Elemental Shadows (16 page)

"Quinn Ragland. Noted Magician around the turn of the century. Discovered the Other Worlds. No one knows how he did it, but he was obsessed with finding a door into what he called other dimensions. And when he couldn't find one, he made one. Over one thousand homeless and ill innocents lost their lives with his experiment. He did it. He made a door that would take anyone from this world into another world," she held up her finger. "But, the catch was the other side wasn't stable. Eight out of ten times the door shunted its poor victims into a solid object or into that limbo between worlds."
 

"That's it," I pointed at her. "That's what I'm worried about. What happens to the ones caught between worlds?"
 

Arden looked confused. "You should know this. You just fought one."

The Shadow People.
 

Arden continued. "The door's magic wasn't new when Quinn found it. It was actually based off some spell he found in a book that was passed down from his grandmother and grandfather. But then it was called the Devil's Hole."
 

Ivan crossed his arms over his chest. "That sounds awful."
 

"It was supposed to. Apparently it was something the church used to get rid of sinners. Evil monsters. I'm pretty sure a few Revenants were thrown into the thing these past centuries."

"Can…can you get out of it?"

"Only if the door's opened the same way," Arden shrugged. "But most of the time it's a one way trip." Now she leaned her head to her shoulder. "Why are you asking? Did someone make one?"
 

"I don't know. I'm terrified they did," I cleared my throat. "The missing children."
 

I counted one beat before Arden realized what I was getting at. What I was worried about. She instantly stood and came to me. "You're not serious."
 

"Where else are they?" I searched her face. Arden was beautiful. Ageless. But I often wondered if she had children of her own somewhere, or was she really as young as she looked. "They're not in this world."
 

"That's…that would be an abomination."
 

I looked past her to Ivan. "Tell her what you and Kyle saw today."
 

I moved around to the fire as Ivan recounted the different experiences he and Kyle had in each of the homes with the small and almost playful Shadow People. I came back to them and told her about my experience at Rose's house and how Crwys stopped me.
 

"This is bad," Arden said. "We have to know if they're in there."
 

"I thought about asking Tzariene if she knew if they were in
Alfheim
."
 

"No. Not Tzariene. You have to ask Brendi."
 

Brendi? "No. That's not gonna happen."
 

"You have to. You said Brendi made a deal with that Leviathan for Medbh's head, didn't you? It is possible she knows exactly what that bitch did to those children." Arden looked as stricken as I felt. "We have to ask Brendi."
 

"But I don't have anything else to give her, and the only reason she hasn't taken me is because she promised her dad."
 

"I'll ask. In fact, we'll cut the Circle here. With my people and I'll ask. I'll offer her something."
 

"What?"

"Doesn't matter. Let's get this done. And hope she knows—
if
they were cast into a Coyote Flame—where."
 

"Where is important?"
 

Arden reached out and touched my cheek. "Only if you want to get them out."
 

W
e made plans to meet Arden at Gypsy Gardens, her estate outside the city along Lake Pontchartrain at midnight. That gave us around three hours to get to the shop, change and get a few ritual supplies I wanted to use. It also gave Arden time to call out to her house and get them ready. She wouldn't tell me what she planned on exchanging for the information.
 

And that worried me.
 

Once in the shop, Kyle ran upstairs to my apartment and changed into jeans, shirt, sneakers and jacket. He also stored his ritual robes up there as well. I asked him to grab mine. Ivan didn't have any yet, since up until that point we really hadn't had any reason to cut a Circle.
 

I was in the back office grabbing my ritual bag when I heard Ivan yell out. It wasn't a call for me—but more like a "Hey somebody!"
 

I dropped what I was holding, pulled my guns out my bag and headed back to the front as Kyle came thundering down the steps. I burst through the door with my guns up just as five men in black suits turned and pointed their guns at me. Ivan stood in the middle of them, handcuffed and looking terrified.
 

Dammit. It was like Halloween all over again. Only this time I could see the black suited ninjas. "Drop it right there because I'm calling the police!"
 

"Please, go right ahead Miss Hawthorne," the tallest of them said. He was the only one without a gun. And upon further examination of their guns—they had really
big
guns. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black wallet. "Please, allow me to introduce myself."
 

I kept both of my guns focused on him as he stepped forward and held the wallet open. "My name is Special Agent Pierce Goddard. My team and I are here to take Mr. Westerfield in for questioning."
 

I looked at the badge and my
dex
launched. It wasn't just good for identifying species. It could see lies as well. And from what it could tell of the ID, this was legit. But that didn't mean I was putting my weapons down. It'd been that kind of day. "Questioning for what?"
 

"Sam, you can put your guns down," Kyle said to my left.
 

"Not until they do and they take the cuffs off Ivan."
 

