by Jamie Davis
“I’ll write a program that’ll track his stops right after breakfast. I’ll also set it up with a record search to compare it with property tax ownership databases. We should be able to narrow it down that way. Don’t worry. This is a big break.”
Quinn used the lull in the conversation to reach into her pocket and pull out her chain and amulet. She put the ruined talisman on the table and turned to Clark. “I want to get this fixed or get a new one made to replace it. I want to use the original silver, too. How do we get that done?”
Clark sighed and paused before answering.
Quinn could see him considering what he was going to say. “Look, Clark, you’ve put me off every time I ask about it. This is important to me, and I want to get it done. There has to be a way to do it. Someone made the amulet to begin with.”
“It’s not as simple as that,” Clark replied. “I never had anything to do with the crafting of the amulets. I only know it was a process that involved some of the oldest magic possessed by the clans.”
“So, what’s the holdup?”
“It’s all gone, Quinn.”
“What do you mean, ‘gone?’ Magic still exists. Your amulet is still working.”
“I mean, the people and lore are gone. The ones who crafted the amulets and cast the spells on them to give them the old protections are all dead. They were killed in the purges with everyone else. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
Taylor finished a mouthful of eggs and interrupted them. “What about records, manuals, or spell books? There must’ve been some way the clans passed along knowledge besides word of mouth.”
Clark shrugged. “The chapter house was destroyed in a fire around the same time. I always assumed everything was gone. The only thing that’s left is the old keeper.”
“The what?” Quinn asked.
“Old Joshua Dalton. He was the keeper, a person who worked with the clan in this area to organize their finances and keep their records. He used to work at the chapter house part-time. He was spared during the purges. I think it was because he wasn’t officially a clan member, just a normal human who worked with us from time to time.”
“And he’s still alive?” Taylor asked.
Clark nodded. “I touch base with him several times a year. It’s how I can afford to pay our meager expenses. He was able to salvage some of the off-shore accounts during the attacks. Most of the local assets were appropriated by the ones who took us out. That’s how they financed starting companies like Handon’s brokerage and VirSync, more than likely.”
Quinn was confused. This was all new to her. “But there are other accounts? More money somewhere?”
“Yes, but not much. I try not to use more than the bare minimum we need to keep us fed and operating. Anything more might draw attention to us, and we don’t want that.”
“So,” Quinn said, “this Joshua guy is the connection we need, then. He could have information on how we can make a new amulet from the old one. That’s great!”
“Hold on, Quinn. Joshua is old, and pretty skittish since the purges. He only meets me in person on rare occasions when he needs a signature or to transfer physical cash to me. Most of what we do is handled electronically. I don’t even know where he lives or works. I use an old-style internet bulletin board to contact him.”
“But you do meet with him, and you can contact him when needed.” Quinn wasn’t going to let this go. This was the best possibility she’d heard about since her amulet had been melted.
“I can, but I caution you, he’s not likely able to help us. As I said, the loss of everything in the fire affected him. He won’t even talk about it. I’ve tried.”
“But probably not recently,” Quinn said. “I think it’s worth trying again. Maybe he’s relaxed some since you last asked about it.”
Clark laughed. “There’s nothing relaxed about Joshua Dalton.”
“What’s that mean?” Quinn asked.
“You’ll see.” Clark sighed. “Look, I’ll try to reach him after I get some sleep. I’ll let you know if I can set up a meeting after I hear back from him.”
Quinn scooped up the chain and amulet and returned it to her pocket. Then she smiled and went back to her breakfast, a sense of renewed hope filling her. They were closer to tracking down Handon than they had been in months, and now they had a lead on getting her amulet replaced. Things were looking up.
Chapter Five
Taylor sat behind her triple computer screens, staring at the code scrolling past in an open app. She’d set up her new attempt at assembling the VR rig in a large office that had probably once belonged to one of the doctors who’d worked here. The oak desk was so massive that she guessed no one had bothered to move it when they shut this building down. It had plenty of room for her screens and enough surface for Quinn to lie down in preparation for going into the VR world.
At least, it would if Taylor could figure out a way to get the system running again without Miranda. It had been a long day. She’d been up the night before fighting the full moon, and most of today. She noticed the darkening sky outside her window and sighed. Taylor stood and stretched her arms and back, then ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and secured it in a ponytail with the elastic band around her wrist.
She checked the time. Clark and Quinn had been gone for an hour or so. They were trying to follow the remote tracker Clark had slipped into the vampire. She’d hooked them up with a custom tracker app that should help them. They didn’t have to go anywhere.
Clark had decided he and Quinn needed to be close by when the vamp started moving, in case the tracker battery failed sooner rather than later. That way, they could track him the old-fashioned way.
Before they left, Quinn seemed a little deflated by the lack of response from the keeper guy, Joshua. Clark had messaged him right after breakfast but hadn’t heard anything back. Quinn grumbled about it before they left. Taylor hoped tracking this vamp would give her friend’s morale a boost and they would get the information they needed.
