Authors: Scott V. Duff
“He didn’t hire the Hilliards, Mr. Davis,” Jimmy said.
“Really, Davis, your understanding of contract law isn’t impressing me today,” I said, grinning as I turned away. “Now please gather your belongings. My brothers will be coming out downstairs in a few minutes and I’d like to meet them there and leave immediately.” Bishop shook his head slightly, clenching down on his own grin. He saw I was messing with Davis.
He did finally make his way into his office with Jimmy behind him. Davis picked up the papers and check off the conference table first, re-reading the contract as he walked to his desk. I stopped paying attention and went to sit near the stairs. Bishop was a few steps behind me.
“Seth,” Bishop said, after a moment of silence. “What was the breach of Hospitality? You just pronounced them guilty without actually explaining what they were doing.”
“Yet they made no attempt to deny it. Interesting, yes?” I asked him. “You noticed the pull of energy in the building. You deflected their detection of your position as you came onto the floor intentionally so they couldn’t drain your aura as you argued. It felt to you like a simple energy sink. No doubt, you trained in heavier magic in such a room. I’ve only seen one once at the Cahill’s.
“The ones here are a lot different, though they’re camouflaged to seem the same,” I explained. “Being directed and actively drawing from an individual, they drew other energies along with the target’s magic. To varying degrees, they took their target’s ability to continually heal themselves. While this seems like a small thing, it can take years off a life. They were killing people a day at a time and using that energy to keep themselves alive. Well, a day, a month, a year, it depended on a number of different factors. This certainly wasn’t part of your bargain and broke the spirit of every bargain they ever made.”
“Can anything be done about it?” Bishop asked, appalled.
“Maybe in some of the more recent cases their healers and doctors may be able to do something about it,” I told him, “but it’s not likely. It’s an exceptionally delicate energy pattern. Very difficult to sense, much less manipulate, and far too easy to destroy in the attempt.”
“Why didn’t you mention that during your judgment?” he asked.
“So that it wouldn’t be entered into the history of the Accords and become common knowledge,” I explained. “Those with knowledge of the Hilliards’ methods may begin… experimenting with ways of recreating their travesty.”
“The prohibition on blood magic?” he asked.
“So that the travesty can never be recreated by them,” I said simply.
“I thought you might say that,” he answered, staring at the floor now. “What a can of worms I opened up today. Why tell me at all, then?”
“So that there will be knowledge of it,” I said, simply.
“You two are awfully chummy,” Davis said, coming out of his old office with a briefcase. “I suppose you are council-level wizards.”
“The McClures?” Bishop asked in astonishment. “I don’t think so.”
“And Peter’s working so hard,” I said, chuckling, stood, and headed down the stairs. Jimmy waved Bishop in beside me and Davis in behind me then fell in behind Bishop.
“…Just that all grove members should return as soon as possible, sir,” Daphne said into the phone as we walked into reception. “No, sir, I don’t know what’s happened. That’s all I’ve been told…,” Davis stepped around us and hung her call up then flipped her phone over and detached the phone from the wire.
“Daphne shouldn’t be passing that message, Mr. McClure,” he said angrily. “It’s dangerous to her.”
“Not as much as an hour ago, but why take chances,” I agreed. “Daphne, dear, you should probably consider your employment here over and leave with us. It’s not safe for you here.”
A door exploded outward violently on the wall on our left between two filing cabinets. Ethan followed the door amid flying debris. Peter strolled out, fanning the air from his face to keep the larger detritus away. He held his suit jacket loosely by a finger over his shoulder and he was hopelessly disheveled.
“You could have just turned the knob, you know,” Peter said casually, looking at us and rolling his eyes dramatically.
“What fun would that be?” Ethan asked from behind the door as it rose from the floor. He set it on the floor, jamb and all, then turned the knob and swung the door open. “See? Totally anticlimactic. Hi, Seth! Peter barely let me do anything down there. I got all pumped up for nothing.” He started beating the dust and debris from his clothes almost cheerfully.
