by Peter Glenn
But only for a moment.
Nah, basic thievery was the name of the game today. I wasn’t proud of it, but I knew how to get into cars and start them up without the keys. And the lot had remarkably few security cameras, so it seemed like the more expedient option. Besides, this was Canada. If I left a nice enough note, they might apologize for making me steal the car in the first place.
Okay, probably not, but I made a note to be sure I paid them back after Mei’s dad paid me for the job. And it’s not like I was going to keep the car. I’d return it as soon as we were done with it. All in all, it seemed like a fair exchange.
I slipped a small piece of metal out of my pocket and slid it down the window of a nearby economy car. It wasn’t anything special, but I could see through the driver’s side window that it had a full tank of gas, and now that neither Rick nor I had much money to work with, having a full gas tank was quite the nice feature.
A minute or so later, I had the door open. I slipped into the driver’s seat and, much to my amazement, a pair of car keys were hidden under the driver’s side visor.
I could barely believe my luck, but then as I’ve been telling you all this whole time, I’m an extremely lucky fellow. It comes in handy sometimes. When it’s not annoying for saving my life, of course.
Anyway, I took a quick look around the place to make sure no one was watching and turned the key in the ignition. The engine purred, and the vehicle flared to life. I breathed a small sigh of relief that everything was in working order and went to go collect Rick.
When I found him, he was calling someone on his phone and speaking with them in a rather irate tone. I didn’t catch all of the conversation, but it sounded like he was trying to get a replacement for something sent out to him. Probably a replacement card, since he’d left his in the USA.
Of course, how they’d know where to send it I had no idea, but that wasn’t really my problem.
“Care for a ride, stranger?” I said, lowering the passenger window and giving him a wink.
Rick rolled his eyes and climbed into the car without saying anything, and we peeled off.
Believe it or not, I was a halfway decent driver. I’d driven before for certain jobs on multiple occasions over the years. I wasn’t overly fond of it, but I understood the basics of how it all worked. I just avoided it, because I didn’t have a license. But neither did Rick, now, so I guess that didn’t matter so much. We’d just better hope the cops didn’t pull us over. I’d never dealt with the Canadian authorities, but I couldn’t imagine them being much nicer than their American counterparts.
A moment later, Rick hung up his phone and growled, then jammed it back in his pocket.
“Something wrong?” I asked. At the same time, I stole a glance out the rearview window to see if anyone was following us out of the lot. No one was. Another spot of luck.
“Ugh,” Rick scowled. “My stupid bank. How hard is it to cancel your card and get a replacement sent?”
“Dunno.” I shrugged. “But it’s all right. We’ll be back in the USA before you know it, and then you and your card will be reunited.”
“I hope so,” Rick muttered. “If those psycho gate guards don’t find us and kill us first.”
“Now you’re thinking positively,” I told him with a smirk, pinching his cheek. It didn’t have the intended effect, and he just glowered at me instead.
I looked him up and down. Rick’s usually stony, grumbly appearance had been replaced with someone looking haggard and worried. In fairness, an awful lot had happened to him in the past day or so. If I’d been in his shoes, I’d probably be confused and upset, too.
“Hey, we got past them once, we can do it again. Promise.”
That seemed to cheer him up a little bit. At the very least, he dropped the glower and stared out the window instead.
“Maybe some food would cheer you up?” I asked. “I still have those-”
“Not the eclairs again!” Rick spat.
I flinched. “Okay, okay. Got it. We’ll bring up food later, after our business here is concluded.”
Rick shook his head a few times and continued staring out the window, doing his best to avoid eye contact with me, so I let him be.
After several minutes of driving, he finally spoke again. “So where are we going, exactly? You’d mentioned it was south of Vancouver, BC, but not where or why.”
“It’s a little place on the outskirts of Surrey, to be precise,” I said.
The road sign up ahead said we were about twenty-five kilometers from Surrey. Nice. Not too much longer, then.
