Elemental Flame (The Eldritch Files Book 4)

by Phaedra Weldon

  And now Kathy.

  I gripped the side of the counter to my right as I composed myself. I was pretty sure whatever miasma of emotions I was feeling also played out on my face.

  "Sam? You okay?" Robin leaned forward, his gaze piercing. I knew this without even looking at him.

  I swallowed and cleared my throat. "Guys…Robin…can Kathy and I have a few minutes alone?"

  "Alone? Why?" Ivan moved away from his computer to stand by me. "What's wrong?"

  Sam?

  "Just…" I tightened my jaw and thinned my lips before I reined in my emotion-fueled temper. I could feel the scar at my chest pulsing as the heat moved throughout my body. In seconds, the tell tale red sparkle of Arcane was going to rear its ugly head and Ivan was going to get the brunt of it. "Leave."

  Stepping back, he looked at everyone, and then shoved the door to the break room inward as he departed. I heard Grey in my head…but it wasn't words but pictures. Images of Crwys on the day we met, when he came in to ask my help to hunt down a Djinn. She turned and loped off behind Ivan through the open door.

  "Come have some tea, Robin. We can catch up," Kyle said as he gestured for Robin to follow him.

  My ex put his hand on my shoulder as he passed and squeezed it before following Kyle into the break room.

  Kathy looked troubled and clasped her hands behind her back. "Did I do something wrong?"

  "No." I took a deep breath, summoned my Elementals and breathed a sigh of relief as their presence calmed me. They remained invisible so as not to startle the child. Kathy was a young God Mother's child and I wasn't sure just how far along her magic is.

  I walked to her and knelt in front of her. Holding out my hands, palms up, I said, "You haven't done anything wrong. I just need you to tell me exactly what you've been dreaming about the Dragon."

  "Okay." She put her hands in mine. They were warm and clammy, and tingled with untapped power. "I've seen him before. He was at Uncle Robin's house that day when I saw you fight the man in the hat."

  She referred to the day when a Shadow Person entered Robin's house and tried to kill him and I. I let loose that time, working with my Elementals to cut the bastard off at the knees. And I discovered later that's exactly what I did. I had no idea that part of the group of Shadow People had been the children then, and Kathy had been among them. She'd seen me at my best.

  Crwys had come that day, bringing Ivan and Kyle with him. "Kathy, please tell me."

  "It's not exactly a nice thing to remember. I know he's in pain, but he's not letting me feel it. I just hear him crying. And that made me sad. Sammie, we can't let the evil queen hurt the Dragon."

  I blinked. "Evil queen?"

  "Yes. He's prisoner in her castle and no one can touch him. He's got a stick in his chest right here," she said before she pulled her hands from mine and pointed to the center of her chest. "It's hurting him real bad."

  This was starting to sound a lot like a kid's fantasy book. Dragons and queens and castles. It faltered my belief she could mean Crwys. I licked my lips. "Kathy, don't you mean the princess is prisoner in the evil queen's castle and the prince slays the dragon to rescue the princess?"

  She arched a dark brow at me and folded her arms over her chest. "That's a baby's book, Sammie. And that's not what's happening in this story. In this one the dragon is in trouble and the princess has to save him," Kathy smiled and lowered her arms before she put her hand to my cheek. "You're the princess, Sammie. You have to save him."

  Was it possible this was exactly what I hoped it would be? It just seemed so out of reach. A child telling me I had to save a Dragon minutes after I finally figured out that was exactly what Crwys might be?

  The shop door opened, the bell announcing a new customer. I put my hands on my thighs and stood, ready to tell them the shop was closed when I spotted a familiar face.

  Detective Levi Tulose. Crwys's partner. He was the last person I spoke to about Crwys that night, Valentine's Day evening, when I was feeling really, really bummed out. I'd told him to tell Crwys not to bother coming back.

  Levi was dressed in his usual suit, nice shoes and sunglasses. He was a Revenant, a Vampire, and a bit sensitive to light. His usual café au last skin looked a bit ashy and I figured it was the sun. He was a handsome man, reminding me of the actor Michael Ealy. The clock over the shop door said it was after noon, closing in on one o'clock. He spotted me and held out his hand as he removed his shades. His usual gorgeous eyes were black from pupil to iris. This told me the demon inside of him was driving the bus, so to speak.

