Mortal Imperative: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 24)

by R. L. King

  That was the other potential sticking point. She was right. It had been many years—before he’d moved to the United States—since he’d even been involved in building a portal at all, let alone doing it on his own. “I will. I’m planning on asking Kolinsky and a friend from back home to pop by and check things over before I pull the trigger.” There was no point in asking Madame Huan herself—she was knowledgeable about many things, but readily admitted portal science wasn’t one of them. Now he supposed he knew why she’d never needed to care. Kolinsky did, no doubt, because he cared about everything.

  “I’m pleased to hear that. You can come by the shop whenever you wish to pick up the vanazarite, and we can arrange payment through the usual methods.” She quoted him a figure.

  Most people would have choked a bit at it—even Stone might have before he’d become the recipient of a good-sized chunk of William Desmond’s vast fortune—but now he merely nodded. “You are giving me a discount.”

  “Well, we do have a history, dear.” Her voice was full of fond affection. “And I do feel I owe you something for avoiding you for so long.”

  “I’d have settled for a nice cup of tea. But thank you. I do appreciate it. I’ll arrange to have the funds sent right away. What am I supposed to be buying?”

  She chuckled. “A lovely porcelain vase from the late Yuan dynasty period. I’ll arrange for all the paperwork to be legally airtight, and send along detailed photos so you can do a proper illusion if anyone gets too inquisitive.”

  Stone echoed her chuckle. He wasn’t worried—Madame Huan was a master at red-tape obfuscation. If anyone ever tried to trace the purchase, they’d get so lost in the snarled paperwork it would take years to sort it out. “Right, then. I’ll pop by soon. Thank you, Madame Huan. For everything.”

  “It’s my pleasure, dear.”

  He put the phone back in his pocket and picked up Raider. “Do you hear that? I’ll finally get my portal done, after all this time.”

  Raider struggled in his grip, obviously not interested in the slightest.

  “Fine, fine. I know what you want. Let’s see to your dinner, shall we?”

  The cat’s ears perked up at the word, and he stopped struggling.

  “Ah, I see where your priorities lie.”

  He set the cat down and was halfway to the kitchen when his phone buzzed again.

  What now? Had Madame Huan forgotten to give him some detail about the vanazarite transfer?

  He pulled it back out and glanced at the number. He didn’t recognize it. “Hello?”

  “Dr. Stone?” The voice was male, gruff, and sounded older. He didn’t recognize that, either. Definitely too old to be a student.

  “Er—who’s this?”

  “I don’t know if you remember me—it’s been a long time since we talked last time. This is Frank Grider.”

  3

  It took Stone several seconds before the name clicked in his memory. “Bloody hell. It has been a while. How are you, Detective?”

  The man chuckled. “Not detective anymore, remember? Been retired for years. I’m working at a golf shop part-time now, just to get me out of the house.”

  “Er…right. You’ll have to forgive me. A lot has happened since we last spoke.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine.”

  Stone dropped onto the couch, and Raider immediately assumed his rightful place in his lap. “So…to what do I owe the pleasure? I assumed since I never heard from any of you lot and none of you ever told me where you ended up, you didn’t want further contact. How is…” He struggled a moment for the name. “Laura, isn’t it?”

  “You have a good memory. She’s fine. We’ve been married for nine years now.”

  “Well. Congratulations to both of you. I’d send a gift, but…”

  “Yeah, I get it. Little late for that.”

  “Even if I had any clue where to send it.” Stone settled back, his mind returning to his first months at the University. Those days seemed a lifetime away now, and in any case his memories of teaching were mostly overshadowed by the much more shocking and horrific events that had occurred around the same time. The ones that had initially put him into contact with Frank Grider and the people who later took the detective into their fold.

  It wasn’t every day he heard from a group of cannibalistic ghouls, no matter how civilized they were.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked again. “I’m assuming since you’ve broken your silence after ten years, this isn’t a social call.”

