We pounced on the poor man who brought us the dirt, grabbing it before he could even stutter out how it was labeled. He also handed us six vials of troll blood from different trolls. The quantity of blood wasn't as important as the diversity. We quickly arranged the bags of dirt and spread them out in the correct area. After placing the dirt I poured the troll blood into a small glass bowl, draping it with spells for preservation and purity.
With a marker, I started writing runes on the edge of the map. Slowly, layer by layer, I built the spells. I told the searching spell to look for things with similar blood, but not that blood. I told it to look outside the area with dirt like this (the troll preserve), but inside the area patrolled by the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. I told it to put glowing spots on the map where it found things with similar blood. I told the spells to put information that didn't fit on this map on the larger map, and gave it a way of converting size between the county map and the map of the state.
By the time I completed the spells, an hour had passed. Jones gently covered the dirt with hair spray to keep it in place. We cleaned up, giving the hair spray time to dry, and shifted the glass table top back on to keep the dirt from being disturbed.
"How long do you think it will take before anything shows up?"
I sighed. "I don't know. A few hours, I think. It has to search everything with blood even remotely similar and then pick the ones that match. If you don't see anything by this time tomorrow I'll come back and tinker with the spells, though refining the spells could be tricky. What else do I need to do?"
"Nothing that I can think of. I'll tell anyone that asks that you were tapped out for the day."
I grabbed my bags. This was the time to get out. "Thanks. Keep me updated."
He nodded tiredly and I shuffled back to the car where I dropped everything on the back seat. Tomorrow would be soon enough to reorganize. I pulled a stay-awake charm out of my spare bag and activated it. The charm would buzz if I started to fall asleep. If I'd been smart, I would've grabbed one when I was called out to the mayor's house yesterday. When I repacked the bags, I needed to move the stay-awake charms from an emergency bag to my regular kit.
The hotel I passed looked inviting. Between the lack of clothes and active cases south of my apartment, the thoughts of a hotel didn't last long. The last time I'd crashed at a hotel, I ended up driving twice as far as I should have because I wasn't at home when an emergency call came in. To top it off, I'd had to eat nasty fast food, and ended up sick.
Even with the stay-awake charm, it was another drive that required singing, stopping every thirty minutes, a lot of hot tea, and a few donuts. Arriving home, I could've kissed the ground. It was annoying how often I was bone tired because of my job, but every job had down sides. Erratic hours, long days, and the never ending travel weren't a bad cost for work I loved. Retreating to my apartment, I was almost sad that I didn't see Elron. Considering my tired and grumpy state, it would have been interesting.
Blessed oblivion claimed me, wrapping me in a dark warm spot where I could hibernate until I was rested. What felt like seconds later, I was rudely awakened by my phone ringing; silver hair fading from my dreams.
"Oaks Consulting. How can I help you?" I yawned and looked at the clock, surprised to see that two hours had passed.
"It's Jerry, and not an emergency. You can relax."
I sighed with relief. "Oh, good. I was going to tell you no if it was, but this is easier." He chuckled. "What do you need?"
"The information from the unicorn was good. We have a few houses we want to check out, but we want you there. I'm worried about what else this person is keeping. I'm betting it's more dangerous than the dogs. When can you get down here?"
"Tomorrow, say eight?" I wanted to get a lot of sleep tonight.
"Sure. I'm sorry I woke you."
"No worries. I need to get dinner."
"Good timing then. Bye."
I rolled out of bed, sniffing. There was a weird smell in the room. Picking up my arm, I sniffed it. The smell was me. I dumped my clothes into a special hamper and triggered an odor charm I had hanging over my bed to clear the air. Realizing that any clothing smelling that strongly would have made me and the bed smell, I stripped the sheets, depositing them in the hamper on my way to the shower.
After pulling on comfortable but presentable clothes, I headed to dinner. Walking in, I realized something was going on. Landa was the only other person in the room, and the side bar was empty.
"There you are, dear. I was just fixing this tray for you. No one else is eating down here tonight so I didn't set everything out." She wrapped the last of the three plates on the tray.
"Thank you." I realized something was missing. "Where's Elron?" That elf would never miss a chance to make fun of me.
"He left early this morning, as did Ch'que. Why?" She cocked her head causing her large pointed ears to tilt. Landa wasn't beautiful by human standards, but she was an attractive brownie. She had a deep brown skin, large green eyes, thin lips, a delicate nose, and was four and a half feet tall. Appearances could be deceiving though; brownies were tough.
"I've seen him at dinner every day he was here, so I thought he would be here tonight. I knew he would leave, I just wasn't sure when." It sounded thin, even to me.
"Of course, dear. Here, take this tray and go rest. I heard about those trolls getting out. I sure hope you catch them soon."
The tray was surprisingly heavy. How much food did she think I needed? "I did my best to set them up with a few spells that should make it easy to find the trolls. I'll know tomorrow if they worked or if I need to do something else. Thank you, Landa."
"No problem, dear."
I carried the tray back to my room, more curious than I would care to admit about Elron, his appearances in my dreams, and the contents of the tray.
