Wizard War

by Sheryl Steines

  With her anger pushed back inside, she took a deep breath. “Sturtagaard has a wildly strong sniffer,” she said.

  They waited for her to say much more.

  It’s now or never.

  “I’m glad you’re all here. We have a lot of cleanup to do,” Annie said to Marielle. “We’ll need your conference room. If it inconveniences you, please let me know.”

  “We will handle it. We have already,” Marielle replied.

  “What we need, I’ve been informed you can’t provide. We thank you for your help up to now, but we will lead and handle from here out as this is our case anyway,” Cham insisted. He leaned against the desk, his arms crossed against his chest. His easy stance and causal demeanor backed Annie up with an authority that was hard not to follow.

  “This is not how we do things here. I fear that you have stepped far beyond the limit. This will not be tolerated,” Fabien said.

  “While we would very much like to follow the rules, doing so has put this whole case at risk. I’ll be happy to have Ryan Connelly contact your esteemed Grand Marksman and let them hash it out, if that will make it better for you,” Cham said calmly. He didn’t wait for Fabien to respond. “Annie, what’s your next step?”

  “While Sturtagaard’s scamming the princess, I’ll have Bucky pull police reports for unsolved, mysterious deaths throughout Europe. I want to find any links before the nonmagicals do. I also want him run facial recognition for any picture or video of Amelie posted to the web after her death. What I’m worried about is CCTV throughout Europe. I know he can get into the government security videos.”

  Cham, always in awe of her, offered her a wink and turned to Graham Lightner. “And you have whatever you need?” he asked.

  “We’re good,” Graham answered. “I have three of us here right now and ten waiting in the U.S. once the plan is set. Just to let you know, the Amborix Witches Council asked us for help with memory modification to explain the queen’s death and have graciously sent Marcus and Phillipe here to assist.”

  “Ryan will find that interesting. So you’re set.” Cham referred to a small note pad, filled with notes he’d been taking since he arrived. “Last thing. Offer her a deal: Tartarus or immediate staking. Eternity in the vampire coffin will be hell. I’d almost rather leave her there.”

  “Excuse me, you can’t do that,” Fabien argued.

  Annie and Cham exchanged glances, remembering the last deal they made with a demon—more specifically, with Sturtagaard. He had traded information for his freedom and that led them here.

  “We’ll do whatever we need to do to avoid exposure,” Cham said. “If that means tethering the bitch to a three-by-three-foot coffin, I’ll do that. If you can’t cross the line, come as close as you can. It’s our job to save the world from us, and us from ourselves. Either jump on board or leave!”

  There was a fire in his voice that none of the American wizard guards had ever heard from Cham; he was always the mild-mannered one. In that moment, Annie found it exciting and sexy. She balled her hand into a tight fist to keep focus.

  “If there’s nothing else, let’s get started,” Cham said.

  *

  “Thanks for your help, Bucky,” Annie said over the phone.

  I hope we find something.

  “You really come up with doozies,” Bucky replied with a whistle.

  “It’s doable?” she asked. The U.S. Wizard Guard had overtaken the small conference room. Annie paced along the back wall, staring at the whiteboard that took up the entire length of the room. She took precursory glances at the notes and pictures of active cases before stopping to stare at a picture of an ornately carved box. She waved her palm across the words, translating them to English. According to the notes, it had been found in a flea market in Provence and caused a great deal of chaos and strife. And today, they still had no idea where it came from or exactly how it did what it did.

  Annie shrugged and turned her attention back to Bucky.

  “You really have to ask me that?” he chuckled. “I just broke into the camera system in France, and I’m running faces against the picture of Amelie from the paper. Anything close, we’ll readjust the picture. I can’t guarantee we’ll get them all, but I will change her profile picture back to blonde and run that as well. I’m only looking for pictures taken after her death. We should be able to get most of them.”

  “Videos too?”

  “Annie, really. Who am I?”

  “And the locations of the mysterious deaths?”