  “Uh…no. Unfortunately not.”

  Stone tensed, returning to a more upright position despite Raider’s protest. “Is something wrong?”

  “Maybe. It’s probably nothing, and I’m probably blowing it way out of proportion to get you involved at all, but…a cop’s instincts don’t go away when he retires, you know?”

  “I’ll help if I can. What’s going on?”

  “Remember Dr. Lu?”

  Stone searched his memory again. Dr. Orville Lu had been a member of the ghouls’ group, an emergency-room physician who had been part of their “supply chain,” surreptitiously obtaining cast-off bits of flesh to be packaged and provided to those in need via secret distribution points throughout the Bay Area. He had been one of the leaders of their small, insular association, and had left with them when they fled California.

  “Er—yes. Of course. He’s a bit hard to forget. Is he all right?”

  “He’s missing.”

  Stone frowned. “Missing. Do you mean he took off?”

  “I mean he’s disappeared. And so has Chris Belmont.”

  Stone definitely remembered Chris Belmont. The young man had posed as a freelance reporter to get close enough to Stone to find out if he’d been bitten during the attack on Laura Phelps’s late husband in a Palo Alto park. “That’s…odd. Do you think they’re together?”

  “I got no idea what to think. It’s definitely not like either one of them. They didn’t say anything about leaving, and when I checked their places, I didn’t see any sign of forced entry or foul play. As you might guess, we didn’t call in any outside authorities.”

  That didn’t surprise Stone in the slightest. The last thing a bunch of peaceful cannibals wanted was for the mundane police to take too close an interest in their activities—or the contents of their freezers.

  “Okay…” he said slowly. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not sure where I come in.”

  “Well…” Now Grider sounded uncomfortable, as if he was beginning to regret making the call. “The thing is, Dr. Stone, I remember what you could do, and we don’t know anybody else who can do it. I remember that ritual thing you did to find the semi-ferals. I was hoping maybe you could do something like that again. It’s makin’ me really uncomfortable that they’ve both disappeared without a trace. It’s not like either of them to do that—especially not Orville. He takes his job seriously.”

  “You’re worried about them…and you’re also worried that if anyone looks too closely into their activities, it might lead them to your little group.”

  “Yeah. I’d be lyin’ if I said that wasn’t true.” He paused. “We’ve been really successful at makin’ a home for ourselves. We don’t mess with anybody, we stay out of the way, and we get…what we need…in peaceful ways. None of us has ever hurt anybody—that’s the truth. We just want to live our lives and mind our own business, you know?”

  “Of course.” Stone understood that all too well. Although he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the ghouls’ dietary needs, they were good people with a difficult problem and they deserved the right to live as much as anyone else did. And their efforts to hide their true nature from society at large weren’t that different from what mages did every day.

  Okay, we don’t eat bits of dead people. But aside from that, it’s not so different.

  “So…” Grider ventured, “would you consider it?”

  “Consider what? Coming to wherever you are and doing a ritual?”

/>   “Yeah. I know it’s possible I’m just bein’ paranoid—maybe they had a good reason for leavin’ without tellin’ anybody, and they’ll come back any day now wonderin’ what all the fuss was about. But I was a cop for too many years not to think something might be up.”

  Stone thought he was probably right. It had been a long time since he’d spoken to any of these people, but he recalled Orville Lu as a quiet homebody who took pride in his job as a physician. “So, you’re going to reveal your location? You could come here, you know. Unless they’re within a short distance of wherever you are, it’s doubtful I could find them in one hop anyway. My range is longer than it used to be these days, but not that long.”

  Another pause. “I’m—we’re—asking you to do us a big favor. We’re willing to trust you with our location in return. We’re in a little town named Weekesboro, in southeastern Tennessee.”

  It wasn’t hard to hear it in Grider’s tone: neither he nor any of the others was wild about giving up some of their anonymity. This must be a big deal for them.