“And just what are we going to find in this little place in Surrey? Another of your ‘dragon’ friends?”
“Tch. No.”
I’m not sure why, but his derisiveness made me feel a bit more defensive than usual this time. After all that had happened in the past few days - being chased by mythical dogs, seeing the dead come back to life - I thought by now, his opinion on magic and the supernatural would have changed. Guess not.
Oh well, our next stop should change that up real quick.
“This may come as a surprise to you, but there’s a lot more in the world out there than your science and archaeology would have you believe,” I told him, giving him an icy stare.
“Whatever.” Rick rolled his eyes and then looked out the window. “Just drive, I guess.”
The rest of the trip passed by in silence. I thought I heard Rick snore for a second at one point, but the noise was gone as soon as it came. I made a right turn onto a small, one-lane road and finally spotted our destination. It was a humble-looking house with faded blue paint and a white, metallic door that looked to be barely hanging onto the hinges. It had a porch with a swing on it that had seen better days, and one of the steps leading up to the door had half a board missing.
Not much to look at, I supposed, but it was the place.
“Here?” Rick sneered. “We’re going here?” He had his typical haughty expression on his face. “We came all the way to Canada just to visit a ramshackle house in the suburbs? Typical.”
“Yes here,” I fired back. I wanted to punch him, but that wouldn’t do either of us any good, so I bit my lip instead. “I know it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the owner is a nice lady. And our only real option at finding Mei for the moment.”
Rick folded his arms and looked away. “This is so not worth the money you owe me.”
I shrugged again and opened my door. “You’re welcome to wait in the car if you want.”
Rick’s eyes darted about for a moment, and he threw his hands up in the air. “No, I’ll come with you. I want to see what all the fuss is about.”
I figured it was more he didn’t like the look of the neighborhood. There were other houses on the street, but if anything, they were more rundown than the one I’d pulled up to. It struck me then that Rick probably didn’t hang out in the poorer parts of his hometown - or any town, for that matter - very much. He seemed like the type that grew up in relative luxury.
I had, too, for the record, but I’d been barely scraping by for several decades now, so I was used to the overall dirt and grime of the poorer areas.
As I left the car, my eyes darted to Grax’thor and my katana. I instinctively wanted to grab them, but I shouldn’t need them. Not while I was with her, at least. The mage we were seeing was good people. She was safe. We’d be safe. So I left them in the car and shut and locked the doors, then turned and headed toward the house.
There was a small buzzer next to the large metallic door and I pressed it gently. I could hear a series of nice chimes echo through the house. Nothing happened, so after twenty seconds or so, I pressed the button again.
“No one home?” Rick asked. “Your ‘dragon’ friends abandon you?”
Seriously, he had to get over that one. Not everyone I worked with was a dragon.
“Come in,” a lovely voice said a moment later. “The door is unlocked.”
I gave the hand
le a turn and the door opened easily enough. “Not so fake now, is she?” I said smugly.
The two of us entered the house with me in the lead. The interior was a little dark, but I spied a light coming from the next room, beckoning us onward. I took great care not to touch anything in the drawing room, telling Rick to do the same and making a big path around the rather ornate, paisley couch that took up half of the space in there.
What greeted us in the next room made me smile. A rather petite female sat at a small circular table in the center of the room. She was dressed from head to toe in a shimmery black dress that covered most of her body and fit her well, but still left plenty to the imagination. Many would have called it plain, but I thought it fit her well. Her pale, freckled face stood out against the fabric, accentuated by tousled black hair that fell down well past her shoulders and matched the color of her dress.
On top of the table in front of her stood a small, black cauldron that was straight out of a movie set, with some sort of thin, white smoke billowing out of it.
“Have a seat, please, you two,” the woman said, pointing to two plush chairs on the opposite side of her.
“Sheila! How nice to see you again,” I said, flashing her a grin and taking my seat.
