The Fabled (13 page)

I sighed and shot him a hard look.

“It’s okay, Sunny. I already knew and your
secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you for your discretion, Brennan.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you too.”

I nodded.

We pulled into Lucian’s drive a half hour
later. I turned to Brennan in the back seat.

“If you lie to him, he’ll know. Regardless of
the truth, it’s always better.”

She nodded and looked nervous suddenly. It
was apparent she thought she would be judged for what she did in
her past but I saw the images and they came straight from within.
She couldn’t control her power when she came into it and had no
idea what to do. Why her parents didn’t teach her how to wield
magic from childhood I don’t know but after the fire she was
stuffed away in that asylum. She needs to learn her magic and how
to control it or it will control her. Mrs. Headmistress was right
when she said Brennan was dangerous but I don’t think she would do
anything intentionally.

I rang the bell and Lucian answered the door
before the chime had stopped.

“Hello daughter.” He pulled me to him and
kissed my forehead. “I hope you haven’t been too hard on that
Vampere.” He turned to Tristan. “Or you.”

“She hasn’t been too hard, grandfather.”

“I was referring to your mistreatment of the
Vampere.”

Tristan’s mouth was open and he put his hand
to his chest. “Me?”

“Yes you. Don’t try to act innocent. You
would do best to worry about your own affairs instead of meddling
in your mother’s. Now move aside and let me see my new
apprentice.”

Tristan was gaping like a fish but he did as
he was told and stepped aside.

“Father, this is Brennan. Brennan, I would
introduce my father, Lucian Dubois, leader of the Fabled council.
The oldest and most powerful Wizard in the world.”

“Sunny, you don’t have to be so formal. We’re
among family now.”

I looked at Brennan and she looked both awed
and pleased.

“Come in and be welcomed, Brennan.” Lucian
stepped back with his arms wide.

I allowed Brennan to enter first before
following into the house. Lucian led us into a sitting room where a
servant had already set out tea for everyone. I took my cup, added
cream and sugar and went to sit at the window seat. Lucian came to
sit beside me while Tristan wooed Brennan with his skills. Judging
by the doe eyes, whatever he was doing was working.

“So tell me how you came upon the fire
child.”

I told him in detail everything that had
happened since seeing him last night.

“My, that is interesting. You say the
illusion on the wall was very strong? It was likely there was a
password that when said would allow one to either enter the portal
or travel the road to the asylum.”

“The headmistress, there was something about
her. Other than the way she treated the patients there was
something dark.”

“Dark magic. It will darken a person’s very
soul. Of course someone prone to reading and absorbing magic would
be able to sense that immediately.”

“So you think it was the headmistress who
created the illusion and portal. But why would she be helping to
kidnap Vamps?”

“That I do not know.”

I looked at Brennan. “I think I need to know
everything about this asylum.”

Brennan shrugged. “I don’t know much other
than day to day stuff. I was given meds in the morning and at
night. They made things fuzzy. I wasn’t able to read things as
easily. Sometimes I would cheat and pretend to take my pills but
headmistress always knew. She would watch me take them after that.
It was while I didn’t have them that I saw you, Sunny.”

“That’s how you knew who I was and why you
hopped a ride.”

“I knew you were my only chance.”

“I will help you however I can. I think for
now the best thing would be for you to be taught how to control
your magic. It’s imperative that you learn this because once those
pills stop working your magic is going to come back with a
vengeance. Will you stay here with Lucian and learn what you need?
Once you have better control you can come stay with me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Lucian is the best possible
teacher.”

“I mean about me staying with you.”

“Oh, absolutely. I’m not the best roommate
and I work a lot but if you don’t mind that, I’d love the
company.”

Her smile split her face and she ran to me
and hugged me. I hugged her back. There were so many people that
knew who I was that were afraid of me. It was nice to have someone
who wasn’t. I would leave her here with Lucian for now but I would
come back for her. After all she has been through she needs someone
to just care for her. Not because they’re using her but because
they want her.

She looked up at me. “Thank you, Sunny.”

“Thank you, Brennan.”

She hugged me again.

“
Sometimes I feel like somebody’s watching
me”

We left a few hours later. It was getting
late and we still needed to do some digging.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to let Brennan
stay with you?”

I could tell Tristan had been thinking about
it since leaving Lucian’s.

“Once she can control her magic, yes. It
isn’t really hard to control magic in the sense of not letting it
run rampant. It’s fine tuning that control that will take a while.
Once she has a basic hold I will allow her to stay with me but she
will continue training with Lucian for many years to come. I just
hope we can finish this case before she’s ready to move in. I have
a feeling I won’t be home much until we do.”

“I guess it’ll be good for you to have
someone there with you. How long do Witches usually live
anyway?”

“It all depends on their magic. The strong
ones like Brennan, indefinitely. It’s essentially a spell that
keeps them alive which is why they have to have strong magic to
keep the spell going. Some of the weaker Witches only live slightly
longer than Humans while some have to use all of their magic just
to maintain their health spell leaving them without magic at all
but able to live forever. As long as no one kills them or they
don’t get into a major accident.”

“Wow. It must be nice to have magic. I would
be fine with just extending my life without being able to actually
wield magic too.”

“Son, you were born Human and you’re a damned
fine one, if I do say so myself. Don’t want for what you don’t
have. Enjoy what you do have.”

“I know. It’s just hard sometimes.”

“I know. You see everyone around you and know
they will still be here when you’re gone but that is the way it is
supposed to be with Humans and there is something to be said about
knowing you won’t live forever. A sense of now or never makes life
worth living. Perhaps if I hadn’t taken you in, you would be
happier with your life.”

