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

by R. L. King

  “It’s not a problem. I understand.”

  “Anyway…where were we? Oh. Right. Ghouls. So…you’re heading back there tomorrow to keep trying to find them? Even though maybe they don’t want to be found?”

  “I doubt that’s the case. My friend and I both think one of them wouldn’t have deserted his dog without a reason. And why would they be behind wards when they don’t know any other mages?”

  “Good question.” She appeared to be pondering something, then her chin came up. “You want me to come with you? I’ve just got this nasty feeling like something might go wrong.”

  “Why do you say that?” Stone didn’t set much store by divination—except when connected to Madame Huan—but Verity’s instincts had always been good.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me being nervous about you hanging out with cannibals. But if these guys don’t want to be found and they’re involved with at least one mage, it might not be a bad idea to have some backup.”

  Stone almost turned her down, but then rethought it. Verity was a strong mage, she was smart, and it might not be a bad idea to have backup. It would add a bit of time to the trip because he’d need to take a proper portal, but the tradeoff might be worth it. “I thought you were meeting with Hezzie tomorrow.”

  “That can wait. We postpone all the time. You want me to come along?”

  “Sure, if you like. We won’t be near the colony, so it’s not like I’d be revealing their location.” He didn’t like the slowdown, but she had a point—if something was going on involving ghouls and mages, walking into it alone might not be the best idea. “I’d like to leave in the morning—can you be ready then?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll meet you at the portal. Eight?” She grinned. “You think you can manage to roll out of bed and be functional that early?”

  “I’ll make the sacrifice.”

  They finished dinner and chatted about everyday topics for a while longer. Stone told Verity about his preparations for the upcoming quarter, and she told him about her alchemy progress.

  “I’m getting pretty good,” she said, and didn’t bother trying to hide her pride. “Hezzie says I have a real knack for it. Right now, we’re working on trying to re-create that pick-me-up potion Matthew Caldwell used. Remember?”

  A little shiver ran up Stone’s spine. He hadn’t thought about Matthew Caldwell in a while—mostly because of the other things such thoughts brought up. He realized he hadn’t gone to visit Deirdre’s grave in over a year.

  “You okay?” Verity’s eyes narrowed in concern.

  “Oh—yes. Fine,” he said briskly, getting up. “That’s brilliant. I hope you succeed—I might even be a customer if you do. For now, though, I should get going. If I’m going to get up at such an appallingly early hour tomorrow, I need my beauty sleep.”

  She chuckled, then gave him a fond smile. “Don’t let me keep you from that. Thanks for coming, Doc. I enjoy this. I’m glad we can get together and just…talk. You know, without it being weird.”

  “Yes…I am as well.” Stone was surprised sometimes at how ‘not weird’ the situation had turned out to be. True, he’d almost always remained friends with his ex-girlfriends, but with Verity it was different. He didn’t see and work with his other exes on a regular basis. But with her, it almost felt like, as satisfying as their deeper relationship had been, this one felt more like what should be. Returning to it had been bittersweet for both of them, but also more than a bit of a relief. “Although, present company considered, I’m not sure it’s possible to entirely avoid weirdness.”

  She gently punched his arm. “Drive safe.”

  He mumbled a noncommittal reply and headed out.

  9

  If he’d been anyone else—anyone mundane, at least—Stone might have been apprehensive to walk the streets in Verity’s neighborhood this time of night. Most of the homeless squatters lining the sidewalk had already curled up in their makeshift tents and sleeping bags by now, but he’d encountered the occasional more aggressive panhandler or even street predators looking for easy prey. As it was, he kept his disregarding spell up and strode confidently toward the ley line two blocks away. No one paid him any attention.

  Not, at least, until he passed a dark alleyway between two abandoned buildings. He shot a quick glance down it, not bothering to switch to magical sight. Nothing here constituted a credible threat to him, so he remained cautious but not overly so. The edge of the ley line was just ahead.

  “Hey,” said a gravelly voice, directly behind him.

  He stopped, tensing and pulling an invisible shield around him.

