Chapter 15 #2
Analee narrowed her eyes, shooting me a glance that told me I wasn’t welcome.
The next moment, I almost jumped as a nictating membrane swept across her eye and opened again.
I said nothing as she returned her seat.
I nudged Penn with my elbow and she shivered.
We kept quiet the rest of the presentation, which took about thirty minutes.
At the end, everybody clapped and then, Analee took the podium again. “We’ll be serving refreshments, and if you’re interested in our next meeting, please talk to one of our members—you’ll recognize them by their name tags—or sign up at the refreshment desk. Thank you for coming.”
Penn and I clapped again, then stood and stretched. Everybody was mingling by the reception table. Penn headed toward the food.
I grabbed her by the arm. “You aren’t going to actually eat anything from here, are you?” I hissed, keeping my voice low.
She rolled her eyes. “I thought I’d grab a few things to test. Go talk to Erik, while I sneak some cookies and dip into my purse.
” As she headed off to pinch some food, I looked around for Erik.
I saw him, surrounded by starry-eyed women.
I wasn’t good enough as an actress to mimic them, so I slowly approached from the side, easing into the circle.
“Oh, trust me, we understand,” Erik was saying to one of the women. “We can definitely help with that.” Suddenly, he paused and looked at me. His nostrils flared, as though he’d just smelled something rank.
“Excuse me for a moment, ladies.” He pushed through the others until he was standing in front of me. “Let’s have a little chat,” he said, smiling. But the smile ended on the surface. He clasped my elbow and steered me away from the group.
“Excuse me?” I said, trying to shrug out of his hold, but he was strong. In fact, he was stronger than I was, which should be impossible for most humans.
“We just need to have a little talk,” he said, his jaw clenched.
We were headed toward a door on the other side of the room and I realized that my alarms were screaming Don’t let him get you alone! I dug my heels in. He almost stumbled, trying to pull me with him, but I had found my center and now I was rooted to the floor, steeling myself.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere,” I said. I glanced around and saw Penn. She was looking around and suddenly, she saw me and took in the situation. Immediately, she headed my way.
“What’s going on?” she said, grabbing one of his hands and shaking it, hard. “How do you do? Your presentation was interesting.”
Erik pulled his hand back. He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Ms.…?”
“I just wanted to grab my friend here. We have another appointment to get to,” she said, avoiding his question. “Come on, or we’ll be late.”
I followed her toward the door.
She leaned close. “We need to get out of here, now.”
As we hustled up the stairs and out to the car, she kept glancing over her shoulder.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
“Get in, and drive. Don’t drive directly home. I might be paranoid, but I suggest we get out of here before they call someone to follow us.”
I put the car in gear and screeched out of the parking lot, wondering the hell had just happened.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, we were parked in the lot behind Debbie’s Diner.
We’d never been here before, but the parking lot was brightly lit, the diner was open 24/7, and it was nowhere near the house.
We’d driven round town long enough to feel certain we weren’t being followed.
Along the way, Penn had remained silent, and I hadn’t wanted to interrupt her thoughts. I was also thinking about the meeting.
There was something shady going on with the Tetrachordian Temple, all right. Not only were they scamming money off people for the initiation fees, but I had the feeling that if we’d stuck around, Erik would have dragged me off and I might not have come back.
As we settled into a booth at the diner, I took a deep breath. “Okay. Opinions?”
“They’re both illusionists. That much I can tell. Not witches—I know witch magic and that wasn’t it. But they’re not human. I think they’re targeting humans who don’t see through the glamour. The fact that neither of us are fully human makes us less susceptible to being fooled.”
“Well, I can tell you this: I’m pretty sure that Erik, and probably Analee too, know I’m part demon. They both reacted with a lot of hostility. And, what was with his speech? For the life of me, I have no clue what he was actually saying.”
“That’s because he—” Penn paused as a waitress came over to take our orders. “A side of fries, please, with a chocolate shake,” she said.
“A bowl of chowder, and water,” I said. As the waitress headed toward the kitchen with our orders, I let out a sigh. “What were you going to say?”
“He was casting a spell with his words. Think of it like a net—he was casting out a net to find his victims. And by the way some of those women were acting, it worked. I didn’t notice many men at this meeting,” she added.
“I’m betting he targets women more. Mark might have been an anomaly.
Women make up the audience for self-help books by about three to one.
So I’m venturing a guess that it’s the same way for self-help programs. And this fits in that category.
” I frowned. “So you say he was casting a spell with his speech?”
She nodded, waiting as the waitress brought her shake and my water. After she left again, promising our food would be right up, Penn took a sip of her shake.
“Yes, he was. The magic in his words resonated so strongly that I could feel the spell weaving itself. Although, I’m thinking that he was seeking the right people.
I don’t think he was actually trying to entrance everybody.
Most of the people there were human. I noticed several slip out and leave.
Some of the attendees looked pretty confused when he was talking. ”
That would make sense. Snare those who responded, and confuse and repel those who didn’t. “Did you understand anything he said?”
“Out of that string of gibberish? Only the greeting and the wrap up. I recorded enough of it on my phone that I should be able to translate some part of it when we get home.” She held up her phone, grinning.
“Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because, I work with magic on a daily basis and I sometimes need to go over a spell several times, so I’ll record it and play it back until I memorize it.
