Awakening the Fire

chapter Twenty-One

Modern air travel made Canada just a short nap away. At 6:35 a.m., Zoe Vesper, one of six Guardians assigned to Toronto, stood outside baggage claim with a placard and a wide grin. Ari soon learned that was typical Zoe. The woman was tall and lanky with short, brown, bouncy curls and eight ear piercings. But most interesting to Ari, she was half witch. Her witch clan had bred with elves, accounting for her nearly six-foot height.

“I have the address you wanted.” Zoe beamed at her. “Programmed it into my GPS. He lives out in the boonies. Expressways will help, but it might take an hour.”

Morning traffic was heavy. Once they hit the outskirts, Zoe sped up. She kept up a constant stream of chatter, pointing out turnoffs to local sites, once relating a multiple homicide by a dwarf with an axe. Considering Ari had gotten little sleep, Zoe was rather perky, but at least she didn’t require frequent responses. Ari leaned back, letting the words flow past. When Zoe began to talk about Dubrey, Ari started paying attention again.

“He’s a hermit. Lives on an old estate that once belonged to wealthy French émigrés. From the description I got, it’s one shade this side of condemnation. Dubrey rarely leaves the property.” She honked at a driver in her way but kept on talking. “I’m not sure he’ll let us in.”

“I’ll get in somehow.” Ari yawned, covered her mouth, sat up straighter. “Sorry about that. Short night. I have to talk to him. He’s my only chance to learn about the drugs.”

“If he’s making Fantasy, like you mentioned on the phone, why haven’t we seen it in Toronto?”

“I don’t know. In some ways that’s even more suspicious. The original formula is everywhere else. Why not here?”

“It does seem strange. Rumor says there’s a secret lab. Might explain why he doesn’t want anyone snooping around.”

“Especially if he’s doing something illegal,” Ari said. “Wouldn’t be the first or last time a magic user crossed the line.”

“That’s true. Otherwise humans wouldn’t fear us so much.”

Zoe finally lapsed into silence. She seemed to have run out of morning chatter, and they drove for miles in silence. Ari had nearly dozed off when they left the main roadways, followed a deserted road for a couple of miles, and pulled into a narrow private lane.

Zoe peered through the windshield. “I think this is it. Just down here a ways.”

The dirt drive was lined with bushes gone wild. Branches scraped at the sides and top of Zoe’s VW. After two quick turns, they saw buildings through the trees and stopped, covering the rest of the way on foot. If they surprised Dubrey before he realized anyone was near, they might avoid a greeting that involved weapons—magical or otherwise.

Their approach to the house went unchallenged. The old mansion stood forlorn from decades of ill-use and lack of repair. Withered weeds poked through the wooden porch floor; windows frames were empty; the front door sagged open.

Ari drew her jacket a little closer. Evil had visited here. Shrugging off that thought, she motioned to Zoe. They edged across the porch, testing each board, and entered the house. The musty smell wrinkled Ari’s nose, and she stifled a sneeze. Huge cobwebs hung in the corners. A layer of grime coated the shabby furniture. Dubrey hadn’t used this area for some time. No footprints in the dust. Near the back was the kitchen area with windows overlooking a weedy garden, servants’ quarters, a guesthouse, and a large storage shed.

Ari crossed to the garden door. Zoe followed her outside.

The servants’ quarters were also empty of life or activity. No furniture, no rugs. A trail of scuffed footprints across the dusty floor lead to a stack of clean, white packing boxes, dust free and recently packed. Zoe pried open a box corner. Test tubes. This must have been the lab.

As they approached the guesthouse, goose bumps raised along Ari’s arms, a prickle at the back of her neck. A heaviness hung over the building. The front door was a gaping hole of freshly splintered wood.

Zoe gave her a wide-eyed look and flattened against one side of the door. Ari took the other, edging forward and going in fast. The smells hit first. Ozone. Blood. Charred wood. Walls and ceilings displayed black gouges and deep burns. Magical fire. The lethal kind. It had been one hell of a fight, Ari thought.

They picked their way past the debris, the smashed lamps, and overturned furniture. Only two or three steps inside, Ari picked up another telltale odor—decomp. They found the wizard’s body in a back bedroom.

Daniel Dubrey’s body had been brutalized. His limbs were shattered, bone poked through the skin, slashes and bites covered much of the body. Buzzing flies coated the eye sockets and open wounds. Whatever Dubrey had been in life, his uniqueness was gone, marked only by a mass of stringy, black hair.

“Mon Dieu,” Zoe muttered, recovering after a moment. “What did this? Zombies?” She moved in for a closer look. “His neck is broken. That would be enough to kill him. But it looks like someone or something went into a frenzy.”

“Except there’s not enough blood.” Ari pointed to a bone protruding from his upper arm. “That should have bled a lot. And there’s no splatter on the walls.” She centered herself and tapped her witch senses. “I don’t feel the rage.”

