Shadow Hunted

by L. A. Johnson

“Sounds like your problem. Or at least a come back-in-the-morning problem.” She crossed her arms.

  “Well, you see. We law enforcement people have a problem. There were, um, what’s the correct phrase nowadays? Paranormal aspects to the case. I went to the Mage Council. They didn’t help.”

  “They never do,” Lydia answered. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here? Why me?”

  “The Mage Council said you might help.”

  “Look,” she said. “It’s true that the Mage Council hires me to do the things they don’t want to do. Which is pretty much everything. They don’t like getting their hands dirty. But they pay me. I get the feeling you’re not here to throw money at me.”

  He was kind of cute and she considered offering him some coffee, but she really wanted to get some sleep. It had been a long day, and she planned to wake up early to snoop on the Mage Council for throwing money at her. In fact, that’s probably why Kade sent him here, to throw her off the trail. It wasn’t going to work.

  Zack ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s true, I can’t pay you. But I can clear your record.” He produced an envelope from somewhere inside his jacket.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “Well,” he said, making a show of opening the envelope. “You have a lot of moving violations, parking tickets, and a couple of assault complaints. There’s actually a warrant out for your arrest.”

  Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. “You sit outside of my house in the middle of the night stalking me, causing a monster to burst into my room, and then you have the nerve to ask for my help only to turn around and try to blackmail me?”

  His face drained of color again. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

  Lydia got up and stormed to the front door and opened it for him. “Get out.”

  He stood up and shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Okay, that came out wrong. And tonight was so weird. Please, we really do need your help.”

  “Out. You blew it, dude.”

  He hesitated for a moment and looked like a lost puppy.

  She pointed outside the door again and he left. Finally. The nerve of some people.

  Six

  Lydia woke with a sense of purpose. She would go to the Mage Council and try to find out what Kade was hiding from her.

  This time she strapped the sword to her back before putting her jacket on. She wasn’t about to make the same mistake two days in a row. Or ever again for that matter. With that done, she threw open the front door. And nearly knocked over Zack in the process.

  “Look,” she said, reaching out to catch him so he didn’t fall down, “are we going to need to have the whole stalking is uncool conversation again?”

  “No,” he said. “I wanted to apologize for last night.”

  “By stalking me in the daylight instead of the dark?”

  “Please,” he said. “Let me buy you breakfast. Just hear me out. Then if you tell me to go away, I’ll go away.”

  Well, he did say please. “And if I say no are you going to arrest me for parking violations?” she asked.

  “Moving violations, mostly,” he corrected, “and no.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Just breakfast and then talking. And then no more stalking. Ok?”

  Now that she thought about it, there really wasn’t any use barging into Mage Council Headquarters on an empty stomach. “Okay, but I get to pick the place.”

  He broke into a broad grin that made him even more attractive. “Deal.”

  Lydia brought him to her favorite diner. If she was going to consider working with him, even temporarily, she would have to figure out if she could trust him.

  Luckily, it wasn’t a very busy morning, and they were able to get a booth tucked into the back of the restaurant that would give them some privacy. Which was good because as he pointed out last night, he had seen some weird stuff too.

  The two of them made small talk until they ordered and then he leaned in to whisper. “How much of what I saw last night was real?”

  Lydia raised an eyebrow at him. “That depends. How much do you really want to know? Do you want the version I give to other humans or the real version?”

  “Which one’s true?” he asked.

  A figure appeared next to Lydia. It made her and Zack both jump.

  Of course, it was none other than Drat.

  “How was the sex last night?” Drat asked. “It must have been good. It looks like you guys worked up quite the appetite.”

  “There was no sex,” Lydia said. Then she looked at Zack. “See? I told you. Bad timing. Super inappropriate comments. That’s what he’s good at.”

  The waitress came back with their food and placed it in front of them, glancing at what from her point of view was now a solid, inanimate garden gnome in the seat next to Lydia. “Aw, cute,” she said before moving on to other tables.

  “He looks real enough to me,” Zack said, pointing at Drat, who had sprung back to life the moment she left. “How does he do that?”

  “Do you mean how does he change back and forth between looking alive and inanimate depending on who’s around? Or do you mean able to teleport all over the place unexpectedly and scare the crap out of people?”

  “Both,” said Zack.

  “I have no idea,” Lydia answered. “You can ask him yourself, but all I can ever get out of him is that he relies on gnome magic. And I hate magic.”

  “How can you hate magic?” Zack asked in between bites of food. “You’re up to your eyeballs in all of this weird paranormal stuff.”

  “That doesn’t mean I have to like it all,” she said, digging into her eggs. “Drat has magic. I don’t. Mages do. Just like humans, we’re all different.”

  “And you’re used to it? You don’t find it weird?” he asked.

  “Oh, there’s all kinds of levels of weirdness,” she answered. “But I don’t think that’s what we’re here to talk about.”

  “It’s related.” He grinned. “I mean, if my own case wasn’t weird, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “Well, I promised I’d listen, so talk.”

  “Okay,” he said, clearing his throat. “While you were dealing with, well, whatever it was that you were dealing with yesterday. I got called to a murder.”

