Dead-Tective Box Set

by Mac Flynn

  I rushed past the red puddle and over to Vince. He lay atop a mess of boxes, and when I saw him I covered my mouth to stifle my gasp. Half his face was gone, dissolved by the blood, and even now it continued to eat away at him. I collapsed to my knees in front of him and grasped one of his dissolving hands. Brutus came up beside me with a bone in his mouth and whimpered.

  Vince managed a small smile at me. "Are you safe?" he whispered.

  Tears sprang to my eyes, but I managed to nod. "Yeah, but-"

  He pressed the fingers of his free hand against my lips and shook his head. "The sacrifice was worth the reward," he countered.

  I squeezed his hand and shook my head. "You idiot. Now we're both going to die," I sniffled.

  "Take what remains of my life, and live," he offered me.

  I blinked at him. "Do what?"

  He clasped my hands in both of his and the ring glowed brightly. "Take my life, and you will live. What remains of my immortality will sustain you for decades."

  "I-you can do that?" I asked him. Vince smiled and nodded, but a coughing fit interrupted the moment. Blood spewed from his mouth and the blood deepened its march into his skin as it revealed parts of his skull. "Vince! Vince, don't leave me! I don't want your life, I want you!" The light from his ring grew brighter, and reminded me of a past brilliance. My eyes widened and I pressed our rings together. "Take my life! Like I did to you in the alley after we first met!"

  Vince shook his head, but I pursed my lips, grasped his hands and closed my eyes. If the transfer could work one way, it could work the other. It just had to. I focused all my thoughts on my life energy and on the cold, dissolving skin of Vince as his fingers rotted away beneath mine. "Come on! Come on! Please take it!" I chanted.

  A bright light shot through my eyes and I opened them to see my ring glow brighter than the light from his. My light overwhelmed us both in a warm brilliance that covered us like a heated blanket on a cool winter's day. Life pulled from me into my ring as it had done in the alley when I fought Field, but the pull wasn't violent or painful. It was soothing and warm, and I couldn't help smiling as my life faded into the powerful trinket.

  Through the brilliant light I could see Vince's face as he lay atop the boxes. The energy from my body slipped into his ring, and through that into his finger and to the rest of his body. The light washed away the blood and knitted his flesh back together. Muscle and skin covered bone, and life entered Vince's dark red eyes.

  The light from my ring faded as Vince's life grew, and in a moment the glow dimmed to nothing and shadows slipped over us. Sunlight from the rising day star shone through the holes made by Bartlett's horns. An indescribable exhaustion swept over me. The world around me dimmed to where I could only see Vince's dark, and yet angelic, face. My head grew woozy and I fell forward.

  Vince sat up and caught me in his hands. I'd never known them to be as warm as they were then. He turned me over to cradle me in his arms. "You saved me once more," he whispered.

  I managed a weak smile. "I did, didn't I? This. . .calls for. . .a nap." I couldn't keep my heavy eyelids open, and sleep took me.

  Chapter 14

  In my sleep I dreamed. I hadn't dreamed for many weeks. In my dream I stood on a plain filled with a bright white that stretched on forever. A smooth white floor lay beneath me, and above me lay the endless white sky. The void was large and empty, but I wasn't terrified. There was a peacefulness that filled my whole being and made me smile.

  "There you are," a voice quipped. I spun around to find Harriet standing behind me. No longer was she Harriet the ghost, but woman of flesh. She strode toward me with her perpetual frown on her face and her shoes clacking softly on the hard floor. "I've been looking all over for you. It's a hard time finding sleeping people."

  "Sleeping? Then this really is a dream?" I wondered.

  "Well, sort of. I think the man upstairs is giving us a nice room that won't distract us from what I have to say," Harriet explained.

  I cringed. "I'm-I'm not dead, am I?"

  Harriet snorted. "No more dead than that vampire you're stuck to, and speaking of him there's some unfinished business we have to talk about. That's why I've come to see you. You kept up your half of the bargain, so I suppose I'll tell you were you can find what Hilda gave tp me."

