by Oxford, Rain
Too late.
I jerked awake to see Astrid frowning with worry. “Where have you been?” I asked, standing slowly and clumsily. I was disorientated from the dream, but my instincts were telling me not to say anything. Darwin had gone back inside. Henry had apparently stood guard until Astrid arrived and woke me.
“Working on my own investigation. Did you miss me?”
I didn’t answer. It was foolish of me, but I did think about her too much when she wasn’t around. “My aim is improving,” I said instead.
* * *
On Saturday, I went to the library to meet Vincent and instead found Ghost with a letter saying he had to miss this week for council business. Just as I turned to leave, I caught a glimpse of something bright yellow and red as it vanished through the door. There was nothing in the hallway when I opened the door.
Darwin, Henry, and I worked on tracking the students down who were at the party. We split up and I gave my roommates a list of questions. Since Darwin was a journalist, I figured this would be cake for him. At lunch, we sat down and compared notes.
“No one I talked to reported anything off about the alcohol,” I said. “I talked to the guy…” I checked my notes. “Thomas, who brought the alcohol. He’s a C-Four Earth, has a legitimate I.D., and bought it to share at the university. He’s adamant nobody messed with the bottles. His sister had an incident with drugs and he says he’s very careful about it. He does, however, think the dry ice thing was done by more than one person. Everyone I talked to either said they saw one to four people talking with a vampire woman, or that they weren’t paying any attention. Nobody knew her name. The four people are Len, Kristen, Conner, and Mack. Mack hasn’t been seen since Thursday afternoon. The newest victims, Nathan and Caleb, were nowhere near the party. Two of the six people I talked to said they saw Len leave with the vampire woman.”
“I got exactly the same story, minus Thomas’s bit,” Darwin said. “I did hear that Nathan was arguing with Jackson on Wednesday. Apparently, Nathan wanted to be Langril’s assistant and said that he was going to fight Jackson for the position. He went to Langril, but not until Friday.”
“That must have been when Langril brought Nathan in.”
“I also found out Kristen was working at the council this summer. Her roommate thinks she was the one to put the letters up all over the dining room about the council’s plan. Why is Addison sitting with her roommates?”
Henry turned to see her. “I believe I upset her by not saying that I would miss her.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Darwin agreed. “Why didn’t you say you would miss her?”
Henry shrugged. “Because I doubt I will. She knows I don’t feel emotions as strongly as others. When she is gone, I probably will not think about her.”
Darwin looked at me. “Do you want to explain it to him? I’d probably get a bit rude.”
“He’ll figure it out. What did you learn from your interviews?”
“You will not like my answer,” Henry warned.
“It’s fine if you didn’t learn anything.”
“On the back of each question sheet, I drew the woman they saw the three victims with. I asked for every single detail and asked them when I was done to make sure the drawing was accurate. Every one of them described the woman almost exactly the same.” He flipped over his pile of papers and spread them out.
“Oh, god,” Darwin said.
On the back of every paper was a perfect drawing of Astrid.
* * *
I was early on Sunday for my fire training. Of course, Professor Nightshade was late, as usual, so I read. When she finally arrived at half past noon, I ignored her and continued reading for a few more minutes. She sat beside me and I set the book aside. “So, when exactly are you and Watson planning to take down the wizard council?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about it; it has nothing to do with you.”
“Vincent Knight is my uncle. I thought everyone knew that. He’s part of the council, and that makes it my business. Not to mention that I’m a wizard.”
“Leave it alone, Devon. I’ve known the council a lot longer than you have, so I know what their end game is. Trust me; nobody wants the council to stay in charge.”
“So… students are sick from a mysterious, deadly, and magical sickness. I wonder who at Quintessence could cause that…”
“Really? You think it was me?”
“No. You tease, ridicule, and mock your students on a daily bases when they make a mistake or say something stupid. You connect with us, which doesn’t lead to killing them slowly and painfully with sickness. However, you might know who could do it or has a reason to do it.”
She sighed. “If I did have any information, why would I tell you?”
“Because you don’t want the students to die any more than I do. These students never did anyone any harm.”
“It’s true that you’re a private investigator then, and you’re as stubborn as your uncle. Keigan Langril is the only one I know who can make a poison powerful enough to kill people and make it look like a sickness. That being said, I haven’t checked on the students myself, so I don’t know exactly how bad their condition is.”
“Dr. Martin said it wasn’t a potion. He thinks it was blood sacrifice or contagion.”
“Then those students either pissed someone off or got into stuff they weren’t supposed to. There are some dangerous, cursed items in this world, but the wizard council is supposed to confiscate and destroy them. The only wizard powerful enough to do this by contagion magic would be Logan.”
Hunt would never do this to his students.
“What have you learned about fire in the last week?” Nightshade asked, obviously done talking about the case.
“I learned how to make illusion fire in Remy’s class.”
