by Fatima Fayez
Mateu tilted his head. "They have a bad reputation, but they're good people. It may take you some time to adjust, but the work they do is important."
"Why Mateu, are you a faithful?" I gave him a funny look.
He raised his paw toward his ear. "Don't tell them I said that."
I laughed. "We'll see how it goes, but you know their sources are never as good as you."
He beamed. "As long as you keep coming to me, I'll give you the good information."
"Here's a tidbit. I killed a vampire, so I've already violated my terms."
"Aisha!"
"Mateu!" I repeated in his scandalized tone. "I can't give up my ways completely.”
I walked away from him as laughter echoed behind me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Thanks to Mateu's tip, I knew who to contact. Dina was the one person in Barcelona who legally dealt in charmstones. Charmstones were highly regulated due to their unique power of allowing humans to witness the supernatural world. When a human wore a charmstone, they could see what we supernaturals saw. Everything previously hidden would be revealed to them.
There was one jeweler who excelled at designing. The phone rang a few times before she picked up. "Hi, Dina," I said.
"Hello, Aisha. It's been a while. How have you been?"
"Doing okay. I wanted to ask you about a girl I met earlier. I didn't quite catch her name."
"You think I know her?"
"She was wearing a charmstone necklace. It was gold, on a longer chain, and round. She has long brown hair and light eyes."
"I know the necklace you're talking about. Hold on, let me get my records. The new batch of DRIPPs came by a while ago, and I don't remember her name."
"'Drips?’" I asked.
"Dragon Research Initiates Program Participant. It's the DRAC outreach program." I heard Dina moving objects as she searched for the information I needed. "Ah, yes. Gold necklace. Dragon stamp. The name's Vanessa Garcia."
"Thanks! I'd appreciate you not mentioning me asking about this."
Dina sighed. "Be careful, Aisha. Don't get yourself in trouble with the dragons."
"I appreciate the advice, but it's too late for that," I told her. "Thanks for the help."
"Any time." She hung up.
The DRAC headquarters was a few blocks away. As I walked over there, I reconsidered what I was about to do. The loose plan was to scope out DRAC headquarters, then try to break in and erase that girl's memory. She didn't need to know what I had done.
I looked at the stunning castle. The arrogant dragons hadn’t fortified their territory, and I could see that the building was accessible through multiple points. There was one main door on the front street. I walked around the building. There were other people around, so I didn't worry about looking suspicious; I looked like a casual passerby. Balconies lined the upper floors of the building. I turned a corner to the back of the building. There was a park behind me. I was a little exposed there, so I stood closer to the bushes beneath a tree to give myself some cover as I made my plan to enter the headquarters.
I looked up and saw a tree leaning close to a balcony. I shook my head. Either the dragons wanted their recruits to sneak out, or they were completely unconcerned about security. It seemed strange.
I studied the balconies and saw two girls talking as they sat from across each other. One of them looked like the girl I was searching for, Vanessa Garcia.
I decided to test my theory. I cast an invisibility spell, then crossed the street to the headquarters. I scaled the building, making sure to say hello to the gargoyles around me. I wondered if they would report my passing. Perhaps Mateu would hear of my travels before I had a chance to ask him.
I climbed onto the balcony where the two girls were. I overhead enough of the conversation to realize that Vanessa had told her friend about me. Silently waiting, I listened to them until Vanessa got up and left her friend. She opened the door, and I squeezed out behind her. She closed the door of her friend's room. I looked around me. It was a common area with a dozen doors lining the hall. Some were open, but most were closed. At the far end seemed to be a television room; I could hear chatter coming from that direction.
I couldn't observe too much as Vanessa went to the next door and pushed it open. I slipped in behind her, but she was quick to close the door and nearly closed it on me. She frowned at the resistance, and I slipped past. She pushed the door again and it closed this time. Then she turned the lock.
She walked around the room, getting ready to go to bed. She disappeared into the bathroom, which gave me time to study her room. It was a regular room. It had a bed, bedside table, vanity table, bookshelf, desk, and closet. This room had a balcony, too. I looked out, noting that I could leave this way if I had to. I walked back to the door and leaned against it. I'd block the exit so she wouldn't run away.
I heard the toilet flush, and Vanessa exited the bathroom. She took off her necklace and studied it. The girl prepared to take off her shirt.
"Please don't do that. It will make things awkward," I said.
She jumped so high, I had to bite back a laugh. She spun around to face me. "Who are you?" She grabbed her amulet.
I uncrossed my arms and stepped forward. She held back a gasp. She must have recognized me from the alleyway. Stepping back, she said, "Don't come any closer!" Her voice shook, but I admired her confidence.
"Or what? You'll hit me with a necklace?" I asked her.
Vanessa grabbed a book from her desk and threw it at me. I let it hit me. It would probably make her feel better.
"Hey!" I frowned and rubbed my arm. I bent down to pick it up and turned it over to read the title. It was some sort of guidebook with rules. "Oh, I've read this one. It's good reading. Every rule break results in death." I was joking, of course. I had no idea what was inside, but I could imagine that being the dragons' rule. I tried for a lighter tone, setting the book down on her bed as the teenager stood frozen, staring at me. "You shouldn't throw books around."
