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

by R. L. King

  “No. But I’ve brought in some more help—friends of mine who’ve dealt with similar situations before.”

  “Similar situations? You mean ghouls?”

  “No, not ghouls. I’ve caught them up on you, though, without any specifics about names or locations. They need to know what they’re facing.”

  “Yeah…” He sounded reluctant. “That makes me nervous, but as long as you don’t tell ’em anything specific, I guess it’s okay.”

  Stone hesitated, trying to decide the best way to continue. “Well…see, that’s the thing. That’s why I’m calling you now.”

  “Huh? What are you talkin’ about?” There was a rustling sound, and then, softer: “Dammit, Pepper, get down.”

  Stone smiled; the affection in the man’s voice was unmistakable. Pepper, at least, had found a new, loving home. “Do you trust me, Mr. Grider?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Now his tone held unmistakable suspicion.

  “As I mentioned before, there’s a lot more to this situation than I initially thought. I didn’t give you details about what attacked us at the graveyard and I won’t, but I will tell you they were supernaturally based, and their existence makes me quite nervous.”

  “Uh…okay. Do we need to worry about them showing up here? Do I need to put more protections in place?”

  “I doubt you have to worry about them. They were an ambush. I believe we were lured to that graveyard—probably because the people who had your friends worked out somehow that someone was looking for them.”

  “Okay, but I don’t see—”

  “My friends are very good at tracking down information. One of them is a mundane private investigator, and the others are…supernaturally powered in various ways. But they can’t investigate anything effectively if I can’t give them any concrete information.”

  There was a long pause. “What kind of information do you want to give them? And how many of these friends are we talking about?”

  “Five, if you include my former apprentice, plus someone who works for the private investigator. Before you object,” he added, quickly, “I don’t need to tell all of them everything. But if they’re to do anything about locating Dr. Lu and figuring out who took Maisie and Belmont, I need to give them something.”

  “Like what? You know I can’t risk anyone finding out about us.”

  “I know. I get that. But on the other hand, don’t forget: if someone’s targeting you—especially if they’re blackmailing people to get them to leave—then at least one very dangerous person already knows.” He leaned back in his chair and stroked Raider, who immediately began purring. “All I need is your permission to give your name and Dr. Lu’s to my private-investigator friend, so he’ll have somewhere to start.”

  The silence stretched out longer. “I don’t know, Stone…”

  Stone couldn’t blame him for his reluctance. The ghouls had everything to lose if their existence was exposed. “Listen—nobody except my friend has to know what you are. You said your colony wasn’t all that close normally, so a search shouldn’t turn up a lot of connections between the members, right?”

  “No, I guess it shouldn’t. We’ve all made it a point to make other friends in the area, and not to be seen together that often. The dinners are very discreet. I doubt anyone could make much of a connection between us.”

  “Good. So, what do you say, then? I promise, I trust this friend like a brother. He knows about me, and about the magical world. We’ve been through a lot together. His discretion is unquestioned. We’ve got to stop this, Grider, before more of your people end up getting hurt.”

  The line crackled. For almost a minute, all Stone heard was more rustling and Pepper’s occasional soft, snuffling barks.

  “Fine,” he finally said, but didn’t sound happy about it. “Do what you think you need to do. Our whole colony owes you a lot, and if there’s any way to get Orville back, I guess we owe it to him to try it. Just…be careful. And tell your friend to be careful.”

  “I will. Is it all right if he contacts you, discreetly? His name is Jason Thayer.”

  “Yeah. I guess.” He sighed loudly. “Damn, but this situation is a fucking mess. I still can’t believe Chris is gone. I wish I knew what the hell we did to get on somebody’s shit list this bad.”

  “I’m sorry. I truly am. I hope we can do something so no one else needs to worry.”

  “Yeah. Me too. Do you think Orville’s still alive?”

  Stone considered. “I don’t know. Mr. Grider. I hope so.”

