Chapter 24
“ T his is it?” Arelis asked as we huddled together between two houses across the street. The vampire looked up and down the block several times. “This doesn’t seem like a place where halflings would live.”
“Why not?” I asked.
She shrugged. Dressed all in black and nearly as tall as Wylen and Tris, the woman was seriously intimidating.
Especially with the giant set of black wings protruding from her back.
They arched up over her head, the tip ending in a very large claw that could easily slice me in half.
“Too…domestic. Not enough crystals and incense.”
A growl rose up from behind us, and I grabbed Tris’s hand.
Arelis had brought a friend. A much-smaller man with brown, greasy hair that had a hint of gray, and a set of beady, predatory eyes that set the skin on the back of my neck into a panic.
His name was Malakai, and Arelis told us he was here to help.
Wylen immediately called him a werewolf, which is why Tris and I had been inseparable since the gang arrived.
Malakai seemed a little…unstable. And even though the two of us hadn’t really talked much about what happened last night, it was still a comfort to be here with each other.
We’d been watching the house for almost an hour and could see the man moving around inside every once in a while.
But now, the lights finally turned off, and our mark stepped through the front door, dressed like he might be going to his night shift if the overalls and steel-toed work boots were any indication.
I wondered what he did that would afford him that car parked in his garage.
Slipping back into the shadows some more, no one said anything until the man had walked completely out of sight. “Okay,” Arelis started. “I will take care of the security systems outside and on the doors. Malakai will guard the perimeter. The rest of you, don’t go inside until I give the signal.”
Malakai and Kaelan nodded, but Tris, Wylen, and I just stared at her. Kaelan smiled and shrugged. “She was once a general for a very powerful army. She likes to give orders.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Arelis groaned, tucked in her wings, and then disappeared in a puff of air.
“What the fuck,” Tris whispered. We all watched Arelis dart around the old house at super warp speed. Back and forth across the lawn, up over the roof, and then at the front door. It was truly a sight to behold.
In less than a minute, she finally stopped on the front porch and waved us over. “There’s our sign,” Kaelan said as though this was a thing they did all the time. Malakai pushed past us and ran across the street, but instead of joining Arelis, he disappeared around the side of the house.
“He’ll change and keep watch,” Kaelan filled us in.
“Isn’t he afraid someone will see him?” I asked.
“Malakai looks like a large dog. Most people will just turn the other way.”
With a quick glance at Tris, I raised my brows. “Okay…”
Wylen suddenly made a pained noise and hunched over, one hand on his stomach and one hand against the wall of the house we were hiding behind. I jumped toward him and bent forward to see if he was all right. “Wylen, what’s wrong?”
Tris and Kaelan stared at the fae who was trying his best not to show his pain. Somehow, I just knew that. “I’m all right. It’s just…” He turned his face up toward mine. “I can’t travel anymore.”
“You just tried, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” I said, running several scenarios through my mind.
“Well, you’ll just have to walk like the rest of us humans.
” I smiled at him, hoping to try and ease the discomfort I knew he was in.
I also didn’t want to make a big deal out of his fae abilities disappearing because I imagined it was a bit of a blow to the ego.
Turning back to Kaelan and Tris, I said, “Come on. Let’s go. ”
The four of us crossed the street and climbed the small front porch where Arelis was waiting. “You took too long,” she growled, tapping her black boot on the concrete, but she was studying Wylen the most.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Arelis opened the front door, and a warning alarm started to beep.
She immediately blurred over to the far wall where the security system was.
In just a few pushes of the buttons, the vampire had disarmed the equipment that was supposed to keep people safe from intruders like her.
She turned to us with a smile that didn’t hide her fangs.
“All yours now. Be quick and don’t touch anything. ”
Again, having the feeling that this wasn’t her first rodeo, I led the way. Tris followed me, but Wylen and Kaelan headed off toward the left. When I noticed, Wylen waved his hand. “I’d like to look in the garage again. See if the body is still there.”
