Legacy of the Shadow’s Blood

by E G Bateman

  “It’s this way.” He walked toward a door and the vampire raced ahead and rattled it loudly as he tried to open it for him. The historian held his ID up. “Careful, you’ll have that off its hinges.”

  With an attempt at nonchalance, he smoothed his eyebrow as the other man stepped forward and swiped his ID. “Sorry, I don’t know my own strength.” He opened the door and followed their guide through.

  Lexi stared after them. “Oh, my God. Dick’s like a dog in heat.”

  Scott looked at her with an eyebrow raised and smirked.

  “What?” She pointed at the glass display case. “Get on with it, then.”

  They stared into the cabinet at the label indicating where the lucky poker chip had been displayed before it was stolen.

  She looked at him. “Anything?”

  He closed his eyes and waved his hands around. “There’s no dust and the wards won’t let me create an energy ball to follow the magic.” He opened his eyes again and looked inside the glass display case. “That might help.”

  A shiny silver cigarette case lay inside. He opened his hand but nothing happened. “Damn it. I can’t get it.”

  Lexi walked around the case. “I hope Albin’s taking care of the security cameras.” She dipped to the back of the case and slid her lock-picking tools out. Crouching close to the lock, she set to work. After a minute, she heard the satisfying click. “We’re in.”

  She reached in and snatched the cigarette case as a door opened. In one fluid movement, she had closed the back door of the cabinet and stood next to Scott.

  “What are you up to?” A man in a security uniform entered the room.

  Scott held the papers out. “We’ve come to look at this display.”

  He ignored the documents, took them both by the arm, and led them to the door. “This room is supposed to be closed to the public. Out you get.”

  “We’re not the public. We’re here—” Lexi scowled when she realized she was speaking to a closed door and knocked peremptorily.

  Scott looked at the security scanner beside it. “Is there any way you can break into this?”

  Lexi glanced at it. “I could shoot it.” She hammered on the door again with her fist.

  “Would that open the door?”

  “Probably not.” She grasped the handle and rattled the door. “Open, you son of—” She felt a jolt of magical energy and the door opened.

  The sorcerer looked at it. “That shouldn’t have worked.” He created a ball of energy in his palm. “The wards are down.” He extinguished the orb and they raced into the room. There was no sign of the security man. They ran to the door Dick and Albin had used and along a hallway, looking into each room as they passed. Finally, they entered the security office.

  It took a moment for Lexi to interpret what she saw. Albin stood with a hand over his neck and Dick was at the other end of the room with his shirt off and his fangs protruding.

  “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” The vampire looked horrified. His face was scarlet as he scrambled to replace his shirt.

  “It’s okay, honestly. It happens more often than you’d think.” The historian removed his hand to reveal a scratch.

  Dick pushed past Lexi and Scott and out of the office.

  She stared at the screens, then turned to the other man. “I assume you didn’t see what happened out there.”

  He sighed. “The wards went down again?” With a scowl, he went to a screen and rewound the footage. “It’s the same as last time. Here you are, looking into the case. It goes blank, then the picture comes back—” Albin looked closely at the screen, then bolted from the room. They ran after him and the three of them gathered around the display case.

  Albin tapped the glass. “Did you take anything out of here?”

  Lexi showed him the cigarette case. “Yes, this. Scott can use it to help in the investigation.”

  “Of course, for the reflection.” He nodded. “Good thinking. And the pouch?”

  She looked into the display. The little embroidered pouch was also missing. “Could I have knocked it down?”

  The historian retrieved a key and opened the back of the cabinet. He searched quickly but carefully for the missing item. “It’s definitely gone. What happened?”

  His frown deepened when she told him about the security man throwing them out of the room.

  He shook his head. “Why would someone go to such lengths to take the pouch? It makes no sense.”

  Dick rejoined them. His shirt was on but his face was still pink and he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to make eye-contact with anyone.

  Lexi looked at him. “I didn’t know vampires could blush.”

  Albin’s lips twitched. “Blushing is simply what happens when all the blood rushes to one place in the body in response to emotional or physical stimuli.”

  The man waited for Dick to look at him, then winked at the blushing vampire. He turned to Scott. “Will your reflection spell work within the wards?”

  Scott looked doubtful. “Probably not but we can try.”

  Lexi turned in surprise. “Why not? It seems like an innocent enough spell.”

  “Until you use it to spy on someone entering a safe combination.” The sorcerer shrugged.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I never thought of that.”

  They headed to the employee section and into Albin’s office.

  Scott took the cigarette case out. “If it works, it would be better with a mirror.”

  Her quick scan around the office didn’t reveal one, but the historian took a lab coat off a hook on the wall to reveal a mirror beneath it. She looked at him, her expression curious.

  “I hate mirrors,” he explained simply.

  Lexi shook her head. If I looked like him, I’d walk around naked in a hall of mirrors all day long.

  Scott held the case up to it and muttered a few words but nothing happened. “Nope, it’s not working.”

  “It was a long shot. I have to go and wipe you from the security cameras before the day shift starts.” Their guide led them to the exit. “Perhaps we could meet later?”

