Grave Witch, page 13
She went on to talk about how she'd walked around looking for more doors and had peeked into the kitchen, and there the vampire had come out of nowhere and attacked her. She'd shouted, and Gilbert had come running, and they'd fought in the kitchen. Then, while Gilbert fed, she'd gone looking for the bartender, and when Jacob and Leonard had told her he'd run, she'd rushed back to get them all moving.
She rubbed her neck. "I'm sure there were people on the way. If we'd hung around to check the place out, we'd have been attacked."
Gertrude nodded. "So...there might be blood slaves behind the door?"
Alice shrugged. "Or it's to keep expensive wines secure. I don't know, but the way the vampire attacked without trying to talk to me wasn't normal."
"And they all fought." Everyone looked at Gilbert, who sighed and looked at Jasper. "If someone had tumbled through the kitchen doors at The Virgin Drop, we'd have tried to break up the fight, right?"
Jasper nodded.
"They didn't. They attacked."
Jacob and Leonard relayed what had happened in the serving area, how the customers had left in a rush, and how the bartender had run with them. Then Gertrude's eyes zeroed in on Kage. "And what's your skill?"
Kage looked away without answering.
"I might not have the best sense of smell among shifters, but I think everyone who isn't human or a magic user in this room can tell it's been some time since you touched up on the lemon, and you've been bleeding. We're starting to get familiar with the scent of magic user around here."
Kage looked at Oscar, expecting to see anger and betrayal, but there was only a touch of surprise on his face. He gave him a small smile and a nod. He took a deep breath, blew it out, and met Gertrude's gaze. "I'm a grave witch."
Leonard made a sound he wasn't sure how to decipher, but everyone else had various looks of confusion on their faces. He didn't look at Gilbert. He didn't want to see what he was thinking about having snacked on someone who dealt with death.
"What does it mean?" Gertrude's face was blank.
"He's a necromancer." Leonard face was a mix of intrigue and disgust.
"No, not a necromancer. I can raise the dead."
"Zombies!" Asher clapped his hands. "Ha! So cool."
"Not zombies. I can bring a spirit back for a short period to ask a couple of questions. I can't create an army of walking dead, and I can't raise more than one at a time."
Gertrude nodded. "So you call forth the spirit and ask it about things?"
Kage jumped when Gilbert placed a hand on his neck, and when he ran his thumb over the skin there, he shivered.
"I need to be in the place where they died, so us being called grave witches is all wrong, since ridiculously few people are buried where they died. Then I need to know their full name, which is why I took the wallets from the guys who attacked Gilbert and Alice. We know they died in the kitchen, and I have their driver's licenses."
"Smart." Alice bumped him with her elbow, and he gaped. Most people wanted to be as far away from him as possible once they'd figured out what he did, they didn't praise him.
"I want to be there when you raise them." Asher waved a hand. "I've never seen a zombie in real life. Didn't know they existed."
Gilbert sighed deeply, which caused a chuckle to escape Kage. This had been a long night.
He met Gertrude's gaze again. "I'm almost certain Pomona is dead, otherwise she'd have been there when you freed the slaves, but I've been to The Virgin Drop, and she doesn't appear when I call her. Which means she didn't die there."
Gertrude looked at Chaton and Rue. "Did...eh...what happened to slaves who..."
"Weren't up for it anymore?" Rue gave her a haunted look.
"Yeah, let's call it that."
He shrugged and looked at Chaton. "House party?"
Chaton sank into himself, and Asher wrapped his arms around him. No need to ask what happened during those. "They were taken off the premises?" Kage focused on Rue to give Chaton privacy.
"It was rare, but it happened. Only with important clients."
"Of course." Fucking bastards. "Do you have any addresses?"
Rue shook his head. "They shoved us into a van, windowless. It was white, unmarked." He shrugged, and Noah ran a hand over his back.
Kage suspected no one would sleep well tonight.
* * * *
Gilbert longed for his bed. It had been a long day. Never-ending. He didn't like thinking about having been in a building where there might have been people like Rue and Chaton kept in cages.