“Okay,” I whispered back. Looking up at Tris, I added, “Let’s search for clues.”
“Like what?” he asked.
“I don’t know, like weapons or signs of rituals or more shriveled-up bodies.
” I still wasn’t completely over our argument from the night before, and that definitely played a role in my current attitude.
However, we didn’t have much time, and we needed to find something that would provide answers to Gil’s disappearance.
We were risking a lot by being in this house, and I didn’t know if my friendship with Investigator Caldori would be enough to get us out of this mess if we got caught.
“You don’t have to be so snippy,” Tris grumbled.
He was right. But I certainly would never tell him that.
After passing through the living room where Arelis was keeping watch, there was a small hallway that led to the rest of the house.
On our left was the kitchen, and after Tris took a quick walk around it and shook his head, we moved on.
Passing one bathroom and one bedroom, we were almost to the end of the hall when Tris suddenly sucked in a breath and dropped to his knees.
“What? What is it?” I knelt beside him to see what he’d discovered.
“Does that look like a carving to you?” He used his comm phone’s flashlight to illuminate the baseboard. There was a series of three interconnecting circles, each with a triangle of dots inside. Only a few inches tall and wide, it would have been hard to see in the daylight.
“I think so,” I whispered, reaching my finger out to trace the lines.
But when my skin made contact with the wood, the symbol glowed, and a faint light jumped around the design.
Yanking my hand back, I held my finger and waited for the pain.
Nothing happened…at first. “What was that?” I whisper-shouted at Tris.
“I have no idea. Are you okay?”
“Yes.” But even as I said the words, something didn’t feel quite right. Almost like I needed a nap, I suddenly found a bit of my energy missing.
Using his light to continue searching, Tris showed me several more symbols that followed the baseboards and led to a door on the right of the hall.
Arching up and around the doorframe were more designs, each of them different and most likely having their own purpose, too.
Tris grabbed the door handle and turned.
It was locked, and despite him jiggling it several times, he couldn’t get inside .
“I have an idea.” Not sure where the thought came from, I ignored the warning churning in my gut and went with it.
Using my finger to once again trace the symbols carved into the wood, I followed each one around the door clockwise until stopping on the other side.
They lit up a golden yellow as my fingers brushed over them, and when the light on the last one went out, the door clicked.
Tris looked at me in surprise and tried the handle again. This time, the metal beneath his hand shifted, and he revealed a staircase leading downstairs. “Was that magic?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Was it? Did I have magical powers, or did I just have the right kind of blood? I was going with the latter and had a sinking feeling these symbols had something to do with the halfling’s ability to subdue the pure-blooded fae.
The scent of fresh dirt and moisture rushed out from the basement, similar to how Saoirse’s sunroom had smelled because of all the plants.
Tris used his light to find the stairs and started down them one at a time.
They groaned and creaked under his weight, and I wondered if the others could hear us. “Should I tell them where we are?”
“No,” he said a little too quickly. “Stay here.”
I smiled, satisfied and happy that Tris needed me. Such a childish thing to think of as we were breaking into a house and searching for dead bodies, but it made me happy nonetheless. “Okay,” I whispered.
We continued down the stairs, and as my hands brushed against the block wall on the right side, more symbols danced with light under my palm.
The energy started to drain from me fast enough that I was hit with a wave of lightheadedness before I yanked my hand away.
Tris was too busy watching the stairs to notice my reaction, and I did my best to refocus on the task at hand.
Shaking out my arms and taking a few deep breaths, I pushed my investigative instincts down and added a mental note to explore these symbols later.
I was more convinced now that they had something to do with the shriveled fae body .
Tris suddenly stopped and pointed to the opening on our left.
Hanging from the floor joists were numerous plants.
Like more plants than a garden center greenhouse.
Vines and aloe and lavender…someone had managed to make their own wall of greenery in a place that seemed way too dark and cold for them.
