"But we can't promise that will happen for sure," Felix said, ruining the moment. I caught him glare at me for a brief second before returning a neutral look to the couple.
Colette sobbed harder and Jeremy didn’t look happy with Felix. "We understand how this might end but we need someone to at least try to save her. Are you sure you're willing to help us even though we can't pay very much?"
"Absolutely," I said, before Felix could say something rude. "Do we need any more information, Felix, or are we done here?"
He glared at me again, obviously not happy about interrupting his interrogation. "No. I think we have everything we need. If we could get you to write down the address to his house we'll start our search. We'll call you if we find anything."
Jeremy wrote down the address to Colin's house and said a grateful thank you to me and a not so grateful thank you to Felix. When we were back in the car I turned on Felix.
"What the hell was that? Why were you so rude to them? Their daughter was just kidnapped and you were acting like they just lost a pet rock." With how caring Felix had been towards me last night, I was shocked to see such an uncaring side to him. Maybe I didn’t know him as well as I hoped I did.
"That's just the way I work," he said as he turned on the car and we started driving. He refused to make any eye contact with me. "It's better to not get too emotionally attached to a situation like this in case the worst happens. I would rather try not to care about how nice this family is and how devastated the mother looked in case we have to bring them a lifeless body or no body at all."
"It doesn't hurt to try to be a little positive." I lost the harshness in my voice. Felix did care but he was protecting himself from the situation. I couldn’t be mad at him for that, even if I didn’t believe in it.
"Just trust me. After you go through enough jobs, you'll start to toughen up, too. You'll go crazy a lot quicker if you don't."
"Isn't there some middle ground? Can't you be detached from the situation but still be nice to the people you're working for?"
He shrugged. "I suppose some people can. Riley was a lot like you when she first started, too. She was always positive and always sympathetic to the people she worked for. She learned how to detach herself from the situation after her first few losses but was still able to be kind to people. I can't manage to find that balance. The minute I start to be kind I feel sympathy and then it all goes downhill from there."
"You must have a bad reputation for being rude then."
He laughed. "Not really. A lot of Lovac come off as rude when they take jobs. We're also very good at what we do so most people tend to look past our attitudes. Of course, people like Riley that can do their jobs well and keep a good attitude are in high demand. I bet that couple will give you an excellent review, whether we come back with their daughter or not."
"The people we work for can give us reviews? Like how people give reviews for a restaurant?" I shook my head, thinking that was completely ridiculous.
"Yes. It helps Nesmyr decide which Lovac they want to hire if they have more than one applying for the job. Some Lovac are more suited for certain jobs than others."
"We really are just like prized cattle, aren't we?"
Felix grimaced but didn’t disagree. "It could be a lot worse. The Nesmyr could keep us in cages, with collars to keep track of where we are at all times, like Zhulik do with some werewolves. At least we're able to come and go as we please and we're not even forced to fight or take jobs if we don't want to. I've known of a few Lovac who chose to leave the headquarters of their area and live as much of a human life as they could."
"Why don't more Lovac do that? It seems to me that trying to live a normal life would be a lot easier than this."
"We're raised to fight and protect Nesmyr. We don't know anything else and most of us actually enjoy the excitement. I feel like a human life would be too boring for me. I know you think yours was boring."
I shrugged. "It wasn’t completely boring with moving around all the time, but having no contact to the outside world was pretty awful. I feel a lot freer now and I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed beating you up."
He laughed and the mood lightened slightly. "Most Lovac enjoy the fight and thrill, too; at least the ones that don't abandon their duties. When they do that, they're practically shunned. It's not against the law to talk to them but most people prefer not to. Upper class Nesmyr refuse to acknowledge they ever even existed. They're just stuck up though and think all Lovac should be kissing their feet for allowing them to fight and earn their precious money."
"That's not fair. They shouldn't be banished for doing what they want to do."
"It happens all the time in other cultures. If a child doesn't want to carry on the family business they sometimes get shunned. If one person decides they don't want to follow the rules of a strict religion they sometimes get shunned. Like I said, not everyone shuns the Lovac that choose to do something else but it is highly frowned upon."
"Yeah but it still isn't fair." I wasn’t sure why I was arguing with Felix about Lovac I had never even met. My sympathy just got the best of me and I hoped those Lovac were living the life they weren’t allowed to have growing up.
"There is a lot of unfairness in this world." I was sure he meant the whole world in general but there was an edge to his voice that hinted towards the Lovac world specifically.
I had no response so I kept my mouth shut. I let Felix concentrate on driving and let my thoughts wander to the job ahead. I stared out the window and into the dense trees while I considered how we would find this Colin guy. I didn't think it was likely that we would just find him sitting in his house, waiting for someone to come after him and we didn’t have enough information to properly track him down. At least, that’s what I thought.
Chapter 20
When we pulled into the driveway of Colin's house a short while later, I felt my stomach knot. I worried that I was sensing something but there was no accompanying tingling sensation. I glanced at Felix and saw how calm he looked.