“Or perhaps I would have died of starvation
alone in a hotel room with a dead woman.”

“That wouldn’t have happened.”

“Do you really think my life would have been
better without you?”

“No. I guess we will never know what could
have been.”

“I don’t want to know what could have been. I
couldn’t imagine my life different than it is. I have to give
Alexander credit. He did the right thing in choosing to save you.
If I fault him for everything else, it won’t be for that.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.
Let’s discuss the case.”

“Suit yourself just don’t think I would have
been better off without you because that’s ludicrous.”

I ignored him and moved the conversation
on.

“So the two cases are connected.”

“I figured that when I heard it was a black
van the Vamp chased.”

“Yep, plus one of the Humans had the symbol
of Caduceus on the back of his neck.”

“So we’ve got Humans and Witches working
together?”

“Possibly. Or the portal was there and the
Humans somehow learned about it. That seems unlikely since, as
Lucian said, they would have to know a password to use the portal.
I want to know who owns that asylum and how long the headmistress
has been there. I also want to know who any other contributors are.
There has to be more than just the headmistress involved. They were
taking magic from Brennan. Who knows how many other patients are
being syphoned off.”

We arrived back at our temporary HQ in Dallas
and began looking for anything we could find on the Witches Asylum
for the Criminally Insane. Yes, their acronym was WACI. We found
out almost immediately that the company who owned the asylum was an
international business named LabTech that primarily sold medical
supplies to several countries including the US. There was a list of
board members but nothing else.

“Generally if there is only a board listed
then the company is owned by a larger conglomerate. I’ll follow the
paper trail and see where it takes me,” Tristan said.

Truth be told he was better at this part of
the job than I will ever be. I was better at reading people and
forcing them to give me the information I want. This sort of thing
took some kind of finesse. A kind that I don’t possess.

“Okay, I’ll try to find a connection with
Roman. If that doesn’t work I’ll try to find out who his enemies
are. I’m going to call for some extra agents to watch the perimeter
around the club. There have been several days between
disappearances so I think we’ll be alright for tonight but tomorrow
we’re going to need to be on patrol. We can take turns if you
want.”

He shook his head. “We need to be inside.
Keep the patrols running while we check out the clientele. Someone
has been watching these Vamps and the most likely place is the club
itself.”

“Do you really think you can manage to spend
your nights in Roman’s club? You two can’t even get along for five
minutes.”

“You were right. I need to act more
professional and I will do my utmost to do so. I’ll be damned if
I’m going to let a killer go free because I can’t stand some
Vamp.”

I had pretty much came to the same conclusion
about the club but I really don’t want to spend time with Roman and
his Djinn. But, like Tristan, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a
killer go because of my personal issues.

I sighed. “I’ll call Roman and make
arrangements.”

“I want to be bartender.”

“Bartender? Do you know how to tend bar?”

“I can make every drink in the book. Plus,
bartenders learn the most info about the customers than anyone else
in a bar.”

“And what am I supposed to be?”

He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure I’ll think of
something.”

“And I’m sure Roman will have his own
ideas.”

“Oh, I’m sure he will.”

Tristan smiled. He was probably imagining my
constructive way of telling Roman what he could do with his
ideas.

I continued to dig for information on Roman
and any possible enemies he might have. Of course it would be
easier just to ask him but I would rather avoid that. Plus, it was
likely he would lie if there was someone he suspected.
Unfortunately, there was nothing obvious as far as business affairs
went. There was paperwork of his acquisition of businesses who had
belonged to his sire, Judas Severus. Apparently he had gained
control of his sire’s assets upon his death but I couldn’t find how
the sire died. The file merely said that it was classified per
leader of the council. So Lucian knows how the sire died but
doesn’t want anyone else to. I’ll have to ask him what he knows.
I’m sure he would have mentioned it if he thought it might have
some bearing on this case.

Since I couldn’t find anything useful on
Roman I decided to look up Brennan’s history. Her coming into her
powers without an experienced Witch or Wizard there to help guide
her is very rare and very dangerous. First, I have to find out her
full name because I never thought to ask. That was easy enough. I
already pulled the files on the asylum and even though it was
privately owned the state requires a list of all patients since
they are criminals. I narrowed my search to underage patients and
only one name popped up. Brennan Shane. Sounds Irish if I had to
guess.

I put the name and year of birth in my
database and got several hits. One was a report of the accident.
Both parents and younger brother perished in the flames. Brennan
was fifteen at the time which sounds right for a Witch coming into
her powers. That doesn’t answer the question of why she wasn’t
guided. I looked for a birth certificate and found one. Both
parents were listed. Okay, there goes my theory that she was
adopted. Usually that would be the case in a situation like this
one. Especially since no other family members stepped forward to
claim her. It doesn’t make sense. I did a search of the Witch
databases to find out if it was the mom or the dad who was Fabled.
Or both. It turned out neither of them were associated with a clan.
Huh. I searched just the last name and got no hits in Dallas but
there were several members with that last name in Austin. A cross
reference showed me the mother, Caroline Shane, was from Austin and
her father is still a practicing Wizard there. So Brennan has a
grandfather. It still doesn’t explain why Caroline didn’t teach her
daughter to control her magic or why the grandfather didn’t claim
her after the accident. I think I’m going to have to pay grandpa a
visit as soon as this case is over.

“Okay, I’ve got some good news and some bad
news.”

Tristan’s eyes were red and there were
several empty paper coffee cups sitting on his desk. As I looked at
him he stifled a huge yawn.

“Hurry and tell me so we can go home and get
some rest.”

“That sounds like the best idea you’ve had
all night, day, whatever we’re working on now.”

I raised a brow in a “get on with it”
expression.