  “I have the team working on it. You forget I either hired or trained everyone here. We’ll get them,” Bucky reassured her.

  “You rock.”

  “Always,” Bucky said and hung up. Annie returned to reviewing the writing on the board.

  “He’s good?” Cham asked. It was the first time he and Annie had been alone since he arrived. She wanted to reach for him but concentrated on the board instead.

  “Yeah. I figured it would be a piece of cake for Bucky.”

  “You make my job easier. You always do,” Cham said and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her in the middle of the conference room, enjoying the remainder of their alone time.

  “So Mr. Assistant Manager, how’s your first case?”

  “Like I said, you make it easy.” He kissed her one more time, until the rapid footsteps of the rest of the team made it to the room.

  *

  Sturtagaard leaned against the cement wall, observing Princess Amelie. A low growl escaped her purple lips as she writhed around the floor in pain. He watched in amusement while weighing his strategy for dealing with the princess.

  Receiving no response from him, Amelie pulled herself up. With so little strength, she tumbled into the wall, letting the cool cement hold her upright. She took a step outward; the heavy chains jangled and held her close to the wall. Amelie feverishly scratched at the collar around her neck as if she could remove the hardware. All it did was beep and buzz, sending a shock. Her body convulsed; she dropped to the ground and her body shook.

  “You smell old,” Amelie whispered. Her body jolted in pain; with each movement, she rolled through the puddle of blood, smearing and splattering it everywhere. Sturtagaard, unable to control his fangs, felt the sharp tooth against the inside of his mouth. His mouth watered as the scent of iron overwhelmed him.

  “I am old. It’s a shame you won’t see the same long life as me,” Sturtagaard replied.

  Amelie grinned through the pain as if she knew something Sturtagaard didn’t. But she was a liability that would be taken care of soon.

  And when I get from her what they want, I will be free!

  “Help me get out of here. So I can live as long as you,” she sang in a voice so unbecoming of a princess—high-pitched and slightly ditzy.

  Is she trying to seduce me?

  Sturtagaard grimaced. “If I do that, they’ll stake me.”

  Since he was no longer attached to the wall, he knelt down beside the princess and looked into her blackened eyes. “If you have any hope to stay alive, you need to give them what they want. They want names of your victims and locations of the bodies. Tell them who you’ve killed.”

  Amelie’s low guttural chortle came from deep inside. “No,” she said when she finished laughing.

  “Well then, you have a…” he glanced at her stomach where the stake held steady, “… a stake in your future. This time, Annie will be sure it will pierce”—he touched her chest above her heart— “right here. She won’t miss, she won’t hesitate. And you? Ashes and dust.” He smiled and stood, taking his spot against the wall again.

  “Then help me. Help me kill her. We can run.”

  Sturtagaard looked at the young vampire. On a normal day, he could barely remember being so young. But there were the days when he was hit with the thirteen hundred years of his past flooding his memory with overwhelming images that were difficult to piece together. While watching the princess writhe in pain, and attempt to seduce him in
to helping her, the memories became as clear as if they happened just last week. He could see himself as a young vampire without a plan and purpose. He had been reckless and yet he had he learned quickly how to stay alive. He made deals with those who wanted him dead because he was always focused on what he had to do next. And he could now think through his plan and see his purpose.

  He hadn’t spent his time escaping from his home in England for the New World, or abandoning the coven who had complete control of him, or leaving again to escape Annie and her boy for the last eight months to throw it all away on the pathetic vampire who lay crumpled in her own blood.

  I think not!

  “Sorry, princess. I’m afraid I can’t help you. You see, I do that and, well, we both end up in a great pile of ash.”

  Amelie, her eyes already black, grew fiery with flames dancing inside. Sturtagaard had never seen that from a vampire before and jumped back. Amelie growled and lunged at him, only to be stopped by the short leash around her neck. In a frenzy she screamed, “Don’t ever call me that!”

  Her fury weakened Amelie further. Sturtagaard easily pushed her into the wall and pulled her face upwards so she could see him. With his free hand, he pushed in the stake. She growled.