  My face lit up with a bright smile. "Really?"

  She held up her hand. "Don't think I'm getting soft. I'm just holding up my half of our agreement. What you're looking for is in the hollow tree, the one I used to rest in after that ugly man stole my body." She wrinkled her nose at the remembrance. "He did it just to get Bobby to pay his bills, but that idiot boy refused and thought he could keep that devil out of his cottage with his own anti-supernatural junk."

  My eyes lit up as I recalled finding the man. "Bobby! He's-"

  "I know. I've already been to see him," Harriet revealed. She sighed and shook her head. "I did all I could for him in the other life, but he made his own grave and it's all done now. No loose ends or wandering around the yard."

  "So you get to go to the other side?" I asked her.

  Harriet nodded. "Yep, thanks to you. Whatever you sprayed on me released my soul from those bones and let me up here, but I couldn't go all the way until I finished my business with you. Now that that's all done it's time for me to join that choir up there. I'm not much of a singer, but I'll give it a try."

  "Good luck," I called to her.

  She snorted and I noticed her feet lifted off the ground. "Keep that for yourself. You're going to need it dealing with the people who killed Hilda. Oh, and give them a good beating for me, too, will you?"

  "I will!" I called back. Harriet rose higher, and the farther she went the faster she flew. I tilted my head back and waved to her until I couldn't see her anymore. Then I returned my attention to the nothingness around me and blinked at it. "Um, how do I wake up?" I wondered.

  In answer to my question a burst of light appeared to my left. I glanced in that direction and saw a swirling wind of light with a dark center. From the center I heard the echo of a familiar voice call my name. "Liz? Liz?"

  I raised an eyebrow. "Vince?"

  "Liz?"

  "Vince!" I rushed into the light and it engulfed me in its warm brilliance.

  That's when I woke up to a massive hangover. Oh, and the darkness of my shabby bedroom in our even shabbier apartment. My eyes fluttered open and I grimaced when the granddaddy of all headaches hit me with the daintiness of a pro wrestler in a glass factory. I sat up and rubbed my aching head. Beside me on the edge of the bed sat Vince, and his sparkling red eyes and smile told me he was glad I was awake.

  "What hit me?" I mumbled.

  "The energy transfer. It drained your life force enough to keep you in a coma for two days," he revealed.

  I blinked at him. "That long? What'd it do to you?"

  "I was given enough energy to withstand the sunlight to the car and return us to the apartment," he replied.

  "So practically no side effects?" I returned.

  "Practically none," he agreed.

  I dropped my hand to my side and smiled at him. "Good. At least one of us doesn't have to deal with this, and you're-well, you're as alive as you've ever been."

  Vince's smile faltered. "I am, but you should not have transferred as much energy as you did."

  I frowned. "Why? Didn't you need everything I gave you?"

  "Yes, as did you."

  I raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

  Vince turned away and pursed his lips. "Do you recall I once told you the power of the ring should be used sparingly?"

  "Actually, you've probably told me that a lot of times, but I don't think I've listened," I quipped.

  "No, you haven't, and the consequences are already visible." One of his hands slid over to mine and I glanced down. My eyes widened when I saw that my hands were very thin like Vince's, and the fingernails were much longer than I remembered.

  I raised my hand to my face and turned i
t over. "So I lost weight?" I guessed.

  "No, you lost a large part of your humanity," he revealed.

  I looked past my hand to glare at him. "Vince, you're speaking in riddles. Just spit out what's wrong with me," I ordered him.

  He stood and faced me. "Your use of the ring has cost you a majority of your life energy. A few more uses will cost you your human life."

  My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. "What? That wasn't part of the deal with this ring!"

  He shook his head. "That is the most important part of the deal. The ring gives you an immortality of sorts that extends your human life beyond what is normal, but using the ring removes those years. The episode when we were both human and you used the ring drained several centures worth of use. You have used the ring beyond even your normal lifespan, and have shortened your life to barely a few years."

