"The detective is not a woman."
"No, but he's her fiancé." She waved at Cosgrove as she disappeared back through the doors.
Crwys looked at everyone else, especially at Ivan and Kyle, and held out his hand. "I'll tell you as soon as I know something. Keep your phones on you." He started to turn, then stopped and pointed at Ivan. "Stay out of the system."
"I'll make sure he does," Dharma said as she moved to stand behind Ivan and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You'll have your privacy."
"Thanks, Dharma." Crwys smiled to the nurse, who gestured for him to step through the doors before her. His heart raced against his chest as he jogged to keep up with Arden, wondering what kind of problem there could be if Arden was keeping the new Grand High Witch out of the loop?
THREE
Fatigue pressed down on my chest as I lay in the world's most uncomfortable hospital bed. I'd been stripped down to a backless gown, something I wasn't that happy about, then poked, prodded, x-rayed, drained of blood, and finally wheeled into a semi-private room with the instruction to sleep. I'd already tried and it just wasn't happening, even after they pumped a sedative into my IV to take the edge off, so to speak. Of course, the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me, because this had to do with magic and they just weren't prepared for it.
All they could do was treat the symptoms, not the cause, for which there was no physical evidence.
Magic, though it operates on the Mental Plane, affects the physical body. The loss of my Sylph had caused me to go into shock, they just couldn't determine why. So while they piled over their samples of my body, I curled up on my side to combat the cramping in my lower abdomen and shivered under a pile of warmed blankets.
That's when Arden showed up, shooed everyone else out, and took a look at me the way only another Witch could do.
"Our Elementals are connected to us through our solar plexus, Sam. It's the Goddess connection. Everyone thinks it's in our heads or our hearts, but that's the emotional and intellectual stimulation. The physical link is here." She'd put her hand on my stomach.
To be honest…I'd been so happy to see Arden, I lost it in her arms. I couldn't remember how hard I'd cried, but I knew it was the ugly cry. She held me, rubbing my back, rocking me back and forth until she asked me to lie back down because she knew what I needed more.
When she brought Crwys with her and he nearly jumped in the bed with me, I lost it again in his arms. His skin was like a heating rock against mine as he warmed me up, and I felt him soothing my mind as well. Since saying yes to marriage, something had formed between us. Something I'd never had with another human, Witch or Cowen. He called it a bond, an invisible link between the two of us. And the longer we were together, the closer in sync we'd become.
I sniffed and realized he smelled a little different. The scent reminded me of the fireplace in Ina's home, now my home, back when she used to burn a lot of fires inside of it.
He kissed my forehead, gently caressed my face as he kissed my cheek, and then looked at Arden. "So…what the hell's going on?"
I noticed an odd look on her face as she stared at Crwys. "You okay?"
"Me?" He shrugged. "I'm asking about Sam?"
"And I'm asking about you. You look a bit tired. Maybe you should stay in the bed with Sam?"
He sighed. "Arden, don't try my patience right now."
"I wouldn't dream of it, Fireboy. The long and the short of it is"—she looked at me, and I nodded before she returned that dark gaze to Crwys—"her Air Elemental is gone."
I felt him tense, and I was pretty sure he didn't know what that meant. Even I didn't know. "Gone? What do you mean gone? It left?"
"No." Arden ran her fingers through her long, thick dark hair as she pulled it back from her shoulders. "As in, the Elemental took a knife and cut his connection to Sam while he was summoned. The physical repercussions of this, as you can see, are stunningly painful. In ripping himself out of contact, he's done a bit of damage to her lungs and to her spiritual connection." She waved her hand, and I assumed he'd opened his mouth to say something. "It's all magic stuff, and it is stuff I think we can handle, not the doctors here, especially once I bring Dharma into this."
"I don't understand," he said as he moved back and looked down at me. I looked up at him. "Why would your Air Elemental do that?"
"I don't know," I said, and it was the honest truth. "We weren't at odds, because that's just not possible for a Witch and her Elementals to be in that situation or their connection doesn't last. I didn't even know this could happen."