This sounds like my recordings—the magic sometimes distorts the words, especially if it’s aimed at one particular person or Supe species or a marginal group. ”
“I think I see what you’re saying,” I said.
“Simplified: the speech was infused with magic aimed at whoever he was hoping to catch. Anyone who wasn’t his target, wasn’t going to understand what he was saying.” She paused as the waitress carried over our orders.
I dug into the chowder, closing my eyes as the warm, creamy broth trickled down my throat.
“I have to admit, this whole mess has left me unnerved. Or maybe it’s the mess with my father.
I know I’m changing the subject, but be honest with me.
Do you think I’m being stupid, trusting him? I want your opinion.”
“Honestly?” She cut her burger in half and added ketchup.
“No, I don’t. But only because I did a tarot reading on it.
I think you’re right. Your father’s no peach, and I wouldn’t ever want to buddy up to him—he is a demon and he’s probably pulled some nasty atrocities—but in this? The cards said he’s telling the truth.”
Relieved, I let out a long sigh. “Okay. I trust your cards. Meanwhile, what the hell do we do about Erik and Analee? Their temple’s pretty much a two person affair, though they seem to have a few bodyguards.”
“That much I gathered. How much money do you think they’ve amassed? If they’re getting twenty-five grand per initiate, even just a few a year would provide a nice nest.”
“Can we find out where they live?” I asked. “We could check out their place when they’re not home.”
“Let’s look,” Penn said. She opened her phone and brought up a browser. A few moments later, she turned it around for me to see the screen. “You can almost always find out someone’s address if they bought a house, and they do own one. And what do you know, they’re married. To each other.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. I imagine they kept it quiet in the meeting because the women were charmed by him.” I glanced at the address. They lived near Lake Sammamish, on the outskirts of the Hans Jensen State Park. “Pricey area. And right near the water. That feels right, to me.”
“It does to me, too. I keep thinking about what you told me about Mark’s body, and the snaky-feel I got from them. You know…there’s an entire conspiracy theory surrounding reptilians who hide among humans.” She paused, tilting her head. “I’m thinking maybe they’re a distant relative of the Fae.”
“Or they could be in the Draco family. We know dragons are real, and we know there are snake-shifters. Why wouldn’t there be lizard-shifters…or whatever you might want to call them?” We seldom encountered reptilian creatures, but there was always a first time.
“Good point,” she said. “All right, we need to scope out their house. We’re not going to get anywhere by going back to their meetings. They can pick us out easily, and they’ll be on the lookout. The good thing, is they don’t know our names or why we were there.”
“We need to move in before they get rid of any evidence, though.”
She nodded. “Tonight. We have to move in tonight or we’ll lose our chance before anybody else goes missing.”
“You want to scope it out tonight?” That felt dangerous, but she was right.
“We have to,” she said. “The feeling in my stomach tells me that if we don’t, they’ll have time to either go underground or vanish to another city.”
“Okay, then. I’ll text the others,” I said, sending the address to Dante and all the others with a note.
hey, we may have found an answer to mark’s disappearance. we need to move on this as soon as possible. i know its late but we need a couple of you to go with us to check out a house. sophia, can you run a background check on erik stengale and analee thomas.
I waited for a moment before they answered.
on it, Sophia texted. i’ll send over my info as soon as i find anything.
i can be there in twenty. where do you want us? Dante answered.
are you well enough? what about the injuries on your hindquarters? I asked.
mostly healed up. i’m good.
Orik texted next. i’m in. hilda and the babies are sleeping.
i can’t come tonight unless it’s absolutely necessary. grandpa needs a ride to and from the senior center. he’s volunteering to help plan a harvest feast for the neighborhood’s needy. Carson’s text came in.
I texted back: carson, tell gramps hello, and don’t worry about it. orik, dante and i can deal with this.
At that moment, Lazenti texted. I can show up.
I sent back: meet us at the lake sammamish park boat launch in an hour. traffic should be fine. we’ll sneak in on foot. when we meet at the boat launch, penn and i’ll fill you in on what went down. bring whatever weapons you have with you, as long as you can use them.
I glanced at Penn. “I gave them time to gather their things. It also gives us time enough to finish our food.”
“What’s our plan?” Penn said. “We don’t have time to refine anything, but what do we do first?
“I don’t know, but I hope they don’t go directly home,” I said. “Is there any way if you can tell how long the meeting’s going to be?”
She thought about it for a moment. “Not the way you’re thinking.
Our best bet is to—wait. I thought of something.
” She pulled out her phone again and looked up something, then dialed a number.
After a moment, Penn said, “Can you tell me if the meeting of the Tetrachordian Temple is still going on, and how long it’s supposed to run? ” She paused, then said, “Thank you.”
“Well?” I asked, finishing my food.
“She says the mixer’s scheduled to end around eleven. It’s nine now, so we have about two hours before they break up the party.” Penn finished her burger. “Let’s go.”
“We don’t know if they have any guards or dogs or anything,” I said.
“You’ve got all that demon strength. I have magic. And if they’re reptilian, like I suspect, they’re not going to keep guard dogs around, even when they’re in human shape.” Penn tossed two tens on the table. “I’ll get this.”
We headed out, waving at the waitress. Debbie’s Diner had good food, I thought, filing away the diner on my list of joints for good eats.