by Kat Cotton
It’d only taken that short conversation with Fleur to change things completely. There were people in this world who’d known my parents. I’d never thought of that before. I’d never sought anyone out or asked any questions. All I had in this world was me. And now I had Kisho.
But all those questions I’d pushed down were fighting for answers now. Who had my parents been? Why had they gone out that night and left me alone? I’d been way too young to be at home alone. Another thought kept surfacing, too. As much as I tried to push it down, it kept bobbing back up. People kept telling me I wasn’t fully human, but that couldn’t be true.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Kisho said. “Or you can tell me when you’re ready.”
I smiled at him, and a rush of how much I loved that guy flooded my body. I could tell him. I knew that. He’d understand, and he’d accept me. The knowledge that I could actually trust someone else in this world slammed into me. I’d never experienced that before. He’d listen, and he’d understand.
“I’m not sure where to even start. You know my parents are dead, right? I met someone tonight who knew my mother. I never considered there were people in this world who’d known them.”
Kisho screwed up his face, thinking.
“You must’ve known their friends as a child. And after they died, didn’t any of their friends or your relatives offer to take you in?”
No, I thought. Because I’m not Harry Potter.
I shook my head. “A man came to the house. He said they’d been killed. That was it. End of story. I stayed at the orphanage until I was old enough to leave, knowing nothing about my parents.”
Kisho sat upright. “You didn’t go to their funeral? You never had any other confirmation of their deaths?”
“Nope. I was a little kid. I just did what the man said. I don’t even know who he was. I never saw him again.”
He reached over and toyed with a lock of my hair. “Have you ever considered that your parents aren’t dead?”
I pulled away from him. “Muthafucker! No. I’ve never, not once, thought that. It’s possible, right? If those assholes are still alive, I’ll fucking kill them. They could’ve been at home, parenting, instead of ditching me.”
“It’s just a thought. But maybe you should look into it. You know who’d be able to help? The mayor. There’d have to be records. And those records are at City Hall. It wouldn’t be that difficult for him to get someone to check them.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted the mayor all up in my private business. Before I could say anything, though, the mayor knocked on the door. I didn’t want to talk to him. I just wanted to be alone with Kisho.
Chapter 25 Sadness
“CLEMENTINE, I NEED to know what happened,” the mayor said as Kisho let him into the room.
I stared at him. His outfit! The horror of seeing him wear that drove the sad thoughts from my mind.
“Where did you get that t-shirt?” I asked.
He wore one of my t-shirts. The “You Pay, I Slay” t-shirts. First the trainees had started wearing them, and now the mayor? But how had he gotten his hands on one?
“Nic gave it to me.”
“What? Huh? You’re kidding.”
Why was Nic handing out my private t-shirts to randoms? I had enough personal angst without that. Those t-shirts were a huge mistake to begin with. A rookie mistake, advertising to the world that I was a demon slayer. They even had my name on them. I’d realized that that was making me a target, so I’d hidden them away, but one of the trainees had found them.
“I thought it was kind of cute.” The mayor smiled, but he could keep his smiles to himself.
“Take it off. No, not now. But don’t wear it again. We can’t advertise to the world that I’m a demon fighter. Especially at the moment. It could ruin everything.”
“Can I wear it to sleep in?” the mayor asked.
“I guess. Only if you’re sleeping alone. Or with Nic. But not with anyone else.”
The mayor smiled.
“Can I have one?” Kisho asked. “If everyone else has one, I want one.”
I sighed.
“Yes, Team Clem.” The mayor did an air-punch and smiled.
I didn’t smile back. “There is no Team Clem. And I’d prefer you not to wear them.”
Kisho looked from me to the mayor. I knew what he was implying, but mentioning my dead parents to the mayor wouldn’t be easy.
“What happened with the tour?” the mayor asked as he sat down at the desk.
Before I could tell him, Nic came to the door. Why did everybody have to gather in my room all the time?
Had Nic and the mayor been together before they came here? That was what I wanted to know.
I gave them a quick recap of the tour, leaving out the sensitive bits. “We need to find that woman,” I said.
“If she’s still alive,” Nic said. “He’s probably sucked her dry by now.”
I flinched. “We’ve got no evidence that he’s killed any of the victims.”
“Well, he’s not taking them for funsies,” Nic said. “He’s feeding.”
I didn’t want to face the prospect that Fleur might be dead. I wanted to find her alive. I needed to find her alive, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be mentioning her special abilities, especially being able to remove my cuffs, in front of the mayor.
I told them, “Kisho and I will go back tomorrow and look around in the light. We might see something I missed.”
“I’ll come with you,” Nic said.
“No, I think you should stay here. You and the mayor can do some Internet research into this guy. He’s suddenly emerged, and he’s talking up the gold thing while he’s hunting victims. Where did he come from? What’s his M.O.? Check for previous incidents. Anything at all you find that might be a clue.”
Nic grinned. The thing with the mayor was most definitely on. But Nic should definitely not give him my t-shirts.
Kisho coughed and nudged me.
“Before you go,” I said, giving them the massive hint to leave. “I need some City Hall information.”