"Aren't you here to kill me?"
"No, why would I do that?" I was confused.
"You killed that vampire in the alley.”
Oh. No wonder she was petrified. She was stuck in here surrounded by dragons and had seen me stab a vampire, and here I was making jokes about dragons killing her. Oops.
"Why?" she asked.
Again, I admired her boldness. "It was his day," I replied calmly. It didn't matter what I told her since I was going to erase all memory of this encounter anyways.
"How did you find me?" Vanessa asked, pulling the charmstone necklace over her head and tucking it under her shirt. It probably made her feel safer.
"Suspicious type, aren't you? Well, that keeps you alive, so don't forget. Don’t trust anyone. Anyways, I saw the charmstone, and I know they're limited. I asked around and found there was a new batch of kids in the program." I shrugged. "It was relatively easy."
"That was pretty fast," she said.
"I've got connections. Now, I'm just going to cast a little spell to make you forget what you saw." I started walking toward her, which only caused her to start backpedaling again.
"Why?" Her eyes widened, displaying her fear. "I won't say anything."
"The people I work for don't like having witnesses. If I don't do it, they'll come after you. Trust me, it's better this way." I lied about the Alliance knowing what had happened, but the sentiment was true. "Okay, I know I just told you not to trust people, but trust me on this one."
"I don't want you to put a spell on me." She backed up until she hit the wall. She looked toward the balcony and then back at the door, weighing her escape options.
"You don't really have much of a choice. I could wait until you're asleep and do it then, but I try not to be so sneaky." I waited for her to decide.
"You promise you'll only erase memories of what happened in the alley?" she asked nervously.
"Yes.”
"Fine." Vanessa sat on her bed and waite
d.
I approached her swiftly. I saw her flinch as I took out my dagger and placed it on the nightstand. "I'm not going to kill you," I reassured her. "I could do that quietly without all this fuss."
"Go on then, get it over with," she said.
Clearly this girl was terrified, so I tried to make small talk. "My name's Aisha. What's yours?" She didn't need to know I already knew it.
"Vanessa."
"It helps if you relax when I work this spell. I'm not a mind-reader, but I can see how tense you are."
"How did you find me if you didn't know my name?"
"I'm very good at tracking people," I said. She was a smart one. I raised my hands and placed them on her head. I closed my eyes to concentrate. I drew upon my magic and frowned. "Are you wearing a magicked item?"
Vanessa pulled out her pendant from under her shirt. "Just this."
"Take it off." Something was blocking my spell. As far as I knew, charmstones didn't act as magic dispellers, but I couldn't use my magic on this girl. She removed the pendant, and I took it from her. "This is beautiful. Dina's a true artist."
"You know her?"
"She's a friend." I turned the pendant over. "You must love dragons if you signed up to be around them all the time." I placed my hand on her head again and concentrated. After a few seconds I rocked back on my heels.
"What is it?" Vanessa asked.
"I thought it was the pendant, but it's not."
"What's not? What are you talking about?"
I hesitated, studying the teenager. I wasn't sure it was a good idea to tell her what I had discovered.
"Tell me!"
I pressed my lips together. At her expression, I reluctantly told her.
Chapter Forty
I had infiltrated the Dragon Research Authority Center to erase the girl's memory, but I hadn't been able to do it. Vanessa may have been immune to my magic, but her friend wasn't. I snuck back over to the room belonging to Vanessa's friend and extracted the memory of Vanessa telling her what she had witnessed.
Since I couldn't erase Vanessa's memory, we had come to an agreement. She promised she wouldn't tell anyone about seeing me and the vampire. In return, I told her I wouldn't tell the dragons what she was: a witch. The DRAC only accepted non-magical humans into their program, and Vanessa would surely be in trouble if her magical blood was discovered. I briefly wondered how Diego would take the news if he ever found out.
Before I left the facility, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take a tour of the center. I wanted to see where Diego and the Enforcer lived. It was risky to wander around the place with the shifters' heightened sense of smell, but I would be careful.
The quarters Vanessa and her friend lived in were composed of twelve bedrooms, a communal living room, and a library. I wondered if there was another wing full of humans or if the dragons only had one batch of initiates during the year. I moved slowly through the area. As I passed one of the communal areas, I saw a haughty-looking girl lording over a skinny boy. I rolled my eyes. I wondered what the dragons had been thinking when they invited the likes of her to witness our secrets.
The main door opened, and I used the opportunity to slip past the human to go outside. I was in a long hallway with red triangles on the sides of the wall that pointed toward the door I had just exited. I moved down the hallways, confident in my invisibility spell.
I went down a flight of stairs, keeping my footsteps soft and eyes open for any shifters moving about. As I kept moving through the place, I wondered at the lack of shifters around. Where were they? A large window at my side showed me the answer: a huge courtyard outside where dozens of shifters were mingling. I wondered if they were all dragons or if there were other types of shifters among them. Either way, the result would be pretty combustible. The number of dragon shifters who lived or worked at the center made for an explosive living arrangement.
