I hid a grin as I approached. “Oh, Aunt Tessa! You poor thing!” I exclaimed, pulling her away from the other woman’s arm as I wrapped her in a dramatic hug of my own. “Such a terrible shock!”
“Don’t oversell it, sweetling,” she muttered, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
I gave the neighbor a smile full of false gratitude, then steered Tessa away and closer to the crime scene tape—out of earshot. “Tell me everything,” I demanded in a low voice.
“First, I must thank you for getting me away from that inane woman,” Tessa replied tartly. “What a dingbat! She kept wanting me to pray with her ‘for strength.’” She gave a slight shudder. “Anyway, I was in the front sitting room when I thought I felt a ping from the wards. I figured it was just a neighbor trying to drop by and visit, so I pretty much ignored it since the aversions would take care of that for me.”
I nodded impatiently and resisted the urge to tell her to get to what happened.
“But they pinged again, which meant that whoever was trying to approach the house had more will to get to the house than the aversion could overcome. I looked out the window and saw someone in the front yard, so I turned on the lights. I didn’t realize it was Thomas, otherwise I’d have called nine one one right then and told them to bring the K-9s and their Tasers.” Her lips pressed together in distaste. “He was moving forward but fighting every step of the way.” She shook her head, brow furrowed. “I figured the defensive wards would get the message across, but he didn’t make it that far. Instead…he—”
“Grabbed his head, screamed, then keeled over?” I finished for her, a sick sensation building in my stomach that had nothing to do with the cuff on my wrist. At least, I didn’t think so.
She gave a brisk nod, eyes on me. “The other two. They died the same way, I take it.”
“I wasn’t there when Barry Landrieu died, but Evelyn sure did. And she and Barry both had the same kind of strokes.” My gaze slid to the shielded body. I had no doubt Doc would find signs of stroke in him too.
“I pulled the aversions back so that your people could work,” she said, nose wrinkling in annoyance.
“I’m sure they appreciate it, even if they don’t realize it,” I said, frowning. Before I’d left the house I’d popped some painkillers that had successfully squashed my headache. I’d also taken a few minutes to pee on the pregnancy test stick—which had come up with a nice, lovely result of Not Preggers. Now, with less pain and stress, I could think again, and I didn’t like what I was coming up with. “I think there’s another connection between these three—not just the fact that I knew them all.”
“And could conceivably have motive to want them dead?” she added.
I grimaced, nodded. Trust Tessa to get right to the point. “Yes. But Thomas was trying to get into your house. You have a portal in there.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Awhile back I found an old and buried portal in the detective’s parking lot at the PD. There was a lightning strike, and it made a hole.…They covered it with asphalt so I didn’t think about it.”
Even in the dim light I could see that Tessa had gone pale. “And the first body?”
I hugged my coat closer around me, suddenly chilled. “I felt something off, but couldn’t pin it down. But I’d be willing to bet one of my measly paychecks that there’s a portal somewhere in that area as well.” I eyed her. “What are they for? I thought the one in your library was random, but it’s not, is it?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, which surprised me. I’d somehow assumed she knew exactly what it was for and why it was there. “I only know that protecting it has always been of paramount importance. I inherited the place from my Great Aunt Nikki, even though I’d never met the woman, and she had children of her own. But she’d clearly been an arcane practitioner as well, because with the house came the contents of the library, along with a completely vague and rambling letter that maundered on and on about how vital it was that the portal be guarded and the wards maintained.” Tessa gave a low snort. “She was ninety-eight when she died, and I think her mind had gone bye-bye several years before.”
“Or maybe she didn’t know why it needed to be protected either,” I pointed out.
Tessa gave a quick bark of laughter. “Now that’s a possibility as well! When I get the chance I’ll have to look and see how she came into possession of this place.” Squaring her shoulders, she said, “But for now I need you to stay here and make sure all this is taken care of.” Tessa waved her hand at the goings-on in her front yard. “And if I’m not back by the time they finish up, can you please reactivate the outer wards?”
