With Silent Screams (10 page)

I’d already discounted actually going into the house itself; it was locked, and even if anyone was still using it, they were clearly expecting me. So, once I’d parked the car, I set off in the direction of the woods at the rear of the house, sprinting the distance of the open ground between the two.

It wasn’t especially dark once under the canopy of whatever tree leaves remained, but the constant drizzle made me glad that I’d purchased a new waterproof coat and boots. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to find. Bad guys rarely leave big neon signs pointing to their direction, but from the brazen display that I’d seen from whoever wanted me in Maine, they may as well have been.

It took another fifteen minutes, and the realization that not only was the rain going to hang around for a while but that I was also being followed, before I actually found something. Several trees had claw marks, as if used by a cat to scratch on. The farther I went, the more trees I found.

“Do you ever pay any attention to authority?” Agent Moore asked as she walked toward me.

“No,” I said. “They tell me what to do, and I’m not such a big fan of that.”

“You need to leave this place.”

“Why? So far I’ve seen a few scratched trees and a lot of leaves. Those marks are from a big cat. I assume you have mountain lions around here.”

“Not quite. We had three hikers from town killed three days ago. We found the bodies about a hundred yards to the east of here, by an old cave, during a routine check of the area. It was only by chance—one of their phones went off. Coroner said a big cat had killed them; their wounds were matched to those of a lion. As in, of the African variety.”

“You have African lions in Maine? That sounds a little crazy.”

“That’s what I said, but I spoke to a zoologist from town and he confirmed it was likely a lion attack. He said they were probably pets who got out and killed out of desperation. The SPD had their K9 unit out here, but the dogs won’t go anywhere near these woods and we couldn’t find the lions. The SPD been up here every day, and they’ve advised people to stay away from the woods until we find them.”

“Them?”

“Maybe three or four. And they were big cats too. I know I don’t want to find myself out here with them hunting me.”

“Can you show me the cave? Where the bodies were found?”

“I just told you we have dangerous animals out here and you want to go spelunking?”

“Indulge me. It won’t take long, I promise.”

“What makes you think you can protect yourself? You couldn’t stop me from melting the hotel roof over you.”

I stopped walking and wondered if Caitlin was either trying to get information out of me or having fun at my expense, but decided that was a conversation for another time and so, I set off toward the caves once more.

Caitlin sighed and marched off to the east. It didn’t take long to reach our destination, which had a huge opening, easily big enough for two people to walk in side by side and without stooping. I stepped into the cave and noticed that a fair bit of light still came in from outside, but as I kept walking that quickly extinguished. I used a small measure of fire magic to allow myself to see in the dark and discovered that the cave went another thirty feet before taking a steep fifty-foot drop. I had no idea where it went from there, and very little
inclination
to find out.

I made my way back to Caitlin, who was staring out in to the woods as the rain hammered against the ground in front of her.

“Great, now it’s fucking pouring it down,” she snapped. “We need to get back to the car before it gets dark.”

“There aren’t any bones in here. If they are lions, they’re not using this place to sleep or feed. We could probably stay here for a while longer until it stops raining.”

“I am not staying in a cave with you.” She rested her hand on her hilt of her pistol as she stared at me. “I don’t know who you are, or what you want.”

“Okay, go get wet, I’m staying here where it’s dry.” I found some dried leaves and twigs and used a small magical flame to start a fire.

Caitlin took one look outside and placed her hand against the side of the rock wall, which groaned as it moved, shrink
ing the
hole until it was just big enough for a full-sized man to climb through. She glanced at me, sighed and sat next to the fire.

“I didn’t arrange this,” I pointed out. “I’m many things, but I’m not a weather spirit.”

“Okay, so who are you?”

“Seriously? You open with that? I’m a concerned citizen, who’s in town to find someone.”

“Who are you looking for?”

I removed some mints from my pocket and popped one into my mouth before offering one to Caitlin, who waved them away. “The person who killed Bill Moon. You knew him?”

