by R. L. King
Verity slipped in through the front doorway. “Is this the guy? Has he told you where Jason is yet?”
Stone held up a hand. This was a potentially dangerous situation—both Verity and Amber were on edge, ready to strike at the slightest provocation to get Jason back. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“How do you know that?” Amber’s glare sharpened as it settled back on the man. “He’d better start talking, now.”
The man’s frightened gaze shot back and forth between them like a loose pinball. He didn’t speak, but he likewise didn’t seem inclined to get up any time soon. His aura was a mess.
“She’s right,” Stone said. “You’d better starting talking now. I can’t guarantee I can hold these two ladies off if you anger them.”
“Who is this guy?” Verity demanded. “He’s the doctor, right? The guy working with the kidnapper? Why isn’t he with him if they have Jason?”
“I wondered the same thing,” Stone said. He looked back at the man. “You haven’t got a clue about what’s happened tonight, do you?”
“No,” he said without looking up. “But I’m very much afraid to find out what it is.”
“Like hell he doesn’t know,” Amber protested. “He’s up to his ass in this whole thing. We saw the photos.”
“You did,” Stone said. “And you’re right—he is up to his arse in the business with the fertility clinics. But he doesn’t know about Jason—because his brother didn’t tell him.”
30
Both Verity and Amber gaped at Stone in shock.
“His…brother?” Verity asked.
But Amber was already nodding. “Yeah. Okay. It makes sense. That’s why the scents were so similar. I’m slipping—I should have figured that out before you did.”
“You were a bit preoccupied.” Stone turned his attention back to the man. “I’m right, though, aren’t I? You’re his brother. That’s how I found you, instead of him—because he’s under wards, and the spell latched on to his closest blood kin instead. Oh, and I’d suggest you stay right where you are and don’t try anything magical.”
He snorted. “Magical? Against you three? I couldn’t do that if I wanted to. I’m a mundane.”
Stone definitely hadn’t expected that. He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
“Believe him,” Amber said. “He’s not lying. He’s scared to death, and I’d know. We need to go, though. If this guy doesn’t have Jason, make him tell us where he is. Or I will.” She cracked her knuckles and took a step closer to the man, who shrank back.
Stone raised a hand to stop her. “Hold on.” To the man, he said, “You know this is all over now, right? Whatever mad little plan you and your brother have been up to for the last twenty years, it’s over. We know what you’ve been doing.”
The man nodded miserably. “I know. To be honest, I’m relieved. Ever since your investigation uncovered what we were doing, Melvin has been…out of control. Obsessed. Taking chances he never would have taken before.”
“Like trying to have me killed? And killing Roy Darner?”
His eyes got wide, and he leaned forward with a look of entreaty. “I didn’t know about any of that until after he did it. You have to believe me. I’m a doctor—I never would have agreed to it if I’d known. I’m honestly relieved he didn’t kill you.” Sweat stood out on his wide forehead, and his face remained pale, almost ashen. He looked like he was teetering on the edge a breakdown.
Stone glanced at Amber, who nodded grudgingly. He was telling the truth—her nose was even better than his aura reading. “What’s your name?”
“Julius Whitworth.”
“Are you really a doctor? Or is that just something you cooked up to make you look legitimate while deceiving all those couples into letting your brother substitute himself for the true father of all those children?”
Julius Whitworth stared at his hands. “I don’t know what to say. When you say it that way, of course it sounds terrible. But he was trying to help me. That’s all he was ever trying to do. Now, though…I’m not so sure what he’s doing anymore.”
“It is terrible,” Verity said.
“It’s unethical,” he agreed. “I won’t argue with that. I won’t defend it. But it wasn’t harmful. Those children grew up healthy and strong. We tracked all of them.”
“Except the ones who died,” Amber growled.
“Children die during fertility treatments. It’s a sad truth. But the death rate for our experiments was no higher than for normal cases.”
Stone glanced at his watch. The longer they waited, the more risk Jason would be in—and the higher the chance Amber would do something drastic to force Whitworth to reveal his brother’s location. He had to make this quick. “You said your brother was trying to help you. What did you mean by that?” And then, as if often did, the answer occurred to him before Whitworth had a chance to reply. “No. Wait. I see it. He’s a mage, and you’re a mundane. He was trying to give you magical talent, wasn’t he?”
“Shit…” Verity whispered behind him.
Whitworth said nothing, but he didn’t have to. His expression gave him away.
“He was trying to find a way to instill magical talent alchemically. That’s why he wasn’t taking any chances by merely breeding babies with his genetic material. He was infusing them with something else. And when he succeeded—when you both succeeded—he was going to use the treatment on you.”
“Yes.” Whitworth’s hands opened and closed spasmodically on the soft sofa arm. “It’s been an obsession with him ever since he discovered he had magical talent and I didn’t.”
“But wait,” Amber said. “You’re older than he is.”
“No. He’s not.” Another piece of the puzzle had just clicked into place in Stone’s mind. He studied Whitworth’s face. “Mages age more slowly than mundanes. You’re younger than he is, aren’t you?”
Whitworth gave a bitter chuckle. “No, Dr. Stone. I am older than Melvin. Ten minutes older, to be precise.”
