Shadow Hunted

by L. A. Johnson

  He turned back to face forward and kept an eye on the late-night traffic in front of them. “Slow down a little, I’d like to be in one piece when we get there so I can help you yell at the mages.” He glanced down. “Hey, Lydia. I’m serious this time, I think you should slow down.”

  “Don’t tell me how to drive,” she snapped.

  “It’s not me,” he said. “It’s the magic rock. Look, it turned green.”

  Lydia hit the brakes and pulled into a parking spot. “How long has it been like that?”

  “Just a few seconds,” he said.

  Lydia stared at it. It was glowing a bright green. A few minutes ago, she was sure it wouldn’t even work, but it might actually be on to something. “I guess I’ll have to wait a little while before I get to go yell at Kade,” she said.

  Zack nodded. “What do you think? Should we keep driving around or get out and continue on foot?”

  “I don’t know. I wish I knew what kind of range this thing has,” Lydia answered.

  “Well, in the whole car ride it only flashed yellow once. I think this means we’re close. I say we get out,” Zack said.

  Lydia looked around. They were in a trendy part of the downtown area. It was filled with closed boutiques and open restaurants and coffee bars. “What would an evil mage be doing out here? This place is yuppy central.”

  “Hiding in plain sight?” Zack asked out loud. “Either way, I say we walk a five-block perimeter around this area and see what pops.”

  Lydia grabbed the rock and got out of the car. “We might as well.” She had to admit, it was nice being out of the car. It was a beautiful night and there was a nice cool breeze. After a few minutes walking around with the bright, glowing rock, Lydia realized that she was attracting strange looks.

  They walked a couple of blocks in silence. “It’s still green,” Lydia noticed out loud. “It turned yellow a few times, but if the rock is correct, then we’re in the general area of the summoner.”

  “Summoner. That’s a funny word,” Zack said. “If you’d have asked me a few days ago what I’d be doing tonight, I’d have never imagined it would be this.”

  “Same,” Lydia said. “I don’t hang out with humans. Ever.”

  “Hey, what do you have against humans?” Zack asked. He stopped walking and turned to face her.

  She had to admit, he still looked pretty put together considering the day he had. His dark eyes flashed at her.

  “Because you’re the weirdest girl I’ve ever met, and I still like you.”

  Lydia thought about it for a moment and grinned at him. “You’re fairly unusual yourself. I’ve got to give you credit, you’ve been through a lot the last couple of days.” She took a step toward him. “And you’re braver than most of the supernatural guys I’ve met.”

  They were face to face now. His muscles showed through the tight tee shirt he was wearing, and his face had just the right combination of square jaw and manly stubble. He was also loyal and had saved her life, taking on a magical monster with his bare hands. That was kind of hot. She could honestly say there had never been a guy in her life, supernatural or otherwise, who had ever had the brass balls to do that.

  She took a step closer and toyed with the idea of kissing him. His dark brown eyes sparkled in the city lights. In fact, the closer she got to him the more she felt like something inside her was vibrating. No guy had ever had this effect on her. Maybe it was because she had magic now.

  Magic! She stopped staring at Zack to look down and check the magic rock. It was vibrating. Literally. She felt stupid for a moment for confusing the vibrating rock with her physical attraction to Zack.

  She cleared her throat. The moment was gone, and she decided to focus on the task at hand. “Look!” She showed Zack the rock, which was glowing a neon green now. “It’s super green and it’s vibrating.”

  Zack’s face fell when he realized that whatever moment they might have been having was gone. He recovered quickly, though. “Let me see.”

  She gave it to him.

  “Hey, it really is vibrating,” he said. “That’s so cool.”

  “I know. That has to be a good sign, right?” She looked around, but nothing seemed out of place. Right now, they were in front of a coffee bar called Latte Love. It had a heart-shaped coffee cup lid as a logo. That didn’t mean that the summoner was necessarily inside though. “I think we’re close. Let’s take a walk and see if we can narrow it down.”

