“You know how you’re the senior partner?” I asked Danny when Anna and the sideshow she inspired were gone.
“What about it?”
“I’m officially taking myself off of any decision making. You get to be completely in charge from now on. Tell me what you want me to do.”
“Go through the rest of the files, make sure there isn’t a college student who went to Bradmoor or a Bradmoor student who had a beef with the college that we missed. Then pull a list of Bradmoor students that might live close enough to the clinic to have gone there. When you’re done, get together a list of people that sent in hate mail and make sure no one there intersects with Bradmoor in anyway.” He paused, then broke into a big grin. “Then after lunch we’ll follow up on your favorite vampire.”
I must have looked confused because he laughed.
“Not the stiff, the kid who keeps messing with you. I want to stop by Vianne’s and see if she’ll say anything about the attack on him, and then Fairy Tails to see if anyone there is more helpful than he is.”
“It stuns me that you can come up with a detailed plan before nine in the morning.”
“It stuns me that you actually ran 5K in thirty minutes, so we’re even. Now get to work.”
I was happy to take orders. Danny was better at this; he could lead for a bit. I plunged into the paperwork.
I ate my lunch with files in one hand and a fork in the other. It felt good to work through my morning; I wasn’t finding anything, but I was ruling out possibilities. The more I read about the high school the more my mind went back to Chris and Kelly. I had told the lieutenant about Narcotics, and he’d gotten me the files I wanted. Chris had a record a mile long, while Kelly was clean. Well, clean or smart enough not to get caught. If I was picking people to grant eternal life to, I’d go with her and not him. I suspected Vianne had a different set of criteria than I did.
It was after one when the fight broke out. A pair of imps were brought in on a vandalism charge, before they could get to an interview room they were beating the hell out of each other. Everyone rushed over to help, while we were pulling apart an assortment of limbs that didn’t fit the normal numbers, I noticed a woman on the sidelines. She had the same tall thin build as Anna, but her hair was three shades lighter, more blonde than red. When we’d wrestled the imps into several pairs of handcuffs, I introduced myself and invited Aunt Jo into an interview room.
Danny joined us but I started, expecting a standard interview, the boring kind I’d become fairly good at. Amadeus might throw me, but most people came to us wanting to open up, most people I could handle. Aunt Jo wasn’t like most people.
“How well do you know, Anna?” She started with a question, interrogating me before I had a chance to do it to her.
“Fairly well,” I said, then I realized that wasn’t true. I was the only person who knew her big secret. “I know her better than any of her other friends.” And her family, I added mentally.
“Then you know what’s going on with our family? You know they’ve all lost their abilities?”
“She told me. But it’s not just your family; all of the community is having problems.” If Danny was surprised he didn’t look it. I wondered again at what he could hear and what he couldn’t.
“Right, except the closer you are to the family the worse it is. Because they used to be the strongest so they had the most to lose, but also because it’s hitting them harder. There are third cousins who could only light a candle, they’re okay. People off the street who don’t really admit what they are? They’re fine too. But anyone with our last name, they’re screwed.”
“Any idea why?” Danny tried to bring the interview back into our control by asking a simple question. I knew why, or at least I suspected why. E hadn’t been sent to give Anna a message for nothing. Her staying in the closet and her family ignoring what they had to know about her was making Raya less than pleased.
“Not a clue, and frankly, the state everyone’s in now—the way Raya abandoned them? I think it’s hilarious.”
The bitterness in her voice threw me for a second, and she took the opening to start again with her own questions.
“You’re searching for a fire witch, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll assume you’re checking the bloodlines. The rest of the world might think that’s an antique notion but not us, you want a strong fire witch you look for someone who has a pair of strong fire witches for parents.”
“We’re checking everything, what do you know?” Danny asked.
“Look, I’m not like my baby brother. I don’t think Raya is this loving woman who keeps us all from freezing every winter, and I’m not delusional like my father who thinks Raya puts our family over everyone else. Truthfully, I think She’s a bitch, and it would be totally like Her to steal fire from a family of righteous followers and hand it to some devout Christian to fuck with everyone involved. That’s not why I’m here.”
She took a deep breath, and when she spoke again her voice changed. “I’m here to tell you our family’s most shameful secret. You see, our line didn’t produce one waste of flesh non-fire witch, it had two: me and my daughter.”
“Anna didn’t mention you had a daughter,” I said softly.
“She doesn’t know. No one does. I spent years praying to Raya for something, anything, even a drop of fire. I was the best volunteer our church had. I did whatever they needed, and that bitch didn’t even acknowledge me. When I was nineteen I rebelled. I tried everything to piss Her off, including sleeping with a very nice, very devout, Christian boy. He was here for the summer to preach against the wickedness of witchcraft and the evil of Pagan goddesses. When he left, I was pregnant and scared. I let my parents bully me into going away.
“They told everybody I spent a semester abroad, when the baby was born.” She took a shaky breath. “When my daughter was born, Dad took her. I didn’t get to know the details. If both of her parents were normal, they didn’t think there was any chance she could be anything else. I’m here because they may have been wrong.”
