by MJ Kraus
Lekshi shrugged. “I don’t know what they’re trying to destroy. But since you’re screwed anyway with Val’Lithrai on your scent I don’t mind telling you what I know.”
“Who’s Val’Lithrai?” I shook my head, confused. “Is that a higher vampire?”
Lekshi laughed again. “’Is that a higher vampire.’ You know, Silver, if I didn’t know better I’d say you haven’t spent much time learning politics for a man with your family name.” He narrowed his eyes and glared at me. “Val’Lithrai is an elder, not a higher. Of the seven he’s the nastiest of the bunch. He’s responsible for most of the bleed farms in the city and he’s got the most vicious packs of vamps working for him. Frankly I’m impressed you managed to survive three of them. They’re not like the vamps from any other clan.”
“Thanks for the confidence in my skills.” I rolled my eyes at Lekshi. “So this guy wants to destroy something with the book? What does he want to destroy?”
Lekshi shrugged. “I have no idea if he wants to destroy anything, but it makes a lot more sense than him wanting to summon something. The vampire clans haven’t been involved in summoning in a very long time and if Val’Lithrai tried to summon something the Council would be on him before he could get the second sentence out.”
“Wait a second.” I held up my hands. “Explain to me how you know all of this but you don’t know what this Val’Lithrai guy is actually doing with the book. How do you even know it’s him?”
“Like you implied, Silver, I still have connections to the clans.” Lekshi snarled at me. “Or I will until they find out I’ve been talking to you.”
“Cram it and keep explaining.”
Lekshi sighed. “Two months ago I was delivering potions and the vamps were late to show up. When they did, they looked scared out of their fangs. You never see vamps act like that so I got them talking and found out that their boss was Val’Lithrai. He had shaken things up inside his clan and they were expanding their bleed farms enormously. The vamps were getting worked to the bone and needed some pick-me-ups. I promised them extra potent ones if I got more information, so over the next few weeks I started piecing things together about the book.” He shrugged and ran his finger over his bloody gums. “That’s all I know, Silver.”
“So summoning was never mentioned, but destruction was?”
“Destruction was never mentioned, but neither was summoning. It’s two plus two here, Silver; use your brain. If the vamps were working on a summoning they’d have been over the moon about it. The vamps were terrified. So clearly it’s destruction.”
“I don’t follow that logic at all, but that’s why I come to you.” I nodded and stood up. “Thanks for the help. Consider yourself down a favor.”
“Down a—wait a second, Silver. That kind of information is worth two favors! Maybe even three! You should be owing me a favor after that!”
“If you had any more specifics, then maybe.” I turned toward the door and continued talking as I went out. “As it is all I really have is the name of an elder vampire. The rest of it is just guesswork on your part.”
“And finely honed intuition from years of working with these things!”
I waved a hand over my shoulder as I walked out. “You’re down one favor, Lekshi. Thanks for the help.”
I closed the door behind me, grinning with satisfaction as I heard his impotent squealing coming from the room. I headed over to the bartender and fished a few coins out of my pocket. “Thanks for the help. Make sure he gets a couple of fresh pitchers, would you? I think he’s gonna need them.”
The bartender nodded to me and I turned and headed for the back of the bar where the billowing steam drifted up towards the ceiling. There was a lot that Lekshi had inferred from what I said and even more that he was guessing at, but he was right about his intuition. He had been working with the vamps for a long time and his reactions to my story were genuine enough.
Something big was going down, and it wasn’t a summoning. What it was, though, was anyone’s guess. Elder vampires play the long con—some of their plans stretch for hundreds of years and they’re not afraid to sit back and simply outlive their enemies if that’s the best way out. For an elder to be planning something that was unfolding over a matter of months was more than unusual. It was terrifying.
Chapter 8
When I walked out into the fresh afternoon air I realized that I had entirely forgotten half of the reason why I went into the Sharpened Staff in the first place. “Dammit. Forgot to check for Sully.” I mumbled to myself and turned to go back in when I felt a pinprick on the back of my mind. It was familiar and I turned back and headed down the alley, tracing the source.