Behind Stone, Amber drew a sharp breath.
“Bloody hell,” Stone whispered. “You’re twins.”
“Yes. Identical twins, as it happens. Did you know that identical twins don’t always look exactly alike? And, as Melvin pointed out to me when he discovered his magic, they don’t have the same auras?”
“They don’t have the same scent, either,” Amber said. “Close, but not identical. I knew that from before.”
Stone took a moment to digest all that, deliberately ignoring a worried look from Verity. “So…you’re identical twins, but he got the Talent and you didn’t?”
“Yes. I’m sure you’re well aware that whatever bestows the gift of magic is quite fickle.”
“So, wait,” Verity said. “You resented the fact that you didn’t have magic, so your brother—”
“No. God, no.” For the first time, Whitworth looked up, his blue eyes dark with distress. “I didn’t care. Sure, it would have been nice—especially after I saw what Melvin could do with his talent—but I didn’t resent him. I was fine being a mundane. But he cared. He felt like the universe was playing some kind of horrible trick on us, giving him the Talent but not me. From the time we were teenagers, he became obsessed with learning how to give me magic. Eventually I got caught up in his dream too, and followed him on it. We both got the kind of specialized educations we needed, and he used his magic and his connections to make sure nobody caught on to what we were doing.” He bowed his head again. “I rationalized it by thinking that the children we helped conceive would go on to live happy, productive lives, and if by chance Melvin did succeed in his efforts, I could become part of his world. And maybe we could help others, too.”
“But it didn’t work,” Stone said.
“No. We tried for twenty years. I learned everything I could about medicine and genetics and fertility, and he learned about magic and alchemy and making money so he could bankroll and hide our operations. And until you accident
ally stumbled on Tyler Ellerman, no one ever suspected anything. They never even got close to us.”
Stone sighed. It was a common trait among a certain type of mages, including himself: the insatiable need to learn more, to discover more, to innovate. When it was turned to proper channels, it could lead to brilliant breakthroughs. But when practiced by the selfish, the short-sighted, or the greedy… “What’s he done with Jason, Mr. Whitworth? Why would he take our friend, and leave his current project behind?”
“Is that what he did?” Whitworth’s head jerked up. “He left Caden? Oh, no—is he all right? Did you find him?”
Stone exchanged glances with Amber and Verity. It couldn’t have been more obvious that Whitworth honestly cared about Caden Boyce’s well-being. “He’s fine. We found him, and called the authorities anonymously.” He nodded at the television, which was now displaying a weather report. “I suspect the story will hit the news before the night is over. And I wasn’t able to take all your brother’s reference material, so I also suspect at least some of your scheme will be seeing the light of day soon.”
Whitworth’s shoulders slumped again. “Then it’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Amber growled. “Not until we have Jason back. Tell us where he is. Tell us what your brother is doing with him.”
“I don’t know what he’s doing with him!” He pushed himself up and paced the small area between the coffee table and the fireplace. “You have to believe me: I don’t know. Is he a mage? That’s the only reason I can think of why Melvin would take him.”
“He’s not a mage,” Verity said. “But I am. I’m his sister.”
Amber was done waiting. She crossed the room in two frighteningly swift strides and grabbed Whitworth’s shoulders in a crushing grip. “Where. Is. Jason?” she yelled in his face. “Tell me, or so help me God I will start ripping pieces of you off until you do.”
“Amber! Stop it!” Stone didn’t move as fast as she did, but he still got there in a hurry. “Let him go.”
“Not until he tells us where Jason is!”
Whitworth swallowed hard. “I don’t know where he is—not for sure. But I have a good guess. Let me go, please. I’ll tell you. I want this all to be over. All I ask is that you don’t kill Melvin.”
Amber didn’t let him go, but she did loosen her hold. “Where? Is he around here? Did he take him through some portal?”
“I don’t think so.” Whitworth gave up struggling and sagged in Amber’s grip. “He was afraid to use the portals anymore—the people running them were starting to take an interest after you circulated that sketch. He didn’t want to take the chance.”
“Which is why he was trying to find someone to build his own portal,” Stone said.
“Yes. I don’t know much about that—he didn’t discuss it with me, because I didn’t have the background to understand it.”
“Enough chit-chat!” Amber shook him again, harder. “Where is Jason?”
“It’s not far—less than an hour from here.”
“Let’s go, then.” She released one of his arms, but not the other. “You’re coming with us.”
Stone didn’t argue. They couldn’t leave him behind—too much chance he’d get a last-minute burst of courage and alert his brother. And as angry as he was at this man and his hubris, he couldn’t bring himself to kill him in cold blood. “Yes. Let’s go. For your sake, Mr. Whitworth, you’d better be telling the truth—and you’d better be right about where they are. Otherwise, I won’t even try to stop Amber and Verity from doing whatever they like with you.”
31
The drive took considerably less than an hour, mostly because Stone broke several speed laws on the way.
Whitworth remained quiet, wedged in the middle of the back seat between Amber and Verity, speaking only when spoken to or when he needed to give directions. Mostly, he sat with his head bowed, staring at his hands in his lap.
