by A J Brahms
"They're not going to notice it's gone?"
"Ren, the last entry in this book is dated 1964."
1964? That was the year I was made. I flipped to the back and gasped when I saw a picture of my Maker, Elizabeth Herne, and then one of me, in all my 60s glory as a young and stupid photographer in Portland, Oregon. Stephen and Courtney were listed as her Childers. Their deaths were recorded as taking place in the mid 2000s. They weren't far off.
There wasn't a lineage for Elizabeth either, just as there hadn't been for the Countess. "They didn't know who made my Maker any more than they knew who made the Countess."
"Your Maker took her secrets with her. Though we do know how her Family died now, thanks to you."
"Beau Woodard's betrayal."
"Yes." Aberdeen turned the page from the small paragraph of myself. That page was blank. "What we do know is you were the very last Ghoul ever created, Ren."
"I just want to know why, Aberdeen. Why are we forbidden?"
He closed the book but didn't say anything, and again I was aware of his silence.
"So…why isn't Miss Wallace here, asleep in your bed, smiling from the glow of a pleasant frolic in the sheets?"
The switch of subjects jolted me and I blinked at him. Not to mention Aberdeen's way with words sometimes. I didn't answer and poured myself some tea instead.
"Ren…you didn't attack her did you?"
"Hell no." I sighed. "She attacked me. I mean she kissed me. I wasn't ready for it."
"Oh dear. Did you have bad breath? You know raw meat and blood can leave a foul odor."
"No," and I glared at him. "It wasn't that. It was just…I kissed her back. And it was incredible. And then my head filled with all the things that could go wrong and I pushed her away." I put my forehead on the table. "I messed up. She thought I rejected her and she left and now I'm pretty sure she hates me."
"Oh I doubt the lovely Miss Wallace hates you, Ren. Though it sounds like you really should be honest with her."
"I can't be honest about what I am, Aby."
"Do not call me that."
I sat back. "If she knew exactly what I was…and how I eat? What I'm really capable of?"
"I think the problem here isn't so much how worried you are about what Miss Wallace thinks," he said as he pushed his chair back and took the book. "But how much you dislike who and what you are. You haven't embraced your existence and its power since your Maker died."
"Aberdeen—"
"No, no. You should hear this." Oh hell. He had on his Professor voice so he sounded more British than usual. "You are a Chevalier. The strongest and the best trained I have ever met—and I have met several of you. You were created by one of the strongest Vampires to walk this Earth. I know what powers you possess. I know that you, in your prime with Elizabeth, would never have allowed those ruffian miscreants to beat you senseless. You would have, how is it said—oh yes, mopped the floor with them. If nothing else, you could have torn them apart—"
"Don't talk about that."
"—But you never change anymore, Ren. I don't think you'll be able to be honest with Miss Wallace until you become honest with yourself. You are a Ghoul, and a Chevalier. Probably the last of your kind. You are also a free agent."
"Rogue."
"No, a free agent. You were granted clemency. You have your freedom at the behest of a powerful Family Prince."
"But he knows, Aberdeen." I stood and faced my friend. "He knows."
"And yet here you are. Still alive. And unfettered." He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. "Embrace who and what you are, Renwick Grainger. And know that when you freed me I vowed to protect you, and I will never allow another Vampire to own you again."
Six
Luke and Julie arrived promptly at eight and as I expected, Julie was all business. No warmth. Not even a smile.
Just fucking great.
I'd showered again and dressed in jeans, sneakers, a light teeshirt and suit jacket. No real suit today—not if I was going to a lake. I had my cameras packed, my film loaded, all in my trusty bag by the door. Aberdeen made coffee since Luke brought donuts. I could drink things like tea and coffee but eating sugar?
No.
But that didn't stop Aberdeen who delighted in the cream filled little pastries. And that set off a conversation about the delicacies of French pastries vs the broad strokes of American attempts. As they fueled up on sugar, Luke went over what he found about Emmet. And it wasn't a lot.
