by T. G. Ayer
He inhaled. “Okay. I’ll talk to you, but not here.”
He was already walking off, leaving me to hurry in his wake. I didn’t ask questions, just strode along a few feet behind him so an observer wouldn’t assume we were together.
A few blocks later, he made a sharp left into a narrow alley, went up a short flight of stone steps then another ten yards later he slowed to a stop.
I glanced behind me and found the street empty. Up ahead the situation was the same.
Erik lifted a foot and touch the toe of his boot to a brick low on the wall. Seeing through glamors had always been an advantage and I could make out the glyph etched into the stone. It glowed red and yellow, marking the place as a safe haven for paranormals.
“I wasn’t aware Venice had any of these,” I murmured as he phased. I jumped following him inside to land in a dank and darkened hallway. A second ward of glamor made the hall look old, with rotting walls and water-stains on ragged moldy carpet.
Beyond the haze of the glamor was a door, and from the inner room came the low clamor of laughter and the thrum of music.
Erik led me past the glamor and opened the door, beckoning me to enter with the most perfect manners. Then, he waved a hand at the corner table along the front wall, hidden in shadows and within easy access to a swift departure. Should someone enter and scan the place, we wouldn't be seen immediately.
We sat and he waved a hand at the bartender who began to pour without even asking. I frowned but figured it didn’t matter. I wasn’t here to drink anyway.
I leaned forward, met the boy’s eyes and said, “So, why does your mother want me to find you?”
He lifted his chin “Because I know her secret.”
“Which is?”
He looked away. “I’d prefer not to put you in any danger.”
I leaned back and chuckled. “I’m always in danger. What’s one more lot of danger added into the mix.” He looked back at me. “Look, your mother asked me to investigate. I can’t be held responsible for what I discover.”
He gave a short nod, but he met my eyes only for a few short seconds and then studied the wrought iron chandelier above our heads as if the candles, with their magical yellow flames and fake dripping wax, were far more interesting that the problem of his over-possessive mother.
I leaned forward and said, “She wants me to bring you in. Give me a reason not to.”
I hadn’t felt any reason to take the kid in. Until now, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Technically, he owned the stores he was robbing.
Hold on a second.
“You aren’t taking from the stores are you?”
He squinted at me, his expression tense.
Aware.
I smiled. “You’re roughing the places up, making it look like a robbery but you’re not taking anything.”
He grinned back. “How did you figure it out?” His grin made him look young again, a little less haunted.
“I just don’t picture you as a thief. And I’m guessing these robberies are a way to warn your mother.”
He nodded, then stopped speaking as the bartender arrived with our drinks. A strawberry milkshake for the vigilante, and a glass of sparkling water for me. I stared at the man, confused.
“What did I get?” I asked, looking longingly at the milkshake.
He smiled, flashing a gold tooth. “You got exactly what you wanted.”
I raised an eyebrow. What I’d wanted was a glass of fae beer. Something that I hadn’t drunk in almost a year. He nodded at the glass.
I lifted it and sipped carefully, my eyes widening as the delicious sweetness hit my tongue.
“Where in the world did you get fae beer?”
He raised him eyebrows and tucked his thumbs into his belt loops. “If I tell ya, I’ll have to kill ya.”
I snorted.
He tapped his forefinger to his temple in an abbreviated salute and headed back to the bar.
“He’s got connections across all the planes. It’s how he manages to obtain so many different types of drinks.”
I nodded at his milkshake. “You went for the mundane.”
He shook his head. “Nope. This is elvin plum milkshake. I bet you thought it was strawberry.”
I laughed softly. “Okay, you got me.”
He sipped then said, “My mother has a secret so bad that the Supreme High Council would haul her ass to jail on a life sentence if they found out.”
“Oh,” I said softly. It didn’t surprise me. The woman was far too calculating to have been a mere worried mother. “So she’s trying to stop you from revealing the truth?”
He nodded. “I stayed away from her since I left home. I thought I’d be able to put her and my old life behind me.”
“What happened?”
He sighed and sat back, staring off into the distance. “My trust fund kicked in on my eighteenth birthday and my bank account was suddenly overflowing with zeros.”
“She didn’t stop the transfer?” He shook his head. “And you think she’s trying to buy your silence?” I murmured.
“She sure as hell is. But it won’t work. I will bring her to justice. But I need to be smart about it.”
I leaned closer. “How can I help?”
He gave me a narrow-eyed stare. “This isn’t some game. It’s dangerous.”
“You think I don’t know that?” His face was expressionless. I reached across the table and offered him my hand. “Hi. My name is Mel Morgan.”
He blanched, staring at my hand and then at my face. “The SoulTracker?”
“The one and only.”
He shifted in his seat. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
I lifted a shoulder. “It’s cool. Not everyone knows me by sight. I tend to move under the radar as much as possible.”
“Bu your reputation precedes you.”
I made a face. “So. Tell me what’s going on with your mother and we’ll figure it out. I have contacts at the Supreme High Council, as well as Sentinel. I can protect you if that’s what you need. And I can help you bring her to justice if that’s what she deserves.”
