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

by R. L. King

  “Yeah. Thanks.” A hint of relief touched her rough features, but quickly vanished. “You goin’ back? Use magic to try findin’ ’em?”

  “That’s the plan. I already did a ritual in Weekesboro. I discovered they’re still alive, but out of my range. I’ll be heading back tomorrow to go closer and try the ritual again.”

  “You think they’re all together?”

  “I think the two I was looking for could be. I’ve no idea if Maisie is with them. Did she ever mention anyone named Belmont or Lu? Do you remember them?”

  “Nah. She never talks about anybody there, and we didn’t socialize much.” Her gaze dropped again. “Why would they be together?”

  “I can’t answer that,” Stone said gently. A thought occurred to him. “Tani—does Maisie ever send you anything?”

  “Send?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “You know—like a gift, or a keepsake.”

  “Why?”

  “Having something like that will make her easier to locate. I can’t do a ritual to find her if I don’t have something to use.”

  “Oh.” She pondered, looking reluctant, but then her chin snapped up. She rummaged in her jacket pocket and stuck out her palm, offering something to Stone.

  He leaned in closer to look. It was a small carved figure, about the size of a quarter, in the shape of an elephant. “What’s this?”

  “She sent it. Couple months ago. She’s always loved elephants. I sent her an otter ’cuz they’re my favorite.” She appeared suddenly shy, as if afraid she’d revealed too much.

  Stone didn’t want to touch her, but felt ashamed for the thought. He plucked the elephant from her hand and stowed it carefully in the inner pocket of his coat. “Thank you. This will help. I’ll be honest with you—I’m not sure it will work, since it’s probably got at least as much emotional residue on it from you as from her. But we’ll see. It’s better than nothing. I’ve got to tell you something else, though.”

  “What?”

  “If I use it and I do find her, it will likely be destroyed. So if it’s got a lot of sentimental value…”

  She hesitated. Looked at his pocket. Looked at him. Then she shook her head hard. “I want to find her. Do what you gotta do.”

  “All right. I’ll try my best not to let it happen.”

  “Thanks,” she mumbled. Her gaze was all over the place: the ground, off into nothingness, then back up at him with haunted eyes. A faint, fleeting smile touched her mismatched features. “I see why V likes you. You’re okay.”

  “Thank you, Tani. Thank you for trusting me with your secret. I promise I won’t share it with anyone.”

  “You can tell V, I guess,” she said gruffly. “She’s gonna help you, right? S’pose that means she’s gotta know.”

  He’d forgotten about that. “Er—yes, I suppose she does, then.” He stood. “I’d best get going, though. Leaving tomorrow.”

  “Find her, okay?”

  He winced at her pleading, desperate tone. “I’ll do my best. You’ve got my word on that.”

  10

  Stone checked his email when he got home, only a few minutes after he and Tani parted company.

  Score another one for ley-line travel. He wondered if he should send Kolinsky a cake or something—or more likely an ancient tome or three from Desmond’s collection—in exchange for teaching him this wondrous new skill.

  Maybe both.

  He wondered if dragons even liked cake.

  He had only one useful email, from Mackenzie Hubbard, his fellow Occult Studies professor at the University. He almost didn’t read it, but with the quarter starting soon, he supposed it couldn’t put it off.

  Taking the summer off had made him wonder, not for the first time, if it was time for him to consider leaving his job. Much as he enjoyed teaching, his life was getting nothing but more complicated lately. It used to be that strange magical puzzles, phenomena, or threats popped up every few months, if even that often. Nowadays, it seemed like he couldn’t sit down without something else raising its head and requiring his attention.

  Not requiring, he reminded himself. You don’t have to deal with these problems. No one is putting a gun to your head. No one’s appointed you the Magic Police.

  But if you don’t, who will? The cheeky little voice in his head—which was also him, but a more obnoxious (and usually correct) version—spoke up for the first time in a while. You know you can’t let them go.

