Blood and Fire (Guardian Witch)

by Ally Shields

  On the flight home an hour later, Ari and Andreas lay facing each other on the bed in the small stateroom, newly redecorated from the gaudy black and blood red that Sebastian had favored, to warm autumn tones. The decor and polished wood now reminded Ari of a well-appointed suite in an expensive hotel—understated class. Ari had slipped back into her jeans and had one of the antique-gold throw pillows propped under her chin as they continued discussing the evening’s events.

  “Did I make things worse?” She felt guilty about losing her temper. Not guilty enough, however, to deny she’d enjoyed seeing Ursula sprawled on the floor.

  “No. You were you. Daron wanted her to see the three of us together, and I wanted her to go home still ignorant of our abilities.” His face held a look of satisfaction. “I think we accomplished both. As long as the elders do not understand what we can and cannot do, I hope they will keep their distance. We could not have said anything to please Ursula or change the minds of the O-Seven. When all is considered, it was the best outcome we could expect, except for the risk to you.” His eyes went to her throat. “She could have done so much worse.”

  Ari touched the already healing mark. The vampiress had been so quick.

  “Do not dwell on it. Time for sleep.” Andreas grabbed her pillow, tossed it aside, and pulled her toward him, reversing her position so they were spooned. He dropped a kiss on the back of her neck. “It is late, and first thing in the morning, your Lt. Foster will expect you to worry about the murder of this treasure hunter.”

  “Hmm.” She snuggled against him and began to drift off. “And two of Bella’s kittens still need homes.”

  Chapter Five

  Ari woke in the Chantilly Suite very late the next morning, determined this would be the day to find Hawkson and discover Barron’s mysterious treasure. Refusing to let her life be ruled by fear of Ursula and the O-Seven, she concentrated her energy on solving the murder. While she completed a quick workout in the mansion’s exercise room on the garage level, she reviewed alibis, motivations, and the obvious lies told by the crew. Nothing added up to murder. Not yet. Call it a sixth sense, cop instinct, or just plain common sense, but the treasure had to be at the center of the case. Learning what the treasure was should lead her straight to the killer.

  After the workout, she was humming a catchy tune in the shower when she heard her phone ring. Grabbing a towel to wrap around her, she snatched her cell before the call went to automation.

  “Hi, Ryan,” she said, in response to her caller ID. “Anything happen overnight? How’s the cop shop?”

  “Crawling with press, as we expected. I had trouble finding a parking spot. Guess reporters can’t read ‘Reserved’ signs.” He let out an impatient breath. “I can hardly wait until they get a hold of this morning’s call to dispatch. Two kids saw a ghost inside the vampire caves.”

  “A ghost?” She gave a half laugh, watching water drip from her hair onto Andreas’s lush carpet. “Andreas told me that kids sometimes play down there, but ghosts? Good imaginations, I think.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But with Jase Barron dying so close to there, I thought we’d better check it out. Presuming you’re up for it. It must have been pretty late when you got home. Did things go OK with the uber vamp from Europe?”

  Ari chuckled. Uber vamp. Ursula was that all right, and then some. “Everyone’s still in one piece. I guess that’s how we measure success these days. I’m running a little late, but I’ll meet you whenever.”

  “Patrol officers are holding the kids and their parents near the cliff where Barron went over. We already had the area sealed with crime tape, but it obviously didn’t stop the kids. I’m posting an officer now. While we’re there, I’ll move the barricades to make everything in that general area off limits—the cliff path, the cliffs themselves, and the caves. The way reporters and paparazzi are swarming around here, they’d overrun the place, including the caves, and we’d have the vampires complaining. I don’t need the added headache.”

  “I can help. The Magic Council will post someone, maybe a dwarf or two, to warn off trespassers, at least during the day when the vampires are asleep. I’ll make the call right away.” Ari sighed. So much for her other plans for the day. Finding Hawkson and homes for the kittens would have to wait. “I’ll meet you at the overlook in twenty minutes. I’m still dripping wet from the shower.”