Before I got to the street one of the doorways in the alley opened as I walked by and a pair of rough hands grabbed me and pulled me in. I was halfway through casting a spell at my would-be attacker when I heard his voice and instantly dissipated the energy building in my hands.
“Will! It’s me!”
“Sully?” The room Sully had pulled me into was dark and I whispered at him. “Where the hell have you been? And where are we?”
“Sh!” Sully whispered back. “Come with me!”
Sully pulled on my arm and I followed him through the dark building. My vision slowly adjusted to the low light and I saw that we were in the back of some sort of warehouse. Sully looked around before leading me behind a pile of wooden shipping crates. On the floor behind the crates was a ward that had been hastily drawn onto the floor in chalk and I stepped over the circle it formed, being cautious not to disturb it.
Sully and I sat down inside the circle and I looked at him with a confused expression as I whispered again. “Sully, what’s going on?”
Sully spoke normally as he replied. “No need t’whisper, lad.” He pointed to one of the symbols on the ward and I relaxed.
“Oh. Soundproofing.” I frowned. “Wait, why do you need a soundproofed ward with…” I turned my head around, looking at the various symbols that made up the ring around us. “Holy balls, Sully. What’s all of this for?”
I turned back to look at Sully. His eyes were dark, sweat was soaked through his shirt and he was breathing heavily. “It’s been an interestin’ mornin’, William.”
“No kidding. I’ve had one hell of a morning, too.” I pulled open my jacket and Sully winced as he saw the wounds.
“Vamps?”
“Yeah. Why are you all out of breath and stuff?”
Sully pulled up a sleeve to reveal several shallow scrapes down the length of his arm from his shoulder to his wrist. “Fell down while I was runnin’ from a feckin’ pack o’those damned things.”
“A pack?” My eyes grew wide. “Sully you’ve got to tell me what happened!”
He shrugged. “What’s t’tell? I left the shop after you did and headed for th’ Staff. I di’nae realize you would be goin’ there too. I went on my bike, though. Two blocks down and I realized somethin’ was followin’ me. Spent the next hour tryin’ t’get them off’a me before they attacked.”
“They attacked you in broad daylight?”
“Aye. Looked like ten, maybe twelve. I ashed five or six but then I saw…” Sully hesitated and I saw the fear in his eyes. I had never seen true fear in Sullivan O’Dalley’s eyes before and the sight chilled me to the bone. “I saw it. The elder. Bastard was pushing them personally.”
“You saw one of the seven elders? Out on the street?”
“Aye.”
“How the hell did you get away?”
Sully flashed a grin and chortled. “Lad, I may be short, fat an’ slow, but I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve. When I finally lost ‘em all I hid here’n waited for you.”
“How did you even know I was here?”
“Lad, y’may be impossible t’track by magic but I know the smell of your blood’n sweat more than I’d like to after sewing y’back up.”
“Great… that’s just… great.” I shook my head, mildly disturbed by the knowledge that S
ully had smelled his way to me. “Well what about the elder? Do you think it’s still around?”
“Doubtful. No, his little blood suckers were scurrying all around th’ area when they all jus’ broke off. I guess th’ prick gave up searchin’ for ‘is book.” Sully grinned at me and I felt my stomach sink. “So? Where is it, lad? Did y’find anythin’ useful out?”
“Uhhhhh…..” My sheepish look instantly killed Sully’s smile and I felt my stomach sink even farther. “Well, Sully… here’s the thing.”
By the time I finished telling the story Sully’s eyes were closed and he was shaking his head. “Dammit, Will. Dinnae I tell you t’ be careful?”
“I know, Sully. I’m sorry. But how was I supposed to know? It was a damned clever setup they had.”
“Aye, lad. You’re right. It’s nae entirely your fault. Did y’at least get some good news from your contact in th’ bar?”