Zoe walked around to the other side of the body. “Look at the board on top of his leg. Placed there after he was dead. This scene has been staged. So what were they trying to hide?”

“Maybe this,” Ari said, crouching beside the body. “Fang marks. Here. And here. Not jagged like a wolf. Vampire.”

For a brief flash, Ari wondered where Andreas had gone after he left her last night.

“How long do you think he’s been dead? Couple of days?” Zoe’s words brought her up short, and Ari looked again. Of course. This wasn’t a fresh kill. She was letting her doubts about Andreas mess with her judgment. He couldn’t have done this.

“Blood on the floor is dry. There’s insect and rodent activity.” Ari touched the corpse with her toe. It moved slightly. “Rigor must be leaving the body. I’d guess twenty-four hours, possibly longer, if your weather’s been cool.”

“At night. Could put his death as early as Sunday morning.”

Ari stared at what was left of the wizard, but her thoughts went beyond him to all the failed leads in this case. Dubrey had been their best chance for answers. At least it wasn’t a leak this time. Dubrey died before Ari and her partners knew he existed. That should have made her feel better, knowing Andreas wasn’t involved and that she couldn’t have prevented the death. But damn. Once again, someone was a step ahead of them. And Ari was getting damned tired of it.

She studied the room. “Let’s search this place. Dubrey can’t talk to me, but his death confirms he knew plenty. He’s got to have records. Maybe they’ll hold some answers.” She looked at Zoe. “Do you agree with putting off a call to the local cops? The body’s not going anywhere. Scene’s already cold.”

Zoe snorted. “Out here? In this dinky jurisdiction? They won’t have a clue about Otherworld evidence. Don’t think we need to worry about the police case.”

Ari started with a quick walk through. The wizard had led a Spartan life. No TV, no sound system. Nothing recreational. The only modern convenience in the kitchen was a small microwave. Minimal fuss. Everything they found said this man was obsessed by his work.

In the front room, Zoe fiddled with the elaborate computer system while Ari opened and looked behind every book on the shelves. Zoe thought someone had already been through the wizard’s computer and deleted incriminating files.

“Even his e-mail is empty,” Zoe complained.

The elf-witch continued to click away as Ari moved on to search stands and table drawers. She opened the zippers on pillows and tapped the walls for hidden panels.

“Nothing,” Zoe said, abandoning her efforts on the computer.

Ari straightened from looking under the rug. “Same here. But I can’t imagine a researcher who wouldn’t keep extensive notes. Maybe the killer took them.”

“Here’s a bunch of CDs.” Zoe dug into one of the desk drawers. “It’ll take hours to go through them, but I can look at a couple.” The clicking of the keyboard started again.

Ari checked the wall clock. The hands had crept past noon. Her flight home left in three hours. With more than an hour drive to town, they’d have to leave soon. But Ari wasn’t ready. They still had the storage shed and grounds to search, and the packed boxes in the lab would take at least an hour. She glanced at Zoe hunched over the keyboard with a tall stack of disks beside her.

“How about taking a break for lunch? Wasn’t there a burger joint a couple miles back? I’ll change my flight. We can finish after lunch. Besides,” Ari rubbed her arms, “I need to get out of here for a while.”

Zoe nodded in sympathy. “Know what you mean. Creepy place, isn’t it? Bad vibes.” Zoe’s stomach growled, and she chuckled. “Guess my stomach just voted too.” She pushed her chair away from the computer, and they heard a metallic crunch. Zoe picked a small object off the floor. “A thumb drive. Looks like somebody took a hammer to it or a boot heel.” She looked at Ari. “Destroying evidence?”

“What’s a thumb drive?”

Zoe smirked at her. “You really aren’t a techie, are you? A flash drive? You know, to transfer data back and forth between computers.”

“Oh.” Since Ari had one laptop, used for writing and printing reports, transferring had never been an issue for her. So no thumb drives. She shrugged. “Can you fix it?”

“Not a chance. An IT tech might pull off some data.” Zoe sounded doubtful. “But I wouldn’t count on it. I’ll keep it, just in case.” She stuck it in her pocket. “Ready to go?”

It was close to 2:00 p.m. by the time they finished the search of the guesthouse and the shed, where they found the wizard’s herbs and potions. While Zoe continued to work on the computer, Ari walked the property. It smelled weedy, too dry. The area needed rain. Heavy brambles and drought-resistant weeds barred some areas, leaving her picking burrs from her jeans. The only evidence of interest was a set of partial shoeprints near the back door of the guesthouse. If this was the killer or one of the killers, he’d been in human form. Still consistent with a vampire. She left the prints undisturbed for the police.

“Anything?” Ari asked, returning to the guesthouse.

