Secrets & Shadows

I finished walking the mile or so to the apartment building. The event was running through my mind as I tried to file through my internal rolodex of what this thing could possibly be. Once inside I took my jacket off and hung it over a chair with care so as not to disturb or hurt Puck. Meanwhile, I ended up collapsing on the couch.

After having seen an actual dead body, having to tell Eddy that his bassist was found dead, staying out late at the crime scene and the police department until the wee hours of the morning, talking with Cassandra, and dodging that weird shadow, I was done. My body wouldn’t move another inch. I lay there trying to process the evening as my eyelids dropped under their own weight.

I did not dream well. Nameless and shapeless horrors filled my nightmares. Eventually I shot up from the couch shouting from a night terror and Puck, who was still in my jacket pocket, shot straight up to the ceiling in surprise and hit it with a small thud.

“Ow,” Puck said in a deadpan voice rubbing his head where it had smacked against the ceiling. “That’s one way to wake up I suppose.”

“Sorry, Puck. I had a nightmare,” I said. I got up, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and grabbed my head. It felt like my brain was trying to punch its way out of my skull. “Shit,” I muttered. I was hungover. Yes, I’m a bit of a lightweight when it comes to booze, so sue me.

Head pounding I carefully got up and started to make some coffee. The analog clock on my kitchen wall said it was just after six in the morning. I sighed, “Why is it that pleasant dreams don’t last, but nightmares go on forever and never let you sleep in?”

“No idea, Sir. Maybe you need to see one of those shrinking humans,” Puck said as he fluttered over to get the sewing thimble which he used as a coffee mug.

“You mean a shrink, Puck. A psychologist,” I corrected as the coffee maker finished brewing. I poured myself a mug, and took a spoon and filled Puck’s small thimble, from which he drank greedily. First thing in the morning and he already was aggravating my hangover induced migraine.

“Isn’t that what I said?” asked Puck. “Can I get another?” Puck lifted up his thimble.

“Hell no!” I said. “You remember what happened last time you drank more than a thimble? You buzzed around the apartment all day in an orange blur.”

“True, but-”

“And the time before that,” I continued. “You drank an entire pot of coffee and flew five laps around the whole town in less than five minutes!”

“Fine,” he said in defeat. “Anyway, what are we doing today?”

“Well, we should probably start by asking the band members what they did when they used the ouija board. If they did in fact summon something, it would mean that one of them has some sort of magical ability,” I said, sipping my coffee. It was then that I remembered, neither Eddy nor Detective Green told me where the band was staying.

I searched my jacket and my pants for the card that Eddy had given me so I could call him. However, I had forgotten that I had given it to the detective last night, so that he could call Eddy, and he never gave it back. I found the Detective’s card that he had given me at the station and I tried to call him there, but he didn’t answer.

‘Time for Plan B,’ I thought. Clearing off my desk I placed a map of Kaw City on it, took out my amethyst pendant and stick of chalk from my jacket. I pushed some magic through the chalk and drew a circle around me and the desk. This circle sealed the area around my desk so when I used some non-directive magic, I wouldn’t fry every electronic device around me. It also kept the magic contained and everything else outside the circle safe.

While sealed into the circle at my desk, with my map, I let my amethyst pendant dangle from between my forefinger and thumb above the center of the map. Pulling out the picture that Eddy gave me as well and folded it so all I could see was the singer, Siren. I put a little more magical energy into the pendant as I concentrated on her image. Her long black hair, storm colored eyes, her singing voice, and inhumanly perfect white smile consumed my thoughts.

Photos usually aren’t the best things to use when dowsing for someone’s location. They work only because when a picture is taken a small, negligible piece of yourself is put into it. However, it’s usually best to use something personal such as an item of clothing they wore, a piece of jewelry, or even their blood or hair.

I centered my focus on Siren, Shortly after the pendant started to move in a slow gentle circle. It began to move in a circle faster and faster. The centripetal force moved it further out until it stood out at the 2 o’clock angle parallel to the map. I moved my hand in the direction it indicated over the map and the amulet began dipping down as I got closer and closer to the exact position. The pendant was fixated on this spot and would not move.

