“How are things?” Lucien asked.
“They’re good. She’s happy. Her mentor, Mr. Sullivan, is a good guy.”
“You happy, too?”
“We usually are when our masters are happy, right?”
“Yeah, but you and her are good?”
Ethan sighed, smiling. “She still cracks me up. She has some bad habits that sometimes set my teeth on edge but apparently, I have a few, too.”
Lucien chuckled. “Tell me about it. I actually think the Master and Shadow relationship is much like a real relationship when it comes to learning to live with those little things. With the one exception—that love makes some of it more tolerable in the long run.”
“You’re a lucky man, Lucien.”
Lucien felt a grin spread uncomfortably wide on his face. “That I am.”
They walked on in silence a few minutes, listening in, because neither had been ordered not to at that point. Nathan was bitching about the flying carpets book, and Jenny had discovered a dislike for people at public places trying to hand her flyers.
Jenny stopped to face them. “Sorry, boys. Ethan, hang back enough to still be able to see us, but don’t listen in.”
“As you wish, Jenny.”
Nathan repeated Jenny’s wording, and Lucien gave the standard answer to an order.
Lucien and Ethan hung back for about twenty meters, and he thought Nathan had selected the pond because their view of them wouldn’t be obscured even though they held a distance.
“Do you know what this is about?” Lucien asked.
“I have a theory, and that I may share with you. We followed an operative a few weeks back, helping Pritchard by being eyes on location. Everything went fine. Then the guy tore out of there like he had hellhounds on his ass, never looking back or checking his surroundings. Jenny told me to set after in the shadows, and the guy didn’t stop before he puked. There was magic there, I saw it, but I’m not allowed to know more. But I heard him mutter something about what Mr. Henry had made him steal.”
“Steal? The art thief?”
“Yeah. His name’s Alex Rhoden. We’ve been watching him before, and he’s a cool and collected guy. I don’t know what would make him run like that. Anyway, we held back in Paris, that was our stop. Jenny spotted a young man with entirely too much interest in Rhoden as he ate, and he wasn’t alone. We told Pritchard, and Jenny made a distraction when Rhoden moved to the platforms so they couldn’t follow him. I was in shadow and followed him, but the noise level was too much for me to get most of the conversation, and the blaring of speakers—”
“Drowns out the rest, yeah,” Lucien said, nodding.
“He ran into an old man he knew. Think I heard the word professor. He boarded a train, but I didn’t see where to, because Jenny needed me. We were cut out of the loop after that, but something went wrong, I know that much.”
“Alex Rhoden,” Lucien mused, thinking of the young man he’d seen Monday still recovering from a severe beating. “He’s here at the school, I think. Monday after the break, someone named Rhoden came in with so many bruises healing... at least a week old.”
“So he was intercepted. Damn curse. If Jenny hadn’t called me back to her when she did, I would have seen or heard where they went.”
Lucien saw the predicament. He’d been called away just when he’d found what he’d been sent to look for, and he couldn’t locate it again once his master had found out why he’d failed.
He couldn’t help but feel grateful that Ethan knew that much, though.
“We’d better tell them what we know, just so they don’t think us more ignorant than we are. If they need to take steps because of the risk we also pose then they need to know.”
“I agree,” Ethan said. “Jenny!”
Jenny and Nathan stopped and waited for them, and they relayed what they’d pieced together once they caught up.
“Do you know the kind of magic on him?” Nathan asked.
“No,” Ethan said.
“If I found you a picture, could you point out the old man? If he really is a professor from this school, he’d be on that wall.”
“Of course.”
“You two are too smart for your own good,” Jenny said, grinning. “But of course you’d figure out some of it, since you live around the guy and you watched him with me.” She motioned between Lucien and Ethan. “Let’s go have a look at that old man, but hang back until we reach the pictures. The order still stands.”
“As you wish.”
“The order still stands,” Nathan said with the usual apologetic expression for having to give Lucien orders.
“As you wish.”
Lucien and Ethan waited for Nathan and Jenny to make it outside their hearing range before they began walking. Lucien was happy to learn that it had nothing to do with Nathan, but he felt sorry for Alex Rhoden.
“Oh, by the way. Blake and I are planning a Star Wars night when it comes out.”
“I’m in,” Ethan said, grinning. “Jenny’s getting pretty good with a lightsaber, too.”
Lucien cackled at the thought of her and Ethan practicing with glowing toys.
* * * *
Nathan looked over his shoulder, finding Lucien and Ethan laughing and talking.
“Okay, so they put it together from seeing Alex Rhoden all bruised,” Jenny said.
“Until then, I had no idea who he was. The letter put it into perspective. So you and Ethan are here to keep an eye on him?”
“Yeah, you’re my way in, because I’m not enlisting to take Latin or ancient runes or some shit.”
Nathan laughed but thought back to the subject at hand. “So he lost the Demon seal, and so far the thought is that the Templars got to it?”
“Alex brought up the Templars. Until then, we had worried about the Agency.”
