Goings' voice sounded bleak and hopeless in my mind, "Bear, please call me Bear. That's really my name. My father had a sense of humor.” A hint of pain skimmed over the link between us, this conversation was taking a toll on him.
"I got lucky, Trumaine,” he said in a stony voice. "We had a tip from a Gullah Voudoun that the mark was gonna be at an arcane supply store later on that night." Goings' voice was shaky, but he kept going, "I was posted on a nearby rooftop with a sniper rifle loaded with anti-tank rounds. Amanda Jones, the Lifeborn who made it, was on point in the alley because we thought we could use the fact that he was her sire to our advantage."
He swallowed hard. I could feel both his determination and hesitation to finish his story. “He knew we were there…the entire team…I didn't even get off one round before he leveled me, fried my brain.” He laughed nervously and sighed, "If I was Human, I'd be brain dead, and what really scares me is the fact that I don't know if my shields protected me, or he just got tired of killing."
Bear Goings was exhausted beyond belief, "I'm going to take him down, Bear, whether anyone believes I can do it or not. He gonna pay for everything he's done."
I squeezed his hand as his mind shut down again. From what I could tell, his body was healthy. In terms of sheer brute strength, bears were near the top of the Lycanthrope list. It was unnatural seeing one laid out like Bear Goings was. Seeing Tristan's handiwork so closely nailed home the fact that we needed to move fast before he hurt anyone else.
I just hoped I get more from Officer Jones than I did from Bear. I passed Nurse Ratchet sitting at her station and found room 440. This time when I entered the hospital room, I found its occupant sitting up in her bed watching TV. Blood bags with varying amounts in them hung from at least four IV poles around the head of her bed. Officer Jones gave me the once over and decided her show was more important than I was.
Her attitude didn’t faze me. I held up my signet and wiggled my finger as I moved to stand near the foot of her bed. "Officer Jones, my name is Valeria Trumaine. I need to ask you a few questions about the night you were injured, if you don't mind."
Her eyes closed for a moment as if she were fighting a headache, then she nodded and turned the TV off. "I'm not sure what I can tell you that I haven't already told C.O. Descantes.” She waved a hand by the side of her head as if she were shooing away flies, "At least three Seers have been here to poke around in my head and still nothing, but if you think you can do better."
She sounded damn defensive for someone that didn't have anything to hide. I reached out to her psyche and touched her shields. Considering she had been at ground zero when Tristan went 'postal', her shields were in good shape, nothing at all like Bear's. If I didn't know better, I'd think there was nothing wrong with her at all.
"I understand Tristan is your Sire. The assignment to take him down must have been hard. It goes against everything a Lifeborn is taught while they're transitioning."
She flinched but tried to recover before I saw it, "Of course it was hard, but I took an oath to serve and protect when I became a Sentinel. I don't take my duties lightly.” Jeez, she sounded as though she was reading the cover of the CMS's employee handbook. Jones crossed her legs under the drab hospital blanket with a smug look on her face, "I can't imagine it was any easier for me than it is for you now, Valeria."
I caught the hiss before it left my throat, "To be honest, I'm almost looking forward to the endgame, Amanda.” I leaned forward to rest against the bed frame and watched her eyes carefully, "Tristan is a monster. Vampires like him are the reason the rest of us had to hide for so long." I mused out loud, "He's a lame dog gone rabid and should have been put down when he was a pup."
Her eyes flashed black for less than a second. If I were Human, I would have missed it. In that brief moment of time, I saw something else in her eyes, a look that was almost pleading.
I moved to sit near the head of her bed. "Tell me what happened that night, Amanda. Tell me how he took out your entire team without throwing a single blow."
She stared out the window before shifting her head to look at me with entirely different eyes, "He's not my Tristan anymore," she whimpered softly, "He's become more than Vampire, more than Fae..."
The scream was so unexpected and blood chilling that my back was against the door before I realized it. I flew back to the bed and pulled Amanda's fists away from her hair, chunks of her scalp came away clutched inside of them.
"Amanda! Jesus what's going on?!" I turned expecting to see a group of nurses running in our direction because of the noise, forgetting for a moment that they had these rooms warded and soundproofed. I shook the screaming Vampire until, like a light going off, the screaming stopped. Amanda looked at me with a faraway look plastered on her face, as if she had suddenly checked out and was on her way to la-la land. When she spoke, her voice sounded just as hollow and empty as she looked. "He's here," she moaned almost inaudibly. "He's here, and he knows I want to help you."
Shit! She was either bespelled, or Tristan was using his link as her sire to listen in. Both would explain her standoffish behavior, but neither one should have been possible with the hospital room warded as the nurse claimed.
I went to the doorframe and ran my hands along the smooth surface until I found what I was looking for. I could barely feel the painted over runes carved in the surface of the metal, but they were there. I checked the windowsill and found them in place there as well. Her behavior wasn't making any sense. I considered calling in someone from the arcane arts department but brushed the thought away.
