Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (27 page)

Lieutenant Clark excused himself to make a call. I couldn’t hear all of it, but I did make out “APB” and “Colby Green”.

I caught a glimpse of what the officers had on the screen, and that did it for me. I reached the restroom just in time to be desperately sick. I couldn’t stop seeing the picture of that girl.

I went back to the room, still shaking. “That girl in the picture—Colby sent me a text. He said he wanted to tie me up in the park and...do stuff, and then leave me exposed for someone to find. When I told him he was crazy, he said he was just kidding. He described it just like that—everything except the killing part. He left that out.”

“There’s a blue thumb drive on the desk in my room,” Leo said. “I backed up Olivia’s phone before I wiped it for her. The texts and pictures should be on there.”

Cordie went up with one of the officers to retrieve the drive.

I felt like I was going to be sick again. I felt dirty for even letting him touch me.
Make that person stop screaming
, I thought, but the sounds were coming from my own throat.

Berto made me drink something bitter, and Kat just held me while the sharp edges went fuzzy.

Lieutenant Clark came back in. “When they got to his apartment, he was gone. It looked like someone had packed a bag in a hurry, so he probably circled back after you chased him off. He has to know you took his laptop, and he knows exactly what’s on it. I promise you, we’ll find him. Thanks to his laptop, there’s no shortage of pictures to circulate. Suitably cropped, of course. He can’t stay a werewolf all the time. We will have some extra patrols in this area, but we think he’ll be heading for the state line. We have the death penalty here. He’s not going to want to stay.”

One of the officers supervised while Leo changed clothes. The set he’d had on was now evidence.

Lieutenant Clark gestured at Leo’s eye. “You probably ought to get that looked at.”

“I will.”

“We’re not going to arrest you at this point, Sergeant Mitchell, but don’t leave town. If you could resist the urge to indulge in assault or burglary, that would be helpful too.”

“I’ll be here. Just catch the guy. I don’t want him anywhere near any of us, especially Olivia.”

As soon as the police left, Berto healed Leo again.

I asked, “Leo, why did I have to give the cops that drive? I don’t understand. Besides, if you copied stuff onto it, it’ll all have today’s date anyway.”

“I didn’t have to copy anything, sis. He had a whole box of thumb drives on his desk. I just made sure to pick one that was old enough. In case they can’t use the laptop as evidence in court, I needed something else incriminating that wasn’t stolen from his apartment. I also have one of my buddies tracking to see if he uploaded any of the pictures or videos. I’m waiting to hear back on that.”

I broke out in a cold sweat and felt like I was going to be sick again. “What if he gave me something? He wouldn’t use a rubber that last time. What if I made Kat sick, or Tessa?”

“Olivia, be calm. You need to breathe.” Berto took my hand and whispered a prayer. I didn’t feel anything, but he held my hand for a long time. “I believe you’re okay, my sweet. I don’t feel anything wrong, and for what it’s worth, you’re not pregnant either.”

I kissed him with tears rolling down my cheeks. “Thank you, Berto!”

* * * *

I wasn’t sure what the press knew, or how they found out about our dealings with Colby, but the gate was the only thing that kept them away from our door. They were circling like vultures out there.

“I want to hear what they’re saying,” I told Kat.

She turned on the television for me and found a news broadcast. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

They were interviewing Vivian Davis on the sidewalk in front of our house. “Of course I knew nothing about this. I can’t believe he fooled me like this. When I think how close I came to being one of his poor victims, I feel sick.”

The cameras switched back to the news room and the blonde anchorwoman. “An anonymous source at the police department informed us Colby Green has been identified as the alleged Cheesman Park Killer by Special Forces Sergeant Leonardo Mitchell.” A picture of Leo in his best dress formal picture appeared over the anchor’s left shoulder. “Sergeant Mitchell has refused to comment on his part in identifying the alleged assailant, or to address the rumor that Mister Green was formerly dating his sister, Olivia Mitchell.” They had my old high school yearbook picture, and a blurry picture of Dark Elf me in the back yard. Great…

“I feel sick. Turn off the TV.”