“I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s an Agency specialized in moving valuable museum objects or overseeing security if the museums want to take care of it themselves. They can even be hired by very rich art collectors. We just call them the Agency because their name is something long and hard to pronounce.”
Nathan snorted. “But the consensus is that it’s not them who beat up Rhoden and took the stone?”
“Why would they? They could have arrested him instead. I mean, held him back and handed him over to the authorities. They have the license to do that.”
“Internationally?”
“Yes, because they work security internationally in cooperation with Interpol. I’m not up to speed on the law, but I know they are allowed to work within Europe like that. And Belgium is in Europe. Like, the EU capital.”
“Okay. And the old man?” Nathan asked, running a list of old professors through his head. There were quite a few.
“We’ll just have to see. I need to follow up on it, though, so we’re gonna have to stick around for a while.”
“My room isn’t big enough.”
“You’ll get your sexy time with the stud, don’t worry.”
Nathan shook his head, grinning. “Your mind is so dirty.”
“And you know it,” Jenny said, tugging at his arm, playfully.
“I was thinking my studying.”
“Flying carpets?”
“Exactly, it really is that boring.”
They walked a few minutes in companionable silence, and Nathan admitted to himself that he missed her more than he wanted to.
“The dining hall up here has photos of all the staff. And dinner is served in half an hour.”
“Can Ethan and I eat there, too?”
“Yeah, when accompanied by a student, you pay a moderate amount. Lucien eats with me all the time in winter.”
“Perfect.”
They reached the path that would lead them to the dining hall, so they stopped and waited for Lucien and Ethan to catch up.
“Look at that!” Jenny groused and plucked a yellow
piece of paper from a nearly naked bush. “And this is one of the reasons I hate people with flyers. Having to hide some of the places I do, I see so much waste.” She held up the paper, accusingly.
Nathan snapped it from her fingers and looked at it. “Yeah, Thursday party time isn’t something you’d want to know about.”
She snapped the paper from his hands and looked at it. Then a smile spread on her face.
“No,” Nathan said.
She looked up with that stubborn look on her face.
“No!”
“This is the perfect opportunity to let my face be seen as someone belonging,” she declared. “Makes it so much easier to snoop around on grounds like these. Right, Ethan?”
“What?” Ethan looked up.
She repeated herself and gave him the flyer.
“I agree,” Ethan said, reading the invitation.
“Oh, I... Lucien?” Nathan waited to make sure the order was void.
“I’m gonna have to agree with them.”
Nathan sighed. “Looks like you and I are going to one of the Thursday parties along with those two knuckleheads, then.”
Lucien grinned. “Okay.”
“They don’t have red wine, do they?” Jenny asked.
“Probably, some of the students here are really aristocratic.” Nathan wiggled his pinky.
“You mean pompous,” Jenny corrected him.
“Does that mean that I’m pompous because I like red wine?” Lucien mimicked Nathan’s pinky wiggle.
“No, you’re a French dude with class. These are probably twenty-year-olds whose acne hasn’t even cleared up, playing grownups.”
“You’re in for surprises, then.” Nathan took Lucien’s hand. “We talked about eating in the hall.”
“Let’s go,” Lucien said.
“As you wish,” Nathan said, making Lucien stick his tongue out at him.
“That means we’ll be playing a couple,” Jenny informed Ethan.
“Okay. What kind? The happy couple? Or are you gonna need an argument to pick someone up as an additional cover story?”
“I have no idea yet.”
“Good, so we arrive as the happy unclingy couple.”
“Yup.”
Nathan looked at them, seeing Jenny take Ethan’s hand. They really had a good partnership going, but Nathan wondered how the romantic life for either of them worked with them being so close. He wondered what his own would have been like if Lucien had been straight. Did Jenny take Ethan’s needs for love and sweetness into consideration? Or were they both too much spy to make much room for that kind of stuff?
“If you two are gonna make a scene, we’d probably need a little background info for your ruse,” Lucien said.
“We’ll fill you in before we leave for the party,” Jenny said as they made their way through the outer doors and toward the dining hall. One wall was covered with photos, and Ethan and Jenny skimmed them until they found the old man.
Nathan’s heart sank when he saw the name. Nigel Gershman. “He’s my all-time favorite professor.”
“Does he like you, too?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah, we talk sometimes in his office.”
“He’s sweet,” Lucien said. “A magic buff like Nathan, and he even has some in his office. Nothing alarming, but he definitely has something shiny in a bottle.”
“So you can get close to him and talk to him about this?” Jenny asked.
“If we find the right angle, I’d imagine it could be possible.” But finding an angle was not possible. He’d have to give it more thought.
“Good. I’ll leave that one to you, then. Let’s eat.”
Ethan took her hand again. “As you wish.”
Nathan had Lucien, Jenny, and Ethan’s food put on his tab. The mood was a lot lighter than when they’d walked around the pond, and Nathan was actually looking forward to spending a night with Lucien outside their customary nights out together.