We were all seated at the dining room table, where Aberdeen and I had been examining the births and deaths of Vampires and Ghouls hours before.
"I did a background check on all the victims," Luke said through his donut and then thankfully swallowed. "Nothing really connecting them, except Carson. One of the women, Chelsea Gartier, knew Carson, and so does Ren," he nodded to me. "So I did the check on Emmet. I didn't find a lot. In fact, the guy didn't exist before ten years ago."
"Huh?" I said.
"That's how far back his footprint goes. That's when his social security number appears, and I checked, it's not some dead person's number either. It's legitimately his. He applied for it himself. So anything prior to 2007 is pretty much not there." He pulled a folder out of his backpack and handed it to me.
I flipped through it and yeah. 2007. "He's worked as a coroner this whole time." So…if this guy had lived prior to 2007 and he'd luckily lived under the radar, why suddenly get a social security number and go to work?
"You ever figure him out?" Luke asked.
"No. I was hoping the coroner would find something weird. But I'm assuming Sheila's report is fine."
"Yeah, nothing flagged. So I guess he was human after all."
I just didn't believe that. My instincts on sensing the weird weren't that far off…were they?
Julie drove while Luke and I talked. I even listened to him talk about his wife's morning sickness. Anything to ignore the numbing silence from Julie. If Luke noticed anything was wrong, he didn't mention it. At least, not in the car.
With Luke's guidance we arrived at Bethel Park with no incident. We stopped in an empty parking lot right at the water. There wasn't much sun as the weather report said there would be rain. And for once, it looked like they were right. I got out and hefted my bag over my shoulder and noticed a truck with a boat trailer.
"That's Tim Aaron," Luke said as he got out of the car. "He's going to take us to where the bodies were found."
Julie pulled the folder from the car and we all followed Luke to shake hands with Tim. All human. All good ole boy. All tobacco. He and Luke worked to back the speedboat into the water as Julie and I stood several yards apart.
Until I couldn't stand it. "Julie—"
"Detective Wallace," she said, watching them and not me. "I think we should keep our relationship as impersonal as possible."
Seriously? "But…why? Look, I wasn't ready last…this morning. I just…there's a lot about me you don't know."
That's when she looked at me, and if looks could kill, I knew I'd be a smoldering mass of ash at that moment. "Really? I was bridesmaid at Luke's wedding. His mother baked me a banana nut loaf just the other morning. I know what his shoe size is, and I know how he shoots, his moves, and the way he thinks. Why? Because we're partners, Mr. Grainger. But also because we're friends. I plan on being there when that baby comes into the world and I've already offered to baby sit. But do you know what I know about you?" She took a step closer to me and kept her voice low the whole time. "Nothing. Except what I could find, which was Jack all. You were born in 1940. You were a photographer, same as you are now. You're not a Night Walker but you're connected to them somehow. You live with some old professor guy but you say you're not gay."
"I'm not."
"We've worked together for over a year, Ren and I don't even know what you are."
"Julie—"
"Just, don't, okay? If you want to keep distance between us, that's fine. I can do that. It hurts—" and that's
when she looked away and I think I realized for the first time, and I mean really realized, that Julie Wallace liked me. I mean, she'd kissed me, right?
If there was anyone qualified to accept me as I am, it would be Julie. But, by telling her what I was, I'd be revealing a very well kept secret. Meaning the existence of Ghouls. Not once had they ever suggested that's what I was, and I knew they'd never heard of them.
"Hey!"
We both jumped at Luke's voice and then met him at the truck. The boat and trailer were in the water. Luke climbed in, getting himself wet from his knees down and took the wheel. Julie manned the release and once the boat was happily flowing on the surface, Tim eased the truck forward, taking the trailer out of the water.
He parked it and returned to us and waded out into the boat. Julie stood on the cement shore with me, wet up to her knees as well.
"You go on with Luke," Julie said. "I'll stay here."
"But you're the detective. I'm just the photographer." That's when I did an uncontrollable shiver. Someone was watching me. I turned from Julie and looked at the trees surrounding us. There were structures nearby, but no houses. This was a park. But there was something in those woods and it was paying attention.