He nodded drained his drink and inhaled. “When I was fifteen I played hooky in Hong Kong, and went to visit my mother at her office. She hadn’t expected me to walk into her office in the middle of the day. I wonder sometimes why she’d been so careless.
“When I entered her office, the place was empty but I heard sounds as if it came from an adjoining room. I discovered a bookshelf that was slightly misaligned and opened it to find a small room behind it. She’d had her back to me and was talking to a man, bound to a metal chair with chains.
“At first I’d thought it was something kinky, but she was demanding that he increase production. He told her he could only do so much so fast. If she wanted to push him and he died in the process then it was her loss.
“She laughed and said that there were more of him. And that apparently his daughter was just as talented.”
Erik shook his head and looked away. “She laughed at him . . .” he said softly, “her tone was so cold, so unfeeling and cruel, I could hardly believe she was my mother.”
He began to fidget, scraping the soft wood of the table with his fingernail. I wanted to do something—pat his hand or his arm—but I got the feeling that if I did he’d clam up on me. So I held my breath and hoped he’d spill everything without chickening out.
Erik shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter. He met my gaze, and the sadness and self recrimination was so clear in his eyes. “I never would have thought she’d do something this horrible, but I’m beginning to wonder if this is who she truly is and that I’ve been naive and blind to it all my life.” He paused, the cleared his throat. “Do you know what an Adamas Elf is?”
I nodded. “Very rare elf whose fingers emit lightning on command. Mythically known to create diamonds. If they are extremely talented.”
I paused, my mouth open.
“Oh.”
It fell into pla
ce within a second. Elise Garner was holding an Agamas Elf prisoner and threatening his family to ensure he continues to make diamonds for her.
“This is a whole new level of ‘blood diamond’.”
Chapter 20
Erik nodded, his skin now looking gray from the tension. “Rumpelstiltskin gone bad.”
“You can say that again.”
We sat there in silence for a few minutes.
What in the world was my next step?
“We need to stop her.” Erik slammed a fist onto the table. “And however we do it, we have to ensure that the elf’s family is removed from danger.”
Erik was quiet as he spun his empty glass in place.
“You have a plan.”
He shrugged. “The most I’d hoped for was to cause mayhem to her business. Make people feel like Garner diamonds were a risk.”
I rubbed my forehead. I felt a headache coming. Last thing I needed, not when I had so much going on. “We need to ensure she’s caught in the act.”
“How do we do that?”
“It would be easy enough to enter the hidden room and retrieve the elf, but we need evidence if we want the Supreme High Council to arrest her and hold her accountable for her crimes.”
“So? We put a camera inside the room?”
I nodded. He was definitely a smart kid. “I will project first. See if the place is clear. Then I’ll jump through and install the camera.”
“You can’t go alone.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“What if she’d got the place rigged to trap paranormals?”
“Not much can hold a teleporter.”
“She pays a lot for dark magic wards.” He looked worried.
I studied his face. “Then? What do you suggest?”
“Let me go.” I suspected that he’d offer himself up.
I shook my head. “No way. Chances are she’ll trap you there. She paid me to find you. I doubt you’ll be allowed to enter the place and then just leave because you feel like it.”
He smiled slowly. “I can phase through anything. That’s what makes her uneasy. Nothing stops me.” I lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not bragging. It’s a scientific fact. I can vibrate my body to such an extent that I can even pass through lead. I’ve done the testing.”
“So even dark magic won’t hold you?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure why. If I try really hard I can get through a magical ward. It knocks the shit out of me, but I can do it.”
I sighed. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
He smiled, a light sparking in his eyes. “I’ve broken into banks in Geneva. I think I can handle my mother’s office.”
“Don’t get cocky. If she’s been keeping the elf hostage all this while, what makes you think she wouldn’t have the place guarded. She could have cameras watching the entrance to the room.”
He pursed his lips as he considered my words. “I’m thinking I’ll come in through the outer wall. She’s leasing an entire floor. Corner office, But the secret room had no windows. It’s probably boarded up. Could be concrete, or a wood panel, I’m not sure. Either way it doesn’t matter because I can phase through it.”
“You just need to get outside the building.” I folded my arms. “How many floors up is that?” I smirked.
He nodded, flushing. “Okay. Bad plan. Unless you know someone who can fly me up there.”
I sighed and leaned closer. “Look. The best way to do this is a two-pronged attack. We go together. I’ll meet with her. While I’m talking to her, she’ll be distracted. How about you phase into the elevator shaft, get a ride up on the outside of the elevator and wait there for me.” He nodded slowly. “As soon as I get into her office you phase into the room and set up the camera.”
“The elf might not let you do it, though.”
“Why the heck not?” he scowled. He wasn’t enjoying the holes I was shooting in his plans.
“Because he may feel his actions would put his daughter in graver danger.”
“Oh.”
“So let me do a quick recon. I have a feeling they’ll be keeping her somewhere in the building.”
