“They used to live here on earth until a group of Fae-human hybrids mounted an army to go against them.” Liam took a breath. This was the part that he knew was going to make him sound even crazier than he already did. “I’m supposedly the descendant of some folk hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill. He was the leader of an army known as the Fianna. They went down to wherever these Fae lived, Tir na Nog, and he kicked them out of our world and erected some sort of magical wall, a Veil, they call it, and it was empowered by ten stones called lockstones. Nine of them have been broken, and now there’s only one left. The stone I had when you all brought me in here. If that stone falls into Cyril’s hands, it’s supposedly over.”
When Liam finished, he looked at them both. Alvarez reacted how he thought she would, but Zach’s expression showed more hope.
“I know it sounds crazy,” Liam said. “But I’m new to all this too. I didn’t believe any of it yesterday, but now I do. I’ve seen—and done—some pretty crazy things. That dead man on campus? He was sent to kill me.” He thought back to the house. “Or kidnap me all because Cyril wants that stone.”
“So, you did kill him.” Shepard said. Alvarez apparently had given up, and she straightened with her arms crossed, a stone wall of what-the-fuck? written on her face.
Then Liam got an idea. “Here, let me show you.”
Liam lifted his hand, and he gave it some thought. It was much easier when he had the stone with him, but, with a little more concentration, he was still able to make it happen. Sparks moved around his fingers and danced in the air above his hand.
Alvarez sprang back from the table and against the wall. Liam thought she was going for a weapon, but she didn’t have one.
Zach reacted too. He moved away from the table, but not as far. “How are you doing that?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Liam said. “Magic. It’s real.” Then he leaned forward to look Shepard square in the eye. “And that’s why you need to let me out of here so I can save my aunt and best friend. If you don’t, Cyril is going to use them in some sort of dark sorcery thing and bring the whole world crashing down on our heads.
“Hold on a minute,” Shepard said.
“No. You want proof? Get Patrick’s phone. There’s a video on it that will show you I’m not lying.”
Zach stared at the video. It took some convincing from the man, Patrick, but he finally unlocked it. There was a man with something to hide, Zach was sure of it, something that had to do a lot more with a shared employer, the US Government. It was something worth pondering, but it wasn’t his primary concern.
With the videos, he had even more reason to believe Liam now as he watched, not only the video of Liam’s aunt and friend taken captive—and from the very house he’d been at that morning—but also the torture and release of two American soldiers. And the… He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but the two soldiers who were turned into something else, something that looked very much like the thing that attacked him and Glenda back in Seattle.
“What are you thinking?” Glenda asked him. She watched the videos too.
Zach turned to her. There was no question now based on what he saw in the video: The man they met as Kyriakos Holder was Cyril Holder. “I think we need to let them go.”
Glenda took a step back from Zach and crossed her arms. “What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I am.” Zach squared himself with Glenda. “Everything he said in there is true. We need to pull them in and figure out exactly what is going on.”
“You really believe that.” Glenda stared hard at him. She wasn’t asking a question, she was making a statement, one that suggested she thought Zach had lost his mind.
“You saw what he did. And that car as we were driving over?” Zach paused. “And Stephen Penrose back in Seattle? It’s all coming together and adding up.”
Glenda still wasn’t convinced. “Adding up to a lot of shit I want nothing to do with.”
“Do we have a choice?”
“I don’t know, Zach. You’re the one who’s been seeing this crazy woman and not telling me about it. Are you even in a position to be making these decisions?”
“You’re right,” Zach said. That seemed to disarm Glenda a little. “This is insane. All of this is insane. But you saw a lot of the same stuff I did, even without this woman, this Apocalypse Annie.”
“That’s a stupid name,” Glenda said. “It sounds like a really bad off-Broadway musical.” She crossed her arms.
Zach gave her a half grin. “I got a feeling about this,” he said. “I think these people are the key to us figuring out what happened in both Seattle and San Diego.”
She stared at Zach, her lips pressed tight, her head shaking back and forth.
“That kid and his friends aren’t the ones we have to worry about. You heard him in there. If there’s anybody we need to bring in, it’s Cyril Holder.”
“I heard a kid grasping at straws, trying to save his own skin,” she said.
“If he’s telling the truth, then Cyril Holder is responsible for the twenty murders that we know about. And he said there were more,” Zach said.
“See? Right there. If he knows about more dead bodies, then he’s dangerous. I agree with you on one thing, and that is we need to get to the bottom of what this kid is saying. He sounds crazy to me.”
“After everything we’ve witnessed, how can you even think that none of this is really happening right now?”
She threw her hands up and paced. When she turned back on him, she spoke in a tone that Zach had rarely witnessed: Fear. “Because I know how the world works, and this isn’t it. This is…this is a world gone bonkers, that’s what this is.”
Zach reached out and put his hands on her shoulders. “What if the everything we’ve come to know isn’t the whole story?”
Glenda looked up at him, but her brow crossed, and she pushed his hands away. “Don’t you coddle me. I can kick your ass, remember?”