All magic leaves traces, fingerprints of the person wielding it and, from what I learned from Irulan, each species' magic also leaves specific traces. It eventually fades, but before it does, another practitioner can follow the signature, almost like a bloodhound. It takes years of study for a witch's ability to become attuned enough to become a Tracer. If there were anything here to begin with,
In this case, between the wards and the general sterile atmosphere of a hospital, I didn't think there would be anything left to find.
I confirmed the presence of the wards and began searching closer to the bed. All along the sides, I could feel the runes etched into the steel. Hell, underneath the bed, there was even a dream catcher sparkling with its maker's power.
That pretty much squashed the spell theory. Dream catchers are excellent wards against nightmares, but when charged with a true shaman's energy, they offered almost fail-safe protection against dark magic. That’s a bit of information they didn't advertise. Her room seemed locked down tight against magical interference.
That left the sire's link, and the only way to confirm that was to get through her shields. I braced myself and opened a small window to my consciousness, inching around her shields looking for any chink in the armor of her mind that I could exploit. Unfortunately, for me, it was solid as a rock. I cursed my luck and opened my mind farther, putting more pressure into my probe. This time I got through, but my head was pounding with the effort it took. "Amanda, Amanda Jones this is Valeria Trumaine, can you hear me?” I waited for an answer and got nothing. I was just about to increase the force of my probe again, when something shoved me out of her head with enough strength to knock me back into the chair behind me. I had been sitting in.
I was almost certain that Tristan was exploiting the link, but looking into her eyes again, erased any doubts I had. Amanda looked at me with a sinister grin on her face and with eyes that weren't her own. I don't know why I didn't see it when I first walked in the room. "Tristan is that you?" My voice was, surprisingly, stronger than I expected it to be. "I recognize your eyes, Tris. I know it's you.”
Amanda/Tristan cocked her head to the side and looked at me with curious fascination without saying a word. That look made me feel as if I were on display in a cage. "Whatever you've become, whatever you're doing, give it up.” I tried to reason with him. “I’m your best chance to make it out of the mess you've gotten yourself into, Tris.
Tell me where you are and let me come get you.”
Focusing on getting Tristan to talk distracted me, and Amanda's skin became more and more flushed. By the time I caught it, there were already small blisters forming on her skin.
"Tristan, talk to me, damn you, don't just sit there with that stupid grin!" More blisters were rapidly forming up and down both of her arms.” You know it takes a coward to pick on a woman, Tristan.” I stood up and let my anger wash over me blacking my eyes. "You wanna fight with a woman, fight me. I'm the one that left your sorry ass high and dry. I'll bet daddy wasn't too happy with you for losing me, was he?"
I know you catch more flies with sugar, but I was at a loss. Whatever he was doing to her, I was helpless to stop it. My best bet was to make him mad enough to lash out at me, but he wasn't taking the bait. A small dip of Amanda's head was all the acknowledgement I got that he heard me. Amanda's eyes phased back to her own, complete with blood tears clinging to her eyelashes.
She cried silently as puss-filled blisters appeared on her face. "It's too late for me," she mumbled as she brushed at her arm, her skin flaking under her fingertips.
"Hold tight Amanda,” I gasped at the sight. "I'm going to get help.”. I flashed to the nurses’ station, grabbed nurse Ratchet, and was back to Amanda's room before another tear had time to hit the covers.
The nurse took in the sight of Amanda's body covered in sores and turned an accusing gaze towards me and demanded, "What did you do to her? You've only been here fifteen or twenty minutes!"
I choked on a cough as I tried to dispute her accusations, "What?! Are you crazy, woman? Look at her!" I pointed to her reddening arm, "She looks like a goddamned sausage getting ready to pop. Exactly how would I accomplish that without magic? This room is warded to high hell and back!"
The bewildered nurse shoved a finger into my chest and started shrieking at me as if she were part howler monkey, "You were the only one in the room with her! She was fine before you got here!"
Her finger snapped like a pencil between my own. She screamed, and I tilted my head towards the bed. "While you're throwing blame, she's getting worse! In case you didn't notice, I'm a Vampire, Bitch! We’re not exactly known for baking people alive.” My assumption of what was going on with Amanda was more on point than even I realized. The blisters and pustules covering her body were now releasing little streams of steam, her complexion akin to a lobster.
Amanda chose that moment to let loose another blood-curling scream that set the hairs on my arm on end. The nurse lost her color and fell back against the door with her eyes so wide that the phrase 'like a deer in headlights' came to mind. She babbled something about help, and tore out of the door as fast as she could, cradling her broken finger as she went.
CHAPTER FIVE
A team of hospital staff rushed into the room, all staring with horror at the sight of Amanda on her bed, her back arched so high it looked as if it would snap at any moment. The staff looked bewildered and frightened. They were entirely unsure which of them should make the first step towards Amanda whose face had locked into a soundless scream.
