The Wizard's War (6 page)

“Don’t answer it,” I said before I even thought about
it. Nothing about this felt right. “Make her leave a message. Don’t answer it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not playing tag.” She hit
the answer button and raised it to her ear. “Maria? Hey, my friend thinks the
witch hunter might be tracking you by Haley’s phone.”

No damn sense whatsoever.

“Maria?” she asked when she received no answer.

I heard the person on the other end hang up. She
pulled her phone away and frowned at it. “We just lost any element of surprise
we might have had.”

“How was I supposed to know? I still don’t even know
what that was.”

“That was either your sister playing a very cruel and
stupid joke on you, or the witch hunter has her and her phone.”

“He could have tracked us through the phone if he kept
contact with her,” Edward said.

“I grew up here, and in those days, it took several
minutes to track a phone. Now it only takes seconds and if you have enough
information, you can track a phone over the internet.”

“How do you know? You can’t even use a phone.”

“I can watch TV. I’ve also dealt with cops enough to
know how easily a stalker can track someone. Now, he can probably track us
here, and if he isn’t already trying, then he doesn’t think we’re a threat to
him. We need information.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll go to a library, get on a computer, and try to
see what I can find… carefully,” I said.

“I’ll do it. You get frustrated when computers are
too slow, and then they…” he trailed off, looking at Abby. “I just don’t think
it would do any good. What would we even look for?”

“Him, for one. We can Google his name, and maybe find
a Facebook or Twitter account. I mean, he may be old, but if he’s living in
modern day America and can track a phone, I bet he left an electronic trail of
some kind. Maybe he has a credit card. Maybe he got a speeding ticket.”

“I don’t know enough about computers to look that
stuff up,” Edward said.

“I’m pretty sure if you could, it would be illegal,”
Abigail added.

“You wanted to kill him two minutes ago. We can go
back to White Hills where the sheriff can help.”

“If we return to the dragons without their leader,
they’ll never forgive you,” Edward said.

He wasn’t series, but he had a point. The dragon pack
would want to see Mordon and everyone would want to see the boys. We were part of
the community. Hell, even my wife and Xul had friends.

Then… Zero awoke, the demons broke into two opposing
factions of whether they supported me or wanted to kill me, and Sydney died.
After that, none of us could pretend everything was fine.

It would be rude to return just to use their
skills.
“I can do it.”
I would just have to stay very calm and keep my
magic at bay.
“What’s his name?”

Abigail looked at Edward and he shrugged. “I don’t
know. He was just called “the witch hunter” every time I heard of him. “He
never gave his name to any of my contacts.”

“He has to have a name,” Abigail argued.

Actually… There was one explanation for him rising
from the grave that would also explain him not having a name. I considered the
staff in the magic room, but decided against it. Whatever was in store for that
staff, it wasn’t the time. Basically, I had three options; retreat back home,
call for my wife, or play the game. The first option would leave people in
danger, which was against my every nature, so that really wasn’t even an
option. The second option was just stupid.

Abigail’s phone chirped and she clicked the button to
light up the screen. After a second, she turned it for me to see the text
message.

You’re it, Dylan.

So he wanted to play Hide-and-Seek. “Computers are
out. He is very technologically savvy. No computers, clues and questions by
texts, and I’d say we have about…” I checked my watch. “Ten minutes before we
receive the first clue.”

“Why ten minutes?” Abigail asked.

I sighed. “You don’t know me very well. Try to keep
up. Dad, explain it to her, please.”

It was Edward’s turn to sigh. “Don’t mind him; he
loves this kind of thing. Dylan only has an attention span of about ten
minutes. After that, he’s onto the next thing. For as long as the witch hunter
plays this like a game, Dylan is willing to play, but only if the witch hunter
can keep it interesting. Basically, he has ten minutes to keep Dylan’s interest
or he automatically loses.”

“What happens then?”

“Dylan usually has some weird epiphany and defeats
the bad guy.”

“That’s a bit pretentious.”