  “You are a spoiled brat,” he told her. “If you hope to stay alive, you will do as I say. Do I make myself clear?”

  She nodded quickly.

  “Good. Then give me a list of all of the people you tortured, mutilated, and killed in the last eight months. Don’t think you can get away with lying. That girl who brought you in here, she’ll find everyone you’ve touched. Maybe not today, but she will. And for the time it will take her, your reward will be a stake through your unbeating heart. Don’t lie.”

  Amelie trembled under his touch.

  “Where shall I begin?” she asked.

  *

  “I apologize,” Fabien said sheepishly, unable to look Annie in the eye as they watched the computer screen. Sturtagaard had just trapped Amelie.

  Annie ignored him as she intently listened to the vampires communicate with each other.

  “And you can trust him?” Fabien asked.

  “What do you know about Sturtagaard?” she asked. She glanced around the room. Her team was quietly taking notes on the police reports that were filing in.

  “I know he’s not to be trusted. He’s evil and does what he wants when he wants. And yet you seem to trust him.”

  “We’ve been tracking him for eight months with an atomie bean in his shoulder. And now he wants to come home. For this, he’ll do what we say.”

  “But do you trust him?” Fabien asked again.

  “No.”

  “Annie, we’ve got the list of mysterious deaths. Some look promising,” Spencer said, walking up to her. It was enough to tear her away from Sturtagaard and the princess.

  The list was long.

  After skimming through the list, Annie said, “Help Graham and the team sort through the promising ones. I want a piles for ‘absolute yes,’ ‘maybe,’ and ‘if there’s time.’” Annie looked at Graham for confirmation.

  “If you have any questions, one of the VAU will answer,” Graham reiterated.

  “Does your team know how to read police reports?” Gibbs asked, taking the list from Annie.

  “Of course. How dare you ask?” Fabien was offended, and yet Annie and her team had their doubts.

  “Then call them in. We have a lot of work to do,” she ordered.

  Her entire team sat alongside Marcus and Phillipe and, with some trepidation, Marielle, Roland, and Jory as they sorted through the most probable vampire attack cases in the last eight months.

  Chapter 26

  Hundreds of pages of police records covered the conference room table in three tall piles. The shortest stack consisted of eighteen probable vampire deaths occurring in Europe in the last eight months.

  The “maybe pile” was larger than the rest.

  If we have time.

  Annie’s fingers grazed the piles and sighed heavily before leaving with Spencer into a nearly deserted hall.

  “Are you going to offer Amelie the deal?” Spencer asked.

  Annie shrugged. “I know the order’s not from Cham but from Milo—and therefore the Wizard Council. If I had my way, I’d just stake her.”

  “Cham will be held responsible.” Spencer opened the gate to the vampire wing. “I’ve got your back however you choose to handle her.”

  As they neared the cells, neither spoke. the only sound in the hallway was their footsteps against the cement floor.

  Inside the cage, Sturtagaard leaned against the wall, manicuring his finger nails and appearing wholly disinterested in the vampire lying at his feet. Amelie, motionless and her eyes closed, lay against the wall. She, the floor, and the wall were covered in blood. Annie wrinkled her nose at the stench. Spencer turned toward Annie to avoid the view.

  “There’s not much blood left. If you’re gonna get something out of her, better be now,” Sturtagaard said.

  “Get anything from her yourself?” Annie asked.

  Sturtagaard tossed her a pen that had been left in the room. “Really, leaving a weapon for the vampires? Tsk, tsk,” he jeered.

  Annie caught the pen. “Yeah, like we’d leave anything in here.” She picked up the pad of paper Sturtagaard had left beside the cell door. The list was neatly written in Sturtagaard’s hand. Recognizing some of the locations from Bucky’s list, she ripped the paper from the pad and shoved it in her pocket.

  Sturtagaard’s collar blinked. Knowing she was still safe, Annie waved her palm across the cell door. It slid into the wall with a loud clatter.