One brave soul finally pushed through the crowd making her way towards the bed. The temperature in the room had skyrocketed to resemble the interior of an oven on broil and it continued to climb as more steam escaped from Amanda's body. Sweat poured off me, the heat of the room becoming increasingly uncomfortable with every passing second. The nighttime hours were Vampires' natural domain - the cool nighttime hours. I wasn't built for this type of heat.
Everyone watched anxiously as the lone nurse shook off her hesitation and grabbed Amanda by the shoulders. No one expected the intense heat of her body to interact with anything other than the air in the room. If we had, someone would have made a move to stop the nurse from going to that bed. The instant her hands made contact, they began smoldering and burst into flames. The stunned woman tried to let Amanda go, but their flesh fused so quickly all she could do was scream and cry out for help, feet fumbling for enough purchase to pull her away from the nightmarish situation.
I finally came to my senses and tried to reach the brave nurse’s side. As I came within inches of her body, some unseen force hurled me backwards through the air into the group of spectators crowded into the room.
The heat and smoke intensified until the unit's sprinklers sparked to life bathing the room in a blanket of water. We watched too stunned to look away, unable to do anything but witness the horrific ordeal as it unfolded before our eyes. It only took five minutes to burn two women alive, but it felt as if we'd stood there hours watching the flames claim them.
When it was over, the whole room was drenched except for the small area surrounding the bed. The report would later show that the area around the bed had been so intense that the water from the sprinklers evaporated before it even touched the bed.
I noticed the contents of a few stomachs becoming acquainted with the wet tiles as I pushed my way through the mass of bodies to the hallway. The room was now a crime scene. I needed to get a clean-up crew up here before the medical staff contaminated any evidence they might be able to find. In the back of my mind, I knew they wouldn't find anything outside of their charred remains, but my training was finally kicking in.
Descantes was the first Sentinel to get there. He came swirling through the vents as mist, solidifying inside the room just as I was beginning to herd everyone out into the hall. He took one look at the remains and rushed to the window running his hands along the frame. Two more Sentinels joined me in clearing the room. When we were done, we closed the door behind us and turned towards a stony-faced Descantes.
He ran a shaky hand through his hair, looking at us with eyes filled with power and tempered rage. "This should not have been possible! This room should have protected her from Soul Fire."
We blanched at his words. Soul Fire was a weapon typically found in an Elemental’s arsenal. They were almost as old the Djin and even rarer. We learned as children that the Elementals were the replacements for the Djin and the most powerful race the Founders of all life had given birth to - Human, Extras, or Demon.
The Djin were once the favored of the Founders, created to be protectors of Humans, but they abused the privilege, so the Founders removed them as protectors and finally locked them into servitude to the Humans they had grown to envy and abuse. Modern society refers to the legendary Djin as genies. As powerful as the Djin are, the Elementals are stronger. The Founders gifted only Elementals with the ability to create new and unique life forms. They were the true creators of the Extras races.
I was the first one to say anything, "This is Tristan's work, Descantes. He did this using the sire's link."
He scrutinized me with disbelief on his face. "It's impossible. Vampires of old might have been able to do this type of damage, but that gift has been lost to your race for almost four thousand years now."
I heard the truth in his words, but I knew that Tristan was responsible for those deaths. I'd looked into Amanda's face and seen his eyes looking back at me.
Descantes gave orders to his men who whirled into motion taping off the area around the bed. A water nymph came into the room and began clearing the water from the room, evaporating it into mist and taking it into herself. Later she would expel the water and essentially strain it for any traces of magic it may have picked up to pass off to a tracer.
Descantes moved to the doorframe and pressed a glowing hand to the runes within it. His head bowed in concentration mumbling Aramaic to himself as he checked to make sure the wards were intact. He looked up with an even deeper scowl on his face, "This makes no sense whatsoever.” He squatted to look under the bed, finding the dream catcher intact and unharmed, still sparkling with power.
"These rooms are built specifically for Extras inhabitants taking into account any number of situations that may have placed them here.” He looked at Amanda's remains with a glimmer of pain in his eyes. "She was a fine woman and an even better Sentinel." He rolled his sign
et ring around his finger in circles as he talked.
"She came to me seeking a purpose with her life after Tristan left her to her own devices," he admitted. "She helped me police our people long before the Awakening. She deserved better than this."
I flinched against the pain in his voice, my personal time table for catching Tristan just got impossibly shorter. I knew he didn't believe that Tristan was responsible, but I knew differently. The quicker I brought him down the better. No one involved would have closure until that happened.
I moved to leave the room as more staff from Descantes' division came to do their jobs, but he caught me by the arm and pulled me into a corner. "I realize the higher ups decided to let the Charlotte CMS head the hunt since it's Tristan's home base, but I'm not going to rein my men in just because you're here.” He made eye contact with a short stocky Were standing behind me. The Were nodded and then left the room. He wasn't wasting any time putting teams on the street, and that wasn't necessarily a healthy thing. A bunch of half-cocked Sentinels emotionally charged over the loss of a fellow officer wasn't going to do this hunt any good.
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