“He’s well thought of in the police department here. Some sort of big bust back in the seventies. He called about three weeks ago asking if anyone had been looking into some missing people; he suspected that a group of serial killers was involved. I’m in town for a similar reason, so I asked what he knew. We met up in New York and discussed the case.”

“What did he tell you?”

“A lot of stuff about that house—they call it Blood Red because of all the bodies they found. He thought people were being murdered around here, and I tended to believe him.”

“What makes you think he was right?”

Caitlin sighed.

“Okay, fine, let’s go to utterly pointless questions. Why the Adidas trainers? Because no FBI agent I’ve ever met, at least not one who wears a suit, would get away with trainers.”

“Sprained my ankle helping out with those bodies, the s
hoes hurt.”

“Right, can I ask you things that are important now, or are you going to keep sighing? Do you know who killed my friend?”

She opened her mouth, presumably to argue, but instead shook her head. “I’m really sorry about him. He was a good cop. Why are you involved?”

“Apart from leaving Bill and his wife’s bloody corpses as a message, they left me a bomb. The message took me to a hotel in New York, where they left a second one. The House of Silent Screams. So, now I’m here.”

“I assume you were the person who worked with Bill during the initial investigation. He didn’t mention you by name, but I got the feeling he liked you.”

“I was here, yes. I thought we’d stopped it. Apparently I w
as wrong.”

Caitlin watched me for a few moments before speaking again, “I’ve been in town for three months. I’m tracking a serial killer. A group of them, to be exact. I’ve been after them for a long time, and I have no idea why they’re in town, or what they want, but the body count will increase until we stop them.”

“Serial killers don’t tend to travel in groups.”

“Yeah, well these are special. There’s no type, each person vanishes without a trace. No struggle, just gone.”

“Did you think I was involved?” I asked, wondering if that was why she was so hostile toward me.

Caitlin shook her head and a smile crept onto her face. “Nope, I just thought you were an ass. Besides, no one comes up here. Even before the lions it was off limits. Someone called the station and said you were there, that’s why Edward and Danny, the officers who found you, were sent.”

“Who called?”

She shrugged. “No idea, probably someone in the woods. I didn’t find out about it until after you were brought in. The SPD wanted me to check that you weren’t one of the people I’m after. But when I saw your face, I figured it would be better to discover if you were after me.”

“While you did leave quite the impression, especially on my friend, I had no idea you’d be here,” I admitted. “But someone was tracking me. I was there for all of five minutes before the cops turned up. It’s a twenty-minute drive from the station to the house. I know, because I’ve done it. Whoever called, did so before I’d even arrived. From the moment I came into town someone has been watching me, it’s why I got the Audi; thank you for allowing me to get back.”

“Nice car, a bit ostentatious for a small town like this one.”

“Good, whoever sent me here will think that they can keep an eye on me by keeping an eye on the car. It makes me nice and public, right up until I don’t want to be.”

“You want to tell me about your stash of weaponry?”

“They were gifts,” I said.

“If you want me to believe that you’re the good guy, lying to me isn’t going to help.”

“Not a lie, they really were gifts
…
sort of. I was given them just in case I needed something more than my magic and general all-around awesome personality.”

Caitlin regarded me for a second. “In addition to the dead hikers, we’ve had two people go missing in the last few weeks. None of them were likely to vanish and there’s no evidence of foul play. One of them was the caretaker of the Blood Red. She had the keys and made sure no one went up there to destroy anything. Her neighbor said she heard shouts the day she vanished, but there was no evidence of a struggle and her car keys were gone.”

“What about the other one?”

“He was a security guard just outside of town. He left for work one morning and never turned up.”

“So, you’ve got missing people and dead hikers. Doesn’t sound like the best time to live in this town. Did you ask around?”

“I’ve worked with the FBI for eight years. I’m pretty certain I know what I’m doing. Yes, I spoke to the people he worked with, his friends, neighbors, family. Everyone. No one has any idea where he’s gone or why.”