  The sorcerer nodded. “Beyond the wards? Then you can see the reflection yourself.”

  Albin handed Lexi a card with his address on it. “I don’t go beyond the wards. You look at it and let me know. I’ll see you at eight.” He turned to Dick and handed him a card. “And I’ll see you at six.”

  Scott looked at the card over Lexi’s shoulder. “Park Towers—sounds nice.”

  The historian shrugged. “It’s a roof over my head.”

  They said goodbye and returned to the car.

  Lexi opened the passenger door. “How far out do the wards stop working?”

  Dick climbed into the driver’s seat. “I have no idea, but I don’t want to stop every mile to check. Let’s head to Boulder. Southwest Diner?”

  Scott’s head popped into the space between the seats. “Sure. It’s almost an hour since I last ate.”

  After they had been driving for a couple of minutes, Lexi turned to the vampire. “What happened to you back there?”

  He gave her a wide and slightly hysterical-looking grin. “Let’s put music on, shall we?”

  When they pulled up at the diner, they didn’t leave the car.

  Lexi looked into the eyes of the truck driver, who was seated at the same table as before. “Doesn’t that guy have a home to go to?”

  Scott looked out. “Who?”

  She was about to point him out but he was no longer staring at them. “Never mind.”

  The sorcerer shuffled across the back seat and settled himself in the middle. He held the cigarette case up facing the rearview mirror and muttered his quiet words.

  First, they could see little of interest. He rolled back and it showed them looking at the case before they left the museum. From there, he whirled back what the shiny case had reflected for the previous couple of days. Finally, he stopped it and allowed it to play forward. They w
atched as a man approached the cabinet.

  Lexi pointed. “That’s the douche who kicked us out.”

  The man gazed at the display for a few moments before he walked out of sight. A minute later, a hand appeared from the rear of the cabinet and picked up a golden poker chip. The stranger walked quickly out of view.

  Dick pinched his bottom lip as he thought. “Can you put it back to the start and record it on a cell phone?”

  Scott reversed the playback in the mirror and passed his cell phone to the vampire, who videoed the theft, then took close-ups of the security guard’s face.

  When he clicked the cell phone off, he turned to Lexi. “We don’t need to bother going into the diner then.”

  The young man slumped in the seat. “I wanted to try the apple pie this time.”

  “What are you, twelve?” Dick looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Get a slice to take out, then.”

  Scott grinned and jumped out of the car.

  Lexi opened the passenger door and shouted, “Scott…get two.” She smirked at Dick. “I understand why you’d want to get back. You only have eight hours to prepare for your date.”

  He smoothed an eyebrow in his habitual tell. “Oh, I don’t know that I’d call it a date.” He giggled. “It’s totally a date, though, right? And you’re quite correct, looking this good doesn’t happen by itself.” He sighed. “This must be what it’s like to go on a date with me. How thrilling.”

  She shook her head and chuckled.

  Chapter Sixty

  Scott gazed sadly at his empty plate. “That was the best pie I’ve ever eaten. What’s next?”

  Lexi stood and dropped the empty boxes in the trash. “It seems like a waste of time to spend the whole day doing nothing. We should have gone straight to the museum to show Albin the picture. Did you get the impression he wanted us out of the way?”

  “It was probably because of what happened with Dick,” he shrugged. “We could spend the day by the pool.”

  She looked at the time. “Scott, do me a favor. Step outside for a moment, please.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Okay…” He stepped out onto the deck. “Holy shit. How hot is that?”

  “It’s August in Las Vegas. I’m not sitting outside in the middle of the day.”

  “It wasn’t this hot yesterday.” He sounded sulky.

  “It was almost sundown when we went to the pool yesterday.”

  Scott gazed mournfully at the water. “I wonder if I could run really fast and jump in. I miss translocation. I miss it so much.” He closed the door and walked into the kitchen. “What’s on tv?”

  “I don’t know.” Lexi narrowed her eyes at him. “Not Star Wars.”

  “Barbarian!”

  The door burst open and Dick flew in. “Jesus, it’s hotter than hell out there.”

  The young man stared at him. “Are you wearing a t-shirt? Like regular people?”

  “That’s why I’m here. I have nothing to wear. We have to go to the Strip.”

  Lexi narrowed her eyes. “And we need to go with you because?”

  “You’re my compadres. I need help.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You need someone to stand around and tell you you’re stunning.”

  “That’s what I said. I need help.”

  “Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “We were only going to watch tv anyway.”

  Dick grinned. “I know. The walls are terribly thin.”

  Ten minutes later, they headed to the car. The vampire shouted instructions to Jesús. “Don’t let Marcel outside. My poor baby will fry in this heat.”

  Once they’d left the car with valet parking, they entered the Crystals shopping mall. Lexi consulted the store map and started walking.

  “Where are you going?” Dick called after her.

  “Versace is this way.” She pointed.

  “I might not want to buy from Versace. Let’s go up to Gucci.” He marched ahead and they followed.

  Where she stood behind him on the escalator, Lexi whispered to Scott. “He’ll drag us around this whole place and I can guarantee you, he’ll end up buying from Versace.”