"Tell me everything from the beginning."
I did, and Arden started pacing, reminding me a lot of her nephew Kyle when he was working something out in his head. When I finished, stopping when the ambulance came and I was hauled off in agonizing pain, I took in as deep a breath as I could, and then suffered an embarrassing fit of coughing.
Crwys took in a deep breath, and then released it slowly. "I heard you guys were there because of zombies?"
Arden stepped in. "Yes. Two of them. Both of them homeless and found dead two days prior from natural causes. These things weren't lamias, the ones made from a Vampire's Ghoul—we already checked that. But they were reanimated corpses."
"And these kids, the ones doing this ritual in the living room, are part of this thing with the zombies?" Crwys asked.
"At first we didn't think so," Arden said. "Until a third zombie, just like the first two, was spotted in that neighborhood. Only this zombie was the neighbor across the street from the house where the boys were doing hocus-pocus. He'd died in a car accident the day before." She winced. "All of the zombies, the first two and then the new guy, were found outside this house as if they were trying to get in. Three dead bodies outside the same house? Gotta send in the Clerics to take a look."
"You worked with Cosgrove on this?" I asked.
"Mhmm. I won't allow any of my girls to join the Clerics, but after Dryden's ousting and my niggling suspicion we still might have either Ghouls or possessed Witches in the Parliament, I've volunteered my services as a liaison to help Cosgrove. Just so I can keep my fingers in the pie, so to speak."
Crwys and I sat there with our mouths open.
"What?" she said, looking very innocent.
"So…you still think there are leaks in the Parliament?" I said. "This is why you warned me back at Beltane to be on my guard?"
"Not to mention," Crwys said, "you aren't exactly sharing freely with Cosgrove, who happens to be in the waiting room." He looked at me when he said this, then back to Arden. "Which tells me your offering to help is really an offer to control information flow."
"Yes to both of you. But don't worry, nothing's really popped up until now and Cosgrove's assistant, Ethel, has been nothing but professional whilst I do my investigating. So no big trouble yet. Not even enough for Dharma and Ivan to disappear into that secret group they don't think I know about."
I snorted. "The Eldritch Group?"
"The same. I know who the leader is, so I help her from time to time. Oh, don't worry, Sam. I'm sure they'll eventually gather you in as well. And Kyle, if he'll stop messing with that old conjure man long enough to listen to other things." I heard the anger and resentment in her voice, but she waved at us to be quiet. "Getting back to this new problem…I agreed with Cosgrove that the Hive team should check it out. So I feel bad this happened to you, Sam. I sent you in there." Her features sharpened. "No, I blame Emily for charging in after you told her not to."
"There's more, isn't there?" Crwys said.
"The three boys you found in that house? After Emily's interruption and the ensuing aftermath, I've received word they're not in as good as shape as you, Sam. They're in ICU in comas."
I sat forward—or as forward as I could because Crwys wasn't letting go of me. "What happened? Was it the ritual?"
"I sent a few of my girls in to do a bit of thought snooping."
Arden had a way of bending morality to make it fit her needs to a degree
that frightened me. And she seemed to think law, any law, not just human or Witch's law, was subject to her whims. "I'm gonna regret this but…how do you thought snoop?"
"Oh, it's actually something I came up with after working with Dharma. You know she has Psychometry, right? And she uses it in tandem with her Undine. So I wondered if those of my coven could use their Psychometry with their Telepathy and their own Air Elementals and wouldn't you know? It worked." She beamed. "Two of them went in and touched the boys' memories and found similar stories. The boys found a ring at the French Market in a stall called Forgotten Relics."
I blinked. "They bought a ring…at the French Market? That's really not so unusual."
"I know. Then all three of them had a dream that the ring told them to find a special knife. Neither of my girls could find out where this special knife came from, but the images said blood. A lot of blood. And the smell of something burned or charred really bad. As far as I know, no one's found a ring, or the knife in question, which you say you saw shatter into pieces. I plan on doing a much more thorough examination of the house tonight when I'll be allowed in, thanks to my connections at the police station."
