"Fine. Then I'm going to tell Lucretia that Jeremy Nottingham, the mage of Los Angeles, hired her two men to come and pick me up. I'm not going to mention Damian because I really do feel he is a pawn. We could also use him in a future date," I said and he nodded.
"If you want to leave you can," I said pointing at the door. I didn't entirely enjoy working with him but then I never enjoyed working with anyone. I would be just as happy to see him leave as it was if he stayed. The pang in my stomach told me that I was fooling myself but I ignored it.
"I need to hear if Lucretia takes that death sentence off the table," he reminded me.
"Right," I said. I dialed the number he had given me for Lucretius personal line and a clipped English voice with an Italian accent told me that she had picked up the phone herself.
"This is Mabry Wildes I'm assuming," she said.
"That's me. I found out who ordered your two vampires to come and pick me up. They were hired by the mage of Los Angeles, one Jeremy Nottingham. I don't know what you want to do with that information but I sure as hell am not going after him."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I'm positive," I said. "Tell Simon that he doesn't have to die over this but he is out of my coven. We’ve sent his belongings to his second home. We don't want him here." She hung up without saying anything else. I took a look at Simon's face and could see the pain in it. This was not easy for him either. Banishment was evil especially when he had been part of the coven for over 200 years.
"You heard that, didn't you?" I asked him. He nodded.
"I hope you'll be okay, Mabry Wildes. I have to go talk to Jeremiah now." And with that he was gone. The moment he left, Damian woke up again.
"I told you everything, didn't I?" he asked, a pained look crossing over his face.
I nodded. "But just so you know, you don't really know anything. It was news to me that you were Jeremy Nottingham's son but you should talk to your father. He hasn't told you much."
"Will you tell me what's happening?" he asked. I was disarmed by his question.
"Why don't you talk to your Dad first? I could sure use some help connecting the dots." I flashed him my best smile. He returned the smile and got up from his chair.
"I might just do that. I might just do that," he said with a crooked smile. He got up and walked out the door. I fell back in my seat inside. I had survived all of that. And he hadn't even asked about Regina, I realized. It had been about Chance this whole time. I took a whiff of my armpit and realized all the stress, adrenaline and running around made me stink. I needed to go home and get some sleep. I wasn't sure what my next step was but I prayed nothing would befall me before I caught some rest. I snapped off the lights and left.
9
Leslie's fear permeated the outside hallway leading to my apartment. I opened the door and almost cried. The few possessions that I owned had been ripped and broken. Every book, every dish in the house had been shattered and ripped up. My clothes were wet in a pile in the middle of the floor and I smelled werewolf urine on them. And in the middle of the chaos was Leslie. The look on her face told me that I was not going to like what she had to say. Before I could even open my mouth, she stepped over my ruined clothing and hugged me tight.
"I'm sorry, Mabry," she said. "I don't know and understand why Marcus wanted to involve you but I apologize for the both of us for getting you involved."
"I was always involved. Something about this whole mess has to do with me also. Jeremy Nottingham, the mage of Los Angeles, sent vampires and his son to bring me to him. Just as Marcus sent you to find me. None of this is coincidence and we are all inextricably linked."
"Now, even more than you know," Leslie said. I caught the catch in her voice.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"After I identified Marcus' body, I overheard one of the LAPD detectives mentioning your name. I was horrified to find out that they are planning to pin Marcus's murder on you. I don't know exactly what angle they're going to take but that's their plan anyway." As if my day could not get any worse.
"Did you get into a fight?" she asked me. My hand fluttered to my eyes. I had been progressively getting better throughout the day and most of the injuries that I had sustained by the vampire sentries were now gone. Apparently, I still had two black eyes.
"A couple of vampires used me as a punching bag," I explained. "It's another story, for another time. May I ask what Marcus died of?" My head was spinning with the revelation that they were going to try to pin a murder on me. I deserved to go to jail for zapping those two vampires, that was for sure, but I was not going to to take Marcus' murder on myself without a massive fight. I stopped. If they wanted me out of the way, then I had to know something. Something that I hadn't yet connected. Information was the only currency that the powerful really wielded over all the rest of us. Well, tha and magic, even though my magic seemed to be pretty powerful and it worked.
"He drowned," Leslie stated. I didn't see that coming.
"What do you mean by drowned?" I asked her.
"His lungs were full of water and he died from drowning. When I saw the body, I could smell a distinctive sewage smell on his clothes. The thing is is that he was found on Lake Drive, right near the Franklin Canyon Reservoir. Why would he smell like sewage? That's a fresh water reservoir." I shook my head.
"I, on the other hand, found out that Marcus was indeed working with the resistance. One man in particular was his contact who happened to be the head of the resistance cell in Burbank. His name was Chance. He, unfortunately, has gone missing in the last 48 hours as well. I was not able to talk to him but I was able to speak with one of his lieutenants and she dropped the clue about information on a place called area 27. Simon, the vampire that was helping me, had heard of a different area, an area 22, that was dealing with the internment imprisonment of the humans." Leslie shook her head, deep in thought.
"I've never heard of a place called area 27."