“Sure thing. But where are you going to be?”
She gave me a hard smile. “I think that Carl and I are going to go on a nature walk.”
After Tessa left, I waited for Sarge to get a free minute to talk to me. Since I had a personal involvement, I didn’t want to go beyond the crime scene tape.
He came over to me as soon as the Coroner’s Office van pulled up. “You all right?”
I briefly considered acting like I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then I realized it would be pointless. The crap with Thomas had only been a couple of years ago and had been the talk of the department.
I gave him a nod. “You got a minute?”
“I got more than a minute if you need it,” he said, looking at me with concern.
I took a deep breath. “There’s a link between Thomas here, the death out at the Nature Center, and the lady who died after running into my car.”
“You?”
I nodded.
He lit a cigarette, and I shifted upwind of him. “I knew about Thomas, of course,” he said. “And Tracy Gordon told me about the Stark woman.” He blew out smoke and didn’t look at me. “What’s the deal with Landrieu?”
“Gave me heroin when I was fourteen,” I said, not looking at him either, but I could still see him twitch in surprise. “I overdosed. Nearly died.”
“Damn,” he muttered. He flicked ash onto the sidewalk. “Y’think someone’s trying to set you up?”
“That, or someone thinks they’re doing me a favor,” I replied.
He made a sour noise in the back of his throat. “Well, it obviously doesn’t look good that people you have plenty of reason to dislike are falling over dead. But I also don’t believe for a second that you’re doing it.”
I inclined my head. “I appreciate your faith in me.”
“Only because I know you’d find a way to hide the bodies.” He snorted, smiled. “Well, if someone’s trying to set you up, we need to beat whoever it is to the punch, and let the chief know what’s going on.”
A knot of tension in my chest began to unwind. “Yeah. Makes sense.”
“Now, let me ask you a question,” he said, peering at me.
I waited.
“These deaths. Are they part of all that magic woowoo crap you do?”
I bit back the urge to snicker at his reaction and kept my face sober. “Probably so,” I replied.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. He dropped the cigarette to the sidewalk and ground it out under his heel. “I’ll fill the chief in. I’ll also need to reassign the Landrieu case.”
“Understood.”
“You need anything else from me?”
I shook my head. “I’m good. Thanks, Sarge.”
“See you in the morning, then. Now get the fuck off my car.”
I gave him a mock salute and stepped back from his car. After he drove off I looked around to see if Jill was finished up. She was leaning against her van with her hands stuffed into her pockets, which led me to assume she was done and was waiting for me.
“You okay?” I asked her as I approached and got a good look at her. She definitely wasn’t her usual perky self.
She gave me a wan smile. “Stomach’s been acting up lately.”
“Ugh, I can sympathize.” I shook my wrist with the cuff on it. “Eilahn just gave me this thing—blocks t
he arcane and keeps me from being summoned—but it makes me feel queasy all the time.” Then I shot her a warning look. “But if you get me sick for real I’m going to be pissed.”
A flash of her usual humor lit her eyes. “And what would you do then? I can outrun you.”
“That’s what cars are for, bitch,” I retorted with a grin.
“So what’s the deal with you and your ex-boyfriends?” She eyed me, slight frown puckering her forehead. Her tone was joking, but I saw worry in her eyes.
I muttered a curse. “I think someone’s trying to set me up.” I quickly recapped everything I knew, including the graa attack and my suspicion that a summoner was behind it all.
“Maybe someone thinks they’re doing you a favor?” she suggested in an unconscious echo of my earlier remark, though it was clear that even she didn’t really believe it could be true.
“Yeah, well if they think that, I sure wish they’d come forward so that I could thank them with a really hard punch in the neck,” I said with a dark scowl.
Jill let out a peal of laughter. “Oh, good lord, you’ve been spending way too much time with that demon bodyguard of yours.”
