by Eve Langlais
It flowed down, a liquid that did not disperse. That did not soak into the rug on the floor. It oozed, its amorphous shape undulating as it made its way across the room.
He’d done it. The spell for locate.
“Alfred!” He yelled for his manservant.
“The master bellowed?” Alfred asked, appearing in the doorway.
“We must follow that blood.” He jabbed a finger.
“If I might ask, sir, how does one follow a small puddle of blood?” A puddle that made it to the wall and groped its way along.
“How would I know? I’ve never done it before. But according to my lessons, it will take the most direct route it can.”
“It has a destination, then?”
The blood reached the patio door. It probed at the door. Running along the seal at the bottom. Then up the edges.
It wanted out.
“Yes.” He didn’t elucidate further. Alfred had no need to know of his emasculating decision to follow Elspeth. Let him think he was doing greater work.
“I think I know how we can follow it. If the master will give me but a moment.” Alfred exited the room but returned rather quickly as the blood, having not found an egress it liked via the sealed door, moved once more along the bottom edge of the wall.
Luc frowned as he noted the fireplace. Which meant a chimney.
Alfred returned with a large case that he set on a table. Unlatching it, he removed a peculiar object and set it on the table. Fiddling with it, tiny lights illuminated, and it hummed as something within its strange carcass came to life.
“What is that?” Creature. Magic. A multitude of critters harnessing their angry energy in a tiny metal box.
“It’s a drone.” Alfred pulled out his cellphone and aimed it at the drone thing.
“What is a drone?”
It lifted from the table with the angry buzz of a hundred bees. Luc wished he had a sword.
“It’s a machine. Like a car.”
“It flies without wings.”
“Because it has propellers. Which, I have to admit, I don’t understand. They don’t seem like they should make something fly, yet…” Alfred eyed the drone, and his hand with the phone swooped. So did the device.
“You are controlling it.” Luc couldn’t help but sound impressed. Then scowled. “You never mentioned you could do that. You’d best not attempt to control me.”
Alfred smirked. “If I controlled you, you’d never have let Miss Elspeth leave in the first place.”
“This has nothing to do with Elspeth.”
“Sure, it doesn’t.”
“Very well then, what if it does? Will you help me?”
“Would I have pulled out my drone if I weren’t going to? This is technology and science at its finest.” Alfred spoke with pride.
“How will this drone thing help us?”
“With this.” Alfred held out the phone, and the image proved to be that of Luc’s library, albeit from a lofty angle.
He was suitably impressed. “The drone has eyes.”
“And an ability to lock on to something and follow it. In this case, a certain puddle.”
Alfred did something on the phone, his finger tapping and sliding. The drone bobbed low to the floor and hovered near the blood slug, which had just reached the edge of the fireplace and moved in.
The drone zipped after it. In moments, its hum disappeared. Luc stuck his head in the fireplace but could see little.
He peered over at Alfred. “Now what? We still can’t follow.”
“Not the way they’re going, no. However, we can see where they’re headed and follow in the car.”
They quickly made their way to the garage, Alfred checking the phone often. Luc chose to sit alongside Alfred, fascinated by the bird’s-eye view from the drone. As Alfred stated, it did follow the blood slug as it wound its way through the property.
Eyes on the phone, Alfred stated, “The blood is moving faster. Why is that?”
“It’s magic.” Luc shrugged. “Perhaps now that there is less obstruction, it feels its target better.”
“What will you do when you catch up to Miss Elspeth?”
“I don’t know.” But he’d better figure it out. Because Alfred, while not within sight of either the drone or blood, managed a parallel route that allowed them to follow.
As a passenger, he had time to wonder what kind of dragon business Elspeth embarked on. Did it have something to do with him? More importantly, would she return later? She’d indicated she would.
It shouldn’t have excited. Yet, it did. What did that say about him? The first dragon he’d met and he couldn’t avenge his mother.
Because Elspeth’s innocent.
Killing her wouldn’t accomplish anything. It wouldn’t bring back his family or his world. It most likely wouldn’t make him happy because he needed her for that.
Being with Elspeth was when he felt most free. Which proved really confusing.
“Where are we going?” he asked, noticing they’d left the more lit areas of civilization to drive upon bumpy, dark roads.
Alfred’s face was lit only by the glow of the cell phone screen, giving him an eerie cast. “We’ve hit the countryside, but we can’t go much farther. We’re approaching a river.”
“That won’t be good for the spell,” Luc muttered. Running water would wreak havoc on the binding of the spell. Or so his research had indicated. His jailors had brought him many books, filching them from the suzerain, who’d stolen them from Luc’s people.
He’d learned everything he could. Memorized it. But remembering words proved to be much different from using them. Acting and touching real magic was exciting.
Luc crouched in his seat, eyes peeled on the darkness, hoping in many respects that something would dare to pounce from the shadows and provide sport.
I’ve been practicing my fighting moves. However, to truly test them, he needed an opponent, a real one.
