"How's your hand?" I asked a still quiet Sara.
She flexed her fingers and wrist. "It feels sore, but no more throbbing pain. Why, where are we going?"
"We need to talk," I said. "About what you saw."
"I saw a dead woman." Her words were spoken softly, just above a whisper.
I didn't really know what to say to that. "I'm sorry" felt too small a phrase to use for the horror that Sara had witnessed. Instead, I drove in silence for a few more miles, before leaving the motorway and driving down some quiet country roads until we reached a a dirt road. We bumped and jolted down the road for half a mile, the width just big enough for two cars, but there was no one else around at one in the afternoon on a weekday. At the end of the road sat a large grassy clearing.
I stopped the car and got out. Sara joined me a moment later.
"I've never been here before," she said as she followed my gaze.
The clearing ended fifty feet in front of where we stood, replaced by a drop of a few hundred feet into the New Forest below. From our vantage point, we could see for miles, all of it green and peaceful. Very few people knew of the spot, so thankfully there was no fence protecting idiots from falling down the slope, and spoiling what was a spectacular view.
"It's so quiet," she said as she walked toward the edge, stopping a few feet back and peering down the slope. "Bloody hell."
"Yeah, I don't advise jumping," I said as I joined her. "You could probably survive as it's not a sheer drop, but you'd know about it once you hit the bottom."
"How do you know about this place?"
"I used to come here, a long time ago. When the only way to get up here was to climb that slope, or walk the ten miles to get around it."
"You climbed that?"
"A few times, it was good exercise." I made my way back to the truck. "I picked here as we're unlikely to be disturbed. You can ask whatever you want. I won't dodge anything, I promise. No subject is off limits. You got into a fight today, how are you feeling about it?"
Sara continued to stare down into the forest below, her back facing me. She rubbed her neck and turned, before walking back over where I was sitting. "I wanted to hurt him," she said. "He threatened to... well, you know. When I hit him, I just lost it."
"You handled yourself well. I'm proud of you; you should be too. But next time, maintain composure. Losing your temper will get you in trouble one day. Trust me on this."
"You were so calm. You could have killed them all, couldn't you?"
"And a day not so long ago, I would have. But, that's not me anymore. I try not to kill those too stupid to know better."
"Why doesn't that scare me?"
"Because I'm awesome," I said with a laugh, which Sara quickly joined.
"I want to know what happened today," she said. "Who murdered that woman? Why did you have blood on your hands when you came out of the farmhouse? What did you do to scare that agent and who the hell are the LOA?"
They were all fair questions, but I thought starting at the beginning was the best idea. "To explain about the LOA, I need to start with Avalon. Do you know what they are?"
Sara shrugged. "Sort of. I know about people who aren't human. My neighbour when I was little was an elemental. She could move the earth around. I thought it was fantastic."
I grabbed a blanket from under the rear seat behind the driver and unrolled it, laying it on the soft ground. I took a seat and Sara came and sat next to me a second later, eager to hear what she wanted to know.
“Avalon is a small island off the northern coast of Cornwall. There's only one massive city there, Camelot. And apart from being the island's name, Avalon is also like the non-human version of the UN. Or it would be if the UN had any real power. Avalon consists of the most powerful members of every non-human species in the world. You know those gods and goddesses that you read about at school—Zeus, Hades and the like? They’re all real and each one has a say in what happens with regards to the laws of the world. Merlin is in charge of Avalon, although his ability to control what happens has been on the decline for a long time now.”
“You sound upset about that.”
“Merlin and me have a difficult history. He’s not the man I thought he was, and he turns a blind eye to far too much.” I sighed. “Anyway, we’re not here to hear me complain about Merlin. Any other questions?”
“So who were those LOA people?”
“Avalon has several bodies which help it retain power. The three main include the Shield of Avalon, or SOA, which is the internal security force, sort of like America's Homeland Security, or the MI5. The Blade of Avalon, or BOA, are the armed forces. They deal with external threats. The last is the LOA, the Law of Avalon, a police force, which is similar to Interpol. They investigate crimes which are perpetrated by humans against Avalon members, or by Avalon members on humans.”
“So those Agents were there because either the killer or victim wasn’t human? Tommy said that most of the people in charge just do whatever they like.”
"True enough. The big members of Avalon—Hades, the vampire Lords, werewolf Alphas and the like, all have their own security forces or internal investigation people. They'd never allow the LOA to investigate them without a fight and a whole lot of evidence. It's a bit like a huge corporation not wanting the police to snoop around unless necessary."
"But whatever happened today was within LOA jurisdiction?"
"For now, yeah. Neil isn't under anyone's protection; no one too powerful anyway; otherwise Olivia wouldn't have been allowed to let Tommy look into him. That might change depending on who the murderer or victim was. There's a lot of political bullshit that goes into every investigation when the higher ranked members of Avalon are involved."
"And you used to work for them?"
"For a long time, yes. I quit over a century ago."
"Why?"
"A story for another time.”
Sara was silent for a few seconds, and I could tell that she wanted to ask more, but she thankfully changed the subject. "The blood on your hands."
