Page 9

“Kettering is a mage?” Lester asked, sounding surprised. Zeke nodded, though he kept his eyes closed and his attention on the vision.

“I don’t know what kind of power he has, but the stone was made for him to help strengthen whatever it is,” Zeke confirmed.

“I didn’t see it before because in the other vision, either it wasn’t in the workshop yet or he already had the ruby as the woman was making the bracelets for herself and her students. ”

“Nothing in our intel has anything about Kettering being a mage,” Liam said softly. “This is significant new information.”

Zeke opened his eyes and regarded the Navy guys. They all looked a bit impressed, which made him feel good. Maybe his lame gift wasn’t so lame after all.

“You bet your ass it is.” Santini sounded approving. “What else you got, Zeke?”

Zeke knew he had a faint smile hovering around his lips, but he couldn’t help it.

He looked at Celine before closing his eyes again and took her lovely face into the vision that gripped him as he reached out with two fingers to the flat side of the stone.

It was a good thing too. Since the red fire in the stone leapt up to zap him with a mini lightning bolt that singed his skin.

To his credit, Zeke didn’t cry out. He’d trained such responses out of himself when he’d first joined the Special Forces. Crying out or making any kind of sound when you got hurt could get you killed in the field.

As it was, he shook his hand a bit before Rick grabbed it and gave him a bit of that healing juju that was his specialty. It wasn’t a bad burn, but his fingers still tingled from the almost electrical jolt that had sizzled up his arm.

“What was that?” Hal asked.

“Offensive magic,” Santini said in disgust. “That thing has its own protections, and they don’t play nice.”

“It’s okay. I saw something as it zapped me.

A name. Salazar. Armando Salazar. He was the one who taught the woman how to craft the stones and gave her the raw materials.

He’s the real mastermind behind the stones and the one she answers to in their organization.

Venifucus , right? That’s what it’s called? ” Zeke asked.

Lester nodded, even as he sighed in resignation. “Yes, that’s what it’s called. So, this is confirmation. Not just evil, but organized, ancient evil.”

“Uh…” Zeke tilted his head to the side. “Is it possible this guy could be hundreds of years old?”

“Why do you ask that?” Liam asked.

“Because I saw him in different time periods and different modes of dress. Like a kaleidoscope of images starting in modern times and going back to the days when horses were the only mode of transportation. Lots of him on horseback and in carriages going back to what I think are Roman times,” Zeke explained, hardly believing what he’d seen and what it might mean.

“Some mages do have extra longevity,” Lester said carefully.

“Not all of it is nefarious in nature, though a lot of it can be, from what I’ve heard.

Some have fey blood that gives them long life, though that is rare.

Some of the really bad ones steal power from others in order to prolong their own lives.

Some are bloodletters—what popular culture calls vampires, though they don’t often join groups and seem to prefer building their own lonely little empires.

” Lester eyed Zeke questioningly. “Did those images you saw have him in full sunlight, or were they only at night?”

“No, he was definitely in daylight,” Zeke replied.

“Then, probably not a bloodletter,” Liam reasoned. “It’s more likely that he’s feeding off others or has some fey blood.”

“Fey like in fairies? Mushroom circles and all that?” Hal asked.

“Fey like in the highly magical fey realm, which is reached only by portals between the worlds and only with great difficulty and a large expenditure of energy,” Lester replied.

“There is precedent. Most say the Destroyer is fey, or half-fey. I don’t know which, exactly, but she’s lived for centuries and appears immortal to us. ”

“Well, the guy I saw is on her side. And like her, he’s lived a very long time,” Zeke said.

“Could be you’ve seen the one who has kept the Venifucus order alive and well through all these years when we thought it was dead and gone. He might be their leader in Elspeth’s absence—or, at the very least, high up in the organization. Good work, Sergeant,” Lester said, his tone approving.

“You won’t get anything else out of that stone anytime soon,” Santini said, leaning back in his chair. “Once tripped, magical safeguards like that take time to reset, and nobody will be able to touch it without harm until it does.”

The master chief sounded like he was speaking from experience, and Zeke believed him.

That zap had been painful, and he’d gotten the distinct impression that some sort of wall had been put up between him and the object’s history.