  "Sam—don't kick me out. I've been trying to call you for two days. I just need you to listen to me." His voice had a dual tone to it. It was both the demon's voice and the host's.

  "Levi—"

  "Crwys is missing. Now, I know you're mad at him and I was too for the first twenty-four hours. But I can't find him anywhere. He hasn't been to work, his apartment is cleaned out and his car hasn't been spotted anywhere on any camera."

  Kathy grabbed my fingers. "See?"

  I squeezed her hand. "Levi, I'm not going to kick you out. But you have to answer something," I straightened my shoulders and took a deep breath. "Is Crwys a Dragon?"

  Levi, or his demon, should never play poker. "You know the truth? I thought he never told you."

  "He didn't. I've been hit in the head with the possibility several times since I got back in town. Apparently my Elementals knew, Mom knew and," I said as I nodded to Kathy. "Someone else does."

  Levi came further inside the store and his eyes cleared, as if seeing the all black color might be frightening. His voice dropped the lower base tones of his demon as he spoke. "She knows where he is?"

  I told him about the dream Kathy had, and she filled in where I left off. Levi knelt down in front of Kathy and smiled. "Can you tell me what the stick looks like? The one in his chest?"

  Kathy shrugged. If Levi's presence bothered her, she didn't show it. Maybe she couldn't sense he wasn't human. "It was gold. That's all I can see. It's kinda fuzzy. But the walls are black."

  "Black?" I said and shook my head. "I don't know where she's talking about."

  Levi straightened. "Using the word queen makes me think of the Faerie."

  "Yeah, me too. But…why? Why would he be with the Faeries? He's been around when I've called Brendi and Tzariene. But he's never been a part of that. We can't just jump to conclusions, I'm not sure yet if what she's seeing isn't her imagination." I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Levi, did you see him that day? The fourteenth?"

  "Yeah. He talked about meeting you for dinner. I didn't want him to tell you what he was. I'm still not happy you know. My demon's been helping him hide that secret for a very long time, through two hosts. It was something I promised never to reveal and telling you seemed like a bad idea. When he told you he was Drachen that first day?" Levi shook his head. "I thought you'd figure it out."

  "No. I wasn't thinking, I guess. I think I was too concerned there were Revenants in my shop," I gave him a half smile. "What else did he do on Valentine's Day?"

  "We were taking it easy. It was midafternoon and we were at the station filling out paperwork. He got a call on his cell, said a few things and then jumped up. Said he had to go take care of something. I never saw him again," he put his hands on his hips, exposing the holster at his shoulder and his weapon. "That's why I was a bit surprised he never showed up at the restaurant. I called him that night so I could rag on him about blowing you off, but the number went straight to voicemail."

  "Which means his phone was off. Have you called it recently?"

  "Yeah, it's been disconnected. When I called the phone company, they said Mr. Holliard canceled his service. That's what made me head to his apartment. Place is cleaned out. The landlord said Crwys paid him six months in advance—so if he's gone, that's just more money for him since he can lease it out again."

  "Have you tried getting his LUDS from that day?"

  "Yeah. But for some reason, they
don't have anything for Valentine's Day."

  "What do you mean anything?"

  Kathy yanked on my hand. "Sammie, can I go play with those cards over there?"

  I glanced at the tarot card display. "Sure. Just don't get the different decks mixed up, okay?"

  Kathy ran to the table and hummed to herself.

  Levi held out his hand. "They have his calls to the florist and to make the reservation at the restaurant. But there's no incoming call at the time I remember him getting one."

  "How is that possible? Did he have two phones?"

  Levi blinked and leaned his head back. "That's possible. But…I never saw him use a second phone."

  We needed to retrace Crwys's steps. As a Tracker, my mom had been the best in the south at this kind of thing. She'd tracked the Leviathan that eventually turned on her. I'd also shown a bit of my mother's skill. It wasn't hard. It was just good detective work.