I gulped. I hated to ask. I don’t know what would be worse: knowing my parents were actually dead or finding out they were still alive.
I told the mayor what I wanted to know, and he promised to get someone working on it. He was surprisingly not annoying or overly inquisitive about it, which made me happy. I wouldn’t have been able deal with that.
After that, I threw them out. I needed to be alone with Kisho so I could indulge my sadness in peace.
Chapter 26 Fern
THE NEXT MORNING, THE old guy on reception called to say that someone wanted to see me.
“I’ll be there in a minute. Meanwhile, if you could make me a coffee…”
He grunted.
“I have no idea who this is,” I said to Kisho. “Do you want to come with me?”
Maybe he shouldn’t, in case it was the Council, but I really wanted the comfort of him being there.
The two of us walked down to the lobby. Fern had been waiting on the sofa, but she got up to greet us. I wasn’t sure how she’d found me, but this was obviously about Fleur’s disappearance. I considered it a disappearance, no matter what Nic said.
Fern looked like she’d had a worse night than I had. Worries lined her face.
“This is Kisho,” I said.
“He’s a vampire?” She frowned.
Most people didn’t pick that up. Kisho was still human enough to avoid detection, and most people weren’t even trying to detect. Maybe Fern was more perceptive than most, or maybe the vampire essence in him had grown stronger since he’d started feeding.
“He’s my boyfriend. Half-vampire, all good guy.”
She didn’t look reassured, but she forced on a smile. Kisho and I sat down opposite her.
“I need your help,” she said. “I need to find my wife.”
“Fleur?”
“Yes, obviously. Since she didn’t return
, I assumed you weren’t successful in your chase. I’ve been going out of my mind with worry.”
I nodded. “They just disappeared. No explanation. I followed them to a dead end, and that’s where they disappeared.”
“Can you find her for me?”
“I’ll do everything I can. We’re going to take a second look this morning. By the way, Fleur said she had some things to talk to me about. Do you know what they were?”
I could only hope. Maybe Fern could do the magic thing with the cuffs herself. Even if she couldn’t, she might be able to answer some of the questions that had started bothering me.
But she shook her head.
For half a minute, I considered mentioning payment for my services. Getting extra cash for a job I was already working on had served me well in the past, but I couldn’t. I had no idea why, but I couldn’t ask Fern for money. It wasn’t just her obvious distress, but something else about her.
I knew I’d regret that.
The reception guy bought over our coffees. He gave Fern a free one with a charming smile. That was the first time I’d seen him smile, ever. Wow, that smile was wasted on Fern. She had no eyes for him.
“I don’t have any real powers,” Fern said. “A strong intuition, but nothing else, and Fleur told me nothing. She said it was safer for me that way.”
Damn. I’d never find out what Fleur had to say to me. Who were these people?
“I’m going out to look for clues now, but we do have to accept that the news might not be good,” I told her.
Fern wrung her hands. “She’s alive. I know that much. I think she’s in a bad place, but she’s still alive. He must have her tightly secured, or she’d be able to escape. She has powers. Some like yours, but others too.”
I sat up. “What do you know about me?”
“Fleur didn’t tell me much, but she mentioned that you were in trouble and we had to save you from the Council. She also told me about your powers, your sexual aura. Other than that, I don’t know much. If you rescue her, she’ll tell you everything.”
Fern gave me a sad smile, and Kisho took her hand in his. She flinched a little but let him hold it. As she did, her body relaxed. Kisho was like that.
“Hey, should you even be here if the Council is watching us?” I asked.
“Probably not, but I took the risk because if I don’t find Fleur…”
She didn’t need to finish that. I could see the desperation on her face. Poor woman.
“We’ve been following you,” Fern said. “We tried so hard to contact you without calling attention to ourselves, but now I’ve had to come here. I had no other choice. At this stage, I don’t really care what they do to me. I’m small fry. So long as I haven’t put you in danger.”
I held up my cuffed wrists. “I don’t think you’ve made it any worse,” I said. “Those bastards are on to me. They want to run tests, but you know that.”
“Don’t let them, whatever you do. I can’t ask you to do the worst, but it’s more than just you at risk if they do those tests.”
That struck me as overly dramatic, but she was very upset. Of course I wouldn’t let them run tests on me if there was any way to avoid it. She could count on that.
“How can I contact you?” I asked. “I assume phone isn’t safe.”
Fern gave me the URL of a safe website I could use to message her.
“Make sure you use a VPN,” she said. “You should always do that anyway. Safety first.”
Chapter 27 House
KISHO HAD NO MORE LUCK in finding where the alchemist had gone than I did.
“It’s not even like there’s a doorway along here. It’s all just stone walls. Solid stone. It had to be magic.”
“Dark magic,” I replied.
“It doesn’t really need to be that dark. Just regular magic would be enough to create a portal or a door.”
“Yeah, I just like saying dark magic.”
Coming back in the daylight made it easier to investigate the alley, but there wasn’t much more to see. The buildings around the alley didn’t seem residential. None of those buildings had windows facing in this direction, and there were no doors, just solid stone or brick walls on each side of me. Graffiti covered those walls. I examined it to see if there were any signs, like maybe some kind of alchemy symbol included in the artwork, or something like “The undead alchemist was here.” I didn’t really know. I looked for anything at all.