I grinned. “Careful. I’m sure she’s around here somehow. She probably heard that.”
“How does this killer know that all these people fucked with your life?” she asked, sobering.
I rubbed my eyes. “Dunno. Damn near everyone knows about my history with Thomas, and I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to find out about my dad’s death. But Barry Landrieu? Only a few people know about that.”
Jill opened her mouth to speak then closed it as Pellini approached.
“Betcha it’s a drug overdose,” he said as he did his best to hoist his pants a little higher under his gut. “Fucking loser. What the fuck did you ever see in that dickhead, Gillian?”
Spreading my hands, I said, “Dude. I plead temporary insanity.” I knew the answer, though. I was lonely and desperate, and Thomas acted like he understood the lifestyle of a cop. After all, he’d been a fireman. Of course, later I found out that he’d been fired for a laundry list of infractions—everything from insubordination to violations of safety protocols that put his coworkers at risk.
Pellini huffed out a breath under his mustache. “He was a fucking whiny bitch, too. I was booking a prisoner into the jail same time he got brought in, and he was crying like a little kid who’d lost his puppy. What a dumbfuck.”
“You won’t get any argument from me,” I said.
He waddled off. Jill watched him go, then shot her attention back to me. “The jail,” she said. “These people all went through the jail here.”
I blinked. “That’s right.” I thought furiously for a moment. “And…my name would be in the records, in the victim impact statements.”
“Which means that whoever the summoner is, he or she has access to the arrest reports!”
“But it’s been long enough that those are public record now,” I pointed out, wincing. “That could be anybody.”
Jill frowned. “True. But what are the odds that whoever’s doing this saw you listed as a victim somewhere and then decided to see if there were any other instances? Isn’t it more likely that someone interested in finding people you didn’t care for would check to see if you’re listed as victim on any police reports?”
I considered her theory. It made sense. More sense than the theories I already had, which were nonexistent. “It’s possible,” I admitted, “but that’s still an insanely large pool. Not just law enforcement, but anyone who works in records, the DA’s office, the public defender’s office.…”
“Okay, okay!” She held her hands up in surrender. “But we can rule out David the barista, right?” she said with a laugh.
I tapped my chin. “Fine. We can eliminate David the barista as a suspect. For now! But if he turns out to be our summoner, then I’ll never let you live it down.”
“Deal!”
My phone buzzed with a text message from Tessa.
.…portal just below surface. Pls put wards back after they scrape turd off the lawn.
“Damn,” I muttered, stomach sinking. I glanced over at Jill. “Portal at the Nature Center. There goes my last hope that all of this was one big happy coincidence.”
She winced. “And still no clue what these portals are for?”
“Nothing solid.”
“So what now?”
“First, I’ll restore my aunt’s wards,” I said. “But after that…Well, three people are dead, I’m the most likely suspect, and I have no idea what direction to go next.” I flashed her a tight smile. “Therefore, I’m going to go home and go to bed.”
She gave my arm a light punch, smiled. “For once, you have your priorities in order.”
Chapter 13
I made my way down the broad corridor, the stone floor smooth and cold against my bare feet. Light filtered through tall, broad windows covered with grime. A few were broken, and through the gaps I could see clear blue sky and distant mountain peaks. Along the walls hung tapestries that had probably once been vibrant and colorful, filled with dynamic scenes. Now most were in tatters, and those few that remained were too faded and stained to make out more than the occasional figure. A man in armor. A woman reaching for a flower. A reyza perched on a stone. Lanterns hung between the tapestries, heavy iron things with wells at the bottom that had probably held oil at one time. But now they were cold and dark, smeared with soot.
The hem of my dress brushed the stone with a soft susurration, and I slowed, not wanting to make even that much noise, even though there was no one nearby. I knew that. No one in the entire structure.
Frowning, I looked down at what I was wearing. A dark blue gown, intricately embroidered in silver thread with a pattern that I had trouble focusing on. Some sort of ivy perhaps. Or birds. Or birds in ivy.