“I guess that depends on the definition of ‘good.’ I know a guy who sells potions to the vamps. I had to push him around a bit but I got him to spill what he knows.”
“And?”
“He claims that the vamps aren’t going to summon anything. They’re going to use the power stored up in the book to destroy something.”
“Destruction?” Even behind Sully’s beard I could see the color draining from his face. “Cheese an’ crackers, lad. There’s enough power built up in that book t’destroy half the island!”
“Yeah that’s what I said. I asked him why this Val’Lithrai guy would want to destroy anything, and he said—”
“Hold up there, Will. Did y’say Val’Lithrai?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Sully twisted the ends of his beard hairs between his fingers as he nodded sagely. “Suddenly this is startin’ t’make a lot more sense, lad.”
“Okay, see, both you and my contact acted like it makes perfect sense for this particular elder to want to destroy a bunch of stuff. Can you explain why?”
Sully smiled grimly. “Ye’d know a lot about it if’n you were involved in th’ family business, Will.”
“Just give me the short version, Sully. Something’s telling me we’re working on a deadline here.”
“Aye, lad. Of th’ seven elders, Val’Lithrai’s th’ worst of them all. When th’ Council negotiated th’ truce and divided up th’ island his clan suffered more’n any. He lost land, vamps, bleeders an’a good deal of respect’n admiration from his fellow elders. He’s been lookin’ for a way t’get back at the Council. Maybe this is it.”
“So he’s going to destroy the southern part of the island?”
“Nah.” Sully shook his head. “He’d never get there wit’ that thing, even behind wards. No, he’s far too clever for that. He wants t’make a statement, too.” Sully clicked his tongue against his teeth and nodded. “If I had t’guess, and I do, I’d guess he’s going t’kill two birds with one stone.”
“Huh?”
“He hates th’ Council with a passion. And he resents the other clans for keepin’ so much of their property after th’ agreement. What if he drew in th’ Council members with the book an’ then detonated it near one of th’ other clans? They’d get th’ blame if it was on their property or nearby an’ he’d have his revenge.”
“That sounds really bad, Sully. How are we supposed to stop him?”
Sully’s grin had returned and it broadened into a smile at my question.
“Dinnae worry, lad. Like I said, I’ve got a few tricks up m’sleeve.”
Chapter 9
As I rode along in a cab from a street near the Sharpened Staff towards Central Park I tried to push the details of Sully’s plan out of my mind and focus on the task at hand. To say that Sully had a plan was an overstatement of monumental proportions as it generally boiled down to “find the book, steal it or kill the vampire and thus save the day.”
Great plan, Sully.
Still, though, it was the best we had at the moment so took a deep breath and reached out through the Void, searching for any signs of the book or the elder vampire. Due to my condition I was nearly impossible to track by my magical aura but I was also absolute crap at tracking others. Most wizards learn how to track by aura via the Void from toddlers so they’re extremely practiced at it just because they’ve been doing it for most of their life.
Without that luxury I had to put every ounce of my mental strength and focus into searching for what I was looking for. After two times around the block and almost two hours later, I still hadn’t picked up on anything. With the park acting as a natural central point around which the majority of the Touched population were located, I figured that I’d be able to pick up on something.
“Hey buddy, you want to go around again? I’m gonna need you to put somethin’ down on the meter either way.”
I looked up at the driver and he jerked a thumb towards the meter and I nodded. “Oh, yeah. Please, around again.” I feigned reaching into my pocket for a wallet and ran my fingers down the edge of the credit card reader. Energy jumped out from my fingertips and into the machine, and in a few seconds the amount owed went to zero. “Sorry about that. Lost in my own thoughts.”
The driver shrugged and went back to looking out the windshield. “No problem, kid. You’re payin’ so I’m drivin’.”
As I spoke with the cab driver I momentarily let my focus slip, and when I returned to the task at hand I felt a strange sensation in the back of my head before I was overwhelmed with a startlingly strong burst of magical energy.