I took photos and sent them to Luis. It’d help to have an extra pair of eyes look at them.
“You’re sure this is the right alley?” Kisho said.
“Yep, a hundred percent sure. There was that stupid gargoyle with the smashed-in left eye on the building on the corner. I’d never forget that guy. He’s so ugly.”
“There are a lot of gargoyles in this city,” Kisho said. “You might be confused.”
“Are you doubting me?” I asked.
“No. I just want to be absolutely certain.”
“Go look at that gargoyle. There’s something different about it. He’s not like all the others in this city. I mean the face, not just the smashed-up part of it.”
Kisho walked back down the alley. I walked behind him because sometimes I just liked looking at his butt.
“You’re right,” he said.
He turned back to me. Sometimes looking at his front wasn’t bad, either.
“It’s freaky, right?” I said. “I mean all gargoyles are freaky, but there’s something weird about that one.”
“You don’t think it’s a clue? Like some kind of marker or whatever.”
He might be on to something there. It wouldn’t hurt to check.
“Jump up and see if it’s a lever to open some kind of secret door.”
Kisho ran back down the alley. He jumped up and hit the gargoyle like he was dunking a basketball. I waited, desperately hoping part of one of the walls would creak open, revealing some full-on alchemy lab or maybe some steps like the ones at the alchemy museum. I watched both sides of the alley, but nothing. Kisho tried again, knocking it to the left, then to the right. He tried twisting it. He tried poking it in various places. I waited, but my hopes began to die inside me.
I guessed it was too much to ask for, that it’d be that easy.
“He’s not a shifter?” Kisho asked.
“Not that I’m aware of. That’d be a bit too much to have going on. A shifter/vampire/alchemist. Anyway, he was carrying Fleur, so even if he shifted, it’s not like he could’ve shifted her too. Maybe he did some kind of cloaking spell. Shit. I bet he did. They might’ve been here all along and I didn’t realize.”
“You’d have sensed him, though. You can’t mask smell.”
That was true. There’d have been some trace. Also, Fleur had on that sandalwood oil. You sure as hell can’t mask that stuff. It made me feel better to know I hadn’t made such a stupid rookie mistake.
“So, we’re back to magic,” I said. “I mean, he’s an alchemist. He can transmute things. It’s his stock in trade.”
“And there’d be no traces of that left behind because of the rain last night. Hey, wait, what’s that?”
Something was lying in the gutter. Not just the empty candy wrappers and soft drink cans littering the street but something brightly colored. Well, bits of it were brightly colored. It was covered in dirt and muck. I picked it up.
“Fleur’s scarf. She was wearing it last night.”
“That’s a clue. Do you think she dropped it, or she left it there on purpose?”
“I think she left it for me.” I looked up at the stone walls on either side of me. “Let’s go around and find the front of the building.”
Kisho and I walked around to the other street, looking for the same building as the one where we’d found the scarf.
Most of the buildings in that street were boarded up. It seemed strange that a street so close to a main shopping area would be so abandoned.
It would’ve been a pretty house once. S
olid stone, a faded pastel blue with white trim. And that sure was some fancy trim, all curly-wurly bits, even though some of the bits had broken off. The place was two stories high, with a peaky attic window on the third level.
The building was in ill repair now, with broken windows and a door covered in graffiti and scratches. The massive front door looked like it’d been designed to hold back marauding hordes.
The perfect lair.
“It might be dangerous getting through the windows, with those broken shards of glass,” I said.
“No need,” said Kisho.
The front door swung open. That was welcoming, I guessed, in the way that a spider invites a fly into his web. I grabbed hold of Kisho’s arm. I wouldn’t let go until we left this place, no matter how uncomfortable it was. I didn’t scare easily, but something creeped me out.
A tiled floor led from the entrance into the house. Those tiles would’ve been brightly colored once, but decades of dust and grime had dulled them. It was even colder inside than it was outside. That pointed to it being a vampire’s lair. A human would need heating.
The place reeked of mildew and rising damp. It could definitely do with some airing out. You’d think the broken windows would deal with that.
The door slammed shut behind us. Shit, I thought; we should’ve at least told someone we were coming here. I guessed it wasn’t too late. I got out my phone and tried sending Nic a message.
“No reception,” I whispered.
Kisho nodded.
God, this place was so cold. Even in Kisho’s jacket, I shivered. The place sounded empty. Not just like no one was currently home, but the silence of a place that had been deserted forever.
I knew better than to mention the risk of rats to Kisho, but the thought of them wasn’t far from my mind. I bet it wasn’t far from his, either.
Kisho opened one of the doors leading off the hallway. He didn’t enter the room, though. I peeked inside.
That added to the creepiness. A living room. It looked like someone had just stepped out and planned to come back any minute, but they’d actually stepped out about a hundred years ago. Wallpaper hung in strips from the walls, faded and floral on the front side, brown and manky on the back. A thick layer of dust covered the carpet and the chairs and the knickknacks on the mantelpiece. A squeak came from somewhere, probably one of those holes in the chairs.