  “Don’t turn around,” the voice ordered.

  “What do you want?” he asked evenly. “I’m warning you, this isn’t a wise course of action for you.”

  “Just want to talk. Go into the alley so nobody’ll see us.”

  He snorted. “That’s not happening. If you’ve got something to say, say it here.”

  To his surprise, the next thing he heard was a sigh. “Okay, fine. Whatever. You can look. Guess it doesn’t matter.”

  Confused but keeping his shield up, Stone slowly turned to face his accoster.

  To his surprise, a familiar figure stood in the shadows next to him. Thin and hunched, it shifted nervously as if unsure of its footing.

  “You’re…one of Verity’s Harpy friends, aren’t you?” He moved to the side, closer to the alley. “Tani, is it? Tari?”

  “Tani.” She definitely seemed uncomfortable, as if she wasn’t accustomed to being the subject of anyone’s attention. “Want to talk to you.”

  “Er…all right. Is this about Verity?”

  “Nah.” Her gaze darted back and forth, checking for anyone else near them. “Don’t like bein’ watched.”

  Stone was thoroughly confused now. What did this strange woman want from him? “What do you want to do? We could go somewhere—get a cup of coffee or something…”

  “Nah,” she said again, waving him off. She pointed up. “Roof.”

  “You want to go up on the roof?”

  “Yeah. Know you can do it. Easy.” She mimed levitation with her pale hands. “Nobody to listen.” She eyed him challengingly. “You got nothin’ to worry about.”

  That was almost certainly true. Tani was undoubtedly strange, and he’d always suspected there was something not quite mundane about her. But whatever she was, he was sure he could handle her if need be. “Fine, then. Do you need me to—”

  In answer, she darted toward the nearest wall and leaped up to grab the edge of the rickety iron fire escape. Less than five seconds later, she’d scrambled up and disappeared over the edge.

  “Well. All right, then…” Stone murmured. Unlike her hunched, awkward position when standing, she’d moved like a monkey while climbing the building.

  Tani’s shaggy-haired head appeared over roof’s lip. “Comin’?” she rasped, barely audible on the ground.

  Stone took a last look around, this time with magical sight, to make sure nobody else was watching him. Then he summoned a levitation spell and rose until he was above the third-story roof. He took in the scene quickly, spotting a rusting AC unit, a couple piles of pillows, sleeping bags, cardboard boxes, and a whole lot of trash. Aside from Tani, the area was deserted.

  He touched down a few feet from her, dropping the spells. Tani wasn’t a threat to him—he could see it in her wavering blue aura. “All right, I’m here. What did you want to talk about?”

  She didn’t answer right away, pacing back and forth as if trying to talk herself into something.

  Stone studied her as she moved. She wore faded, ripped jeans, stained red Chuck Taylors, and a gray Care Bears T-shirt under her black leather Harpies jacket. Her short hair, muddy blond and unkempt, floated around a narrow, sharp-featured face. Her limbs seemed too long for her rail-thin body.

  “Look,” he said with some impatience, “I’ve still got a few things I need to do tonight, so if you could—”

  “I h
eard you,” she said. “In V’s place.” Her voice was still raspy, like a lifelong smoker’s.

  “Heard me?” He tilted his head. “Heard what?”

  “Heard her too.”

  Stone sighed, beginning to wonder if Tani was on something. He’d never seen evidence of any of the Harpies doing anything harder than a little pot, but this woman’s twitchy demeanor suggested more. “Tani, I—”

  “Talkin’ about ghouls.”

  He tensed. How could she have heard them? They hadn’t said anything about ghouls after Verity had opened the door to her and Hezzie. Had she been listening at the door? “Er—you must be mistaken. I—”

  “Not mistaken,” she said with certainty. “Heard you. You know ghouls? Friends?”

  Stone almost answered. Then he looked at her in a new light, and something fell into place. “Tani…” he said slowly, “…there’s a reason you care about this, isn’t there?”

  She didn’t reply, and her gaze skated away. Her long fingers, knuckles knotted with tension, moved without seeming to be under her control.

