by Mel Todd
"And the agent acting all charming is Chris Jones. Pattern archmage. My database specialist and he's the one that will reconstruct things, at least normally." Alixant's voice had a sour note to it but rather than get offended or upset, Chris shrugged.
"I can only work with what I have and the perp in this situation isn't giving me much. Nice to meet you, Cori." He smiled, completely relaxed and almost Zen-like. It was both attractive and repelling, considering how wired I was.
This time I shook his hand, but still wasn't sure about any of this. But the last agent grinning at me was not what I expected. Yes, she had on dark slacks, and a white shirt - but that was the extent of any agenty thing about her. Her slacks looked like yoga slacks and they hugged her tight. The white shirt was open and revealed a blood red camisole and tattoos along the top of her breasts, or at least the hints of tattoos. Her long black hair was twisted on top held by a pencil, while the piercings in her eyebrow, lip, and ears were all titanium and reflected back the rainbow at me. But her grin and wild make up, cat eyes, emerald eyeshadow, and lips painted bruise purple, ensured she was the only one I even found anything in common with. At barely five feet tall, all the men towered over her. Asian features didn't tell me anything. While Atlanta had a large Korean population, I didn't think she was Korean, but who knew.
"And this is Agent Kajsiab Siong, a Non-organic wizard and my forensics specialist, currently becoming an expert in ritual magic. Also someone who needs to pay attention to the dress code."
The woman all but bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. "Ignore him. I'm Siab, well really Kajsiab, but everyone calls me Siab. It means peace but trust me, I'm not peaceful. And before you ask, no I'm not Chinese, I'm Hmong, and don't ever tell my mom anything. That woman makes tiger mom's look like sloths. So, I need to ask you questions about all the scenes and try to add them into the database I'm creating. We don't really understand ritual magic yet and I'm thinking the information we are gathering here will be enough for my PhD. But you never can tell when something more interesting might come along. Or maybe I'll get two. That might make Mom slow down for a minute. So, how are you? Are you a full agent or what?"
"Merlin's balls, Siab. How much caffeine did you have today?" Alixant’s voice was a growl but I noted other than his snide comment about her clothes, he didn't say much. That meant I could wear whatever I wanted. Score. I'd take what victories I could get.
"Ooh, yes. More caffeine. What a good idea." She sprung away from us heading to a pod coffeemaker on the counter. I almost protested the horror of having such a thing but managed to bite off the protest. If I stayed here long, I'd have to bring in a French press or something decent. Pod coffee was colored water as far as I was concerned.
"Steven, she hasn't gone home. As far as we can tell she's been here since yesterday morning," Niall said, his voice expressing annoyance and maybe if I listened carefully, a touch of concern.
I followed her with my eyes and scanned her again. But if that was what she looked like after a day of working, I was always going to be the frump in the group.
Oh well. At least I don't have to worry about being the only caffeine addict here. She'll probably love me for my coffee alone.
Making the best of a bad situation, I turned to Alixant. There was no way I would ever call him by his first name. Even thinking it hurt, so I avoided it.
"Agent Alixant. You want to tell them the rest? And maybe convince New York boy here that I'm not a Ronin about to go on a rampage? Or at least convince him I'm not a draft dodger?"
He sat down at the conference table and glared at all of us. "We have a killer to catch. You want to deal with all these non-essentials? We don't have time."
"If you want us to actually be able to work together, I'd think it's worth the time. Don't they teach you anything about teams and interpersonal relationships in the FBI?"
I'd had two entire sessions in my various courses, one focusing on teamwork, and how important it is to connect with people on the human level. Without it you tended to dismiss or overlook others. In situations where lives were on the line, it was as important as anything. While this wasn't triage, it mattered. It was one of the reasons I'd been so frustrated at Ruby. Besides, if it annoyed him, it added an extra layer of attraction to it.
"Fine. Take seats, people. Let's get this over with so we can move onto important stuff."