  The two of them continued on down the street until they reached the next open business.

  “It stopped vibrating,” Zack said. “Let’s go back.”

  “Let me hold it,” Lydia said. He gave it to her, and they turned around and made their way past the coffee shop this time and kept walking. As soon as they passed the coffee shop, though, the rock stopped vibrating again. “It stopped again. The only place that it vibrates is right in front of that coffee shop. I think we have a winner.”

  Fifteen

  Lydia and Zack walked back and entered the coffee shop, where half a dozen patrons sat scattered around the lounge style seating. It was one of those cool places with old bookshelves and antique game boxes everywhere and comfortable looking old furniture to sit on.

  Half of the customers sat hunched over and pecking away on laptops, ignoring them completely. The others sat together chatting and sipping away. Lydia tried to look casual as she swerved toward each customer to see if anything popped with the magic rock. Nothing definitive happened, so she continued on to the bar to order herself some coffee. Might as well, she thought, it’ll look more natural if we try to blend in.

  She got to the front counter of the coffee bar and waited her turn behind a hipster couple. Nothing changed by the time she got to the front of the line, so she ordered a caramel mocha. Zack ordered a vanilla latte.

  There were no customers close enough to the counter to check the rock against. Lydia scouted out the place while waiting for them to call her name, trying to plot a route to a table that would bring them past as many of the remaining unchecked customers as possible. There was a path that would take her past every customer except one. It would have to do.

  Something was bothering her, though. This whole scavenger hunt had gotten fun in a hurry, but none of these people looked capable of being an evil mage. She stood there and wondered if the evil mage was human at all. Maybe he or she would transform into something crazy right here in the coffee bar upon being caught and kill them all. If he or she had the power to summon that soul sucker, what else did they have up their sleeve?

  “Lydia,” the barista called out, breaking her out of her worried inner monologue.

  “Thanks,” she said and waited for Zack to get his drink. They exchanged nervous eye contact. Then the barista handed him his drink. Lydia led the way, following the route she had mapped in her head, but nothing changed. The magic rock hadn’t pinged at any of the customers. They had no choice now, so they sat down at a table to figure out what to do next.

  Zack raised an eyebrow at her. “Nothing? It’s still vibrating, right?”

  She set the rock on the table. It was still glowing neon green. It looked like a very cool centerpiece. “Yes, it’s still vibrating, but nothing’s changed. We’ve been next to everybody in here, including the barista, except for one guy.”

  “You mean the guy in the back-left corner, right? Laptop, ironic non-prescription glasses, fifty-dollar haircut guy,” Zack said.

  Lydia was impressed. He did it all from memory since his back was currently to the guy in question. “That’s the one. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know, Lydia. If I had to guess, I’d say he doesn’t have an evil bone in his body. Certainly not enough to go full murderous supervillain.”

  Lydia drummed a finger on the table. “On appearances alone, I’d agree with you. But whatever happens, be careful, these things aren’t always what they seem.”

  “What’s the plan?” he asked.

  Lydia thought about
it while she took a sip of her coffee. It was good. “I’ll go over there and pretend to look at a book on the bookshelf behind him. If I think it’s him, then I’ll give you a signal and you come over and we’ll talk to him. If the rock isn’t sure, then I grab something off of the shelf and come back.”

  “That’ll work,” Zack said. “Be careful.”

  Lydia winked at him. “You know me.”

  “Yes, exactly. That’s why I said be careful,” he hissed at her, but she was already up and moving.

  She threaded her way through the coffee shop all the way over to the single table in question. It was a very conspicuous move. She held her breath hoping that it would pay off. As she got to his table, the glasses wearing evil mage suspect looked up at her. Hopefully, like he was about to hit on her. That’s when she knew, despite the fact that the magic rock was threatening to vibrate itself right out of her jacket pocket, that this whole situation wasn’t what it seemed. But there was no question that this was the guy.

