Fluidus Rising: A YA Paranormal Novel: (The Ardere Series Book1)

by Margo Ryerkerk

  With Jillian, he rushed outside, thankful he had parked his car at Veneficia earlier.

  Halfway to the Dunlawton University, Jillian let out a screech.

  “What is it? Did you have another premonition?” Gavin hit the brakes.

  Jillian gasped for air. “Yes. Park at the Science building. Gavin, this is bad, real bad.”

  A few minutes later, he parked and followed Jillian. Her steps quickened, and then she broke out into a run, past the white antebellum buildings toward the park. At a cluster of tall oak trees, she came to a halt and shrieked. She clamped her mouth shut and stepped aside. Leaning on all four, she gagged. Gavin couldn’t blame her. The sight even made him queasy. Like the previous victim, this one was female and human. Whereas the other one only had a few scratches around her mouth and nose, this one had deep gashes across her face. Bits of skin hung underneath her nails. The girl had maimed herself, and then she had been strangled, as the tinged blue skin around her neck and protruding tongue indicated.

  Jillian produced a tissue and swiped at her mouth. When she was done, Gavin helped her up.

  “Joanna’s son. He’s even sicker than we thought. He…he made this poor girl scratch her face off. Who misuses mind control against humans like that?” Sobs racked through Jillian.

  Gavin kept a steel grip on Jillian in case her legs gave out. “This will be his last victim. We found his mother. All we need is the killer’s name and a photo,” he promised. “Why don’t you sit down?”

  Jillian shook her head. “This is my job.” With plastic gloves, she combed the victim, unearthing an ID in her jeans pocket. “Kirsten Davenport. Twenty-year-old computer science student. She was so young.”

  Gavin took the driver’s license from Jillian and extracted a cell phone out of Kirsten’s bag that lay discarded next to her body. He went through her text messages.

  “Looks like Kirsten’s mom was divorced and wanted to introduce her daughter to the new boyfriend.”

  “And?”

  “It didn’t go too well. Here.” Gavin showed her the text.

  Kirsten: You should’ve stayed with Daddy. But no, you had to hook up with this young mongrel. The whole town is talking about you behind your back.

  Becky: They’re just jealous because of our love.

  “Mongrel?” Jillian scrunched up her forehead. She opened a few apps until she found the Facebook page of Becky Davenport. It showed an older white woman with a man, who seemed to be mixed race, judging from his facial features and skin color.

  With gloved hands, Gavin extricated the phone and the license from Jillian and placed them back into the victim’s jeans pockets. “We’ve got everything we need. I’ll drive to your place.” Hopefully, news from Ohio would arrive later that day and they could solve the case. At the very least, he wanted to ensure Jillian was safe.

  Two hours later, they still had no information. Despite Jillian’s refusal to shower or eat anything, she seemed calmer and clearheaded. Her hands were no longer quivering, and her eyes were free of tears.

  “I keep trying to figure out the killer’s behavior. He stabbed Finn. If Whitney hadn’t gotten away, she would’ve been strangled like the second victim. The killer compelled the latest victim to torture herself before he killed her. What is his game?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I’m not a forensic psychologist. I don’t know. But the second victim, she had scratches too.”

  “You think that was mind manipulation too?” Jillian hugged her knees to her chest. “Why use mind manipulation on a human before killing them? Why? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  No, it didn’t. At least not to Gavin. “We’re dealing with a madman.”

  Jillian scrunched her forehead up. “Joanna was a Charmer; her son might be one too. What if this is practice? What if he’s too weak to mind manipulate other supernaturals and thinks he can practice on humans? Humans that he believes deserve it since they’re ungrateful children.” Just then Jillian’s phone beeped. She clutched it tightly and clicked on the e-mail. “Zac. Finally. He questioned Joanna’s Ohio neighbors. He says he couldn’t find any photos, but he has a name for us. Peter Kovac. And if that doesn’t work, he also found the father’s name—Andreas Rotterdam.”

  Jillian opened her laptop and began typing Peter Kovac and subsequently Peter Rotterdam into every database. With each failed try, Gavin’s hope to finally solve the case diminished. “Nothing.” Jillian put her head in her hands. “I don’t understand this. How is this possible? Everything is a death end.”

