city of dragons 03 - fire magic (23 page)

“You found his body?” Lachlan said.

“Well, we wouldn’t allow a prisoner like that to roam free. We tracked him down to bring him back here, but by the time we found him, he was dead,” she said.

That made sense.

“But he didn’t die here,” she said.

“We’d still like to ask around a bit,” said Lachlan.

Darla shrugged. “Of course. Anything I can do for you.” She turned to look at me. “Penny.”

I licked my lips. Sometimes, this weird attraction thing that Darla had for me was a wee bit creepy. “Thanks,” I said.

“So, who had contact with Alastair while he was here?” said Lachlan.

“It’s actually a rather short list,” she said. “Sid brought him in. I did his intake work—”

“What’s the intake work?” I said.

“Well, as you know, we strip magic from these prisoners when they arrive,” said Darla. “There’s a ritual we perform that funnels all their magic into the Order.”

“And after he left?” I said. “Would he still have been tied to the Order, or did his magic come back?”

“Of course he was still tied to us,” said Darla. “How do you think we found him after he escaped?”

So, that was why Clarke said he’d been drained of magic, then. But it still didn’t explain the surge of magic in Alastair. Was Clarke right? Had he been killed by magic? A magic spell that stopped his heart?

“Who else had contact with him?” asked Lachlan.

“Only the other prisoners on his wing,” said Darla. “Which really only amounts to Caleb. You met him before.”

“Short list,” said Lachlan. “You sure no one else interacted with him?”

“Most of us in the Order find the prisoners we keep rather unpleasant,” said Darla. “We’re not eager to visit them and have a chat. We do the intake and then we lock them up. Their needs are seen to by people in positions like Sid’s. We call them jailers, and they bring the prisoners food and escort them to the showers and things of that nature. There’s simply no reason for anyone else to have seen Alastair.”

“All right,” said Lachlan. “Then I suppose we’d like to speak to Sid.”

* * *

“You aren’t accusing me of killing Alastair, are you?” said Sid.

“That’s not what I said at all,” said Lachlan, giving him an easy, relaxed smile. “All I want is for you to walk me through how you found him.”

“Well, there’s not much to tell,” said Sid. “I got a call from Darla, telling me that she’d traced his magical tether to a particular spot. When I got there, he was dead already. There was an arrow in him, and some slayers were loading him into a truck.”

“From that, you assumed he’d been killed by the slayers,” said Lachlan.

“He wasn’t?” said Sid.

“It doesn’t appear that way,” said Lachlan. “The evidence seems to point towards him being killed by magic.”

“Well, I’m not magical in the least,” said Sid. “I’m human through and through.”

“Darla’s human,” I said. “She’s a mage.”

“I’m not a mage,” Sid chuckled.

I reached out and took hold of the talisman dangling around his neck. “You have magic.”

“I use this for protection,” said Sid. “Even though the prisoners around here are sucked dry of their magic, we can’t be too careful. This talisman keeps them from being able to compel me, assuming they could cobble together enough magic to do so.”

“What did you think of Alastair?” said Lachlan.

“Think of him?” said Sid. “He was an evil fuck, that’s what I thought.”

Lachlan and I exchanged a glance. Hard to argue with that.

“That doesn’t mean I killed him, though,” said Sid. “Every single prisoner in here is an evil fuck. And, anyway, there’s no point in killing them, is there? Because at least, locked up here, their magic is being funneled into the Order, where it can do some good. But if I kill him, then he’s not doing anyone any good at all.”

Lachlan and I exchanged another glance. Hard to argue with that either.

“Well,” said Lachlan, “thank you for your time, Sid.”

“Sure thing,” said Sid. “You still want to go in and talk to Caleb?”

Lachlan nodded. “We certainly do.”

“He’s a serial killer, you know,” said Sid.

“He was right there,” said Lachlan. “He may have seen the escape.”

“I’ll just go and check on him, then,” said Sid. “I’ll make sure he’s prepared to see you.” He disappeared from the room.

I sighed. “We’re right back to square one, but we don’t have any suspects.”

“No,” said Lachlan. “We know more now than we did before. We need to follow this trail where it leads. We haven’t gotten to the end of it yet. We don’t know what it will reveal.”

“What if it’s a dead end? What if we can’t figure any of this out?”

