eldritch files 07 - elemental blood (9 page)

But this smell…it had life to it. And it had memory. And just as I felt an odd stirring in the world around me, all of my Elementals appeared in the room, fanning out in an attack formation.

Guys?
I asked all of them.

Belenos, my Salamander, spoke for them, -
The forest is alive! It's coming here!-

I didn't know what to make of that statement. I looked at Bastien. Brahms had consumed half a sandwich, and Bastien was eating the other one. He'd also noticed my Elementals and set the food down. He went to the window and looked out. He said something in French that didn't translate for me. Something I was sure was deep Cajun.

When he ran to the door, so did I. We both stood there in the morning light, watching the woods in front of the cabin. The view was a clipped one, with thick bayou woods shrouding the cabin. What we didn't expect to see were the trees, bushes and scrubs …
moving
.

It was like something from a Froud nightmare. Several of the trees had sprouted arms and legs made of branches and were slowly doing this odd step-slog over the muddy ground in our direction. I would have said they looked like Ents…but they didn't. Ents I could digest and take in as some kind of delusional CG overload.

But this?

Bushes morphed into small animals with leaves for fur and twigs for legs. Some had longer leaves for wings that fluttered like butterflies, and all of them had beady yellow eyes. Large bird creatures swooped down and landed on outstretched branches. Their eyes glowed yellow as well. It was a flora army advancing on us, and it reminded me of another time when flowers came to life in a cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

My Elementals filed out of the cabin and formed a barrier between the forest and us. My Unicorn, the representation of my Spirit, also appeared, a bright, indigo light against the shifting, moving green and brown.

The mud closest to the house, and just in front of my Unicorn, began to bubble and shift. She backed up, pawing at the dirt and kicking up grass and roots. The mud twisted and spouted up like a black fountain of oil, but it never spattered or sprayed anything around it. Instead, it moved back on itself, continuing to cycle as it grew thicker and taller until it shaped a rudimentary face. White stones flew off the ground and plopped in where eyes should be. A few loose pieces of bark popped off an approaching tree and formed a mouth beneath the eyes.

My Unicorn stepped back, as did my Elementals, until we were all crowded on the porch, surrounded by a haunted forest. Bastien moved to stand in front of me, and for once, I didn't protest. Instead, I half hid behind him. Magic against bad guys was one thing, but magic against nature? That's not something I'd ever encountered.

Bastien cursed again, and I felt his muscles tense. I knew it was costing him every ounce of his control not to shift.

I slapped my hands over my mouth when the bark on the towering, oozing water-mud spout spoke.
Lady Darksome!
"Blood must be pro-tect-ted. Blood will save us all."

Huh? I peeked out from the side of Bastien's arm. "What blood?"

"Elemental Blood…pro-tect-ted. Foul is the one who betrays the blood."

"
Chérie
, I do not like the sound of that," Bastien said in a soft voice. Then he tilted his head to the side. "We are not alone."

For a second, I wanted to point at the walking forest and agree we weren't alone. Then I realized he meant the pack. The Aces were here. I sent my
feels
out to see if I could touch them, since I wasn't part of the link anymore. Every attempt was bounced back at me.

Belenos abruptly turned and looked directly at me, hovering level with my face. -
Tell the Wolves not to attack!-

A roar broke through the sound of shifting leaves.

Too late.

NINE

Crwys stood to the side of the horror. He kept his face unreadable. The other detectives, officers, and government officials weren't as successful, as some of them cried and others retched.

They stood on the north course at City Park Driving Range. Crwys had never been to this part of City Park, and after today, he never hoped to return. In the center of the course sat a new sculpture. Not one commissioned by the city or patrons of the arts, but one created by a magic far older and wilder than his own.

Captain Prescott had been right about the twenty bodies. What she hadn't mentioned was they were twenty bodies of children, differing in age, sex, and race. The only way he could describe it…it looked as if they'd all been tossed into a large pile seconds before they started to change into stone. All of them were calcified from at least the waist down. The smaller children on the bottom were completely turned to stone. Each of them was forever frozen in an act of horror, marked by their outstretched arms and terrified expressions.

"I don't know which is more haunting—" Levi said as he stood beside him. Ashur's voice came through in deeper tones. "The expressions of the stones, or of the ones still human."

"What does it matter?" Crwys balled his hands into fists. "This is ‘effed up. And this is
not
a Quest."

"I don’t believe this is what the Purs had in mind when they created the Quest," Ashur/Levi said. "Magic like this shouldn't be alive in this world. It shouldn't come through the veil like this."

Crwys understood what his old friend meant by the veil. It wasn't a physical thing anyone could touch, but a sort of dimming of senses, a gestalt of magic over mind that prevented humans from seeing what existed around them. This veil had been voted on and established long before Crwys even knew what a Nisse was.

And yet…here was a real, horrifying clue to what really walked around them. Quest or no Quest, this couldn't continue.

Crwys watched in silent horror as men in hazmat suits moved around the twenty-foot high sculpture, and he wondered how a pile of victims could jump so high. The truth was…they couldn't. He had to reassess his initial assumption. These kids were dropped from a high altitude and then transformed in media res.

In process.

Captain Prescott approached, wearing a sharp black suit, a stern expression, and a pale countenance. She motioned for the two of them to follow her and then stopped several feet away. "I need ideas."

"I don't have any at the moment," Levi said, no trace of Ashur in his voice.

Crwys stared at the monstrosity. "What does the CDC say?" He nodded to the people in hazmat suits.

"Nothing that helps us. Their supervisor said preliminary tests haven't shown a pathogen."

"A what?" Levi said.