I gave him a look at the implication this wasn't important, but he didn't notice, already typing on a laptop and bringing up things on the wall screen. Siab came on over, holding a cup of something hot. I refused to give it the appellation of coffee. The other two sat on the other end of the table from where I had taken a seat. Looking at all the shiny equipment and tech, I wondered how much of it would go up in smoke. Then I remembered about my lack of a Murphy's curse.
Huh, maybe phones and computers won't be as fragile as they have been. It would be nice to get a new one.
That idea got filed—pay would be an issue again and I didn't want to spend anything until things stabilized. Even thinking about another four years, or more, of school made me want to cry. None of that mattered now, I would just focus on the present and then move on. Nothing else I could do.
"As far as we can tell, Cori emerged a few days before her twelfth birthday. Most likely triggered by the death of her brother, so she had no idea she emerged. What is fascinating though, other than the fact it steered her into being involved with both of the cases so far, is she had a self-created and fueled Murphy's Curse and Lady Luck cloaked around her all the time. It seemed to have been an unconscious creation and was then managed the same way. While it is evident she had no involvement with the murders, she is still the only Spirit Merlin on this coast and I expect her to assist in finding this madman"—he nodded giving me a sardonic smile—"or madwoman and stopping them."
All three of the agents looked at me and I fought not to shrink back. I channeled it into a smirk and looked at Niall. "So, no I didn't think I was a mage and I had no desire or intent to draft dodge. I just didn't realize I had emerged, much less that I was doing magic at all." I kept the rescue of the patient to myself. No need to confuse the issue.
"Huh. We'll see," he muttered, crossing his arms, but at least the glare had dialed back a notch. Siab looked like she was about to explode with questions, but Alixant cut her off.
"Now to the stuff that matters." The images on the screen stabilized and I looked at the girl I'd found and one of the other victims from the Olympic Park. They still looked like nightmare fodder but after the redrum ball, they couldn't even phase me. At least I hadn't killed these, vicariously at least.
"I know what you have been working on, but right now we are still nowhere. Victim one. Jane Tanner, and apparently we have Cori to thank for getting her identified also." Something heavy was in his voice I didn't understand.
He must have seen my funny look, because he continued. "It was your suggestion." My face must have still shown something, because I didn't know what he was talking about. Alixant heaved a sigh of exasperation as if he was dealing with morons. Whatever my look had been, it changed to a glare as I moved over and took the seat farthest from him. He pretended not to notice, but he did expand. "You suggested they check the OMO databases since even hedgemages are registered if they test. They found her. One Jane Tanner. Pattern hedgemage. Enough so that she'd been doing well playing solitaire and putting together puzzles. I've received word that so far, all victims found at the Olympic Park were also mages." He turned and pointed to an image on the screen, a picture of where all the bodies were found.
Before he could start talking, I interrupted. "How many of the victims lived?" This froze the room and he looked back at me. "Eight are still alive, but it has been verified all of them are in a vegetative state. Next of kin are being contacted and they will most likely be harvested."
If possible, an even greater pall settled over the room, but my mind raced. That comment set off a lot of other ideas. "Are you sure ritual magic is be
ing performed?"
I remembered the weird waves in the sky, but that didn't mean anything. I'd also seen one, I thought, when Elsba was hunting.
Siab piped up, "Oh, ye-"
"Stop." Alixant's voice cut her off and she stopped like someone had hit the pause button. She didn't look intimidated, more resigned. With a quirk of her mouth, she leaned back and waited. Alixant turned to look at me. "What are you thinking?"
I resisted the urge to shift in my seat as his gray eyes locked on me. "The manner in which they were controlled. I haven't seen the med reports or anything, but from what I heard before I was so rudely dragged off" —I paused to glare at Niall and Chris. They both just shrugged and seemed unaffected. I needed to ramp up my glare ferocity—"they were all disabled in a way that preserved body functions for a decent amount of time but destroyed upper cognitive abilities, I THINK." I stressed that. "I don't know, but if that is the case, what if this is all a massive cover-up to get someone an organ that they are on the transplant list for?"