  Stone pondered. The quarter started soon, but if he could do this quickly and give them some kind of answer, he could be back in town with plenty of time to finish his preparations. Especially if their location was anywhere near a ley line.

  “All right, Grider—you’ve got yourself a mage. But I warn you: depending on how long they’ve been missing and where they are, it might not be as easy as what I did before.” He let that sink in, then added soberly, “And if they’re dead, I won’t be able to find them at all.”

  “Yeah.” Grider’s loud sigh came through over the connection. “Let’s hope they aren’t, then. Thanks, Stone. We all appreciate it.”

  4

  Verity called Stone later that afternoon. “Hey, any chance you want to have dinner tonight?”

  “I was planning on it,” he said dryly. “Or do you mean with you?”

  She chuckled. “I mean with me…and Jason and Amber.”

  “What’s the occasion?” His mind was mostly focused on his preparations to visit Grider, but he wasn’t planning on leaving until tomorrow. It turned out the little suburban town where the ghouls’ group had settled was near a ley line—he’d still need to get a rental car, but at least the trip would be minutes instead of hours.

  She hesitated. “I…just want to get the four of us together to talk about something.”

  “Something? Is it a secret?” The last thing Stone wanted was another complication in his life right now.

  Another pause. “No…not really. I—finally told Jason about Miles and Elena, and…everything else.”

  Oh. “I…see.”

  “Yeah. I told him, and by now I’m sure he’s told Amber. I wanted all of us to get together and talk about it, so we’re all on the same page. As you might guess, the whole thing has unsettled Jason quite a bit.”

  Stone suspected that was an understatement. “Er…sure. Of course. I’m leaving tomorrow for a couple of days, but dinner tonight sounds fine. You can all come here if you like—it’s more centrally located. I’ll pick up some takeaway.”

  “Normally I’d offer to cook, but since everybody’s so busy, I’ll take you up on that. Going away, you said? Anything exciting?”

  That was a hard question to answer. “Er…probably not. I hope not.”

  “Okay, I won’t be nosy. Let me get in touch with Jason, and hopefully they can make it too. I’ll call you back if they can’t, but otherwise assume we’ll be there. Seven okay?”

  “Fine. See you then. Oh, and Verity?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m…pleased you finally told him. I know it’s none of my business, but I think it was the right thing to do.”

  “Me too. It wasn’t an easy conversation, but I’m glad it’s out there now. See you soon.”

  Verity arrived a few minutes before seven. “I wanted to get here before they did. You know…to prepare. Or something.”

  She wasn’t to get her wish, though. Stone had barely let her in and was about to close the door when another set of headlights appeared at the gate, and a moment later Jason’s red Mustang pulled up next to Verity’s black SUV.

  “Sorry we’re early,” Jason called as he and Amber got out. “Traffic over 17 was better than we expected.”

  “No, no, it’s fine. Come on in.” Stone shifted to magical sight and studied Jason. His clear blue aura, darker now than before since the events with Melvin Whitworth, flashed with a few red patches, but none of them looked worrisome. Stone wondered if he’d already come to terms with the shocking news Verity had dropped on him. Amber’s aura looked calm and a trifle wary; Stone noticed she stayed close to Jason, the protective bear watching over her mate.

  They chatted about safe topics until they were seated at the table and passing around the various dishes Stone had brought from the local Thai restaurant. Stone didn’t miss that everybody was shooting surreptitious glances at everyone else.

  “So,” he finally said when everyone was served. “Since I didn’t pick up enough food for both us and the elephant in the room, perhaps we might stop talking about the weather?”

  Verity shot him a grateful glance. “Yeah. Thanks for having us over, Doc.” She poked at her pasta and looked at Jason. “So…I guess you told Amber. That’s good. Now everybody who matters knows.”

  He didn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah. We talked about it quite a bit the night after you left.”

  “Are you…okay with it?”

  Jason spread his hands. “What difference does that make? It happened. It’s real. Whether I’m okay with it really isn’t important, is it?”