  I jumped off the bed, but my head swooned and my legs buckled. I fell forward, but Vince caught me and I lifted my eyes to his face. "You mean I'm going to kick the bucket?"

  "No. You will finish your transformation into a vampire."

  My mouth dropped to the floor. "I'm going to what?"

  "Become a vampire."

  I pushed away from him and the back of my knees hit the bed. I fell back to sit on the edge and my eyes stared straight ahead without seeing the filthy walls. "A vampire?" I whispered. I ran a hand through my hair. "I. . .I guess that isn't-" I shook my head and looked up at Vince. He stared down at me with indifferent red eyes. "It's bad, isn't it?"

  "All the weaknesses of a vampire will be yours," Vince told me.

  I cringed. "So more hunger?"

  "A great deal."

  "No more sun?"

  "No longer."

  "But more superhuman strength and speed, right?"

  He shook his head. "You would start at the same strength as you are now."

  I clutched my head between my hands and stared at the floor. "This isn't happening. This just isn't happening." I couldn't stop the tears of frustration that rose in my eyes, and I looked to my partner for pity. "Please tell me this is your idea of a really bad joke. I mean, it's okay being a half-vampire human person thing, but the whole thing? I like the sun. I like interacting with people who I wouldn't consider my food."

  "There is nothing you can do to stop the change, only slow it," he revealed.

  I pounded a fist into the mattress. "Damn it! Just-just damn it!"

  The bed groaned as Vince seated himself beside me. His red eyes scrutinized my bleary eyes and red cheeks. "There is one way to slow your fate."

  I raised an eyebrow and wiped the tears from my eyes. "What's that?"

  "Remain in the apartment while I finish what Tim started."

  My brow crashed down and I glared at him. "No."

  "That is the-"

  "I'm not going to let you get us both killed out there. You need my help, and by God or the devil I'm going to finish it," I insisted.

  "But you may-"

  I pushed off from the bed, and this time I didn't trip over myself as I spun around to face him. "I'm not going to let you go it alone. We're partners, and no matter how bad my self-pity party gets I'm not going to forget that and you'd better not, either. We have to finish what Tim was working on, and you need me to tell you where the thing is that Hilda gave to Harriet."

  He raised an eyebrow. "You know?"

  I folded my arms and gave a nod. "Yep. Harriet told me in my dream or a dream, or whatever it was. Either way I'm not going to tell you unless you bring me along, and don't leave me at the apartment ever. Got it?"

  Vince stood and a small smile slipped onto his lips. "If that is your wish."

  "You're damn right it is. Besides, if I'm going to get permanently killed or permanently undead then I'm at least going to take Ruthven down for starting this whole mess," I added.

  Vince stepped back and bowed at the waist toward me. "I wish the same, and will remain by your side for as long as that takes."

  I snatched his arm, looped it through my own, and tugged him toward the bedroom door. "Well, it's taking too long already, so let's get to the hollow tree at Harriet's property before I turn into a blood-sucking fiend. No offense."

  He chuckled as we strode from the room. "No offense taken."

  Vince drove us back to the abandoned property, and it took a few minutes to find the hollow tree. It stood a dozen yards from the road and had a clear view of the house and cottage. My eyes drifted over to the dark buildings.

  "You think anybody's found Bobby yet? Besides us, that is," I asked Vince.

  "No, or the police would have closed the property and placed guards," he pointed out. His attention was focused on a round hole in the tree. He reached his hand inside and pulled out a slip of paper.

  I stepped up beside him as he unfolded the paper, and I read aloud the handwritten contents. "'Where it began so shall it end.'" I glanced at Vince. "What does that mean?"

  He shook his head and pocketed the paper. "I am not sure, but the handwriting is Tim's."

  I sighed and shook my head. "Great, more clues," I muttered. I winced when the hangover shot through my temples and I clutched my head. Vince noticed my swaying and grasped my arms to keep me upright. I sheepishly smiled at him. "I'm fine, but think we can take a break, just for the rest of the night? And maybe the one after that?" I pleaded.

  "And the next, if you wish," he returned.