"I did some research on Mermaids myself and they appear to be attracted to men. So if it is a Mermaid, you get eaten first." She walked away.
I pursed my lips as I grabbed my waterproof camera from my bag. Once it was around my neck I also grabbed one of my two favorite weapons from inside the bag. A pair of Desert Eagles, attuned to me. Perfectly balanced and spelled by a Sorcerer Master who no longer walked the Earth. I tucked a single gun into the back of my jeans, leaving the other one in the bag, then waded out to the boat myself. Once seated in the back, Tim backed us out and we headed to an area between the park and what the map said was Three Sisters Island.
"If you look close," Tim said and pointed. "There are three buoys out here to show where they found three bodies. See those white balls with red flags?"
"What about the forth?" Luke said.
"They found the girl on the island," and he pointed at Three Sisters. "The island was closed for about a year before she was found. They found a another body around here last year too. Not related."
I kept looking back at the shore. I could see Julie, leaning against the car. What ever was watching us wasn't close to her. And if I could sense it, that meant it was somehow vampiric in nature. But Night Walkers couldn't be in the sun, not even on a cloudy day like this. They might be awake, but not outdoors.
"What's got you so jumpy?" Luke asked. "And what the fuck happened between you and Julie?"
"Huh?" I snapped my attention back to him. "What did she tell you?"
"Hey…what the hell's going on," Tim muttered.
I looked at him and then around us. A thick, white mist had descended around us now sat eerily on top of the water. It looked like early morning mist that hadn't been there minutes before. Thunder echoed in the distance and I felt electricity in the air. I tasted something metallic.
Wait a damn minute. That was magic!
As far as I knew, no Witches or Sorcerers worked in Atlanta. The Families wouldn't have it. The only magic permitted was that of the Faerie, and that was on a limited engagement. Night Walkers didn't trust magic, nor its progenitors. Long, bloody story.
But someone was performing magic nearby. The elements around always reacted to magic. The mist and the thunder might be explained away by the weather report, but not the feel. And not the taste.
That's about the moment all my DANGER alarms went off. I felt the boat lurch and Tim said a few choice words. The Lake itself was calm, serene, but the boat had moved as if bumped. The sky gradually darkened and I reached behind me and retrieved my gun.
"Whoa…" Tim said and Luke gave me a weird look.
"Something's wrong," I said and called for Occam. She was beside me and on my shoulder in seconds. Her feathers ruffled and I knew she was as cautious and on guard as I was. I asked her to find the source of the spell and she was off in the air with a caw.
"You think it's the Mermaid?" Luke said.
"Mermaid?" Tim laughed. "There's no such thing as Mermaids." It was obvious the boat driver hadn't seen Occam. Good.
"I don't think it's a Mermaid, Luke," I said. "But it's beneath us, and around us and there's someone on the shore working to call it."
Occam yelled in triumph that she'd found the magic just before she gave me a bird's eye view, literally, of where. I felt my heart skip when I realized it wasn't that far from where Julie was. I pulled my phone from my pocket as something nudged the boat again and dialed Julie. I was afraid she wouldn't pick up.
"What?"
"Occam sees someone working magic west of you, in the woods. A single female. There's salt in my bag. Grab it and douse the fire with it. In fact, throw it over everything."
She didn't answer but hung up and I could only hope she did what I asked and didn't decide to ignore me. If she didn't well, hopefully we'd live to regret it, because I could feel the power surge just then.
And so did the boat. Spouts of water shot up around us and Tim was thrown out of the water with a splash. He sputtered and treaded water but soon became invisible in the Mist.
"Uhm…Ren?"
"Sshh." I held my weapon, every trained muscle in my body at the ready. "Someone's on the shore working magic. That's why this mist showed up, and the sky's reacting." It thundered then, as if to bring home my point. "There is something in the—"
The boat launched in the air at that point and something did come out of the water, just as Luke was tossed over. "Dammit!" I yelled out.
