"Check me out? I want to go with you."
"No. You have to stay here," he kissed me again and left the room.
Screw that. I wasn't planning on staying in the hospital, bored out of my mind. The only things in hospitals were sick people, people sticking you with needles for blood and—
Morgues.
There were hospital morgues—'cause you had to have a place to cool the bodies that didn't survive—and there were stand-alone morgues like the county morgue. It would make sense if the body was in the county morgue, but it would be safer and less talked about in a hospital morgue, wouldn't it? Or was that the other way around?
Either way, it was worth a check to see if the body was here. I opened up a few of the drawers in the cabinet by the door, in the bathroom, and then opened a small closet I found behind the door. My clothes were in a bag in the bottom of the closet, along with my boots.
I undressed in the bathroom and saw the bandage wrapped around my shoulder. It went around my neck and under my arm. Chewing on my lower lip, I pulled and yanked at it, loosening the bandage enough to pull it to the side to see—
Bastien's mark.
It was there. A half sphere of dashes and then four round holes where his fangs sank in. The bite itself was clean. I leaned into the mirror get a closer look. It was scabbed over and healing, but I knew just below the surface was the Lycan venom that would start working on me pretty soon. I had maybe thirty-eight hours left.
As I changed, I noticed the mark on my chest looked less like a tattoo and more like some weird iridescent image. Almost like a club stamp that was only visible under a black light.
I didn't know if that was good, bad or indifferent.
Slipping out of the room was easy enough, the nurses were at their station busy with patients and visitors and weren't looking for fully clothed me to walk away. I raked my fingers through my long dark hair and stepped out with a purpose to the elevator. Two other people dressed in scrubs joined me inside.
"Excuse me," I began and gave them my worried face. "But do either of you know which way to the morgue?"
The smaller of the two, a middle-aged woman in teddy bear scrubs and golden skin, put her hand on my arm. "Oh no, hon. Are you here to ID a body?"
"Yes." That's it. Sound confident. Ignore that little voice in your head screaming you're gonna get caught!
"Morgue's always on the lower floor of the hospital," the other one said. He was tall and looked bored to death. His badge said Gerald. "Just go to the basement and the guard will take you to where you can view."
"Thank you both," I smiled at each of them and pressed the button for the basement floor. They each stepped off at earlier floors and I descended to the lowest floor alone. I was trying to come up with what story to tell this alleged guard when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.
The smell hit me first. It was a combination of disinfectant, soap and something else I couldn't identify. The elevator dumped me into a side wall facing a long hall in front of me and a right turn down another hall. I looked down both directions but didn't see a guard.
Before I could take a step down the hall to my right, a text window popped up in front of me with text bubbles.
That's the wrong way.
SIX
Ivan.
I looked around and up and saw a camera. "Are you spying on me?" I figured he could hear me through the hospital surveillance system.
The next text proved me right. I was looking for the body. You showed up and I texted Kyle.
"Is he with Jack?"
Y
"So not that way?"
No. That way is viewing and there is a guard there flirting with a nurse. Go straight ahead.
I smirked and tiptoed down the hall in front of me. There wasn't much to see, just rows of doors with names on them.
The text box moved with me. The next one is storage.
"Storage?" I whispered.
It's war the bodies are stored.
Then he corrected his misspelling. Where
I chuckled and wondered if Ivan had witchy auto correct with his Cyber Magic. "You mean like those morgue drawers?"
Sometimes. But if the drawers are full they will be stacked on gurneys in the back freezer.
Just…gross. I stopped in front of the door. Thinking ahead, I removed the jacket and wrapped it around my hand before I yanked down on the handle and opened the door. The room beyond looked like something out of a movie set. Big square with smaller squares on the back wall. There was a door on either side of me, on the adjoining walls, and then the door behind me leading back into the hall.