Chapter Six
The building they’d been asked to meet Father in wasn’t the big and impressive work of old like Rebecca had grown up in. As a newly added building to the church, it looked more like a modern structure trying to play old, but the architects had gotten some of the details right. It just lacked that air around it that made people feel awed or humbled in the presence of God.
She disliked being asked to come there on a weekday, since the travels made for a rushed meeting, but she also knew that something had to be up for Father to travel to London from Italy on such short notice. Tavi looked equally worried, and he hadn’t said much on their trip there. Then again, he rarely did around her, and she liked being in a place where he didn’t have to play the boisterous guy on campus who had to make everybody love him.
They went inside and followed the hallway to the office with an open door. The padre and Father sat in there, talking over a cup of tea. Upon their arrival, Father looked up, smiling.
“Children, come!” He spread his arms. They walked to him, and he drew the cross on their foreheads with his thumbs. “I’m so happy to see you. Would you like a cup of tea as well?”
“Yes, please,” they answered, and the padre left while Father pointed them toward the chairs.
“Any news?” Father asked as he took his seat and motioned for them to help themselves to the cookies on the table.
“Well, Alex Rhoden hasn’t changed his routines. He’s still a loner, socializes only with the people he’s in study groups with, and never in their or his room,” Rebecca said, fondling a cookie.
Father nodded thoughtfully before looking to Tavi for his observations.
“I heard the gossip saying he’d been backpacking across Europe during the break, and that was how he got the bruises. That he got mugged.”
“He said that at the table in the dining hall, too,” Rebecca confirmed.
“We are aware of some of his activities as a backpacker. Has either of you gotten closer?”
“I’ve talked to him. We’ve walked to class once or twice.”
“Good, Rebecca, good. Stay on him, and try to get to know him better, since he’s obviously not someone in Tavi’s circles. Your quieter approach might be key if he is introvert.”
“Yes, Father.” Rebecca nibbled on the cookie.
“Are you suspecting there to be others at the school, Father?” Tavi asked.
“We don’t know, so keep looking. Now that we have identified one, there might be one he communicates secretively with. Now. We have finally found out what he was after in France. A stone like that...” Father looked worried—a look Rebecca didn’t like, as it meant things had to be really bad. “These Collectors are an enemy worthy of our respect. But God will prevail. We will collect these Demons so they cannot lead any more souls from the word of God.”
“May His will prevail,” Rebecca and Tavi said in unison. It was in times like those that she felt the light of righteousness burn the brightest inside of her. It was times like those where she felt both weighed down by the responsibility put on her shoulders by God and the Church, and proud of being among the chosen warriors.
She loved Father, had since he in his youth had come into the orphanage run by the local convent and handpicked her. She still remembered him walking toward her with his jet-black hair and kind eyes. How he’d played with her. She knew he’d been testing her—testing her faith in God, in the Church, and in the hierarchy so paramount to their success. It was established as a model after the hierarchy of Angels after all—a divine hierarchy. Questioning it would be questioning God.
Father had given her heart a home, guided her, loved her, and shown her the love of God. He had shown her that if she had faith in God, then God would have faith in her, too. And God did have faith in her. She was chosen to become one of His most valuable warriors against evil on Earth. Against the ones making deals with demons and devils to pursue fame and material things to love. Deals that would pull them from their love fo
r God. Her job was to lead them back, to remove temptation and thus help the weak find their way back to God. God loved the weak so much that He created the Church and the faction she worked with to help and guide them back to Him.
“Rebecca?”
“I’m sorry, Father, I was lost in thoughts of my love for God.”
“My dear child, there is nothing wrong with that. But if we must prevail in our fight against evil, then this love must lie in your heart at all times and be cherished and focused upon in prayer alone. It is our burden to remember evil, too, and to focus on evil so we may rid the world of the Devil’s influence. It is why you were chosen, because you are strong enough to love God even when facing the Devil.”
“Yes, Father.” Rebecca smiled and felt warmth spread in her from his words. She would try harder to get closer to Alex Rhoden. God would help her. Of that she was sure.
Rebecca and Tavi returned to the school and went their separate ways. Rebecca had a lot of work to do in the library and hoped Alex would be there so she could stumble upon him and strike up a conversation. He was there often, but nothing one could set a watch by. This day she found only disappointment. Meeting with Father had given her new hope and determination, though.
She liked Alex well enough, but he was very reserved. So was she. She liked the idea of them studying together, because he was smart. He was handsome enough, but he was nothing she wanted to look for anything with. Especially not if he had just handled a Demon seal.
Oh well, this wouldn’t be the day she got close. She would in time, though, she was sure of it. God made ways for things to happen at the opportune moments.
Chapter Seven
“Oh look, red wine and big teenagers,” Jenny said as soon as they entered the students’ building halfway across campus. Nathan smiled and hooked his arm through hers to drag her away from the young crowd, who were indeed drinking red wine. They were a bunch of the younger students, and he’d agree with Jenny that they seemed more like playing at adulthood, but to be at that school, they had to be the brightest of their age.
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