SurfAngel_1031

  Roughly twenty mier, Sylvie pulled into the small rown parking lot of Phantasmagoria. She pulled off her motorcycle helmet and looked at her old home. “You know, I almost feel them still here.” She paused, “I y eyes and I see all of them, I see the guests…my fake crystal ball, the tarot cards I purposefully misread. Everything.”

  “You and he were here for about twenty years, I still see my mother and I pying in the ke. She let me catch tadpoles and study them as they turs.” She shrugged, “I suppose that is where I got my i in marine biology.”

  Finally taking a couple steps towards the entrance, Sylvie mae up to the broken windows and step into the foyer. She marveled at how the signs that showed where the theater, blood donation service, and eve studio were still in almost pristine dition. “Even vandals don’t e in here. Perhaps the pce is haunted.” Sylvie no sooner said the words than she envisioned Franco walking with a group of people into his art studio. “Wow, I just saw him. Even talking about how he will teach them how to make lovely bead farm ses.”

  “Don’t get too seal, we have a job to do.” Casey poio Franco Tarsey’s office. “I don’t think he’d keep anything important other than busihings in his offibsp; Where was his room?”

  Pointing to the back of the building, Sylvie motioned for Casey to follow. “We all stayed downstairs during the day. The building is nothing but gss, so we needed a pce that was safe.” She ed her arm in Casey’s and reached the wall where the hidden door was. Sylvie winked and tapped a small button on the floor, causing the secret door to crack open a out the dank air that had been trapped. “We had our own personal spaces. It is a une down here, but your personal space was off-limits.”

  Crossing the threshold and going down into the deep earth, Sylvie walked with purpose. “It’s like I never left. My space is to the left there.” She poio the small bed and wall safe that en. “I took everything of mine when I left.”

  Running into the room, Casey jumped on Sylvie’s small bed and took a deep breath. “It still smells like your hair.” She tore a piece of the fabri the bed and tucked it away. “Something of you.” She winked.

  Waving her hand, Sylvie kept marg down the long stone hallway, and turned right. “That was Franco’s spot.” She walked to the ter of his little room and looked around. “Safe is still closed.” She looked at Casey. “I was the only o, other than Kody, their space was ten steps from mine.”

  “Call me crazy, but they have a heavy crush on my little Indian-rose.” Casey snickered and walked up to the safe. “Well, let’s see if anything is in here.” Gripping the handle, Casey gave a light pull and the metal door strained but didn’t break open. “A special metal, Sylvie?”

  Nodding and partly ughing, Sylvie walked to the keypad that was to the side of the door. “It wouldn’t be very safe if vampire strength could just pop off the door, silly.” Sylvie focused on her little AI again. “Code, any ce you break the code Franco used?”

  “Analyzing.” Code responded a silent while sending streams of hrough the keypad. “Should take a couple of minutes.”

  Casey walked over to the keypad and looked closely. “Tell code to try the following numbers. 8, 1, 4, 9 and 5.” She smiled, “They are the most worn-out numbers.”

  “Adjusting.” Code stopped running all binations through the pad and focused on the few variations of the five digits. Seds ter the pad glowed red and the safe opened with a hydraulic hiss. “Task plete. Query?”

  Pushing the heavy door wide, Sylvie looked at the tents of the safe. She dug through peared to be old paintings and artifacts ht hundred years old. “Things in here are priceless. Museums would pay a fortuo see these things.” She handed Casey an iron spearhead that had been worked to a razor's edge. “Take a look, there are holes drilled iop, with remains of wax around it.”

  Casey turhe on in her hand a few times and ha back. “Blood holes? blood enhance ons?”

  An older woman’s voice came from behind them in the dark. “It do much more than you are aware of, Miss Rivers.” The woman raised her hand and a white fre shot out from her palm, illuminating the room. “It took you both long enough to get here.”

  “Tatum Bckwell.” Sylvie half snarled but didn’t attempt to move. “Why are you in this sacred pce, si was yirlfriend that did all this damage in the first pce.”

  Looking mildly surprised, Casey held the spearhead in front of her. “You both saved me and got me hunted by the FBI. I don’t know whether to kill you or thank you.”

  Flipping her palm so that her fingers were spread wide, Tatum held in pce. “I will sider this your holy ground and will not breach the peace here.” She made her hand glow hot white, “Don’t think I ’t fight if I o.”

  C the spearhead with her hand, Sylvie pushed Casey’s hand down a bit, aking her eyes off Tatum. “Very well. her of us will attack first.” Sylvie raised one of her long eyebrows, “Now I want to know..why you are here.”

