"That's why I haven't really moved much," Max said as he offered Crwys his hand to guide him in.
"Yeah…that also explains why you locked the doors. That shit's like walking on ice."
"It's like silt, and on these well-polished tiles…" Max shook his head. "Yeah. Ice." He brushed at his hair and the stuff floated in the air.
"Tell me exactly what happened."
"Well—" Max gestured to the room. "I was over there by those pieces I'd shown you earlier. They brought in a few more of the parts they chiseled off the piece at the park and set it on a gurney over…" He looked. "There…I think. I was working on gathering a sample of what was left of the organic material when suddenly…it started spreading. The way I showed you. The stone process accelerated abruptly, and once it reached the end of it…everything exploded. Simultaneously."
This really didn't make sense. It wasn't as if the end process caused that kind of reaction. He'd seen body parts fully turned and the process slowed. Nothing explosive. Usually, when things ignited at once there was a logical explanation…but that was mostly true for things that didn't deal in magic. "Max…" He looked around. "What about the rest of your research? Is it intact?"
"Your brain just went where mine did. Yeah, I went and checked everything and made backups. Oh, but this is interesting—" Max carefully walked into one of the smaller labs where the silt didn't reach. Though, there were signs Max had been in and out of the room, depositing the stuff everywhere. He sat at the computer and typed a bit before a graph showed up. He turned and looked up at Crwys.
"I don't speak graph, Max."
"That anomaly? I was able to analyze it. Take it down to its smallest molecular parts."
"And?"
"It's bark."
"Like a tree?"
"Exactly like a tree. An Ash tree, to be exact."
"Ash?" Crwys was aware of certain trees possessing Magical Gifts, especially for the work of witchcraft as well as Faeriecraft. The Oak and the Ash were prevalent in the lore, but…he'd never heard of it being in blood. "So…how did tree parts get into blood?"
"I’m assuming it’s all part of whatever was injected into them." He sighed. "But now that I've shown you, I need to call this in. There's no way I can clean all this up without help."
An awful thought came to Crwys. "Have you heard anything about the larger formation? In the park? Did it explode too?"
Max's eyes widened. "I don't know. No one's phoned anything in."
Crwys carefully made his way back over the path he'd cleared previously until he got to Levi. "Call Prescott and see if anyone's checked in from the site in the park."
Levi had his phone out before he followed behind Crwys. "Where are we going?"
"To the park."
***
I HAD her in my sites. "Lethe."
"Samantha Hawthorne…Witch and daughter of Elizabeth Hawthorne." Lethe slowly, and a bit haltingly, moved inside the tent and began an odd limp-walk around the perimeter. I kept my guns trained on her as my Elementals appeared. They surrounded her as she stumbled, but they didn't attack, and wouldn't until I gave them the okay.
"Lethe, Dream Dragon and the murderer of my mother."
"Now, now, Sammy…" she said mockingly, knowing my mother used to call me that. "You and I both know if your mother had stayed out of my way, that wouldn't have happened. But instead, she decided to shift into a damn harpy and shoot me with a cursed arrow." Lethe kept her arms folded in front of her. From what I could see, it looked as if she was wearing an oversized sweater, large sweats, and boots. She wasn't anything of her former self. No ethereal beauty, no haughty looks or evidence of power. From the way she favored her left side, I knew that's where the arrow struck her. I just regretted that it didn't go in far enough or stay connected to her long enough to finish her off.
"My mother was saving me."
"Yes. Mothers do that, don't they?" She laughed, and then coughed. "My mother didn't. My mother sold me to a temple when I was five. I served the Goddess, Sammy. And I serve her today."
"I seriously doubt that. You've abused your power." I had to figure out why she was here. Knowing she was definitely to blame for this monstrosity was only the beginning. "Why are you here, Lethe? Why do this to innocent people?"
"Why not?"
Well, it was obvious to me that I wasn't going to get any straight answers from her like this. "Then answer me why you're here."
"Isn't that obvious? I assumed you were smart enough to figure that out by now. You did figure out the Quest, didn't you?"