  “That isn’t what I asked.” Verity kept her tone soft.

  He looked at Amber, then Stone, then finally at his sister. “I will be,” he said wearily. “With most of it, anyway. I mean, I’m not naïve. People make mistakes. I talked to Stan a little after we talked too, and he said Dad was pretty tough to deal with there for a while.” He glared at her. “That doesn’t mean I condone what Mom did. But…I guess maybe I understand how it might have happened. Especially since it only happened once.”

  Stone watched them silently, staying out of the conversation. He was pleased to see Jason was behaving true to form: he tended to initially respond to shocking news with anger, but it never lasted long. He exchanged a quick glance with Amber, then settled back. The two of them were essentially spectators in this discussion until and unless their opinions were requested, and he was fine with that.

  “Most of it?” Verity asked. “What…do you mean by that?”

  He didn’t answer for a while, and when he did, he didn’t look at her. “Mom had a fling with some mage at a party, and she got pregnant. I get it. That happens. But…this other woman. His wife. I’m still trying to get my mind around her putting a curse on Mom…killing her…because her husband couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

  He brought his gaze up, and his eyes were angry and haunted. “She killed our mother, V. And she’s still alive. That’s the part I’m having a hard time dealing with.”

  When Verity started to say something, he raised his hand. “No, I get it. She’s a vegetable now. She got her punishment, eventually. But she got to hang around, running her winery and terrorizing that whole damn town and having her way, for over twenty years after she killed Mom. That’s the part I’m having trouble with.”

  Now it was Verity’s turn to be silent. She toyed with her food, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t like it either,” she finally said. “But what can I—or any of us—do about it? You don’t want somebody to kill her, do you?”

  Stone watched Jason closely, examining his aura. For a second, he thought his friend might reply that that was exactly what he did want.

  But he shook his head, letting out a loud sigh. “No. No, of course not. That wouldn’t do any good. It won’t bring Mom back, and it won’t make it so none of this ever happened. And I guess if I was the vindictive sort, I’d say she got a worse punishment with what did happe
n.” He dropped his fork on his plate. “Hell, V, I don’t know what I want.”

  “Yeah. I went through the same thing. I’m not happy about any of this either. But like you said, it happened, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” She glanced at Stone. “Not unless Doc’s hiding a time machine in his basement.”

  “Sorry,” Stone said dryly. “Fresh out of TARDISes. And if I had one, you’d have to get in line behind me.”

  “So…” Jason said slowly, almost as if reluctant to show any interest beyond anger, “you said you’ve met these…other half-siblings of yours. How many times?”

  “Just once, when I went down there to figure out what was up with the note. We’ve talked on the phone a few times, and texted. They’ve been pretty busy. Since Sebastian…Dad…died and Lydia isn’t competent to run her affairs anymore, they’ve had to take over.”

  “And…you like them? You don’t resent them for what happened?”

  She looked down at her plate. “I…did, at first. Maybe a little. But none of this was their fault, either. They didn’t know about any of what happened. I was as much of a surprise to them as they were to me.” She sighed and sipped her wine. “And…yeah. I do like them, as much as it’s possible to like somebody I barely know. They helped me out, and they seem pretty well-adjusted given the shitshow they had to grow up in.”

  “You haven’t met them yet?” Jason asked Stone.

  “No. I haven’t interacted with them at all. None of my business. If Verity wants to introduce us, brilliant. If not, I’ll keep my nose out of the situation.”

  He turned back to Verity. “Do you have photos of them?”

  “Just one.” She didn’t seem surprised that he’d asked. She pulled her phone from her pocket, cued up a photo, and passed it across to him. “I took it when we got together for lunch after…everything happened. They have one of me, too.”

  Jason studied the photo. “They look normal. No green skin or horns or warty noses.”

  She chuckled. “They hid all that before I took the picture. Didn’t want to scare the mundanes.”