I spun, scanning the small crowd frantically until I saw him. With one last quick squeeze, I released my dad and shoved my way through people to my other one. Dani hugged me just as tightly.
“I almost erupted,” I told him, wrapping my arms around him. “But I remembered what you taught me and I…” I took a deep breath.
“Totally kicked his ass?” he supplied.
“Yeah.”
“You did a good job, moro mou.” He hugged me again, then his voice turned cold. “Tom, let’s get this bastard downstairs before I kill him. Or Char does.”
Thomas hauled my still unconscious attacker up and onto his shoulder. Dani gave me one last hug, then he followed. Most of the crowd went with them.
“Let’s go home, little spark.”
I nodded and followed my dad to the car, flanked by Mariana and Jen. Somewhere between MES and home, I stopped shaking and my temperature slowly returned to a nice, normal 102.
~~~***~~~
Soon, I was settled in with a nice big sugar maple log and some of my best friends. I felt a lot more comfortable and was able to tell them everything that happened.
“I can’t believe you didn’t freak out. I would have,” Mariana said.
“It was close,” I admitted.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” said Shannon softly. She was sitting on the couch with Jen, across from me.
Shannon was the first person I had ever known as a non-magic who was turned into a dhampir. I always expected her to look different somehow than she had as a human, but she didn’t. She was still a few inches taller than me and slender. I knew she had likely stopped aging shortly after being turned, but that wasn’t anything unusual for a magic. Her brown eyes never missed a thing, which had nearly gotten us in trouble when she was a non-magic. And, like me, she was fond of bright, wild shades of nail polish, although she didn’t need to stick to a special kind designed for fire elementals. Other than her nails, she pretty much looked exactly the way she did the day we met, aside from having swapped long braids for shorter, natural curls. At the moment, her hair was hidden under the scarf she wore to bed. She was still wearing pajama pants too, which made me suspect she jumped out of bed and rushed right over here as soon as Jen told her what happened to me. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had a nightshirt on under her sweatshirt. We didn’t see each other often, so I was touched she hurried over for me.
“I don’t think anyone else needs to get hurt right now,” Shannon continued.
We all solemnly nodded in agreement. After Delilah’s car accident, Shannon had been asked to fly up. Since she was TS’ other soul-packmate, the hope was that Thomas’ proximity, coupled with hers, would help somehow if Delilah died.
Even though I wished it were under better circumstances, it was nice to have Shannon up for a while. We were still all being a little conservative when it came to hanging out with her, out of fear that someone would still trace her to Thomas. But now that it had been over five years, I think we were starting to feel pretty confident.
For a brief moment I entertained the idea that whoever was altering these files had good intentions. After all, changing Shannon into a dhampir was punishable by death, so it wasn't as if our little group didn't have our own highly illegal secret. But I knew that wasn't going to be the case with this. Whatever this was, it wasn't masking saving someone’s life. If there was one perk of Shannon being here though, it was that she loved a good mystery and was pretty good at fitting the pieces together. Unfortunately, she was just as baffled as the rest of us with the data we turned up. I wondered if she'd be able to fit in my latest discoveries in a way that I hadn't been able to.
I considered saying something, but I wanted to finish my log and take a few minutes to not think about anything work or park related. Everyone else seemed happy to let me take a break and I was grateful that I wasn't being bombarded with questions. At last I decided to do something to vent my anxiety. I stood and stretched.
“I think I'm going to go out to the shed.”
My dad started to say something, then hesitated and changed it to, “Do you want some company?” The concern in his eyes was a dead giveaway; he was worried about me being alone.
I shivered, if I wasn't safe on our own property... Suddenly, being where I wouldn't be able to hear anyone approaching over the sound of hammering didn't seem like such a great idea after all.
“Maybe I'll just bake,” I said, thinking of another hobby that was a little less loud and a lot more indoors.
For a few minutes, I almost forgot about everything. The attack. The mysterious files. Even TS’ precarious situation. My dad made himself scarce and soon it was just me and the girls in the kitchen, laughing and baking together. It seemed so normal, so fun. I made a bit more of a mess than I usually did but I didn't really care.
“Someone's here,” Shannon said.
We all looked out the window and I saw two familiar cars driving in. I frowned and headed into the living room.
“Hey Uncle Charlie,” I yelled. “Dani’s back!”
“You told me last time I was here, you know,” Shannon reminded me with a laugh.
“Oh, right,” I giggled.
Even though nearly a decade had passed since I learned my aunt had raised me as her daughter, I still sometimes caught myself thinking of my dad as my uncle. It was especially hard since we were still keeping it a secret, except from a handful of close friends. Originally, we were just waiting until I was thirty to tell my grandparents, who were the reason it all happened in the first place. But now, we were all sort of just waiting for the right moment. And so far, it had yet to come.
Charlie came downstairs, eyes smoldering with suspicion. “They weren't gone for long. Their shift isn’t over for hours.”
We waited in the living room and soon Thomas, TS, and Dani joined us. Dani slammed the door behind him and stomped in. The moment I noticed his eyes were black, I took an involuntary step back. Something had him on the edge of losing control.