In fact, I wouldn’t put it past Elise Garner to have both father and daughter in captivity and play the two off each other using the threat of injury to keep them producing her diamonds.
Erik tilted his head and stared at me as he put two-and-two together. “You think she’s holding the both of them in the building?”
Mind-reader much. “I do.”
He laughed. “I guess you know my mother even better than I do.”
“It’s not that. It’s merely because as her child you’d want to hold onto some kind of hope that your mother is innocent.”
Erik nodded and leaned his elbows onto the table. He brushed his fingers through his dark hair, ruffling it up until it stuck out in all directions. His frustration showed in the shadows beneath his eyes, and the stiff way he held his shoulders. I felt impotent, unable to do much more to free him from his mother’s chains.
Then he inhaled harshly and give the table a small thump with his fist. He met my eyes. “So when do we do this?”
“I guess there’s no time like the present?” I sat back and studied him, “the Venice store is in a shambles. Do you think your mother would come to inspect it in person?”
Erik shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’d probably want to look at the video footage. And more than likely she’d send one of her assistants to check the problem out. Damage control. Stock management et cetera.”
“So she’s not going to come running when one of her stores has been robbed?” I found that hard to believe.
“I can’t see her doing that unless she’s absolutely sure they took something.”
I lifted a brow and smiled. “So did they take something?”
He nodded, giving me toothy grin. “Of course, they took something. What do you think the whole charade was for?”
Erik shook his head and fiddled inside the pocket of his hoodie. He withdrew a large pink diamond, which glistened in the palm of his hand as it caught the flickering candlelight from above.
“This is what I took. But I didn’t make it easy for her to find out. I left a fake in its place . . . a very good fake that would take time for her to figure it out.”
“Why this particular diamond?” I reached for the beautiful stone.
Erik dropped it in my palm and watched as I twirled it between my fingers. “Because this is not an elf-made stone. This is a true blood diamond.”
My eyes widened in shock and I dropped the stone to the table instinctively. I’d always hated the idea of the blood-diamond trade. I’d known a few people in my time who’d been extremely happy to flaunt a giant-sized stone on their ring-finger without giving a single thought to how that jewel had been procured, how much blood had been spilled in the effort to obtain it.
Erik scooped the diamond up and put it back into his pocket.
I swallowed hard and slowly withdrew my hand from the surface of the table. I scrubbed my palm against the fabric of my jeans, as if the mere action would wipe away the remnants of my contact with the jewel. I knew it would do nothing to help the way I felt, but I did it anyway.
Erik smiled, almost as if he could see my hand through the table. “This is the most expensive, the most rare item in the Venice store. Mother likes to spread the most exclusive stones around the world. This particular pink diamond is so extremely rare that there is none other like it. Something about the color and the facets, and of course its size. It’s the kind of jewel Kings and Queens would buy.”
I nodded. I’d begun to understand the way Erik Garner thought. And I had to admit taking the diamond had been a smart move. “So what happens when she discovers that it’s gone?”
He smiled. “She’ll go ballistic.”
“Would she suspect you?”
He shrugged. “She might. But I don’t care.” Eric’s youth and naiveté was clear. He obviously didn’t
understand the ramifications.
“If she suspects you, then she’ll have increased her security to keep an eye out for you.”
Erik shook his head. “She’s so afraid of me only because she can’t stop me from going where I want, when I want. She’s tried for years to do that, tried and failed. It frustrates her that she can’t stop me, no matter how hard she tries.”
I sat back and stared at the boy. “So your mother has been unable to find a way to prevent you from seeing things that could jeopardize her position and reputation.”
He nodded.
I tapped the top of the table with my nail. “This might be a problem if I decide to walk into her office now. If she knows you were here at the Venice robbery—and she would by now—she’d think I’m completely incompetent because I didn’t catch you.”
Erik wriggled in his seat. “It doesn’t really matter. Let’s get moving and put the plan in motion.”
“It does matter,” I leaned closer, “As soon as she gets word that the diamond is missing, she’ll know it was you. I would rather not have her guarded. What I would like is for her to be off-balance and confused when she finds that nothing is missing. “
“You want me to return the diamond?” Erik asked reluctantly.
I nodded. “I know what you want to do achieve, but unfortunately . . . right now . . . for the plan to succeed we can’t have her on guard. She will be frustrated enough after the robbery.”
Erik sighed and gave a reluctant nod. “Fine. I’ll return it.”
I shook my head. “I have a better plan.”
He quirked an eyebrow.
“Give it to me,” I smiled at his surprise, “I don’t have a Plan B. So we need Plan A to sweep her off her feet before she even realizes what’s happening.”
Erik’s jaw dropped as she stared at me, stunned. “You’re going to just give it back to her?”
“Yup. I’m going to stun her with a major coup, then question the origins of the stone.”
He grinned. “That’ll do it. She’ll pave your way in gold if she thought it would stop you from talking.” Then he paused. “That, or she’ll have you killed.”