“You should meet his son. Actually, his father was
like that too, just not nearly as bad. In fact, his son is worse… Oh, god, what
if Ron had a son who was even worse?”

“I thought you were Dylan’s father.”

“No, I’m the one who taught him magic.”

The phone chirped again and I took it from Abby.

It’s lonely here in the basement, and nobody knows
who I am. Come and chill out with me, to figure out my scam. Look without your
eyes, hear without your ears, and I’ll tell you all my secrets. I begged for
mercy, will you?

“That’s it? Hospitals, what hospitals are there
around here?”

“The closest hospitals are in Fort Smith, maybe
thirty minutes away. Sparks and Mercy are the major ones. There are hospice
centers and stuff like that, too.”

“Okay, we have a place, do we have a car?”

“The garage is full of cars,” Edward said. “I’m
assuming we’re going to the hospital.”

“Even better; we’re going to the morgue.”

“We’re going to see dead people?” Abby nearly
shrieked.

“What do you beg for if you’re injured and dying?”

“A hospital.”

“But he didn’t say hospital, he said mercy, so it was
either a church or hospital with the name ‘Mercy,’ and there are a lot more
churches than there are hospitals. He also said to ‘chill out’ which is an
unusual phrase for a three hundred-year-old witch hunter. Morgues are cold and
usually in the basement. Nobody knows who the dead person is, so it’s a John or
Jane Doe.”

“And if you’re wrong about any part of that, we’re
chasing our tails.”

“I’m not wrong.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I hate being wrong even more than I hate
chasing my tail.”

“Alright. How are we going to get into the morgue?”

“That’ll be easy; we’re going to sneak in.” Whatever
she said in response was drowned out by the nausea that flooded me. Edward
tried to steady me as spots formed in my eyes and my head flushed until it
hurt.

As suddenly as it came on, the vertigo was gone,
leaving me feeling shaky and with an odd sense of loss.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked me.

I nodded and tried to smile. “I’m fine. Let’s go.” I
ignored their concern and went through the kitchen door into the garage. As my
uncle said, the garage was full… but it wasn’t a normal garage. Instead, the
garage was big enough to safely hold ten cars. None of said cars were typical
either; all were amazing, new or antique. Most were sports cars, but there was
a sweet little gray Smart Car.

I chose the one I thought looked the coolest.

*          *          *

Half an hour later, we pulled into the visitor
parking of the hospital. It was a lot larger than the hospital I worked at,
which was to be expected because White Hills was barely large enough for a
clinic of any kind.

“How do we want to do this?” Abigail asked as I
turned off the engine.

“The simplest way is to go in there and say we are
looking for a missing person, but since we have no idea what the victim looks
like, I see many ways for that plan to fall through. I say we go in there
invisible and find out way to the morgue.”

“Invisibility spells aren’t real,” Abigail argued.

I was powerful enough. I was also powerful enough to
stop everyone in the hospital, but I never practiced that ability and only used
it once on accident. I considered the newborns and critical patients in the
hospital and pushed the option aside.

“I can do a spell similar to invisibility. It would
actually do nothing to our appearance, which means we would be visible on
surveillance. All it really does is makes people not notice us. Their minds and
eyes would skip over us and forget they ever saw us. As far as video cameras
go, we’ll just act like we belong there.”

Most likely, my magic would interfere with the
cameras. Unfortunately, it would also interfere with any other medical
equipment I neared, for my energy would be swarming around us.

“Maybe you should wait out here,” Edward suggested,
thinking the same thing.

“You mean, leave the only doctor among us out in the
car?” Abby asked.

“I might be necessary in figuring out what we need to
do next,” I said. “We’ll just have to be really careful.”

I focused on my energy and the need to be
inconspicuous. I knew that nominal energy was capable of doing anything Iadnah
energy could, I just didn’t know how to use it as well, so I used Iadnah
energy. When nothing happened, I got a little worried.

“It should have worked.”

“It’s working,” Edward said.