Zach held his hands up in surrender. And she could. Kick his ass, that is. She was a black belt in one form of martial arts. Hapkido or something. “All I’m saying is that this kid and all his friends we have here know something about this whole thing. And I’m somehow involved too.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because he’s right. I can see that woman. I’ve had weird feelings since this whole thing started, and I know that there’s a reason that woman, Apocalypse Annie…” He stopped. He kind of liked the name. It fit. “There’s a reason she’s been showing herself to me. Something big is about to happen, and I know that you can feel it too.”
Glenda turned away. She paced back and forth again, and that was a time when Zach let her work. It usually meant she was deciding something. When she was lost in thought and forced to weigh options, she moved. Her office back at Quantico had a large section that was empty. Where other agents decorated with couches and some semblance of comfortable seating, hers was bare, spartan, all so she could move around when she had to give something a little thought. She stopped. “All right,” she said, but with one of those faces that said she wasn’t happy with her decision. “I know something bigger is going on here.”
“We need to go with them,” Zach said.
She looked up at him. “More like they need to go with us. And they’re not going anywhere near Cyril Holder. If anybody’s going to take him down, it needs to be us.”
Zach nodded. “I agree. We’ll assemble a tactical team.”
They were all gathered into a single room, and Zach entered alongside Glenda. He studied the five of them who were brought in, the woman with a wise gleam in her eye, Katina; the mustached fighter-type, Brodie; the secretive, silent guy, Patrick; the man in charge, Eoin; and, finally, Liam, the one he’d been searching for since Seattle. If he was to be believed, a lot of people were searching for him.
He’d spoken to them all, but it was Liam who swayed him the most. What Liam had shown them, the magic, was still something of confusion for him.
As was their apparent connection through the woman he called Apocalypse Annie. But this was all instinct. He was following a foggy path, but his gut told him it was the right one.
“We want you to help us,” Zach said.
Eoin was the one who perked up first. He was the one that Zach pegged as being in charge. “Help you how?”
“We think that you might have some information that could aid us in a current investigation,” Zach said.
Liam stood up. He had a wild-eyed expression, one of worry. “What about my Aunt Jonie and Nina?”
Zach lifted a hand to calm him. “And we think we have information that will help you,” he said.
Liam sat back down.
He turned to the computer in the corner of the room, and he called up the image of the Seattle house then the one of a group of happy people standing in front of a sign that read Seattle Chapter. As he did so, he watched their reaction.
And there was a reaction. The three of them, Eoin, Brodie, and Katina, their expression changed as soon as they saw the picture.
“My partner and I have been investigating the deaths of nine people in this picture. Eleven others were found dead in San Diego, all done by the same person,” Zach said.
Eoin, Brodie, and Katina exchanged glances, then Eoin leaned forward.
“We can talk to them,” Liam said. It took Zach a moment to realize he was speaking to the others in the group. Everyone turned to them. Liam stood up. “Don’t you feel it? He’s a part of this.” He pointed at Zach, and nervousness rose in Zach’s stomach, even as he knew Liam was right. He was somehow part of something larger, and he had the sense he was about to learn more about it right now.
“It’s not our way to talk about any of this,” Eoin said. “Not with those who don’t know about us.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, your way is on the way out,” Liam said.
This made Brodie angry to the point that he stood up. Zach thought he was going to have to stop him from advancing on Liam.
But Liam didn’t back down. He took a step toward Brodie. “I’ve been seeing a woman,” Liam said.
Patrick made a sound.
“I mean, I’ve been seeing a vision of a woman. I call her Apocalypse Annie. She appeared to me the night I got the stone and again when I met Patrick. And I’ve seen her several times since. She was there to help me with the bubble that kept us all from drowning.”
Zach didn’t follow that one. “Drowning?”
“Long story,” Liam said. “There’s a house in a big sinkhole up in Wilmette.”
Zach shared a glance with Glenda.
Liam continued. “You all saw this woman in the middle of the road. I know you did, because you said so. She made us stop.” He turned to Zach. “And I think it’s because she wanted us to meet Agent Shepard.”
“What makes you think that?” Eoin said.
“I don’t have any other explanation,” Liam said.
Zach came around the podium. “I’ve been seeing this woman too. First at a crime scene with eleven murders in San Diego and again in Seattle where these people were found dead.” He referred again to the picture up on the screen.
“You were right, Eoin. There is another way out of this, and I think the FBI might be it.” Liam paused to move closer to Eoin. “And he knows about Cyril,” he said.
Eoin perked up. The others did too. “What does he know about Cyril,” Eoin said.
Zach said, “We spoke to him less than a day ago. He called himself Kyriakos.”
Katina huffed and rolled her eyes. “He’s gotten overconfident,” she said. “He’s barely even hiding anymore.” When everyone looked to her, she held out her hands as if to suggest it was obvious: “Kyriakos. It’s the name Cyril in Greek. Duh.”
“Where did you see him?” Eoin said, quickly.
“Not far from here,” Zach told them.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Patrick muttered.
“How is he here?” Katina said.
“How could we not know that?” Brodie added. They all looked to Eoin.