  18

  Stone didn’t have a lot of confidence in his plan to try reaching Maisie’s mind, but right now it was the best chance they had.

  Jason and Amber hadn’t turned anything up yet, but that wasn’t surprising. He’d given them Grider’s name last night, along with Lu’s. “Give Grider a call,” he’d told Jason. “Discreetly—make sure nobody can trace it.”

  He hoped the two of them could bond over shared law-enforcement experience enough for Jason to forget Grider was a cannibal and Grider to let go of some of his reluctance to trust anyone else with his secret. Grider and their old friend Leo Blum from the San Francisco PD did have a few traits in common, including gruffness and a no-bullshit attitude, so there was a good chance it might work. Maybe if Jason and Grider could get over their distrust of each other, they might end up finding something Stone couldn’t.

  It was dark when Stone arrived at the ley line near Verity’s apartment, and he walked the two blocks at a brisk pace. It was still relatively warm in the City in early September, but the wind added a chill to the air. He pulled up his coat collar and picked up his pace.

  “Is she still coming?” he asked Verity when she opened the door. “Didn’t change her mind, did she?”

  “No. They’re here. Tani came with her.”

  Stone followed her inside. Tani, in T-shirt and jeans, perched nervously on the edge of the sofa in the living room, while Maisie, now wearing a denim skirt and hoodie, stood near the window looking out at the street. Both of them turned to face Stone.

  “All settled in, then, are you?” he called in greeting to Maisie. She looked a lot better now, less twitchy and uncomfortable than Tani normally did.

  She nodded shyly, drifting back toward the others.

  Tani stood and fixed Stone with a wistful, haunted stare. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  The obvious sincerity of her words took Stone aback. The strange young woman had never spoken more than a few words to him before this whole thing had started; he’d thought she was either painfully socially awkward or else, like Hezzie, she felt uneasy around men. But now she was looking at him like he’d just pulled her child from a burning building. “Er—of course. I was happy to help.”

  She shuffled closer, her gaze never leaving him. “You saved my friend. I’ll never forget that. If you ever need anything I can do, promise you’ll call. I owe you bigtime.”

  “I’m sure you’d have done the same thing.” He hoped she wasn’t planning to hug him.

  “Yeah. Maybe. But you did, and I’m serious. I’ll never forget it.”

  Maisie was looking almost as uncomfortable as Stone was at all the attention. “So…uh…what do you want to do?” she asked. “Verity said something about trying to reach into my mind and figure out what I heard. But I’m telling you—I didn’t hear anything, except indistinct voices. Kind of like what you’d hear if somebody was talking on the other side of a closed door. Like I said, they had me drugged or something.” She looked at the floor. “I wish I could help you—I’m serious.”

  “Don’t worry.” Stone accepted a Guinness from Verity with a nod of thanks and began prowling the area in front of the couch. “I promise, this won’t hurt. I don’t know if it will work, but Verity’s good at it, and I’m confident she might be able to draw something out.”

  “How can she do that? Would she be…reading my mind?” She looked scared at the thought.

  “No,” Verity
said quickly. “It’s not mind reading. Doc and I use different techniques. You can pick the one you’re most comfortable with. He can get impressions—not actual thoughts, but more like pictures. I can go a little deeper. It’s almost like I’d be channeling you.”

  “Like hypnosis?”

  “Not quite. In a way it’s deeper than hypnosis. But I won’t remember anything I say while I’m doing it. I guess the best way I can describe it is that I become you for a little while, but my magic helps me reach areas you can’t reach on your own.”

  “Wow,” Tani said. “I had no idea you could do that. You should go into doing therapy.”

  Stone wasn’t sure whether she was being sarcastic, but it didn’t seem as if she was.

  Verity chuckled. “Yeah. Because every therapy patient is gonna let me put my hand on their head and channel their inner thoughts.”

  Maisie still looked nervous. “I…I’m not sure. Can I think about it? Can we just…talk about normal stuff for a little while, while I get used to the idea?”