“That’s so weird,” Abby said. “I know you’re there,
but I want to look away.”

She was clearly struggling to look right at me, so I
took her hand and let my energy flow into her. “Better?” I asked, letting her
go and taking Edward’s hand to do the same.

“Yeah. How long will this last?”

“I don’t know, so let’s get this done with quickly.”

We went inside the main entrance because we assumed
they would keep the most powerful equipment towards the back. Although there
were no signs for the morgue, we assumed it would be in the lowest level, thus
we found the nearest stairwell and quietly made our way down. Fortunately,
there were people coming and going so we didn’t have to worry someone noticing
a door opening and closing seemingly by itself.

When we reached the lowest level of the hospital, it
was pretty obvious that we arrived at the morgue. It was everything a morgue
was supposed to look like, down to the steel cubbies for the bodies. Abigail
scowled at a body lying out on one of the three metal tables. “This was what
you did?”

“No. I prevented people from coming here. There is
nothing I can do once the person is dead.” Otherwise, I would have brought
Sydney back for Mordon.

“We don’t have to touch anyone, do we?”

I had the truly inappropriate thought of teasing her
for her obvious abhorrence, but I stopped myself from doing anything that would
disrespect the dead. Instead, I ignored her and started searching the cabins.
Nothing jumped out at me… fortunately.

“What are we looking for?” Edward asked, joining me.

“Check the tags. We are looking for a no-name.
Probably a woman.”

“Gross,” he said, shutting the door on one.

“What is it?”

“A woman who was shot.”

I checked a few more doors, but I couldn’t get over the
sense that I was missing something. Finally, I reopened the one that Edward
dismissed and slid the slab out. Abigail screamed and even Edward looked sick.

I felt a little queasy myself, and I had worked in
the ER. I sewed up children, felt brain matter in my hand, and had blood
coughed all over me, but seeing the woman with her chest wide open was…
threatening my breakfast.

“She wasn’t shot. There is no shrapnel, no burns, and
no entry point. Either there was a bomb in her chest, or this was done by magic.”

“The witch hunter… this isn’t what he normally did,”
Abigial said.

“Someone was angry with her,” Edward suggested. I
nodded. “How are we going to find out who?”

“I’m going to ask her.”
Look without your eyes,
hear without your ears, and I’ll tell you all my secrets.
I moved to her
left side, right next to her head, and placed my palm gently on her forehead.
What
did you do?

I suddenly couldn’t breathe as my own energy seemed
to become heavy, but I refused to pant and clutch at my chest. I had to bear it
in order to find out what happened. It wouldn’t be easy; it
shouldn’t
be
easy to see into someone’s death. Whether it was her that was fighting me or
some deeper act of nature, I persisted through the tightness, the vertigo, and
the misery that I could feel was ahead.

Then it was gone, I could breathe, and I stood in a
dark bedroom. The woman I saw a moment before was alive, snuggled happily in
the arms of a man she loved. She was in her late twenties, far too young to die
the way she did. Her short, styled hair was brown with blond streaks. The man
was ordinary to a fault; I noticed nothing distinguishable about his
appearance.

The bedroom was dark, yet not too dark to see what
was missing. There was a picture of the man with a much older woman beside the
bed. The bed had no blankets, only mismatched sheets and white pillows, the
walls were white with no pictures or décor, and clothes were strewn about
carelessly.

There was nothing womanly about the room. Obviously,
that in itself was only a minor detail. Instead, I focused on the fact that she
wore a wedding ring while the man didn’t even have a tan line for one. Still, I
could sense her love, pure and strong, for the man she wasn’t married to.

As quickly as the bedroom had appeared, natural
daylight flooded the room. The bedroom door opened and a man walked in, not
loudly enough to wake the still-sleeping couple. His ring matched the victim’s.

“Aurora,” he called, his voice broken.

I focused on his face. It was weathered, but not to
the point of being unattractive. Although his Roman nose and angular jaw made
him appear almost angry, the puffiness and redness of his eyes told me a
different story.