“There.” Hunter pointed to a raised portion between two straps. “Press down there. I bet that’s where the hidey hole is.” Had he really just said hidey hole?
Krieger didn’t seem to notice his unfortunate choice of words, or maybe he thought so little of him that it didn’t register. Either way, he pressed and turned, and voila, there was the key. Now where was the lock? After a few minutes of searching, they discovered that the box was upside down. Hunter couldn’t help but notice how effortlessly the king flipped it over, like it was made of Styrofoam.
With the right side up everything became clear. In the center was a beautiful heart shaped piece. The whole section the heart was welded on shifted, and below it was the lock. Creepy poetic, Hunter thought, the key to my heart.
Everyone held their breath, which in retrospect was a very good thing, as the king turned the key and lifted the lid back.
He would remember every look, every expression, as the contents were revealed. The king growled. Liam let out a howl and seemed for a moment ready to shift into wolf form. Merlin started speaking Latin, and pulled a small sack out of his pocket, pouring the contents in a circle around the box. Lily looked inside the box and then down at her hands. The king protectively wrapped his arm around Lily and walked her over to the chair by the fire.
Hunter clenched his jaws while his mind processed what he was seeing. “Winston, I presume,” he said to the room.
Merlin nodded.
Well, they wouldn’t be looking for him anymore. The inside was retrofitted with a hermetically sealed inner liner. That’s why none of them had smelled the body inside. The corpse was drained of blood, the arms and legs neatly place around the perimeter while the torso rested in the center. Winston’s head was severed and tucked into the chest cavity. The expression on the dead man’s face would haunt him.
Hunter had spent time around death, he knew the smell of it, and he also knew that in a few minutes his system would become accustomed to the odor. The king, Merlin, and the Vantors didn’t look too affected. Lily was ashen. From years of dealing with victims he automatically walked over and knelt down beside her chair. “Do you feel sick?”
“It’s horrible.”
“Yes,” he agreed. What more was there to say?
“Liam,” the king said.
Immediately, Liam went to a cabinet and opened up a drawer. He walked back towards the strong box carrying plastic sheeting.
Hunter knew he had that stupid smile on his face again. Plastic sheeting, dead bodies. He shook his head to clear the thoughts and helped Liam spread it out on the floor. One at a time they pulled out the pieces of Winston.
“Can you tell how long he’s been dead?” the king asked.
“It’s hard to say, without blood, and oxygen.” Hunter shrugged. “A week, maybe two.”
“Merlin, is there enough?” the king asked.
Enough for what, Hunter wanted to ask.
The king stood and moved away from the remains. He gave Hunter a look to do the same. Merlin walked over and circled around the area. His hand hovered over Winston’s head. He flicked his pinkie finger out, the long, sharp nail gouged into his wrist. Two drops of his blood fell onto the lifeless lips.
Hunter didn’t want to see this. He knew now why Walter’s head had been placed in that box. His mind reeled, no, no, no; he couldn’t deal with a dismembered head talking.
Merlin’s voice filled the air with incantations. It weighed down the atmosphere, caused it to feel like gravity had doubled in this room. Hunter found it hard to breathe.
The lifeless mouth moved. Dear God, it moved. Merlin bent down to put his ear next to the lips. “Tell me,” Merlin commanded.
Hunter wished he could look away, but he couldn’t. He held his breath, hoping to hear what the corpse said, but the lips did not move again.
After a few minutes, Merlin sat back on his knees and looked at the king. “It has been too long.”
Immediately the heavy air lifted from the room. Hunter’s lungs filled with air. He made a mental note to demand cremation.
“What about that?” Hunter pointed to a red velvet throw now visible at the bottom of the box. Liam lifted it, and a cream colored place card fell onto the plastic. They all walked over to look down at it. The word TRAITOR was written on it in large block letters.
Lily backed away and ran her hands down the front of her jeans. The more he was around her, the more impressed he was by her emotional control.
“Is that Walter’s handwriting?” Hunter asked her.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, at least we know the injuries are the same as the other two victims. Maybe there’s something else inside that will help us figure out what killed them.”
“A revenant killed them,” the king said.
“A what?” Hunter asked.
“A revenant is a creature created by a master vampire. The practice has been outlawed for centuries. What was once human becomes twisted into a creature completely insane and without free will.”
Lily looked at the king, but did not say anything. He answered an unasked question. “Years of torture and blood drinking.”
“A revenant, would it be able to rip apart a man with its bare hands?” Hunter had to ask.
“And teeth,” the king said.
Merlin punched in the code to open up the doors. It hadn’t occurred to Hunter until that moment that he was probably the only human within the compound walls. Even he knew that whatever Lily was, she was not completely human.
“Tell Dr. Caanan to meet the detective in the laboratory,” the king said.
Laboratory, Hunter thought, like in the horror films. “Wait.”
The king raised an eyebrow at him.
“I had a thought.”
“Continue. We are all anxious to hear your thoughts.”
Hunter wasn’t sure if the king truly meant that, or if he was being sarcastic.
“I need something to write on.”
