“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 into 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.
“So do all the teams understand what they’re looking for?” he finally asked. Annie thought it was a pointed dig at the French team, Fabien cringed.
“Yeah. Ryan, it’s fine. Everyone knows what they’re doing. We have six teams to work six more leads,” Annie said.
“Her information was good then?”
“Yes. Sturtagaard convinced her to be honest. Do I still have to bring her back with us?”
“That’s the deal.” Ryan rolled his eyes. His hands were tied by the 150 people sitting behind him.
“Okay then. We’ll reconvene in five hours?” Annie asked.
“We’ll be here.” Ryan sighed as the screen went blank.
*
Alone in the conference room, Annie checked her supplies in her field pack. She reordered them a second time before placing her list of morgues inside.
“Hi.”
Annie smiled at the sound of Cham’s voice, at his arms as he wrapped them around her.
“Hi, baby.” She rested her head against his chest. “It seems like I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
He kissed the top of her forehead. “I’ve missed you.”
Annie turned in his arms and let him kiss her, unconcerned that they stood in conference room.
“I’m not allowed to go, so please be careful,” he pleaded. Annie would be leaving soon, heading to her designated morgue.
“You know I will.” Annie reached up with one more kiss before pulling away. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? With Fabien? He’s taking this whole thing a bit… defensively,” Cham said.
Annie had paired herself with Fabien for no other reason except that he’d been sulking for hours. She hoped it would make him less dour.
“No. Well, I’m hoping if he’s working with the lead on the case, he’d feel less wounded.”
“Good luck.” Cham kissed her one last time, then sat back down at the conference room table with a full list of cases and a large map as Annie left the room. With one more glance and wave, Annie headed to the teams.
She had divided them into pairs. As per Fabien and Marielle, the morgues were spaced throughout each region in France. Each pair was responsible for rummaging through the files and evidence for any vampire attack.
This better work! Annie sighed as she and Fabien readied to leave.
They left by pairs through the back entrance, now officially opened again. The French Wizard Guard’s inconsistency and lack of concern for their safety and secrecy infuriated Annie. She said nothing about this as they exited the hall into the empty field and offered no words when Fabien put an arm around her as he teleported them away from Paris.
*
Annie guessed incorrectly when assigning Fabien to work with her. It did not soften his demeanor.
He growled when they reached the first morgue, which was so small and cramped they were in each other’s way, bumping into the other as they perused the single filing cabinet in the records room. After a careful review of th
e files accumulated over the last eight months, Fabien seemed pleased that there was nothing to discover, almost justified that they were wasting time.
For the second location, Fabien landed them in an alley behind the morgue, which was dark and difficult to see. He peered around the corner of the building. The single light above the door was dim at best.
“Any cameras?” Annie asked as she waited for his assessment on their safety.
He scowled and curtly replied, “No.” He strode to the door without announcing he was leaving, Annie jogged to catch up with him.
“Don’t you have protocols?” Her voice turned cold and icy, realizing working with him was a big mistake. He was petulant, and she was afraid this could put them in danger—or worse, they’d be discovered breaking into the morgues.
Fabien ignored her. He held his palm six inches from the door handle, twisted his wrist, and popped the lock. Without waiting for Annie to back him up or look for alarms, Fabien entered the building, his pace quick and angry.
If he’s not going to wait, I’ll let him find out firsthand what happens.
When no alarm screeched through the night, Annie entered and followed him down the dark hallway, the only light emanating from the crystal in his hand.
He peered inside the window on the first door they came to. Without precaution, he threw the door open and peered inside the nearly empty room. A single desk was pushed up against the wall. It was piled with boxes. He walked through, flipped the lid of the first box, looked at the junk inside, and determined nothing was worthwhile in the room. He stormed out and slammed the door before stomping to the next door. The handle slipped from his grip as the door flew open and banged against the wall.
“Get a damn grip!” Annie’s voice echoed through the empty building. She shoved past him, turned on her flashlight, and took in the sight of the room.
Four filing cabinets, each four drawers high, lined the back wall. A rectangular table at the center of the room held piles of folders, books, and journals.
“I thought they handled the entire region,” Annie said.
“It’s a small region! Not everything is as a big or as good as you have it in the States!” he snapped.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 91
