Truth Seer Book Three, page 14
The place was abandoned. I mean really abandoned. I hadn’t even turned the car off yet, let alone knocked on the demountable office to my left. I was still filled with the sense there wasn’t a soul in sight, like I’d disturbed a centuries-old grave.
I jumped out of the car. I wanted to keep it running, but the engine turned off once we all exited.
I wrapped my knuckles on the door, and it locked.
Virginia slipped around the truck and stopped beside me, her hackles high. Her haunted eyes tracked past the trucks over to the demountable. “They’re gone. All of them.”
“I get the sense the place is empty, too. But there might be someone around,” I tried, attempting to be the voice of reason.
The necromancer shook her head. “I can sense living energy. There’s nothing around here. I mean nothing. No people, no insects, no cockroaches, no rats. It’s like… the place has been cleaned.”
She could’ve picked another word. Anything else wouldn’t have had such a direct effect on me.
My stomach lurched back, and I was lucky not to hurl up my breakfast.
Beth scooted close and squeezed into my pocket. It was unnecessary. A shadow suddenly cut across me, and though it blocked out the late afternoon sunshine playing over the back of my neck, it somehow warmed me more than those rays could.
I darted my head up, a real smile pressing into my lips as Lux flapped his wings and landed with ease. He stared grimly at Virginia. “I suppose you have sensed what I have.”
“The place is dead. No living energy here at all.” She nodded in confirmation.
“I do not sense any dead people, however,” Lux said as he tilted his head back and scented the air.
Virginia concentrated. Half opening her mouth, she locked her tongue against her palate. After a few seconds, she shook her head. “No corpses. It’s like the place has been—”
I shuddered. “Cleaned. Let’s see if it works against me. Come on.” I strode ahead. But when Virginia took a beeline toward the demountable, I raced up to her. “I told Beth that I wouldn’t let you go.”
Virginia grunted, opened the door, and walked into the demountable. “I can look after myself. I’ve done it most of my life.”
Beth darted out of my pocket, but not far. With Lux’s presence in the yard, no one would be able to see her. But maybe the brave soul shard was a little afraid.
I’d faced some pretty gnarly situations, but this abandoned place got to me, too.
Beth sighed. “I’m sorry, Virginia. I will not leave you alone again. Please stick to Harper’s side. She may not always fill you with confidence, but there is no better fighter in all the city.”
In usual Beth style, she handed me a compliment while slapping me with the other hand. I chose to ignore the barb. I smiled and grabbed her. “I don’t know about being the best fighter in the city—”
“Do not second-guess me,” Beth snapped. “Now, the two of you should combine your skills to find out exactly where the poor employees are. They may not be here. I imagine something is, though. You keep complaining about a clean sense. There is no truth seer like Harper. She will be able to pierce underneath it and find out what is being hidden.”
Another compliment I wasn’t sure I deserved. This felt a little like Lux’s impossible map task.
Speaking of Lux, I kept seeing the shadow of his flying body over the demountable windows. That confirmed he was near. Which was great. It dulled my nerves a little, right?
A fraction.
My heart still pounded hard.
“Exactly what could do something like this anyway?” I reached out and touched a scuffed bench. A few papers – mostly receipts – were scattered over it. I saw a half-filled coffee cup. I touched the side. Cold as a glacier.
I yanked my hand back.
“A number of different spells,” Virginia said as she negotiated around the counter and started looking on the two desks. She rummaged through the drawers. She wasn’t just investigating the place with her ordinary senses. When she wasn’t talking to me, her tongue was locked against her palate.
“What do you think it is?” I asked.
She shrugged. “No clue. If it were me…. Look, making everyone – every living thing – disappear like this would take a lot of magic. People should feel someone casting that much magic. They haven’t. Has Vince called?”
I shook my head, suddenly guilty that I hadn’t called him. Did I need to? Should I? God, knowing who I should inform was always hard. I was with Lux right now. I was technically doing this for the dark side. Okay, I was prevaricating. Of course I should call Vince.
