Heartless (Blue Fire Saga) (23 page)

“I discovered something potentially important—and disturbing—out near the edge of campus,” she told her comrades after she had slipped into the back seat and Jones had taken his spot in the front.

The two men twisted around in their seats so they could look at Rome while she talked. She decided to skip that part about the vampires for now, because they were nowhere near as interesting as the second power. While not exactly common, there were more vampires around than most people would dream.

“I found a place where a power similar to the magic I sensed up in the girl’s room was employed,” she continued. “It may even have been the same one. Remember how I said that even though the magic performed in the room was not very strong, I sensed hints of potential strength? Well, what I detected this afternoon was much more powerful.”

“How old were the traces?” Smith asked.

“At least a month, maybe two. It’s difficult to tell for certain, particularly outdoors.”

“If you had to guess, would you say the magic was done by the same person who did the magic in Miss Nyland’s room?”

“If I were forced to guess, I’d say yes. But don’t hold me to that. With magic this unusual, I’d need more recent samples to be more certain.”

“Could you tell what the magic was used for?” Jones asked.

Rome shook her head. “No. It was too old for that. I couldn’t even hazard a guess. Whatever it was used for, the magic was strong.”

Smith and Jones thought silently for a moment, digesting what Rome had told them. Rome’s news was indeed disturbing. Coming across an unknown form of powerful magic was something none of them had experienced in a long time. Now they had encountered one for the second time since their arrival in Connecticut.

“How does it compare in strength to the magic behind the spell you found blanketing the area when we arrived?” Smith asked. “The one that is seemingly related to the Noises?”

“Oh, there is no comparison to that, believe me,” Rome assured them. “That power is immense, and is best left undisturbed. This newer one is strong, but no more powerful than a full wizard, I don’t think. It’s the unfamiliar components that bother me, more so than the strength.”

“That’s what bothers me, too,” Jones said. “We need to find some answers, and sooner rather than later.”

“The girl may hold the answers,” Rome said. “Or at least provide our next step to learning more. We need to question her, and I need to touch her.”

“Given this latest news,” Smith said, “I think we’ve waited long enough for her to return. We need to be more proactive.” He turned around and switched on the engine. “I think it’s time we dropped in on her mother.”

Jones had already scoured the government databases with his laptop for information on Judy Nyland, so he gave Smith the address. There wasn’t anything about the woman that stood out, except that she had drawn a government disability check for many years. Her condition had been diagnosed as agoraphobia, a fairly uncommon affliction. Avoiding the outside world was a pretty good way to keep secrets, Jones reasoned, if a person had secrets to keep. He wondered if anything like that had been going on here. One potentially interesting item about the whole thing was that she had recently stopped receiving the disability payment and was now holding down a part time job for the first time in over a dozen years. Jones wondered if the woman’s “recovery” was in any way connected to the magic Rome had sensed in Leesa’s room. He guessed they would find out soon enough.

Traffic was light, and the drive took little more than ten minutes. Smith swung the SUV into an empty parking spot in front of the Nyland apartment. He put a generic government placard on the windshield so no one would bother the car if the spot’s owner happened to come home while they were inside, and then the three of them climbed out of the vehicle.

They decided to let Rome knock, figuring that Leesa’s mother would be less alarmed to find a woman at her door than either of the men. Her agoraphobia might be in remission, but there was still a good possibility she might be skittish with strangers.

Judy answered the door after just a few seconds.

“Yes? May I help you,” she said from behind the screen door.

Rome held up her ID. “Judy Nyland? We’re from the BSI. We’d like to talk to you for a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”

A look of confusion mixed with concern flashed across Judy’s features.

“I don’t understand. What’s BSI? What’s going on?”

“May we please come in?” Rome asked. “We’d rather discuss this inside than out here where someone could overhear.”

Judy unlatched the screen door and stepped back to allow the agents into the apartment. The men did a quick scan of the room, which was empty. One door off the right, probably leading to a bedroom, was closed. Happy to have gotten Ms. Nyland alone, they didn’t worry about whether her son was behind the closed door.

