Isabella sniggered and poured herself some tea.
“I know you have witches and mages working for you,” I said. “Don’t you have any non-Humans? I mean, it never would have occurred to me to go to a Human hospital. Goddess knows what kind of superstitious mumbo jumbo they practice in those places.”
Torbert choked on his tea, and when he finished coughing, I smiled and winked at him.
“Seriously, though,” Isabella said. “In spite of his high-sounding position at ICAA, Nieminen, like most of us, has spent his life hiding in the shadows. He isn’t going to be easy to catch. You’re going to have to enlist the paranormal community.”
Chapter 15
We went to the shopping district of Georgetown for dinner and then planned on going to a pub with Irish music. We didn’t quite make it to the pub. It was almost dark when a tiny woman with black hair, who stood barely as tall as my waist, intercepted us on the street.
“I wish to speak with you about a statue,” she said in accented English.
“Which statue are you looking for?” I asked, assuming she was a Japanese tourist.
“The jaguar statue, of course.”
I felt Isabella move a little away from me, giving both of us more freedom of movement.
“May I know your name?” I asked, my left hand falling into my bag and gripping my athame.
“Akari Nakamura,” she said with a bow. “Harold Vance told me I should speak with you.”
“I see. Was he hoping you would kill me, or that I would kill you?”
Isabella choked, and the woman standing in front of me fought very hard to keep a straight face.
“Possibly both,” she said. “He didn’t specify.”
“I’m afraid I can’t help you. I don’t know where it is.”
She studied my face, as though trying to tell if I was lying. “Do you know who has it?”
“I wouldn’t help you find it if I did.”
“I see. I am willing to pay quite handsomely for information,” Nakamura said.
“Have you ever been to Arlington, Virginia?” I asked. “Perhaps you can find some clue there.”
“Incoming,” Isabella shouted.
I looked toward where she was standing next to the railing overlooking the canal. Or rather, where she had been standing. She was backpedaling and starting to shift. Crawling over the rail were a pair of demons. A quick glance over my shoulder showed two more coming up from the canal on the other side of the street.
“Friends of yours?” I asked Nakamura as I drew my sword. With my other hand, I pulled out my paintball gun and fired at the closest demon across the street. My first shot caused a purple splash on its abdomen, the next two paintballs hit its chest and face. With the last shot, it stopped, its hands went to its face, and it let out a scream that might have been heard for miles. The other one paused to grab an unlucky pedestrian and take a bite.
The tiny woman turned to face the demon while she chanted a spell in a sing-song language I didn’t understand. I spun and saw two demons flanking Isabella, who had completed her shift. I shot the closest demon, hitting it in the thigh. It made a screeching sound and grabbed at its leg, then cried out again, shaking its hand away from its body.
Isabella danced around the other one, but I couldn’t get a shot at it for fear of hitting her. Glancing back at the demons across the road, I saw the first demon rolling around and screeching, as though in agony. Its skin had turned beet-purple-red and was flaking away. The second demon was frozen in place. The diminutive mage continued to chant, her hands held above her head. Just to be on the safe side, I shot the demon she had immobilized.
Whatever spell she had used to stop the demon didn’t stop my paintball. Beet-red liquid splashed across the creature’s arm and torso.
The demon I had crippled with the thigh shot offered no resistance to me walking up and cutting off its head with my sword, so I did. The last demon was turned away from me, trying to catch Isabella. I rushed toward it and hamstrung first one leg, then the other, and it fell to its knees. That gave the jaguar all the opening she needed as she leaped into the air, landed on the demon’s back, and crushed its skull with her powerful jaws.
Nakamura stopped chanting, and I whipped around to see her standing with her hands at her sides, watching the two demons I had shot. They appeared to be dying, flailing around in the street but growing weaker. The first one’s skin had about flaked away, and the flesh beneath it seemed to be turning mushy. Its cries became progressively weaker.
The mage’s eyes were wide as she said, “What is that stuff?”