I synced my movement opposite of hers, keeping her where I could see her as she moved behind the statue and I moved with her, never wavering the distance, as my Elementals took up the opposite side. "The Quest is a false Quest. The King isn't dead."
"No, he's not. And we know this now, thanks to you. And we know where he is, where he's hiding."
"We?"
"The Risi and I, of course."
"And Wolves. You have a pack working with you."
"I do. It didn't take much persuading to get them to help, especially when I promised them the Aces' land. Such prime property. Plenty of game to hunt free and clear with no intervention."
"Arden would never allow you take—" I continued walking. "You told them to attack Arden."
"No. The Wolves and Risi needed information about your basement." Lethe smiled as her knotted hair fell in her face. "So they tried to extract it from her…that is…before her Wolves showed up." She sneered.
"Arden is safe now."
"Arden Vervain doesn't matter anymore." Lethe's tone rose as she passed the entrance again and continued moving. "We have everything we need."
"You have nothing."
"I have the name of the one who gave Artemis the blood needed to curse the arrow that did this." Just past the door, she stopped and faced me before she pulled her sweater away.
She was nude beneath the clothing. I might have said she flashed me, but I'd never seen a living statue flash anyone, and they were usually nude. Her skin was like a statue’s, a mottled stone from her neck to her waist. I could see the wound beside her left breast, where the arrow struck. A dark, deep hole, the stone cracking around it. "Artemis thought she could undo me. Me! I evaded your simple Tracking as I searched this land to find the antidote I need to reverse the curse. The blood of the Risi who gave it to her."
Now it made more sense. I glanced at the statue of half-stone kids and thought of the other victims and the Quest. I realigned my weapons and aimed at the hole. I was pretty sure if I could thread that hole in her chest she would break apart. And pieces of Lethe would be easier to destroy than the whole.
-Samantha!- Belenos's voice shattered my concentration as all of my Elementals vanished at once. The tent abruptly filled with an army of Risi, the same ones that attacked my shop. And Wolves…over two dozen of them, in human form and wolf form.
They surrounded me, all pointing their weapons at me. The arrows I didn't fear as much as the AK-47s the Wolves had.
"Take her." Lethe scowled.
There wasn't much of a choice. So I fired anyway—
The guns are spelled to never miss, their aim is true and their bite lethal. Unless they are stopped by something of a greater force. And in this case, it was Yolyn, who was apparently not dead, jumping in front of Lethe with unmatched speed. The bullets struck her armor and glanced off. I was out of bullets.
I had never been swarmed before. Never been tackled and manhandled the way I was at that moment. Hands grabbed at me, pushed me down, and someone shoved their foot into my back. My arms were wrenched behind my back and tied with something rough. I opened my mouth and it was quickly filled with a cloth, and another was wrapped around my lips to keep it in place. My ankles were bound as well. I was pulled up and onto my feet as the rough twine was wrapped around my arms, pinning them to my sides. By the time they were finished, I was gift wrapped and mute.
And freaking the hell out.
If there was any time I needed my Arcane, it was now! Hello! PLEASE!
They held me there, on my feet, with weapons still pressed against me as Lethe and Yolyn faced me. But it was Yolyn who spoke, "We know you no longer control the Arcane Power you once had. And without it, you're like every other sniveling Witch in this world. Easily overcome. As for your Elementals…they have deserted you."
She was right. I couldn't hear them or see them.
"Yolyn and I came to an agreement," Lethe said. "She intends to claim the throne, and I want the curse lifted. So we worked out a bargain. She would deliver me the Risi whose blood was used, and I would deliver her the heart of a Dragon."
Now I tried to yell at her and fight. But I was too tightly bound. The others laughed. But I couldn't let this happen. Lethe planned on giving them Crwys!
Lethe smiled and reached out with her cold, dead skin as she raked a long talon along my cheek over the gag. I made a noise and she pulled her finger back to reveal my blood on it. "So now we're going to retrieve the King and I will be healed. Yolyn's will rule…and everyone will be happy." She held her nail out to someone behind her, someone I couldn't see. "This is all he needs?"