  Ryan chuckled. “Nice visual. I’ll bring the coffee.”

  Ari pulled on jeans and topped them with a dark green sweater. Partially drying her hair, she twirled it into a ponytail and ran out the door, waving to the weretiger behind the surveillance camera. Despite her impatience with the change in plans, Ari was excited too. The more she thought about it, this reported ghost sighting could be important. It was right next to their original crime scene. Much too coincidental.

  * * *

  When Ari arrived, Ryan was talking with two boys, who looked about eleven, and three adults, who she assumed were parents. She nodded to the cop on duty and squeezed between the yellow barriers anchoring crime scene tape stretched around the trees and large boulders.

  Ryan introduced her to dark-haired Ethan and his parents, then to toe-headed Robbie and his mother. “These are the two young men who saw the ghost.”

  “An exaggeration, I’m sure,” Ethan’s father offered. He stood stiffly behind his son with both hands on the child’s shoulders. “But if Ethan says he saw something, I know he did.”

  Protective and defensive of his kid. As he should be.

  “Well, let’s see if we can figure out what it was.” Ari smiled at each boy. Although she and Ryan both were unmarried and childless, he usually made her do all the kid talking. He seemed to believe she had some innate maternal touch. Whatever. She liked kids. “Why don’t you tell me what it looked like?”

  “It was this big, whitish thing. Glowing.” Ethan waved his arms in a big circle. “But my flashlight shone right through it.” His face flushed with excitement as he relived the experience.

  Robbie jumped into the story. “Then it came toward us, like it was going to grab me. I threw my flashlight like this.” He drew one arm back and snapped it forward as if he were pitching a baseball. “And I ran as fast as I could. Then I tripped over a big rock and fell.”

  “Is that how you scraped your knee?” Ari asked gently, pointing to his injury.

  “Um, I guess. I didn’t notice the blood ’til later. I just wanted to get away.” Robbie slanted a look up at her without raising his head. Ari assumed by his subdued demeanor that the boys had already been thoroughly scolded for going into the caves.

  “When you ran, did this thing follow you?”

  “I don’t know.” Robbie looked at Ethan.

  “Nuh-uh. It didn’t come any closer, but it made this spooky noise. Like a groan.” Ethan puffed up his chest and made a deep moaning sound. His father’s clasp tightened on his shoulders. “When I looked back after Robbie fell, I couldn’t see it anymore.”

  Ryan eyed the boys thoughtfully. “This sounds like something we’d better check out. Can you show us the cave entrance and exactly where you saw the ghost?”

  “Uh, maybe. I know where we got in, but we sorta got lost,” Ethan confessed, glancing at Robbie, who nodded agreement. “We only had one flashlight on the way out—my pen light. It didn’t help much, and it, uh, it took us forever.” His deer-in-the-headlights expression told her how scary that return trip had been.

  Ari stifled an unprofessional urge to gather both boys in a quick hug. Huh, maybe she was going soft. But she could imagine how they’d felt—lost in a maze of tunnels, constantly looking at the darkness behind them to see if some monster was following.

  Ryan had a more measured response, although he stooped down to the boys’ level. “It’s OK. You’re safe now with us. Why don’t you lead the way to the place you went inside?”

  Robbie scampered off immediately. Within five minutes they stopped in front of a large clump of bushes. The ar
ea was off the beaten path, and if there was a cave opening, it was completely concealed. The boys crawled under the low-hanging branches.

  “Come on, Dad. It’s in here,” Ethan called.

  “You boys wait right there. Don’t go inside. I’m going to make a path. It’s not necessary for everyone to crawl through the brush.” Ryan pushed and pulled on the branches, bending and breaking them down with the help of Ethan’s father. Finally they could see a dark hole in what looked like a cluster of massive rocks.

  Ari stepped through the broken thicket and peered into the opening. It was big enough for an adult to enter by simply bending to avoid the low ceiling. Barron should have consulted the kids. This entrance was much more accessible than the lower level crawl space she thought the treasure hunter had used.