“You haven’t learned anything. Fire is not merely destructive. Water is healing and love. Earth is balance and strength. Both are passive; you take water and earth into yourself to make you who you are. Fire and air are active; they are created from who you are. If you haven’t learned anything by next week, I’m going to be harder on you.” She left me alone, which was the last thing I wanted.
I didn’t want to think of Astrid.
I knew there was no way she did this. Astrid didn’t have the power, the knowledge, or the motive. If she were a carrier of whatever was infecting them, that was one thing, but if Dr. Martin was correct, then it was an outright intentional act of magic. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen her Saturday night, so I couldn’t ask her for an explanation.
* * *
Astrid was never late. No matter what time the sun set, she always met me within a minute after the sun was hidden behind the tree line. Even on cloudy days, she never risked coming out early… except once.
The class field trip was supposed to be the highlight of the school year. We went to the science museum in a lightning storm. I wasn’t the only one who saw the problem with walking into a science museum while tornado drills blared in the background. However, our teacher was tenacious.
It was only the second day with our new teacher, as our original teacher left on maternity leave. Mr. Gibson was a normal-looking man in his thirties. He had short, black hair with dark eyes. His smile was kind and there was nothing unusual about his business suit. My father wore a suit, so it made Mr. Gibson seem more trustworthy. I assumed this was also why I didn’t like him.
At the science museum, we broke into pairs and groups to explore the exhibits we wanted. My partner and I split up the minute we were out of the teacher’s sight. Despite the storm, I was excited for the movie Astrid and I had planned to see that night. I was playing with a Van de Graaff generator when the power went out.
Most people were calm except for several young kids, especially since there were guards who tried to guide everyone out with flashlights. I heard the voices of some of my classmates and made my way towards them, but before I reached anyone, I felt a hand on my shoulder. �
�This way.” It was Mr. Gibson, so I let him guide me. My instincts warned me something was wrong, but he was a teacher.
“Where are we going?” I asked when it was obvious that the sounds of other people were getting further and further away. We were getting further from the emergency lights as well.
“There are cops outside and we’re not ready for that yet.”
“What does that mean?” It was pitch black.
He didn’t answer. “Just ahead of you. Go on,” he said when I hesitated. “There’s a stairway to the bottom floor. Everyone else is taking a different stairway and it’s overcrowded.”
That made sense to me, but I still didn’t move. I didn’t know how far away from me he was.
“It’s okay. Right ahead of you.”
“How can you see me?”
“I have very good eyesight. I’m going back for the others now. Straight ahead of you is the staircase.” His hand pushed on my back until I stumbled forward. My instincts were firing hard. “I’m going to shut this door in case anyone tries to wander further into the building. You’re fine.”
I heard a heavy door close behind me and a lock turn. I decided right then not to trust teachers. It wasn’t that I suspected Mr. Gibson of anything; most adults ignored my instincts and thought they knew best. I felt along the wall and figured out within moments that I was locked in a room.
In the movies, calling for help never did any good, so I tried to find an air vent instead. What was odd was that my sense of danger increased by the minute. There wasn’t even enough light for my eyes to adapt, but there was apparently airflow, as I smelled smoke. Even then, I refused to panic. My father had said panicking only made a bad situation worse, so I forced myself not to think of fire or danger at all.
“It’s just a game,” I said out loud.
A hissing laugh sent chills down my spine. “A game it is.” The voice belonged to a man, but there was something too inhuman about it. “Do you know the rules to this game, Devon?”
“No,” I said, hoping I was wrong and someone was looking for me. I started towards what I thought was the door and hesitated. A few seconds later, deep, blood-red eyes glowed dimly for a moment before a face appeared, illuminated by no actual light source. There was nothing sinister about his face except for his eyes; he looked like a normal, middle-aged man.
“That is because there are no rules. This is a game of choosing your friends and your enemies. A lot of people are waiting to see what kind of person you turn out to be. Fortunately for you, you’re useful to me.”
“Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter; you’re not going to remember me anyway.”
He vanished and I felt another presence; one I was very familiar with. I reached out in the dark and Astrid’s hand gripped mine firmly. Without a word, she led me to the door. I heard the lock snap and the door open.
Fire alarms blared. Pretty much everyone else was out of the building by the time we made it to the stairs, but the flickering orange light coming from below was unmistakable. “We need to go a different way.” She had been so worried about fire in the woods that I assumed it was a real fear of hers. Light reflected off her dark eyes and hair in a way that was both beautiful and morose.
Her hand tightened on mine. “It’s okay. We have to get out of the building and this is the only way. Trust me.”
“What about your condition?”
“It’s cloudy, so I’ll be fine.” She tugged on my hand until I followed her down the steps. It was hot and I started choking. She pulled my shirt up to cover my mouth and nose. “We need to hurry.”
A hand landed heavily on my shoulder. Astrid’s face became deathly pale with fear.
Suddenly, Astrid and I were sitting outside in the grass next to each other. Rain poured heavily, but not so hard that I couldn’t tell where we were. “What happened?” I asked. “How did we get out of the building and across town?”
