Insidious Monsters: Eldritch Blues Book 2, page 12
A young man with a stunning rainbow mohawk greeted us with a smile. “Can I help you?”
Okay, was I in the right place? “This is the guild precinct, right?”
“It is indeed. Do you have an appointment with one of our guild officers?”
“I need to speak to Devyn Silvercrest, please.”
“I’m afraid Miss Silvercrest isn’t available right now.”
“I know, she’s interviewing mystics. Please, can you page her.”
The door behind us opened, letting in a gust of cold air, and the man behind the reception desk sat up straighter.
I looked over my shoulder at the guy who’d just entered. He was dressed in charcoal clothes, a cross between armor and a combat outfit, padded at the chest, elbows, and knees. The hilt of a sword rose up from behind his tall, broad frame, and his face was hidden behind a full mask that stared down at me blandly even as his dark eyes raked me over, assessing.
“Dalvadis,” the receptionist said. “How can I help?”
“Joe, I need to see Caleb.”
“I’ll page him right away,” Joe said.
What made this guy so special? “Can you please page Devyn too?”
Joe shook his head. “I have instructions not to interrupt Miss Silvercrest, but if you wait—”
“I told you I can help her. You just have to let her know that.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do that, but you’re welcome to wait.”
Archie leaned in. “It would be easier to get indignant if he wasn’t so genuinely polite.”
A door behind reception opened and the familiar figure of the monolithic gargoyle Caleb entered. “Dalvadis.”
“Caleb, good to see you.”
Dalvadis strode across the room and through the door Caleb had opened. Caleb glanced my way.
“You’re August’s friend.”
“Yes. Look, I need to speak to Devyn. It’s urgent. It’s about the interviews with the mystics. I think I can help.”
Caleb nodded and looked to Joe. “Page her. Now.”
“Yes, sir.” Joe made the call.
I backed up and took a seat. “I hope this is worth it.”
“It will be,” Archie said. “It has to be.”
Several minutes passed before a harassed-looking Devyn appeared at the door Caleb and Dalvadis had disappeared through.
“Nandi? What are you doing here?”
I stood quickly. “I think I can help with the interviews.”
“Fine. Come with me.”
I crossed the room toward her. “Just like that? I was kinda expecting to have to convince you.”
“The way this day is going, I’ll take all the help I can get.”
* * *
A woman sat on a sofa staring back at me. Okay, so there was a two-way mirror between us, but still. It was unnerving the way her gaze was fixed on the exact spot where I was standing. I took her in quickly. She would have been pretty in her youth, stunning even. But now her long dark hair was listless and streaked with gray and her dark, almond-shaped eyes were dull.
“Miranda Bass, lives outside of the city. Her mother says she came to the city for a concert a month ago and never made it home. There is a missing person report with the human PD, which is why we didn’t look into it. You see Miranda’s parents don’t know she’s more than human. In fact, we ran some tests and Miranda is a New Blood. A powerful one.”
“And a hip one too, it seems,” Archie said. “You don’t see many older people hitting the concerts.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing. Miranda’s only twenty-two.”
“Whoa. Someone did not age well,” Archie said.
Because she hadn’t aged naturally. “The Holy did this to her, didn’t he?”
Devyn nodded. “Whatever he did aged her, drained her power and took her mind. The lights are on but nobody’s home. Same with the other two. Except we haven’t been able to ID them yet.” She glanced at me. “So, is there a tag-along in the room with her?”
I shook my head. “Not that I can see. Can I go inside?”
“Sure.” She indicated the door to my left.
I stepped into the room. “Hello, Miranda.”
The woman slow-blinked, her attention still on the mirror.
“Is anyone else here? If so, please show yourself; saves me having to step onto the spirit plane.”
The temperature in the room dropped and a figure appeared beside Miranda. Petite and curvy with long dark hair and almond-shaped eyes, she could have been Miranda’s daughter.
Wait a second.
“Miranda?”
The specter smiled. “You see me?”
“Yes, I see you. What…How did this happen. You’re not dead.”
“Hiding.” Her voice was a soft whisper. “He wants all of me. I can’t let him have me. So I hide.”
“You and the others?”
She shook her head. “I tried to teach them how to do it, but not all of them could hold out. Not like I can. He’s hungry. Always hungry. But I’m the strongest of them so he feeds on me slow. Savoring me. I was his first. The others died quick. He took their memories. He took everything, but I hid. I resisted.”
The faceless mystics made sense now. He’d taken their identities, leaving only rage and vengeance toward him. Her New Blood status probably gave her an edge.
“What can you tell me about him, Miranda? What does he look like? Anything else you might have noticed that can help us catch him.”
Her image flickered. “Catch him?”
“Yes, we need to catch him so he can’t hurt anyone else.”
Her eyes went wide. “You don’t understand. You—”
She vanished.
Her body sagged and tipped to the side, settling on the sofa with a soft sigh followed by a snore.
“Shit. Miranda? Hello?”
The specter was gone.
* * *
“I don’t understand,” Devyn said. “She’s not dead but she can manifest outside her body?”
