Bloody Acquisitions (Fred Book 3) (16 page)

“Excuse me for not wanting to deceive our father,” Ainsley shot back.

“Okay, look, your dad’s not here to judge the authenticity of an apology, so why don’t you both just say you’re sorry and get us out of here,” Amy suggested.

Another look flashed between them. It wasn’t much, but it was enough that I knew, even before Zane spoke, that things wouldn’t be quite so simple.

“Yeah, see, the apology was what he demanded before letting us out, but it didn’t end the spell on its own,” Zane admitted. “For that, we need the chime of a clearing bell; the same one he used when creating the enchantment.”

“So, where’s the damn bell?” Bubba asked. Now it was my and Asha’s turn to exchange looks, as we both had the exact same hunch on what the answer would be. And unfortunately, we were dead-on right.

“We don’t have the exact location.” Ainsley’s eyes were suddenly very preoccupied with the grass down by her feet. “All we know is that it’s with the rest of his enchanting tools, locked away in magical escrow.”

5.

Fierce as my own initial rising panic was, I was far more concerned with how Asha would take the news. Bubba, Amy, and I were all accustomed to a certain level of chaos popping up at unexpected times. Asha, however, was new to the parahuman world, only being acquainted with it for a few months. There was a very real chance that the terror of such an impossible magical predicament could overwhelm her, and we needed everyone functional if we hoped to break out of this pocket bubble.

To my shock, Asha looked cheerier than she had in the foyer of floating plates. If anything, she seemed relieved by the news, which only served to make me wonder if I’d misheard Ainsley’s explanation.

“Asha, are you okay?”

“Huh?” She looked over at me, more perplexed by the question than the issue of how we were going to escape. “Sure. I mean, I was worried for a while there, but it looks like this will be an easy fix, after all.”

Zane and Ainsley were shooting expressions at Asha that perfectly mirrored my own. “Perhaps being locked in the study made you forget, but escrow means there’s no getting at the tools until we’ve decided who the owner is,” Zane told her.

“Right, which is exactly what Fred is here to help me do,” Asha agreed, still unbothered by our dour dispositions. “And this is better in a lot of ways. We’ve got however long we need to do the work, since time doesn’t matter, and according to you, no one will even notice that we’re gone. All we have to do is iron out the will, and whoever gets the tools can pop us out of here.”

“Don’t mean to be a party pooper, but there’s the issue of food and water to think about.” Bubba spoke between bites of shrimp; evidently, he’d taken a handful from the plates in the foyer. I’d have been worried about someone noticing the absent crustaceans when the time bubble vanished, but with the amount of alcohol I’d seen flowing, I sincerely doubted anyone would assume missing shrimp were stolen by a giant therian.

Ainsley lifted her head slightly higher. Now that the situation wasn’t so hopeless, it seemed she didn’t feel quite as ashamed for getting us into it. “We’ve got enough bottled water and food in the panty to last for months. Father always used to say that a mage’s home should be a fortress unto itself, impregnable and self-sufficient.”

It seemed Herbram Clover shared the same thoughts on home-safety as the mages who had built Charlotte Manor. I could only wonder what his children would think of my friend, the animated house.

“And do you also have a stock of blood on hand?” In the silence that fell after Amy’s words, every eye slowly turned to me. Asha was scared, and trying not to show it, having no doubt only just remembered that, as a vampire, I needed blood to survive. Ainsley and Zane both looked more concerned than fearful, regarding me as a potential threat that might need dealing with. Bubba and Amy were worried, but there was no terror in their anxiety. They knew the situation from my vantage point, and understood that the biggest potential issue was me starving myself, as I had no desire to take anyone’s blood, especially unwillingly.

“Never let it be said that I am unprepared.” Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out the enchanted flask I’d purchased in Boarback. “Had a run-in with an unfriendly fellow several weeks ago, and ever since, I’ve made a point of always keeping some emergency blood on hand. Just in case.”

A wave of relief washed over the rest of the room. With my own meals handled, there was nothing to stop us from buckling down and pushing through the paperwork. If anything, this might be a blessing in disguise. Instead of having to carve days out of my schedule to work in, Asha and I could handle the whole thing in one marathon of number crunching.

“Seems as though you’ve got work to do,” Zane said, nicely summing up the situation. It might have been that easy, too, if only he hadn’t kept talking. “But after tonight’s attack, it can no longer be denied that my sister lacks the temperament to run this business. Divide the resources fairly, just make sure that I get the enchanting tools, regardless of how much else you have to give her.”

“
You
? Your skills aren’t even up to what Father could do, yet you want to take over his business?” Ainsley whirled on her brother, staff trembling in her angry grip.

“My work won’t be as good as what you can manage.” There was no bitterness or bite in Zane’s voice; it was like he’d accepted the truth of the statement so long ago that it no longer hurt him to utter it. “But all the skillful enchanting in the world doesn’t matter if you yell at the clients and scare them away. I can build the Clover business beyond where Dad left it. Meanwhile, you’d be lucky to still get any jobs after a year.”

“The Clover name is about quality. Our enchanting is some of the highest caliber on the market!” Ainsley yelled. “People pay for
that
, not because you buy them a few rounds of champagne and tell them what they want to hear.”

“We’re not the only high-level enchanters out there. Without that champagne and ass-kissing, they’ll take their business elsewhere.” Zane was a curious contrast to Ainsley. As she was getting more worked up, he seemed to be getting calmer and more detached. It was like watching an ocean smash against a boulder; there was plenty of movement and action, but ultimately, nothing was changed in the end.

“That’s why our work has to get better, so there’s no one out there who can compete with what we do.” Ainsley turned from her brother to Asha, though she needn’t have bothered. All of us, even Bubba and Amy, already knew what Ainsley was going to say.