Chapter Four
Elron
I hadn't felt this alive since my mate died. For the first time, the pain of Sylvia's death was distant, more like a scar and less like a jagged wound that hadn't healed. None of the humans remembered the trolls being rounded up, but I remembered. I remembered when one of the last free tribes had hunted Sylvia. She had died a horrible death at their hands when she should have grown old with me.
All things bright and beautiful in my world had ended the day she died. I had rejoiced when the trolls were locked away. I still don't know how my friends kept me on this side, or how other elves took a new partner after their mates died. I could understand wanting the company, but not the speedy replacement of one who was special.
I strode into camp, realizing how little had changed in the few days I had been gone. Other than the leaves on the ground it looked just like it had before I left. These woods looked the same as they had every year for the past hundred years.
Studying the lovely trees, with houses hollowed out of their trunks, my thoughts solidified. In the last hundred years, nothing had changed. The houses and residents were the same. As a race, we had only had enough children to replace the ones who had died. As a people, we were stagnant. We hadn't changed significantly in the past thousand years. If we weren't so long lived, the race would have collapsed.
I had always considered myself an intelligent man, but for such an intelligent man, I felt rather stupid. Why had we thought the world's changes wouldn't affect us? We used our magic to encourage trees to grow so we could live in them, at peace with nature, but nature was disappearing in many places.
I walked into my small house, still remembering when I had moved out of the tree I had grown for Sylvia and myself. I'd wanted to stay, but every moment in those walls became a reminder of what I'd lost. This dwelling was small, and didn't bring up a single memory.
Everything was still in its place. The small bed was neatly made, with the bookshelves rising around it. Beneath the window, opposite the bed, was a small reading area with two chairs on either side of a round table. There was a small area, behind the front door, where I could cook.<
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I peered out the window, checking on the seedlings I had planted; they were in good health. Looking at them, I had inspiration for a new project or two. Walking outside, I took stock of the plants, needing something special. There was one that would work, and be willing to work, for my current need.
After cleaning a shallow pot from behind the house, I filled the bottom with all the right things for this little evergreen before coaxing it out of the ground and into its new soil. As soon as it was settled, I talked to it. This took time. Trees, even young excited ones, don't communicate on the same scale that most people do. Hours later, I was sure it understood what I wanted and would grow with minimum fuss.
Michelle
I fished my phone out of my pocket. "Oaks Consulting." I was terrified that this would be bad news. I really didn't want any more of that. I'd been making the rounds with the Cobb and Cherokee police since eight, but had been in the station at seven. In the ten houses the police had scouted I hadn't sensed anything more dangerous than a pot that prevents over-boiling, but we weren't finished yet.
"It's Jones."
"Hey, how's the map working?" He sounded amused, which could be good, but I had a feeling it wasn't.
"Oh, it's working. It's working a little bit too well. I don't know how much trolls and humans have in common, but the whole thing is lit up like a population density map."
"Clearly, I need to work on the parameters. Could it wait until tomorrow? I'm doing an all-day thing down here in Cherokee. I could be there at eight." I didn't want to search more houses, possibly clean up whatever was down here, and then drive over to Forsyth.
"The department will spring for a hotel, or have someone bring you, but they want this done today."
Sighing, I answered, "I can't blame them. Send the driver; I can sleep on one of the cots in the precinct. They get the best of both worlds, they only need to drive me and I'll be there tomorrow to fix anything else that goes wrong."
"Done."
"You were hoping I'd say that, weren't you?"
"Yup. Bye, Michelle." The man had sounded entirely too smug, but he knew I was dedicated to my job.
"Are you ready?" Jerry asked.
"Sure." I closed the car door and waited for the parade to get moving. The road, or lack of one, made me grab the door handle and seat, clutching my kit between my ankles. "How do people find these places?"
He navigated through a tricky part of the road covered in giant holes and run-off channels. "You know how they find them. If you want to blame someone for forcing this upon you, you need to blame yourself, or your unicorn friend. Seriously, if I was going to do some crazy breeding program I'd be at the next house."
I lost my hold on the door, but grabbed for it again as I nearly flew out of the seat, even with the seatbelt on. "Then why did we check all of those other houses?"
He turned onto what passed for the main road out here. "We had to go past all of them before we could get to this house. We didn't want to tip them off if they were doing something naughty, and we knew we could control access to this next place. Besides, the place fits your unicorn's description perfectly. It's technically in Cherokee, but no one comes out here and the county line runs down the edge of the property."
We bumped along a bit further. "How much further is this place?"
"About two miles."
I stopped asking questions. I knew I would just look dumb. Every ditch, hole, and bump made me happier that I wasn't driving my car. Eventually we rolled to a stop behind the car in front of us. With trees and brush on each side of the dirt road there wasn't anywhere to pull off to and I thought we might be backing out. Again, I was grateful I hadn't driven.
"We'll do this like the other houses. One officer will talk to the owner. You're going poke around magically from a distance." Jerry walked me up to a point where I could barely see the run-down shack of a house through the woods. It would be difficult for anyone to see us.
