Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (19 page)

"There is a
lot of unfairness in this world." I was sure he meant the whole world in
general but there was an edge to his voice that hinted towards the Lovac world
specifically.

I had no
response so I kept my mouth shut. I let Felix concentrate on driving and let my
thoughts wander to the job ahead. I stared out the window and into the dense
trees while I considered how we would find this Colin guy. I didn't think it
was likely that we would just find him sitting in his house, waiting for
someone to come after him and we didn’t have enough information to
properly track him down. At least, that’s what I thought.

When we pulled
into the driveway of Colin's house a short while later, I felt my stomach
knot.  I worried that I was sensing something but there was no
accompanying tingling sensation. I glanced at Felix and saw how calm he looked.

"Does the
nervousness eventually go away?" I asked him.

"No. It
just gets easier to hide."

We stepped into
the darkness and headed towards the dark house. The only light was coming from
the headlights of the car, which illuminated only the front of the house. I
stood close to Felix, fear creeping over me and I reached down to double check
my stake was still in its holster.

Felix could
sense my nerves and he gave me a gentle smile and squeezed my hand. As soon as
he let go he went right back into business mode and disappointment lingered in
my heart. I wanted him to hold my hand the whole way but I had to be brave. I
had to rely on my power to keep me safe.

"Stay close
to me. Concentrate on your power and if you sense anything let me know
immediately. We can't afford to be off our guard out here, especially at night.
We'll walk around the house to make sure no one is outside and then we'll
slowly make our way inside. Are you prepared to kill a Zhulik if we come across
one?"

"Y-yes,"
I stuttered. Felix caught my slight hesitation and he gave me a tight smile.

"If we are
attacked by one, do not hesitate. Hesitation will be the death of you.
Understand?"

"Yes."

"Good.
Let's go. Try to be quiet while walking."

I stayed as
close to Felix as I could without bumping into him and I concentrated on my
power. I expanded my mind and waited to feel even the tiniest of tingles to
alert me. As we walked around the house I didn't sense anything.

Once Felix was
satisfied that there weren't any Zhulik waiting to attack us outside of the
house, he motioned for us to go inside. All of the doors were locked but Felix
apparently knew how to pick them to open them up. I made a mental note to ask
him to teach me how to do that later.

There were no
lights on in the main level but that didn't mean the house was empty. The yard
had been well kept so the state of the inside shocked me. If the structure of
the house wasn't still intact, I would have been positive a tornado had blown
through here.

All of the
cabinets were open and there were dishes thrown everywhere. The furniture cushions
in the living room were shredded and the stuffing littered the floor. Either
Colin was a very messy person or he was a very angry person. I had a feeling it
wasn't the first option and that all of this had happened within the past
couple of days after he was turned.

We scouted out
the main level and didn't run in to anyone or anything. I still didn't sense
anything with my power as we moved down to the basement and I didn’t once
get a headache to indicate a Zhulik was near. My nerves were running on high
but the more of the house we explored, the calmer they became.

The basement was
unfinished and full of boxes upon boxes. The smell in the basement was also so
putrid I had to pull my shirt over my nose to block it out. Felix and I
wandered around the basement, making sure we stayed in eye contact with each
other. I screamed when I found what was causing the rancid smell.

Felix jumped
over some boxes to put his hand over my mouth to quiet my scream. We
weren’t sure there wasn't anyone in or near the house but he wasn't going
to take any chances. Once he was sure I wouldn't scream again, he dropped his
hand and we both turned to look at the decaying body that was hiding under the
stairs.

"Is it
her?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"No,"
he said, leaning down to get a closer look. I took a step back, not wanting to
be anywhere near it. "This is a male and it looks like he's been dead for
a few days. He was also a human. My guess is that this was the person Colin
killed that caused him to become a Zhulik."

"Why would
he do it?" I asked.

"I don't
know, but it looks like he left us a note." He pulled a tiny slip of paper
out of the hands of the dead man and unfolded it for us to read. I looked over
Felix's shoulder, still trying to keep my distance from the body.

Scribbled on the
piece of paper were two sentences:

I'm sick of
being weak and stepped on. I want the power, all of it.

Felix folded it
back up and stuck it in his pocket. He would give it to Colette and her husband
when we reported back to them.

"Well, what
do we do now?" I asked, visibly shaking from the shock of the body.

Felix pulled me
to him and spoke into my hair. "We continue to search the house for any
sign of the girl. I know he's been here recently, so where ever he is living
now can't be too far away. If we don't find anything inside of the house we'll
search outside. There might be a sign of a trail that leads to where they might
be."

"Well let's
get started then. We don't have time to waste." I reluctantly pulled away
from Felix. I wanted to be wrapped up in his arms throughout this entire
horrible process but I didn’t think we would get much done if that
happened.

We searched the
basement first, weaving in and out of the rows of boxes and trying to avoid
getting too close to the body. He told me to keep an eye out for any small
items that might have fallen on the ground belonging to Ellie, like hair for
instance.

After a thorough
sweep of the basement we found nothing, so we headed upstairs. Aside from the
living room and kitchen, there were two small bedrooms on the main level. Both
of them were just as messy as the rest of the floor. We decided to start in the
back rooms and work our way out.

Digging through
mountains of debris and making sure not to miss something as small as a hair was
a real challenge. Felix told me to take my time while going through the trash
piled on the floor and run my hands through any fabric or carpeting to feel for
hairs.

