by Rain Oxford
On the drive back to the coven, we discussed what we should do. “I get the feeling the hunters won’t stop unless they think she’s gone,” I said.
“If she really has killed hundreds of humans, we should hand her over to them and be done with it.”
“We would have to find proof, and so far, all we have is letters from Veronica,” Darwin said. “I don’t recognize the name, so she’s not infamous, but it could be that the rest of the paranormal world doesn’t know about it. Vampires used to be pariahs, so one of them is more likely to get away with that than another paranormal.”
“Even if she did do it, though, the woman whose head I was in was not a murderer of over a hundred people. At least, not that she remembers. She wouldn’t kill that many people unless they were trying to hurt her coven.”
“Are we discussing the morality of killing a woman who effectively has amnesia for possibly slaughtering humans?” Henry asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Killing her wouldn’t bring anyone back, and if she did kill them but won’t ever kill again, what’s the point?” Darwin asked. “I’d get it if we were trying to prevent her from killing, but punishing her for punishment’s sake doesn’t make much sense.”
“The entire situation doesn’t make sense,” Henry said. “Why would Veronica put her there and make her think she’s someone else, and then send vampire hunters after her?”
“Unless this is an elaborate distraction.”
“That’s a hell of a lot of work for someone to set up as a distraction,” Darwin said.
I flipped through the pages of people she supposedly murdered. Many of them were just names, dates, and addresses listed, while others were actual police files. It was a ton of work, but Veronica wasn’t necessarily the person who did it. She could have stolen the data or delegated someone else’s time.
“How are we going to find out if Nadia is really a killer or not?” Darwin asked.
“Believe it or not, before I became the curse-dodging, vision-seeing, elemental-pacifier, I was a private investigator.”
* * *
When we arrived at the coven, the vampires were out and about without fear of hunters. Marcus met us at the door and was excited to tell us about the new wolves that were being shipped over the next morning to help the shifters guard then during the day.
“We need to use your computer,” Darwin said rudely.
“Why? What happened to yours?”
“My computer is too far away, and the library’s not open at two in the morning.”
“We’re trying to find out if a particular vampire murdered hundreds of humans or not.”
“I’ve got books on vampire history.”
“Actually, what we need is to look at your registry,” I said. “Did you get that running again?”
“Yes, mostly. I’ve even improved it.”
“Good. I think I know who the wizard was and who they were trying to wipe from your registry.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know if she was a rogue or not, but her name is Nadia.”
“Nadia…?”
“I don’t know her last name.”
He shrugged. “At least it’s not super common. If you were looking for a ‘Britney’ or ‘Ashley’ without a last name, you’d be in for a long night.” He led us to his security room and logged into the computer.
“I’m gonna grab a laptop out of your room,” Darwin said. Marcus only nodded in acknowledgment. Darwin left.
Marcus logged onto the registry. At the top was a search bar and at the bottom were options to search by, like covens, age ranges, and charges. “I have this set to the United States. If we don’t find your killer, I’ll widen it to North America, but the data isn’t complete by any stretch of the imagination. It’ll take years to go worldwide.” He typed Nadia’s name into the search bar. Three results popped up. “Okay, we have one in our coven, one in Ryker’s coven in California, and a rogue.”
“Check the rogue,” I said.
He pulled it up. “Nadia Wilde was turned at age twenty in France. She had been found wandering the streets in 1520, injured and severely malnourished. They believed her parents were killed and she was almost feral after living on the streets for months. She was estimated to be around ten. Humans took her in and tried to care for her, but she kept breaking out and returning to the streets. In 1530, a vampire decided to turn her because she reminded him of his lost daughter. Her power immediately surpassed his, but she left France and disappeared.”
“That sounds like the kind of upbringing that can make someone a serial killer.”
He gave me a disapproving frown. “Most vampires born before the nineteen hundreds have a similar story. Life sucked for vampires throughout history.”
At that point, Darwin returned with a laptop and started doing his own searches.
“She resurfaced in 1910, but was driven away by the vampire coven master who ruled Alaska at the time. In 1967, she requested entry into Canada. She married a vampire coven master in 1970 and moved to England with him. She came here in 1992, without her husband, and lived in Washington as a rogue.”
“What month did she move to the United States?” Darwin asked.
“April, why?”
“In November, 1991, Frank Hammond was supposedly killed by Nadia. The paper says he was killed in 1992, but the obituary says otherwise.”
“So if this was the same Nadia, it couldn’t have been her. That doesn’t mean she didn’t kill any of these people, though. What about the other two?”
He backed up on the page. “That’s the cool thing. I told you I improved the database. I convinced coven leaders to send me pictures of their members. I don’t have any on rogues yet, but these other two aren’t rogues.” He pulled up the two other profiles and neither of them was Jillian.
“It’s got to be the first woman.”
“Found another one,” Darwin said. “Veronica claims Nadia was to blame for killing a family in 1996, but I remembered hearing about that family, and it was a shifter who killed them. A bear shifter.”