He ran his thumb over the skin on Kage's neck again.
"What's next?" He looked at Gertrude. They could walk away from this. It wasn't their mess, but...
"I...eh..." Kage looked around. "I'd like to speak to Zella."
"Zella?" Gertrude looked shocked, and Kage held his hands up in a disarming gesture before pointing at Asher. "Asher and Noah killed her, right? Someplace here, within the walls."
Gertrude nodded slowly.
"She was involved with The Red Thirst, correct? Or the ones who sold the slaves to The Red Thirst. I have no name for them. Do you?"
"No. All we know is The Red Thirst rented the building The Virgin Drop was in. I bought it out from underneath them." She was silent for a heartbeat. "We believe Zella was in contact with them."
"We...eh..." Rue pointed between Chaton and himself. "We believed we recognized her voice when we first came here, but we weren't sure. For the most part, we were pretty dazed when we...but we're pretty sure she was a customer. Anyway, then she tried to give me back to them, so...yeah, pretty sure she was involved with them."
Kage nodded. "If I can raise her and ask about them, we might learn something."
Gertrude spun her mug again, then took a sip. "Can you raise them over and over again?"
"No, only once, and not if another grave witch has done it already. I can normally get three answers out of them. The fresher the death, the more articulate they are."
Gertrude scrunched her nose. "And what counts as a fresh death?"
"She's only been dead for two years, right?" He didn't wait for anyone to answer. "I should be able to get three answers."
"Since it's a one-shot thing, we should think about what we want to ask."
Some tension crept into Kage, but he nodded. Gilbert squeezed his shoulder to show support, and maybe because he didn't want to stop touching him.
"We'll do it tomorrow." Gertrude placed the mug on the coffee table. "Do you need anything to perform the ritual?"
Kage shook his head. "My blood, and I carry it with me at all times." He huffed.
"Okay, that's it then."
Jacob raised a hand as if he didn't dare speak. Gilbert didn't blame him. He was the only human in a room full of supernaturals.
"Yes?" Gertrude smiled.
"Eh...sorry, but isn't there a risk they'll move the slaves, if there are slaves, I mean? They might be doing it right now."
Gertrude nodded, then looked around the group. "Ylva, is Arnou on guard duty?"
"No, I think he's free."
"We'll send him."
"Alone?" Gilbert hadn't meant to speak. He wasn't close to Arnou. He wasn't close to anyone, but he didn't want to see anyone hurt.
"No, not alone. Let him pick one or two to go with him. Is Gabriel available? If he isn't, I'll take over his post on the wall. I think it would be good to have a vampire on the team."
Ylva nodded and got to her feet. "I'll inform them and get them going."
"Thank you." Gertrude squeezed her hand before getting to her feet too. Ylva left, but the rest remained where they were.
"Jacob, are you fit to drive home?"
He nodded. "Yes, my house is only a ten-minute drive from here."
She smiled. "Good. Gilbert has your number, right?"
He nodded again.
"We'll be in touch if--"
"Can I watch when Kage raises the spirit? I won't write about it until you tell me I can, but it would make a good story."
Gertrude frowned. "Write?"
"I'm a journalist for The Morning Chronicles."
Gertrude snapped her fingers. "Jacob Litwin?"
"Ah...yes."
Gilbert had never heard Jacob's last name. He'd never cared.
"Not one word until this is resolved. We don't want to spook anyone."
The grin on Jacob's face was one he'd never seen before, and fondness spread inside of Gilbert. He wasn't attracted to Jacob, but he liked him, and maybe he felt connected to him on some level. There was most often a dark cloud hanging over him, so to see his eyes spark with joy made Gilbert happy.
"You have my word." Jacob bowed to Gertrude.
"Good. Okay, Gilbert will let you know when it's time."
Gilbert dipped his head in acknowledgment.
"Leonard." Gertrude turned to him. "You're not driving back."
"I...eh...left my car there."