  “And?” Lydia asked, finishing up with her breakfast. “Your time’s running out.”

  “Well,” he shifted in his seat, “at first, the murder just looked like a run of the mill political hit. But then it got strange when we figured out that the mayor’s aide appeared to have been killed by a vampire.” He whispered the last part, looking around to make sure that nobody except Lydia heard him.

  Lydia already knew this because Drat told her, but she wanted to hear it from him to see if he was telling her the truth. At least he had that going for him.

  “Hey,” said Drat. “Didn’t I-“

  “Shush,” Lydia said. “Let the man speak.” She turned back to Zack. “Vampire? That’s very odd. This city hasn’t had a vampire fatality in more than a hundred years.”

  “Well, the guy was completely drained. He was all shriveled up.” Zack made a face. “The coroner said all of the guy’s blood was drained from two small holes in his neck. There was no other sign of trauma.”

  “I guess it’s possible you have a vampire political hack on your hands. But what’s that got to do with me?” Lydia asked, finishing her coffee. She didn’t believe it for a moment, though. Vampires didn’t go out of their way to attract attention like that.

  “Everybody’s afraid,” he answered. “Nobody wants to deal with a killer immortal.”

  “Hang on,” she said. “Do you mean that you’re not here to make me find the suspect for you? You really just want my help?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s different. And you say everybody else at the police station is afraid except you?” She turned to Drat. “He looks afraid to me, Drat. Does he look afraid to you?”

  “He looks like he’s about to piss
himself to me,” Drat said.

  “That’s enough, Drat. Shut up,” Lydia said.

  “Yeah, I’m afraid. So what? I’m still going to do my job.”

  “I take it back,” Lydia said. “You are the brave one. Duty first and all that, even if you die?” She leaned in. “I don’t believe you. There’s something you’re not telling me. Out with it.”

  Zack stared down at his empty plate, thinking about his next words. “Fine. I’m a little reckless. I have a sort of death wish, or so my therapist says. Something about survivor’s guilt. Ever since my psych report came back, nobody wants to work with me. So now I get the dangerous cases that nobody else wants.”

  “And you’re okay with that?” Lydia asked.

  “I guess.” He shrugged.

  Lydia grinned. “Sounds like you’re the perfect man for the job, then. What do you think your therapist is going to say about all of this?”

  “You mean death by vampire, jerk the gnome, and whatever the hell I saw last night? I’m tempted to tell him about it all just to get back at him for spiking my career, but that would probably only make it worse.” He brightened. “Does this mean you’ll help me?”

  Lydia nodded. “I’ll take a look at your case.

  “And then, I want everything wiped from my record. Present, past and future.”

  He frowned. “Just how bad of a driver are you?”

  “You’re about to find out,” she said. “I’ll go with you to check out your crime scene, but there’s a stop we have to make first.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “The Mage Council Headquarters. Something’s up over there, I can feel it.”

  Seven

  Lydia parked on the street a few blocks away from the Mage Council Headquarters and turned to Zack. “It’s probably better if you stay here.”

  “Why?” he asked. “You’re just going to talk to them, right?”

  “Yeah, but they don’t like to deal with humans. At all. You found that out yesterday.”

  “That’s right, you’re different. If you’re not human, then what are you?” he asked.

  She turned to face him.

  “What?” he asked. “I’m sorry, was that rude?”

  “It’s just not the time,” she said as she got out of the car and walked the couple of blocks to the brick steps that led up to the gate of the incredible double mansion that served as the Mage Headquarters.

  She might not have magic herself, but she could feel it. Ever since she was a kid. And this place positively hummed with it. The magic buzzed in her ears as she reached to open the gate and went up the stairs to the front door. She rang the doorbell.

  A grotesquely tall and skinny guy wearing a vague butler uniform answered the door. It was a nice touch. The mages loved to freak humans out to keep them away. They were definitely dicks.

  “Hey, Lurch,” she said. “Is Kade here?” The question was a formality. She knew that Kade was here. He never left the building. For a powerful Mage, he sure was a chicken.

  “My name is Victor,” he said, correcting her.

  “I like Lurch better. Let me in. Trust me, Kade’s going to want to speak to me.” She powered her way through the door and as she did, her whole body vibrated as she passed through the magical force field protecting the place. It was home to two dozen or so magical practitioners. If she wasn’t mistaken, the force field was even more powerful than usual today. “Where is he?” she asked a passing waiter. “Hey, where’s Kade? Tell him Lydia’s here to see him.”

  Inside, the Mage Headquarters was stunning. Modern architecture mixed with European opulence. The stonework was incredible, and marble covered most of the surfaces. And she knew for a fact that the view of the city at night was incredible.

  Her abrupt entrance had gotten more attention than she planned. Now she had done it. Over in the corner and sitting on their couches, old men were gawking at her through spectacles. She didn’t have to be a telepath to read their expressions. Oh, my. Well I never. What happened to my crumpet?

  It’s a good thing Kade came barreling around a corner at just that moment, because some of the old men almost got up.