Crwys sighed. "Are Levi and I your connections?"
"Nope. There's a bigger fish in the game now, and though I don't really trust him, I can always work with him." She smiled as she held up her hand. "The who will be revealed soon enough. But if you and the handsome fangboy want to drop by tonight and give us a hand, it would be much appreciated."
Arden sometimes made me dizzy with her innuendos and culling of the facts from friendly conversation to suit her need. It got her where she needed to be, but it was just damn exhausting to everyone else. Especially me. And especially right now. "You should take Ivan with you. If he's seeing disruptions in magnetic fields, maybe he'll see disruptions in inanimate things? He might be able to find this ring faster, if it wasn't on any of the boys."
"How so?"
"Well"—I tried to hold onto the logic road I'd started down, but I wasn't exactly savvy at it—"an inanimate object wouldn't have any kind of field. It's not alive. But if something were placed on it, like a curse or a spell, that would have a vibration or create a magnetic field where there's not supposed to be one, which might be enough for him to pick up on. He was able to see the disruption in Dryden's field so…why not?"
Arden's eyes widened. "That's brilliant! Yes, I'll speak to Ivan on my way out."
I made a noise as another cramp took all my attention. The pain was intense, and I was having a really hard time concentrating. I needed relief, so I tried calling my Undine.
I heard her apologize, as did the others. But they were all too freaked out. This was just as traumatizing to them as it was to me. None of us knew why he'd severed his connection or how he even knew how to do that.
-Is there something wrong with my help?-
I didn't ignore the Arcane's voice. I just didn't always trust it. Though I should. I mean it saved my life, and Crwys's, against its own creator. Can you help?
-I can…bandage the wound, in a sense. It will still ache like a phantom limb, but it will help ease the others' fears and help you reconnect with their power. The only one I can't reach is Spirit. She only responds to you.-
I have to ease Spirit?
-Yes.-
Okay then…go ahead and do what you can. Once that's done, I'll reassure her.
-Rest.-
"Sam?" Crwys was looking at me, his gold-amber eyes filled with worry. "You still with us?"
"Yeah. I just…I want to sleep." I squeezed his hand. "Go with Arden tonight if Ivan agrees, okay? And ask Kyle to help."
"I will. Are they keeping you overnight?"
"Yes they are," Arden said. "On my dime and my insistence. I want her watched in case something happens. We've never seen an Elemental severing. I'm pretty sure the Parliament will want a full report from me, but I'll be putting that off until I know more." She squeezed my foot where it stuck up under the sheet. "Rest. Repair. We'll figure this out." She winked. "We always do."
Once she left, I turned in the bed to face Crwys and got a real good look at him. I put my hand on his cheek, and he tucked hair away from my face. "You look tired."
"Eh," he said before he leaned in to kiss my nose. "I'm fine."
"So what's that smell?"
"Smell?" He arched a brow at me.
"Yeah. It smells like a chimney. Like soot."
"Oh, that." He half smiled. "We rescued a cat out of a fireplace this morning."
"You're not serious."
"Of course I am. You know how police always rescue cats from trees, right?"
"That's firemen."
"And cops."
I clenched my teeth as another cramp from my middle sent waves of pain through my body. He held me to him until the shaking passed.
-I'm ready. I had to wait for that one to pass.-
Is it gonna hurt?
-No.-
"Crwys," I said as he took my hand in his and kissed my finger with his ring on it. "My Arcane's going to help with the pain of my Sylph's loss. It's like…putting a bandage over a missing limb." I wasn't that crazy about the analogy, but it did fit.
Crwys's expression matched my opinion. "Are you sure you can trust it? I mean I know it's a part of you, and it protected me, but…" He winced. "It's still a part of Dionysus."
-I am no longer a part of that entity.-
"He says he's not."
-She. Why do you insist that I am male?-
"Sorry…she. Not he."
"And don't you think it's a little weird that you have magic that talks to you?"
It was my turn to frown up at him. "So do my Elementals. Not in words, so much, but they do communicate with me. How is this different?"