Yolyn turned. "Yes." She reached out and grabbed at someone.
I didn't expect to see shirtless and bound young man—elf, Risi?—brought close to Lethe. His hair was white and disheveled and his face was mottled with bruises and cuts. I was pretty sure he was an attractive young man when cleaned up. His wrists were bound by yards of chain, as were his ankles. The links clinked when he moved. He looked like he was either drugged or beaten to semi-consciousness, or both. Who was this?
"Samantha, I'd like you to meet Riven, King Satar's true son and the fool who believed he could rescue his father by gating him out down a ley line path to a Cairn."
My eyes must have betrayed the revelation in my head. This was the King's son? The one who saved him from the attack? Then who was Brahms?
"I see you're asking yourself who Brahms is. He's Yolyn's son and her means to destroy the throne." Lethe turned to Riven and grabbed his jaw with her good hand. "Now, half-breed, you will do what I told you to do to spare your people’s lives." Yolyn smiled as she grabbed Riven by the back of the neck and shoved him toward me.
Half-breed?
But if Riven was the son of Yolyn and the King…
And then I noticed it. Riven had no horns, and no trace of ever having them. His pointed ears sliced through his hair and his eyes, bright green that shown through the fog of his pain, found mine. He wasn’t a full Risi. "I am…sorry," he said softly.
Was this…
Lady Darksome!
Riven had been the one to save King Satar, not Brahms. Yet Brahms had impersonated him while the King's son had been tortured and beaten. I was amazed at how deeply the others and I had been fooled.
Yolyn pulled Riven's head back as Lethe raked her bloodied nail across his lips. He bled as the cut formed, and it mingled with my blood. He licked his lips and his eyes rolled back in his head as he held out his arms as wide as the chains would allow. Most of the Wolves and Risi moved away and left him standing there in front of me. I screamed into the gag as I was held in place. He lowered his head, his eyes white as Lethe opened her mouth, exposing rows of long sharp teeth. She bit into his neck and drank before she pulled back. Riven was tossed aside to the ground and didn’t move. Lethe’s own eyes turned white as they rolled back in her head and she held out her good hand to me.
Something spun from her fingertips. Something dark, and eerie, and terrifying as it moved around me. I could look down to see it as it wound around until my feet and ankles vanished into what looked like the base and roots of a tree.
No! She was encasing me in a tree! Just as Dags had been encased when he was a child…the magic of a Faerie!
I struggled as they let go of me. But I couldn't move as the strands of darkness continued to weave themselves around my body. I was rooted in place, pinned, bound and silent as the world in front of me quickly disappeared. I screamed as the darkness finally pierced my flesh and I felt the tree roots join with my legs, my bone, and my muscle. The darkness became absolute as the wood moved through me, around me, and covered me. I could feel the branches reaching for the sky as the roots deepened into the earth.
I didn't know how long it took before I was completely encased in the tree. I couldn't even hear myself scream any longer. I couldn't move or see. And I couldn't speak. I was as deaf and dumb…as a tree.
Something touched my bark as I cried inside. "Be comforted, Samantha Hawthorne," said Lethe's muffled voice. "In a hundred years, you won't remember who, or what, you once were."
SEVENTEEN
"Is that smoke?" Levi said as Crwys pulled the Mustang into the golf course parking lot. He came to a screeching halt as he made the turn at a velocity a uniformed officer would have chased him down for. He'd seen the dark smoke as they neared the park in the lightening morning and felt his heart sink. After what they'd just seen at the morgue, he wasn't surprised.
Levi was out of the car first and turned with a frown. "Isn't that Sam's Jeep?"
Crwys turned to his left to see the familiar silver and blue Rubicon sitting a few spots away. The only other car in the lot, besides the NOPD black-and-whites. Where were the officers?
He ran to the Jeep and checked inside. She had the top off, but nothing looked amiss. His heart lurched when he saw Grey's big dog pillow still in the back. It caught even further when he looked back at the smoke billowing up in the general direction of where the pile of half-stone bodies was. "Where are the officers of those patrol cars?" He sprinted forward, followed by Levi. And why is Sam's Jeep here?