I shoved a hand into my pocket. I didn’t get a chance to pull my phone out.
Virginia hissed and lurched onto her knees. Reaching underneath the counter, she pulled something out.
“What is it?” I whispered then recoiled.
Virginia cradled the stiff body of a Persian cat.
I lurched back. “What the heck?”
“Betty,” Virginia hissed. “She was the owner’s.”
“Why’s she dead? Who killed her?” I jumped to that, even though I didn’t have any evidence.
Bethany hovered over my shoulder. “Her life has been drained.”
Evan Kilpatrick, then.
Virginia respectfully placed Betty down. She rose. She closed her eyes. Placing her hands over her chest, she muttered under her breath.
Bethany rolled against my cheek. “She’s practicing necromancy magic to find out when Betty died.”
“How do you know?”
“I have been reconnecting with my sister. And now I understand necromancers are not necessarily evil, I have been studying. You should try it sometime.”
I ignored her comment and waited. Virginia’s eyes snapped open. “Recently. Betty is stiff, but she was only killed about 45 minutes ago.”
My eyes widened with a snap. “Which means Evan was here not that long ago,” I concluded. I spun and exited the demountable. I saw Lux further into the yard, checking out one of the dump trucks.
I wanted to race up to him, not because I knew I could help him – I needed his company. My love-starved brain wasn’t trying to finish the kiss from earlier. I just felt better by his side. But we’d be more effective if we split up. It felt critical to canvass this yard as fast as possible. The clues were slipping through my fingers.
I squeezed my eyes closed and concentrated on that clean sense. It was sharper than ever. It was…. Imagine a whiteboard someone had written their magnum opus on. Secrets that could save humanity, give us clean energy, and guide us into the future. And imagine someone cleaning it with alcohol until there wasn’t a scrap of ink left. That’s the impression I got. I knew there’d been important secrets here. But someone had scrubbed them.
… Who?
Who out there had the power to remove clues from my environment?
… It couldn’t be a truth seer, right?
The mere thought terrified but thrilled me. I was the only truth seer in the city.
But what if there was someone with a different story to mine? I’d been lucky enough to run into the Council. What if they’d run into Lord Omega instead? My blood chilled as I entertained that thought.
We raced out of the demountable, and I followed Virginia.
She’d said there were no human corpses. She’d found the dead bodies of a raccoon, a bird, and a dog.
They’d all been killed recently.
I knew nothing about life drainers, but I appreciated Evan got his power from draining others.
That placed him at this scene 45 minutes ago. I didn’t know exactly when the staff disappeared – it was fair to assume it was then. Had Evan run around, gathering animals and sapping their power to attack the staff?
“Dammit,” I spat under my breath. “I feel like time is just slipping through my fingers. I get the sense something terrible is about to happen. I can’t stop it,” I hissed.
“Don’t think like that. Don’t focus on the things you can’t do. Waste of magic,” Virginia summarized simply.
I frowned. “You sound like Lux.”
She laughed, the first time she’d shown mirth since Artie’s disappearance. “I really doubt that. I can’t get his sizzling pitch. Nor can I make my every word sound like silk over skin.”
I glanced at my feet. “He’s not that bad.”
Virginia laughed, leaned over, and tapped my shoulder. “Was I suggesting that was bad?”
“I…” I trailed off, not knowing what to add.
She watched me with a wise stare. Maybe as a necromancer, she was better at them. Her branch of magic was scary, but death is also a natural part of life. It gave Virginia a wiser perspective than most.
“You want my advice, Harper?”
Honestly? Yes and no. She looked at me like she’d lay my faults at my feet and give me the only path through them. While I did want to face up to my weaknesses… like everyone else on Planet Earth, I also didn’t.
“Don’t look like that, Harper. This won’t hurt. I promise I won’t turn you into a zombie.”
I laughed lightly. “What will you turn me into?”
