by Alex Rivers
“A dad joke,” Harutaka said helpfully.
“Yes, thank you. Come in.”
I moved aside, and he entered the shop, looking around in wonder. Magnus barreled into the room, barking excitedly at the new visitor. Harutaka bent his knee, crouching to look at my dog, frowning in a serious manner.
“That’s my puppy, Magnus. He’s very excitable.”
Harutaka smiled at the dog. Magnus barked again, wagging his tail, and licked Harutaka’s face.
“Magnus, no!” I rebuked him sharply. “I’m sorry. He really likes you, apparently. Usually he doesn’t lick anyone except me and his…” balls. “Uh… anyone except me.”
“Maybe that’s his way of saying hello,” Harutaka suggested, and then, to my astonishment, he stuck out his tongue and licked Magnus’ face.
My puppy was overjoyed. He ran all over the shop, knocking down a stool and a coat rack, then jumped at me, his eyes clearly asking me if I saw what had just freaking happened.
“I have dog hair in my mouth,” Harutaka said, standing up.
“That’s what you get, apparently,” I muttered. “Oh shit, the tear!”
I dashed back to my lab. To my relief, the tear hadn’t burnt yet. I quickly turned off the gas, inspecting the jar with the distilled essence. It condensed on the glass surface, a silvery fog speckled with tiny spots where the liquid materialized. It looked good.
“Can I come in?” Harutaka asked behind me.
Panicked, I glanced at the counter, where the cookbook had been, but then remembered I had put it back in the safe. Aside from it, I didn’t keep any secrets in my lab. “Sure, come in. I have to prepare some stuff. But close the door, don’t let Magnus in.” A wave of dizziness hit me and I leaned on the counter, breathing heavily. My dash had drained what little energy I had.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Still a bit sick from that night. But I’m getting better.” I slowly shuffled back to the mortar and pestle, a wave of nausea roiling in my stomach.
“So.” I began to crush the earth and the eggshell again. “Sinead said you’re willing to help us.”
“Of course.” Harutaka pried a dog hair from his mouth. “After you saved me, it is the least I could do.”
I smiled, amused. “Don’t bullshit me, Harutaka. You’re not doing this out of a sense of debt. You’re doing it for the dragon scales.”
“Can it be both?”
“Sure, whatever floats your boat.”
“Then I would say it’s about twenty percent sense of debt, eighty percent dragon scales.”
I put the crushed powder in a sieve above a copper pot, and began wiggling it back and forth. The powder that filtered through the sieve’s holes and scattered inside the copper pot was brown and thin. “What were you doing in the Shades’ sacred library anyway?”
“I was searching for shadow magic runes.”
“Did you find any?”
“The books were all blank,” he said.
“Well, I guess the Shades don’t read the books, right? They read the books’ shadows.” I tossed the few pebbles and eggshell particles that remained in the sieve into the trash. Then I poured some water into the copper pot.
“That’s very true… What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you’re preparing mud.”
“That’s pretty much what it is,” I agreed. “But it’s a special mud. Soil from various countries and eggshells of different birds form the baseline for many potions. Just like flour and eggs are often the baseline for cakes.”
“I see.”
I put the pot on the gas and stirred it occasionally. “But you must have known the books in the library would be empty. And you still went there.”
“I may have found a way to read the shadows of books myself,” he said carefully.
“That’s impressive. So did you find what you were looking for?”
He didn’t answer. I kept stirring the mud in the pot, not pressing the point. What he had found in the Shades’ library was his business, but I had a different question in mind. “When we broke in, I got the sense that there’s someone… trapped in one of the Shades’ human bodies.”
“Did you?” he asked. He sounded innocent enough, but I began to suspect Harutaka didn’t divulge knowledge easily. He knew what I was talking about, I was almost sure of it.
“These cult members. They get recruited to their cult, and they’re told that their soul is transferred to the shadow, leaving the body as a sort of empty husk. But that’s not what happens, is it?”