He nodded at the master chief and removed his hands from the table, leaving the stone untouched.

“I hate to say it, but I think you’re right, Master Chief. I’ve done all I can for now with this thing. Do you have any other objects I could read?” Zeke asked, hoping he could still help in some way.

Santini looked at Celine and then back at Zeke. “Well, there’s the house,” he offered tentatively.

“House?” Zeke repeated.

“My house,” Celine clarified, her voice sounding a bit rusty. “Where they were killed. It’s not far as the crow flies, and it’s been empty ever since…” She trailed off. Ever since the murders, she would have said, he knew.

“Where is it, exactly?” Hal asked, looking interested.

“Connecticut,” Santini answered. “We could take a boat over. It’s not far from the shore. We like to live places with water access, you know. It makes our other half feel more comfortable.”

“The unit isn’t supposed to leave this island,” Lester reminded them all, then seemed to relent. “But in this case, I think we can make an exception for a couple of hours. If you want to do it, Sergeant. I can’t order you to do this. It has to be strictly voluntary.”

“Anything,” Zeke said immediately, that word still ringing through his mind when it came to helping Celine. He clarified his meaning for the Navy folk. “I’m happy to help, sir.”

“I’ll authorize it,” Lester said, then eyed Hal. “If you’ll designate the mission parameters, I’ll arrange for a shifter escort, since we know the neighborhood and have a bit more experience with magic.”

“A joint operation?” Hal mused, then nodded. “Sounds good, sir. I’ll work out the details and liaise with…who?”

“Liam,” Lester said immediately. “He’ll be running the shifter contingent.”

“And I’d like to be on the mission, Alpha,” Santini said to Lester, who nodded.

“And me,” Celine said quietly. “I want to be there.”

“Are you sure?” Santini turned to his granddaughter and gave her a gentle look. “You don’t have to go back there if you don’t want to. I can handle it for you.”

“No, I want to go,” she said in a stronger voice. Then, her gaze met Zeke’s, and he saw resolution on her face. This was something she wanted to face head-on. He could respect that.

After a tense moment, Santini nodded, then turned to Lester, giving him a significant look that wasn’t too hard to decipher.

They were concerned about Celine returning to the scene of her parents’ murders, but her grandfather was willing to let her make her own decisions.

Zeke liked that, though he was also concerned about Celine’s reaction to revisiting the scene of the crime.

He was glad the master chief would be there, though Zeke worried that such an intense scene might overwhelm his new senses.

He’d have to try extra hard to keep it together so he could support Celine if she needed it and still perform his task of finding more clues that might help catch the perpetrator.

It was going to be tricky. He’d never done anything like this before, but he was willing to put himself and his new skill on the line to help her in any way he could.

The meeting wrapped up quickly after that, with the officers handing out tasks.

Zeke’s only mission was to rest up , in the words of his commanding officer, so he’d be ready when the time came for action.

Everybody else would be planning the details of the mission.

Zeke’s only role was to prepare himself.

He tried not to let that bother him and reminded himself that he’d be doing his part when they actually got to the house.

It didn’t sit well with him, letting others do the heavy lifting of preparing for the mission, but times had changed for all of them, and he had to adjust.

Santini took Celine out of the room with him, and there wasn’t an opportunity to talk to her until much later that night. Zeke ate dinner quickly, intending to try to catch Celine before she got off work for the night.

At dinner, Zeke sat next to Mandy and Wil, hoping to ask the former Seattle detective a bit more about how to investigate a crime scene. He’d already had a quick conversation with her about the investigation, in general, but now that he would have access to the crime scene, he had more questions.

Mandy surprised him by saying that she was going to be working the case from her office on base.

She’d been given the task of liaising with the police in Connecticut and they’d already promised to send her the files on the murder.

Apparently, Commander Kinkaid had already sought her out to ask for her assistance, with full support from Hal.

Zeke was gratified to know that those in his unit and adjacent were taking this so seriously, and all possible avenues were being investigated.

Mandy told him a bit of what she would look for when visiting a crime scene in general terms and the dinner conversation, while not exactly typical, was very educational.

At least now, Zeke had a plan of action in mind for when he got to the site tomorrow.