  Gavin took Jillian’s phone to reread the e-mail. “Zac says the last time anyone saw or heard from Peter was four months ago.”

  “Are you suggesting he’s missing too?”

  “No. I think he’s changed his name. Isn’t there a branch that tracks this?”

  Jillian nodded. “Yes. I know an Ardere who works in Washington DC. He would be able to check for any name changes. Give me forty-eight hours.”

  “We don’t have that much time.” Gavin paced the room. They were close, so close to solving this, but he had the ominous feeling that Peter was closer to claiming another innocent life. The last murder had been more vicious and complex, as if Peter was honing his methods.

  “We’re missing something.” Jillian chewed the inside of her cheek. “We need to return to the beginning.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If this Peter is really so weak that he has to practice on humans, how could he kill Finn? And why? Finn doesn’t fit the pattern of an ungrateful child.”

  “Tell me your theory.” Gavin could almost see the wheels in Jillian’s mind churning, the dots connecting.

  “Finn was the only one stabbed. I think Peter killed the humans, but Joanna killed Finn. He must’ve fought back and somehow injured her, maybe enough to kill her. We know she was a single mother, and Peter grew up with her, idolizing her. After her death, he became obsessed with exterminating ungrateful children, due to the injustice he felt life had dealt him.”

  “Why would Joanna kill Finn? Her records show she served her prison sentence willingly and didn’t commit any further crimes after turning Umbra.”

  “The blood. Some of Finn’s blood was missing. It was taken. I don’t think it was taken by mistake. We need to figure out why Joanna wanted Finn’s blood, and then the rest will fall into place.”

  Gavin shook his head. Harnessing an Ardere’s power through the Phoenix sacrifice to become stronger was common among Umbra. Just taking blood wasn’t. It wouldn’t make the Umbra in question stronger. “Finn’s body disintegrated after his death, meaning his blood did too. Whatever Joanna or Peter collected would be gone by now.”

  Jillian propped her elbows on her knees. “You’re right. I’m being ridiculous. It’s just that I can’t take this any longer. How many more have to die before we catch Peter?”

  Gavin wished he could promise her that Kirsten’s death was the final one. He couldn’t. The Ardere database was scrubbed clean of Andreas and Peter Rotterdam. Someone had gone to great lengths to wipe out both men’s existences.

  Chapter 30

  Sierra took drink orders and made occasional “mm-hmm” noises at Whitney, who babbled about her weekend plans with Gio. Even though Sierra’s body was at Veneficia, her mind was far away, replaying her kiss with Gavin. She brushed her lips absentmindedly and immediately wanted to curse herself. What was wrong with her? Had she no self-respect? Gavin had apologized, apologized for kissing her. Clearly, he saw it as a mistake. The best thing for her was to forget about it and pretend like it had never happened.

  She put her elbows on the bar counter and placed her hot forehead against her cold hands. No matter how mad she was at Gavin for his idiotic behavior, she was still worried for him. Jillian and he had stormed off hours ago to catch the killer. Neither of them returned or called since then.

  Not that Sierra expected a call or text from Gavin. Even without their fallout, the chance of him doing so were slim. After all, he was the pro
. He was the only one allowed to worry, especially about her—incompetent, inexperienced Sierra.

  She touched her lips again, they felt different—fuller, softer. The sensation of his mouth was imprinted upon them. Gavin might forget the kiss, but she couldn’t. It had meant something to her. He had taken her breath away, made everything else seem unimportant, as if the only thing that mattered was being close to him. She shook her head at her foolish thoughts. It had been one kiss, and it would never happen again. Gavin would make sure of that. Whatever emotion or impulse had led to it, he would lock it away behind the thick walls he had built around himself.

  She sighed and walked to the booths, collecting empty glasses. Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed her butt, and she almost dropped her tray. She turned around, her pulse accelerating from fury. The middle-aged drunk was back, this time without his lady friend.

  He grinned lecherously at Sierra. “Not much you can do, now that your tough boyfriend isn’t here, huh?”