“Nice to see you, too, Damian.” She smiled back at me, and I could see a row of white, slightly offset teeth in her otherwise normal mouth. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” She pointed with one bony finger toward Rick, who was leaning up against a wall with his arms folded over him.
“Oh, him?” I chuckled. “That’s the great Richard Veinne. Though I call him Rick. We’re best buds, aren’t we?”
Rick could barely contain his laughter, but he managed to choke it down and hold out a hand toward our hostess. “Nice to meet you, Sheila.”
Sheila shook his hand and a strange look passed over her face for just a moment, then it was gone. “The pleasure is all mine,” she said.
“And what do you do, exactly?” Rick asked.
I shot him an icy glare. “Rick! That’s not any way to greet a lady!”
“It’s okay,” Sheila said, suppressing a chuckle. “I’m a blood mage. I work magic through blood offerings.”
“A... blood mage?” Rick’s distaste for the words was plain on his face, but he didn’t seem as disgusted by the idea as I thought he would be. “I bet you’re fun at parties.”
There’s the Rick I’d come to know and love.
“Now, now, Rick. At least let’s see what she can tell us before you mock her,” I insisted.
Rick rolled his eyes and sighed, but he nodded his head and finally took a seat.
“Thank you, Richard,” Sheila said. She stared straight into Rick’s eyes. “But first, there’s the small matter of payment, eh?”
Rick cleared his throat. “Umm, we kind of lost our-”
“She doesn’t want money,” I told him, interrupting. “She wants our blood. You know? Blood magic? That’s how it operates.”
“Our b-b-blood?” Rick stared down at his fingers and then up at a small device Sheila was holding in her hand. His face went ashen.
“It’s not as bad as all that,” I said. “She only needs a droplet or two to make it all work. It’s just like getting your finger pricked at the doctor’s office.”
Sheila nodded and a wide smile crossed her lips. “It’s like Damian said. Just a small droplet of blood will do the trick.”
She pressed the device to her finger, and I heard a small clicking noise, then she removed the device and a tiny droplet of blood showed on the tip of her finger. She placed the finger over the cauldron and squeezed until the droplet fell into the smoke and hissed.
“See? Just like that, eh?”
Rick’s face was still lifeless, and his eyes hadn’t so much as blinked the whole time. It was kind of funny to watch.
I offered her my finger next. “Don’t worry, I can be brave.” I flashed Rick a toothy grin and nudged his shoulder, which finally got him to break his concentration. A moment later, my blood was swirling in the cauldron with Sheila’s.
“Come on, Rick,” I urged. “It’s just a tiny prick.”
“O-okay,” he stammered.
He gingerly held out his finger to Sheila. It was shaking something fierce, so Sheila put her hand over his and whispered a few soothing words. Rick seemed to calm down considerably as she spoke.
“Ow!” he said as the hidden needle did its work. But the deed was done. His blood had been collected, too.
Sheila grinned at both of us. “Now that that’s settled, there’s the other matter, too, eh? You haven’t forgotten our deal, have you Damian?”
“Me? Forget?” I waved a hand dismissively. “Psh. Of course not!”
I pulled out the plastic box with the eclairs in them. “They were a little better a few hours ago, but here you go. Chocolate eclairs. Your favorite.”
Sheila’s face lit up and she hastily grabbed the box. “Are these from Hot Babe’s Goods in Seattle?”
“The one and only.”
“Oh, Damian. I never could resist a good eclair.”
I shot Rick a knowing glance. “See? Told you they were important.”
Rick just huffed and crossed his arms.
Sheila opened the box and picked up one of the treats.
“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you,” Rick said. “It’s been out in the sun for hours.”
“Oh, that’s nothing a little magic won’t fix,” Sheila chided him.
She held out one bony finger and whispered something unintelligible, then a small icy blast shot from her fingertip, enveloping the eclair and cooling it and the room down several degrees. Greedily, she shoved a bite in her mouth, eating half of it in one go.
“Mmm,” she said. “Just as good as I remembered.”