“Demonbane.”
“Not like any demonbane I ever heard of. That is potent shit.”
I shrugged. “First time I ever used it. I didn’t think it would kill them.”
Isabella walked stiff-legged to where we stood. I could tell by her posture that she was extremely wary of our new companion.
Nakamura reached out and ran her hand down Isabella’s back, eliciting a growl from the big cat.
“So soft,” Nakamura said.
We ended up at a coffeeshop instead of the Irish pub. Nakamura insisted that she wanted the jaguar statue only to keep it out of the hands of blood mages and that she had the power to keep it safe and hidden.
I could tell that Isabella wasn’t buying any of it. After seeing the crater in Arlington, I was inclined toward doubting that anything in Earth’s realm was capable of containing the statue’s power. Whether we believed Nakamura or not, we didn’t have the artifact. She wasn’t happy, but we parted on cordial terms. Nakamura said that she would tap into her network of acquaintances in hopes of hearing news of Nieminen.
As we walked home, Isabella said, “I wonder if Nieminen might have felt the same way before he actually touched the thing.”
“Do you mean he just wanted to shield the world from the statue’s power, but it corrupted him?”
“Exactly. It was created by a blood mage seeking great power, and then consecrated over and over by blood mages who were demigods. Whatever their motivations, the religion of the Mesoamerican civilizations from the Olmecs through the Aztecs were bloody abominations. The statue is the center of all that and its legacy.”
“So,” I said, watching her face carefully, “what makes you think that you won’t want all that power for yourself?”
She laughed. “I don’t have any magic, remember? I can’t feel the thing, wouldn’t have any idea how to use it.”
“So you say. You are magic. You said yourself that you have certain powers from your parents.”
Isabella sobered and stopped, turning to face me. “The powers I am able to wield are not innate. They are not part of me. I can call on my mother and channel her power through me. But I am not a god. How much of her power I can withstand is finite. In more than a thousand years, I have called such power fewer times than I can count on one hand. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I understood the difference between magic and the powers of a god. Elves understood such things because our goddess often walked among us. Although I had never met Danu, my mother had, and I believed her.
“Yes, I understand.”
We continued walking, and after a short while, Isabella said, “I think I’ll buy a paintball gun tomorrow.”
When we got home, I pulled out a bottle of wine and some chocolate. Then I put an Irish music CD on the stereo.
“We don’t seem to ever make it to the pub, do we?” Isabella said, taking the glass I poured for her.
“I used to make it there almost every week. Then one night I ran into a jaguar shifter, and my whole life turned upside down.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not, but that’s okay.” I sat in my favorite chair and got comfortable. I would have loved a fire in the fireplace, but that would have been crazy in DC in June. “What do you make of our new friend?”
“Akari Nakamura?” Isabella gave me a sardonic grin. “She’s another one of the professo
rs you’re so fond of. Professor of Archeology at Nagoya University in Japan. I looked her up on Google. At one time, she also sat on the ICAA, but gave up her seat a couple of decades ago. So, she knows Nieminen very well.”
Isabella took a sip of her wine and cast a glance at the fireplace. Evidently, she felt the same way about it as I did.
“You didn’t seem surprised when she told you Harold Vance sent her,” she said.
“She was one of the buyers who hired Vance and his Werewolves to find the statue. He said she offered two-and-a-half million dollars for it. But that attack tonight was a little too convenient. Four demons attacking us on that bridge at the same time she approaches us? I think she planned to be our savior.”
“Makes sense. I thought demons don’t like running water.”
“They don’t. I can’t imagine them choosing to hang over it so they could ambush us on a bridge. Actually, I can’t imagine a bunch of demons ambushing us at all, unless someone directed them to. They could have had a far better meal two blocks up the street.”
Chapter 16
Word of Nieminen came not from Torbert or Nakamura but from an unexpected source. Abner Wilcox knocked on the door of my townhouse one evening while we were cooking dinner.
