I am so ready for it to be spring.
The church was easy enough to spot, looming over the smaller residential buildings at the top of the street they were on. Kiara moved so that she was walking beside him as they crossed the road and entered the courtyard.
“Let me do the talking,” she said. “We aren’t here to interrogate the pastor. Becca, the first victim, was a member of his church, and he’s going to be protective of her if we approach it like that.”
“I know that,” said Victor.
Some hardworking, dedicated person had shoveled the stairs leading up to the churches large red double doors. Victor dusted snow off his jeans as Kiara opened it, and then walked after her inside.
The church was large and empty. Rows of pews led up to a small, raised platform in back, where a podium stood in front of a gigantic wooden cross on the back wall. Light streamed in through dozens of intricately designed stained glass windows, and an organ sat on the left side of the room. The air was warm and musty, smelling of dust and old books.
They’d walked halfway down the aisle when a man walked out through a door on the right side of the room. He wore black trousers, a black shirt, and had a white choker that only showed through the collar as a tiny rectangle on his neck. His hair was a mix of blond and gray, but his face only had a few wrinkles, laugh lines developed over time. He was an inch or two shorter than Victor, which put him on the taller side of the spectrum.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m Father Augustus, but you can call me Father Auggie. What can I do for you, young ones?”
“My name is Kiara, and this is Victor. We’re private investigators, looking into the murder of one of the members of your church.”
Father Auggie took a deep breath, smiled sadly, and then closed his eyes.
“It’s Becca, isn’t it?” He waited for Kiara to nod and then gestured to his office. “Please, let’s speak about this in private.”
Victor and Kiara followed him into a tiny, modestly adorned room. There were two chairs in front of the pastor’s hardwood desk, and they sat down in them.
“Becca was a… very troubled young woman,” Auggie said, pacing behind his desk. “She started coming to my church about a year ago. Very irregularly, at first.”
“Was she involved with any bad people, Father Auggie?” asked Kiara.
“I don’t believe there are such things as bad people,” he replied. “But certainly, the people she called friends had a negative influence on her life. But that changed after a few months. She became more involved at the church, and I didn’t worry about her quite as much.”
“What about the past few weeks?” asked Victor. “When was the last time you saw her?”
Father Auggie took a deep breath.
“She missed Sunday mass, two weeks ago.” He shook his head. “I didn’t think anything of it. In truth, I wasn’t giving her the attention that I did when she’d first joined the church. I… overlooked it.”
“And that was the last time you ever saw her?” asked Kiara.
Father Auggie’s mouth turned up into that same sad smile.
“Yes,” he said softly. “Yes, it was.”
“Do you know anything about the people she was involved with?” asked Victor.
Father Auggie frowned and looked suddenly very conflicted.
“I worry that by telling you, I may be sending you into the same danger she was involved with,” he said. “It’s not a decision I take lightly.”
“Please, Father,” said Kiara. “We only want to help.”
He stared down at his desk for a moment and then nodded, picking up a scrap of paper along with a pen.
“I dropped her off here once, back when she was still new to the church, and had not moved away from her old life and acquaintances.” He scribbled a street address down on the piece of paper. “I don’t know what you’ll find there, but you can look.”
“Thank you.” Victor took the paper as Father Auggie handed it to him. He glanced over at Kiara, who was already standing up to leave.
“The two of you are always welcome here,” said Father Auggie. “If I can be of any further assistance, just let me know.”
“Of course.” Kiara smiled warmly at him and then nodded to Victor. The two of them walked back into the main room and then out of the church.
CHAPTER 17
Victor walked down the stairs with Kiara, side by side. They reached the bottom and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark aura flicker to life around her.
“Take a right,” whispered Kiara. “Walk to the end of this next block and then stop after we turn the corner.”
Victor nodded slowly and didn’t say anything. It had cooled down outside by a considerable amount, and the snow that had melted in the warmth of the church was now slowly freezing to his sock.
Kiara put a hand on his shoulder as they came to a stop behind the building. The two of them waited for a moment and then peeked out, Victor following Kiara’s lead and watched the church’s door.
“What’s this about?”
“Shhhh…”
About a minute went by, and then someone else approached the church’s red double doors, glancing around the area and looking totally out of place. Victor’s jaw dropped open when he saw and recognized the person’s face.
“That’s… Damien.” He shook his head. “What the fuck?”
“Shhhh!” Kiara abruptly pulled him back. Victor waited for a second, and then glanced around the corner again in time to see the church’s doors being pulled shut.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Victor. “Why the hell is he here?”
“He’s following you, in case you couldn’t work that out on your own.” Kiara’s words were sharp, but her expression had a bit of empathy in it.
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this.” Victor started to head back toward the church, but Kiara clamped a hand down on his wrist.
“No,” she said. “Not yet. We have the advantage right now.”
“How so?”