“Do you think it’s likely?” I asked.
“No.” The bitterness crept back into her voice. “Raya hated me. She never gave me anything, why would She favor my daughter with Her gifts? But there’s a chance. It’s a small chance. She would be a teenager now, about the age I was when I started raising hell.”
“That’s the age we’re looking for,” I admitted.
“Anna said whoever it is, they’re in trouble. If there’s a chance my daughter needs me, that she’s out there maybe looking for me—” She stopped for a second. “She could be half way around the world. But if in the course of your investigation you find her, I want to know about it.”
The last part sounded like she’d memorized it, practiced it on the way over. My heart went out to her. I could only imagine how painful it would be to lose a child so completely. I took her information as gently as I could. It seemed unlikely that we’d run across her daughter, but I didn’t want to squelch her hope.
When she’d left I wrote up what we knew and tucked it into the file about the arson. Aunt Jo’s daughter and Kelly had the same birthday. It might not mean anything, but maybe it did. Really, it was more about me being able to say I’d done what I could to help Anna’s Aunt Jo, who seemed to have it pretty bad. I went back to my lists, grateful the drudge work would occupy my mind and keep me from remembering the pain in her voice as she talked about the child she’d lost.
Danny made good on his ambitious schedule and dragged me out the door toward Fairy Tails as the afternoon sun became golden. There was something amazing about the quality of light at three when the sun set at six. It made me contemplative, thinking about the woman we’d talked to.
“Do you buy it? Any of it?”
“Any of what?” Danny had spent the morning doing exactly what I was doing, duplicate effort that made sure no leads were missed. The interview hadn’t shaken him.
“Bloodl
ines, the idea that Aunt Jo’s child had to be hidden away, that she’s somehow shameful because she’s not a witch.”
“I’m not sure I buy that, but the idea that it matters who your parents are, that I can agree with.”
“Really?”
“Sure, I mean, I know it’s an American notion that every kid can grow up to be whatever they want, but it’s not really true is it? Indigo’s daughter is always going to be a werejaguar whether she likes it or not.”
“Yeah, but that’s genetics, she can still be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. No one’s telling her she’s shameful and wrong because he’s her father.”
“Well, you’re not telling her, and no one you know is, but that doesn’t mean no one is saying it. For a lot of people, who you are matters and where you come from makes a difference.”
“Yeah but this is the modern world. People can do what they want. You left Ireland, and no one cared.”
Danny didn’t reply.
“What? Come on, you left.”
“I left, but it cost me. There are things I miss every day that I’m not going to have again. Things the girls are never going to experience because Katie is their mother instead of some nice Irish girl. I know it’s tough to accept, but sometimes there are things you can’t change and those things define you.”
I wanted to argue more with him but couldn’t; we were already at Fairy Tails. I promised myself we’d finish the conversation some other time.
Chapter Twelve
We headed back to Lynn’s office, the only thing interesting on the way was an androgynous creature I didn’t recognize glowing light blue as it snuggled with a woman on the couch. The office was empty, so we split up. I stayed at the back bar while Danny went off in search of Lynn. I suspected he gave me the waiting job, so he didn’t have to watch the rather impressive man who was slowly sliding out of his clothes on the small stage. I had no moral issues with nearly naked men. I watched for a few seconds before I realized strip shows on the clock were probably a bad thing. I was inside the kitchen door when I ran into Amadeus.
“You’re back at work already?” Actually, he was back in the break room already. At least I guessed that’s what it was. Half of the room was an industrial kitchen, the other half held a battered couch and an equally battered table. On the wall there was a time clock and all sorts of OSHA notices.
“If I don’t work I don’t eat, sweetheart.” His smile wasn’t friendly.
“You can buy blood,” I pointed out.
“For that you need money, which brings us back to working. Or did you think all vampires were filthy rich and drove a Mercedes?”
I ignored the way he baited me. “There are other places to work, other ways to get blood.”
“Not in this town, at least not easy ones.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“An hour from here in New Orleans I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. In New York I could turn a fifteen-year-old, and no one would notice. All of the big cities are the same. No one cares enough to enforce law, so they’re lawless.”
I looked at him mutely, wondering what the point of this speech was.
“Do you know why there are so many laws in our little town, Detective Mors? Why it’s so different here? So moral? Because of your boyfriend. Jakob’s a moral man, and he keeps things incredibly moral.”
“If you don’t like it so much, why not leave?”
“I’m waiting for someone.”
“And what’s she like?”
“None of your business.” His voice was angry. I could tell he was trying to lash out. “You need to know that Jakob might be moral, but he’s still one of us. He’s still a monster.”
“I don’t see him that way,” I said, completely unwilling to be drawn into a debate.
“Maybe you need to.”
“Thanks, but I think I can take care of myself.” Amadeus was a malicious bastard. I turned on my heel and walked away with as much cold fury as I could muster. If Jakob really was the horror Amadeus told me he was, I knew who I wanted him to go after next.