“Two cases don’t mean she’s not to blame for the others, but it’s looking more and more like she was set up. Again, that begs the question; why would Veronica put her here and then send hunters after her?”
“Maybe you should ask her,” Darwin suggested.
I considered it, wondering if I could recover Nadia’s real memories, and if so, if I should. There was more than her innocence at stake; she would remember being a captive of those hunters.
When did I become so concerned with hurting a vampire’s feelings? We already saved her life when we freed her from the hunters. However, if I was a murderer, I would want to know about it. If I was being framed for murder, I would want the opportunity to prove my innocence. “Let’s go break the news to Nadia that she’s not actually a mother and wife.”
“Huh?” Marcus asked.
“Oh, right. We forgot to mention that Jillian, Clara’s mother, is actually Nadia under a spell.”
* * *
We found Nadia and Stephen in Stephen’s favorite study, enjoying each other’s company. Nadia was reading a book to him while he tickled her feet in his lap. “Clara is at Drake’s club,” Stephen said when Henry, Darwin, Marcus, and I entered uninvited.
That was a polite “go away” if I’d ever heard one.
And suddenly, I changed my mind. Nadia’s wasn’t the only life on the line; Stephen and his daughter were convinced that she was Jillian. I couldn’t take that from them when I didn’t have all the facts. There had to be other ways to find out what I needed to know.
Henry, Darwin, and Marcus waited, confused, for me to burst the couple’s happy little bubble. With human cases, I never had to deal with this type of dilemma. If a person committed a crime, they knew about it, so I felt no remorse for busting them in public if I couldn’t do it in private.
“The hunters aren’t after vampires in general,” I finally said. “At least
, these hunters aren’t. They’re after a vampire in particular.”
They both stood, their quiet evening disrupted. Nadia’s face is the picture of innocence— the real kind. I was pretty good at recognizing fake emotions even without my intuition and mind reading because Regina always tried to emotionally manipulate me.
“Who are they after?” Stephen asked.
“A vampire who might have killed over a hundred people, but we have some doubts. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to figure out if she did or not yet because she… has amnesia.”
They both looked shocked at this. “How can a vampire have amnesia?” Nadia asked.
“Magic. Why she was cursed, I don’t know, but it gives me more reason to believe she was set up and never actually killed anyone.”
“Who is it?” Stephen asked. “If she’s in this coven, we should be able to verify whether she did it or not.”
“She’s not actually a member of your coven; she’s a rogue, but she thinks she’s a member and she’s been staying here at the mansion.”
“That makes no sense,” Stephen argues. “We would smell an outsider in our own home.”
“Her name is Nadia.” I was watching Nadia’s face for any sign of recognition.
In a split second, everything changed.
Instead of surprise on her face and acknowledgment in her eyes, her expression fell slack and her eyes faded to eerie, milky white. “Get away from her!” I shouted. I immediately tried to take over her mind, but just like when Veronica was controlling the mother, Nadia’s mind was blocked completely. Darwin and Henry fell back, not that they could have outrun a vampire if they tried. Marcus, confused but sensing danger, stepped forward.
We weren’t the focus of Veronica’s fury, though; she turned on Stephen and grabbed him by the throat. A vampire could crush a human or shifter’s throat in a second. Fortunately, Stephen was tougher than most. He grabbed her hand and with some effort, pried her fingers away. She didn’t react at all, even when I heard her bones snap.
“What is happening to her?” Stephen asked me, not retaliating. She reached for him with her other hand, but he grabbed that as well. When she tried to bite him, he pushed her backwards so that she fell over the desk, flipped her around, and restrained her.
“She’s being possessed by a psychotic bitch of a witch,” I explained.
“It’s bitchcraft.”
“We’re not calling it that!”
“Can we focus on the vampire who wants to kill us all?” Henry asked calmly.
“I’m going to get Werner,” Marcus said. “If you can handle her?” He was asking me.
Even though there was very little I could do to her if she got free of Stephen without my mind control, I nodded. I was frustrated. My intuition should have warned me that Veronica was about to attack, but it didn’t. As soon as he left, I drew my gun. “These are silver bullets.”
Stephen scowled. “You can’t shoot my wife because someone is possessing her!”
Instead of correcting him, I said, “Astrid survived silver bullets.”
“She has a strange immunity to silver and sunlight! Jillian doesn’t!” She was still struggling against him without a single care that I had bullets that could stop her. Then again, I doubted Veronica cared if Nadia died.
Marcus returned with another vampire. The man wore gloves and had a syringe with blood in it. “You really want me to put Jillian out?” he asked nervously, as if he was afraid Stephen would kill him if he tried to approach her.
“Yeah, she’s not in her right mind right now,” Marcus said.
Nadia was no longer thrashing against Stephen; she was now thrashing towards Marcus and Werner, clearly wanting to kill them as well. This was different than when Veronica made the mother crash into the Xterra.
Why? I got why Veronica would insert Nadia into Stephen’s life if she wanted to kill him. But why not do it when he was asleep in bed next to her? Why send humans after her? Is Veronica just throwing stones around and hoping that one shatters a window? Is this for the sake of causing chaos? Is it a distraction?