"Give me your keys, and I'll make sure someone brings it back." She held out her hand, and Leonard handed over the keys and gave directions to where he'd parked.
"I have an empty cabin in the northern region. Barrett used to live there. I've removed all his personal belongings, but the furniture is as it was, so there is a bed. It hasn't been lived in for some time but turn the radiators up if it feels too damp."
Leonard nodded so fast, Gilbert suspected he'd feared Gertrude would throw him out. She turned to Gilbert. "Can you show him? The key is under the doormat."
"Of course."
"Good, I need to find Ylva." She dangled Leonard's keys. "We meet again at..." She looked at her phone for the time and winced. "Shall we say eleven? Gives everyone time to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast."
Jacob raised his hand again. "Can I come?"
Gertrude nodded. "I'll inform the gate."
Another smile.
As Gertrude moved to the hallway, everyone got to their feet.
* * * *
Chapter 18
Outside Gertrude's house, Kage waited for Christopherson to emerge. When he did, he looked right at Kage. His heart jumped to his throat as he stepped closer. Jasper patted Christopherson's shoulder and walked over to Gilbert and Leonard, who lingered some distance away.
"I'm...eh..." Fuck, what to say?
Christopherson waited, an unimpressed look on his face.
"I never meant to deceive you, but magic users can't be detectives and--"
"I know, but why the hell were you working against the community?"
"I didn't. I was doing my job while trying to find leads. I needed to get inside the walls to--"
When Christopherson shook his head, Kage fell silent.
"You acted like an ass, and if you hadn't, we'd be much farther along on this. You want to find Pomona, and yet you make an enemy of the people who can help you. Hamilton doesn't give a damn about missing magic users. These are your people." He gestured around.
He hadn't made an enemy of them. Or maybe he had, but there was a fine line between pleasing Hamilton and doing his own investigations. He took a deep breath. "I need you to promise not to tell Hamilton. I'll ask for a transfer once we've gotten to the bottom of this, but you can't tell him I'm a magic user. I don't know what happens."
Christopherson stared at him. "I'm a magic user, stupid. Why do you think Hamilton has you spying on me? Because I want to investigate cases instead of accusing the first community member? He might not be pleased about it, but it is my job, so he can't say much about it. It's the part he can't put his finger on that bothers him."
Kage stared open-mouthed. Christopherson was a magic user? Several things clicked into place. The way the community treated him, his relationship with Jasper, the way Leonard had asked about the magic user in one sentence and Christopherson in the next when Kage hadn't known what he was talking about.
Fuck, did everyone know except him? Of course they did.
He inhaled and noticed the lack of the cologne Christopherson always put on too liberally and groaned. His cologne was Kage's lemon.
"What's your skill?"
"I see connections." He pushed up the sleeve and showed his right forearm which was covered in tattoos. People with lines connecting them. Christopherson pointed at a yellow cord leading to a smiling woman with long hair flowing around her. "I see colored strings between people. Different colors mean different things."
"Yellow?"
"Friendship."
Cool and handy, Kage realized, when interviewing people. "Do you see them all the time, or do you have to call them forth?"
Christopherson blinked. Kage couldn't see anything different about him other than maybe his gaze being a little distant. "I see a difference in the connection you have to Gilbert." He grinned and blinked again before focusing on Kage. "He's a nice guy."
"What?"
"You can't lie with emotions." He clapped Kage's shoulder and took a step in Jasper's direction. "We'll go into the station together tomorrow morning, then claim we have a meeting at eleven, so we can be back here. Meet me at the gate at seven."
Kage stared as he walked away. Jasper broke free from Gilbert and Leonard before he could reach them, and together they walked off toward Jasper's house. Or their house, he guessed.
Feeling a little lost, he looked at Gilbert.
"Ready to go?" He nodded toward the road passing the garden, and Kage took a stumbling step forward. He should leave, should go back to his empty apartment, but he didn't want to.
They walked in silence for a bit, then Leonard sighed. "So this is the community within the walls." Despair was heavy in his voice, and Kage, who wasn't a touchy-feely person, wanted to squeeze his arm, hug him, or hold his hand in comfort.
