Elemental Shadows (4 page)

"No I didn't—" I said.
 

"No she didn't—" Kyle said at the same time.
 

Emily held up her hand. "You will have plenty of time to dispute this record. These are the facts given to us."
 

"From whom?"
 

"Arden Vervain. She claims you were helping her track down the book. She also claims you betrayed her and one of your own Coven members—"
 

"I don't have a Coven—"
 

"Please Sam, let me finish. Miss Vervain claims one of your Coven members actually stole the book in hopes of framing her."

Kyle and I were on our feet. Kyle went first. "No one here stole that book. We never even went in Higgins’s house. That was all my aunt."
 

"We know," Miss Water said and held up her hands, then lowered them to indicate we needed to sit. When we did, she continued. "We can verify facts. It's what we do. Neither you or Miss Hawthorne were ever in Higgins’s house." She leaned her head to her shoulder. "But your other member was."
 

Shit. Damn. Ivan.
 

This was the truth. Ivan had been kidnapped and forced into that house because he could actually see Arcane where others smelled it. He saw it as writhing worms. The scarlet maggots.
 

I opened my mouth to protest but Emily waved dismissively at me. "We know you filed a complaint with the NOPD. Your shop was vandalized and you reported Mr. Westerfield kidnapped. You blamed Arden Vervain."
 

"Yeah, she threatened me because she wanted that damn head. And I said no. I never joined up with her or worked with her on
anything
."
 

"And you still believe Arden kidnapped Mr. Westerfield?"
 

The answer was no. A Leviathan had taken him. But not one of these guys had mentioned Leviathans, much less Revenants. Both of which were vampires in laymen's terms. And if you had to color code them, Revenants were technically good vampires, and Leviathans were…nasty sons of bitches.
 

I should know.
 

The woman who raised me after my mother died had been one. In fact, she'd ordered the hit on my mom, Elizabeth Hawthorne.
 

When did I find out?
 

Two weeks ago. And I still wasn't over the shock.
 

"Miss Hawthorne?"
 

"Ivan said he didn't know who kidnapped him. He was kept bound and blindfolded. He was forced into a house he said he didn't recognize and was told to look for the book."
 

"Does he have some sort of magic that would make that possible?" Fred asked. He was looking at me funny.
 

I shook my head. "His Gifts are pretty small. He's Dianic. Just a touch of psychometry."
 

Emily looked over at Mr. Air and Fred. "That kind of magic could have helped find the book."
 

"Yeah but I have that Gift and never found it," Mr. Air said.
 

"Exactly. You'd already looked after Higgins’s death and the meeting, and then whoever kidnapped Mr. Westerfield had the same thinking. But it wasn't there," Emily looked back at me. "And he was released back to you?"

"Yes."
 

"Unharmed?"

"Well no. He'd been beaten. Spent some time on medical leave."
 

"We'd like to talk to him."
 

I pursed my lips. "He's not here."
 

"Yes he is," Miss Water said. "He's in the back in his car." She frowned. "On his phone. Geez…if he can use a phone like that without draining its battery, then his Gift is weak as hell. Why would anyone wanna use his power?"
 

Oh man…if only they knew the truth. But I didn't want them to know.
 

So it was change the subject time. "Why are you so ready to pin this on Arden?"
 

Fred sneered. I sneered back. "It makes sense you wouldn't have heard, since you consider yourself above us."
 

I reached over and touched Kyle's arm. He shook his head. "I'm not above anything and I haven't heard anything about my aunt. What are you talking about?"
 

Emily leaned forward as she re-rolled the scroll. "It's terrible. Simply terrible."
 

"What?" I said that a bit too loud and maybe with a little too much force.
 

"Three of the city's Elders have been found dead in their homes since Sunday." Fred crossed his arms over his chest.
 

Three Elders? Sweet Lord and Lady! Now they had my attention. "You're not saying there are more Changelings killing random Elders are you?"
 

"No. In each death the cause was ruled natural causes officially, but unofficially," Fred's harsh exterior cracked. "They were scared to death."
 

"Huh?"
 

"What Fred means is, they were asphyxiated. Strangled. There is evidence on all three bodies that someone sat on their chests and strangled them. "

I wasn't a doctor but… "What makes that a natural cause?"
 

"It was something picked up magically on their astral bodies. Not physically."
 

Oh.
 

Emily continued. "And what makes Fred say that is…all three of them had the expression of someone in a moment of fright."
 

"What…" Kyle said. "Does that look like?"
 

"I can provide you with pictures if you're into that sort of thing," Mr. Air looked at Kyle.
 

"Oh shut up, Bilbo." I leaned into the table. "This is serious shit, guys. Three Elders are murdered since Sunday, and you haven't released this to the magical community."
 

"We're still investigating."
 

"You're…" I looked at each of them. "You're looking at Arden for this." That…was crazy fucked up. "Arden Vervain? Killing off Elders?"
 