“What happened?” Charlie asked carefully.
“He’s dead,” Thomas spat.
“Who?”
Thomas nodded toward me. “The guy who attacked Ember. He’s dead.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Dani. It was touching, in a morbid, fucked up kind of way, that he loved me enough to typhoon and kill someone for hurting me. Elementals usually got a pass for that, but I wasn’t sure what they’d do considering he killed someone in MES custody.
He noticed, of course, that we were all looking at him and let out a dark chuckle. “I didn’t do it.”
A new, horrible thought struck me and I gasped. “I didn’t hit him that hard, did I?”
“No,” Dani said quickly. “It wasn’t you either.”
Thomas sat heavily on one of our couches. “He was given a truth potion and he dropped dead.”
I wasn’t the only one who cried, “What?!”
“We had to consult three different apothecaries,” Dani grumbled. “But apparently there’s a potion – an incredibly illegal potion – that doesn’t do anything to you… until you take a truth potion.”
“It interacts with some common truth potion ingredient,” Thomas explained. “And it kills you.”
TS sat down next to him. He had been pale and tired looking all week, but he looked worse now. “Which means… he didn’t want anyone to know why he was after you.”
A shiver of fear ran thought me. “But why me?” I demanded.
TS shook his head.
Dani sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “We’re going to find out,” he snarled.
“Who was he?” asked Mariana.
“Nobody special,” Thomas said. “He’s got a few convictions and has been suspected of some…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, looks like he’ll do just about anything for the right price.”
“So, someone hired him to attack me?”
“Seems like it,” said Dani grimly.
“Wh
y me?” I asked again.
He shook his head.
“Just because people do hire him, doesn’t mean he was hired this time,” Shannon pointed out. “Maybe it was just a random attack?”
“He could have wanted a keycard to get into MES,” added Mariana.
I shook my head. “He was next to my car. And he was a fire elemental. I don’t think that was coincidence.”
“It was Charlie’s car,” Jen corrected. “Maybe the guy was after him, but you got there first.”
“Or they wanted to hurt Charlie, but figured doing something to Ember would work too,” said Shannon.
“But why would anyone be after him?” I asked.
We all turned to look at my dad. He looked concerned, but confused.
“Something you’re doing at work, maybe?” Shannon said. “Someone you arrested?”
Charlie frowned. “I don’t think so. I’m not a special agent; I don’t get sent out that often. Most of my work is just with companies. We haven’t had any large secrecy breaches in months. I don’t have any new or problem companies right now anyway. Nobody has a reason to take revenge on me.”
“Dani, then?” Shannon said.
Dani hummed for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think being an agent is as exciting and full of mm… intrigue as you think it is. It’s not like some mafia movie or something, nobody is out seeking revenge against agents.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t even think I’m working on anything big enough to warrant hard feelings.”
“The park,” Thomas said softly.
We all paused. Dani’s eyes darkened as he considered it. “Maybe,” he said slowly. “But it’s been two weeks since the park. Not to mention we got our asses kicked there. And the investigation has been put on hold. What does going after me or my family do now? Why wait?”
“And there were four of us there,” TS pointed out. “Why only target Dani?”
His words resonated with me and suddenly, pieces all started to fall together. Dani wasn’t the target. It wasn’t about the park, but it was about an investigation.
Had I looked in the frontend? Yes. I had.
Everything fit.
Oh my god.
I swallowed hard and cleared my throat. “I was the target,” I said. “He was after me.”
Chapter Nine
Thomas
“I was his target,” Ember repeated. “But it wasn’t about the park, it’s about Miami.”
“Why do you say that?” Danio asked her.
“I got kind of bored today at work,” Ember said. “Well, not bored. But I couldn’t stop thinking about all the files we’ve been going over. So, I ran the report of altered files again so I could have copies to look at while I was working. And it generated a list of names… TS, did you ever call that guy?”
“Who?”
“The agent you used to work with. The one who went to Miami.”
Tethys was confused for a moment, then his eyes widened as I sensed understanding. “Greyson Turner,” he said. “Yes, I did call him.” He hung his head a bit. “I had forgotten…”
“I forgot too,” I said softly.
“It was…” A stab of sorrow went through him, so painful it made my stomach churn. “It was the same day…”
Ember nodded solemnly. “I know.” She smiled weakly at him. “Do you remember what you talked about?”
Tethys frowned as he thought. At last, he nodded. “Nothing much. I found a case – just some petty theft, nothing major – that involves multiple field offices, including Greyson’s. In fact, he’s dealt with the thief before. So, I called and said I was working on it and wanted to know if he had tips.” He shrugged. “We chatted about it for a bit, then I said it was nice to talk to him. Asked how he’s been. Asked if he’s done anything interesting recently… any trips. He said no. Didn’t mention Miami and I didn’t want to pry. I wished him well and that was it.”
“That shouldn’t be enough to tip him off,” Danio said.
“It didn’t have to be,” Ember said. “Because TS went into this guy’s file.”
“I guess I did,” Tethys said.
