Elemental Flame (8 page)

I chewed on my lower lip. "Yeah it is. But it means that he's spread out. That he's got his fingers in a lot of pies. Is there anyone in New Orleans in our community that would be particularly close to him? Someone he'd feel he could confide in or turn to?"

Dharma glanced at Kyle. "Arden Vervain."

My shoulders slumped. Now why was I not surprised by that? Her name popped up all the damn time. "Ehhh…" I leaned against the refrigerator and chewed on my thumb. "I just don't see that connection."

I expected Kyle to protest or something, seeing as how Arden was his aunt, but instead he surprised me. "Blackwood was the one that pointed us toward Circe's powerbase. The house in the woods, on property he owns that backs up to my aunt's. If that's not connection enough, then I think we need to hang up our investigative hats right now."

Ivan had sat back and his eyes were green as they concentrated on quickly moving sets of wispy images. He reached out and pinched something, then with the other hand brushed all the other images away before releasing his chosen item. It expanded into sets of documents that he displayed sideways like a deck of cards. "Ivan?"

"I've got…emails. Lots of them. Between two accounts with IP addresses that match…" he said as he squinted. "Is Edmund Blackwood his real name?"

"I think so—" Dharma snapped her fingers. "No wait. I remember there was some function, a dinner or a meeting, and someone printed his name out wrong. Only Emily told me the name was right, but it wasn't a name he wanted to be known by."

"There was a function between the Clerics and a Ceremonial leader?" Kyle said in a voice that matched my own internal surprise.

"Yeah. Don't freak out. Happens all the time. But they're always held for negotiating something. I remember this one was before Samhain last year, before the Malleus Maleficarum was stolen from Higgins. Something about a possible issue with world borders," she shook her head. "Eh I can't remember. It was boring as hell."

"To the point," I said. "Do you remember what the name was?"

"No?"

Ivan moved his hands about and the images increased in size. I couldn't read them because they were backwards. "Well these emails are discussing…artifacts. Was the name Akachi?"

"Yes!" Dharma exploded. "Now I remember it 'cause I thought it was similar to Akasha. You know, like the Akashic Records?"

Nodding, I moved to the table and put my hands on the surface, facing Ivan. "Can you send the emails to my computer?"

"Better," Dharma said as she jumped up and grabbed a black backpack from the floor by the door to my office. "Ivan, send them to my Gmail account."

Ivan didn't say anything. When he was online like this, I often considered how hard it must be to be in two places at once. In that world and this one. Dharma pulled a tablet from her pack and turned it on, then swiped it, and logged into her Gmail. There she had new mail from Ivan's ghost.

Cute.

We gathered around as she opened the attachments and then searched through by dates. "Looks like these emails between Arden and Blackwood started pretty heavily just after the new year. Here…this is the first one."

I leaned in close to read, and felt my heart fall into my stomach.

—

—

——

Dharma moved the next one up. "This one is a week later, and about the time Cromwell approached you about the Codex," she looked up at me.

I nodded and kept reading.

—

I took a few steps back. I remembered that bow and quiver. Arden had it in her hands the day we invaded Circe's home. She insisted it was part of a collection of stolen artifacts, and I assumed her taking them was just another political play on her part. Apparently she had an alternate purpose in mind. She'd played me and Bastien and his wolves. She didn't volunteer to help us find her nephew or the Lycan. She wanted in that house to find that damn bow and quiver!

I looked at Kyle and saw the dawning of truth in his face. He realized it as well and looked more angry than sad. Ivan was still busy on the web, moving his hands as red and green and a few blue lights streaked back and forth in the air between his hands. I didn't want to disturb him, so I looked down at Dharma. I cleared my throat. "Look up the Bow of Artemis."

With a deep breath, I turned away and stared at the wall that made up the side of my office. I'd hung several corkboards on that wall through the years. Ivan and Kyle had tacked things on them now and then. I stared the newspaper articles from local Witchy rags and a few flyers from magical seminars taught in voodoo shops. Above them were take out menus and a few pictures of the three of us being goofy.

My stomach growled at the thought of the menus.

I focused on my hunger because I didn't want to think about what I read in those emails. I'm not sure I wanted to swallow the truth that slowly dawned on me. Brendi had called in the payment. Arden had called me several times, but I hadn't wanted to talk to her. I hadn't wanted to deal with her because I was afraid Brendi would demand me as payment. I was the one that got away, the one that still "owed" her. I was the only black spot on Brendi's record as the Obsidian Queen of Faerie.