He didn't.
"Yes, this is the community." Gilbert gestured at a house ahead of them. "Jinx and Namir's house."
"Is Ximena doing okay?"
Gilbert nodded. "In this house, Esme lives with two children. They play. Namir raises chickens, so the kids are always carrying birds around or hunting for things to feed them or something similar."
Leonard watched him, a glimmer of a smile on his lips. "Good. I worried when she disappeared."
They walked on and came to Chaton's garden.
"Wow." Leonard slowed his steps. "This is amazing."
"Rue and Chaton."
"Ah...magic user." He slowed more, hardly moving at all. "I have beehives. It would've been great to have some here."
Neither Gilbert nor Kage spoke.
"In Oakmouth, gardening isn't encouraged. I'm sure it would be allowed but not like here. I have a hard time feeding my bees because there are so few flowers nearby. Here everything is clean and well cared for compared to there, and I bet things bloom through the season."
Oakmouth, not home. There, not home. It was how Kage talked about Myrfolk. Did vampires make good beekeepers? He never would've guessed. "How long have you lived in Oakmouth?"
"Too long. When I bought my house, it was a small community, pretty evenly divided between vampires and shifters. Then Czar took over, and...I don't know how to get out. I begged Jinx for help when he left, but he can't set foot there without risking his life, and while we've talked a couple of times since he moved here, it would be bad for me if they knew I was in contact with him. His house is still there, all his and Ximena's things, and no one is allowed to touch them." He shook his head. "You don't sell a house in the Oakmouth community."
Kage didn't know much about it, and the one time he'd been there, on his first day here in Myrfolk, everything had been too new for him to realize the differences between the communities. Part of him wanted to meet this Czar person everyone painted as a boogieman, but part of him believed he'd be better off not knowing what he looked like.
They kept walking and passed a couple of houses Kage believed belonged to Ylva and Orsa. Was it strange that Ylva lived here and not on Wolf Street, where the majority of all the wolves lived? Shouldn't the leader live with the pack? He'd ask Gilbert about it later if he remembered.
"It's up here." Gilbert gestured at a narrow road, more like a trail than a real road. Trees lined their way, and while Kage couldn't see well in the dark, he liked the tranquility. The houses in the western parts had big gardens, but up here, you couldn't see your closest neighbor. Gilbert's house was the same, and Kage liked it. It gave you privacy.
"Is there a big forest?"
"No, it's not big. You can walk through it in about half an hour, but it's so the shifters have somewhere to run. It's left to the wildlife, though there isn't much, the downside of having a walled-in area. There is a creek going right through. Closest to the wall, there is a meadow, also left untouched."
Kage had never considered wildlife. Without the walls they could've had deer, and the occasional moose cross their lands, but with the walls there were little to no animals for them to hunt.
"Chaton does some foraging--mushrooms, elderflowers, berries, and so on."
Leonard nodded at Gilbert.
"For the crates?" Kage didn't know why he asked. Maybe the crates were something they should've kept from Leonard.
"If there's enough. We got elderflower syrup in the last one." Then he gestured at a small cabin surrounded by pine trees. "Here we are."
"Oh." Leonard took a step closer. "It's so...No neighbors?"
"I'm pretty close." Gilbert gestured in the direction of his house. "A few minutes' walk in that direction. And Dov lives over there--" He changed the angle of his arm a fraction. "--and Julian over there. There are mostly bears living out here. They like to shift and wander, so don't be afraid if one lumbers by."
Leonard grinned. It was the first time Kage had seen a real smile.
"I don't think there is any food in the house, so come over to my place for breakfast when you wake up. Follow the trail between the pines there--" He pointed, and Kage could make out a narrow footpath leading into the forest. "--and you'll come out on a cobblestone row. Turn to the left, and the first house you see is mine. It has a wrap-around porch."
"Okay. Thank you." Leonard walked up the stairs to the cabin and checked underneath the doormat. He unlocked the front door, waved, and stepped inside.
