I didn’t even know what to do at that moment. I sat on a couch in father Michaels’ office. Trying to make sense of what they told me. If it was true or they were just lying to me so that I didn’t mess the whole place until I got the ring of the damned.

After I told father about it, the old man just sat there as he thought about it all. All he told me was we needed to get at the bottom of this or the Vatican won’t be happy to hear about this. That me and Roland are the ones that messed up everything.

Even though they are the ones that gave us the case files. Telling us we needed to get the ring from the vampires, they were still going to be upset that we allowed the ring to slip from our fingers. Only God knows what the shapeshifters were thinking of doing with the damn ring.

I tried calling Roland a couple of times. But the man wasn’t responding to me. I just hope he has done nothing stupid to get the ring or get Sunny to spill the beans about where the vampire lord was keeping the ring. Because the old man was as insane as me. Like teacher like student.

I kept shifting on my couch. Pacing up and down just to relax. But the more time passed without Roland walking through that door, the more uneasy I got. The more my heart thumped like all hell.

“Mubanga, you need to relax. He will be here. And I’m sure he didn’t do anything crazy. If you the craziest didn’t do anything drastic, what makes you think he did something imprudent? He is okay, and all is well. Now we just need to figure out a way to get the ring back before word goes out there,” he spoke as he sipped on his tea.

But even though he told me that, my heart was still beating faster with each passing moment. How possible was it that we messed up? This just made little sense to me. Nothing about this all thing made sense to me.

You lost the ring. Now you need to find it or you lose your all loving job. The whispers spoke. What is there to understand?

I didn’t even know what to say to that. The whispers were supposed to be on my side. But apparently, these bastards choose to be against me.

The door blew inwards, making me jump to my feet and Roland entered. Covered in dirty and blood. Not a lot, just enough for someone to notice the man was in a fight.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” he raised his hands in surrender as he walked to the chair opposite father’s.

I just walked to him and sat next to him. He took the cup of coffee that was once mine and took a gap. Not carrying that the coffee was cold by now.

“We have a problem,” he finally said with a sigh.

“You think,” I eyed him and carried on. “I have been calling and texting you, man. Why the hell do you have a phone if you are not going to use it for its intended purpose?” I spoke.

“Language Mubanga. We are all worried about this all thing. But let’s not forget we are in the presence of the Lord,” father spoke as he looked at the crucifix on the table.

There was silence, and I just bowed my head. “Roland, what did you get where you went? Hopefully, you got something useful,” I asked, not even believing in my question.

He sighed as he looked from father to me. “Well, I did get something. You might consider it good or bad. But I would rather we see it from a positive point of view. The ring is not with the vampire, which I suppose you both already know.” We both nodded, and he carried on. “It’s with a shifter that paused as father Michael,” he spoke and took a sip from the coffee again.

We waited for him to continue, but he just sat there — allowing the awkward silence to build up.

“I don’t see the good part in anything that you just told me. All I heard was something I had known and there was no good part. If you consider misjudging someone because they have a bad reputation in the department good news, then this is good news,” I spoke. 

He just gestured his hands as he swallowed the coffee. “I thought knowing the real danger was good news,” he looked at father Michael for support. But the old man was on my side on this one.

“There is no good news, Roland. But the good news will come after we get the ring from the shifters. At least if you find their locations. Then I will be relieved. So, what do you have in mind? Because at the moment I have nothing,” I slapped a hand at my forehead.

There was silence again, all of us thinking about what was happening to us. Not only did we have a shifter or shifters to find before they unleash whatever hell they were trying to send at us. But we also had the church to deal with.

Those people will stop at nothing until they prove to their people that we are involved in these killings that have been happening. Though right now they can’t prove my involvement, but people were still dying and if we don’t hurry up, then even we will be caught.

But we had nothing that can come into help. And asking the Vatican for help, they will know we messed up things. They wouldn’t care that it was them that gave us the wrong information about the people that were endangering the ring.

If they were careful with their dealing there, then none of this would be happening to us. I would be relaxing with my best friend knowing all was well at my workplace.

I smiled as an idea popped up in my head. And both the men knowing me so well, they looked at each other and then at me. Waiting for the good news.