  Sod off, he told it, and clicked open the email. The subject was For tomorrow.

  That sounded ominous.

  “Oh, bugger,” he said aloud when he’d scanned it. He slammed his fist down on his desk, startling Raider into leaping off.

  He supposed he couldn’t blame himself for forgetting the afternoon meeting between himself, Hubbard, and department head Beatrice Martinez. It had been on his calendar for several weeks, but he rarely looked at his work calendar these days since it had been so empty for so long. Now, Hubbard was emailing him with questions about the syllabus for the new Occult in Western Europe course, asking him to gather discussion points for the meeting.

  “Damn, damn, damn,” he murmured as Raider jumped back up and looked at him quizzically. It wasn’t that he wasn’t prepared for the meeting—he’d put together most of the material weeks ago, and going over the syllabus wouldn’t be a big deal—but the meeting was scheduled for two p.m. These things never went quickly, which meant the best he could hope for under ideal circumstances was to get out of there at three—probably closer to four. He’d have to drive to meet Verity in Sunnyvale, adding almost another hour.

  Stone sighed, beginning to regret agreeing to bring Verity along. Yes, her presence would be helpful and he always enjoyed having her with him when dealing with magical problems, but traveling by portal instead of ley line would add significant time to the trip. It would be well past dark by the time they arrived at the spot the ritual had pointed at, and he’d need to do another ritual to pinpoint them. Assuming they were still in the same place they’d been yesterday.

  Bugger, indeed.

  Couldn’t be helped, though. He couldn’t uninvite Verity at this point, even if he wanted to. Might as well accept things as they were and make the best of them.

  He grabbed his phone from under Raider’s butt and shot off a quick text to Verity, hoping everyone would stay put until he could get to them.

  It was nearly five-thirty the following day when he swept into A Passage to India, flustered and frustrated. The drive down from Palo Alto had been worse than usual, with two accidents he’d had to creep around. By the time he pulled into the parking lot behind the restaurant, he was fuming.

  Verity sat at a booth inside, sipping a bubble tea. She frowned when she spotted him. “You look like you’re about to chew nails.”

  “I think I could right about now.”

  “That bad?” She finished her drink and stood, retrieving her overnight bag from the floor.

  He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. “Bloody Martinez doesn’t usually go on and on, but today she wanted to catch me up with everything I’d missed over the summer.” He dropped his voice to a low mutter. “I couldn’t exactly tell her to bugger off because I had to go off and hunt missing ghouls.”

  “No, that would have been a bad idea,” she said, chuckling. “You ready? I didn’t even ask you where we were going.”

  “Atlanta’s the closest portal. It’s about an hour’s drive north from there to where I lost the trace.”

  “So we’re not going to the town where the colony is?”

  “No—the spot we’re headed is in southern Tennessee, between Atlanta and the colony.”

  “That’s convenient.”

  “About the only thing that is,” he said sourly.

  He’d already called Grider earlier that day to tell him his plans. Grider had been confused about why he wasn’t coming earlier—and wasn’t coming directly there to start his search—but accepted Stone’s vague explan
ations with good grace. “Just tell me what’s goin’ on when you find out,” he said.

  Stone had also asked him about Maisie, and anyone else he might have discovered missing after talking with others in the colony.

  “Sorry,” he’d said. “So far I haven’t found any sign of anybody else missing. I think I might know who you mean about this Maisie person, but I’ve never met her. She usually doesn’t even show up to the dinners, and if she’s the one I think she is, she lives by herself in a little cabin several miles outside town. Weird girl.”

  “Yes, so I’ve heard. All right—I’ll tell you what I find out. I’m bringing my former apprentice along to help out in case we discover anything nasty. She’s a strong mage and good in a fight.”

  There was a long pause. “Can you trust her?”

  “I trust her with my life, Mr. Grider. Her discretion is exemplary.”

  “I sure as hell hope so. And I hope you two don’t find anything ‘nasty,’ as you said.”

