by A. J. Locke
I headed to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for Micah and hot chocolate for myself using his Keurig. Ethan was trying to get me to buy one for our house and was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten it for Christmas. The gift-cards to Best Buy and Gamestop with sizeable amounts on them had softened the disappointment.
While I was enjoying my hot chocolate, my phone rang. It was Dr. Lane.
“Hey, Dr. Lane, what do you have for me?”
“Straight to the point, huh?”
“We never call each other just to chat, it’s usually because I asked a question and you found answers.”
“Very true,” Dr. Lane said with a chuckle. “Well, I do have answers.” His voice sobered. “I was able to run an analysis on the bones you brought me.”
I braced myself for whatever he was about to say. I knew I had already come to certain conclusions that would probably hold true, but Dr. Lane’s words would be definite proof.
“The bones came from infants, as you thought,” he began. “One of them came from a baby that died at three days old, the other two were just a day old at the time of death.”
“How old are the bones?” I asked. “How long have those babies been dead?”
“Varying amounts of time,” he replied. “The three-day-old baby died approximately ninety years ago. One of the other two died a hundred and twenty years ago, and the last one is the oldest and died a hundred and forty-two years ago.”
“Wow,” I said, my mind reeling. So there’s no way they were Leena’s children.
“The babies were related. The longest dead appears to be the uncle of the second longest dead, and one dead for ninety years is a cousin. Likely second or third.”
“Interesting.” I was frowning slightly as I mulled this over.
“That’s about all I can tell you. Does it help with your investigation?”
“It does, thanks a lot, Dr. Lane.”
“Glad I can be of service, hope everything works out positively.”
“Me too.” We hung up and I called Tielle.
“Hey, is Leena up for questioning yet?”
“She is,” Tielle replied. “I was going to call you shortly and let you know.”
“Great, I’ll head over to the hospital this morning.” I had to remember to talk to her in the capacity Tielle thought I was going to talk to her and not just grill her about the dead bodies and what she may know about the location of dead warlocks.
“Any more strange occurrences happen?” I asked.
“Reports have been coming in an almost steady stream. More of the same; piles of dead animals, scorched earth. We have tons of questions that we can’t really answer because the assumption is this is a paranormal issue. So panic is rising.”
“Damn. The PTF officers who were affected, how are they doing?”
“Last I heard, still unconscious. But they are at the same hospital that Leena is in, so when you go see her you can check in on them. You’ve been given clearance to all of them.”
“Okay, will do. Anything else you want me to work on today?”
“Keep logging any of these blights that you come across. I’m not sure what other measures to take to be honest. I’ve had other people go out and try to collect energy from these dead spots, but the same thing you experienced happens to them as well—the runes disintegrate.”
“I’ll admit, it’s not comforting hearing that you don’t know what to do.”
“I have a team looking into any information that could be helpful. I’m doing all I can, but there just isn’t a lot of knowledge to go by.”
“Which makes it even scarier. It’s unknown. We don’t know what to anticipate.”
“Exactly. For now, stay focused on Leena, and if any of the PTF officers are conscious, talk to them and see what they say. I’ll check in with you if I uncover anything useful.”
“Sounds like a plan. By the way, what of backlash from the article?”
Tielle sighed. “Calls have been coming in from various news and media outlets. I’ve assembled a small team to handle it. There is definitely a stir about what the article revealed, but the blight is putting something of a damper on it.”
“I hate to say that’s good but…”
“If you’re approached by anyone, don’t give them any comment.”
“I won’t.” We hung up and I tried not to be too glum by the time Micah returned. About ten minutes later, he came in holding a bag from the diner nearby, but when he saw the look on my face, his smile changed to a look of worry.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Just got off the phone with Tielle,” I replied, taking the bag from him. I might be glum, but I was still hungry. While I unpacked breakfast and fixed us plates of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, I told him about my conversation with Tielle.
“It’s spreading like a plague,” Micah said.
“Yeah, seems so.”
“And Kyo doesn’t know more than he’s told you?”
I had told Micah what Kyo told me about what was going on. “I think he told me all he knew, but when I see him again I’ll see if he found out anything more.”
Micah nodded. “I’d like to meet him soon.”
“Definitely. He can finally stop teasing me about not telling you about him.”
Micah’s lips quirked in a smile. “Are you heading home first or off to the hospital?”
“Hospital,” I said. “Since I was able to find a change of clothes I’ll go to the hospital to talk to Leena and possibly the PTF officers. Wouldn’t have been a good look to head there in a tight dress.”
“I’m sure you would have accelerated a few patients’ vital signs.”
I smiled. “Yeah, and had a nurse ask if I was hooker coming in for an STD scan.”
Just then my phone rang again. I thought it was Tielle calling back, and I immediately started to feel dread over whatever bad news she’d hit me with, but it was actually Amy. Either she was accidentally calling me—again—or there was a real reason she wanted to talk to me.