Taylor sat down at the keyboard again and typed in a command that brought up the complex computer code used to initiate the VR rig. She stared at the screen for a few seconds, scrolling through the text, and sighed. There was little chance this attempt would be any more successful than the last time she’d tried to fire it up. She’d been seeking a way to use the technology without the magical component. It was no use, though. The system wouldn’t work without the spells cast to supplement it.
“You should ask for help when you need it,” Miranda said from behind her.
Taylor resisted the urge to jump and spin around. Her werewolf side had given her a powerful self-confidence that helped her resist the flighty nature of her former self. Taylor just smiled and said, “Nice of you to drop by again.”
Miranda glided around the desk to the opposite side, so she faced Taylor. “I told you I would help. Why didn’t you call me?”
“You said it took energy to come here. I didn’t want to ask until I’d tried one more time.”
“That’s silly. If you need help, ask for it. What would you tell Quinn if she acted like this?” Miranda put her hands on her hips as her transparent image stared down at Taylor.
Taylor grinned. “I’d tell her she was pig-headed.”
“Exactly.” Miranda leaned over so she could see the screens. “Do you have the system up and running?”
“Yeah,” Taylor said. She pointed as the code scrolled by. “This is the part that jams me up. At this stage, you’d cast the initial spells to activate the VR’s tech-magic interface. I’ve tried to work through the spells as I see them in the code’s notes and logs. I even tried reading them aloud, but it doesn’t work.”
“That’s because magic is more of an art than a science. Every spell is as different as the individual casting it. You can read the words in the computer notes all day long, and nothing will happen. They are nothing more than signposts to tell the caster what is needed. They aren’t spells
in and of themselves.”
Taylor leaned back and stretched her arms out, palms up. “Well, I’ve tried everything I can think of. That’s why I need you here to cast the spells.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“I’m dead. I cannot access the energy of this world anymore. I can’t even pick up a pencil. You have to be the one. I told you last night that you possess the ability. I sensed it, and I believe it was part of what allowed me to come back in spirit form.”
Taylor shook her head. “If I possessed the ability, I think I would know it.”
“Not if you’re being a stubborn little girl.”
Taylor growled low in her throat, heard what she was doing, and closed her mouth, silencing her wolf self.
Miranda nodded. “Now, stop telling yourself that you can’t do it. Believe in yourself and try to relax. Magic is about feeling the power around you and opening yourself up to it. You can’t do that if you’re all tense. Let’s try some relaxation exercises my teacher used with me when I first started learning to control my power.”
Taylor started to shake her head but stopped. Miranda was right. If this was going to happen, she had to start believing she could do it. There wasn’t anyone else who could, and Quinn needed her to suck it up and find a way. Taylor didn’t think much of meditation and things like that. She was much more of a techie and needed to touch things to believe they were real. Still, it couldn’t hurt to try. Quinn had to be able to track down the slayers and the rest of Handon’s people once they were located.
“Do your thing, Miranda. I promise I’ll try,” Taylor said. She put her hands down on the arms of the chair and leaned back in the seat, letting the padded desk chair support her as she relaxed in a semi-reclined position.
“Good. Let’s start with basic breathing techniques. Then we’ll move on to trying to grasp some of the natural energy around you.”
The pair spent almost two hours working together as Taylor went through different techniques to help her see what Miranda said was all around them. She was about to give up when the final method the ghost witch suggested worked.
Miranda had suggested Taylor bring up a sequence of meditation images online and play them on a loop while she focused on the deep breathing exercises they’d used earlier. The video had played through the third time and was about to start over when a flat ribbon of pure light floated across the screen. At first, Taylor thought it was a part of the video she hadn’t seen before, but then the ribbon drifted past the screen and into the air beside the monitor. As she concentrated on it, fainter lines of different colors came into view.
“I see something, Miranda, like strings of light or energy. My God, they’re all around us.”
“Yes! That’s what I’ve been telling you. The natural energy of the earth is everywhere, supporting everything. You just needed to break through your doubts and see it.”
Taylor squinted at the threads and ribbons of energy floating in the air around her. “The magic strings seem pretty fragile,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t look like they can do much.”
“Think about it this way,” Miranda said. “You know how individual fibers are twisted to make a thread?”
Taylor nodded.
Miranda continued, “And then how that thread is woven into a pattern with others until it is a piece of fabric strong enough that it can catch the wind and propel a ship across the waves?”
“So, what? I have to weave the strings and ribbons together to make a spell? Where do I even begin?”
“That is where the art of magic comes in. Some of us are better weavers than others. Some even possess a sort of ability to use intuition to let the threads fill in the pattern themselves. It’s up to you to find out what kind of caster you are.”
“How do I start?” Taylor tried to touch one of the more substantial-looking ribbons with her fingertips. She didn’t feel anything, but the light stuck to her fingers for a second before it drifted on.
“Were you able to touch one of them?” Miranda asked. “It’s okay if you weren’t.”
“Sort of. It stuck to me for an instant and then let go.”