  She continued walking past him to the bookshelf and tried to focus. The green light that the magic rock was now giving off made her skin look like an alien. She turned toward Zack and gave a thumbs up. Whether or not this guy was evil, the rock was sure it was him, so this was happening.

  Without a word, she sat down at the table with what the rock assumed was the evil mage and Zack quickly joined her.

  The evil mage looked confused and worried. He pushed his glasses up farther up his face and looked like he wanted to object, but he was scared. “Hey, who are you guys and what’s going on?”

  Zack pulled out his badge. “First things first. What’s your name, sir?”

  Lydia noticed that his cop voice and demeanor were, in fact, very intimidating. He must have been really dialing it back the night he barged into her apartment. And lucky for him, because he wouldn’t have lasted five minutes with the attitude he was giving off now.

  “I don’t have to tell you that,” he said. “I have rights.”

  Zack glanced at Lydia.

  “All right,” she said, “we’ll do this the hard way. I’m what you’d probably call a magical detective.” Ha, she thought, that leaves a lot of wiggle room as to what she was and was not. She wasn’t new to this. “I’ll get right to the point. We know that it was you who summoned the soul sucker. Do you know that it’s killed four people so far that we know of? Do you also know that you’re in very big trouble? Trouble with the police department,” she nodded at Zack, “and even worse, with the local magical authorities.”

  Zack rapped a finger on the wooden table. “Now you know what’s going on. I will have to see some identification.”

  “Ian,” he blurted out. “I’m Ian King.” He closed his laptop to stare at them.

  “Let me see some I.D., Ian,” Zack said.

  Ian looked warily from Zack to Lydia. “It’s not my fault.”

  “Then give him your I.D. and explain,” Lydia said. “Because we traced the spell and it led us straight to you. And unless you want to take the full magical and legal rap for four murders, you’d better talk.”

  He took out his wallet and pulled his driver’s license out. Then he handed it to Zack. He ran a hand nervously through his short, dark hair. “Look, I just wanted to be a part of the magical community. I’ve wanted it for years. I’ve read all the books and the online information. I’ve experimented at home, and I belong to the message groups. That’s how it all started. I got a message.”

  “From who?” Zack asked.

  “WizardRising,” Ian said. “I was on a local magical group message board. There are only a few hundred people on there. It’s usually a pretty safe place. I had never seen his user name before. Like I said, I got a direct message saying he recognized my talent and thought I had what it takes to get trained. I mean, that’s the holy grail, it’s what everybody wants.”

  Lydia winced. She knew that it was true. “What did this WizardRising want?”

  “He said he had a test. He said he’d drop off a document with a spell in it. If I performed the spell correctly, then he could guarantee that it would impress the local community and then they would train me.”

  Lydia looked to Zack and then to Ian. “You fell for that? I can guarantee you that the local mage organization is not thrilled with you and they’re not about to train a fledgling newbie who’s broken like, eighteen magical laws.”

  “Oh, yeah, WizardRising hates those guys. He said a competing organization was coming, an organization that would be impressed by dedication and guts. That organization would be the one that would train me. Not the useless old men enforcing millennia old laws.”

  Oh crap. Lydia found herself siding with the evil mage. At least in theory if not in practice. For a moment. But she still had a job to do.

  That’s when it hit her, the endgame of the evil mage behind all of this. She looked at Zack. “He’s going to start a dark mage order.” Her breath caught. It was unheard of. “That kind of thing would attract every weirdo in the country, if not beyond.” This was very bad. “You know that he would train you, but in dark magic, not acceptable magic?”

  “Yes,” Ian answered matter-of-factly. “In fact, this whole dark magic thing sounded much more exciting.”

  “Of course it did,” Lydia said, shaking her head. “Really exciting. Right up until the part where you get convicted of murder.”

  Zack glanced at Lydia. It was like he could see the wheels in her head turning and understood that this had gotten even more serious. “You said this guy WizardRising brought you a document? Did you see him? Can you give us a physical description?”