“Now, what is this BSI?” Judy asked.

“BSI is the Bureau of Supernatural Investigations,” Rome replied. “We have a few questions about your daughter Leesa.”

Judy’s hands flew up to her cheeks and her eyes grew wide with worry.

“Leesa? Oh my god, is she all right? Has something happened to her?”

“No, nothing has happened to her, as far as we know,” Rome said soothingly. “We’ve been looking into an incident that occurred at Weston College a few weeks ago. Your daughter is the only student in the dorm we’ve been unable to talk to. We’re hoping you can help us. Do you know where we might be able to find her? We’d like to finish our investigation and be on our way.”

“She told me she was going away for a few days with her boyfriend. Somewhere up in the mountains. She didn’t say where. She didn’t even say which state. I was wondering why she would be going now, in the middle of the semester, but she assured me everything was okay.” Judy wrung her hands in front of her waist. “Oh god, I hope she’s all right.”

“Maybe you should sit down,” Rome said.

She grabbed Judy gently by the elbow to guide her to the couch, but as soon as Rome’s hand made contact, she froze for an instant. Her magic detecting sense had begun tingling, although more weakly than she had ever felt it. The sensation was so faint that for a moment she wasn’t even certain it was real. She quickly gathered her composure and led Judy to the couch, keeping her hand in contact with Judy’s elbow.

The two women sat down side by side. Rome maintained physical contact by laying her hand lightly on Judy’s leg under the guise of being sympathetic. The faint sensation of something supernatural emanating from the woman persisted.

“Ms. Nyland, have you ever had contact with anything supernatural or magical? Anything at all?”

The three agents watched her closely, expecting some kind of denial, but looking for signs she could be lying. Judy’s response surprised them.

“Why yes, I did. Many years ago. Nobody ever believed me, though. How on earth did you know?”

“Just a feeling I had,” Rome said, brushing off her role in detecting the magic. “Tell me about it, please.”

“It happened more than eighteen years ago, when I was pregnant with Leesa. I got bitten by a vampire—a one-fanged vampire.”

“You were bitten by a
grafhym
?” Smith asked, surprised.

“Yes, by a one-fang, while I was hiking in Sleeping Giant Park. You know about one-fanged vampires?”

“I’ve heard of them, yes,” Smith replied. “After all, the supernatural is our business.”

Judy smiled a weak smile. “I wish you’d been around back then,” she said. “Maybe someone would have believed me. No one did, for the longest time.”

“Is that why you avoided going outside for so long?” Jones asked. “Did the sunlight burn your skin?”

Judy’s smile widened. “Exactly. Everyone thought I was crazy. But I wasn’t. It really hurt.”

“I bet it did,” Rome sympathized. “But you’re okay now? You can go outside without any problem?”

“Oh yes, thanks to Leesa and one of her professors. They cured me by injecting me with
grafhym
blood. The professor read about the cure in some old manuscript he owns.”

Rome nodded, understanding now why her senses had acted the way they did.
Grafhym
vibrations were among the weakest in the supernatural world, and if Judy had been cured as she claimed, then only the tiniest traces would remain. Rome knew she was lucky to have sensed it at all. Whether it would turn out to be important, she had no idea.

“You said Leesa and her professor cured you. Do you recall the professor’s name?

“Yes, of course. Dr. Clerval. He’s a very nice old man. He teaches a class on vampires at the college. It was Leesa’s favorite class.”

Smith and Jones exchanged glances. Dr. Clerval was another name for them to look into.

“If Leesa helped cure you, then she must have believed your story,” Rome said.

Judy was becoming a bit uncomfortable with the way the questions kept coming back to Leesa. She decided maybe she should be a little less forthcoming from now on.

“Not until recently. I think it was something Professor Clerval said in one of his classes that made her think maybe my story was true.”

Just then, the bedroom door swung open and Bradley stepped into the living room. He stopped when he saw the three strangers in the room with his mother.

“Sorry,” he said to his mom. “I didn’t know you had company.”

Smith stepped forward and extended his hand in greeting.