“Yes, it must be part of her New Blood abilities. But she’s weak and she isn’t able to sustain it for long.”
“Makes sense,” Archie said. “Using abilities drains New Bloods.”
Devyn glanced at him but didn’t say anything.
She had to know what he was, but she was keeping quiet about it, probably because she realized he was more use to us outside of the Underbelly than locked away.
“I don’t think the Holy realized what she was doing,” Devyn said. “He’s had her for a month. The rest he ate through. But she must have kept herself alive by denying him her soul.”
“Do you think that’s why she aged?” Archie asked.
I shrugged. “No clue.”
“We don’t have the bodies of the dead mystics, and no ID on our other two survivors, so we can’t be sure,” Devyn added.
Well Miranda didn’t have a tag-along, but the other two survivors might. “Take me to them.”
* * *
Neither of the other two survivors had a tag-along, which left us back where we’d started.
I crouched in front of the male survivor, a small guy with thinning dark hair and a tatty beard. His blue eyes were watery and dim. He looked like he was lost in distant thoughts, trapped in memories. Heck, he might be. He could be trapped in his head for all we knew.
I squeezed his hand. “I wish you could hear me.”
“His tattoo is different,” Archie said.
“It is?” Devyn joined us inside the room.
“Yeah.” Archie pulled a notepad from his pocket and flipped to the image he’d drawn of the other tattoos. “These don’t have the extra lines.”
He was right. The guy’s tattoo was more intricate than the ones on the female mystics. “Could be a gender thing.”
“Milo will be able to look into it,” Devyn said. “In fact, he agreed to meet up with August over the symbols and the inscriptions. I need to text her to let her know. The sooner the better.”
Archie’s stomach growled. “Ah, it’s food time.” He pulled out his mobile. “I’ll order it to be delivered in an hour. We should be home by then. You want some salt-and-pepper chicken wings?”
The last thing I wanted to do was eat. “I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat, Nandi.” Archie rattled off the order.
“He’s right,” Devyn said.
“Nandi, what’s the postcode again?”
I rattled off the letters and digits and he relayed them down the phone. “Yeah, the black castle on the hill.” He rolled his eyes at me as he headed for the door. “No, you’ve delivered before. Yeah, several times. Just send Carl.”
The door closed behind him, leaving me alone with Devyn and the mystic. “Look at him. Look what that monster did to him.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Devyn said. “We will catch him. I promise you that.”
“I just wish I knew what we were dealing with.”
“Me too. Me too.”
“What’ll happen to the survivors?”
“The John and Jane Does have rooms waiting at Serenity Lake Asylum. Miranda’s parents have decided they want nothing to do with her now that they know she’s a New Blood, so she’ll be going with them. A van will be here in a few hours to transport them.”
So that was it. Dead end.
Unless…An idea bloomed in my mind, one I should have thought of ages ago.
I’d been banking on the tag-along ghosts to give me information, but I’d forgotten another potential source.
“Devyn, can you get me access to Margie’s house?”
“The dead cultists were human, so the human PD took jurisdiction. Why?”
“The cultists died there…”
Her eyes flared with comprehension. “You think their spirits might be lingering?”
“I’m hoping.”
“I’ll get on the phone to PD now and see what I can do.”
If I could get into the house and find a cultist’s ghost, then we could get the answers I needed.
We could stop the Holy.
seventeen
AUGUST
Snow was falling again, lightly swirling down from the inky sky to kiss Telarion’s dark lashes and settle on the smooth material of his mask before melting and sliding down it like icy tears.
We stood face to face in the shadow of the tower while Quentin brought the car round and Victor spoke to the Order on his phone. The world seemed to fade, leaving just the two of us. I liked it this way, lived for these moments when it was just him and me. Except tonight there were fresh shadows in his eyes that spawned wariness and doubt in my heart.
“August, those things you said when you were on the ledge—”
Panic gripped me. “I don’t even remember them. That thing was messing with my head. Just forget it.”
Telarion sighed. “That creature brought to the fore all your frightening, hidden thoughts. It brought to the surface issues we’ve been avoiding.”
Yes, he’d felt the creature’s influence too.
He sighed. “My fears are your fears, and they are real, August.”
The fear of losing him to a faceless other. Of what we felt for each other being wiped away as if it were nothing. My stomach hurt from it.
Urgency gripped me. “All the more reason to carpe diem.” I gripped the lapels of his coat, soft leather squashing in my palm and shadows twining between my fingers in an ethereal caress. “Please.” My eyes heated with the threat of tears because that clever subconscious part of me knew where this was going and wanted desperately to avert the course.
“I cannot taste the sweet nectar and then be denied it,” Telarion said. “I will not allow us to be in a position where we’ll be riddled with guilt.”
His noble words made me want him more. Reminded me why I was falling for him. I sniffed and forced my mouth into a smile. “I think I prefer the monster you.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “This is what draws me to you the most, August. Your ability to find a smile, to lift spirits around you and bring hope where hope is lost. You give me confidence that our story will not go unsatisfied. I want you to promise me something.” My stomach dipped in that way it does when I know bad news is coming. “I want you to promise me that no matter what happens once we’re separated, you’ll remember that the moments we shared were real.”