  I moved to the break room door and opened it. "Ivan, Kyle and Robin, come back in here."

  Grey was the first one through the door and she moved to stand by Kathy. With Grey there, Kathy forgot all about the cards and got on the floor with the wolf to hug and pet her.

  The other three lined up by the door.

  "Hey Detective," Ivan said as he leaned on the counter and offered Levi his hand.

  Levi shook hands with everyone, and I introduced him to Robin Tremere. "We've met under worse circumstances," Robin said.

  "What is it?" Kyle asked, getting to the point.

  I faced them with Levi beside me. "Crwys is missing. It's not that he ditched me, he ditched everything. Job, phone, apartment—he's vanished. And someone's going behind him and cleaning up his trail."

  "Sweet Lady," Kyle said. "Are you sure?"

  "Yeah," Levi said. "I've known Crwys a very long time. This is not like him. And given some recent information," he glanced back at Kathy and Grey. "We suspect foul play."

  "Ivan," I said. "I need you to get on the net and search every street camera, every restaurant surveillance system, anything that was near the precinct where he and Levi worked on the fourteenth. Look for any sign of Crwys's car. And also look for anything about Crwys's phone. His LUDS were tampered with."

  "Got it," Ivan moved to the chair by the computer and closed his eyes. I watched as he held out his hands, palms up and connected to the net. Within seconds, I could see the wisps of colors, of information coming to and going through him as he opened his now green eyes and looked into a world the rest of us couldn't see. He moved his hands in the air as he sorted through files, hacked into systems, and set up parameters on his own programming.

  Someone's phone went off and Levi pulled his from his pocket. He turned and answered it.

  "Kyle," I turned to him. "You, Levi and I are going to check out Cryws's apartment. Have you got anything in your arsenal that could be used to look at past events?"

  He winced. "It's been over forty-eight hours. I'm not sure if we can still see anything."

  "It's not going to hurt to try. Go get packed up so we can get out of here. I'll drive."

  "Sam," Levi said as he put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm gonna have to step out of this one. Got a body I have to get to. I don't want Prescott assigning me a new partner, so I need to handle it." He reached into his pocket and handed me a card. On the back he'd scribbled an address in pencil. "That's Crwys's apartment. Just be careful. And keep your phone on you."

  My phone. Oh crap. Where was my phone?

  "Hey Sam?"

  I looked at Kyle at the break room door. "What?"

  "The Cairn? Did you forget there's an open Cairn out there with Boggarts coming through?"

  Lady Darksome! I started to answer when the bell over the door dinged again. I thought it was Levi leaving the shop, but a familiar voice sent tension into my back.

  "There you are, Detective. I thought I might find you here."

  FIVE

  Captain Mildred Prescott. Crwys and Levi's boss. I turned to see her stepping inside with a uniformed officer in tow. You know, if they kept coming in like this, my neighbors were going to start feeling a bit nervous around me. They were going to think I was either a narc or a troublemaker.

  "Captain," Levi said as he bowed and then held up his phone. "I got a body."

  "Good," she waved him on and he headed out the door. Prescott turned, and saw Grey, who just panted at her as she played on the floor with Kathy. Even though Prescott took Grey forcibly from me last month, my mom had no resentment toward her. In fact, she told me that the captain was just doing her job. I expected that from Mom, since she'd been a detective herself when I was young.

  But apparently Prescott didn't know how the wolf felt and carefully, cautiously, stepped around Grey. Then with a smile at Robin offered her hand. "Mr. Tremere, nice to see you again."

  "Nice to see you, Captain," Robin shook her hand then gave me a quizzical look.

  I shook my head at him before I motioned for Kyle to go get ready and then moved to stand in front of the very odd looking Ivan. "Captain Prescott. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit now?"

  But she wasn't looking at me. She was taking a seriously hard look at Ivan. "Is he all right?"

  "He's meditating."

  "I see. Can he stop doing that?"

  A text box like the one on a cell phone floated in the air to my right as Ivan sent me a message. I can go in the break room. Or your office?

  I put my hand on the counter. "Ivan can go meditate in my office."