“We’re not exactly company,” he said. “We’re from the Bureau of Supernatural Investigations. I’m Agent Smith.” He nodded toward his companions. “That’s Agent Jones and Agent Rome. “You must be Bradley.”

Bradley warily shook Smith’s hand. “Yeah, I am. What’s going on? What’s the Bureau of Supernatural Investigations—whatever that is—want with us?”

“Just a routine investigation about something that happened at the college,” Smith replied.

Rome got up and crossed to Bradley. She held out her hand, wondering what she might feel when they made contact.

“It’s nice to meet you, Bradley.”

As soon as her hand touched Bradley’s, Rome’s eyes narrowed. She sensed a definite vampire vibration in the young man. It wasn’t nearly strong enough to mark him as a vampire, but it was there nonetheless. She wondered what it could mean. One thing she did know—everything about this family was becoming stranger by the moment.

“Your mother was telling us about her encounter with a one-fanged vampire,” she said, keeping her voice neutral and releasing Bradley’s hand. “Has anything similar ever happened to you?”

Bradley studied Rome’s face. It was clear to everyone he was not comfortable with the question.

“What makes you ask that?”

“Oh, nothing really,” Rome replied matter-of-factly, hoping to defuse his wariness. “It’s just that sometimes things like this run in families, that’s all.”

Judy spoke before Bradley could say anything. “Bradley was held prisoner by vampires for almost two years.”

Bradley looked at his mother. He didn’t like talking about his experience, especially with strangers.

Now Rome understood the vampire vibrations she had picked up from Bradley. If he had been held captive for that long, the vampires had almost certainly used him as a feeder, which meant he had been bitten numerous times. So many bites would leave a residue of vampire essence that would last for some time.

“Oh, that’s horrible,” she said, putting as much sympathy into her voice as she could.

Sensing that Bradley’s guard was up, Rome moved away from him and returned to her seat beside Judy. “How on earth did you get away from them, Bradley?”

“I don’t really like to talk about it.”

Rome smiled, which for her was always an effort.

“I understand.” She was perfectly willing to let the subject drop—for now. Leesa Nyland was still their prime interest. “We’re not really here to talk about vampires, anyhow, although they do fall under our purview. I just found your mother’s story about the one-fang so fascinating, that’s all. And then to hear that you had been taken prisoner by vampires—well, you can imagine my curiosity.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But if you’re not here to talk about vampires, then what
are
you here for?”

“We’re looking for your sister,” Smith said. “We want to ask her some questions about something that happened in her dorm awhile back. We haven’t been able to find her, though. She’s the only girl in the whole dorm we haven’t talked to yet.”

“Your mother said Leesa was away with her boyfriend,” Jones prompted, “somewhere up in the mountains. You wouldn’t happen to know anything more specific about where she is, would you? We’d really like to talk to her, so we can finish up our investigation and move on.”

Bradley shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t know anything more than my mom. Leesa pretty much told us both the same thing. I’m sure she’ll be back in a few days, though.”

“I guess we can wait if we have to,” Smith said, “but we’d really like to wrap things up and be on our way.” He turned to Judy. “Would you mind calling her for us? And tell her that we need to speak to her, please. Even if we could ask her a few questions over the phone, it would help.”

There was no way they were going to settle for a phone interview—Rome needed physical contact with Leesa—but there was no reason her mom and brother needed to know that. The BSI had already put the means in place to trace Leesa’s phone, if they could just get a signal to last long enough.

“I guess I could try,” Judy said. She retrieved her phone from her purse and called Leesa. The call went straight to voice mail.

She looked up at Smith. “Voice mail,” she said.

Smith cursed silently. Voice mail went to a central server. There was no way they could get a trace from voice mail.

“Leave her a message to call you back, please,” he told Judy.

Judy nodded. “Hi, sweetheart,” she said into the phone. “I hope you and Rave are having fun, wherever you are. There are some people here from the government who’ve been looking for you. They want to talk to you about something that happened in your dorm. Give me a call when you get a chance. Bye for now. Love you.”