The detective
feeling came back to me, only this time I wished I had a magnifying glass. 
It was a lot harder than the TV shows made it looked, too. We searched for
hours and didn't find a single thing until we reached the living room. One long
golden blonde hair was all we found near a stack of DVDs.

"Do you
think it's hers?" I asked, recalling the picture from the Nesmyr
family’s living room. The young girl had had the same golden blonde hair
and the length was right.

"Unless
he's kidnapped more than one person since he's turned, I would say that's a
very good chance."

"So he's
been here with her then?"

"I don't
think so." He shook his head, irritation distorting his handsome face.
"I think we would have found more hair by now if she had actually been
here. I think it's more likely that he came here just after being with her.
That means he either has a very secure place to keep her or--" he stopped
suddenly, not wanting to continue his sentence.

"Or he
killed her already," I finished for him. My shoulders slumped and I prayed
she was still alive somewhere. "Where would he have taken her?"

"I don't
know," he sighed. "Let's go look outside around the house. Let's hope
they left some clues out there."

Felix grabbed
some flashlights from his car and we inspected around the house. The house was
surrounded by woods, like most Nesmyr houses around here and they could have
gone in any direction. I prepared myself for a long night of searching and the
small possibility of actually finding something. I was starting to regret
wanting to take this job until something silver glimmered in the light of my flashlight
just inside the start of the trees to the right of the house.

Felix was
searching near me but not in the same area and he hadn't noticed the object. I
walked towards it and found it was a small silver bracelet. I had no way of
knowing for sure if it was Ellie's but my gut was telling me it was.

"Felix,"
I whispered. I couldn't sense any danger nearby but I didn't want to raise my
voice too loud in case I provoked something.

I couldn't look
away from the bracelet so I had no idea if Felix had actually heard me. I took
a breath to whisper his name again when he was suddenly kneeling on the ground
next to me. I jumped slightly but tried to pretend like he hadn't startled me.
My power apparently could only sense threats and Felix wasn't a threat right
now.

"It's
hers," he said.

"You have
that same gut feeling that I do about it, don't you?"

"Yes. This
bracelet has been charmed specifically for the individual. A lot of Nesmyr have
a piece of jewelry that is charmed to identify them in case something happens
to them, since most Nesmyr turn to ash when they are killed. If you are
thinking of the individual it belongs to it will give you a weird gut feeling.
If you are thinking of someone that it doesn't belong to, you won't feel
anything at all. Try to think about it belonging to someone else."

I gave it a try
and thought about it belonging to Felix. That gut feeling immediately went away
and brought a funny image to my mind of Felix wearing a bracelet like this.

"It
worked," I said. "It definitely doesn't belong to you."

He gave a dry
laugh. I knew he found it funny but this was no time to be making jokes. I went
back to thinking about Ellie and the feeling came back.

"Can these
charms lead someone to the person it belongs to?" I asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately,
no. What it did lead us to, though, is a set of light foot prints in the dirt.
Apparently Colin is still a pretty sloppy Zhulik. Those tend to be the easiest
to track down."

I looked to
where Felix's flashlight was pointing at the ground and sure enough there were
some foot prints. The ground wasn't soft so the footprints weren't very deep
but they were still noticeable.

We both stood up
and started to follow the trail without another word. My senses were scanning
the surrounding area but I didn't sense anything alarming for quite a while. It
wasn't until we had been following the footprints for over twenty minutes that
I started to feel something.

"I'm
sensing something," I said, stopping Felix in his tracks.

"Where is
it coming from?" he whispered.

I took a deep
breath and focused entirely on the sensation in my head. It was faint but it
was pulling in me in a direction slightly left of the path we were on. I
pointed to Felix where I thought it was coming from.

"These
footprints look like they curve to the left a little ways down. Should we keep
following the footprints or do you think your power can lead us there?"

"I think I
can lead us. He might be expecting someone to follow his footprints if he
realized he made them. There might be some kind of trap near them."

I had no idea if
Zhulik actually made traps but I had a bad feeling about following the
footprints and Felix didn't argue with me.

"Good
idea," he said. "Lead the way."

With every step
the tingling in my body got stronger and my heart rate increased. The
adrenaline in my body was pumping full blast but I was also scared for my life.
I was finally coming to the realization that I was going to come face to face
with a Zhulik that I was going to have to fight and I was worried my power was
going to give out on me.

We walked
another ten minutes or so before I came to a halt in front of a large cave
entrance. The tingling sensation in my body was so strong it almost painful. My
head also hurt, indicating there was a Zhulik nearby but it felt different than
the last time when I had first seen Lucas.

"Something's
wrong," I told Felix.

"There is
more than one Zhulik in that cave," Felix said, confirming my fears. The
squint in his eyes told me his head was aching just as strong as mine.
"I’ve never had such a strong headache."

"How many
do you think there are?"

"I'm not
sure. I've never felt this before. I've never been around more than three
Zhulik together. They usually don't get along well enough to be in groups. Can
you use your powers to sense how many are in there?"

I wasn't sure if
I could but I concentrated my hardest and tried to follow my power into the
caves. I couldn't get an exact count but I could definitely sense different
areas where my power was sensing a threat. I found I could also sense areas
where there was magic but no threats. I had a feeling I knew what those were.