It wasn’t natural. Just like those symbols.
“This is weird,” I muttered, and Tris nodded. We were almost all the way downstairs but hadn’t been able to get a glimpse of the room yet. It definitely smelled like a basement. Yet it also reminded me so much of Saoirse’s sunroom that I wondered if she lived here, too.
The floor creaked above us, and we both snapped our heads around to look up at the entryway.
Kaelan and Wylen were standing there, Wylen studying the symbols and Kaelan seeming to help hold the fae upright.
When Wylen reached out and touched one, he quickly jerked his fingers back like something had bitten him.
Kaelan jumped while I shared a look with the fae and saw the slight shake of his head.
Wylen didn’t want to discuss it right now.
“What happened?” Tris asked.
“Nothing,” Kaelan said slowly, still eyeing up Wylen as he held his elbow. “Body’s gone.”
Wylen hissed and drew his hand back again when he touched one of the carvings over his head. He muttered something in a foreign language as he shook his wrist. This time, I shared a look with Kaelan, but the sound of Tris’s feet scuffling below drew my attention away from his questioning stare.
Tris had made it all the way down to the concrete floor, and I followed.
There was a lot of dirt on the ground, and I noticed the one tiny window on the right side of the basement had been covered in red paper.
But there were plants everywhere. On the walls, sitting on stands, hanging from the unfinished ceiling…
there were plants growing in a dark room.
Wylen and Kaelan were slowly making their way down the stairs, and Tris huffed a laugh. “Not so wonderful now, is he?”
“Tris,” I shushed him. “He’s hurting.” And as I said that Wylen pulled his hand away from the symbols in the stairway and frowned at Tris.
“He’s weak,” Tris muttered.
“Better to be weak than to be a troll,” Wylen muttered. Kaelan shot me a look, guessing the troll thing was news to him.
Tris opened his mouth to say something back, so I elbowed him in the ribs. “Not the time. Not the place.”
He glared at Wylen, once again acting like this was a pissing contest but staying quiet. Shining the light around the ceiling, he said, “Do you see a switch anywhere?”
“No,” Kaelan answered. He ran his hands along the clock wall, leaving Wylen to prop himself up with the side of the stairs.
“There is death in here,” Wylen said, glancing at the carvings once again.
Tris made some kind of noise, and I rolled my eyes. “Well, I’m still not seeing anything.” Shuffling along the floor, I crossed the middle of the basement, waving my arms in front of me in case there were any obstacles. When a vine brushed against the top of my head, I almost screamed.
Tris ripped off the red paper on the window, stumbling off the paint can he’d used when finished. A small amount of light from the street made its way inside, showing us more plants and a whole wall filled with candles. I sniffed the air. “Cinnamon? Wylen, is cinnamon important in fae magic?”
“It is used by those with control over the elements sometimes.”
“Fae can control the elements?” Kaelan asked in disbelief.
“Even halflings can,” I added. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Really? Gil never told me.”
“Sosie, we should discuss that,” Wylen said, giving me another shake of his head. He’d sat down on the lowest step, and I was surprised by how tired he looked. “Most halflings aren’t that powerful.”
“But…” I let my brain percolate with everything we’d learned. Th e shriveled body, the symbols that drained my energy, the plants growing where they shouldn’t. I sucked in a quick breath when it all clicked together. “They’ve been drinking the blood.”
“Yes.”
“That’s so fucked up.” Kaelan sighed after a few moments of utter silence.
Like Arelis, he’d worn all black so I could barely see him.
He continued to run his hands along the wall, searching.
“Ouch,” Kaelan suddenly said. I could hear him sucking on his finger, but then he stopped and shouted, “Ooh, I found it!”
With a click, Kaelan switched on the lights. My eyes burned with the sudden brightness, and I saw everyone else shielding their lids in the same way. Blinking several times, I turned toward the back wall and away from the obnoxious glare of fluorescents.
And that’s when I saw the bodies.