“And what if we can?” said Lachlan. “Doesn’t hurt anything to think positively, right?”

I pursed my lips. “Aren’t you the ray of sunshine today?”

He shrugged, grinning at me. “Well, lately things have been going okay for me, you know? I met a pretty girl, I managed to knock her up—”

“You can’t say that you knocked me up,” I said, glaring at him.

He laughed. “Oh, I can’t? I just did.” He reached for me.

But then Sid came back, and we both turned away from each other, clearing our throats.

* * *

Caleb Kinnan smiled darkly at us through the bars of his cell. “Well, well,” he said. “You’re back again. And looking just as delectable as last time, if I do say so myself.” He dragged his gaze lingeringly over Lachlan’s body. “I could just eat you up.”

Lachlan folded his arms over his chest, surveying Caleb, unruffled. “Did you eat people or something? That why you’re locked up in here?”

Caleb’s lip curled. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

My stomach turned over. Eew. Was he some kind of cannibal serial killer? Yuck, yuck, yuck. Of course, I guessed that the last serial killer that I’d had to deal with ate people too. But at least Anthony Barnes had been a drake, who ate dragon flesh for its magical properties. Eating people just because seemed worse for some reason.

“As fascinating as it might be to speculate on whatever it is that you did to get in here,” said Lachlan, “that’s not really why we’re here.”

“Oh,” said Caleb, “of course not. A man like you doesn’t simply drop by to chat. You’re here on a mission. A square-jawed, justice-finding mission. You’ve got that hero look about you.”

Lachlan polished his fingernails on his shirt and studied them. “Yeah, a lot of people find me attractive.”

Caleb’s expression turned sour. “I’m not just anyone.”

Lachlan shrugged. “You’re a prisoner. We’re only interested in you because you were in a cell next to Alastair Cooper.”

“Cooper?” said Caleb. “What could you possibly find interesting about that one? He was boring, let me tell you. He was straight, and he was controlling, and there was nothing to him. He sprang to life from the pages of some textbook on narcissists. I can’t imagine he did anything interesting.”

“Oh, but he did,” said Lachlan. “He died in a very interesting way. No one knows exactly how it happened. And not knowing? That’s interesting.”

“There’s lots you don’t know about me,” said Caleb suggestively.

“I know everything about you,” said Lachlan.

“You don’t,” said Caleb, drawing himself up. “You thought I ate people.”

Lachlan laughed. “I knew you didn’t do anything nearly that shocking.”

Caleb folded his arms over his chest. “I like you. What was your name again, pretty man?”

Lachlan smiled. He leaned forward. “Lachlan,” he drawled. “Lachlan Flint.”

Jesus Christ. He was flirting with the serial killer. How could he possibly be doing that? I half-wanted to intervene, but I figured Lachlan had a good reason for doing it, so I let it be. Still, it made me feel a little ragey, and I wasn’t going to deny it.

“You’re good, Lachlan Flint,” said Caleb. “Got me all twitchy and worked up and wanting to expose… my knowledge.”

“You know something?” said Lachlan.

“Oh, sure,” said Caleb. “I know how Cooper died. I saw the whole thing.”

“Wait,” I said, moving forward. “He died here? In his cell?”

Caleb ignored me. “But as much as I want to show you mine, Lachlan, I’m just not that giving of a person.”

“I thought he escaped,” I said. “Darla Tell said he escaped.”

Caleb still ignored me. “I know what happened. I know everything that happened.”

“So, tell me what happened,” said Lachlan.

Caleb smirked. “Tit for tat, Lachlan. You show me
yours
, and then I’ll show you mine.” His gaze zeroed in on Lachlan’s crotch like a target.

Lachlan raised his eyebrows. “That really the way this would work? All you want is—”

I grabbed Lachlan by the arm and tugged. “Let’s go.”

Lachlan turned to look at me, annoyed.

“Alastair escaped. Stop trying to play us,” I said to Caleb.

Caleb only smiled.

“Let’s
go
,” I said to Lachlan in a low voice.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Darla raised her eyebrows. “Of course Alastair escaped,” she said. “He didn’t die in that cell, I can assure you of that. Caleb couldn’t have seen anything, because he’s never left his own cell.”

“What if someone broke in and killed Alastair and then took his body?” I said.

“No one breaks into this place,” said Darla. “I would have known.”