  Stone glanced behind him, then perched on the edge of an old AC unit. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” He kept his voice soft, afraid any too-loud noise might spook her.

  Her eyes, big and haunted, came up to meet his. “You can’t tell.”

  The statement could be taken in two possible ways—either she thought he couldn’t discern whether she was a ghoul, or she was exhorting him not to let anyone else know. He chose to respond to the second one. “I won’t tell anyone. But—” He frowned. “The Harpies don’t know?” Verity had never said anything about having a ghoul in the group, and he was certain she would have mentioned it—or at least not been as squicked by the concept—if she’d known.

  “Nah. Too hard to tell ’em. Wouldn’t understand.” She crouched, looking more comfortable than when she stood straight.

  Stone didn’t doubt her words. A few of the Harpies had minor magical talents—mostly in the physical area—but aside from Verity and the lower-powered Hezzie, none of them were mages. “I don’t understand. Why are you telling me now?”

  Again, she didn’t answer.

  Stone kept watching her. Her twitchiness set him on edge. Was she the only ghoul around here? He frowned as he caught the implications of that. “Are you in trouble, Tani? How do you…get what you need? There’s no colony here, is there?”

  “Not in trouble. Not me.” She paced. “I do okay. Got a friend. Helps me. Hospital.”

  “I see.”

  “Got a problem with that?” She spun on him, suddenly suspicious, her deep-set eyes burning holes in him.

  “Er—no. Not as long as no one’s getting hurt.” That wasn’t entirely true, but for her purposes it was.

  “Nobody hurt.” Her shoulders slumped. “Hard sometimes. Hard to be careful. But not me in trouble.”

  “Well…who, then? Why are you telling me this?”

  “Friend.”

  “Your friend is in trouble? The one at the hospital?”

  She shook her head violently, as if she thought he was thick. “No. No. Friend in Tennessee.”

  Stone went still, and then once again the light dawned. “You’ve got friends at the colony.”

  She seemed relieved he finally got it. “Yeah.”

  “And they’re in trouble?” He wondered if she knew Orville Lu or Chris Belmont. That would make it a small world indeed—but then again, there weren’t that many civilized ghouls around, so he supposed it made sense that they kept in touch.

  “One is.”

  “How do you know that?”

  She pulled out her phone. It looked incongruous in her twitchy hand. “No answer. We text. Nothing. Almost a week.”

  Of course. The ghouls text each other. Why the hell not? “What’s your friend’s name?”

  The suspicion returned. “Why?”

  “You wanted my help. I can’t help you if I don’t know the details.”

  She pondered. “Maisie.” She searched his face, obviously looking for a reaction.

  Stone didn’t give her one, but inwardly he wondered if her situation and his were related, or if it was just coincidence. “And she lives in Weekesboro.”

  “Yeah. Sorta. Outside.”

  “Does she have any other friends in the colony? Anyone she keeps in touch with?”

  Tani shook her head several times. “No. Keeps to herself. Doesn’t talk much. Just me.”

  “I see.” Stone got up and began pacing. By now, he’d forgotten about both the shield and the disregarding spell. Nobody else was going to see them up here, and he was sure now that Tani meant him no harm. She was trying hard to hide it behind a tough façade, but he couldn’t miss the vulnerability—almost the desperation—in her aura.

  “So if she went missing, no one might know?”

  “Just me,” she said again, miserably. “Maybe if she didn’t show to get food…”

  “Right…” Stone continued pacing, his thoughts whirling. All the ghouls in a colony had to visit their secret distribution sources periodically. It was how they kept everyone safely fed so no one risked going hungry and attacking someone. The fact that each ghoul only needed a small quantity of flesh every month to six weeks made it easier to keep everyone supplied. But it also meant they could get away without being seen for long stretches, if they weren’t the social type.

  “How do you know ghouls?” Tani asked abruptly.