I recognized the marked location as the area where they had recently built a new and expensive hotel. I broke my focus and the pendant relaxed as well as it idly swung. The map’s magnetic grip on it had vanished. I used my foot to erase a bit of chalk off the floor and break the circle. The magic dispersed with a sound similar to your ears popping.

“Puck, are you ready to go?” I asked. In reply, Puck zipped over to me in an orange blur with a familiar manic look on his face. “Puck,” I said calmly. “Did you drink the rest of the coffee?”

“W-what makes you say that, Sir?” Puck stammered and twitched as he flew several orbits around me before stopping on a dime in front of me. The wide toothy grin against his stone colored skin made him look decidedly creepy.

I looked at him dead in the face with a very unamused expression, “No reason,” I said. “We need to head out to the Gates Hotel to talk to the Sexy Little Voodoo Dolls.” I got dressed in some decent clothes, made sure my bedhead was tamed, grabbed my car keys then Puck and I headed out the door.

Puck had made it to the front door of our building in just a few seconds and decided to fly circles around it while waiting for me. I really did not want to deal with Puck high on caffeine all damned day while trying to nurse this hangover. Trying to keep track of Puck while on an energy high was like trying to herd cats; as soon as you got him to sit off he went somewhere else.

It didn’t take us long to get back to the car. While we walked Puck was darting around this way and that. His orange blur matching the rays of the rising sun as it began to warm up the town first thing in the morning.

I drove halfway across town to get to the Gates Hotel. I told Puck to fly outside next to the car as I drove. I had taken the highway to get to the hotel and Puck was doing well to keep pace with me. I honestly didn’t know Puck could fly this fast. It was pretty impressive.

We arrived at the hotel and I told Puck to behave while I spoke with the band. The hotel was fairly large. It was newly constructed a few years ago and stood a whopping twenty floors. Which for this town, made it one of the largest buildings in town. Like I said, Kaw City may look big, but it wasn’t anything like, say, Chicago for instance. Other than the hotel’s sheer size and grandiose entrance way, there wasn’t really anything spectacular about the exterior.

I walked up to the front desk and smiled at the young female clerk. The lobby was immense. The ceiling seemed to go on forever, the carpet was red and lush but not too ostentatious. Elevators near the back were adorned with a gold brass facade near the back of the lobby, and a large indoor pool took its place in the large common area where some rooms could be seen.

“Hi, may I help you?” Asked the clerk with a smile back at me. The girl looked like she was fresh out of high school. She was pale, had short, red, pixie cut hair and wore very light, complimentary makeup. Overall, she was cute.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m looking for what room Eddy Smith is in? He had checked in with a number of other people and I had an appointment to interview them all for a magazine.” I stammered slightly and put just ever so little magic into my voice and flashed a smile. The spell was something similar to the Jedi mind trick from Star Wars. It made someone a little more compliant and pliable with the giving of, potentially, confidential information.

“I’m not sure I can just give that information out,” she said. “Can’t you call and ask them?”

“I would,” I said. “But he’s not answering his cell phone at the moment.” I pushed a little more magic into the spell. “Couldn’t you help me out with this once? Please?”

“Um,” she said as she bit her lip as she looked both ways to make sure no one else was around. “Okay, hang on.” She looked up the name on the computer hastily. She grabbed a Post-It note and wrote down the room number and passed it to me. “This is where he’s staying currently,” she said, and kept looking around nervously.

“Thank you so much, miss...?” I asked, pocketing the note.

“Erika! And you’re welcome. Oh, one more thing,” she quickly wrote something else on another sticky note and handed it to me with a smile. It was her name and a phone number. “I’m off at three.” She gave a nervous giggle.

“I’ll do my best to call,” I said, smiling politely. Perhaps my spell was a bit too effective?

I checked the first note she gave me. It read, ’Room 1082. Turn left from the elevator’. I made my way to the elevators while Puck followed close behind. It seemed as if the coffee was finally wearing off.