“You should give in more, Harper.”
My brow twitched. “To Lord Omega?”
“Hell no.” Her voice hardened. “Try giving in to this, though. Makes life worthwhile.” She tapped her heart. “Before I found Artie, I was vacillating. I had the occasional boyfriend. It rarely lasted for more than two weeks. You want to know why?”
“Because you were an on-the-run necromancer with no one to trust.”
She laughed harshly. “Because I hated myself. Because I was using them to fill a void in my heart they couldn’t fill. I had to fill it myself, had to finally accept who I am and what my magic is. When I did that, I found Artie. He’s not perfect,” she admitted. She didn’t look downcast. Her eyes shone instead as if she didn’t want perfect. “He’s wounded, just like me. But you know what else he is?” Her words hardened with earnest force.
“He’s a good man.”
Her lips jerked into a smile. “He’s a good man, and that’s all that matters.” She glanced to the side and up as Lux took flight again. “It doesn’t matter what shape, size, or species something is. When you find a good man, try not to let them go.”
I scrunched my hands into light fists and tapped them on my thighs. I opened my mouth to say something, anything. You know, to come to my defense and point out Lux wasn’t a man – he was a demon. And I’d never had him.
But a prickly sensation escaped over my back in a rush. I spun on my foot. I stood three meters from a large dump truck. The front door hung open.
A few of the other trucks were open, too. This one felt more like a gaping mouth, like a corpse someone hadn’t dealt with yet.
“… Harper?” Virginia’s brows compressed.
I lifted a hand to silence her. Warily, I approached the truck, footfalls quiet, back stiff. I reached out, hesitated, and touched the door. My fingers scrunched around the smooth green paint as I hauled myself into the truck’s body.
Beth scooted out of my pocket. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure,” I muttered as I reached forward and touched the steering wheel. Unlike with my truck, this one didn’t roar into life, growling like an aggrieved lion.
It remained still, quiet, and dead like a husk.
“This truck is clean,” I whispered.
By now Beth knew exactly what I was talking about. She pressed closer. Then she scooted around the cabin. “I’m not a truth seer. I can’t sense what you can. I can confirm I can sense no magic here at all.”
I tapped the steering wheel again. “It’s here, though. Or it was here. Someone,” I closed my eyes, “scrubbed this truck clean. I don’t know how….”
Bethany darted in front of my face. I didn’t open my eyes. I felt her hovering a few centimeters from me. “Concentrate, Harper.”
“You sound like Lux.”
She snorted. “Should I lean in and wait for you to kiss me?”
“Bethany… wait, were you hovering outside the door, watching us?”
“What are you talking about? Did you kiss Lux?” Her voice shot up with glee despite the situation.
“Never mind,” I snapped through clenched teeth. “I’m concentrating. I’m really concentrating,” I hissed, trying to make myself believe that.
I did what Lux had recommended. I cleared my mind and focused on the clean sense in the truck. At the same time, I held my magic in my body, aware of every darting flicker rising through my blood.
Virginia said nothing. I had to trust Beth would keep an eye on her. I was far too distracted.
I doubted this would be like Evan’s basement. While I could access that clean sense here, there wasn’t a target. There wasn’t a darkness spell or banshees – nothing to attack. It’s just….
I got the strangest sense of a pearl, my fingers sliding down its nacre surface.
It wasn’t a smooth pearl. It was baroque—
I felt like a 100-ton truck punched me. Suddenly woozy, I crumpled against the steering wheel, my chest bumping the horn.
“Harper,” Bethany snapped. She rammed into me and shoved me against the headrest.
The twin forces of nausea and fatigue filled me. I crumpled a hand over my mouth.
“Someone’s trying to life drain you,” Virginia snapped. She hauled herself into the truck, grabbed me, and pulled me out.
I couldn’t help her. I crumpled to a knee.
“Lux,” Virginia roared. Then she darted forward and placed a hand on my brow.