“Time to go dark.” Alfred tapped a red spot on the cell phone before he flicked off the beams of the car, plunging them into pure night so abrupt Luc couldn’t help but blink several times as he adjusted.
“You are driving in the dark.”
“We don’t want them to know we’re coming.”
“Good point.” And something Luc should have thought of. Strategy wasn’t his strong suit.
Not yet, at any rate. However, every day he learned something new, absorbed knowledge, and had already begun applying it.
The car slowed to a crawl, the pitch-black unyielding, the only sound the muted purr of the engine.
The phone pinged.
Alfred stopped. “The drone is no longer moving.”
“Where is it? Let us see through its eyes.”
A moment later, the cell phone screen illuminated, and he saw nothing.
“Why can’t I see? Are its eyes broken?”
“Broken, or something is covering the camera.” Alfred frowned as he fiddled with the controls on the screen.
“The drones have predators?”
The screen flickered. Then it flashed to a green background and strange inscriptions. He’d yet to learn the human’s written language.
“What does it say?” Luc asked.
“Connection lost.” Alfred grimaced. “Guess we’re going on foot.”
“Going where?” A glance around showed nothing but layers of shadows.
“The drone might be dead, but let’s see if its beacon is, too.”
Luc watched as Alfred performed his own version of magic, the letters on the screen replaced by the familiar etchings of a map, the line done in a glowing shade of green. A little red dot strobed on and off amidst the green lines.
Alfred pointed. “Red is our target. Looks like we’ll have to walk.”
“Following your machine?” Luc eyed the phone doubtfully.
“At least it’s easier to keep track of than your puddle.”
Luc scowled then pointed out the obvious. “The l
ight on your phone will act as a beacon to anyone watching.”
“Which is why it will be tucked into a pocket on vibrate mode.”
“Which does what?” Luc asked.
“Other than giving me a cheap thrill? Let’s me know if we are heading off course.
“We? This could be dangerous. I should go alone,” Luc boldly stated.
“You’re right. You should.”
The ease of the capitulation made Luc frown. “You’re not even going to argue?” Because he’d kind of expected it. Alfred usually commented on everything Luc did.
“Traipsing through the woods with these old bones?” Alfred shook his head. “No thanks. You can go alone.”
The prospect proved more daunting than he wanted to admit. Luc didn’t have much experience outdoors. A few weeks here hadn’t seen him venture out much. Something about the wide-open spaces intimidated him.
The world was so big, and he remarkably small in comparison.
Still, though, if humans could venture out with impunity, surely a demon of his lineage could, too.
“I shall do this on my own,” Luc declared, grabbing the phone and shoving it into a trouser pocket.
“Do you have a weapon?”
“Of course, I do.” Whether or not it would do any good remained to be seen. Luc hadn’t received much training in the hand-to-hand fighting arts. What he did have was strength and determination. Also, a firearm that he’d located in a drawer by the bed. The use of it he’d seen on the television. Aim and pull the lever to fire it. Seemed simple enough.
The entire concept of sallying forth and hunting down Elspeth in the woods by himself sounded easy in theory.
Then he stepped out of the car into the darkness. The never-ending open space around him. Or did something loom in the dark? He didn’t know this place. He’d never wandered it with eyes closed, fingers trailing over a stone block surface, over and over until he knew every inch of it.
He was exposed. Lost.
Times like these, he kind of missed his prison cell. There was comfort to be found in a defined space.
Only cowards hid from that which made them uncomfortable. Fear made his people bow rather than try.
Luc wasn’t his father.
He strode away from the vehicle, inhaling the brisk and crisp air, redolent with living things. Green things. So many scents.
Bzzt. His thigh vibrated, startling Luc.
Wrong way. He pivoted right. Almost took a step and then whirled left. He walked, a short stride, a longer one. Normal length. No buzzing.
Easy.
Thump.
The rock surely lunged out of the ground from nowhere, grabbed him, and tossed him down. Luc pushed himself back to his feet and scowled.
This is ridiculous. He could see nothing. How was he supposed to find anything like this? He’d probably not even be able to locate his cock in this morass of darkness.
Use magic then.
The solution loomed quite obviously.
What if someone could detect it?
They would surely also hear him crashing around in the brush, making a ruckus.
The spell he needed was a simple one. One to light his way, but not with real light that anyone could see. He enchanted his eyes, placed the tips of his fingers over them as he pulled, with more confidence this time, from the river of magic so abundant in this world.
A trickle of it poured into him and pushed out through his fingers, coldly scorching the skin of his eyelids. His orbs tingled. The flow of words halted. He severed the flow and waited for the tingling to diminish before opening his eyes.
He’d not quite replaced night with day; however, he could see as if in that strange visibility before full night. Twilight, Alfred called it.
Enough for a man to thread his path through a forest. To mind the buzz in his pocket, which tickled him rather inappropriately at times.
But he enjoyed it.
As he stepped carefully, he wondered what he hoped to accomplish by spying on Elspeth. The wrongness of it nagged in his stomach like three-day-old rodent bones gnawed on to stave off hunger.