Puck was just as amazed as I was about how fancy this place was. Faeries typically like fancy and shiny objects and boy there was enough to make a faery occupied for a very long time. We got into the elevator and I hit the ‘10’ button. It sped us up in no time. We found the room, quickly thanks to the concierge’s directions, and knocked.

I heard some shuffling behind the door. After a minute Eddy answered. His hair was a mess and his well groomed mustache more bushy than it was yesterday.

“Frost?” He said. It seemed I had woken him. Whoops. “What are you doing here so early? It’s like, 7:30 in the damn morning!”

“Well, you know what they say: ‘early bird gets the worm’, right?” I said nervously with a crooked smile.

“Yeah,” he said. “But the second mouse gets the cheese. Again, What do you want?”

“I’m here to talk to Siren, and the rest of the band, to ask about that ouija board you told me about,” I explained. “I think they might have actually done something.”

Eddy rolled his eyes. “Fine, luckily they’re all disgusting morning people. Everyone is in the adjacent suite. Just come in and I’ll unlock their door.” Puck and I followed Eddy as he opened the adjoining room. The band members were all lounging around going through their morning routine in various amounts of sleepwear, drinking crappy hotel room coffee.

“Everyone?” Eddy said to the group. “This is Lance Frost. He’s the one I hired, originally, to look for Ghost. We obviously know how that turned out,” he said under his breath. “He has some questions for you all about that dang ouija board you used on the bus a few weeks ago.”

They all looked at each other uncomfortably for a few seconds before they all murmured in agreement. Eddy left the room as I sat in a desk chair that was near the door and Puck went and fluttered about the room. I was trying hard not to geek out in front of them all.

The room was one hell of a suite. A gigantic Alaskan king sized bed was at the center of the room. In the far left corner of the room, from the position of sitting on the bed, stood a sixty inch TV on the dresser/entertainment center. The bathroom was as big as my apartment with His/Her sinks and a bathtub you could swim in. I could not begin to fathom how much this room was per night. Eddy’s room looked like the guest house next to a mansion by comparison. Talk about getting the shit end of the stick.

The three remaining members of Sexy Little Voodoo Dolls all started to pile onto and sit on the ridiculously large bed. Puck continued to fly around then stopped to focus on Siren. He was completely entranced with her.

“Wow, you’re pretty!” He said.

Wait, did Puck just say a human was pretty? I mean, Siren was freaking gorgeous. Even without stage makeup and in regular pajamas. Her dark hair was pulled up into a horse tail, she wore simple glasses, she apparently had not put her contacts in yet, but her grey stormy eyes were still very prominent. Her sleepwear consisted of a pair of yoga pants and a thin, white wife beater tank. Both of which clung tight against her body which left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

“Thank you!” Siren said. Her voice was melodious and intoxicating.

Wait a minute.

“What?” Puck and I said in unison.

Siren fixed her gaze on me, “You said I was pretty, didn’t you?” She asked. “Or did someone else? I don’t think I recognized the voice.” She glanced around the room. Everyone else looked just as curious as I was.

Now that was weird. “No,” I said with hesitation. “I don’t think anyone did.” I gave a quick glance at Puck who flew over to me and hid behind my shoulder in shock that someone unexpected just replied to him. Even weirder, why did he think a human was pretty?

“Anyway,” I said, changing the subject. “Eddy told me that a few weeks ago you all used a ouija board for shits and giggles just to see what would happen. Is that right?”

Everyone looked at each other and all nodded and replied individually with some kind of affirmative answer.

“Did it tell you anything?” I asked. I did my best to keep my voice flat when asking questions. A tip from Detective Green the previous night.

“Yeah it did,” said Thorn. She was a tall, rail thin girl I immediately recognized as the lead guitarist. “It said, ’You belong to her now’,.” Her voice was shaking. Siren gave a side glance towards her, as if Thorn did not have permission to speak. Thorn sheepishly moved back and looked away and down at the floor.

“What happened after that?” In the back of my mind, I wondered what that phrase meant: ’You belong to her now’.

