by Flynn, Mac
"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.
"Did Bat decide to redecorate?" I whispered to Vince.
He shook his head. "This was none of Bat's doing." He strode over to the askew door and pulled it partly shut to show the back. Across the door was a long claw mark.
I gasped. "Werewolves?"
"Undoubtedly," Vince agreed. He opened the door and the entr
ance toppled off its hinges and clattered to the floor.
We stepped into the lab and I cringed when I saw the same destruction as in the garage. The tables were overturned, and the vials and beakers lay shattered on the ground. Papers, some half-burnt, lay in scattered piles and there were long claw marks across the outer walls of the small white room. The door of the room was broken in half and lay in pieces just inside the entrance.
Vince strode forward to the white room and I quickly followed. I listened for any sounds of danger, but heard nothing. "You don't think they're still here, do you?" I whispered to him.
"No. The attack took place a few days ago," he told me.
"How can you tell?"
"By the canine scent of the werewolves."
I lifted my nose into the air and wrinkled it. "They do smell like dogs," I commented. Vince went directly for the blood refrigerator and opened the door. "I know you're a vampire, but is this really the time?" I scolded him. Vince ignored me and grabbed the panel on the door. He wrenched the two parts of the door apart to reveal a small, square secret compartment. I blinked at the hidden space as he snatched a slip of yellowed paper from its walls. "I've heard of strange diets, but hiding a piece of paper for eating later is a little ridiculous," I muttered.
"If anything was to happen to him he would leave a note here," Vince explained as he unfolded the aged, wrinkled paper. His frown deepened as his eyes brushed over the contents.
I strode over to stand by his side. "What is it? He's not in trouble, is he?"
"I'm not sure. I can't read the message," Vince admitted.
I glanced at the paper and raised an eyebrow. On the parchment was a bunch of squiggly lines and exclamation points. "Uh, what language is this? Gibberish?"
"As far as I can surmise, yes," he replied.
My eyes flickered up to his serious face. "Seriously? You've known each other for how long and you still can't read his handwriting?"
"This is Bat's handwriting, but the language is not any I know of him using," Vince informed me.
"So we don't really know if this is a secret message from him or if we found his lost grocery list," I commented.
Vince stiffened and his head whipped up. He stuffed the paper into his jacket and pursed his lips. "We should leave."
I stiffened. His voice was stern and had a quick march to his words. "What is it?"
"We are not alone."
I looked around the room. Nothing stirred except for a few slips of paper on the ground. "Well, if you call the broken furniture company, sure, but-" It was 'but nothing' for the shadows as many of them warped into dark, humanoid figures with glowing yellow eyes. They were like the twisted shadows of dwarves in that their arms and legs were impossibly long compared to their thin, short bodies. I gasped and stumbled back against Vince. He grasped my upper arms and held me still. "What the hell are those?" I asked him.
"Doppelgangers employed by Ruthven. They are his most powerful creations aside from Field," Vince told me.
The creatures stretched their shadowy legs toward us and I cringed when I noticed their hands were curved like the talons of eagles. "So why hasn't he used them before?" I pointed out.
"They will only deign to be summoned in the matters of the arcane," he explained.
"And that means what exactly?"
"They have been summoned to steal Bat away for some purpose."
"Uh-huh, and how do we un-summon them?"
"There is no way but to defeat them with like magic," Vince told me.
The creatures drew closer and more slid from the wall behind the refrigerator door. They forced us into the center of the room and stretched out their taloned hands toward us. "Um, you don't happen to have any in your coat, do you?" I squeaked.
"Not in my coat," he replied. Vince held up his ring hand and a brilliant light poured from the center crystal.
The creatures threw their arms over their faces to block the light, and strangled, cat-like screeches erupted from their throats. Vince swept me into his arms and shoved us through the doppelgangers that blocked the door. Literally through them. They were like the shadows they poured from, and when we swept through their bodies it was like being dunked in cold water.
We sped into the main portion of the warehouse to find the entire building was covered in the creatures. They hissed and slithered towards us on their long limbs. Vince raced us into the garage, but that, too, swarmed with the arcane creatures. The exit was blocked by the fiends. Their lithe bodies swayed to and fro as they walked toward us. Their numbers were a dozen deep as more poured from the shadows.
Vince set me down and raised his ring above his head. The bright light shone across the room. The creatures the light touched disintegrated into tiny floating ashes. The light destroyed many of our foes, but not all of them. The doppelgangers at the front protected their brethren at the rear, and the lines continued to sway toward us.