"Sam," Emily put her hands on the table. "We're just as shocked. But we've conducted forensic magic on each of the victims, and on their homes. I'm afraid the last person to see each of them was Miss Vervain. And each of them were in the middle of writing her an email at the time of their death."
 

An email?

Miss Water stood, and as she came around the table, retrieved a piece of paper from her robe. She handed it to me.
 

Kyle moved in close and Grey got out of the way. She moved around the other side and sat up to put her paws on the table beside me as if to look at what the paper said.
 

I opened it.
 

Dear Miss Vervain,
 

I am happy to share the news of my withdrawal for consideration of Grand Master, and to offer you my support for the upcoming vote.

That was it.
 

It was a damning piece of evidence.
 

"You see, Miss Hawthorne," Miss Water said as she took the paper back. "We suspect Arden has the Hammer and is using it to get rid of her competition to seek the position of Grand Master of New Orleans."
 

"F
irst up," I said and pushed my index finger against the table. "What makes you think Arden can even use the Hammer? I thought no one could. I mean it's like a magic sword or a wand, isn’t it? Is she pointing it at them and they drop dead?"
 

Emily shrugged. "I'll admit we're at a loss."
 

"You're grasping at straws." Kyle rubbed at his forehead. "Have you tested my aunt for traces of Arcane Magic?"
 

They looked at each other. Kyle and I exchanged a glance and then looked at them. I pointed. "You can't sense Arcane, can you? Not even magically."

"Some of us can smell it. Or they claim they can. But the truth is," Emily looked a bit uncomfortable. "There's no known magic that can detect it."
 

"Yet," Fred threw in.
 

I looked at him. "What? You got some Clerics working on such a spell?" Inside I was pretty happy. They couldn't see it! Which meant they didn't know I'd used it. "So…how, as Clerics, have you been preventing people from using it if you can't even tell they have?"

"We didn't say we couldn't tell," Miss Water said. "The stories we teach our children and our community aren't lies or made up, Miss Hawthorne. The use of Arcane does change a Witch."
 

"Yeah, I was told that too. But I'm starting to get the impression it's not the same kind of change I'm thinking of."
 

"It's not a physical change. An Arcane Wielder's hair doesn't turn colors and their eyes don't start shifting like a Revenant's. It's in their personality. Their being."
 

Emily leaned into the table and put her hand on the wood. "Sam…Arcane Magic is a shadow on a soul. It takes hold and slowly, over time and use, removes that soul's humanity. This is why we discourage it."
 

I…didn't know that. And I just got sick in my stomach.
 

"We're watching Arden Vervain. Keeping an eye on her behavior."
 

"Your'e watching my aunt's soul." Kyle's flat tone warned me he was close to being over this meeting.
 

"Yes, Mr. Kendrick. We are," Emily straightened her back. "There is another matter we need to discuss before we set up your charge, Sam."
 

Set up my charge? Oh hells bells…they were serious about me finding out if Arden had the Hammer?
 

"Where is Inamorata Devonshire?"
 

I'd opened my mouth to keep hammering at Fred, so Mr. Air's abrupt question about Ina came out of left field.
 

To sum up, Inamorata was gone. She was a Leviathan. And I had no idea where she was. "What has Ina got to do with any of this?"
 

"Inamorata Devonshire was a Cleric. She'd retired from service but we keep tabs on our own. What pinged our radar was that her group disappeared. All twelve members. Including her. That's twelve missing persons."
 

I glared at him. It was my go-to reaction when I didn't want to look guilty. Eleven of those members, all ghouls, had been set on fire by a local detective. The twelfth killed by me. But I wasn't admitting to anything. Not one of those bodies would ever be found.
 

Ever.
 

"She's gone?" Kyle said, stepping in for me. "I'll admit we haven't gone to see her since Samhain. Did something happen?"
 

All eyes locked on him and I took in a deep breath. This meeting needed to end. I had a lot of information I needed to process. And my first order of business was talking to Arden.
Now
.
 

"Her house is still there. But it's been locked up tight and the security system's on. The magical wards are still in place," Fred looked at me again. Oh goody. "But they have an odd signature."
 

I shrugged. "So?"
 

"We know the house is yours. She was your guardian. She's been by your side for eighteen years. But she disappears and you're not even worried," he narrowed his eyes at me. "Why is that?"
 

"Fred," Emily countered as she turned to face him. "All this is well and good and it might be that Ina and her group took a trip together. But their business is not ours. The question's been raised as promised. Ina's broken no laws and we've seen no evidence of foul play. As far as we know she might have taken her group on a Yule Solstice trip somewhere. So," she nodded to him in a curt fashion before she turned back to me. "Back to what we were talking about."
 

I held up my hands. "I do not believe Arden killed three Elders. I mean…why?" I spread out my hands and looked at each of them. "If Arden wants the Grand Master position, killing off her competition isn't going to garner her the votes. And if the emails are real—"