Alixant whistled and leaned back. "That is quite a theory. Got anything more to go on?"
I shrugged. "I don't know that it is anything to go on. I don't know if the puncture wounds damaged organs or how many were donors. Just that one thought struck me because of a comment. Some specific organs are always hard to get and it's darn near impossible to game the system. But if you flood it with organs, even someone low on the list might get one."
"Chris, put it on your list. I want blood types, donor status, and who all the organs go to."
I expected protestations. The donor list was supposed to be confidential information, but he just nodded and started typing on the computer in front of him. All of them seemed to have, or have brought, a laptop with them and were clicking as we talked. Once more I felt like a complete outsider and I fiddled with my coffee mug. At this rate I'd need more just to give myself something to do.
"Then if we're ready to pay attention." Alixant pointed to the screen. It was a high shot, maybe from a chopper or from a nearby building, showing all the black-covered bodies or outlines of the ones we had taken. The five Olympic rings were obvious, but I couldn't not see the bodies. It kept distracting me. I had no idea what he thought we would see. "At this time there isn't an obvious layout. Ritual magic, contrary to folklore, seems to be more based on what the person doing the ritual regards as important. Numbers, patterns, all of it can vary from person to person, but for the most part you have to get university training to get the basics."
"No, you don't." The words slipped out of my mouth and they all looked at me again.
At this rate, I'm going to get burned to a crisp by all the people staring at me.
"Yes, you do," Alixant said slowly. "To get access to training and ritual magic, much less how to use it, you must be enrolled in a university program and be in your senior year or your graduate program."
"Okay, maybe. But all the books are in the university library. While you aren't allowed to buy most of them online—they ask for your mage registration ID if you try—you can easily read them at the library or you can just check them out." There were some things that were considered restricted information, like with porn you had to be eighteen. Well, for magic texts you needed to provide a mage ID, but no one looked that carefully.
"That requires you to be registered at the university."
I wanted to roll my eyes. I'm not sure how I didn't. "For anything. You can be taking classes part-time and get a library card, or you know, borrow your roommate’s? Most of the time you're using the self-checkout anyhow. I'm just saying if you wanted to learn ritual magic, it wouldn't be that hard to teach yourself. Or if you had a mage friend or relative, get them to buy you the books."
"There are days when I overthink things too much." Alixant actually sounded exasperated with himself. I didn't know if that was good or bad. "I was so sure it had to be a trained mage that it never occurred to me they could have taught themselves. That makes our job a hell of a lot harder."
Because I was curious, I asked my questions about the marks. "Did you verify the symbols being carved into their chests?"
"Yes. They were the three main mage symbols, but done roughly, with no detail to them. All of the twenty-seven people had the symbols," he replied as he started bringing up the images of all the victims. It hurt to see them there. One image of them alive and happy, the other right next to it their dead, or as-good-as-dead face.
"What about Jane? What did she have on her?" I rolled the girl's name around in my mind. So simple and short, just like her life.
"Chaos. We still don't know why, as we didn't find any other symbols anywhere else," Niall answered, still snarky. "Unless you destroyed them when you found the body."
"I don't touch crime scenes and I never went closer than five feet. Either they weren't there, or you missed them," I snapped back, annoyed already. I took another mouthful of coffee to try to keep myself from doing something truly stupid, like braining him with it.
"Enough. Niall, give it a break. Even the Psychic mage said she had no idea she'd emerged, much less at twelve. Cori, I believe you. We are all just a bit on edge and the pressure we are getting is high to solve this."
"What about the other murders?" I don't know why I asked that, but once again everyone looked at me.
"What other murders?" Alixant asked the question slowly, almost like he was scared of what I might say.