He placed his hand to my cheek, long fingers sliding into my hair, thumb curving along my jaw and chin. “This is real.” He claimed my lips, channeling the ache of his soul, the beat of his heart, and the sincerity of every moment we’d shared into that one kiss. I kissed him back, desperate to memorize the shape of his mouth and the scent of his breath. He broke contact with a ragged sigh, devouring me with his intense gaze.
My chest felt heavy, like a storm cloud preparing to burst. “Telarion, why does this feel like goodbye?”
He brushed the pad of his gloved thumb across my bottom lip. “It’s not goodbye, August. But it is the last kiss we’ll share until we know for sure. It must be. For both our sanity.”
“All set,” Victor said from behind me.
I turned to find him striding toward us. “The Order’s sending a clean-up crew and they’ll coordinate with the PD.”
“Thanks, Victor.”
“I have to admit, I was iffy about you when Keswick told me about your aberrant infection, but I have to hold my hands up—if it wasn’t for him, we’d have been fucked today. Thank him for me.”
My heart sank and I didn’t need to look behind me to know Telarion was already gone.
* * *
My phone rang as I got into the car.
Devyn’s name flashed on the caller ID. I strapped in before answering. “Hey.”
“August, Milo wants to meet tonight at seven. Can you make it?”
Straight to the point. No chit-chat. I liked it. “Sure, where?”
“Pendergrast. The guards will be expecting you. But you can’t take your handler.”
I glanced at Quentin, who was busy steering us into traffic.
“Okay… Can I ask why.”
“You can ask, but you won’t get an answer. It is what it is.”
“I’m with Quentin now. I’ll ask him to drop me off.” I pulled the phone away from my head. “Quentin, I need a drop-off at Pendergrast.”
He nodded. “No problem.”
“I’ll be there in thirty.”
“Nandi says they’ll save you some food for when you get in,” Devyn said.
I heard voices in the background, the ambient sound of office noise.
“Nandi’s there?”
“She was here with Archie. They came to help with the interviews but no joy. They left about ten minutes ago.”
I bit back a groan. “More Chinese takeout.” I loved Chinese takeout but not when it was the only takeout we ever got.
She chuckled. “Yep. Look, Nandi will fill you in. I got to go. Drop me a text and let me know how you get on with Milo.”
She hung up.
“What was that about?” Quentin asked.
“Milo wants to see me.”
“He has answers on the tattoo and inscription?” He sounded excited.
“Hopefully, but he wants to see me alone.” I smiled at him. “I think he’s shy.”
Quentin frowned. “I should be there with you.”
“Best not. I don’t want him to cancel the meeting, you know. Best to just do as he asks, especially if it gets us answers.”
Quentin nodded. “Fine. I’ll drop you off, go run a few errands, then pick you up after.”
“Perfect.”
We drove in silence for several minutes. “Is Telarion okay?”
“He’s fine. Why?”
“He should be with you, especially after what happened.”
“I’m fine. We’re…fine.”
“Are you?” He glanced my way. “You tried to kill yourself.”
His words took me back onto that ledge and the despair that had driven me there. “It wasn’t real.”
“The emotions you felt were real, simply intensified. If you want to talk about—”
“I’m fine.” I gave him a quick smile. “Honestly.”
The last thing I wanted to do was dissect my feelings because that would lead to reliving what could have been my last kiss with Telarion, and if I did that, then I’d break down and cry.
Instead, I locked it all down, wrapped it up, and put it in a box to examine later.
Right now, I had tattooed symbols to understand. My best friend’s life could depend on it.
* * *
Quentin dropped me off at Pendergrast, where a guard was waiting to let me through the gates. This time I was led to the main building, the monolithic gray-stone towering home of the city gargoyles.
I wasn’t up on my deets when it came to the city protectors. All I knew was that they were powerful and lived according to a strict code of honor.
The guard led me away from the main doors and around the side of the building to a small entrance.
“Follow me please, Miss.” He stepped into a dingy stone corridor and down a flight of steps that opened onto a basement floor, hardwood and renovated. A freestanding stone arch sat in the center of the room.
Weird.
“You can go through. You’re expected,” the guard said.
“Just…walk through the arch?”
He smiled with his eyes. “It’s perfectly safe. I swear. Milo is waiting for you.”
“Okay then.” I strode through the arch into a vast chamber with a high vaulted ceiling. Books lined the walls, and several tables dotted about were littered with more books and papers. Sofas and chairs were arranged around coffee tables in cozy huddles, and a roaring fire burned brightly in a huge stone hearth at the other end of the room.
My gaze darted about, taking in the tiny details of a space well-loved and lived in.
“August, thank you so much for coming.” A man dressed in a cream tee and worn-in jeans appeared as if from nowhere. His sandy hair was mussed and his smile lopsided. “I thought it best we meet.”