Miranda smiled and clapped her hands, although no sound came from it. “That’s wonderful. It took me weeks to reach that point. Before that, my magic came haphazardly and by accident. Okay, to answer your question, yes, you can touch them, sort of. Remember, though, you’ll never be able to hold one for more than a second. The next part requires you to think about moving your hands and fingers while you pull the necessary pieces into place beside each other. Once you get them into the right order, you’ll be able to create the spell. You have to work fast because they’ll slip by otherwise. Let’s try a simple spell. We’ll create a light.”
“Sounds good,” Taylor said, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. “What do I do?”
“Think of a ball of white light about an inch in diameter. Then, focus on that image in your mind while you study the magical energy around you. Some of them should sort of highlight themselves. Those are the ones you need to create the light.”
Taylor did as she was told, imagining a hovering lightbulb in the air over her computer monitors. As soon as she did, the ribbons of light changed. Some faded until they almost disappeared, while others grew brighter. She waved her fingers toward the most brilliant of them, one that pulsed with power, coaxing it in her direction. Another highlighted behind it, and she did the same with that one.
Soon she was waving her hands and fingers in the air like a symphony conductor, pulling the pieces together, forming a jumble of light strings in front of her. She pulled a final piece into the mess, and there was a flash as they all fell into a pattern and disappeared.
In their place hovered a marble-sized ball of white light. It flared very bright for a few seconds, then rapidly dimmed until it faded completely.
“I did it!” Taylor exclaimed.
“Yes, you did, and it was magnificent for your first try. As I said, it took me weeks, maybe months, to progress to that point.”
“I feel so tired all of a sudden. Why?”
“Because it takes energy to hold onto the threads. Over time, you’ll be able to do more. It’s like building yourself up with exercise so you can run a race.”
“That’s a good analogy because I feel like I’ve run one. And now I know why spell casters have to wave their arms and wriggle their fingers as they do. It’s part of the weaving.”
“Exactly.” Miranda smiled
Taylor noticed the ghost had become so transparent that she was little more than an outline. “You’re tired, too. Why don’t we call it a night? We can try again tomorrow if you’re willing to come again.”
“I’d like that. Goodnight, Taylor. Get some rest.”
“Goodnight, Miranda. Thank you again.”
The ghost faded, and Taylor shut off her monitors and got up to start to her room upstairs beside Quinn’s. Her legs shook and quivered beneath her as she walked into her room and fell onto the bed. She was asleep before she even kicked off her shoes.
Chapter Six
Quinn checked the time and stared at Clark’s phone, which was resting on the center console. “What’s taking him so long?”
Clark’s fingers drummed on the top of the steering wheel as his gaze shifted from his phone to look through the windshield at the dark sky. “I don’t know. He hasn’t moved, and the sun’s been down for almost an hour now.”
“Should we check on him? Maybe he died after all.”
A low snarl came from Clark before he answered. “Yeah, something is up. Let’s go into the metro terminal and see if he’s still there. I’m worried he discovered the transmitter somehow and removed it.”
“Could he do that and survive?” Quinn said, doubting Clark’s explanation. “He’d need to find a knife of some sort, and it would have to be pretty painful.”
“Sitting here speculating about it isn’t doing either of us any good. Come on, let’s
go check.”
Quinn opened the passenger door and climbed out. She stretched her hands over her head. They’d been in the car for almost two hours.
Clark came around to her side and motioned for her to accompany him. Quinn fell in beside him as he walked across the parking structure to the stairs that led to the underground metro station.
She followed him down to the lowest level and into a broad hallway. A few late commuters were around, but not too many. Clark reached the end of the corridor and stopped at a door labeled Metro Staff Only.
“Be ready, Quinn. Tackle him if he makes a run for it.”
She nodded and slipped her left hand under her jacket to rest on the hilt of her Bowie. She didn’t want to draw it unless she needed it. Someone might see her and call the cops.
Clark tested the handle. It was locked. He knelt and waved a hand at the locked door while he muttered words under his breath.
“Was it locked when you were here last time?” Quinn asked.
“No, and that has me worried,” he said as he stood up and gripped the handle again. “Ready?”
“Yes, and you need to teach me that one sometime. It could come in handy.”
“When we get the VR open and working again, we’ll try it. You seem to learn best there.”
That didn’t feel like a solution to Quinn. Taylor had been stuck on getting the VR system up again for several months and didn’t seem hopeful about fixing her problems with it any time soon.
She realized Clark was still staring at her, making sure she was ready for whatever lay on the far side of the door. She nodded. They’d solve the VR issue another time. The potentially missing vampire was the problem at hand.
Clark turned the handle and pushed the now-unlocked door inward. It opened about a foot and then stopped, blocked by something. Quinn looked at the floor inside as Clark put his shoulder to the door. An arm flopped to the floor in the narrow opening. Blood stained the hand.
“Dammit,” Clark said. “The body is wedged against the back of the door. Quinn, see if you can squeeze through and shift it so I can open it the rest of the way.”