"How much do you know about magic?"
"Tommy told me that there were two types, Elemental and Omega. All sorcerers' start with Elemental –fire, water, earth or air—and you can only learn two from that set. That about right?"
"Close enough," I said. "You can never learn a magic that is the opposite of the one you know." I raised my hand, palm up, and a small ball of flame appeared. It was about the size of a marble and hovered just above my palm. "The orange glyphs on my hands and arms show that I'm using fire magic."
I extinguished the flame and the orange glyphs were replaced with white ones as a small, whirling ball of air appeared where the fire once was. "And this is air magic. So I can never learn earth or water, no matter how hard I might try. Omega magic is the same, four different schools and you can only learn two. Mind, matter, light and shadow. But there's a third type of magic – blood magic. My hands were covered in blood because I can use blood magic to learn from whom the blood came. I now know that the blood down there belonged to the dead girl and four human men."
"Can you tell how they died?"
"I can tell if magic was involved, like it was with the woman. Other than that just rudimentary details—age, sex, that sort of thing. But if I come across their blood again, I'll know it's the same. So if we find those men, I'll know they're the same ones who were chained in that basement."
"So, how does your magic work? Can you just keep using it forever?"
"No, too much use and I start thinking that magic is the solution to all my problems. And if I don't stop... well, it wouldn't end well. Magic wants to be used, and if a sorcerer isn't careful, it'll change him, turn him into something... wrong. We call them nightmares."
"Can you ever get rid of the nightmare?"
"Learning magic sort of like long training for a marathon. You train by running until you can't run anymore and then next time you push yourself past that point. You keep doing it until
you reach your goal, moving little by little. Magic is the same. When you feel the magic inside trying to take over, you stop. And then next time you push it a little further. You do it again and again as you gain power and experience."
"So the magic stops trying to control you?"
I shook my head. "Nope. It never stops; it just gets further and further pushed down inside you. But it's always there, waiting until you use too much to turn back."
A breeze swept through the clearing and Sara hugged herself, rubbing her arms despite the coat she wore. "I can't stop seeing her," she said. "All that blood. How do you deal with it?"
I thought about telling her a lie to make her feel better, but if she stuck with Tommy, it was likely that she'd be seeing more dead bodies. Although, they'd hopefully be in picture form instead of tied up and tortured in a basement. "As unpleasant as it seems, seeing the dead really does get easier the more you do it."
"Have you seen a lot of dead bodies?"
"I've seen quite a few, yes." And been responsible for more than my fair share, though I didn't say that out loud.
"I don't know if I can do this," Sara said. "Work for Tommy, I mean. I love it there, but... your world is so..."
"Violent? terrifying?" I smiled. "Pretty much both of those are right. There are a lot of non-humans who'd like to think they can do whatever they like, including killing. But there are also a lot of men and women out there who stop those people. Or try to. Tommy is one of them. He'd move heaven and earth to make sure his people stay safe."
"If I stayed would you keep training me? And not just in fighting. But to use weapons too."
"Do you want me to?"
"I think I need you to."
"Good. But today was special. You won't be out on assignment. Hell, Tommy only took you today so you could get a feel for what his people do. It was meant to be an easy trip." I stood up and stretched.
"Do you miss it?"
I stopped what I was doing and glanced down at the still seated Sara. "What?"
"I saw your face when we were searching that farmhouse and after the fight. You were in your element."
I leaned against the car's bonnet, and half sat on the front bumper. "Sometimes."
"Tommy said that you were some sort of Special Forces guy."
"I was whatever I needed to be – soldier, thief, spy, or... well, whatever I needed to be to get the job done. I did that for over a millennia. Using that knowledge and training, like I did today, feels good. But I'd never go back to what I used to do."
Sara stood and brushed her trousers, removing any stray grass. "I think Tommy told me about you to make me stay away from you."
"He's a wise man," I said. "You should stay away from me."
Sara looked me in the eyes. "Is that because you're dangerous?"
I nodded.
She stepped toward me and placed a hand on my chest. I could feel her warmth through my t-shirt. And I suddenly realised just how alone we both were, and how incredibly bad that was.
"You're a good man," she whispered and kissed me on the cheek. "Don't let anyone say otherwise."
Our closeness lingered for a moment longer than necessary, until our lips touched. Gently at first, but then I had her in my arms as our mouths explored one another with hunger and need. Her hands ran across the back of my neck as one of mine ran up her back into her hair.
My ringing mobile brought me back to my senses and I pulled away, removing the phone from my pocket and answering it.
"Where the hell are you, Nate?"
"On my way, Tommy," I said "Be about forty-five minutes."
I returned my mobile to my jeans pocket “We need to go," I told Sara, who was staring at the ground, seemingly lost in through.
I picked up the blanket and shook off the grass. "I'm sorry about the kiss," I said after the silence between us grew almost unbearable. "Shouldn't have happened."