“But maybe you wouldn’t have,” said Lachlan. “Maybe the person who came for Alastair was so powerful, they knew how to be undetectable.”

“That’s not possible,” said Darla. “There is no one more powerful than the Order. The magic that we siphon and concentrate makes us incredibly powerful—more powerful than anything you can imagine.”

More powerful than a blood bond? I wondered. Was she threatening us? Why was it that I could never figure out where I stood with Darla?

“I thought I saw cameras down there,” said Lachlan. “Do you have security tapes that we could look at?”

“I’m afraid those cameras are just for show,” said Darla. “We put them up to make the prisoners think they’re being watched. We find the threat is such a deterrent that we don’t need to invest in an actual security system.”

Lachlan sighed. “Well, then, I think we need to talk to Caleb more. Hear him out.”

“That’s a ridiculous idea,” said Darla. “He’s lying. He’s probably just attracted to Lachlan.”

“Of course he’s attracted to me,” said Lachlan. “That’s the only thing I could use against him. The only bait I have. If he says he wants something from me, what’s that going to be?”

“Don’t play games with him,” said Darla. “He’ll only use you. And he’s got no good information.”

“How would he use me?” said Lachlan.

“Yeah,” I said. “How?”

“Oh, he would want you to debase yourself in some horrible manner, I’m sure,” said Darla. “I suppose you’ve never heard of him? The things he did to men before we captured him? No, I guess you wouldn’t. Because we didn’t publicize that he was the killer the authorities sought. We simply quietly locked him away.”

“What did he do?” I said.

“Actually,” said Lachlan, “do you have files on him? Could we have that?”

Darla sighed. “Oh, I suppose, if you really want it. But I’m telling you that you’re wasting your time.”

* * *

“So, there’s nothing all that out of the ordinary here,” said Lachlan. “Typical serial killer stuff. Sexual fascination with victims. Desire to put them completely under his control. It seems like most of the men he killed died because the magical compulsion he was using on them was too strong for them. Just fried their brains.”

“Eew,” I said from the kitchen, where I was stir-frying broccoli and mushrooms. “Do we have to talk about this while I’m cooking?”

“Better than while you’re eating,” said Lachlan. He was in the living room, hunched over Caleb’s file.

“What if we’re just chasing ghosts here?” I said. “Darla says that Caleb doesn’t know anything, that he couldn’t know anything.”

“Well, maybe Darla doesn’t know everything,” said Lachlan. “I get the impression she’s still trying to impress you with all her power and knowledge. She wouldn’t admit that she might have gaps in what she knows. Not in front of you.”

I grimaced into the skillet. “I wish she wasn’t into me like that.”

“Well, we’ve both got admirers there now,” Lachlan smirked.

“It’s not funny that he’s attracted to you,” I said. “The man is dangerous.”

“He’s not going to hurt me,” said Lachlan. “That’s not how killers like him work. They like to control everything or it doesn’t feel quite right. If he wanted to kill me, he’d lure me to some secluded spot where he could subdue me in some way and keep me there to do whatever he wanted to me.”

“Ugh, stop talking about it.” I turned around from the stove. “I don’t want to think about anything happening to you.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” he said.

I pointed at him with the wooden spoon I’d been using to stir the broccoli. “You’re going to go back and talk to him.”

“I have to,” said Lachlan. “He might know something. This is where the trail led us, and I have to see where it ends.”

I sighed, turning back to the skillet. The broccoli was turning bright green. It would have that just-cooked crunch when I bit into it. Perfect. I turned off the burner. “Well, okay. But I guess I don’t really like it.”

“You probably shouldn’t be there.”

I whirled. “What?”

“He’ll be more likely to open up to me if you aren’t around,” said Lachlan. “You destroy the fantasy. If you’re around, he knows that he can’t have me.”

“He
can’t
have you.”

“Of course not,” said Lachlan.

“What exactly are you planning to do for this guy?” I said. “He said he wanted something from us. What did he do to his victims? How did he kill them?”

“I told you already, the compulsion he was using on them fried their brains. It was too intense.”

“But what was he putting them under compulsion for?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Sex, I guess. It’s usually sex.” Lachlan flipped through the files. “Yeah. I think he was trying to make the perfect living sex slave. It’s a lot like, uh, what’s his name? Jeffrey Dahmer. Only with magic.”