Rick sat there watching the whole thing with his mouth ajar. It seemed he was finally starting to relent on this whole magic thing. Or at least one could hope that was the case.
“Now,” Sheila said once she’d finished eating. “What brought you two here today? Want to find out about your futures, eh?”
“A fortune teller?” Rick spat. He huffed and shot me an icy glare. “Don’t tell me you came all the way out here just to find out about your love life.”
I reared back a bit. “Me? Heck no. I haven’t cared about my love life in years. I’m so over all that stuff.”
“For now, at least,” Sheila added cryptically. “But in a few months, well…” she gave me a wry grin.
This time, it was my turn to stare with mouth agape. What was that supposed to mean? I gave up the whole relationship thing ages ago. It was too hard to love someone only to know they’d die, and you’d live on. I really had no interest in pursuing another relationship.
Besides, I’d come here on a specific mission, and it had nothing to do with getting in the sack. I had a friend to save, and just under two days to do it in.
I shook my head to clear it. “No, Sheila, it has nothing to do with all that.” I shifted in the chair a little, suddenly feeling hot. “It’s my friend. Mei Wong. She’s been kidnapped, and we’re trying to find her. We think it might have something to do with a sect of ancient Celtic warriors.”
Sheila’s eyes narrowed and she side-eyed me. “That’s awfully specific, eh? Mind telling me why you think that?”
“Well…” I pulled on the collar of my t-shirt a little. The place was feeling really stuffy all of a sudden.
I took a deep breath and related the whole sordid tale to her, starting with Mei’s kidnapping, then finding Rick, and finally the harrowing journey up here, leaving no detail out. Sheila’s eyes widened a few times during the story, but she said nothing.
“Just show him the cloth I found, Rick,” I finished, nudging him on the shoulder.
“What? Oh, yeah.” He rummaged around in his pockets for a second and pulled out a piece of purplish cloth. “It’s this here. It’s a piece of cloth that Damian ‘found’ on one of the ki
dnappers, supposedly. It says ‘to all who honor our queen, great rewards await you in this life eternal’ on the front. There’s more on the back. Something about binding souls together, but I haven’t been able to finish deciphering it yet.”
Sheila took the cloth from Rick’s outstretched hand. “Hmm,” she said, rubbing her chin with her free hand while she studied it. “A curious find, indeed.” She fingered the fabric a few times. “What’s this dark spot down here, eh? Blood?”
“Yeah. It’s from one of Mei’s kidnappers,” I said. Rick shot me a glare.
“Ah, that’ll help quite a bit,” Sheila said. She held the cloth over the cauldron and started to lower it into the liquid.
“Wait!” Rick cried, bolting from his chair. “You’ll ruin it!”
I was shocked. I’d never seen Rick care about anything as much as he cared about that tiny bit of cloth he’d practically begged me to take back last night. What was up with him?
“Tsk tsk,” Sheila said, wagging a finger in the air. “It’s only water and blood, deary. It won’t hurt the cloth nothing.”
“Okay. If you’re sure,” Rick said slowly. He sat back down but didn’t take his eyes off her.
“I know my job, dears. Now let me do my work, eh?”
Sheila placed the bit of cloth into the cauldron and swirled it around a bit. A moment later, she took it back out and placed it on the table next to it. Even from a slight distance, I could see that the bloodstain in the corner was now gone.
The cauldron started to hiss and bubble as Sheila’s fingers twirled above the smoky water. I stole a glance over at Rick, who was watching the whole thing, mesmerized.
Sheila muttered a few more words and the liquid swirled and shifted, the colors changing and the water going still a moment later as it formed the face of Mei on top of the waters. It was like staring down at a portrait, the image was so clear.
And she was in pain. Or at least, it looked like she was. Certainly, wherever she was, she wasn’t happy to be there. Her eyes were practically glued shut and her jaw was clenched. Beads of sweat swamped her forehead.
My heart went out to her sitting there, in torment. I needed to find her, and fast.