But that mark had been called and it hadn't been me. It had been something she had to use a powerful, magical artifact against. And if Dharma discovered what I feared she would—

"Here it is. Wow I had to go to the 'Ancient Spirit Guide and Quest, Volume Six' to find it."

I didn't know what that meant.

"And?" Kyle prompted.

Grey was at my feet, looking up at me with a sad face.

"The Bow of Artemis was commissioned by the God Ra to use in hunting the Son of Gaia. After a playful fight between friends resulted in the death of Ra's son, Amun-Ra, Ra sought justice for his child, and finding none, brought his grievance to Gaia's eldest daughter, Diana. Diana commissioned Artemis to make her the bow and arrows. When Diana gave Ra the gifts of Artemis, she told him to use them wisely, because justice might have been served (see appendix 45a,
The Sins of Amun-Ra
). Seven arrows were made for the seven days of the Feast of Samael. It was during this feast that Ra challenged the boy to an archery contest. Eager to win back Ra's comradeship, the boy accepted and a tournament was had.

"Five arrows were fired from the bow at the designated target against five arrows from the boy's bow. Ra's marksmanship was leagues above the boy's and he offered to let the boy fire the sixth shot before him. But when the boy shot his arrow, Ra shot his own, but aimed the deadly arrow at the youth's chest.

"The arrow struck the boy's heart and he fell dead before the whole of the Feast. Gaia ran to her son and wrenched the deadly arrow from his heart. She breathed life into him, using the magic of her rage, the Element of Fire. The boy shifted and changed and became a creature ten times larger than the temple of the feast. The boy's body twisted and burned with his mother's anger until he was no longer recognizable and a new creature was born. The Drachen. She sent a curse against Ra that would follow him and his family through the centuries. Their reign would know no peace and their loves would know no piety."

No one spoke for a few seconds, and then Kyle said, "There was an arrow left. He only fired six arrows."

I cleared my throat. "There was just one arrow in the quiver when Arden took it out of the mansion."

"He said he was a Drachen."

I nodded. "Yes."

"That means she had to take down a Drachen. She had to take…Crwys."

I turned to look at Kyle across the table. "Brendi wanted Crwys. Arden had to have him. And she used that arrow to do it."

"But how could she know what he was? And if she knew, why? Why take on a…Dragon?"

"I don't know." I started for the steps to my apartment. It was time to suit up. "But I'm going to find out."

S
ince Arden Vervain
had two residences, we chose the closest first. Ivan couldn't find anything on Arden's schedule, which was odd. Usually she kept herself in the public eye, especially within the magical community. But apparently since being voted in as High Witch, which granted her a voting position on the local council, she'd become somewhat of a recluse, sending in her proxy, Branwen, to vote on her behalf.

"How does someone become a recluse in such a short time?" Ivan asked as he leaned his chair back. He was taking a well-deserved break and sipping on a Reed's Ginger Beer. "I mean she was just elected how long ago?"

"Just over two weeks." I checked the bullets in my two Smith & Wesson pistols before settling them into the back of my jeans. I was wearing a pair I'd altered with elastic straps along the belt to hold the weapons in place. "Doesn't make sense to me. If she's not out in the open, then she's hiding. There is no way Arden Vervain would voluntarily keep herself out of the spotlight."

"Unless she's doing it against her will," Kyle spoke up.

I glanced at him. He didn't believe that any more than I did, but I understood he wanted to protect his aunt. He didn't want to believe Arden had a hand in kidnapping Crwys. No one did. But given the information we'd cobbled together, him being shot and taken seemed to make more sense than anything we came up with outside of the evidence. What convinced me wasn't so much the emails, but the fact Blackwood was watching Crwys's place and he sent Fetches after me, Kyle and Grey. Why? Why hang around if he knew Arden had taken Crwys and then gone in and cleaned the place out? Was he afraid of us discovering the truth?

"So, is someone going to tell Levi?" Ivan asked.

I hung my head. Crap. I hadn't even thought about involving Levi Tulose. He was Crwys's best friend, and though I wasn't exactly sure about their relationship in the past, it was evident the two had been friends for a very, very long time.