The jacket was becoming cumbersome so I searched the pockets and found Crwys's handkerchief. Hoping he hadn't actually wiped his nose with it, 'cause ew, I used it to open each of the doors. Sliding out the bodies was easy. Unzipping the bags and looking inside? That was hard. They were all hard, gray and dead.
"Well, she's not in the boxes."
Try the freezer on your left.
It was surprisingly unlocked and I stepped inside. "Can I get locked in here?"
No. It's all on an electronic system, which I've suspended for a bit. Let's hope they don't notice my tampering.
Yay for Cyber Witches. About eight gurneys were lined up side by side along the back, each with a sheet-covered body. I lifted the first three with no luck. But when I got to the fourth one, it wasn't a naked body on the gurney. It was a sealed body bag.
I hesitated at first. Did I want to see this? Did I want to have this forever burned into my brain? The answer to myself was no, but I had to solve this and get the cure before I got all hairy and toothy. I took a deep breath and slowly pulled the zipper all the way down. Then I parted the edges of the bag and looked inside.
"Lady Darksome…" I had to step back as I put my hand to my face.
Did you find her? There aren't any cameras in there.
I don't think anyone can truly explain a mutilation to anyone else. We're all set up to find different things repulsive, which makes some words, I think, subjective. I wouldn't have called this girl mutilated. I would have said she'd been butchered.
What was left of her head was little more than the outer skull at the top of what had been her head. There wasn't a face. Not even a jaw. And the skin and muscles had been eaten away. Her neck bone was completely exposed, as were her ribs and they were cracked and pushed inward. Her organs were gone, but I wasn't sure if that was because of what killed her or if they were removed during the autopsy.
Her legs were missing from the knees down. It looked as if they'd been ripped off. And her arms…
"Where are her arms?"
Pull her into the main room so I can see her.
"Ivan…Bastien can't see this."
I'm afraid he has to. He knows you're with the body.
"What?" I nearly shouted, but I kept my cool. Sort of. "Is he on his way here? To the morgue?"
Yep. I've been watching him through the traffic cam. The guy drives his van like he's a wolf.
Oh. Great. And some cop's going to stop him and give him a ticket on his way here. I zipped the body bag up and covered it with the sheet. The gurney had to be unlocked before I could push and pull it through the door and into the main room with the morgue drawers.
Open it back up.
"Hell no." Wait…I stopped and stared at the sheet-covered bag. I leaned in and sniffed. And then sniffed again.
That looks really weird, Sam.
"Ivan…I can smell Arcane. Bastien and his wolves really had smelled it."
How? With all the scents in a morgue you can pinpoint that smell?
"Yeah, I can. Do you see it?"
I didn't wait for an answer as I yanked the sheet off and unzipped the bag again. I looked with what I hoped was with my new magic…
But I didn't see anything. Not even the slightest tiny glitter of red.
I don't see anything, Sam. And…Jesus Fucking Christ…zip that back up.
I hea
rd the revulsion in Ivan's text and then looked at the text box. It wasn't there. "Ivan…I can hear you."
That's not possible. I'm not projecting through the system's speakers. If I did that, everyone in the hospital could hear me.
"Well, I heard you. I can hear your voice. Yeah, you sound a bit electronic, like you're using a reverb machine, but…your text box is gone."
He didn't answer right away and I zipped the bag back up. Apparently Ivan's magic was still growing and evolving. "Ivan, are you in the system?"
If you mean am I immersed, yes.
"Just like Kennett was when he died?"
Sort of. But I know when to get out. You think that's why you can hear me without the text?
"I don't know. Could be the Arcane. So can you—"
Wait. His presence disappeared. I don't know how to explain it; I just knew he wasn't watching me anymore. He wasn't in the hospital system. Then, LeBlanc's outside. I just told Kyle how to get him to where you are.
Great. I cautiously moved out of the storage room and into the hall. To my left were the elevators and to my right was another door that looked like it led outside. I ran toward it and looked through the door's wired glass window in time to see a white van pull up in the parking lot.