He’d come to this world for one reason, and that didn’t entail caring what she did while away from him.
What if she plots?
What if her task was an innocent one?
Mother used to talk about how she and her cousins left their homes at night and collected mushrooms, scooping them into dark sacks and then hiding them in the cellars of the castle. Before the forests began to die out.
What would a dragon collect at night in the woods?
He really had to wonder as blobs of light illuminated the way up ahead. Three bobbing beams danced a few hand spans above ground. Along with it, the subtler sound of conversation.
A hum of voices. Was one of them Elspeth?
Luc crept low to the ground, doing his best to avoid detection as he realized the woods he’d trekked through ended, giving way to a lumpy vale.
Crouched behind a partially submerged boulder, its surface marked with lichen, he listened and realized he recognized Babette’s voice.
“The whole place is a fucking graveyard.”
“Three bodies do not—” Elspeth was cut off by a distant shout.
“I think I found two more over here.”
“Okay, five bodies are a lot for one spot,” Elspeth remarked. “But I can see why someone would use this place. Even in the dark, it is rather pretty.”
Peeking around the boulder, Luc had to wonder what Elspeth, who stood about twenty or so paces away, considered pretty. The clearing, which stretched lopsidedly, had heavy dips and juts. With his enchanted eyes, he saw the rocks that speared from the ground, the wild grass, long and frond-like. It shared the space between the stony lumps with a mossy heather.
He noted Babette crouched at the edge of a disturbance of soil, phone in hand, beaming out light. She pointed to something below the surface of the ground.
“Appears to be female.”
“An old one. Look at how wrinkly her skin is,” Elspeth remarked.
“I don’t know if she was old before she died. Check out the makeup still on her skin. And the clothes. That’s not the outfit of a grandma.”
“Maybe she’s trendy.”
“Or, maybe, the person who killed her sucked the life right out of her,” Babette theorized.
Guess who Luc was laying a wager on being right?
“I wonder who she is.”
“This one is a dragoness.”
“How can you tell?” Elspeth cocked her head. “I can’t smell anything over the decomposition.”
“I know she’s dragon because she’s wearing this locket.” Babette leaned in, and a moment later, raised her hand. From it, dangled a necklace.
“What’s so special about it?” Elspeth asked.
“I was asked to keep an eye open for this particular piece of jewelry.”
“We have an informant?” Elspeth squealed. “How exciting.”
“Less informant, more like a victim’s sister. She approached me away from the Emerald Sept to tell me about her missing sibling.”
“And yet Joanna assured us that no one went missing.”
“Joanna lied,” said Babette flatly. “Which means, I’ll be paying her a visit.”
Luc had no idea who this Joanna was, but he doubted she’d enjoy Babette’s next social call.
“This is definitely more bodies than I expected to find.”
Luc ducked behind the rock as a third person approached Elspeth and Babette. A man with a voice too smooth.
“No need to apologize. If not for you, we would have never known to look here.” Elspeth sounded overly impressed.
Luc frowned.
“We’re going to need some help with transport,” the stranger said. “One of us should drive into town and make the arrangements.”
“One of us will. Eventually. I’m curious. How did you know this field was here?”
“I got a tip.”
“It’s no secret people have gone missing. Someone was bound to have a clue eventually.” The man had a smooth reply.
“And you called us with it, not the head of the Emerald Sept.”
“Because we both know they’re covering it up.” The man grinned. It was a nice grin.
The kind that drew an answering smile from Elspeth.
Hiding behind his rock, Luc didn’t like it one bit. He scowled.
“That’s a pretty bold statement.”
He shrugged. “It’s the truth. You see it now. They are pretending it’s not happening. It’s not right, which is why I came forward.”
“Given you’re a know-it-all, I don’t suppose you know who did this?” Babette asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do. But it will sound crazy.”
“Crazier than a field of bodies with the life sucked out of them?” Babette snorted. “You’d be surprised what I’d believe.”
“Brace yourself. I think we have a demon in our midst.”
“Demon!” Elspeth squeaked. “Those aren’t real.”
“They are,” the male insisted.
We are too real, Luc seconded.
“You’ve seen one?” Babette prodded.
“Yes. I am fairly certain he lives nearby, too.”
“Does he really?” Babette sounded impressed for once. “And does this demon have a name?”
Luc brushed his fingers through his hair and readied himself.
“As a matter of fact, he does. He’s from the same place that dragon mage Voadicia was barfed out from. His name is…”
Lucifer stood and prepared to confront the male he finally recognized as Maedoc. A very young and unbloated version.
Elspeth’s gaze widened in surprise at seeing Luc. Babette’s gaze narrowed.
And Maedoc finished his sentence. “Eogan.”
Chapter Eighteen
It took Elspeth a moment to grasp that the name Maedoc spoke wasn’t Luc’s—who was here somehow. How cute. He’d followed them. At least he’d taken her message to heart about sticking close. Good practice for later when she really needed him.
And the bodies in the ground, bodies she’d seen before in a vision, which lessened the shock, meant things were settling into the final path.