"No. No, that can't happen again." Sara closed her eyes and sighed. I watched her, my eyes travelling from her beautiful face, down her body, taking in every detail. It was beginning to get dark, and the lack of streetlights nearby meant part of her face was cast in shadow. Yet still she shone. The words tumbled into my brain and I felt foolish for thinking them. Women do not shine, they do not glow, the trite idea that any lust or love could somehow illuminate the darkness was just that, trite. A stupid notion held by romance writers and teenagers. But damn it if she didn't glow all the same.
I was sixteen-hundred years old and felt like I was sixteen. That's not normal, I was pretty sure of that. And for someone with the kind of enemies I held, it was downright destructive.
"You already have someone, and I'm not good for you, Sara. I can't risk people coming to me through you. From now on, if we can't resist temptation, I'll have to ask Tommy to get someone else to teach you. And I don't want that."
"Neither do I," Sara said softly. She smiled briefly and then climbed back into the car. I hoped we could put the intense attraction between us aside, because if someone went through her to get to me, the wrath that would fall upon them would be biblical.
It was almost an hour later by the time I'd taken Sara home and made my way back to Tommy's office. I rolled up to the front entrance of his building and found him waiting outside. "Took your damn time," he said as I got out of his truck.
"I've had a crap day. Murder and explaining about our world will do that to a person." I figured what had happened between Sara and me could wait for a more private setting, considering Tommy would probably start yelling.
Tommy caught his trucks keys in one hand and in turn he threw me my bike keys. "Before you go," Tommy said. "Come back to my place. I've got some things I need to explain to you."
That didn't sound like something I was going to enjoy. "How angry am I going to be?"
Tommy shrugged. "Pretty angry to begin with, then probably not so much."
My bike was exactly where I'd left it, just in front of the main entrance of Tommy's building. I straddled the black 2009 Suzuki Hayabusa, and placed the key in the ignition. "You drive, I'll follow," I said and pulled a black full face motorcycle helmet on. The skull motif on the front ensured most drivers gave me a wide berth when on the roads. No one wanted a skeletal face riding behind them.
The bike's engine roared to life and I was soon following Tommy, struggling not to open the throttle and overtake him. Instead, I waited patiently as he drove at just below the speed limit. I could almost imagine the grin on his face, too. The evil bastard.
Eventually we arrived at his... home wasn't quite the right word; mansion was probably closer to the truth. I hadn't been to Tommy's home in over ten years, but the last time I had, he'd been living in a two bedroom house, near London.
The electric gates opened slowly, allowing Tommy and me to enter the property. Tommy parked the truck near the front door, where the flood lights lit up everything around us. I parked the bike next to the truck and switched off the ignition. Tommy had already exited the car and made his way to the door, when a girl opened it and walked out, her arms crossed over her chest. She wore a purple top and dark blue leggings and was bare foot, but that didn't seem to bother her as she walked across the brick driveway. Tommy swept her up and planted a big kiss on her cheek.
"You're late," she said, after squirming out of Tommy's grip and rubbing her cheek as if he'd slobbered over it.
Tommy retaliated by grabbing her in a bear-hug, which she quickly gave into.
I removed my helmet and hung it from the handlebars as Tommy released the girl and brought her over to me. She was no older than twelve, with long dark hair and several freckles on her nose. "Hi," I said, slightly confused.
"Nate," Tommy said. "This is Kasey. My daughter."
Chapter 7
After the introduction, Kasey and Tommy went upstairs so that he could check her homework and catch up on her day. The nanny, or babysitter, or whatever she was—a cute twenty-something, with strawberry-blonde hair—said her good-byes, l
eaving me alone in an expansive living room, where I selected the most comfortable looking couch and took a seat.
Tommy re-appeared a short time later and opened a walnut-coloured cabinet, which contained bottles of various spirits. He selected two glasses and a bottle of Scotch, filling them both and then passing one of the tumblers to me before sitting on the coach beside me.
"So, there are probably a few things we should talk about," he said and opened the Scotch, pouring us each a generous measure and placing the bottle on the wooden coffee table that sat next to us.
"A few," I admitted. "The first one is... and I guess it's the most important."
"I have a child."
"That would be it."
"She's eleven. Twelve next week, Thursday to be exact."
I quickly did the maths and realised something. "I may have had my memories wiped eleven years ago, but I saw you only a few weeks before that happened. You must have forgotten to mention that you had a baby. I can see how having a child would be easy to forget."
Tommy took a drink of Scotch. "I guess I should explain. When you disappeared, I spent a long time trying to find you. A lot of people thought you were dead, and not all of them were unhappy with that situation. But after about nine months, I needed something else to work on. Looking for you was a dead end, no pun intended, but with no body, I was certain you'd turn up at some point.
"A very wealthy man came to me and asked for help in finding his daughter. She was the latest in a series of missing teenagers. The previous girls had all been found a few weeks after their disappearances, or at least their heads had. I took the case and it brought me into contact with the LOA."
"Olivia," I said. "Are you about to tell me that the Director of the LOA is your daughter's mum?"
"We got close and after a few years together Olivia found out she was pregnant. It's hard enough for an elemental or a werewolf to have a baby, so any option that didn't include keeping the baby were rejected. Kasey was born seven years ago."
I had an idea as to where this was going, but didn't want to interrupt.