  The words were bad enough. Yet it was the smug expression on his face that ruptured her self-control. Her eyes zoomed in on the half-empty beer bottle on the table behind him. Without a trace of regret, she visualized it smacking him in the groin.

  “Argh!” The beer streamed down his jeans as he crumpled over in pain, his hands flying to the now tender area between his legs. Smiling, Sierra spun around and walked back to the bar. Finally, her training was paying off; she was getting faster and more precise at telekinesis. The bastard headed for the door, and she felt like high-fiving herself. He wouldn’t dare to return to Veneficia any time soon.

  “I ran into Maxim at campus today.” Whitney’s words put an end to Sierra’s jaunty mood. She felt her face heat at the mere idea of Maxim relaying her hysterical behavior to Whitney. The only consolation was that Whitney must’ve run into him before he witnessed Sierra kissing Gavin. “He seemed really distressed. Rushed past me, didn’t even say hi. It’s not like him at all. Normally he’s so polite. What happened between you two?”

  Sierra tugged on her hair strand, stalling. In the end, she decided that no matter how humiliating, she preferred Whitney to find out from her, not Maxim. “I went to his place after the roaring twenties party and it didn’t end well…It’s over. I messed up real bad. I freaked out after I was half undressed.” She couldn’t bring herself to mention the kiss with Gavin.

  Whitney drew Sierra into a much-needed hug. “It’s okay, hon. We all make mistakes. I’m sure you can patch things up.”

  Sierra doubted that, and she didn’t want to anyway, not after the way she had acted and was unable to explain what was going on. Right now, she couldn’t be with someone like Maxim, with a human. Her whole life had been filled with lies and secrets. She couldn’t build a relationship on lies and secrets. Whoever was by her side deserved to know she was a Fluidus, what it meant, and the dangers it posed. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise, neither to her nor the other person.

  It was easy to conclude this. The hard part was convincing her heart that Gavin was wrong for her. He knew her, knew everything that mattered, and had witnessed some of the scariest moments of her life.

  And Sierra was really attracted to him. The attraction drove her crazy. The kiss they’d shared was nothing like she had experienced before. No other kiss came even close to it. If only Gavin could let his walls down long enough to give them a chance.

  “Hey, can you grab the inventory book? We need to update it.” Whitney heaved the full trash over her shoulder.

  “Sure. Where is it?”

  “Gavin’s office.”

  Just her luck. Sierra moved slowly toward the door and paused in front of it. Even though she knew Gavin wasn’t in, she still didn’t want to enter. Her palm was slick on the door handle. She took a deep breath and pushed it down. The quicker she found the inventory book, the quicker she could leave. She guessed it to be in the desk and reached for the first drawer. A miserable thought rushed through her head. What if Gavin’s kiss had been strategic to make her go to London? Is that why he had apologized? After all, he had accused her of wanting to stay in Savannah because of Maxim. Perhaps he thought she would do everything for a guy. She shook her head. No, Gavin wasn’t manipulative and scheming. He might’ve made decisions without her, but he had never tricked her.

  The first drawer only held a few pens and papers. The second one housed a calculator and more papers. In the third one, she discovered a black book. Sierra pulled it out. Belatedly, she realized it was an album not the inventory. Curiosity took the best of her, and she flicked it open.

  Her breath caught. The sandy hair, the turquoise eyes, the sharp cheekbones, it was Gavin staring at her. However, this Gavin smiled and looked carefree. From his appearance, she guessed the photo had been taken a few years prior, and yet in the image, he appeared to be a completely different person.

  Even more shocking was seeing him with his arm draped around a gorgeous redhead. Sierra’s throat constricted. With quivering fingers, she turned the page to find a candid of the redhead sticking out her tongue. The silly pose did nothing to detract from her beauty. Her body was hourglass shaped; her hair a waist-long mane of auburn, and her blue eyes glimmered like sapphires. The aura around her was a stunning orchid purple.

  Sierra couldn’t stop. She went through the whole album. The redhead in a bikini frolicking in the sun, riding a horse in jeans shorts, lying in a bed. The blade in Sierra’s heart twisted as she realized the bed was in a guy’s room, presumably Gavin’s. However, it was the final image that undid her. Gavin and the redhead locking lips, one hand snaked around her waist, his other fisted in her hair. They looked like they were made for each other.