"I have never heard of it either. Have you been to the San Fernando Valley recently?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"Marcus was going in there every day, however," she said.
"Maybe that's what sent up a red flag," I said.
"That's a possibility. As an LAPD officer and a werewolf he felt that he was safe in saying that he was dealing with the mob that ruled over that section of the city. I guess there's a lot of contraband that's flowing over the border and they're constantly trying to pin down the new dealers." Leslie said.
"I have to sit down," I said. "I have not slept since yesterday and after the beating and all the magic I can't even believe my eyes are open," I said and sat down on a wet spot of werewolf piss on my nice fabric couch. They had ruined my entire life. I was so tired that I didn't move.
"You're not alone in this," Leslie said. I kept my eyes closed as she continued. "I know how deeply you felt about Peters’ death and Marcus and I talked about you often. About how we could help you. You were so unavailable that I chose to let you have your time. But I'm in this with you. They took away the love of my life and nothing else matters to me anymore. I will clear your name whatever it takes. I will find Marcus' murderer and bring them to whatever kind of justice is still available to us in this godforsaken world. Marcus wanted to blow this whole operation open and I want to finish his work. They might have snuffed out his light but they haven't snuffed out ours. We might not have the apparatus of the LAPD to hide behind but we are two witches and you are half Fae and between the two of us we can expose them just like Marcus and Chance wanted to. Will you join me and help me track and hunt and bring to justice these killers?"
Tears streamed down my face. I had been alone for so long and now, only these last 24 hours did I realize that keeping myself so isolated kept me away from the goodness and partnerships surrounding human contact. I had nurtured my hate and my desire to bring down anybody I could see in power. But, as I played my smalltime Robin Hood tricks on the marginally powerful, these peop
le, my friends and former colleagues were trying to bring real justice into the light. I wanted to help her so bad. I wanted a partner again. I wanted a cause that would make sense. My smalltime justice experiments worked here and there but I had become as filthy as the rest of the creatures who turned their heads as their human neighbors disappeared. I wanted out into the light. I wanted to feel the righteousness of knowing I was right and on the good side. Maybe all the bad things that I had done could be redeemed somewhat by doing exactly what Leslie said. I didn't know if the two of us were capable of what she said but at this moment in time I believed every word she said. I wanted it to be true so badly.
"I have trust issues, as you can understand. I know that the way I have worked through the last year has helped to separate me from all of you. I was in pain and I wanted to lash out and I lashed out at a certain population. I'm not proud of it and the last 24 hours has taught me that I'm not an island. I need help and me nurturing my pain has only calcified my person. I want to help you and I will do everything I can to find the truth of what Marcus and Chance were doing. I just have to warn you, I don't know if we will survive this." Leslie's jaw firmed.
"We all have to die someday. I want to die knowing that I was trying to bring good into the world and to expose the evil that none of us has really spoken out against. We are all complicit in what's happening to the human population. All of us step back as they all slowly disappeared into the valley and then from the valley disappeared to God knows where. That's on all of us," she said. Her exhaustion was fed by her anger and grief. I knew she would crack sooner than later and I hoped that I would be there to help her through it.
"Do you know how to get to this Lake Drive? Where his body was found?" I asked her.
"I can take us there. I grabbed my car."
"Have you slept?" I asked her.
"There's no time for that right now. I know you probably came home for a shower and some rest yourself but," she said and looked again at my destroyed apartment.
I didn't want to break down in front of her. I had so many emotions mixed in with my exhaustion that I didn't know which one was greater than the other. I had become unmoored. Everything I owned in the world was in this apartment and now it was all gone. It was almost poetic in that the start of this last case I would be left with nothing but the clothes on my back, my intelligence and the craziness of my magic. I hoped it would be enough.
"Let's go see what we can find," I said and stood up. My ass was wet from the werewolf piss but I didn't care. I focused on it, trying to nurture my anger to keep me moving forward.
10
I had never been to the area around the Franklin reservoir, and I was shocked by how wild a place it was and how close to the main hub of Los Angeles proper. Leslie pulled into a dirt side patch off the side of Lake Drive and stopped the car. We could have been somewhere deep in the country. Eucalyptus trees and vines hung down around the small narrow road and just in the distance I could see the shimmer of the lake. The day had grown dark through our adventures and the light was again that strange purple pink cast that I'd only seen here in Los Angeles. The sky had few clouds in it and the ones that were there, wisps sliding across the deep indigo blue, had turned a hot pink orange from the setting sun.
The yellow police tape indicated where they had found Marcus' body. To our surprise, there was no one around. Most times, once whatever evidence was found had been taken from the dumpsite, was catalogued and bagged, there was no use for uniformed personnel to waste time guarding a crime scene. The police department did not work like the crime scene fiction TV shows that used to play on TV. This case, however, was so convoluted and so ripe with politics that I fully expected a full armed guard at the site. But to both my confusion and relief, the place was empty.
"I drove by here as soon as he gave me an address of where they found him. This is about 3 miles away from the safe house and I have no idea how he could've gotten here. I'd taken our only car to come and find you. That makes me think that someone picked him up at the safe house and brought him here. Why here though?" Leslie asked.
