Wizard's Blood [Part One]

by Bob Blink

  “You will need to find a house for me to live. It will need to be close to your university, and be fully equipped for an extended stay. Either myself of one of my associates, perhaps both, will want to live there off and on for the next several years. It will of course have to meet certain standards, so I will need to see it before we settle on your selection. You will make arrangements for all expenses to be covered somehow, the details are left up to you. I don’t want to be bothered with such things. You will also make available whatever funds I might need to support a friend and myself for the foreseeable future as well. The funds for the residence and for my support shall be managed so that no record shall lead back to you. Do you understand?”

  Randy nodded, already thinking how he could use some of the money he held in private to create the special accounts the man desired. It would take a few days but didn’t represent any insurmountable problems, but it would significantly deplete the money he had managed to save.

  “The weather is going to make house hunting a bit difficult,” Randy suggested.

  “Find a way,” the man said, obviously not considering the weather a worthy obstacle and unwilling to be restricted by something as unimportant as a storm.

  “It’s late now. I can get a paper and we can start looking tomorrow morning. I can also have a look on the Internet, and we can check with a realtor in the morning.”

  “How you manage it is up to you, but I want to be finished with this within the week. Also, you mentioned the Internet. I would like you to educate me in its use. We can do that tonight since it appears too late to start with the other.”

  The next morning they had headed first to a business bank he had used some years before. He’d had a check for several thousand dollars that he used to open the account for the man. Randy would use an Internet transfer to establish the necessary balance a few days later once the account was opened and in the system. They had agreed on a name for the man to use, which would make it easier for Randy as well.

  The Internet lesson the previous night had not gone well at all. Wherever he was from, the man had very little technical background, and didn’t relate to the computer and the whole process of surfing for information. It was going to take some time, and Randy expected some difficult sessions. The man had barely been able to contain his anger the previous night. Randy had used the session to chase down a half dozen listings that they could look at today, and he’d made an appointment with a realtor for the following morning.

  At least the weather was cooperating. While the streets were still packed with snow, sometimes with a bumpy layer of compacted snow and ice making their progress slow and slippery, at least the weather had warmed a bit and it wasn’t snowing any longer. They both wore heavy coats against the chill, although Randy wasn’t sure the other really cared. He had been instructed they needed to purchase additional clothing since the few things they had bought some time ago were not appropriate for the season. The man seemed concerned that he not stand out, and walking around without a jacket in short sleeves would certainly gain him some attention.

  It didn’t take very long for Randy to see that the houses he had selected were not going to meet Cheurt’s expectations. Three perfectly suitable residences with four blocks of the university were dismissed with a sniff out of hand. He was about to give up and go home, and wait for the realtor the next day when they passed a house with a “For Rent” sign out front. It was in a neighborhood a not too far for the university. There was even a spot to park.

  The house was very nice, if a bit pricey, but unfurnished. The intruder was quick to point this out, but Randy sensing this place could be the answer, suggested they could pick up the furniture and have it delivered. It took another two days of hitting the various home furnishing stores, but finally everything was in place. Randy hired a housekeeping team to clean the house, and to set everything up once the deliveries were made. The papers had all been signed, and now it was a simple matter of waiting for everything to be put in place. That left them free to do other things.

  They had just come back from a tour of several libraries in the area, and were taking off their coats when Sharon walked into the room from the back area of the house, dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-Shirt with nothing under it. She had been reading in the study and heard them come in. It had slipped Randy’s mind that it was already Friday, and he and Sharon had planned to go out this evening. She had her own key, of course, and kept a small wardrobe in his room.

  “Oh,” she said a bit embarrassed by her attire, “I didn’t know someone was with you.”

  Randy was about to make introductions using the name they had agreed on, when the man spoke up. “Ah, the lady I saw briefly in your memories. She is indeed lovely. She seemed to be very gifted in giving you pleasure. I think it might be interesting to see if I agree.”

  Sharon looked at the man oddly, wondering what he was talking about.

  “Please, “ the man said. “Take off your clothes.”

  Something changed in Sharon’s face and Randy braced himself for an angry outburst, but then she nodded minutely and reached down to grab her T-shirt, and smoothly stripped it off over her head. Seconds later she had unzipped her shorts, and slid them down off her long legs, and stood there calmly, with a blank look on her face, completely naked.

  Something inside Randy raged, and he wanted to smash the man in the face, and grab something to cover Sharon’s nakedness. That didn’t happen, of course. He was unable to act, and simply stood there numbly, as the man examined his girlfriend.

  “Very nice,” the man said. “I think the lady and I will proceed to the room I’ve been using. You have things to do, and we will be occupied the rest of the night. Please don’t disturb us.”

  He took Sharon’s hand and lead her back down the hall, while Randy stood for a minute watching them go. After the door closed he headed back to the study. He still had to transfer the remaining money to the account they had opened a few days before.

