by A J Brahms
Uh huh.
I retrieved my army knife from my pocket, something I'd grabbed last minute before we left, and pulled out the small blade. With a glance at him, a nod at Aberdeen, who then put a hand on Julie's shoulder, I made a slice at my wrist. Blood welled up fast and very, very red. The light in the cavern changed from soft hues of blue and green to orange and then, to pink. I looked up at the ceiling, and then back, only to find the Ancient standing in front of me, his dusty eyes focused on my wrist.
"Ren!" Julie screamed just as the Night Walker grabbed my wrist (so fast I didn't see it) and then brought it to his mouth. I was mesmerized as he parted his lips and something flickered out. A tongue, maybe? I wasn't sure. It stung as it licked at the welling blood. I was dizzy for a second and then blinked when I realized—the cut was gone, and so was the blood.
The Ancient stood in front of me, staring at my wrist, still as stone, for another minute or so before something cracked. Then…the Night Walker sneezed. He coughed, and then…
"Did…" Julie's voice echoed. "Did he just fart?"
The Ancient straightened as his skin color shifted from bone white to a more normal tone. His eyes blinked rapidly and he let go of my wrist and put his hands on them. "Oh Ta!" he said in a pleasant if not scratchy voice. "I told you to keep me eyes watered!"
Me?
I took a step back as the Ancient came to life. He took off the newsboy cap and smacked it against his hips and chest. Dust puffed off and filled the air and I was reminded of Pigpen. Eventually he settled himself and pulled at his long, white hair. "Aw rot. It's even whiter than before. I didn't know it was possible the stuff could be cloud made." And then he blinked at me and set the cap back on his head. "You're not Leo."
I slowly shook my head. "I'm Ren Grainger." And I handed him the note.
He cocked his head to his shoulder as he took it and read it. Ancients were fluid in their movements. And fast, if they weren't careful. But apparently when they wake, they were a bit clumsy. And noisy. He snorted again and coughed. "Bugger all this dust in me lungs. Gonna take a week to drive it out." He refocused on the note. "Love that Greenteeth. Nice to know she's still alive." He looked at me. "Chevalier."
I nodded.
"Class One, Tier One?"
I didn't understand Class but I nodded again.
"Did Leo send you in his stead? I swear, if that git's made off with me living I'll de-ghoul him and turn him to dust."
Julie made a noise and in a blink the Ancient was in front of her. He took her hand and smiled at her. The look in her face told me she could see his fangs. "Well now, lovely lass. Don't you worry your head. I don't need a first meal. The Ghoul's blood was enough."
Julie looked at me and I could hear her unspoken thought. Ghoul?
Balls.
Aberdeen cleared his throat. The Ancient jumped back, thankfully remembering to let go of Julie's hand. I was afraid he'd tear it off.
"Well sell me soul…" The Ancient laughed. "Begging your pardon, Priest, but I've not seen your kind in some time. I thought that rotty bastard Cardinal of your order turned you all into—" And then he stopped and put his hands on his hips. "He did, didn't he. And you…" and he looked at me. "A Keeper of God and a Demon of Lilith. Well this is an interesting pair."
I honestly didn't understand a word of what he was saying. He wasn't at all like I thought an Ancient would be. But, when I thought about it, I really didn't know what that was.
"I am Aberdeen Windersham. This is Detective Julie Wallace."
But the Ancient was looking at Julie. "What exactly are you wearing, lass?" Then he looked back at me as I moved to them. "What year is it?"
Julie told him in a halting voice.
He took a few steps away from us. "That's…I wasn't supposed to be here that long. Leo promised to raise me closer to the 'fifties, but not clear into the space age."
Space age?
"Sir," Julie said. "Who are you?"
"Begging pardon again, Miss Wallace. My name is Casper Tungsten. Most just call me Casper on occasion." He took her hand again and I gasped when he kissed her wrist—and he really just kissed it.
Julie blushed and I found myself…not liking him touching her like that. Yeah he was the typical pretty boy vampire but way too old for her.
"My companion is Ruby Losey," He looked at me and then at Julie and Aberdeen. "Is she still alive? I gave her enough of me blood's life to keep her kicking for some time."