“I think not.”
“What actually happens is they summon something that takes control of their shadow. And they’re left stuck in their body, while the shadow moves it around, like a puppet.”
“It’s a demon,” Harutaka said. “I don’t know which.”
I shivered, remembering the desperate stare of the Shade when our eyes met. Pushing the image away, I turned the gas off, letting the bubbling mud cool a bit, and then poured some of it into a glass tube. I went over to the shelf, taking a dried mushroom from a jar and a small bone from a leather bag. I dropped them both into the tube. Then I picked up the jar with the distilled tear, where the silver liquid slowly formed in the bottom, and dripped three drops into the solution. The entire thing bubbled and frothed. Harutaka hissed in surprise. The color of the mud slowly shifted until it was golden, and glowed with a strange light.
“What is that?” he asked.
“A truth serum,” I said. “We’re going to use it to compel the mansion’s security chief to tell us the combination to the vault door.”
“And what else?” He seemed suddenly very excited.
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
“While he’s under the effect of the serum, he is compelled to give us the truth, right? Why not ask him the big questions? Is there a god? Do we determine our fate, or is it predestined? What is true happiness?”
“Um… it just compels him to tell us what he knows. Not all the truth in the universe.”
“Oh.” His face fell.
“We could get him to divulge his sex kinks, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“I do not think it will.”
I poured the liquid from the tube into a small copper vial, and corked it. “Sinead said you need my help to hack the server,” I said. “I’m going to the mansion tomorrow evening, so I’ll be able to hook you up.”
“Take this.” He pulled a chain from his pocket. A black stone was attached to it, with a single rune in dark red. The tip of a USB stick protruded from it, almost hidden.
“What is that, exactly?”
“It is a magical USB stick.”
I stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Very seriously. This is what I do, Lou. I write code, and magical runes, and I bind them together.”
I took the USB stick from his hand. A constant hum of magical power emanated from it. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing at the rune.
“Chaos,” he said, his tone simple. But he stared at me intently, as if the word meant something more.
“Okay,” I said. The chain was necklace-length, and I draped it around my neck. “So what do I do with it?”
“According to the blueprints Sinead showed me, all the rooms in the mansion are connected to the central heating, except for one.”
I nodded hesitantly. I remembered noticing it when we were poring over the blueprints.
“That should be the server room. It is kept cool because of the computers in it.”
“How do you know it’s not the pantry?”
“Because it’s not adjacent to the kitchen.” He raised his eyebrow. “You’re very weird, Lou Vitalis.”
“I’m weird. Right. Why would there be a whole room of servers?”
“Trust me,” he said. “For the security this dragon has, he needs some strong computers. I want you to go to that room, and just plug the USB key I gave
you into one of the computers. I’ll do the rest.”
Chapter Seventeen
For the first time in many days, I woke up feeling almost like myself. I was walking Magnus, who was beside himself with joy at my recovery, when my phone rang. It was Kane.
“Hello?” I held the phone in my left hand, pulling the leash with my other hand while Magnus barked at a squirrel as if it was his lifelong nemesis.
“Lou! How are you feeling?”
“Better, thanks.” I tried to sound cool and professional, failing miserably.
“Glad to hear it. Are you walking your dog?”
Magnus stretched against his leash to the point of choking, his barking almost deranged with fury. This squirrel was clearly the source of all evil, and had to perish. The squirrel watched Magnus with the jaded boredom of one who had seen all the dogs, and found them lacking. I tried to pull Magnus away. “Yeah. There’s a… squirrel.”
“They’re the worst. Listen, can I drop by this morning?”
“Why?”
“I have the teleportation spell all figured out, but I need to practice it. I’ve never cast it before.”
“Don’t you need a dragon scale for that?” The squirrel turned away in disgust and hopped up the tree. Magnus whined, the chance to save the world from this vile presence forever lost.