“Is it ok if I say, Siren?” asked a large man, much taller than me, and definitely more mass than I had. I recognized him as the drummer, Grunt. Siren gave him a nod for permission. “After that warning was spelled out, the planchet began to move without us touching it.” There was a nervousness in his voice as he recalled the memory. “It wasn’t spelling anything we could tell. It just moved around the board then it stopped dead center and a black cloud came out and vanished.”

“Was that all that happened?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “After the cloud vanished all of our tires on the bus blew out all at the same time and the engine stalled out. Luckily, everything was able to get fixed quickly and we got to our next show.”

“What about the lights that nearly fell on me in Kansas City, Grunt? Did you forget about that?” Thorn said.

“Oh, right,” he said. “I forgot about that. Once we got to our venue in Kansas City and started doing our soundcheck, the lighting scaffolds above the stage fell for no reason and nearly hit Thorn. Now, our bus is busted and they don’t know what’s wrong!” It did sound like something malevolent might have been released, but it was too soon to tell what was going on.

“Did you tell the spirit, or whatever it was that gave you the message, ‘goodbye’ after that black cloud?” I looked around the room. The three members looked at each other and down at the ground. Had someone said, “goodbye” during their ouija board session then whatever they saw would have gone back to Faewild. If not, then it could still be roaming around somewhere.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” I said. “Do you still have the board in question?”

“Yes we do,” said Siren. She got up and dug through some suitcases and produced the Ouija board and handed it to me. “Mister Frost?” she asked.

“Yes?” I replied. The other two remaining members of the band had all moved next to and behind Siren, a look of concern on her face.

“What did we summon exactly?” I could tell they were all pretty frightened, and I don’t blame them. After playing with a ouija board and having bad things happen on stage and on the move, now someone is dead, possibly because of it? I’d be scared too.

“I don’t know, Siren,” I said. I gave her a reassuring look and tucked the board under my arm. “But I’m going to figure it out. As a final question about this, who was the first one to put their hands on the planchet?”

“I was,” Siren said.

“Okay, next up is the hard topic, Ghost,” I said. “Siren, you were the last one to see him before he disappeared. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” She said.

“Describe to me what happened exactly when you guys left that bar,” I said as I placed the board on the floor next to me. I leaned forward, placed my elbows on my knees and listened closely.

“Well, I don’t know what happened exactly. When we left the bar we were walking back to the bus when I saw this figure moving in front of us,” she said. My eyebrow raised in piqued interest. “It looked like it had become a shadow on the ground. I looked to see what might be casting the shadow but there wasn’t anything nearby to do that. It started on the ground then it became this three dimensional black mass. It came towards me and it passed through me then everything went dark. The next thing that I know, I’m not where I was when I saw the shadow. I was in the bathroom of the bar we just left. I noticed that I had a weird taste in my mouth, and Ghost wasn’t anywhere to be found.” Siren began to weep. It seemed she saw what I did last night.

“Thank you,” I said. “You gave me a lot of information to go on so I can do some research. I’ll get back with you guys as soon as I know something.” I got up to leave, Puck fluttering just behind me, when Siren also got up.

“Hang on, Mister Frost,” she said as she slowly walked towards me, swaying her hips. “In case you need to talk with us again.” Siren took a piece of paper from the nearby hotel stationary that was sitting on the desk I was just at and began writing as she spoke. “Just call me at this number,” She said and handed me the paper.

As I reached out to take it, I noticed a familiar tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It looked like the one on Ghost’s hand, but slightly different. I looked back at her as I stepped out into the hall. “Thanks I will,” I said. I reached into my back pocket to grab a business card. “And if any of you need to talk to me, just call me here.” We exchanged smiles. I walked out and shut the door carefully behind me.

I left with the queerest mix of emotions I’ve ever experienced. I got to see my favorite band, candidly, and got to speak with Siren and everyone. I was the happiest fanboy ever. I should have been doing backflips. But, I was also left with concern, a knot in my stomach and bewilderment. I turned to my fluttering companion, “Puck?” I asked. “Did Siren hear you?”

“I’m not sure, Sir,” The same worried look was on his face. “Did I call her pretty? I’ve never called a human pretty in my life!” Puck shouted as he threw his arms and legs outward from his body at the last word. He gets very animated when he’s excited.