“Unless I get the tools in the split, I’m not going to sign.”

“For once, my sister and I see eye-to-eye on something,” Zane said. “I, too, am going to have to hold firm on the condition that I be the one to carry on Dad’s business. It’s the enchanter tools, or no signature.”

“Oh,
come on
.” Asha threw her hands up in the air, a motion I’d thought existed only in expressions, until I actually saw her get so frustrated she didn’t know how else to show it. “You realize how impossible that is, don’t you? We can’t give you both the tools, and we need the damn things to get out of here. You’re literally holding us all hostage by being too petty to compromise.”

“You have my sincere apologies,” Zane said, and admittedly, he did sound pretty darn sincere. “I don’t take any joy in dragging you into this; however, I can’t let my sister undo generations of family achievement by driving off all of our customers. Maybe this seems petty to you, and you might not be wrong, but this business was Dad’s pride and joy. I have to protect it, and if that means inconveniencing you, then so be it. There’s plenty of food and water to live on, and I’ll pay your respective rates until we break free. Consider it a working sabbatical.”

“Do we have rates?” Bubba whispered to Amy, who shrugged her shoulders. It was unlikely either of them had thought about billing, since they were just pitching in as a favor to Richard, but I’d make sure to calculate one for each of them before the matter was settled. I’d be damned if I’d see my friends get nothing for the trouble of living in a pocket dimension.

“Zane’s right,” Ainsley added. “This is more than just a business. It’s the Clover legacy. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it’s carried on properly, by me.”

“Again, you’re handing us an impossible task.” Asha looked between the stone-faced twins, trying to appeal to their sense of reason. “We can’t give you both the tools. One of you has to cave on this.”

“Then I suggest you make a compelling proposal,” Zane said. “Convince one of us that what you’re offering in the split is a better deal. Otherwise, it’s a matter of seeing who breaks first.”

“Oh, I think we already know who that will be. You love your precious parties too much to be away from them for long. All I need is a workspace and a library to be happy. In fact, I’ve got some experiments to check on. Let me know when the papers are ready to be signed.” With that, Ainsley stomped off into the mansion, nearly knocking over several champagne flutes with the wide swings of her wooden staff.

As she vanished, Zane seemed to deflate, the confidence and surety he’d used to hold back her anger falling away. It wasn’t that he seemed less charismatic, just more weary. He watched his sister go before turning to the rest of us.

“Again, I am genuinely sorry for all of this. How about, for now, you focus on getting the assets fairly divided, like you already were. I’ll try and think of a way to make Ainsley come around by then. For now, though, I think I need a little time to recuperate.” Zane slipped into the foyer then as well, moving carefully between the plates so that nothing would be disturbed. He didn’t climb the stairs, however. Instead, he grabbed an unopened bottle of champagne off the table and headed to the left, toward a part of mansion I’d yet to lay eyes on.

“Might as well make myself useful,” Bubba declared. “I’m gonna go take stock of the pantry, see what we’ve got in terms of food. Got a hunch that neither of those two is much for cookin’, so I’ll earn my keep by makin’ sure we all stay fed.”

“I’ll try and see if anything I’ve got can break us out of here.” Amy swung her bag around and began to rummage through it. While it only looked large enough to hold a few books and perhaps a water bottle, I’d seen, more than once, just how much bigger it was on the inside. “Don’t think I have any potions that can break dimensional walls, but there’s nothing like necessity to spur innovation.”

“Let’s call that Plan Z.” Bubba tilted his head toward me and Asha. “Best case is these two gettin’ the twins to settle their differences.”

Asha threw a look of hope in my direction, but the best I could muster was a weak grin that was supposed to be reassuring. This was a family matter, and I’d done enough estate work to know those were always more complicated. As much as they claimed it was about the business, there were also decades of fighting, disagreements, and other troubles to contend with, all compacted by the sense of loss at their father’s passing. I wasn’t sure anything we said or did was going to move them before they were ready.

But even if that was the case, we still had to get the estate division done. Until that part was handled, it was impossible to proceed. So, with no other options, I motioned to Asha, and we headed back to the study.

6.

Time was functionally meaningless inside the bubble. Sure, the clocks moved, but with no day or night cycle, only the ever-present red glow of the wall cutting us off from reality, it all just blurred together. The moment we’d been trapped in was nighttime, though, which mattered only in that I never felt the familiar wave of weariness crash over me, signaling that the sun had risen. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, as I’d already gone far longer than usual without the cathartic release of a long day’s rest. Still, I didn’t feel too loopy or out of it yet, so I pushed on. It wasn’t as if I could change the situation, even if I wanted to. My best bet would be asking Amy for a potion, and there was no way something that specific wouldn’t be experimental. As I’ve said before, Amy’s alchemy skills are highly praised and impressive, but even she has to break a few eggs in the process of creation.

Instead of fretting about how long a vampire could retain their sanity without sleep, I focused on getting the work done. Asha and I holed up in the study with her files, working tirelessly to account for every asset, owning, and piece of property in the Clover estate. When she slept, I worked on calculating the value for the tools, poring through old receipts for work done, trying to quantify what the trends in the enchanting market were and extrapolating how much they could earn over the next several decades. It’s not my place to speak about a client’s finances, but suffice to it say that when I finally finished assigning those items a value, there were a
lot
of zeroes behind it. More impressively, though, there was enough of the estate to make up for the split, assuring each of the siblings an even cut of the inheritance.

Of course, the real problem was that neither of them would accept the half without tools, and that didn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. Bubba gave us reports when he came in with meals for Asha. Ainsley only let him in to deliver food, having locked herself away in her workshop, and Zane was in the wine cellar, slowly carving his way through the offerings of every region in France. Neither was talking, except to say that they weren’t going to budge.