Merlin pointed towards a cabinet on the wall. Inside was a white board with dry erase markers. Hunter wrote down the names of the victims: Winton, Gibson, and Walter.
“What do these three have in common?” Hunter asked.
“I’m assuming you aren’t wasting our time here.” The king leveled a blistering stare at him.
“Look, the Elder thinks I can be useful. This is the way I work.” The king continued to stare at him. “Humor me, then.”
“Very well, all three were keepers.”
“Have there been any other revenant murders?”
Merlin spoke up. “No. I keep an eye on unexplained murders around the world. There have been only the three.”
Hunter picked up a red marker and connected a line to Winston. “Okay, since Winston went missing first, we can assume that he was killed first.” He put a Roman numeral one by his name. “He was killed in the same way, and probably by the same being as Walter and Gibson. Why was Winston’s body hidden? Was he the traitor or was that a warning to Walter? And why was he in the United States? Why wasn’t he in England?”
Everyone was listening now.
“The keepers pledge an oath never to divulge their knowledge.” Merlin thought for a moment. “We assumed the clue was for Lily, but–” He stopped. “Does this mean anything to you?”
Lily looked out the windows. “It’s too simple.” She raked a long curl behind her ear. “Walter would have made it more difficult.”
“Right.” Hunter loved this part of detective work. “And none of us think that Walter killed Winston. So Winston’s body was taken to Walter. Walter hid the body. Contacted you–” He nodded towards the king– “to take care of Lily, and then went off to England.”
“You are far more than a mere human,” the king said.
Hunter decided the best way to take that was as a compliment. He nodded his appreciation.
“Walter knew the plane wasn’t sent by the Elder. He knew that Winston was dead and buried.” The ki
ng was talking and thinking.
Merlin picked up the thought. “Gibson probably had no idea what was going on. He called Walter for help, after he’d been taken.” He tossed his head back. “I have failed you Master, I should have realized this earlier.” He bowed low to the king.
Master, Hunter thought, seriously.
Merlin displayed the images from the Church onto the screens. “These symbols confounded me. I thought they were the workings of a ravaged mind. These, these, and these.” He pointed to particular areas inside the old church. “They are parts of ancient spells.” He squinted at one screen. “Used during the last Great War.” Merlin shook his head. “To move between the worlds.” He said it to himself more than anyone.
“World War I,” Hunter interrupted.
“No, long before that, before recorded history, when the Others ruled.” Merlin must have seen Hunter’s perplexed look, because he elaborated further. “There was a time when Others were looked upon as gods. You have seen the differences in our appearance and skill. These differences caused many great conflicts between us, each vying to rule the world. This pettiness brought about much destruction. The Great War almost destroyed earth. It was agreed that the Others would retreat to the shadows and let the humans rule the planet. As the ages passed, our existence was forgotten by the humans, and we became merely myths.”
“Alright,” Hunter elongated the word. “I don’t see what this has to do with the murders.”
Merlin rubbed his hands together. “There were what you would call terrorists. We call them the Dark Ones. They caused bloodshed and mayhem. They did not want to retreat into the shadows. They resisted the law and, in order to control them, the most powerful Others came together and created spells and wards to expel them from this world. The Dark Ones were sent to another place, created for them, effectively sealing them between worlds.”
“Why do I get the feeling something went wrong?” Hunter didn’t think he’d like the answer.
The king let out a sigh. It sounded so human that Hunter looked at him carefully. Was he looking ruddy?
“What we’re telling you now are only legends to us. For a time their strategy worked. The humans forgot, and the Others and Vampires receded. There was peace.” The king sat down next to Lily, running his finger over her hand while he spoke. “They didn’t know it, but when the Dark Ones were expelled from this world it caused an imbalance. It wasn’t discovered until thousands of years later when the Others’ powers diminished. Some became infertile, and then extinct. Many assimilated with the humans, diluting their blood until no thread of their otherness was left. The most powerful, the ones who wove the wards and spells to separate the Dark Ones, died, and all their knowledge was lost.”
Hunter knew they were getting to the important part, like about the murders, but he was still frustrated. “The symbols, written in blood at the church, were an attempt to open it back up?”
“Without the original texts I can’t be sure,” Merlin answered. “I know the bodies were sacrifices. I think meant to bring something over.”
“The victims were all keepers, searchers of forgotten history.” Hunter said each word slowly. He needed a drink, maybe some aspirin.
“Yes.” Merlin nodded. “Exactly, they search for our history, our artifacts, anything that can help us to understand what happened, to repair, or create balance again.”
“Then the keepers found something.” Something was nagging at him. “The Elder said there were archives. Wouldn’t it be there?” Hunter twisted the ring the Elder had given him.
“No, we’re looking for four objects,” Merlin said. “They could be books, or tablets, or relics. We know they were separated, spread to the four corners of the earth.”
“The four corners?” Hunter asked.
“East, West, North, and South,” the king answered.
Merlin walked up to the displays, studying the writings. “They placed the heads looking out, they were beckoning tools.”