Astrid wrapped her arms around me and put her head on my shoulder. “I don’t know.”
Her hands were covered in blood.
* * *
I woke, already knowing it was a memory and not a dream I was waking from. Astrid was pressed against me. I pulled her closer.
“The day schedule sucks,” she murmured, pressing her lips against my collarbone.
“Where were you yesterday?”
“Working.”
“Where were you on Monday night?”
She groaned, still half asleep. “Working. I was looking for someone who might have been hiding a phone that was stolen. I found one that made several international calls, which aligned with my timeframe. I found it in a vampire’s room, but he has an alibi and said another vampire might have left it in there. Apparently, both of his roommates are sluts who like vampires.”
“Three of the four people you talked to are sick and the fourth one is missing.”
She leaned away and opened her eyes. “How sick?”
“Dying sick. Do you mind if I look around in your memories to see your conversations? Maybe one of them said something about where they were, what they did, or who they were with.”
She nodded and pressed her face against my chest. “Stay out of my childhood. Neither of us wants to see what I went through.”
I opened the ever-present connection between us and thought of Astrid by the indoor pool. Instantly, the memories came up. She chose these four people because she had asked the vampires she knew were faithful who might have a phone. At first, she had gotten no response at all, but then she mentioned that she could get real blood in with a single phone call to Stephen and she ended up with four names. She spent less than a minute with Kristen, who she found out had a phone, but Kristen had it on her. Conner also had one, but it was dead because there were no outlets and he didn’t bring a battery pack like Kristen. Mack had a phone that was confiscated by a professor. Len brought his phone in case his mother needed him, though the signal was horrible at best. He was also smart enough to bring battery packs. However, he was very secretive about it, which was why Astrid had to leave the party with him to get him to tell her anything. This was also a dead end, because he accidentally fried it. She found this out right before he tried to kiss her and she knocked his lights out.
I was both relieved that Astrid had nothing to do with the case and disappointed I had no more leads. I closed the mental connection between us and absentmindedly kissed her forehead.
“I had a weird dream,” she said, right as I started to fall back to sleep.
My eyes popped open. “When we were kids? That day at the science museum?”
She sat up quickly. “How did you know?”
“Because I had the same dream. Do you remember how we got out of the building?” I asked. She shook her head. “I might know who does.” I started to get up, but Astrid put her hand on my arm to stop me.
“Where are you going? It’s three in the morning; everyone but the vampires and their professors are asleep.”
“You’re right.” I couldn’t be sure where his room was since the building was different.
“Who here would know how we got out of the building when we were kids?”
“My teacher trapped me in that room, but a man came out of the dark. I forgot the entire field trip. I didn’t even recognize him. Professor Langril was there.”
Chapter 6
My Monday classes crept along, as they normally did when I had to be somewhere as soon as possible. By the time I finally got out of Defense Against Elemental Attacks, which ran fifteen minutes over, Professor Langril wasn’t in his classroom. I let my instincts guide me and wasn’t surprised to find myself on the top floor of the dorms. I knocked on the door in front of me and heard a familiar answer.
Professor Langril was sitting at his desk when I entered. He leaned back in his seat, tossed his red ball in the air, and caught it. “I was wondering when you would come to me,” he said without looking.
I shut the door. “I know about your conne
ction to the school. Your Englishman name.”
He turned in his wheelie-chair and smirked. “I know you know. Between you, who can never let anything go, Darwin, who can never forget any little detail, and Henry, who can never relent for even a minute, I knew it would only be a matter of time. Make a deal with Heather and you’ll learn everything you need to know.”
“What kind of deal?”
“What kind of covenant would you normally make?” he asked, his easy smirk changing into an almost malevolent grin.
“Why can’t you answer a simple question?”
“Because if you ask a simple question, you get a simple answer, and there is no such answer to this question. You want to know about the tower, your uncle, the shadow walkers, the keys… yet you ask me a question you already know the answer to. You know who I am, but you haven’t asked what.”
I was not a religious man, but my mind wasn’t closed to it. I knew about the paranormal world, yet I convinced myself I was normal. It was a lie. Thus, I was agnostic rather than atheistic. If I had plausible evidence, I would accept it. There was nothing plausible about Professor Langril. “Are you a demon?”
“What an inappropriate choice of words, not to mention rude.” He didn’t sound offended in the least. “You could call me a demon, but I could also call you one.” He tossed the ball in the air again. “Heather is in danger and you can get her out of it. She can help you just as much.”
“Heather is dead.”
“Yes, that is true.” He sighed. “The world must be so black and white to you.”
“I thought you said I wasn’t ready and had to refuse if she offered a contract.”
“I still think you aren’t ready, but these are desperate times.”
“I had a memory of you when I was a child. You came to see me at a science museum.”
He pursed his lips in concentration. “That sounds very boring. I tend to forget uneventful things, don’t you?”