  Sitting in the study, rage burned inside him, but it was impotent. His girlfriend was effectively being raped in the other room, just as he had been raped in another sense by the intruder for months now. There was nothing either of them could do. However it was done, the man controlled their actions, and they did his bidding. There wasn’t any choice.

  It didn’t matter that he didn’t really love Sharon. She didn’t love him either, and they both were gradually coming to a point where their relationship would end. It had started almost a year ago. Sharon was the most stunning woman he had ever seen, and someone whom he knew he stood no chance with. By merest chance, they had ended up together on a college bus going to one of the games. He was one of the team, and she was reporting for the campus paper and had hitched a ride. The only empty seat had been the one way in back, next to him. During the three-hour ride they’d had nothing to do but talk. Knowing it was pointless, he’d decided to take a chance anyway and had asked her out. She’d been about to say ‘no’ when something changed and she surprised herself and agreed. On the third date he took her to bed, again surprising both of them. Since then they had been together exclusively.

  They were too different for real love to develop. He was very much a reserved academic, with a minor in sports and camping. She was a lot more frivolous, and liked the social scene he tended to avoid. Her drive to become a serious reporter pushed her to examine everyone around her. The differences sometimes caused clashes. Still, he found he admired her and along the way realized he really liked her. She seemed to feel the same about him, although it didn’t explain why they’d stayed together. Maybe neither had the desire to risk hurting the other by suggesting a breakup.

  Now, sitting there in the study, knowing what was happening in the other room, he knew he had failed her. Some way, somehow he would make up for what he had let happen to her. Then, the force controlling him winning out, he turned calmly toward the computer and prepared to transfer those funds as planned.

  Chapter
16

  The odd sparkles in his head had come and gone periodically for the past six months. He’d have a couple of episodes, and about the time he’d start to become concerned again, they’d go away for six to eight weeks. Randy couldn’t pretend they didn’t concern him, but Doc Carter had run a number of tests some months back and everything had come up negative. Besides, he had shown no other noticeable effects. Still. . . . . .

  They had returned again a little over a week ago just as he was leaving for the campus. If it hadn’t been for the heavy schedule at the end of the term, he’d have gone right in to have another checkup. He’d promised himself he would do that if they occurred again. This morning however, he’d risen to the alarm clock and suddenly remembered the intruder. How could he have forgotten about him? He also remembered that the arrival of the intruder was what prompted the odd sensation, and that there was nothing wrong with him. That was a relief.

  So the odd man had been making more appearances, but for whatever reason had not been bothering Randy during the more recent visits. Randy suddenly remembered that the man always seemed to show up at his house, out by the knoll. He wondered how he could have forgotten that? Then why hadn’t he seen him? Of course, with the start of the school term he hadn’t been home as much. He tried to remember what time of day he’d experienced the sensation. Would he experience it if he weren’t close to home? He just didn’t know.

  As he showered, his mind seemed to clear, and whole episodes he’d had somehow forgotten suddenly came back to him. He realized that he had a number of encounters with the man, and each time the man “left” he seemed to forget all about him. Now it seemed pretty obvious that the man was manipulating his memory somehow. A lot of the recent past was suddenly clear, but there were areas that remained blank. For example, he could still remember they went to San Francisco, but he couldn’t recall any details of the trip at all. That memory, at least for the moment, remained hidden.

  As he examined the returning memories, he cringed at the things he had done completely passively. How could he have gone along with some of the things the man had wanted? It seemed Randy had simply dropped whatever he was doing and gone to the intruder’s aid whenever he appeared. Randy recalled some of his initial anger when he first encountered the intruder, and how it had been somehow swept aside. He knew the man was up to something, but his mind kept slipping away from the issue, refusing to think about it. So much of what he could remember about what the intruder wanted to know simply didn’t make sense, and he couldn’t be sure how many holes existed in his memory. In addition to causing him to forget events, Randy was sure the man had done something to interfere with his thinking. Even now, he couldn’t keep his mind properly focused on the subject, refusing to allow a proper examination of events. Where had the man learned such techniques, and how had he exercised them on Randy? He couldn’t remember the man doing anything to him. Then, suddenly, he remembered. Early on, during their first face to face meeting, he could recall an immense pressure in his head, and vaguely recalled feeling his mind had resisted somehow, but no details beyond that. Had his sudden recall been prompted by something in his mind fighting what had been done to it?

  Other memories started returning. He realized he had set the man up with a place to stay, and had arranged to cover all expenses that the man incurred. Why would he have done that? What could possibly have motivated him to pay the way for someone he didn’t even know? Hell, he didn’t even know the man’s name. At least, he couldn’t remember it. Something tugged at the back of his mind suggesting he might have heard it, but it wouldn’t come.