“Who is it?” Micah asked, seeing the questioning look I was giving my phone.
“Amy.” I answered it as Micah’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Hey, Amy. What’s up?”
“Oh, hi, uh, hi Selene… How are you?”
There was a thread of anxiety in her voice, and she was talking low as though she did not want to be overheard.
“I’m great, just having breakfast with Micah, do you need something?” I don’t know why the petty side of me reared its head and made a point of mentioning that I was starting my day with Micah. I guess I couldn’t help but dig at her since it had been no secret that she was into Micah.
“Oh…oh…oh…um.”
She sounded more flustered than I thought she’d be at those words. It honestly wasn’t that bad of a dig.
“I just…I just wanted to know if we could meet up to chat for a bit.”
“Uh, we’re chatting right now,” I said. “So, if you need something just tell me.”
“No, I can’t. I really would prefer to meet you…before long.”
I blew out a breath and tried not to sound annoyed. I had a lot going on, but Amy didn’t know that. “Okay, how about tomorrow afternoon?”
“Yes, sure, that’d be great.”
She sounded brighter. I wondered what the hell she could possibly need to talk to me about in person. Not once had I ever met up with Amy one-on-one outside Affairs of the Dead. She was a nice enough girl, crush on Micah aside, but we had never become close friends when we were coworkers.
“Okay, let’s say around two p.m. Text me an address and I’ll meet you there.”
“Will do, thanks, Selene. See you tomorrow.”
“Amy wants to meet up with you?” Micah asked.
“Yeah, to talk about something she can’t talk about on the phone, who knows what.” I shrugged.
“Is she still working at Affairs?”
“Last I knew, though she looked fatigued and not as put togethe
r as she usually does.”
“Maybe you can question her about Jacob, see if she knows anything about him writing those articles.”
“I doubt she would, but yeah I can use the opportunity to ask some questions.” I clapped my hands together. “All right, on to more important things. I’ve got to go see Leena.”
“How are you going to handle her?” Micah asked. “Questioning her will reveal for certain that you know a part of dead witch history you aren’t supposed to know, and she may call on other dead witches to retaliate.”
“I thought about that,” I said. “I mean, she chose to die rather than have the dead witches find out someone found those bones, so I didn’t think she would answer my questions then let me walk out with a ‘have a nice day.’”
“So how are you gonna approach her?”
“In a way I am not entirely comfortable with, but it will do the job of keeping her from raising the alarm. And I need your help with it.”
* * *
NYU Langone was one of the few hospitals that had an entire wing specifically for the paranormal community. Most hospitals just integrated dead witch and necromancer patients with non-paras, or if there were several paranormal patients at once group them together, but Langone had done the necessary fund raising to be able to create this wing. And as such, the best and brightest dead witch and necromancer doctors worked here.
When I walked into Leena’s room, she was sitting up, well, her bed was in the sitting up position, and her head was turned so she could stare out the window. She was paying no attention to whatever daytime talk show was on the television mounted to the wall in front of her bed. She had a private room, so I didn’t have to worry about privacy for our conversation. Since she was a suicide patient, and up on criminal charges over those tainted runes, she was also handcuffed to her bed and there was a PTF officer stationed by the door. Therefore I felt safe enough alone with her. I closed the door though, to hinder anyone overhearing us.
At my approach, Leena turned her head. I wasn’t sure what I expected to be greeted with, but the flat, knowing look she gave me was surprising.
“It was you. I’m not surprised.” She shook her head and turned away. Her words were sharp but I could see anxiety in her expression and her body had tensed. I pulled up the chair that was near her bed and sat down, giving her a level look.
“I see we won’t have to waste time with pleasantries,” I said. “Yes, I was the one who broke into your house and found the graveyard under your stove.”
Her lips were a tight, trembling line and her hands were balled into fists. “You had no right breaking into my home! You—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I said, raising a hand. “I had full authorization to enter and search your home by the Paranormal Control Center. I’m a private investigator and you were under suspicion of distributing tainted runes. Now, the discovery of those infant bones was a macabre, added bonus, one that holds a personal interest to me, which is what I’m here to question you about.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you,” she said. She looked like a cat ready to unleash her claws.
“I think you do,” I said. “Because while for the time being your secret is safe with me, one phone call or quick text message and you will be exposed. Seeing as you took drastic measures when you realized the bones had been discovered, I’m willing to bet you don’t want the entire dead witch community on your ass.”
I saw fear fight its way through her hostile expression, but she fought to suppress it.
“I’m not the only one they will come for,” she said. “They will do everything in their power to silence you.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of them,” I said. “I’m sure you know enough about me to know I can take very good care of myself.”
“This is nothing like anything you’ve ever dealt with, girl. Your cockiness will be the death of you. You don’t know what you’re probing at. Walk away and you may still live.”