The closer he got to the location, the more his fears intensified. The tent and the small trailer the CDC had set up for testing were all gone. The only thing left, as he and Levi stopped yards from the smoldering, house-sized area of destruction, was a single tree.
"Did the stuff combust on its own?" Levi said as he put his hands on his hips.
"You believe that?" Crwys walked around him, finally hearing the wail of sirens in the distance. "If that were true, Max and the morgue would be a pile of ash now too. Someone set this fire. Deliberately."
Levi voiced his own question, "So where's Sam? I don't see her."
"I don't either." And he didn't exactly feel her either. He'd known the moment she'd returned to New Orleans, but now she felt far away. "Sam!" he called out, and Levi did the same as they circled the dying blaze, searching the area beyond. He sniffed the air. Something felt wrong. Yeah, the idea of a sculpture of half-stone, half-human bodies was beyond wrong and overwhelmed the weird-ass meter over the whole situation. What he was sensing was also…familiar.
A soft, whispered touch on his cheek startled him. He looked around to see what it was, but there was nothing there.
He and Levi met back near a scorched willow tree. Levi held out a hand. "Do you smell that?"
And then he realized what it was he smelled, the part that was familiar. "Brimstone." He looked at Levi. "A Dragon set this fire."
"Lethe?"
"I'm betting on it." He rubbed his chin with his hand and moved around the tree. It looked pretty bad, having been so close to the fire. He hoped it didn't have to be chopped down. "This is destruction of evidence."
"You think she made those bodies disintegrate at the morgue?"
"I don't know. “ He shook his head. He was still trying to locate Sam. With her Jeep in the parking lot, she should be here! "But that's exactly why I'm having so much trouble believing she's involved with them. She’s a Dragon so she would be a target. And given the damage that arrow did to her chest—" Crwys stopped. He knew it the moment he said it, felt the ring of truth to his words and his thoughts.
"You okay?"
"The arrow Elizabeth shot Lethe with was cursed, made and spelled specifically to do damage. Maybe even kill her. I saw what it did to her flesh. It turned it to stone. I wonder if she’s not
a target because the arrow damaged her heart? Maybe she’s no longer a candidate?"
Levi blinked. "Now you tell me this?"
"I didn't see it till now. I'd mentally put Lethe out of the city, off hiding from Sam. But Sam's back, and Lethe has to know she's no longer being pursued by a Tracker." He balled his hands into fists. "But where is Sam?"
"You don't think Lethe…"
Crwys whirled to face his partner and pointed at him. "Don't even think that."
"Then where is she?"
The fire engines and paramedics arrived then, swarming over the site. Crwys and Levi showed their badges and were asked to step back. Crwys remained close to the willow, unable to move too far away from it without feeling lost or lonely. It was a strange feeling…though familiar. It was the same sense of dread and loss he'd experienced when he'd been held by the Faerie as they slowly drained him of his blood. But why was he feeling it now? It was amplifying his feeling of dread.
"Detectives, we really need you to step back." A man suited up for fighting fires waved at them.
"I'm trying to find someone." Crwys pulled his phone out and pushed the button to dial Sam's phone.
He heard it ringing.
"Oh, damn," Levi said and took off toward the sound of the tone. He stopped next to the tree and looked down. "Crwys…"
Crwys was already beside his partner and on his knees as he looked down at Sam's ringing phone. Both men were speechless as Crwys reached for the phone, half buried in the soot and blackened grass.
"Wait." Levi retrieved a pair of gloves from his jacket and handed them to Crwys. "This could be a crime scene."
Crwys didn't say anything. He numbly took the gloves, but he didn't put them on. He used one of them to wrench Sam's phone from the ground and held it up to his face. Was it possible Sam was here…in that fire? Had she tracked Lethe down to this location? Had they fought?
He handed the phone to Levi and redialed on his own phone. It went straight to voicemail. "Please call me back. Artemis…I know it's you." And he disconnected.
eldritch files 07 - elemental blood Page 12