"Does the nervousness eventually go away?" I asked him.
"No. It just gets easier to hide."
We stepped into the darkness and headed towards the dark house. The only light was coming from the headlights of the car, which illuminated only the front of the house. I stood close to Felix, fear creeping over me and I reached down to double check my stake was still in its holster.
Felix could sense my nerves and he gave me a gentle smile and squeezed my hand. As soon as he let go he went right back into business mode and disappointment lingered in my heart. I wanted him to hold my hand the whole way but I had to be brave. I had to rely on my power to keep me safe.
"Stay close to me. Concentrate on your power and if you sense anything let me know immediately. We can't afford to be off our guard out here, especially at night. We'll walk around the house to make sure no one is outside and then we'll slowly make our way inside. Are you prepared to kill a Zhulik if we come across one?"
"Y-yes," I stuttered. Felix caught my slight hesitation and he gave me a tight smile.
"If we are attacked by one, do not hesitate. Hesitation will be the death of you. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Let's go. Try to be quiet while walking."
I stayed as close to Felix as I could without bumping into him and I concentrated on my power. I expanded my mind and waited to feel even the tiniest of tingles to alert me. As we walked around the house I didn't sense anything.
Once Felix was satisfied that there weren't any Zhulik waiting to attack us outside of the house, he motioned for us to go inside. All of the doors were locked but Felix apparently knew how to pick them to open them up. I made a mental note to ask him to teach me how to do that later.
There were no lights on in the main level but that didn't mean the house was empty. The yard had been well kept so the state of the inside shocked me. If the structure of the house wasn't still intact, I would have been positive a
tornado had blown through here.
All of the cabinets were open and there were dishes thrown everywhere. The furniture cushions in the living room were shredded and the stuffing littered the floor. Either Colin was a very messy person or he was a very angry person. I had a feeling it wasn't the first option and that all of this had happened within the past couple of days after he was turned.
We scouted out the main level and didn't run in to anyone or anything. I still didn't sense anything with my power as we moved down to the basement and I didn’t once get a headache to indicate a Zhulik was near. My nerves were running on high but the more of the house we explored, the calmer they became.
The basement was unfinished and full of boxes upon boxes. The smell in the basement was also so putrid I had to pull my shirt over my nose to block it out. Felix and I wandered around the basement, making sure we stayed in eye contact with each other. I screamed when I found what was causing the rancid smell.
Felix jumped over some boxes to put his hand over my mouth to quiet my scream. We weren’t sure there wasn't anyone in or near the house but he wasn't going to take any chances. Once he was sure I wouldn't scream again, he dropped his hand and we both turned to look at the decaying body that was hiding under the stairs.
"Is it her?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"No," he said, leaning down to get a closer look. I took a step back, not wanting to be anywhere near it. "This is a male and it looks like he's been dead for a few days. He was also a human. My guess is that this was the person Colin killed that caused him to become a Zhulik."
"Why would he do it?" I asked.
"I don't know, but it looks like he left us a note." He pulled a tiny slip of paper out of the hands of the dead man and unfolded it for us to read. I looked over Felix's shoulder, still trying to keep my distance from the body.
Scribbled on the piece of paper were two sentences:
I'm sick of being weak and stepped on. I want the power, all of it.
Felix folded it back up and stuck it in his pocket. He would give it to Colette and her husband when we reported back to them.
"Well, what do we do now?" I asked, visibly shaking from the shock of the body.
Felix pulled me to him and spoke into my hair. "We continue to search the house for any sign of the girl. I know he's been here recently, so where ever he is living now can't be too far away. If we don't find anything inside of the house we'll search outside. There might be a sign of a trail that leads to where they might be."
"Well let's get started then. We don't have time to waste." I reluctantly pulled away from Felix. I wanted to be wrapped up in his arms throughout this entire horrible process but I didn’t think we would get much done if that happened.
We searched the basement first, weaving in and out of the rows of boxes and trying to avoid getting too close to the body. He told me to keep an eye out for any small items that might have fallen on the ground belonging to Ellie, like hair for instance.
After a thorough sweep of the basement we found nothing, so we headed upstairs. Aside from the living room and kitchen, there were two small bedrooms on the main level. Both of them were just as messy as the rest of the floor. We decided to start in the back rooms and work our way out.
Digging through mountains of debris and making sure not to miss something as small as a hair was a real challenge. Felix told me to take my time while going through the trash piled on the floor and run my hands through any fabric or carpeting to feel for hairs.
The detective feeling came back to me, only this time I wished I had a magnifying glass. It was a lot harder than the TV shows made it looked, too. We searched for hours and didn't find a single thing until we reached the living room. One long golden blonde hair was all we found near a stack of DVDs.
"Do you think it's hers?" I asked, recalling the picture from the Nesmyr family’s living room. The young girl had had the same golden blonde hair and the length was right.
"Unless he's kidnapped more than one person since he's turned, I would say that's a very good chance."