“Well, you did just then,” I said. We started slowly down the hall trying to comprehend all that happened during our short visit. “Puck, did you happen to see the tattoo on the inside of Siren’s wrist?”

“Sure didn’t,” he said. “I was too distracted by that human’s eyes.”

“Yeah, I almost missed it myself,” I will admit, I wasn’t totally focused on her eyes exactly.

“What was that shadow thing they were talking about?” Puck asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But, while you were passed out from mead last night, I think I encountered that same shadow.”

I pondered it more as we took the elevator back to the lobby. Once we reached the lobby I stopped back at the front desk and asked Erika if I could borrow a piece of paper and a pen. I sketched out what I could remember of the tattoo on Siren’s wrist. A very intricate geometric mandala. It was similar to Ghost’s but Siren’s had more details. I thanked Erika again then folded my crude rendition and placed it in my back pocket. I walked out to the car and sat brooding. I placed the Ouija board in the passenger seat, started up the car and began to drive.

“Where are we going now?” Puck asked.

“We’re going to visit some vampires. I have a hunch they might know what we’re looking for.” We headed across town to Prana Studios.

I pulled up in the Prana Studios’ parking lot about an hour later, thanks to morning rush hour traffic. One hour to travel just a few miles really grates on the nerves and whittles down one’s patience. Prana Studios was a square limestone building of about three stories. The building consisted mostly of modeling and photography studios, a few naughty film sets and other editing rooms and office spaces. Prana Studios was also the home of the local vampires of the same tribal name. What better place to house a bunch of supernatural beings who were essentially sex demons than a porn studio?

Puck and I walked in and were greeted by a woman at the front desk.

“Hi, welcome to Prana Studios. Do you have an appointment?” She asked. She wore a simple white blouse and black pencil skirt. Her sandy colored hair was put up into a tight bun. Very professional look and a little cliche for a secretary

“No, I’m sorry we don’t,” I said with some feigned disappointment. “However, my name is Lance and I’m working with the police as a consultant and this visit is in regards to an ongoing investigation.”

The secretary regarded me with cold eyes and a stone face. She looked as if she heard this excuse before.

“Just tell Mara that Lance is here to see her, please.” I said. “She’ll recognize my name.”

The secretary got on the phone right away and dialed a few numbers, I assumed a phone extension. “Ms. Grace? Yes, there is someone here to see you. No, ma’am, he says it’s in regards to a police investigation. No he’s not an officer. Well, he’s kind of scruffy looking,” who’s she calling scruffy? “And he said his name is Lance. Should I send him in?”

This was taking a while longer than I thought and I was starting to get a little nervous that she wouldn’t see me. Puck didn’t seem to care and was just buzzing around carelessly. I couldn’t quite make it out with my peripheral vision but I could have sworn I saw him doing the backstroke. The receptionist hung up the phone and the sudden noise made me snap my attention back to her.

“Ms. Grace will see you now, Mr. Frost,” she said. It was my realization that Mara must have remembered me, since I never gave my last name to her secretary. She gestured to a large double door just behind her. I could see a tattoo that resembled Ghost’s in both shape and location on her hand. ’Well that’s a curious thing’ I thought to myself.

“Just out that large door there, then it’s down the hall. Ms. Grace’s office is the last door on your left,” the receptionist instructed me.

“Thank you!” I said with genuine gratitude.

“Yeah, thanks!” Puck added. The woman obviously didn’t seem to hear him.

We walked through the large double doorway and saw several other doors lining a hall that appeared much longer than it should be. I wondered if it had the same effect as a certain blue British police box. We slowly walked by each of the doors, some were open others were closed with signs to be quiet for a closed set. During our longer-than-should-be walk we happened upon a set of double doors on our right that opened to an enormous room with a nude couple posing and a photographer snapping pictures every few seconds. The photographer sounded like she was really getting into it. “Yes, just like that, now more!” A flurry of pictures were taken. “There we go, now switch, yes!” More machine gun sounds from the camera. “Okay, now put his foot here, her hand in there…,” the photographer’s voice trailed off as we walked away. That was getting too weird even for me. We eventually came to the end of the hall with the last door to our left. I placed my hand on the doorknob, my heart jumped into my throat and my stomach bottomed out. ’Man, I really hope she doesn’t try to kill me,’ I thought.