“Is that why you were in New York? To try and figure out who’s doing this?”

“It doesn’t matter why I was there,” she snapped.

“Okay, but it’s a hell of a coincidence that you arrived at the same place and time as Sky and me.”

“Change the subject.”

“You’ve got some serious power. That trick with the roof was very impressive.”

“Impressing you is hardly at the top of my list of things t
o do.”

“Did we not just discuss that I’m not the bad guy? Because I’m pretty certain you were ready to jump on board that particular wagon.”

“Yeah, well, the jury’s still out on that one.”

CHAPTER
11

W
e sat in the cave for a while longer as the rain turned into a sheet of water. Caitlin and I got as comfortable as possible, and she contacted her dispatch and told them where she was. She explained that her GPS tracking on her phone was switched on and that she’d contact them with an update every few hours.

Afterward, we’d both just remained silent as the small fire flickered beside us.

“When you find the people who killed Bill, what are you going to do?”

My initial response was to tell her I was going to kill them. It was probably the truth, even if I was certain she wouldn’t li
ke it
. “I don’t know.”

“You
won’t
murder them—I told you I don’t want trouble in this town. I’m an FBI agent, I can’t be part of murder and vengeance just because you decide to carry out your own brand of justice.”

“I’m not going to promise anything, and if you want to argue this point, whoever killed Bill isn’t human, so your laws don’t apply to them in the same way.”

Caitlin looked shocked. “So you’ll just kill them and m
ove on?”

I shrugged. “If they give me a choice, I’ll hand them over to the relevant authorities. That won’t be you, by the way. But if they push it, I’ll just bury them.”

“Who are the relevant authorities? I’ve heard of Avalon, had some dealing with them, don’t know much about them though.”

“Shadow Falls controls Maine.”

“Who’s Shadow Falls?”

“Not a who, it’s a where.”

“Then let’s go see whoever controls
them
.” A determined expressed settled on her face.

“Not until I know what’s going on. The king and I have
…
history
.”

“They have a king? Does the constitution of
this
country
mean anything to anyone who isn’t human?”

“Of course it does; Avalon let you write it in the first place. If they didn’t want it, you’d be ruled by the British or French, or hell, maybe even the Canadians. This country was easier to break up, easier to manage, when it got its own identity.”

“So, the War of Independence was a lie?”

I shook my head. “For the most part, Avalon lets human governments do as they please. They have their people in high-
ranking
positions, but unless it adversely affects their plans,
Avalon
leaves them alone. When the humans started to rebel against the British, Merlin and the rest of the council—which includes people like Hades, Ares, and various high-ranking members of different species—saw it as an opportunity to have America be its own place, but they also saw it as an opportunity to break up
America
into manageable chunks. Each piece
governed
by different groups. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way and very little of the country is actually under the
control
of only one person or group. Most are controlled by a hodgepodge of different people or different species. It’s why they created
neutral
states.”

Caitlin raised an eyebrow in question and I quickly explained the concept of the neutral states.

“Are Europe and Africa and the like all the same?”

I nodded. “Very few countries or territories on Earth are ruled by only one party. Even England, which comes under Avalon, has parts that are controlled by someone else. In a weird sort of way, it keeps the peace. No one person or group has enough power to control large amounts of land, not without a fight anyway. And most form alliances with whoever else is in their territory, so fighting is the last thing on their mind. And those who do fight, spend so much effort on it, they never seem to have time to actually consolidate their power.”

“So, Shadow Falls controls Maine?”

I nodded. “They’re independent from any of Avalon’s influence. Which, I can tell you, is pretty damn rare. But Merlin agreed to let them live separately in exchange for them forgoing all rights to have a say in how Avalon is governed. It works out quite well for the most part, although it resulted in a lot of very stupid stipulations about anyone from outside of Shadow Falls not being allowed to step foot in the state.”