I had so many questions and no answers.
Marcus had to help Stephen hold Nadia still enough for Werner to safely inject her with the sedative. Fortunately, she passed out within a minute. Stephen set her in the chair, his body stiff with tension, which permeated the room.
“I don’t know what is really going on, but I want you to crush the woman who did this in every sense of the word. She has to suffer.”
“She will.”
* * *
For the safety of everyone in the coven, Nadia was taken to Maseré’s pack to be locked up until I could figure out why she was targeted. If she were locked up at the coven, Stephen or Clara would have caved and released her.
Henry, Darwin, and I were asked to leave and not return until Veronica was dealt with.
“I might have another possible lead,” I said when we got in the truck.
“What is it?” Darwin asked. He was rattled, probably imagining having to restrain and sedate Amelia.
“One of the kids reported missing, Ashton Carson, wasn’t under the school with the others. Maybe he’s working for Veronica, or maybe she has another stash of kids. We just have to find him, and I have an idea as to how.”
I called Dorian because Rocky was watching over Remy. Fortunately, Dorian was happy to help and eager to deliver a letter to Hunt. I figured Hunt would know Ashton’s address, or could get it.
A few minutes later, Dorian returned with an address written on the back of my letter. Hunt was the kind of man to write half a page of formalities and warnings, so the simplicity of the response told me that he was more worried about his daughter than I had initially thought.
Fortunately, the kid’s home wasn’t far.
Chapter 20
Sunday, December 4
I got a few hours of sleep on the drive and suggested I switch with Henry so he could as well, but he insisted that he was fine. I was in the passenger seat so that Darwin could recline in the back for a nap.
We arrived at Ashton’s house shortly after nine in the morning. The house was in good shape without being large or fancy. The neighborhood looked safe and kids were playing down the street. It was strange to think of a wizard living there because it was so average.
“Maybe I’m getting antisocial, but I don’t look forward to talking to the parents,” I said.
“No, bro. You’re just getting old and lazy,” Darwin said.
“Bite me.” I opened the door and got out.
Henry followed quickly, but Darwin couldn’t get out of the back. Henry smirked when Darwin could be heard bitching through the closed windows. “Child locks are wonderful.”
“I’m gonna kick your arse!”
“You act like a cub, you’ll be treated like one,” Henry responded easily. By the time we reached the door, Darwin had crawled into the front seat and exited through the passenger door.
I knocked and a distraught man answered. He was a middle-aged man with brown hair, hazel eyes, jeans, and a gray sweater. I sensed nothing sinister or supernatural about him. He fit into the neighborhood perfectly.
“Now is not a good time,” he said, already shutting the door in our face.
“We’re here to help find your son,” I interrupted. He stopped the door in its trajectory and threw it open instead.
“Are you serious? You can help us?”
“We can. I’m Devon, this is Henry and Darwin.”
“I’m Ashton’s father, Larry.”
“Can we talk?”
“Of course.” He stepped out of the doorway and gestured for us to enter. We did. The house was similar to the outside; modest, clean, and ordinary. “So, are you cops or what?”
“How much do you know about Ashton’s…” I trailed off for a moment, considering how to phrase the question to humans. “Have you ever noticed anything strange about him?”
“You mean that he’s a wizard?” the ma
n asked bluntly.
“Yes. How much do you know?”
“I know that my wife was seduced by a wizard. I don’t blame her… that freak made me leave her. I couldn’t…”
“I know.” That confirmed that I was right about Ashton.
“But I’ve never treated Ash wrong. I don’t care that it wasn’t my sperm that created Ash. I’m his father.”
I nodded. “That’s good. I have to ask, though… does he have any similarities to John?”
“You know the bastard who coerced my wife?”
I nodded. “Did he try to take Ashton when he was little?”
“Yeah. Ash was five. John came in and Shanna begged him not to hurt our son. He told us to go back to bed, that he would only take Ash if he was powerful enough. The next morning, Ash was still there… but there was something different about him. Although he said he didn’t remember seeing a strange man, he was sullen and would hardly eat. He hadn’t used magic before. Then, a few days later, I patted his shoulder and asked him to try his breakfast. He screamed at me to leave him alone and I did. I couldn’t stop myself.”
“Were you afraid of him?”
“For a few minutes… I guess. But he’s still my kid; I love him. I was afraid for him, not of him. Shanna and I sat him down and talked to him. We explained that he inherited magic and that he had to be very careful about what he said. He was excited at first, before he realized how serious it was. We had some slip-ups, but he’s such a kind-hearted kid.”
“So he didn’t develop magic until after John was alone with him,” Darwin mused. “Interesting.”
“We spent a few years looking into magic and found some wizards who explained that Ash’s power isn’t particularly normal for wizards, but that’s what he is. He showed some interest in practicing magic, so we got him a tutor. Ash has a lot of potential and can visualize things well, but he has pretty bad ADHD and couldn’t focus.”
“He might like illusion magic,” Darwin suggested.