"Bringing the detective in might help," Dharma said. She still sat at the table with Ivan. "He could help you get access to things even Ivan can't get to."

Ivan made a rude noise. "That's just not feasible. There's nothing I can't break into."

I pointed at him. "And that is why I'm going to call Levi. Being cocky is going to get someone killed." I went into my office. The chaotic mess looked the same, and my computer was still on but asleep. I sat down at my desk and pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket. I caught a whiff of Crwys's scent off the leather and closed my eyes. That gnawing pit of anxiety in my stomach churned when I thought of him in pain, of him possibly being shot by the Arrow of Artemis.

My phone rang and I jumped, not expecting it. I hadn't had the thing with me in over two days. It was Levi. "Hey, I got some information for you—"

"Would it have anything to do with trying to kill a respected Ceremonial Magician with Arcane Magic?" Levi's tone was tight, and he was angry. I heard his demon's voice chiming in with the host.

And then I got mad. "I did
not
try to kill him with it. That bastard conjured a small army of Fetches to try to take Kyle and I out this afternoon. And why the hell is he keeping surveillance on Crwys's warehouse?"

Levi paused before he said, "Blackwood was watching Crwys's place?"

"Yeah. Sit back, boyo." I went into a fast, brief and potentially inflammatory retelling of what Kyle and I had found at Crwys's warehouse. About the ghostly images packing him up and moving him out. And about the Fetches. I didn't really go into how I used Arcane Magic to take out the car and flip it, or about how I managed to attack Blackwood. I just said I used Arcane to help identify who was there.

Levi swore when I took a breath. "So someone did move him out."

"Yes. And for some reason, Blackwood doesn't want anyone to know that. Why? What about this makes him want to make Crwys Holliard disappear?"

"You didn't get any of this recorded, did you?"

"Well of course not. You know how that kind of machinery just wigs out around magic." There had to be a reason he asked me that. "Oh hell, did he record me, Levi? Is that how you know about it?"

"I know about it because he contacted me. He knows I'm a Revenant, and he claims he has proof that you are a danger to the magical community. Proof that you use Arcane Magic on a regular basis."

Ivan's fear about Blackwood possibly recording what I'd done came back to me. It would make sense if he were keeping an eye on the place he'd have recording devices. Lots of them. And if any of them weren't Wi-Fi enabled, as Ivan said, he wouldn't be able to disable them. "Sweet Lady…"

"Yeah. He called to tell me he was going to send the recording off to Cromwell Dryden and demand an emergency meeting between them and the Ceremonial Council to discuss your termination."

My heart skipped several beats as I leaned forward on my desk. The movement brushed my mouse and my screen came to life. "There's a Ceremonial Council?"

"It operates a lot like the Parliament, but it doesn't swing the same kind of power. Except for those in the Ceremonial camp that want to create order in their society. The takeaway from this is he swears he's got something on you."

"Did you see it?"

"No. I asked him to show it to me but he refused," Levi paused.

"Why is he warning you? Why call you—and don't take offense to this but—you're just a Revenant. You're not part of either group."

"None taken. I asked the same question. When I answered the phone he made me step out of the building and away from any possible recording devices or surveillance cameras before he'd speak to me."

That was odd behavior. Was Blackwood that paranoid?

"That's when he said he considered me a neutral party, and said I'd understand Crwys Holliard's wishes not to be followed. When he said that I was instantly on guard because if Crwys wanted to not be followed he'd have come right out and told me that. He'd have called or messaged me. But he's disappeared off the grid. No cell or email. Nothing."

"What exactly did Blackwood say?"

"That he would hold that recording for safe keeping as long as we stopped looking for Crwys. Told me to call you off and order you not to look into Crwys. And not to harass him or his people."

"Then he knows something."

"Damn straight."

"Well before you order me not to investigate, let me catch you up on what we did find and then you and I can decide what we do next." I glanced at the computer screen and froze.

I have a screen saver on the computer that kicks in when it's awakened after sleep mode. That screen saver is something I can type a message on like "Blessed Be" or "Three Fold Law" or some other happy affirmation. The last time I'd changed it was back in December to read "Happy Yule Mother Fuckers!" to reflect the anger I was feeling at Parliament for keeping me warlocked so long.

But that wasn't the message I was looking at. It now read,
"Help me, Sam. And you can save him."