  Sharon! Suddenly he remembered the day the intruder had met Sharon. He recalled her casually stripping off her clothes and then going into the other room to have sex with the man. And Randy could remember blissfully going along as though it was perfectly natural behavior. Now that he thought about it, in the past months there had been unexplained times where Sharon simply disappeared for a while. He was pretty sure he knew where she had been. Randy was certain the intruder had done something to her mind as well.

  For almost a year now the strange intruder had been screwing around with his mind and his life. It was pretty clear he was using his girlfriend against her will as well, and his activities really should be brought to the attention of the police if not an organization like the FBI.

  No time like the present. Randy needed to drop by the campus and deliver the papers he had finished grading the previous evening, but then he would be free for the rest of the day. The house he’d set up for the man was not too far from the campus anyway, and Randy decided it was an appropriate time for an unannounced visit.

  Knowing the man was dangerous, although in ways he didn’t entirely understand, Randy headed back into his father’s study, realizing as he entered that he’d planned on a number of occasions to go through the study and sort through his father’s papers. Another time he promised himself. He unlocked the bottom drawer of the large desk, and pulled it open. There lay the big pistol he remembered. His father’s Government Model Colt. He knew he wasn’t even a moderately decent shot with it, but the intimidation effect of the large bore would probably be all he’d need anyway. Reaching into the drawer he pulled it out, knowing his father had always left a loaded magazine in the gun. Seeing the two spare magazines with their blunt hardball rounds, he grabbed them in a spur-of-the-moment decision, stuffing everything into an inside pocket of his daypack.

  It had only taken a short time to park and drop off the papers on campus, and now he was pulling up in front of the house he remembered renting. He checked his watch as he exited the car, seeing it read 9:30. The intruder could still be here.

  Sharon answered the bell, dressed only in a short nightgown with obviously nothing on underneath. Totally unembarrassed she stepped aside and allowed him to enter.

  “Where is he?” Randy asked, ignoring for the moment the fact his girlfriend was obviously living with another man.

  “Gone,” she said dully.

  “Gone where?” Randy responded urgently. “When will he be back?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “He took a cab. That means he’s leaving for now. Otherwise I’d be driving him where he wants to go. I don’t know where he goes when he leaves. Usually he returns in a month or so.”

  That meant he was going back to wherever it was he disappeared to. He had to be on his way to Randy’s house and the little knoll out back. If it weren’t for the curious mental block in the back of his mind, Randy would have realized how odd that conclusion was. How could a patch of grass in his backyard help the man disappear? It didn’t matter how little sense it made. Randy knew he had to beat the man there.

  “How long ago?” he asked Sharon, who merely shrugged.

  “What are you going to do?” he asked her.

  “Clean the place up, throw away the food, and lock up. Then go home and wait. I’ll know if he wants me again.”

  Randy shook his head in disgust. This was exactly how he’d been. He wanted to be angry with her, but part of him knew she’d been used just as he had. They would have to sort things out later.

  “Go home,” he insisted, and then ran out the door.

  Thinking about the fastest route from here to his place as he ran toward the Ford, Randy figured he could make it in twenty minutes. That had to be enough. He didn’t want to miss the man and have to wait until he returned again. What if the memories that had surfaced faded away again? No, it was time to find out what this was about.

  He blasted through the edges of town, running at least two lights when he could see that no cars were approaching the intersection from the cross streets. He was making a little better time than he’d thought possible, but there was no way to know how much of a head start the other man had. Finally, he was hurtling down his own street, and then sliding to a stop in front of his house. He thought he saw someone just going around to the back of the house.

  “Damn!” he muttered to himself. He’d better hurry. />
  Leaving the keys in the car, and grabbing the daypack with the gun just in case he might need it to subdue the man, he pushed open the door and sprinted toward the back of the house, one arm through the straps of the pack. Sure enough, he recognized the long dark hair and curly beard of the intruder, who was almost to the knoll. Running for all he was worth, Randy was still several feet behind as the man stepped onto the small circle of grass. Randy leaped in an attempt to tackle the man, and just as he reached out to grab the intruder his universe lurched horribly, and he fell forever.

  Chapter 17

  Jolan woke suddenly from a restless sleep. He’d thought he heard something. Was he dreaming? He listened carefully, scanning the darkened room as best he could for any sign of something out of order. Nothing caught his attention and he decided he must have woken in response to something in his sleep. Rolling over, it was hard to regain the fine comfortable position he’d had only moments before, and he squirmed under the covers, moving a pillow first one way and then another. About the time he had rediscovered the proper arrangement of pillows and blankets, the scream came again.

  Damn! That was out in the hall. He paused only long enough to slip on some pants. Then he hurriedly removed the bar on the door, and made his way out into the hallway. Jolan wasn’t the first to arrive, and several other guests had come from their rooms and had congregated in the hall. As a group they were watching the door across from his room, while those that seemed to know each other were talking quietly among themselves. Loud voices could be heard behind the door, although the words were muffled enough that the meaning was lost to those watching outside.

  “What’s going on?” Jolan asked a middle-aged man who was standing alone.