Watching an officer walk up the steps, I started to look, sort of. Closing my eyes I let down my inner barriers and threw some magic in the direction of the house. I was hoping to stick my magic to anything with magic in the house. Once I'd found the magical objects, I could examine them more closely. My magic floated to the ground, and for a moment I thought it would just pass into the earth and dissipate. Then it stuck, not just a bit here and there, but all of it. Not only did it stick, something—or some things—started to pull the magic in, like it was eating my power. The pull on my power had me stumbling forward a step before I braced myself. I quickly reeled in as much of my power as I could and cut myself off from the rest. The loss of power hurt, leaving me tired and a bit unsteady, but it was a small price to pay to avoid being sucked in by whatever was in there.
My eyes popped open. "You need to get everyone in there now. Surround that place and go in. I don't know what's going on, but it's covered in magic and someone feeding off the energy of sacrifices."
Jerry studied me. "You're sure?"
"Yes."
Jerry started issuing orders and sending people to the house. Two officers took off, faster than humans could run, to the back of the house. Another two officers charged in the door, and the rest covered the perimeter. For one short moment nothing happened, then screams, crashes, and a gun firing three times shattered the quiet moment.
I was up and running as soon as the last shot was fired. I had really powerful healing charms with me and someone might need them. I burst through the door and saw chaos. Two officers had something pinned to the ground and were trying to cuff it. The third officer in the living room was holding his arm, swearing. I ran to him.
"What happened? Let me see."
He pulled his hand away from his arm long enough for me to see three deep slashes, and blood gushing out. "Damn thing got me with claws not long after I got inside. It was cutting up the," he looked sick, "person in the kitchen."
"Here, take this." I activated one of the major healing charms. "Press it against your arm." Knowing the charm would heal the damage, I left him standing against the wall and hurried into the kitchen. I nearly puked. It looked like it should have been a dwarf, but every inch of it was covered in shallow cuts. It was chained on top of the kitchen island. I pulled three more major healing charms out of my bag, activated them, and pressed them to his body as quickly as I could. The dwarf whimpered at the touch of the healing charms to his flesh. I left one charm at the base of his throat, one at his belly button, and the last on his knees.
"Michelle, we need you!" Jerry sounded panicked.
I'd been ignoring the noises behind me while I helped the dwarf, but Jerry's voice reminded me that the dwarf would've lasted a few more minutes. I turned back to the living room, looking at the woman who'd injured the cop for the first time. She was one of the strangest things I'd ever laid eyes on. She had a mohawk of greasy looking black hair, beady black eyes, and her nose and mouth had merged in to something of a beak. To go with her clawed hands, her bare feet had claws rather than toes. She was wearing some strange garment that wrapped around her, but had dislodged in the struggle, leaving her breast bare.
Several valuable seconds passed as I stared at her before noticing her struggle to break out of the two sets of handcuffs on her wrists. Now that I was paying attention, I could feel the magic she was using to break the metal. I sketched runes for metal and strength in the air, willing them to work. For a second they did, then her eyes glowed and I could feel the magic draining from the spells.
"NO!" I put power behind it, reaching forward to put my strength just inside of the metal, but where it wouldn't touch her. She wasn't behaving like a sorceress, but a hedge-practitioner. Sorcerers, or sorceresses, were as powerful as witches. Hedge-practitioners were less powerful, with limited education and abilities. If she couldn't touch the magic she wouldn't be able to break it. The creature struggled for a moment, and then spat at me. I jumped aside. I didn't think that claws were the only alteration that had been made. I quickly
tied the spell off, making sure it didn't touch her skin.
"How do we contain her?"
I didn't remember Jerry coming over to me. "I don't think she can get out of those or the special containment cell at the jail. I'd put her in there. I think she's a hedge-practitioner, but from the look of things she's been harvesting energy from people. I doubt she has much power without gathering it in rituals. In a few days, when the energy has drained, she'll be mostly normal. But, if she can inflict pain on anyone, even herself, she'll start to gather power again."
She sagged down between the two police officers hauling her out and I could see the three bullet holes in her torso. "Admittedly, I'm not sure where her vital organs are. She may live, she may die. You have a nullifying cuff right?" A nullifying cuff would counteract any magic she had or could do. For something like her it was the perfect solution.
"Yeah, I don't know why I didn't think of that," Jerry said.
"Because you're freaked out, and most officers keep them in the cars, not on their person. I need to check out the rest of this place. Is there anywhere you want me to start?" I asked.
"Check on the shifters in the back. They should've been able to secure that area and may need help."
I walked past the paramedics working on the dwarf, who was looking less like raw meat, and out the kitchen door into the back yard. It had been fenced in and covered, but I could see where the shifters had ripped through; let's hear it for raw power. The enclosure was lined in cages with all manner of creatures held captive behind their iron bars.
Before I could take it in, one of the shifters walked over and said, "We've already called animal control and they are sending officers. We'd like you to label and spellbind anything that would cause trouble."
"Ok, sure," I said faintly. I took the big stickers he shoved at me on his way out of the yard. Spellbinding was a great way to prevent something from using passive magic, but I didn't have the ability to cut off a hedge-practitioner from their magic without spell reagents. If I'd had them with me, I would've bound the bird woman's magic by now.
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