  I snorted. "And maybe the next. We could make this a regular vacation, or a practice for that retirement we talked about earlier. I could use it, and I bet you're a couple of centuries overdue. You must have a hell of a Social Security fund waiting for you."

  Vince smiled and led me back to the car. "I will give you this night to rest, and tomorrow we will continue our game of hide-and-seek with Tim."

  I grinned and looked up at the dark night sky. "Yeah, one last game with Tim."

  And the end was coming. I could feel it in my bones.

  Alchemist Enigma (Dead-tective #5)

  Chapter 1

  Darkness. That's all I knew during the day now. The energy transfer had sapped a lot of humanity from me and I found it impossible to wake up any earlier than after the setting of the sun. Sometimes it was later than that. I never thought I'd hate sleeping in, but it wasn't much fun when you didn't have a choice. The transfer also left me exhausted for two nights after our ghostly devil adventure, but on the third night I awoke feeling alive, or as alive as I ever felt.

  I swung my legs over the side of my bed and ran a hand through my neat hair. The benefit to sleeping like the dead is you didn't move so you didn't wake up with morning hair, or in my case evening hair. I glanced at the window, and through the thick curtains I could see it was pitch-black outside. The sun had completely set at least thirty minutes before. I really missed that bright, blinding ball of burning mass.

  I got up and shuffled my way to the living room where I found Vince on the couch. In his hand was the mysterious note from Tim. "Any luck figuring it out?" I asked him.

  He set the note on the coffin table and shook his head. "None at all."

  I plopped myself beside him and looked at the scrap of paper. "'Where it began so shall it end,'" I read aloud. I furrowed my brow and my eyes flickered to Vince. "So what we have to do is figure out where something began and we'll find what he's been hiding from us?" I guessed.

  "So it seems," Vince agreed.

  "Sounds easier than it is," I added as I picked up the paper. I turned over the scrap and sighed. "Damn Tim and his riddles. He always did like trying to be smarter than everyone else in the room." Vince plucked the note from my fingers and stuffed it into his coat. I scowled at him. "Hey! I wasn't done not figuring that out."

  "If you are rested enough, there is another who may know the answer to the riddle," Vince told me.

  I raised an eyebrow. "Who were you-" My eyes lit up. "Bat!"

  "Yes. We have tried our wits against Tim's message and found ourselves wanting. Perhaps Bat may
have the answer. He knew Tim longer than I," Vince revealed.

  I jumped to my feet, grabbed Vince's arm, and dragged him toward the door. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get this riddle solved and finally find out what Tim's been hiding from us!"

  We drove to the secret garage entrance into Bat's warehouse, but Vince slowed to a stop fifty yards from the wall that contained the hidden door. I glanced between Vince and the door. "What? The car get scared or something?" I teased.

  His pursed lips and narrow eyes killed my merry mood. "There is something wrong."

  I followed his gaze to the wall and noticed the slim outline of the entrance. That meant the door was slightly ajar. "Maybe the door needs some fixing," I suggested.

  Vince shook his head. "Bat would never tolerate anything broken, even in Tim's shop."

  I leaned against my seat and gestured to the road. "So what do we do? Sit here all night waiting for something to happen or go find the trouble ourselves?"

  "We will find the trouble," Vince replied as he opened his door and hopped out.

  I joined him outside the car and together we walked silently toward the ajar garage door. No lights shone through the thin windows, showing the lights in the garage were off. They'd never been off before except when trouble was afoot. Vince pressed his hand against an inconspicuous brick and the stone sank an inch into the structure. The fake brick released a mechanism and the garage door rose two feet before Vince released the brick and the door stopped.

  He led the way beneath the door and into the dark shop. Our vampire eyes allowed us to see the interior, and it was a mess. I'm not talking the usual mess, but complete devastation. All the tools were scattered across the floor and the pegboards were tossed into a pile of ruin. The disorderly piles of oil and gas were overturned and their contents leaked across the floor. The stairs leading up to the loft were all broken, and the door that led to Bat's lab sat askew on its hinges.