  Dick didn’t turn and merely called in a sing-song voice, “I can hear you.”

  “I know,” she responded in the same tone.

  Four hours later, Lexi and Scott waited for him to pay for his purchases in Versace.

  He glanced at Lexi while he waited for the tags to be cut off. “Don’t look at me like that. I can’t simply buy the first thing I see. I need to be sure.”

  She smiled and was about to respond with “I told you so,” when her cell rang. She looked at the display, then answered. “Hi, Dolores.”

  “Are you hard at work?”

  “We’re hard at work helping Dick choose a shirt for his date tonight.”

  “Well, now you’re back to work. Someone has stolen a bag of money from a casino. I suspect it might be related to the talisman.”

  Lexi walked to a quiet corner to hear her better. “Why do you think that?”

  “A security guard transporting money from the Bellagio to an armored vehicle tripped and dropped a bag of cash. A man approached, picked the bag up, and walked away with it. Two guards gave chase and somehow ran into each other and knocked themselves out, and a third tried to shoot the thief. His gun fell to pieces in his hand.”

  She frowned. “Wow! That was all very…unlucky.”

  “Or lucky, depending on whose perspective you’re looking at it from. The bag has a tracker inside it and has been traced to one of the MGM Signature buildings. Be careful. Kindred has been alerted and they’ll probably be in attendance.”

  “Okay, we’re on it.” She disconnected and hurried to Scott. “Where’s Dick?” she asked and looked around.

  “He’s gone to change into his new clothes. He’s due at Albin’s in half an hour.”

  Lexi repeated what Dolores had told her. “We need to hustle. Let him know what’s happening and tell him we’ll see him at Albin’s at eight.”

  He walked to the changing rooms and was back in seconds. “He’ll come if we need him. I said we’d call. He says the hotel is across the street.” As they walked, he retrieved his cell, opened the maps app, and directed them to the closest exit.

  She turned to him as they approached the MGM Signature buildings. “We’re right across the street from that mall. How did it take us a full half-hour to get here?”

  “In retrospect, it would have been better to get Dick to drop us off.” Scott looked at his watch. “He’ll be at Albin’s by now. I hope the new clothes have impressed him because my feet are killing me.”

  Lexi looked across the street at the building’s security office. “How can we get past them with no magic?”

  Scott pulled their documents out. “This should help.”

  They crossed the street and approached the security guard. She opened her mouth to speak when an ambulance screeched to a halt and turned in. The security guard ran to release the vehicle barrier. They took advantage of the distraction and walked through.

  He gazed at the three golden high-rise buildings. “Do we know which one it is?”

  She walked faster. “I have a bad feeling. I think we should follow the ambulance.”

  The commotion drew them to the correct building. They rounded the corner as the ambulance crew moved to cover a body that had clearly fallen from very high up.

  Scott leaned close to her ear. “Was that our guy?”

  Lexi stared at him. “Can you imagine how far he fell? I couldn’t even tell if that was human.”

  A group of men leaving the building caught her attention. She grabbed her friend and pulled him around the corner. “I think that’s the mage who performs on the Strip.”

  He snuck his head out and withdrew it quickly. “I’ve definitely seen him on billboards and tv.”

  They wandered to the back of a crowd of onlookers. Hidden behind them, they were able to amble around the corner to listen more closely to the men
and what appeared to be the end of the conversation.

  Someone—presumably the mage—asked, “Are you sure there was absolutely nothing on the body? Nothing in his pockets?”

  “Like what?” another man asked.

  The first voice answered impatiently. “A golden casino chip.”

  “No, nothing. That’s strangely specific.”

  The mage sighed. “Forget I said anything about the chip.”

  “Like what?” The man repeated his question and sounded a little confused.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I thought maybe the tracker had stopped working because it shattered on impact.”

  “Oh, I see. That’s good thinking, but no. There wasn’t a cent in his pocket.” The voices grew quieter, so Lexi and Scott moved behind the crowd again.

  When the people saw the mage, they recognized him as the famous magician and turned their cameras from the corpse to him.

  Unaffected by the attention, he continued. “If the security tracker in the bag was here one minute and gone the next, he must have deactivated it and stashed the bag before he threw himself off the balcony. Search for the bag. I’m on stage in an hour. If you haven’t found it tonight, I’ll see what I can do, but I can assure you that the wards are still in place.”

  Lexi was suddenly aware that the crowd around them had begun to disperse. She and her companion looked at each other, certain they were about to be revealed.

  Scott said, “Eww—is that his guts in the grass over there?”

  The crowd turned and huddled to stare in the direction of the covered corpse again. When the mage had moved out of sight, the two left the way they had entered.

  Back on the Strip, Lexi called Dolores to tell her the thief was dead. She explained that the wards had stopped working at least twice that day.

  “It sounds like Kindred knows the talisman has been stolen.” She stood in the shade with the cell phone on speaker. “The mage asked about it and counseled someone in front of a crowd of people. Why do you think they’ve denied it’s been stolen?”

  Her boss was silent for a few moments. “Probably because it calls the wards into question.”

  After a little thought, she decided it made sense. “About the wards—who could bring them down?”