Vince turned to me. "Get on my shoulders and use your ring," he ordered me.
"But my life!" I reminded him. If I used the ring my humanity would be sucked from me.
"That is what is at stake!" he argued.
He knelt down and I reluctantly climbed onto his shoulders. The action forced his ring hand lower, and the extent of the light dimmed. The doppelgangers rushed forward. Vince stood, and I was well above where his hand could reach. I lifted my ring as he did the same, and our combined lights burst forth and swept over the room. The creatures hissed and retreated into the shadows from whence they came. In less than half a minute the room was empty except for us.
Vince knelt down so I could climb off him. I stepped down, but a sudden wave of exhaustion swept over me. My legs buckled and I fell forward. Vince caught me in his strong arms and pulled me against him. His worried face looked down at me, but I managed to smile back at him.
"Remind me not to do that again any time soon," I quipped.
He didn't smile. "It may not be avoidable. If Ruthven is desperate enough to call forth so many doppelgangers then he will use everything at his disposal to find Bat and ourselves."
I rubbed my woozy head. "What'd he want Bat for, anyway? I mean, he's just a crazy old coot, isn't he?"
"Bat holds a great deal of alchemist secrets that Ruthven would be very pleased to acquire," he told me.
I pushed away from him and raised an eyebrow. "Like what kind of secrets?"
Vince held up one hand and the ring on his finger glistened even in the dim light of the garage. "The secret to these."
Chapter 2
I blinked at him. "What does Bat know about these things? That is, other than what you told him?" I wondered.
"Bat has the knowledge to create them," Vince revealed.
I furrowed my brow. "Wait, so you gave him that knowledge, or did he learn that from the first guy who had the ring and made it?"
"He learned it himself," Vince corrected me.
I tilted my head to one side and frowned. "I know my head's a little loopy right now, but didn't that alchemist guy who made the rings live a really long time ago?"
"A thousand years," Vince confirmed.
"And that guy was-"
"He is Bat."
I held up my hands. "Wait, so you're telling me that Bat is not only the thousand-year-old alchemist who created these cursed rings, but that he kicked your ass enough to get you stuck to one?" The image of Bat duking it out with Vince and winning was too much. I burst out laughing.
Vince scowled at me. "I see nothing humorous in your statement. Bat was a formidable foe in his youth, and still retains enough ability to keep the rings in existence."
I froze and whipped my head up to him. "'In existence?'" I shoved my ring into Vince's face. "Are you telling me he's the only thing keeping this damn thing on my finger and killing me?"
"It isn't killing you. You are changing into-"
"Damn it, Vince, you know what I mean!" I growled.
Vince pursed his lips, but there was some pity in his eyes. "It i
s only speculation, but the rings may cease to exist after his death," he guessed.
I shut my eyes and clasped my hands around the ring. "So if Bat dies, we're both free. . ." I muttered.
"Don't travel down that path, Liz. There is only regret there," Vince advised.
I opened my eyes and frowned at Vince. "Why shouldn't I think about this? You both know I'm dying-"
"Becoming a vampire," he corrected me.
I straightened and glared at my partner. "You both know my life is draining from me and neither of you are doing much to stop it, so why shouldn't I think about him dying?"
"We warned you about using the ring," he reminded me.
I turned away from him and paced the floor in front of him with my hands in fists at my sides. "And you think that was enough when Bat could have just said 'oops, my bad. It's because of me you're in this mess'?" I shot back.
"Wish him dead if you will, but do not kill him yourself," Vince ordered me.
I stopped and towered before Vince in all my short height. "How many times did you wish Tim was dead, or that I was dead? It's no different! I bet you even thought about killing Bat!" I argued.
"Yes, I did, but he still lives," Vince countered.
I started back and furrowed my brow. My voice refused to go above a whisper as I wondered aloud the question that begged to be asked. "Then why didn't you? Why didn't you sneak up on him and drain all his blood? You could've been free."
"Bat was a worthy opponent, and-" Vince clenched his teeth and partially turned away from me.
I stepped up to him and clasped his chin between my fingers. I pulled him toward me, but his glasses blocked my view. I reached up and pulled them off so his beautiful red eyes looked into mine. Vince looked aged and tired. "And what?" I persisted.
"He was the only constant. Yes, I could have killed him when he passed the ring on to Tim, but we both knew we needed each other to keep our sanity against the changing world around us," Vince explained.