“Yes, I looked in a time or two. Poor, poor Ethan,” I said consolingly, grinning hugely at them. “But it was good that Dillon wasn’t here this time. I’m not certain how he would have reacted to seeing Peter’s performance down there. I was getting some very mixed images and emotions. It might have killed him, either a horrified heart attack or blood loss from an exploded erecti—”
“Seth!” Peter shouted in embarrassment. Ethan fell back on his ass, laughing, and Kieran’s laugh echoed through the broken doorframe.
“If not that, then the priapism would have caused him problems,” Jimmy said smirking.
“How do you even know that word, hillbilly?” Peter asked blushing.
“I read,” he answered, trying desperately to sound affronted but failing through the smirking and snickering.
“I’m putting porn blockers on the laptops,” Peter muttered as Kieran stepped out of the broken doorway still laughing. He was covered in soot and ash, his suit ruined. Shaking like a dog, he managed to throw off a good amount of the grunge and get some color back. Tossing his jacket onto the nearest desk and rummaging through the drawers of the desk quickly, Peter handed Kieran some take-away napkins and a few wet-wipes.
“You’ve got a little something right about… everywhere,” Peter said waving at his face rapidly. The flash of white in Kieran’s smile provided excellent contrast to show how truly black he still was.
“Are they always like this?” Davis asked Bishop quietly.
“Yes,” Bishop said, chuckling. “Disconcerting, isn’t it?”
“What?” Jimmy asked. “I’ve heard that a few times, but I never see what y’all are talking about. What are we doing that bothers y’all so bad?”
“We-ell,” Davis started nervously, “you all act so… young and unaware of your surroundings.
“Unaware? Hardly,” I said, grinning. “Jimmy, how many people are in this building?”
“Twelve, sir,” Jimmy answered without pausing. “The eight of us here, five on the second floor in three different offices and none on the third. Ethan and Pete cleared the basement a short while ago.”
“How many chairs are in this room?” I asked.
“Hmm, using ceiling height as a room divider, thirty-eight,” Jimmy answered without looking around, “but if you use doors only, then seventy-two.”
“I agree with that. Would you care to count, Mr. Davis?” I asked.
“Seth, don’t be rude,” Kieran said quietly but sharply, suddenly beside me. I felt his presence even more when his hand hit the back of my head with a loud
thwack
.
“Ow! Hey, watch it!” I exclaimed, my hand going to the back of my head as the soot from his sleeve fell down my shirt. I glared at him, standing so innocently beside me. Stripping off layers was the only way I could think of to stop the avalanche of ash. “You brat! Dad said he spoilt ya rot’n, ya know. Called ya a ‘Mama’s boy’.” By the end of that, my accent was a little heavy.
“Did he, now?” Kieran asked, smiling, his eyes twinkling. While my arms were tangled in taking off my shirt, he grabbed me in a tight hug, gyrating his body to smear as much soot as possible. “You’re a lousy liar, Seth, but we love you anyway!”
“Get off, you ape!” I shouted, laughing and struggling through the shirt to push him away. By the time he let go, he had some streaks of skin showing but I looked like I was butchering toner cartridges. “This was a new suit!”
“So’s mine!” Kieran countered.
“And they’re acting their ages, really,” Bishop said. “Well, maybe a little juvenile.”
“Hey,” I objected, untucking my shirt and releasing a cloud of ash onto the floor in front of Daphne’s desk. “I resemble that remark. Daphne, do you have a car here?”
“No, sir, I take the bus,” she answered nervously, still very confused and afraid by the situation.
“First, go with her to get her stuff,” I said. “Mr. Davis, since she’s being terminated unfairly, shouldn’t she be monetarily compensated? What would be an appropriate amount?” Jimmy walked around us and spoke quietly with Daphne, then walked away with her toward a back room.
“Generally, severance is two months,” Davis said.
“Which would be how much money?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he muttered and wandered to an office, the first nearest the door Ethan tore from the wall. I followed as Davis went to the desk, tapped at the computer there, and searched for Daphne by name. Finding her employment record, he tapped on the calculator on the desk and announced, “That would be two months’ severance.”