"We know that Chance and Marcus were definitively working together. What if Chance picked Marcus up and brought him here to show him whatever they were working on? Maybe they were interrupted and Marcus got caught and died while Chance took off with this car. It would make sense why Chance has now disappeared. Our best hope is he's in hiding somewhere and will be able to tell us what Marcus had found out. I know it's a bit of wishful thinking but there it is," I said.
"The strange thing is, I'm not seeing any sort of sewage lines, or open grates. The smell of sewage on his clothing is troubling. Are you sure that's what you smelled?" I asked her. Leslie bit her lip and I could tell she was going back to when she identified her husband's body. I hated even asking that question but the fact that he had drowned and had his body dumped here instead of left in the reservoir didn't make much sense to me.
"That's the best word I could use to describe it. It didn't smell like human feces or pests. But, it smelled like sulfur or growth of bacteria in a swamp. It's the best I can do. Smells are so hard to describe sometimes, aren't they?" Leslie said. That was true. Every creature had a different type of smell, especially now the magic flowing through everyone who was left, having similar reference points to the kind of smell you sensed was near impossible.
"I'm not seeing anybody around here. I think it should be safe for us to take a look around. Are you ready to do that?" I asked her. She turned off the ignition and opened the door. That was all the answer needed. I followed suit and I stepped in front of the car. Leslie had left the headlights on for us to be able to make out the spots and we stood on the edge of the road. The tall grass had been indented in his shape and had not yet found their verticality again. I didn't see any debris that shouldn't be on a side of the road like this.
"I don't think we can actually find any objects here," I said.
"I agree. I did want to see if there was any indication of where he had been dragged from. Marcus was a heavy man and I wondered if this was more than a one person job. But, if it was a vampire or another werewolf or God forbid Fae then I guess we really can't measure the strength. Damn magical creatures," she said. It was more bitter than humorous and I could see the toll this was taking on her. My nose lifted into the air and I sniffed. There was the smell of California heater, and then the night creatures that came out for food, and the distinct smell of water. Water with something else. I sniffed a bit more. I thought I could detect what she was talking about. I dropped to my knees and ducked under the police tape. I didn't want to touch his actual resting place but I wanted to get my nose close enough that maybe the residual smell from his clothes might've ended up on the flattened grass. I pulled the air in deep and found it. But it wasn't what she thought. I thought I had smelled the smell before at the bar earlier. Actually, yesterday but everything was rolling into one long nightmare for me.
"I smell what you smelled. But, it's not sewage, I don’t think. I've smelled this before at Callie’s bar. This is a water Fae. I don't know if a water Fae killed Marcus but he definitely brought his body over here." Her brow nodded in concern.
"If he had been killed by the Fae, wouldn't he have been mauled and eaten?"
"Definitely mauled, at least from what my mother had always told me the water Fae do. Maybe he drowned by accident in the reservoir and the water Fae found him and didn't want him in his lake?" I said.
"But this feeds the water for all of Beverly Hills. I believe there are guards that come here all the time," she said looking over to the large body of water passed us.
"We don't need to look for sewage lines anymore. I’m positive it's Fae. And it was in that bar," I said. I hadn't expected that definitive of a lead but I was positive.
"Perhaps Callie would know a creature that would smell like that," Leslie said.
"The problem is we're not wanted there," I said, remembering what happened the last time.
"I can't go in there, but you can." Leslie wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
"I don't feel very safe going in there without you though. Your magic is way stronger than mine is and if I get in trouble then we might lose the chance we have to follow this through."
"But what other choice do we have?" Leslie sighed and paced around the flattened grass.
"I was really liking your Chance theory. It makes sense that Marcus would leave with him. What doesn't make sense is that Marcus would leave all the lights on," she said. I could tell she was thinking aloud.
"So, what you're saying is that Marcus would not turn all the lights on in the house if he was meeting Chance." What she said made sense if the code was to not come back and they had been found out. Found out by Chance? I had no doubt that Chance was part of the resistance. So maybe it wasn't Chance that came and got him.
"Maybe we should leave Chance behind right now. We do have the fact that a Fae is involved. We know someone who can give us information. I think we should go check that out first since that is more definitive." She shook her head deep in thought and as I went to squeeze her hand a flash of light blinded me.
When I opened my eyes, a dripping Swamp thing held Leslie by the throat. It made squelching, squeaking sounds and the smell of what Leslie had called sewage permeated the air. Goo dripped onto Leslie's shoulders as the water Fae’s arm tightened on her neck. She gasped for breath and her face started to turn red. I had to do something but I was rooted to my spot. I had never seen a water Fae up close. They typically had glamour making them look like normal humans because from what I had heard they were the most disgusting looking things of the Fae world. This one glistened with bubbly goo everywhere and was a strange black- green color. It was almost like green moss had liquified. The creature only had one eye and no nose. What it did have was a gaping mouthful of razor-sharp teeth that glistened in the headlights of our car. It was a wonder that he hadn't eaten or mauled Marcus like Leslie said.
A Case of Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Wildes Chronicles Book 1) Page 7