Heh…I got him. He smirked and looked uncomfortable. "Fine. Just tell it—her—to be careful."
Warmth flooded over me, from the inside around my chest, down into my hips, legs and feet, then up into my arms and hands, and then up my neck to my face.
"You're flushed!" Crwys said.
"I feel flushed. I'm all red?"
"It's a much better color." He pulled my head to him, tucking it under his chin and then kissed the top. "We'll find out what happened, Sam. And we'll get your Sylph back."
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe Arden when she said we always make things better. But I couldn't stop the doubt that lingered in the shadows of my thoughts. All I could see when I closed my eyes was my Sylph cutting away at the invisible ties to me. And then I'd relive that incredible pain.
Crwys snored.
I jumped at the sound and pushed back from him. He was sideways on the bed with me, facing me, his head on the pillow. His eyes were closed and his lips parted. "Hey…baby?" I pushed against his chest. "Hey, Crwys!"
He jumped as his eyes came open, and they were red and not the normal amber and red. "What?"
"You were sleeping. Like…deep sleep."
"No I wasn't. I was just resting my eyes."
"You snored."
"Dragons do not snore."
I laughed in my throat. "Right. And Witches don't dance naked around a balefire."
His eyes widened. "They still do that?"
I punched him in the stomach with my fist. "I said you looked tired and you are tired. It's bad enough we haven't seen much of each other since last month. Now Prescott's working you too much."
"Eh, she's just still pissed about me leaving and then coming back. She'll get over it."
"It's been over four months!"
He shrugged. "What can I say? She's—"
I had my fist ready to hit him again if he said, "She's a woman," but luckily his phone buzzed and he squirmed around to pull it from his tight jeans pocket. "Got a murder."
"Get going."
He smirked, and then pressed a kiss to my lips. The smell of smoke intensified. "I'll be back to check on you. Check you out of here in the morning."
"Promise?"
/> "Yeah."
"And go with them tonight, especially if she convinces Ivan to be her weird-o-meter. Keep an eye on all of them."
Crwys paused on his way out of the bed, gave me a deep and lingering kiss, and then headed out the door, suggesting I get some sleep. The smell of smoke quickly disappeared.
I turned over then, aware the pain was gone. Well, not so much gone as dulled. Like an old hurt after time had passed.
-It would be good if you slept. I can more easily work while you speak with your Spirit.-
"Sure," I said aloud and sighed. I closed my eyes, ready to slip into sweet, restful oblivion.
It just never came. And my Spirit wasn't talking to me.
FOUR
Clouds blotted out the usually bright blue summer sky as they drove down Lasalle. Crwys glanced up at the moving clouds a few times and noticed their grayish color. "Looks like we might actually get rain," he said as he pointed up.
Levi looked up through the windshield. "Yeah…but…aren't they moving kinda fast?"
"Like how?"
"Like fast."
"The wind pushes them."
Levi looked out the other windows, then back at Crwys. "There's no wind."
The site of the murder was a house a few blocks away from St. Louis Cemetery Number One. When Crwys pulled the Mustang up to the address, the closest he could get was two houses down. Onlookers had gathered everywhere, along with a fire truck, an ambulance, and the power company.
"What the hell's going on?" Levi said as they stepped out of the car. He had his shades on, and Crwys inhaled the coconut scent of his partner's sunscreen. The myth that Vampires couldn't be out in the daylight was only half true. Sunlight zapped them of energy and it readily put their Demons out of commission, but the humans could survive it, as long as they took protective measures. It didn't hurt that they weren't susceptible to the heat or the cold, so Levi made work of that ability and wore nice suits all year round.
Crwys was on the other end of things and preferred his sneakers or boots, jeans, t-shirt, and sometimes jacket. He'd ditched the jacket recently to enjoy the southern heat. His shirt was dark green and sported a Pat O'Brien's restaurant logo. He shut the door, made sure his gun was in place and his badge visible where it hung around his neck. "I have no idea. Did dispatch give you any clues?"
Elemental Storm (The Eldritch Files Book 6) Page 3