Caitlin was silent for a moment, probably absorbing t
he informati
on she’d been given. “Merlin is in charge of
Avalon
, yeah?”

“He’s meant to be, although there are far too many people in there who use it as an excuse to do as they wish. A lot of the more powerful members or groups, like Hades or the werewolves, have their own security and deal with internal problems in-house. But no one dares try to overthrow Avalon. There would be anarchy, for a start. And that’s if Merlin and his cronies didn’t incinerate anyone who tried.”

“Merlin’s that powerful?”

“Merlin is easily in the top ten most powerful things on the planet. And while he’s nowhere near as interested in the day-to-day running of Avalon as he should be, he’s not someone you cross lightly.”

“And you used to work for Avalon?”

“I worked for
Merlin
.”

Caitlin exhaled in surprise. “Are you meant to be telling me about this?”

There was no indication of shock at hearing the name; clearly she knew of Merlin’s existence. But that didn’t really tell me much. “Discovering the existence of Merlin, Avalon, and those who worked for and against them isn’t illegal or met with fire and brimstone. Many people know about them, but taking that knowledge to prove to the world that they existed, that
is
illegal. Basically, it’s not illegal to find out, but it’s illegal to publicly tell people about it. Besides, you’re not human, so I think you’ve earned the right to know. I’m curious, though, why haven’t you ever worked for Avalon, or even know a lot more about them then you do?”

“I had to deal with members of Avalon when I worked for the FBI. They’ve not exactly forthcoming with details about that whole side to the world. I think I had contact with them twice.”

“Didn’t you tell them you were an alchemist?”

“They never asked and I didn’t like people finding out. My mom told me about it when I was little—she told me never to tell anyone. I guess some things she taught me stuck.”

“So, no one knows what you can do?”

Caitlin shook her head. “I thought I was alone in the world until I was sixteen and I met a sorcerer. He was a cocky little shit, but I was entranced by him. Young, stupid love, I guess.”

The fact that Caitlin had never integrated herself with a whole world of people was kind of sad. I couldn’t have imagined growing up with no one to share my magic. It would have been awful. “So, who taught you how to use your alchemy? Your mum?”

“My mom didn’t teach me anything except how to distance myself from people. My parents are human, so I mostly taught myself.”

She clearly knew what I was thinking about her parentage, because she already had an answer.

“Which, yes, means that one of my parents isn’t my birth parent. My dad met my mom when she was already pregnant. I don’t know the ins and outs, but he’s my father as far as I’m concerned.” She was very matter-of-fact about it, something she’d come to terms with a long time ago.

“Fair enough. So how did you learn about alchemy?”

“I met another alchemist, Melissa, when I was in college, and she taught me a lot. We were in the same dorm and would sneak out at night so she could show me how to control my abilities. Melissa told me about my longer life, about living for millennia, about my healing and how I could use my alchemy to affect the world around me. Probably the most fun I ever had. What was Merlin like?”

I tried to think of an answer that didn’t make me angry. “That depends on the year. When I first met him, he was kind, patient, attentive. He would sit and let me ask him a million questions and he’d always answer them honestly. Over time, he became more detached, distant from everyone. But then you’d talk to him for a while and that old Merlin would come through. After a while that spark became dimmer and dimmer until it just vanished. Even then it took a long time for me to figure out something had changed. By that point I only saw or talked to Merlin when he needed something. The rest of the time, he left me to my own devices.”

“So, what did you used to do?”

“All sorts of things: negotiations, peace talks, spying, anything needed.” Assassinations, murder, theft, regicide, blackmail, those were the things Caitlin didn’t need to be told.

We didn’t speak after that for over fifteen minutes until she decided to break the silence. “I know you’re a killer. The weapons in your car tell me that. But I want to know, is everyone from Avalon like that, do they value life as such an easy thing t
o remove?”