“To actually teleport, sure. But I can practice the chant, the alignment of the mystical energy. I need to see if I can get the focal point of the arcane force to center on our combined entities—”
“Is this some sort of sorcerer’s techno-babble?”
“Of course not.” There was a pause. “Maybe. A bit. Basically, I need to train at casting the spell on both of us.”
“I need to be in the mansion this evening, Kane.” Magnus raised his leg and peed on the tree the squirrel had escaped to. He seemed satisfied with this outcome of affairs. He’d managed to have the final word. Or pee. Whatever.
“I know. I’ll be out of your hair by noon, okay? And I’ll bring brunch.”
“You could have started by saying that. See you in a bit.”
“Where can I draw a circle?” Kane asked, looking around my shop.
“I’m sorry?” My hair was a bit damp from the quick shower I’d taken. I told myself I hadn’t showered because Kane was coming over—I’d showered because I wanted to feel fresh. And if I wore my blue shirt with the nice cleavage, and my tightest-fitting jeans, it was because I wanted to dress nicely. It had nothing to do with Kane.
When he entered the shop, he paused for a long moment to look at me. His eyes lingered on my chest for a bit, and when he finally tore his eyes away, there was something hungry in his gaze.
Then he pulled a piece of charcoal from his pocket, and began looking at the floor of my shop in a way I didn’t like.
“I need to draw a circle to focus the energy. That’s how the spell works.”
“Then maybe we should have practiced it in your office. You’re not drawing anything on my floor, mister.”
“It’s just charcoal. It washes off.”
“Will you be the one doing the washing?”
He sighed.
“Fine. Just draw it anywhere,” I muttered.
Kane crouched in the middle of the shop and outlined a circle on the floor with his charcoal, about two feet in diameter. He then retrieved a long, silvery needle from his coat’s lapel, and pricked his finger with it. A large droplet of blood materialized. He let the drop fall on the circle’s perimeter, intoning an arcane chant slowly. The circle seemed to glow with a faded orange light. He squeezed his finger, and additional drops of blood dripped on the charcoal marks. The hair on the back of my neck prickled as the mystical energy in the room began to converge around us. Magnus whined behind the bedroom door, where I’d shut him to prevent him from interfering with the spell. He sensed something was going on.
“Okay.” Kane stood up, putting the charcoal in his pocket. His fingers were smudged with black. “What I want us to do is stand in the circle. I’ll cast most of the spell, focusing the energy on our bodies. I just want to make sure it can work on both of us.”
“Will it hurt?”
“No. The energy can feel a bit… ticklish at first.”
I peered skeptically at the circle. “It’s awfully small. You’re teleporting us together?”
“Yeah.” He looked at me in surprise. “Isn’t that the plan?”
“But… can’t you draw one circle for each of us?”
“No.”
“Is it possible that it’ll merge us? Like in The Fly?”
“What?”
“In the movie. The Fly. Jeff Goldblum invents a teleportation device, but when he uses it, he doesn’t notice there’s a fly in the device with him. The machine merges their bodies together, and then Jeff slowly becomes a man-fly—dribbling acid on his food, skin peeling—and he’s all yucky.”
“I didn’t see it. It sounds ridiculous.”
“The movie is much better than it sounds. The point is, will I slowly become Lou-infused-with-Kane after your spell? Chain-smoking and wearing outdated coats?”
“Maybe I’ll become Lou? Constantly looking for trouble and spouting snarky remarks?”
“I can think of worse fates. Anyway, I’m not that snarky.”
“And my spell will not merge us into one body. Right now, it won’t even teleport us, I need the dragon scale to do that. It’ll just tickle a bit, and you’ll feel the magical energy accumulating in your body. There’s no reason to worry. Please stand in the circle.”
I entered the circle. Kane stepped in as well, and I had to shuffle a bit to give him room. We were standing very close to each other, our bodies nearly touching. My heart began to beat faster, my throat feeling dry.