“Would Melvin kidnap Jason to use as leverage against us?” Stone asked. “To force us to stop poking our noses into his business?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so. He’s not a cruel man, Dr. Stone. I didn’t think he was capable of this sort of thing. When he told me he’d ‘taken care’ of you and Mr. Darner, we nearly had a falling-out. I nearly told him I didn’t want anything to do with his plan any longer.”
“Why didn’t you?” Verity asked.
“Truthfully? I was afraid. Ever since he learned someone had discovered our activities, he’s become…a different person. More driven. More obsessed. It’s been growing over the years, much more slowly, though. So slowly I didn’t really notice it until recently. I think it troubles him to see me growing so visibly older than he is. He knows he doesn’t have much time left to give me the gift he thinks I should have been born with.”
They drove south, back through Chicago and then further out, to another smaller suburb Stone didn’t catch the name of as they blew through. Whitworth directed them to the edge of town, down a narrow road lined with small commercial buildings widely spaced between groves of trees.
“This is a weird place for him to be,” Verity said. “Are you sure you’re not lying, leading us somewhere to buy him time?”
“He’s not lying,” Amber said. “That’s the only reason he’s still alive.” She’d been having trouble sitting still the whole trip, fidgeting in her seat and alternating between staring out the window and glaring at Whitworth.
“We own the building,” Whitworth said. “Through several layers of red tape so it can’t be traced to us. Ostensibly it’s an obscure little lab that does work for private parties, but he’s got an entire basement area where he performs his alchemical experiments and magical rituals.”
“Hidden behind an illusion, no doubt,” Stone said. “Your brother seems quite adept at them.”
“He is. He’s developed all sorts of spells that help him hide from scrutiny. I’ve actually learned a fair bit of magical theory from listening to him discuss his research.” He looked at each of them in turn. “Please—don’t kill him. That’s all I ask. You never would have found him without my help. I know he’s done terrible things, but…he’s my brother.” His gaze settled on Verity at the end. “He’s the only family I have left in the world.”
“What happens to him depends on what happens to Jason,” Amber said, and Stone had never heard her sound so cold. “If he’s fine, then we’ll talk about what to do with you two. If he’s not…”
Stone figured he’d better defuse this before it got out of hand. “Do you know how to get inside, Mr. Whitworth? Do you have a key?”
“There’s a code on the door. It’s 0529—our birthday.”
“Security cameras?”
“Yes, but I can show you how to bypass them. We don’t have a lot of security measures on the building because Melvin knew there was no way anyone would get through the illusions.” He pointed. “There it is—the one just up ahead on the left.”
Stone pulled off before they reached it, parking the car on the side of the road. “You can show us where the illusions are?”
“Yes. He’s keyed them so they don’t affect me, but I can show you. The main one hides the elevator that leads down to the basement.”
“You’d better be telling the truth,” Verity said. “Trust me—if he’s hurt my brother, Amber’s gonna have to get in line for a piece of you.”
“I wouldn’t doubt her,” Stone told him. “Neither of them. They’re quite relentless, trust me.”
Surprisingly, Amber seemed calmer than before. “He’s still not lying. He hates this whole thing, but he wants to help.” She opened the door and grabbed Whitworth’s arm. “That doesn’t mean I’m planning to give him any chances for a change of heart, though. Come on. Let’s go.”
With Stone’s disregarding spell concealing them, they crept through the trees toward the building. The sign out front, illuminated with a small light above it, read “Janus Laboratories.”
“Bit on the nose, don’t
you think?” Stone muttered.
“Melvin was never terribly imaginative,” Whitworth muttered back. “Brilliant scientist, but never appreciated the classics.” He pointed. “Come on. We’ll go around the side of the building and in through the back. The camera there doesn’t track right, and I don’t think he ever bothered to fix it.”
They followed him to the edge of the trees, where it opened into a small, fenced yard behind the building. They could see the lab’s rear side through the chain links.
“Watch the camera,” Whitworth said. “It sticks when it reaches the right side of its arc. When it’s pointing away from us, you’ll have about twenty seconds to get under it and open the door before it comes back around.”
Stone glanced at Amber. There was no light over the door, and her bearish eyesight was better than his. She narrowed her eyes, focusing hard. “Get ready…” she muttered. “Almost…and…now!”
Together, the four of them, Whitworth still held tight in Amber’s grip, took off across the clear space between the trees and the fence. Stone already had a spell ready when they reached it, lifting all but Verity up and over while she managed her own levitation. As soon as their feet touched down, he ran toward the door and tapped in the code Whitworth had given them. The light on the keypad changed immediately from red to green. He flung the door open and waved the others in, barely ahead of the camera’s return sweep.
“Will he get a notification that the door’s been opened?” Amber whispered in the darkened hallway.
“Not if it’s opened with the code. He and I are the only ones who have it.”
“Show us where the illusion is,” Verity ordered.
“This way.” He led them down the hall and through an open doorway into what looked like a small break room. The only illumination came from the bright digital clock on the microwave, but it was enough to pick out a white refrigerator, a coffee maker, and a table with three chairs. A flat-screen TV, currently off, hung in one corner of the room. There were no other obvious exits.