“You can’t stay out of trouble, can you Olivia?” said Tessa from the doorway.

“Tessa! Where have you been? You startled me.”

“I had some business in the Springs. I was meeting an old friend for dinner. I just got back. She’s lying, by the way.”

“Who’s lying?” asked Kat, “The anchorwoman?”

“No, sweet cheeks. The other Dark Elf, Vivian. When she said she knew nothing about it and Colby fooled her, she was lying. There’s no telling how much she knew, but she knew something.”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t like Vivian, but still… “Are you serious? You think she might have known he was raping and killing women? She’s running for freaking State Attorney General. What the hell?”

“Like I said, she knew something, but I can’t tell what.”

“Unless we can prove she knew what he was doing, she’s just going to come across as a woman betrayed,” said Kat. “It’ll probably get her even more publicity.”

Tessa strolled over and gave me a kiss. She whispered in my ear, “See. I told you it wasn’t broken.”

Leo hurried into the room. “Olivia? Who is this? I heard you talking.”

Tessa positively beamed at him. “Well helloooo, handsome. Who are you?”

“That’s my brother Leo. Don’t you dare hurt him.”

Tessa backed Leo into the couch and straddled him, taking his face in her hands and kissing him deeply. “I won’t hurt him. I just want to play.” She kissed him again and licked his neck. “He tastes so good. Not as good as you, but good.”

Leo stood up abruptly, dumping her from his lap. “I don’t know what your game is, but I don’t know you.”

“Leo, this is Tessa. I’m sure we told you about her.”

“I hope it was all good,” she said, and playfully ran her hand up his arm, squeezing his muscle. “I hope your brother and I get to be good friends.” She leaned in and nipped at his lower lip. “I’d like to be real good friends, Olivia’s brother.”

I avoided looking at what her hands were doing.
Eyes above the waist, Mitchell
, I told myself.

He was trying to look stern, but it was a losing battle. She kissed him again, and this time he kissed her back. “Let’s go to your room, Olivia’s brother, unless you want to stay here and let her watch. That could be fun, too.”

He scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed when he swatted her on the rear. “We’ll be in my bunk!” I swear she winked at me as he carried her off.

Monitoring Report

Memo

To:General Dxxxx

From:Major Parker

As requested, I have the status update from Sergeant Mitchell.

Sergeant Mitchell has had two combat encounters with a werewolf. That creature is faster and stronger than any soldier we’ve seen. I have someone trustworthy researching the vulnerabilities of the creature. We’d like a closer look at one to assess its merits.

The sister has demonstrated magical ability in the presence of Sergeant Mitchell. She has thrown fire and water and even summoned one of those exploding birds. She was heard to state that her magic was “much stronger” since she returned from the Grove.

The police officer from the Grove has stated that she is experiencing enhanced precognitive ability since her return. Right now, the officer is in the hospital under observation after being bitten by the werewolf mentioned earlier.

One of the other roommates has demonstrated healing ability. He was observed to mend a concussion, broken bones, sprains, and lacerations. He can also detect someone’s general wellness.

Minor issue: Sergeant Mitchell has drawn the attention of the local press. He seems to have identified a serial killer for them.

Memo

To:Major Parker

From:General Dxxxx

Continue observation. I want a werewolf retrieval team prepped and dispatched as soon as possible. Let me know when a subject is in hand. Tell Sergeant Mitchell, informally, to stay away from media attention.

No One is Safe

Leo and Tessa were both late to dinner. He certainly had a healthy appetite, and couldn’t get the grin off his face.

I dinged my glass, like people do before making a toast at a wedding. I got funny looks, but it did get people’s attention. “Anyone that’s interested—I’m holding a werewolf disposal meeting in the library after dinner. Refreshments will not be served, but no doubt Mikah’s bar will be raided.”

My sister looked suspicious. “What do you mean by ‘werewolf disposal meeting’?”

“I had a chance to do research today, while Leo was out. I want to share what I found, but not over dinner.”

“Fair enough,” Cordie said. “Count me in—as long as you aren’t planning to do the disposing yourself.”

The rest of the meal was somewhat subdued, but I’d wanted to catch people before they went off and got involved in their own projects.