"So he's been here with her then?"
"I don't think so." He shook his head, irritation distorting his handsome face. "I think we would have found more hair by now if she had actually been here. I think it's more likely that he came here just after being with her. That means he either has a very secure place to keep her or--" he stopped suddenly, not wanting to continue his sentence.
"Or he killed her already," I finished for him. My shoulders slumped and I prayed she was still alive somewhere. "Where would he have taken her?"
"I don't know," he sighed. "Let's go look outside around the house. Let's hope they left some clues out there."
Felix grabbed some flashlights from his car and we inspected around the house. The house was surrounded by woods, like most Nesmyr houses around here and they could have gone in any direction. I prepared myself for a long night of searching and the small possibility of actually finding something. I was starting to regret wanting to take this job until something silver glimmered in the light of my flashlight just inside the start of the trees to the right of the house.
Felix was searching near me but not in the same area and he hadn't noticed the object. I walked towards it and found it was a small silver bracelet. I had no way of knowing for sure if it was Ellie's but my gut was telling me it was.
"Felix," I whispered. I couldn't sense any danger nearby but I didn't want to raise my voice too loud in case I provoked something.
I couldn't look away from the bracelet so I had no idea if Felix had actually heard me. I took a breath to whisper his name again when he was suddenly kneeling on the ground next to me. I jumped slightly but tried to pretend like he hadn't startled me. My power apparently could only sense threats and Felix wasn't a threat right now.
"It's hers," he said.
"You have that same gut feeling that I do about it, don't you?"
"Yes. This bracelet has been charmed specifically for the individual. A lot of Nesmyr have a piece of jewelry that is charmed to identify them in case something happens to them, since most Nesmyr turn to ash when they are killed. If you are thinking of the individual it belongs to it will give you a weird gut feeling. If you are thinking of someone that it doesn't belong to, you won't feel anything at all. Try to think about it belonging to someone else."
I gave it a try and thought about it belonging to Felix. That gut feeling immediately went away and brought a funny image to my mind of Felix wearing a bracelet like this.
"It worked," I said. "It definitely doesn't belong to you."
He gave a dry laugh. I knew he found it funny but this was no time to be making jokes. I went back to thinking about Ellie and the feeling came back.
"Can these charms lead someone to the person it belongs to?" I asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately, no. What it did lead us to, though, is a set of light foot prints in the dirt. Apparently Colin is still a pretty sloppy Zhulik. Those tend to be the easiest to track down."
I looked to where Felix's flashlight was pointing at the ground and sure enough there were some foot prints. The ground wasn't soft so the footprints weren't very deep but they were still noticeable.
We both stood up and started to follow the trail without another word. My senses were scanning the surrounding area but I didn't sense anything alarming for quite a while. It wasn't until we had been following the footprints for over twenty minutes that I started to feel something.
"I'm sensing something," I said, stopping Felix in his tracks.
"Where is it coming from?" he whispered.
I took a deep breath and focused entirely on the sensation in my head. It was faint but it was pulling in me in a direction slightly left of the path we were on. I pointed to Felix where I thought it was coming from.
"These footprints look like they curve to the left a little ways down. Should we keep following the footprints or do you think your power can lead us there?"
"I think I can
lead us. He might be expecting someone to follow his footprints if he realized he made them. There might be some kind of trap near them."
I had no idea if Zhulik actually made traps but I had a bad feeling about following the footprints and Felix didn't argue with me.
"Good idea," he said. "Lead the way."
With every step the tingling in my body got stronger and my heart rate increased. The adrenaline in my body was pumping full blast but I was also scared for my life. I was finally coming to the realization that I was going to come face to face with a Zhulik that I was going to have to fight and I was worried my power was going to give out on me.
We walked another ten minutes or so before I came to a halt in front of a large cave entrance. The tingling sensation in my body was so strong it almost painful. My head also hurt, indicating there was a Zhulik nearby but it felt different than the last time when I had first seen Lucas.
"Something's wrong," I told Felix.
"There is more than one Zhulik in that cave," Felix said, confirming my fears. The squint in his eyes told me his head was aching just as strong as mine. "I’ve never had such a strong headache."
"How many do you think there are?"
"I'm not sure. I've never felt this before. I've never been around more than three Zhulik together. They usually don't get along well enough to be in groups. Can you use your powers to sense how many are in there?"
I wasn't sure if I could but I concentrated my hardest and tried to follow my power into the caves. I couldn't get an exact count but I could definitely sense different areas where my power was sensing a threat. I found I could also sense areas where there was magic but no threats. I had a feeling I knew what those were.
"I can count at least seven areas where there is a threat. Some areas have a stronger threat emanating from them so I think there are more than one Zhulik in those areas. My guess is there are ten or fifteen Zhulik in that cave."
"Shit," Felix cursed. "I don't care how amazing your power is, there is no way we can handle that many Zhulik by ourselves."
Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) Page 13