667 Issue #10: "Old Wounds"

A knock came at the door around ten AM and I discovered a package on the stoop. It was addressed from the little bookshop we had visited the day we arrived and I quickly took it upstairs and left it in front of Violet’s closed door before going to start breakfast.

Everyone was up within half an hour and yearning for food as I passed out plates and waited before Violet appeared, holding the box I left for her unopened.

“Where’d this come from?” She asked curiously as she set it down on the counter.

“Open it up and see.” I urged her and everyone waited as her nimble fingers tugged at the tape and pulled out the newspaper packing.

“Oh. Oh, my God. Are you serious?” Violet’s eyes were swimming pools of emerald green as she took out each book, one by one, and thumbed over the covers.

“These are first edition.” She breathed, opening up the front cover of the third book, “And they’re signed? Who—who did this?” Violet looked like she was going to cry.

“I blame Adam.” Henri chuckled and her eyes found mine.

“You bought these? They had to have cost a fortune. This is my favorite series, but how did you know?” She cocked her head to the side in awe.

“Lucky guess.” I shrugged, popping a potato in my mouth.

She hugged one of the books close and smiled, closing her eyes before she packed them all back in the box.

“You’ll have plenty of time to read them later, but Khaine and I need to tell you what we found out last night. After doing a bit of research, we discovered that there were other thefts involving religious artifacts all around Europe.” I took out the piece of paper I had written my notes on and passed it around.

“They’re all relics associated with Jesus?” Naomi made a face as she handed the paper to Violet.

“All but the ones from St. Mary’s Cathedral. That’s where there is a little discrepancy. If it was indeed one of us that stole all of those other relics and the ones from St. Mary’s, what is the correlation between Christ and St. Andrew?” I pointed out the problem.

“He and his brother Simon, the one they called Peter, were approached by Jesus while they were out fishing. He told them Come, and I will make you fishers of men and they followed him faithfully. Andrew heard John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God and followed him…he was one of the first apostles of Christ.” Violet looked at me over the paper.

I knew she’d know.

“Okay, so we have all of these holy relics that pertained to Christ in some capacity, but why steal them? What does one of us want with all of this?” Salome was trying to figure out why herself.

“I don’t know.” I just shrugged. We had a lead, but it seemed like a dead end.

“But maybe we can find out,” Violet smirked.

“How?” Naomi looked at her as if she couldn’t possibly go off of the little bit of information we had given her.

“I met her last night; one of our kind.” Violet set the paper down and poured herself a cup of coffee.

Henri seemed like he hadn’t heard her correctly, “Do what now?”

“I was out of smokes and went out last night to get a pack and the only place open was the Tartan. I met a woman there that I had seen in the pub the first day we got here. We talked for a bit and I did a little third eye sleuthing: even though she was wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, I saw what she truly looked like.” Violet sipped at her coffee matter-of-factly.

“And?” I asked, waiting for more.

“And she’s blind like me with these weird blue lines on her face. She’s telekinetic by the way. I talked her up a bit and gave her my number in case she wanted to meet up and show us the sights.” Violet went on to explain her encounter in more detail and when she finished I spoke up again.

“You think she’ll call?” I asked.

“I have a feeling she will. She doesn’t seem like a bad person to be honest. Almost scared.” Violet noted.

“No offense, Vi, but we’ve seen how good your judgement of character can be.” Naomi chimed in and Violet glared at her.

I tried to avoid a confrontation.

“We will just have to figure that out when we all meet her—if she calls.” As if my sentence were a cue, Violet’s phone rang.

“Hello?” She answered it, pacing across the kitchen, “Claire! I’m so glad you called. Yes, we would love to meet up with you. Let’s say three? That sounds perfect. Yes. I can’t wait for you to meet my mates. Yeah, see you in a bit, bye now.” Violet hung up the phone and grinned triumphantly.

“She says to meet her at the Edinburgh Vaults at three for a tour.”

“Three it is then.” I nodded approvingly.

Violet cheerfully took her box of books upstairs as the rest of us finished our breakfast.

“You think she’s as good as Violet thinks she is?” Naomi asked, taking the last bite of her eggs.

“I think she might be. Violet learned her lesson after Asher and has better honed her abilities. We just have to figure out why this Claire woman is doing what she is doing and if she knows what she is. Then we can go from there.” I sided with Violet as I went to clean up the dishes while everyone parted ways.

This was an entirely different situation from Asher, one that may or may not prove to be more dangerous, but at least this time it seemed like we were a few steps ahead.

(*)

We got to the North Side of the Cowgate arch just in time to meet Claire and go on a rather entertaining ghost tour.

After that, we did a little more shopping since the girls hadn’t really got to look around and stopped for a bite to eat at a corner restaurant where we could all sit down to chat and possibly get to know Claire better.

“So, what is it that you do for a living, Claire?” I asked as we casually enjoyed an evening ale.

“Uh, I went to school for historical studies and became a Historic Artifacts Conservator at the National Museum of Scotland.” She replied.

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” Angelica piped up as she listened intently.

“It was a great job, but um, I got laid off last June and had a hard time finding work. I met my boyfriend while working there and once we became serious a few months later, we decided to travel. We’ve been all over Europe the past few months just sight-seeing and visiting some of the most well-known museums the country has to offer like the Louvre and the Case Romane del Celio. It’s been quite the holiday.” She seemed uncomfortable as she spoke.

“What is it that your boyfriend does for a living?” Violet asked a question that Claire didn’t have the immediate answer to.

“He deals in antiquities: a business man.” She responded.

“And what about all of you? What do you all do?” Claire turned the tables on us.

We took turns telling her about our professions and hobbies and when it got to Violet, Claire’s demeanor changed.