I made my way down two more flights of stairs to the ground floor and wandered around. On a whim, I tried a door and it opened. I stepped inside the room and felt like I had entered a museum. Objects in glass displays and on pillars decorated the room. I shut the door, leaving it open a fraction. I never trusted a completely closed door. I wandered around and studied the items briefly. There were weapons, swords, daggers, and shields in addition to bright gemstones and small trinkets. I wondered why they were all housed in this room. It seemed strange for all of these things to be on open display when all tales mentioned dragons jealously hoarding their treasures. It would be painfully easy to pick up any item here and walk away with it. The thought was still in my mind as I left the room.
Taking stock of where I was, I headed in the direction of the front door. I'd slip out from there.
There was a huge wooden desk and a young male slouched lazily in a chair. He was talking on the phone. "One of the initiates came back out of breath. It was still early from lock-up, so it wasn't the time that made her hurry back." He listened to the person on the other end and answered, "No, I didn't ask her. She looked scared. It could be something or it might be nothing. They're still new, so a lot of things are bound to scare them. I just thought you should know." He waited before speaking again. "I'm not babysitting initiates. I have enough on my plate as it is."
The shifter's head rose slightly. Shit. He could smell me.
I backtracked quietly. Before he left my sight completely, I saw him turn his head toward where I was just standing and frown. "What? Sorry, can you repeat that? No, nothing, I just thought I smelled brimstone. What were you saying?"
There was nothing more to do. I was satisfied by my tour of the Dragon Research Authority Center. I wasn't about to push my luck by wandering into the path of other dragon shifters. I followed the red triangles all the way back to the initiates' quarters. As I made my way back up the stairs, I wondered if the shifter would try to figure out what the smell had been. I looked down at my outfit. Hanging my clothes in Noor’s closet had been an excellent idea. The shifter hadn’t even caught my scent of cloves. I was in the clear.
I gently pushed open the door of the initiates' wing. Thankfully, no one was there to witness the door magically opening by itself. I closed the door behind me and searched for an open doorway. I noticed one across from Vanessa's room. I slipped into the bedroom. It was empty. I slid open the balcony door and closed it from the outside. I shimmied down the building, saying goodbye to the dragon gargoyles. I wondered idly if they would tattle and reveal that an invisible person had talked to them.
Once I was safely back on the ground, I put as much distance between me and the building as possible. I stood across the street and looked at the castle with its four towers. I wondered what Diego would do if he found out I had snuck through his headquarters and explored without anyone being the wiser. The dragon shifters had incredibly lax security. It wouldn't surprise me if I wasn’t the first person do to this.
I took one last look at the building and shook my head. I wouldn't be the one to tell Diego to fortify his security. Besides, one day I might need to sneak back in again.
Chapter Forty-One
I slept in the following day, my body tired from the previous day's activities. When I finally got out of bed, I went to the roof and did my usual workout. After a shower, I padded over to the dining room table and stared at the map with its grape markers. I remembered the Continental Times building. I went down to the supermarket and got a copy of the newspaper.
Back upstairs in my apartment, I spread the newspaper on the coffee table and scanned the bylines. I kept shifting from one article to the next until I found him. Charlie Gale. Sebastian's favorite journalist.
I pulled out my laptop and did some research. It was easy to find the journalist's home address. I went over to the dining room table and located it on the map. It was a neighborhood where Sebastian had been sighted. There had been surveillance photos of Sebastian in both the area of the newspaper building and the journalist's home address. It couldn't be a coincidenc
e. Since Sebastian was working on revealing the existence of supernaturals, he must have contacted the journalist to break the story.
I had a couple options: I could go solo and try to solve this myself, or I could test the new friends I’d made. I picked up the phone and called Rafael.
He picked up on the second ring. "Good morning."
"Good morning. How are you?" I cut right to the chase. "Curious. I need you to track Charlie Gale. He works at the Continental Times. I need phone and financial records."
"Why?"
"He's Sebastian's favorite reporter. If there was anyone he would give his story to, it would be him."
"What are you doing?" Rafael asked me.
"Waiting on the records."
He laughed. "I'm at ASP. Come over and the records should be available by the time you arrive."
"Sounds good. See you in twenty minutes." I guess the Alliance did have good resources after all.
I dressed and headed over to the headquarters.
Rafael met me at the elevator. "Leon has a few questions."
We walked together to Leon's office. He was working on his laptop when we entered. When he saw us, he pushed the cover down and waited for me to have a seat. "Make your case."
I sat in the chair. Rafael remained standing, leaning against the wall. I arched an eyebrow. "About?"
"Why you need a journalist's phone and financial records."
I glanced at Rafael and back at Leon. "I already told Rafael."
"Why do you think Sebastian would contact this reporter?" Leon asked.
"What's the problem here? You asked me to locate Sebastian, and I need resources. You told me that the full resources of the Alliance were available for me. The contacts I usually refer to won't help in this case."
"Ibrahim?" Leon guessed.
"He's one of them," I admitted.
"And why do you think Charlie Gale is involved?"