  Tatum dropped her hand and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I have used quite a bit of my magic keeping the others at bay.” She sat down on Franco’s bed and crossed her legs. “Watch out for that Agent Miller, Miss Rivers. She’s gunning for you.” She then turo Sylvie. “I am here to expily what happened and why you are seeing these creatures.” She flicked her palm and showed the images of the windmills. “I suspect you are about to find the book I have been hunting for since I saw the images of the past.” Notig the fused look oire's faces, Tatum nodded and held up her hand. “Patience, I am getting to it.”

  “Get there faster. Every time you summon yic, it makes me nervous.” Casey half-snarled but stayed where she was told. “I don’t have a favorable outlook on your kind, mage. Oried to kill or ensve me to his will, the other wao make me a pet.”

  Tatum flipped her light brown hair to one side and smiled. “Denise was always a bit etribsp; She paused, “You are up against these things.” She pulled up an image of a shadewraith. “Yes, I am well aware of the creatures.” She shrugged, “At first I was tent to let them wreck everything for you blood-sug beasts.” She waved away the image, “What you should know is that Denise’s careless use of neantic magic destroyed four of the five seals.”

  Casey squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Is there anything that Denise didn’t do? I mean ing up this mess is getting daunting. We still have more to do.”

  Wiggling one of her thin fingers, Tatum stared at Casey. “I don’t approve of her method, as it killed people, but I don’t regret for a sed the loss of ye flock of beasts.” She took a breath, “Look, what you don’t know is that there is one … a shadewraith that trol them all.”

  Suddenly seeing her vision spsh in her memory, Sylvie half whispered, “The white ghost.”

  “The very ohat was the Cross-Killer.” She pulled up an image of Elle Miller with a bnk look in her eyes. The Cross-Killer had this same look.” Tatum twisted her hand to make the image turn. “Since Elle has left the area, I haven’t felt the white ghost’s presence.” Tatum let the image fade. “Sounds like the ghost took another body ahe one Elle supposedly shot.” Rubbing her hands gently, Tatum cluded her suspi, “Odd how the woman’s body was mostly deposed and the agent fired a shot anyway, huh?”

  Walking behind Sylvie after pg the spearhead ba the safe, Casey pulled herself into her lover. “How the fuck do you know all this?”

  Waving her hand once more, Tatum let a small white ghostlike tendril flow from her palm and into the safe, where it ed around a fairly rge book. “I believe this is what you are looking for.” She showed the couple the book. ‘To Xenagos’ was written in blood on the cover. “Miss Miakoda, while you get premonitions, I see the past with a wave of my hand. I khe book art of the puzzle, I just couldn’t get into the safe.” She poio the metal tainer. “Sealed with vampire blood and keyed to unloly by vampire blood. Quite iive.”

  Unwilling to let the book fall uatum’s trol, Sylvie reached out and gripped the leather spihis doesn’t belong to you, mage.”

  “I his to fix the four seals that Denise destroyed.” She dropped the magic she was using, for fear of ripping the book. “I figure I am responsible for that mubsp; You have to deal with the fifth one and whatever is loose out there.”

  Grumbling softly, Casey angrily spoke. “The whole thing is a vampire ritual, I would prefer that you keep yrubby magic off of absp; We will take care of this…right Sylvie?”

  g her fists hard enough so the ligaments popped, Sylvie barely held her temper in check. “So, human magic busted the door partially open so that the stro of the shadewraiths escaped and caused nearly a year’s worth of death. Brilliant, the whole lot of you o be stripped of your power, you obviously ’t use it safely.” She turned and kissed Casey on the cheek, “Right, Casey.” Sylvie’s eyes moved to new moons, going bck as the shadows in the room. “If you want to do something, take care of Agent Miller. Keep her away from us while we repair the damage your crazy bitch friend caused.”

  Uncrossing her legs and standing up, Tatum let the light in the room fade away. “sider this as my debt for Denise’s as paid in full. After this is plete, we go back to our ers and see what happens.” Seeing the tires nod their heads, Tatum headed out of the room. “Good luck, for all of our sakes.”

  Tug the Dryod text under her arm, Sylvie smiled at Casey. “She couldn’t have fixed it anyway. I suspect the key is in the verses.” Sylvie took a deep breath. “Okay, we go get the ledger and diary now. We wait for the day to work on the passages.”

  Peering into the safe once more, Casey poio a pile of bloodstones. “Why would Franco have a pile of bloodstones?”

  g excitedly Sylvie found a small bag and scooped the smooth stones into it. “They all refer to bloodstones. Let’s take them to be sure. Perhaps the book will expin what they holy do.”

  Casey jumped a hugging Sylvie. “We did it. Ohing down and ohi.” She got serious, “Then we deal with An.”

  “I so love you, Honey-bunny.” Sylvie ughed.