I shrank back a bit but pushed on. Laurel had told me I had a good instinct for this work. Since I was now in it, why ignore what I felt or thought? "Look, numbers in ritual magic mean patterns. You can't go from one to twenty-seven, it doesn't make sense. There should be a three or a nine or something. That jump makes no sense. If one wasn't powerful enough, why would you instantly jump to twenty-seven?"
It seemed reasonable to me, but they just looked at me and I wondered how much of an idiot I'd just proved myself to be.
"She's right. It's what's been bugging me. There has to be more," Chris said slowly. "There is no pattern. That's why I can't put it together."
"And one to three to nine to twenty-seven would make sense. Lots of ritual on threes jive with human understanding," Siab put in, her eyes sparking as she leaned forward. "But the bad thing is the next number would be eighty-one."
Alixant growled looking at them. "We should have come up with this. Why is this newbie the one seeing the obvious?"
"Oh, that I can answer. Our heads are so full of patterns and previous cases, we have it all cluttered with everything that has happened before. Right now, on the surface this looks like that Zodiac case from the seventies, where the archmage wanted to ascend to merlin, so he was draining high ranking mages. Doing them in patterns in the golden gate park. It didn't work, so no one ever repeated it."
"Or even the Strangler in New York, killing any mage higher than he due to jealousy issues until he was caught," Niall said. "We're seeing stuff from other cases in this one, and she isn't." He half smirked at me. "I'm assuming you aren't a serial killer junkie?"
"Umm, no. Ask me about weird diseases or strange ways to die, exotic poisons, I'll probably know. But serial killers, not so much."
Alixant looked at us and shrugged. "Okay, Cori—what do you see?" He enlarged the scene of the Olympic park, so it took up the wall in horrific detail.
Chapter 20
Ritual magic is still regarded as something crones or herbies use, not real mages. While no one can deny some of the crones who've spent a lifetime supplementing their magic with herbs can use their rituals improve their power, their ability to teach has been limited. When it does work, the mage has created a ritual that is personal in every sense of the word, and even then the success of ritual magic is low. ~ Magic Explained
I really wanted to say “nothing” because that was the answer, but something niggled at the back of my mind. I saw the image of us carting away a victim, the red seeping through, and the two angry ripples in the air, like bulges almost about to tear but not
quite. There was something about the bodies.
"Did you move any of the bodies before we, the medical responders, showed up?" I turned and looked at Alixant.
"A few were turned over to check for life, but that’s about it." He had focused on me again and I wanted to squirm.
"The positions they’re in are odd. Most bodies I've seen, where the person drops dead, are more straight, often on their backs. These? The people all crumpled on the ground, like puppets with their strings cut. They weren't even all on their backs. Were the cuts done while they lay down or while they were standing?" I went over the wounds in my head again. I'd have to talk to a doctor to be sure but most of them that I'd treated seemed to have an upward tilt to them, like someone driving the blade up. The images flashed back and forth as I pondered it.
Coming out of my fugue state I blurted, "Do you have the ME reports yet?" I wasn't a doctor, but the medical examiner's report would tell me a lot about the wounds.
Alixant arched a brow at me and I realized I'd interrupted a discussion between him and Niall. I fought back embarrassment. I really hadn't noticed they were talking, caught up in my own little world.
"No. Should get it by Tuesday."
I nodded and sank back. I couldn't think of anything else. There had to be other murders, and I knew some medical stuff. My so-called merlin status didn't seem to do me any good but I didn't know what else to do. I closed my eyes and wanted to be back at Ruby, no matter how they treated me. At least I knew I could be useful there. Here, I had no idea what I was.
Learn, you can always learn. Maybe something will lead you to Stevie's death.
I turned to Siab, forcing a smile, but when she saw me her smile made mine real. "Can you tell me about ritual magic? I mean, I was going to check some books out on it, but I don't know anything."
Her smile changed her from interesting to vibrant. "I warn you, once I start talking, it's hard to get me to shut up. And since you're a merlin, you'll get all this when you get to those classes, so I'll skip the basics?"