“Don’t touch the circle with your feet,” Kane murmured, his eyes closed in concentration. When his sharp eyes were shut, he seemed much softer, almost defenseless. I stared up at his face as he began to chant, his lips inches from my face. He was a foot taller than me, and if I leaned forward, I could press my ear to his chest, my head nestled under his unshaven chin.
My skin felt as if something was prickling it lightly. The mystical energy of the spell surrounded us as Kane’s arcane chanting grew louder. My hair hovered around me, as if an unseen wind blew through it. Kane’s voice dominated the room, strong, deep, commanding. A voice that could change reality, twist the laws of physics, manipulate the fabric of space and time.
And then he stopped, and gazed down at me.
His eyes glowed, their green color shining at me, exuding power. “I think it worked,” he said. The air throbbed strangely as he spoke. His body crackled, as if infused with static electricity.
“What’s going on?”
“The mystical energy of the spell accumulated in our bodies, but the spell remained unfinished, so it wasn’t released.” His voice echoed in my ribcage, in my heart, my stomach, between my legs. “It should take a few minutes to dissipate.”
I tried to convince myself to step away from the circle, to let the energy leave my body in peace. But the rush in my body, the warmth, the pulse of power and need was almost impossible to resist. Instead of taking a step back, I put a hand on his chest, feeling the energy coursing between us, two bodies connected together. His heart thrummed underneath my palm. I felt his breath quicken as he wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer. His scent, clove and pine, was everywhere, and I breathed it in huskily, licking my lips.
My other hand found its way under his shirt, sliding up his back, enjoying the feel of his skin. He leaned forward and my lips parted, meeting his halfway, my tongue finding his. At that moment all I wanted, all I needed was more.
He grabbed my ass with both hands and I coiled one leg around him. Half lifting me, he took a few steps forward, pushing me against the counter. I pulled off his trench coat hungrily, consumed by a desire to feel his skin on mine. My shirt rose, my stomach pressing against his, and his hand sank into the waistband of m
y jeans, only my panties between his fingers and my body. I could feel the warmth in my chest and my face, my legs tightening around him. The touch of his fingers was tantalizing, brushing against that thin soft fabric, tracing its edges, touching the skin of my inner thigh.
And then I pushed him away. He stumbled back, his eyes widening in surprise. I quickly vaulted over the counter, to keep it between us, not trusting myself to keep away from him.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “I can’t. Not now.”
He nodded hesitantly. “Okay.” His voice still had that sexy, otherworldly thrum, though it was fading.
“I don’t hook up before jobs. It complicates things.” It ends badly. “I need to be focused tomorrow. I can’t afford to be distracted.”
He cleared his throat. “That’s fine. I didn’t anticipate the effect of the spell’s energy on us.” His eyes had stopped glowing. The energy had dissipated.
“Right,” I said, my voice hoarse. “It was just the energy. That’s all.”
Chapter Eighteen
As I approached Ddraig Goch’s mansion, I felt inconsequential, tiny. I had previously seen this house from afar, and it had seemed big. From here, it was colossal. If I needed a reminder that the being I was stealing from was infinitely greater than me, here it was. I was living in the backroom of a shop, my bedroom just large enough to contain my bed. Ddraig Goch lived in a modern palace. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d learned it was surrounded by a moat, complete with crocodiles.
The outer wall was vast, reaching five or six yards above my head, its top crowned with iron spikes. The burglar in me instantly examined it for handholds, for weaknesses. Of course I could climb it, but I easily spotted two security cameras. And even if it weren’t for those, as soon as anyone hopped over the wall, Ddraig Goch would know about it. Dragons and their lairs.
I touched my necklace, verifying that the small black rock with the USB plug Harutaka had given me was still there. Sometime during the evening, I would have to sneak away and find the server room to plug it in. I shivered in apprehension at the prospect. My palms began to warm up, and I forced myself to breathe deeply, and think of my daughter, chasing the fear away.