I turned the knob and as the door opened my gaze was met with a combat knife being plunged a few inches into the door jam immediately to my left. I stopped to stare at that for a moment and attempted to get it loose from the wall.

“Damn it!” Mara shouted in frustration. “I missed.” She stood next to her desk in a navy blue suit jacket, white blouse, with several top buttons undone, and a matching short pencil skirt with black heels. Her blonde hair pulled up in a very business-like-no-nonsense bun.

“Still mad over our breakup, I take it?” I asked, walking in, giving up on getting that knife loose and closing the door behind me. We had dated for a few months, shortly after I had moved to Kaw City.

“No, not at all. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said dripping with sarcasm. She walked over to retrieve her knife and easily pried it from the wall.

“Yeah, I loosened that for you,” I said trying to crack a smile on her face. She always did find my fake misogynism humourous.

“What in the world?!” Puck screamed. “You nearly killed us! How could you? You-you-” Puck was starting to rant. I flicked a silence spell at him to stop his squeaking before he said something stupid that he was going to regret. I could tell he was not going to help this situation in the slightest.

Mara turned to Puck and bent forward slightly flashing her best smile, and other things, at him. “Hello, Puck! Long time no see!” Puck stopped silently ranting and just stopped and stared at her blankly. She never once acknowledged him when we were going out. She, apparently, was trying to pass for a regular human. That charade fell apart the day I tried to break up with her and she tried to kill me.

“Why yes, Mara. I am doing just fine these days. You seem to be doing pretty well yourself,” I said, faking conversation.

“What the hell do you want, Frost?” I felt a small twinge in my chest as she said my name with such vitriol. Using my Name like that just to make me uncomfortable. That bitch.

“Right, well,” I began. “Drama aside, I came here because I need your help,” I said and explained the situation in full.

“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you,” she said as she sat down at her desk.

“Yeah, I kind of do. So can you help or not?” I asked.

“Why should I help the man who so carelessly broke my heart and didn’t even have the balls to come after me when I rushed out of his home?” She asked, staring daggers at me.

How the hell was I supposed to know she wanted me to follow? Besides, she tried to fucking kill me! “Professional courtesy?” I shrugged while giving her a shit-eating-grin.

Mara stared at me for a moment longer then rolled her eyes and sighed and said, “Fine, what do you need from me exactly?”

“I just have some questions, if you could answer them for me?” I took a deep breath to ease my anxiety since Mara wasn’t going to kill me. At least right now.

Mara placed her hands fingertip-to-fingertip making a pyramid. “Fine, shoot,” she said.

“So my first question is: are Prana vampires able to drain someone and leave them as a literal husk?” I asked.

“No,” she said flatly. “When one of us loses control and kills someone, the body doesn’t age how you describe. They just die as they are. However, that hasn’t happened in over 500 years. With the advent of modern technology and forensic science, we have to be very careful. Even though we, us and the Blood Tribe that is, pretty much own much of the police, law enforcement, hospitals et cetera,” she said.

“Well, what about the tattoos? The one on the victim and the other on the girlfriend?” I showed her a crude drawing of Ghost’s tattoo I had made while at the police station as well as the one I made of Siren’s.

“On your victim, that is a mark of someone being owned by us, a thrall. What was his name again?”

“Jake ‘Ghost’ Wallace. Why do you ask?” I was genuinely curious why it would matter or why she would really care. She began typing it all up on the computer on her desk.

“It appears,” she began. “Your victim was owned by one of us at our San Francisco chapter.” Mara kept trying to click her mouse and open a file.

“Who was it? You have a name?” I was getting excited that we might have some kind of lead.

“No, I don’t,” she said. “It looks like someone has corrupted the file. It’s going to take a while for our IT people to fix it. The only thing it says on “Ghost’s” file is that his owner’s name is, “Nunya”. I wonder what that means,” she began to think a bit harder than she should have.