“I’m not going anywhere and I know exactly what I am getting into. A few centuries ago, your ancestors decided to lay waste to their male counterparts, the dead warlocks, by pulling their ghosts out of their bodies and banishing them to the Afterlife. Since then the dead witches have kept their bodies hidden and have been leeching off their magic. Well, guess what, one of those dead warlock’s ghost is back. Through that open necromancer circle I’m sure you’ve heard about. I got a firsthand account from him, and now I’m here for you to tell me everything you know.”
The look on Leena’s face showed that I had surprised her by how much I knew, and there was no suppressing the fear now.
“Tell me what you know,” I said. “Or you get exposed and left at the mercy of your fellow dead witches. Trust me when I say that if they come after me, they won’t be able to touch me. You? Oh I think they will do very bad things to you.”
Leena was trembling, and sweat beaded her forehead. “You already know too much…oh God…you know…” She looked like she was going to be sick.
“Leena, just tell me. Tell me about those bones. Tell me if you know where any dead warlock bodies are.”
Leena muttered and shook and turned her head this way and that before her gaze finally settled on me again. “What does it matter,” she whispered. “I was born to carry a curse, and now you’ve stumbled upon it too.”
“Leena…”
“I didn’t kill any of those babies,” she said.
“I know. I took a few bones and found out that they are all older than you. How did they get to be part of your household?”
“I inherited them,” she replied, looking down at where her fingers were twisted around each other in her lap. “From my ancestors. Find one dead witch alive today who doesn’t have the same thing hidden somewhere. This burden was passed on to all of us.”
“The burden of hiding the bodies of dead warlocks who were killed soon after birth?”
Leena nodded. “I hated it. It’s wrong; I know it, so many of us know it. But this is the way it’s been for so long, to come into the light now would bring down the entire, worldwide dead witch community. It would be catastrophic for everyone. So each generation was instructed to keep the secret. To let the dark deeds of our ancestors stay buried. It is a great shame.”
I frowned. “So the practice continues, but you feel ashamed? And are too scared to do anything? That’s disgusting, you are murdering innocent babies!”
“No!” Leena exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes. “That’s not the way it’s done anymore. It’s not. Things had to change, they just had to.”
My eyes narrowed. “So what changed? What did you do differently if not kill the males? As far as I know there is no prominent dead warlock presence these days.”
“I don’t know that it’s much better, but at least the babies stayed alive. At least we weren’t forced to have to…” She took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes briefly.
“Leena, what are you talking about?”
“The babies, the boys,” she said, looking me in the eyes. “Around the turn of the century we came up with a different way. Pregnancies were hidden, births happened in far-away places among dead witches only…and then the babies had their magic drawn out with runes and were given up for adoption.”
“What?” I said sharply. “You drained their magic then gave them up?”
“It may have made sense to drain their power and keep them, but then they would grow up to wonder where their magic was. It would not be possible to hide from them the knowledge that dead witch magic doesn’t skip generations. So the mothers took their son’s magic and gave them up. They left the babies at orphanages anonymously, then would show up within a month or so and adopt their own sons back. That way they got to keep their child, but he would grow up thinking he was a non-paranormal who was adopted by a dead witch and never question his lack of dead magic. It is one of the reasons dead witches are such huge patrons of adoption services. Many of them run adoption agencies specifical
ly so they can make sure the mothers get their babies back.” Leena’s eyes were filled with tears. “It was still a horrible thing to do, but at least they lived…the babies lived.”
My mind was reeling. I of course thought about Jian, Tielle’s son. I had just learned that he was adopted, now it was almost certain that he was actually Tielle’s biological son who had no idea he was a dead warlock.
“That is unbelievable,” I said. “It’s heinous to do that to a baby. The only saving grace is that they lived, but a paranormal person living without the magic they were born with is not living a full life.”
“I know,” Leena said softly. “A lot of the children grew up sickly and incurred all kinds of mental and developmental problems. We know what we did…we know.”
“My God.” I sat back in my chair, staring at Leena. I was trying not to let this knowledge overwhelm me. I still had more questions to ask.
“What about Dr. Raymond Perlysse?” I asked. “He was a very public figure and a dead warlock. And I know there have been other dead warlocks around over the years, how do you explain them?”
“They slipped through the cracks,” Leena said. “You can’t expect every single dead witch to be on the side of keeping these things hidden. There were those who went through great lengths to protect their sons and allow them to keep their magic. Some dead witches left their babies at safe houses with their magic intact and never tried to get them back. By the time the higher ranking dead witches found out, they were unable to track the babies down. In Dr. Perlysse’s case, I can’t say that his mother would have done that, but I do know that after he was born the house they were occupying caught on fire and he was one of the few survivors. His mother perished. No one who responded to the fire knew anything about our practices; they just thought they saved a newborn baby. He was put up for adoption and thus was able to grow up with his magic.”
“I see. And he grew up to become someone who contributed something positive in the medical community. Oh, the horror.”
Leena looked ashamed, but I had no sympathy for her.
“So, do you know where any of the dead warlock bodies are?”