“You’re an author? What have you written?” She seemed delighted.

“Nothing you’ve probably read. I have a series called Ghost Prophecies that I am several books into and a new series that I haven’t really written yet.” Violet informed her and Claire leapt from her chair, grabbing for her bag.

She pulled out a book and set it down in front of Violet. I peered at the title to see that it read Ghost Prophecies: The Wail of the Bean Sidhe.

“You’ve read my stuff?” Violet seemed instantly humbled.

“Only a million times. It’s fast paced with incredible detail and a very driven story line. I’ve been waiting for the next book for over a year.” And she wasn’t kidding. Her copy was worn and dog eared like it had indeed been read a million times.

“I’m so glad you like it.” A genuinely happy smile crossed Violet’s face; something I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“I know this sounds silly and hardly appropriate, but would you mind signing it for me?” Claiire took out a pen and waited patiently for an answer.

“Sure. My first book signing actually.” Violet laughed and quickly penned her name with a little message across the title page.

“Oh, I didn’t even realize the time. I hate to cut our outing short, but my boyfriend and I have dinner plans this evening and he hates when I’m late.” Claire stood from her chair, stuffing the well-worn copy of Violet’s book in her purse.

“Are you going to be jetting off soon? If not, we should meet up again and do some more site seeing. Maybe visit St. Mary’s Cathedral?” I tossed out the name of the church and felt the table hum atop my legs.

“Yeah, sure. Violet has my number now so she can call me. If my plans change, I’ll let her know.” Claire suddenly seemed like she was in a huge hurry as she left the table and walked across the street to a little blue car.

“Did you feel that?” I asked about the rattling of the table.

“Aye. Her glass did the same thing last night when I mentioned the telekinesis. We don’t know any more than we did, but I am positive she is one of us.” Violet watched the blue car speed down the road.

She was certainly one of us, but what was she up to? She had worked for one of the most well-known museums in Scotland for quite some time it seemed…had she become vengeful because they laid her off? Was she just stealing things to steal them? Or because she was out of work and desperately needed the money that could possibly come from fencing stolen items?

It didn’t seem likely with the relation all of the artifacts had. Now we just had to figure out why and what she wanted them for.

(*)

We hung around the city for another hour or so before our feet were sore from walking and we decided to call it a night.

We got in the car and I offered to drive since Violet didn’t see well in the dark.

There was a long stretch of road in almost total darkness as we headed back to the castle, and the obscurity seemed to lull everyone into a sense of quiet as the car drove smoothly down the street.

We were about fifteen minutes out on the black road when a pair of headlights appeared in the rear-view mirror, their high beams almost blinding as I tried to keep myself on the left.

“What an asshole,” I muttered as I tried to turn the rear-view mirror to dim the bright lights behind me, but the car revved its engine and pulled right up on my ass.

“Come on.” I pushed a little harder on the gas to give some distance between me and the other car, but they pushed forward faster it seemed, coming mere inches from our bumper.

“What the hell is that guy doing?” Khaine turned around in his seat to get a better look, but the light blinded him instantly and he rubbed at his eyes.

“I have no idea.” I pushed down on the gas pedal and the car lurched forward, but the vehicle behind us did the same and I felt just the slightest tap on the bumper.

Violet had been asleep in the front seat until then, but this action jostled her awake.

She looked in her side mirror and shielded her face from the bright lights as she asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure.” I steered the car over a bit to try and let them pass, but they just followed me and tapped the bumper again, this time much harder.

The car jerked forward and Violet braced herself on the dash as she buckled herself in.

“Buckle up guys; I think this douche is trying to run us off the road, but I’m not going to let that happen.” I warned as I punched on the gas and the engine roared to almost eighty miles an hour, but whoever was behind us was keeping a steady pace.

Violet now turned like Khaine had to get a better look when the vehicle rammed us from behind and I gripped the wheel as we began to swerve.

“He’s trying to kill us!” Naomi yelped, holding on to Henri for dear life.

“I don’t know how to lose him because there are no turn offs. We’ll run right into the pasture and possibly hit something.” I tried to keep myself steady on the road when another ram from the car behind us pushed me clear into the oncoming lane. Thank God we were the only two vehicles on the road.

Another hit and I felt the car jerk before I corrected the steering wheel to keep us from spinning out.

Everyone was in a hushed panic, murmuring to themselves as they held on tight and I sped even faster, trying to put more distance between me and the person behind us.

Another ram to the back of the car and we were sideways, spinning wildly as the headlights illuminated tall, dark trees and cows that were trying to sleep in the fields.

Naomi screamed and Angelica called out as she pulled Nate back down to his seat and made sure he was secured to his seat properly.

Somehow I was able to gain control of the vehicle and mashed on the gas before the car behind us had a chance to hit us again.

“We’re not going to make it,” I mumbled. There was no way I could outrun the smaller vehicle with the weight of our car, but I wasn’t giving up.

Violet was just steadily watching through the side mirror before she spoke up.

“Faster, Adam. Put at least two meters between us and I can handle this.” Her voice was hollow sounding as she spoke closely to me while everyone in the back seat tried to calm each other.

I didn’t question her. I shifted the car and pushed forward even harder as the engine red-lined and I feared that the whole vehicle would just stop dead in the middle of the street. I had put about a good six feet between me and the high beamed car behind us when I turned to Violet.

But she was gone.

The sound of crunching metal and breaking glass exploded around us. I thought we had been hit, but the lights behind us had gone out abruptly and I could no longer see the car in the rear-view mirror. I slammed on the brakes and brought the car around to face the opposite direction we had been heading in.

I did not expect to see what I saw at all.