  “So do I. But best to be prepared.”

  “So,” Verity said now, “ready to go? Got everything you need?”

  Stone indicated the bag he had slung over his shoulder. “Got ritual materials, and tether objects from Lu and Belmont. And…I’ve got to talk to you about something.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “About what?”

  “Later. Let’s get through the portal and get a car. We’ll have time to talk on the drive.”

  Her suspicious look didn’t waver, but she let it go for now.

  They hurried to the back and descended the stairs to the portal. “It’s a good thing Marta’s off tonight,” Stone said while making the calibrations. “I’ve been feeling quite guilty about never staying to chat.” That was even more true now, since he no longer even needed to use the portal unless he was traveling with someone else.

  “Yeah…I think she’s lonely. We talk sometimes, when I’m in the area. I’m kinda starting to wonder if she’s considering passing the place on to somebody else and moving back home to England.”

  Stone stopped his calibrations and looked at her in surprise. “She said that?”

  “No…not in so many words. But Jason and Amber and I had lunch here a few weeks ago, and she was talking about how much she missed Leeds, especially with David gone. It wasn’t hard to make a few assumptions.” She paused, watching Stone as he resumed setting the gateway. “What would happen if she did that?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well…it is the only public portal in California. It can’t be left without anyone to watch it, right? But what if she can’t find somebody who wants to run the restaurant?”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Just because she’s a bit wistful about home doesn’t mean she’s going to chuck everything and go back there. I get wistful about home too, but I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You can go home whenever you want,” she said dryly. “It’s not exactly the same thing.”

  She had a point—more of one than she knew. “Well—honestly I haven’t got the mental bandwidth to deal with another problem right now. Can we table that until later? I promise you, even if Marta does decide to go, something will be arranged. The place might not stay an Indian restaurant, but it will definitely be something. There’s no way the magical population will allow a strategic portal to exist without someone to mind it.” He adjusted his bag and indicated the portal. “Ready?”

  “Yep. Let’s do this.”

  Fortunately for Stone’s frazzled nerves, getting through the portal in Atlanta and securing a rental car went much more smoothly than the rest of his day had. He and Verity didn’t talk much until they were on the road; by then it was already dark.

  “So,” she said when they were headed up highway 75 toward Tennessee, “what’s this thing you were going to tell me?”

  She didn’t forget anything, did she? He couldn’t fault her for it, though—it was one of the things that had made her such a good apprentice.

  He kept his eyes on the road as he spoke. “I told you we were looking for two missing ghouls.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Well…it seems now that we’re looking for three.”

  She shot him a look. “Your friend came up with somebody else who was missing?”

  “No. In fact, I called him this morning and as far as he knows, nobody else is gone.”

  “So…what’s that mean?”

  He glanced her way quickly, then back to the road. The traffic was heavy enough that he had to pay attention. “How much do you know about your friend Tani?”

  “From the Harpies?” She sounded confused.

  “Yes.”

  She hesitated. “I…dunno. Not that much, I guess. She mostly keeps to herself. She’s nice enough, but a little…odd.” With a chuckle, she added, “Not that I can talk or anything.”

  Stone didn’t answer, and for a while the only sounds came from the radio tuned to a rock station and the traffic going by outside.

  “Doc…you’re not trying to tell me something about Tani, are you?”

  He sighed. “She stopped me last night, after I left your flat.”

  “Her and Hezzie?”

  “No. Just her. She wanted to talk on the roof of a building, to be certain no one would hear us.”

  “What?” She twisted in her chair. “Doc, you’re not making sense. What would she want to…”

  She stopped.

  Stone waited. With these kinds of things, it was always better for her to arrive at the conclusion on her own.

  When she spoke again, it was slowly and carefully. “Are you saying…Tani…”

  “…is a ghoul. Yes.”