She was about to practice necromancy magic, probably to block Evan’s attack. I doubted any other life drainer was doing this.
But just as Virginia started to practice her spell, I tried to practice my own. If I couldn’t learn how to fight Evan’s magic, I’d never get Artie back.
I already knew that Evan couldn’t kill me from afar. Our magics were incompatible.
Which meant if I concentrated more on mine, maybe I could block his.
“Hold on. This will take a minute at most,” Virginia snapped.
I didn’t need a minute. I threw my mind into my blood. Into the swaying, flowing motion of it, into the pumping of my heart and the fizzling force always within.
If I’d tried to do this months ago when I discovered magic was real, I would’ve failed. The sense of my force would’ve consumed me, its power too great to control. But now I knew the secret. It wasn’t to control it but to dance alongside it.
I opened my eyes in a snap, and I cut through Evan’s attack.
I lurched up, forcing Virginia’s hand off me. She blinked then grinned. “You did it on your own.”
A powerful downdraft flattened my hair over my face as Lux landed beside me. He snapped close and grabbed my elbow. I could stand. For a few cheeky seconds I didn’t want to. I flopped voluntarily against his torso.
He was still bare-chested, and even though I wore a shirt, I felt his radiating heat. Damn, did I want to wrap myself up in it.
“Evan attacked you,” Lux snarled. He’d been the voice of reason previously. Now he bared his teeth in anger. “Wait here. He will be somewhere close. It’s hard to attack truth seers like you with life-draining magic. Your powers are incompatible.”
I stepped back from Lux. It felt like removing myself from my only source of heat and energy. I forced my sweaty hair from my face. “I snapped Evan’s spell myself. It wasn’t easy. Next time, I’ll do it quicker.” That promise clunked out of my lips. I spun on my foot. “You around here, Evan? Can you hear my voice? I’m coming for Artie. I’ll show you you can’t stop me.”
My voice rose, my warning echoing off the buildings and trucks.
It didn’t take long for Evan – or someone – to reply. A crack sounded out like someone assaulting a massive plate of glass with a machine gun.
Virginia jolted and spun on her foot.
Lux snapped closer. “Something’s coming.”
I grabbed his wrist as he latched hold of my elbow. I gazed into his eyes and meant it. “Lux, in this city, new attacks are always coming. It doesn’t mean we’ll lose, though.”
He flicked me a brief smile. “No, Harper White. It doesn’t mean you will lose. The rest of us are never that lucky.”
Chapter 14
I didn’t have time to correct Lux’s statement. He was a semi-immortal demon who’d probably fought more battles than I’d taken breaths.
Something spun at me from behind. Remarkably, I sensed it first. I shoved against Lux, but he pivoted, grabbed me, and flew into the air. He snatched up Virginia with his tail, hauling her with him. Beth flew on her own.
Lux landed on the top of a dump truck several meters away. We watched a portal spinning over the ground where we’d stood. It moved quickly enough I could only see it as this brief flickering flash of yellow magic.
My gut squirmed. “What the hell?”
“Move,” Virginia snapped, ramming Lux from the left.
The demon instinctively leapt into the air.
He flew away just as another portal appeared behind us, spinning over the top of the truck. It took out several chunks of the metal, spun down the side, consumed the window and ate through one of the tires.
I shuddered in Lux’s grip. “What the hell?”
“They’re using portals to attack us.” Bethany flew close. She was just stating the obvious. I wanted to know how, though.
Portal magic was expensive. Lux, the powerful, well-connected demon, had balked at taking two humans and one soul shard in a portal. Now someone was throwing them around the yard willy-nilly.
There were just two. But in seconds, they bloomed like daisies after a rain.
Three shot out of the demountable, digesting the door and the concrete steps leading to it. Four more appeared at the gate, spinning along it and consuming the wire.
Lux smartly stayed in the air. But he couldn’t remain there for long. Portals appeared all around him, and they rushed him. He just got out of there.
_preview.jpg)