Hunter took a step back. “What was beckoned?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re saying these creatures, the Dark Ones that caused all the trouble, are trying to get back in? And you have no idea what they are, or what they can do?”
The room went very quiet.
“There are safeguards, gates.” Merlin didn’t sound very confident.
“How many gates are there?”
“Nine,” Merlin answered. “Nine gates, worlds, between us and the Underworld.”
Without a word, Lily jumped up and went to the board. Everyone watched while she used a marker to create a numbered grid. In big letters she wrote out the word Traitor. Methodically, she circled seven numbers within her grid.
Hunter smiled. She was working a substitute cipher. Next, she drew out an x axis with the corresponding numbers, and a y axis with the word traitor. To say he was impressed was an understatement of gigantic proportions. She must have a photographic memory to have retained a cipher key this complex.
“Walter and I used this when I was a child. He’d leave me messages.” Lily seemed embarrassed when she stepped back for them to see the letters.
ELIIACN
“It’s an anagram,” she said, a little louder this time.
“Eli Cain,” Merlin said. “Does that mean anything to anyone?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“I Can Lie,” Liam said.
Hunter wanted to tell the Vantor good boy, but that would have been wrong of him, right?
Merlin piped up again with, “Alice In”. He was clearly enjoying this game. Maybe they could all play Scrabble later, Hunter thought.
“In Alice,” the king said with conviction.
“That means something to you?” Hunter asked.
“Yes.”
“He did leave a clue then.” Lily smiled.
The king and Merlin had one of their unspoken conversations. “That’s all for now.” He kissed the top of Lily’s head and, along with Merlin, left the room.
Chapter Eighteen
Merlin opened the door to his chambers. “You need to see this.”
Krieger followed and inhaled the pungent odor of herbs, charcoal, oils, and a trace of sea air that marked this space as Merlin’s. Both men had been raised close to the wild waters of the cold North Sea, and whenever possible Krieger would retreat to his compound built into the cliffs of Big Sur. It was a poor substitute for the waters of his youth, but it sufficed.
A round oak table dominated the room, its surface heaped high with old books, Walter’s books. Three were opened and propped up against strategically placed stacks to affect stands. Floor lamps bathed the pages in a yellow-tinged light.
Merlin pointed to the foremost. “That’s Walter’s handwriting.”
Krieger picked up the book, its leather cover dry and in need of oil, and looked at the script. Walter’s handwriting was distinctive with its tight, upright, tiny lettering.
“Birth records,” Merlin continued. “Other births.”
“All of these?” Krieger fanned through the pages, the measured lines filled with names.
“Yes, the one you’re holding.” Merlin tapped the table with his knuckles in front of the propped up books. “And these two.”
“These were in Walter’s study?”
Merlin nodded. “Hidden behind a false wall. Along with those,” he indicated another stack on the floor next to the fireplace. “Your keepers’ journals dating back a few hundred years. I thought you might want to destroy them.”
Krieger gave the journals a glance, but it was the ledgers with their meticulous entries of Other births that surprised him. “We were told the Others were dying out.”
“And they were until around thirty years ago. These ledgers date back hundreds of years, but it’s the one in your hand that’s proof of the deception.”
“Is Lily’s name in here?” Krieger turned the pages, scanning through the names.
“No,” Merlin shook his head. �
�I’ve studied all these books.” He pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. “And found nothing regarding Lily.”
“The Elder…”
“Was as baffled as we were.”
“Was?” Krieger ran his finger down a list of entries and spotted the birth of Meirta.
“In the room with Lily.” Merlin rubbed his temples. “He is not what he once was.”
Krieger could not deny the truth of it. The Elder had deteriorated over the past hundred years. There had been a time when his presence overpowered everything. Now the nearness of Krieger’s Sanguis had visibly shaken him. What about Lily would do that?
“Meirta was born in King Carlos’ territory. How would Walter even know of her birth?”
“The keepers, it would seem, communicated more than we knew. Another reason they should have been disbanded years ago.” Merlin rummaged through the books, didn’t see what he wanted, and went to a stack leaning against the wall. “Here it is.” He spread a world map over the table. “The red circles mark births.”
Almost all were in the eastern regions of the world, Russia, China, and strangely, a staggering amount in Australia.
“The darkness I’ve felt these past years. It always pulls from the east.” Merlin blew out a breath of air.
“Where there are the most Other births.”
“Yes. Whatever they summoned, I think it lies there.” Merlin pressed his finger down on Australia.
“Your visions?” Krieger asked.
“Obscured.” He kicked a stack of books. “I summon, but they do not answer. The future is clouded to me. Left is right, up is down, death is life.”
Krieger heard the guard outside the door before he had a chance to knock. “Yes, come in.”
“Sire,” the guard said as he entered and bowed. “You asked not to be disturbed, but…” The guard kept his eyes downcast.
“What is it?” Krieger voice cracked like a whip.
“A human woman was found.”
“On my property?”
The guard stood straight and placed his hands behind his back. “A perimeter guard spotted her crawling on the road. He grabbed her before a car drove by.”
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