  “Lydia, what is the meaning of this?” Kade hissed at her. He was taller than Lydia, and his dark curly hair bobbed as he shook his head at her. His piercing blue eyes flashed in anger. As usual, he was wearing a casual black suit. She had heard that his handsome, boyish face was blatant false advertising as nobody really knew how old he was. He kept his past and his true identity a mystery, but he did have a classic style and a charming southern accent.

  “Don’t act like you weren’t going to call me here anyway,” Lydia said, her hands on her hips. “I can always feel it when something’s up here.”

  It was true. She did not understand why she had such a strong sense of the magical goings on here, since she had inherited zero fae magic. The mages had allowed her entry to this facility long enough to research her ancestry and give her a few basic magic entrance exams, which she promptly failed. Then they kicked her back out again.

  Kade studied her for a moment. She was pretty sure he was going to kick her out again, some things never changed. Instead, he politely asked her to follow him to his quiet study. It had been a while since she got to have a powwow in the quiet study. Once inside, he shut the door.

  “You’re right,” he began. “I was going to call you. Ever since the troll incident yesterday, things have gotten busy around here. Dark magic is rising, it’s off the charts. Did you find anything other than the satchel on that troll?”

  “The satchel was the only thing he had on him. When I left him at the edge of the forest, he was barely wearing anything. I made him turn out his pockets and trust me, he didn’t have anything else.”

  He continued to frown at her.

  “Well, I wasn’t about to strip search him,” Lydia continued. “Why? What’s the deal with this dark magic or whatever?” She was still having flashbacks about the forest and whatever the hell it was that attacked her. There was a growing unease inside her that it all might be related, but she wasn’t about to share that with Kade, he’d just say it was above her pay grade. Which it was. And besides, she didn’t want to deal with it. She wasn’t going back to the forest ever, that was all there was to it.

  Kade wiped a stray hair from his face and sat down in his office chair heavily. Then he sighed in resignation. “Where did you say you took the troll?”

  “I dropped him off at the edge of the forest. And met a very nice sprite. You should go down there, it’s very nice.” Shut up, Lydia, you’re babbling, she told herself. Hold it together. She forced a smile and looked at Kade, trying to gauge his expression.

  He crossed his arms. “Are you okay? You’re acting odd.”

  “No, I’m not, you are.” She shook her head and sank into her own chair across from his desk.

  “Look,” Kade said. “Strange things are going on. I’d be careful if I were you. Are you sure nothing unusual happened at the forest?”

  There was no way Lydia was going to answer that one, not when he wasn’t telling her anything. She had to think fast for a way to change the subject. “Oh hey, speaking of strange, thanks a lot for sending that detective to my house in the middle of the night last night, he scared me half to death.”

  Kade looked concerned. “He did that? I had no idea. I thought he would just wait until morning.”

  “You thought wrong. And you’re asking me to help solve a politically motivated supernatural murder? While you do what? Sit here on your ass? And if I’m not mistaken, you’ve added extra security. Nice. You know, I was looking at your website. There’s a mission statement on there about this particular magical organization being responsible members of the community. Your mission is to use your power to protect the city from magical and paranormal issues and crimes. Or is all of that just bullshit?”

  “You can’t very well expect me to go running around the city interacting with the public like a vigilante mage cop,
can you? There are rules, Lydia.”

  “Why not? You’ll miss tea time here at the gentlemen’s club? What’s the use of having power if you can’t help people? Other than yourself I mean. You’re perfectly willing to hang me out to dry.”

  Kade sighed and rubbed his temple. “Look. I don’t want anybody to get hurt. We can’t have the city worried about possible supernatural murderers, the blowback would hurt all of us. You work discreetly. And I trust you.”

  “You mean I’m expendable.”

  “I mean you’re our best chance,” Kade shot back.

  Lydia reached out and grabbed an octopus figurine off of his desk. Kade always had little silver knickknacks everywhere. They were heavy and shiny, and it made her feel better to fiddle with something. It helped her to think. “I’ll tell you something else, I’m never going on another job without my sword. You can argue all you want, but it won’t do you any good. If I’m going to be running around the city doing all of the dangerous work, then it’s a nonstarter. Plus, I want more money.” Lydia looked away, certain that she’d gone too far.

  “Agreed,” he said without even looking up. “I think that’s a good idea.”

  Lydia almost fell out of her chair. “Did you just agree with me? About the sword? And the money? Since when?”

  Kade looked up at her. “What?”

  “My sword. You not only agreed that I get to take it with me from now on, you said it was a good idea. And you agreed to pay me to consult with the cops on the supernatural murder investigation.” Now she was even more suspicious. “What’s going on in here, anyway? What aren’t you telling me?”

  That’s when Kade’s intercom buzzed. His secretary’s voice chimed in. “Kade, it’s time.”

  “I have to go,” Kade said. He jumped up from his chair and practically ran out the door without as much as saying goodbye.

  “Fine,” Lydia said to herself. “I’ll let myself out.”

  Eight

  Zack was still in the car waiting when she opened the door and slid back into the driver’s seat. “How’d it go?” he asked.