Tas spoke up, "It's the first step in a chain of infection. It can be bacteria, or a virus, or even a fungus."

"Exactly," Prescott said, her hands on her hips. "And they can't find anything. Which is knocking out our theory of some kind of medical issue. I've asked them to send samples to Max to see what he comes up with. If he finds anything, he'll give you three a call." She glanced back and Crwys noted the pain in her face. She had two kids. "I can't explain this one, and there is no way this is going to stay out of the news. Even with a curfew being put into place, someone is going to leak this out there."

"We can always have a press conference if they do," Tas said. "Debunk it."

Prescott motioned behind her at the pile without looking at it. "You wanna try and debunk that?"

Levi spoke up, "Has anyone reported missing children? Or was there a group of children, like this, out today?"

"We're making inquiries and trying to do it without raising alarms."

Crwys rubbed his bottom lip. "So you haven't received any missing persons? Nothing to account for twenty children?"

"No."

He moved away from the little clique up to the tape barrier the CDC had erected. A few of the hazmat suits tried to flag him down, but he glared at them and used a bit of his power to make sure they stayed the hell away from him.

Getting closer to the flesh-and-stone horror, Crwys felt something twitch. A familiar pressure just on the periphery of his draconic senses. He mentally stretched out his wings as he stood before the statue and closed his eyes. He didn't have to touch the thing to hear it, feel it, and smell it. It was ripe with the scent of blood, but not on a level available to humans.

And it wasn't human blood he sensed.

Blinking, he backed up, nearly stumbling. He was surprised when a hand gripped his shoulder and he turned to see Tas beside him. "You shouldn't—"

"This isn't what it looks like, is it?"

Crwys shook his head and grabbed her arm, leading her back to the edge of the tape. "No. It's not. And you shouldn't get so close to it."

"Why? It didn't harm you."

"I'm not…" He bit back his words. "You know I'm not human."

"Yes."

"This thing—" He turned and nodded at it. "I think I know where it came from, but I can't prove it. Not yet."

Tas looked at the statue. "This is Lethe's work, isn't it?"

He stared at her. She was perceptive, but then, Tas had come in to the aftermath of Eliza's death two months ago. "I think it is."

"Why do you think this?"

Crwys watched her. She continued to surprise him, not just with her intelligence but with her knowledge. He still couldn't pinpoint if she was a Witch or something else. Or just a very well-informed human, as Ashur suggested. "Lethe was shot with an arrow that nearly turned to her stone."

"Then you don’t think this is a part of that Quest."

"I don't. I don’t think any of these bodies are part of that Quest. I’m not even sure a Quest was really triggered. I'd have to see the other bodies close up again to know. But with what Riven and his mother told us…Quests are just that. They're Quests. An individual triggers one by agreeing or accepting something. What could twenty kids have agreed to or accepted here on the golf course? Nothing. This was deliberately done to these kids."

Tas stared at him. "Why? What for? Why do this? I thought she was in hiding."

"Apparently, she's not. At least, not anymore. And I'm sure she did it to get my attention. She knows I can't stomach this kind of thing, especially done to innocents. But if it is her, that would mean…"

Then it hit him, hard, and he staggered back. Sam filled his thoughts, his senses, and his body. She was everywhere around him in that instant. He could smell her perfume, feel her skin against his, and see himself reflected in her beautiful blue eyes. His heart leapt with joy that his mate was near!

"Crwys?"

Sam was near? What did that mean? He looked around the golf course, garnering the odd look from Levi and Prescott to their left. He didn't see Sam anywhere, nor did he sense her physical presence in the park. Now that she was in New Orleans, their link had re-established.

His joy and apprehension dissolved into panic. But it wasn't
his
panic. It was Sam's. He felt overwhelming fear. Not the kind she experienced when she fought, the kind that fueled her passion, but the kind he'd sensed in her nightmares. It was a base fear of old haunts.

Sam was in trouble, and she was afraid.

Very
afraid.

He took off past Levi and Prescott toward his Mustang, the fiery red color visible in the green foliage of the golf course. Flying to her would be faster, but there were too many witnesses. He wasn't about to expose himself, just in case there really was a Quest running, especially one that needed a Dragon's heart.

Levi and Tas reached the car as he got in and started the engine. Levi jumped in front, while Tas climbed in the back.

"What're you two doing?"

"Following you," Levi said. "Something just set you on fire…no pun intended."

Crwys made a face at him.

"What's happening?" Tas asked as Crwys gunned the motor and tore out of the golf course as fast as he could—without breaking rules as much as possible.

"It's Sam," Crwys said as he dodged through traffic. He was tuned in on her with his heart. "She's back. And she's in trouble."

"Lethe?" Tas said.

"Lethe?" Levi said, looking between the two of them. "Oh man…I was hoping Sam would kill that bitch."

"So was I," Crwys said. His phone rang and Crwys fished it out of his jeans while driving one-handed and looked at the face. It was Kyle. He answered it. "You feel her too?"

"Yeah, but there's more. Jack got a call in the link from Bastien. He's with her, and they're in trouble. Jack's already gone, I couldn't stop him."

"Where is he going?"

"The cabin at Gypsy Gardens. Arden's already called. Her coven can't get through the forest. Apparently…she said it's fighting her?"

“What’s fighting her?”

“The forest.”

Oh. Wonderful. "Grab Papa Dumaine and meet us there. Where's Ivan and Dharma?"

"With me." He hung up.

"What's going on?" Levi said.

"Something's happening at Gypsy Gardens." He tossed the phone to the floorboard. "Kyle and the others are on their way. And so are the Aces."

"Uh oh."

Crwys nodded to his partner.
Yeah…uh oh.