Ghost Light

We walked the next two blocks in silence, which was fine by me.  I used the time to practice the breathing exercises Jenna had taught me.  Whether battling monsters or my own emotions, the series of inhalations and exhalations helped to focus my mind and calm my racing pulse.  I couldn’t afford the complication of glowing skin right now.  I managed to escape unnoticed yesterday, but I didn’t expect my luck to hold.

I turned into the mouth of an alley that ran perpendicular to Baker’s Row.  Unlike most alleys on The Hill, this one was swept clean and smelled like strawberries.  This was definitely the place.

The bean-tighe family lived on the third floor in a small, efficiency apartment accessed by a fire escape bolted to the brick wall.  I was pretty sure that having a fire escape as the only entrance or exit was against code, which meant the building was probably owned by vampires.  Vamps are prolific landlords on The Hill and their rental properties tended to be just as cold, dusty, and decayed as their owners.

The one thing vampire landlords care about is bleeding their tenants dry.  The bloodsuckers didn’t bother to keep their buildings up to code.  If renters fall to their deaths due to a shortage of safety features, the vamps are quick to sweep the incident under the rug—and feed the body to one of their pet ghouls.

If vamps were keeping tabs on the property, it was possible that a vamp saw something the night of the kidnappings.  One more question for the vampire council.  Of course, if a vamp was behind the abductions, the council wasn’t likely to pass along any helpful witness accounts.  Vampires were experts at pulling strings and making problems disappear.  Their Machiavellian machinations were legendary.  I’d have to use caution when it was time to question the vamps, or they may decide to make me disappear.

I shivered and rubbed the slight bumps my knives made beneath my jacket sleeves, glad to have Ceff at my back.  Ceff followed me further into the alley and I walked past the fire escape, checking the darkest corners for clues.  Most of the secrets in this city could be discovered by poking around the shadowed corners of Joysen Hill.

I pulled a small penlight from my jacket and shone it along the ground and up brick walls.  I reached the far corner and bent down for a closer look.  The ground was worn smooth in a peculiar, circular pattern.  I fanned the light over the spirals until I found what I was looking for.  A shiny, green scale protruded from a crevice in the pavement.

I produced a clear, plastic baggy and tweezers from an inside pocket and wiggled the scale free.  I rocked back on my heels and held it under the light.  I couldn’t tell if it was of fish or snake origin, but I had a bad feeling that it wasn’t from any natural creature.

“Find anything?” Ceff asked.

I lowered the scale, shielding it with my body.  I forced myself to grin and flashed Ceff a smile over my shoulder.

“Nothing yet,” I said.  “Can you go on up and get started with the bean-tighe?  You’re better at talking with people and I want to check the alley one more time.  I’ll join you in a minute.”

Ceff raised an eyebrow, but nodded.  I heard him pull down the fire escape and climb to the bean-tighe’s window.  I pretended to continue my search for clues as Ceff’s voice floated down from above.  After a brief conversation between Ceff and two female voices, he entered the apartment.

When I heard the window close behind him, I lowered the tweezers and the scale onto the plastic bag and took a deep breath.  I had to know if the scale was related to the kidnappings, but this was something I had to do alone.  If my suspicions were correct, I needed time to figure out how to break the news to Ceff.  And if I was wrong, he never had to be bothered with theories that would only open old wounds.

I pulled a cheap mouthguard, the kind used for contact sports, out of my pocket and slid it between my teeth.  It was a new purchase I’d only experimented with a few times, but the object made screaming nearly impossible.  It made me drool like a slavering barguest, but my philosophy is that it’s better to slobber all over myself than to attract unwanted attention screaming.  If the mouthguard helped prevent a chipped tooth, that was a bonus.

I stole one last glance at the empty fire escape and the closed window above.  Ceff would be inside for at least fifteen minutes, consoling and interviewing the bean-tighe family, before looking for me.  Hopefully, I’d be done in time.