“Really? You don’t know what “nunya” means?” I snickered as I asked.

“No, should I?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Well, kinda. It’s short for None-of-your-business,” I have no idea how she hasn’t heard of the colloquial word for that.

Mara started to become flustered with slight embarrassment, “Yes of course, I’d just forgotten. Happens when you’re as old as I am,” she said trying to cover her tracks.

I quickly changed the subject slightly, “I saw a similar mark on the secretary, does that mean…?” I trailed off, my implication being made pretty clear.

“Yes, she is owned. By me, in fact,” Mara said uninterested.

I cocked an eyebrow at her response. “Was I so bad I made you bat for the other team?”

“Not in that way, you pervert!” She snapped, getting a little flushed in the face. “She’s my thrall and I’m her massage therapist. She just also happens to work for the studio.”

“Right, anyway,” I said, quickly changing the subject. “So what can you tell me about the mark that I saw on the girlfriend’s wrist?”

“I’m not sure,” She looked a little closer as she paced around the room thinking. “Your drawing is kind of crude but I’d never seen one like this before. It looks like the mark of a low level member, but it also looks like an archaic form of it. Do you mind if I make a copy?”

I shook my head and let her make a duplicate of my, apparently, crude drawing. “Do you think it could just be a coincidence that a girl got a geometric tattoo that just happened to look similar to a vampire brand?”

“Yes, it is possible. It happens more often than we like to admit. Children these days don’t even care what they put on their bodies now! Anyway, I would still like to research this just in case,” Mara said as she sat back down at her desk. She filed her copy away and gave me my original.

“So if members of the Prana tribe have a mark, then how come I’ve never seen yours? I mean, I’ve seen you naked head to toe after all,” I gave her a crooked smile. “It is kinda burned into my memory.” Pleasantly burned into my memory I might add. Despite the memories of the soreness, nearly sleepless nights, and the PTSD from her attempted murder of me.

“That’s because I chose to have my mark in a more discreet place,” she said as she pulled down her bottom lip showing off the location of her mark. Similar but altogether different from the corresponding tattoo on Siren’s wrist.

“Alright fine, you got me there,” I said defeatedly. “Then tell me, if one of you couldn’t do this to Ghost, then do you know what could do this?”

Mara placed her forearms on her desk and folded her hands and sighed. “There is a legend among the Blood and Prana Tribes of something we call the Abyss Walker. Its true Name is unknown to us as it lacks the ability to communicate. It sleeps for centuries before awakening without warning. No one knows what it really looks like.

“The Abyss Walker does as you’ve seen, according to legend. It bites deep into its prey as a Blood Tribe vampire must do. From this bite it extracts the very essence of mortal life.”

“And what is that exactly, the ‘essence of mortal life?’” I asked.

She paused for a moment looking at me with a small amount of sadness. “It is only a legend but, they say that the essence of mortal life is their soul,” she said lamentably.

I stood there in shock. Ripping a soul from someone is no easy task and takes some serious dark magic to do. Not to mention it is agonizingly painful to have one’s soul ripped from their still living body. “Who would know more about this...Abyss Walker?” sweat started forming on my forehead and my stomach started its signature backflips.

“The Abyss Walker is said to be of The Myst. It’s not affiliated with any Fae Court, neither Summer nor Winter, so it doesn’t hold an allegiance to anyone,” she paused to think for a moment. “You know, if I were you, I would ask that Unseelie faery in Faewild. She usually heard lots of different news from all around. What was her name again?” She pushed back a bit from her desk, drumming a finger on her lips while she jogged her memory. “Eh, I forgot. I know it was something Gaelic. I’m sure I’ll remember it eventually. Meanwhile, I need to get to researching why this file is corrupted and to make sure this symbol isn’t real.”

I swallowed audibly, “Mara, did you say Faewild?” I asked, my voice beginning to shake. “And by ‘that faery’, did you mean Leanan Sidhe?”

“That’s the name!” Mara said in excitement, snapping her fingers. “I knew I’d remember it eventually.”

It appears this situation just got a little trickier.