“Then make it twelve months,” I said, shaking my head. “Put ‘Severance, per Seth McClure’ in the comment field and it better not be questioned.” Davis tapped several keys and a check printed from a specialized printer on a table beside me. Ejecting a single check, I handed it to Davis for the proper stamps and signature. I perused the few wall pictures while I waited, stopping when I suddenly recognized someone.
“Shit,” I said quietly. I’d only checked for twisted blocks of the conspiracy’s secrets and nothing else. I should have known better. “First! Guys! I’ve screwed up bad. Ryan, do you know these people?” I asked, ripping the picture from the wall.
He looked at the picture, worried at my reaction. “Some of them,” he answered, pointing each person he knew and naming him as he went. Jimmy appeared at the other side of the desk within a few seconds with my brothers a few seconds behind him. Of my suspect, he could only remember the name “Sara”…
“Um, isn’t that…?” Jimmy started to ask.
“Yes, I do believe so,” I said darkly. “Captain Margaret Ann Pierce.”
“Crap,” Jimmy said.
“We didn’t know, Seth,” Kieran said. “We wouldn’t have known what to look for.”
“Small consolation when it’s two kids as bait,” I snapped, angry with those who made the trap and myself. “Hopefully I caught it before they could hurt them more. Even better if this is merely a coincidence, but I find that hard to believe.” I reached through the geas and found Mitch and the Guard with them getting into a van with the children and Pierce for their child psychologist’s appointment. “They’re just leaving for the doctor’s now. I need a second to think about this. Are you done, Mr. Davis?”
“Yes, sir,” he answered.
“Then let’s get out of here,” I said, standing. Looking at Kieran and Peter, I added, “And I supposed a trip through the looking glass is in order as well. Working clothes be all right?”
“Sans soot would be great, too,” Kieran said grinning.
“Lead on, MacDuff,” I grunted, starting a caravan for the lobby. Pulling a sheen of Gilán to the beginning of the aisle at the lobby and making it reflective, I dressed our images, freshly showered complete with damp hair, in our respective working clothes and dressed each of us as we passed through it. “Mr. Bishop, may I bother you for a place temporarily for Mr. Davis to work and live while he re-establishes himself?”
“Certainly, Seth, that can be arranged easily enough,” Bishop said.
“Thank you,” I said. “It appears we have a problem in the States to attend to. Miss Munis, your severance. Lord Bishop and Mr. Davis will take you to a bus terminal so that you can return home safely and I’m sure Mr. Davis will provide you with contact information so that you can get a glowing recommendation from him regarding your previous performance here. Thomas, I assume you drove here?”
“Yes, though I didn’t expect to be returning that way,” he said calmly. “I’m parked on the north side, on Deighton.”
“I’ll drop you off there, then,” I told him. “Kieran, may I borrow Shrank?”
He chortled in response and called out, “Shrank? Seth has a job for you.”
“Really, Lord?” Shrank squealed as he appeared out of Kieran’s aura, drawn there by his call. “How exciting! Finally, a task to perform. How may I help, sir?”
“A pixie? Here?” cried Davis, panicky.
“The Hilliards’ prohibitions no longer matter, Mr. Davis,” I snapped harshly. I was far more polite to the pixie. “Yes, Shrank, I need a spy, a very clever one, so I thought of you immediately. You’ll be mostly among the Guard so it’ll be reasonably safe. You know of the Grimes children, right?”
“Yes, Lord Daybreak,” Shrank said seriously, bobbing slightly in the air between Kieran and me.
“We’ve discovered there may be a problem with the human aide with them,” I explained. “But we’re not certain of it yet. I need you to keep watch on her for me surreptitiously. I’m going to tell Mitch and the other Guard to try to keep her from being alone with them, but that’s not always possible. That’s where you come in. I’m going to put you in the van along with the Guard. Stay hidden and watch her. Let Kieran know immediately if you see her draw any blood from either child. If you can, destroy the sample or let a Guard know to destroy it. Don’t let her get away with any blood from them. That much is imperative. Okay?”