  “I don’t know, he dropped the spell document off at my front door while I was sleeping, so I didn’t actually meet him if that’s what you’re asking. I have one of those doorbell cameras. A cheap one. And it was dark. When I looked at it later, I’d say he was about six feet, average build. The picture was grainy, but it looked like he had a lot of facial hair. And a rugged beard. And he possibly had an axe in his hand.”

  “An axe?” Zack asked. “And a beard. Are you saying we’re looking for some weird Viking?”

  “I told you, I don’t know,” Ian said.

  “Look,” Lydia said, “the major trouble you’re in here could be mitigated, maybe, if we find this guy right now. Before anybody else gets killed. Do you know where he is? Is there a way you can contact him?”

  “Oh yeah,” Zack said. “Do you have an address or a cellphone number we could track?”

  Ian shook his head. “I have the document he gave me and his username. That’s it.”

  “Username!” Lydia said. “Send him a message. Tell him you did what he told you to do and that now you want to meet.”

  Ian looked scared, but he opened his laptop. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea.”

  “You should have thought about that before you summoned a magical creature that went on a murder spree,” Zack said.

  Ian’s face turned white as a sheet of paper. He looked like he would cry. Suddenly everything was too quiet, and that’s when Lydia looked around and realized that they had attracted more attention than they wanted. She swore under her breath, she’d have to keep her voice down from now on.

  “It’s okay,” Lydia said looking around and making eye contact with the other patrons, “we’re just catching up. We’re in a yoga class together.”

  “I have his account up on my laptop. What do you want me to say?” Ian asked.

  “Say you were successful in your first task and you want to meet to discuss the future,” Zack answered.

  “Why would I demand a meeting in the middle of the night to discuss the future?” Ian asked. “Especially if this guy is dangerous, like you say?”

  Ian had a point. Lydia tried to think. What does this guy want? She took another sip of her coffee. “You’re going to have to tell him he has problems. That you’re on his team and wanted to give him a heads up that the local pain-in-the-ass mages traced the soul sucker bac
k to you and now you don’t know what to do. Tell him you have to meet in person. Right now.”

  Zack’s eyes got wide. “There’s a lot of risk in that plan. He will think it’s a trap.”

  Lydia drummed her fingers on the table. “It’s all we’ve got. He’ll probably check it out even if he suspects it’s a trap. It’s an opportunity.”

  “Oh no,” Ian said. “I’m not going full rat against a dark mage who’s already committed murder.”

  “Technically, you’re the dark mage who has committed murder, not him,” Zack corrected.

  Ian buried his head in his hands. “For the record, I had no idea what I was getting into when I accepted the task. Who knows what a soul sucker is anyway? I assumed it was a Halloween prank that would help me get an introduction to respectable dark mages.”

  “Breathe, Ian,” Lydia said. “I know the head of the mage order personally. If you send this message for us, it’ll show that you’re on the right team here, and I’ll put in a good word for you.” The words were all true, but she purposely didn’t mention the fact that Kade was a jerk who wouldn’t give him a chance no matter what he did. Besides, if Kade turned around and gave this guy a second chance after turning her down, she’d punch him in the face. But none of that mattered now. “And you don’t have to come with us to the meeting, Ian. You just set it up and Zack and I will take care of the rest.”

  “You promise? And I don’t have to go anywhere?” he asked. The poor guy looked hopeful again. It was clear that he really didn’t have a clue how any of this worked.

  “I promise,” she said.

  The promise and him not having to go and confront the evil mage himself seemed to put him more at ease. He typed out his message to the mysterious WizardRising. Then he turned his laptop so that Zack and Lydia could see the message before hitting send. That done, it was time to wait.

  “I’ll need your contact information,” Zack said to Ian. “I also need you to send me a copy of the surveillance footage. Oh yeah, and I’m going to need the document with the spell on it.”