“I know you did,” said Ember. “Because I did too. I saw his name and was curious… but it didn’t show you as the last user to access it. The field for the last user was blank.”
I frowned, that wasn’t right. “Blank?” I echoed.
“Someone deleted it,” Ember said. “So, I went into the backend to check. TS was in the file, then someone else accessed it after he did, the same day. Whoever it was had their name deleted.”
“Can you recover that and find out who it was?” Danio asked.
She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. User access logs aren’t considered critical, so there are no backups like there are for the activity logs. Once it’s deleted…” Ember sighed. “But there was one more name in the log, the last person who accessed it.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Me.” Ember’s eyes flared. “I wasn’t thinking, I went in on the frontend. I looked at a lot of files today, but that was the only one I opened on the frontend. The only one I could have been tracked by. And then I was attacked.” She took a deep breath. “But I wasn’t the only one.”
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked.
Ember’s eyes dimmed and she looked sadly at Tethys. “I don’t think the car accident was an accident. I think someone was trying to kill Delilah. Because they were trying to kill you.”
Complete shock rocked Tethys. And me. The room filled with a stunned silence. I could hardly even hear anyone breathing, just the sound of several hearts pounding and a gentle, almost unnoticeable rush of blood.
“What?!” I finally demanded, knowing Tethys was still trying to gather his thoughts.
“We both looked at that agent’s profile,” Ember said. “And we were both, in a way, attacked just hours later.”
“It makes sense,” said Dani grimly. “If you take out an agent who is investigating something that you’re trying to cover up – assuming you succeed – you pretty much guarantee someone is going to look closer at what he was working on. But nobody is going to connect a non-magic in a car accident to a case.”
“I don’t want to believe it,” Tethys said reluctantly. “But it does make sense.” For a moment, he felt absolutely, achingly miserable. Then, it changed to something else, something determined. “It also means whoever is behind it is getting desperate. Danio’s right, nobody would have connected what… what happened to anything I was doing. But attacking Ember in the middle of the bloody MES garage was bold. She must be on to something. Did you find anything else, Ember?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Well… I did, but it’s CVLR.”
“I think we need to explore it all,” Tethys said. “If we’re wrong about the park, and Miami, and CVLR being three separate issues and they are actually related, then a single clue for one could be what finally ties it all together. And if they aren’t connected, well, we still need to get to the bottom of all of them.”
“And I think Miami just made itself more important than the park,” added Danio.
I gave Jen a gentle squeeze on her leg, then went to go sit next to Tethys, I could tell he needed it. She smiled at me in understanding. I caught Shannon’s eye as I passed and she joined me. Tethys leaned gratefully against me after I sat down.
My eyes drifted of their own accord to a pair of light brown spots on Shannon’s neck, which stood out in stark contrast to the rest of her dark skin. Scars on magics were exceedingly rare, with one exception: a turning bite from a vampire. Even though I was finally embracing being a vampire, I still had trouble forgiving myself for turning Shannon. The fact she was obviously enjoying herself made it easier. And, of course, she’d be dead now if I hadn’t.
I remembered the pain Tethys felt when Shannon nearly died, not just the shared physical pain, but the anguish of losing a soul-packmate. A few short years later and here he was again, facing losing anot
her. One that I couldn’t turn. It had certainly crossed my mind. But unlike Shannon, Delilah was already registered as his soul-packmate and MES knew she was in critical condition. If she were turned now, it would be no secret who did it. I’d be executed and Tethys would lose a soul-packmate either way, assuming he survived.
“What did you find, Ember?” I asked, pushing away the unpleasant thoughts.
“Like I said, I ran the report again. This time, there were three CVLR people whose status was updated to deceased.”
“Everyone from CVLR was alive,” Mariana said confidently.
“Yeah,” Danio said. “They were.”
Ember shrugged. “Well, now three aren’t. Or at least, they want us to think they’re dead.”
“Can you tell when it was updated?” Tethys asked.
“No. That’s non-critical information again. And it was deleted. All I know is it had to be between when I ran the report last week and today.”
“Let’s take a closer look,” Tethys said.
We gathered up the printouts and sorted through them until we found the three CVLR people. Once again, our one clue turned up nothing. The three files were wholly unremarkable. They had nothing in common. Nor did they have anything that set them apart from the other CVLR files.
Soon, we moved on to going through all the files, again, trying desperately to see if there was anything we missed on the first thousand times through.
“Is anyone else getting hungry?” Mariana asked at last.
We had been at it for hours and I didn’t blame her. Tethys was starving. In fact…
“Teth, when did you eat last?” I asked.
He shrugged and muttered, “Dunno.”
I sighed. We always knew that someday Delilah was going to die. It was a grim inevitably. I just never imagined it would end with a coma and long, agonizing days of waiting. I always kind of figured, hoped maybe, that it would be so fast neither of us knew it was coming until it was over, like Hylay’s. She wasn’t in pain, she didn’t linger. One moment she was there and the next she was gone and I was left with a gaping hole in my soul and my still-human heart. Alive. Alive and with a vampire bearing down on me, a couple of helpless kids to save, and no time to even process her death, let alone mourn.
Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Page 12