I recognized the name. But it was Julie who remembered it. "Mr. Tungsten—"
"Casper, please."
"Casper… if you mean Ruby Eugenia Losey, she married Leo Lambert, the man who explored these caves."
Casper looked a little distressed. I moved in close. I didn't want Julie in the line of site of an angry or irritated Ancient. Of the three of us here, she was the most vulnerable. "Ruby…married Leo?"
"Yeah," She nodded. "According to the pamphlets they sell in the gift shop, they both died in 1955."
Casper removed his cap and dragged his fingers through his long hair. It seemed to float around him, and on a woman, would to me have looked very attractive. I could feel a fluctuation in the cavern as the light dimmed and turned from pink to a soft blue. "They married."
"You called me Leo," I said. "When you drank my blood."
"Yes. Leo was my Chevalier, dear boy." Casper shook his head. "She married him?" He sounded as if he couldn't believe it.
I know I didn't. I stepped closer to Casper. "He was your Chevalier," I said. "But he had children with his wife Ruby. He named a nearby water fall after her. He was human."
"Well," Casper shrugged. "Sounds like he used the Cup of Alemont. We did have it in storage for just that occasion. You know…when I slept and he might decide to move on. Apparently, he did."
That was the first time I'd heard the name of a cup. I looked at Aberdeen who nodded. "Cup of Alemont," I said and pulled the cup from my jacket pocket. "Is this it?"
Casper took it from me and looked it over. "It's a nice forgery, but its not my cup." He handed it back to me. "That I would know."
"Your cup?" Aberdeen said.
"Aye," Casper said as he walked back to where we found him and sat back down on the rock. "I commissioned a mad man to make it for me. A Vampire submersed in the Dark Arts of Aramanthea." He gave a soft laugh. "Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Like some Penny Dreadful."
"Not really," I said.
He held his hat in his hand as his hair fell forward over his shoulders. "Leo was a solid man, you know. I only Ghoul'd him because I wanted to save his life. And I needed someone to look after me. You know how age destroys our ability to keep our minds in this world," he said to me as if I were an old friend. Julie and Aberdeen came closer. "He was a spelunker of a sorts. I liked caves. Gave me places to sleep when I needed them. I met Ruby just a few years ago—" and he caught himself. "In 1914 and we moved to Chattanooga. I fell in love with the Americas, Chevalier. And…I loved her." He sighed. "A century before I saved a Vampire from certain death. He'd been lashed to a cross to be burned by the sun. So I freed him and he offered to grant me any wish. I'd lost my first Ghoul by then…watched her die that horrible death your kind must face…and I wanted to stop it."
I knelt down in front of him and he looked down at me. "You knew such a thing could be reversed?"
"In theory. This mad-man claimed it when I told him what I wanted. He vanished for a few decades, and then one day the cup was delivered to me by a young woman. A tier three Ghoul. I pitied her and her life. I would never do such a thing to an innocent. Such a life of mindless servitude. So I experimented with the cup on her."
"Excuse me, Casper," Aberdeen said. "You knew about the blood of a Greenteeth?"
Casper slowly shook his head. "Not then. A vial had been provided with the cup and instructions on how to use it. It was…successful." He put his hands on his knees. "And it took me another half century to discover what blood the cup needed."
I stood a
nd looked at Aberdeen. He was looking at Casper.
"I made a deal with a three-faced woman. Bugger all a mistake that was."
The Mórrígan.
"She gave you the Greenteeth's blood?"
"Feck all," Casper said and looked at me. "She gave me the damn Greenteeth. What was I going to do with a ruddy Faerie?" He laughed just a little. "She wanted freedom and I wanted a guarantee that if I made another Ghoul, I'd have a way to free them." He shrugged. "She gave me fifty vials of blood over fifty years. Faerie blood doesn't go bad."
"We know," Aberdeen said.
"So…I'm suppose'n when I sat down here, Leo used the cup and took back his life. Well, I'm glad he's happy." He put his hat back on. "So if you'll be excusing me, I'd like to resume my resting."
"You," Julie said. "You don't want to get out of here? Go see the world as it is now?"