I almost didn't recognize Bastien with his clothes on. But I sensed him, even through the shut door. He was this presence that wouldn't go away. He wore dark jeans, boots, a red shirt and a denim jacket. From where I stood, he looked like a farm hand. A very sexy one too. This dude really should pose for the covers of bodice ripper romance books.
I have control of the alarm and the electronic locks. Open the door for them.
I needed to put a little weight behind the door but I got it cracked in time for Bastien to wrench it the rest of the way. I stumbled outside and into his arms. Looking up into his half smiling face was sort of a reward. "Hey, Bastien."
"Bonjour, ma petite. Are you all right? That diable prevented me from seeing you when you were admitted here.”
Diable? A devil? He must've meant Crwys. "I ah…yeah, I'm fine."
He brushed my hair and I backed away. Was it me or was I more attracted to him now than I had been last night?
"May we see the body?"
I motioned for him to follow me. Kyle was the last through the door and quietly closed it. Ivan might be able to silence alarms, but he couldn't exactly arrange physical silence. There was still a guard around the corner.
Jack was quick behind Bastien as they came into the storage room where I'd left the gurney. Jack looked nice too. I had only seen him in his G-man suit, and naked, but today he wore jeans and a dark blue hoodie. His Vans were the same color as the hoodie. I guess gay wolves were as fashion coordinated as their non-wolf counterparts.
Kyle was in his usual black uniform. Black pants, black shirt and black peacoat. We really needed to discuss the color wheel.
Bastien stood in front of the gurney but he didn't move to touch it. His expression was sad and I took it upon myself to unzip the bag a third time and spread it open.
His reaction wasn't the one I expected. Although, I wasn't sure what reaction I'd expect from a wolf. Maybe crying, howling or even a tear?
This guy leaned in and sniffed.
My stomach flopped. I smelled the Arcane again.
He sniffed again and motioned Jack over. Jack also leaned in and sniffed. Then he reached in and ran his bare finger over one of the bare, exposed bones and stuck it in is mouth.
After I slapped my hand over my mouth to prevent myself from dry-heaving, I looked at Kyle. Good. He looked as green as I felt 'cause I bet he'd been kissing that mouth.
"She is not wolf."
What? I imagined the sound of a needle being dragged across a vinyl record again. I leaned to the side and looked up at Bastien. "What do you mean she's not wolf?"
"Chérie, this is not a Lycan," he wrinkled his nose as he sniffed it again. "It smells like human…like wolf but…"
"It's too human," Jack filled in from his side of the gurney. He moved to the left and sniffed again. "Whatever this is, it isn't right."
I had two Lycans sniffing a ravaged corpse, telling me the body wasn't right. I absently rubbed at my chest before I gestured to the gurney in a circular manner. "So you're both telling me this girl isn't a Lycan?"
"She's…" Bastien screwed his handsome face up into something akin to a worried expression. "She's not, not Lycan. But she's not all Lycan." He finally shook his head and looked at Jack. "Pischouette, mal pris?"
Jack shook his head and shrugged. “I’ll say.”
I pointed to Bastien. "I didn't catch that last bit." I was pretty good with Acadian most of the time, but there were words when pronounced that just slipped right by.
He gestured to the body. "The little girl was caught in mid shift. She…she's stuck, not making it either way."
I think he means the girl was stuck between being human and being Lycan.
Staring at the mutilated mess, I sighed. "So, she was an apogee?"
Jack nodded. Bastien shook his head.
A turned wolf, but not turned enough. "Can you tell who might have done this to her?"
"Normally—yeah," Bastien scratched the back of his head. "But this…I don't recognize this."
"When I was turned," Jack said, taking up the slack. "Bastien knew who turned me without me ever saying. In fact he knew before I did and sought me out. But this…" He shook his head at the body.
"Smells bad," Bastien made a face and zipped the body bag up.
I wondered, "Bastien, what do you smell that's bad? Can you describe it?"