  As if on cue, my tall Google boy slipped off the stool and walked in a sort of dreamlike state through the break room door and closed it.

  "Is he on drugs?"

  I shook my head at Prescott. "No. Just high on life. Robin? Can you take Kathy with you?"

  "Sure," he said as he motioned me to him. I smiled at Prescott and moved between her and her officer to follow Robin to the front door. "Look, about the way we left things—"

  Oh no. "Robin—this isn't a good time to have this conversation," I spoke in a low voice and nodded toward the cops. "Maybe later?"

  "Sure. Kathy? Say goodbye to Grey."

  Kathy made lots of protesting noises but she hugged Grey, then I knelt down to get my hug. "Save him, Sammie. He's so sad," she whispered in my ear. She kissed my cheek and followed Robin out the door.

  I slowly got off my knees and watched them walk down the sidewalk. If she was dreaming about Crwys, and he was in some kind of trouble, then it was possible Kathy had a Dianic Gift coming to the surface. Clairvoyance maybe. Or a Seer? The only other Seer I knew was Arden Vervain, Kyle's aunt. Maybe I should try to call Arden, though it galled me to even consider it, and find out exactly how the Seer Magic worked. Or I could Google it myself. Or go over to Ina's and look for the answer there. Ina has a pretty large library on the occult and especially the God Mother's children.

  "Miss Hawthorne?"

  And back to business. I tried to hide my frustration with the captain's arrival as I walked back and stood behind the counter. "Captain. What is it?"

  "Someone filed a missing persons report for Inamorata Devonshire. I know she's your aunt, so in investigating her whereabouts, I discovered you're having her house renovated."

  "She's not my aunt. Not biologically. She…was an old friend of my mom's who stepped in and raised me."

  "In the house in the Garden District."

  "Yes."

  "Do you know where Miss Devonshire is?"

  I shook my head. "No. But Aunt Ina travels a lot. Sometimes she's gone for months." It wasn't a lie. After I grew up and moved out on my own, she'd go away for weeks and I wouldn't know where she was. But thinking back now, knowing she'd been possessed all these years by a Leviathan, I had to wonder if maybe she was plotting her next big escape during those trips.

  "So you think that's what she's done this time?"

  "That's what I assumed. Who filed the report?"

  "I'm afraid that's confidential," Prescott smiled. "The worker
s there told me you were in charge of overseeing the rebuilding of the interior garden, as well as some minor house repairs."

  What I was doing was cleaning up evidence of zombies popping out of the backyard like daisies. Something Circe, a Ceremonial Magician and certified nut-job, had done during our last little bout with magical mayhem. But I couldn't tell her that. I couldn't tell anyone there had been dead bodies buried in that backyard because that would lead to all kinds of trouble I just couldn't deal with. Not now. "Mmhmm. Someone vandalized the property. So I'm getting it cleaned up."

  "Did you call the police?"

  "No. By the time I went over there to check on the house, it was already done."

  "You should still call the police. File a report. File a claim with your insurance?"

  The truth was Crwys had handled most of the arranging of workers at the house. He paid for it out of his own pocket, so I had no idea if he'd ever filed a report on it or not. The only thing he and I and everyone else agreed on was if someone asked about the work, the house was vandalized. "No. I don't think so."

  "Miss Hawthorne, either you did or you didn't file. Which is it?"

  "Captain Prescott," my nervousness bled into my frustration. She was keeping me away from looking for Crwys, or at least finding answers. "My name is on the deed. I can have work done on the house any time I want and it's not illegal."

  "Not if you didn't fill out the proper permits."

  "I'm sure we did."

  "We?"

  I didn't answer at first. I didn't want to bring Crwys into my problems. "It's complicated."

  "I see. Since someone believes Miss Devonshire is missing, may we go into the house to check things out for possible foul play?"

  Now I got it! She wants permission because she doesn't have enough for a warrant. "Can it wait till the work's done? They've nearly finished and I wanted to keep it all nice and new so when she returns she'll be happy."

  "You think she's coming back."

  "Oh…I'm counting on it." And I was. I was pretty sure my business with Dionysus, the Leviathan inside of Ina's body, and his business with me, wasn't over with.