  Switching on the flashlight she’d brought from home, Ari shone it into the opening. It looked even larger inside. “Wait here. The vampires don’t like intruders. I’ll only be a minute.”

  She slipped into a narrow tunnel and found she could stand without bending. It widened within a dozen steps to a five-by-seven-foot open space with two exits: one narrow and level, the other wider but angling steeply down. She peered into each with her flashlight. The level exit revealed ever-narrowing sides that would quickly become impassable. The downward tunnel made an abrupt corner after about ten feet. The kids must have gone that way. She moved the light to the rock and sand beneath her feet. As she suspected, small shoe impressions led both in and out of the wider tunnel.

  At the first turn, she found nothing but more tunnel, still leading down. She continued until she reached another widening of the path with a sharp drop-off on one side. Ari shone her flashlight into the dark hole and sucked in a sharp breath. What if one of the boys had slipped and fallen?

  She backed away from the edge and swept her light around the cave walls. Except for the path she was on, the only possible exit was a dark hole high on the wall. Too high for the boys to reach. She started to walk on when she saw what looked like a chalk mark arrow on the wall. Had the kids done this? Or someone else? When two more turns hadn’t revealed anything of interest except a second chalk mark, she stopped, took a sniff of the tunnel air, and reached out with her senses. Dampness, an earthy odor, and a distant smell of vampire. Her witch blood stirred as she sensed something more, not an energy she recognized, but not hostile either. A presence merely there. Andreas might be able to tell her what it was—if he would—but it was definitely not an evil spirit. Before her companions could get restless and invade the vampires’ territory, she turned and retraced her steps to the cave entrance.

  Ari blinked as she stepped into the sunlight and shook her head at Ryan. “Nothing close by, but I didn’t go very far.” She looked at the boys. “Were you marking your way with chalk?”

  “Sure. I read that in a book,” Ethan said. “But we ran out of chalk pretty quick. Next time I’ll bring a whole box.”

  “There won’t be a next time,” his father said.

  Ari shared a look with the father. “Let’s hope not.” She returned her attention to the boys. “Is that how you finally got out? You followed the arrows?”

  They nodded.

  “I thought we were lost forever until we saw one of Ethan’s marks.”

  “The chalk was good thinking.” She smiled at Ethan. “So how long were you in the caves? You must have walked a long way.”

  Ethan shrugged his thin shoulders. “Hours, maybe.”

  “They left home about eight o’clock this morning. Going bug hunting. At least that’s what they said.” Robbie’s mother turned to her son. “Did you come straight here?”

  He hung his head. “Yeah, we found the cave yesterday, but we didn’t have a flashlight.”

  Ryan glanced at his watch. “It’s almost 12:30 now. They must have been inside, what? Three hours? And lost part of the time. I’d say the ghost sighting was an hour or so from the entrance.”

  “It’s a good starting point for a search,” Ari said. “But I want to get help before exploring farther.”

  He nodded, approving her unspoken intent to consult with Andreas. Ryan didn’t like civilian involvement, but this was vampire property. And it wouldn’t be the first time Andreas had served as a police consultant. Even Ryan would have to admit the vampire’s participation had been a useful collaboration.

  “Are you coming back tonight? Call me when you’ve had a look. And if you run into this ghost, get rid of it. If I eventually have to go underground, I’d rather not explore a haunted cave.”

  Ari promised, but when she arrived at the club, Andreas was dealing with a crisis of his own. The dining room looked as serene as ever, but behind the scene vampires ran around with buckets and mops, soaking up water that was flooding the kitchen floor. A pipe under the sink had burst, spewing water out in a stream whenever the cabinet door was opened.

  Ari stood in the doorway and tried hard not to laugh as she watched Andreas directing the frantic activities. A lock of hair hung over his forehead, and the bottoms of his pant legs were wet. “Need some help?” she called.

  He threw her a harried look. “Only if you have a stop-leak spell,” he said. “Don’t you dare laugh.”

  By the time the plumbers finally had the leak fixed, it was time for the club to open for the evening, and then Ari received a page to a Friday night bar fight. Their chance to visit the caves slipped away, but they made plans to go the following afternoon.