  “Sure,” Verity said. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. But I really think this will help if you can let yourself do it.”

  “I agree,” Stone said. “Truly, Maisie, Verity’s option is better. Mine won’t work as well at retrieving verbal information. As she said, it’s more visual, and not nearly as deep. She’s far better than I am at mental magic.”

  Maisie looked back and forth between them. “Okay. It’s not that I don’t want to help—you know I do. But…I need a little time, okay?”

  “That’s quite all right. I’ve got nowhere to be this evening.” He perched on the end of the couch and addressed Tani. “So, everything’s all right? You’ve…got what you need?”

  “Yeah.” She chewed her lower lip. “Everything’s…good.”

  “This is absolutely none of my business, so feel free to tell me to pound sand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I’m curious: when the rest of the colony was here, they had a highly developed system for obtaining food and distributing it among the group. It was very important to them that everything was handled with utmost discretion so there was no chance any outsiders might find out, or anyone might hurt someone out of need. Is it more difficult for you, being here on your own? Are there other ghouls in the area?”

  “I don’t know of any.” Tani didn’t look at him as she spoke. “But I’m good. I’ve…got a friend who gets me what I need.”

  Stone nodded. “I won’t pry about the specifics.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t care if you know. I won’t tell you who he is, but…” she gave a bitter little laugh. “…it’s a perfect setup, really. The colony’d be in good shape if they ever came back here.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. My friend’s a nurse at a plastic-surgery clinic that does skin removal. You know, like when somebody has weight-loss surgery and they end up with a bunch of loose skin?”

  Stone couldn’t decide if that was disgusting or brilliant. He finally settled on ‘both.’ “Bloody hell. That’s rather ingenious.”

  “It kind of is,” Verity admitted, looking like she was going through the same moral dilemma. She swallowed hard. “It’s not like anyone would want it, or miss it—it’s probably incinerated or something after the procedure. And it’s not as personal as stealing someone’s amputated leg.”

  “Yeah.” Tani risked a look at them, obviously relieved at their reaction. “And the best part is, there’s lots of it. If the person was really big, there can be like twenty-five pounds of the stuff just for one case. We don’t need nearly that much, so nobody misses it if my friend smuggles out a few pounds every now and then.”

  Stone exchanged glances with Verity. The whole concept was doing unpleasant things to his stomach, but he had asked. He took another swallow of Guinness and stood. “Well. That’s…er…settled, then. Maisie, have you made a decision?”

  Maisie had walked back over to the window, where she was peering out at the traffic below. “The whole thing makes me nervous,” she said softly. “But if it hadn’t been for you, Dr. Stone, I’d be dead now—or worse. So if I can help you, I want to do what I can. And…I guess from the sound of it, it’s better if Verity does it.”

  “It is,” Stone agreed. “Absolutely.”

  “What do I have to do?” She didn’t move any closer, and held her thin, pale hands clasped in front of her.

  “Just come over here and sit down,” Verity said. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  She still didn’t move. “You promise you won’t read my mind? Look at any stuff not related to what you need? Not that I really have much to hide. It’s just…”

  “Scary. I know. And no, I’m not going to read your mind. All I’m going to help you do is access memories you can’t reach on your own. It might not even work, but I hope it will.”

  Maisie hesitated, glancing at Tani.

  “It’s okay,” her friend said. “I’ll be right here with you.”

  “You’re not gonna record me, are you?”

  “Not if you don’t want us to,” Verity said.

  “I’d…rather you didn’t, if that’s okay.”

  “It’s fine,” Stone pulled a notebook and pen from his pocket. “I can take notes the old-fashioned way.”

  Finally, she nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it before I lose my nerve.” She approached the sofa, settling at one end. Tani took a seat at the other end.

  Verity dragged an overstuffed, red-velvet ottoman over and sat down near Maisie’s end. “Doc, listen closely, okay? I won’t be any help remembering what she says.”

  Stone took the chair near Tani’s end, where he’d have a clear view of both Verity and Maisie. “You do what you do. I’ll be listening.”