I spent the next ten minutes alone in the office, nursing my fury. I was close to normal when Danny and Lynn walked in. She looked a thousand times better than she had the other day, wearing a traditional mandarin gown in a dazzling blue silk. Its slim lines hugged her body, and the high collar was accented by the traditional upsweep of her hair. The last time I saw her she looked Asian, some nondescript category that covered more countries than I could name. Today she looked as Chinese as a picture on a tourism brochure.
“Hi Lynn,” I said with a smile, but her reply was brisk.
“I’m not happy with this vampire bull shit.” Apparently, no matter how she looked, Lynn was all business. She sat down behind the desk with crisp efficiency despite her dress.
“Do you think the second attack was the same attacker?”
“I don’t think, I know. One of the girls saw Chris outside. He was trolling for a meal, but she was on the clock. A few minutes later I ran into him in the kitchen. He asked about getting his job back, or maybe a new one. Ten minutes later I’ve got a client upstairs screaming and Amadeus half passed out.”
“But no one saw Chris actually attack him?” Danny asked.
“Do we need someone who did? Because if you need an eye witness I can get you one.” Her eyes flashed a golden yellow in her anger.
“What are you?” I couldn’t stop myself from being incredibly rude.
“Huli jing, and if I find Chris around here again, I plan to use every trick Daji invented to pay him back for this trouble.”
“Do you have any idea where Chris is?”
“None. But he never goes anywhere without Kelly, so it would have to be a place big enough for the two of them, not some moldy coffin somewhere.”
“Where were his paychecks sent?”
“They weren’t. He picked them up. We use a bank down the street. Chris was one of those financial geniuses who cashed his check on Friday night and had empty pockets by Monday.”
Danny tried a few other questions, but Lynn didn’t know anything more. I suggested we try Puck, since friends tend to know more about you than your coworkers, but it was his day off. We thanked Lynn for her time and left before she made too many more threats. Neither of us wanted to have to report her for them.
I walked out of the office and froze, unable to move. The man on stage, the one I’d been admiring a few minutes before, had finished his act by changing from man into wolf. The werewolf was dark brown and roughly the size of a pony. He trotted off the stage and between the tables accepting tips in a collar around his neck. If he came any closer to me I was going to lose it, scream, cry, lash out, I didn’t know what. But there was no way I could get to the door without passing in front of him and my legs refused to move.
“You okay, Mal?” Danny asked.
I shook my head not trusting myself to talk. He’d shut the door to the office, so there was no way to turn around and escape. The wolf looked at me with those inhuman eyes, and in my head I was back in that room, trapped beneath the city sure I was going to die. I tried to calm down, paranoid it would hear my heavy breathing and mistake my fear for arousal, but I couldn’t. It was feet from me, close enough that it could lunge at me.
“All right then.” Danny put his arm around my shoulder and turned me away from the dance floor. I was suddenly staring at blank expanse of wood paneling. It helped.
“Everything okay, Detective?” Lynn was on her way out of the office.
“Yeah, my partner’s allergic. She’ll be fine in a second.”
“Oh, sorry. It takes him forever to change back too,” Lynn said, then continued on her way. I concentrated even harder on the wall. My breathing was starting to slow when Danny half dragged me out of the room. The next time I looked at the world around me I was in our car, parked in front of one of the microscopic downtown parks.
“Want to talk about it?” Danny asked me.
“Fuck no.”
“Suit yourself, but eventually you’re going to need to deal with it. There’s a great therapist on staff.”
“The empath. I met her, nice woman.”
“Sometimes she’s too nice. When people don’t want to deal with something, she lets them get away with it.”
“I’m fine with the new guy; he doesn’t bother me.”
“He’s not walking around like some giant sized dog.”
“Good point.” I took a shaky breath. “I’ll deal with it, Danny, I promise, but not today, not this week, okay?”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Can you handle vampires?”
“I’d consider them a welcome change.”
We were outside of Vianne’s an hour before sunset, even the youngest vampire would be semi-awake. Danny wasn’t willing to take any chances that we’d find something we weren’t ready to handle, so I settled back in my seat and called the magic. It was like flexing a muscle, you thought about what you wanted to do and the power came. You could draw it to you the way you would close your fist, by thinking it was there. I gathered it, pulled the magic in from the world around me like a weight lifter slowly curling his arm. Then I let it go, releasing the power over the house asking it to tell me what was inside.
It whispered back to me in seconds, five vampires, one female, the rest male. There was another woman inside. She was nowhere near death and the power rushed past her. The upper floors had a collection of lesser things, rats maybe or bugs, nearing the end of their life, nothing interesting, so the power moved on. I reached out with it and checked the basement, expecting to find nothing, instead I was surprised.
It was there again, that power I couldn’t place, familiar and strong, reaching back to me. It had a taste of death to it, but that wasn’t what it was. It felt different, more human, like something I’d known but couldn’t remember it. The power on the other side was upset I didn’t recognize it. It reached back to me angry, and I shut down every supernatural part of me.
“Anything I should know about?” Danny asked.
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