“We still have the address Father Auggie gave us,” said Kiara. “And it’s not like we’ll have any trouble finding out what’s going on with Damien if that doesn’t pan out. Hell, we can show up at his mom’s house if need be, use our auras and-”
“No!” Victor pulled his arm out of her grip and glared. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Kiara?”
“I’m not saying that would be my first choice,” she said, her voice calm. “I know how destructive the onyx aura can be as well as you do. The scarlet aura isn’t all that much better, either.”
“Then why even suggest it?”
“Because a little bit of psychic trauma is better than letting more people die.” She met his eye, and Victor saw hardened determination staring at him. “Things aren’t always black and white, Victor.”
That doesn’t mean that anything goes.
“No. Absolutely not.” Victor shook his head. “Damien is my friend.”
“Well, can we get moving to our next lead before your ‘friend’ starts following us again?”
Victor’s frown deepened, but he followed Kiara as she broke into a jog down the sidewalk. The two of them moved through the city wordlessly. There wasn’t a lot of traffic out, probably due to either the weather or the power still being down in certain areas.
To get to the address Father Auggie had given them required a trip to the city outskirts in the south section of the city. Some of the streets were all but abandoned, and on top of the telltale condemned buildings and abandoned blocks, the snow also offered hints into that section of the city having been written off. It was almost a clean sheet, with few footprints, and no signs of any effort having been put in to remove it.
“It’s just up ahead,” said Kiara. “Right… there!”
Victor followed her up to a building that looked like it had once been an auto garage. All of the windows were boarded up, and a rusted sliding metal door was three quarters of the way closed over the
car entrance. Victor crouched down low and peered inside.
“It looks abandoned,” he whispered. Kiara didn’t answer, and when Victor looked over at her, she was already rolling through the snow to get to the other side.
I doubt we’re going to find anything, but whatever.
Victor crouched low, commando crawled through the opening, and dusted snow off as he stood up. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of the garage, and he immediately noticed something that was off.
“Kiara,” he hissed. “It’s too warm in here. This place isn’t abandoned.”
No sooner than he’d gotten the words out of his mouth did a door on the side wall slam open. Victor saw a figure point a large shotgun at them, and could make out a room filled with light and a few other people behind him.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here, boy!” The man spoke in a furious voice, and clicked something off on the gun.
“We aren’t looking for trouble,” said Victor. “We’ve just come to ask you some questions about-”
A number of things happened all at once. The barrel of the gun flashed. Victor didn’t actually hear it go off, just a sudden cessation of all noise except for a painful ringing in his ears.
The blast would have hit him full in the chest, but with aura enhanced speed, Kiara slammed into him, pushing both of them out of the way. They landed hard on the cold concrete floor. Victor immediately started pulling himself to his feet as the man rushed into the garage, flanked by two others, who also had guns.
There was no time to do anything but fight. Victor flared his scarlet aura, binding it in a large swathe across the men and sending out a splash of flame that, ironically, hit with a spread similar to a shotgun.
The men flinched back as their arms, chests, and unfortunately, their faces exploded into flame. Two of them dropped their guns and the one that still held his moved as though he’d forgotten about fighting. They were panicked, scared, and totally overwhelmed by the attack.
Kiara glowed blue and bound her azure aura, neatly extinguishing the flames. She followed it up with a second binding that pulled at the men’s emotions and energy. They slowly dropped to their knees, and then to their backs and stomachs as they slipped into unconsciousness.
Kiara said something to Victor, but he still couldn’t hear. He rubbed his ears for a moment, trying to clear them of the invisible impediment. She spoke again, louder this time.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Kiara reeled her fist back and punched him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. “These are normal humans! And you use your scarlet aura on them, without restraint?”
Victor coughed and took a breath.
“They had guns, Kiara!” shouted Victor. “We could have been killed!”
“I can freeze low caliber bullets in the air.” Kiara waved her hand and bound a shield of ice in front of them in demonstration. “We wouldn’t have been any danger, certainly not from buckshot and a couple of .22s.”
“Well I didn’t know that,” said Victor. “Jesus Christ.”
“And you have the gall to question me about how I investigate a murder using my auras…” Kiara shook her head, as though in disbelief.
“Look, what’s done is done,” said Victor. “I’ll… play things differently next time.”
Another gun clicked, though Victor’s ears, still in recovery, could only barely register the noise.
“Freeze,” said a voice from behind them. “Put your hands in the air, Victor. Tell your friend to do it, too.”
Victor looked over his shoulder and saw Damien pointing a handgun at his head.
CHAPTER 18
“I said freeze!”
Victor blinked. It was almost hard to believe.
“You’re a cop now, Damien?” he asked. “An undercover one, at that?”
“…Yeah,” said Damien. “And you’re… hell, I don’t even know what you are. I saw what you did with that fire.”
“I’m your friend, Damien,” said Victor. “Or at least I thought I was.”