Zoe looked up from the computer and sighed. “A bunch of meaningless formulas. No notes. But I’ve got a long way to go.”

“So leave it for now. Let’s get to those packing boxes.”

Zoe and Ari tackled the dismantled lab with renewed energy, glad to be away from the guesthouse and the oppressive presence of the wizard’s body. They sat on the floor with boxes and contents scattered around them. For the first hour they worked in assembly; one person opened and sorted, the other repacked. So far, they’d found nothing more exciting than petri dishes, glass slides, small bottles of liquid chemicals, and sterile gloves, which they started using immediately. It would be awkward if they had to explain to local cops how their fingerprints got inside the boxes. Other containers held microscopes, vials for blood, and an assortment of measuring equipment and stirrers.

Ari’s hands were hot and sticky. She ripped off the gloves and reached for a fresh pair.

“How many more boxes?” Zoe asked wearily.

Ari glanced over her shoulder. “Looks like eight. It’s taken longer than I thought. Unpacking and repacking. But we’re almost done. Let’s divide the rest.”

Zoe brushed a sweaty lock of hair to one side of her forehead. “I’m ready to get out of here.” She sneezed. “Don’t you wish we could snap our fingers and be done? The boxes would unpack and repack themselves?”

Ari shot her a quick smile and wiggled her nose. Myths and movies.

Zoe regarded the boxes with a dubious eye. “We still need to wipe down any evidence of our search. And get you out of here before I can call the police.”

Ari was grateful Zoe had suggested over lunch that Ari’s visit remain secret. It would save her a lot of time and questions. “I’ve tried to be careful, so they shouldn’t find any unexplained prints.”

“Not sure they’d care you were here, but it would complicate things. I’ll just say you called from the States and asked me to interview Dubrey.”

Their hands bumped as they reached for the next box. Ari grinned, handed it over, and took the next in line. Six more to go.

“Ari, look!” Zoe’s voice was excited. “Notebooks. At last. Here, take some.” She shoved two black journals at Ari.

Ari flipped the first one open. A small, spidery scrawl, sometimes drifting into uneven printing, filled the pages. Many words were technical; other cryptic entries appeared to be in a form of speed-writing, but enough was in standard English that Ari picked out the general meaning. The references to herbs and potions confirmed her conclusion. Dubrey’s work notes. But the book she held was dated more than ten years earlier.

“See if there are more recent dates. This is too old.”

“Nothing here.” Zoe’s voice had lost enthusiasm, and she dropped the journals back in the box. “Don’t see anything from recent years.”

Ari ripped open the box she had just set aside and dumped the contents. More journals. Two years ago. That was better. Last year. May and June of this year. Aha! They were in business.

Heart pounding, Ari scanned the wizard’s notes. After a moment, she scrunched her forehead and passed the book to Zoe.

“Can you read this? Why couldn’t he use simple English?” Ari complained.

Dubrey’s abbreviated writing and technical language made the process difficult, but gradually they put it together—enough to realize the secrets about Fantasy were in their hands. The long years of research, hoping to combine magic and science into magical cures. The early deaths of local lycanthropes and vampires who had been purchased as test subjects from unscrupulous Otherworld leaders. Sold like slaves. Dubrey’s original goals might have been worthy, improving modern medicine, but he’d always been an evil man.

They repacked everything except the most recent notebooks and took those back to the guest house. Zoe accessed the Internet, searching for a key to decipher the abbreviations. If they could read the full notes, maybe they’d confirm the goal of the recent experiments. Dubrey wasn’t motivated by money. But having total control over a vampire? Ari thought that was something that would intrigue him.

After forty-five minutes of muttering at the computer, Zoe slapped her hands on her knees. “I can’t find a thing. This shorthand must be his own invention. Maybe somebody in your FBI could do it.”

After noting Zoe’s growing frustration, Ari wasn’t surprised by her lack of progress, but calling in the FBI was out of the question. “Listen, Zoe, we can’t turn this stuff over to any human authorities, here or in the States. What if the latest formulas got into the wrong hands…?”

“I know. That FBI comment just popped out.” Zoe rose from the desk. “It already occurred to me that we can’t trust humanity to protect it. I’ll contact my Magic Council, tell them everything. They’ll know what to do.”

Ari nodded in relief, satisfied they were on the same page. “Good idea.” She picked up the newest of the journals. “Let’s take these with us, just to be safe. You can hand them directly to the Council.” Ari hesitated. “But I need a favor.”

Zoe cocked her head. “Name it. And I’ll see what I can do.”

“The broken thumb drive.”

Zoe pulled it from her pocket, turning it over in her fingers. “What about it?”

“Forget you saw it.” Ari stuck out her hand. “Maybe it’s useless, but my PD’s cyber crimes guy is very good. And I trust him.”

Zoe tossed it into Ari’s outstretched palm. “What thumb drive?”