After dinner I had everyone gather around the huge dining table where we did tabletop gaming. The document projector we used to display maps would be perfect for what I needed.

At the top of the page, I wrote, “Werewolves” and then below that, “‘What we know”.

“One—we know that werewolves can shift quickly from man to wolf. Two—we know that it doesn’t require the full moon or any special time of day to shift. Three—they are stronger than a normal Human. Four—they are faster than a normal Human. Did I miss anything?”

“They smell really bad,” said Leo, “but that’s probably not critical. You might want to mention that they’re immune to normal bullets.”

“We’re not discarding anything as unimportant at this point. Five—they smell bad. Six—they’re immune to standard issue bullets.”

I drew a line across the middle of the page, and wrote “Weaknesses.”

“I know a few, from experience. One, they are flammable, at least with magical flames. Two, they don’t like silver. From my research, I’m going to add one more. Three, they are vulnerable to aconitum, common name monkshood, at least according to popular lore.”

I could tell from the unhappy faces that no one liked the balance of strengths versus weaknesses. I didn’t care much for it myself.

“I don’t have de silver weapons, mon,” said Korembi.

“I don’t either. But my necklace did protect me to an extent. I figured we could do some shopping around tomorrow and see if we can find any silver daggers. Maybe at a Pagan bookstore.”

“Just a minute,” said Mikah. “I’ll be right back.” He disappeared into the dining room, and came back carrying a heavy leather-bound case. “I think we’re set for silver.” He opened the case, exposing Grammy’s best silver flatware.

“Holy Blue Raja, Batman! Would you get a load of this haul?” Leo was practically drooling.

We divvied up the silver knives all around. Everyone except Tessa took at least one. Leo and I took extras. We’d actually fought the werewolf. These were nice, but we both knew we needed bigger knives.

“I don’t suppose you have any silver bullets stashed around here?” asked Leo.

“I’m afraid not. Grammy generally didn’t use bullets for entertaining, but she did have a favorite silversmith that might be obliging. It couldn’t hurt to pay him a call tomorrow and see what he has to say. I have to work, but I’ll write you a note. He owed Grammy a few favors, as I understand it.”

“What about the monkshood?” Kat wanted to know.

“That one will be trickier. I called around town, and no one has any in stock. The bookstores referred me to garden centers. The garden center hung up on me for being ‘another prank werewolf call’. I did find, however, that our own Botanic Gardens have a lovely display of monkshood. Other than the fact that it’s closed due to the exploding bluebird infestation, it’s actually quite close.”

I’d printed a map of the Botanic Gardens earlier. I replaced my list with the map and pointed to where the monkshood display was supposed to be. “We’d just have to get over this wall, through these gardens, past this walkway, and then find the right plants without the bluebirds or anyone else noticing us. Or, we could just focus on the silver and skip the monkshood for now.”

Leo shook his head. “It’s nearly the full moon. That bastard is going to just keep getting stronger. I think we need to hedge our bets and get the monkshood too. I’ll pull together a mission plan. We can hit that tomorrow night.”

“That sounds good. Anyone else have anything to add?”

Cordie raised her hand. “I do. Why the hell are my brother and sister plotting how to kill a werewolf? Why don’t you give this information to the police and keep the doors locked?”

“The police are looking for him, Cordie, and I will share this information with them. The fact part, I mean, not our specific plans. I researched this so we could defend ourselves if it turned up again. And that was before I knew it was Colby.”

Tessa waved her hand. “You didn’t tell them my part.” She pouted.

“What part?”

“The part where that Dark Elf woman, Vivian, is lying about not knowing what Colby was doing. She lied about this being a shock to her.”

“That can’t be right,” Mikah said. “She’s ruthless, sure, but she’s an officer of the court.”

“I know when someone is lying, Mikah. You know that. She was lying. I don’t know what she’s getting out of it, but she’s hiding something. If you take any evidence to the police, you better hope they aren’t her friends, and you’d better make sure you have witnesses.”

“Sharon knew Vivian bailed Colby out of jail. She told me. What if she goes after Sharon in the hospital?”