“You are my friend, Victor. But I have a job to do.” The handgun didn’t waver in Damien’s hand, but he looked away from Victor for a moment. “Look, I was there with my lieutenant at the crime scene when I first recognized you.”
“I should have known.” Victor smiled ruefully and shook his head. “You found me right after I left.”
“My lieutenant thought that it was too weird for an old friend of mine to just, well, be there by coincidence. So she told me to keep an eye on you. It was an order, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t glad to see you.”
“And lunch yesterday? Was that just a chance for you to trick me into incriminating myself?” Righteous indignation began to spill over into Victor’s voice “And now you’re tailing me?”
“For good reason!” shouted Damien. “You just lit three people on fire!”
“Want me to take care of him?” asked Kiara, in a quiet voice.
“No!” hissed Victor.
“The two of you are coming down to the station,” said Damien. “I need to know what just happened here.”
Before Victor could say anything else, Kiara waved a glowing blue hand, binding her azure aura to Damien. He swayed and then fell to the ground unconscious, sapped of all energy.
“Kiara!” shouted Victor. “I was talking him down!”
“No, you weren’t.” She pushed her blonde bangs out of her face and walked over to Damien’s sleeping body. “The two of you are both too stubborn. If I hadn’t stepped in, it’s likely one of you would have ended up dead.”
Victor let out a long sigh.
Why? Why the hell did he have to grow up to be a cop?
“Come on,” said Kiara. “Let’s get him out of the garage and to somewhere he can wake up safely.”
Victor grabbed Damien’s shoulders, and Kiara got his feet. They carried him out of the dilapidated garage, down the street, all the way to an old diner that looked as though it’d seen better days. The waitress didn’t even bat an eyelash as they walked in, carrying Damien’s unconscious body between them like somebody who’d had a little too much to drink.
They sat him down in a booth. Victor tossed a twenty on the table, ordered some coffee for his former friend, and then followed Kiara out.
“He’s going to come after us again when he wakes up,” she said.
“So?” Victor frowned and chewed on his lip. “It’s not like there’s anything we can do about it.”
“Ah, but there is,” said Kiara. “A little bit of mental surgery with your onyx aura, and he wouldn’t remember any of this.”
Victor scowled.
“Is that what you would do, if he were your friend?” he asked. “Wipe away any memories and leave him with a fantasy of who you are, of what the friendship means?”
“Victor.” Kiara looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “You might not like the alternative. At least this way, nobody gets hurt.”
They stood on the sidewalk without saying anything to each other for what felt like an eternity. Victor started to think about it, only getting a second into her line of reasoning before being interrupted by the vibration of his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and turned away from Kiara.
“Hello?”
“Hey, buddy.” Kronenberg’s voice came in through the speaker, loud and clear. “I found out something that I think you’re going to want to know. It’s about the two victims in your case.”
Victor looked up at Kiara and shot her a serious look.
“Go on,” he said.
“They were both members of Undercliff Congregational Church,” said Kronenberg. “It took us a little while to notice, especially given how obnoxious it was to ID the second one.
Victor blinked. The pieces were coming together, and he felt stupid for not seeing it sooner.
“Thanks.” He ran a hand through his hair slowly. “Hey, do you think you can find out whatever you can about the pastor there? His name is Father Augustus, goes by
Auggie for short.”
“Hey, what do you think this is? I’m at work right now, chump.” Kronenberg was silent for a second, and despite himself, Victor couldn’t hold back a chuckle.
“You’re joking, right?”
“Of course. I’ll see what I can find.”
“Thanks, Kronenberg.” Victor hung up the phone and turned back to Kiara.
“Father Auggie set us up.”
“What?” Kiara raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
“Those men were ready for us,” he said. “They were armed, and they had no intention of listening to what we had to say. That doesn’t happen in real life without meddling taking place in the background.”
“That’s not enough for us to-”
“And both of the victims were members of the church.” Victor crossed his arms and leaned forward. It had started snowing again, and a few of the falling snowflakes flew into his face.
His phone vibrated, and he pulled it out to find a text from Kronenberg, the text of it being Father Auggie’s home address.
He’s really good at his job.
“The esteemed Father is not going to tell us anything if we question him again,” said Kiara. “He’ll just lock down his story.”
Victor waved his phone and smiled.
“That’s why we go to his house.”
CHAPTER 19
Father Auggie’s house was, unsurprisingly, north of the city, within the Atlas Forest. Victor and Kiara stopped to grab food from a sandwich shop on the way, eating a tense lunch across from one another.
It was still snowing when they reached the park where the first victim had been found. Enough of it had fallen to make the area look a little different from how it had the day before, in the middle of the investigation.
“Father Augustus is probably still at the church,” said Victor. “If we’re quick, we can get to his cabin, look for clues, and get back without having to worry about him showing up.”
Forbidden Magic: The Complete Collection Page 18