Puzzled at who might be knocking, I looked out the window.
“Isabella, it’s that Abner Wilcox mage. What do you think I should do?”
She came into the living room and peeked out. “I don’t know. Can you cast one of those ward thingies to keep him out while we find out what he wants?”
I had to smile. “The ward thingies are there all the time. I just made an exception for you.”
“Oh. Well, let’s see what he wants.”
I opened the door. “Mr. Wilcox. What an unexpected surprise.”
“Doctor Wilcox,” he grumbled. “I have some news you might be interested in. May I come in?”
“Well, that’s rather problematic,” I said. “You were quite rude the last time we met. I generally don’t welcome rude people into my home.”
He had the grace to blush. “I heard that Aleksi Nieminen might have the statue, and that he might have something to do with the event in Arlington.”
“And?” I asked, making no move to open the screen door or allow him through the wards.
He looked up at me and said, “I think I can figure out how to find him, but I’m not up to the task of confronting him. He can’t be allowed to use that abomination again. I had hoped that you and Dr. Cortez felt the same way.”
“Why the change in attitude?” Isabella asked from behind me. “The last time we saw you, you were prepared to do almost anything to acquire the artifact for yourself. You attacked us.”
“I wouldn’t have harmed you. I simply meant—”
I cut him off. “You simply meant to make us your prisoners and force us to tell you where the statue was. I’m a very simple woman, Dr. Wilcox. There are good people, and there are bad people. I know Humans believe that good people sometimes do bad things. I know Humans believe that sometimes a lie serves a good purpose. I do not believe such things. I shall accept your help to find the statue, but do not delude yourself that I will ever trust you. Do we understand each other?”
Wilcox stared at me with his mouth hanging open. When he didn’t say anything, I started to shut the door.
“Wait! Okay. All right. Whatever you say. I need your help. We need to stop Aleksi.”
I nodded. “Go around to the back gate on the side.” I shut the door and locked it.
“You are a hard woman,” Isabella said.
“I’m an Elf. I think you will find few Elves who would disagree with what I said, and none of them will be welcome in Elven society. We don’t believe in situational ethics or sliding-scale morality.” I shook my head. “I can’t even wrap my mind around such concepts. It constantly reminds me of how alien Humans actually are.”
“But you said there is war in Alfheim,” Isabella said, her brow wrinkled in puzzlement.
“Yes. There are dishonorable people who have done dishonorable things. Eventually, they will be defeated.” Or at least, I fervently hoped so. Elves were as susceptible to greed, cruelty and a hunger for power as other races were. We could be devious and deceptive, but I didn’t think I needed to lay out all the faults of my race to a Human. The depth of Human depravity went far beyond what the higher races could ever tolerate.
“If you will go out to the back yard and let Dr. Wilcox in the back gate, I’ll finish dinner and bring it out,” I said as I walked back to the kitchen. “But I refuse to let him in my house.”
A small round picnic table sat in the courtyard behind my house. I loved sitting out there in the evenings, especially in the spring and autumn when the weather was nice. Although the courtyard was inside my wards, I didn’t feel as though it was actually inside my home, so I could tolerate Wilcox there.
After arguing with myself for a few minutes, I found I could not bring myself to be rude even to such a loathsome Human as Wilcox. I took a bottle of wine and three glasses out to the courtyard and asked, “Are there any foods you cannot eat?”
He looked surprised. “No, I don’t think so.”
Since all the food I had prepared was from normal Earth sources, I assumed he could eat it. I went back to the kitchen, dished up three bowls of food, took them outside, and sat to eat. Isabella immediately began to devour her meal, but Wilcox simply stared at the food and wine as though he faced a snake.
“Are you not hungry?” I asked. I couldn’t see anything that was objectionable, merely stir-fried chicken and vegetables over buckwheat with an Elven sauce. And while it wasn’t the finest wine in the world, I thought it was perfectly acceptable for the price.
“Uh, I think I’ll pass,” Wilcox said.