  Annie kneeled beside Amelie and lifted the saturated gauze from her abdomen; the blood still leaked from the wound.

  “I need blood,” the vampire whispered.

  Annie pulled out a bag of blood from the surprisingly large French supply, which held enough to support the vampires for at least two weeks.

  We won’t need that much.

  The bag tore open easily. Annie grabbed the vampire’s jaw and let the blood slide down her mouth.

  When finished, Amelie licked her still-extended fangs of the remaining blood. She tried to sit upright, but dizziness pulled her back down.

  “That won’t restore you to full power. You’re way beyond that now, princess.” Annie stared into the vampire’s eyes, the gateway to a soul that no longer existed.

  In her near-zombie state, Amelie’s only reaction was fire burning in her eyes. Annie started.

  “If these names pan out, we’ll take you to the United States, to Tartarus Prison, where you’ll get a daily bag of fresh blood. It’s such a life,” Annie informed her.

  A growl escaped Amelie’s lips.

  “If you think of more names, locations, of who you’ve killed you tell us.” Annie walked from the cell, sliding the door behind her. “If this comes to something, you’re done. I’ll take you home myself. Ring me if she says anything else.”

  “And the atomie bean?”

  “That was another deal. It stays,” Annie reminded him.

  Annie ignored Sturtagaard’s dejected look; it was a magically binding agreement and the Wizard Council would never let them take out the magical atomie bean GPS. Annie wouldn’t have removed it anyway.

  The cell door slid shut behind her. Annie and Spencer said nothing until they were past the first checkpoint and into the hallway leading to the rest of Wizard Hall.

  “You know, it’s the same conundrum in the nonmagical world. What’s justice? The death penalty or life behind bars?” Spencer said as they reentered Wizard Hall.

  “She’s not human. It’s a little different,” Annie said.

  “We do this all the time with vampires like Sturtagaard,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah. I guess. Still, she’s a vampire and needs to be staked,” Annie mumbled.

  “I’m not disagreeing. It’s just her life will still suck, so to speak.”

  “I guess
. Realistically, the two worlds aren’t much different,” Annie surmised as they entered the conference room.

  “Now what?” Fabien probed bitterly, looking up at them.

  Annie walked past him and handed Graham Amelie’s list. “Let me know if any of these pan out.”

  “Still gonna bring her to Tartarus?” Graham asked.

  “That’s what I told her,” Annie said.

  “That’ll be a fun trip,” Graham retorted.

  *

  Annie set her computer at the edge of the table. The screen flickered several times before Bucky Hart’s face came into full view.

  The room, packed with wizard guards, sat silent as Spencer, with a flick of his wrist, projected the computer screen to the wall. As he did, the screen flickered again and was split in two, Graham Lightner’s face filling out the second half. With one more sputter, a third picture appeared below the other two; the Wizard Council America stared at them, Ryan and Milo sitting front and center.

  “Take us through this,” Ryan ordered. He had earlier voiced his displeasure of holding a meeting for the benefit of the French Wizard Guard. But here they were.

  “Ryan, Telecom pulled the list for Annie and the team with all the possible vampire attacks in the last eight months. There were about 125 of them,” Bucky said.

  Graham picked up where Bucky left off. “With Annie and the rest of the wizard guards, we whittled it down to thirty-eight. I have that with my team. We’ve been diligently working our way through these. We’ve been able to verify one that belonged to Amelie so far.” He glanced back at his notes.

  “That’s still a lot of cases to review,” Ryan said.

  Annie jumped in. “Yes. It is. Amelie attacked in Ratja d’Aro, France. She drained them almost dry and let the rest of the blood pool, leaving them near death. She did this to Queen Catriona and to the Van Altons in two locations. It’s her modus operandi. Anyway, in this new case we just discovered, the bodies have been buried and the evidence is in police storage.”

  Ryan paced across the stage floor. The entire Wizard Council watched him and the screen behind him. Annie could see her empty assigned seat.