I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. I could feel the rush of air through my lungs, taste the dust of the place, feel the warmth of my expelled breath on my lips.
But I knew without a doubt that I was dreaming.
I’d been here before in dreams—once, no, twice on the roof with Rhyzkahl, and other times somewhere nearby—though they’d never been as vivid, as real as this. I didn’t know what exactly this place was—a keep, or fortress…something like that, nor did I have any idea where it was.
Only this time I’m completely aware that I’m dreaming. That’s a first.
Maybe I’d been thinking of Rhyzkahl as I fell asleep? Had I unwittingly called him to my dreams? Considering the various revelations of the day, it would be understandable. Yet if that was the case, where was the demonic lord?
I put my hand out to the wall. I am dreaming…right? Frowning, I lightly scraped my knuckles against the stone—not enough to draw blood, but enough to scratch the skin and send a light twinge of pain through my hand. Fear tightened my chest. Maybe I’ve been summoned…? But surely I’d be aware of that. It’s just a dream, I fought to reassure myself. I’d been in other sendings from the demonic lord that were indistinguishable from reality.
But why is this all so screamingly familiar?
The silence seemed to press down on me, but I wasn’t quite brave enough to shout, Hello, or anything like that. Even though I felt a deep certainty that I was the only living creature in this keep, and that I wasn’t really here, I’d seen enough horror movies to know that I could be quite wrong about both.
The corridor ended abruptly, opening into a vast hall lit only by dust-filled spears of sunlight coming from windows high on the walls. Surprised, I stood in the entrance to the corridor and took in the sight. Heavy tables and benches of dark wood filled the center of the hall. A higher table, that could easily seat forty, ran along a wall opposite an archway. Two chairs at the center of the table were intricately carved with scroll work and patterns I couldn’t quite make out, though both bore harsh slashes that revealed the lighter wood beneath the varnish—deep gouges that had to have been made by an
ax or a seriously heavy sword. I tasted mildew in the air, and a pungent scent of rodent droppings made my nose twitch.
I’ve been here. Through the archway on the right were the kitchens, and the entrance to the left led to a corridor that would take me to the great doors of the keep. And the stairs in front of me.…I balled my hands into fists as memory surged through me—this hall filled with people and scurrying servants. Laughter and song. Meat and wine. Fighting and blood.
Then it was gone, leaving only the echoes of shrieks and raucous calls skittering through my mind.
I breathed in shallow pants, turning slowly. If this was a dream, it had to be one sent by Rhyzkahl, since he had a link to my dreams. In which case he was…what? Wanting me to find something? Figure something out?
Screw horror movies. “Rhyzkahl?” I called out. Goosebumps skimmed over my skin as the walls took my call and flung it around in scattered echoes. Gulping, I held my breath, waiting for the demonic lord to make an appearance.
Nothing. He wanted me to figure this out. Or I was completely wrong about this sending being from him. Either way, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or how to wake myself up.
Fine. I had some sort of inexplicable shadow memory of this place. Time to use it. Turning, I made my way back up the corridor at a jog. I stumbled once on the stupid skirts I was wearing, and I grabbed them with both hands, feeling absurdly like Cinderella running down the stairs at the stroke of midnight—if Cinderella had been in a weird abandoned castle-thing, sent here by a demonic lord with an agenda.
Snarling, I ran up a broad flight of stone stairs—or rather I ran about halfway up, then had to slow down and catch my breath. Great, even in my dreams I needed to be in better shape. But I don’t have far to go. I think.
The stairs took me to another hallway. No windows here. Shadows swam along the floor and walls, but at the end of the hallway were a set of double doors, where whispers of light seeped from the cracks. I broke into a jog again, seized the handles and pulled. The doors were giant, heavy things of metal and black wood. They opened grudgingly, but once I had them moving they swung open wide.
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