I freaked out when something rose above me and then towered over me, watching me. And it wasn't a damn Mermaid. In fact, I wasn't sure what the hell this was. It loomed a good two feet over me and bobbed in the water. It had a green stalk for a body, covered in iridescent scales. There were two arms, twice as long as its torso, which ended in long, spindle like fingers. Those arms swung at me and I jumped up in the boat and landed easily inside of it again, avoiding getting knocked into the water.
That's when I saw the head. It was a matted mess of what looked like seaweed, but there was a face and a chin and bright, burning red eyes.
"You, you, you!" it said over and over again. "Stop it, stop all of it! The noise hurrrrrrtttsssssss!" The creature's English was understandable, if not slightly accented. And as I assessed its strengths and weaknesses, all in the blink of an eye, I also sensed it was angered and confused and reacting rather than acting. Something had agitated it and I had a pretty good idea it was whomever was making that magic.
I sensed Luke was still nearby and I hoped shielded by the mist. I couldn't tell if Tim was still around. But my immediate concern was this…thing…as it focused on me and my shiny gun.
"Little boy blue, are you? Home, home, home!" it shouted at me and lunged.
I reacted on instinct and training and fired the first shot to the right of its head, grazing a long pointed ear.
Wait…pointed ear?
The thing screamed and grabbed its ear and the boat lurched again. I nearly fell off but kept my balance as I noticed something on its wrist. Only one wrist.
A shackle. A freak'n metal shackle. And attached to it was a length of chain that whipped about. I ducked once and this time I fired at the creature's shoulder, making sure it wouldn't be a fatal shot, but something to do damage only. It screamed out again and then dove into the water. The boat capsized and I went into the watery mist.
"Ren!" came a shout and I recognized Luke's voice.
"Swim to the shore!"
"I can't find the shore!"
I couldn't see either. I called to Occam and she immediately showed me where Luke was and where I was. There was no sign of Tim. I swam to Luke and grabbed him, then followed Occam's eyes to the boat launch. A black and white showed up as Julie dragged a woman from the woods. The car said Lanier Police Department. I assumed Julie had cal
led them for back up.
Wet and a bit shaky, I helped Luke to the car as the girl was taken away in handcuffs by the two cops. That's when I noticed Tim's truck was gone.
"I take it…" I said, out of breath. "That our driver got out alive?"
"So it would seem," Luke said and coughed again. "I'm betting he's either gonna tell some fish stories about this and losing his boat, or he's gonna not say a word and hide in his coat closet."
"My vote's on the later," I said and pointed to the bag Julie was carrying. "What's that?"
"This is the evidence she had in front of her. Her altar. I didn't want to confuse her being a fire bug with using magic with the local so I grabbed this stuff up before they got here." The black and white pulled way.
I looked back at the Lake. Calm. No mist. And the sun peeked through the clouds. "You poured salt on it?"
"Have a look for yourself." She tossed the bag to me.
The moment I had it in my hands I saw images, scenes of a woman fighting her way through a labyrinth of torch-lit tunnels. She was dressed in black and moved like silk as she expertly took out one Night Walker after another. I recognized her moves, knew she'd make them before she did, and I became her as she entered a dark room and cast a light in the darkness.
There, in the back of that room, sitting on a dais, was a cup. At first I didn't think that was what she was after, but when she grabbed it, kissed it, and then placed it inside a backpack I hadn't noticed on her back. I was confused. All of this work for a cup? Then it was time to leave, and since most of the Night Walkers she'd encountered were dead, there was only one to face.
And when I stared at him, standing there in the entrance, blocking me from my escape.
I gasped.
And was abruptly thrown out of the vision.
I was on the concrete, sitting up, clutching the bag to me with Luke and Julie at my side. They were staring at me.
"Buddy…you back now?"
"I—" and I looked at the bag in my hand. Without another word I opened it and reached inside. When my fingers closed around the cup I knew it was the same thing. I pulled it out and stared at it, processing everything I'd just seen.