep here, on the floor, with everyone else."

"Wait, that's true." He looked around and saw that everyone was sitting on the floor. Their hairdos were all similar.

"Why is Camron the only one that slept on a chair?" Adrian thought out loud.

"The clients," Those were the first words Camron uttered, his voice sounded grumpy as he closed his eyes.

"The clients." Everyone snapped out of their sluggish state when they heard the word client. They all jumped to their feet and got ready to search for them.

"Don't worry, we are fine," Jayda spoke up and put their worried minds to rest. She shook her head and looked at Xander.

"What happened? The last thing I remembered was drinking the wine that the maids brought in for us." Miriam asked.

"Why are the maids tied up and gagged?" Himari questioned.

"Because they committed a crime of kidnapping the three of you," Xander answered.

"What!?" Everyone chorused. "How comes?" Sravya wondered out loud.

"What was the last thing that you remember?" Xander asked all of them.

"Umm, the maids telling us that the clients wanted to speak to all of us here and after we all arrived they went to inform the clients of our arrival. We waited here for a while and the next thing I know I'm waking up here with a bad hairdo..." Tammy relayed as she made attempts to adjust her hair.

Since the incident in the city, she had a bit of respect for Alex now.

['Most likely, they inhaled something while they were in the room waiting for the clients, the best and effortless way to knock people out is with a good old knockout gas.'] Al thought.

['It would seem so.'] Xander responded.

['But as cultivators, they would notice that something is up when they smell something fishy in the air.'] Alex pointed out.

['True, unless what they inhaled had no smell.'] Xander began to look around the parlor, searching for something out of place.

He walked to the edge of the door and removed a thin stick from the top. He walked around the room and checked other places. Xander found the same type of stick in the furniture, by the window, under the tables, and so on.

"This is probably what knocked you guys out. I'm guessing that these were incense sticks that have already burned out."

"But they are just incense sticks," Neko argued.

"Since we arrived here, in this mansion, I don't remember seeing any incense being burnt. Why do I find remnants of it at the scene where you all passed out?" Xander reasoned with Neko.

"We don't burn incense sticks in my family, this is the first time that I'm seeing this here." Jayda frowned as she spoke.

"I didn't know that you were this observant," Tammy whispered, referring to Xander.

"My point exactly. You guys were knocked out by these." Xander raised the sticks in his hand. "And the three of you were knocked out by the spiked wine that they served you. Easy as that."

"What about the rest of the maids?" Emma spoke for the first time since the day started.

"I killed them and burnt their bodies," Xander replied shortly.

"Go and retrieve their corpse, Neko."

"You wouldn't find nothing but ashes, that's if the wind hasn't taken them along with it. I left these two for us to interrogate." He pointed at the maids that he tied up.

"Why did you burn them?" Neko wondered.

"Because they didn't deserve to die with a complete corpse."

"I don't believe you, I'll go and have a look around." Neko was keen on going against Xander. His jealously now is worse than it was a day ago.

"Please, be my guest. Come back when you are done looking for ashes." Xander dismissed him with that.

Neko was about to leave the room when Tammy stopped him and told him to stay put.

"Now that we are all here, why don't we start with the interrogation?" He added.

"My thoughts exactly. I will make sure that they drink water through their noses." Tammy cracked her knuckles as she headed to where the knocked out maids were tied.

"Someone get me a bucket of cold water." She said.

Xander didn't say anything to stop her from interrogating the maids. "Well then, let's begin."

-ZZnn!

He shot two streaks of lighting at the maids.

"Ahhh!!"

The two of them woke up with an excruciating sensation of pain, they convulsed for a few seconds.

Tammy turned around quickly and stared at Xander, so did everyone else that wasn't a member of the seraphim team. "You are a lightning user?" She asked.

Xander only responded by nodding his head. This alone had given Alex another solid reason for them to respect him.

When the maids finally stopped shaking, the two of them began gasping for air. They tried to stretch their limbs and that was when they noticed that they were in bondage. They looked around and assessed their situation.

One of them closed her eyes in dejection.

She knew that at this moment they had nothing that could do.

The other maid beside her sighed and said; "Don't bother asking us anything, our mouths are sealed."

"Don't speak too soon." 

Xander's lips arched a little bit. "There are ways to make people talk, either you do it willingly or I give you that extra push that you need." A wicked glint lit up in Xander's eyes.

"You. You killed my sisters." The maid that Xander threatened finally recognized who he was. "You demon." She cursed at him.

"I've been called worse. Now tell me who sent you here, tell me who you work for and what your goal is."

"I won't tell you sh*t, do your worst." The maid spit at Xander after that.

Xander moved the side and dogged her saliva.

"The little push it is then. Hmmm." He placed his hands behind his back as he walked to where the maid was.

"What about you, the silent maid, are you going to speak?" He stopped and looked at the maid that had been quiet since he woke them up.

She shook her head and stared right into Xander's eyes. He could see the determination burning in her eyes.

['Ah, I remember eyes like hers. If she is the one that I choose to torture then we might as well be trying to climb air. People like her wouldn't break when being tortured.'] He turned his attention away from the silent maid and faced the one that had been vocal.

He smirked at her.

['People like her won't break when they are being tortured, but they would when the person being tortured is a comrade of hers. This shouldn't take a while.'] Xander concluded.

He brought out the black glass-like knife in his ring and pointed it at the maid that had been silent, then he turned the knife and pointed it at her comrade.

"Your knife skills better be good, I hope you make me scream." The maid that had been talking, mocked.

"Tammy, let me take care of this. If they aren't saying anything in 15 minutes then you can do it your way." Xander said without looking at Tammy. He caught the left hand of the maid that just mocked him.

The maid struggled to remove her hand from his grip but Xander's grip was like a vice.

"Tell me if this hurts." He uttered and placed the tip of the knife in her fingernail. He applied a little force and the knife divided her index finger into two.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" she screamed out in pure agony.