  Verity offered Maisie and encouraging smile. “All right. Just relax, Maisie. I’ll need to put my hand on your head. Is that okay?”

  “Y-yeah. It’s fine.”

  With a few deep breaths, Verity placed her right hand on Maisie’s forehead. She closed her eyes, murmuring something under her breath that Stone couldn’t hear.

  For several moments, nothing happened. Maisie alternated between lying back with closed eyes and snatching furtive glances at Verity. Finally, she settled on the pillow and appeared to drop into a light sleep. Her chest rose and fell slowly and rhythmically.

  “Okay…” Verity said. So far, she still sounded like herself. “Here we go…Whenever you’re ready, Doc.”

  Stone leaned forward, pen tip poised over the notebook. “Maisie…?” he ventured. “Are you there?”

  “I’m…here…” Verity said. Her voice sounded different now: lower and more hesitant.

  “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

  “Sleepy…”

  “Well, that’s all right. You’ve had some frightening experiences over past couple of days. Do you think I could ask you a few questions?”

  “I guess…”

  Tani shot Stone a look, her brow furrowed in concern, but didn’t say anything.

  Stone ignored her, focused fully on Maisie now. “Maisie…can you tell us about what happened when you were abducted?”

  She shifted uncomfortably on the couch, her hands gripping the cushion beneath her. “I…don’t remember.”

  “You don’t remember being taken?”

  “No. I went to sleep like normal, and when I woke up, I was…somewhere else.” Her forehead crinkled under Verity’s hand, and her head moved back and forth.

  “That’s all right. Don’t worry if you can’t remember. Do you remember where you were when you woke up?”

  “In a cage.”

  “The same one you were in when we found you in the crypt?”

  “Yeah. Couldn’t get out. It was dark.”

  “But ghouls can see in the dark, right?”

  “Yeah. But nobody was there.”

  “Your friends weren’t there? Mr. Belmont, and Dr. Lu?”

  “Nobody was there,” she repeated.

  “Did an
yone ever come in?”

  She shifted in discomfort. “Sometimes. They didn’t talk to me, though.”

  “Did they talk to each other?”

  “Not much.”

  “Do you know why they were there?”

  “Cleaning, mostly. Moving stuff around.”

  Stone rubbed his chin, thinking. So far, this wasn’t getting them much, and he knew Verity couldn’t keep it up forever. “Okay. What did the room look like where they had you?”

  “Just…a room. Had boxes. Storeroom, maybe. The cage was too strong. I couldn’t get through it.” She shifted again, seeming to grow agitated. Verity adjusted her hand on her forehead.

  “Okay. Can you remember anything the men—were they men, who came in?”

  “Yeah. Men. No women.”

  “Can you remember anything about what they said? Anything at all, even if you don’t think it’s important?”

  “Didn’t…understand them.”

  Stone tilted his head. “You didn’t understand them? Were they speaking unintelligibly? Too soft to hear?”

  “No…I think they weren’t speaking English.”

  “They were speaking another language?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  That was interesting. “Do you know what language it was?”

  She rolled her head back and forth. “I dunno. German, maybe?”

  That was even more interesting. “Maisie…Verity…this is very important. I need to know what they said. Can you try hard to remember, even if you’ve got no idea what it means? It could be the key to figuring out who’s involved with this.”

  He couldn’t tell if Verity had heard him through her trance, but she adjusted her hold on Maisie’s forehead again, raising her hand and placing three fingers precisely at three different spots. Stone remained silent as she appeared to struggle, her own brow furrowing in concentration.

  He glanced at Tani, who was leaning forward, watching the proceedings with a combination of wonder and tension. “If this works,” he whispered, “I’ve got to record this. I don’t speak German. I assume you don’t either?”

  Tani shook her head. She pulled out her phone and set it to record. “She won’t mind,” she whispered back. “If it’s important. I’ll shut it off if we get anything.”