Isabella glanced at him, then I saw a grin spread across her face. “He’s afraid that you’re going to enchant him,” she said.
“It’s just food we bought from the market. Why would I cast a spell on it?”
She laughed. “Ancient Earth myths. Beware of eating the Fairy food or drinking the Fairy wine. Afraid of falling under the thrall of an Elven maiden, Abner?”
He blushed bright red, which told me she was correct.
“I don’t like you,” I said. “Why would I want to keep you?” I stood and reached for his bowl. “No need to let food go to waste.”
I was too slow. Isabella grabbed the bowl before I could and dumped the contents on top of that in her own bowl. “Save me from going for seconds,” she said.
The look on Wilcox’s face was priceless.
“So,” Isabella said between bites, “what is this information you have on Aleksi Nieminen?”
“He was evidently hurt and went to a healer a friend of mine knows. The healer didn’t know that Aleksi was wanted by the Council.”
“Is he wanted by the Council?” Isabella asked. “They aren’t being very cooperative with the PCU.”
Wilcox snorted softly. “Do you blame them? The PCU is basically an organization to protect the untalented from the talented.”
“Have you been out to Arlington, Doctor?” I asked.
“Well, I’ve seen pictures. The security forces won’t let anyone near the place.”
I polished off the last of my dinner, washed it down with some wine, and said, “We have been there. I stood on the edge of that crater, and what I saw scared me worse than almost anything I’ve seen in my life. The media keeps calling it an explosion. I’m telling you that is a lie. A chunk of this reality, over a mile wide, is gone, transported somewhere else.”
He took a deep breath, then a drink of his wine. “I was afraid of that,” he finally said. “The authorities are trying to pass it off as a meteor, but I keep wondering where the contents of that hole disappeared to.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I truly try not to think about that too much. I just hope where it landed wasn’t inhabited.”
I collected the dishes and took them back into the
house. When I came back outside, I poured more wine all around.
“How do we find this healer?” I asked.
Wilcox’s friend lived on the banks of the Chesapeake, east of DC and south of Annapolis. I drove out there with Wilcox sitting in the front seat and providing directions. Isabella sat behind him.
He said the mage we planned to meet was the long-time liaison between ICAA and the shadowy group who served in a de facto regulatory fashion over mages and witches in the United States. Wilcox professed to know him well, and said he was entirely trustworthy.
The fact that he told me that made me concerned about a trap. In my experience, as soon as a Human sought to assure me of his honesty, I could wager money he was lying. I called Torbert, but he didn’t answer his cell phone. I called his office, and Wen-li answered.
“Dave is out of the office this week,” she said. “Can I help you?” I told her where we were going and who we planned to meet.
We drove toward Chesapeake Bay, eventually leaving the highway and traveling along winding back roads. At one point, I wondered if Wilcox was purposely trying to confuse me so that I didn’t know where I was. If so, he had chosen a member of the wrong race. Elves don’t get lost, our connection with the earth means we always know where we are.
A final turn down a narrow driveway brought us to a large house near the water. A middle-aged woman with short, light brown hair answered the door and led us to a room full of windows and an incredible view of the bay beyond.
Lord James Campbell, Earl of March, turned out to be a Scotsman with a brogue that I found a bit difficult to understand. I still had trouble determining Humans’ ages, and mages were especially long lived. Campbell had white hair, a thin, stooped frame, and difficulty in walking with a cane. But his eyes were bright, and his deep baritone voice was steady as he introduced himself.
Power radiated from him. I surreptitiously sketched a rune with one hand held under the table. All I would need to do is speak the Word to invoke the spell to protect Isabella and me.
The woman who had answered the door brought in a tray with tea and biscuits, set it on the table, and retreated to the door, where she stood like a guard. She didn’t look like a guard though, in her blue cotton dress with small yellow flowers. She looked like a housekeeper, although I was aware that women in such positions were often fiercely protective of their domains.
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