  * * *

  On Saturday morning, the third day after Jase Barron’s death, Ari and Ryan finally met with the coroner. Despite his best efforts, Doc’s preliminary report on cause of death read inconclusive.

  “Sorry it took so long, but this is an unusual case. I kept running tests, looking for better answers.” Doc pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “I’ll be happy to amend the report if you bring me additional evidence. He died from internal pressure on the heart. For lack of better words, his heart was squeezed until it simply stopped beating.”

  Ryan looked at Ari as if he wanted to hold her personally responsible for the coroner’s finding.

  “Black magic,” she said. “The magic lab verified its presence. And I told you Doc’s physical findings would be strange.”

  Ryan snorted in disgust and headed for the door.

  As they left the morgue, Ryan related the phone conversation he’d held with Barron’s lawyers on his way over. “He told his backers he was on the trail of an important Native American artifact, that he had the solution to some riddle. He seemed to think the story would be huge, with big ratings.”

  “An Indian artifact. That’s why he hired Dyani, but I’ve never heard of anything around here that would cause so much interest. What kind of artifact? It’s got to be something more than pottery or petroglyphs. And what’s this about a riddle?”

  “According to them, he didn’t explain.”

  “Sounds likes BS. They authorized the funding for a treasure hunt on no more than that?”

  “Hey, don’t look at me,” Ryan said. “I asked the same thing, but they said he liked to work in secret, and he’d produced on his promises in the past. They figured he’d do it again. Apparently one of his prior stories was leaked during filming, and he never got over it.”

  “I guess if you’re a celeb, you get to call the shots. So, we’ll have to come at this from a different angle. If this involves Indian lore, I’d better double my efforts to interview Joe Hawkson. He’s still not answering his phone.”

  Upon reaching her office, Ari called the historical society to see if they had an address for Hawkson, which they didn’t. She tried several Internet searches on the desktop computer her bosses had recently installed but discarded both listings for Joe Hawkson when neither appeared to have local family ties or property around Riverdale. Why didn’t he make this easy and answer her calls?

  Ari shoved the keyboard aside and grabbed her phone. The man at the gift shop had implied Hawkson was pretty cautious. What
if he wasn’t answering because he screened his calls and didn’t recognize the caller? She thumbed his number and this time left a detailed message, stating who she was and what she wanted.

  Ari leaned back in her desk chair, staring at the budding trees outside the window. A plunge from a cliff top, black magic, an Indian artifact, and a ghost in the caves. Were they related? Or just more of the mysterious things that cropped up in Olde Town on a regular basis? With more than three thousand Otherworlders in the area, it was remarkable there weren’t more unexplained incidents.

  She thought about the kids’ story. Luckily, the press hadn’t picked up on it yet. In fact, the reporters were acting restless, as if they were losing interest with the lack of progress on Barron’s death. According to Ryan, a couple of the nationals had already moved on to bigger stories, and with any luck, the rest would soon follow. Maybe, just maybe, the investigation would escape further publicity.

  When her phone rang five minutes later, caller ID told her their luck had run out. Eddie West, crime reporter for the local newspaper, The Clarion, was on the line.

  “I hear there’s a ghost in our caves,” he began. “Is this linked to Jase Barron’s death?”

  Holy crap. Did Eddie have to hear everything? And be smart enough to put the pieces together? She took a deep breath to keep from swearing at him.

  She tried for a casual tone, even a little bit teasing. “Come on, Eddie. Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts. It was a kids’ story. How would it be connected to Barron? I hope you’re not imagining he jumped off the cliff to get away from a ghost.”

  “Are you saying he jumped? A possible suicide? I heard the cause of death was inconclusive.”

  “It wasn’t suicide,” she interrupted sharply when she heard him typing on the other end of the phone. “Don’t go spreading that around. We have enough rumors.”

  “Then what was it? Doc’s medical finding sounds suspicious to me, and you have to admit the ghost sighting is rather timely.” He paused, probably waiting to see if she’d add anything.