Eoin’s brow was tight, furrowed. “We haven’t been able to track him for some time,” Eoin said.
“Where is he?” Liam said.
“We spoke to him at his home just outside the city. He’s working with the CEO of Tellus, Inc.,” Zach said. “They have their headquarters here in the loop, a high-rise building.”
Liam’s eyes went wide. “Maybe that’s where he’s taken my aunt and Nina,” Liam said.
“Or to his house,” Eoin said.
“Both places are huge, and they’re at least an hour apart. If we choose the wrong place…” Zach didn’t finish his statement, but he figured everyone knew where he was going with that. “And we’re running out of time.”
They all turned to him. “Why do you say that,” Eoin asked him.
“Apocalypse Annie told me,” Zach said.
“I still think that’s a stupid name,” Glenda muttered from her spot up front.
Eoin turned to Patrick. “If your talent is based in Fae magic, then perhaps we can help you use it,” he said.
Liam shook his head. “That’s a waste of time,” Liam said.
But Eoin stopped him again. “Like we helped Liam. We can help boost his magic. Would going to the place where she was taken help?”
Patrick thought a moment. “It could. I’ve never really tested it out that way, but I know having something that belongs to the person I’m looking for helps sometimes.”
Eoin turned to Zach. “Then that’s what we should do. Go back to Liam’s house, and let Patrick use his skill there,” he said.
“That’s a start, I suppose,” Zach said.
Thirty-Two
Chicago, IL - Norwood Park
The FBI gave Liam his stone back. They even gave him a backpack for his stone again as he’d misplaced his when he was kidnapped. He held the bag in his lap with the stone safely inside as they drove back to Norwood Park.
Patrick was going to use his ‘talent,’ as he called it. He had hope this time. But, as he watched Patrick on the drive over, he still wondered if it was enough. He still had a lot of questions.
It was funny, really. Just that morning, he’d gone so far as to call Patrick his boyfriend. That same morning. And now, they were on the rocks. That had to be a record for the world’s fastest breakup.
This time, when they arrived, instead of being stopped at the barriers as they were before, they were all led through. The female agent, Glenda Alvarez, flashed the police officers her badge and gave the order, and they were allowed to pass.
At the door to Liam’s house, though, was another story.
“What’s this?” A grim-faced detective stared them down. He had a coffee stain on his wrinkled, striped button up shirt, and he wore suspenders, his sleeves rolled up.
“We have a witness,” Zach said. “We need to go inside the house.”
The detective looked Liam over. He glared. “This the kid that hurt one of my officers?” he said.
A pang of worry rumbled through Liam’s stomach.
Shepard didn’t back down, though. “He’s a witness in a federal case, and we need to enter the house.”
“Like hell he’s coming into my crime scene,” the detective said. “He’s going to jail. He’s not even in cuffs.”
Zach moved closer to the detective. “In case you’ve forgotten, this is a joint FBI-Chicago PD investigation, and, due to the connections with this case and the murders that took place back on the west coast, that means I have every bit of right to this crime scene as you do. So, Detective Nichols, kindly step aside, or I’ll report this obstruction of justice to your captain, and internal affairs can look into it.”
The detective had the nerve to bark a laugh in Shepard’s face. “You fucking fibbies.”
To his credit, Shepard didn’t respond. Liam had the idea to strike out on his own, but considering what they were arguing about, he thought that might not be the best of ideas. Eoin’s
words came back to him. That’s not our way.
Detective Nichols backed away and returned inside the house.
Shepard called his name. “I need the interior cleared,” Shepard said.
The detective turned back and glared at Zach. “You going to threaten to report me if I don’t follow through on that too?”
“If it becomes a problem, yes,” Shepard said.
The detective stared hard at Shepard, but he turned to the officers working inside. “Mike, tell your guys to clear the space. Feds got some business to do in here.”
There was a comment from inside the house that Liam couldn’t hear, and it was then that it struck him they were all inside his house, the house where he’d spent the past seven years, living with his aunt, his uncle until he passed, and Trey, his cousin. They were standing in the living room where he’d watched television after school or when he was avoiding homework. They were standing in there while his aunt and his best friend were in the hands of a mad man, and here this detective was having a turf war with the FBI agent who was trying to help them.
Again, the urge to hurry things along with magic was strong. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to look into Eoin’s eyes. That was when he felt it, a gathering of power—Liam was gathering the power, and he was doing it without much thought.
“Sorry,” Liam said. He focused on calming himself down again.
Once the house was cleared, they went inside.
The detective grabbed Liam by the arm. “When all this is over, you and I are going to have a long conversation,” he said.
Liam looked from the hand to the detective’s face. Fuck what Eoin told him. He worked up the power and built a shock that extended through himself and into his arm. The detective yowled and jumped back, holding his hand. “Sure,” Liam said. “We’ll chat.” Then he winked at the detective.
Eoin stared at Liam as they entered, and he was about to say something when Liam walked past him.
“Save it,” Liam told him. He wasn’t getting pushed around anymore.
The Stone (Lockstone Book 1) Page 37