He held out his hands to her and she hesitantly put hers on his. "M'Lady, I don't know how to explain it to you. But I know what the world's like as we speak. All those years I sit here, I'm still out there, moving from place to place, like an errant mote of dust, you could say. I know the black times you live in, and with my love gone on…I think I'll spend a bit more time here to mend a broken heart."
Julie's lower lip stuck out and I wanted to roll my eyes. But I couldn't. We'd just learned something very important from Casper.
Very important.
"What became of the vials of blood?" Aberdeen asked.
"No idea," Casper said. "You'd have to ask Leo, but ye best have a seance if'n he's truly with my Ruby." He released Julie's hands and put his own on his knees. He looked at the water and stopped moving.
I bent down and waved my hand in front of his face.
Nothing.
"Come on, Ren," Aberdeen said. "Let's let Casper have his rest."
The trip back out of the cave was a bit more confusing since I didn't have the signal of the Ancient's power to guide me. But eventually we did emerge, covered in dust. The Manager took her cash, wished us a happy day, and made sure we left before too many people asked questions about what we were doing down there for an hour.
But at the car, I put on my shades and unlocked the door. Once inside, I cranked the car.
The cup stolen was a fake. The real one was in the hands of Mitchell Graybeard and Aubrey.
It was time, once again, to talk to Jedediah Talmadge.
Fourteen
Julie and Aberdeen did most of the talking on the way back to Atlanta. I found myself drowning in a sea of what the fuck. Why? I've always considered myself a logical man. Things happen for reasons. Just like cops look for their trifecta when solving a murder, I look for similar things. Things that make sense, in a logical, cause and effect pattern.
But this—whatever this was—just…
Wasn't.
Driving always helped me think. Couple that with Julie and Aberdeen's witty exchanges and subtle digs at each other, and my mind sort of super-imposed a grid on the road in front of me. I can assure you this didn't hamper my driving what so ever.
Two problems. Mitchell Graybeard, a Troll, had a Greenteeth held captive and was bleeding her to use her blood with a magic cup to create something that will reverse vampirism. Only, the magic cup was allegedly stolen by a Ghoul from a Family House in New York and brought here to Atlanta, and the Ghoul who stole it was compelled by her now dead Maker to bring said cup and some Greenteeth blood to her Maker's bones, in Cimitir Hall. But the cup she stole was fake, and the cup used by Greybreard is probably the real one.
And, apparently the right hand of the city's Night Stalker Prince is involved.
I have the fake cup. Jedediah wants the stolen cup back. Does Jed know it's fake?
And what is Greybeard going to do when he realizes he no longer has a Greenteeth in the lake at all? He already knows his stocked supplies are missing, thanks to Ginny's quick thinking. And I doubt that big lug will ever discover a cave in that lake.
I couldn't even imagine what's going to happen when The Mórrígan learns what Greybeard was doing. I made a promise to Ginny to tell the Triple Goddess, so I figured one of my next moves was either to get a message to her, which of course I had no idea how since I had to have a referral just to speak to her, or go to Jedediah and lay everything out on the table for him and see how he reacts. Either way, Greybeard has to be brought to justice for killing four people, including Emmet, a Night Walker made human.
I regretted not knowing that about him. I would have liked to have known more. In the beginning I had dreams of being human again, of contacting my family, letting them know I wasn't dead. But then the reality of what my Maker had always preached, that my not aging, my differences, my absence, all of these things would become issues for the Night Walkers. It was better if they still believed William Grainger disappeared.
"You okay Ren?" Julie ask as she put a hand on my shoulder. We'd just passed 285 heading south on 85 back into the city.
I glanced at her. "I'm fine. Just thinking."
"What did you want to do next?" Aberdeen asked. I was pretty sure he was thinking the same things I was thinking.
"First, drop Julie off at her place, go home and shower." I looked looked at him in the rear view mirror. "Maybe see if Jedediah is available for a little conversation."
"Jedediah Talmadge?" Julie moved her hand away. "Ren—what did Casper mean when he called you those things. Chevalier, Ghoul, class one and tier one?"
I looked in the mirror at Aberdeen again and knew I wasn't going to get much help from mister 'be honest' back there.