"Yeah, like rotten chicken. Like when I don't take out the garbage," he pointed at me. "It's like your magic, but it's not."
Bingo! Arcane. I'd discovered over the years that smells could on occasion be subjective, but not with Arcane. Everyone described it the same way. I smelled it because I'm a Witch. Was a Witch?
Still a Witch…technically. And I figured Bastien and Jack smelled it because of their keen canine noses.
Sam—the guard is heading your way. You got a second to get that body back where it goes and hide.
Kyle and I relayed Ivan's message. It took us less than that second to get the gurney back in the freezer and us hidden in the back. We waited until Ivan gave us the all clear. Once we had that, I walked them out the back door to the van.
"Want a lift back to the shop?" Jack asked. "I don't think Bastien would mind seeing where you worked."
"Yeah…" I hesitated getting in the back as I looked at the door we'd just stepped out of.
"Sam, what is it?" Kyle asked.
"Crwys got a call while we were in the hospital. They found another body. Which means there's another player out there that not only might have kidnapped Bastien's people, but they're using Arcane to shift humans into beasts."
SEVEN
"Two bodies?" Kyle said as Bastien pulled the van around the back of Bell, Book And Candle and shut off the engine. "Where's the other body?"
I stepped out of the back along with Kyle, followed by Jack and Bastien. The January afternoon was cool enough to put a chill in the air and I noticed it had rained while I was in the hospital. It was two o'clock the following day, Thursday, and the sky threatened more rain, along with the aberrant ray of sunshine bursting through over the city. I smelled fish and oil as I shuffled up to the back of the shop and unlocked the door and keyed the alarm.
I absently reached down to stroke Grey's neck—and freaked out a little when she wasn't there. Now my brain was not only flooded with erroneous questions about what kind of creature was in the morgue, but seriously bad thoughts on how to make Mildred Prescott's life a living hell if I didn't get Grey back soon.
This was just not me. I didn't really consider revenge a great strategy in any situation. Yeah, I'm like anyone else when it comes to the reaction of someone doing me wrong. I want to get even the same as the next person. But usually that anger melts and I'm on to the best wa
y to remedy the situation. Part of me knew this new body Crwys was investigating would prove Grey's innocence, and I trusted my detective to bring her home to me.
But this other part of me, the one lurking in the darkest closet of my mind, the one that crept along the shadows of my imagination and utterly destroyed the bodies of my dad, my step-mom and their nurse, as well as their house, that part of me was already thinking of curses, finding a disreputable Vodoun Priestess in the Quarter, or summoning a Fetch and sending it out to punish her myself.
These thoughts just weren't me! But there they were, jumping up into my window frame like a pen full of popcorn kittens. Each one leaping up to snag my attention for a brief moment before I shoved it back down.
Were those thoughts the Arcane that now permeated my insides? Were they caused by the symbol on my chest? Was I ever going to find the answers without getting myself and everyone I know in trouble?
Or worse.
Kyle went through the shop and turned on the lights before heading through the door into the retail area. I stopped at the break room and rinsed out the kettle before I filled it and set it back on its warmer. I pressed the button and turned to Jack and Bastien as Kyle came back through.
"I turned the lights on but left the closed sign out," he stood by Jack and crossed his arms. "What other body?"
I looked at each of them, more aware of Bastien's golden gaze than the others. He had a power about him. It was there, like a subtle hum just below the skin. He also exuded an odd calm. Calm men weren't something I was used to, especially since Crwys always felt like he was on the verge of fighting.
"All he said was they caught another mutilated body, and he was sure this would prove Grey had nothing to do with the first one," I looked at the floor. "I just want her home."
"This will happen, chérie," Bastien said. Even his voice had a hint of calm to it. This amazed me, given I'd seen him covered in fur and teeth less than twenty-four hours ago. “She will be home soon. Or I will personally rip the throat out of anyone who cages her."
Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three Page 4