“No,” I said honestly. “Like humans, some have trouble taking a life and some don’t. I fall into the latter. I’m not psychotic or evil or anything so damn melodramatic, I just don’t have the luxury of second-guessing myself. If someone is coming to attack me or the people I care about, it’s them or me. Simple. If they want to push something to that degree and they threaten a life, then theirs is now forfeit. That’s not to say there aren’t people I’ve killed who stay with me, ones I regret ever having to take or being put into a situation where it’s them or me.”

“You sound like its normal for you.”

“It is,” I said. “I was born over sixteen-hundred years ago. I killed my first man before I was a teenager. That wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for the time period. If taking a life means people I care about are safe, then I don’t think twice about it.”

Another long silence. Apparently, Caitlin had a lot of information to think about. She fished a piece of paper out of her pocket and passed it to me. “This is why I was in New York. It was left for me at the reception desk. It’s why I got changed and decided to go incognito.”

I opened the folded paper and read the sentence on it:
Make them fear you, and once they’re dead, you will live free.

“What does it mean?” I asked, handing the paper back.

“The psychopaths who are murdering people, the ones I’m here for, they left that message for me in New York. They’ve left similar ones at the previous four crimes scenes around the country. It’s why we know they’re connected.”

“Why no task force?”

“I’m not exactly the Bureau’s favorite agent; apparently I get involved too much. I think my boss was pretty happy with assigning me the case. I have issues with playing with others.”

“No shit, really?” I said with mock surprise. “Sounds like you’re close to the investigation. You sure you’re okay with being involved?”

She nodded, but brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them against her. She was scared, although I doubted she’d admit it. “I don’t have the luxury of stopping now. They need to be caught, and I’m the only one who can. I
need
to stop them.” She stood up, knocking dirt onto the fire, which flickered a few times before extinguishing. “Fuck.”

I was about to restart it when I saw movement outside of th
e cave.

I closed my eyes and used my fire magic to change my vision, but instead of night vision, my eyes now operated as if could track a thermal image. Everything above absolute zero gives off infrared radiation, so the landscape before me was now a mass of dark blue with small dots of red, orange, and yellow where heat could be found.

There was some small movement to my right, which I quickly identified as a rabbit or other small mammal—it was difficult to say exactly what anything was when all you can see is their heat signature.

After a few seconds, I spotted what had caught my attention. A massive deer was eating something from the ground. I was about to remove my magic, when I noticed movement to the far left of the deer. Five very large objects were moving slowly through the trees toward the deer.

“What do you see?” Caitlin whispered.

“Your lions,” I said. “They’re hunting a deer. But something doesn’t seem right.”

“What?”

I didn’t answer, as the mass of color from the creatures heat was immediately replaced with my night vision. The lions were maybe a hundred feet away from us and I could see them clearly, three females and two males.

“They’re too big,” I whispered.

The lions went from crouched to sprinting forward in an instant. The deer never knew what was happening until one of the females landed on its back and drove it to the ground, grabbing it around the throat and holding on as the deer struggled against the overwhelming power of its attacker.

As the deer died, three more lions appeared from the darkness; apparently my thermal vision had a distance limit. Six of the eight lions moved away from the carcass and watched as a male and female, clearly the pride alphas, padded toward it and tore open its stomach, spilling the contents onto the lea
fy earth.

The sounds of their eating filled the night, and once the two alphas had finished the rest of the pride was allowed to have their fill.

“What do you mean, they’re too big?” Caitlin asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Barbary lions,” I told her. “They’re extinct in the wild, and you have eight of them running around a forest in Maine.”

“How is that possible?”

“It isn’t.” And it didn’t leave a whole lot of good answers either.

“So, what are they?”

“Very bad news.”

I was about to say more when Caitlin’s phone started to ring, and even though she managed to switch it off before it played music for long, a few notes managed to escape.

One of the lions, a big male, turned toward our cave and took a few steps forward. He was quickly followed by a few more lions, all of whom had dark red maws where they’d been feeding. “We need to get out of here, now.”