  So she hadn’t been listening for a long time. Ghouls had heightened senses, almost like shifters, so it was entirely possible she might have heard part of his and Verity’s conversation through the door. “It’s…a long story. One I don’t want to go into right now. But there used to be a colony here, ten years or so ago. Do you know that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Were you here then? Were you part of the colony?” It was hard to tell how old Tani was. Most of the Harpies were in their twenties and thirties, so if she’d been here then, she was either older than she looked, or was very young at the time. Possibly even a child.

  “Yeah. Me and Maisie both.”

  He studied her as she once again looked away, remembering how Grider didn’t look any older than he had when they’d last seen each other a decade ago. If ghouls were constantly regenerating, it made sense they might not age as fast as normal humans. “So…what happened? Did she leave when the colony left, and you stayed behind?”

  “Yeah.”

  Stone didn’t miss the sudden defensiveness in her voice. “I’m not judging you, Tani. What you do is your own business—as long as you’re telling the truth about not hurting anyone.”

  “Truth,” she said, nodding. Her bony shoulders relaxed a bit. “Don’t hurt anyone. But yeah. She left.”

  “Why didn’t you go with her?”

  She shrugged. “Didn’t want to. Like it here.”

  He sensed there was more to it than that, and flashed her a look that said so.

  She let out a sound that was half-moan, half-snort. “I’m weird, okay? Didn’t get along with most of ’em. They didn’t like me. I didn’t like them. ’Cept for Maisie. She’s weird too, but not as much.”

  “Ah.” Stone resumed his seat on the AC unit, catching on. All the civilized ghouls Stone knew—Belmont, Lu, the Griders, and a few others—were no different than any other person he might meet on the street. They had jobs, social networks, and aside from their peculiar dietary requirement they fit into normal human society with little effort. Tani, on the other hand, reminded him of the semi-feral ghouls he’d fought in Santa Cruz. Twitchy and strange, she’d have a hard time assimilating into everyday life. “So when they left, you decided to stay here. And Maisie…didn’t.”

  “Yeah.” She stalked back and forth in front of him like a prowling cat.

  “Did you two have a falling-out?”

  “Nah. She wanted to go, I didn’t. I guess we had a little fight over it at the time, but…” She shrugged and looked at Stone again. “Got over i
t fast. She’s family.”

  “Family?” Stone frowned, surprised. “Literally?”

  “Nah. But might as well be.” She dropped her gaze and sighed. “I’m scared.”

  “Because you think something might have happened to her.”

  “Yeah. Never doesn’t answer, y’know?”

  “Have you tried contacting anyone else in the colony?”

  “Nah. Don’t know any of ’em.”

  “And…going back there to see for yourself isn’t an option, I’m guessing.”

  She did the strange shake-her-head-several-times thing again. “Can’t. Don’t have money, don’t have a car. People would notice me on a bus.”

  That was the truth. Even if her appearance didn’t draw attention, her aroma of BO and unwashed clothes would.

  He looked down at his hands, then back up. It did seem that, once again, the universe was conspiring to drag him more deeply into a problem he’d hoped to solve quickly.

  “Tani…” he said, half-regretting the words as he said them, “…do you want me to try finding her? I’m already looking for a couple other missing people.”

  Her eyes got big. “More missing?”

  “You didn’t hear that part of our conversation?”

  “Nah. Just the last bit. Went and got Hezzie. Excuse to come see you.”

  Ah. That explained her and Hezzie’s opportune arrival. “Er—yes. At least two others have gone missing under mysterious circumstances. They left without any word to anyone.”

  “Left?” Tani crouched in front of him, intent on his every word now.

  “Yes. I was there earlier. We checked their homes. There was no sign of a struggle or any foul play. It seemed as if they simply…decided one day to leave. They didn’t take anything with them—no clothes, toiletries, nothing. Our only clue was that one of them had stopped to leave his dog with his neighbor instead of disappearing without a trace.”

  The ghoul bowed her head. “Damn. Just those two?”

  “So far, yes. I’ve got my friend—he used to be a police detective before he was afflicted and retired—checking among the other colony members. I can let him know about Maisie if you like.”