  Sierra closed the album and slumped back in the chair. A croaky laugh escaped her throat. She had convinced herself that Gavin’s standoffishness resulted from losing both of his parents as a teenager. How foolish of her. Gavin had no problem being in a relationship. It was her he didn’t want. She bet he had never apologized for kissing the redhead.

  And why would he? Sierra had never seen a woman like the redhead, an embodiment of a femme fatale. Out of spite, Sierra could try and dismiss the girl as a pretty face, but deep inside, she suspected the redhead to be smart, cultured, and a proper supernatural. The Charmer siren probably excelled in her powers. This girl looked strong and self-sufficient. She didn’t need rescuing, wasn’t a victim.

  Was Gavin in a long-distance relationship with the redhead? It certainly would explain his frequent absences that spanned for days. Or were they on a break, waiting for the right time to rekindle their romance? Perhaps she was the reason he was going to London.

  Even if the siren was in Gavin’s past, Sierra knew she would never live up to the standards the girl had set. Next to her, Sierra could only be described as plain and common.

  Precipitously, she put the album back and shut the drawer. Her insides screamed at her to leave. She promised she would after she found what she had come for in the first place. Her eyes darted around the room and paused at a single shelf. Sure enough, the inventory stood there. She barked out a laugh. If she had looked around the room first, instead of assuming the inventory was in the desk, she would’ve never found the album. Would that have been better or worse? She didn’t know.

  The door fell shut with a dull thud behind her. She took a few seconds to compose herself, wiping her clammy palms on her jeans and trying to release the knot in her gut. Then she returned to the counter and handed Whitney the inventory.

  “You look tired. Why don’t you go ahead, and I’ll close up? I’m waiting for Gio to pick me up anyway,” Whitney said.

  Grateful for the kindness, Sierra nodded. She wanted, no needed, to leave. Hot humiliation and disappointment ran through her. Somehow, she managed to keep the tears at bay until she was in her Chevy, driving around aimlessly.

  Her life was a mess. Savannah was supposed to become her safe haven. Her sanctuary. Instead, the city had brought her more heartbreak and humiliation.

 
; She unclasped the lapis pendant from her neck and stuffed it into her jeans pocket, unable to bear any reminders of Gavin. Why did Gran think it was a good idea to give him the second part of the lapis pendant? Why had she condemned Sierra to sharing a bond with a man she was interested in, who didn’t reciprocate her feelings? Gran hadn’t known. Couldn’t have known. Perhaps she had thought Sierra smarter. Obviously, she wasn’t smarter. She needed to learn how to guard her heart, and fast, before she arrived in London and was forced to watch Gavin frolic with the redhead or someone else.

  To drown out her thoughts, Sierra turned up the radio. A melancholic ballade filled the car while heavy raindrops poured down the windshield. Her thoughts continued to circle around Gavin. How would she manage to turn off her longing for him?

  She parked the car and entered the quiet Victorian house, grateful for Whitney spending the night at Gio’s place. Sierra grabbed an ice cream tub from the freezer, plopped down on the living room couch, and turned on the TV. The talk show host droned on about how to solve relationship problems. Sierra didn’t listen. Condensation ran down from the untouched ice cream tub onto the glass coffee table. Sierra didn’t care. She felt emotionally drained. Maybe she should just go upstairs and sleep it off. And then what? This wasn’t a cold. The feeling of misery would still be there the next day and the day after that.

  Her phone vibrated in her purse. She pulled it out and noticed two missed calls and one voice mail, all from Maxim. For several minutes, she just stared at the screen, unsure whether she should simply delete it or listen to the message. In the end, the desire to know outweighed her fear of a tirade. She muted the TV and played the voice mail.

  “Sierra.” Maxim’s voice sounded raspy. “I’m sorry to bother you. I don’t know who else to call, something is wrong. Very wrong.” An odd noise came from the background. Maxim continued in a hushed whisper. “I need your help…please come to my house. Hurry.”