"Ren?"
"Julie—" I glanced at her and lowered my shoulders. "I don't think talking about this while I'm driving is such a good idea."
"Will it ever be? Dammit, this…this freaky-ass Ancient Vampire took one look at you and knew what you were. But you won't even tell me."
"It's complicated."
"I can look it up."
I nodded. "You can."
"You won't stop me?"
"No."
She didn't say much else after that.
I dropped her off at her house and she got out without even a goodbye. I watched her go into her house as Aberdeen switched seats from the back to the front.
"That went roaringly well," he commented.
"Not now," I said as I backed out. "I've got too much on my mind."
"So is your next step really going to be confronting Jedediah?"
"I have to know if he's aware of what Aubrey's doing." We didn't say much else as I drove us home. Once in the apartment, he went to his computer and I went to the shower to get rid of the cave dust. There was tea made when I emerged and I prepared a cup, realizing at that moment I'd left my bag and the cup in the trunk of my car.
"Gonna run to the garage," I said as I left and took the elevator to the garage. All the while I was wondering if I should bring the cup and just toss it at Jedediah and get my money. Let him deal with whether it's fake or not. But my conscience wasn't going to let me do that and just walk away from what Aubrey and Greybeard did to Ginny, and to every other creature I was pretty sure had stayed in that creepy-ass back room. I thought of that cage and shivered as I stepped out the elevator—
And stopped in front of Aubrey.
He smiled at me, his arms crossed. He wasn't dressed like a club kid for once, but more like a business man. Dark suit, red tie, and gold cufflinks. His topknot was smoothly coiffed. A far cry from the Night Stalker I usually saw at Cimitir—or in the den of a Troll.
He didn't make any menacing moves so I stood between him and the elevator. "Yes?" I said.
"I heard you paid a mutual acquaintance a visit."
I just stared at him. I wasn't armed. One of my guns was still in the bag, and the other one was inside the apartment. But that didn't worry me.
Not yet.
He checked his nails. "Mr. Grainger, I'm not here to toy with you, or argue. Mr. Greybeard claims an item was removed from his possession at the time of y
our visit. He wants it back."
Now I frowned. I hadn't taken anything from Greybeard's place, except the bowling ball and chains he'd put on me. "I didn't take anything from Mitchell Greybeard. And if you have spoken with him, I'm sure he told you he believed he killed me."
"Yes. And I informed him it's not that easy to kill a Ghoul." He clasped his hands behind him. "I want the cup back."
"Is this the same cup that Jedediah hired me to recover?" I smiled at him. "Because if it is, I'm sure you won't mind if I just give it back to him?"
"It is not the same cup." Aubrey kept a straight face. But honestly, he was a bad liar. Apparently he wasn't aware of what I'd heard.
"The same cup that makes Vampires and Ghouls into humans, Aubrey?" I narrowed my eyes at him. Occam came to me, keeping herself hidden. I could hear the flutter of her wings as she hovered, ready to strike.
Aubrey tilted his head, but didn't look away from me. "If you didn't take it, why summon your little battle pet?"
I noticed he didn't admit or deny my question. "Because apparently Greybeard didn't tell you the whole truth. See, I was there when you paid him a visit. I heard your conversation. I know what the cup can do."
"You know know nothing."
"I know he would siphon blood from Ginny Greenteeth and with that cup, cure the curse of Vampirism, in all its forms. Emmet Carson had been a Vampire once, but he'd been made human. I suspect, the other victims were the same and Greybeard simply killed them in order to hide the successes."
Aubrey didn't move. And there was nothing like the stillness of a Night Walker. "You play with things you don't understand, Ghoul."
"I spoke with Ginny, Aubrey. I know what you've been doing. And I know what The Mórrígan would do if she were to discover it."
He pursed his lips. "She's gone. You freed her."
"I did." I stepped to the side. Occam rustled. "Gone from here. Away from your little torture chamber."
"I'm sure the Stone Man knows where the cup is."
"You can ask him yourself."
Aubrey took a step back. "That's won't be necessary." He turned to go. "Have a nice evening, Mr. Grainger."