  Verity settled back into her seat. “Holy shit…”

  “She gave me her permission to tell you, but asked that you don’t reveal her secret to anyone else. Apparently, the other Harpies don’t know.”

  “Uh…yeah.” She sounded like she’d been punched in the gut. “Yeah, I can see how you don’t want your friends to know you eat people…”

  “Verity—”

  “No, no, I get it. I do. So, she’s…like the other ones? She doesn’t hurt people?”

  “She says she doesn’t, and I believe her. She says she’s got a friend who gets her…what she needs in a safe way.”

  Suddenly, Verity burst into giggles, but they sounded more unhinged than happy.

  “What?” Stone glanced at her, concerned.

  “Sorry, sorry.” She got herself mostly under control, swiping her hand across her face. “You just gave me an image of somebody going to Safeway to pick up neat little packages of human flesh from the meat department. Do you think it’s got little pictures of people on it, instead of cows or pigs?”

  Stone supposed it wasn’t the time to tell her that the ghouls’ actual distribution system resembled her fanciful idea more than she might want to know. “Got it out of your system?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Just…like I told you before, having a little trouble coming to terms with this. And now you tell me somebody I’ve hung out with—somebody I’ve eaten with—is a…cannibal.”

  “Yes. Well. In any case, that’s not all I wanted to tell you.” Stone frowned, taking a firmer grip on the wheel. Had he made a mistake bringing Verity along? Was her difficulty in accepting the ghouls’ existence going to cause problems? He remembered when he’d first found out, under much more dramatic circumstances. He’d listened to what they had to say, then strode out of the restaurant and went home to get drunk. Verity didn’t have that luxury right now, even if she were so inclined.

  “Okay…” she said slowly. “What else is there?” Before Stone could answer, she raised a finger. “Wait. You said you thought three of them were missing. Is the third one connected with Tani somehow?”

  Good. At least her mind was still working as well as ever, even when freaked out. “Yes. Exactly. That’s what she wanted to tell me.” He shared the story with her, ending by pulling out the small carved elephant to show her. “She�
�s asked me to try finding her friend as well.”

  “Wow.” She examined the elephant in Stone’s palm without touching it. “Small world, I guess. But I guess there aren’t that many colonies of ghouls around, right?”

  “Three that I know of—and I haven’t got much idea where the other two are. It’s the way they want it. As you can imagine, secrecy is very important to them.”

  “So I guess it makes sense she’d know somebody in one of them. How come she’s not part of it? Isn’t it hard for them to get by on their own?”

  “She told me she doesn’t get on with them, except for her friend, so when they left the Bay Area, she didn’t accompany them.”

  “Wow…” Verity’s tone changed, sounding sad. “It must be pretty lonely for her. Like I said, I always kind of avoided her because I thought she was strange…and it never seemed like she wanted to get chummy, you know? I guess that’s why.” She settled back. “So now we’re looking for three missing ghouls. Do you think they’re together?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. I just wish I had any idea why they’re missing. What would cause two—possibly three—ghouls, including one who’s integral to their food distribution system, to simply walk away one day without leaving word with anyone? It doesn’t make sense.”

  She pondered. “Are you sure somebody didn’t grab them and make it look like they went on their own?”

  “That would be difficult, I think. Even the civilized ghouls are stronger and tougher than normal humans, and their regeneration powers make them difficult to take down. I’m not even sure it’s possible to drug or sedate them.”

  “Huh. Yeah. They almost sound like shifters, a little. I know Amber’s said before that drugs don’t work very well on her, which makes it suck when she gets a headache or something.” She paused. “So if nobody took them and they did go on their own, it sounds like maybe someone convinced them to leave.”

  Stone nodded. “That’s my hypothesis too—that someone showed up and…made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, as it were. But even so, Lu and Belmont, at least, are intelligent. If they were leaving against their will, I’d think they’d have left some clue behind. My friend is smart too, and he used to be a police detective. They’d know that, so they could leave something fairly obscure and have a reasonable chance it would be found.”