“Gah!” I shouted and clawed at my head as I tried to get a handle on the information and energy pouring into my brain. It was stronger than I remembered the book being, but it had the same feel and texture to it. Ancient. Old. Corrupted. Evil. “Fucking hell!”
The driver of the cab hadn’t even had a chance to put the car back into gear before I jumped out and looked around, trying to determine where the magical energy was coming from. Even though I had managed to get its effects back under control in my mind I could still sense it quite strongly. It was so potent that I wouldn’t be surprised if a few normals felt it, too.
I spun around in circles as I walked down the sidewalk next to the park, shaking my head in disbelief. “That’s not just the book’s aura. That’s something else on top of it.” A thought occurred to me and my eyes widened in horror. “Hells bells… he’s started the ritual, hasn’t he?”
While we were sitting in the back of the warehouse Sully had explained a bit to me about the type of ritual that would have been used to release the energy from the book for use in a summoning. The ritual was long and complex, but for a destruction spell it could take significantly less time. With few exceptions destruction spells are coarse and imprecise, so an exacting release of magical energy isn’t necessary like it is in most other spells.
“Still, if I’m only detecting it now then that means every other Touched in the city’s only detecting it now. Which means he’s going to just be starting to draw them in.” I looked at my watch. The Council members who would no doubt head out and investigate the power of the book would take at least fifteen minutes to arrive. “So I’ve got about ten minutes to find this asshole and somehow stop him. Great.”
I continued spinning around where I stood, trying desperately to locate the source of the magical energy to no avail. It was so overwhelmingly powerful that it seemed to come from everywhere. “Come on, think, dammit! He’s not going to draw attention to what he’s doing. If normals saw the mass deaths he’s going to cause then he wouldn’t last long. No… no he’s going to do this somewhere only the Touched would go, but still out in the open and close to another clan. But who’s near enough to…”
I trailed off as I tried to remember the old dividing lines that had been set up for the clans in the area when I realized where I was. The southeast corner of the park was essentially the nexus for the dividers of three separate vampire clans with the Hallett Nature Sanctuary acting as neutral ground for when their leaders met to di
scuss clan matters. I turned around and focused on the direction of the sanctuary. It was still hard to tell where the energy was the strongest, but I could swear that it was slightly stronger coming from that location.
I checked my watch and shook my head before breaking into a run. “Screw it!” With seven minutes left until the Council started poking around, I had to hope that the sanctuary was the right spot. As I ran along I heard a shout to my left and turned to see Sully charging down the sidewalk. His face was red, sweat was streaming down his face and neck and he was puffing like a steam engine.
“Will!”
“Sully? Sully! I think it’s in the sanctuary!”
“Aye, lad! Neutral ground’n all that!”
“Exactly my thought!”
“Get movin’ lad, I’ll be right behind you!”
I raised a doubtful eyebrow but didn’t slow down. Sully may have been a powerful wizard but even wizards get exhausted. In his condition he wasn’t fit to have a fistfight with an ant and I didn’t need him there only to be squashed like one. “Catch up when you can, Sully! I’m sure I can handle the elder just fine!”
Truth be told while Sully could probably handle the elder by himself, I needed Sully by my side. Despite my natural prowess with spellcasting due to my family heritage I was still a novice by most standards. Not having spent my formative years practicing my craft had forced me to rely on ingenuity and cunning more than the power of my spells. How that would far against a hundreds-year-old creature who had survived off his ingenuity, cunning and spellcasting remained to be seen.
“Okay. Just need to figure out how to disrupt his ritual. No big deal. I don’t need to kill him or do anything fancy. If I can just stop him from killing the Council then I can slip away and let them take care of the problem. Yeah. Piece of cake.” I talked to myself as I ran along the trails, heading for the small grotto at the center of the sanctuary. The area was heavily warded by the vampire clans and designed to keep normals away from it.