Goddard nodded to his right, then his left, and the men all lowered their weapons. "I'm afraid the cuffs have to stay. Procedure."
 

"Is he under arrest?"
 

"No. Not yet. But he is wanted in questioning in conjunction with the actions of a black hat group calling themselves Soul Machine."
 

"Ivan doesn't have anything to do with them."
 

"I'm afraid we've been given information that says otherwise. And given Mr. Westerfield's past history with computers and hacking, we think he'd benefit from our protection."
 

Protection? "You're not taking him."
 

Goddard reached into his jacket pocket again and retrieved a folded piece of paper. He handed it to Kyle who skimmed it. "What the hell? You're shutting us down?"
 

"Just your Internet. While we conduct our investigation to see if Mr. Westerfield has information that pertains to Soul Machine and the deaths of three elderly men."
 

"What does that mean, shut down our Internet? For how long? I have to make orders. I have an online presence." I honestly didn't know if I did or didn't. Ivan took care of all that stuff. I wouldn't call myself a Luddite, but I was in the ball
 
park.
 

But let's face it. Magic and technology? Not exactly the best match.
 

One of the guys in suits stepped forward and offered me his hand. He literally stood in front of my guns, blocking my view of Goddard and Ivan and stuck his hand out. "Ma'am. My name's Jack Roberts. I'll be handling the shut down. And I promise, I won't damage any of your equipment."
 

Equipment? We had equipment?

The other men in black started moving, escorting Ivan out the front door.
 

"Get out of my way, Jack."
 

"Ma'am—"
 

I fired one of the guns just past his left ear. He moved.
 

The bullet struck the wall over the agents' heads and they all aimed their guns at me again.
 

"Sam…" Kyle sounded a bit on edge. "You're tired. And stressed out. They'll talk to Ivan and find out he has nothing to do with this so-called group and they'll release him."
 

"Miss Hawthorne," Agent Goddard said. "I was told to treat you with kid-gloves. But if you don't lower your weapons I will shoot you myself."
 

"Sam," Ivan said from where he was held by the door. "Just do as he says. And remember what I said at Arden's?"
 

What he said at Arden's? I flipped through what I could remember and then…
Oh shit
.
 

Kyle stepped next to me and pushed my left arm down. I lowered both arms and watched as they took Ivan away and filed out of my shop. All of them except Jack Roberts.
 

"Get out."
 

"Ma'am, I'm supposed to take your router. I have a warrant."
 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Then take it and get the fuck out of my shop before I blow your ass off." I turned and headed into the back room.
 

I was shaking when I set both guns on the table. I was so tired. And the night wasn't over. No, but it sure as hell just got a lot more complicated. I was depending on Ivan to download that book so—

DAMMIT!
 

He still had the Hammer…and now some weird ass spooks had him.

Unless they weren't real spooks.
 

Oh shit. What if this was like last time, and Dionysus was behind it again? He'd set up a new group with men this time and now they had Ivan. Again!
 

My phone rang and I irritably pulled it out of my pocket. When I saw Pauline's number I refused the call and held tight to the phone.
 

Who the hell could I ask? I needed to make sure they were legit. I wasn't going to be able to function if I didn't know for a fact those were real agents. Checking up front, I listened and heard Kyle talking with Jack.
 

I dialed the only number I knew.
 

"Wow…this is a rare event."
 

"Shut up, Crwys. I need you to tell me that the agents that just came and picked Ivan up are legit."
 

"Wait…what? Slow down. Agents just picked Ivan up? For what?"

I blabbed it all. Well not
all
. Most of it. I started where Ivan found out about the leak at the women's shelter and ended at the fundraiser, wrangling pretty well around the Hammer.

He whistled. I had learned this to be a good thing with him. It meant he'd been listening and he was interested. "Ivan's betting this Ronald Kennett sent the feds some bullshit about him being involved."

"I also suspect Kennett's the one that set Arden up with the three dead Elders."
 

"How so?"
 

"Because Ivan hid the information he had on Kennett on one of Arden's company's servers."
 

"Is it still there?"
 

"I have no idea."
 

"I'm gonna need that." Crwys said something to somebody and then, "Give me the agent's name."
 

"Pierce Goddard."
 

He paused. "That's the same agent that came asking us about Soul Machine and Ronald Kennett. The one I told you about? Runs a cyber terrorist task force across Mississippi and Louisiana. Kennett knew right where to send the stuff. Look, I'll see what I can do about helping Ivan. You go through with the ritual at Arden's. If I get good news, I'll either bring it to you or call you."
 

I felt a small bit of relief. Small. Mostly I felt guilt because I still hadn't told him everything. "I'll try."
 

"Sam…when was the last time you slept?"
 

"This morning." I hung up and shoved the phone back in my pocket. I saw the red 3 on the phone icon and knew Pauline had left messages. But I couldn't head out to Picayune just yet.